2 Kings 21:1-18

I bring the whole of a life so flagitious as that of Manasseh within one point of view, both for the sake of shortness, and for gathering all the instruction it affords before the Reader at once. But as the Holy Ghost hath been graciously pleased to give the church further particulars concerning Manasseh than what is here said of him in the 2 Chronicles 33:1. I very earnestly beg the Reader to read the whole of what is there said of Manasseh at the time he peruseth this chapter. And the more so, indeed, because here we only learn his worthlessness. There we discover the penitence he manifested in affliction. And by comparing both parts of his history together, we learn, under the teaching of the blessed Spirit, as illustrious an example of the triumphs of grace in his recovery, as we behold the most woeful instance of the fall of man in his vileness. So that blended in one and the same point of view, we behold the truth of what the apostle was commissioned to tell the church, that where sin abounded grace doth much more abound: that as sin reigneth unto death so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5:20. I cannot refrain stopping the Reader in the perusal of this passage to remark the graciousness of God in his determined punishment of Jerusalem. The Lord saith that he will wipe it as a man wipeth a dish, turning it upside down. Do, Reader, observe those expressions. Jerusalem shall be wiped, not broken, not east away, not destroyed; but wiped. It shall be much tossed about, indeed, from the highest to the lowest fairly upside down; but nevertheless all this is with a view to cleansing. It is all in mercy, all in love, all in tenderness. The Lord saith in the after age; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies. Zechariah 1:16. And he hath opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a fountain for sin and for uncleanness. Zechariah 13:1. And where is this but in thy blood, precious Jesus! thou art the Lamb of God that takest away sin. And thou art the mercy promised. Luke 1:72.