himself required. A principal cause of this inattention to the divine prohibitions seems to have been, that the Law was not read, as it regularly should have been, to the people; and when the Shechinah, or visiblė splendor of the divine glory, had ceased to appear in the tabernacle, and the unsettled state of society, and frequent wars under the Judges, and the permanent hostility between the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, rendered it difficult or inconvenient to meet at that place which the Lord had chosen, each tribe or family adopted the idea of making a sanctuary in their own city or their own house, and setting up there some symbol of the Divine Presence imitated from their neighbours, as a substitute for the Shechinah, and some rites of worship in imitation of the worship at the tabernacle. But this no more implies a rejection of the Mosaic Law, than the idolatry of Roman Catholics implies a rejection of the Gospel.

The next species of idolatry was worshipping the true God in forbidden places, on high hills and under groves; which it is yet certain did not proceed from any doubt

doubt of the existence or divinity of the true Jehovah, but from the same proneness to admire and imitate the superstitions of the neighbouring nations, which we noticed in the former case. Many of these superstitious observances, we find, prevailed during the reigns of Asa and Jehosaphat, who yet utterly prohibited and strictly punished all direct idolatry; but could not overcome the rooted attachment of the people to these favourite places of worship: "The

high places were not taken away, for the people offered and burnt incense yet in "the high places." And in another passage we find this remarkable and decisive testimony on this subject: "Nevertheless the people did sacrifice still upon the high

66

places, yet unto the Lord their God only."

A similar observation may be made on the observance of idolatrous rites, which, instead of implying a rejection of the Mosaic ritual, were, however strangely and criminally, yet not unfrequently, combined with it. Thus

VOL. II.

I

we

* 1 Kings, xv. 14, and xxii. 43. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 17.

*

we are told, fourscore men having their "beards shaven and their cloaths rent, and "having cut themselves," (contrary to the express direction of the Law, yet) pro

66

ceeding with offerings and incense in their "hands, to bring them to the house of the "Lord." Thus Isaiah† complains, "I will recompence into their bosom your iniqui

ties, and the iniquities of your fathers to'gether, saith the Lord, which have burnt "incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills."

Another and more criminal species of idolatry was joining the worship of God and idols together; a practice which the principle borrowed from the heathens, of

an

* Compare Deut. xiv. 1, and Lev. xix. 27 and 28, with Jeremiah, xli. 5.

+ Isaiah, lxv. 7.

Vide, on this subject, Warburton's Divine Legation, B. II. Sect. vi. and B. V. Sect. ii. Vol. IV. p. 212, and Law's Theory of Religion, p. 85. Vide also Mede's Apostacy of the latter Times, Part I. ch. ii. Vol. II. of his works, p. 772, and ch. ix. p. 795. Thus Æneas, on his landing in Italy, Æneid, Lib. VII. 135.

-"Geniumque loci primamque Deorum "Tellurem nymphasque et adhuc ignota precatur flumina. Vide also Macrobii Saturnalia, Lib. III. cap. ix. de Evocandis Diis tutelaribus.

an intercommunity of gods, sanctioned, and the apparent policy of conciliating the guardian gods of Canaan encouraged; but which still preserved the acknowledgment and worship of Jehovah.

"In these principles of intercommunity," says Warburton," they saw the "whole race of mankind agree; and from "the practice of them in the worship of "tutelar deities, they thought they saw a "world of good ready to arise. But not

66

only the hope of good, but the fear of

evil, drew them still more strongly into "this road of folly. Their Egyptian edu"cation had early impressed that bugbear "notion of a set of local deities, who ex

pected their dues of all, who came to in"habit the country which they had ho"noured with their protection, and severely "resented the neglect of payment in all This will easily account for "the frequent defections of the Israelites, "in the divided service of the gods of "Canaan."

66

'new comers.

The last and most flagrant species of idolatry was the worship of idols without

God: yet even here they did not so much reject the true God, as conceive that intermediate and subordinate deities were those only with whom they had immediate concern, and from whose hand they must expect all temporal blessings. In truth, the temptations to some or all those kinds of idolatry were so powerful, from errors in opinion wide spread, and sanctioned by the Egyptians, the wisest, and the Canaanites, the most warlike people in the world, and strengthened by the habitual attachment of the Jews to the idols, the symbols and the rights of Egypt, as well as the sensual allurements of idolatrous worship, and the overpowering terrors of idolatrous superstitions; that we have reason to wonder that the Jews, dull, sensual and stubborn as they were, could, by any system of discipline, be effectually corrected and ultimately reformed, so as at length to forsake idolatry, as after the Babylonish captivity they certainly did; rather than just cause to suspect no such system of divine superintendance and controul was really exercised, because they frequently relapsed into it.

In