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Talmud

their Duty to relieve the Heathen with their (0) Doctor Alms (0); and that it was lawful to converse Lightfoot, with with the Gentiles, if they did not eat with 28. and them, nor go into their Houfes. But what Hebr and effect this abundant provifion of the Law, for Exercitat, the Converfion of other Nations, had, falls. on Mat. under the next Head. It is more proper to confider, in this place, an Objection which comes in our way; That the Ifraelites were to make no Marriages nor Covenants with the Seven Nations of the Land of Canaan, nor to fhew them any Mercy, but utterly to destroy them,or drive them out, Exod.xxiii. 3 1, Deut. vii. 2.

vi. 2.

To which I Anfwer, That this was a peculiar and excepted Cafe, and therefore fuppoles that they were not thus to deal with any others, except the Nations there expressly named, but they might enter into Marriages and Covenants with all other Nations: And befides what has been already obferved, of the great Mercy which God vouchfafed to these Nations, in fending the Patriarchs to fojourn amongst them; and that wonderful Judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah, to bring them to Repentance, and prevent that Deftruction which was at laft brought upon them after fo long and great Provocations, these Nations were not unavoidably to be extirpated; but the Ifraelites were, in the first place, to profer Peace to them; and if they refused to accept of Peace, then they were to proceed

proceed against them in the utmost extres mity; which appears from Deut. xx. 10, &c. .. For after a general Command to offer Terms of Peace to the Cities which they fhould go to fight against; and if they refused it, to fmite every male thereof with the edge of the } fword, ver. 13. it is added, ver. 15. Thus fhalt thou do to all the cities that are very far from thee, which are not of the cities of thefe nd tions. But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheri 0 tance, thou fhalt fave alive nothing that breath eth; but thou shalt utterly deftroy them, &c. where it is evident, that what concerns their making Propofals of Peace, was to be underftood in general of all Nations with whom h they fhould at any time have War. But then y in their dealings with them upon a Victory, after their refusal of the Peace offered, they were to diftinguish between the Canaanites and other Nations: for the Canaanites were to be c. utterly destroyed, if they fhould reject Terms of Peace; but all, except the Males, were to be fpared of other Nations, though they were overcome, after they had refuted to make Peace with them: And the Terms of Peace to be propofed, were, That they fhould become Tributaries, and Profelytes, fo far as to own and worship the True God, and then the reason for their extirpation ceafed which was, was, That thefe Idolatrous Nations might not teach the Children of Ifrael to do after all their abomi nations,

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nations which they had done unto their gods, Deut. xx. 18...

When the Men of Ifrael tell the Gibeonites, Peradventure ye dwell among us, and how fhall we make a league with you? Jofh.ix. 7. this is to be understood of a League with them upon equal Terms, not of a Peace, whereby they might become Tributaries, Deut. xx. II. and therefore the Gibeonites immediately answer'd and faid to Joshua, We are thy fervants, Jofh. ix. 8. that is, Do with us as you please, at leaft grant us our Lives, though not upon any other Terms of a League, yet on Conditions of Servitude and we find the Peace and the League diftinguifhed, Joh. ix. 15. But this fraudulent way of getting into a League with the Ifraelites, if it had not been for the Oath, which fecured their Lives to them,had forfeited that Right which otherwife they might have had to their Lives, by a Peace fairly obtained; and they lost all other Advantages of the League, but only the fecuring their Lives. But that the Canaanites, if they had submitted and owned the God of Ifrael, were not to have been destroyed, but to have been received to mercy, is evident from Jofh. xi. 19, 20. There was not a city that made peace with the children of Ifrael, fave the Hivites the inhabitants of Gibeon; all other they took in battel: For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they fhould come against Ifrael in battel, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no

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favour, but that he might destroy them, as the Lord commanded Mofes. Which neceffarily fuppofes, that if God, in his juft Judgment upon them, for their heinous Provocations, had not hardened their hearts, but they had submitted themselves, and fought Peace of the Chil dren of Ifrael, they ought to have had favour fhewn them. It doth therefore fufficiently appear, that the Canaanites themfelves, after all their Provocations against both the Mercy and Juftice of God, were not excluded from all the Benefits of Strangers and Profelytes a mongst the Jews; and that all other Nations were encouraged and invited to become Partakers of the Privileges of the Law of Mofes, and acquaint themselves with the Service and Worship of the True God, is notorious, and as evident as any thing in the Law and the Prophets. But after the Canaanites had fill'd up the measure of their Iniquities, God manifefted his Almighty Power and Justice upon es them; and he was pleased to do it by the Sword of the Children of Ifrael, rather than by Peftilence, or any other Judgment, both to raise the greater abhorrence of Idolatry in his own People, and in the neighbouring Nations; and because those rude and warlike Nations could obferve the Power of God no where fo much as in the fuccefs of War, they chiefly implored their own Gods for fuccefs in their Wars; and when they were overcome by any People, they concluded that the

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Gods of that Nation were too hard for their own Gods, I King. XX. 23. 2 King. viii. 34. whereas, if they had been deftroyed by Famine or Peftilence, they would have afcribed thefe Judgments no more to the God of Ifrael, than to any of the Heathen Gods. But God got. him honour upon thefe Nations, as he did upon. Pharaoh and upon all his hoft, when fethro faid, Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods; for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly, he was above them, Exod. xviii. 11. from whence he is so often ftyled the Lordof Hofts, in the Old Testament.

2. The Providence of God did fo order and difpofe of the Jews, in all their Affairs, as to afford other Nations frequent opportunities of becoming inftructed in the true Religion, and multitudes of Profelytes were made out of all Nations. Mofes dwelt in Midian, and there marry'dan Ethiopian Woman, Exod. ii. 15. Num. xii.sr. his Wife's Father, Jethro the Priest of Midian, and is Family, became converted. And the Deliverance of the Children of Ifrael out of Egypt, magnify'd the Power of God in all Countries where the Report of a thing fo wonderful and notorious came. The miraculous Victories which the Ifraelites gained over the Canaanites, whereever they came, ftruck a mighty Terror into all those Nations; as we fee by the Fear of Balak, Num. xxii. and from the Speech of the Gibeonites, Josh. ix. 9, 10. who were glad

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