Now, of this "wisdom and knowledge" it may be justly affirmed, that it tends to the stability of every empire in which it is found. So far as it prevailed at any time in the Jewish State, (for it was revealed to them, though darkly, in their ceremonial law,) they prospered: and whenever it was banished, they were delivered up into the hand of their enemies ; as their whole history very clearly shews. The separation of the ten tribes, which proved such a permanent and fatal calamity to the whole nation, was appointed of God as a punishment for that iniquity which Solomon had introduced, and which had overspread the whole land. On the other hand, in consequence of the re- formation introduced by Hezekiah, (which gave, as it were, for a time, a new character to his people,) the Prophet says, " Their place of defence shall be the munition of rocks ; bread shall be given them, and their water shall be sure6 ;" yea, " the Lord will be to them as a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein can go no galley with oars, neither can gallant ship pass thereby11;" that is, whilst they were protected by the river, they should be inaccessible by vessels of any kind, the waters being too tempestuous for smaller boats, and too full of rocks and shoals to be navigated by larger ships ; and thus, in the midst of hostile nations, should " Jerusalem be a quiet habitation, and a tabernacle that not all the power of their most inveterate enemies could move1."
True it is, that we, at this day, are not to look for such visible interpositions of the Deity as were vouch- safed to the Jews under what we may call their Theocracy. But God is still the Governor of the Universe, and does still deal with his people, in a measure, as in former days ; punishing or protecting them, according as their iniquities are flagrant, or their piety profound. And I cannot but think, that though, for our abounding iniquities, God sorely chastened our nation in the last war, the prayers of thousands in this land prevailed to avert from us a vast pressure of calamity, to which all the rest of Europe
g ver. 16. i> ver. 21. • ver. 20.