happened to them "for ensamples, and to have been written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." Let us be admonished then by these ensamples-the ruled cases of God's providential government— and instead of slighting or rejecting His determinate counsels, derive from them, by a filial conformity, all the good with which they are pregnant to ourselves. Whilst "Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab and the Hagarenes; Gebal, the * 1 Cor. x. 11. The force of this reference to God's judgments inflicted upon Israel as precedents upon which, as a God in whom is no variableness or shadow of turning, His moral government will continue to be conducted under the Christian dispensation, is not felt so strongly as would be the case were the continual specific applications, which the Apostles make of those ensamples to delinquencies occurring in their own times, more attentively considered. St. Jude declares, of certain seducers who had crept in unawares amongst brethren under his pastoral charge, that they were nроyeyρаμμévo not "of old ordained," as it is Calvinistically rendered in our translation, but of "of old written to this condemnation"-laid under it by a recorded precedent of universal application, in all like cases, to the end of time-(See Jackson's Works, fol. Vol. III. p. 168.)and he proceeds to illustrate his meaning by denouncing a "woe" against them, as having "gone in the way of Cain,"-the prototype of all will-worshippers who breed and cherish religious animosity-having "ran greedily after the error of Balaam"-the prototype of those who turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, for filthy lucre's sake, or because they love to have the pre-eminence-and "perished in the gainsaying of Korah,"-the prototype of a third class, who despise governments, speak evil of dignities, and will be restrained in nothing which they imagine to do. In like manner are Nadab and Abihu, the Beshemeshites, and Uzzalı, prototypes of those who offend after their ensample; in whose condemnation, therefore, all similar delinquents may read their own, as infallibly awarded against them, as if a voice from heaven pronounced it at the moment, or wrath came out from the Lord to take instant vengeance. and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines and the Tyrians; Assur and the Children of Lot," and the almost countless variety of other perverse designations, are rearing their " tabernacles on every side,”* and “setting up their banners for tokens”† of their success let not us be indifferent spectators of these deplorable spoliations; let not us be partakers either in their sins, or in the sins of those whom they draw away: nor let us lull ourselves into the delusion, that we are discharged from this burthen, whilst that most specious pretext, both of the seducers and the seduced, can be alleged with truth in their vindication, that the courts of the Lord's House, dispersed throughout our country, are utterly disproportionate to the surrounding population, and the utmost is not done that each of us can do to supply the deficiency. Rather let us have respect to Israel, when Psalm lxxxiii. 6-8. + Ibid. lxxiv. 4. The author is here anxious to record the respect which he entertains for all who can truly urge the plea of conscience, taken in its largest sense, for their violation of the divinely-prescribed unity of the Christian Church, by worshipping God in contending assemblies; and, further, his belief that there are many in every denomination of sectarism who come under this description. To such persons the above scriptural application does not belong; but to those only, who, while they differ as widely amongst themselves upon material points of doctrine as they differ, each of them, from that reformed portion of Christ's holy Catholic Church, by God's mercy preserved in these realms, do notwithstanding, as the same passage continues its representation, "Cast their heads together with one consent, and become confederate against her." That there is at present such a combination, in most active and hostile operation, is placed beyond dispute by the published proceedings of the itinerant Societies attached to the different sects, but acting in close concert, her dwelling-places of God's holy name called for offerings at the hands of her children. Let us first mark their conduct with reference to the Tabernacle where God forbad the taking of any thing which was not given "willingly with the heart," and yet a proclamation to restrain the people from further munificence is almost simultaneous with the invitation to contribute,“ much more than enough for all the work," having been almost at the instant cheerfully presented.