Judg. xxi. 25. In those days there tvas no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
SUCH is the depravity of human nature, that man is always prone to depart fi'om God ; and de- partures once begun, extend rapidly through indi- viduals, communities, and kingdoms : the departure of a few righteous persons, like the removal of a dam,
soon opens a way for iniquity to inundate a whole country. During the hfe of Joshua and his co- adjutors in the government, the Israehtes retained a good measure of piety : but no sooner were they called to their eternal rest, than impiety began to deluge the land. The transactions recorded respect- ing the Danites in the 17th and 18th chapters, and of the Benjamites in the three last chapters, though placed after the history of the Judges, all took place whilst Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, was high- priest ; and consequently, very soon after the death of Joshua, and before any Judge in Israel had been raised up'': and it is repeatedly noticed in all those chapters, that these overflowings of ungodliness were occasioned by the want of those salutary restraints, which a wise and righteous governor would have imposed upon the people. This is particularly spe- cified in our text ; from whence we are very forcibly led to shew,
I. The obligations we owe to Civil Government —
Where there is no government, all manner of ini- quities will prevail —
[This is most remarkably illustrated in the history before us. The idolatry of the Danites is ascribed to that^. The ease with which the inhabitants of Laish fell a prey to a small hand- ful of invaders, was owing to the dissoluteness of its inhabitants, and a total want of magistrates to enforce some salutary laws ''. The whole account also of the Levite and his concubine, as connected with the horrid wickedness of the Benjamites, and the extensive iniseries consequent upon it, are all referred to the same cause, a want of a civil governor, who should exercise a watchful care over the people, and impose such restraints as should keep them within the bounds of decency and order *^. To appreciate these evils aright, the three last chapters should be attentively perused : the unheard-of wickedness of the Benjamites ; the determination of the whole tribe of Benjamin to protect the offenders ; the civil war arising from it ; the repeated defeats of the tribe of Judah ; the ultimate destruc- tion of the whole tribe of Benjamin, men, women, and chil- dren, with the exception of six hiuidred men who had fled
^ Judg. XX. 27, 28, ^ Judg. x™. 6. and xviii. 1.
<= Jiidg. xviii, 7. ^ Judg. xix. 1. with the text.