424 A SHORT view OF SCRIPTURE HISTORY. 4. Q. Whywere not Moses, the law-giver, nor Aaron the high-priest, suffered to bring the people into the and ofpromise ? A. Because they had both sinned and offended God in the wil- derness, and God would shew his displeasure against sin ; Deut. xxxii. 48-51. 5. Q. What other lesson might God design to teach us by this conduct of providence ? A. Perhaps God might teach us hereby that neither the laws of Moses, nor the priesthood of Aaron, were sufficient to bring us into the possession of the hea- venly country, of which Canaan was a figure. 6. Q. Who was appointed to lead the people of Israel into thepromised land ? A. Joshua, whose name is the same with Jesus, and who came to be the governor and captain of Israel after Moses died ; Josh. iii. 13-15. 7. Q. How did they get over the river Jordan ? A. As soon as the priests who bore the ark dipped their feet in the brink of the river, the waters which were above rose up in aheap, and the channel was left dry while all the people passed over ; Josh. iii. 14, 15. 8. Q. What memorial did they leave of their passing over Jordan on foot? A. By God's appointment they took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, where the priests stood with the ark whilethe tribes passed over, and set them up as a monu- ment in the place wherein they lodged the first night ; Josh. iv. 3-9, 23. 9. Q. How were they commanded to deal with the Ca- naanites when they took their land ? A. They were required to destroy them utterly, lest if they should live they might teach Israel their idolatries and their wicked customs; Deut. vii.- 16-26. 10. But what right had the Jews to destroy them, and take their country ? .A. The Canaanites were abominable sinners, and God, by particular inspiration, made the Jews the execu- tioners of his wrath against them, just as he might have used a plague, or the beasts of the earth to have destroyed them, and then, as the Sovereign Lord of all, he gave their forfeited coun- try and possessions to whom he pleased; Lev. xviii. 24, 25. Ps. cxxxvi. 17-22. Here letit be observed, that this awful instance of one na- tion's destroying another, and seizingtheir lands and possessions, was authorized by God himself, the righteousJudge of theworld, in and by a long train of most conspicuous and public miracles and prophecies : So that the Israelites could not be deceived in their divine commission for this bloody work ; nor is it liable to be made a precedent or a pretence for any other nation or person to treat their neighbours at this rate, be they ever so wicked, un- less-they can shew such astonishing and undoubted attestations of
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