lief, that it was impossible for him to work miracles among them. He wept over Jerusalem, and desired to gather her children together under his protection, to save them from the wrath to come. He would, but they would not; and the rebellious will of man is thus said to have disappointed and turned aside the gracious will of God. It is in this manner, as I think, that the promises of God in the Scripture are to be understood as conditional; he will give us good things if we will do our part; not if we neglect it or do the contrary to it. Most certainly God could overrule every heart, that it should desire and do nothing but what was agreeable to his will. But the question is, not what God can do, which it would be blasphemy to ask, but what he thinks fit to do, according to those laws which he fixed beforehand, when he first made man upon the earth. Doubtless, God could have turned the hearts of Eli's sons, that they should have walked before him faithfully; and thus the promise made to their house, that they should walk before him for ever, might have been accomplished. But he left them to follow their own will, and that will was to do evil; and therefore he told Eli," I said indeed, that thy house, and the house of thy

father should walk before me for ever; but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me, I will honour, and they that despise me, shall be lightly esteemed." And there is an instance of this manner of God's dealings with men, which I shall mention, because it is, perhaps, one of the most striking in the whole Bible. It is said, that God promised to give the whole land of Canaan to the Israelites; and after the death of Joshua, when the tribe of Judah went out to war in order to complete their conquest, it is said, "the Lord was with Judah, and he drove out the inhabitants of the mountain, but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron."-Judges i. 19. I pass over the foolish cavil, of equal foolishness with most of those which have been raised against the Scriptures, as if the writer of this verse meant to say, that the Canaanites, with their chariots of iron, were too strong for the Almighty God. But what he does mean to say is this, that the Israelites were so frightened by the strong resistance of these Canaanites, that their faith failed them; they were like Peter walking on the sea, who, when he saw the wind boisterous, was afraid, although Christ himself was by: and, therefore, because

of his unbelief, Peter began to sink in the water, and the Israelites were beaten and repulsed by their enemies. So then, God could do no mighty work; that is, he could not, according to those laws which he himself has made; and by which he will not give his mercy to man, if man persists in showing himself averse and disobedient.

These, however, were the old times, in which signs and wonders were wrought, which we must not expect to see now. The days of miracles are past, and whether our faith be strong or weak, we may think, is on that account of small concern. But God has, in fact, mighty works to do in every age; mighty works of mercy and loving-kindness to his people, if their unbelief does not shut up their course. Even now, amongst us, in this very country, why is the mighty work of raising up God's kingdom upon earth, of changing the evil and stubborn hearts of men into good and obedient, of bringing every thought, and word, and deed, into the obedience of Christ; why is this mighty work stopped, and why has it been stopped, ever since the knowledge of Christ was first brought to this island? Why is it, that Christ can but lay his hands here and there upon a few sick folk, and heal them?-a

few who know their wants, and go with faith to him the great physician of their souls? It is, because of our unbelief; an unbelief which might well excite our wonder, if we considered only what sort of fruit God might justly expect to find in his vineyard, and were not become familiar from long habit with the wild grapes, the thorns, and the briars, which it indeed does actually bear.

When I speak of the mighty work of God's kingdom being stopped among us, I allude to those glorious pictures of the growth and happy state of Christ's Church, which occur so often in the prophecies. "Nation shall* not lift

A poem written by Mr. Coleridge, and first published, I believe, in the Annual Anthology, after alluding to the words spoken by the angels to the shepherds, when they announced the birth of our Lord, "Peace on earth, good will towards men;" concluded with the following stanza:

"Strange prophecy! If all the screams

Of all the men who since have died

To realize war's kingly dreams,

Had risen at once in one vast tide,

The choral song of that blest multitude

Had been o'erpowered and lost amid the uproar rude.”

This stanza has been omitted in the poem, as more recently published by its author in the "Sibylline Leaves,” from an impression, I suppose, that it might be regarded as irreverent. But, if the "strangeness" had been

up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." And yet, from the time of Christ down to our own generation, has not the earth been filled with violence; and have not war and bloodshed enjoyed as great a dominion as ever? For, when God said, " Nation shall not lift up sword against nation," he did not mean to put any force upon the evil will of man, but only to hold out to him such happy tidings of reconciliation with himself, and such bright hopes of everlasting peace and joy in Heaven, that it might reasonably be supposed none would scorn them, and none would neglect them; but that being full of peace and hope towards God, they would all be also at peace with one another. And he declared himself ready on his part, to take off the curse which had been laid on the earth for Adam's sin; to

ascribed not to the prophecy, but to the conduct of mankind, who have rendered fruitless the means of grace offered them; and have refused that peace, temporal as well as spiritual, which the Gospel of the Prince of Peace, if really accepted, must necessarily have ensured; the powerful language of the lines would accord exactly with the tone of the Scripture, in representing the dreadful contrast between the promises of God, made on the supposition that men could not but avail themselves of the blessings given them, and the actual state of the world, because, in fact, they have rejected them.