CHAP. XXXIV. HISTORY OF HEZEKIAH. WHILE God, by the hand of the Assyrians, was putting in execution his long-threatened vengeance upon the ten tribes of Israel, for their manifold sins, the kingdom of Judah was enjoying an interval of tranquillity, and turning it to a good and religious account, under the direction of their new sovereign, the pious Hezekiah. This prince, we are told, in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the Lord, which had been shut against his worshippers during the latter part of the wicked reign of his father Ahaz; and, finding it not only stripped of its holy ornaments, but, as might be expected, in a state of filthiness and dilapidation, immediately exerted himself, with the whole weight of his royal authority, to remedy this great and crying evil. He called. and Levites, laid upon them his urgent commands to sanctify, without delay, both themselves and the temple, and when all this was done, commemorated the purification by a solemn sacrifice, at which the instruments of religious music, ordained by David, but silenced by his degenerate descendant Ahaz, gave forth again their notes of holy melody, and they whose duty and privilege it was, sang praises again with gladness. The spirit which then animated Hezekiah and his people, was a spirit which we have reason to believe, while the great Protector of his Church watches over it on earth, will never fail from the hearts of his servants: every congregation of true christian worshippers will feel a decent pride in seeing the holy building wherein they meet for the purposes of worship, in a suitable condition for the A A 3 indwelling of their Lord: they will rejoice to witness his service carried on within it in an orderly and decorous manner, and will themselves contribute to that end, by joining in such parts of it, whether of prayer or psalmody, as are allotted to them by its regulations. "Lord, how delightful 'tis to see, A whole assembly worship thee! The zeal for God's worship by which the good king of Judah was actuated, did not suffer him to rest content with a reformation of his own people only, but prompted him to extend to the ten tribes also, who were not as yet carried away captive, an invitation to repent of their schism, and to meet at Jerusalem, for the purpose of celebrating, as a nation united at least in religion, if in no other respect, the festival of the Passover. He had, however, the mortification of finding, that with a few exceptions only, his proposal was treated with contempt and mockery, their ignorance of the solemn ordinance, by coming ཟཔ ལྐུ〉མıསiy sliowed unsanctified according to the law of Moses, and thus eating the Passover in a forbidden manner. For these, however, Hezekiah prayed, in the confident assurance that God would accept the good intention and desire to return to the right way which they had showed, although, through long disuse, they knew not what it was. And the Lord hearkened to Hezekiah, and pardoned their involuntary offence. For that which he demands, above all things, of those who come to him, is the preparation of the heart; the sincere willingness of the uninstructed to learn of him; the sincere determination, when instructed, to put his lessons in practice; and the humble trust and prayer, that he "will forgive us all our sins, negligences, and ignorances, and endue us with the grace of his Holy Spirit, to amend our lives according to his holy word."* The worship of the living and true God, which Hezekiah laboured to establish, was inconsistent, as he well knew, with the toleration of idols; these, accordingly, he utterly destroyed within the limits of his own dominions; and the disturbed state of the kingdom of Israel, now on the point of being overwhelmed by the Assyrians, enabled him to effect somewhat as to their abolition in that country also. But the measure of Israel's iniquity as a nation being now filled up, by their last scornful rejection of Hezekiah's invitation to an act of religious worship, they were led away, as I have already mentioned, into captivity, and their land re-peopled by a mixed multitude from various countries under the sway of the Assyrian empire. These people were all idolaters of various sorts, and God, willing to bring about some reformation among them, afflicted them with a plague of lions, which evil they attributing to their i of the God of the land, sought to ward off, by procuring from the captive Israelites a priest to instruct them. This priest came and dwelt at Bethel, and gave them such instruction as he could; but being himself but an unauthorized teacher, and brought up, not at the house of God, but in the rebellious kingdom of Israel, the result of his directions appeared only in this, that they feared the Lord and worshipped him after an imperfect manner, not forsaking their own peculiar idols, but uniting their service to that of God. Far different would have been their conduct, if they had followed the example of Hezekiah, or desired a priest from him-every thing appertaining to idolatrous worship in Judah he had so utterly abolished, that he • Litany. even brake in pieces the brazen serpent which Moses had made, and which had hitherto been carefully preserved, as a precious memorial of the days of old, because he found that the people had begun to look upon it with superstitious veneration, and to burn incense unto it-while the priests he had recalled, not only to the enjoyment of their ancient rights, but to the punctual discharge of their appointed duties, of which one not the least important was, "to teach Jacob God's judgments, and Israel his law."* The new inhabitants of the land of Israel, however, adopted a different course, and in the state of mixed religions which that course produced, they remained between three and four hundred years; at the expiration of which time a certain change took place in their condition, hereafter to be noticed. We have as yet considered Hezekiah, only as a man highly favoured of God to be his instrument in bringing about a great work of religious reformation; and to this end he was suffered to enjoy, during the first fourteen years of bis reign, a a state of tranquillity, interrupted only by 235 TY COL aguio Ballistines, concerning which we have a prophecy of Isaiah,† delivered at the time when he succeeded to the kingdom. But now his constancy of faith in that same God was to be put to a ruder trial: Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, urged by that insatiable lust of wealth and dominion, which causes a vast proportion of the miseries endured in this world, demanded of him the payment of tribute, and upon his bold refusal, invaded his land. Unable to resist this formidable enemy, who took one after another the fenced cities of Judah, Hezekiah lost heart, and endeavoured, after the example of his father Ahaz, to purchase the good will of the Assyrians at the expense of those treasures and ornaments of the temple, with which he had so lately beautified it. This timid and unworthy conduct carried with it its own punishment: the king of Assyria received the money, but did not in any degree forego his hostile intentions, and sent the bulk of his army, under the command of Rabshakeh, with instructions to besiege and destroy Jerusalem. Thus attacked by the very weapons which he had himself supplied to his enemy, disappointed of obtaining any help from Egypt, sensible of the greatness of his danger, and wounded to the heart by the proud reproachful speeches which Rabshakeh, in the confidence of a speedy triumph, had uttered against the God of Israel, Hezekiah, seeing at last the vanity of any human means of deliverance, betook himself to the sure resource of appealing to his Divine Protector with fervent prayer. He had received a scornful letter from the king of Assyria, and he took it up with him into the temple, and spread it before the Lord, entreating the great avenger of Israel to vindicate his insulted majesty from the injurious aspersions contained therein, which went to level him with the idols of the many nations whom Sennacherib had overrun. Nor did he trust only in the force of his own supplications, earnest as they were; but remembering that there was then, as in times past, a prophet in Israel, among the remnant that were left, he sent a message to Isaiah, entreating him to strive with him in prayer for them. By the mouth of that prophet, God speedily gave him an answer of comfort, a promise of deliverance and of continuance to the people of his choice: nor was he slack concerning its fulfilment; that very night the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand. How they died we know not; but their destruction, as well it might, struck the survivors with terror and |