was impressed upon creation by the direct agency of the Almighty, and requires his continued influence to keep it in perpetual operation, and all is alike to be attributed to the ordination of providence, though he has sometimes graciously permitted us to see how the objects of his will are effected. Suppose a foreigner to our shores and a stranger to our manufactures, were to visit our enterprising town for the purpose of tracing the process by which thread is produced from the raw material of which it is composed. He follows it up from its finished to its incipient state, and finds that the machinery by which the effect is produced, is so admirably constructed, that each part of it is fitted to perform its own task, and also to cooperate with that with which it is connected; so that it can repeat the process for any number of times in succession, and cannot deviate, for a single moment, into the performance of any other office than that which has been especially assigned to it. He finds that no part can be omitted without destruction to the object of the whole. Each contributes something to the result, though of itself it can do nothing. He thus traces it piece by piece, and finds every part adapted to the one great end in view, but all acted upon by some invisible, and to him inscrutable power, till he arrives at last at the central wheel,-which he finds gives motion to all the rest. Now, suppose such an observer, on making this discovery, to exclaim, "The mystery of this complex proceeding is now solved, and I clearly understand the whole matter. I perceive that that untiring wheel is the cause of all the subsequent motion. I acknowledge the presence of a master-mind, and the great exercise of human ingenuity in the construction of that moving power, and in communicating to it its powerful and steady motion; but beyond this I can see little room for human contrivance or superintending care. Motion once communicated, all the rest of the machinery obeys so necessarily the impelling power, that it cannot but produce the end in view, and must rather be assigned to some fixed law of the nature of things, than the workmanship and ingenuity of man." Who would not at once see the absurdity of such a conclusion? What common workman would not tell him that there was as much design and contrivance in the machinery as in the wheel; and would not assure him that, smoothly as the process seemed going on before his eyes, every part of it was constructed, and required to be anxiously watched over, by the utmost human care and vigilance? And yet, what greater absurdity is there in this, than in the reasonings of him who, seeing the uniform operations of nature, attributes the origin of them, perhaps, to God, but all the rest to general laws over which the Almighty exerts no influence? Is not this to ascribe all to the wheel and nothing to the machinery? The right faith is, that God's presence is seen and felt in all his works, and that regularity and uniformity appear in them only because they are necessary for answering the ends of his own glory, and promoting the temporal and spiritual welfare of mankind.

These views, on a somewhat intricate subject, seem especially called for by the circumstances with which all our minds have of late been excited, and of which the remembrance is not likely, I trust, soon to pass away. The late storm, with which this neighbourhood more especially has been visited, has left behind it recollections

of suffering to some, and of almost miraculous deliverances to others, which will fail of their best object, if they awaken not in the breasts of us all, the deepest sentiments of piety and humiliation. Who can look back upon the anxious hours of that awful night, without calling to mind the impressions which he then felt, (perhaps for the first time in all their terrible reality) of the power of God, and of the utter helplessness of man. Even the infidel, if he did not believe, must then have trembled; and the good Christian, if ever he felt the value of his faith, must then have experienced it in all its fulness and power! Who, that listened to the rushing advance of each successive blast, and feared it to be of power sufficient to sweep himself and all that he valued from the earth, but must have felt as it died away, that he owed a life to the forbearance of him who checked the tempest in the midst of its fury, and set a bound to the wind as well as the sea, which it could not pass. It would seem that the addition of very little force to the storm, would have been sufficient to annihilate man and all his works; yet that little addition was withheld, and man was permitted to return in the morning to his usual avocations, and to thank God for saying to the angel, withdraw thine hand, when it seemed to be stretched out over our Jerusalem to destroy it. How many, during that awful night, were hurried out of life by death in its most frightful forms! how many endured an agony almost worse than death, in dismal anticipations of its approach, to themselves or their dearest friends! Humanity felt humbled and prostrate under the uncontrollable fury of one of the wildest of the elements; and but for the loving kindness of the Lord, we should have been as Sodom, and should have been like unto Gomorrah. Now, as we have shown, two opposite views may be taken of this impressive event, both equally erroneous, and equally opposed to sound christian doctrine. One man, the philosophical infidel, may see in it nothing but the ordinary course of nature, (though even he, during the raging of the storm, must have quailed under its terrors, perhaps with more abject fear than even the most humble-minded of faithful Christians); while another, with superstitious awe, may have considered it almost as a miraculous interference of Providence, and the especial work of his avenging hand. Both are wrong in their extremes, but both are right to a certain degree-it was not only a natural event, but also the will of God. And it was doubtless intended to teach us, by its severity, that the Almighty could so have regulated the course of nature as to make it a curse to us instead of a blessing; and, by checking its fury, to show us that, even in the midst of justice, he still remembers mercy. Let us then learn, by what has occurred, to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. All earthly distinctions are at once removed under the infliction of such a calamity as this. All men are levelled in one common helplessness. All alike may cry for help, but none have it in their power to relieve. Is not this, by nature, the spiritual condition of us all? No man may redeem his brother, or make atonement unto God for him. We see, then, in this temporal calamity, a typical representation of the resentment of God against sin; and we see in it, likewise, that there is no real deliverer, either from temporal or eternal death, except the strong arm of the Lord, and the power of his might. Let us learn, then,

