said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to nie they have ascribed but thousands : and what can he have more, but tlie kingdom? And Saul eyed David from tlial day and forivard. And on the very next day did Saul cast his javelin at David tivice, in order to kill him;" and throughout all the remainder of his life used every possible effort to destroy him". This may enable us to understand what Solomon meant, when he called " envy, the rottenness of the bones ^." For as the corporeal system must be altogether enfeebled and destroyed when the bones are rotten ; so the moral constitution of the soul is rendered one entire mass of corruption, when a man lies under the dominion of this hateful principle. He is, in fact, as near to the consummation of his misery in hell as the other is to the termination of his life on earth.]
But who can tell with what judgments it shall be visited in the eternal world ?
[It is not possible that a person under the dominion of it should ever behold the face of God in peace. " God is love:" love is his very nature and essence : but envy is hatred in its most hateful form, as terminating upon an object, not for any evil that is in him, but for the good w'hich he manifests, and for the success he meets with in the exercise of what is good. How can two such opposites meet together? As well might light and darkness coalesce, as God and an envious man de- light in each other in heaven. It is said in God's blessed word, that " without charity, whatever we possess, or do, or sujfer for God, we are only as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal y." But in that very place we are told, that "charity envieth not^." What, then, are we to infer from this, but that, as envy proves an entire want of charity, so it proves, equally and unquestion- ably, a state of mind that is wholly iucoinpatible with the favour of God and the felicity of heaven. But, that we may be assured of God's indignation against it, let us see what God said to Edom by the Prophet Ezekiel : " As I Hve, saith the Lord God, I will even do according to thine anger, and accord- ing to thine envy which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them : I will make myself known amongst them, when I have judged thee^" True indeed it is, that in this passage God is only denouncing temporal judgments ; but it amply shews what are his sentiments respecting the principle which we are speaking of, and what will be his judgment upon it in the day that he shall judge the world.]
Having thus exposed, in some measure, the true
" 1 Sam. xviii. 7 — 12. ^ Prov. xiv. 30. v 1 Cor. xiii. 1—3. '- 1 Cor. xiii. 4. » Ezek. xxxv. 11.