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mand of King Joash, in the court of the Lord's house, 2 Chron. xxiv. 21. It is true, indeed, that his father is called not Barachias, but Jehoida. It is true, likewise, that many of the Jews had two names perhaps these two belonged to him. This, Chrysostom asserts, as we are informed by Doddridge. Possibly too there is an error in copying. Jerome, saith the last mentioned author, found it different in the gospel of the Nazarenes.

Another difficulty is this. How could one generation be answerable for the sins of their predecessors? How could it comport with divine justice, to require of the Jews, of Christ's time, all the blood, which had been shed by others?

God often treats a nation, as if that nation were a single person. Though the individuals, who joined in the death of Zacharias, were all dead at the time of Christ, the nation, as a political body, existed. To constitute national identity, identity of persons is not required. We often speak of ourselves in a national capacity, and say, that in our infancy, we were feeble; but we have now become strong, and in a century from this time, our strength will be greatly increased; though not one person now on the stage existed, when the country was settled, and not one, perhaps, of its present inhabitants will exist a century hence.

This mode of speaking is common in scripture; it runs through the eleventh chapter of the epistle to the Romans. There the nation is mentioned as the same political body, when it rejected the gospel, as in those subsequent ages, when it should

embrace the gospel. That same nation, which had fallen, when the apostle wrote, shall rise by faith, after the lapse of many hundred years. So the Jewish

church is described, in prophecy, as the same body, or assembly, to which, in the Christian age, Gentiles shall be added.

This manner of speaking, and of viewing the subject, generally prevails in regard to civil corporations. A contract made by a corporate body must be fulfilled, though all the persons entering into that contract have deceased. A nation, perhaps, will put up with one injury from another nation; but if that injury have been preceded by a series of injuries for sixty years, the case will be different; neither will it be inquired how far those concerned in the recent injury, were concerned in those, which preceded.

But the main question is, how it can be just, that the individuals, now composing a nation, should suffer for the sins of their predecessors : how the righteous blood of Abel and Zacharias could justly be required at the hands of those, who did not exist till several ages after this blood was shed.

It is replied, that the genera tion of the Jews, on whom such direful ruin descended, suffered no more than their personal iniquities deserved. It would have been just in God to have punished them with these judg ments, had their predecessors been guiltless. Still it may be true, that had their predecessors been guiltless, the judgments mentioned would not in fact have fallen on these individuals. The Jewish nation were, for

many ages, treasuring up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath. At length, the storm, which had been collecting and thickening, for many ages, burst; but not, let it be noticed, on the heads of the innocent. If less righteous blood had been shed in the nation, destruction would either have been delayed, or else, have been accompanied with less severity; still the ruin was, by no means, disproportionate to the guilt of that generation, on which it fell. Justice requires that no creature be punished more than he deserves; but it does not require, that all be punished to the extent of their deserts. It has been taken for granted, that the generation, which experienced the effects of divine wrath, agreeably to our Lord's declaration, had deserved the judgments, which they felt. Surely then they did not cease to deserve them, because their predecessors had been treated with a degree of lenity, which they did not deserve.

Suppose a man extremely profligate lives in a virtuous nation; another person of similar character lives in a nation, the individuals of which resemble himself. The first nation, we will suppose, feels no national judgments; of course, the sinner, who dwells in it, has no part in any general calamity. The other sinner partakes in the wars, earthquakes, or pestilence, with which an offended God scourges the people with whom he is united. While this latter sin. ner feels no calamities, which he might not justly feel, were he insulated, is he treated unjustly, because another sinner, of the same moral character, lives at his ease? Divine justice will prevent every one from suffering more than his sins deserve: but whether each individual shall suffer as much as he deserves, may depend on his connexions, or a thousand circumstances foreign to his moral character.

LEIGHTON.

Selections.

