no hand in it, nor were they any way acceffory to what had been done to Ifrael by their forefathers, and, confequently, were not parties in their caufe; fo they could not be guilty of their crimes: and, therefore, the above commiffion must have been both cruel, and unjust. Upon which I observe, that how agreeable foever the above commiffion may be with the character of the local national God of Ifrael, or any other tutelar Deity, the faculties and powers of whose nature, and the rectitude of whofe actions, may fall greatly short of the powers, perfections, and rectitude of the fupreme Deity; yet fuch a commiffion will by no means comport with the just and proper character of the fupreme God, who is abfolutely compleat and perfect, in all natural and moral endowments; and, therefore, will not take up an unreasonable and groundless refentment against fome of his creatures, nor fhew a partial and groundless regard for others.

THE ufe that I make of this, is to observe to my Readers, that as the fictitious, fuppofed, tutelar, and national Deities of the Pagans, were not confidered, by them, to be the Kings, or civil rulers, of those Pagan nations, but only their divine guardians,

who

who protected, or were fuppofed to protect and affift them, by a fecret divine influence and providential care; fo this was the cafe of the local, national God of Ifrael. And, agreeably to this, the great and extraordinary events that are spoken of, as taking place among the Jews, in their forty years travel through the wilderness, and afterward, whilft they were under the direction of Joshua their leader, these are manifeftations of the extraordinary power and prefence, and the fecret influence and providential care, of their local national God, among them, and over them, until he had brought them to, and fettled them in the promised land; but then, thefe are not to be confidered as the administration of civil juftice, because they were not the execution of those laws, that related to their civil policy. And as to the profperity and adverfity that afterwards attended the Jewish nation, in which the righteous and wicked were equally involved, as these attended their publick virtuoufnefs and viciousness; fo they cannot, with any more propriety, be confidered as acts of civil justice, than the profperity or adverfity of any other nation or people, when fpringing from the like causes.

And

And as to thofe extraordinary events, that took place among the Jews, which were particular and perfonal, fuch as the fire coming down from heaven, and destroying twe captains, and their fifties, for their delivering an ungrateful meffage to the Prophet Elijah, according to the command of the King their Mafter, as in 2 Kings i. 10, 12. and two fhe-bears tearing forty and two children, for mocking the Prophet Elifba, calling him, bald-head, in confequence (as it may feem) of the Prophet's curfing them in the name of the Lord, as in 2 Kings ii. 24. Thefe inftances of cruelty, as I think

they

* Suppofing that Ahaziah, king of Ifrael, had rendered himself the object of a just resentment to the local national God of Ifrael, by his fending to enquire of the God of another nation, viz. Baalzebub, the local national God of Ekron, whether he should come down from that bed on which he had gone up, and which, indeed, was of fering an affront to the national God of Ifracl, as it fuppofes, that Ekron's God was fitter to be applied to, on that occafion, than he; yet, furely, the foldiers and messengers of king Abaziah must have been altogether innocent, in that behalf; and therefore, it feems to have been contrary to the rules of right and wrong, of good and evil, to profecute them with fo fevere a revenge, on their master's account, and for his fake. And, as to the chidren's calling the prophet, bald-head, which childish and improper behaviour, probably, was occafioned by the oddness of the prophet's dress, or by fomething of like kind, as it is not likely thofe children fhould have treated Elifba with contempt, on account of his being a pro

they may be called, cannot, with any more propriety, be considered as acts of civil juftice, than the fudden deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, (as in Acts v.) with respect to which events, the latter, I think, is not pretended to be fuch. Moreover those laws, that related to the civil policy of the Jews, had their respective fanctions annexed to them; of which, of which, I think, we have not an inftance, upon record, of the God of Ifrael's interpofing and putting thofe laws in execution. Thus Exodus xxi. the rule is, life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, fripe for firipe. Here we fee, that the punishment inflicted was to be, both in kind and degree, the fame as the injury

done;

phet; feeing he was but then entering upon that office, and seeing they were but little children, who could fcarcely have been fuppofed to have taken up any antipathy against prophets; therefore, Elisha's wrath, which was shewn by his curfing those little children in the name of the Lord, and the God of Ifrael's gratifying the prophet's refentment, by fending two bears, out of a neighbouring wood, to deftroy thofe children, feem, at leaft, to favour of harshness and cruelty. However, though the feverity fhewn to the foldiers and children, here referred to, may comport with the just character of the local national God of Ifracl, who, by his conduct, feems to have been of the angry, wrathful kind; yet it does by no means agree with the proper moral character of the ONE GOD OVER ALL.

done; and the queftion arifing from hence is, who was intended, and that did, in fact, inflict those punishments? and the answer is obvious, namely, that the God of Ifrael did not interpofe, by any fecret power, or providential influence, and render burning for burning, wound for wound, &c. and thereby execute the office of a civil magif trate among them; but it must have been done, or intended to be done, either by a body of men fet apart for that purpose, to govern them in civil matters, or by fuch as fhould affume that power, and which feems to have been the cafe of those who were ftiled Judges, as well as those who afterwards became their Kings; or else every one must have been intended, and were left to avenge their own wrongs, in their own perfons, or by their nearest relations, and which may, perhaps, be thought to be the cafe of thofe who were filed the avengers of blood. By the appointment of Mofes, according to Numbers xxxv. Deuteronomy xix. and Joshua xx. fix cities were fet apart, for those to fly to, who should have taken away the life of others, that thereby they might be protected from the wrath of the avengers of blood; that is, from the refentment of those who

were