iii. 9.) We are not in an hurry to excommunicate or condemn them, if they are to excommunicate themselves, "to put the word of God from them, and judge (or declare) themselves unworthy of everlasting life," (Acts xiii. 46,) as well as others whom they have the wicked address to deceive; however we may be reconciled hereafter, to the consequences which they draw upon themselves by the just judgment of God, that wisdom might be "justified of her children," (Matt. xi. 19,) and "the righteous rejoice when he seeth the vengeance;" (Ps. lviii. 9;) as it is written.

Meanwhile the executioners, that is, the ministers of God's wrath, shall not be much better than its objects, perhaps; perhaps they shall even be the next to suffer in rotation, as it happened by nearly all the Israelites; who were redeemed from the land of bondage, and sent into freer countries to redeem them from their inhabitants with the sword; falling afterward themselves in the wilderness. (Num. xxvi. 65.) For it was as their leader told them, "Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord, thy God, doth drive them out from before thee." (Deut. ix. 5.) And though IDOLATRY had been their main offence, yet this debasing vice was allowed for their punishment; to rend them by combinations, to stultify, to unnerve, to incapacitate, to entirely disable them, in readiness for their approaching destruction by the devoted Israelites. (Rom. i. 21, &c.) Such, however, we may presume to have been then the course of national decay, which is as sure as that of individuals to happen sooner or later, from what has been in later and modern times. "The Ammonites and the Moabites" might have been as tall nations once as any of Greece, Italy, and other quarters ever were in their day; and we have reason to conclude, that they were equally vicious: (Deut. xxiii. 3 ; Lev. xviii., &c. :) so that a common fate appears to have overtaken them all; as we have seen

likewise by the other nations here alluded to, and the most chivalrous among them. Neither is it to be known as yet, what states may now be on their way to wardship, some perhaps that one should little suspect; to be guarded, guaranteed, and garrisoned, -visited, broken up, and despised: but as sure as there will be more gaols built for offenders, and more asylums for lunatics in Christendom,so sure there will be more wardships created for mad states ere long, and then one of those horrid SWEEPINGS before alluded to-for a clearance, if timely measures be not taken to defeat the occasion, and render it needless; to say nothing of further consequences.

I know full well, that one is liable to the imputation of eccentricity, moroseness, formality to which this sin is nearly allied,—if not indeed, of hypocrisy and insolence, from the world for seeming to talk seriously and like one who believed it-of "a judgment to come;" or even for daring in the mean time only to suppose a distinction between good and evil beyond a certain mark, any meaning in positive engagements before an Invisible Witness, any responsibility for the vilest of crimes to an Invisible Judge, any possible benefit of an Invisible Atonement, any actual offering by an Invisible High Priest, (Heb. v.,) any blessing conveyed by an inferior. (Deut. xxi. 5; xxvii. 12.) "Yet they seek me daily, (says God) and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God." (Isaiah lviii. 2.) It may further be said, as before intimated, (p. 62,) in matters of lower concernment, and before visible witnesses--engagements shall be binding, crimes cognizable, repentance available, the priest's office considerable; though judgment have no limitation, and the end of witnesses is to see-not to be seen. "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." (Cor. II. v. 10.) So the lighter cases may be

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lightly touched on ; but the heaviest are not to be so much as alluded to, or even suspected-by THOSE who have the general authority of Christ both to bind and to release, (John xx. 23,) with the particular license of the state to apply it! Where then, let me ask, if one might venture to ask the haughty world such a question, where may be the downright insolence, and knavery, and hypocrisy of the case?

But these are all mere secondary sins, and signify nothing in comparison with their subject or principal, that fatal, accursed, cruel delinquency: which it will require something more than either a plenary indulgence, or a fond conceit to wipe off, even with the blood of Christ, when matters come to an issue.

Ultimo. Whether therefore were that grand Desideratum, that something farther required, best to be checked or encouraged in respect of the judgment?

On the answer it must depend, whether any individual or confederacy hoping to be saved can seriously endeavour to check you or me for seriously endeavouring to encourage that something further, that great Desideratum.

Because the question is not now, Whom to blame, or whom to commend; nor where to fix the imputation of the forementioned, or of any other offences; but, how to be rid of their prevalence and guilt in contemplation of a "judgment to come;" (Acts xxiv. 25 ;) and which it may be well to think of sometimes; as the Psalmist observes, "But who regardeth the power of thy wrath? For even thereafter as a man feareth, so is thy displeasure." (Ps. xc. 11.) And whether it proceed or not from a fond conceit of my own, I am sanguine enough to hope sometimes, that God's mercy in Christ is doing daily more than yet appears toward that happy riddance for the "humble and meek," and for promoting by one blessed Spirit through Christendom the blessing of a quiet conscience and innocent purpose; which is the height of our coм

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G. WOODFALL, ANGEL COURT, SKINNER STREET, LONDON.

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