P R E F
A C E
THIS
second volume of methodized and practical expositions of the inspired writings
ventures abroad with fear and trembling in the same plain and homely dress with
the former on the Pentateuch. Ornari res ipsa negat; contenta doceri--the
subject requires no ornament; to have it apprehended is all. But I trust,
through grace, it proceeds from the same honest design to promote the knowledge
of the scripture, in order to the reforming of men's hearts and lives. If I may
but be instrumental to make my readers wise and good, wiser and better, more
watchful against sin and more careful of their duty both to God and man, and, in
order thereto, more in love with the word and law of God, I have all I desire,
all I aim at. May he that ministereth seed to the sower multiply the seed
sown, by increasing the fruits of our righteousness, 2 Cor. ix. 10.
It is the history of the Jewish church and nation that fills this volume, from
their first settlement in the promised land, after their 430 years' bondage in
Egypt and their forty years' wandering in the wilderness, to their re-settlement
there after their seventy years' captivity in Babylon--from Joshua to Nehemiah.
The five books of Moses were taken up more with their laws, institutes, and
charters; but all these books are purely historical, and in this way of writing
a great deal of very valuable learning and wisdom has been conveyed from one
generation to another. The chronology of this history, and the ascertaining of
the times when the several events contained in it happened, would very much
illustrate the history, and add to the brightness of it; it is therefore well
worthy the search of the curious and ingenious, and they may find both pleasure
and profit in perusing the labours of many learned men who have directed their
studies that way. I confess I could willingly have entertained myself and
reader, in this preface, with a calculation of the times through which this
history passes; but I consider that such a babe in knowledge as I am could not
pretend either to add to or correct what has been done by so many great writers,
much less to decide the controversies that have been agitated among them. I had
indeed some thoughts of consulting my worthy and ever-honoured friend Mr.
Tallents of Shrewsbury, the learned author of the "View of Universal
History," and of begging some advice and assistance from him in methodizing
the contents of this history; but, in the very week in which I put my last hand
to this part, it pleased God to put an end to his useful life (and useful it was
to the last) and to call him to his rest, in the eighty-ninth year of his age:
so that purpose was broken off, that thought of my heart. But that elaborate
performance of his commonly called his "Chronological Tables" gives
great light to this, as indeed to all other parts of history. And Dr.
Lightfoot's "Chronology of the Old Testament," and Mr. Cradock's
"History of the Old Testament Methodized," may also be of great use to
such readers as I write for. As to the particular chronological difficulties
which occur in the thread of this history, I have not been large upon them,
because many times I could not satisfy myself, and how then could I satisfy my
reader concerning them? I have not indeed met with any difficulties so great but
that solutions might be given of them sufficient to silence the atheists and
antiscripturists, and roll away from the sacred records all the reproach of
contradiction and inconsistency with themselves; for, to do that, it is enough
to show that the difference may be accommodated either this way or that, when at
the same time one cannot satisfy one's self which way is the right. But it is
well that these are things about which we may very safely and very comfortably
be ignorant and unresolved. What concerns our salvation is plain enough, and we
need not perplex ourselves about the niceties of chronology, genealogy, or
chorography. At least my undertaking leads me not into those labyrinths. What is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in
righteousness, is what I intend to observe, and I would endeavour to open
what is dark and hard to be understood only in order to that. Every author must
be taken in his way of writing; the sacred penman, as they have not left us
formal systems, so they have not left us formal annals, but useful narratives of
things proper for our direction in the way of duty, which some great judges of
common writers have thought to be the most pleasant and profitable histories,
and most likely to answer the end. The word of God manifestis pascit,
obscuris exercet (Aug. in Joh. Tract. 45), as one of the ancients expresses
it, that is, it has enough in it that is easy to nourish the meanest to life
eternal, yet enough that is difficult to try the industry and humility of the
greatest. There are several things which should recommend this part of
sacred writ to our diligent and constant search.
I. That it is history, and therefore entertaining and very pleasant,
edifying and very serviceable to the conduct of human life. It gratifies the
inquisitive with the knowledge of that which the most intense speculation could
not discover any other way. By a retirement into ourselves, and a serious
contemplation of the objects we are surrounded with, close reasoning may advance
many excellent truths without being beholden to any other. But for the knowledge
of past events we are entirely indebted (and must be so) to the reports and
records of others. A notion or hypothesis of man's own framing may gain him the
reputation of a wit, but a history of man's own framing will lay him under the
reproach of a cheat any further than as it respects that which he himself is an
eye or ear-witness of. How much are we indebted then to the divine wisdom and
goodness for these writings, which have made things so long since past as
familiar to us as any of the occurrences of the age and place we live in!
History is so edifying that parables and apologues have been invented to make up
the deficiencies of it for our instruction concerning good and evil; and,
whatever may be said of other history, we are sure that in this history there is
no matter of fact recorded but what has its use and will help either to expound
God's providence or guide man's prudence.
II. That it is true history, and what we may rely upon the credit of, and
need not fear being deceived in. That which the heathens reckoned tempus adhlon (which
they knew nothing at all of) and tempus muqikon (the
account of which was wholly fabulous)
is to us tempus istorikon,
what
we have a most authentic account of.
