;Ahab (for he hod the daughter of Ahab to wife): and be wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord. . . . In his days the Edomitcs revolted . . . . Moreover the Lord stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines, and of the Arabians that ·were near the Ethiopians: and they came up into Judah, and brake into it,; (2 Chron; xxi. 6-17). In the latter days of J oash, "they left the house of the Lord Ood: of their· fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this t~eir trespaBS. •.. ~nd it came to pass at the end of the year, that the host of Syna came up ..• with a small company of men, and the Lord delivered a very great host into their hand, because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers" (2 Chron. xxiv. 18-24). Jn the reign of Amaziah, Jerusalem we.a taken by Joash King of Israel, because "Amaziah sought after the gods of Edom" (2 Chron. xxv. 14-24). Ahaz "made molten images for Baalim. .. , Wherefore the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of the King of Syria ... and into the band of the King of Israel" (2 Chron. xxviii. 2-5). At the beginning of the reirn of Manasseh, "the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his people: but they would not hearken. Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the King of Aesyria" (2 Chron. xxxiil. 10, 11). And at last, these partial chastisements having failed to bring about reformation, came the Babylonish Captivity. "The Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. Therefore he brought upon them the King of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand. ... And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon" (2 Chron. xxxvi. 15--20). The transgressions of the northern kingdom were even gre3ter than those of the southern kingdom, and their final punishment, therefore, fell upon them earlier. "For so it was, that the chil4ren of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, ... and walked in the statutes of the· heathen, . . . for they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.•.. And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers . . . . Therefore the Lord was very angry, ... and removed them out of his eight" (2 Kings xvii. 7-18). This occurred in the reign of Hoshea, and in the case of the ten tribes we find no symptoms of repentance under suffering. The two tribes produced a Daniel; and his prayer for the forgiveness of his people (Dan. ix. 3-19) illustrates the feelings of the better of his fellow- captives; and therefore, according to the promise of eh. xxvi. 40-42, God remembered his covenant with Jscob, and Isaac, and .Abraham, and raised up Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nebemiah to effect the restoration; while the ten tribes pined away in the land of their captivity. Thus Moses' prediction WIIS fulfilled. God deals with other nations as with Israel; but we have not the inspired record of his dealinga. While Greece cultivated intellectual wisdom, she flourished; when she turned to sophistry, she perished. While Rome spread order and law throughou~ the globe, she grew in strength; when she submitted to the sway of arbitrary despots, she fell. What is England's mission in the world? To disseminate at once true religion and true liberty. As long as she does this, she will receive God's blessing. As soon o.s she fails to fulfil the purpose of her existence as a nation, she will be withdrawn from the scene, and another instrument raised up in her stead.
HOMILIES DY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Temporal rewards and punishments. Cb. nvi.; cf. Eccles. viii. 11; Isa. xlviii. 18; Matt. v. 44, 46 • and 1 Tim. iv. 8. There is in this cha.pier a distinct assertion of moral government ex~rcised ovor Israel. If they obeyed God's Law, ho would grant them great temporal blessing; if tbey disobeyed, be would send them sore chastisement; but if after d~bedience they became penitent, he would remember their fathers and hla covenant with them, and receive their penitent seed into favour again. The whole (16 THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. [oH. XXVI. 1-46.