KCol sth: Mwv2.S" I8>48c JUDICIAL LAWS, GOD'S APPOINTMENT FOB THE HAPPINESS OF MAN AND THE PROTECTION OF SOCIETY. TWO SERMONS, PREACHED BEFORE HER MAJESTY'S JUDGES OF ASSIZE, THE FORMES, IN ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH, LEICESTER, 19th MARCH, 1848; THE LATTEB, IN ST. MARY'S CHURCH, LEICESTER, 30th JULY, 1848. BT THE REV. JOHN NOBLE COLEMAN, M. A., Incumbent of Ventnor, in the -Isle of Wight. SStcanti dTuHian, xivieti. LONDON : HOITLSTON AND STONEMAN, PATERNOSTER-ROW; JACKSON AND WALFORD, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD; AND T. CHAPMAN BROWNE, BIBLE AND CROWN, LEICESTER. Price One Shilling. HENRY FREEMAN COLEMAN, ESQUIRE, HIGH SHERIFF FOR THE COUNTY OF LEICESTER, THE FOLLOWING SERMONS ARE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY HIS ATTACHED RELATIVE AND CHAPLAIN, THE AUTHOR. SERMON I. Malachi iv. 4. " Remember ye the law of Moses my Servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the sta tutes and judgments." This is the final admonition of the eternal Spirit before the cessation of the Mosaic dispensation, addressed to sinners of mankind by Malachi, the last heaven-com missioned prophet until Messiah's manifestation to Israel. This is the terminating clause of the Canon of the Old Testament Scriptures,* except Malachi's pre diction of the re-appearance on earth of Elijah the Tishbite, as the harbinger of the Second Advent. That Elijah, in his own person, fby a renewed manifestation * Many passages of the Old Testament have suffered from transposition. Transposition is self-evident in the fourth chapter of Malachi. In the Septua gint and Arabic Versions, verse 4 closes the chapter, and thus the order is lucid and clear. I propose to read Malachi IV. as under. — For behold the Day cometh which shall burn as an oven, And all the proud, yea, and all who do wickedly, shall be stubble, And the Day which cometh shall burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts, That it shall leave them neither root nor bran*. But unto you who fear My Name Shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings, And ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall, And ye shall tread down the reprobate, That they be ashes under the soles of your feet, In the Day when I shall do this, saith Jehovah of hosts. Behold I send to you Elijah the Prophet Before the great and dreadful Day of Jehovah, And he shall convert the hearts of the progenitors together with the progeny, And the hearts of the progeny together with their progenitors, Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Remember ye the Law of Moses my servant, Which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, With the .Statutes and the Judgments. f For full proof of this subject the reader is referred to Greswell's Dissertation on the Parables, vol. i., pages 152 — 162. 6 JUDICIAL LAWS, upon earth will be the precursor of the Second Advent as was John the Baptist in the spirit and power of Elijah of the First Advent, is the concurrent judgment of all *the Fathers, and is evident from four considera tions — from the confession of John the Baptist, f" I am not Elias" — from our Lord's positive assertion of Eli jah's future manifestation, %" This is Elias who is for to come" — from our Lord's prophecy, that Elijah ||w shall restore all things" — and from Malachi's predic tion, that the re-appearance of Elijah on earth will immediately precede the great and dreadful Day of the Lord, which Day of the Lord must be the Second and not the First Advent. Now John the Baptist did not restore all things, whatever that predicted restoration may signify, and his ministry preceded the second Ad vent more than eighteen centuries. Hence John the Baptist is not that Elijah, whose personal resuscitation Malachi predicts will usher in the second Advent and glorious Epiphany of Jehovah Jesus. The triple law emanating from Divine wisdom and promulgated by the legislator Moses, of which Malachi in our text enjoins the perpetual remembrance on sin ners of mankind universally, is the §Moral, the ^[Ce remonial, and the **Judicial. * " The Fathers are unanimous in entertaining the belief that, before the end of the world, and the consummation of all things, Elias, or Elijah, must appear in person, to perform a certain part assigned to him in the councils of the Divine Providence." — Greswell on the Parables, volume i.,page 368. " It is well known that all the Fathers (unless S. Hierom somewhat staggered) were of this opinion, that Elias should be the harbinger of Christ to the nation of the Jews before His Second Coming, as John the Baptist was at His First : and why we should so wholly reject it as we are wont to do, I can see no suffi cient reason." — Joseph Mede's Works, page 98. "When he saith, that Elias indeed cometh, he shows that he is not yet come. But he will come the precursor of the Second Advent, and will restore to the faith of Christ all the Hebrews who shall be found obedient, as it were re-instat ing in their paternal inheritance those who had been excluded therefrom." — Theophylact on Matthew xvii., 11, 12. t John i. 21. J i ptXKair Ijrjfiaiiu Vulgate qui ventures est Mat. xi. 14. || Mark ix. 12. § min tne Moral Law. Deut xxvii. 3 ; and xxxiii. 4 ; Joshua viii. 32. II C^pn Lex Cseremonialis. Castelli Hepiaglotten. ** C'tOQtPIS ^ex forensis, ritus politici, constitutiones ad societatem tuendam pertinentes. Castelli Heptaglotten. The civil statutes of the Mosaic Law, more particularly the penal sanctions, and the rules for deciding questions of property and suits for damages and trespasses. Castalio quoted ly Bishop Horsley in his invaluable Translation ofthe Psalms. GOD S APPOINTMENT. / The Moral Law is epitomized in the Decalogue, and dilated, explained, and enforced by : Christ in His .cele brated Sermon on the Mount. 