former happiness; in "the waste and howling wilderness," to which the land is reduced, where they retreat, the picture of divine vengeance is completed: of vengeance, provoked by the transgressions of an infatuated race, who were unmoved alike by the offer of pardon, and the denunciation of punishment. Such was the calamitous and desolate state, to which sin, prolonged and unrepented, reduced the land, which was destined to be the lasting abode of peace and righteousness; for the security and fruitfulness of which the word of God himself was pledged, under the most gracious conditions; the land over which he spread the protecting shadow of his wings, and blessed with his bounty, as the earth imbibes fertility from the dews of heaven.

When regarded in such a light, the closing scene of this people's history affords a subject, not merely of curious speculation, but of moral influence and example. As certainly as immutability is included among the attributes of Him, "who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity;" so surely can no exemption be purchased by us, from the duties by which they were bound, no security against the wrath which they provoked by transgression. As" through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles:"* unto the inheritance which they have forfeited, have we been

* Rom. xi. 11.

chosen. Nor can any difference in the means, which God has been pleased to employ for our conviction, be pleaded by us, for the breach of the New Covenant into which we are admitted, or the infraction of the New Law which is given us for our direction. "For we also have a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day-star arise in our hearts."* We have equal proof of the authority with which it was delivered, having equal evidence of its truth, in the events wherein it has been fulfilled; as the facts which they admitted at the mouth of credible witnesses, we receive in the authentic records which they have transmitted.

"Because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear. For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God; on them which fell, severity; but toward thee goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: if otherwise, thou also shalt be cut off." †

2 Pet. i. 19.

+ Rom. xi. 20, 21, 22.

54

LECTURE III.

2 KINGS, XVII. 18, 19, 20.

"Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only. Also Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel, which they made. And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight."

WHILE an examination of the works of nature furnishes demonstrative evidence of the existence of God, the investigation of its operations unfortunately tends to weaken the proof of his particular providence. The regularity and harmony with which secondary causes accomplish their ends, precludes the necessity of referring to the primary cause, in tracing ordinary effects to their origin. Of the different species of divine demonstration, to which we are consequently compelled to have recourse, in appealing on this subject from the dimness of reason to the light of revelation, prophecy appears best constituted to operate on our reasonable conviction. The capriciousness with which nature is sometimes observed to

deviate from her general laws,--the powers which science confers on the informed in controlling her operations,-while they tend to confound the limits between the natural and preternatural, render the claims of miracles to a divine character disputable or precarious. But of human conduct and occurrences, on which prophecy is engaged, our knowledge is more sure and extensive. However contracted our experience, we cannot fail to observe, that the ordinary course of events is exposed to casual and intentional derangement, which it surpasses our powers of calculation or conjecture to anticipate. The inclinations and interests, the passions and prejudices of mankind, which influence the tide of sublunary affairs, are so fluctuating in their nature, and uncertain in their operation, as to baffle every rule and principle of computation, not merely to fix their date, but frequently to determine their nature.

In estimating the weight of those different methods employed by the Deity, in manifesting his immediate intervention; we cannot, therefore, be surprised, that it should have generally consisted with the modes of his providence, to employ the prophetical in preference to the miraculous. And if indeed the moral and physical efficacy with which they are respectively endued, in operating on our conviction, and influencing our conduct, be however cursorily considered;

we shall not have long to search for the grounds of the preference, by which the latter has been particularly distinguished. Independent of the difficulty which has been encountered, in tracing the connexion between preternatural operation and doctrinal truths; we readily perceive the practical application of prophetical revelation, by which the greatest moral and religious revolutions may be effected.

In a supine neglect of this evidence, or perverse resistance to its influence, the kingdom of Israel had fallen, as it was formerly my object to shew; and suffered, in captivity, the penalty of their perverseness and incredulity. From the fate in which ten of the tribes were thus involved, two of them were however respited, in consequence of the divine determinations and promises, as revealed to the patriarchs; and which, though man, in the exercise of his moral freedom, was permitted to suspend, he could not ultimately frustrate.

From the first distribution of the progeny of Israel into the families which gave birth to the twelve tribes; the advent of Shilo, through that tribe which was descended from Judah, Jacob's fourth son, had been predicted. From the elder brothers, in consequence of their transgressions, the right of primogeniture had descended to the younger. While Reuben had proved himself unworthy of the blessing by incest, and Simeon