always, to have faith in God. He who hath given us his Son Jesus Christ, will with him surely give us all things. The calamities incident to our nature may befal us, and we may be, as we shall be, visited with the visitation of all men; but such calamities will never overtake us unprepared. They will come upon us neither as judgments nor as accidents, but as trials of our faith and patience; and let us always remember, that chastisements like these are intended for the correction of the living, and not for the punishment of the dead. It is not in this way, or in this world, that God executes his vengeance on the wicked. As the good things of this life are no certain marks of the Divine favour, so neither is the withdrawing of them any certain token of his displeasure. No one, then, will uncharitably suppose, that those who have suffered most have been most deserving of the chastisement. Often are the innocent punished (for they can fear no evil) that the guilty may be warned. When David fell from his integrity, his people were afflicted. "I have sinned," says he, in his penitence, "but these sheep, what have they done?" "Those eighteen, on whom the tower of Siloam fell, and destroyed them all, suppose ye that they were sinners above all them that abode in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay," says our Saviour; "but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." That is, what happened to them as warnings to others, shall befal those as punishments who were deaf to the solemn admonition. Let us, then, apply to our own benefit, the lesson which has thus been read to us. Let us not hope for special deliverances and personal favours, on the one hand, nor attribute all that happens simply and exclusively to the ordinary course of nature, on the other; but let us see, in every event of life, the hand of God stretched out in mercy to his people; let us hear his voice, as Israel did, in the thunder and the storm; and let all that may befal us, whether prosperous or adverse, teach us to rely the more firmly on the merits and mediation of Him who hath redeemed us; so that having passed through the waves of this troublesome world, we may finally come to the land of everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. R. P.

MISCELLANEOUS.

COMMENTARY OF THEODORET, BISHOP OF CYRUS, IN SYRIA, ON ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

(Continued from page 99.)

CHAPTER II.

He proceeds now in another way to prove our possession of the power of discriminating between good and evil. 1. Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the same things. But, although thus situated, if you had received authority from any one to pass sentence, you would punish the transgressors of the law as guilty, so perfect a distinguishment have you between good and its

opposite. It becomes you then to be aware, that in the very judgment you pronounce on others as sinners, you involve yourselves in the same condemnation, for you have not hesitated to fall into the same transgressions. 2. But we answer that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things: but it is evident to those who think rightly, that by the divine law all who transgress are obnoxious to punishment. 3. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? 4. Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and long-suffering? We know indeed that in His own due time the righteous Judge will inflict vengeance on every sinner, but you, says he, who are so ready to punish others, and to shut your eyes to your own transgressions, imagine that you will escape the divine tribunal. Not so. God bears with you, and has long-suffering, because He yet waits your repentance, as he subjoins, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. 5. But after thine hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up to thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; 6. Who will render to every man according to his deeds. For since you have an obdurate spirit, and remain still in your iniquity, you are passing against yourself the sentence of punishment, which God in mercy indeed yet delays, but will in the last day set forth, allotting to each a recompense correspondent to their own works.