'Ihe Moral Law is a transcript and mirror ofthe Divine perfections,, requir ing perfection of love to God and perfection of love to man, without any allowance for human infirmities or defects, in thought, word, or deed, from the hour of birth to the hour of death. Hence the Moral Law is the *ministration of death and the ministration of con demnation, f" Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." J" Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things which are written in the Book ofthe Law to do them." The Moral Law is §" our schoolmaster unto Christ." Applied to the heart by the Spirit, it convinceth of sin, and leads the sinner to fiducial reliance upon Christ the only Law-fulfiller. Hence it follows, that justification before God is not in whole, or in part, by works of righteousness which we have done. Works spiritually good in the Divine estimation follow after and result from, but never pre cede, justification. ||" By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in God's sight." Justification before God is not by man's obedience, which is fallible and imperfect, but by the vicarious obedience of Christ, which is Divine perfect and infallible. This obedience of Christ to the law is the wedding-garment of those who have put on Christ, which covers every sin, con ceals every iniquity, justifies before God, exempts from condemnation, and confers a covenant right and title to eternal glory. The Moral Law is immutable and of universal and perpetual obligation. Man has lost his power to obey ; but God has not lost His right to command. ^[Hence * 2 Cor. iii. 7 and 9. t James ii. 10. J Galatians iii. 10. § Galatians iii. 24. || Romans iii. 20. H See the unsound and pernicious Tract issued from their Depot, 1 , Warwick Square, entitled The abuse of the Decalogue, wherein it is asserted, that the Decalogue was given to the Jews only, never to the Gentiles — that Genesis ii. 3, is a fact recorded, and contains no command or precept — that the Sabbath was not enjoined upon and is not common to all mankind — 8 JUDICIAL LAWS, the sin of those separatists from all visible churches, who advocate the abrogation of this Law, which Christ came *" not to destroy but to fulfil." Hence our national sin in the publication sale and circulation of Sunday news papers, in the transit of mails and the opening of pro vincial post-offices on the Lord's Day. Man is as much obligated to obey the fourth, as the fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth commandments. Man is as much obligated to observe the sanctification of the Sabbath, as obedi ence to his earthly parents, or abstinence from adultery murder and theft. The Ceremonial Law is a shadow of good things to come, a prefiguration of the Incarnation, Ministry, Atonement, Miracles, Obedience to the law, Obedience to death, Passion, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, and Session in glory of Him, who is -\" the effulgence of His Father's glory, and the perfect expression of His Essence," who is from everlasting to everlasting. The ceremonial law was abrogated by Christ's Incarnation. The shadow was not needed when the Divine original was manifest in the flesh. But the study of this Law is essential to give us a deep insight into the mystery of redemption — into the love of God in Christ, who $'* so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" — into the love of Christ towards sinners of mankind, which constrained Him to leave the glories of heaven and adoration of the angelic host, and to be clothed with the sinless infirmities of human nature, that He might |[" finish the transgression, make an end of sins, make reconciliation for iniquity, and that the commandment op God in Gen. ix. 6, ' Whoso sheddeth man's BLOOD BY MAN SHALL HIS BLOOD BE SHED ;' THOUGH INCLUDING ALL MEN UNDER IT, IS CONTRARY TO THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST AS EXHIBITED IN THIS dispensation — and the employment of the ten commandments in the service ofthe Church of England is objected to, because to recall and re-establish what the Lord has done away and abolished, is little less than to fight against God, to mend His wisdom, supersede His grace, and virtually to deny the redemp tion of the blessed Jesus. Such are the avowed Antinomian tenets of those called Plymouth Brethren, who in this Tract have condemned the Church of England for reading God's own Word in God's own House on God's own Day. * Matthew v. 17. t Hebrews i. 3. J John iii. 16. || Daniel ix. 24. GODS APPOINTMENT. 9 bring in an everlasting righteousness," for the justifica tion of all who should believe in His Name. The Judicial Law was enacted by Infinite Wisdom for the repression of crime, the reformation of trans gressors, the protection of civil society, and the security of persons and properties. The supereminent excellency of this Law is attested by Jehovah Himself: *" What nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judg ments so righteous, as all this Law which I set before you this day." Its enactments are mercifully designed by Divine wisdom compassion and love, to protect the poor, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and to promote the real happiness of man. Nothing is thereby prohibited but what is antagonistic to the best interests of civil society. This Law beneficently shields innocence from erroneous condemnation by the enact ment, -j-that none shall be put to death except upon the testimony of two or three witnesses. By this Law the gleaning ofthe land is conferred on the poor, an inalien able appropriation by Divine right for ever. By this Law slavery, universally subsisting anterior to the Christian dispensation, is modified and restricted, though for a time, like polygamy and divorce, "suf fered because of the hardness of the human heart." By this Law slavery the result of man-stealing is authoritatively prohibited, and man-stealing is branded with the penalty of death. This Law legitimates sla very solely as an awarded ^punishment for crime, to effectuate restitution to the party plundered. I. The enactment of the Mosaic Judicial Code for the repression of crime is a proof, that Satan is the |[prince and §god of this world, and ^[" worketh in the children of disobedience" — that **"the whole world lieth in the wicked one," — that -\-\" many are called and but few chosen." St. Paul in Galatians v. 19 — 23, * Deuteronomy iv. 8. t Deuteronomy xvii. 6 ; and xix. 15. J Exodus xxii. 3. " If a thief be found breaking up. ... he should make full restitution; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft." || John xii. 31 ; xiv. 30 ; xvi. 11. § 2 Cor. iv. 4. U Eph. ii. 2. ** 1 John v. 19. ft Matt. xx. 16 ; xxii. 14-. 