In such a state of subjugation were the tribes to their foes when Saul was made King, that only two swords could be found in Israel; and the “_Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his share and his coulter, and his axe and his mattock._” What folly, then, to suppose, that after all that had been done for God’s favorite people, they should have been so neglected, and there should be nothing but slaughter and blood throughout the land of promise! What madness, to believe that the Author of the Universe should permit such carnage, and his whole attention seem to be directed to the foolish quarrels of an unfortunate race, who, by some imposture, had been taught to consider their nation as his peculiar choice! And as to their religion, by what is recorded, it seems that their proneness to worship the gods of their neighbors, is what brought on the chastisements of Heaven. This is but a poor excuse, and dishonorable to the God of the Universe, to urge on nations to make war on his people, because he was displeased with them for worshipping strange gods. It appears strange, _passing strange_, that Jehovah could not convert his own people. But only substitute the term _Priest,_ instead of the _Lord,_ and reject altogether the idea of God’s having any thing to do with their theology, and the matter is plain and clear. Admitting, however, that the Lord of Hosts had so rebellious a race, and was a spectator of all their departures from his laws, he must be as great a sufferer as the Jews, because he was forever punishing; for, if anger is to a God a punishment equal to what human beings feel under its influence, then it follows that the God of the Jews is the greatest sufferer. Oh! ye ministers of grace you have preached up an angry God until you have brutalized the human race; and your intolerant spirit has ever been, and will ever continue to be, a _burning coal_ taken from the altar of an angry, vengeful God, to be rekindled when power is united to your impositions. That the reader may form correct ideas of the Lord’s fighting for Israel, and delivering their enemies into their hands, and also of the Lord’s giving the land or towns to his favorite people that they had taken in war, it should be observed, that it was the manner of expressing the results of a victory among the Jews, and also with other nations. They all claimed for themselves the interference of their respective gods, and to them they gave sacrifice and thanks. As a key, to understand how God fought for his favorite people, it is recorded in Judges i., 19, “_And the Lord was with Judah, and he drove out the inhabitants of the mountain, but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had chariots of iron,_” The same idea is to be carried out in explaining such passages as the following:—“_And the angel of the Lord appeared to [such an one] in a dream”-—“Thus saith the Lord,” &c._