neration of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments." Formal reasons, it may be observed, are annexed only to this, and the three following precepts of the decalogue. Of the three reasons conjoined with the commandment under consideration, God's sovereignty over us, is the first-This sovereignty is expressed in the sacred oracle by the words "I the Lord." The very term JEHOVAH, here translated LORD, denotes self-existence; and implies that the great and glorious Being to whom it refers is omnipotent or almighty, and the fountain or source from which all other beings derive their existence, This supremacy, the underived "I AM" here brings into view, as a reason why the command he delivers, relative to the exclusion of images in his worship, should receive the most careful and exact obedience. And surely this is reason enough. Power, among creatures, may indeed exist, without wisdom to direct it, or benevolence and goodness to influence its exercise. But we know it does not so exist, and I think it is inconceivable that it should thus exist, in the Supreme Being. It seems therefore to be taken for granted in the sacred Scriptures, that every intelligent being who has any knowledge of the true God, will know and understand that his almighty power will, and forever must be, righteously exercised. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Hence appeals are made to this power, to silence all rebellion in the creature, and all questioning of any of his commands, ways, or doings. "It is somewhat remarkable," says an excellent writer, "that in the book of Job, composed on purpose to resolve some difficulties in providence, when God is brought in as speaking himself out of the whirlwind, he makes use of no other ar

gument than his tremendous majesty and irresistible power!"* This then is the first reason annexed to the second commandment, that God "is sovereign Lord over us, and has a right to make what laws he pleases, about his own worship; and that we, as God's subjects, are bound to observe these laws, and to worship him no other way."+

The second reason annexed to this command is, God's "propriety in us"-Speaking, as it were, personally, to each individual of his chosen people, he says of himself, I am "thy God." Even among men, no right of exclusive property is considered more indisputable and valid, than that which we have to the productions of our own ingenuity and workmanship. But all mankind are "God's workmanship." They are, in a degree infinitely beyond what men can affirm of their sagacity and labour, the creatures, the products, of his power and skill. Yet the Lord Jehovah has claims on us as his peculiar property and possession, still stronger than those which he derives from creation. When by sin and rebellion, man had risen up against his Maker, alienated himself from his rightful owner and sovereign, and made himself over, as it were, to the enemy of both God and man, and deserved, as the just recompense of his enormous guilt, to be banished for ever from all goodGod not only spared him, but provided redemption for him-Yes, my dear youth, and the price of redemption from our slavery to sin and Satan, and the incurred penalty of eternal death, was high indeed-too high for any created being to provide and pay. For " we were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold-but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." Surely, when all this is considered, God's “proprie

* Witherspoon. t Willison.

ty in us"-his exclusive right to us and all that we have and are must be seen to furnish the strongest reason conceivable, for our conforming to that method of worshipping and serving him which he may choose to prescribe, and for our rejecting with abhorrence every mode which he has forbidden.

The third and last reason by which obedience to the second commandment is enforced is, "the zeal which God hath for his own worship" "I the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth ge'neration of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments." Whenever the Deity, in condescension to human weakness, is pleased to speak to us "after the manner of men," we must be careful not to conceive of him as possessing any of the imperfections or passions of our nature. Thus, when it is said that he is "a jealous God," we are not to conceive of jealousy in him, as fully corresponding to that feeling, as it exists in the human mind. All that is meant is, that the Deity has a holy sensibility in regard to every thing which relates to his worship; which may be illustrated to us by the sensitiveness and vigilance which we witness in one of our kind, under the influence of jealousy in regard to purity and delicacy of conduct in one who is most beloved, and in whose affections no rival can be tolerated. Idolatry is often in Scripture represented as spiritual adultery; and those who indulge in it, or even lean toward it, as resembling those who are basely regardless of the marriage

covenant.

