Inftances of the like kind in common Life, we have fo often Occafion to make Obfervations upon and Allowances to Men, who mean, very well, and do very ill Things, that it fhould feem no difficult Matter to apply the fame Reflections to a more early Cafe, and to efteem their Judgment, instead of charging them with Contradiction, who have diftinguished betwixt the Action and the Perfon, and have commended the good Intention of one who was defirous to obey and please his Maker, tho' they have feverely cenfured the fuppofed Mistake, which mifdirected fo valuable a Principle.

Upon the whole, Jephthah undoubtedly followed herein very fincerely the Direction of his Confcience, and acted a very unacceptable and afflictive Part, rather than violate a folemn Vow, which he had made to God. All Imputations of wilful Tranfgreffions therefore are out of the Question, and are plainly contradicted by the exprefs Words of holy Scripture. It is elsewhere reprefented as a religious Character, Pfalm xv. 4. that he fweareth to his own Hurt and changeth not, which was very fignally Jephthab's Cafe. Whether this Unchangeableness was in this Inftance rightly founded, is another Queftion, and perhaps not so easy to be determined as we generally fuppofe. We fay indeed, and we say right, that the Subject Matter of a Vow must be lawful in itself, or otherwife it cannot be binding on us; but the Ground of this Opinion is, that no inferior Authority can repeal the Laws of a Superior, and therefore we cannot by any Obligation that we lay upon ourfelves, reverse or alter those which God has before laid upon us. But if under a peculiar Difpenfation the fame Divine Lawgiver, who dictated their Laws, did himself allow, that the Force of fome of them might be fet afide by the Event of fuch particular Engagements, and that they should be obliged

to

to fulfil their Vows, even in a Point which would otherwise have been unlawful, (tho' this might only be permitted, like another Inftance, for the Hardnefs of their Hearts, to guard against worfe Confequences, and prevent their trifling with thefe facred Engagements) on this Suppofition, tho' the Vow itfelf was wrong, the Discharge of it was right, and I am not fenfible that any ill Inference can fairly be. drawn from it, either to the Prejudice of their Religion or our own, There is a very remarkable Inftance in the facred Hiftory, antecedent to this of Jephthah, which will greatly confirm this Suppofition. God himself had devoted the Inhabitants of the Land of Canaan to Destruction for their Wicked-' nefs, and had appointed the Ifraelites to be the Inftruments of his Vengeance. They were directed not to make any Agreement with them, or to fpare them, but utterly to root them out. However, being impofed upon by the Gibeonites, as People of a remote Country, they violated this exprefs Direction. And Joshua made Peace with them, and made a League with them to let them live, and the Princes of the Congregation fware unto them. It foon appeared that the Contract was obtained by Fraud, and this folemn Engagement built upon a falfe Suggestion. Here now was a like Cafe of Confcience with that before us. Might they not have pleaded, that the Matter of their Oath was unlawful in itself, as being contrary to an exprefs Command of God himself? Might they not have appealed to the Letter of the Law, Exod. xxiii. 32. Thou shalt make no Covenant with them*, and that therefore it was not in their Power,

* Dr. Shuckford is of Opinion, that the Ifraelites were not abfolutely commanded to deftroy all the Inhabitants of the Nations, whofe Lands God had given them for an Inheritance, Vol. 3. Book 12. p. 372, &c. But I cannot concur in this

pinion

Power, if they had intended it, and much lefs as they had been over-reached by Fraud, to have re

pealed

pinion for many Reafons. In the first Place, no Texts can be more full than thofe which in exprefs Words prefcribe the en tire Extirpation of thofe Nations, fuch as Exod. xxiii. 32, 33. xxxiv. 12 Numb. xxxiii. 52, 53. Deut. vii. 1, 2. Again, the utter Excision of these Nations was the very Intent of the Commiffion given to the Jews. They were now ripe for Vengeance, and the Ifraelites were appointed as the Inftruments of it. Their Day of Trial was patt, and there was therefore no Room for Mercy, Gen. xv. 16. Deut. ix. 5. Again, had they offered Peace upon Submiffion, the Gibeonites would not have taken to this fraudulent Method; for it is plain by their own Confeffion, that they had nothing in View from the first, but faving their Lives, which might have been fecured more honourably, if fuch publick Offers had been first made to these Nations before they attacked them. The Gibeonites exprefsly acknowledge their divine Commiffion, and must therefore, if any, have been within the Terms of Peace, Job. ix. 24.The Grounds affigned by this worthy Author for his Opinion, are first, that Paffage, Deut. xx. 10, 11, &c. But the Diftinction in this Paffage was not, as he reprefents it, that the Women and Children and Cattle might be faved, of those who refused the Offer of Peace, if they were remote Cities, and belonged not to their Inheritance, whereas thofe of the Canaanites, &c. were to be utterly deftroyed, as foon as they were conquered after fuch Refufal; but the Difference was, that the Terms of Peace might be proposed to the former, but were not at all to be allowed to the latter. The 15th Verse relates to the whole Paffage in the five preceding ones, concerning the Allowance of Life to All of thofe remote Cities, who would accept it upon Conditions, and to fome, namely to Females and Infants, even after a Victory over them. Thus fhalt thou do unto all the Cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the Cities of thefe Nations. And then it follows, But oj the Cities of thefe People, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an Inheritance, thou shalt fave alive nothing that breatheth. But thou fbalt utterly deftroy them, namely the Hittites, &c. as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee: To which the very Reafon is added, left an Intermixture with any of thefe People fhould gradually lead them into any of their idolatrous Practices; That they teach you not to do after all their Abominations, which they have done unto their Gods, fo fhould ye fin against the Lord your Ged. There is not, I think, a ftronger Proof of their be

