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cious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil. Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse. Following up the example of a temptation to plunder or dishonesty, the tempters in these words set before us the rewards of iniquity. In the first place the act was easily done; in the second, it will lead to very desirable consequences. The object of our search wil, as it is pretended, be accomplished. If we seek un-, lawful gain, it shall be obtained in full measure; others, we shall be told, have succeeded in the same pursuit; and we shall all have oue purse. If on the other hand you seek to gratify your malice and revenge; you will be told, in the hour of temptation, that this can be speedily effected, and that when your enemy is ruined by your interposition you will gaze upon his suffer-, ings with delight. It is the same with an undue desire of aggrandisement. We fancy that such a pursuit may be successfully managed by sacrificing family, friends, and country to our ambition. We shall find all precious substance; we shall fill our houses with spoil. These words are sounding incessantly in the ears of the turbulent and factious, and there is nothing from which they shrink in order to bring these words to bear. In short, every irregular and inordinate appetite holds out the prospect of its peculiar gratification; and by means of that prospect seduces us to transgress. There is no absurdity, to which men are not will ing to give credit when temptation is upon them, and promises to grant what they desire. The most improbable expectations of successful guilt are entertained with as great confidence as the sober promises of virtue. We persuade ourselves that the common order of events will be suspended that we may reap the fruits of our disobedience to God. We are told that honour, wealth, and comfort, and sometimes even that a peaceful and quiet conscience

may be enjoyed, after we cease to have the smallest right to any one. of them. An alliance is formed between the tempter and our own passions; we are thus lulled into a dangerous, and often a fatal security; the wicked say, come with us, cast in thy hot among us, let us lay waste for pleasure, and lurk privily for reward.

My son, walk not thou with them, refrain thy foot from their path. For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. Surely in, vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. The meaning of the last sentence is fully explained by the verses which precede and follow it. Having warned his son not to walk in the path of the wicked, in the path which had been described; above as so pleasant and profitable, Solomon gives a reason for this salutary advice, viz. that the description is false; that it is spread. like a net for the purpose of catching the unwary; that it will destroy the soul, as the fowler destroys his prey; that no time should be lost in pointing out the snare; that the real nature and consequences of sinful gratification should be explained to the inexperienced youth, to guard him from that pit whence it is so difficult to return.

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This explanation of the words is confirmed by the conclusion of the whole passage. They lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives. So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain, which taketh away the life of the owners thereof. Dwelling still upon that particular branch of temptation which leads some wretched individuals to rapine and mur. der, the wise man points out the insuperable distance of the reward which was promised from the reward which was obtained. The enticers had said, we will lay wait for innocent lives, we shall find precious substance, we will fill our houses with spoil." But experience speaks a different language, and tells

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them that they lay wait for their own destruction, and seek privily for their eternal ruin. Thus did Solomon attempt to lay the net before his son; thus is it laid in his writings before all our eyes. He points out the snares which sin spreads for the soul. The delusive hopes which the tempter encourages, are contrasted with the lasting misery to which his counsels lead. We are reminded that even a simple and silly bird, would not under these circumstances rush into the net; that we are forfeiting all claims to the title of rational creatures, if we prove ourselves inferior to those who are less excellent in their nature, if we rush with open eyes into the toils of sin, and believe that there is substance, where there is proved to be nothing but a shade.

We are warned, therefore, to consider for our own parts, and to point out to others whom we may be able to influence, the deceitfulness of every expectation by which we are enticed to sin. It will be too late to do this when the temptation has arrived: for in that hour the bird is no longer in possession of his sight, and though the net be visible to every other eye, he is prepared to deny its existence, and to risk his life upon the fact. But our acquaintance with the snares of guilt and sin, our conviction of their reality, of the slavery to which they necessarily lead, and of the consequent advantages of keeping far from them, must be formed in our days of comparative innocence, in our seasons of solemn and serious reflection, in our meditations upon the promises and precepts of God, and on the course into which we shall be hurried if we follow the corrupt propensities of our hearts.

