a babbleri," " a deceiverk," and "a fellow that ought not to be tolerated1." Our blessed Lord himself, who " spake as never man spake," was accounted a madman and a demoniacm; and every faithful servant of God, from his day even to the present hour, has been made an object, though not of equal, yet certainly of similar, reproach. One would suppose that men, with the sacred volume in their hands, seeing how the prophets and Apostles were all treated, would avoid treading in the steps of former persecutors: but the enmity of the human heart against God is the same as ever; and the messages of God are therefore treated with the same contempt as ever. If there be any difference as to the mode in which that enmity betrays itself, it is owing to the excellence of our laws, and not to any superiority in us above the Jews. Our dispositions are the same as theirs, and our abuse of God's tender mercies is the same.] In the sequel of our text we see, II. God's patience exhausted He was at last constrained to execute upon them his threatened vengeance [After bearing with their frowardness many hundred years, his wrath against them was kindled, and he gave them up into the hands of their enemies". Every effort for their preservation had been tried in vain, and " no remedy now remained:" the people therefore were sent into captivity; and both their city and temple were destroyed.] Thus also will he do with respect to us [If we go on incessantly "grieving the Holy Spirit," we shall at last" quench" his sacred motions. There is a time beyond which God will bear with us no longer. There is a day of grace wherein he will be found"; an accepted time in which salvation may be secured by us'. But there is a time when he will say, "Let them alone;" "Let their eyes be blinded and their hearts be hardenedt:" "I am weary with repenting ":" and now, "though they cry I will not hear, though they make many prayers I will not regard them." Doubtless if a person were truly penitent, he would be i Acts xvii. 18. Ezek. xx. 40. 1 Acts xxii. 22. and xxiv. 5. n ver. 17-21. P Matt. xxiii. 37, 38. 2 Cor. vi. 2. Isai. lv. 6. t Acts xxviii. 25-27. * Prov. i. 24-31. k John vii. 12. m John x. 20. Eph. iv. 30. 1 Thess. v. 19. q Luke xix. 41-44.. $ Hos. iv. 17. u Jer. xv. 6. heard and accepted at the last hour: but it is God alone who can give repentance: and, if we continue obstinately to resist his calls, he will cease to strive with us, and will give us over to final impenitence. This he has done in unnumbered instances; and this he warns us to expect at his hands: "He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedya."] ADDRESS [God speaks to men by his word and ministers at this day, as truly as ever he did either by Prophets or Apostles and our word, as far as it is agreeable to the Scriptures of Truth, is to be "received, not as the word of man, but of God":" and, if any man" despiseth it, he despiseth not man, but Gode." Happy would it be if this matter were duly considered: for certainly there are many, of a proud and contemptuous spirit, who instead of "trembling at the word," as they ought, and "humbling themselves before the ministers" of Jehovah, make light of all they hear, and turn it to derisions. But to such God says, "Be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong." There is great danger lest they "be holden with the cords of their own sins'," and be given up to their own delusionsk. On the other hand, let not any imagine that an attachment to faithful ministers, or a love to the ordinances as dispensed by them, will necessarily prove us to be in a state of acceptance with God: for Ezekiel's hearers were delighted with his discourses, whilst yet they were by no means conformed to the precepts delivered by him'. Inquire then whether you be really obedient to the Gospel, receiving Christ as the gift of God to your souls, relying on him as your only hope, rejoicing in him as your all-sufficient Saviour, and devoting yourselves to him in all holy obedience. The tree must be judged of by its fruits alone. If your fruits be not yet such as might be wished, apply the "remedy:" go to Christ for the remission of your sins, and seek from him the gift of his Holy Spirit: then shall the Gospel have its due effect, and be "the power of God to the salvation of your souls.”] y Gen. vi. 3. h Isai. xxviii. 22. z Ps. lxxxi. 11, 12. a Prov. xxix. 1. 1 Ezek. xxxiii. 31, 32. EZRA. CCCCXXXIII. THE REBUILDING OF THE TEMPLE. Ezra iii. 11-13. All the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy: so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off. TO put a fanciful interpretation on any part of God's blessed word is highly inexpedient; and to found a doctrine upon any such interpretation would be injudicious in the extreme. But certain it is, that there are many explanations given us by the Apostles, which we should in no wise have admitted, if given by uninspired men; such as the termination of the Levitical priesthood, as deduced from Abraham's giving to Melchizedec a tenth of the spoils which he had taken; and the reservation of God's inheritance to regenerate persons only, as deduced from Abraham's repudiation of Hagar and her son Ishmael. Where these