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CHA P. XXXII.

The moral Causes of the Babylonish CAPTIVITY; and the Propriety of that Difpenfation.

HE whole Jewish nation, both Judah and Ifrael, had all along a ftrong and ftrange propenfity to idolatry, even after the erecting of the temple, and the establishing of the worthip of God there, in the moft grand and folemn manner. They erected altars to strange gods, frequented high-places and groves confecrated to idolatrous worship, and furnished them with idols and images for that purpose. 2 Chron. xiv. 3. 1 Kings xv. 11, 12, 13. And their morals were juft as corrupt as their religion, even to the degree of fodomy itself. 1 Kings xv. 12.

What their peculiar temptations were, we know not. All the endeavours of good kings, and all the preaching of holy Prophets, fent by fpecial commiffion from God, were ineffectual to produce a reformation. The pious king Hezekiah was zealous and active in rooting out idolatry: but Manalleh, his fon and fucceffor, reftored it again in the highest and most flagitious degree of profanenefs and iniquity, even beyond that of the dark and ignorant nations. 2.Kings xxi. 110. He built up again the bigh-places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed, &c. He was also a grievous perfecutor of all that would not conform to his idolatrous establishments, and fo fbed innocent blood very much. Amon, his fon, folJowed his bad example. Jofiah, his grandfon, vigoroufly attempted a reformation. 2 Kings xxiii. 24, 25. But the people never came heartily into it. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 14, &c. All the chief of the priests and the people tranfgreffed very much, after all the abominations of the heathen, and polluted the houfe of the Lord, which he had hallowed in Jerufalem. And the Lord God of their fathers fent to them by bis messengers, rising up betimes, and dfending; because he had compaffion on his people, and on bis dwelling-place; but they mocked the messengers of God, and defpifed his words, and misused his Prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who flew their young men with the fword, in the house of their fanctuary, and had no compaffion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that flooped for age; he gave them all into his hand. And all the veffels of the house of God, great and smali, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treafures of the king, and of his princes; all these be brought to Babylon. And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerufalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and defroyed all the goodly veffels thereof. And them that escaped from the fword, carried be away to Babylon; where they were fervants to him and his fons, until the reign of the kingdom of Perfia.

ObferveThis dreadful calamity came upon them gradually. Firft, good king Jofiah was, in judgment upon the land, flain in battle by Pharaoh-Necho, 2 Kings xxiii. 29. who put Jeboabaz that fucceeded him into chains, fent him prifoner into Egypt, and put the land of Judah under a

heavy tribute. 2 Kings xxiii. 33. Jehoiakim fucceeded, a wicked prince like his predeceflors. In his third year, Nebuchadnezzar took Jerufalem, and carried away part of the veffels of the houfe of God, and many of the people into captivity. Particularly, he gave order to Afbpenaz the mafter of his eunuchs, that he should make choice out of the children of the royal family, and of the nobility of the land, fuch as he found to be of the fairest countenance, and the quickest parts, to be carried to Babylon, and there made eunuchs in his palace, Daniel i. 1-4. whereby was fulfilled Isaiah's prediction above an hundred years before. Ifaiah xxxix. 7. Among thefe youths were Daniel, Hananiah, Mihael, and Azariah. Dan. i. 6, 7. Moreover the king was made a tributary, and the whole land reduced into vaffalage under the Babylonians. A fevere vifitation, but had not the proper effect upon Jehoiachin, the next king, who was as corrupt as his father. 2 Kings xxiv. 8, 9. He had been but three months on the throne, when Nebuchadnezzar again befieged and took Jerufalem, with the king and all the royal family; all the moft valuable things in the temple, and in the king's treafures, with all the mighty men of valour, all the craftsmen and fmiths, he took away, leaving none in the land but the pooreft fort. 2 Kings xxiv. 12, 13, 14. Among the reft, Ezekiel (chap. i. 1, 2.) and Mordecai (Efth. ii. 5, 6.) were now carried captives. Yet ftill there was no amendment of the religion or morals of the nation. Zedekiah, the next and laft king, was as bad as his predeceffors. 2 Kin. xxiv. 18, '19. And in about eleven years, Nebuchadnezzar, after a long and clofe fiege, took Jerufalem, brake down its walls, burnt the city and temple, carried away all the facred utenfils, and all the people, except a few of the very pooreft to till the ground, and reduced the whole land of Judea, in a manner, to utter defolation for the fins thereof.

The propriety of this difpenfation will appear, if we reflect,

I. That the lenity of God appeared in bringing this terrible overthrow upon them fo gradually, after a fucceffion of judgments from lefs to greater, for the space of twenty-two years; which fhould have been a warning to them, and by experience have convinced them, that the threatenings denounced by the Prophets would certainly be executed.

