treason, and murder ; and, by the general consent of mankind, the principals who are found guilty of those crimes are put to death. Now, in the tempting of men to idolatry, both these crimes were contained : there was treason against the King of kings ; and there was murder, not indeed of the bodies, but of the souls, of men. The person who made the proposal, did by that very act endeavour to draw men from their allegiance to God, and to engage them on the side of God's enemy and rival. And, as far as his endeavours were attended with success, he eternally destroyed all who complied with nis solicitations. Now compare the crimes, and see whether those committed against God and the souls of men be not infinitely more heinous than those which reach no further than to human governments, and the bodily life : and, if they be, the justice of the punishment annexed to them will admit of no doubt : it will be just, that He whose throne we would subvert, should inflict upon us the penalty of death ; and that they whom we would ruin for ever, should be made the executioners of that sentence.]
2. Merciful, as it respected the public —
[The Jews had been nurtured in the midst of an idolatrous nation ; and, after their settlement in Canaan, they were sur- rounded with idolaters on every side. Moreover they were of themselves exceedingly addicted to idolatry. But the conse- quence of their departure from God would be, that they would bring his heaviest judgments upon them, and be reduced to a more calamitous condition than any people under heaven. But God was graciously pleased to put a barrier in their way, which, it might be hoped, they should never be able to pass. He not only annexed the penalty of death to an act of idolatry, but even to a proposal to commit that sin : yea, to prevent such a proposal from being ever made, he not only authorized, but commanded, the person to whom it was made, to give immediate information of it to the magistrates, and to be the first in inflict- ing the punishment of death. If the person making the proposal should be ever so dear to him, though it should be his own brother, or son or daughter, or even the wife of his bosom, or his friend that is as his own soul, he must make no difference ; he must shew no respect of persons whatever : " Thou shalt not consent unto him, says God, nor hearken unto him ; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him ; but thou shalt surely kill him :" all natural affection must be laid aside, and be swallowed up in a concern for God's honour ; and the man himself must become the informer, the witness, and the executioner, even where the delinquent is dearer to him than his own soul. What child, what wife, what friend, if he had conceived an idolatrous inclination in his heart, would dare to mention it, when the person to whom he