10 JUDICIAL LAWS, infers what is the purport of the Judicial Law. " The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adul tery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like, of which I tell you before, as I have also told you in times past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." And in 1 Timothy i. 9 and 10, St. Paul declares plainly, " The Law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured per sons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine." Hence no universality of an intel lectual education, no universality of a preached Gospel, can supersede the necessity of Judicial Laws for the repression of crime. The object of a preached Gospel is to evangelize all for the salvation of as many as the Lord our God shall call. The object of Judicial Laws is to protect the sons of peace against the fractious and disorderly. Hence Judicial Laws will ever be needed to repress the outbreak of the unregenerate, until Christ shall be *King of kings and Lords of lords — ¦j-until the meek shall inherit the earth — Juntil God's will shall be done universally and perfectly on earth as it is now done in heaven — until |[the saints shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever—until §Satan shall be bound, and the ^[earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters now cover the sea. II. The perfection of the Mosaic Judicial Code in its origin and administration, emanating from Him who is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and adminis tered in all matters of doubt and uncertainty, with a * 1 Timothy, vi. 15 ; Revelations xvii. 14 ; and xix. 16. f Psalm xxxvii. 11 ; Matthew v. 5. J Matthew vi. 10 ; Luke xi. 2. § Revelations xx. 2. || Daniel vii. 18. If Isaiah xi. 9. GOD'S APPOINTMENT. 11 constant reference to the Divine will, by the Urim and Thummim, and by the waters of jealousy, when con trasted with the Laws of man, proves the imperfection of all human legislation. *Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? , How can frail, fallen, im perfect, apostate man perform a perfect action ? Hence imperfection is of necessity impressed upon every work of man, upon all governments, and upon all legislation, civil and ecclesiastical. He who expects perfection in Church or State, will never have his expectations real ized till the Premillenial Advent and Personal Reign of Jehovah Jesus. But every imperfection in govern ment does not justify rebellion, nor every imperfection in a Church schism and separation, flf, indeed, the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit of hell. If in any locality the unsearchable riches of Christ are not preached to the soul's edification, they who have felt the powers of the world to come, will go, and ought to go, where they can obtain a faithful ministra tion of the Gospel. But no imperfection in legislation can justify rebellion or forcible resistance to human laws, except those laws are manifestly opposed to the Divine Will. J" The powers that be (monarchical, aristocratical, republican, judicial, and ministerial) are ordained of God, and whosoever resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance, of God, and they who .resist shall receive to themselves damnation." But whilst we advocate the necessary imperfection of all human legislation, we are bound especially to praise God for the inestimable blessings of our incom parable Constitution. England equals, if she does not surpass, all other nations in the equity of her Laws, and the rights and liberties of her Subjects.' The acknow ledged integrity and impartiality of the Judicial Bench, and the independence of the Bar, conjoined with the trial by jury, are the Palladium of our civil rights. Would to God that we ministers ofthe Gospel were as * Job xiv. 4. t Matthew xv. 14 j Luke vi. 39. X Romans xiii. 1 — 3. 12 JUDICIAL LAWS, able exponents of the Volume of Revelation as our Judges are of the Laws and Statutes of the Realm '. Would to God that we Ministers ofthe Gospel were as active, zealous, and energetic in enforcing Divine truth in our public and private ministrations, as the Advo cate at the Bar is in pleading the cause, and asserting the rights of his client! Then, indeed, would the word of the Lord go forth and be glorified ; — then, in deed, would Christ, by the unction of His Spirit rest ing upon heaven-taught and heaven-sent Ministers, *" see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied." III. From the spirit and letter of the Judicial Law we learn, that the entire abolition of capital pun ishments, especially as regards the crime of murder, is directly opposed to God's revealed will. That the murderer should be put to death was the Divine decree of immutable and perpetual obligation during the patri archal dispensation anterior to the Mosaic economy and the promulgation of the law from Horeb. j-" Surely your blood of your lives will I require ; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man ; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed : for in the image of God made He man." This decree was perpetuated and enforced by the Mosaic Judicial Code. J" These things shall be a statute of judgment unto you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death, by the mouth of two witnesses ; but one witness shall not tes tify against any person to cause him to die. Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death : but he shall be surely put to death .... so ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are : for blood defileth the land : and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein : but by the blood of him that shed it. Defile not, therefore, the land which ye shall inherit, wherein I dwell : for I the * Isaiah liii. 11. f Genesis ix. 5, 6. J Numbers xxxv. 29—34. GODS APPOINTMENT. 