When we first offend on trifling subjects we should inquire whether on that occasion the tempter's promise was made good. Are the heedlessness, and inattention, and petty

perverseness of our infancies, attended with any of the recompences which a wise man can covet? Our childish gratifications are eagerly pursued, and dearly purchased, and they should enable us to discern the net which is stretched out for our ruin. If every one who has not yet deserted the line of duty, would reflect upon what he witnesses in the fate of those that have; if every one who has stepped aside from the narrow path, but subsequently returned, would remember what he suffered at the period of his deviation, we might all be able to form a sufficiently accurate estimate of the wages and effect of sin. Do not the innocent who behold without participating in iniquity, and the person of doubtful character who has occasionally transgressed, and the confirmed and open offender who daily breaks his God's law, do not all these concur, when they reflect and tell the truth, in admitting that the sinner "lays wait for his own blood, and lurks privily for his own life?" The upright can hardly be supposed to hesitate in answering this question-for he has but to compare the reflections of his own heart, the peace and serenity which he always enjoys, the grateful recollections upon which he so frequently dwells, and the pleasing prospects to which he looks forward with delight, he has but to compare these with what he sees and hears of the wicked, to satisfy himself that their situations are as different as light and darkness. The character with which unhappily we more frequently meet, the person who has on some occasions grievously transgressed, but is not living in a state of confirmed impiety and impenitence, can speak yet more confidently concerning the rewards of sin; he is not compelled to have recourse to observation or hearsay; but his heart knoweth its own bitterness; and he cannot obliterate the remembrance of his transgressions.

Did they procure the expected and desired gratification? Did they afford him one instant of real enjoyment? Is there any thing they bestowed to which he can look back with satisfaction? The sinners who enticed him to cast in his lot with them, in one instance kept their word-for they had all one purse-one and the same restless and unsatisfied condition; one and the same inability to return, and unwillingness to advance; one and the same guilty conscience, announcing God's wrath, and man's ultimate contempt, and proving that they have lurked privily for their own lives. The notorious profigate, whenever he permits himself to pause, will be found in a still less equivocal situation. He has tried all the offers and promises of sin ; and found them all equally worth. less. "As are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain, and taketh away the life of the owners thereof," so are the lives of every obstinate offender, so shall our lives be if we are numbered among the transgressors. "Our feet will run to evil; and our hands will make haste to shed blood:" we shall endanger and finally destroy our own souls; even in this life we shall be tormented with the stings of intolerable despair; we shall ultimately desire to renounce our allegiance to God; but shall find that no such power has been committed to our hands.

My son, walk not thou in this way-Consider the testimony which all classes unite to bear, and let the net of the tempter be perceived and shunned. Do not deceive your selves into an opinion that you have no difficulties to encounter. Look to the world around you, and to the world within your bosom, and learn that you will infallibly be enticed by sin. The danger will not be diminished by denying its existence; but it be resisted and overcome by timely precaution and prudence. Make yourselves, therefore, famiJarly acquainted with the arts and

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deceit of your great spiritual foe. There will be but little chance of succeeding in the Christian contest, if you are not aware of the guile which you will be called upon to encounter. If the net be drawn silently and secretly around you, it will not be drawn in vain. But if early instruction and your own maturer observation make you acquainted with the real situation of men upon earth, if you remember the conditions of your baptismal covenant, and the necessity of striving earnestly and constantly to observe them, these thoughts may give you an insight into the wiles of Satan; may furnish you with a ready answer to his insidious sugges tions; may preserve you, as far as preservation can result from our own efforts; may enable you to comply with the weighty injunctions, which are contained in the proverbs of Solomon, and to which the practice we have been considering is an indispensable prelude.

But in enforcing the advantages and the necessity of reflecting upon temptation, upon the delusive promises of sin, and upon the mode in which that delusion may be dissipated, do not iet me be supposed to mean that we are sufficient to do this of ourselves, or that the best and most wary man on earth can escape from the net by the mere exertion of sagacity and forbearance. "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," is a petition which we should offer from the bottom of our hearts. Unassisted human nature we know from experience to be frail; and the aid of God's Spirit we know from Scripture to be vouchsafed to all who diligently seek and receive it. When we have profited to the utmost by the wise man's precept, when we have carefully surveyed the net which is spread for our destruction, and determined to avoid it with perseverance, we shall still find ourselves perpetually on the brink of being entangled in it, and shall have con

stant cause to pray for the Com forter who abides with us for ever. We are bound not merely to watch; but to watch humbly. A proud reliance upon our own superiority to temptation, upon our knowledge of the deceitfulness of sin, upon our experience in the cunning of the wicked One, will subject us as quickly to his dominion, as the most absolute ignorance and darkIf we really know our dan ger, we shall put ourselves under the guidance of Him who can alone protect us. Endeavouring to discharge all the particular duties of our station, and grounding that en

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deavour upon an earnest compliance with the more comprehensive in-. junctions to which your attention has been called, we shall pray that our faculties may be quickened to perceive, and our resolutions invigorated to avoid, the snares of the flesh and the devil. If we fail in the attempt there can be none to blame but ourselves, since God has promised to assist all that call upon him faithfully; if we succeed there will be none to praise but Him, who hath sent down his Son and his Spirit from Heaven, to redeem, to reconcile, and to sanctify a world of sinners. M. C.

