114 



hostilities, on his dissolution? Such are the conclusions to 

 which the suppositions of our adversaries, contradicted as 

 they arc bj the spirit and tenor of the text, would unavoid- 

 ably conduct us. But the conclusion is their own; it is no 

 more the conclusion of Scripture than it is the conclusion of 

 reason; and it must afford the most unqualified satisfaction 

 to the liberal and candid mind, to discover, that under the 

 most accurate and discriminating analysis, the most trivial 

 expression, the most isolated allusion, appears to have its 

 due measure of design, intention, and importance; nothing 

 is redundant or strained; nothing, when duly weighed, in- 

 consistent or contradictor^^ ; the light, the harmony, and the 

 union of the parts, is equall}'^ reciprocal and beautiful ; no- 

 thing can be unnecessary when its value, if not intrinsic, is 

 rc-active; if not sui generis, it is relative; is effectual to 

 provle, if not to guide ; to direct, if not to inform. 



The hymn of Deborah, also, affords us decisive arguments 

 against the reception of the system, which would adhere to 

 the interval assigned in the Book of Kings, by supposing 

 some of the first Judges to be contemporary. We have seen 

 the Prophetess acknowledge the election and authority of 

 Shamgar, who was, according to Marshan)'s system, Judge 

 in tlie West, on the side of the Philistines, whom he repulsed 

 and " delivered Israel;" while the judicature of Deborah and 

 Barak is confined to the most Northerly parts of Israel, di- 

 vided, by almost the whole latitude of the country, from the 



territory 