13 Lord dwell among the children of Israel." *" If one be found slain in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known who hath slain him : then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities that are round about him that is slain. And it shall be, that the city which is next unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take an heifer which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke : and the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer's neck, there in the valley. And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near : for them the Lord thy God hath chosen to minister unto Him, and to bless in the name of the Lord, and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried. And all the elders of that city, that are next unto the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley : and they shall answer and say, our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. Be merciful, O Lord, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel's charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them. So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the Lord." -j-" If a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour to slay him with guile, thou shalt take him from Mine altar, that he may die." Whatever doubt may exist, whe ther any crimes ought now to be capitally punished, to which the penalty of death is not affixed by the Laws of Moses — whatever doubt may exist, whether the pun ishment of death ought not now to be executed upon the perpetrators of all those crimes against society for which it is enacted by the Mosaic Code (I specify crimes against society, because the Israelites were * Deuteronomy xxi. 1 — 9. f Exodus xxi. 14 ; see also 1 Kings ii. 28 — 34. 14 JUDICIAL LAWS. under a Divine Theocracy, and sins against God, such as Sabbath-breaking, witchcraft, divination, idolatry, blasphemy, might under a Theocracy have merited a heavier punishment than they do now,) it is self-evident that he who sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. No power has been conceded or dele gated by the King of kings and Lord of lords to any earthly potentate or judge, to spare the life or revoke the irremissible doom of a clearly convicted murderer. *" At the hand of every man's brother, saith Jehovah, will I require the life of man." Hence every Petition to Parliament for the entire abolition, of capital punish ments, every refusal of an eye-witness to substantiate by evidence the perpetration of murder, and every ver dict of acquittal by a Jury when the crime of murder has been clearly proved, is an act of high treason against the Majesty of Jehovah, and an infraction of God's revealed will. Capital and secondary punishments must be inflicted by every government with all the stringency and rigor essential to the protection of the peaceful, orderly, and well-disposed. IV. The Mosaic Judicial Code should remind us of the great and dreadful Day of the Lord> When the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God shall change the living and raise the mouldering dead; — when Christ shall sit on His Throne of judgment ;—wheri before His tribunal shall be congregated all who have lived, and all who shall live, and -f" every eye shall see Him ;" — when the universal family of man shall be divided into two classes; saints and sinners^ the saved and the lost, the children of God and the children of Belial — and when the former shall be exalted to eter nity of glory, and the latter be doomed to shame and everlasting contempt. On that dread Day where will appear the Atheist,^ " the fool who hath said in his heart, there is no God ?" On that dread Day where will the Anti-Trinitarian appear, who denies Messiah's Divinity and coequality * Genesis ix. 5. f Revelations i. 7. J Psalm liii. 1". GOD'S APPOINTMENT. 15 with the Father and the Holy Ghost, feigning Him to be a super-angelic Being, or a man of like passions with himself? Where will the Anti-Trinitarian appear, when Christ shall be manifested *" the effulgence of His Father's glory, and the perfect expression of His Essence" — -fGod the mighty man, the Father ofthe everlasting age, the Prince of peace" — $" over all God blessed for ever?" Where will appear the Anti-Trini tarian blasphemer of the Triune Jehovah, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, when ||" at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess He is Jehovah to the glory of God the Father" — when-the very damned shall acknow ledge the equity of their sentence — when §" all shall honour the Son even as they honour the Father?" Crimes against the triune Jehovah, not cognizable by human laws, will then " receive a just recompense of reward." On that dread Day where will appear the idolatrous Papist, and semi-papistical Tractarian ? No papal in dulgence, no decrees of fficumenical councils, no auricu lar confession, no priestly absolution, no extreme unc tion, no purgatorial purification, no prayers or masses for the dead, no ceremonial observance, no prostration genuflection or turning towards the East, no suppositi ous opus operatum sacramental efficacy, no dogmas of Patristic Theology, no traditions of the mediaeval ages, no Ecclesiastical Constitutions, Canons, or Rubrics, no penances or pilgrimages, voluntary or imposed by others, no imaginary intercessions of the Virgin Mary saints or angels will then avail to exempt from pun ishment, or exalt to glory. No one will be saved sim ply because he is a member of the Anglican or any other visible church. No one will be condemned simply because he is a separatist from any visible church.. They only, whose names are written in the * Hebrews i. 3. t Isaiah ix. 6. See Bp. Horsley's Biblical Criticism ; and Bp. Lowth's Translation of Isaiah. J Romans ix. 5. || Phillipians ii. 10, 11. § John v. 23. 16 JUDICIAL LAWS, Lamb's Book of life, whose bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, who by the new birth, have been grafted as fruit-bearing branches into Christ the true vine, and who are His witnesses before a benighted and apostate world, these only shall be counted worthy to be guests at the marriage supper of the Lamb, and to enter through the gates into the city. *" Without are idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." •(•"Idolaters shall have their part in the lake which burnetii with fire and brimstone : which is the second death." On that dread Day where will appear the self-righ teous and self-justifying sinner, when the filthy rags of his righteousness shall be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, and found wanting: when his fancied goodness shall be tested by the verity of God's Law, and shall be pronounced sin, because it originated not in a Divine and justifying faith? Standing in all the deformity of