XVI. God's wonderfully upholding his church and the true religion through this period. It was very wonderful, considering the many and great apostasies that there were of that people to idolatry. When the ten tribes had generally and finally forsaken the true worship of God, God kept up the true religion in the kingdom of Judah; and when they corrupted themselves, as they very often did exceedingly, and idolatry was ready totally to swallow all up, yet God kept the lamp alive, and was often pleased, when things seemed to be come to an extremity, and religion at its last gasp, to grant blessed revivals by remarkable outpourings of his Spirit, particularly in Hezekiah's and Josiah's time.

XVII. God remarkably kept the book of the law from being lost in times of general and long continued neglect of, and enmity against it. The most remarkable instance of this kind that we have, was the preservation of the book of the law in the time of the great apostasy, during the greatest part of the long reign of Manasseh, which lasted fiftyfive years, and then after that the reign of Amon his son. This, while the book of the law was so much neglected, and such a careless and profane management of the affairs of the temple prevailed, that the book of the law, that used to be laid up by the side of the ark in the Holy of Holies, was lost for a long time; nobody knew where it was. But yet God preserved it from being finally lost. In Josiah's time, when they came to repair the temple, it was found buried in rubbish, after it had been lost so long that Josiah himself seems to have been much a stranger to it till now. See 2 Kings xxii. 8, &c.

XVIII. God's remarkably preserving the tribe of which Christ was to proceed, from being ruined through the many and great dangers of this period. The visible church of Christ from Solomon's reign, was mainly in the tribe of Judah. The tribe of Benjamin, that was annexed to them, was but a very small tribe, and the tribe of Judah exceeding large; and as Judah took Benjamin under his covert when he went into Egypt to bring corn, so the tribe of Benjamin seemed to be under the covert of Judah ever after: And though, on occasion of Jeroboam's setting up the calves at Bethel and Dan,

the Levites resorted to Judah out of all the tribes of Israel, (✨ Chron. xi. 13) yet they were also small, and not reckoned among the tribes: And though many of the ten tribes did also on that occasion, for the sake of the worship of God in the temple, leave their inheritances in their several tribes, and removed and settled in Judah, and so were incorporated with them, as we have an account in the chapter just quoted, and 16th verse; yet the tribe of Judah was so much the prevailing part, that they were called by one name, they were called Judak: Therefore God said to Solomon, 1 King's xi. 13. « I will not rend away all the kingdom; but will give one tribe to thy son, for David my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, which I have chosen,” and so ver. 32, 36. So when the ten tribes were carried captive, it is said, there was none left but the tribe of Judah only: 2 Kings xvii. 18. « Therefore the Lord was very wroth with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: There was none left but the tribe of Judah only." Whence they were all called Jews, which is a word that comes from Judah.

This was the tribe of which Christ was to come; and in this chiefly did God's visible church consist, from Solomon's time: And this was the people over whom the kings that were legal ancestors of Christ, and were of the house of David, reigned. This people was wonderfully preserved from destruction during this period, when they often seemed to be upon the brink of ruin, and just ready to be swallowed up. So it was in Rehoboam's time, when Shishak king of Egypt came against Judah with such a vast force; yet then God manifestly preserved them from being destroyed. Of this we read in the beginning of the 12th chapter of 2 Chronicles. So it was again in Abijah's time, when Jeroboam set the battle in array against him with eight hundred thousand chosen men; a mighty army indeed. We read of it, 2 Chron. xiii. 3. Then God wrought deliverance to Judah, out of regard to the covenant of grace established with David, as is evident by verse 4 and 5; and the victory they obtained was because the Lord was on their side, as you may see verse 12. So it was again in Asa's time, when Zerah the Ethiopian came against him

with a yet larger army of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots, 2 Chron. xiv. 9. On this occasion Asa cried to the Lord, and trusted in him, being sensible that it was nothing with him to help those that had no power; ver. 11. “And Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with those that have no power.” And accordingly God gave them a glorious victory over this mighty host.

So again it was in Jehoshaphat's time, when the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and the inhabitants of Mount Seir, combined together against Judah with a mighty army, a force vastly superior to any that Jehoshaphat could raise; and Jehoshaphat and his people were greatly afraid; yet they set themselves to seek God on this occasion, and trusted in him; and God told them by one of his prophets, that they need not fear them, nor should they have any o¤casion to fight in this battle, they should only stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, And according to his direction, they only stood still, and sang praises to God, and God made their enemies do the work themselves, and set them to killing one another; and the children of Judah had nothing to do, but to gather the spoil, which was more than they could carry away. We have the story in 2 Chron. xx.

