ISRAEL. 
33 
wound; yet the hostile spirit survived for sixty troubled years, until a new insurrection 
broke out under Barchochebas (a.d. 134). Roman vengeance was then slaked to the full. 1 
The whole of the Jewish settlements on the Mediterranean were covered with carnage; in 
Palestine 580,000 Jews perished in battle, or in flight and famine; and Judah, “ scattered 
and peeled,” was plunged into a depth of desolation, from which, in the long lapse of 
seventeen centuries, she has never been restored. 
Even in this brief retrospect, it will be seen that the history of the Jews establishes, on 
the most solid grounds, the three truths most important to human knowledge:—the Being 
of a God, a Perpetual Providence, and a Moral Government of the world. 
From its commencement, the idea of a Supreme Lord of heaven and earth is held 
continually before the mind. God forms the nation, protects it by His power, guides it by 
His wisdom, and punishes it by His justice; He is present to us in all the great relations of 
society; He is Father, Lawgiver, Judge, and King. 
From its commencement. Providence is constantly shown in action; not as a remote 
and general supremacy, but as an immediate and 'particular superintendence; not power 
limiting itself to a rare and periodic interposition, but power combining the force of miracle 
with the most instant promptitude; not wisdom abstract and mysterious, but wisdom 
practical and shaping itself to all difficulties, continually meeting the changes of events by 
changes of expediency, alike unexpected in their nature, and complete in their adaptation; 
and ultimately, without infringing on human liberty, controlling all things into the direction 
of one sacred and beneficent Will. 
From its commencement, the Moral Government of God is impressed on the whole 
condition of the people. If the universe has been created for the purpose of revealing the 
perfections of the Creator, it is not inconsistent with our consciousness of the variety and 
grandeur of the Divine attributes, to conceive that every orb of the countless millions 
which fill the skies may be the scene of some especial attribute. But we know, that 
Justice and Mercy are pre-eminently those illustrated in the Divine government of our 
world. The great displays of those attributes have obviously been successive, and they 
form the subjects of the two dispensations. Judaism was the representative of Justice. 
Its Law was “ given on account of transgressions; ” it was delivered in terrors, and 
enforced by death. Penalty was stamped on the whole frame of the religion; sacrifice was 
always before the national eyes; “ Without shedding of blood there was no remission.” 
And this purpose accounts at once for the sternness of the national discipline, and the 
severity of the national treatment of the Canaanites. Both were the result of that superior 
will which systematically connected punishment with crime. The lapses of the Israelite 
tribes themselves were inevitably followed by plague, famine, or the sword. At length 
crime grew intolerable, and the nation was extinguished. Justice then had its perfect 
work; and the appointed time for the revelation of mercy was come. 
Dio Cassius, 1. lxix. 
