the horror of God's revenge, on a people that should have been his? Pekah, the king of Israel, slew a hundred and twenty thousand of them, in one day: amongst whom was Maaseiah, the son of Ahaz. O just judgment of the Almighty! Ahaz sheds the blood of one son, to an idol: the true God sheds the blood of another of his sons, in revenge. Yet, the hand of the Lord is stretched out still. Two hundred thousand of them were carried away by the Israelites captive, to Samaria. The Edomites came, and carried away another part of them for bond slaves, to their country. The Philistines came up, and shared the cities of the south of Judah, and the villages thereof. Shortly, what other is miserable Judah, than the prey and spoil of all the neighboring nations? For the Lord brought Judah low, because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the Lord.' As for the great king of Ashur, whom Ahaz purchased with the sacrilegious pillage of the house of God, instead of an aid, he proves a burden. However he sped in his first onsets, now, he distressed Judah, but strengthened it not.' The charge was as great, as the benefit small: sooner shall he eat them out, than rescue them. No arm of flesh can shelter Ahaz from a vengeance. Be wise, O ye kings; be instructed, O ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.' His subjects complain, that he died so late; and, as repenting that he ever was, deny him a room in the sepulchres of kings: as if they said; The common earth of Jerusalem is too good for him, that degenerated from his progenitors, marred his kingdom, depraved his people, forsook his God.'-2 Kings xvi. 2 Chron. xxviii. THE UTTER DESTRUCTION OF THE JUDAH was at a sore heave; yet Israel shall miscarry be fore it. Such are the sins of both, that they strive whether shall fall first; but this lot must light on the ten tribes. Though the late king of Judah were personally worse than the most of Jeroboam's successors, yet the people were generally less evil; on whom the encroachments of idolatry were more by obtrusion, than by consent: besides that, the thrones of Judah had some interchanges of good princes; Israel, none at all. The same justice, therefore, that made Israel a scourge to Judah, made Assyria a scorpion to Israel. It was the quarrel of Judah, that first engaged the king of Ashur in this war against Israel: now he is not so easily fetched off: so we have seen some eager mastiff, that hath been set on by the least clap of the hand, but could not be loosened by the force of staves. Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, comes up against Hoshea, king of Israel; and subdues him, and puts him to his tribute. This yoke was uncouth and unpleasing. The vanquished prince was neither able to resist, nor willing to yield: secretly, therefore, he treats with the king of Egypt, for assistance; as desiring rather to hazard his liberty by the hand of an equal, than to enjoy a quiet subjection under the hand of an overruling power. We cannot blame princes, to be jealous of their sovereignties. The detaining of his yearly tribute, and the whisperings with new confederates, have drawn up the king of Ashur to perfect his own victories. He returns therefore with a strong power; and, after three years' siege, takes Samaria, imprisons Hoshea; and, in the exchange of a woful captivity, he peoples Israel with Assyrians, and Assyria with Israelites. Now, that abused soil hath, on a surfeit of wickedness, cast out her perfidious owners; and will try how it can fare with heathenish strangers. Now, the Assyrian gallants triumph in the palaces of Samaria and Jezreel; while the peers and captains of Israel are driven manacled through the Assyrian streets, and billeted to the several places of their perpetual servitude. Shortly, now, the florishing kingdom of the ten tribes is come to a final and shameful end; and so vanished in this last dissipation, that, since that day, no man could ever say, 'This was Israel.' Oh terrible example of vengeance, on that peculiar people, whom God hath chosen for himself, out of all the world! All the world were witnesses, of the favors of their miraculous deliverances and protections: all the world shall be witnesses, of their just confusion. It is not in the power of slight errors, to set off that infinite mercy. What was it, Ŏ God, what was it, that caused thee to cast off thine own inheritance? What, but the same that made thee to cast the angels out of heaven? even their rebellious sins. Those sins dared to emulate the greatness of thy mercies, no less than they forced the severity of thy judgments: They left all the commandments of the Lord their God; and made them molten images, even two calves; and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven; and served Baal; and caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire; and used divination and enchantments; and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.' Neither were these slips of frailty, or ignorant mistakings, but wilful crimes, obstinate impieties, in spite of the doctrines, reproofs, menaces, miraculous convictions, of the holy prophets, which God sent amongst them. Thy destruction is of thyself, O Israel. What