The Greeks were with them the most celebrated historians, and yet their
successors in learning and dominion, the Romans, put them into no good name for
their credibility, witness that of the poet: Et quicquid Græcia mendax audet
in historia--All that lying
Greece
has dared to record, Juv. Sat.
10. But the history which we have before us is of undoubted certainty, and no
cunningly devised fable. To be well assured of this is a great satisfaction,
especially since we meet with so many things in it truly miraculous, and many
more great and marvellous.
III. That it is ancient history, far more ancient than was ever pretended
to come from any other hand. Homer the most ancient genuine heathen writer now
entirely extant, is reckoned to have lived at the beginning of the Olympiads,
near the time when it is computed that the city of
Rome
was founded by
Romulus
, which was but about the reign of
Hezekiah king of
Judah
. And his writings pretend not to
be historical, but poetical fiction all over: rhapsodies indeed they are, and
the very Alcoran of paganism. The most ancient authentic historians now extant
are Herodotus and Thucydides, who were contemporaries with the latest of our
historians, Ezra and Nehemiah, and could not write with any certainty of events
much before their own time. The obscurity, deficiency, and uncertainty of all
ancient history, except that which we find in the scripture, is abundantly made
out by the learned bishop Stillingfleet, in that most useful book, his Origines
Sacræ, lib. i. Let the antiquity of this history not only recommend it to
the curious, but recommend to us all that way of religion it directs us in, as
the good old way, in which if we walk we shall find rest for our souls,
Jer. vi. 16.
IV. That it is church history, the history of the Jewish church, that
sacred society, incorporated for religion, and the custody of the oracles and
ordinances of God, by a charter under the broad seal of heaven, a covenant
confirmed by miracles. Many great ant mighty nations there were at this time in
the world, celebrated it is likely for wisdom, and learning, and valour,
illustrious men and illustrious actions; yet the records of them are all lost,
either in silence or fables, while that little inconsiderable people of the Jews
that dwelt alone, and was not reckoned among the nations (Num.
xxiii. 9), makes so great a figure in the best known, most ancient, and most
lasting of all histories; and no notice is taken in it of the affairs of other
nations, except only as they fall in with the affairs of the Jews: for the
Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance, Deut.
xxxii. 8, 9. Such a concern has God for his church in every age, and so dear
have its interests been to him. Let them therefore be so to us, that we may be followers
of him as dear children.
V. That it is a divine history, given by inspiration of God, and a part
of that blessed book which is to be the standing rule of our faith and practice.
And we are not to think it a part of it which might have been spared, or which
we may now pass over or cast a careless eye upon, as if it were indifferent
whether we read it or no; but we are to read it as a sacred record, preserved
for our benefit on whom the ends of the world have come. 1. This history
is of great use for the understanding of some parts of the Old Testament. The
account we have here of David's life and reign, and especially of his troubles,
is a key to many of his Psalms; and much light is given to most of the
prophecies by these histories. 2. Though we have not altogether so many types of
Christ here as we had in the history and the law of Moses, yet even here we meet
with many who were figures of him that was to come, such as Joshua, Samson,
Solomon, Cyrus, but especially David, whose kingdom was typical of the kingdom
of the Messiah and the covenant of royalty made with him, a dark representation
of the covenant of redemption made with the eternal Word; nor know we how to
call Christ the son of David unless we be acquainted with this history nor how
to receive the declaration that John Baptist was the Elias that was to
come, Mt. xi. 14. 3. The state of the Jewish church which is here set before
us was typical of the gospel church and the state of that in the days of the
Messiah; and as the prophecies which related to it looked further to the latter
days, so did the histories of it; and still these things happened to them for
ensamples, 1 Cor. x. 11. By the tenour of this history we are given to
understand these three things concerning the church (for the thing that hath
been is that which shall be, Eccl. i. 9):-- (1.) That we are not to expect
the perfect purity and unity of the church in this world, and therefore not to
be stumbled, though we are grieved, at its corruptions, distempers, and
divisions; we are not to think it strange concerning them, as though some
strange thing happened, much less to think the worse of its laws and
constitutions for the sake of them or to despair of its perpetuity. What
wretched stains of idolatry, impiety, and immorality, appear on the Jewish
church, and what a woeful breach was there between Judah and Ephraim! yet God
took them (as I may say) with all their faults, and never wholly rejected them
till they rejected the Messiah.
