fo far neglected, that once it was almost unknown and loft among them. 2 Kings xxii. 8-12. This contempt of the divine law, the Prophets had frequently and strongly protested against. (Isai. v. 24. xxx. 9. Jer. vi. 19. viii. 8. ix. 13. Hof. viii. 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 favor, and their own profperity; and accordingly muft be difpofed to be attentive to it. For Ezra, after the captivity, found fo little difficulty in introducing the publick reading of the law, that the people themselves called for it. Neb. viii. 1, 2, 3, 4, 18. xiii. I. 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 writen, feveral copies of the law, to be difperfed into proper hands. And whereas before the Captivity they had no fynagogues for publick worship or inftruction, nor any places to refort to for either, unless the temple at Jerufalem, or the cities of the Levites, or to the Prophets, when God was pleafed 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 juftly be given as one good reafon of their being fo ftrongly fixed againft idolatry, ever after the Babylonifh Captivity. V. This difpenfation was alfo calculated to produce good effects among the nations, whither they were carried into Captivity. For wherever they were dispersed in the eastern countries, they would bring with them the knowledge of the true God, now feriously imprest upon their hearts. But Divine Providence, by fuch fignal circumftances of his interpofition, as were published and known over all the vast extent of the eastern empires, raised some of the captive Jews to the highest posts of dignity and power in the courts of Affyria 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 favor of the profeffion and worship of him. Dan. iii. 29. vi. 25, &c. And the affair of queen Efther and Mordecai, and the decree of the emperor Abafuerus, in favor of all the Jews in his empire, consisting of 127 · provinces, muft, not only give the fews every where great diftinction and honor, but also render the great God more known, and his religion more refpectable; infomuch that many of the people of the land, many of the Perfians, became Jews, or profelytes to the Jewish religion. Efther viii. 11, &c. 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 i. 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 fhining light, all over the caftern countries. And thus, in ? 1 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. CHA P. XXXIII. Authors within the PERIOD from the Building to the Deftruction of the TEMPLE. ITERATURE in this Period received a confiderable ad L vance; probably, by means of the fchools of the Prophets. Solomon was a great Author, as he was endowed with an uncommon fhare of wisdom. For he spake three thousand proverbs, and his fangs were a thousand and five. And he spake of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyop that springeth out of the wall; he spake alfo 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. PROVER B S. 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 give his pupil admonitions, directions, cautions, and excitements to the ftudy of wifdom. Chap. first to the tenth. II. The fecond contains the Proverbs of Solomon, properly fo called, delivered in diftinct, independent, general fentence. Chap. 10th -to the 22°, ver. 17.. III. The third part begins at chap. xxii. 17. where the tutor again addreffeth himself to his pupil, and gives him fresh admo, nitions to the diligent ftudy of wisdom; which is followed by a fett 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 suppose, out of a much greater number, by the men of Hezekiah; perhaps, by the Prophets Ifaiah, Hofea, Micah, who all flourished in the days of Hezekiah, and not improbably affifted him in his pious endeavours to reftore true religión. 2 Chron. xxxi. 20, 21. This part, as the second, confifts chiefly of diftinct, unconnected fentences, and reacheth from chap. xxv. to chap. xxx. V.Thẹ I fifth part contains a fett of wife obfervations and inftructions, which Agura Agur, the fon of fakeh, delivered to his pupils, Ithiel and Ucal, chap. xxx. And the xxxist chapter contains the precepts which his mother, poffibly a Jewish woman married to fome neighbouring prince, delivered to Lemuel, her fon; being paffionately folicitous to guard him against vice, to establish him in the principles of juftice, and to have him married to a wife of the best qualities. These two chapters are a kind of appendix to the Book of Proverbs. Note It is uncertain who Agur and the mother of Lemuel were. ECCLESIASTES, THIS Book was writen by the Preacher, the fon of David, king of Je rufalem, chap, i. 1; that is to fay, by Solomon, (probably in the latter part of his life) as appears from chap. i. 16. ii. 4, &c. The fubject of it is, an enquiry into the chief good, or happiness of man, in this world. And, I. He confutes the falfe opinion of those that place happiness in human wisdom, or philofophy; in the pleasures, amufements, or splendor of life; in honor, magiftracy, and dominion; in riches or wealth. This, in the fix firft chapters. II. He teaches, that true felicity is to be found only in a serious regard to God and religion, in the fix lait chapters. In both parts he intermixes feveral incidental reflections, which are of use to make us wife and pious. The whole is adapted to draw us from the inordinate pursuit of earthly things, and from a wrong to a lawful use of them; without any offence to God, or damage to ourselves, till we ar rive at a never-dying felicity, The SONG of SOLOMON. THE Song of Songs, or the moft excellent Song, was compofed by Solomon; and is a noble epithalamium, or marriage-fong, of the paftoral kind, embellished with the moft grand and beautiful images. In the letter it is allowed to be a celebration of the marriage of Solomon to Pharaoh's daughter; but. the