could the just hand of the Almighty do less, than consume a nation so incorrigibly flagitious? a nation so unthankful for mercies, so impatient of remedies, so incapable of repentance; so obliged, so warned; so shamelessly, so lawlessly wicked? What nation under heaven can now challenge an indefeasable interest in God, when Israel itself is cast off? What church in the world can show such dear love-tokens from the Almighty as this, now abhorred and adulterous spouse? He, that spared not the natural olive, shall he spare the wild? It is not for us, sinners of the Gentiles, to be high-minded, but awful. The Israelites are carried captive into Assyria. Those goodly cities of the ten tribes may not lie waste and unpeopled. The wisdom of the victor finds it fit, to transplant his own colonies thither; that so he may raise profit thence, with security. From Babylon therefore, and Guthah, and Ava, and Hamath, and Sepharvaim, doth Div. No. XXXIII. 21 he send of his own subjects, to possess and inhabit the cities of Samaria. They The land doth not brook her new tenants. feared not the Lord' (how should they? they knew him not); therefore the Lord sent lions amongst them, which slew some of them.' Not the veriest Pagan can be excused, for his ignorance of God: even the depravedst nature might teach us, to tremble at a Deity. It is just with the Almighty, not to put up neglect, where he hath bestowed reason. The brute creatures are sent, to revenge the quarrel of their Maker, on worse beasts than themselves. Still hath God left himself champions in Israel. Lions tear the Assyrians in pieces; and put them in mind, that, had it not been for wickedness, that land needed not to have changed masters. The great Lord of the world cannot want means to plague offenders. If the men be gone, yet the beasts are there; and if the beasts had been gone, yet so long as there were stones in the walls, in the quarries, God would be sure of avengers. There is no security, but in being at peace with God. The king of Assyria is sued to, for remedy. Even these Pagans have learned to know, that these lions were sent from a God; that this punishment is for sin; They know not the manner of the God of the land; therefore he hath sent lions among them.' These blind heathen, that think every land hath a several god, yet, hold that God worthy of his own worship; yet, hold that worship must be grounded on knowledge; the want of that knowledge, punishable; the punishment of that want, just and divine. How much worse than Assyrians are they, that are ready to ascribe all calamities to nature, to chance! that, acknowledging but one God of all the world, are yet careless to know him, to serve him! One of the priests of Israel is appointed to be carried back to Samaria, to teach the Assyrian colony the fashions of the God of the land; not for devotion, but for impunity. Vain politicians think to satisfy God, by patching up religions. Any forms are good enough, for an unknown deity. The Assyrian priests teach and practise the worship of their own gods; the Israelitish priest pre scribes the worship of the true God: the people will follow both; the one out of liking, the other out of fear. What a prodigious mixture was here of religions; true with false, Jewish with Paganish, divine with devilish! Every division of these transplanted Assyrians had their several deities, high places, sacrifices. This high-priest of Israel intercommons with every of them: so that now these fathers of Samaritanism are in at all; They fear the Lord, and serve their idols.' No beggar's cloak is more pieced, than the religion of these new inhabitants of Israel. I know not how their bodies sped for the lions; I am sure their souls fared the worse for this medley. Above all things, God hates a mongrel devotion. If we be not all Israel, it were better to be all Ashur. It cannot so much displease God, to be unknown or neglected, as to be consorted with idols.—2 Kings xvii. HEZEKIAH AND SENNACHERIB. ISRAEL is gone: Judah is left standing; or rather some few sprigs of those two tribes: so we have seen, in the shredding of some large timber-tree, one or two boughs left at the top to hold up the sap. Who can but lament the poor remainders, of that languishing kingdom of David? Take out of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, one hundred and twenty thousand, whom Pekah, the king of Israel, slew in one day: take out two hundred thousand, that were carried away captive to Samaria: take out those, that were transported into the bondage of the Edomites; and those that were subdued in the south parts by the Philistines alas, what a handful was left to the king of Judah, scarce the name of a dominion! Yet, even now, out of the gleeds of Judah, doth God raise up a glorious light to his forlorn church; yea, from the wretched loins of Ahaz, doth God fetch a holy Hezekiah. It had been hard to conceive the state of Judah worse than it was neither was it more miserable, than sinful; and, in regard of both, desperate; when, beyond hope, God revives this dying stock of David, and out of very ruins builds up his own house. Ahaz was not more the ill son of a good father, than he was the ill father of |