September 15

only was made immortal, but he degraded himself from the dignity, and being in honour abode not, but made himself like the beasts that perish. Now it is appointed unto men once to die. It is the present law of their nature: and from history, observation, and experience; from the numberless accidents and diseases to which they are exposed; and from the infirmities and decays they feel in their bodies, the living know that they shall die:

"And be as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again." When we see our little family asleep we are not alarmed or concerned, though they are unconscious of our presence, and for the time know not any thing; because we have it in our power to restore the sensibility when we please; yea, nature, if left to itself, will soon recover it. But while suspended over the breathless corpse, in vain we watch to see a movement-- we speak in vain-- and touch the cold cheek in vain--and we bury our dead out of our sight. We are not denying a future state of existence, but we have no restoration from the grave here. "O spare me," says David, "that I may recover strength before I go hence and am no more." "In the morning," says Job, "ye shall seek me--but I shall not be." Ah! could we re-gather their precious remains, and inspire and revive them; Rachel would no longer "weep for her children, and refuse to be comforted, because they were not;" Jacob would no longer say, "Joseph is not;" at the domestic table "David's seat" would no longer be "empty;" nor would the lonely friend heave any more at the thought, "we took sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God in company." But in vain we seek them--They are gone the way whence they shall not return--The places that knew them shall know them no more for ever.

"Neither doth God respect any person." He does not overlook the little, or fear the great. He does not spare the poor from pity or the rich from favour. He is not moved by the venerableness of age or the charms of infancy. He gives the destroyer a universal commission, and orders him to strike impartially as to time, place, and manner. Youth, and beauty, and strength, and learning, and wisdom, and usefulness, lie down equally in the dust. "No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them. All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean: to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath."

"But the wide difference that remains, is endless joy or endless pains."

SEPTEMBER 15.—"He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord."—2 Chron. xxxin. 2.

MANASSEH, of whom these words are spoken, is a name proverbial for wickedness. This indeed is not invariably a sure rule to go by. A man cannot always be judged of by his infamy, any more than by his fame. Subjects have been called rebels when they

have been only maintaining their lawful rights. Christians, because they were not understood by their calumniators, have been deemed enthusiasts when they have only spoken the words of truth and soberness. A public charity wears the dishonoured name of Magdalene, as if she had been a prostitute of the grossest description before she became a follower of our Lord, and ministered to him of her substance: whereas, however we explain her case as having been dispossessed of seven devils, it imports nothing against her previous virtue—But Manasseh well deserves all the infamy attached to his character. Witness the portrait given us by the pen of inspiration. Witness his oppression and cruelty—“Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to the other.” The language is doubtless hyperbolical. But take it in the lowest sense consistent with truth, and how many persons under false pretences must have perished from public or private assassination to gratify his avarice, ambition, or revenge. For it was not the blood of criminals, but innocent blood that he poured out in such torrents: and we have reason to believe that a great portion of the victims suffered for the sake of religion. Early ecclesiastical history asserts, we know not on what foundation, that Isaiah was sawn asunder by his order. Witness his idolatries—“He built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.” Witness his superstition—“And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom:” that is, he either sacrificed his offspring to Moloch, or dedicated them to the service of the idol, to be employed in the execrable rites of his worship. Witness his infernal alliances—“He observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards.” Witness his open contempt of every thing sacred—“And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, in this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever.” Witness his concern and zeal to corrupt others—“So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen, whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel.” From the parallel passage in the book of kings, it is said, “He seduced them.” His example, being in high life, would be very influential; but he exerted himself to lead others astray; and what means and resources could such a man employ? Witness the aggravations of his guilt. He was piously descended. His father was the good Hezekiah. The palace in which he had been brought up was none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven. He had been under the care of pious priests and prophets. How much had he to unlearn. But he could not unlearn it; he had therefore to fight with conviction, and to overcome all the remonstrances, and to get rid of all the uneasiness of conscience. He was also divinely warned from time to time: this is the meaning—“And the Lord spake to Manasseh,

and to his people: but they would not hearken." And this impenitence crowned and confirmed all his iniquity—

And now what think you of this representation, on the truth of which we can perfectly rely? Is it not painful and humiliating to reflect upon it? Yet this man was a partaker of our own nature; and if we do not resemble him, are we to glory in ourselves? Yea, ought we not to be thankful? All have not the same opportunities and temptations. Who can tell what we might have been had we encountered the perils in which others have been wrecked? What would any of us have been in a world like this without Divine restraints? "There goes John Bradford, but for the grace of God," would the martyr exclaim when he beheld the transgressor. Our Lord therefore leads us from the effects to the hidden cause, and fixes on the human heart. "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." According to this decision the principles of the blackest crimes in practice lie in the recesses of many a character that appears fair to men. They are not suffered to spring up, but who will not honestly own that he has felt them in their most secret workings? Anger is the germ of malice; lust of sensuality; covetousness of theft. A desire to conceal the excellences of another from ourselves, or from the world, genders false witness. Hard conceptions of God lead to blasphemy. Ah! how little permission of Providence, or encouragement from circumstances, do the evils of our nature require, to bring them into exercise, and to degrade us to a level with the vilest of the vile—Lord, what is man!

And what think you of the pardon and renovation of such a sinner! "Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?" Should we not, in reading his history, have expected that he would perish a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men? But God's thoughts and God's ways are not ours. Where sin abounded grace did much more abound—Manasseh is saved!

When the elder brother heard of the reception of the prodigal, he was angry and would not go in. And such mercy as Manasseh experienced may be offensive to some now, who trust in themselves that they are righteous and despise others. "Of what use are our good breeding and morals? What, are the dregs of depravity to be saved as well as we? and to enter into life with us?" Yes; and if you had the mind of Christ, and if you were like angels, who rejoice when a sinner repenteth, you would gladly hail any of your fellow-creatures who were the subjects of such free and sovereign goodness, and magnify the God that displays it. Every penitent may say with David, when recovered from his fall, "They that fear thee will be glad when they see me, because I have hoped in thy truth."

Such mercy may be abused; and it is abused by those who continue in sin that grace may abound; who hope that God, who is so ready to pardon, will not be severe to mark what they do amiss, but that when they can sin no longer, he will, by some extraordinary interposition, subdue their unwillingness, and deliver them from the condition in which they now voluntarily continue. But how dreadful is it to be evil because God is good! Is this likely to gain his