Strengthened by these considerations, fuggesting the fame or like past deliverances, either to thyfelf, thy friends or acquaintance, -thou wilt learn this great lesson in the text, in all thy emergencies and diftreffes,-to truft God; and whatever befalls thee, in the many changes and chances of this mortal life, to fpeak comfort to thy foul, and to say in the words of Habakkuk the prophet, with which I conclude, Although the fig tree fhall not bloffom, neither fhall fruit be in the vines ;-although the labour of the olive fhall fail, and the field fhall yield no meat;-although the flock fhall be cut off from the fold, and there fhall be no herd in the stalls; yet will we rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of our falvation.- To whom be all honour and glory, now and for ever. Amen. SERMON EXODUS xxi. 14. VIII. But if a man come prefumptuously upon his neighbour, to flay 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,-so have the laws of God laid proportionable restraints against such 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,-being the greatest,—the offence in God's difpenfation to the Jews, was denounced as the most heinous, and reprefented as most unpardonable. At the hand of every man's 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 be put to death. R -So ye fhall not pollute the land wherein ye are, for blood defileth the land;-and the land cannot be cleanfed of blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. -For this reafon, by the laws of all civilized nations, in all parts of the globe, it has been punished with death. Some civilized and wife communities have fo far incorporated these fevere difpenfations. into their municipal laws, as to allow of no distinction 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 business of a preacher to enter into an examination of the grounds and reasons for fo feeming a feverity.- Where most severe,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 moft direct attack and ftroke at fociety ;-as the fecurity of a man's life was the firft protection of fociety,-the |