either for the punishment of one or even of both parties. The consequences of this horrid occupation of mortals will always shew what the Lord meant by it, and why He allowed it. Though some of these terrific orders of Heaven, that nation shall destroy nation, are for the most part entirely mysterious and obscure at the time they take place, still after many days men learn what God meant in having ordained such struggles, and how they were to serve His plans and purposes. Such were the mysteries of the horrid destruction of Jerusalem, of the invasion and devastation of Europe by the Asiatic savages, of the destruction of the Roman empire, of the thirty years' religious wars, and many great events of the like character. All these, though they seemed invented, pursued, and accomplished by man, were ordered and required by the Lord of Hosts. Though these convulsions were dreadful, dark, and impenetrable at the time they occurred, still after many days the horizon of mystery cleared up, the clouds of obscurity were driven asunder by the mighty, extraordinary consequences, and men saw, and see, and will do so, in still future days, that the Almighty God was in the midst of these storms and whirls and convulsions, and destructions and changes-that it was the thundering voice of His order that made the world tremble-that man was the mere unconscious agent, and all served His eternal orders and plans. 16. When after all I beheld under the sun, That in the place of judgment there is wickedness; 17. Then said I in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: And for every action THERE. *(Sham) "There." The position of this word at the In the foregoing part of this chapter the most important fact of the all-ruling and all-ordaining Providence of God in the affairs and actions of inan under the sun, was treated, proved, and established. Now Solomon turns to the common and most perplexing question, which is, If God does so strictly watch, and regulate, and determine all actions of man, why does He allow so much wickedness to exist in the places where judgment and justice should be exercised and dispensed by man towards man? Why does He allow the righteous and the innocent to be persecuted and their right perverted, even by those very individuals who are (in Providence) placed on the chair of justice? The answer is, that though the Almighty God orders everything, and appoints times and seasons for every purpose under Heaven-though he often overturns the counsels and operations of the wicked, and causes even the wrath of man to serve His purposes, and to further His own plans-though He often enough confounds the wicked persecutors, and makes them fall into the very pit which they prepared for the righteous, still He leaves the passing of the chief judgment over the heads of the wicked rebels for another time in another world, where they shall reap the fruits of their iniquity, not for a short time, but throughout an endless duration. So likewise the recompense of the persecuted and suffering just is often deferred from vanishing time to neverending ages in the spheres of light, where joy end of the verse, and its relation to the context, shew clearly and unmistakeably that it means "Eternity." In Job iii. 17, 19, the same word is used thrice to signify the future state beyond the grave. But there is some fatality about translators who deny the credit to the Old Testament saints of knowing much about a future state. Would they tell us what Solomon means by the judgment in chap. xii. 14? Is it in this or in a future world? is unmingled, triumph complete, and rest undisturbed.* "Then said I in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every purpose and for every action THERE. "There," beyond the grave-"there," in eternity "there," in the awful visible presence and at the bar of the great Judge of the whole earth-" there," where the wicked can no more persecute and the just no more suffer-"there," where every action on the part of man ceases, and where judgment and justice are dispensed on the scale of divine wisdom and equity, and where no face of man is regarded66 there," where a fire devours, and shall never extinguish, where a worm bites, and shall never die— 66 there,' ," where a crown of glory that never fades is prepared for the righteous" there," in the place and time, of which the suffering Job said, "There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary are at rest. There all the prisoners repose; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. Small But the same reason for which the righteous God put obscurity and confusion into the heart of sinful and fallen man, in order that he should not be able to find out the orders and plans of Providence (see verse 11 and explanation), explains also why the Lord does not punish every evil doer, and reward every just man in this world. Such a prompt execution would decidedly interfere with the free will of man (as it would leave him no choice) and with the exercise and perseverance of saints, and it would weaken the power and hence the recompense of faith. It is in darkness that the benefit of light is best appreciated; it is in obscurity and confusion that order and arrangement are the more wonderful, the more conspicuous. Parkhurst, on the above passage that speaks of the obscurity and confusion" in which man was put regarding the plans of God, quotes the following excellent lines from Addison,- -"The ways of Heaven are dark and intricate, puzzled in mazes, and perplexed with errors; our understanding traces them in vain, lost and bewildered in the fruitless search; nor sees with how much art the windings run, nor where the regular confusion ends." All this is clear, but our duty is clearer still. and great are there; and the servant is free from his master," (Job iii. 17—19.) 18. I then meditated in my heart, Concerning the reasoning of the sons of Adam In order to prove that they are beasts, even they This verse introduces us to a new, very interesting, and most important subject, which occupies also *The construction of this verse in the Hebrew text is a very difficult one, hence it was so variously and so erroneously translated and interpreted by many. We shall therefore give אמַרְתִּי אֲנִי בְּלִבִּי .and explain the Hebrew text word for word (dabber) דבר TTT (amarty ani belibi), "I said," "thought," or, "meditated in TT: T: TT: ram), "against their Creator"-the two original vowels and being omitted (as is often done in the Hebrew.) The particle standing for "against," as 1 Sam. ii. 25; “If a man sin against a man, the judge shall judge him; but if a man sin against God, "&c. &c. (veliroth) must stand here in place of (ulharoth) "in order to demonstrate, prove, or show," (as Esther i. 11)—even as it stands it may signify, "in order to make it appear; to cause it to be seen," i.e. by the argument of the following verses. :: shehem behemah hemah lahem) " that they) בְּהֵמָה הֵמָה לָהֶם T are beasts, even they themselves," viz. these infidel sons of Adam advance reasonings (contained in the following verses) which are not only against God their Creator, but tend to prove that they themselves are no more than the beasts of the field. the three succeeding verses. In order to see the connection of this new subject with the foregoing part of this chapter (and a close connection there exists), we must again repeat shortly the lessons which we were taught in the verses preceding the 18th. These were, 1st, The special and absolute Providence and order of God in all the transactions of man here below; 2d, Heaven's appointments of all times and seasons and orders for every purpose and action in which man is employed; 3d, The impossibility for man to take anything from, or to add anything to, the arrangements and orders of Heaven. Then the question came, why God then allows the wicked to practise their crimes, and to persecute the righteous? The solution of this mystery was that God leaves the greatest part of the punishment of the wicked and reward of the righteous for another world. Ah! but there are infidels, atheists, materialists, deists, who not only deny the special providence, but even the existence of God, and who not only deny a future reward or punishment, but the very existence of an immortal soul in man, and who employ all the arguments of their perverted reason to establish the miserable theory that after death a man ceases entirely to exist, like any brute, and that hence there is no judgment, no future, no eternity. It is of these self-brutalizing infidels that Solomon speaks in the passage before us. "I meditated in my heart concerning the reasoning of the sons of Adam against God their Creator." By "The sons of Adam" Solomon does not mean here to accuse the whole of the human family of infidelity and blasphemy, for, blessed be God, they do not all belong to that brutalized sect of Satan's disciples, but it simply means that many of fallen Adam's sons disbelieve God's revelation to their own preju |