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dren; but the heart must be kept with all diligence, or the creature will supplant the Creator in our affections.

Lastly, The influence of the world is apt to alienate our hearts from our eternal concerns. This influence is either alluring or oppressive. If pleasure tempts, if money allures, if ambition courts, how hard is it to resist these evils with firmness of mind, and with Godlike disdain! And if the world frowns, if business fails, if labor is painful, if families become troublesome or afflictive, how hard is it to depend on the providence of God! How prone is the Christian to be led astray by an impatient, murmuring spirit!

The Christian led astray by one or more of these evils, becomes a proper subject of Divine chastisement and compassion. As God abhors that which is evil, how plausible or flattering soever it may be to us, he must discover that abhorrence; and this he usually does by afflictive dispensations. It is often seen that worldly trouble and disappointment, nay, even relative affliction and bereaving providences, do not convince many of their error, do not banish self, the creature, and the world from their hearts. Hence appears the necessity of personal affliction. This is often the last and most effectual means which the Lord employs for the good of his people. This makes the saint see the cvils of which he is chargeable; and then he can most feelingly say, "Before I was afflicted I went astray;" but now, while under affliction, and after its removal, “have I kept thy word." Having found comfort in his affliction, from the quickening influence of the word of God, he can now say, "I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me."

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Affliction, when sanctified, discovers the ignorance, the vileness, and ingratitude of the heart. It leads the soul back again to God, the source and centre of its happiness. When this blessed end is accomplished, the saint shall be removed to a better world, or his affiction shall be removed from him. In this latter case we shall find him more attentive to God's word than ever, "But now have I kept thy word." He will keep his eye upon the word of God, that it may direct, restrain, and comfort him; and while he reads, he prays, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." He will also keep his heart in frequent meditation and love of the Divine treasure, "Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee; I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies as much as in all riches. Therefore, I esteem all thy precepts, concerning all things, to be right; and I hate every false way." Such are his present sentiments, and such the benefit of his affliction.

Happy is the man who is chastened of the Lord "for his profit, that he may be a partaker of his holiness!" His affliction will "afterwards yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness." His errors will vanish like mist before the sun; beloved seif will be denied; the creature will be kept in its proper place; the world will appear Thus, when affliction

in all its vanity and emptiness. has answered its end, God will be glorified, and the saint made more humble, more happy, more useful in the world.

May every reader, whether afflicted or not, bear in mind the conduct of the Psalmist, "I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word." OBADIAH.

OBSERVATIONS ON 1 KINGS xxii. 21-23.

(In Answer to a Correspondent.)

“And there came forth a spirit, and stood before Jeho "vah, and said, I will persuade him. And Jehovah "said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go "forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all "his prophets. And he said, thou shalt persuade him “and prevail also: go forth and do so. Now therefore "behold Jehovah hath put a lying spirit in the mouth "of all these thy prophets; and Jehovah hath spoken "evil concerning thee."

WHEN Ahab sent for Micaiah, there was evidently no sincerity in his request. Like many others, who ask counsel of their friends, and even seek direction of God, not with a view to be influenced, but in hope of being countenanced by it, he was determined to go against Ramoth-Gilead, let Micaiah say what he might. The messenger sent to call Micaiah, seems to have been furnished with a secret message; and tried what he could do at tampering with the prophet. From hence it appears evident, that Ahab did not desire to know the mind of God, but chose delusion. Micaiah came; and Ahab, thus accosted him: Micaiah, shall we go against Ramoth-Gilead, to battle, or shall we forbear? Micaiah answered in a strain of irony, (which might be very evident from his tone and manner of delivery,) "Go and prosper: Jehovah will doubtless deliver it into the hand of the king. Who can hesitate on the truth of that which has the testimony of four hundred prophets to confirm it?" Ahab felt the irony, and conjured him VOL. III. * 20

to be serious. Micaiah then assumed a serious tone, and told him the truth without reserve; and which amounted to nothing less than that he should lose his life in the battle. Ahab, full of rancor, appealed to Jehoshaphat, that he had told him beforehand what would be the effect of sending for this man. Micaiah, like a man of God, now looked the very monarch in the face, and said, hear the word of Jehovah! "It may be thought incredible that I only should be right, and four hundred prophets in the wrong: I will relate a vision that will perfectly account for it. I beheld Jehovah, the great disposer of all events, sitting upon his throne, surrounded by the host of heaven. Fully acquainted with the whole of thy ungodly life, and viewing thee as ripe for destruction, he determined to destroy thee: and seeing that in this instance, thou hast preferred flattery to truth, he has determined to destroy thee by means of flattery. Know then Ahab! that hell and all its agents, delusion and all its instruments, are under his control: they go and come at his bidding. That spirit to whom thou hast sold thyself to work wickedness in the sight of Jehovah, now desires thee for his prey. He that hath seduced thee into sin, now asks permission of God to deceive thy prophets, that he may plunge thee into destruction: and God hath granted him his desire. And that which Satan is doing for his ends, God will do for his: There is as much of the judicial hand of God in a lying spirit having misled thy prophets, as of readiness in the evil one to entangle and seize thee as his prey!"

GAIUS.

BIBLICAL CRITICISM.

He cursed David by his gods.

1 Sam. xvii. 43.

Ir is highly probable that this was a general practice with idolaters, who, supposing themselves secure of the favor and protection of their deities, concluded, that their enemies must necessarily be the objects of their displeasure and vengeance. Hence, anticipating the certainty of Divine wrath upon them, they cursed and devoted them to destruction. So did the Philistine act towards David; and so the Romans used to do, saying, Dii deacque te perdent.

And the horse that the King rideth upon, and the crownroyal which is set upon his head.

Esther vi 8.

HERODOTUS relates, that the Kings of Persia had horses peculiar to themselves, which were brought from Armenia; and were remarkable for their beauty. If the same law prevailed in Persia as did in Judea, no man might ride upon the King's horse, any more than sit on his throne, or hold his sceptre. The crown-royal was not to be set upon the head of the man; but on the head of the horse. This interpretation is allowed by Abenezra, by the Targum, and the Syriac version. No mention is afterward made of the crown, as set upon the head of Mordecai; nor would Haman have dared to have advised that which could not be granted; but it was usual to put the crown-royal on the head of a horse led

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