nature's darkness, and destitute of the wedding-garment the characteristic of all who shall be admitted to the marriage-supper of the Lamb, the self-righteous moralist will be judged by those works to which he trusted for self-justification, and by those works he will be condemned. No moral rectitude, no religious observances, no secular prosperity will avail to save the Christless sinner. None will then be accepted but the regenerate, the justified, the sanc tified, the sealed. To all others, characterized by un belief and self-righteousness, the Judge will say — %" I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity." On that dread Day where will appear the profligate, the licentious, the immoral, the impenitent, the Sab bath-breaker, the habitual absentee from public worship, the drunkard, the liar, the profane swearer, the extor tioner, the thief, the adulterer, the fornicator, the mur derer, the receiver of stolen goods, the bearer of false tes timony against his neighbour, the tempter of others to intoxication, the perjured witness, the committer of * Revel, xxu. 15. f Revel, xxi. 8. X Matt. xxv. 12 j vii. 23. GOD*S APPOINTMENT. 17 forgery, the fraudulent bankrupt, the perpetrator of the crime of arson, the mercenary vendor of licentious books or *anti*evangelical tales of fiction, the one subversive of purity, the other of Gospel truth, and the man-stealer trafficking in the blood and sinews of the kidnapped posterity of Ham, when the Books shall be opened, and the dead shall be judged out of those Books according to their works ? Then every unremitted sin of thought, word and action shall be brought to judgment. Then the righteous judge will say to all who are not washed, who are not sanctified, who are not justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God : You have sown to the flesh, of the flesh you shall reap corruption, -j-" depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." With what extatic joy and triumph will this glorious Day be hailed by all the elect of the Father, the redeemed of the Son, and the sanctified of the Holy Ghost ; by all who have been expectants of Messiah's predicted Epiphany and glorious Kingdom. Regener ated by His Spirit, redeemed by His blood, and robed in the wedding garment of His justifying righteous ness, they in blissful re-union and recognition will meet their Lord in the air, and be made kings and priests over a regenerate world, singing with united hearts and voices, J" the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb," and praising Him §who hath washed His people from their sins in His own blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and peo ple, and nation, and hath ^ made them kings and priests unto God His Father, and they shall reign upon the earth. That all now present may attain to this great and unspeakable felicity may God of His infinite mercy grant, through the alone merits and intercession of our Saviour Jesus Christ! * It is an error to represent the Church of England as alone responsible for the spread of Tractarianism. Many booksellers in provincial towns, who are not members of the Church of England, actively disseminate Tractarian publications opposed to their own professed religious belief, parading them on their counters, exhibiting them in their windows, and recommending them to their customers for lucre sake. t Mat. xxv. 41. % Revel, xv. 3. § Revel, i. 5. If Revel, i. 6 j and v. 10. B SERMON II. Proverbs viii. 15, 16. "Byrne kings reign, and princes decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges ofthe earth." The paramount and all-absorbing topic of Moses, the Prophets, and the other inspired Writers of the Old Testament Scriptures, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, was to testify of Messiah, and pre pare the human mind for His predicted Incarnation, who in the fulness of time was to bruise the serpent's head and *" bring life and immortality to light through the Gospel." To this intent God raised up Enoch, the seventh from Adam, to be a Prophet, and Noah to be a Preacher, to the generations living anterior to the Deluge. -j-Enoch predicted the glorious Epiphany of * 2 Timothy i. 10. f Jude 14 and 15. Michaelis and others have doubted the inspiration of the Epistle of St. Jude, because they have imagined that Jude has in these verses quoted from the Apocryphal Book of Enoch. " St. Jude," writes Michaelis, " has another quotation from an Apocryphal book, called ' The Prophecies of Enoch,' or, if not from any written work, from oral tradition. Now, should it be granted, that Enoch was a prophet, though it is not certain that he was, yet as none of his prophecies were recorded in the Old Testament, no one could pos sibly know what they were. It is manifest therefore that the book, called ' The Prophecies of Enoch,' was a mere Jewish forgery, and that too a very unfortu nate one, since in all human probability the use of letters was unknown in the time of Enoch, and consequently he could not have left behind him any written prophecies." This Apocryphal Book was lost since the 8th century. But the celebrated traveller Bruce brought to Europe three copies of an Ethiopic version. An English translation has been published by Archbishop Laurence. Whoever compares the Epistle of St. Jude with this Book of Enoch must perceive that either Jude has quoted from this Apocryphal writer, or this Apocryphal writer has quoted from Jude. That the Apocryphal writer under the name of Enoch has copied from the Epistle of St. Jude, is self-evident from the following testi mony of the learned Greswell. The Apocryphal Book of Enoch from internal testimony " could not have been written before A. D. 96, the last year of the reign of Domitian, on the one hand, so neither after A. D. 115, the eighteenth of Trajan, or at the latest, A. D. 127. the eleventh of Adrian on the other. I should incline to the opinion, that it was written early in the 2nd century ; and that in point of time, it coincided with, or was not much later than the Liber Esdree which we have concluded to have been written in the reign of the Roman Em- JUDICIAL LAWS, GODS APPOINTMENT. 