Israel
hath not been forsaken, nor
Judah
, of their God, though their
land was filled with sin against the Holy One of
Israel
,
Jer. li. 5. (2.) That we are not to expect the constant tranquillity and
prosperity of the church. It was then often oppressed and afflicted from its
youth, had its years of servitude as well as its days of triumph, was often
obscured, diminished, impoverished, and brought low; and yet still God secured
to himself a remnant, a holy seed, which was the substance thereof,
Isa. vi. 13. Let us not then be surprised to see the gospel church sometimes
under hatches, and driven into the wilderness, and the gates of hell prevailing
far against it. (3.) That yet we need not fear the utter extirpation of it. The
gospel church is called the Israel of God (Gal. vi. 16), and the Jerusalem
which is above (Gal. iv. 26), the heavenly Jerusalem; for as Israel
after the flesh, and the Jerusalem that then was, by the wonderful
care of the divine Providence, outrode all the storms with which they were
tossed and threatened, and continued in being till they were made to resign all
their honours to the gospel church, which they were the figures of, so shall
that also, notwithstanding all its shocks, be preserved, till the mystery of God
shall be finished, and the kingdom of grace shall have its perfection in the
kingdom of glory. 4. This history is of great use to us for our direction in the
way of our duty; it was written for our learning, that we may see the evil we
should avoid and be armed against it, and the good we should do and be quickened
to it. Though they are generally judges, and kings, and great men, whose lives
are here written, yet in them even those of the meanest rank may see the
deformity of sin and hate it, and the beauty of holiness and be in love with it;
nay, the greater the person is the more evident are both these; for, if the
great be good, it is their goodness that makes their greatness honourable; if
bad, their greatness does but make their badness the more shameful. The failings
even of good people are also recorded here for our admonition, that he who
thinks he stands may take heed lest he fall, and that he who has fallen may not
despair of forgiveness if he recover himself by repentance. 5. This history, as
it shows what God requires of us, so it shows what we may expect from his
providence, especially concerning states and kingdoms. By the dealings of God
with the Jewish nation it appears that, as nations are, so they must expect to
fare--that while princes and people serve the interests of God's kingdom among
men he will secure and advance their interests, but that when they shake off his
government, and rebel against him, they can look for no other than an inundation
of judgments. It was so all along with
Israel
; while they kept close to God
they prospered; when they forsook him every thing went cross. That great man
archbishop Tillotson (Vol. 1. Serm. 3. on Prov. xiv. 34) suggests that
though, as to particular persons, the providences of God are promiscuously
administered in this world, because there is another world of rewards and
punishments for them, yet it is not so with nations as such, but national
virtues are ordinarily rewarded with temporal blessings and national sins
punished with temporal judgments, because, as he says, public bodies and
communities of men, as such, can be rewarded and punished only in this world,
for in the next they will all be dissolved. So plainly are God's ways of
disposing kingdoms laid before us in the glass of this history that I could wish
Christian statesmen would think themselves as much concerned as preachers to
acquaint themselves with it; they might fetch as good maxims of state and rules
of policy from this as from the best of the Greek and Roman historians. We are
blessed (as the Jews were) with a divine revelation, and make a national
profession of religion and relation to God, and therefore are to look upon
ourselves as in a peculiar manner under a divine regimen, so that the things
which happened to them were designed for ensamples to us.
I cannot pretend to write for great ones. But if what is here done may be
delightful to any in reading and helpful in understanding and improving this
sacred history, and governing themselves by the dictates of it, let God have all
the glory and let all the rivers return to the ocean whence they came. When I
look back on what is done I see nothing to boast of, but a great deal to be
ashamed of; and, when I look forward on what is to be done, I see nothing in
myself to trust to for the doing of it. I have no sufficiency of my own; but by
the grace of God I am what I am, and that grace will, I trust, be sufficient
for me. Surely in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. That
blessed epicorhgia
which
the apostle speaks of (Phil. i. 19), that continual supply or communication of
the Spirit of Jesus Christ, is what we may in faith pray for, and depend
upon, to furnish us for every good word and work. The pleasantness of the study
has drawn me on to the writing of this, and the candour with which my friends
have been pleased to receive my poor endeavours on the Pentateuch encourages me
to publish it; it is done according to the best of my skill, not without some
care and application of mind, in the same method and manner with that; I wish I
could have done it in less compass, that it might have been more within reach of
the poor of the flock. But then it would not have been so plain and full
as I desire it may be for the benefit of the lambs of the flock. Brevis esse
laboro, obscurus fio--labouring to be concise I become obscure. With a
humble submission to the divine providence and its disposals, and a humble
reliance on the divine grace and its guidance and operation, I purpose still to
proceed, as I have time, in this work. Two volumes more will, if God permit,
conclude the Old Testament; and then if my friends encourage me, and my God
spare me and enable me for it, I intend to go on to the New Testament. For
though many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those
parts of scripture which are yet before us (Luke i. 1), whose works praise
them in the gates and are likely to outlive mine, yet while the subject is
really so copious as it is and the manner of handling it may possibly be so
various, and while one book comes into the hands of some and another into the
hands of others, and all concur in the same design to advance the common
interests of Christ's kingdom, the common faith once delivered to the
saints, and the common salvation of precious souls (Tit. i. 4; Jude 3), I
hope store of this kind will be thought no sore. I make bold to mention my
purpose to proceed thus publicly in hopes I may have the advice of my friends in
it, and their prayers for me that I may be made more ready and mighty in the
scriptures, that understanding and utterance may be given to me, and that I
may obtain mercy of the Lord Jesus to be found his faithful
servant, who am less than the least of all that call him Master.
|
M. H.
|
|
Chester,
June 2, 1708.
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Contents
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