Judges to Samuel, in Job, Nehemiah, Esdras, and Eliakim. Their whole conduct shews an entire disinterestedness. They have no thoughts of establishing or raising a family. They are popular, plain, and modest, without pomp, without distinctions, without guards, without jealousy in the command, receiving the advice of persons below them with pleasure, and gladly sharing with them in authority. Riches. Abraham, Job, Boaz, &c. We know that Abraham was very rich, and at the same time very liberal and generous. He would have looked upon it as a shame and a reproach, if any other than God had made him rich. [x] I will not take any thing that is thine, says he to the king of Sodom, who out of gratitude offered Abraham all the spoils he had recovered from the hands of the enemies, lest thou shouldest say I have made Abraham rich. His house was open to all strangers and passengers. [y] The scripture represents this holy man as sitting at his tent-door in the heat of the day, and placed there as a centinel for charity, to wait, or rather to seek opportunities of exercising hospitality; for it is said that he ran to meet his guests; And when he saw them, he ran to meet them. Job was a powerful and mighty prince. The scripture gives us in him a magnificent picture of an eminent person, placed in authority, and abounding with riches. [] From his youth, as he lively expresses his sentiments, compassion was brought up with hiin, and had been his guide from his mother's womb. [a] He thought it superior to the most glorious titles, that he was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame, the father of the poor, the sanctuary of strangers, the comforter of the widow, and the protector of the orphan that had none to help him. [b] He despised not to reason with his man-servant or his maid-servant, when they thought they had any subject of complaint against [x] Gen. xiv. 23. [a] Ibid. xxix. 12, 15, 16. him, as thoroughly convinced that they had all one common master, and the same God was their creator and his. [c] He never placed his confidence in his great riches, and the destruction of his enemies never gave him any sec et joy. [d] Accessible to all without distinction, he took cognizance of affairs with extreme application. [e] He put on righteousness, and it clothed him; his judgment was as a robe and a diadem: [f] he brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of their teeth: [g] and the pleasing fruit he reaped from his zeal was the satisfaction of having delivered him that was ready to perish, and having his blessing come upon him; [] and at the same time that he sat in the midst of senators and princes, and dwelt as a king in the army, he ceased not to be the comforter of the afflicted. Boaz is no less admirable in this kind. [] In the midst of riches he is laborious, diligent in husbandry, plain, without luxury, delicacy, sloth, or pride. How affable, how obliging and kind to his servants! The Lord be with you, says he to his reapers; and they answered him, The Lord bless thee. This was the beautiful language of religious antiquity, but how little known in our days. How commendable was his behaviour towards Ruth, when he desires her not to go into any other field to glean, but to abide fast by his maidens to eat and drink with them; and the charitable order he gives his reapers, to let her glean even among the sheaves and to let fall some of the handfuls on purpose for her, that she might gather them up without being ashamed; teaching us by this wise conduct to save those we oblige the confusion of receiving, and ourselves the temptation of vain glory, and even pleasure of giving. Tobit. The Holy Ghost gives us in this good man a perfect model of private life, and points out to us in him all the virtues and duties of that condition [c] Job xxxi. 24, 25, 29. [d] Ibid. xxix. 15. [e] Ver. 14. [f] Ver. 17. [g] Ver. 11, 13. [b] Ver. 25. united together. We see in him a firm resolution from his infancy to stand upon his guard against the contagion of ill example; an equality of mind in the different situations of life; a generosity, in the time of his plenty, to succour the distressed, and lend even large sums without interest; a patience in supporting extreme poverty, not only without murmuring, but with thanksgiving; an invincible courage in the exercise of works of mercy; a gentleness in bearing domestic contradictions; a firm confidence in God under the severest trials; a constant care in the education of his son, as well by his example as instructions, in the fear of the Lord, in doing justice to his neighbour, and shewing compassion to the poor; and, lastly, a lively and fixed expectation of future blessing, which supported and comforted him under the greatest afflictions. Weare, [k] says he, the children of the saints, and wait for that life, which God will give to them who faithfully observe the promise they have made him. The poor. What an example is Job to such as have lost their substance all at once by unforeseen misfortunes. [1] The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken arcay. