ground-work of all the other bleffings to be defired from fuch a compact.-Thefts,-oppreffions, exactions, and violences of that kind, cut off the branches;—this fmote the root:—all perished with it ;-the injury irreparable. No after-act could make amends for it. What recompence can he give to a man in exchange for his life?—What fatisfaction to the widow, the fatherlefs,-to the family,the friends,—the relations cut off from his protection, and rendered perhaps deftitute,perhaps miferable for ever!

No wonder, that, by the law of nature,this crime was always purfued with the most extreme vengeance ;—which made the barbarians to judge, when they faw St. Paul upon the point of dying a fudden and terrifying death,-No doubt this man is a murderer; who, though he has escaped the sea, yet vengeance fuffereth not to live.

The cenfure there was rash and uncharitable;-but the honeft deteftation of the crime was uppermoft.-They faw a dreadful punishment, they thought;—and in feeing the one, -they fufpected the other.-And the venge

ance which had overtaken the holy man, was meant by them the vengeance and punishment of the almighty Being, whofe providence and honour was concerned in the pursuing him, from the place he had fled from, to that island.

he man;

The honour and authority of God is most evidently ftruck at, moft certainly, in every fuch crime, and therefore he would pursue it;-it being the reason, in the ninth of Genefis, upon which the prohibition of murder is grounded;-for in the image of God created -as if to attempt the life of a man had fomething in it peculiarly daring and audacious; not only fhocking as to its confequence above all other crimes,-but of perfonal violence and indignity against God, the author of our life and death.-That it is the highest act of injustice to man, and which will admit of no compenfation,-I have faid.-But the depriving a man of life, does not comprehend the whole of his fuffering;-he may be cut off in an unprovided or difordered condition, with regard to the great account betwixt himfelf and his Maker.-He may be under the power of irregular paffions and defires.—The beft of men are not always upon their guard.

And I am fure we have all reason to join in that affecting part of our Litany,―That amongst other evils, God would deliver us from fudden death;-that we may have fome forefight of that period to compose our spirits,-prepare our accounts,—and put ourselves in the best posture we can to meet it; for, after we are moft prepared, it is a terror to human nature.

The people of fome nations are said to have a peculiar art in poisoning by flow and gradual advances. In this cafe,-however horrid, -it favours of mercy with regard to our spiritual ftate;-for the fenfible decays of nature, which a fufferer must feel within him from the fecret workings of the horrid drug,-give warning, and fhew that mercy which the bloody hand that comes upon his neighbour fuddenly and flays him with guile,—has denied him. It may serve to admonish him of the duty of repentance, and to make his peace with God, whilft he had time and opportunity.The speedy execution of justice, which as our laws now ftand, and which were intended for that end,-muft ftrike the greater terror upon that account.-Short as the interval between fentence and death is,—it is long, compared

to the cafe of the murdered.-Thou allowedst the man no time,—said the judge to a late criminal, in a most affecting manner;-thou allowedft him not a moment to prepare for eternity; and to one who thinks at all,—it is, of all reflections and felf-accusation, the most heavy and unfurmountable, That by the hand of violence, a man in a perfect state of health, whilst he walks out in perfect security, as he thinks, with his friends;-perhaps while he is fleeping foundly,-to be hurried out of the world by the affaffin,-by a fudden stroke,

-to find himself at the bar of God's justice, without notice and preparation for his trial,— 'tis moft horrible!

Though he be really a good man, (and it is to be hoped God makes merciful allowances in fuch cafes)-yet it is a terrifying confideration at the best;-and as the injury is greater,there are also very aggravating circumstances relating to the person who commits this act.As when it is the effect not of a rash and fudden paffion, which fometimes diforders and confounds reafon for a moment,--but of a deliberate and propenfe defign or malice.-When the fun not only goes down, but rises upon

his wrath;-when he fleeps not-till he has ftruck the ftroke ;-when, after he has had time and leisure to recollect himself,—and confider what he is going to do;-when, after all the checks of conscience,-the struggles of humanity, the recoilings of his own blood, at the thoughts of shedding another man's,—he fhall perfift ftill,-and refolve to do it.-Merciful God! protect us-from doing or fuffering fuch evils.-Bleffed be thy name and providence, which feldom ever fuffers it to escape with impunity. In vain does the guilty flatter himself with hopes of fecrecy or impunity :the eye of God is always upon him-Whither can he fly from his presence!-By the immenfity of it, to all times;-by his omniscience, to all thoughts, words and actions of men.— By an emphatical phrafe in Scripture, the blood of the innocent is faid to cry to heaven from the ground for vengeance;—and it was for this reafon, that he might be brought to justice, that he was debarred the benefit of any afylum and the cities of refuge. For the elders of his city shall send and fetch him thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, and that their eye fhould not pity him.