19 our Saviour God, accompanied by His glorified saints participants ofthe first resurrection, to judge the quick and dead, to vindicate the Divine perfections, and to consign all Christless sinners, all the unregenerate, unjustified, unsanctified,* to the blackness of darkness for ever, -J-" where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched." J Noah proclaimed justification before God, not by works of righteousness which man has done or can do, but by the Divine sinless and all perfect obedience of Jehovah Jesus, the only Law-fulfiller and Righteousness of His people, whose obedience is their panoply to repel all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and their wedding-garment to entitle them to the mar riage-supper of the Lamb. porer next after the twelfth in order ; that is, the reign of Nerva, between A. D. 96, and A. D. 98." The Epistle of St. Jude was probably written between A. D. 60 and A. D. 70, certainly before A. D. 90. Hence it follows, that St. Jude derived the prophecy of Enoch, which he has recorded in his Epistle, exclusively from Divine Revelation, and that the forger of the Apocryphal Book of Enoch has quoted from St. Jude's Epistle, and not St. Jude from this mendacious Apoc ryphal Book. Greswell on the Parables, 5th volume, 2nd part, 171st page. Christian Observer, volume 30, pages 417, — 426, 494, — 503. Michaelis's Introduction to the New Testament, 4th volume, page 393. * The Author fears, that the denial of the everlasting duration of future pun ishment, more or less avowed, extensively prevails beyond the pale of the Estab lished Church. This fundamental error was maintained in every stage of life by Foster, the intellectual writer of the well known Essay on popular ignorance, and is unhappily patent in his Life and Correspondence. This rejection of Scriptural truth imputes falsehood to the Deity, inasmuch as it manifestly contradicts God's express reiterated and solemn declarations in Holy Writ. But " God is not a man that He should lie, Neither the son of Man that He should repent : Hath He said, and shall He not do it ? Or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good ?" This rejection of Scriptural truth is a virtual negation of the eternal glorification of the saints and of the immortality of the soul. For the very same words, which declare the eternity of the punishment of the lost, are also predicated of the eter nity of the glorification of the saints. If therefore the punishment of the one is not everlasting, neither is the glory of the other everlasting. To this heresy we may apply the condemnatory argumentation of St. Paul : " If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." " By the terrors of the Lord, says St. Paul, we persuade men." But if these terrors, sculptured, as it were, with an iron style on the rock for ever, are disbelieved by ministers and not proclaimed from the pulpit, how can the Word of the Lord go forth and be glorified ? No minister of any denomination can savingly know the truth as it is in Jesus, or experimentally preach the everlasting Gospel, who disbelieves the final denunciation of Jehovah Jesus : " depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels" — who disbelieves, that " the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." t Mark ix. 44, 46, 48. % 2 Peter ii. 5. 20 JUDICIAL LAWS, Thus to the myriads who inhabited the world before the flood were faithfully proclaimed the doctrines of Messiah's first Advent to justify, and of His second Advent to judge — a future state of rewards and punish ments — the millennial glorification of saints and the final condemnation ofthe reprobate. To this end *our Melchizedeck, King of righteous ness and King of peace, manifested Himself to the Father of the faithful on his return from the slaughter of the confederate kings, and brought forth bread and wine, an eucharistic prelibation of the sacramental elements, commemorative to God's children of Messiah's death and passion, to their great and endless comfort. To this end -\ Abraham was enjoined to sacrifice his son, his only son, Isaac, to prefigure to the eye of faith the locality of Messiah's crucifixion, the duration of His death, the sustentation of His cross, and the substitution of His all-sufficient sacrifice for the eternal death of as many as shall believe on His name. — ¦ Thus J" Abraham rejoiced to see Christ's day, and he saw it, and was glad." To this end, when Jacob had crossed %the brook Jabbok ||" there wrestled a man with him," and that man was the man Christ Jesus : for He said §" thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel, for as a Prince hast thou power with God, and with men, and hast prevailed" — ^[" and Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, — for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." To this end the angel Jehovah appeared to Manoah, and**" ascended in the flame ofthe altar, and Manoah said unto his wife : we shall surely die, because we have seen God." ffThe Patriarch Job predicted to his Idumcean cotem- poraries the second Advent of Messiah, his Redeemer, Advocate, and Vindicator, Messiah's ascension and su- * Genesis xiv. 18—24 ; Hebrews v. 6 — 14 ; vii. 1 — 17. t Genesis xxii. 1 — 14 ; Hebrews xi. 17 — 19. J John viii. 56. || Genesis xxxii. 24. § Genesis xxxii. 28. U Genesis xxxii. 30. ** Judges xiii. 2 — 23. ff Job xix. 23 — 27. GOD'S APPOINTMENT. 21 premacy over all the earth, the resurrection of his own body, and his assured beatific vision of Messiah upon His throne of glory and judgment. In like manner Jehovah's Prophet to the Gentile world, apostate Balaam, unsanctified in heart and life, predicted to the Moabites and Midianites, to whom he was especially commissioned,* the futurity of Messiah's session on the throne of judgment, his own condemna tion at the last day, and his eternal separation from that God whom he had defied, and from the Israel of God whom he would fain have cursed, had he not been con strained to bless. Scripture explicitly reveals manifestations of Jehovah Jesus -j-to Moses in the burning bush; Jto the chil dren of Israel in the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire and at Bochim ; ||to Joshua before Jericho ; §to Gid eon at Ophrah ; ^]to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the burning fiery furnace ; and to **Daniel, in a predictive vision, as " Michael, the great Prince who standeth for the children of thy