this difpenfation also, God, the Father and Governor of mankind, was working for the reformation and improvement of the world, in that which is the true excellency of their nature, and the only foundation of their happiness.

CHA P. XXXIII.

Authors within the PERIOD from the Building to the Destruction of the

L

TEMPLE.

ITERATURE in this Period received a confiderable advance; probably, by means of the fchools of the Prophets.

Solomon was a great author, as he was endowed with an uncommon fhare of wisdom. For he spake three thousand proverbs, and his fongs were a thousand and five And he spake of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyop that springeth out of the wall; he spake alfo of beafs, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. But of all his works only three are taken into the Sacred Canon, namely, Proverbs, Ecclefiafies, and his Song.

PROVER B S.

THIS Book confifteth of the moft ufeful rules for the right direction of life in religion and morals, and is the most authentic and excellent of the kind that can be produced in antiquity. It may be divided into five parts. I. In the first part the tutor gives his pupil admonitions, directions, cautions, and excitements to the ftudy of wifdom. Chap. firft to the tenth. II. The fecond contains the Proverbs of Solomon, properly fo called, delivered in diftinct, independent, general fentences. Chap. 10th to the 22d, ver. 17. III. The third part begins at chap. xxii. 17. where the tutor again addreffeth himfelf to his pupil, and gives him fresh admonitions to the diligent ftudy of wifdom; which is followed by a fet of inftructions delivered in the imperative mood to the pupil, who is fuppofed all the while to be standing before him. Chap. xxii. 17. to chap. XXV. IV. The fourth part is diftinguished by its being a collection of Solomon's Proverbs, felected, we may fuppofe, out of a much greater number, by the men of Hezekiah; perhaps, by the Prophets Ijaiah, Hofea, Micah, who all flourished in the days of Hezekiah, and not improbably affifted him in his pious endeavours to restore true religion. 2 Chron. xxxi. 20, 21. This part, as the fecond, confifts chiefly of diftinct, unconnected fentences, and reacheth from chap. xxv. to chap. xxx. V. The fifth part contains a fet of wife obfervations and inftructions, which

Agur,

Agur, the fon of Jakeh, delivered to his pupils, Ithiel and Ucal, chap. xxx. And the xxxift chapter contains the precepts which his mother, poffibly a Jewish woman married to fome neighbouring prince, delivered to Lemuel, her fon; being paffionately folicitous to guard him against vice, to establish him in the principles of juftice, and to have him married to a wife of the beft qualities. Thefe two chapters are a kind of appendix to the Book of Proverbs. Note-It is uncertain who Agur and the mother of Lemuel were.

ECCLESIASTES.

THIS BOOK was written by the Preacher, the fon of David, king of Ferufalem, chap. i. 1; that is to fay, by Solomon, (probably in the latter part of his life) as appears from chap. i. 16. ii. 4, &c. The fubject of it is, an inquiry into the chief good or happinefs of man, in this world. And,

I. He confutes the falfe opinion of thofe that place happiness in human wifdom, or philofophy; in the pleasures, amufements, or fplendor of life; in honour, magiftracy, and dominion; in riches or wealth. This, in the fix first chapters. II. He teaches, that true felicity is to be found only in a serious regard to God and religion, in the fix laft chapters. In both parts he intermixes feveral incidental reflections, which are of use to make us wife and pious. The whole is adapted to draw us from the inordinate purfuit of earthly things, and from a wrong to a lawful use of them, without any offence to God, or damage to ourselves, till we arrive at a never-dying felicity.

The SONG of SOLOMON.

