seem to have been too rash in assaulting you by our weapons of
war, if it prove that you made the altar for justifiable reasons,
and may then justly punish you if the accusation prove true; for
we can hardly
hardly suppose that you, have been acquainted with the will of
God and have been hearers of those laws which he himself hath
given us, now you are separated from us, and gone to that
patrimony of yours, which you, through the grace of God, and that
providence which he exercises over you, have obtained by lot, can
forget him, and can leave that ark and that altar which is
peculiar to us, and can introduce strange gods, and imitate the
wicked practices of the Canaanites. Now this will appear to have
been a small crime if you repent now, and proceed no further in
your madness, but pay a due reverence to, and keep in mind the
laws of your country; but if you persist in your sins, we will
not grudge our pains to preserve our laws; but we will pass over
Jordan and defend them, and defend God also, and shall esteem of
you as of men no way differing from the Canaanites, but shall
destroy you in the like manner as we destroyed them; for do not
you imagine that, because you are got over the river, you are got
out of the reach of God's power; you are every where in places
that belong to him, and impossible it is to overrun his power,
and the punishment he will bring on men thereby: but if you think
that your settlement here will be any obstruction to your
conversion to what is good, nothing need hinder us from dividing
the land anew, and leaving this old land to be for the feeding of
sheep; but you will do well to return to your duty, and to leave
off these new crimes; and we beseech you, by your children and
wives, not to force us to punish you. Take therefore such
measures in this assembly, as supposing that your own safety, and