of his providential government, it pleased God to commission Israel to inflict his vengeance on the Amalekites, Canaanites, and other devoted nations, by military execution: and, though he sealed the commission of his people by most signal miracles, and took effectual care that their conduct should not, in any ordinary circumstances, be pleaded as a precedent; yet the dispensation has been most vehemently exclaimed against, as if it were so contrary to essential justice and goodness, that no evidence could suffice to prove those persons to be sent by God, who executed such orders, or gave a sanction to them!

If, however, it consist with the divine perfections to terminate, with much suffering, the lives of men, women, and children indiscriminately, by fevers, pestilences, famines, or earthquakes; and if many thousands every day are put to death by one means or other; what injustice could there be in the Lord's commanding his people to execute a similar sentence on guilty nations by the sword of war? If they deserved death, it could not be unjust to cut them off in this, or any other manner: and, if it could be shewn to be an act of injustice to destroy them at all, the pains and fatal effects of a pestilence would have been equally liable to exception. Will any reasonable man dare to affirm explicitly that the Lord had no right to order such an execution? Such an affirmation would involve the most complicated blasphemy against every part of God's providential dealings with our race: yet, if it be allowed that he had this right, it must follow that he had also a right to appoint the executioners; his express command fully au

thorized whatever was done in obedience to it; and the humanity, required in such cases, would at least have been as criminal in the Israelites, as it is when exercised in sheltering a wilful murderer from justice.

Had they cut off vast multitudes with undistinguishing slaughter, to gratify their own ambition, avarice, cruelty, or revenge; their conduct would have been most atrocious: or, if they had imagined that such sacrifices would be pleasing to God, though he had never required them, no man that duly reverences the scripture, would have attempted to justify or even excuse them. One of these must be the case with all who, in succeeding ages, and in ordinary circumstances, have pretended to copy their example. But the same records, that inform us of the fact, contain also the Lord's express commission, ratified by the most undeniable and multiplied miracles; the authenticity of these books is evinced by the most unanswerable arguments; and the fulfilment of prophecies contained in them, (especially in the present state of the Jews, as connected with the coming of Christ, and the establishment of his religion,) concurs with many other infallible arguments to prove, that " holy "men of God spake" and wrote in them " as they "were moyed by the Holy Ghost." Thus the conduct of Israel is fully justified: for he who gave us our lives, which we have forfeited by sin, has a right to take them away in that manner which he sees most conducive to the display of his own glory.

The shedding of human blood becomes an act of public justice, yea a required sacrifice to the honour of the divine command, when it is the

blood of a wilful murderer: and in like manner those actions which would be unjust, cruel, and horrid, if done by men to gratify their own passions, become acceptable and holy services when done in obedience to God. For we have no right to take away the life of our neighbour, or in any way to injure him, even though he deserves death: but God has a right to punish every transgressor "to him vengeance belongeth;" and he commissions whom he pleases to inflict it: in ordinary circumstances the civil magistrate is the authorized "minister of God; a revenger to execute "wrath upon evil doers:" and he was pleased to appoint the Israelites to a similar office in respect of the Canaanites, with an extraordinary commission, sealed and ratified by his own miraculous interposition in their behalf.

As therefore the sheriff that should permit the murderer to escape, whose execution had been entrusted to him, would be very criminal; nor would the plea of compassion and humanity exculpate him for thus obstructing the course of public justice, and violating the duty of his office; so the Israelites were not culpable for putting the Canaanites to death without mercy, but for sparing, from selfish motives, and in disobedience to the divine command, those whom God had devoted to destruction.

The objections, therefore, which have on this ground been made to the history of the Old Testament, are irrational, as well as presumptuous. But the instances before us are too instructive to be dismissed, without making some practical deductions from them. They were doubtless intend

ed to stand npon record as an affecting exhibition of the awful justice of God, and the odious nature and terrible effects of sin; and to lead men to consider his powerful indignation as the real cause of all the calamities which fill the earth in more ordinary circumstances. We should a priori have thought that the Lord would never give orders for such terrible executions: yet it is an authenticated fact that he did; and that he sharply rebuked and punished those who failed in obeying them; as if they would pretend to be more merciful than he. Hence we learn that we are not competent to determine what it becomes him to do; and that he will deal far more severely with the wicked in another world, than our proud, ignorant, and partial reasonings would lead us to suppose. And, if these considerations have any influence in warning us to flee from the wrath to come; in exciting us to value, and seek for, the salvation of the gospel ; and in teaching us to repent of, hate, forsake, and watch against every sin: we shall then " have a "witness in ourselves" that there was abundant goodness and mercy connected with the Lord's righteous severity towards the devoted nations.

II. The Lord has a right to shew mercy on whom he will, and to leave as many as he pleases under merited condemnation, without assigning any reason for his conduct. Mercy to criminals, who deserve vengeance, cannot be a debt which justice requires to be paid; but it must be a favour, which may either be conferred or withheld according to the good pleasure of our offended Sovereign: and yet it must either be asserted that he is bound to

pardon sinners indiscriminately, at least all of certain descriptions, and would deny them justice if he did not; or allowed that he has a sovereign right "to have mercy on whom he will have mercy," and to leave all the rest to the consequences and punishment of their crimes.

Indeed, having revealed a way in which he is pleased to pardon and bless sinners, his declarations and engagements have rendered it indispensably necessary for the honour of his name, that he should save all who come according to his appointment. But this whole design is the result of the richest love and mercy: and, if it be found that some further interposition is absolutely requisite, previous to any sinner's willingness to apply sincerely for all the blessings of salvation, in his prescribed way; to wait for them in the patient and serious use of all his instituted means; and to make every needful sacrifice for the sake of obtaining them; it will follow that the Lord hath a right to interpose with his power to produce this willing mind in such instances as he chooses, and to leave others to be hardened by the pride and lusts of their own hearts. He does not indeed make one to differ from another without wise, righteous, and holy reasons: but they may be such as we cannot discover, or are incapable of comprehending; and he has a right to conceal them from us if he sees good.

These rights the Lord exercised when he spared not the angels that sinned and revealed salvation to fallen men. He does the same when he sends the gospel to one land and not to another; even as he blesses one country with plenty and visits