The comparison is of these three things to two others— to the manifold wiles of the artful and vile seducer:and to the similar arts of the crafty adulteress in luring secretly her prey, and in hiding from detection her infamy. -Artful villains-wretches for whom no term of infamy is too strong-insinuate themselves into the affections of young women, by an endless diversity of schemes and stratagems,of pretensions, and promises, and flatteries, and sophistical arguments, and protestations, and persuasions, such as cannot be all unravelled:

"Studied, sly, ensnaring arts,"

varying according to characters and circumstances;—like the wheelings and circlings of the eagle in the air, or the curvatures of "the crooked serpent" upon a rock,—or the tackings and doublings of a ship at sea. And, as in these cases there is no trace of the course left, so in the case which they illustrate, the great art is, to leave no trace by which the progress and consummation of guilt can afterwards be marked and substantiated.*

So too the unfaithful-the adulterous wife, is full of artifice, this being in her case even more necessary than in the other. And when she has secured her end,—there is artifice to conceal it-to impose upon her injured husband. She here appears before us, most graphically, assuming the air of perfect composure-of one completely at her ease;-her conscience, if not actually seared, brought under sufficient coercive control to cover all emotion. She sits down as usual to her meal, with her husband and family,—with full self-possession and indifference of manner,—just as if nothing had happened; "eating, and wiping her mouth, and saying, I have done no evil"-telling tales perhaps of the guilt of others, affecting to shudder at them, and comparing her own innocence with their shameful conduct.

I dwell not on these monstrous evils. Read the early chapters of this book, ye youthful and thoughtless especially,

* Comp. chap. v. 6.

and weigh them well. You will find there an abundance of faithful and affectionate warning-warning drawn from both observation and woful experience, of the criminality and the ruinous consequences to body, soul, and estate,—for time and for eternity,—of the evils in question, evils against which faithfulness commands us to warn, and to warn with all possible earnestness,—while delicacy and propriety forbid enlargement.

I conclude by beseeching God's spiritual children to cultivate the tempers and pursue the courses of conduct, that stand opposed to those of the "generations" described in this passage.-Ye who have parents,—and especially young professors-cherish and display the reverential and dutiful affection that ought ever to be maintained towards father and mother.—Cultivate all of you real inward purity of heart, from which there will spring a growing purity of life.-Cherish a lowly spirit:-"be clothed with humility,”—not humility on your knees before the throne merely, but humility which, when you rise from your knees, and mingle with your family and with the world, diffuses its lovely influence over your entire deportment.-Cultivate benevolent kindness, in affection of heart, in the words of the mouth, and in beneficent activity, towards all who come within the sphere of your influence;-" doing good to all, and especially to them who are of the household of faith:"- -"putting on, as the elect of God, bowels of mercies." "Take heed, and beware of covetousness:"—"lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven:" -and as to ambition, let "the honour that cometh from God," rather than that which men bestow, be what you seek and long to secure. And beware of every unchaste thought, word, and action. Let, in short, your entire course of life, in all its departments,-in your closets with God,-in your homes with your families,—in your fields, your warehouses, and your workshops,-in all your private and your public intercourse, be constantly under the regulating, the impelling, and the restraining influence of the fear and the love of God. Thus "work out your own salvation," and "hold forth the word of life."

LECTURE XCIV.

PROV. XXX. 21-33.

"For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear: for a servant when he reigneth; and a fool when he is filled with meat; for an odious woman when she is married; and an handmaid that is heir to her mistress. There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise: the ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer; the conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks; the locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands; the spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces. There be three things which go well, yea, four are comely in going: a lion, which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any; a grey-hound; an he-goat also; and a king, against whom there is no rising up. If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth. Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood; so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife."

THE particulars here enumerated have reference to both public and private life. They have many a time created, and are calculated from their nature to create, much disturbance and mischief in the different departments of human society. We shall first offer a few remarks on each, and then you will be able to judge of their extensive comprehensiveness.

1. "For a servant when he reigneth."-History is not without examples-and especially the history of ancient eastern nations, of men of low extraction and of mean and ignoble spirit and character, who, by favouring circumstances, have either raised themselves, or for the purposes of others have been raised, to stations of authority and power. Such men are apt to become intoxicated by their sudden or their

self-acquired elevation:-and the haughtiness of self-importance is nearly allied to, and naturally draws after it in its train, the spirit of imperiousness, cruelty, rapacity, and oppression,-of impatience of contradiction and control,-of fierceness and vindictiveness,—of incessant jealousy-a jealousy engendered by the very consciousness of their being out of place and the objects of envy and indignant pride on the part of others—as harbouring designs and framing plots against their crowns or against their lives:—and this jealousy, like other descriptions of it, is "cruel as the grave.”

Moreover, a slave, or menial, is not supposed to have the fitness and competency, in point of mental culture, habits of life, knowledge of mankind and of the science of government, or comprehensiveness and foresight in his views, for the exercise of rule. His elevation is a departure from the ordinary course of things in society, and is not to be expected to be productive of good;-not only on account of his own defective qualifications, but the inevitable risks, springing from such causes as those already adverted to, of conspiracies and seditions, of rebellions and civil wars,- -so fearfully destructive of the peace and order, the prosperity and happiness, of every community.

There is in the words, as in most of the proverbs of the same form, a general principle applicable to the cases of all persons who are suddenly raised, and raised high it may be, above their level, to stations they are not competent to fill. Disquietude and vexation are the natural consequences. And those who, unhappily, are not sensible of their own deficiencies, and, from "thinking of themselves more highly than they ought to think," aspire to situations which are above them, are the most likely, if they obtain the gratification of their ambition, to abuse the power which they get into their hands. "The earth is disquieted" by them; "it cannot bear them."

2. "For a fool when he is filled with meat.”—We have many times had occasion to notice the character meant by Solomon under this designation of "fool;" and Agur is to be understood as using it in the same sense.

His being “filled with meat" may be understood literally as descriptive of the fool indulging to repletion in eating and drinking, by which his spirit is elevated, by which the restraints of the fear of God and man are for the time removed. Then their unprincipled folly breaks forth in all its exuberance, without control, and carries them frequently beyond all the limits of possible sufferance. They give full and free scope to their insolent self-sufficiency, their impertinence, their scurrility and abuse, their disputatiousness, their profaneness, their obscenity, or their sheer and drivelling nonsense, in such a way as causes a large amount of present laceration and distress to the feelings of others:— —and then, their words uttered, and their actions done, in these circumstances, frequently give rise to consequences extensively and permanently mischievous.

But being "filled with meat," may be understood as the image of temporal prosperity. "When thou hast eaten and art full," was, in the language of Moses to the Israelites, the expression for abundance of temporal good:-and a part of Asaph's description of the prosperous man of the world— whom he denominates "the foolish" and "the wicked”—is, "Their eyes stand out with fatness; they have more than heart could wish." And Paul, in describing his own spirit of contentment, says “I know both how to be full and to be hungry,—both to abound and to suffer need." In this view of the words, the character before us in them is that of the man who prospers in the world, but has neither sense nor principle to make a right use of his abundance;—whom it elates with purse-proud insolence, with all its quarrelsomeness and fiery jealousy, which exacts the punctilios of haughtiness, and which nothing but blood will appease ;—or who squanders it in every way that is pernicious to society around him,—in all that is vile, and vicious, and mischievous, drawing others in numbers, along with him, into the ways of profligacy, and debauchery, and crime. By such characters "the earth is disquieted; it cannot bear them."

3. "For an odious woman when she is married."—Here we come into domestic life-which may be called the nur