rulers to whom the education of the young men has been committed; and his fubfequent addrefs to the inhabitants of Jezreel while he points to the feventy heads piled in heaps at the gate of the city, bespeak a mind estranged from the paths of fimplicity and truth, and verfed in the mazes of dark and ambiguous policy. But the crookedness and subtlety of the machinations in which he delights speedily become more confpicuous. He prepares to exterminate the worshippers of Baal: men judicially condemned to death by the Mofaic. law, and comprehended within the com-miffion with which Jehu, the minister of divine vengeance, was invefted. How does he proceed to execute his purpofe? In the plain track of fincerity? In unmixed dependence on the Omnipotent God, who bateth a lying tongue (1)? Does he proclaim his own deteftation of idolatry, the fentence denounced againft idolaters, his Special obligation to carry the fentence into effect? He has recourfe to the most ignominious deceit. He proclaims himself the Protector of Idolatry. Affecting to regard as inconfiderable and unworthy of

Baal

Baal the facrifices which had been accumu lated on his altars, and the honours to, which his priests and prophets had been exalted, by Ahab: he announces to the affembled people of Ifrael the abundantly greater veneration which the idol and his votaries may expect from the prefent occu pier of the throne. Ahab ferved Baal d little: but Jebu fhall ferve him much. Call unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his fervants and all his priests: let none be wanting: for I have a great facrifice to do ta Baal (m). From every corner of the land. the worshippers of Baal haftem. The king welcomes them with impofing refpect. Bring forth, he cries, veftments, bring forth robes of honour, for the worshippers of Baal. In blind exultation they crowd the temple of the idol, unfufpicious that they are themselves the deftined victims. They offer their facrifices and burnt-offerings: nor does the king, watchful to confirm their fecurity, fcruple his participation (n), At the commencement of the ceremony the guards, pofted at the doors, are roufed to

(m) See the whole tranfaction recorded 2 Kings, x 18-28.

(n) And it came to pais as foon as He had made an end of offering the burnt-offering, &c.-2 Kings, x. 25.

vigilance

vigilance by the admonitory menace: If ny of the men whom I have brought into your hands, escape; he that letteth him go, his life fhall be for the life of him. At the close they hear the mandate of destruction Go in and pay them! let none come forth.Thus Jebu destroyed Baal out of Ifraël. Thus it was. Not by a fearless application of the law; not by a pious discharge of his regal office; but by perfidious deceit, by idolatrous hypocrify, does he inflict the merited punishment on the criminals. Does he plead that if he did it in fubtlety it was to the intent that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal? Does he afk; If the truth of God bath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why am I judged as a finner (6)? Woe to the man that plunges into wickednefs, under pretence of promoting righteoufnefs! Woe to the man that disobeys one of the commandments. of God, on the plea, that he fhall thus render more efficacious obedience to another! Still do do you cherish a floating doubt as to the nature of the zeal of Jehu? Try that zeal by yet another test; and not a fhadow of uncertainty will remain.

V. Genuine zeal for religion is, in the ftricteft import of the terms, eat for the Lord. Its prime object is the glory of Jehovah; the honour of his name, the purity of his worship, the influence of his law. Is fuch the zeal of Jehu? Are his cruelty, his oftentation, his falfehood, not than heterogenous mixtures, ftupendous indeed in collective magnitude, yet no more than extraneous impurities, unnaturally adhering to a latent yet actual zeal for religion; clouding and debafing the living flame, yet without extinguishing or fuperfeding it? Or has in truth fome other principle the dominion of his heart? From the fins of Jeroboam the fon of Nebat, who made Ifrael to fin, Jehu departed not; to wit, the golden calves that were in Bethel and in Dan. Jebu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Ifrael with all his heart: for he departed not from the fins of Jeroboam, which made Ifrael to fin. Here the mafter-motive ftands difplayed. Jehu, raised by the hand of God to the throne, now looks for the fecurity of it to his own policy. Deftitute of faith in Him to whom he was indebted for all; he trufts not to the King of kings for the permanence of the gifts which He beftowed. Deftitute of gratitude

But

gratitude to his gracious Benefactor; he returns for unmerited kindness habitual profane and prefumptuous difobedience. While regard to the commandments of God conducted him in the path of advancement; he was eager to obey. The profcribed house of Ahab, the obstacle to his own exaltation, he delayed not to extirpate. Of the votaries of Baal, naturally attached to that family by which they had been patronized, he fpared not one. here, to his carnal apprehenfion, obedience and intereft ceafe to coincide. Grafping the fceptre of Ifrael, he beholds, with fufpicious alarm, the dormant claims of the defcendents of David. In the monarch of Jerufalem he contemplates a rival. Shall he permit the men of Ifrael three times in a year to go up to worship in the temple reared in his rival's capital, to be mingled with his rival's fubjects? That the men of Ifrael fhould three times in a year go up to worship at Jerufalem, is the recorded and peremptory command of the Moft High. Three times in a year fhall all thy males appear befor the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choofe (p). The chofen

(p) Deut. xvi. 16.

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