doeth evil is good in the sight in them; or, Where is the God of the LORD, and he delighteth of judgment?

LECTURE 1458.

The divine sanction of the marriage covenant.

Here is a command, with most fearful threatening attached to it, addressed particularly to the priests. They are reminded of the tenour of God's covenant with their father Levi. They are put in remembrance of their father's good example. They are told of their duty as priests, to preserve and to dispense divine knowledge, to be messengers of the Lord of hosts. And they are at once warned of what would happen if they neglected their duty, and told that it had happened because of their neglect; the sentence here going forth against them, that they shall be base and contemptible. Such is the case also with Christian ministers, ambassadors for Christ, if they prove faithless to their trust, and become stumblingblocks instead of helpers to their brethren. They are despised even by the world to which they seek to be conformed. And at the best they are viewed with pity, where not regarded with contempt. The curse of God too rests even on their blessings. Prosperity, if they have it, proves a snare to them. And that familiarity with sacred things, which might lead to the most intimate communion with God, becomes a means of hardening their hearts.

But there was one sin of which the priests and people were alike guilty," the master and the scholar;" namely, taking wives from among the heathen. See Nehem. 13. 23. And with this there was connected another evil practice, the divorcing their former wives for the sake of these strange women. Hence the altar of the Lord was covered with tears, the tears of these much wronged wives. And hereupon God takes occasion to inculcate by his prophet the sacred nature of the marriage covenant. The Law had indeed allowed them to put away their wives; and it had not forbidden them to have more wives than one at once. But this was doubtless on account of the hardness of their hearts, in the one case as well as in the other. And when our Lord so accounted for the law relating to divorce, He added, that "from the beginning it was not so." Matt. 19. 3. This is the very ground of reason here insisted on. And it applies with like force to both cases. If God made only one wife for Adam, when He could as easily have created many, having no limit to the amount of life at his disposal, it must be according to his will, that each husband should be faithful to one wife, as well as each wife faithful to one husband. This must be known by Him to be the best upon the whole for both parties, as well as best for their offspring. And men know not what spirit they are of, when they think to provide, better than their Maker, for their own happiness, or for that of their families, or for the peace, order, and welfare of society.

Of the Messiah and his messenger, and the coming judgment. 1 Behold, I will send my mes- 9 Ye are cursed with a curse: senger, and he shall prepare the for ye have robbed me, even this way before me: and the Lord, whole nation. whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts. 2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's sope:

serveth him.

and the wicked, between him

18 Then shall ye return, and that serveth God and him that discern between the righteous serveth him not.

LECTURE 1459.

That neither God nor his word are variable.

The wicked had trespassed on God's patience by saying, "Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord;" and by asking, "Where is the God of judgment?" Ch. 2. 17. In reply to this God signifies, that the Judge is at hand. He will indeed send one to prepare his way, and yet He will "suddenly come to his temple." And though He be an object of delight to the faithful, He will prove terrible to the wicked; to whom He will draw nigh in judgment; and whom He will cast out as a refiner does dross from silver, and as a fuller filth from cloth; that so both his priests and people may offer unto Him, and unto God through Him, acceptable sacrifice, "as in the days of old." "For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." That is to say, God is still the same, and his designs are not variable like those of man. The Gospel will displace the Law, only by fulfilling it. The purposes of God will not be frustrated by the degeneracy of the Jewish church; they will be realized in Christ and in his people; amongst whom many of the sons of Jacob will be found, as many as will turn unto their Lord. That God remains unchangeable, notwithstanding the change in his two dispensations, appears from the union of justice and mercy which He manifests in both of them. The expected Messiah, though properly the hope of all men, would yet save as by fire; would put the faith of his disciples to the test of many a fiery trial, and would in the end consign the wicked to a fiery destruction. See Ch. 4. 1. And on the other hand, even under the terrors of the Law, God often promises, as here, to return to sinners who repent, convinces them of sin when they seek to justify themselves, and offers to bless them largely on amendment; and whilst He denounces the presumptuous words of those who take counsel together against Him, undertakes to spare those who fear Him, and who confer together for good, and has a book of remembrance written before Him, to their praise in time to come. These things shew that the God of the Old Testament and of the New is one and unchangeable. And they may encourage us in applying to ourselves as far as possible all parts of the sacred volume. Here then let us reckon ourselves taught to watch for Christ's sudden coming, and to prepare for it by renouncing sin, and perfecting holiness. Here let us learn to abhor the thought of withholding from God that which is devoted to his service, and to tremble for those who presumptuously call the proud happy, and triumph in the prosperity of the wicked. And here let us observe how desirable it is, that we should stir up one another in every good thought and deed, that we may escape the end of the ungodly, and may be remembered before God for good.

The rising of the Sun of righteousness. The mission of Elijah. the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.

1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in

4 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.

5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:

6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

LECTURE 1460.

The commandments and promises of both Testaments. The beginning of this last chapter is closely connected with the end of that which goes before it. The Lord is speaking of a day, in which He will make manifest an eternal distinction between the righteous and the wicked; a day, whose dawn is Christ's first coming, and his second advent its consummation. And having declared how graciously He will then spare those who fear Him and think upon his name, how highly He will value them, and how greatly He will glorify them, He next proceeds to shew what must in that day be the end of the ungodly; to be burned as in a furnace, to be consumed, root and branch, like stubble in the flames. That this prophecy is applicable to the final judgment, we, to whom that judgment is clearly revealed, can have no doubt. And though the Jews, in the time of Malachi, might properly understand it, as relating to some terrible visitation on their commonwealth and church, yet even to them it must have implied more than a temporal calamity. At least the faithful amongst them must have found herein much to confirm a notion, suggested by other passages in their Scriptures, as well as learnt by tradition from their fathers, namely, that there is a life to come. Thus, as the light of prophecy expired, it pointed to that life and immortality, which Christ was to bring to light in the Gospel. Or rather, it never did expire, but remained bright in God's word, though not renewed in his church; nay, it grew brighter as the volume closed, and as the fulness of time drew nigh, shining, like "the path of the just," which it illumined, "more and more unto the perfect day." Prov. 4. 18.

The dawn of that day is here described by the rising of "the