worship, were in fome fad periods incorporated into the Jewish religion by the princes of that nation. Ordinances were inftituted to ferve fecular purposes, and mercenary men were employed to give fanction to practices, which the religion of (3) Mofes forbad. All the prophets, and all the feers protested against (4) this apoftacy, and they were perfecuted for doing fo. The apoftacy became the established worship, and they, who adhered to the pure original ftandard, either fled their country, or concealed themselves, or lived under difgrace. First the ten tribes, forming the kingdom of Ifrael, revolted thus from God, and last the little kingdom of Judah, confifting of the other two tribes, followed their bad example. Before the defection of Judah, numerous refugees from Ifrael found fanctuary in Judah but after it, they were harraffed in (5) both. : All this time the feers, as often as they could, preached against the crimes of their countrymen. Shemaiah preached to Rehoboam, the princes, and (6) all the people at Jerufalem. Azariah and Ha(7) nani preached to Afa, and his army. Micaiah to Ahab. Some of them opened schools, or houses of inftruction, and there to their fons, that is, difciples, taught the pure religion of Mofes. At Naioth, in the fuburbs of Ramah, there was one, where Samuel dwelt, there was another at Jericho, and a third at Bethel, to which Elijah and Elifha often reforted, Thither the people went on Sabbath-days, and at new (3) 1 Kings xii. 25. 33. 2 Kings xvi. 10. (4) 2 Kings xvii. 13. (5) 2 Chron. xi. 13 17. (6) 2 Chron, xii. 5, (7) 2 Chron. xv. 1. &c. xvi, 7. new moons, and received publick leffons of piety and morality. These schools were places of wor- (8) ship, in which prayer was offered to God, and the divine word taught to the people. Through all this period, there was a difmal confufion of the useful ordinance of publick preaching. Sometimes they had no open vifion, and the word of the Lord was precious, or scarce, the people heard it only now and then. At other times, they were left without a teaching priest, and without law. And at other seasons again, itinerants, both princes, priests, and Levites, were fent through all the country to carry the book of the law, and to teach in the cities. In a word, preaching flourished (9) when pure religion grew, and when the laft decayed the first was fuppreffed. The doctrines taught in this period, were chiefly thefe, the perfections of one God-the government of the whole univerfe by his providence-the moral obligations of men-the precepts of the law, and the penalties of difobedience the depravity of man, and the neceffity of renovation-the good tidings of falvation, the approach of a redeemer, and the neceffity of faith, repentance, and univerfal obedience to him,-a state of future rewards and punishments-and, in effect, the fame gospel, that was afterwards more clearly revealed by Jefus Chrift and his apostles. Mofes had not appropriated preaching to any order of men, he had given a general command, thou shalt teach the words of this law, which was equal (8) 1 Sam. xix. 18. 2 Kings ii. 3. 5. 2 Kings. iv. 23. (9) Sam. iii. 1. 2 Chron. xv. 3. 2 Chron. xvii. 7, 8, 9. (1) Heb. iv. 2, 1 Pet. iv. 6, Gal. iii. 8, (1) equal to faying, Let it be taught. Perfons, places, times, and manners, were all left open and dif cretional. Some of the difcourfes, which remain to us, are probably analyses, or abridgments of fermons, which were delivered at large. Many were preached in camps and courts, in ftreets, fchools, cities, and villages, fometimes with great composure and coolness, at other times with vehement action and rapturous energy; fometimes in plain blunt ftyle, adapted to the dregs of the people, at other times in all the magnificent pomp of Eastern allegory; and, on fome occafions, the preachers appeared in publick with visible figns, with implements of war, yokes of flavery, or fomething adapted to their fubject. They gave lectures on thefe, held them up to view, girded them on, broke them in pieces, rent their garments, rolled in the duft, and endeavoured, by all the methods they could devife, agreeably to the cuftoms of their country, to imprefs the minds of their auditors with the nature and importance of their doctrines; nor was it uncommon for the hearers to exprefs their emotions during the delivery of the fermon. We had enthusiasts in England in the last century, who affected in the fame manner a fpirit of prophecy, and, in imitation of the ancient Jewish prophets, preached by figns: but they forgot they were not in the Eaft. The fermons of the old prophets often produced amazing effects, both in the principles and morals of the people. Single difcourfes, at fome times, brought a whole nation to repentance, although at other times the greatest of them complained, Who bath believed our report? All day long we have stretched forth our bands unto a difobedient and gainsay ing people! people! In the first cafe, they were in extacies, (2) fuch was their benevolence; in the laft, they retired in filence, and wept in fecret places. Some in first transports of paffion execrated the day of their birth, and, when deliberation and calmness returned, committed themselves, their country and their caufe, to God. These men were highly efteemed by the pious part of the nation, them they confulted in doubtful cafes, to them they fled for confolation in distress, and them they fometimes loaded with benefits. The good Jofiah, although he fometimes performed the office of reading the law in publick, and expounding it himself, yet kept one, who was styled the king's feer, and others, who were fcribes, and who read and expounded the law to him and his court. It had been common with his ancestors (3) to do the fame. Hence falfe prophets, bad men, who found it worth while to affect to be good, crowded the courts of princes. Jezebel an idolatrefs had four hundred prophets of Baal, and Ahab, a pretended worshipper of Jehovah, had as many pretended prophets of his own profeffion, (4) Thefe covered their want of principle, with an exterior like that of the true prophets, and even went beyond them, witness the frantick zeal of thofe, who publickly difputed with Elijah. By means of these deceivers, the faithful preachers of the divine word funk into disgrace. Zedekiah would not bumble himself when a Jeremy Spoke to him from the mouth of the Lord. The chief of the priests imitated the prince, and the people them. The God (2) Rom. x. 16, 21. xxxv. 15. xxxiv. 18, &c. of (3) 2 Chron. xxxiv. 29, 30. &c. of their fathers fent to them by his messengers, rifing up betimes and fending: but they mocked the messengers of God, defpifed his word, and misused his prophets, till the wrath of the Lord arofe, and there was no remedy. Into captivity, therefore, for feventy years they were obliged to go. The prophets, and good men, who were carried captive along with their countrymen, did not leave their religion behind them. In Babylon, where idolatry was established, they profeffed, and fuffered for non-conformity, and affembled in private houses for the worship of God, and there the prophets availed themfelves of the difpenfation to inculcate the principles of their religion, and to poffels their fellow captives with a fincere averfion to idolatry. There, as their former preachers had foretold, being allured into a wilderness, and furrounded with a hedge of thorns, fo that they could not return home, God bewed them by his prophets, and flew them by the words of his mouth; there he fpoke home to their hearts, took away the names of Baalim out of their mouths, and taught them once more to call him Ibi, the being to whom they (s) were in contract for obedience. To the fuccefs of preaching, and not to the fmart of affliction, are we to attribute the remarkable reconverfion of the Jews to the belief and worship of one God, a converfion that remains to this day. The Jews have fince fallen into horrid crimes: but they have never fince this period lapsed into idolatry. The prophet Ezekiel was a man extraordinarily appointed to preach to the captives, and endowed with fingular abilities for the execution of his office. (5) Hofea iii. 14. 6. vi. 5. ii, 14. 17. 16. |