LECTURE VII. PART 1. THE SUSPENSION OF THE PROMISES TO DAVID PRODUCED BY THE SINS OF HIS SUCCESSORS. BY THE REV. T. S. GRIMSHAWE, M.A. VICAR OF BIDDENHAM, BEDFORDSHIRE. PSALM lxxxix. 30-34. If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. THE call of Abraham, and the promise that in him, as the great channel of God's mercy to mankind, in the advent of a Redeemer, all the families of the earth should be blessed; the gradual unfolding of this promise, and the covenant made with David, "that his seed should be established for ever, and his throne built up to all generations," (Ps. lxxxix. 30-34) have now been fully detailed and enforced in the preceding discourses. But in that covenant there was a remarkable clause and reservation recorded in the words of the text. "If his children forsake my land, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes: nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips." (Psalm lxxxix. 30-34.) The period for the execution of this solemn denunciation at length arrived, though accompanied by the assurance of final mercy. There are various passages in the Scriptures, shewing many of God's promises to be conditional, and liable to forfeiture. It is otherwise with respect to a covenant. Its privileges may be suspended for a season, but its final execution is certain. It is the suspension of God's promises to the seed of Abraham, and the causes that prepared the way for so solemn and judicial an act of his displeasure, that we are now called upon to consider. They were once a people distinguished by the most exalted privileges; we have now to contemplate them in their decline and degradation. The history of the Jewish nation, after the time of David, furnishes a mournful catalogue of national guilt, followed by national chastisement and humiliation. The reign of Solomon, in its earlier stages, was distinguished by a splendour and glory typical of Messiah's kingdom; but it was a glory that was ere long obscured by gross idolatry, and which set in darkness. It is an extraordinary and solemn spectacle to contemplate such early piety, such devotional zeal, and eminent wisdom, terminating, with advancing years, in apostacy from God. The rending of the ten tribes, under Rehoboam, attested Judah's crime and Jehovah's chastisement. But whether the scene of probation was in the city of David, or transferred to the mountains of Samaria, the same proneness is discoverable to besetting sins; though idolatry was formally proclaimed by Jeroboam, emphatically described as the prince "that made Israel to sin." Why should we enumerate the names of Ahab, Ahaziah, Jehoram, Manasses, and others, and God's judgments for their manifold provocations? The mind, indeed, is relieved by occasional intervals of reviving piety, under a Jehu, an Amaziah, Hezekiah, and Josiah, in the same manner as the eye of the traveller is refreshed, amidst barren wastes and sandy plains, by the oasis of the desert. But the predominating character of Jewish history is that of habitual and persevering guilt, unreclaimed alike by the solicitations of mercy, or by the terrors of avenging justice. The degeneracy was as universal as it was flagrant. The Prophet was directed to run to and fro in the streets of Jerusalem, and see if a single person were to be found" executing judgment and seeking the truth," and God declared he would pardon it.* The moral contagion had extended to all classes. There was no virtue in exalted rank, no integrity in judgment, no purity of faith or morals in the sanctuary; and such was the spirit of infatuation among the people, that "they loved to have it so," saying, "Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits."+ Every city had its gods: "According to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah." It was idolatry too in its most aggravated and sanguinary form. Its rites were celebrated within the very precincts of the temple itself. Their sons and their daughters were made to pass through the fire unto Moloch, in the valley of Hinnom, a crime which God declared he would visit on a future day, by making it "the valley of slaughter."§ * Jer. v. 1, and subsequent verses. Jer. xi. 13. † Isaiah xxx. 10. § Jer. xix. 6. It is the same that is now known by the name of the valley of Jehoshaphat, and by Mahommedan and Jewish tradition expected to be the scene of the great day of judgment. Well might Jehovah exclaim, “Shall I not visit for these things? shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?"* The period, therefore, at length arrived, when the divine indignation was awfully poured out, first upon Israel, and subsequently on Judah. Their civil and ecclesiastical polity were overthrown, and the predictions of their Prophet Moses minutely fulfilled. And" the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other." "And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind." "And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a bye-word, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee."† But before we proceed to the investigation of this subject, it is necessary to shew that, prior to the infliction of the Divine judgments, there is always a preparatory day of grace-during which Churches and States, as well as individuals, go * Jer. xix. 9. + Deut. xxviii. 37, 64, 65, |