2

Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth'." Accordingly, when the people fought against Sihon, they "took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones of every city," they "left none to remain " And when Jericho was taken, "they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword 3." What an awful office was this, what an unutterably heart-piercing task, almost enough to make a man frantic, except as upheld by the power of Him who gave the command! Yet Moses, thus severely minded to do God's will, was the meekest of men. Samuel too, who sent Saul to slay in Amalek “man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass," was from his youth up the wise and heavenlyminded guide and prophet of Israel. David, who had a fiery zeal so as even to consume him, was (as we see by his Psalms) most tender-hearted and gentle in his feelings and thoughts. Doubtless while the servants of God executed His judgments, they still could bend in pity and in hope over the young and old whom they slew with the sword,-merciful amid their severity;-an unspeakable trial, doubtless of faith and self-mastery, and requiring a very exalted and refined spirit successfully to undergo. Doubtless, as they slew those who suffered for the sins of their

1 Deut. xx. 16.

2 Deut. ii. 34.

3 Josh. vi. 21.

fathers, their thoughts turned, first to the fall of Adam, next to that unseen state where all inequalities are righted, and they surrendered themselves as instruments unto the Lord, of mysteriously working out good through evil.-And shall we faint at our far lesser trials when they bore the greater? Spared the heavy necessity of piercing with the spear of Phinehas, and of hewing Agag in Gilgal,-allowed to take instead of inflicting suffering, and to "make a difference" instead of an indiscriminate severity,-shall we, like cowards, shrink from bearing our lighter burdens, which our Lord commands, and in which He set us the pattern? Shall we be perversely persuaded by the appearance of amiableness or kindness in those whom God's word bids us depart from as heretics, or profligate livers, or troublers of the Church? Joseph could speak strangely to his brethren and treat them as spies, put one of them in prison and demand another from Canaan, while he hardly refrained himself in doing so, and his bowels yearned over them; and by turns he punished them and wept for them. O that there was in in us this high temper of mingled austerity and love! Barely do we conceive of severity by itself, and of kindness by itself; but who unites them? We think we cannot be kind without ceasing to be severe. Who is there that walks through the world wounding according to the rule of zeal, and scattering balm freely in the fulness of love; smiting as a duty, and healing as a privilege; loving most when he seems sternest, and embracing them most tenderly whom

in semblance he treats roughly? What a state we are in, when any one who rehearses the plain threats of our Lord and His Apostles against sinners, or ventures to defend the anathemas of His Church, is thought unfeeling rather than merciful; when they who separate from the irreligious world are blamed as fanciful and extravagant, and those who confess the truth, as it is in Jesus, are said to be bitter, hot of head, and intemperate! Yet, with God's grace, with the history of the Old Testament before us, and the fearful recompense to warn us which came upon backsliding Israel, we, the Ministers of Christ dare not keep silence amid this great error. In behalf of Christ, our Saviour and Lord, who yielded up His precious life for us, and now feeds us with His own blood, for the sake of the souls whom He has redeemed, and whom, by a false and cruel charity, the world would keep in ignorance and sin,-we cannot refrain; and if His Holy Spirit be with us, as we trust He is, whatever betides, whatever is coming on this country, speak the truth we will, and overcome in our speaking we must; for He has given us to overcome!

SERMON XIV.

SUBMISSION TO CHURCH AUTHORITY.

PROV. iv. 24-27.

Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee. Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eye-lids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

PRECEPTS such as these come home with the force of truth, even to minds which fain would resist them, from their seriousness and practical wisdom, putting aside the authority of inspiration. At no time and under no circumstances are they without their application; at the present time, when religious unity and peace are so lamentably disregarded, and novel doctrines and new measures alone are popular, they naturally remind us of the duty of obedience to the Church, and of the sin of departing from it, or what our Litany prays against under the name of "heresy

and schism." It may seem out place to speak of this sin here, because those who commit it are not likely to be in Church to profit by what might be said about it; yet the commission of it affects even those who do not commit it, by making them indifferent to it. For this reason, and because it is right that even such persons as are firmest in their adherence to the Church should know why they adhere to it, I will consider some of the popular objections which are made to such adherence, by those who account it, not sinful indeed, (though many go even this length,) but unnecessary.

You know time was when there was but one vast body of Christians, called the Church, throughout the world. It was found in every country where the name of Christ was named; it was every where governed in the same way by Bishops; it was every where descended from the Apostles through the line of those Bishops; and it was every where in perfect peace and unity together, branch with branch, all over the world. Thus it fulfilled the prophecy : "Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together; for there are set Thrones of judgment, the Thrones of the House of David1" There were, indeed, separatists and dissenters then as now, but they were many and various, not one body like the Church; they were short-lived, had a beginning after the Apostles, and came to an end, first one and then