Jewish rabbies, and many of the Chriftian fathers, have understood it as a spiritual allegory, representing the love of God, or as Chriftians fay, of Chrift, to his church; which, in other parts of Scripture, is reprefented as his spouse, Pfalm xlv. 10, &c. Hearken, O Daughter, and confider, &c. Ver, 13. The king's daughter is all glorious within, &c. Which Pfalm David is fuppofed to have made upon the fame occafion, namely, at Solomon's marriage; wherein, as the bride.groom is justly fuppofed to be Chrift, ver. 38. fo his bride may well be fuppofed to be the church. John Baptift compares Chrift to a bridegroom, John iii. 28, 29; and fo doth our Lord himself, Mat. ix. 15. xxv. 1. and the kingdom of heaven he compares to a fumptuous marriage-feaft, Mat. xxii. 2. So alfo Rev. xix. 7. xxi. 2. the marriage of the Lamb to his bride, or wife, clothed in fine linen, (which doubtless reprefents the Chriftian church in a state of purity) is fpoken öf. And St. Paul, in strong terms, fuch as Adam used when he was mar 1 ried to Eve, reprefents Chrift as a husband to the church. Ephef. v. 25, All this is very juft, and fupplieth very inftructive and comfortable meditation. And it is certainly the beft ufe we can make of this elegant Song to apply it thus to fpiritual purposes. But the ideas, which the Scripture gives us of God's or Chrift's relation to the church, as a hufband, are too general, to ferve as a key to the great variety of particulars in this poem; which therefore, as it is never quoted in any other part of the Scripture, can be reduced to no certain rule of interpretation, but must be left to every perfon's fancy or imagination. Bp. PATRICK has done, perhaps, as much as can be done upon the fpiritualizing fcheme. Within this Period were alfo writen the Prophecies of Joel, Amos, Hofea, Jonah, Ifaiah, Micah, Nahum, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Obadiah. Thefe before the captivity. During the 70 years captivity, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Efther. After the captivity, Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, I, and II, Chronicles. Thefe compleat the Canon of the Old Teftament. And whereas it is of great ufe to the right understanding of the Prophets to know the reigns and times in which they prophefied, and the particular occafions upon which any of them delivered their prophecies, I fhall now attempt to digeft and range them in chronological order, as follows. CHA P. XXXIV. PROPHETS before the CAPTIVITY. **BOUT twenty-fix years after the death of Elisha, the Prophet, (2 Kings xiii. 20.) Jonah the son of Amittai, the Prophet, which was of Gath-heper, was fent by God with a meffage of encou→ ragement and fuccefs to Jeroboam II. king of Ifrael. 2 Kings xiv. 25. This might happen when Jonah was about 28 years of age. JOEL i. ii. iii. JOEL at Ferufalem (Joel ii. 1, 15, 17.) might prophefy before Amos at Samaria, Amos i. 1. iv, 1. For Amos, chap. iv. 7, 9. may refer to the devaftation 1 devaftation by Palmer-worms, &c. and drought, which Joel predicted, chap. i. 6, 7, 19, 20. However, as the sense of this prophefy, in no part, that I know of, depends upon the time, when it was delivered, there can be no harm in fuppofing, that Joel prophefied about this time. AMOS i-ix. SOME time after Joel, Amos might begin to prophefy in the kingdom of Ifrael. Certainly he did prophefy in thofe days of Uzziah or Azariah king of Judah, and of Jeroboam II. king of Ifrael, in which they were cotemporaries, chap. i. 1. How long he continued is not intimated. He had no regular education in the schools of the Prophets, (which supposeth that other Prophets had) but was originally a herdsman, and a gatherer of fycamore fruit, or wild figs, chap. vii. 14. He had an exprefs commiffion from God to prophefy unto his people Ifrael, ver. 15. This book may confift of several diftinct difcourfes, but as they are without date, we cannot affign the particular times when they were delivered. HOSEA i. ii. iii. HOSEA is juftly fuppofed to be cotemporary with Amos. He prophefied against the ten tribes, or the kingdom of Ifrael, begining in the reign of Jeroboam II. and prophefying in the reigns of Uzziah, Fotham, Abaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. He predicted the Captivity of the ten tribes; and as that Captivity happened in the fixth year of Hezekiah, probably he lived to fee it accomplished by Shalmanefer king of Affyria; which was done about 64 years after the commencement of his prophetic office. This Prophet is commanded to take unto him a wife of whoredoms, and children of whoredoms, chap. i. 2. This might all be tranfacted in a vifion, in the council of God. See the eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters of Ezekiel. Or it might be a parable, to be spoken as fuch to the children of Ifrael. See Ezek. xxiv. 3, &c. Here that is ordered to be done as a fact, which was only to be spoken as a parable. But if the Prophet did really marry a lewd woman, who had children not by him, but by fome other man, this was no fin in him, who did it by Divine Command, in order to explain to the Ifraelites their wickednefs, and the punishment of it. The adulterous wife reprefented the Ifraelites, who by their idolatries had gone a whoring from God, their own Hufband. The children, which this woman bare, are the ruinous effects of the ido latry of the children of Ifrael. The first bastard was called Jezreel; and denoted the vengeance which God would take upon the houfe of Jehu, for the blood which he fhed in Jezreel, chap. i. 4. The fecond was cal led Lo-ruhamah, ver. 6. to denote, that God would no longer spare the houfe of Ifrael, but take them quite away out of their land. The name of the third was Lo-ammi, ver. 9. which fignified, that the relation be tween God and the Ifraelites was diffolved. HOSEA iv. |