II. That it was a juft punishment of their fins; particularly of their idolatry, whereby they forfook God, and therefore God justly forfook them, and delivered them into the hands of their enemies, as Mofes had foretold. Lev. xxvi. 30-36.

III. This dreadful calamity was the most effectual means to work their reformation, which was the end propofed by the Divine Wifdom. Now, in their captive, difconfolate ftate, they had time, and their calamities had a natural tendency to give them à difpofition, to reflect upon the long feries of iniquity and perverfenefs which had brought them under the heaviest of God's judgments. Now their own wickedness corrected them, and their backflidings reproved them; now they must know and fee, that it was an evil thing and bitter, that they had for faken the Lord their God, and that his fear had not been in them. Ifaiah ii. 19. In the land of their Captivity the fermons of the Prophets, declaiming with the highest authority against their profane and vicious practices, would be still founding in their ears, and their abject, wretched condition, the confequence of

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fuch

CH: XXXII. fuch practices, would fink them deep into their hearts, and furely give them an utter deteftation of what they very well knew was the caule of all their grievous fufferings.

They had fuffered themselves to be fhamefully infatuated by their falle prophets, who had prophefied to them in Baal, as the most infallible oracle. Fer. ii. 8. They were prophets of the deceit of their hearts, xxiii. 26. They had encouraged a rabble of diviners, dreamers, enchanters, and forcerers, who had moft impudently impofed upon their credulity, affuring them, in the name of the Lord too, that they should not ferve the king of Babylon, Jer. xxvii. 9. xxviii. 4. xxix. 8, 9; that he should not come against them, nor against the land, xxxvii. 19. They belied the Lord, and faid, it is not He, neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we fee fword nor famine, Jer. v. 12. but I will give you affured peace in this place. xiv. 13. Thus they caufed the people to err; and their kings, princes, and priests, concurred to ftrengthen the delufion. Jer. ii. 26. v. 31. xxxii. 32. By the way, thefe prophets and priests were men of very wicked lives. Zeph. iii. 4. Jer. xxiii. 11. They committed adultery, walked in lies, ftrengthened the hands of evil doers, and prevented their returning from wickedness, Jer. xxiii. 14; they perfecuted and murdered the juft, in the midit of ferufalem. Lam. iv. 13. From them profaneness went forth into all the land, Jer. xxiii. 15. which by their means was become full of adulterers, and mourned teca fe ffwearing, verfe 10. See a more particular defcription of the wickedness of the land, Ezek. xxii. 6-13. But now, where were all their falfe prophets, with all their bold pretenfions, and flattering promifes? The delufion is now quite at an end, and they find themfelves moft miferably deceived. Their eyes are opened, and they are thoroughly convinced they were a fet of the vileft impoftors, who had deluded them into the most wretched circumftances. The prophets were now become wind, Jer. v. 13. an everlasting reproach, a perpetual shame, which could not be forgotten, xxiii. 40. And in proportion as thefe deceivers were detefted, the true Prophets, who would have drawn them to juft regards of God and his holy law, would be efteemed and honoured.

Doubtless the lying prophets and priests had filled their heads with fpecious pretences for their idolatrous practices; and affured them, they were ftill the beloved people of God, in efted in all the diftinguishing privileges of his church and peculiar people, and fecure under his protection; with great oftentation and confidence crying out, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are thefe [men or buildings] Fer. vii. 4. But now they found all their fophiftry to be lying words, and could no longer take affurance from their peculiar privileges, or their magnificent temple, when their temple and city were both deftroyed, and themfelves caft out into an heathen land, where they were fo long, and fo fhamefully ftripped of all their peculiar honours. In fhort, no method could have been devifed more proper to give this people a fixed deteftation of idolatry, and the vile arts by which they were feduced into it. And it had this effect. They never more fell into idolatry, but retain the greateft abhorrence of it unto this day.

