Second advent library

256 ucrnal xvn.ed whole houses, teaching things they ought not forilthy1ucre's sake," Titus 1. ll; others, who crept intohouses, leading captive sillywomen laden with diver!lusts; some, teachin the doctrines and commandmentsof men,bringing in damnable heresies, and denying theLord that boug tthem. And from that day unto this,in every age, and in every church, division, wounds, andputrefying sores, have been experienced through false,wicked, anddesigning professors.3d. The churc has been punished by the kings andrulers of this world. There was a season, in the daysof David and Solomon, and after her deliverance fromEgyptian bondage under Moses and Joshua, and so ondown to the days of Manasseh, when the church, thepeople of God, were governed by their own rulers andaws in agreat measure. But since the days of Manassehnot a moment has she enjo ed of' respite, but hasbeen scattered among the kin drorns of the world, asJeremiah theprophet has prophesied she would. Jerxv. 4, "And will cause them to be removed into allkingdoms ofthe earth, because of Manasseh, the son ofHezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem."Here began the "scattering of the power ofthe holy people," and when seven times shall be accomplished,then all "iliac things" shall be finished; thatls, the church will then have the ordcal of trialand chastisement. "Manassepassed made Judah and the inhabitantsof Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than theheathen." "Wherefore the Lord brought upon them thecaptains of the host of the king of Assyria, which tookManasseh among the thoms, and bound him with fetters,and carried him to Babylon. And when he was in affliction,he besought the Lord his God, and humbledhimself greatly before the God of his fathers," 2 Chron.xxxiii. 9-12. _ We leam in this passage the cause andeifect. The cause of their captivitywas their errorsand wicked conduct. The effect. was theircaptivitg tothe kings of Babylon, and their humility in their a iction.Andalthough Manasseh was restored to his king~dom again after his humiliation, yet the children of Judahand Jerusalem were never free from the Babyloniab