“

buchadnezzar, he passed the following decree, (Daniel, chapter iii. verse 29.) "Therefore I make a decree, that every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the god of “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall " be cut in pieces, and their houses shall " be made a dunghill; because there is no " other god that can deliver after this fort." After the expiration of seventy years, in the first year of the reign of Cyrus, king of Perfia (to which country Babylon was now become subject), he, by divine inspiration, ordered the Jews to return and re-build the Temple, commanding his fubjects to affift them with whatever was requifite for that purpose. The prophecy with respect to Cyrus, which may be found in the forty-fifth chapter of Ifaiah, is one of the most remarkable in the whole Bible, as he is pointed out by name, one hundred and seventy-fix years before the events happened.

Many of the Jews who were settled in Babylon, did not choose to return to their own country; and those who did return, found great difficulties in carrying on the work, being fometimes impeded, and at others totally stopped, by the malice and envy of their enemies; in consequence of which, the Temple was not finished until the reign of Darius.

From hence we may learn, that the Almighty does not always permit our most laudable designs, of ferving and rendering him honor, to be accomplished without interruption. He frequently sends disappointments, to exercise us in the virtues of patience and refignation: these can be perfected only in this world: in Heaven we can have no exercise for them; that being a place of complete happiness, where we shall be rewarded for every act of obedience to God's laws.

Ezra gives us a very affecting account of the foundation of this second Temple, (chap. iii. ver. 12.); "But many of the " priests 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, to see how inferior this was to the " former." Yet the prophet Haggai, (chap. ii. ver. 9.) fays, "The glory of this " latter house shall be greater than the for

mer, says the Lord of Hosts; and in this " place will I give peace, says the Lord of "Hosts." That the latter Temple fell far short of the former, in point of magnificence, is universally allowed: whence comes it, then, that the glory of the latter Temple should so far exceed that of the former? Because the Son of God honored it with his human as well as his divine prefence; and as he was the defire of all nations, but more particularly of the Jewish, the place where he gave public inftruction must have hence appeared most glorious to the believing Jews: the grandeur and magnificence of Solomon's Temple would in their opinion appear as nothing, in comparison of the ineftimable blessing of being admitted into his prefence, and hearing from his lips the words of eternal life; their thoughts would be too much occupied

X 2

pied in the attainment of those eternal riches which fade not away, to regret the absence of wordly pomp and splendor.

When the Temple was completed, and the worship of God re-established on its ancient footing, the Jews were required to put away their strange wives; the law of their God having expressly prohibited them from making marriages with the idolatrous nations; nor could they be admitted into the Temple till they had complied with this, and every other ordinance of the law. This was certainly a fevere teft of their piety, and a punishment for having broken the law: but all who returned to their God with their whole heart, made this facrifice; putting away the strange wives which they had married whilft captives in Babylon. One of the fons of Jojada, the fon of Eliashib the high prieft, was fon-in-law to Sanballet, who had been very anxious to prevent the re-building of the Temple of Jerufalem. Family reafons might, probably, have urged him to this: he might apprehend that, if that took

took place, a public disgrace would fall upon some of his nearest and dearest connexions. Finding, at length, all his endeavors fruitless, he gave his fon-in-law, whose name was Menasses, leave to build a Temple on Mount Gerezim, in Samaria, and made him high priest of it. Thither resorted all those priests, who having married strange wives refused to put them away; as well as all those who for their crimes had been expelled from the Temple, or forfeited the privileges of the priesthood, the city, or the court.

The conduct of the rulers of the Jews, at this time, in expelling so many of their brethren from their communion, should not be attributed to pride or prejudice : they appear to have been actuated by a high sense of respect to the honor of God, and of gratitude to him for re-admitting them to all their former invaluable privileges; which they could in no way fo properly manifest, as by a strict observance of all his ordinances. How sadly they

had