they were not actuated by mere rage and revenge is evident from their having received no particular provocation, not indeed, having had any perfonal intercourfe with the inhabitants of Canaan. Their motives, it is evident, muft have been of a very different nature from thofe of common robbers and murderers, and, in the eye of reafon, it is the motive that determines the nature of the action.

It is also remarkable that, notwithstanding the paffion the Ifraelites may be fuppofed to have had for war, which would have been inflamed by the rapidity of their conquefts, they were forbidden to extend them beyond the boundaries of the land of Canaan; and the conftitution of their government was altogether unfuited to extenfive empire.

It would be a fufficient reafon for the extermination of the Canaanites by the fword of the children of Ifrael, if, as is very posfible, it was the best method of impreffing

the

the minds of the Ifraelites themfelves with a juft idea of the heinous nature of idolatry, and to make fufficient provifion against their being feduced into the fame abominable practices. If their living only in the neighbourhood of idolatrous nations was fo unfafe for this people, as their history fhews it to have been, what danger would they not have been in, if they had fpared the old inhabitants of Canaan, and fuffered them to live unmolefted among them.

I would obferve, however, that the order to exterminate utterly in the cafe of the Canaanites; though expreffed in abfolute terms, is fuppofed by fome to have been conditional in fact, and that their lives were to have been fpared upon their fubmiffion, and especially on their forfaking idolatry.

This fuppofition is fufficiently analogous to other threatnings in the fcriptures (the nature of which is explained by the prophet Ezekiel xxxiii. 14.) as that of Jonah against the Ninevites. He was commiffioned to

fay

fay that in forty years Nineveh should be overthrown, Jonah iii. 4. and yet we fee that, upon repentance, that city was fpared.

It is plain, in fact, that the Ifraelites either did not understand the command to be abfolute, or they knowingly tranfgreffed it, even in the best and most flourishing ftate of their affairs; for mention is made. of the remains of the Canaanitish nations living in fubjection to the Ifraelites even to the times of the kings. 1 Kings, ix. 20, 21. All the people that were left, of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which were not of the children of Ifrael, their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Ifrael alfo were not able utterly to defroy, upon thofe did Solomon levy a tribute of bond fervice unto this day. It is plain from this paffage that, though before the days of David and Solomon, the Ifraelites could not entirely fubdue those nations, they were then wholly reduced, and at the mercy of their conquerors; and we no where read of their being blamed for the favour they fhewed them, as Saul was in the

cafe

cafe of the Amalekites, who were reduced by war. We also read Judges, i. 28. It came to pass that when Ifrael was strong, that

they put the Canaanites to tribute, and did not utterly drive them out. And it must be ob

ferved that Uriah, one of David's principal heroes, was a Hittite.

Befides the reafon and end for which the order for the extermination of the Canaanites was given, which was, left the children of Ifrael fhould be inticed by them into idolatry, entirely ceafed upon their fubmif fion, and abandoning their idol worship.

Laftly, it is pretty clearly inferred, that this order was conditional from finding that if the hearts of the Canaanites had not been hardened to oppofe the Ifraelites, they would not have been cut off. Joshua, xi. 19, 20. There was not a city that made peace with the children of Ifrael, fave the Hivites. For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they should come against Ifrael in battle, that he might deftroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that he might

deftroy

deftroy them, as the Lord commanded Mafes, i. e. evidently in cafe of oppofition only. As to the Lord's hardening their hearts, there is nothing peculiar in it in this cafe, and, it will be explained hereafter.

The orders which the Jews had, not to fpare even their nearest relations, if they fhould attempt to feduce them into idolatry, has been made the foundation of the fame charge cf cruelty, and has also been cenfured as a perfecution on the account of religious principles. But it fhould be confidered, that the very reason for fetting apart the Jewish nation to be the theatre of the extraordinary providence of God, respecting the whole world of mankind, which was at that time univerfally finking into idolatry, was to fecure the belief of the great and important doctrine of the divine unity, and univerfal moral government; and that this, which was the great object both of the religious conftitution, and alfo of the civil government of the Hebrews, would have been defeated, if the most effectual provifion had not been made for fecuring to the one

true