they might teach every city the laws of God and their duty. Josh. xxi. 3.

29 Q. What did Joshua do just before his death?

A. He summoned the people together, and made a most solemn covenant with them, that they should serve the Lord. Josh. xxiii. and xxiv. 1-28.

30 Q. Did the Israelites go on to drive out the inhabitants of Canaan after the death of Joshua?

A. Yes; by the appointment of God, the tribe of Judah went up against Bezek. Judg. i. 1-4.

31 Q. What did the Israelites do to Adoni-bezek (or the king of Bezek) when they took him?

A. They cut off his thumbs and great toes. Judg. i. 6. 32 Q. What remark did he make upon it ?

A. He confessed the justice of God in this punishment, for he had cut off the thumbs and great toes of threescore and ten kings, and made them gather meat under his table. ver. 7.

33 Q. Did the Israelites drive all the Canaanites out of the land?

A. No; for there were some left for several hundred years after Joshua's death: the Jebusites and the Philistines continued till the days of David. 2 Sam. v. 6, 17, 34 Q. Why did not God assist Israel to drive them all out?

A. Because Israel did not obey the commands of God, and some of the Canaanites were left to prove Israel, whether they would obey the Lord, and to be as thorns in their sides, to punish them for their sins. Josh. xxiii. 12, 13. Judg. ii. 3, 21, and iii. 1—4.

35 Q. What were the most common sins that Israeł was guilty of after their settlement in Canaan?

A. They fell to idolatry, or worshipping the gods of the nations round about them, after Joshua was dead, and the elders of the people of that age that outlived Joshua. Judg. ii. 6 7 10-15.

SECT. II. Of the Government of Israel by Judges.

36 Q. Who governed the people of Israel after Joshua's death?

A. God was always the King and Ruler of Israel, and under him the several tribes probably chose their own judges, magistrates and officers, according to the appointment of Moses. Exod. xviii. Deut. i. 13. Josh. xxiv. 1.

Note. These officers, or judges, which were set over the people by Moses, at the advice of Jethro, were at first chosen by the people in their several tribes, just after they came out of Egypt. Exod. xviii. Moses says to the people, Take ye wise men, &c. Deut. i. 13. The seventy or seventy-two elders, were the gravest and most venerable of these officers, six out of every tribe; for God says to Moses, Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest, to be officers over them. Numb. xi. 16. These were to meet together, and consult upon extraordinary occasions, as when a sort of sedition was raised by the murmurings of the people, Numb. xi. or in such like cases of danger.

The high priest was the chief counsellor, and sometimes a. judge; for the oracle of God was with him, and he was supposed to be chiefly skilled in the law, especially if he were an elderly man.. The common priests and Levites were also assistants to the judges, by way of counsel, and in deciding controversies in every tribe. Deut. xvii. 9-12. But still the executive power was vested in the judge of each tribe, and God himself was their King, and the centre of union and govern

ment.

But when, through their idolatry and wickedness, God forsook the people, and their officers and judges neglected their duty, the people sustained the miseries and confusions of an anarchy, as it is several times expressed in the book of Judges; There was no king in Israel, and every one did what was right in his own eyes. And by their disunion and want of government they were weakened, and became an easy prey to their enemies round about them: but at particular seasons God rais ed them up extraordinary judges to recover them from slavery, and to restore government among them: and these had a dominion over many, or all the tribes, being raised up eminently by God himself.

That this was the original and appointed method of the government of Israel, as I have described it, we may learn partly

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from Deut. i. 13, where the officers are chosen, and Deut. xvii. 8-12, and xix. 16-18, where Moses appoints the business of the priests and the judges; and partly from 2 Chron. xvii. 7—9, and xix. 5-11, where Hezekiah makes a reformation throughout the land, and appoints the judges to be executors of justice, the priests and Levites to be the teachers of the people, and counsellors to the judges, and the high priest to be the chief counsellor and sometimes he was a judge also, as was before intimated.

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37 Q. Was not the high priest their ruler under God?

A. The high priest seems to be appointed by God and Moses, to be the chief counsellor in declaring the laws and statutes of God, as the other priests were also counsellors; but the executive power of government was rather vested in those who were called judges, whether they were ordinary, or extraordinary. Deut. xvii. 9—12. 38 Q. Did these ordinary officers do justice, and maintain good order in the land after the days of Joshua?

