with shame and self-abhorrence, he cried, "I have sinned against the Lord!" He who reads the heart, saw that his penitence was sincere; and Nathan was instructed instantly to reply to him, "The Lord hath taken away thy sin; thou shalt not die;" i. e. thou shalt not immediately undergo that temporal death which thou hast deserved, but shalt be spared as a monument of mercy, and shalt be freed from the eternal death which thou hast merited. Yet though pardoned, he was still to be chastised; and Nathan announced to him, that as he had slain Uriah by the sword, so the sword should never depart from his house; that in his own family he should be wounded by the perpetration of the same crime which he had committed. These predictions were all accomplished: we behold nothing but calamities in the remainder of his reign. The sentence that he himself had pronounced, was literally accomplished: he restored fourfold, when four of his sons, the child of Bathsheba, Ammon, Absalom, and Adonijah, perished by a violent or premature death.

"Now unto Him who is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy; to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for ever. Amen."

SERMON XXXIII.

LIFE OF MANASSEII.

2 KINGS xxi. 1-18. 2 CHRON. XXxxiii. 1-20.

THE life of Manasseh, which is contained in these portions of scripture, abounds with valuable instructions. It teaches us the deep depravity of human nature; it shows us the fatal progress in guilt which is made by those who revolt from God; it displays the nature and the efficacy of repentance; and manifests the height and depth of divine mercy. It is a history which has often comforted the bursting heart of the penitent, and disposed him, notwithstanding his felt unworthiness and guilt, to raise his weeping eyes with humble confidence to the throne of the Most Merciful.

Manasseh was the fifteenth king of Judah. He was longer seated on the throne than any of his predecessors, swaying the sceptre for fifty-five years, and was the only one who, having groaned in captivity, was restored to his crown. He was the son, perhaps the only child, as well as the successor of Hezekiah, than whom Judah produced few kings more deservedly celebrated for wisdom, valour, true piety, and ardent zeal. Alas! how different was the character of his son! Grace is not here

ditary. The pious parent often has his heart wrung by the crimes of his son; while, on the other hand, a holy child sometimes is found imploring God for a vicious father. Of this there can be no stronger proof than the good Hezekiah, who had for a father the impious Ahaz; and for a son, the profligate Manasseh. Important as are holy instructions and pious examples, yet something more, the powerful grace of God, and the omnipotent energy of the spirit, are necessary to renew the soul and sanctify the heart and life. Of Hephzibah, the mother of Manasseh, we know nothing but the name, and cannot tell whether she was pious or ungodly. If she was irreligious, we need not wonder at the wickedness of her son: for, passing with our mothers those early years when our minds and our hearts receive their first impressions, we shall almost certainly be regardless of God if they neglect him. And, on the contrary, the tender advices, the earnest entreaties, and the fervent prayers of a beloved mother, will often draw down the special benediction of God upon her offspring. Timothy owed much to his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that many who hear me, owe their first serious impressions to those maternal counsels that were early given, and cherished by tears and by prayers. On the contrary, if Hephzibah were really enlightened and pious, and ably concurred with Hezekiah in directing her son to God, we need not wonder at his heaven-daring wickedness, and the excess of his guilt, when he neglected their counsels. For holy instructions, like the other means of grace, will harden if they do not soften; and those who leap over most barriers, who break through most restraints, advance with most violence and

desperation in the ways of sin. It is for this reason that the irreligious children of eminently holy parents are so often the chief of sinners.

[A. C. 695.] Manasseh was early deprived by death of his excellent father, and, at the age of twelve, ascended the throne of Judah. The death of a parent is at all times irreparable. When we have bid farewell to the wisdom and tenderness which guided us through life; when the heart which beat high with affection for us has been stopped by death; and when we have had time to look round upon a world where true friends are so rarely to be found, we shall often, unless destitute of feeling, visit in imagination the grave of our father, of our mother, and weep for such friends as these. But especially is the death of a pious parent to be lamented, when he leaves us surrounded with temptations and snares. Perilous indeed is the situation of a young person when in the midst of the seductions of an elevated state, the instructer of his youth rests in the tomb; the monitory voice of his parent is silent in death, and his intercessions for his child at the throne of grace have ceased for ever. Parents, this may soon be your case. In a short time you may be removed from your beloved offspring. Oh! then, seize with avidity the moments that are rapidly flying, and employ them in counsels, instructions, and prayers for your children, that the hours of death may not be embittered by a consciousness of your neglect.

"Wo unto thee, O land,” exclaimed Solomon, the wisest of the predecessors of Manasseh, "when thy king is a child." The justness of this remark is fully shown by the torrent of vices and calamities which now deluged Judah. The signal reformation which

was effected in the reign of Hezekiah was soon forgotten. The courtiers and nobles were not sincere in this glorious work, and soon seduced the new king to unite with them in revolting from God. Manasseh first rebuilt the high places which his father had destroyed. This was comparatively a slight infraction of the laws of God, since sacrifices were there offered to Jehovah. It was not idolatry, but the erection of altars which God had not sanctified. Vice and irreligion, however, are always progres sive. This step was followed by the introduction of the grossest idolatry, and all the absurd, lewd, and sanguinary rites of the heathens. The statues of Baal were every where erected, and worship paid, not to the great Creator, but to the luminaries of heaven. Hitherto, even among the most idolatrous princes, the temple was the asylum of true religion; and those who were not drawn away by the example of the king and the multitude, could repair to the altars of Jehovah, there to pay their sacrifices and their vows. But Manasseh, as though determined to outrage God more pointedly, introduced his idols and their altars into the two courts of the temple. But one step more remained: it was to rear his idols in the sanctuary itself. This also was done; and Astarte was worshipped in the house dedicated to the Lord, who is jealous of his glory.

When Manasseh became a father, "he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of Hinnom," either offering them in sacrifice to Moloch, or consecrating them to the service of this idol. Instead of consulting the living and true God, he devoted himself to divination, auguries, and the other superstitious arts which the Lord had forbidden. According to the declaration of the inspired