THE Song of Songs, or the moft excellent Song, was compofed by Solomon; and is a noble epithalamium, or marriage fong, of the paftoral kind, embellished with the moft grand and beautiful images. In the letter it is allowed to be a celebration of the marriage of Solomon to Pharaoh's daughter; but the Jewish rabbies, and many of the Chriftian fathers, have understood it as a fpiritual allegory, representing the love of God, or, as Chriftians fay, of Chrift, to his church; which, in other parts of Scripture, is reprefented as his fpoufe, Palm xlv. 10, c. Hearken, O Daughter, and confider, &c. Ver. 13. The king's daughter is all glorious within, &c. Which Pfalm David is fuppofed to have made upon the fame occafion, namely, at Solomon's marriage; wherein, as the bridegroom is juftly fuppofed to be Chrift, ver. 38. fo his bride may well be fuppofed to be the church. John Baptift compares Chrift to a bridegroom, John iii. 28, 29; and fo doth our Lord himself, Mat. ix. 15. xxv. 1. and the kingdom of heaven he compares to a sumptuous marriage feaft, Mat. xxii. 2. So alfo Rev. xix. 7. xxi. 2. the marriage of the Lamb to his bride, or wife, clothed in fine linen, (which doubtless reprefents the Chriftian church in a state of purity) is spoken of. And St. Paul, in ftrong terms, fuch as Adam ufed when he was mar

ried to Eve, reprefents Chrift as a husband to the church. Ephef. v. 25, &c. And fo alfo, 2 Cor. xi. 2. I have efpoufed you to one husband, that I may prefent you as a chafte virgin to Chrift. And frequently in the Prophets God is fet forth as the husband or bridegroom to the church. Ifai. liv. 5. lxi. 10. lxii. 4, 5. Jer. iii. 20. xxxi. 32. Hof. ii. 2, 7, 16, 19. Hence, apoftacy from God is very commonly reprefented as whoredom and adultery, both in the Old and New Teftament.

All this is very juft, and supplieth very inftructive and comfortable meditation. And it is certainly the beft ufe we can make of this elegant Song to apply it thus to fpiritual purposes. But the ideas, which the Scripture gives us of God's or Chrift's relation to the church, as a hufband, are too general, to ferve as a key to the great variety of particulars in this poem; which therefore, as it is never quoted in any other part of the Scripture, can be reduced to no certain rule of interpretation, but must be left to every person's fancy or imagination. Bp. PATRICK has done, perhaps, as much as can be done upon the fpiritualizing fcheme.

Within this Period were alfo written the Prophecies of Joel, Amos, Hofea, Jonah, Ifaiah, Micah, Nahum, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Obadiah. Thefe before the Captivity. During the 70 years Captivity, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Efther. After the Captivity, Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, I. and II. Chronicles. These complete the Canon of the Old Teftament. And whereas it is of great ufe to the right understanding of the Prophets, to know the reigns and times in which they prophefied, and the particular occafions upon which any of them delivered their prophecies, I fhall now attempt to digeft and range them in chronological order, as follows.

A

PROPHETS before the CAPTIVITY.

BOUT twenty-fix years after the death of Elisha, the Prophet, (2 Kings xiii. 20.) Jonah the son of Amittai, the Prophet, which was of Gath-heper, was fent by God with a meffage of encouragement and fuccefs to Jeroboam II. king of Ifrael. 2 Kings xiv. 25. This might happen when Jonah was about 28 years of age.

JOEL i. ii. iii.

JOEL at Jerufalem (Joel ii. 1, 15, 17.) might prophesy before Amos at Samaria, Amos i. I. iv. I. For Amos, chap. iv. 7, 9. may refer to the

devaftation

devaftation by palmer-worms, &c. and drought, which Joel predicted, chap. i. 6,7, 19, 20. However, as the fenfe of this prophefy, in no part, that I know of, depends upon the time when it was delivered, there can be no harm in fuppofing that Jel prophefied about this time.

AMOS i.-ix.

SOME time after Joel, Amos might begin to prophefy in the kingdom of Ifrael. Certainly de did prophefy in those days of Úzziah or Azariab king of Judah, and of Jeroboam 11. king of Ifrael, in which they were cotemporaries, chap. i. I. How long he continued, is not intimated. He had no regular education in the fchools of the Prophets, (which fuppofeth that other Prophets had) but was originally a herdfman, and a gatherer of lycamore fruit, or wild figs, chap. vii. 14. He had an exprefs commiffion from God to prophesy unto his people Ifrael, ver. 15. This book may consist of several diftinct difcourfes; but, as they are without date, we cannot affign the particular times when they were delivered.

HOSEA i. ii. iii.