ing

pealed the Law of their Maker? The Contract they might have urged was void in itself, as being

56

antecedently

ing bound to extirpate them than this very Paffage It is added however, that the other "Meaning of this Direction "of Mofes, is confirmed from a Remark of Joshua's. He obferves, that as God had purposed to deftroy the Nations of "Canaan, fo he did not difpofe any of them to accept of "Peace from the Ifraelites, in order to their Prefervation." Job. xi. 19. This divine Purpofe then of their utter Extirpation, is a strong Prefumption that no fuch Terms were to be of fered, which were to be fo univerfally ineffectual; and especially, as the only People who had Conditions from them, obtained them, we know, by Fraud. Nor does Joshua's Remark, that it was of the Lord to harden their Hearts, that they should come against Ifrael in Battle, that he might deftroy them utterly, and that they might have no Favour, but that he might deftroy them, as the Lord commanded Mofes, at all imply that they had refufed previous Terms of Mercy. There was another Method which this Author had juft before alluded to, by which they might have preferved themfelves, tho' no fuch Conditions. had been offered, and might have faved their Lives by quitting their Country. (Qui fugam mallent, aufugerent.-Unde Girgefei credentes in Deum O. M. aufugerunt in Africam fe conferentes. Gem. Hieros.) But continual Tokens of a divine Interpofition in favour of the Ifraelites had no Effect upon them. They were hardened against the utmoft Evidence, which Obduration of Heart proved the Means of their Deftruction.-But the Stress of this Obfervation of Joshua lies, I apprehend, in that Circumftance, that they should come against Israel to Battle. The facred Hiftorian had in this and the preceding Chapter been relating their Combinations against the Children of Ifrael. They were fo far from studying, like the Gibeonites, to obtain Peace from them on any Terms, that they fent to each other to join their Forces to ftop their Progrefs; which Method, as Joshua obferves, haftned their own Ruin. They waited not till the Ifraelites came to War against them in their respective Situations, but they came out themfelves to offer Battle to the Ifraelites, by which Means their Conquefts were speedier than other. wife they could have been, and the Deftruction of the Nations more compleat and lefs gradual than if they had kept merely on the Defensive. And even in the Conclufion of this very Text, there is exprefs Reference to the general Injunction for their Extirpation, that he might destroy them utterly, as the Lord commanded Mofes,-Neither would the After-Distinctions of de

Atroying

antecedently prohibited by the fupreme Lawgiver; and that tho' they must repent of their rafh Oath, yet that they durft not fin against the Lord by keeping it. But they had other Notions. Tho' they ought not to have made this Covenant, yet fince it was confirmed by an Oath, they thought themselves bound to obferve it, even in Oppofition to a Precept, which without this Circumftance would confeffedly have been binding; and tho' the Congregation murmured against the Princes, yet all the Princes faid unto all the Congregation, we have fworn unto them by the Lord God of Ifrael, now therefore we may not touch them, Jofh. ix. 19. Their Oath they thought more binding than any fingle Precept, and that they judged right herein, the Event proved beyond Difpute; for when Saul attempted afterwards to violate this Oath, and in his Zeal to the Children of Ifrael and Judah fought to flay the Gibeonites, it was efteemed a Crime that called for immediate Vengeance from Heaven, and a national Judgment enfued, 2 Sam. xxi. I.This is another Inftance fo much of the like Kind, wherein a rafh Vow which was wrong in itself, was yet adjudged afterwards to be indifpenfably binding, and that where a public Confultation was exprefly had upon the Cafe, that this, one would think, fhould much leffen the Astonish. ment of Jephthab's Hiftory, and obviate the most material Objections to it. The Exceptions which are usually made to it, would have been as applicable here, yet here they were over-ruled, and by the fame

ftroying them after and not before they had fubdued them-of making them Tributaries in their perfonal and not in their national Capacity, and of a fecond Treaty with the Gibeonites, bear Examination. I fhall only add, that if the Ifraelites had really been directed to fummon firft each Town to furrender, and to offer Terms of Capitulation before they began the Affault, it would be furprizing that we should meet with no one Instance of their doing fo, throughout the whole Hiftory, when their Conqueft of fo many Cities is so particularly related.

Authority