Ezra 9:1,2

The Lord hath expressly commanded (Deuteronomy 7:1.) that there should be no intermarriages between Israel and the nations around. Chiefly, no doubt, with an eye to Christ. God's people were a nation of priests, an holy seed, a peculiar people, a royal priesthood. Therefore this mingling with the heathens was a direct outrage to the divine law. Alas! what are we not capable of doing, when the Lord withholds his grace! And, Reader! have you never remarked in your own instance, how sometimes this is done to teach us what we are, and to cause us to look back again to the hole from whence we were digged. Isaiah 51:1.