to the land of Canaan, their inspired Lawgiver had commanded them immediately to attack it: but the people distrusting the divine power, proposed to send spies to view the land; * who reported that the people "were great and tall, and, the cities walled up to heaven." This compleatly terrified the unwarlike Jews: they were seized with the most unmanly, and, in their situation, impious panic. At this moment of mad rebellion from infidelity and cowardice combined, the glory of the Lord appeared. "As I live, saith the Lord, all "this evil congregation, that are gathered

together against me, in this wilderness,

'they shall be consumed, and there they "shall die." And to confirm this menace, the ten spies, who had brought this evil report upon the land, died instantly by a plague before the Lord; but Joshua and Caleb lived still. Astonished at the appearance of the divine glory, appalled by the instant punishment of the spies who had misled them, shocked at the idea of wandering forty years in the wilderness, and there

F 2

* Compare Numbers, xiii. and xiv. with Deut. i. from 19. + Vide supra, Part I. Lect. v. Vol. I. p.. 185.

there perishing, they mourned greatly and said: "We have sinned against the Lord; "we will go up and fight as the Lord com"manded us. But the Lord would not be "entreated; Moses said, go not up, for the "Lord is not among you, and ye shall fall "by the sword." Again obstinate and rebellious, they went up presumptuously; but Moses and the Ark of God departed not out of the camp; and the Canaanites smote them and discomfited them. Convinced by such decided experience, of their total dependence on the God of Hosts, they submitted to his power: forty years they continued to wander in the wilderness, without making another effort, either to return. into Egypt or to invade Canaan. now, when of all that generation had distrusted the the divine power,

And

who

not

one survived, save the pious and intrepid Joshua and Caleb, "For the hand of the "Lord was against them to consume

them," the host of Israel is again commanded to go up and take possession of the promised land, under the express condition of their consuming all the people which the Lord their God should deliver

them.

them.

"The Lord thy God," says the Lawgiver, "shall deliver them unto thee, "and shall destroy them with a mighty "destruction, until they be destroyed; and "he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, "and thou shalt destroy their name from "under heaven; there shall no man be able "to stand before thee, until thou have

destroyed them. The graven images of "their gods shall ye burn with fire; thou "shalt not desire the silver nor the gold "that is on them, nor take it unto thee, "for it is an abomination to the Lord thy "God." On these conditions, and under this command, they approach the river Jordan; it is miraculously divided to make way before them; they encamp before Jericho, which is pronounced accursed, or rather devoted to the Lord: "Even it and "all that are therein. And keep ye," says.

their inspired Judge, from the accursed

thing, least ye make yourselves a curse "when ye take of the accursed thing, and "make the camp of the Lord a curse and "trouble it; only the silver and gold, and "vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated "unto

"unto the Lord; they shall come into the

treasury of the Lord." Thus was Jericho placed under a solemn anathema: its walls, otherwise impregnable, are miraculously and in a moment levelled to the ground, so that the people "went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city."

Now I ask, are we to consider their conduct in such circumstances, as the result of their own natural unbiassed choice; or as the conduct of men feeling themselves under the direct controul of Omnipotence? Are we to impute it to a spirit of cruelty, that in this instance they utterly destroyed all that was all that was in the city, with the edge of the sword, according to the divine command? Or was it a spirit of plunder that instigated them to destroy not only the inhabitants, but the spoil, the sheep and oxen; in a word, to burn the city and all that was therein? Only the silver and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, they brought into the house of the Lord. Assuredly they were impelled neither by cruelty nor by avarice; they acted not from the common feelings, or in the usual man

ner

ner of human conquerors; they felt themselves bound to obey the Lord God of Hosts, whose sentence they executed, and by whose power they conquered.

*

Let us now mark the sequel. A single individual transgressed the divine command, by obedience to which only they could hope for success. The divine support was therefore withdrawn; and though the next enemies whom they encountered, were apparently so inconsiderable, that they despised them, yet" They fled before the men of Ai, and the hearts of all the people melt"ed like water. Even Joshua was heart

struck with terror, and rent his cloaths "and fell upon his face before the Lord, "he and all the elders of Israel, and put "dust upon their heads; and Joshua said, "Alas! O Lord God, wherefore hast thou "brought this people at all over Jordan, "to deliver us into the hands of the Amo"rites to destroy us; for the Canaanites "and all the inhabitants of the land shall "hear of us, and shall environ us round, "and cut off our name from the

"And the Lord said, get thee up;

earth."

where

"fore

* Joshua, vii.