treffes,-to truft God; and whatever befalls thee, in the many changes and chances of this mortal life, to speak comfort to thy foul, and to fay in the words of Habakkuk the prophet, with which I conclude,→~ Although the fig-tree fhall hot bloffom, neither fhall fruit be in the vines ;-although the labour of the olive fhall fail, and the fields fhall yield no meat;-although the flock fhall be cut off from the fold, and there fhall be no herd in the ftalls; yet we will rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of our falvation. To whom be all honour and glorys now and for ever. Amen. ser & tu But if a man come prefumptuously upon bis neighbour, to lay him with guile-thou Shalt take him from my altar, that he may die. A S the end and happy refult of fociety, was our mutual protection from the depredations which malice and avarice lays us open to,-fo have the laws of God laid proportionable reftraints against fuch violations as would defeat us of fuch a fecurity. Of all other attacks which can be made against us,-that of a man's life,-which is his all, Τ being the greatest, the offence, in God's difpenfation to the Jews, was denounced as the most heinous, and reprefented as moft unpardon brother will I require the life of man.-Whofo fheddeth man's blood, by man fhall his blood be fhed. Ye fhall take no fatisfaction for the life of a murderer;-he fhall furely pollute the land wherein ye are for blood defileth the land and the land cannot be cleanfed of blood 'that is fhed therein, but by the blood of him that hed it.For this reafon, by the laws of all civilized nations, in all parts of the globe, it has been punifhed with death. пой Some civilized and wife communities have fo far incorporated: thefe fevere difpenfations into their municipal laws, as to allow of no dif tinction betwixt murder and homicide, at leaft in the penalty ; leaving the intentions of the feveral parties concerned in it to that Being who knows the heart, and will adjust the differences of the cafe hereafter. This falls, no doubt, heavy --- upon particulars, but it is urged for the benefit of the whole. It is not the bufinefs of a preacher to benter into an examination of the grounds and reafons for fo feeming a feverity.Where moft fevere; they have proceeded, no doubt, from an excefs of abhorrence of a - crime, — which is, of all others, most terrible and fhocking in its own nature,--and the most direct attack and stroke at fociety;-as the fecurity of a man's life was the firft. protection of fociety,-the groundwork of all the other bleffings to be defired from fuch a compact. Thefts,-oppreffions,-exactions, and violences of that kind, cut off the branches; this fmote the root:all perifhed with it ;-the injury irreparable.--No after-act could make amends for it.-What recompence can he give to a man in exchange for his life?-What fatisfaction to the widow, the fatherless,-to the family, the friends,-the relations, -cut off from his protection,-and |