people." The Mosaic ritual is a symbolic and figurative repre sentation to the eye of faith of the person, character, and perfections of the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, our Prophet, Priest and King — of His first Advent to redeem, justify and save — of His second Advent to raise the dead, to change the living saints, and " to judge -\-\ihe quick and the dead at His appear ing and His kingdom." Hence St. Paul tells us, that the generation who came out of Egypt JJ"were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea — did all eat the same spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink (that is, meat and drink of a spiritual symbolical import) — that they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ — and that some of them tempted Christ and were destroyed of serpents." * Numbers xxiv. 17. t Exodus iii. ; Mark xii. 26. J Exodus xiii. 20—22 ; Judges ii. 1—5. || Joshua v. 13 — 15. § Judges vi. 11—24. If Daniel iii. 25. ** Daniel xii. 1. ft 2 Tim. iv. 1. 22 JUDICIAL LAWS, David, the man after God's own heart, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, has pourtrayed by Divine inspira tion in the book of Psalms the entire scheme of man's redemption, the Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection and Ascension of Messiah, the partition of His garments, the casting lots upon His vesture, the preternatural darkness which characterized the crucifixion, His in vocation of God from the cross, His intercession for His murderers, and the prayer wherewith He breathed out His soul into the bosom of the Father. t< The Song of Solomon is a collection of sacred idyls adumbrating the mystical union which exists betwixt Christ and His Church. In the Book of Ecclesiastes Solomon clearly exhibits the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity, and attributes the creation of the Universe to the three Persons of the eternal Trinity, admonishing the young to *remember their Creators, (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost,) and not their Creator, as is expressed in our version, in the days of their youth. And in the Book of Proverbs Solomon predicts Messiah under the name of -jtWisdom. Hence the Holy Ghost teacheth in our text, that By Christ Kings reign and princes decree justice, By Christ princes rule and nobles, even all the judges of the earth. And this declaration illustrates and verifies our Lord's command : $" Search the Scriptures (that is the Old Testament Scriptures) — they are they which testify of Me." From these words we purpose to show, I. The necessity of Civil Government and Judicial Laws arising from the fall of man, the consequent de pravity of the human heart, and the usurpation of Satan over the souls of men. II. The Divine sanction which the Word of God attributes to Civil Government and Judicial Laws. III. Our duties resulting from these premises, ado- * Ecclesiastes xii. 1. f Proverbs i. 20 — 23 ; Ttiii. chap, and ix. 1 5,. ± John v. 39. god's appointment. 23 ration, prayer, payment of taxation, and submission to the powers that be. I. The necessity of Civil Government and Judicial Laws. God created man in the Divine image and similitude holy and happy. But man by transgression apostatized from God. His heart by the fall became *deceitful and desperately wicked, incurably diseased by sin, so that nothing but sovereign converting grace can rege nerate change and sanctify it. The human heart by nature is universally, totally, and innately depraved. f" Every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart is only evil continually." J" From within out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasci viousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness, all these things come from within and defile the man." Satan, who, by mysterious permission, brought sin into the world, and death, and all our woe, ||" is the prince of the power of the air, the spirit which now worketh in the children of disobedience." He is called §" a liar and murderer from the beginning," not merely because he devised the first lie enunciated in this world to deceive the primeval parents of mankind, and by temptation murdered the souls and bodies of all men, but because he instigated and impelled Cain to the crime of fratricide, ^f" who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother." This eating of the for bidden fruit was theft and robbery against God. When Jehovah placed Adam and Eve in Paradise, He made a special reservation of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil. Tempted by that old serpent the Devil, they eat, they sinned, they died. Now what is theft but an appropriation to our own use of the property of ano ther without the owner's consent ? Hence the eating * Jeremiah xvii. 9. "f" Genesis vi. 5. % Mark vii. 21 ; and Matthew xv. 19. || Ephesians ii. 2. § John viii. 44. If 1 John iii. 12. 24 JUDICIAL LAWS, of the forbidden fruit was theft and robbery against God. If man, his own keeper, did not when in a state of innocence resist by his own strength so trivial a temptation, how can he now, fallen apostate and innately depraved, withstand, without Divine sovereign prevenient and restraining grace, the world, the flesh, and the devil ? Satan tempted Peter thrice to bear false witness and deny his Divine Master, but the intercession *of our great High Priest, who ever prayeth not for the world but for them whom the Father hath given Him, availed to his restoration to the path of duty. — -f" Simon, Sir mon, behold Satan hath desired to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." Satan tempted Judas Iscariot to betray his Divine Master for thirty pieces of silver. £" After the sop Satan entered into Judas." Satan tempted the Sanhedrim to suborn false wit nesses to effectuate the condemnation of Christ. And in them was verified our Lord's awful declaration : || " Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When any one speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for his father (Satan) also is a liar." Satan §" filled the hearts of Ananias and Sapphira to tempt the Spirit of the Lord, and to lie to the Holy Ghost." Satan, who tempted Adam and Eve in Paradise and Christ in the wilderness, now goeth through the world, seeking whom he may seduce into sin and thereby destroy. ^[" We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers ofthe darkness of this world, against the spiritual powers of wickedness in the air." * John xvii. 9. t Luke xxii. 31, 32. J John xiii. 27. || John viii. 44. See Bishop Middleton and Professor Scholefield on this verse. § Acts v. 3—9. IT Ephesians vi. 12. See Professor Scholefield's Hints for an improved trans lation. GOD'S APPOINTMENT. 