"For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right." Jer. xxiii. 10.

"When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread: so will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee: and I will bring the sword upon thee: I the Lord have spoken it." Ezek. v. 16, 17.

"Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befal them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us.' Deut. xxxi. 17.

"Is it not wheat-harvest to-day? I will call unto the Lord, and he shall send thunder and rain; that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking you a king." 1 Sam. xii. 17.

"And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim." 1 Kings xviii.

18.

Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat." 1 Kings xii. 15.

"Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee." 1 Kings xxii. 23.

"The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof; and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit." Isa. xix. 14.

:

"I am the Lord that maketh all things: that stretcheth forth the heavens alone that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself: that frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish. Isa. xliv. 24, 25.

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh; for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him; and that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am the Lord." Exod. x. 1, 2.

"And I, behold, I will 'harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them; and I will get me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten me honour upon Pharaoh, upon his cha

Other Scriptures of a similar kind riots, and upon his horsemen." might be quoted.

2. Divine interference sometimes takes place by infusing good or bad counsels into the hearts of princes, chiefs, or counsellors. "The King's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water he turneth it whithersoever he will." (Prov. xxi. 1.) God does not always choose to punish a people by foreign invasion, by pestilence, or by famine; but he causes them to suffer from ruinous purposes.

"And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For the Lord had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom." 2 Sam. xvii.

14.

"And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah." 2 Sam. xxiv. 1.

"Wherefore the king hearkened not unto the people; for the cause was from the Lord, that he might perform his saying, which the Lord spake by

xiv. 17.

Exod.

With respect to good counsels, we may quote the following:

"By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.” Prov. viii. 15, 16.

.." And he changeth the times and the seasons he removeth kings, and setteth up kings he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding." Dan. ii. 21.

"Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kindoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah." Ezra i. 1, 2.

3. God is represented as keeping the people in peaceful subjection under a righteous government, which seeks his glory rather than popular applause; and

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

J. P.; H. H.; E. L. A.; H. O.; C. S.; A. B. K.; E R. S.; G. P.; An Old Subscriber; R. M. M.; Refutor; Rusticus Laicus; S. B. H.; A Constant Reader; and An Unknown Friend; are under consideration.

The Rev. Dr. Nolan's statement respecting the Hon. and Rev. G. Spencer was too late for this month.

We reply to two correspondents, that Bishop Jebb's letter upon clerical amusements has been reprinted for distribution in two or three places.

E. D. R. can answer his own question by referring fo our replies to correspondents.

In our Number for last October, page 598, a correspondent remarked, “When our clergyman declared to a large audience, most of whom were ignorant of the missionary work, that he did not look for a very extensive spread of religion under this dispensation, his sentiments were responded to by the Secretary deputed by the Parent Society." In reply we said, "We are not aware that any officer of the Parent Society holds the opinions said to have been responded to by that individual; who we presume must be a local secretary." In our Number for December, having thus questioned the accuracy of our correspondent's statement, we considered it fairest to him, and to all parties, to add his explanation, as follows: "We expressed a doubt as to this fact; but our correspondent says in a subsequent letter, that he referred to the Rev. J. E. White, of Liverpool, one of the Association Secretaries, whom he has never heard preach or speak without bringing forward his peculiar views; thus identifying the Society in the minds of numbers with those opinions." We have just received the following disclaimer from Mr. White: "With regard to what is mentioned in your Number for December, without at present explaining my private views on the subject, I beg to assure you that the statement in question is altogether untrue as applicable to my proceedings as an agent of the Church Missionary Society. Here we think the subject should rest, Mr. White's declaration being full and explicit; but if our former correspondent considers any explanation upon his own part necessary, he must permit us to affix his name to his statement.

There can be no utility in discussing further the late Dr. Hawker's views respectMissionary Societies. Our passing allusion to his name last October was merely incidental; and we supposed that the facts were so well-known, that there could be no second opinion respecting them. SUBURBANUS says truly, that the passage which we lately quoted in our answers to correspondents from Dr. Hawker's sermon before the London Missionary Society in 1802 was very excellent-we said so too; but Dr. Hawker afterwards repudiated that sermon, as well as his discourse on Sunday schools; and in the collected edition of his works, stated that the dates would account for the opinions expressed in those discourses; but that he had now changed his mind, and that he reprinted them only "lest any of the purchasers of the former edition should be offended.' If Suburbanus will consult the ten volumes of his works, (dedicated to Lord Mandeville,) with his life prefixed, by the Rev. J. Williams of Stroud, he will find ample evidence on the subject; and still more, if he will consult the volumes of the "Gospel Magazine," of which Dr. Hawker was the Coryphæus, from its commencement to his death. In that work Dr. Hawker and his friends vehemently opposed the Missionary Societies, their plans being represented as at war with "God's purposes and election of grace." When Mr. Cottle in 1823 affirmed in his work, entitled "Plymouth Antinomianism," that Christian Missions were not benefited by the Doctor's gold or advocacy, none of his friends said they were, but replied, "Good reason why." (See the Gospel Magazine passim.) Mr. Williams admits that "he withdrew his name from the Missionary Society; he does not mention what Society, but we suppose that for which he had preached in 1802. He was not a member of the old Church Societies; nor we believe of the Church Missionary Society. When he withdrew from the Religious Tract Society, which he had formerly countenanced, and set up a Tract Society of his own, he stated as his reason, that "Whilst the one (his own) goes only in search of the lost sheep of the house of Israel, the other (the R. T. Society) cherisheth the hope....that it shall ultimately convert the world." We do not believe the Society thus expressed itself; and we quote the Doctor's words only to shew that we were justified in what we said in our Number for October, that the instance of Dr. Hawker proved that the opinions which we were speaking of tend to repress the zeal of Christians in aiding Missionary institutions. We have now done with the subject; though if our correspondents is not convinced, we could adduce many further pages of proof.

