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The Conduct of the Paxton Men Impartially Represented - 26

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“Then Jael, Heber’s Wife, took a Nail of the Tent, and took an Hammer in her Hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the Nail in his Temples, and fastened it into the Ground; (for he was fast asleep and weary) so he died.”

Now was this Action (which has every appearance of Cruelty in it) deemed a Breach of Faith, or a Violation of the Rites of Hospitality? No.-----In the 5th Chapter we find the Angel of the Lord pronouncing a Blessing upon her; no doubt for ridding the World of an Oppressor, and a cruel Villain---“Blessed above Women shall Jael the Wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above Women in the Tent.

“He asked Water, and she gave him Milk, she brought forth Butter in a lordly Dish.

“She put her Hand to the Nail, and her right Hand to the Workman’s Hammer; and with the Hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his Head, when she had pierced and stricken through his Temples.

“At her Feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down, there he lay dead.”

In the Apocrypha, we have another Instance no less remarkable than the above-----We find that Judith killed Holosernes even deceitfully, when it could be done no other Way.-----Holosernes was the chief Captain of the Army of Assur, who made War against Israel; and when he was going out against them, he threaten’d in these Words;-----“I will go forth in my Wrath, and will cover the whole Earth with the Feet of my Army, and I shall give them Valleys and Brooks, and the River shall be filled with their Dead, till it overflow---And I will lead them Captives to the utmost Parts of the Earth.”

But Judith, a Widow, of whom it was said---“There was none that gave her an ill Word; for she feared GOD greatly”-----I say, this good Woman, having humbled herself, and prayed to God to prosper her Purpose, went over to the Camp of the Enemy; and being taken by the Watch and conducted to Holosernes, she declared to him that she had fled from her own Nation-----“Now therefore, my

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  1. The Conduct of the Paxton Men Impartially Represented - 26