It is evident from the whole of this sublime hymn, that the ideas impressed by Moses at the first institution of the Jewish polity, had lost none of their clearness by the lapse of five hundred years. It is evident that the belief implanted in them of the immediate presence of God with their armies and in the ark or tabernacle, had in no degree produced an erroneous notion of his attributes; that they could believe the immateriality and omnipresence of the Creator, notwithstanding the peculiar character he had condescended to assume, as going forth with the armies of Israel.

This, then, was the language of prosperity, Blessed be the Lord that hath given rest "unto his people Israel:"* and if we turn to the language of adversity, we find it continuing unchanged in tone, and unshaken in confidence. The Old Testament abounds with proofs in point, and the book of Psalms, in particular, contains alone a series of overwhelming evidence; but on a subject so familiar and indis

* 1 Kings viii. 56.

putable, it will be sufficient simply to adduce the prayer composed by Hezekiah at the time when Jerusalem was endangered by the invasion of Sennacherib.

"Hezekiah received the letter from the hand "of the messengers, and read it; and Heze"kiah went up into the house of the Lord, and Ispread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah

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prayed before the Lord, and said, O Lord God "of Israel, which dwellest between the che"rubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of "all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made "heaven and earth. Lord, bow down thine ear, "and hear; open, Lord, thine eyes, and see; "and hear the words of Sennacherib, which " hath set him to reproach the living God. Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have de

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stroyed the nations and their lands, and have "cast their gods into the fire: for they were no

gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and "stone; therefore they have destroyed them. Now, therefore, O Lord our God, save thou "us from out of his hand, that all the kingdoms

"of the earth may know that thou art the Lord

It is evident, from these comparisons, that the superiority of the Hebrews in their practical worship of the Supreme Being is no less decisive than their abstract conception of his essence. Hezekiah neither consults an oracle, nor appeals to a variety of discordant deities; but, with equal consistency and confidence, resorts, on the sudden appearance of danger, to the aid of that God whom he had learnt from his forefathers to venerate as both the Creator of the world, and the peculiar protector of his nation.

In this respect, again, all is conformable. What was the prevailing sentiment concerning the divine character was seen in the former Section; and it appears from this, that the practice did not contradict the theory. Indeed, from the whole account which we possess of the Jewish history, which for the most part

* Isaiah xxxvii. 14.

is sufficiently minute, it appears that that people never lost sight of the peculiar relation in which they stood towards the Creator. Their national prosperity is the divine blessing: their national misfortunes are the the judgments of Heaven upon their disobedience.* Had there

been no closer connexion, or no stronger assurance of connexion between national faith and national success, than we may suppose established by the fictitious assertions or vague promises of a legislator; misfortune, it is probable, would have had the contrary effect,

* See the whole history: and particularly Judges ii. 22; where the preservation of a remnant of the idolatrous nations is expressly attributed to the necessity of keeping a check upon the people who had "transgressed the covenant com"manded unto their fathers." Ahijah's denunciation against Jeroboam is in this strain: "The Lord shall root up Israel "out of this good land which he gave to their fathers, and "shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have "made their groves, provoking the Lord to anger." 1 Kings xiv. 15. The same spirit pervades the prophecies made to Manasseh: "I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance, " and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they "shall become a prey and spoil to all their enemies; because they have done that which was evil in my sight," &c. 2 Kings xxi. 15.

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would have diverted them from dependence on their law, instead of reviving their obedience. Such has been the case in other instances. Thucydides relates that during the plague which desolated Athens, the people finding no advantage from the public worship and ceremonies to which they had commonly resorted, at last abstained from them altogether, and gave themselves up to a desperate and unrestrained lawlessness.* But so effectually was the belief of divine interference impressed upon the Hebrew nation, that any general distress or remarkable calamity always served as a sort of signal to rally them round the faith of their forefathers. This is the outline of their whole history. And at the close of the theocracy, when the threatened vengeance upon repeated rebellion was accomplished by the destruction of the temple and captivity of the people, this event, which must have proved the confutation of any unfounded reliance upon divine support, was deemed by the nation itself a confirmation of their whole history and peculiar

* Lib. ii, s. 47.