113 



and Gideon, the life of the Judge is clearly distiiigui:<licd 

 from the period of the repose, and concluded before it. (Vide 

 supra and Judg. c. 3. v. II. 30. 31. c. 8. 28. 33.) It is not 

 useless to have entered so much at large into this subject, 

 since it is to a misconception of the principles it unfolds, that 

 the variety of opinion, the obscurity, and the uncertainty at- 

 tending the history of the earlier ages of the Jewish republic, 

 should undoubtedly be referred, indeed, a consideration of 

 the very next verse to that quoted above, would demonstrate 

 the error of those who have so misunderstood the former, 

 (v. 19.) " And it came to pass, when the Judge was dead, 

 that they returned and corrupted themselves more than their 

 fathers, in following other gods, they ceased not from their 

 own doings, or from their stubborn ways." Must not this 

 relapse, this idolatry, this provocation to the vengeance of 

 Heaven, require time, perseverance, habitude.'' " Nemo re- 

 pente turpissimus." Yet those who adopt the contrary hy- 

 pothesis, commence their idolatry and their servitude in the 

 very year of the death of their last deliverer — a position, on 

 the extravagance of which I have already remarked. Wliat? 

 is it to be supposed that the people of Israel wait with defer- 

 ence and respect for the death of Othniel, at 150 years ; or of 

 Ehud, at, perhaps, 130, to commence the open practice of 

 idolatry? or, that the nations who surround them, uniformly 

 put off the day of vengeance and punishment, during the 

 life of an exhausted old man, and immediately commence 



Q 2 hostilities 



