This, I apprehend, is seldom or never committed, till men are greatly depraved; till all sense of moral good. ness is almost totally effaced; until vice in them reigna predominant; for such is the deformity of vice in general, that the person not grown grey in iniquity, shudders at the very thought of committing it.

But how does the repeated practice of evil obliterate from the mind every virtuous sentiment, and render man, in point of moral goodness, but little superior, perhaps, to the infernal spirits! Our Saviour regards incorrigible finners to be the children of their father the devil, whose works they will do!

Among the vices which the foonest, and which most effectually debase and pollute human nature, we may, perhaps, number profane swearing and drunkenness, which are often occafioned through a neglect of private and public devotion, and evil company.

When men are so degraded, that they fear not God, nor regard man, the immediate causes of murder in general are, I conceive, the love of money, the expectation of some earthly good, or the spirit of revenge.

But before the murderer commits the awful deed, would he pause a moment, and confider that the eye of God at least is upon him; that, through the juftice of Divine Providence, the murderer, even in this world, feldom escapes with impunity; and would he confider also, the present punishment only that awaits his guilt, how would he flee from the commission of so attrocious a deed?

This leads me, next, to pay attention to the punish ment of murder.

By the laws of God and man, the life of the murderer is required. No tears, no prayers, no penitence, no intercession of others, nor any less punishment than

death, can be accepted. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall bis blood be shed!-He that smitteth a man, fo that be die, says the Divine word, shall furely be put to death!-The murderer shall surely be put to death!-Ye shall take no fatisfaction for the life of a murderer.-If, in enmity, a man smitteth another with his hand that he dieth, be shall surely be put to death; for he is a murderer. If a man bate bis neighbour, and lie in wait for him, and smite him mortally that be die, thine eye shall not pity him; but thou shalt put away the guilt of innocent blood!-And how many threatenings hath God denounced against the murderer? The Lord, says David, will abhor the bloody man! Bloody men shall not live out half their days. And murderers are numbered among those sinners, who shall have their part in that lake of fire and brimstone, which burneth for ever and ever!

Their punishment of temporal death, is truly awful. To be exposed to public shame! -to be torn from mother, brother, sister, every friend,-from every earthly good! to be cut off, as in the present instance, in the flower of youth *! to go down with infamy to the grave, as a pest to society-as one unworthy of life,how wretched the state! Harassed too by the terrors of a guilty confcience, from which he cannot flee; and, unless pardoned by God, through the merits of Christ, to be covered with everlasting infamy; eternally to endure the anguish of remorse, and all the effects of the Divine displeasure; to sustain all the inconceivable miseries of eternal condemnation-how great the wo-how infup. portable the thought! But such is justly the doom of the impenitent murderer!

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But, But is it enquired, Wherefore is he now punished? I shall, in the first place, attend to the answer. Certainly he is not here punished to gratify a spirit of malice or revenge! He is not held up as a spectacle of misery, that by men he may suffer insult, nor that they may rejoice in his misery! Far from it ! -But to impress on the minds of men a sense of the malignity of the crime of murder; to deter them from the commiffion of a deed so horrid; and therefore the punishment is inflicted in the most public manner, That all Ifrael (that every person in the State) may bear and fear, and do not fuch wickedness! The murderer is also punished, that the community may retain its dignity, and escape the vengeance of God. Blood, we read, defileth the land; and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. For the honour, therefore, of our country and its laws; for the good and safety of the commonwealth; and to avoid the frowns of a righteous and holy God, the awful setence is executed; the sacrifice cannot be dispensed with; and, indeed, not to punish murder when in our power, is in some degree tacitly to approve of the crime, and to become partakers of the guilt!

Having thus, in a very summary way, noticed the crime of murder, some of the causes of it, its punishment, and the ends of this punishment, I shall proceed to improve the subject.

1. How sensibly are we convinced by every crime, but especially by that of murder, of the depravity of human nature! -And how foon was this offence committed after the fall of man! - If human nature is thus depraved, while we perceive the neceffity of the holy religion of Jesus; admire its benign intention, which is to prevent every crime; to restore men to purity, and

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to reconcile them to God-how grateful should we be for this dispensation of mercy; and what an holy abhorrence should be ours of those men, or those sentiments, which would fubvert the Christian religion, and introduce Deism, or licentious principles, in its stead!

2. It appears, from what hath been faid, how necessary it is, if men regard their reputation, their present and future happiness, to revere the precepts of Christianity; and especially to avoid the indulgence of anger and drunkenness; which are among those evils which lead to the perpetration of murder! How frequently and expressly are these sins forbidden? Wo unto them that rife up early in the morning, that they may follow trong drink; that continue till night until wine enflame them! We are affured that the drunkard shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven. And, says Solomon, drunkenness, at the last, biteth like a ferpent, and stingeth like an adder. It deserves attention, that the unhappy effects of this vice were flagrantly manifest in these two causes, tried here so lately, on indictments for murder. The two unfortunate men who died, were intoxicated in death; the man convicted of man-slaughter, was also intoxicated when he committed the fact; and the person who is now condemned for murder, was much addicted to liquor, and had spent the night in revelling that preceded the day in which he stained his hands with blood!

With respect to anger. Is it not enjoined, that Thou Shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart: Vengeance is mine and I will repay, faith the Lord. We are exhorted to put away all bitterness, anger and malice, to render not evil for evil; but to love even our enemies. And anger, faith the wife man, refteth in the bosom of fools.

3. If parents regard the profperity of their children, how should they teach them the principles of our holy Cc4 religion; religion; admonish them to avoid every vice; excite them by precept and example, to regard every duty; to remember their Creator in the days of their youth! Indeed, will not a different conduct be attended, in all probability, with the most unhappy consequences, not only to the public in general, but to themselves in particular; and have they not just reason to fear the vengeance of Heaven for the neglect of parental duty? Was not the house of Eli judged for ever, because his children made themselves vile, and he restrained them not?

4. How thankful to Heaven should be those parents, whose children are preserved from the power of vice; who do honour to religion, and are a blessing to their country! How grateful, indeed, should be all who are kept from presumptuous fins? But should we not remember, that the wages of every fin, unrepented of, will be death eternal!

5. How should impious youth be warned by this unhappy example of evil, without delay, to forsake their fins, and to flee the wrath of God to come! Had this unfortune man revered the dictates of reason and religion; had the pious admonitions of his mother been properly regarded, might he not have been ornamental to human nature and to religion; been a useful member of fociety; borne the name of his father with reputation; been a crown of rejoicing to his widowed, aged mother; fupported her feeble steps in the decline of life; lived in happiness, and died in honour! -But, ah! through the indulgence of vice, through the forgetfulness of his God, how awfully the reverse !

Will you not, O youth! turn from his example in righteous indignation ! -What would tempt you to take his place, to endure his punishment? - Let his folly, then, teach you ou wisdom; his indifcretion, inspire you with prudence!

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