How else could they have been involved in the crime? How else could they have deserved the punishment? What but a hankering after the accursed thing, and a sense of this guilt, could have induced the pusillanimity with which, immediately after the conquest of the city, they fled from before the men of Ai, and through which Joshua first became aware of the people's trespass? In this transgression they must have been infested by a band of selfish, faithless spirits, whose judgment and condemnation are revealed to us by the violent deaths of Achan and his household. The advantages which followed this catastrophe were greater freedom and ability among the people to receive and perceive the Divine direction; and these, being good gifts, must have come down to them from the Father of lights.
There may be some unwillingness to admit these views of the case; but how can they be resisted? If it be true that the vices and virtues of mankind are urged into existence by some unseen or spiritual influences, the whole matter is established. For in that case no judgment can befal the wickedness of mankind without bringing into condemnation its spiritual cause; nor can any blessing be wisely enjoyed among them that is not attributable to a heavenly source. The occurrences adverted to cannot be said to be a revelation, if they reveal nothing but the litera history; they cannot be said to be representative, if they represent nothing but what is apparent in the letter. We feel assured that there were judgments transpiring in the spiritual world, of which those natural calamities were the revelations; and, in those facts, we have kept before us that great and true principle which recognises the intimate connection which subsists between the outer and imner histories of the human race, so far as they are presented in the Word of God.
