here delivers, concerning God's dealing with thefe devoted Nations.

Mofes, on the egreffion of the Ifraelites from Egypt, fpeaks thus to them, in the Perfon of the Almighty-"I will fend Hornets before "thee, which fhall drive out the Hivite, the "Canaanite, and the Hittite from before thee. "I will not drive them out from before thee "in one year, left the land become defolate; "but by little and little will I drive them out " from before thee." And again in his laft exhortation to his People, Behold the Lord,

66.

thy God, will fend the Hornet amongst them, "until they that are left, and hide themselves " from thee, be destroyed †." And Joshua, on the like occafion, tells the People that what Mofes had promifed, in the name of the God of Ifrael, God had fulfilled-I sent the HORNET before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two Kings of the Amorites

Here, the Reader may obferve, that the Apocryphal Writer gives one reason for the temporary plagues, which forerun the total deftruction of the Canaanites; and the Authentic Text gives another; nor will the learned Reader be at a loss to account for this difference.

* Exod. xxiii. 28,

Jofl. xxiv. 12.

+ Deut. vii. 20.

The

The Ifraelites, under their Leader, Mofes, did not want to be told, that those temporary Plagues were fent in mercy. They had, on the firft opening of his Commiffion, been inftruct ed by him, in the attributes of the true God, bis long fuffering and bearing with the contradiction of Sinners; and his merciful acceptance even of a late-delayed Repentance. They had experienced the unwearied exertion of this attribute, even in their own cafe, when their repeated perversities, which would have tired out every thing but infinite Goodness, were as often pardoned as they were committed. So that they were not ignorant, though their degenerate Pofterity, in the time of this Apocryptical Writer, might want to be informed of the gracious. purpose, in those warnings to a devoted People.

And as there was another ufe in these probationary plagues, viz. the wafting the Inhabitants of Canaan, this was the defign which Mofes and Joshua principally infift on, as it was the greatest encouragement to a daftardly People. Mofes, in the name of his Mafter, promifeth to fend HORNETS before them, which SHOULD DRIVE Our the Hivite, &c. And Jofhua reminds his People how the promife had been performed-God fent the HORNET before you, which drove them out from before you,

&c.

This affurance was no more than needed. The cowardice contracted in a long ftate of Slavery (a State fairly recorded, and deeply lamented by their Leader) required the affiftance of all NATURE in their fupport.

"O nimium dilecte Deo-cui militat Æther, "Et conjurati veniunt ad Claffica venti." But though thefe warning Judgments, thefe chaftifements of mercy, were loft on those to whom they were fent, yet they were not caft away; for, in aggravating the Crinies of the Canaanites, they ferved, at the fame time, to promote their fpeedier extermination. So admirably is the moral government of God administered, that it's acts, directed to various purposes, arè,never iffued in vain. But what is faid in holy Writ, of the previous punishments on the Canaanites, in mercy, is given only as a fpecimen of them, and not for a complete lift, as in the record of the trying plagues of Egypt. So that we are not to conclude, that the deftructive Animals, fent amongst those mifcreants, were only wafps and hornets; or that, amongst the awakening punishments, DisEASE was not one. When God was pleased, in after times, to punish their Defcendants, the Philifines, for their prophanation of the ARK; (which, for the fins of his people, he fuffered to

fall

fall into their hands) the facred writers tell us, that they, who so prophaned it, were smitten

This is the

with emerods in their fecret parts. only punishment there mentioned. Yet, by the account of the atonement, or trefpafs-offering, it appears that there was another.The Philiftines fent back with the Ark, which they restored, the images of five emerods, and FIVE MICE IN GOLD. Who can doubt, but that, in this addition to the atonement, another punishment was intimated, viz. the devastation of their Lands by mice? But the facred Writer does not leave us to mere conjecture. In fpeaking of these mice, he thus qualifies them,-Mice that MARR THE LAND. But this is not all. The text here acquaints us, though occafionally, with two punishments, inflicted on the Canaanites which the hiftory of their expulfion does not particularly mention. We understand how fit Inftruments of general devaftation MICE muft needs be and we may guess how well fuited the other punishment was for their unnatural Crimes; nor would either one, or the other, cease to remind them of the vices or punish ments of their Ancestors, the Canaanites, fo that, avoiding the manners of their ancestors,

they might (if poffible) escape their total deftruction.

I fhall conclude this point with an obfervation which naturally leads to the next, that is to fay, to the SECOND PART of this infidel objection, viz. "the EFFECT which the deftruction of the Canaanites must be supposed to have on the minds of the MORAL INSTRUMENTS of their punishment." A matter most deferving

our attention.

It cannot be doubted but that the Almighty difplayed his mercy and long suffering on Sodom and Gomorrah, in fome way analogous to what he practised in the Land of Canaan, (and how gracious he was in the extent of that mercy, we learn from Abraham's interceffion for those Cities *) though the particulars of it be not recorded by the facred hiftorian: Whofe filence in the one cafe, and not in the other, may be clearly underfood. Thofe execrable Cities were destroyed immediately by God's own hand, in letting loofe the Elements (the treafurers of his wrath) upon them.-In the deletion of the Canaanites he was pleased to employ HUMAN INSTRUMENTS. These were to be ufed according to their nature; not as Entities merely Phyfical, but as moral agents likewise :