office. He received his inftructions in extacies, (6) and he uttered them generally in rapturous vehemence. He had a pleafant voice, and the entire management of it, he could play well on the inftrument, that is, he knew how to difpofe his organs of fpeech fo as to give energy by giving proper tone and accent to all he spoke. The people were as much charmed with his difcourfes as if they been odes fet to musick, he was a lovely fong in their ears, and they used to say to one another, Come, and let us hear what is the word, that cometh forth from the Lord. The elders and (7) the people affembled at his house, and fat before him, and there, fometimes in the morning, and at other times in the evening, he delivered thofe sharp and pointed fermons, which are contained in his prophecy. One while he preached by figns, as the former prophets had done, another while he fmote with his hand, and ftamped with his foot, when he addreffed them, trembling at their depravities, and weeping over their calamities. His writings contain the doctrines, which he taught; and the manner, in which he delivered them, is in all probability a pattern of the method employed by all the other preachers during the captivity.

It should seem, after the Jews had rejected the true prophets, they were punished with multitudes of publick preachers, pretending to a spirit of prophecy. These pefts of fociety had art and addrefs enough to infinuate themselves into favour, and to obtain popularity. They fwarmed every where, and became the heaviest curfe, that was ever inflicted on a guilty world. The proVOL. II. phets

(6) Ezek. ii. iii.

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(7) Ezek. xxxiv. 30, &c.

phets held them in the utmost abhorrence, and a great part of their miniftry was addreffed to unmask them. They described them by every odious image they could invent, and they pointed out in the clearest manner the dreadful confequences of their detestable hypocrify.

These men were the mere creatures of those abandoned tyrants, who ufurped the crown, and they were fet up to affift their profligate creators in defpoiling the people of their liberty and God of his glory. Religion was made an engine of ftate, and thefe hirelings were appointed to work it. Jeroboam, the first manufacturer of these detested tools, made them of the national filth; he, in mere policy, took the basest and most depraved and unprincipled of the nation, and ordained them ministers of that motley religion, which he had set up to prevent the return of the ten tribes to the (8) family of David. The King of Affyria, with views exactly fimilar, allowed the captives to perpetuate this vile race, and we find them in Ba(9) bylon, described and execrated by Ezekiel.

The fuccess of these bad men is chiefly to be afcribed to these four caufes. First, they pretended a divine right, and faid, The Lord faith fo and fo. They were too artful to profefs the truth, that would have been, The king faith fo and fo, The lying spirit of the devil fent us to preach thus and thus: but here was a pretended reverence of God, and an acknowledgement of his authority. (1) Secondly, they affected to imitate the true prophets, till they had obtained the popular plaudit, then they dropped them into obfcurity, and funk

them

(8) 1 Kings xii. 26-32. (9) 2 Kings xvii. Ezek. xiii. (1) 2 Chron. xviii. 3-12-21.

them into disgrace, and at laft they turned the general odium over them, because they continued inflexibly upright, and could not be brought to mimick their betrayers. Thirdly, they framed their doctrine and deportment, not by the nature of God, and the dictates of his written word: but, on the contrary, by the prevailing paffions of the bulk of their auditors. Their ftudy was to please, and they faid and did whatever they thought would answer that end. Fourthly, they were the constant companions of their admirers, and went with them into the perpetration of every crime. The true prophets were irksome or infipid to bad men; but thefe, these were chaplains exactly fuited to their patrons, they could faft with Ahab, and feaft with Jezebel.

According to thofe, who had the best opportu nities of knowing them, their qualifications were mean and their difpofitions wicked. Hence they are called blind, ignorant, dumb dogs, that could not bark-greedy dogs, for their avarice, every one looking for his gain from his quarter-fleeping dogs, for their indolence-drunkards, faying, Fetch wine, we will fill ourselves with strong drink, tomorrow shall be as to-day, and much more abundant-perfecutors when in profperity, and cowards in adverfity-dogmatical cavillers about learning and religion, while they were deftitute of decency, civility, and common fenfe-unprincipled wretches, who, though they would not shut a door in the temple, or kindle a fire on the altar of God, their creator, for nought, would protect, applaud, and canonize the greateft criminals for a handful of barley,

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barley, and doom millions to destruction for a (2) piece of bread!

When the seventy years of the captivity were expired, the captives were divided in their opinion about returning. Some traded and flourished in Babylon, and, having no faith in the divine promife, and too much confidence in their fordid guides, chofe to live where idolatry was the eftablished religion, and defpotism the foul of civil government. The good prophets and preachers, Zerubbabel, Joshua, Haggai, and others, having confidence in the word of God, and aspiring after their natural, civil, and religious rights, endeavoured by all means to extricate themfelves and their countrymen from that mortifying ftate, into which the crimes of their ancestors had brought them. They wept, fafted, prayed, preached, prophefied, and at length prevailed. The chief inftruments were Nehemiah and Ezra; the first was governor and reformed their civil state, the laft was a fcribe of the law of the God of heaven, and addreffed himself to ecclefiaftical matters, in which he rendered the nobleft fervice to his country, and to all pofterity.

Ever fince Mofes had committed the revelations of God to writing, and had commanded the book to be transcribed, a great number of ingenious men, of feveral tribes, had taken up the profeffion óf writing, and were called scribes. The five facred

(2) Ifaiah Ivi. Jer. xxiii. Ezek. xiii. 19. xxxiv. Mal. i. 10. Amos vii. 12, &c. Jer. xx. &c. &c. 2 Chron. xviii. Zedekiah fmote Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from мE to speak unto thee! And Micaiah faid, Thou shalt fee on that day, when thou shalt run from chamber to chamber to hide thyself. 23, 24.

facred books of Mofes contained the genealogies of all the families of the nation, the body of jurifprudence, that directed all their courts of law, the whole ritual of the church, and many other articles of neceffary and daily ufe. The prophets fince Mofes had added to the infpired code, and by fo doing had both increased knowledge, and the neceffity of numberlefs fcribes to diffufe it. The men, who employed themselves thus in tranfcribing the infpired writings, were called fcribes of

the law.

The benefit of writing and records prefently became obvious, and other fcribes were foon employed about fecular matters. There were under the judges many of the tribe of Zebulon, who bandled the pen of the writer, fcribes who kept records. There were afterward fcribes of the king, that is, private fecretaries; fcribes of the boft, that is, fecretaries at war, or commiffaries of the army; and the profeffion became very honourable and lucrative. This clafs of writers, I fhould call, for distinction fake, fecular scribes.

Writing, reading, giving a fense of what is written, ftudying to find out a true sense to give, and proving and fupporting the fenfe given, go together, and scribes naturally became ftudious, difputatious, and learned men. Ezra, the reformer of the church at the return from captivity, was the most eminent of his profeffion, a ready fcribe in the law of his God.

This man laid the foundation of reformation in religious principle, and he refted religious principle on that infallible rock, the word of God." In order to lay a firm and good ground of this, he collected and collated manufcripts of the facred

writings,