So it was again in Ahaz's time, when Rezin the king of Syria, and-Pekah the son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, conspir ed against Judah, and seemed to be sure of their purpose; of which we have spoken already. So it was again in Hezekiah's time, when Sennacherib, that great king of Assyria, and head of the greatest monarchy that was then in the world, came up against all the fenced cities of Judah, after he had conquered most of the neighboring countries, and sent Rabshakeḥ, the captain of his host, against Jerusalem, who came, and in a very proud and scornful manner insulted Hezekiah and his people, as being sure of victory; and the people were treme bling for fear, like lambs before a lion. Then God sent Isaiah the prophet to comfort them, and assure them that they should not prevail; as a token of which he gave them this sign, viz. that the earth, for two years successively, should

« And the rem

bring forth food of itself, from the roots of the old stalks,
without their ploughing or sowing; and then the third year
they should sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the
fruit of them, and live on the fruits of their labor; as they were
wont to do before. See 2 Kings xix. 29. This is mentioned
as a type of what is promised in ver. 30, 31.
nant that is escaped of the house of Judah, shall yet again take
root downward, and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem
shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of Mount
Sion: The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this." The
corn's springing again after it had been cut off with the sickle,
and bringing forth another crop from the roots, that seemed
to be dead, and so once and again, represents the church's re-
viving again, as it were, out of its own ashes, and flourishing
like a plant, after it had seemingly been cut down past recov-
ery.
When the enemies of the church have done their ut-
most, and seem to have gained their point, and to have over-
thrown the church, so that the being of it is scarcely visible,
but like a living root hid under ground; yet there is a secret
life in it that will cause it to flourish again, and to take root
downward, and bear fruit upward. This was fulfilled now at
this time; for the king of Assyria had already taken and car-
ried captive the ten tribes; and Sennacherib had also taken
all the fenced cities of Judah, and ranged the country round
about, and Jerusalem only remained; and Rabshakeh had
in his own imagination already swallowed that up, as he had
also in the fearful apprehensions of the Jews themselves. But
yet God wrought a wonderful deliverance. He sent an angel,
that in one night smote an hundred fourscore and five thous-
and in the enemy's camp:

XIX. In the reign of Uzziah, and the following reigns, God was pleased to raise up a set of eminent prophets, who should commit their prophecies to writing, and leave them for the use of his church in all ages. We before observed how that God began a constant succession of prophets in Israel in Samuel's time, and many of these prophets wrote by divine inspiration, and so added to the canon of scripture, before Uzziah's time. But none of them are supposed to have written

books of prophecies till now. Several of them wrote histories of the wonderful dispensations of God towards his church, This we have observed already of Samuel, who is supposed to have written Judges and Ruth, and part of the first of Samuel, if not the book of Joshua. And Nathan and Gad seem to have written the rest of the two books of Samuel: And Nathan, with Ahijah and Iddo, wrote the history of Solomon, which is probably that which we have in the first book of Kings. The history of Israel seems to have been further carried on by Iddo and Shemaiah: 2 Chron. xii. 15. "Now the acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are they not written in the book of Shemaiah the prophet, and Iddo the seer, concerning genealogies?" And after that the history seems to have been further carried on by the prophet Jehu, the son of Hanani: 2 Chron, xx. 34. “Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first and last, behold they are written in the book of Jehu, the son of Hanani, who is mentioned in the book of the kings of Israel,” as we find him to be, 1 Kings xvi. 1, 7. And then it was further continued by the prophet Isaiah : 2 Chron. xxvi. 22. «Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, write." He probably did it as well in the second book of kings, as in the book of his prophecy. And the history was carried on and finished by other prophets after him,

Thus the prophets, even from Samuel's time, had from. time to time, been adding to the canon of scripture by their historical writings. But now, in the days of Uzziah, did God first raise up a set of great prophets, not only to write histories, but to write books of their prophecies, The first of these is thought to be Hosea the son of Beeri, and therefore his prophecy, or the word of the Lord by him, is called the beginning of the word of the Lord; as Hosea i. 2. “The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea ;" that is, the beginning, or the first part, of the written word of that kind, viz. that which is written in books of prophecy, He prophe cied in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel. There was many other witnesses; for God