GOD

ON WORDLY AMUSEMENTS.

For the Christian Observer.

OD'S controversy with the world is not that men are murderers and robbers, perjurers, drunkards, and adulterers: this indeed is the narrow field to which the world, inwardly conscious of its weakness, would seek to shift it; and on which it would compel him to engage. But God comes, as an omnipotent and arbitary sovereign, whose every word and wish is law, to summon his own vassals, at his own complaint, to stand at the bar of his own judgment.

God's controversy then, I say, is not that men are murderers and robbers, perjurers, drunkards, and adulterers. His charge is of a deeper dye; of a more comprehensive nature; of a more sweeping range. It is a charge of high treason against the Majesty of heaven: of rebellion against the Sovereign of the universe. It is that men, in the darkness and depravity of unbelief, have caught at the favouring opportunity of his supposed absence, to seize upon the vacant throne of the invisible God: to expel the Creator from his own world: to rebel against his authority, declaring in every principle and affec tion, "We will not have this man to reign over us:" conspiring against his very being; in heart saying with the fool, No God! and in every practice crying out with one accord, Crucify him! crucify him! It is that they have presumptuously dared to change the ancient constitution of his moral government, and to establish, in its stead, an artificial and depraved system of merely human convention; at variance, in almost every particular, with his holy laws; and, even when it does coincide with them, recognising a totally different sanction and authority.

God's controversy is that men Desire honour one of another, and seek not the honour which cometh of God only." It is that selfishness, and not charity, is the universal principle of action; so that, wherever duty and interest clash, men are lovers of their ownselves." It is that, in the idolatry of covetousness, they prostrate themselves before mammon. It is that, in every conflict of principle and selfgratification, men are "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God." CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 27.

S

It is, to sum up all, that men "love the world, and the love of the Father is not in them." This is God's controversy with the world.

I shall not now stop to define, at any length, but merely enumerate (at least some of) the many and widely different senses in which "the world" is used throughout Scripture; and in which it is not to be understood where the beloved Apostle calls upon us to "love not the world." It is evident that it is not used there to represent God's visible creation, as when he says, "The world was made by Him" neither abstract, universal man, as when St. Paul tells us, "By one man sin entered into the world:" nor yet God's chosen people, as when the same Apostle says, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself:" and again, "God so loved the world :" nor the Gentiles in contradistinction to the Jews, as when he argues, If the fall of them be the riches of the world:" nor the Roman empire, as when St. Luke tells us that "There went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus that all the world should be taxed:" nor yet those good things, His creatures, which God giveth us richly to enjoy, as when those are spoken of who "use the world as not abusing it." It is, I say, evident, that the term is not to be understood in any of these senses, when we are commanded, "Love not the world," because the world, as understood in any of those various senses, demands in some, in others admits, in different degrees, a portion of our sanctified affections.

But the term is used there, as in numberless other passages of Scripture, to denote the collective mass of unregenerate men, as opposed to, and contradistinguished from, the universal church, or collective mass of the people of God to denote a society of which all the ungodly and reprobate are members, but to which Christ does not belong, "Ye are of this world. I am not of this world:" and to which the people of Christ do not belong, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." It is used to denote a society all whose sympathies are with the enemies of God, "The world cannot hate you :" "If ye were of the world, the world would love its own :" all whose antipathies are towards Christ and his people, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you : :" "Because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." It is used to denote a people wholly separate and distinct from that "chosen generation," that "royal priesthood," that "holy nation," that "peculiar people," who have been chosen, and delivered out of this present evil world, that they might shew forth the praises and virtues of Him who hath called them out of darkness into His marvellous light; a people, the language of whose principles and affections is different from that of the people of God, and to whom their language is unintelligible : "They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them: we are of God; he that knoweth God, heareth us. He that is not of God, heareth not us :" a people, whose spirit is diverse from, and opposed to, that spirit which animates the people of God, "We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God :" and which not only does not, but cannot, receive the Spirit of truth, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: a people excluded from the all prevailing intercession of the one Mediator between God and man, who has uttered these awful words, "I pray not for the world:" and also from the protection of His good provi