to err.” The bridle, the bit by which the Lord restrains the wicked, is sometimes an invisible power which he exercises over their minds, filling them with the terror of his name, so that their heart melts” within them, “neither does there remain any more courage in any man;" sometimes a spirit of blindness with which he strikes them, so that they “grope for the wall like the blind;" and sometimes it is severe judgments, by which he gets the mastery over them, as he did in the case of Sennacherib, when he sent an angel which smote, in one night, in the camp of the Assyrians, an hundred fourscore and five thousand men.

Let us now consider the motives which the Lord assigns for defending Jerusalem and its inhabitants. The first is, that he was jealous of Jerusalem as of a virgin which had been espoused to him : “ The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee. The zeal* of the Lord of Hosts shall do this.” The Lord is frequently represented in the Old Testament as the husband of his people of whom he is said to be jealous. When his people are unfaithful, his jealousy leads him to punish them. Deut. xxix. 19, 20; xxxii. 16-21. When they are faithful, or when in their distress they repent and return unto their God, as their Husband who alone can protect them, then the jealousy of the Lord engages him to defend them, and to deliver them from their enemies. Ezek. xxxix. 24-26; Joel ii. 18-20; Zech. i. 14-17 ; viïi. 1-3. Under the new covenant also, the Lord represents himself as the husband of his church. Ephes. v. 25–32; Matt. xxv. 1-10; John iii. 29. And believers are spoken of as being individually espoused unto the Lord at the period of their

Jealousy in the French version,

conversion, when they are united to him by faith. Thus Paul writes to the Corinthians, "I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy; for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." And the day when the Lord shall gather together all his elect, to introduce them into glory, is described as the day of "the marriage of the Lamb," (Rev. xix. 7, 9,) when the church appearing "without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without blemish," shall be like "a bride adorned for her husband." Rev. xxi. 9. If, by the grace of God, we can say with truth, that we are of the number of those who by faith have given themselves up to Christ, and whom he has "betrothed in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies, and in faithfulness," what a consolation must it be to us to think that the Lord is jealous of our souls, and that he watches over and protects them with the same ardor of affection with which a husband defends his wife. The Holy Spirit teaches us that "jealousy is the rage of a man," and that therefore "he will not spare in the day of vengeance," Prov. vi. 34; that "love is strong as death, and jealousy cruel as the grave,” Sol. Song, viii. 6.; that "the coals thereof are as coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame." How important then is it for us not to turn against ourselves by our unfaithfulness the burning jealousy of God! "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God," are the terms in which he addresses his people, when he would deter them from worshipping any creature in heaven or in earth.

"Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he ?" is the language of the apostle Paul to the Corinthians, when he would deter them from participating in the feasts which the Pagans made, when they sacrificed to their idols. Let us then be careful,

first to put away idolatry out of our hearts, and then to avoid all such communication with the world as would make it appear that we hold out the right hand of fellowship to those who live in the idolatry of the creature : Come out from among them, and be ye separate saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.” If we be faithful to our God,-—if at least we bewail the derelictions of duty into which we continually fall, we may, like a wife protected by a powerful and jealous husband, despise our enemies, and shake our head at them. Through him we may triumph over them in every thing, and say, “The zeal (jealousy) of the Lord of Hosts shall do this."

The second motive which the Almighty puts forward as leading him to deliver Jerusalem, is, that he had himself founded that city, and that it belonged to him. “ Hast thou not heard how that a long time ago I made this city, and that in ancient times I formed it. Would I have now brought it to the verge of desolation, and the fenced cities to heaps of ruins ?"*

How consoling is this language of God, when we consider that it is applied in the Scriptures to each individual believer. “The righteous is an everlasting foundation. The foundation of God standeth sure. The work of our Rock is perfect. He reviveth his work in the midst of the years,” Hab. iii. 2 ; and when he has “ begun a good work in us, he performs it until the day of Jesus Christ.” When Satan assaults with rage those whom the Lord hath formed for himself to shew forth

*

It is so in the French version. “ N'as tu pas appris qu'il y a long temps que j'ai fait cette ville, et qu'anciennement je l'ai aussi formée. L'aurais-je maintenant amenée au point d'être reduite en desolation, et les villes munies en monceaux de ruines ?"

his praises, the Lord, as it were, answers him in these words: "Hast thou not known how that a long time ago I formed them for my glory?" wilt thou snatch from me those whom I have chosen from the foundation of the world, those for whom I have given my Son, and whom I have built up by faith upon that sure foundation? Shall I let thee have it in thy power to say, I have destroyed the work of God? Have I taken such care of that soul till now, have I done so much to build it up and establish it in Christ, only that it may after all be reduced by thee, "into desolation and a heap of ruins ?" To enjoy the full consolation which flows from the promise of God that he will not "forsake the work of his hands," how necessary is it for us to be assured, that that which is wrought in us is really the work of God, and not a reformation effected merely by the influence of human motives! How necessary is it for us to be assured, that every stone of the building, from first to last, has been laid upon Christ by the hand of the Spirit of God, and that we are "built up in our most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost!" Jude 20. If this be the case, we shall find strong consolation in being able to say, "The Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves." Ps. c. 3. "The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever; forsake not the work of thine own hands." Ps. cxxxviii. 8.

Before he declares his determination to reduce Sennacherib to his power like a ferocious animal, and to deliver Jerusalem, the Lord anticipates an objection which the Assyrian king might draw from the weakness of the people of God, and from their want of courage; he tells him that this very feebleness, which the enemy made a ground of triumph and reproach, would only serve to display more conspicuously the

ness.

9

power of God which should be perfected in their weak

« Their inhabitants,” he says, speaking of the cities of Judah, “were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded : they were as the grass

of the field and as the green herb, as the grass of the housetops, and as corn blasted before it has grown up.", The Lord does not hesitate to acknowledge the weakness of his people ; he even frequently takes notice of it in his word, because the weakness enhances the triumph of his grace and power. Let us, then, learn willingly to “ glory in our infirmity." When the enemy would terrify us by the view of our own worthlessness and vileness, let us learn to say to him, It is true, I am without strength or courage ; I am like the weakest and most contemptible of creatures ; I am as the

grass

of the field that is withered, or as the corn blasted before it is grown up; but I have a strength independent of myself: “ God is my strength and power;" and my consolation is, that he has no need of my strength to assist his, and that the more weak and miserable I am, the more will he be exalted in having mercy on me.

GOD'S PROMISES TO HEZEKIAH.

After declaring his purpose to deliver Hezekiah out of the hands of Sennacherib, the Lord gives him two promises calculated to remove all his anxieties as to the consequences of the war; the one assuring him of abundance, the other of the increase and prosperity of his people.

Hezekiah might have said within himself, What advantage is it to me to be delivered from a war, if I am to perish by famine ? Our land has been ravaged, and there is no time to till it; how then are we to live