the world naturally is! It is evil: without mixture-only evil : without cessation-evil continually from the very fountain-head of action-the thoughts of the heart and all this is not the exaggerated language of creatures-God saw it!

6. Notice the amazing displeasure of God against sin. It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart!-Was ever such language uttered! What words besides them, could convey to us such an idea of the evil of sin? It is true, we are not to understand them literally: but they convey to us an idea that the sin of man is so heinous, and so mischievous, as to mar all the works of God, and to render them worse than if there were none. So that if God had not counteracted it, there had better have been no world! Any created being, on seeing all his works thus perverted, would repent, and wish he had never made them. Oh, the exceeding provoking nature of sin! What must be that grace which could give his only-begotten Son to die for it, and could find in his heart, for his sake, freely to forgive it? Be it our great concern, that, like Noah in the ark, we may be found in him.

I please all men in all things.—1 Cor. x. 33.

If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. Gal.

i. 10.

THOUGH both these kinds of action are expressed by one term, to please, yet they are exceedingly diverse; no less so than a conduct which has the glory of God and the good of mankind for its object, and one that originates and terminates in self. The first of these passages should be read in connexion with what precedes and follows it: ver. 31-33. Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: even as I please all men in all things; not seeking mine own with profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. From hence it appears VOL. VIII.

40

plain that the things in which the apostle pleased all men, require to be restricted to such things as tend to their profit, that they may be saved. Whereas, the things in which, according to the latter passage, he could not please men, and yet be the servant of Christ, were of a contrary tendency. Such were the objects pursued by the false teachers whom he opposed, and who desired to make a fair show in the flesh, lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. Chap. vi. 12.

The former is that sweet inoffensiveness of spirit, which teaches us to lay aside all self-will and self-importance; that charity which seeketh not her own, and is not easily provoked; it is that spirit, in short, which the same writer elsewhere recommends from the example of Christ himself: We then who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification: for even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee, fell on me.

But the latter spirit referred to, is that sordid compliance with the corruptions of human nature, of which flatterers and deceivers have always availed themselves; not for the glory of God or the good of men, but for the promotion of their own selfish designs,

While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest shall not cease.--Gen. viii. 22.

There are five years in which there shall be neither earing nor harvest.-Gen. xlv. 6.

THE first of these passages contains a general truth, or rule, which, as is common with general rules, has its particular exceptions. And yet it hardly amounts to an exception: for there never was a year since the flood in which there was no harvest throughout the world. To understand the promise of God's engaging never to afflict any particular nation, or number of nations, with famine, is to make it universal as to place, as well as uninter

rupted in respect to time; and this would go to ensure a harvest to the sluggard who refuses to sow.

Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.-Prov. xxvi. 4.

Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.-Prov. xxvi. 5.

A " FOOL, ," in the sense of scripture, means a wicked man, or one who acts contrary to the wisdom that is from above, and who is supposed to utter his foolishness in speech or writing. Doubtless there are different descriptions of these characters; and some may require to be answered, while others are best treated with silence. But the cases here seem to be one: both have respect to the same character, and both require to be answered. The whole difference lies in the manner in which the answer should be given. The terms according to his folly, in the first instance means, in a foolish manner, as is manifest from the reason given, lest thou also be like unto him. But in the second instance, they mean, in the manner which his folly requires. This, also, is plain from the reason given, lest he be wise in his own conceit. A foolish speech is not a rule for our imitation; nevertheless our answer must be so framed by it, as to meet and repel it.

Both these proverbs caution us against evils to which we are not a little addicted; the first, that of saying and doing to others as they suy and do to us, rather than as we would they should say and do; the last, that of suffering the cause of truth or justice to be decried, while we, from a love of ease, stand by as uncon

cerned spectators.

1

The first of these proverbs is exemplified in the answer of Moses to the rebellious Israelites; the last in that of Job to his wife. It was a foolish speech which was addressed to the former : Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord! And why have ye brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there? Unhappily,

this provoked Moses to speak unadvisedly with his lips; saying, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? This was answering folly in a foolish manner, which he should not have done; and by which the servant of God became but too much like them whom he opposed. It was also a foolish saying of Job's wife, in the day of his distress: Curse God, and die! Job answered this speech, not in the manner of it, but in the manner it required. What, shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?—In all the answers of our Saviour to the scribes and pharisees, we may perceive that he never lost the possession of his soul for a single moment; never answered in the manner of his opponents, so as to be like unto them: but neither did he decline to repel their folly, and so to abase their self-conceit.

By the works of the law shall no flesh living be justified.—Gal. ii. 16. Was not Abraham, our father, justified by works?-James ii. 21.

PAUL treats of the justification of the ungodly, or the way in which sinners are accepted of God, and made heirs of eternal life. James speaks of the justification of the godly, or in what way it becomes evident that a man is approved of God. The former is by the righteousness of Christ: the latter is by works. The former of these is that which justifies the latter is that by which it appears that we are justified. The term justification, in the first of these passages, is taken in a primary sense in the last, it is taken in a secondary sense only, as in Matt. xi. 19. and other places.

I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.-Exod. xx. 5.

The soul that sinneth, it shall die: the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son.Ezek. xviii. 20.

NEITHER of these passages appears to be applicable to men, as the individual subjects of God's moral government, and with respect to a future world; but merely as members of society in the present life. Nations, and other communities, as such, are considered in the divine administration as persons. That which is done by them at one period, is visited upon them at another; as the history of the children of Israel, and of all other nations evinces. The effects of the conduct of every generation not being confined to itself, but extended to their posterity, would in proportion as they were possessed of natural affection, furnish a powerful motive to righteousness; and to them who sinned, prove an aggravation to their punishment.

This part of divine providence was objected to, in the times of Ezekiel, as unjust. The fathers, said they, have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge-the ways of the Lord ure not equal. To this objection, two things were suggested in reply.

1. That though it was so that the sins from the times of Manasseh fell upon that generation, yet there was no injustice in it; but, on the contrary, much mercy for what they bore was no more than what their own sins deserved; and its not having been inflicted before, was owing to divine forbearance. God might have punished both their fathers and them. Hence, As I live, saith the Lord, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel. The soul that sinneth, it shall die! Which is as if he had said, I will no more forbear with you as I have done; but will punish both father and son, instead of the son only. Ezek. xviii.

1-4.

2. That if the sins of the fathers fell upon the children, it was not without the children having adopted, and persisted in their