This great and splendid type terminated, the people of Israel assume a new form and character. As in the case of the Ascent of Moses, the nation cannot go beyond their elevation unto Heaven; and the type ceases naturally, from the exhaustion of its own powers. They descend to their ordinary level; and set forth at intervals, for the instruction of mankind, re-produced and repeated signs of the two great centres of Good and Evil. We must consider their acts perfectly disjoined and separated from those which they have lately exhibited; they cannot, as we have stated, have any connection with them by their very nature; and we must take them as distinct and single instances in which God has been pleased to display the workings of his Providence. Unless we give way to the pressure of this fact, we shall find ourselves involved in a confusion, which will soon threaten to become inextricable. It will be next to impossible to preserve the unity and coherence of the subsequent instances with those which we have already discussed. We must make a decided pause. We must draw a broad line of demarcation between the past and the future, and judge of each solely by the test of their own potency and merits. It is only thus that we can elicit the truth.

There are a variety of instances in which this repetition of an old principle may be versified in the books of Joshua and Judges. It is seen in the siege and fall of Jericho, against which no weapons of human warfare were called into play: but which was utterly cast down and overthrown by an obedience to the means which God had devised, and by an entire faith in their efficacy. In like manner the strong holds of Satan, typified by the city which was at enmity with God, are overthrown by the believer, not by the arm of flesh, and by human powers, but by faith and obedience to the word of God. Thus also is it seen in the utter destruction of the cities of Canaan (chap. x.) which were taken by Joshua, and the extirpation of their inhabitants “until they were consumed.-He let none remain."-A forcible image of the warfare of Jesus against the adversaries of the Truth; and against all who relied upon the strength of false Gods for their defence, that his chosen might possess the Spiritual Canaan without opposition. It is perceptible indeed in very many transactions which have been recorded in the books of Joshua and Judges, and in all, just in the mode we might expect from the nature of the truths revealed by the ascent into Canaan;-single and unconnected types declarative of the two principles of evil and good, which were from time to time exhibited to keep up the general tone and tenor of this plan of revelation in the history; but without carrying them out by any lengthened or continuous imagery. Indeed the history of the nation during this period is very far from being written with the closeness and precision of other parts of the holy volume ;-the thread of the narrative is perpetually broken ;-the events are for the most part insulated and distinct from each other; many seem to have been transposed from their regular order; the dates of many we have no means of judging; and whatever the character of the people's acts, it is clear, that in their external form, it was not considered necessary by God that

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they should be transmitted; -while their internal powers were almost in abeyance.

On the establishment however of Kings to rule over them, the regularity of the narrative is resumed, and together with it, the internal interpretation under the same striking forms in which we have hitherto beheld it.

It may, indeed, be said truly to recommence with the birth of Samuel, a fair and lovely image, from his first separation unto the Lord to the close of his existence, of the human life of Christ; and which only requires to be studied with this key to its unravelment to come forth with a vividness, of which it must otherwise appear wholly incapable. We do not, however, consider it necessary to go through these things in detail. It is sufficient for our design to show that the principle is carried through the volume; and to conclude our analysis by examining a few of the parts in which it is in most remarkable operation.

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We take Saul, the first elected monarch; and we investigate his conduct towards the Amalekites, one of the most influential transactions of his reign.

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During the first year of the Exod, while the Israelites, under the command of Moses, were journeying towards Mount Sinai, they were fiercely attacked by the nation of Amalek; who were a branch of the posterity of Esau, and consequently bore an hereditary hatred towards the descendants of Jacob. Their own land was not invaded; nor does it appear that war would have been declared against them, more than against the tribes of Edom. They might have remained at peace, without interference or molestation. Israel would have passed; and have shown only in passing a nation chosen and sustained by the arm of the true God. This they willed not. No sooner had the hosts of Israel freed themselves from the pursuit of Pharaoh, than they crossed the desert with their armies; fell with fury upon them; and bade defiance to God in the person of his Vicegerent Moses.

What could be expected, but a signal judgment? "Write this for a memorial in a book," exclaims the Lord to his prophet, "and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua; for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven."* The same sentence was subsequently repeated in a more enlarged form. "Remember what Amalek did to thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt; how he met thee by the way, and smote the hindermost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God. Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven: thou shalt not forget it."†

The execution of this decree was entrusted to Saul. It seems not necessary; - though doubtless the idea will arise in the mind of the reader, - to vindicate the justice of God in deferring His judgment during a period of four hundred years; nor to discuss the question, why he should suffer any portion of that people to escape whom he had already doomed to an eventual extermination. We conceive it sufficient to know that the intermediate generations carried out to a fearful extent the sins, idolatries, and evil principles of their forefathers, and that in the time of Saul, the command was fully justified, which enjoined him to destroy "the sinners, the Amalekites."* And in regard to the question of God's long-suffering, we deem it a prerogative, on which man would, at the least, exercise a befitting prudence to leave untouched. The grace of God, from their first establishment as a nation, had continuously been outraged. Infidelity had been perpetuated by Esau, in his own falling off from God. They had gone from one wickedness to another;-from one act of incredulity to one of still greater offence in the eye of God. The land was full of evil and superstition; and God would not endure an offering made to Himself of the spoil, which should participate in that which had been dedicated previously unto idols. "Go, and smite Amalek," is therefore his command, "and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman; infant and suckling; ox and sheep; camel and ass." The innocent too were to perish with the guilty; the child with the mother who bore it, lest it should imbibe the vices and iniquity of the parent. The destruction was to be enforced without pity or clemency. The nation was doomed to perish; and to mark God's abhorrence of its centuries of vice, to leave not a memorial of its existence behind. This also may seem incompatible with equity;-but it is not for human opinion to restrain the will and the operations of Deity. He works with the instru