Malachi {m}; he was the instrument the Lord made use
0f; the person whom he sent, and by whom he deli-
vered the following prophecy.
Vet. 2. I have loved you, saith the Lord, &c.]
Which appeared of old, by choosing them, above all
people upon the f.ace of the earth, to be his special
and peculiar people; by bestowing peculiar fayours
and blessings upon them, both temporal and spiritual;
by continuing them a people, through a variety of
changes and revolutions; and by lately bringing them
out of the Babylonish captivity, restoring their land
unto them, and the pure worship of God among them:
yet ye say, wherein hast thou loved us? tim Targum
renders it, and if ye should say; and so Kimchi and
Ben Moloch; which intimates, that though they might
not have expressed themselves in so many words, yet
they scented disposed to say so; they thought it, if
they said it not; and therefore, to prevent such an ob-
jection, as well as to show their ingratitude, it is put
in this form; and an instance of his love is demanded,
which is very surprising, when they had so many;
and shows great stupidity and unthankfulness. Abar-
binel renders the words, wherefore hast thou loved us ?
that is, is there not a reason to be given for loving us ?
which he supposes was the love of Abraham to God;
and therefore his love to them was not free, but by
way of reward to Abraham's love; and consequently
they were not so much obliged to him for it: to which
is replied, was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the
Lord; Jacob and Esau were brethren; they had one
and the same father and mother, Isaac and Rebekah,
and equally descended from Abraham; so that if one
was loved for the sake of Abraham, as suggested, ac-
cording to Abarbinel's sense, the other had an equal
claim to it; they lay in the same womb together; they
were twins; and if any could be thought to have the
advantage by birth, Esau had it, being born first: but
before they were born, and before they had done
good or evil, what is afterwards said of them was in the
heart of God towards them; which shows that the
love of God to his people is free, sovereign, and dis-
tinguishing, Gen. xxv. 2. Rom. ix. 11, 12, 13: yet 1
loved Jacob; personally considered; not only by giving
him the temporal birthright and blessing, and the ad-
vantages arising from thence; but by choosing him to
everlasting life, bestowing his grace upon him, reveal-
ing Christ unto him, and making him a partaker of
eternaI happiness; and also his posterity, as appears
by the above instances mentioned; and likewise mys-
tically considered, for all the elect, redeemed, and
called, go by the name of Jacob and Israel in Scrip-
ture frequently; for what is here said of Jacob is true
of all the individuals of God's people; for which pur-
pose the apostle refers to this passage in Rom. ix. 13,
to prove 'the sovereignty and distinction of the love of
God in their election and salvation: and this is indeed
a clear proof that the love of God to his people is en-
tirely free froth all motives and conditions in them,
being before they had done either good or evil; and
therefore did not arise from any goodness in them, nor
from their love to him nor from any good works done
by them: the choice of persons to everlasting life, the
fruit of this love, is denied to be of works, and is
ascribed to grace; it passed before any were wrought;
and what are done by the best of men are the effects
of it; and the persons chosen or passed by were in an
'equal state when both were done; which appears by
this instancTe: and by which also it is manifest that
the love of God tO men is distingnishing; it is notalike
to all men; there is a peculiar favour he bears to
own pec, ple; which is evident by the choice of some,
and not others; by the redemption of them out of
every kindred, tongue, people, and nation; by .the
effectual vocation of them out of the world; by the
application of the blessings of grace unto them; and
by bestowing eternal life on them: and it may be
further observed, that the objects of God's love have
not always the knowledge of it; indeed they have no
knowledge of it betbre conversion, which is the open
time of love; and after conversion they have not
always distinct and appropriating views of it; only
when God is pleased to come and manifest it unto
them.
Ver. 3. And I hated ESau, &c.] Or, rejected him,
as the Targum; did not Iovc him as Jacob: this was a
negative, not positive hatred; it is true of him, per-
sonally considered; not only by taking away the birth-
right and blessing from hitn, which he despised; but
by denying him his special grace, leaving him in his
sins, and to his lusts, so that he became a profane per-
son; shared not in the grace of God here, and had no
part in the eternal inheritance with the saints in light;
and likewise it is true of his posterity,-as the following
instances shew: and laid his mountains and his heritage
waste; which, according to Grotius, was done by Ne.-
buchadnezzar, five years after the captivity of the
Jews, in fulfilment of the prophecy of Jeremiah, ch.
xlix. 7--22. but this was done by the Nabathean.s
Mount Seir was the famous mountain that Esau dwelt
in, Gen. xxxvi. 8. there might be more in his country;
or this might have many tops, and theretbre called
mountains; and to this account of the waste and deso-
late state of this country agrees what is at present re-
lated of it, by a late travellet {o} in those parts: "if {says
"he) we leave Palestine and Egypt behind us, and
"pursue our physical observations into the land of'
"Edom, we shall be presented with a variety of
"prospects, quite different from those we have lately
"met with in the land of Canaan, or in the field of
"Zoan; for we cannot here be entertained with pas-
"lures clothed with flocks, or with valleys standing
"thick with corn, or with brooks of water, or foun-
"tains, or depths that spring out of valleys and hills,
"Deut. viii. 7. here is no place of seed, or of figs, or
"of vines, or pomegranateS, Numb. xx. 5. but the
"whole is an evil place, a lonesome desolate wilder-
"hess; no otherwise diversified than by plains c0-
"vered with sand, and by mountains made up of naked
"rocks and precipices, Mai. i. 3. neither is this country
"ever (unless sometimes at the equinoxes) refrcshed
"with rain; but the few hardy vegetables it produces
"are stunted by a perpetual drought; and the non-


{m} \^dyb\^ in manu, V. L. Cocceius; per manum, Pagninus, Montanus,
Piscator.
{n} See Prideanx's Connexion, par. 2. B. 3. p. 199.
{o} Dr. Shaw's Travels, p. 438. Ed. 2.