of such a glorious inheritance. For this blessed reversion all the sorrows of life are a trifling price. And in the means used to put us in possession of it, those, whose faculties are sufficiently exercised to distinguish an heavenly from a worldly temper, will find no matter of complaint; but abundant cause of admiration, gratitude and praise.

Clearly no fault can be found with Scripture for the account which it gives of the fall of our first parents, and its consequences, as if it contained any thing derogatory from the wisdom and moral attributes of the Most High. It does not impeach his wisdom by representing him to have been taken by surprise and baffled of his object in creation, as has been rashly asserted; for it plainly teaches, that he foresaw all consequences from the first, and from the first provided a remedy for them; which prospective view and arrangement, according to human judgment, prove the perfection of wisdom. It does not undermine his goodness; for it shews that he has done every thing needful to secure the happiness of all men, except those, who obstinately thwart his measures; which, if they are founded in wisdom, we cannot suppose his wisdom will suffer to be defeated. It does not ascribe injustice to him ; because it foretels, that in the end of this great dispensation, good and evil shall be distributed by a particular adjudication to each according to his conduct, and evil fall on the guilty head alone.

CHAPTER V.

Korah.-Achan.-Sons of Hiel.-Seven Sons of Saul.Gehazi.

THERE are four instances recorded in the historical books, which may seem at variance with the positions above laid down. The destruction of Korah and his company; the judgment against Achan and his family*; the death of the sons of Hiel, the builder of Jericho; and the delivery of the seven sons of Saul to the Gibeonites: of each of these in order.

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First of Korah: when he, Dathan and Abiram rebelled against Moses, the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah (i. e. all who adhered to Korah,) and all their goods: and there came out a fire and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense." Now in this, which appears at first an indiscriminate judgment, there was clearly a discrimination of the guilty from the innocent: for the wives, the sons and the little children of Dathan and Abiram, came out and stood in the door of the tents in defiance of Moses and Aaron; and therefore in a judgment like this, which was meant to overwhelm the rebellious party, and

crush the mutinous spirit at once, there would have been no propriety in making a separation of those, who, as far as they could, united in the rebellion, and who, if spared, might have proved, like the offspring of the Athenian women at Lemnos, a nest of vipers lying in wait for vengeance on those who had destroyed their fathers, and with them all their own ambitious hopes. But the sons of Korah died not: as is expressly asserted by Moses, Numb. xxvi. 11. and they are enumerated in the genealogies, 1 Chron. vi. 22-37. for what reason, but that evidently they did not join in their father's crime, and had according to Moses' order separated themselves from him? And what passed here establishes a very fair presumption for the vindication of the other instances, in which no discrimination is recorded.

When Joshua gave the word to the people to shout for the destruction of Jericho, he denounced that the city should be devoted to the Lord, even it and all that were therein; only Rahab was to live. The people were warned: " And

ye

in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed ('devoted thing') lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it." The religion of which devotement to God was such, that no consideration should release it:

Herod. Lib. vi. 138.

Joshua vi. 18.

every devoted thing was most holy to the Lord, and every living thing devoted (by those who had authority) was to be put to death: every city of the Canaanites, which they devoted, was to be utterly destroyed, and every inhabitant put to the sword-as was done in the city of Arad, afterwards, from this circumstance, called Hormah. This species of devotement,viz. of an offender to destruction,-is that with which we are best acquainted, and was resorted to with a view the more to incite the people to war and to inflame them with a detestation of idolatry. It was also appointed in order to deter any Israelitish city from introducing the worship of strange gods, Deut. xiii. 12-18; and used to prevent enormous delinquents from escaping punishment for crimes, which affected the existence and welfare of the nation, Judges xx. and xxi. But it was an abuse of it to apply it to common crimes*. It was probably the religion of such a vow, which Jepthah had rashly made, Judges xi. from which he could offer no ransom, that troubled him in the case of his daughter.

Moses no where defines what this devotement, called Cherem, exactly was; and therefore probably it was in use before his time. He confirmed the obligation of it: and, as appears, for wise reasons-being suited to that state of society. It was, when advisedly and solemnly made, productive of good, as it added the aid Numb. xxi. 2, 3.

' Lev. xxvii. 28, 29.

of vows and religion to those laws which it was of essential importance should be observed; as those against Polytheism in particular. The religion of this devotement God so interfered to vindicate, when Jonathan had unwittingly offended against an adjuration with the penalty of devotement annexed (which Saul had rashly' and perhaps unjustifiably made) that he refused to answer the king till the offence was discovered, and the king had resolved to punish it by the death of the offender; which he would have done, had not the people by violence resisted him.

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In the case of Achan, now under consideration, God avenged the breach of it by an individual, so far as to withdraw his protection from the Israelites, and give the victory to their enemies, till they had removed from themselves the curse, by the devotement of the offender. The religion of this oath was so interwoven with their constitution, the maintaining of it so necessary for upholding the tremendous majesty of God, as the governor of every individual in it by his special providence, that no consideration of mercy was allowed to stand in the way of it. Each individual was made responsible for his neighbour, and every one, at all connected with the crime, involved in the consequences of it. The severity was merciful in its effects; for there appear in the history of the Israelites to have been but

9 See Michael. Art. 145.

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1 Sam. xiv. 37. Michael.