no hand fave that of his enemies. But they confider not, that while the work is as really his own, as if inftruments more apparently fuited to it were employed, there is a more ftriking difplay of his wisdom and power, in making the very wrath of man to praise him, and in restraining the remainder of it. They have not learned, from the Sacred Hiftory, that this is the most ordinary method of the divine procedure. When God had a work of judgment to execute on the devoted family of the wicked Ahab, he employed an inftrument little better than himself, and in one refpect worse. Jehu, not only an idolater, but a vile hypocrite, is the man fingled out from all the tribes of Ifrael for accomplishing God's work of vengeance on the houfe of Ahab. In this very way hath God often punished his Church. Was not Sennacherib, an ambitious and blood-thirfty tyrant, the perfon felected as the inftrument by whom JEHOVAH was "to perform "his whole work on Mount Zion, and on Jerusa"lem?" Here, we find a heathen employed against hypocritical profeffors; a blafphemer of the true God ufed as "the rod of his anger." He, who dared to call the God of Jerufalem an idol, receives a commiffion from him to punish his own people h. Does he not design the vainglorious Nebuchadnezzar his fervant, even when seeking the deftruction of Judah? Hear, how he fpeaks by his prophet: "Behold, I will fend and "take d 2 Kings ix. 7. g Lía. x. 12. e 2 Kings x. 31. f Ver. 16, "take all the families of the north, faith the "LORD, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Baby"lon my fervant, and will bring them against "this land, and against the inhabitants thereof,— "and will utterly deftroy them, and make them "an astonishment, and an hiffing, and perpetual "defolations i." In the fame fovereign way, does he fulfil his purposes of mercy. Sometimes, he employs good men in the work. He had a branch of his Church even in Sodom. For the deliverance of righteous Lot, Abraham obtains victory over four kings *. "Who raised up the righteous man from the "east, called him to his foot, gave the nations be"fore him, and made him rule over kings? He 66 gave them as the duft to his fword, and as driven "ftubble to his bow. He purfued them, and paf"fed fafely, even by the way that he had not 66 gone with his feet." At other times he employs wicked men. He had made heathens the inftruments of punishing his people, and heathens are employed as the inftruments of their deliverance. Cyrus knew as little of the true God as Sennacherib or Nebuchadnezzar. But God raises him up, and gives him all his power and fuccefs for this very end, that he might liberate his Church. He had called the king of Babylon his fervant. But he calls the conqueror of Babylon his anointed. He gives him a more honourable epithet, because he called him to more honourable work, to work i Jer. xxv. 9. k Gen. xiv. 1S. 1 Ifa. xli. 2, 3. typical typical of that which was to be performed by his true Anointed. He extends this honour to the very army that Cyrus commanded. They were to be the inftruments of accomplishing his purpofes with refpect to Babylon. Therefore, although an affemblage of heathens, he defcribes them as fanctified, or fet apart to this work, by himself. Although they knew not that God who ftrengthened them, he calls them his "mighty "ones." He speaks of them as " rejoicing in "his highnefs," or "glory," because they rejoiced in that work which was to terminate in his glory, although they were ignorant of this". 66 Notwithstanding the honourable epithets thus bestowed on Cyrus and his army, with respect to their work; a very different picture is given of both, when their own character and defigns are taken into confideration. They are exhibited as "a cruel people, that will not fhew mercy," as having no pity on the fruit of the womb, and "whofe eye fhould not fpare children." Cyrus himself gets no better character than that of a bird of prey. While JEHOVAH appeals to the immutability and abfolute fovereignty of his purpofe, as an incontrovertible evidence of his being the only true God; he at the fame proclaims his almighty power in the manner of accomplishing it. "I am God, and there is none elfe,-decla"ring the end from the beginning, and from an"cient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all "my 66 n Ifa. xiii. 3.-5. Ver. 18.; Jer. 1. 42. "my pleasure calling a ravenous bird from the “east, the man that executeth my counsel from a "far country: yea, I have fpoken it, I will also 66 bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also "do it P." Behold the fovereignty of God! He who called the righteous man from the east," is the fame who " called a ravenous bird from "the east:" and both for the fame work of liberating his captives. Both are under his direction, and in the calling of both he displays equal righteousness. For he faith of Cyrus, "I have "raised him up in righteousness 9." Did the Lord destroy literal Babylon by means of " a ravenous bird?" Did he do it in righteoufnefs? Need we wonder, then, though he should obferve the fame courfe, in accomplishing the deftruction of myftical Babylon, of which the other was only a type? though he " cry to all the "fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and "gather yourselves together unto the supper of "the great God?" Although, in the destruction of Babylon, God should employ men as irreligious as the heathen, or more fo, as mercilefs as the Medes; we muft not therefore either deny, or be prejudiced against his work. The wickedness of the inftruments is wholly their own. Whatever God does by them, he does it "in righteoufnefs,"-Yet mark his language; "I will ftir 66 up the Medes against them :-their bows alfo "fhall dafh the young men to pieces, and they "fhall have no pity." "The LORD hath raised p Ifa. xlvi. 9.-11. q Ifa. xlv. 13. "up r Rev. xix. 17. s Ifa, xiii. 17. up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for "his defire is against Babylon, to destroy it: be"cause it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple.' 66 God often gives a ftriking difplay of his fove! reignty in punishing fin by fin. He does fo in various ways. He makes one fin its own punishment. He punishes one fin by another committed by the fame perfon. Or, he punishes the fin of one perfon, by means of a fin committed by another. As virtue is its own reward, in as far as "the ways of wifdom are ways of pleafantnefs, and all her paths peace;" fin often proves its own punishment, in that mifery which it brings along with it, as infeparable from its nature. Ahab's covetoufnefs, in defiring the vineyard of Naboth, was undoubtedly his fin. But it was as certainly his punishment. For he "was "heavy and displeased,—and laid him down up" on his bed, and turned away his face, and would "eat no bread "." The pride of Haman was alfo its own punishment. For notwithstanding his great honours, he fays; "All this availeth me nothing, as long as I fee Mordecai the Jew fitting "at the king's gate "." 46 Sometimes, he punishes a former fin by one that fucceeds it. The fin of Judas, in betraying his Mafter, was punished by his being left to become his own murderer. The Gentiles provoked God by their idolatry, in "changing the glory of "the uncorruptible God into an image made like VOL. II. Jer. li. 11, e u Kings xxi. 1.-4. "unto Fith. v. 13. |