lion, and this animal, it is well known, is sometimes used for a show to extort money from persons of a curious eye. I acknowl edge it would be absurd to argue, that the devil is an instrument, because he is likened to a roaring lion, an animal that may be used as an instrument of avarice or diversion. But what I would here suggest is, that the wicked, under the government and control of the supreme Being, are likened to things, which are, in their own nature, instruments of workmanship in the hands of an artist. It is well known, that certain things do exist, in relation to some particular purpose; and, aside from this, they would be as nothing. What would be swords and spears, if there were no such thing as war? The very mention of the former conveys an idea of the latter. And what would be plow-shares and pruning-hooks, if the art of husbandry were a thing unknown? It is certain that such things could not exist. It would imply as much of an absurdity, as to say that creatures may exist without a creator; or that a square may exist in the form of a globe. Relative things, without their peculiar relations, are nothing. Would it be possible to conceive of an army without a general and other officers to command it, and put it in motion? It would be easy enough to con ceive of a concourse of men, sufficiently large to constitute an army, having no head or chief among them; but without proper officers it could not be an army. And how

could one form an idea of a sceptre, without a king, or magistrate, to wield it? The two ideas necessarily go together, and cannot exist apart. A sceptre can be nothing else but an instrument of authority, or power, in the hand of magistracy. Viewing it in any other light, is actually depriving it of a being. There are words expressive of relations as well as of things; and when such words are used, it is the relation that is aimed at, and nothing else. If you speak of a sword, for instance, you mean not merly a plate of iron, or steel, of a particular shape, and with a sharp edge. This will not, of itself, make it a sword. It must be designed for war, for the purpose of human slaughter. Its being adapted to this use, is the great thing, which gives it its name. Could you, therefore, compare any thing to a sword, without bring ing in the idea of its fitness to promote misery and death, and that not by any self-moving power of its own, but as used and ap plied by the hand of another? Whatever cruefties and horrours are caused by the sword, we do not ascribe to it, only as an instrument in the hand of the warrior. It can effect nothing by itself. I have introduced these remarks, that we might be helped to see clearly, that wherever God likens the wicked to such things, as men employ for instru ments in their several callings, or to answer their particular occasions, the comparison holds just so far as their instrumentality ex Lends. He that is holy and true hath said

in the book of Revelations, " Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out." Does he mean, that he will make him as stupid and unfeeling as is a pillar of wood or stone? and not rather, that he shall have the same rank and beauty, and be of the same use, in the spiritual temple, that the pillar of marble is in the natural? When God compares Ephraim to a deceitful bow, does he mean that he is like a piece of elastic wood, which may be put to many uses or to none? which may be bent, or burnt in the fire, or left to rot upon the ground? The comparison evident. ly reaches to the properties of the bow, as an instrument of war, or as adapted to the discharing of arrows, and to nothing else.

If God likens wicked men to instruments, of whatever kind, it proves that they are instruments, or else the comparison utterly fails, and no instruction is communicated. We will, therefore, proceed to call up some of the instances on divine record, in which we have this kind of proof, that the wicked are instruments, by which God executes the purposes of his moral government. The first that offers itself for consideration is in the words of our text. "Thou art my battle-axe and weapons of war; for with thee will I break in pieces the nations; and with thee will I destroy kingdoms," &c. How expressly does God here assert the complete subserviency of the Chaldean pow er to the governing influence of his provi

dence? that, as conflicting armies use the battle axe and other weapons of war against their enemies, to break them in pieces, and destroy their force; so he will use that proud and imperious nation to bring desolation upon others, until his almighty arm has hum bled and subdued them? All that was done by Nebuchadnezzar, his princes and servants, in attacking, conquering, and ravaging, the countries, against which their successful arms were carried, was as really done by the hand of God, in which they were but mere instru ments; as the blood, which flowed at the point of their swords, was shed by their. hands, by means of the weapons they used. Would you say, that the sword of the Chaldean made women childless by its own innate and unborrowed strength? that it cut, through and laid prostrate whole slaughtered hosts by a self-directing energy of its own, as if no arm of man was necessary to wield it? No man ever entertained such a thought. The slaughter is attributed to the sword as, an instrument. He, who wields it, is the agent of destruction. And what are the armies of Chaldea, triumphing over abased and, exterpated nations, but the sword of him, who ruleth the nations with a rod of iron, and breaketh them to pieces like the potter's vessel?"Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war." Pious David, under the griev-. ous trials he met with from persecutors, took sanctuary for hope and consolation, in the belief, that wicked men did nothing and

could do nothing, any farther than they were carried on by the invisible hand of God; that in their greatest outrages and oppres sions, they acted as the instruments of a just and holy providence, which opened to him a door for carrying his complaint to God, who, as he had originated the evil, was able to bring it to an end. "Arise, O Lord; disappoint him, cast him down deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword: From men which are thy hand, O Lord, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasures." If God resembles the

wicked to weapons of war, as we have seen, proving that they are the instruments, by which he inflicts his wrath upon those, who are already fitted to destruction; so also does he liken them to other kinds of instruments. "O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation." He, who, in one place, is styled God's battleax, is here called a rod of correction, with which he will chastise the heathen, and correct his own backslidden people. A little further on, in the same prophecy, this same power is likened to instruments still more, which adds increased evidence to the doctrine, that wicked men are useful in God's kingdom, as instruments of his glory. ter predicting what should befall the land of Judea, the prophet proceeds, "Wherefore it shall come to pass, that, when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zi

X

Af