In a Word, the facred Memoirs reckon up one and thirty Kings which Joshua and Josh. xii. the children of Ifrael fmote on this fide Jordan, and gave their Lands unto the Tribes of Ifrael for a poffeffion, according to their divifions. In the mountains, and in the valleys, and in the plains, and in the springs, and in the wilderness, and in the fouth-country: the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Canaanites; the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebufites.

I, &c.

However, fome of these Nations were not totally destroy'd ; but left to prove Ifrael Judg. iii. by; to know whether they would hearken to the commandments of the LORD. Add to these the Philistines, with whom they wag'd perpetual War during the Time of the Judges, and Saul; and who, having been defeated in four pitch'd Battles, were at last utterly routed by David. Whofe firft Coming into the Army, from among the Sheepfolds, was aufpiciously crown'd with the Success, of vanquishing, in fingle Combat, their formidable Champion Goliah. But this, as well as most of their other fuccessful Engagements under the Conduct of the Judges, being more owing to the providential Arm of God, the never-failing Affistant of Virtue and Piety, than to human Prowess

and

2 Sam.iii.

1.

and Skill in the Science of War, I shall forbear tranfcribing them, upon this Occafion.

We read that there was long war between the boufe of Saul, and the house of David; Ifbbofbeth the Son of the former, by the ib. ii. 10. Strength of a mighty Party, reigning over

ib. v. 3.

Ifrael two years, in Oppofition to the latter; who, all that while, had no other Adherents than the Houfe of Judah. But God' having given away the Kingdom from the Houfe of Saul to that of David, as had long before been declar'd by the Prophet (Samuel; and all Obstacles being by degrees remov'd out of his Way; all the Tribes and Elders of Ifrael came to him to Hebron: And be made a league with them in Hebron, before the LORD; and they anointed David King over Ifrael.

David was victorious in all his Battles; and having fubdued the Nations round about him, left the Kingdom in profound Peace to his Son Solomon; who was wife enough to maintain and preferve it, in the fame Condition, all his Days; to fay nothing of his adorning and improving it with the advantageous Benefits of Commerce, and those Arts and Sciences which fo conftantly attend a folid and well-establish'd

Peace,

Peace, and are the almost infallible Teft of its being fo.

After the Death of Solomon, the Kingdom's being divided in two, laid a Foundation for frequent Bickerings between the Kings of Judah and Ifrael; in which they harrafs'd and worried each other. But this was not all; by their prefumptuous Difobedience they provok'd the LORD, to raise them up Enemies out of the mighty Nations of the Egyptians, Syrians, Affyrians, and Babylonians: Whereby Ifrael was finally carried away into Captivity, from which they never return'd; and Judah into one for feventy Years; as we have more fully declar'd already.

And the latter, after their Return, were again oppress'd by the Syrians; infefted by the Samaritans; and oblig'd to contend with the Idumæans, and other Nations that border'd upon them. Of all whom, after a long Course of Troubles, they had no fooner got the better, than they began to fall out among themselves; and by that means, gave the Romans both a Handle and an Opportunity to reduce them under their Subjection. In which State they continued till their factious, stubborn Spirits,

laid thofe Conquerors of the World under a Neceffity of destroying their City, Temple and Nation.

CONCLUSIO N.

To conclude. From this Review of the Bible, every ferious impartial Mind will be ready to allow, that there is nothing contain❜d in it deserving that Sneer and Con tempt, with which raw and shallow Thinkers are apt to treat it. As the oldeft Hiftory of the most ancient People, it is venerable upon account of its Antiquity. As it delineates the merciful Judgments of God, and abounds with all thofe Precepts of Morality which relate to the Duty of Man, it must appear to be a facred and a divine Book to every unprejudiced Reader. And, to those who truly believe the Contents of it, and know by Faith how to apply them, it will ever be an inexhaustible Fountain of spiritual Confolation.

Here, we fee that God, of his infinite Goodnefs, created Man in a State of Innocence and Purity, and gave him to understand that nothing but his own wilful Difobedience could ever occafion his Ruin. That, Man, notwithstanding this fair Warn

ing did difobey; and thereby, not only forfeit his own Happiness, but, by a kind of Contagion, propagate his Sin and Misery, among his unhappy Progeny. No Circumstance of which Proceeding appears, in the leaft, to impeach God's Benignity, but only to demonftrate the Weakness and Depravity of Man. The Certainty of which Truth the wife Son of David discover'd, when all the reft of his Searches were vain and fruitless. Lo! this only have I found, Ecclef. that God made man upright, but they have vii. 29. Sought out many inventions.

Nor has Man any Reason to complain that he was not created in fuch a State of Perfection, as to have been incapable of Falling. Since abfolute Perfection is an incommunicable Property of the very and eternal God alone. Who was fufficiently gracious to Man, in creating him with Faculties capable of distinguishing between both positive and moral Good and Evil; and with a free Will to choose accordingly. The Poffibility of offending in the Creature, is implied in the Existence of Mercy in the fupream Being; there is fo close a Connection between them, that the one cannot fubfift without the other.