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To blaspheme, in the language of Scripture, means to speak evil of Blasphemy, used by itself, means to speak evil of God. This offence is perfectly monstrous, It is really out of nature. But, on that very account, we ought to be extraordinarily careful how we impute it to any one; and not less careful to ascertain the Aruth of the charge, when the crime is imputed by

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thers. We are always slower to believe that our neighbour has been guilty of theft, than we are to believe that he has been guilty of any act of mere deceit in his dealings. Nothing short of the clearest evidence will induce us to believe that a man has killed his father or his mother; yet neither of these is more unnatural than for a man to speak evil of God. It is wrong, perhaps, to say that any thing can be more unnatural than for a son to murder his mother; yet, if it be possible, it is still more unnatural to speak evil of God; because, to the latter there is no possible temptation; and, to do a thing, for the doing of which it is impossible to divine a motive, is something which ought not to be regarded as possible, until there be produced proof of the fact clear as the sun at noon day.

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With what care, then, ought we to proceed in the making, or in the giving of our countenance to, imputations of a crime so unnatural and so monstrous! The crime is great: the greater the caution, therefore, in giving credence to it's having been committed. If, indeed, we be ready prepared, like the base Judges of Samaria, to believe loose and vague charges, supported by perjured witnesses, or built upon far-fetched constructions and interpretations; then, there n eds no

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caution at all the word blasphemer joined to the name of our neighbour will be sufficient to obtain the hearty concurrence to the dragging of him forth and stoning him to death. But if, bearing in our minds, the denunciation of God, so often repeated, and with such awful solemnity; if, bearing in our minds this denunciation, against unjust Judges and unjust judgments; and also bearing in mind, that, against unjust Judges the blood of the innocent, the widow and the fatherless shall cry from the earth; if, bearing these things in mind, we wish to be amongst those who shall be happy hereafter, we shall be very careful how we, by act or word, contribute, though in the smallest degree, towards the con demnation of our neighbour, until we have well and truly examined every particle of the charge against him; until we have well weighed the probable and even possible motives of his accusers; until we have arrived at a perfect conviction, that, in condemning him, we are not treading in the steps of the abominable abettors of JEZEBEL, and that we are not justly incurring the denunciation of being made food for the easts of the forest and the fowls of the air; a denunciation, though terrible in itself, still short of what is due to the crime of assisting the hypocrite in seeking, under the garb of sanctity, to gratify his appetite for plunder.

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Let no one hope to escape the punishment due to hypocrisy by pleading that he has not himself been the false accuser of his neighbour: let him not, when he has expressly or tacitly, given his assent to the cruel deeds of hypocrisy, hope, with Pontius Pilate, to

Let no one hope
Pilate saw that

escape by exclaiming: "I am innocent of the blood "of this just person: see ye to it." to escape by a subterfuge like this. the judgment was unjust, and yet he assented to it in order to avoid giving offence to the prosecutors, a baser and more wicked act than which it is hardly possible to imagine. Yet, this is, in fact, the act of every man who assists hypocrisy in the perpetration of it's injustice and cruelty, whether that assistance be given actively or by a silent assent. Every man,

who, in any way, and from whatever motive, assents to an unjust judgment on his neighbour, acts, not, indeed, precisely the part of JUDAS; but he acts the part of the Chief Priests and Elders, which was by no means less detestable: he acts the part, not exactly of JEZEBEL and the sons of Belial; but he acts the part of AHAB, and of that pusilanimous and wretched king he richly deserves the fate. In such a case there is "He that is not for us, is against us.' no neutrality. Not to prevent robbery or murder, having the power to do it, is to rob or to murder: not to endeavour to prevent injustice is to be unjust; and, not to use all the means in our power to arrest the hypocrite in his cruel career is to merit that just vengeance, which God has denounced, and will not fail to execute, against hypocrisy and cruelty.

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THE

SIN OF DRUNK ENNESS,

IN

KINGS, PRIESTS, AND PEOPLE.

"It is not for Kíngs to drink wine; nor for Princes strong "drink: lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the "judgment of any of the afflicted."

Proverbs, Ch. 31, V. 4, 5.

It is but too common to find men talking much of RELIGION, and paying, at the same time, very little attention to the meaning of the word; while they wholly neglect the practice of the thing itself. Such persons seem to consider religion as little more than a watch-word; as a sound that is intended to distinguish one class of people from another; and to think, that, so long as they use the word, they need care little about the matter that it is intended to describe. It is the having of the Bible and the praising of the Bible that such persons deem matters of importance; and not the studying of, and the adherence to, the precepts of the Bible.

But, this is not the light in which religion ought to be viewed. To practise justice, mercy, charity and other virtues, is natural to uncorrupted and under

verted human beings. That which strengthens this natural propensity, or arrests the effect of corruption and perversion, and does this through the means of reverence for God and an expectation of future rewards and punishments, is called RELIGION. So that, religion means virtue arising from considerations connected with a Supreme Being and with hopes and fears as to another world.

Virtue, in this sense of the word, means moral goodness; and, therefore, to be religious, a man must be morally good; and, to be morally good, he must, at the least, abstain from doing that which is morally wicked. Religion calls upon him to go much further than this. It calls upon him to do all the good in his power, whether as sovereign or subject, priest or neighbour, parent or child; but, at the very least, it calls upon him to abstain from the practice of vice; and, if he obey not this call, his professions only serve to scandalize religion and to insure his own condemna

tion.

Vain is the notion, that religion consists in believing in the truth of the doctrines of the Bible: vaiħ is the notion that what is generally called faith constitutes religion. It, in fact, makes but a very small part of what constitutes religion, properly so called. The Word of God has been given for a rule of conduct; and religion consists in obeying the rule, which is the best, and, indeed, the only, way, in which we can prove our faith, faith being neither more nor less than our belief in the Divine origin of the rule. "Thou "believest:" says the Apostle JAMES, Ch. ii. V. 19, "thou doest well. The Devils also believe." And, alas! How many men, who nearly resemble Devils in

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