A. We have very little account of them; but it is certain they did not fulfil their duty, because there was sometimes great wickedness among the people, without restraint; much idolatry and mischief, both public and private, and that for want of government. Judg. xvii. 6, and xxi. 25.

39 Q. Why did God, the King of Israel, leave his people under these inconveniences?

A. As they had forsaken God and his laws, so God seemed sometimes to have forsaken the care of them, and given them up to the confusions and miseries which arise from the want of government for a season; and also suffered their enemies on every side to make inroads upon them, and bring them into slavery. Judg. ii. 11-15. 40 Q. But did not the great God interpose for their deliverance?

A. Sometimes in the course of his providence, and by special inspiration, he raised up extraordinary judges to rescue them from the hand of their enemies, and to vestore government among them. Judg.ii. 16-19.

41 Q. Who were some of the most remarkable of these extraordinary judges?

A. Ehud, and Shamgar, Deborah and Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, and Samuel.

42 Q. Who was Ehud?

A. A man of Benjamin, who delivered Israel from the oppression of Eglon king of Moab. Judg. iii. 12, 15. 43 Q. How did he deliver them?

A. By bringing a present to Eglon, and then stabbing him with a dagger. Judg. iii. 16, 17.

44 Q. What did Shamgar do toward their deliverance?

A. He rescued Israel from the oppression of the Philistines, and slew six hundred of them with an ox's goad. Judg. iii. 31.

45 Q. Who was Deborah?

A. She was a woman, a prophetess, who delivered Israel from the tyranny of Jabin, king of Canaan, who had nine hundred chariots of iron. Judg. iv. 2, 4.

46 Q. How did she deliver Israel from his hand? A. She sent forth Barak to battle against him, who routed his army, which was commanded by Sisera his general. Judg. iv. 5.

47 Q. How was Sisera slain ?

A. By the hand of Jael, a woman, who when he came to rest himself in her tent, drove a nail into his temples. Judg. iv. 18-22.

48 Q. Who was Gideon ?

A. The son of Joash; he was called by an angel, or by God himself, to destroy the worship of Baal, and to deliver Israel from the hands of the Midianites. Judg. vi. 11-14.

Note. Gideon had sufficient evidence that this was a message from God himself, for the angel talked with him; and when Gideon had fetched some flesh and cakes to entertain him, the angel bid him lay them upon a rock, and pour out the broth ⚫ upon them, then with one end of his rod the angel touchedthem, and fire arose and consumed them.

49 Q. How did he begin his work?

A. He first threw down the altar of Baal the idol by night, and cut down the idolatrous grove, and then offered a sacrifice to the Lord, according to the order he had received from God. Judg. vi. 25-28.

50 Q. What farther sign did God give him of success ?

A. At his request God made a fleece of wool wet, when the ground all around it was dry; and again, he made a fleece of wool dry, when the ground was wet. Judg. vi. 36-40.

51 Q. How many men did God appoint for Gideon's army P

A. Out of thirty-two thousand he appointed but three hundred men. Judg. vii. 3, 6, 7.

52 Q. How did three hundred men conquer Midian? A. Each of them, by Gideon's order, took a trumpet, and a pitcher with a lamp in it, and coming at midnight on the camp of the Midianites, they broke their pitchers, and frighted them with a sudden blaze of lamps, the sound of the trumpets, and loud shouting. Judg. vii.

20-23.

53 Q. Did Gideon reign over Israel after this great victory ?

A. No; he refused it, for he said God was their King. Judg. viii. 23.

54 Q. Did Gideon's sons govern Israel afterwards? A. None of Gideon's threescore and ten sons set up themselves, but Abimelech, the son of his concubine, made himself king. Judg. ix. 1, 2, 6.

55 Q. How did Abimelech advance himself to the kingdom?

A. He slew all his threescore and ten brothers except the youngest, who escaped. Judg. ix. 5.

56 Q. How was Abimelech slain ?

A. When he was besieging a city, a woman cast a piece of millstone upon his head,

57 Q. Who was Jephthah?

Judg. ix. 51-53.

A. A mighty man of valour, who delivered Israel ⚫ from the power of the Ammonites. Judg. xi. 1, 32, 33. 58 Q. What was remarkable concerning him?