waters: a moment may cast his carcase, like Belshazzar's, on a dunghill: or make him, like Herod, a monument of human pride and weakness. There was no need of an army, in his case, to prove the distinction between the sword of man, and the sword of the Lord: a few worms, in as few moments, did the work.

We have not considered this calamity in the extreme, till we view it as mingled with the righteous wrath of an offended God: and, when HE arises in judgment, who can stay HIS hand, or say unto him what doest THOU? Hear his own declaration-See now that I, even I, am he: I kill, and I make alive: I wound, and I heal: neither is there any, that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. If I whet my glittering sword, and my hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh.

Beholding such an adversary on his way, well might the Prophet exclaim, O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? Put up thyself into thy scabbard: rest, and be still, Yet how can it be quiet? since the text leads us to consider it as

II. AN APPOINTED AVENGER.

Scripture teaches us, that the sword is but a

messenger; proceeding with a special commission to plead the cause of Him, who hath appointed it. It was, therefore, that the Prophet seems like one under recollection, after expressing his com passionate expostulation. As if he had said, "I have been calling on the sword to rest and be still, but how can it be quiet? It is on its way to stop a Rebellion, which still rages, and lifts up its face against the Most High. The sword, with which I now expostulate, does but execute its office, The Lord hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the Sea-shore: THERE, THERE, hath he appointed it."

When we hear the MOST HIGH saying concerning a guilty nation, If I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land, so that I cut off man and beast, he immediately informs us, that this sword, whatever may be the evil motive of the man that wields it, is as much executing an express charge of Heaven,, as any one of his other sore judgments, famine or pestilence.

But the veil that is on the heart of man prevents his regarding any thing but the visible machinery of war. Like the young man who attended upon Elisha, he sees, with trembling, the horses and chariots of men; but nothing of that arm of Omnipotence, stretched out in battle array, which the Prophet saw. Man stops at the effect: God calls him to regard the cause. A sword is as harmless, in itself, as a ploughshare; but when

grasped in anger, it assumes an aspect of terror. God, however, teaches us, that the man himself, who grasps it, is but a sword in his own hand, permitted or appointed. Arise, O Lord, says the Psalmist, disappoint him: cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is THY sword; from men, which are THY hand.

This short-sightedness leads to the great swelling words of vanity, found in the mouths of little perishing insects of a day. We are taught from childhood to admire that presumption in a storm, which vaunted to an affrighted mariner, "Fear not: you carry Cæsar!" But who was Cæsar? verily, but a feeble worm, sent to execute his Maker's commission but a few days before that, in which he himself was trodden under foot as a worm. Who was that Royal Desperado, that, in despite of God's warning, would madly go up to battle?-only a single bow was drawn, and that at a venture; yet the Lord made even a solitary arrow his appointed avenger, and gave it a charge to find its way to the heart of Ahab through the joints of his harness. Who was that Tyrant, that proudly thought his sword had no other commission that what he himself gave it? Shall I not, says he, do to Jerusalem, as I have done to Samaria?-No! you shall not: you have no such commission. Therefore the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn. But, Thus saith the Lord, because thy rage against me,

and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest. And who, let me ask, is that other Tyrant, for whom the same hook and bridle are reserved? He, who is now trampling on the liberties, property, and lives of Europe?-verily, nothing, in himself every thing that is dreadful, while permitted to act as a sword.

However, therefore, you may abhor the ambition, the cruelty, the falsehood, the rapacity of such a destroyer; and, as the common friends of mankind, resolutely withstand his designs-still, still, I earnestly entreat you, consider what is necessary to this end. Run, not as uncertainly. Fight, not as one that beateth the air. Stand to your arms, but take firm hold, of THAT HAND, which holds the sword, and which alone can return it into its scabbard. In the mean time, let us recollect, with a holy fear, that it has long had a charge against Europe; that it is still drawn; and that it is nothing short of Atheism, to look at our national resources, or at our rampart the sea, and say "It cannot come hither!" The inquiry should be, Whose sword is it? Who appoints it? And who can resist it when thus appointed, whether it be against Ashkelon or England?

And how can it be quiet, whenever the Lord appoints it to plead his cause?-a cause, big with reasons far beyond the ken of a mere politican.

"It continues to ravage the earth," says one, "because the ambition and rapacity of one man is insatiable." Admitted. But what (as I have just shewn) did an inspired writer say of such men? Deliver my soul from the wicked, which is THY sword.

"It continues," says another, "because the Sovereigns of Europe are impolitic dastards: they consider not their own interest." Suppose this, too, admitted: who hath threatened to pour a spirit of deep sleep on Rulers, and to destroy the counsel of Princes?

"It continues," says a third, “because a capital error was committed in a former negociation: the single opportunity of peace was lost." Were this also admitted, it should suffice to recollect, who it was that permitted this error, and who can now recall it.

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It continues," says a fourth," from necessity. The present state of Europe can admit of nothing more than an armed peace." Admitted, again! But who made this necessity? This very necessity is the sword of the Lord: it is but the appointed avenger. How then can it be quiet?

But does Europe need particular and doubtful reasons, in order to account for its convulsed state?

It is, in fact, but wretched trifling, to call in the feeble conjectures of Politicians, in order to account for the appointment of a sword to go VOL. III.

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