will rescue you from that madness which disturbs you: we will give you at a moment's notice the only good which remains to you, your death. To kill you is the best mode of showing pity."*

And Juvenal thus consoles Corvinus, who had been defrauded by a pretended friend :†

“Our perjur'd villain, trust me, will proceed,
Till justice take him in some felon deed;
Then from some loathsome dungeon's horrid gloom
The hook shall drag him to his wretched doom;
Or exil'd, he shall join the numerous flocks
Of rogues that starve amid th' Ægean rocks;
You'll hear his doom with joy; with joy will find
The heav'nly pow'rs are neither deaf nor blind."

Hence the spectators of the destruction of the spiritual Babylon, as mentioned in the Revelations, (xviii. 20,) cry out in the language of triumph," Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her." And hence the prolonged tone of insulting

exultation over the

king of the same city in the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah, from the fourth to the twentieth

verse.

*

The only point of inquiry is the character of

Sen. de Irâ, lib. i. † Juv. Sat. xiii. 244, Owen.

E

the men who are said above to have been slain by the Almighty. But this must rest on the general question of the credibility of the history of the Bible, and is a totally different subject of speculation from that which is here supposed to be taken up by the objector.

SECTION XXII.

PSALM CXl. 10.-" Let burning coals fall upon them; let them be cast into the fire; into deep pits, that they rise not up again." cxxix. 6. "Let them be as the grass on the housetops, which withereth afore it groweth up." cxliii. 12.-" Of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul, for I am thy servant." And especially cix. 6—20. And thus also GAL. v. 12; 2 TIM. iv. 14.

THESE imprecations have been the subject of much invective; and even many, who are well disposed to support the authority of the Scripture, sometimes feel surprised at the apparent severity of them.

It has been indeed observed, that these are to be viewed rather as denunciations of what would take place, than as prayers that they should do so. But we will not seek shelter under a plea which is, after all, not agreeable

to the version that has received the sanction of prescription. We are not afraid to understand these passages in the manner in which they are usually presented to us.

The difficulty arises in a great measure from our considering David as a common uninspired man, uninvested with the high character of a prophet of God.

I would reason thus: We must allow that the punishments which God inflicts on sinners are righteous and just. Now let it be allowed that David was so far inspired by God as to know that the punishments which form his prayer were agreeable to the will of God, it will follow that he is justified in such a prayer. For the punishments are just and righteous; and for what is just and righteous a prophet of God must be perfectly justified in praying.

But again we might expect that the Divine Being would rather convert than punish: but we do not always find this expectation to be in accordance with the actual proceedings of God in ordinary life. In the same way we might expect that the prophet would rather pray for the conversion than the punishment of the enemies of the church; but, in pro

portion as the punishment of sinners is the act of God in ordinary life, rather than their conversion, in the same proportion is the prophet justified in praying for their punishment rather than for their conversion. We are too fond of thinking of God as a merely merciful Being, without reflecting that the common proceedings of the world ought to teach us better, and to show to us that His justice often manifests a stern and severe method of acting, and justifies the prayer that in such cases this stern administration may take effect. In short, if to punish be righteous, to pray for the punishment is righteous also.

No wonder, then, that this practice is sanctioned by the general voice of nature; and that it is so, is plain from the imprecations denounced on the vicious by the pagans. Thus Cicero bursts forth in the following vehement terms against Piso, in addressing that monster:* "What gives me the greatest pleasure and satisfaction is, that the senate think of you as they do of their most inveterate enemies; that you are hated by the Roman knights, and by the whole state; that there is not a worthy man, not a single citizen, whose eyes * Cic. in Pison. 20.