HOSEA is juftly fuppofed to be cotemporary with Amos. He prophefied against the ten tribes, or the kingdom of Ifrael, beginning in the reign of Jeroboam II. and prophefying in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. He predicted the Captivity of the ten tribes; and as that Captivity happened in the fixth year of Hezekiah, probably he lived to fee it accomplished by Shalmanefer king of Affyria; which was done about 64 years after the commencement of his prophetic office.

This Prophet is commanded to take unto him a wife of whored ms, and children of whoredoms, chap. i. 2. This might all be tranfacted in a vifion, in the council of God. See the eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters of Ezekiel. Or it might be a parable, to be spoken as such to the children of Ifrael. See Ezek. xxiv. 3, &c. Here that is ordered to be done as a fact, which was only to be spoken as a parable. But if the Prophet did really marry a lewd woman, who had children, not by him, but by fome other man, this was no fin in him, who did it by Divine Command, in order to explain to the Ifraelites their wickedness, and the punishment of it. The adulterous wife reprefented the Ifraelites, who by their idolatries had gone a whoring from God, their own Hufband. The children which this woman bare, are the ruinous effects of the idolatry of the children of Ifrael. The first bastard was called Jezreel; and denoted the vengeance which God would take upon the house of Jehu, for the blood which he fhed in Jezreel, chap. i. 4. The fecond was called Lo-rubamah, ver. 6. to denote that God would no longer fpare the houfe of Ifrael, but take them quite away out of their land. The name of the third was Lo-ammi, ver. 9. which fignified that the relation between God and the Ifraelites was diffolved.

3

HOSEA iv.

HOSEA iv.

THE interregnum in Ifrael, preceding the reign of Zechariah, was doubtless a time of very great diforder and violence, and of much bloody ftrife for the crown. Probably, Zechariah gained it by cutting off competitors. Shallum flew him, Menahem flew Shallum, and all within the Ipace of feven months. To this fad ftate of things Hofea may well be fuppofed to refer, chap. iv. 2. By fwearing and lying, and killing and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth [reacheth unto] blood. Here, therefore, we may place the fourth chapter of Hofea.

JONAH i, ii, iii, iv.

JONAH, I fuppofe, about the second year of Menahem, king of Ifrael, and about the 70th year of his age, was fent to cry against Nineveh, about 700 miles from Gath-heper, then a great, wealthy, populous and haughty city, the chief feat of the Affyrian empire, aud the mistress of the world; which had long been remarkable for luxury and jollity to a proverb, So Ne peons, better than merry Nineveh. By Zephaniah it is called, the rejoicing, or joyous, city, chap. ii. 15. To be fent with a meffage of divine wrath to fuch a place as this, could not but feem a frightful and dangerous errand to Jonah. He faw how much the Ifraelites, God's own people, hated and perfecuted the Prophets, who reproved and threatened them. What then could he expect from that great and wicked city, Nineveh, the head-quarters of pride and fin? Further, he knew the Prophets very much hazarded their reputation in the world, when employed in denouncing judgments; because God, being gracious, was flow in executing them. On this account, the Prophets at Bethel and Jerufalem were vilely abufed and decried by infolent and rude infidels, who durft even profefs to defire, or long for, the day of the Lord, (Amos v. 18.) in a confident perfuafion that it would never come; and dared to challenge God to haften his work. Ifai. v. 19. See alfo Jer. xvii. 15. Ezekiel xii. 22. And if this fhould be Jonah's cafe at Nineveh, what could he expect but to be torn in pieces for an impoftor? How must he, and the religion he profefied, be expofed to public contempt and fcorn! This was what he particularly dreaded, chap. iv. 2. therefore refolved to flee from the prefence of [from before] Jehovah; that is, I fuppofe, to run away from the Council of God in the land of Ifrael, to fome remote country beyond fea*, where, he thought, it was never held. But he was ftopped by a miracle, and at length obliged to deliver the doleful meffage, Yet forty days and impenitent Nineveh fhall be overthrown. Convinced of his miraculous miffion, § the king proclaimed a

He was

faft,

*Note-Tarshish may fignify any remote country beyond fea, as the Indies now with us. See Root 1827. in the Eng. Heb. Concordance. § Luke xi. 30.