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Ruth, astonished that Boaz should look upon a poor woman who was a stranger, teaches such as are reduced to beggary, as she was, how humble and grateful they ought to be, by reflecting that nothing is their due. How happy would the case of the poor be, if like Tobit they had ever this excellent maxim in their minds, [m] Fear not, my son, that we are made poor; for thou hast much wealth, if thou fear God and depart from all sin, and do that which is pleasing in his sight. Married persons. The holy wives of the patriarchs. Sarah the daughter of Raguel. Ruth. Esther. Judith. Tobit and Tobias. Job. One single expression of Job's shews us how far the ancients carried conjugal chastity. Job was a rich and powerful [k] Tobit. ii. 18. [/] Job i. 21. VOL. II Χ [u] Tobit iv. 23. prince, prince, living in plenty, and attended by an obsequious court. Yet he tells us himself, that he had made an agreement with his eyes, and imposed the strict law upon them, never to cast a look upon a maid. [n] I have made a covenant with mine eyes, why then should I think upon a maid? What I have observed of the rules and models to be found in scripture, that are suited to the several estates of life, will likewise hold good of different virtues, and every subject of morality. Virtue constantly exercised, tried, and confirmed by afflictions. Abel. Abraham. Joseph. Moses. David. Job. Daniel, &c. Vice unfortunate. Cain. Abimelech and the Sichemites. Absalom. Achitopel. Jeroboam. Baasha. Ahab. The pardon of injuries. Abraham, with respect to Lot. Joseph in regard to his brethren, David, with respect to Saul. The oppression of the poor. The weak, widows, orphans and strangers, cry to heaven for vengeance and obtain it. Abel against Cain. Jacob against Laban and Esau. Israel against the Egyptians. The blood of Gideon's children against Abimelech. Uriah against David. Naboth against Ahab and Jezebel. Repentance covers the greatest sins, and prevents the execution of the most terrible threatnings. The Ninevites. The children of Israel very often. Ahab. Manassch. V. The KNOWLEDGE of God and his attributes should be one of the greatest advantages to be drawn from the study of Sacred History. The UNITY of God. This truth is visible throughout the scripture, where God seems every where to cry aloud, that there is no other God, or Lord, than himself. [o] I am the Lord, and there is none else. I am God, and there is none else. [] Job xxxi. I. [o] Isa. xlv. 18, 22. The The OMNIPOTENCE of God manifested by the creation, preservation and government of the world; by the facility with which he raises whomsoever he pleases to the throne, and casts them down again; establishes kingdoms, and destroys them; makes nations flourishing and miserable: by the sovereign power he exercises, not only over what is outward and visible, but over the heart and mind, in turning them as he pleases, from one resolution to another, according to his designs. EXAMPLES. Laban and Esau marching against Jacob. The counsel of Achitophel defeated by Hushai. The whole army of Judah transported with rage and a thirst for vengeance, marching under Rehoboam against Jeroboam, stopped and dispersed in an instant, upon the single admonition of the prophet. The army of Israel returning to Samaria, laden with spoils, and sending back two hundred thousand captives upon the bare remonstrance of certain great men of Samaria, &c. The GOODNESS of God and its motives. It dif fuses itself with profusion and inexhaustibly, by bestowing whatever is necessary, advantageous or delightful, upon men who know him not, who do not return thanks to him for it, and who even offend or blaspheme him. The PATIENCE of God. Bearing with the crimes and impenitence of mankind for many ages, from the preaching of Enoch to the deluge. The measure of the Amorites was not full, till after four hundred years were expired. The Jewish nation supply us with many instances of it, particularly in the ruin of Samaria and Jerusalem, and the captivity of Israel and Judah, which were denounced for several years before they were executed. The JUSTICE of God, when it shews itself at last, is terrible, destructive, inexorable; nothing can withstand or avert it. The deluge. Sodom. Sodom. Nineveh. Babylon, &c. |