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ter the defection of the ten tribes, according to the LXX. Isdales, Jews, signify subjects of the kingdom of Judah, (as 2 Kings xiv. 6. xxv. 25. Jer. xxxii. 12. xxxiv. 9. xxxviii. 19. xl. 11.) But after the Babylonish captivity, the name, Iudaici, or Jews, was extended to all the descendants of Israel, who retained the Jewish religion, whether they be longed to the two, or to the ten tribes, whether they returned to Judea, (as no doubt some of the ten as well as of the two tribes

did) or not. For as the learned bishop Newton has well observ ed, it appears from the book of Esther, that there were great numbers of Jews, (Ixda) in all the hundred twenty and seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, or Artaxerxes Longimanus, king of Persia, and they could not all be of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, who had refused to return to Jerusalem with their brethren; they must many of them have been the descendants of the ten tribes, whom the kings of Assyria had carried away captive; but yet they are all spoken of as one and the same people, and all without distinction are denominated Jews. (Isda.) See Esther iii. 6. xiii. 4. iii. 8. v. 9. xi. 17. ix. 2, and following verses.

In this extensive sense the word is applied in the New Testament. See Acts ii. 5, 8-11 Comp. Acts xxvi. 7. James i. 1.

Further, the name of the pa triarch Judah, from which the Jews were called, Isdera, means a confessor of Jehovah: Hence the apostle distinguishes, Róm. ii. 29, 30, between him who is a Jew outwardly, and him who is a Jew inwardly. By the former, he means a person descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, according to the flesh, and observing the outward ordinances of the Mosaic law, but destitute of the faith of Abraham, and not believing in his seed Christ; by him, who is a Jew inwardly he intends one, who, whether Jew or Gentile by natural descent, is a child of Abraham by a lively faith in Christ, the promised Seed, (see Rom. iv. 16, Gal. iii. 7, 29) and consequently is a true confessor of Je

hovah. In like manner. Christ himself speaks of the apostate unbelieving Jews of Asia Minor ; which say they are Jews, Ixdaici, i. e. the true confessors or worshippers of God, but are not, Rev. ii. 9, ii. 9. And St. Luke makes a similar allusion to the import of the traitor's name, Luke xxii. 47. He that was call ed Judas, Isdas, a confessor of Jehovah; but was far from deserv ing that glorious appellation. Parkhurst.

MORNING PRAYER FOR A FAMILY.

ALMIGHTY and ever living God! we acknowledge ourselves bound, by innumerable obligations, to praise and adore, to love and serve thee. From thee we have received our being. Thou art our constant preserver and bountiful benefactor: the source of every present enjoyment, and the spring of all our future hopes. Thou hast also, in thine infinite condescension, been pleased to look down with pity on our fallen race, and freely to offer salvation to us through Jesus Christ.

We adore thee for the knowledge of thy will, for the promises of thy mercy and grace, and for the joyful prospect of eternal life so clearly revealed in thy holy word. Possess our minds, O Lord, with such a deep sense and firm persuasion of the important truths which are there made known to us, as shall powerfully influence and regulate all our thoughts, words, and actions.

But, while we celebrate thy goodness towards us, we have cause to be ashamed of our own conduct. We have great reason,

serious and diligent in our preparation for death and judgment.

We desire this morning to offer thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving for the watchful care of thy Providence exercised over us during the past night. We laid us down to sleep, and, bless.

