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Show t5) IN the fear of God, they bowed theme [elves at his altar, although not placed in BUT this their work of piety and love was direElly mifconll'rued. The erv was im- their own land; and, in love to their breu mediately raifed againlt them. thren, they fupported them in their wars, of that day {erupled not to declare them Re- " till there flood not a man of all their ene" mies before them ;" and at laft, JOSHUA, their great leader, having no farther need oftheir affiftanee, gave them this noble tef- lic]; againll the living God, Violators of his timony'That they had in all things obey'd his voice 218 their general, and faithfully per- formed all that they had promifed to Mofes the fervant of God. \Vherefore, he bleffed them, and difmilfed them to return to their own land " with much riches, and with cat. " tle, and with filver, and with gold, and "" with much raiment." No fooner, therefore, had they entered their own country, than in the fullnefs of gratitude, on the banks of Jordan, at the common paffage, over againlt Canaan, they built. an lug/L or great/Mar, that it might re~ main an eternal monument of their being ofone flock, and entitledto the fame civil and The zealots faered laws and T/zrocracy, in fetting up an altar agaiult his holy altar; and therefore the whole congregations of the brother-tribes, that (welt in Canaan, gathered themfelves together, to go up to war againl‘t their own flelh and blood; in a blind tranfport of un- righteous zeal, purpoling to extirpate them from the face of the earth, as enemies to God and the common wealth of Ifrael! IN that awful and important moment (and oh my God that the example could be copied among the brother-tribes of our If~ rael, in the Parent Land) I fay, in that awful and important moment, fome milder and more benevolent men there were, whofe zeal did not to far tranfport them, but that, before they unfheath'd the {word to plunge it with unhallowed hand into the bowels of their brethren, they thought it juftice tirft to religious privileges, with their brethren of the enquire into the truth of the charge againfi: other tribes. them. And, for the glory of Ilrael, this peaceable and prudent council prevailed. A MOST |