25 Now all crimes perpetrated against society result from Satanic influence upon the depraved heart of apostate man. If man's innate propensity to evil im pelled by Satanic temptation were not restricted by good government and wholesome laws, as well as by the interpositions of Divine Providence, this world would be an Aceldama of false witness, perjury, rapine, violence and blood. *Hence Civil Government and Judicial Laws for the repression of crime are a benefi cent manifestation of God's love and compassion to sin ful man. ¦f" God is love." jGod is " merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving ini quity, transgression and sin, and who will by no means make an utter end, though He visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon children's children unto the third and to the fourth generation." Because God is love ||" there is no power but of God : the powers that be are ordained of God : whosoever there fore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God." Because God is love, therefore by Christ "kings reign and princes decree justice: by Christ princes rule and nobles, yea all the judges of the earth." II. The Divine sanction to Civil Government and Judicial Laws. Civil Government and Judicial Laws derive neither their origin nor their sanction from an imaginary social compact — a compact of the subsistence of which au thentic History furnishes no memorials and contains no vestige — a compact, which if it ever had an existence, could not bind the posterity of those who formed it. Government derives its sanction from no decree or act of man, ephemeral, evanescent, mutable, but from the immutable wisdom and revealed will of Him, who hath * " Fire and water are not more necessary unto the conservation of this our mortal life, than the office of a magistrate is for the preservation and maintenance of good order in a commonweal." — Dr. Thomas Becon, Chaplain to Archbishop Cranmer, page 330. t 1 John iv. 8. % Exodus xxxiv. 6 and 7. See the able dissertation of Ludovicus de Dieu in his Critica Sacra, also Dathe and Rosenmuller on this passage. || Romans xiii. 1 and 2. 26 JUDICIAL LAWS, enjoined man universally to fear God and honour the King. *" Put them in mind, writes St. Paul to Titus, to be subject to principalities, and powers, to obey magistrates, f *' Submit yourselves, writes St. Peter, to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the King as supreme, or unto Governors, as unto them that are sent by Him for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well." This Divine sanction may be inferred from the con duct of David, the man after God's own heart. Saul pursued him as a partridge upon the mountains. The special Providence of God alone rescued David from this relentless and cruel persecution. Twice did Providence place Saul in the power of David. Did David kill Saul? +" The Lord forbid, says David, that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord." — If Who can STRETCH FORTH HIS HAND AGAINST THE LORD'S anointed and be guiltless." Now seeing this con duct is recorded for our imitation, it follows that no circumstance can justify the violent death of a monarch by the hands of his own subjects. The Divine sanction which holy Scripture attributes to the Higher Powers is self-evident from the ap pellation given thereto in Ixxxiind Psalm, and tri umphantly quoted by Christ in His controversy with the Jews. They are called Gods and children of the Most High — not because strictly speaking they were Gods, §"for though there be what are called Gods whether in heaven or in earth, as indeed there are gods many and lords many (in the estimation of the heathen) yet there is to us but one God, and one Lord Jesus Christ" — but because they were God's vicegerents on earth, delegated by Him, and exercising authorita tive jurisdiction from Him, to repress crime, punish criminals, and protect society from violence and wrong. This delegated and authoritative jurisdiction con- * Titus iii. 1. f 1 Peter ii. 13. X 1 Samuel xxiv. 6. || 1 Samuel xxvi. 9. § 1 Corinthians viii. 5, 6. god's appointment. 27 ferred by God on the powers that be, may further be substantiated from the titles given to Christ of King of Kings and Lord of Lords, from the gra cious promise^that *Kings shall be nursing fathers and Queens the nursing mothers of the church of Christ, from the assured prediction that the glorified saints shall be -(-Kings, shall reign upon the earth at the restitution of all things, shall +judge the world and angels, and from the declaration of Messiah in our text : By me, that is, by my Divine sanction as God- man and administrator of the universe, and as my representatives on earth to minister justice between man and man, kings reign and princes decree justice — By me princes rule and nobles, even all the judges of the earth." The Divine authorization of civil government, mani festly enforced by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, was advocated by ||Bishop Horsley and by President §Dwight of America, men of renown in their generation. And you must admit that no small deference is due to Bishop Horsley's interpretation of Romans xiii. chapter, when I inform you, that Robert Hall, a name of no mean celebrity in Leicester, and whose memory is justly endeared to many, admitted to me with his own lips and in the most emphatic tone of voiee, that in his judgment "Bishop Horsley has thrown more evangelical light on the Scrip tures THAN ANY MAN THAT HAS ARISEN SINCE THE, days of the Apostles," This interpretation of Romans xiii. chapter, was also maintained by Robinson, that man of God, who once ministered in this House of Prayer, whose trumpet gave no uncertain sound, and whose faithful proclamation of the Gospel from this pulpit was owned and blessed of God to the conversion of many, who emerging from the ruins of the fall shall be his