IV. The law of God, written by Mofes, as the rule of their conduct in all affairs civil and religious, and the ground of their happiness, they had

fo far neglected, that once it was almoft unknown and loft among them. 2 Kings xxii. 8-12. This contempt of the divine law, the Prophets had frequently and strongly protefted against, (Isai. v. 24. xxx. 9. Jer. vi. 19. viii. 8. ix. 13. Hof. vi. 12. Amos ii. 4. and in other places) and publicly declared that it would be their ruin. And in their ruined ftate, this must be remembered, as the primary reafon of all their fufferings; and they must be thoroughly fenfible, that a due regard to the law of God, was the only way to recover his favour, and their own prosperity; and accordingly must be difpofed to be attentive to it. For Ezra, after the captivity, found fo little difficulty in introducing the public reading of the law, that the people themfelves called for it. Neh. viii. 1, 2, 3, 4, 18. xiii. 1. Ezra was a ready writer of the law of God, Ezra vii. 6, 10, 11, 12, and active in propagating the knowledge of it. Doubtless he wrote, or directed to be written, feveral copies of the law, to be difperfed into proper hands. And whereas before the Captivity they had no fynagogues for public worship or inftruction, nor any places to refort to for either, unless the temple at ferufalem, or the cities of the Levites, or to the Prophets, when God was pleased to fend them; thus ignorance grew among the people; but after the Captivity fynagogues were erected among them in every city, where the law was read every fabbath, and other acts of devotion performed. This was the most effectual method of preferving the knowledge of God and his law, and a fenfe of their duty. This was another good effect of this difpenfation, and may justly be given as one good reafon of their being fo ftrongly fixed against idolatry, ever after the Babylanish Captivity.

V. This difpenfation was alfo calculated to produce good effects among the nations whither they were carried into captivity. For wherever they were difperfed in the eaffern countries, they would bring with them the knowledge of the true God, now feriously impreffed upon theirhearts. But Divine Providence, by fuch fignal circumftances of his interpofition, as were published and known over all the vast extent of the eastern empires, raifed fome of the captive Jews to the highest posts of dignity and power in the courts of Afvia and Perfia. Dan. i. 19, 20. Infomuch that the most haughty monarchs openly confeffed the living and true God, as the only and fupreme God, Dan. ii. 47, 48, 49. iv. 34, &c. and made decrees, that were published throughout their fpacious dominions, in favour of the profeffion and worfhip of him, Dan. iii. 29. vi. 25, Sr. Aud the affair of queen Efther and Mordecar, and the decree of the emperor Abafuerus, in favour of all the Jews in his empire, confifting of 127 provinces, muft, not only give the Jews every where great diftinction and honour, but alfo render the great God more known, and his religion more réfpectable; infomuch that many of the people of the land, many of the Perfians, became Jews, or profelytes to the Jewish religion. Efther viii. 11, . And the great CYRUS was fo well acquainted with the true God, that, as one of his firft acts, after he was advanced to the empire of Perfia, he made a decree for the return of the Jews into their own country, and for the rebuilding the temple. Ezra. 1-5. From all this it is clear, that the Jews, notwithstanding their depravity in their own country, during the Captivity of 70 years, must have been a burning and a thining light all over the eastern countries. And thus, in

this difpenfation alfo, God, the Father and Governor of mankind, was working for the reformation and improvement of the world, in that which is the true excellency of their nature, and the only foundation of their happiness.

Authors within the PERIOD from the Building to the Destruction of the TEMPLE,

ITERATURE in this Period received a confiderable advance; pro

L'bably, by means of the schools of the Prophets.

Solomon was a great author, as he was endowed with an uncommon fhare of wifdom. For he spake three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five. "And he spake of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyffop that springeth out of the wall; he spake also of beafts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. But of all his works only three are taken into the Sacred Canon, namely, Proverbs, Ecclefiaftes, and his Song.

PROVERBS.

THIS Book confifteth of the most useful rules for the right direction of life in religion and morals, and is the most authentic and excellent of the kind that can be produced in antiquity. It may be divided into five parts. I. In the first part the tutor gives his pupil admonitions, directions, cautions, and excitements to the ftudy of wisdom. Chap. first to the tenth, II. The fecond contains the Proverbs of Solomon, properly fo called, delivered in diftinct, independent, general fentences. Chap. 10th to the 22d, ver. 17. III. The third part begins at chap. xxii. 17. where the tutor again addrefleth himself to his pupil, and gives him fresh admonitions to the diligent ftudy of wifdom; which is followed by a fet of inftructions delivered in the imperative mood to the pupil, who is fuppofed all the while to be standing before him. Chap. xxii. 17. to chap. xxv. IV. The fourth part is diftinguished by its being a collection of Solomon's Proverbs, felected, we may fuppofe, out of a much greater number, by the men of Hezekiah; perhaps, by the Prophets jaiah, Hofea, Micah, who all flourished in the days of Hezekiah, and not improbably affifted him in his pious endeavours to restore true religion. 2 Chron. Xxxi. 20, 21. This part, as the fecond, confifts chiefly of diftinct, unconnected fentences, and reacheth from chap. xxv. to chap. xxx. V. The fifth part contains a fet of wife obfervations and inftructions, which

Agur,