regulated and directed, as to exhibit the moral government of God, and be rendered subservient to the progress of the great scheme of redemption, uninterruptedly advancing, and finally completed by the advent of Christ.

It may be further observed, that on this principle of the freedom and changeableness of human conduct, and of the conditionality of the divine decrees, rest the reasonableness and the efficacy of prayer, the duty of repentance, and the encouragement to reformation-principles which form the only foundations of practical religion. Hence the psalmist; "thou, O God, are praised in Sion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed in Jerusalem.”* But to offer up praise and prayer with an assured hope of their acceptance, was not the privilege of the Jew only, but of every human being, who should come to the knowledge of the true God, and apply to him for pardon and mercy; for immediately the psalmist adds; "thou that hearest the prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come; my misdeeds prevail against me, oh be thou merciful unto our sins." We have seen the same principle inculcated in the most solemn manner, in the prayer of Solomon. It indeed perpetually occurs in every part of ScripA few facts, however, will contribute to illustrate it; and at the same time, place in a clear light, the conditionality of the divine decrees.

ture.

Thus, in the instance of Ahab; the denunciation of divine wrath, pronounced against him by the prophet Elijah, for a moment terrified him. "And it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth and went softly. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me; because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house."† Thus also, in the instance of the pious, though unsteadily pious Hezekiah, not only was his prayer for the deliverance of his people from the host of the impious Sennacherib heard and miraculously accomplished, but he was equally heard, when he prayed for his own personal deliverance. "In those days † 1 Kings, xxi. 27.

* Ps. lxv. 1, 2, 3. (Com. Fray.)

Hezekiah was sick unto death; and the prophet Isaiah came unto him and said unto him, thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live. Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the Lord, saying, I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. And it came to pass, before Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Turn again, and tell Hezekiah, the captain of my people; thus saith the Lord the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears; behold I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord. And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake. And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs; and they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered."* But this peculiar mercy from God elated too much the vain glory of the favoured monarch. And the sacred record,

after observing "how he prospered in all his works," adds, "Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land," (on this signal occasion of his recovery,) "God left him to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart." This trial proved, that his heart was proud and inflated with his worldly prosperity and power; "for he hearkened unto the ambassadors, and showed them all the house of his precious things; the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures; there was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah showed them not. Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men, and from whence came they unto thee. And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country, even from Babylon. And he said, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All the things that

* 2 Kings, xx. 1, to the end, compared with 2 Chron. xxxii. 27, to the end.

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are in mine house have they seen; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not showed them. And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord, Behold the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon; nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shall beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken, and he said, Is it not good, if peace and truth be in my days ?"

His son and successor Manasseh, profited so little by the example of his pious and highly favoured parent, that "he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, like unto the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel; and he set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever. Neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from out of the land which I have appointed for your fathers, so that they will take heed to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and the statutes, and the ordinances, by the hand of Moses. So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel. And the Lord spake to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not hearken. Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. And prayed unto him, and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem, into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God. Now after this he built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate,

and compassed about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height, and put captains of war in all the fenced cities of Judah. And he took away the strange gods and the idol out of the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city. And he repaired the altar of the Lord, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel."

His son and successor, Amon, imitated his father's crimes, but not his reformation, and again provoked the wrath of God. But the sincere piety and humiliation of his son, the young monarch Josiah, procured from God a respite, as it were, from the speedy execution of these judgments on Judah; for when Josiah heard the words of the book of the law of God, he sent for the priests, and said, "Go ye, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us. And they went and communed with Huldah the prophetess. And she said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell the man that sent you to me, Thus saith the Lord, Behold I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read, because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched. But to the king of Judah which sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, as touching the words which thou hast heard. Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold, therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace;

* 2 Chron. xxxiii. 2, 7-17.

and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again.”*

From this, and the corresponding passages of Scripture, it seems evident, that were an opponent to the tenets of absolute predestination and unchangeable decrees, studiously to contrive the scheme of a supposed Divine administration, evidently implying free will in human actions, and adapting its measures to the changes of human conduct; entering into conditional covenants with its subjects, in which favour and blessing should be annexed to obedience, and be forfeited by transgression, (the consequence of which should be disgrace and punishment,) while repentance should be uniformly encouraged by the assured hope of pardon-he could not invent any forms of expression or any statement of facts more to his purpose that those which are really found in the promises and threatenings of the Jewish law, and in the entire series of the Jewish history, so completely verifying these promises and denunciations.

The particular example of Nineveh on this subject, is as clear as the general principle laid down by the prophet. The wickedness of this city had come up before the Lord, and he commanded Jonah to denounce against it; "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."† Here was a decree pronounced by the command of God, as decisive as words can express. But as in all decrees of the Moral Governor of the world respecting the future destiny of his moral creatures, it was subject to the general and unalterable laws and principles on which that moral government is conducted; and it might therefore be suspended or revoked according to their moral conduct. In this instance, it was thus changed; "for the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them, even to the least; and they cried mightily unto God, and turned every one from their evil way, and from the violence that was in their hands, saying, Who can tell if God will turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not. And God saw their works, and that they turned from their evil; and God repented of the evil that he had said he would do unto them, and he did it not."‡

The prophet employed to proclaim the decree of vengeance, † Jonah, 4. iii. Jonah, iii. 5—10.

* 2 Kings, xxii. 13, 15—20.