As to God's visiting the iniquities of parents upon their children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him, you must be careful to observe that the children thus visited, as well as

Yet

their parents, are distinctly said to be those that hate God.-He never inflicts spiritual judgments on pious children for the sins of their wicked parents, or progenitors; although temporal calamities, such as disease, poverty and grief, are not unfrequently entailed on children by the vices of their parents. even these calamities, if the children be pious, are always overruled for their eternal benefit. Now, it should be observed, that no hater of God ever is, or indeed can be, punished in this life, more severely than his own proper iniquities deserve; and if God, for wise and holy purposes, determines to punish wicked parents in this life less than their sins deserve, (reserving their full and more awful retribution for a future state,) and inflicts greater temporal sufferings on their offspring than they would otherwise endure, yet unspeakably less, after all, than their own proper iniquities deserve is there any injustice in this? There is not the shadow of it. On the contrary, there is not only equity, but wisdom, and goodness too, in the dispensation. A solemn warning is held forth, both to parents and children, which may have, and is intended to have, a salutary influence, in preventing entirely the threatened evils. It is also worthy of special notice, how, in the midst of these fearful comminations, still "mercy rejoiceth against judgment." The threatened judgments extend only to the third and fourth generations of those who hate God; but mercy is promised to thousands, both of generations and individuals, of them that love the Lord and keep his commandments. Thus you see, dear youth, that your heavenly Fa ther has set before you, all that is awful on the one hand, and all that is alluring on the other, to engage you most carefully to regard what he has required of you in this, and in all his other commandments. Meditate seriously, I beseech you,

"But be it so: I was not burdensome to

you-Nevertheless being crafty, I caught you with guile."

Only two general modes of interpretation can be consistently applied to this text. The one supposes it to contain the Apostle's own statement of the character of the measures he employed, and the general course of conduct he pursued, while labouring at Corinth. The other supposes that it is merely the quotation of the language of another. Between these two methods of interpretation, we think there can be but little difficulty in deciding which has the most legitimate claim to a correct exhibition of the meaning of the text. For, though it has been frequently cited and applied as though the first of these were the only method of interpreting it, it will be no difficult matter to show, that such interpretation must necessarily attribute to the Apostle the exercise of a disposition with which the religion that he professed, and of which he was so distinguished an advocate, proclaims a constant and eternal warfare; and charge him with the employment of measures for the propagation of truth, which are not only unsanctioned by the word of God, but contrary to its whole spirit and tenor; and such as the Apostle himself in other places censures and disclaims.

For, supposing the Apostle to speak in his proper person, we must either admit the full and usual

meaning of the words "craftiness and guile," and thus directly charge him with deceit and fraud; or by some attempt to abate the meaning of the words, soften the charge against him.

Schleusner seems to lend his authority to countenance such a softening of the words "ravougyos" and "doλos." He translates the text "Existens callidus, prudentiâ vos cepi." Being skilful, I caught you by my prudence or wisdom.

But, hazardous as it may seem to enter the lists against so distinguished a lexicographer, we must contend that his translation is inadmissible, because it assigns a meaning to avoueyes and doλos, which their universal use will not justify; and that, whatever may be our ultimate view of the sentiment conveyed in the text, these words must be understood in the full latitude of the ideas expressed by the English terms "crafty" and "guile.”

The most correct and satisfactory mode of determining the "usus loquendi" of the writers of the New Testament, in respect either to words or phrases, is by a comparison of them, with themselves. Much collateral aid may be derived from the judicious use of contemporary classical authors; particularly in giving definiteness to the meaning of words and phrases that are but once used in the New Testament. But where a word is frequently used by the sacred penmen, its meaning should be sought from a careful comparison of the several places where it is found. And when a word is thus found, in all the instances of its use, to express uniformly one and the same idea, no contrary or opposing signification, borrowed from the use of the same word by classical authors, should be assigned to it. We will now apply this canon of sacred criticism to the text before us.

Πανουργος is an απαξ λεγομενον. But its corresponding substantive wavougyia, is several times used in

the New Testament, and from the use of this kindred word we may ascertain the definite meaning of the one in question. The mere citation of the passages where it is found, will be sufficient to show its ordinary acceptation.

The Evangelist Luke, speaking of the spies who had been sent forth to watch our Saviour's words and tempt him to some unwary speech, from which they might frame an accusation against him to the Governor, says, "But he perceived their craftiness."

And the Apostle Paul, speaking of the politic plans and counsels of that earthly wisdom which is foolishness with God, says "He taketh the wise in their own craftiness-" a quotation from Job, where the original word translated by Paul, aVougyia, is ny, a derivative from ny, the word used in Genesis to denote the subtlety which the serpent employed to ensnare the innocency of our first parents.

In this same epistle to the Corinthians the Apostle expresses his fears "lest as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so should their minds be corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ."

