they were exposed to by living in that careless manner; but it was not unlikely, too, that if these publicly expressed their apprehensions, the rest reproached them as timorous persons, wanting courage or confidence in their Gods, who (they perhaps said) had hitherto protected them. But the spies (Verse 8) returned, and among other things said to their countrymen (Verse 9), _Arise that we may go up against them; for we have seen the Land and behold it is very good! When ye go, ye shall come unto a People SECURE_ (that is a people that apprehend no danger, and therefore have made no provision against it; great encouragement this), _and to a large Land, and a Place where there is no Want of any Thing_. What could they desire more? Accordingly we find, continued _Plain Truth_, in the succeeding verses that _six hundred Men_ only, _appointed with Weapons of War_, undertook the conquest of this _large Land_; knowing that 600 men, armed and disciplined, would be an overmatch, perhaps, for 60,000 unarmed, undisciplined, and off their guard. And when they went against it, the idolatrous priest (Verse 17) _with his graven Image, and his Ephod, and his Teraphim, and his molten Image_ (plenty of superstitious trinkets) joined with them, and, no doubt, gave them all the intelligence and assistance in his power; his heart, as the text assures us, _being glad_, perhaps, for reasons more than one. And now what was the fate of poor Laish? The 600 men, being arrived, found, as the spies had reported, a people QUIET and SECURE. (Verses 20, 21). _And they smote them with the Edge of the Sword, and burnt the City with_ FIRE; _and there was no_ DELIVERER,_ because it was far from Zidon_--not so far from _Zidon_, however, as _Pennsylvania_ was from _Britain_; and yet we are, said _Plain Truth_, more careless than the people of _Laish_!