SCRIPTURE CRITICISM.

To the Editor of the Remembrancer. the course of last year: the 20th of

SIR,

THE interpretation given by Pastorini falias Walmsley) to the Prophecy of the Locusts in the Apocalypse, appearing to have attracted the attention of some of your correspondents, I beg leave to suggest what appears to me to be a very decisive refutation of it.

The Locusts, that is the Protestants, are, according to Pastorini, to infest the earth for 300 years, and he refers their commencement to the year 1525. Now the Prophetic year consists of 360 days, and Pastorini's own argument should have reminded him of this; for the five months are, according to the use he himself makes of them, months of 30 days; but 300 years of 360 days amount to 108,000 days; and from the last day of De. cember in the year 1525, the latest day of the commencement of Protestantism according to this calculator, to the last day of December 1821, the number of days will be found to amount to 108,102; so that the period for the accomplishment of the Prophecy expired in

September 1821, being the last of the 108,000 days.

The calculation is easily made by multiplying 296, the number of years from the last day of Decem ber 1525, to the last day of De cember 1821, by 365, and then adding the number of Leap years, and allowing for the 11 days omitted when our Calendar was reformed, and also for the intercalation omitted once in 400 years.

Pastorini's Prophecy has therefore expired.-But the evils which it has assisted in producing in this unhappy country, in which two editions (the 7th and 8th) of the book were published in the course of last year, still survive.

S. N.

P.S. I sent a letter to the Warder, a loyal Dublin newspaper, some months ago, containing the above statement. I have not the paper in which it appeared, and I believe I have given it something of a different form. The signature I used to it, was, I believe, Chronologus.

To the Editor of the Remembrancer. membered, that St. Paul commends

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SIR,

A CORRESPONDENT in your Number for July, proposes a question as to the proper interpretation of 1 Cor. xv. 36, 37, and very justly, as it appears to me, objects to the notion, that by the death of the seed, its rotting, and corruption, are meant as necessary to the production of the new plant. Indeed, we know, that such corruption is inconsistent with the principle of vegetation. But neither can I concur with your correspondent in his view of the Apostle's illustration, namely, that the death, to which the Apostle alludes, is the death or ripening of the seed.

Clement as his fellow labourer, and one of those," whose names are in the book of life." (Phil. iv. 3.)

"Let us consider, beloved, how the Lord continually showeth to us the future resurrection, of which he hath made the Lord Jesus Christ the first fruits, having raised him from the dead. Let us behold, beloved, the resurrection, which taketh place at all times; day and night declare unto us the resurrection: the night betaketh itself to rest, the day ariseth, the day departeth, the night cometh on. Let us behold the fruits, in what manner the sowing of the grain is performed. The sower goeth forth, and casteth the seed upon the earth, and, the seed being cast, which falleth upon the earth naked and dry, it is dissolved: (darúεTαI,) then after its dissolution (iz rns diaλú

dence of the Lord causeth its resurrection, (avisnow àvtà,) and from one more increase and produce fruit."

St. Paul uses an obvious metaphor peculiarly suited to his argument, when he speaks of the death of the seed; meaning, in general,) the greatness of the provi terms, the burying of the seed in the earth, its being removed from sight, its being decomposed, dissolved: but not meaning to intimate, that as the human body is liable to corrup tion in the grave, so also is the seed. In the same sense, the parallel passage, John xii. 24. should be understood, a text, which is adverse to the construction of your correspondent Laicus.

Clemens Romanus seems to have interpreted the words of St. Paul in the way, which I propose, in a chapter of which I beg to subjoin the following literal translation. (Clem. ad Cor. Epist. c. 24.) And be it re

The dissolution (diarios) of Clement, corresponds with the death (ámolám,) of St. Paul. The passage of Clement may be regarded as a paraphrase of the text of St. Paul: and the pious fellow-labourer addressing the same Corinthian church will be deemed a sound commentator on the expressions, which are now under consideration. I am, Sir, Your's, &c. CLER. GLOC.

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