O Lord, to be humbled before thee on account of the coldness and insensibility of our hearts; the disorder and irregularity of our lives; and the prevalence of worldly and carnal affections within us. Too often have we indulged the passions and appetites which we ought to have op-ed be thy name, we have arisen posed and subdued, and have in safety. May the lives which left our duty unperformed: and thou hast mercifully prolonged we find a daily occasion to la- be devoted entirely to thy ser ment our proneness to corrupt vice. Graciously continue thy inclinations and sinful lusts, and protection and favour to us this our reluctance to the practice of day. Save us from sin, we beseech what is agreeable to thy will. thee, and from all other evils, O Lord, be merciful to us mise- if it be thy blessed will. Enable rable sinners, and forgive us for us faithfully to perform every relthy Son Jesus Christ's sake. ative duty under an abiding sense Produce in us deep and unfeign of thy presence, and of our aced repentance for our manifold countableness to thee. May we, transgressions; and a lively faith as a family, dwell together in in that Saviour, who hath died peace and unity. May we for cur sins, and risen again for put away from us every angry our justification. And may thy and discordant passion; and lovpardoning mercy be accompa- ing thee with a supreme affecnied with the sanctifying influ- tion, may we love each other ence of thy Holy Spirit, that we with pure hearts fervently. Premay no more sin against thee; serve us, O Lord, from the inbut may live from henceforth as fluence of those temptations to becomes the redeemed of the which we are daily exposed. Lord and the candidates for a hap- Make us duly sensible of our py immortality. Put thy fear own weakness, that our hearts into our hearts that we may new may be raised to thee in humble er more depart from thee. May and fervent supplications for the thy blessed will set bounds to needful supplies of grace and our desires, and regulate all our strength. When we are in compassions. May our affections be pany, may it be our care to do fixed, not on present objects, but and to receive as much good as on those which are unseen and possible. When we are alone, eternal. Convince us more ef- may we remember that our heav fectually of the vanity of this enly Father is with us; and world and its utter insufficiency may this thought excite in us an to make us happy; of the vile- earnest desire to act as in thy ness of sin and its tendency to sight. make us forever miserable; of the value of our souls, and the awfulness of that everlasting state on the borders of which we are standing and may we be

Bless, we pray thee, the President of these United States, and all other officers of the Federal Government, and all rulers and magistrates in the several States

in the Union. Save us from the evil designs of all our enemies, forgive our national sins, and preserve to us the blessings of peace. May all mankind be visited with the light of the gospel; and may its influence be more widely diffused in this land. In tender mercy regard all who are in affliction of whatever kind. Grant unto our dear friends and relations every blessing which thou knowest to be needful for them. May they and we experience thy favour in this life, and in the world to come, life everlasting.

We offer up these our imperfect prayers, in the name of our only Mediator and Advocate Jesus Christ. Our Father, &c.

FRAGMENT.

TRUE RELIGION. WHEN the mind is not only conscientiously but affectionately religious; when it not only fears God as the Almighty Sovereign, but loves and confides in him as the all gracious Father; not only inferred to be such from the beauty and benignity apparent in the works of nature, but rationally understood to be such, from the discoveries of divine grace in the word of God; and let us add, no less rationally felt to be such, from the transforming influence of that word on the heart; then acts of devotion are no longer a penance, but a resource and refreshment, insomuch that the voluptuary would as soon relinquish those gratifications for which he lives, as the devout Christian would give up his daily intercourse with his Maker. But it is not in stated acts merely that

such devotion lives; it is an habitual sentiment, which diffuses itself through the whole life, purifying, exalting, and tranquilizing every part of it; smoothing the most rugged paths, making the yoke of duty easy, and the burden of care light. It is as a perennial spring in the very centre of the heart, to which the wearied spirit betakes itself for refreshment and repose.

Mrs. H. More.

ANECDOTE.

WHO that reads the following anecdote of the late celebrated king of Prussia, can envy his greatness? Nay, who does not abhor the hardness and barbarity of his heart? Who does not see the malignant moral effects, which result from infidel philosophy?

"Intending to make, in the night, an important movement in his camp, which was in sightof the enemy, he gave orders, that by eight o'clock all the lights in the camp should be put out, on pain of death. The moment that the time was past, he walked out himself to see whether all were dark. He found a light in the tent of Capt. Zietern, which he entered just as the officer was folding up a letter. Zietern knew him, and instantly fell on his knees to entreat his mercy. The king asked, to whom he had been writing. He said it was a letter to his wife, which he had retained the candle these few minutes beyond the time in order to finish. The king coolly ordered him to rise, and write one line more, which he should dictate. This line was to inform his wife, without any explana

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