3. A mercy that may well reconcile us to all events connected with it —
[We are not to suppose that Hezekiah was indifferent about the welfare of his posteritj' : it was nothing but his sense of the greatness of the mercy vouchsafed to him, that led him to acquiesce so meekly in the sentence as it was denounced against him. The prospect of the calamities that would come on his posterity was doubtless a source of bitter anguish to his mind: but it was a great matter that he had obtained a respite, and that the judgment was not inflicted instantly upon him. This favour therefore he acknowledged as a mercy, which might well compose and tranquillize his mind.
Now it is certain that the blessings which we enjoy are far from coming \\dthout alloy. They will, it is to be feared, prove in the issue a source of misery to many. The peace, which leads to the disbanding of so many thousand troops, will leave multitudes in a state unfavourable to their best interests. Many will find it difficult to return to the employment of honest industry ; yea perhaps may find it difficult even to get employment : and many who in the scenes of war have been accustomed tc blood and pillage may bring home with them a disposition to exercise amongst their brethren the same evil habits which they deemed allowable amongst their enemies : and thus our domestic security may be invaded, and the per- petrators of these crimes be subjected to an untimely death by the hands of the public executioner. This is an evil felt at the termination of every war : yet must it by no means indispose us to acknowledge the blessings of peace.
The very truth of God also, even the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, brings on many, through their rejection of it, an heavier condemnation. Good would it have been for many, if they had never heard the Gospel ; yea good, if Jesus Christ had never come into the world to save our ruined race. It was declared at the very time that he did come, that " he was set for the fall, as well as for the risi?ig again, of many in IsraeP" and that, though he should be " a sanctuary to some, he should prove to others a stumbling stone and a rock of offence '^." Thus does the Gospel itself, that greatest gift of God to mankind, " become to some a savour of life mito life, but to others a savour of death unto death *^." Still however we must not suffer these things to diminish our value for the Gospel. If some abuse their food to intemperance, we must not therefore be unthankful for our food : nor if men abuse the Gospel, must we impute it to any defect in the Gospel, but to the depravity of their own hearts, which turns the blessing into a curse.
^ Lukeii. 34. <= Isai. viii. 14. ^2 Cor. ii. 16.