things are explained by the inspired writers, we may follow without fear: but in any interpretations of our own, the utmost diffidence becomes us. These observations I make, lest, in the passage before us, I should be misunderstood as intimating that the construction put upon it was really designed by the event itself. I am far from intending 231 to assert that. I merely bring forth the subject as both curious in itself, and calculated to convey important instruction to our minds, if judiciously and temperately considered. That an exuberance of joy and of sorrow should be excited at once by the same event, is undoubtedly a curious fact: and it will be profitable to shew you, I. What there was at that time to call forth such strong and widely different emotions The Jews, after their return from Babylon, had just laid the foundation of the second temple: and this was, 1. To some an occasion of exalted joy [It was not the mere circumstance that a magnificent building was about to be raised, but the thought of the use to which that building was to be appropriated, that proved to them such a source of joy. The erection of it was justly regarded by them as a restoration of God's favour to them, after the heavy judgments which he had inflicted on them during their captivity in Babylon. In this light they had been taught to consider their return to their native land; and the very song which they now sang, had, at the commencement of their captivity, been provided for them by the Prophet Jeremiah, as This event proper to be sung on that occasiona opened to them a prospect of again worshipping Jehovah according to all the forms prescribed to them by the Mosaic ritual. In reference to this, also, the same song had been provided for them by David; in singing which they could not but "make Nor could they fail to a joyful noise unto the Lord" view it as tending to advance the honour of their God; in which view pre-eminently it must of necessity fill them with most exalted joy. As the bringing up of the ark to Mount Zion, so this event also called for songs and acclamations from every creature under heaven: "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth; make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills be joyful together before the Lord: for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity." a Cite Jer. xxxiii. 10, 11. as compared with the words immediately preceding the text. b Cite also Ps. c. 1-5. in the same view. с Compare 1 Chron. xvi. 8-10, 31-34. with Ps. xcviii. 1-9. I think, with such views of the event before them, the people could not but shout for joy; and "if they had been silent, the very stones would have cried out against them."] 2. To others, an occasion of the deepest sorrow [Commentators have condemned this sorrow, as expressive of discontent; and as shewing, that the persons so affected did in reality betray an ungrateful spirit, and "despise the day of small things." But I am far from thinking such an interpretation of their conduct just. The persons who manifested such pungent grief were "the priests, and Levites, and the chief of the fathers who were ancient men, that had seen the former temple." It is true, they wept, because they well knew how infinitely this structure must fall below the former in point of magnificence. Whether it was of smaller dimensions than the former, we do not know: but as, of course, it could not be so splendidly furnished as the former temple was, so, of necessity, it must want many things which constituted the glory of that edifice, and could never be replaced. The Shechinah, the bright cloud, the emblem of the Deity himself, was for ever removed. The ark was lost, and the copy of the Law which had been preserved in it. The Urim and Thummim too, by which God had been wont to communicate to his people the knowledge of his will, was irrecoverably gone; and the fire which had descended from heaven was extinct, so that they must henceforth use in all their sacrifices nothing but common fire. And what but their sins had brought upon them all these calamities? Would it have been right, then, in these persons to lose all recollection of their former mercies, and of the sins through which they had been bereaved of them; and to be so transported with their present blessings as not to bewail their former iniquities? No: I think that the mixture of feeling was precisely such as the occasion called for: and if there appeared a preponderance on the side of grief, it was only such as the glorified saints in heaven are expressing continually in the very presence of their God; for whilst singing, with all their powers, "Salvation to God and to the Lamb," they are all prostrate on their faces with self-abasing shame, and casting their crowns down before the throne, from a conscious unworthiness of the honour conferred upon them. But I think that the Prophet Ezekiel, and I may add too the experience of all the most eminent saints that ever lived, will put this matter in its true point of view. By Ezekiel, God says, "I will remember my covenant with thee, and will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant, that thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any d Zech. iv. 10. |