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fully decisive, more authoritatively impressive, influential, and 

 commanding, upon the human heart, when it is humiliated by 

 misfortune; affected by an awful sense of divine displeasure; 

 elevated by the conviction of the revealed majesty of a present 

 God ; and the acknowledged sanctity of its ritual and belief, 

 upheld by the testimony, equally unbought and unimpeacha- 

 ble, forced even from their enemies; pressed by a sense of tlie 

 immediate miracle; and, at length satisfied of the selection 

 and the inspiration of its leader. To them, prophecy had be- 

 come reality, misfortune its consummation, and miracles its 

 test. This accumulated and more immediate pressure of every 

 motive to piety and practice, which could influence the mind' 

 surely, would not be neglected, or overlooked, for twenty 

 years; when zeal might become languid, and inducements in- 

 decisive. And it must have been the influence of these ob- 

 vious considerations, which obliged Josephus to suppose, that, 

 " during the twenty years the ark remained at Kirjathjearim, 

 the Israelites lived very religiouslij, and offered, with the 

 greatest fervour, sacrifices and vows to the Lord, so that the 

 prophet Samuel believed the time was at length arrived, in 

 which he might with propriety stimulate and exhort them to 

 the recovery of their liberties." (Ant. lib. 6. p. 171-) Deter- 

 mined to derive, an anarchy, and oppression, of twenty years, 

 he was only consistent with analogy and reason, in sup- 

 posing, that after all the various encouragements to fidehty 

 and obedience they had received, the period was passed in 

 the manner he describes ; the language of Scripture, however, 

 VOL. XI. Y which 



