which they were suffering, and the difficulty of calculating upon miraculous assistance in future emergencies, where all the physical powers of nature seemed arrayed against them. It is easy for those who have not been thus tried to say, that the experience of past miracles ought to have given them a full unshrinking confidence in the certainty of similar support for the future. So in strict reason it ought. But the question is, not what is reasonable, or what appears to us, after the whole train of circumstances has become matter of history, the most natural line of conduct, but what would be the operation of human passions, under the natural impatience produced by immediate hardship in a new and perfectly unexampled position, when the scorching desert lay before and behind them, and the confidence inspired by the recollection of former deliverances was met and counteracted by the scene of unvaried desolation which met their eyes. "Can God," they said, "furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed: can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?" What human being can look into his own heart, and not feel that the despondency which we charge as so heavy a sin upon the rude and thoughtless Israelites would not, under similar circumstances, have been his own? Scripture itself, we should recollect, whilst it records the weaknesses and caprices of this singular people, charges their failings to no permanent doubt of the reality of the Divine mission of Moses and of Joshua; but to those fluctuations of feeling under the operation of momentary trials, which not less really and substantially, though less palpably, afforded the explanation of all the inconsistencies of human conduct among individuals a thousand times better trained, and more advanced in moral discipline, than the persons here described. "And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua,

and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord that He had done for Israel."*

CHAPTER XIII.

Of the internal Evidence of the Authenticity of the Historical Books of the Old Testament subsequent to Moses.

THE final extinction of that generation which had witnessed the miracles attendant upon the first introduction of the Israelites into Canaan was followed, as the general habits and disposition of that people would lead us to anticipate, by an increased apostasy from the religion of Jehovah, and an adoption of the idolatries of the neighbouring nations. From this period to the point where the narrative of the books of the Old Testament terminates, the recorded course of events is precisely what might have been expected from human nature placed in the very peculiar circumstances there described, but in those circumstances only. The rule of probability, as applicable to this remarkable portion of history, must have reference to a condition of society which, at this moment, it is scarcely possible for us adequately to conceive. A small and by no means highly civilized nation, miraculously supported in its political existence by the occasional intervention of the Almighty himself, to the almost total exclusion of the common and regular modes of defence against hostile incursion, and subjected to institutions not the natural growth of the popular habits and character, but forcibly imposed upon them by a fatality stronger than themselves, presents a picture so perfectly unlike any thing which we are prepared to meet with in the history of mankind, that we look with a natural curiosity for

Joshua xxiv. 31.

the recorded details of transactions so extraordinary. The result is still, as on the former occasion, humiliating to the human character from the scene of moral degradation, mingled, indeed, with occasional beautiful and sublime touches, which it presents; and though still remarkable for the air of reality with which the successive incidents are related, is obviously such as few impostors could, and none actuated by any known motive of national variety or self-interest would, wish to invent. The signal successes which, from time to time, attended their military expeditions, were so completely independent of the usual natural means for their successful accomplishment, that nothing short of occasional recurrences of the most implicit faith in the Divine promises, and in the continuance of that support which had never deserted their forefathers in the hour of need, could have enabled them to calculate upon similar interpositions, in those impending perils which so repeatedly threatened them with extinction. And, accordingly, we find in the history of that period a succession of alternations between moments of extreme depression and of sanguine confidence, whilst, at the same time, the moral and religious character of the people was, from the same causes, fluctuating between an inveterate hostility to the idolatrous practices of their Canaanitish neighbours, and an occasional adoption of their worst abominations. Such, in fact, was, more or less, the national character down to the time of the Chaldean captivity. That under any view of the case, it was one by no means calculated to add to the credit of the people thus portrayed, is perfectly clear. Our present business, however, is not with the question, how far the Israelites appear to have acted worthily of the high position in which God's selection of them as the depositaries of his will had placed them, but how far the narrative which records these transactions comes to us with the stamp and impress of authenticity. Now, as the existence of that history as a work, at all events

of very high antiquity, must be admitted by all parties, the only query is, who were the historians?" were they friends, or were they enemies, who have recorded the circumstances in question? Either supposition, if by adopting it we mean to imply a bias in the mind of the writer to exaggerate or to detract from the merits of the people described, is equally inadmissible. The Jewish history is, clearly, not the work of enemies to their name, for they are ever spoken of as the only observers of the true religion, and as the chosen nation of the one true God. It can scarcely, on the other hand, be said to be the production of friends, for its far greater proportion is little more than a narrative of the waywardness, ingratitude, and profligacy of that self-same people. Again, it was not the composition of any political party, advocating one set of state maxims, to the exclusion of others, for it is equally lavish of its censures upon democracy and monarchy, whilst it records the transactions of both. It is not the calculating panegyrist upon this or that individual, for, with the exception of the few truly righteous persons who were thinly scattered over that long period, in relating the achievements of the most eminent and laudable of their monarchs, it dwells with, at least, an equal detail and minuteness upon their failings and crimes, as upon their virtues. It condemns the reprobate Saul, and yet it mourns oyer his fallen fortunes with striking pathos: it eulogizes the sanguine, open-hearted, and devout David, and yet it denounces in the strongest language of censure, his ingratitude, blood-guiltiness, and adultery. It recites, with beautiful accuracy, the most eloquent devotional composition on record, Solomon's dedication of the temple; and expatiates, with delight, upon his many accomplishments, and that various wisdom, the fame of which attracted to his court the queen of the south; and yet it concludes by narrating his total and inexcusable idolatry. It brands with the taint of rebellion and heresy, the long succession of Israelitish

kings, and yet, on the other hand, where censure appears to be called for by the conduct of the more orthodox lineage of David, it applies that censure without stint, and without any attempt at palliation.

It, surely, may be confidently asserted of any history, to which it seems quite impossible to attach the charge of partiality, or of self-interest, in any shape, that its real end and object must have been truth. And such is, undoubtedly, the main impression which the history of the Jewish people, as given in the Old Testament, conveys to our minds. From first to last there is nothing in the whole getting up of the narrative which marks selection, or the grouping and contrasting characters for the sake of effect, for suggesting a political inference, or eliciting some favourite prudential maxim. Its resemblance to real nature is that of the faithful reflection of the mirror, and not of the calculated arrangement of the imaginative painter. Nor is this all. The portraiture given to us is not only that of a far from perfect people, but also the failings which we find successively attributed to them are precisely such as assort with the respective periods described. Every event, every trait of character, is in the strictest keeping with the existing course of events. The sins of the earlier epochs in the career of nations, like those in the history of individuals, are generally such as result from unsteady principles and desultory passions acting in defiance of better knowledge; whilst the latter stage, in both cases, is disfigured by an increasing spirit of worldliness, and the callousness of mind which so frequently comes on when the season of novelty and excitement is gone by. This gradual process of decay, which constitutes the summary of the history of almost all the extinct nations of antiquity, is, in a striking manner, that of the fortunes of the Jewish people. From the time of the revolt of the ten tribes, to that of the captivity, the worst and most fatal symptom of approaching dissolution which can show itself in the