over the Kingdom. x Are remiſs, or miſtake, or are heartleſs or dead; they cannot;or will not mind the publick Concerns. y H1s Name ] mcet not with, Aſaradinus,or as the Scripture calls him Eſarhaddon, may poſſibly be the Name and Manintended, 2 The brave, valiant and famous Men. @ Either be duricd as dead, or lie on the Duſt as f:int and weary, or be trampled on as worthleſs and uſeleſs. b Thy Citizens and SubjeRs in their great Numbers. c Partly through Fear, Shame and Aſtoniſhment ; partly by Violence of the invading Enemy
H 4 B-4 KU KI
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a4 Where 1s neither Safety nor Frovitiot acninit Danger 2nd Want, e No one that will concern himfelt to preſerve thy diipericd Onws,
fo rhou and they are lett hopeleſs and ruined, for the Stepherds ©:
ſome dcad, and cannor, the reit ſlumber and will not lay to tia: s their Condition, 19 There is no Þ healing f of thy bruiſe g- thy woun *
IS grievous Þ :- all that hear the bruit of thee 7 111all clap the hands # over thee; for upon whom / hath aut thy wickedneſs mz paſſed 7 continually o 2
f In a word, thou Nineveh muſt die, thy Bruiſe he will not heal who gave it, and others cannot. God iy the Cha/deanshath wounded thee, and thy Friends cannot bind up the Wound. 2g Shiver'd and broken State. þ Hath brought a Weaknets on thee, thou art tick with thy Wound and fainteft, not able to bear a Cure. 7 Of thy former Carriage and preſent Calamities. þ Inſulting and rcjoycing over thee. 1 No Kingdom, State, Ciry or Family almoſt rouzd about rlice, not one can be named. m Thy Sins, thy Idolatry, Lux- ury, Orc. thy Tyranny, Pride, Oppretfion and Cruclty ; thy illegal, unprecedented Violence. n Without any Bounds, aid 1n molt ve- hement and fierce manner, o Either always treading down, and trampling upon thoſe whom thou hadſt ſu>dued, or ciſe having con- quered and ſpoiled one State, didft forthwith tail upon fone other; Thus all ſuffered by rhee,and all rejuyce at thy utter Downral z and as none have cauſe to befriend thee, ſo none will tind Hearts to pity thee, or Hands to help thee, but every one 1s ready to with, that all who are as thou wert, Enemy to blankind and Juſtice, may as thou, periſh without Help or Pity.
HABAKKUK.
K—
The ARGUMENT.
TT: Prophecy of Habakkuk ſeems to be an exatl ſtating of that perplexed Caſe touching the ſeeming
UN E7 41 " 7t '{s
of the Proceedings of God in the Government of the World, in which the Good ſuffer Evil, and the Evil re-
Tazce in Proſperity ; the more Righteous are afflified, and the more Unrighteous proſper ; nay, the worſt domineer
CUEF
the beſt among Men. This Caſe baffled the wiſe among Philo/ophers, and it much troubled David and Jeremiai, Plalm 73. 2, 3, &c. Jer. 12. 1, 2. azd hath ever been matter of jome wonder 10 the beſt and wiſeſt of Men, as here was to Habakkuk, who lived in the times of great Impicties againſt God, and of great Injuſtice amongſt Men. *1is moſt probable he Irved and propheſied in the Days of Manaſſeh, when the wicked devoured the Man that was more righteous than himſelf; and this is the Subjett of his Complaint, ch. 1. 11,2, 3,4. Thoſe grievous Sins which then abounded, he declareth ſhall be puniſhed by the Chaldeans, at which he again wondreth , it gricvertt him to ſee in Ju- dah the beſt affliffed by the worſt ;, and it 1s as much Grief to bim to fereſce the wicked Nation of the Childcans proſper in the Ruins of a more rightcous Nation, from the 51h tothe 111h ver. of the firſt Chapter, which God conr- mandeth him to forctel. On this he propoſeth the Caſe expreſly, from ver. 12. tothe end of the Chia pter, azd wich
God reſolveth for him in the ſecond Chapter, where the Sins of Judah and the S:ns of the Chaldeans ore enumerate;
f.
/ 5
and at once both are threatned with Pumſhment, when the Chaldeans have puniſhed Judah's Sins, the M95 ard
Perfians ſha/l puniſh the ſame Sins in the Chaldeans, In all which the unſpotied Righteonſneſs.and the admirable if. dom of God is ſeen, in the Government of bis Church chaſtifed for ber Sims againſt God, and in bis Governmen
_ , "AS.
Fa Y 2 LES-4 p
World {inning bighly againſt God, and with greater Wickedneſs atting the ſame, or worſe things than thoſe, ſor which
» _ p
by their means God bad before puniſhed his Church. In fine, the Prophet with ſteddy Faith and fervent Prayer ad.
dreſſeth 10 God, and in moſt elegant manner recounting God's Mercy and Fiithiulnejs to bis People, chap. 3; => C w 1
it both a Foundation to our Hope, and Pattern for our Pract
He oY Ce #
tice. He doth revive, as we (ould, to wait for, rejyce
mn, and ſubmit to the Lord, in greateſt Diſtrcſjes and Darkneſs of Providence. An excellent Subjed for our Mcdi-
tations at this Day, as well as in the Days of our Prophet , whoſe Name feems
to wiply bis Wreſtlings with theſe
Difficulties, or his laying bold and embracing of God our ſafeſt Corſe mn [ac Creamptances being to adhere 10God, IWe can but gueſs at the time of his Propheſying, and that we think is rather 1n the tne of Manatlth 1hip of Heze-
kiah or Jofhiah, though poſſibly be might live and be a Prophet what Family he was of we pretend not to teil you, ſince we C: the pretended Meſſenger that carried a Meſs of Broih 0. think it a wonder, any thinking Man ſhould now bclieve 1t,
CHAP. L
The prophet complaineth of the great wickedneſs of the Fews, 1 —— q ſheweth the fearful vengeance of the Chaldeans againſt them, 5 — 11. yet prayeth for them, and againſt their enemies, 12 — 17.
HE burden « which Habakkuk 5 the prophet c did lee d.
4 Vid. Nahum 1. ver. x. let. a. to which we may here add, as pro-
per to this Time and Place, that the Prophet ſeems to ſpeak of the |
grievous things here intended, as a Burden to himſelf, a Trouble he did feel and groan under. b Here we might as others gueſs ar his Country, Parentageand Tribe; but no certainty appears in theſe, his Name may perhaps intimace ſomewhat, either Actively one that embraceth, or Paſſively one embraced, and ſo may refer to God, or fo his People, and iotimate good to a People, whom God will ere lond embrace z or it may ſpeak one that is puzzled with che intri- Cacy of Affairs, and therefore expoſtulateth, as v. 2, 3- c Not he that is mentioned in the Apocriphal Book, but a Prophet called, and lent of God. d Not only in the fur uce certainty of it on others, »ut did alſo feel in the preſent Trouble.and Perplexicy wherewith
!t affected him,
7n the firſt part of Joliah's Reign. What Tribe or not pretend 10 Riow s, but we are ſure be teas not