* From the Tabernacle let us pass on to the First Temple; and there let us have respect to David calling for Nathan to unburthen to his spiritual counsellor the trouble upon his mind, that “he was dwelling in a house of cedar whilst the Ark of God dwelt within curtains; † and protesting that "he would not come within the tabernacle of his house, nor climb up into his bed, that he would not suffer his eyes to sleep, nor his eyelids to slumber, until he had found out a place for the Temple of the Lord." Let us accompany him to the threshing-floor of Ornan-the place divinely pointed out to him, after which he was in and of the "Society for the Protection of Religious Liberty," at once the cabinet and the arsenal of them all. Here there can be no conscience, but motives of a very different complexion promulged without the least disguise; which the reader will do well to inves tigate, as the means of possessing himself of deeply-interesting information. *See Exod. xxv. 2, and xxxvi. 5-7, the chronology of which two chapters is the same, as will appear by reference to the margin. + 2 Sam. vii. 2. Psalm cxxxii. 4, 5. search-and observe his refusal to receive it as a gift from the willing donor, because, as he alleges, "he would not offer unto the Lord his God that which cost him nothing;' "* and let us proceed with him to the last scene of his munificence, and survey the vast accumulation of treasure and the profusion of costly materials, "of his own proper good, which he had with all his might amassed and prepared," because, as he declares," he had set his affection upon the house of his God;"† and let us not omit to notice how all the chief of his people emulated their sovereign in the amount and costliness of their gifts, and how " they rejoiced because they offered willingly and with a perfect heart." Nor let us pass over their perseverance in the same pious liberality, when, upon "proclamation being made," in the reign of Joash, that the Temple needed reparation, it became necessary to empty the treasury every day" of its overflowing contents, "the money being gathered in such abundance."§ From the first Temple let us proceed to the second, and take account of "the free-offerings” of all classes brought back to Jerusalem, according to their respective abilities, to the treasure of the work, as both Ezra and Nehemiah set them forth in specific enumeration.|| Let us from thence * 2 Sain. xxiv. 24. 1 Chron. xxix. 6-9. 66 +1 Chron. xxix. 2-5. || Ezra i. 6; ii. 63, 69; Neh. vii. 70–72. advance onward to the Gospel age, and ponder upon our Saviour's reproof of the traitor's eleemosynary pretext for drawing into his own bag the price of the precious ointment devoted specially to His honour, and to the expression of supreme personal attachment to Himself; for the case applies pointedly to the subject before us, and effectually bars the plea of precedence to the claims of poverty which those who "have evil will at Sion" are too ready to adduce;* and lastly, let us count the cost of the numerous John xii. 4, 5. The singling out of this act of exuberant devotion for perpetual and universal memorial, wherever the Gospel should be preached, will not easily be reconciled with the obviously practical import of every incident which our Lord distinguishes by his approval, unless it carried with it some exemplary instruction, to be copied by his disciples in after ages. As he had on another occasion upheld the obligations of charity against the covetous pleas of superstition (Mark vii. 11), so here he detects and cautions his followers against the opposite excess, that of making charity the pretext for cashiering religion. Upon this subject what the judicious Mede advances is so forcible, and so eloquent, that the author cannot forbear making the citation: "At interim meminerint velim hujusmodi sermonis autores, nos non absolutè sed comparatè locutos de Templorum ornatu, ut ne sint minus quam hominum ædes ornatæ. Deinde sciant non Templa sola hoc quod intorquent ariete, sed, et Regum conquassari palatia, sed multas privatorum ædes. Pauperes egent? Quin igitur tu ædes tuas dirue, quin Regum et nobilium palatia demolire. Pauperes egent? Quid igitur tibi tantus domi aulæorum et tapetum apparatus? Quid tot contignationum at concamerationum delicia? Quid reliqua supellex otiosa, ornatus supervacuus? Aufer, aufer hac, inquam, sine quibus et tibi satis erit domi, et pauperi inde multum eleemosynæ. Postea si indigeant pauperes, causam non dico quin Templis omnem auferas ornatum, imo ipsa; non enim pro Templis homines, sed pro hominibus Templa sunt condita, ut in re Sabbatica dixit Servator."-MEDE'S Concio ad Clerum de Sanctuario Dei. Works, Vol. I. p. 518. |