He fo diverfifies their circumstances, that they are not always profperous, nor always afflicted: fometimes they enjoy comforts, and fometimes they are depreffed with troubles. He employs both mercies and judgments, light and darkness, that he may enliven their hope and confidence, and excite their fear and reverence. For these and similar purposes, God orders the tide of profperity to ebb and to flow, the morning-light of comfort to fhine, and afterward the night of calamity to fucceed. Inquire ye, and ye fhall find thefe, and fuch as thefe, are the defigns to be anfwered by the variegated conditions of mankind. The practice of this duty our prophet recommends to the Idumeans, as being well fuited to their prefent dif treffed circumftances. Would ye know what the true God hath determined concerning you, and what he requires in order to your deliverance? Search into the reasons of his providential difpenfations toward you, feriously investigate the caufes which have contributed to afflict you with thofe evils whereof you complain, attentively liften to any intimations you have received of the divine will, and impartially confider if you have turned at God's reproof. If not, without delay, Return, come. Since you feem anxious, in your prefent distress, to know the will of God concerning you, and to perform your duty, return from your evil ways, whereby you have incurred the awful difpleasure of almighty God, and provoked him that chaftizeth the Heathen feverely to correct you. Return to the Lord, from whom you have widely departed, whofe goodnefs you have abufed, whofe laws you have tranfgreffed, and whofe favour you fhall find to be better than life. Return to the practice of that righteousness which exalteth a nation, and you fhall find that the work of righteousness is peace, and the effect thereof quietness and affurance for ever. Return to the Lord with all your heart, with fafting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your heart, heart, and not your garments: turn unto the Lord your God; for he is gracious and merciful, flow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil *.'This is the awful voice, the gracious call of the living God, addreffed to you, my brethren. 'Return unto me, and I will return unto you, faith 'the Lord of hofts +.' This is the voice of all God's works; this is the voice of confcience; this is the voice of every mercy, of every affliction, and of every revelation which God hath given to the children of men. Hearken diligently, and incline your ear to the gracious call of divine benevolence and tender compaffion.Come unto God without delay, and obey his voice, that you may be faved from the ills that you fuftain, and thofe which you dread. Come and join yourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall never be forgotten: forfake the foolish, and live, and go in the way of understanding. Then fhall your light rife in obfcurity, and your darkness be as the noon-day; whereas if your thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, wafting and deftruction are in your paths: ye fhall wait for light, but behold obfcurity; for brightness, but ye walk in darkness t. Permit me to remark, before I proceed to a new fubject, that the answer given by the prophet to the inquiry made by the Idumeans, is delivered in general, figurative terms, and accompanied with a practical advice refpecting prefent, indifpenfable duty. In this manner, curious queftions are commonly answered in fcripture. Our Lord Jefus Chrift being asked, Are there few that fhall be faved? he said unto ' them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for I fay unto you, many will feek to enter in, and fhall not 'be able. When the difciples afked of their divine Mafter, Tell us when shall these things be? he an'fwered and faid, Take heed that no man deceive Joel ii. 12, 13. Luke xiii. 23, 24. + Mal. iii. 7. ‡ Isaiah lix. 7, 8, 9. • you you-watch therefore, for ye know not at what hour your Lord doth come. The apoftle Peter having inquired of his Lord concerning his fellow-difciple, What fhall this man do?' received for anfwer, If 'I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou met.' And in the oracle before us, the Idumeans, prompted by curiofity, inquiring of the prophet concerning their future fortunes, received the fhort reply which I have now been illuftrating. As no valuable purpose could have been ferved by direct, explicit anfwers to thefe inquiries, they were couched in general terms, and attended with useful practical directions, to which we ought carefully to attend, deeply fenfible that fecret things belong unto God, and prefent duty ought to be our bufinefs.As to the accomplishment of this prophetic reply, I