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Here's death, sword, famine, captivity, ver. 2. banishment, ver. 4. unpitied desolation, ver. 5. redoubled destruction, bereaving, fanning, spoiling, &,c. ver. 6 — 9. That universal devastation of the whole people, which came upon them in the Babylonish captivity, is the thing here intended, the means of its accomplishment by particular plagues and judg- ments, in their several kinds (for the greater dread and terror) being at large annumerated ; the faithfulness of God also being made hereby to shine more clear, in the dispersion of that people ; doing, not only for the main, what before he had threatened, but in particular, executing the judgments recorded, Luke xxvi. 14, &c. Deut. xxviii. 15, &,c. 'Fulfill- ing hereby what he had devised, accomplishing the word he had commanded in the days of old ;' Lam. ii. 17.
That which hence I shall observe is only from the variety of these particulars, which are held out as the means of the intended desolation.
Observation. God's treasures of wrath against a sinful people, have sundry and various issues for the accomplish- ment of the appointed end.
When God walks contrary to a people, it is not always in one path, he hath seven ways to do it, and will do it seven times; Lev. xxvi. 24. He strikes not always with one weapon, nor in one place. As there is with him ttoikiXti x«P'C> 'mani- fold and various grace ;' 1 Pet. iv. 10. love and compassion making out itself in choice variety, suited to our manifold indigencies; so there is, opy?} Ti.^r)aavpiafiiv(\\ Rom. ii. 5. stored, treasured wrath, suiting itself in its flowings out to the provocations of stubborn sinners.
The first emblem of God's wrath against man, was a 'flaw- ing sword turning itself every way ;' Gen. iii. 24. Not only in one or two, but in all their paths, he meeteth them with his flaming sword. As a wild beast in a net,* so are sinners under inexorable judgments; the more they strive, the more they are inwrapped and entangled ; they shuffle themselves from under on€ calamity, and fall into another : ' as if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him ; or went into the house, and leaned his hand upon the wall, and a serpent bit him ;' Amos v. 19. Oh, remove this one plague, saith Pha- raoh ;^ if l^e can escape from under this pressure, he thinks
«Isa.li.20. fExod. X. 17.
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he shall be free : but, when he fled from the lion, still the bear met him, and when he went into the house, the serpent bit hira. And as the flaming sword turns every way, so God can put it into every thing. To those that cry. Give me a king, God can give him in his anger ; and from those that cry. Take him away, he can take him away in his wrath ; Hosea xiii. 10, 11 .
Oh that this might seal up instruction to our own souls ! What variety of calamities have we been exercised withal, for sundry years ? What Pharaoh-like spirits have we had under them ? Oh, that we were delivered this once, and then all were well ! How do we spend all our thoughts to extri- cate ourselves from our present pressures? If this hedge, this pit were passed, we should have smooth ground to walk in : not considering that God can fill our safest paths with snares and serpents. Give us peace, give us wealth, give us as we were, with our own, in quietness. Poor creatures! Suppose all these desires were in sincerity, and not as with the most they are, fair colours of foul and bloody designs ; yet if peace were, and wealth were, and former things were, and God were not, what would it avail you? Cannot he poison your peace, and canker your wealth ? And when you were escaped out of the field from the lion and the bear, ap- point a serpent to bite you, leaning upon the walls of your own house ? In vain do you seek to stop the streams, while the fountains are open; turn yourselves whither you will, bring yourselves into what condition you can, nothing but peace and reconciliation with the God of all these judgments, can give you rest in the day of visitation. You see what variety of plagues are in his hand, changing of condition will do no more to the avoiding of them, than a sick man's turning him- self from one side of the bed to another; during his turning, he forgets his pain by striving to move, being laid down again, he finds his condition the same as before.
This is the first thing, we are under various judgments, from which by ourselves there is no deliverance.
Secondly, The second thing here expressed, is the pro- curing cause of these various judgments, set down ver. 4. ' Because of Manasseh, son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.'
The sins of Manasseh filled the epha of Judah's wick-
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edness, and caused the talent of lead to be laid on the mouth theveof.8 Oftentimes in the relation of his story doth the Holy Ghost emphatically express this, that for his sin Judah should be destroyed; 2 Kings xxi. 11. Yea, when they had a little reviving under Josiah, and the bowels of the Lord began to work in compassion towards them ; yet as it were remembering the provocation of this Manasseh, he recalls his thoughts of mercy; 2 Kings xxiii. 26, 27. The deposing of divine and human things is oftentimes very opposite.'' God himself proceeds with them in a diverse dispensation. In the spiritual body the members offend, and the head is punished : ' The iniquity of us all did meet on him;' Isa. liii. In the civil politic body the head offends, and the members rue it: Manasseh sins, and Judah must go captive.