way of virtue, and to refuse the least compliance with that advice which causeth to err from the words of knowledge!

Solomon arms us against these deceivers, by making us acquainted with their devices.

Ver. 11. If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without

cause.

These are not the express words of seducers, but a translation of them into the language of truth. They will say, 'Come let us pick the pocket of some covetous miser, who has made himself rich by cunning, and scraped money together by such cowardly practices, as cannot expose him to the vengeance of the law.' Solomon tells us not the express words of the tempter, but puts into his mouth such language as expresses the real meaning and tendency of his solicitations. When transgressors varnish over their crimes, it is our part to pluck off the false covering, and to represent sin to ourselves in its true colours, and in its tendency to other iniquities of higher aggravation. When the drunkard invites us to go to the tavern, and drink a cheerful glass with him, let his words sound in our ears as if he had said, 'Let us go to the tavern, and there drown our reason, and make ourselves monsters.' When another desires us to take a hand at cards, let us take his meaning to be, 'Come, let us rob our friend of his money, without incurring the pains of law.'

Perhaps those men whom the tempters here spoken of wish to rob or kill, may be like themselves, strangers to every good way; but they are innocent in comparison with those pests of society, who plot against their property or their lives. The treasons of Abner and Amasa, did not exempt Joab, their murderer, from the guilt of innocent blood.

These tempters to iniquity will try to persuade the inexperienced, that there is no danger of being detected. Ver. 11. Let us swallow them up alive as the grave, and whole as those that go down to the pit.

We shall manage matters in such a manner, as that there cannot be even the possibility of detection. So well concerted shall our plans be, that the thing will be as effectually concealed from public view, as those bodies which are covered by the grave. Vain hopes! can men flatter themselves that they shall escape the righteous judgment of God? Even in this life, murderers seldom escape punishment. But what though men neither see nor suspect? conscience sees, angels see, the great Avenger of blood sees; the assembled world shall know their crimes, shall hear their sentence, and witness their punishment.

The devil told our Lord, that he would give him all the kingdoms and glories of the world, if he would comply with his persuasions. The ministers of Satan in like manner endeavour to persuade men that they will obtain much advantage by sin, that the gains of it shall fill all their treasures, and every corner of their houses.

Ver. 13. We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil.

These promises are lies; or if such treasures be procured, they will last but for a moment. What profit had Judas the traitor in his thirty pieces of silver, though paid him to the last farthing? Though thirty thousand talents of gold had been his reward, they could not have soothed his racked conscience, they could not have retained his breath when his own hands had applied the halter, they could not have preserved his separated soul from going to its place. The profits of sin are the worst of losses *.

* Rev. x. 3. Matth. xvi. 26,

These wretches, abandoned as they are, have yet the effrontery to pretend a regard to honesty, and a generous disinterestedness in their mutual dealingsVer. 14. Cast in thy lot among us, let us all have one purse.

Let the security and profit of our way of living induce thee to join our society; we shall lead a merry life, we shall faithfully share our gains, and none shall want while another has.

In what manner ought a young man to act when offers so tempting are made to him?

Ver. 15. My son, walk not thou in the way with them, refrain thy foot from their path.

Let us attend with filial regard to the kind advice of a venerable father, who tells us, that we must not only shut our ears against these ensnaring words, and resolve to keep the path of innocence, but shun their company, and avoid those places which they haunt. If we knew a place that was said to be a haunt of ghosts and infernal spirits, we need not shun it, for these terrors are but creatures of fancy; but places frequented by men who have the devil in their hearts, and who hire him their tongues for the purpose of deceiving their fellow-men,-such places are dangerous indeed. All of us have corrupted natures ready to be inflamed; how infatuated the man who, carrying gunpowder, enters a smith's shop, where the sparks fly from the anvil in every direction!

But may we not take a single turn with them? No. Ver. 16. For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

Let us never forget the evil that is in sin. However men may dress it out in beautiful colours, it is the very quintessence of naughtiness. All men see a great deal of evil in some infernal crimes, but the God whose judgment is always true, sees more evil in the

least sin, than we are able to do in the greatest. It is a dangerous and detestable thing for a man wilfully to transgress the smallest commandment of the law of God. But the men of whom we now speak, are desperately bent upon sin. Their feet run to evil, and that of the most damnable sort, for they make haste to shed blood.

Perhaps it will be said, that they have no design to load their souls with such bloody crimes, but only to cheat or rob somebody that well deserves to be plundered. But let us remember, that no man becomes desperate in wickedness all at once. Hazael had no intention to murder the king of Syria, or rip up wómen with child; he would have abhorred the thoughts of such wickedness, till interest and ambition uniting, gradually hardened his heart, and prepared him for perpetrating without remorse deeds of darkness and of horror. Young sinners are like travellers, who at first setting out cannot bear a speck of mud to alight upon their clothes, but who in the course of their journey become inured to bad roads, and can suffer themselves, without feeling uneasiness, to be all bespattered with mire.

They are like silly birds, who suffer themselves to be ensnared by the arts of the cunning fowler.

Ver. 17. Surely in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird.

Birds have not the gift of reason, to warn them against the snares of the fowler. But how lamentable is it, that men, whom God hath made wiser than the fowls of heaven, should be as easily deceived as the silliest of these animals, and that in matters of greater importance! Do not reply, that the snares are set, not for the sinner himself, but for those whom he intends to destroy. It is for his own life that a sinner spreads his nets.

Ver. 18. And they lay wait for their own blood, they lurk privily for their own lives.

It is not the sufferer, so much as the doer of evil, that is hurt. Whom did Judas destroy by his treachery? The death to which Jesus was sold was glorious to himself; the treason which Judas wrought was his own destruction. Abel lives and speaks, and his name is embalmed in the memories of the good; the life which his murderer led was more miserable than death, and his name is remembered only to be execrated. The sinner designs mischief to his neighbour; but all things are under the direction of the just Lord, under whose administration mischief recoils upon its author, bringing him to the scaffold here, or to hell hereafter *.

But is such the natural tendency of covetousness?. Yes.

Ver. 19. So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain, which taketh away the life of the owners thereof. "Take heed and beware of covetousness," said he who knew the heart of man, and the native tendency of every vice. It is a mother of abominations and miseries. They that are determined to be rich, would have money by honest means if it could be got, but at any rate they must have it. If it cannot be had to fill their desires (which indeed are insatiable) by fair means, it must by chicanery and cunning. When the conscience has been brought to this, it is prepared for advancing in wickedness, till at last it offers but small resistance, even at the commission of crimes, from the very thought of which their author would once have shrunk. The last step in vice, is less painful to a man than the first departure from honesty †.

Matt. vii. 2. Psal. vii. 11.-17. ix. 15, 16.

+1 Tim. vi. 10.