fhall only add, that the grievous affliction in which the Jews and Idumeans were involved, during the Babylonifh captivity, and even prior to that event, formed the long night of trouble here alluded to. The happy deliverance obtained by the Jews, by means of the proclamation of Cyrus, made the joyful morning fpring up, to which the prophet refers. The night however, according to the prophet Malachi, continued with the Idumeans, who were fo weak and impoverished, that they were unable for fome time to return and build their wafte places t. Their pride, felfconfidence, and cruelty toward the Jewish people; that hatred and envy which, on various occafions, they dif covered, justly provoked God to continue their distress much longer than that of their neighbours. In this calamitous feafon, fome of them no doubt returned to the Lord, and entered into his covenant and church, according as they were directed. Matth. xxiv. ↑ John xxi. 21. † Mal. i. 2, 3. 13 THE 13¶ THE burden upon Arabia. In the foreft in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye travelling companies of Dedanim. This oracle foretels a terrible flaughter which was to be made by the Affyrians, within the space of a year, among the people who inhabited Arabia. Whilft God revealed to our prophet the future fortunes of the nations around Canaan, he represents to him the Affyrians with their fwords drawn, and their bows bent, entering the western parts of the Arabian defert, occupied by a people who travelled through that extenfive wilderness with their flocks of cattle, difperfing, putting to flight, and killing, vaft numbers of these wandering tribes. The prophecy feems intended to fhew, that the God of Ifrael is the Governor of the world, the fupreme Arbiter among the nations, who are entirely under the direction of his providence that the Jewish nation were the people of the true God, from whom alone fafety was to be expected that our prophet was undoubtedly his fervant, by whofe authority he spake as he was commanded-and that his peculiar people ought to be encouraged to place all their hopes on his power and providence, whofe predictions they faw exactly accomplished in their season.After the infcription, follows the preamble-then the prediction-with the time and certainty of its fulfilment. The burden upon Arabia. The country which is here especially intended, was the vaft defert in which the children of Ifrael journeyed for the space of forty years, fituated between the land of Paleftine and Egypt. It was inhabited by a mixed multitude of people, who often changed their places of refidence. They were chiefly compofed of three different tribes: viz. the Cufheans, who were defcended from Cufh; the Hagarenes, or Ifhmaelites, who were the pofterity of Ifhmael; and the Ketureans, who were the defcendants of Abraham, by Ketura. No mention being VOL. II. Gg here here made of the Cufheans, the two laft-named tribes were the principal fubjects of this prophecy. Kedar was brother to Nebaioth, the eldest fon of Ifhmael; Tema was the name of another fon of Ifhmael; and Dedan was one of the fons of Abraham, by Ketura. These Arabians were a courageous, robust people, inured to hardships, and often exposed to many perils and dangers. Now this prophecy contains the oracle which God delivered concerning them by his fervant Ifaiah. In the foreft in Arabia fhall ye lodge, O ye travelling companies of Dedanim. These words defcribe an important circumstance relative to the divine judgments which God had determined to inflict upon the Arabians, as the just punishment of their crimes. They are addreffed to the travelling companies of Dedanim, the pofterity of Dedan. The traders of that people were often employed in carrying various articles of merchandise from India and Perfia into Phoenicia, as we learn from the prophecy of Ezekiel concerning Tyre: The men of Dedan (faith he) were thy merchants-they brought thee for a pre'fent, horns of ivory and ebony. Dedan was thy 'merchant in precious clothes for chariots. Arabia, ' and all the princes of Kedar, occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats: in thefe were they thy • merchants *.' Thefe travelling merchants commonly journeyed from place to place in companies, for the fake of convenience and fafety; fome of them taking care of the camels, others of the fheep, with which they wandered over the defert to obtain pasturage and water. You read of one of thefe companies coming from Gilead with camels, bearing spiceries, and balm, and myrrh, going to carry them down to Egypt, Gen. xxxvii. 25. In the book of Job it is written, That the troops of Tema, and the companies of Sheba, travelling through this howling wil * Ezek. xxvii. 15. 20, 21. ⚫derness, |