Well does he adopt the expression, treasurest up unto thyself, in order to show, that nothing of ours, whether word or deed, is consigned to oblivion, but that they who love virtue are laying up for themselves a store of good, and the workers of evil-doing the same (of evil). 7. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, and honour and immortality, eternal life. He teaches the difficulties of virtue, and displays its crown, for the patient continuance in welldoing is expressive of those difficulties, in that we must persevere in and carry through our virtue, and so expect its crown: but the labour is but for a time, the gain eternal; and this eternal he joins not to the life only, but to the glory, the honour and the immortality also, being desirous to illustrate the reward of our good deeds in as many ways as possible. 8. But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, 9. Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that worketh evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile.

As with respect to the former party, it was not simply to any chance person, nor to such as follow virtue sluggishly, that he promised those blessings, but to those who are contented to undergo its difficulties and labours, in like manner does he now threaten the heavy denunciations upon sin not to such as are betrayed into it on some chance occasion, but such as determinately pursue it, as is evident from the are contentious, the obey not the truth, and the work evil. Jews and Gentiles equally, says he, he will punish if transgressors, and deem worthy of the crown if zealous after holiness and righteousness. By the Gentiles he means not such as had become converts to the divine preaching, but such as had lived antecedently to our Lord's incarnation; nor to those among them who were idol-worshippers; but those who, being beyond the Mosaic polity, yet had embraced true piety, and sought after

righteousness,does he promise eternal life. 10. But glory, honour, and peace to every man that doeth good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile.

He speaks thus, not without a distinct design, but with a view to what follows, where he enters upon the accusation of the Jews. 11. For there is no respect of persons with God. 12. For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law. God, says he, is the Maker of all, and therefore the Judge of all; and the Jews then will he take account of, and condemn, according to the Mosaic code, but those that have never received it, whom he means by the without law, and their sin, He will justly punish according to the knowledge of good and evil implanted in their nature. 13. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For the law was not sent to us to gratify our ears, but to lead us to the practice of what is right. 14. For when the Gentiles which have not the law do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves.

For that the divine law demands such a practical obedience they also testify, who, antecedently to the Mosaic code, exercised themselves in holy thoughts, and adorned their lives with virtuous deeds, and became their own lawgivers. 15. Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also being witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another. 16. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. He shows that the law of nature was written in their hearts, and that the self-condemnation or self-vindication of conscience was according to truth.

And I think it worth while to illustrate this by some example. When then the admirable Joseph was bringing his plot to bear concerning Benjamin, and attempting to take him for a slave, as if he had stolen the cup, in order to prove the temper of his brethren as it were in the fire, then was clearly manifested the strength of the testimony of conscience. For then they were least inclined to turn their minds to that tragedy, and yet could not but remember the sin themselves had committed two and twenty years before, so that they cried one to another, (Gen. xlii. 21, 22,) that the blood of our younger brother is required at our hands, while Reuben reminded them of his entreaties among them. Agreeably then to this instance may we describe the future judgment and conscience of those who lived beyond the polity of the law, now as pleading their defence, and alleging ignorance, and now again admitting the justice of the accusation, and confessing the equity of the sentence passed upon them. And thus, again, Abimelech, (Gen. xx. 4, 5,) having the testimony of his own conscience, cried to God, "Lord, wilt thou slay an unconscious and righteous nation? Said he not unto me, She is my sister, and she, even she herself said, He is my brother? with an innocent heart have I done this thing."

Having thus then laid down these matters, the holy apostle now turns his discourse to the Jews, and says, 17. Behold, thou art "en-" titled a Jew, for this title was from of old a general and honourable one, wherefore he says not merely named, but entitled; and restest in the law, for thou weariest not thyself, like him who is a stranger to the law, in searching after what is right and fitting in practice, but hast the law itself teaching thee all things plainly; and makest thy boast of God, as of one, who has honoured thee above all the