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. I. Serm. 3. on Prov. 14. 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 from 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 shall, I trust, be sufficient for me. Surely in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. That blessed ἐπιχορηγία, which the apostle speaks of, Phil. 1. 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 the 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 an humble submission to the divine providence and its disposals, and a humble reliance on the divine grace and its conduct 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 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 1. 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. 1. 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, that I may obtain of the Lord Jesus, to be found his faithful servant, who am less than the least of all that call him Master.
Chester, June 2, 1708.
