places rejected, forgot, and trodden under foot. Intereft prevails over right, and the good man is delivered up a prey to the unjuft. And the Lord faid it, and it difpleafed him that there was no judgment. And he faw that there was no man, and he wondred that there was no interceffor. i His filence would make me conclude, either that he does not fee thofe diforders, or that he is indifferent to them. It is not fo, fays the prophet in another place; every thing is prepared for judgment, whilft men are not thinking any thing of the matter. The invifible Judge is prefent. He is ftanding in order to take in hand the defence of those who have no other; and to pronounce a very different fentence against the unjust, and in behalf of thofe who are poor and weak. The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of the peo ple, and the Princes thereof; for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the fpoil of the poor is in their houses. What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? fays the Lord God of Hofts. Nothing can be ftronger or more eloquent than the reproaches which God makes in this place to the judges and princes of his people. How! You who ought to defend my people, as a vine that was committed to your care; you who ought to ferve as a hedge and rampart to it; it is you yourselves have made wild havock of this vine, and ruined it, as though the fire had paft over it. And you eat the vine. Had you been but a little tender of your brethren, and not ruined them entirely! but after you have ftripped my people, you lay them in the wine-preffes; in order to fqueeze the marrow out of their bones: You bruife them; you crufh them under the mill, in order to grind them to duft; you grind them. You perhaps intend to conceal your i Stat ad judicandum [Heb. concertandum Dominus, & ftat ad judicandos populos. Dominus ad judicium veniet cum fenibus populi fui, & principibus ejus. Vosenim [Heb. & vos depafti eftis vineam. Rapina pauperis in domo veftra. Quare atteritis populum meum, & facies pauperum commolitis, dicit Dominus Deus exercituum? Ifa. iii. 13,-15. So the original fays. thefts thefts and rapine from me, by converting them into proud furniture for the ornament of your houses. I have followed with attentive and jealous eyes, all you have defpoiled your brother of; and fee it, notwithstanding your great endeavours to hide it. The spoil of the poor in your houses. Every thing calls aloud for vengeance, and fhall obtain it; it fall fall on you and your children; and the fon of an unjuft father, as he inherits his crime, will alfo inherit my anger. Wo W. to him that buildeth a town with blaad, and stablisheth a city by iniquity. For the ftraw fhall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. We obferve a quite oppofite character in the perfon of Job, who was the pattern or example of a good judge and a good prince. m For from my youth. (compallion) was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb.. I put on righteoufnefs, and it clothed me; my judgment was as a robe and a diadem. . . . I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The bleffing of him that was ready to perish came upon me; and I caufed the widow's heart to fing for joy.. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor.....I brake the jaws of the. wicked, and pluckt the Jpoil out of his teeth. 3. I fhall conclude with a defcription of a very different kind from those which preceded it, but no less remarkable; 'tis that of a war-horfe, which God himfelf defcribed in the book of Job. n Haft thou, fays God to Job, given the horfe Atrength? Haft thou clothed his neck with thunder? Canft thou make him afraid as a grafhopper? The glory of his noftrils is terrible. He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his ftrength: he goeth on to meet the armed men. He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth be back from the fword. The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering fpear and the fhield. He fwalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage; neither believeth he that it is the found of the trumpet. He faith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he fmelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and fhouting. Every word of this would merit an explication, in order to display the beauties of it; but I fhall take notice only of the latter, which give a kind of underftanding and speech to the horse. Armies are a long time before they are set in battle array, and are fometimes a great while in view of one another without moving. All the motions are marked by particular fignals, and the foldiers are appointed to perform their various duties, by the found of trumpet. This flowness is importunate to the horse: as he is ready at the first found of the trumpet, he is very impatient to find the army muft fo often have notice given to it. He murmurs fecretly against all these delays, and not being able to continue in his place, nor to difobey orders, he ftrikes the ground perpetually with his hoof, and complains, in his way, that the foldiers lofe their time in gazing one upon another. He fwalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage. In his impatience, he confiders as nothing all such signals as are not decifive, and which only point out fome Numquid præbebis equo fortitudinem, aut circumdabis collo ejus hinnitum? Numquid fufcitabis eum quafi locuftas? Gloria, narium ejus Terram ungula fodit: exultat audacter: in occurfum pergit armatis. Contemnit pavorem, nec cedit gladio. Super ipfum fo terror. nabit pharetra, vibrabit hafta & circum circumstances to which he is not attentive; neither believeth be that it is the found of a trumpet. But when it is in earneft, and that the last blaft of the trumpet calls to battle, then the whole countenance of the horfe is changed. One would conclude that he diftinguishes, as by his fmell, that the battle is going to be-gin; and that he heard the general's order distinctly, and answers the confused cries of the army, by a noise, which discovers his joy and courage. He faith among the trumpets ha, ha, and he fmelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and shouting. If the reader compares Homer's and Virgil's admirable descriptions of the horse, he will find how vaftly fuperior this is to them both. V. FIGURES. 'Twould be an endless labour to run over all the different kinds of figures in the Scriptures. The pasfages above cited include a large number, and to these I shall add a few more, especially of thofe that are most common, fuch as the metaphor, the fimile, the repetition, the apoftrophe, and profopopeia. 1. The Metaphor and Simile. • I have always dreaded the anger of God, as waves hanging over my head, and I could not bear the weight of them. What an idea does this give us of God's anger! waves that fwallow up every thing, a weight that overwhelms and dafhes to pieces. I shall bear the anger of the Lord. How can we bear it to all eternity? Nor is the magnificence of God with regard to his elect, lefs difficult to be comprehended and explained. • He will make them drunk with his bleffings, and will overflow them with a flood of delights. • Semper quafi tumentes fuper 9 Inebriebuntur ab ubertate dome fluctus timui Deum, & pondus mus tuæ: & torrente voluptatis ejus ferre non potui. Job xxxi. 25. tuæ potabis eos. Pfal. xxxv. 9. P Mich. vii. 9. But But here is another kind of drunkennefs referved for the wicked. Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and forrow, fays a Prophet to wicked Jerufalem, with the cup of aftonishment and defolation, with the cup of thy fifter Samaria. Thou shalt even drink it, and fuck it out, and thou shalt break the fherds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it, faith the Lord. This is a dreadful picture of the rage of the damned, but infinitely fainter than truth. 2. Repetition. Like as I have watched over them, to pluck up and to break down, and to throw down, and to deftroy, and to afflict; fo will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, faith the Lord. The conjunction here repeated feveral times, denotes, as it were, fo many redoubled ftrokes of God's anger. Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because She made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of ber fornication. This repetition, which is alfo in "Ifaiah, denotes that the fall of this great city will ap pear incredible; and that every one, before he will be lieve it really is fallen, will caufe it to be repeated several times to him.' *Now will I rife, faith the Lord; now will I be exalted, now will I lift up myself. That is to fay, after having a long time to lie afleep, he will at length come out of his fleep, to undertake the defence of his people with fplendor, and that the moment is come; Now, now. God expreffes himself still more ftrongly in the fame |