816 THE ADVANTAGE OF
bewailed the folly of their fathers in persecuting the prophets, when themselves were endeavoimng to kill the Son of God, Matt, xxiii. 29, 30. To bring, then, upon the spirits of men a conviction of the works of God, and his righteousness therein, so as to prevail with them to rest in his determination of things, is a task meet only for him who knows all their hearts within them, and can carry on the issues of his providence until to a man they shall say, " Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God who judgeth in the earth," Ps. Iviii. 11. And this is that which the Lord here undertakes to accomplish, " And," saith he, " all the trees," &c.
In the preaching and prophesying of Ezekiel, this one thing among others is eminent, that he was " artifex parabolarum," — a wonderful " framer of similitudes and parables;"^ a Avay of teaching attended with much evidence, clearness, and power.
In particular, he frequently compares the world to a field, or a forest, and the inhabitants of it to the trees therein; — an allusion exceedingly proper, considering the great variety and difference of condition both of the one and the other. The trees of the field are some high, some low ; some green, some dry ; some strong, some weak ; some lofty, some contemptible; some fruitful, some ban-en; some useful, some altogether useless : so that you have all sorts of persons, high and low, of what condition, relation, or interest soever, clearly represented by the trees of the field; and these are the trees in my text.
This chapter, unto verse 22, is taken up in a riddle, a parable, with the exposition of it.* The time being come that God would destroy the outward, visible monarchj'^ of the Jews, for their false worship, tyranny, persecution, and oppression, he employs the king of Bab3'lon in that work,^ who subdues the nation, takes away two kings, one after another, and appoints Zedekiah a titulary governor under him.* But the wrath of God being to come upon them to the uttermost, he also closes with Egypt, rebels against him^ by whose appointment alone he had any right to be a ruler, verse 16; so way is made, by his ruin, to put an end to the kingly reign of the house of David in Jerusalem, Jer. xxix. 16, 17. The Lord had of old erected a kingly government in the house of David, 1 Sam. xvi. 1; 2 Sam. xii. 7; — not for any eminency in the government itself, or for the civil advantage of that people, — for he had long before chosen and established another, con- sisting of " seventy elders of the people," Numb. xi. 24, to whom he added prophets and judges, extraordinarily raised up in several gene- rations, according to his promise, Deut. xviii. 18, (which when the people rejected, ho said they rejected him, or his institution, 1 Sam.
' Ezek. XX. 49. ' xvii. 2. ' 2 Chion. xxxvi. 17.
* 2 Kiiijjs xxiv. 1-3. ' .k-r. xxxvii. 1; 2 Kiiij^s xxiv. 17; - Chron. xxxvi. 10.
THE KIIS-GDOM 01 CHRIST. 8 1 7
viii. 7), — but tliat it might be a type of the spiritiial dominion of their Messiah ;^ and so was a part of their pedagogy and bondage, as were the residue of their types, every one of them ; — yea, the most glorious enjoyments whatsoever which were granted them (which did yet represent something that was afterward to be brought in), was part of that servile estate wherein God kept that people, that without us they should not be made perfect. But now this carnal people, be- holding the outward beauty, lustre, and glory of the type, began to rest in it, to the neglect of the spiritual kingdom of Christ represented thereby.^ And thus did they with the rest of their types, until the Lord destroyed all their outward pomp and glory, Isa. i. 11, 12; Jer. vii. 4, 14, 15. So, in particular, dealt he with their kingly govern- ment, when once they began to account their bondage their glory, and to embrace the shadow instead of the substance. And this did he, to recall them to a serious consideration of the tendency of all t}7)ical institutions, and the design he was carrying on concerning the kingdom of Christ.
Hence, verse 22 of this chapter, he calls them from their thought- fulness about the destructions, desolations, and contentions that were amongst them in reference to their civil rule, to the consideration of that design which he was secretly and silently canying on under all these dispensations. " I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it ; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent : in the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it ; and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing ; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell." As if the Lord shoidd say. There is a great noise in the world about setting up and plucking down of kings, in this their carnal rule ; and many of yovi see nothing else, — you will look no farther : but I also have my work in hand ; my de- sign is not bounded within these limits and outward appearances; I am setting up a King that shall have another manner of dominion and rule than these worms of the earth. He shall stand ; — as Mic. v. 4.