And in writing to the Ephesians, he charges them "to be no more children tossed to and fro and carried along with every wind of doctrine, and cunning craftiness of men whereby they lie in wait to deceive."

These are all the passages (except one which I shall presently quote), in which the word wavougyia is found; and from these it is evident that it is used in the New Testament only in a superlatively bad sense.

It is applied to the subtlety of the serpent, which introduced sin into our world, defaced the moral beauty of this lower creation, and brought upon it that overwhelming tide of misery that for 6000 years bas swept over it; to the designing crafty disposition of those men

who seek by circumvention and fraud, to remove every obstacle which opposes their own selfish views of aggrandizement; and to the still darker disposition of those tempters of innocence, those crafty corrupters of simplicity of doctrine and of life,-demons whom Satan himself might blush to own as his children,-who, from the mere malignity of their hearts, seek to deceive the unwary to their everlasting destruction." In what philological alembic this word can be distilled and refined, until a good meaning is extracted from it, I know not.

Aristotle defines arogya to be "odervorns ouN STRIVETH"-a cunning not commendable.

But allowing that this word, in its primary acceptation, expresses only that high degree of penetration and skill, that capacity for every work, which when regulated and moulded by virtue, assumes the form of consummate prudence or wisdom, but when under the influence of selfishness, degenerates into low and artful cunning; we contend that its connexion with do

in the passage before us necessarily limits it to the latter signification. "Being crafty I caught you with guile" (done). This word uniformly, in profane as well as sacred authors, is used to express that culpable deceit, fraud, or stratagem with which men so frequently attempt to cover, as with a veil, their hidden purposes of iniquity, that they may successfully impose on the credulity and unsuspecting innocence of their fellow men. It is the white-wash of the sepulchre, that within is full of dead men's bones and all manner of uncleanness. And as deceit enters so largely into the composition of our fallen nature, and is one of the most com. mon of the Proteus forms which vice assumes, or rather which appears as a prominent and inseparable feature of vice in every form-hence do is frequently used to denote iniquity in general. And its opposite

“ Σκόπους δι καγω και κατοπτήρας στρατου Επέμψα, τους πεποιθα μη ματαν ὁδῷ, Και τωνδ' άκουσας, ουτε μη ληφθώ δολφ. "And I also have sent scouts and spies of the opposing army, of whose knowledge of the way I entertain no doubt; and from their report I am persuaded that I shall not be ensnared by the guile of the enemy." Το give to does in this place any other signification than that of craftiness or guile would destroy all the meaning of the passage. And I have not been able to find a single in stance of the use of this word by any Greek author, where it can by any ingenuity of distortion be made to convey any other idea.

By the writers of the Septuagint, it is used as the translation of the two synonymous Hebrew words and, both of which primarily signify deceit and are sometimes usurped in a secondary sense, as generic terms for the whole of vice or iniquity.

In the New Testament it is found ten times; and in what sense, may be learned from the following ex

amples of its use. By Matthew and Mark it is applied to the insidious measures which the chief priests, and scribes and elders of the people devised, for the capture and destruction of our Saviour: "And they consulted how they might take Jesus by subtlety and kill him." "And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might take him by craft and put him to death."

It is classed by our Saviour himself with the other proceeds from the natural heart, which defile the man and render him loathsome and abominable, in the sight of Him who is holiness and truth. "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murder, theft, covetousness, wickedness, deceit." It was said by the same divine personage in praise of Nathanael, that he was "an Israelite indeed in whom was no guile."

When the Apostle Paul would convey a severe and pointed reproof to Elymas the sorcerer, who had withstood him, and sought to turn Sergius Paulus, the pro-consul of Cyprus, from the faith, he says, "O full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil &c."

The Gentiles, who are all under sin, are said to be "full of envy, murder, debate, deceit."

In these and all the other passages in the New Testament, where the word does is found, from the connexion in which it stands, and the subjects to which it is applied, its meaning is clear and undoubted, It means something as opposite to that prudence which enables a man to "behave himself wisely in a perfect way," as darkness is to light; something as far removed from it, as evil thoughts are from good thoughts, covetousness from liberality, theft from honesty, adultery from chastity, or murder from innocency. It is a word unknown in the Christian vocabulary, except to be branded with the mark of re