every where so many difficulties, contradic- |other openly defied him. The rod which he tions, defects, redundancies; at least we take condescendeth to use, for the chastisement upon us to think and call them so, as must of disobedient and gainsaying children, when lead us to this conclusion, that, either the their reformation is accomplished, he often work of God is imperfect; or that we cannot breaks and dashes on the ground. Every find out him and his work unto perfection. instrument he employs must necessarily parNow the little reason we have cannot hesi- take of human imperfection; but it follows tate an instant in choosing its side of this not that he is pleased with imperfection. alternative. And if we confessedly are un- The devices of Satan himself shall in the qualified to judge of that which is less, dare issue redound to the glory of God, as "the we presume to pronounce concerning that wrath of man must praise him;" but that which is greater. If the volume of nature, wrath is hateful to his nature, and those spread open to the perusal at once of our devices his wisdom counteracts, and his jussenses and our reason, present many things tice condemns. We are not therefore to not only hard, but impossible to be under- mistake the patriotic ardour of a female stood, can we deem ourselves qualified, or Israelitish bard, for the calm, the merited apentitled to explain, to justify, or to arraign plause of the God of mercy and truth. I can the more dark and mysterious ways of Provi- easily conceive the person, whom national dence? And which is the greater pride and partiality, resentment, or gratitude would presumption, that which is for ever" charging celebrate in strains of admiration, to be reGod foolishly," or that which sets itself up garded with abhorrence by the Father of as the bold interpreter and assistant of eternal mercies, the avenger of falsehood, the refuge wisdom and justice? Observe of the miserable. And while Israelitish Deborah, in the heat of her zeal, makes the eulogium of a woman so unlike herself, and styles Jael, the wife of Heber, who murder

women," why may not a Christian Dorcas, a woman of mercy and humanity, “a woman full of good works, and almsdeeds," under the mild and gentle influence of that religion which she believes, feels, and practices, reprobate the cruel and perfidious act, and its author, in terms of the severest indignation? Indeed, the conduct of Jael, considered by itself, is a horrid complication of all that is base and detestable in human nature; an infamous violation of sacred truth; a daring infringement of the law of nature and nations; a flagrant breach of the laws of hospitality, which the most savage natures and nations have respected as sacred; the vilest degradation of her character as a woman; the most barbarous exhibition of a little mind, enjoying the triumph over unsuspecting credulity, and defenceless misery. "Cursed be her anger, for it was fierce, and her wrath for it was cruel." Observe,

II. An obvious reason, why these difficulties are permitted in the frame of nature, the conduct of Providence, and the revelation of the grace of God. It is, to form us to sub-ed her sleeping guest, "blessed above mission, to exercise our patience, to fix our attention, to whet our industry, to repress our boldness, to increase and confirm our confidence in God. It is a mark of respect to superior wisdom and virtue, not always to require an explanation, but to repose implicit trust in known goodness and integrity. A wise man in the consciousness of his own rectitude, disdains to acknowledge the obligation of clearing up his conduct to every prating meddler, who may think proper to call him to account; and who has neither a right, nor a capacity to judge of his motives. And shall we withhold from our Maker that decent respect which we so cheerfully pay to a fallible, imperfect fellow-creature? Shall we refuse to take the God of truth upon his word? Shall we think it much if in some cases he exact belief, without his vouchsafing to assign a reason? "Why dost thou strive against him? He giveth not account of any of his matters."* Our sacred bard has sublimely expressed this noble sentiment, drawn from the volume of inspiration. Considering the divine providence under the image of a vast sealed-up book, chained to the eternal throne, containing the character, the revolutions, the destination of angels and men, but closed to the inspection of every created eye. We observe,

III. That it is doing the grossest injustice to the wise and righteous Governor of the world, to suppose him in every point approving the person, or the conduct by which he carries on his great designs. Cyrus and Nebuchadnezzar are styled the servants of God, though the one knew him not, and the

*Job xxxiii. 13.

IV. Into what dreadful extremes we impetuously rush, when the radical principles of our nature are once subdued. Time must have been, that the idea of shedding the blood of another, would have chilled the blood in Jael's veins. What must it have cost her, to overcome the timidity, the tenderness, the compassion of her sex! But being overcome, lo, each gentle, feminine passion is lulled asleep; and frantic zeal, or demoniac revenge alone is awake. Ah me, what beast of prey so savage and unrelenting, as a human being destitute of pity! Ah me, how easily the best things degenerate into the worst! Of what importance is it, to guard against the first deviation from the sunple and direct path! Who can promise for

himself, that he shall stop, return, and regain the right road, when he pleases. Observe,

than all the incense of flattery, than all the sonnets of a thousand poetic swains. In the history of our own country, the reigns of two female sovereigns shine with conspicuous lustre. They were periods of great

weakest of women would not surely thence infer, that the sceptre ought always to be committed to female hands. With all due deference to the memory of an Elizabeth and an Anne, and the general felicity which their administration diffused over the land, Great Britain can look with pride and exultation to a Queen, whose personal glory and virtues far exceed theirs. Not a sovereign indeed, but a partner of the throne: who shines in reason's eye, because she affects not to shine; reigns over willing hearts, because she disclaims all rule; is great and blessed among women, because she nobly sinks the princess in the woman, the wife, the mother, and the friend.

V. That the rarity of the instances, the peculiarity of the situations, and the singularity of the spirit and conduct, apparent in the female characters here brought into pub-national prosperity and glory. But the lic view, forbid, by more than a positive law, female interference in matters of business and of government. Believe me, my fair friends, it is not stripping you of your just importance, it is increasing and securing it, to say, the shade is your native, your proper station: it is there you shine, it is there you are useful, it is there you are respectable. Your heart and your understanding assent to the truth of it. Is there a woman among you, who would not prefer in obscurity, the affection of her husband, the attachment and gratitude of her children, the estimation and respect of her friends, to all the public splendour of Deborah's magisterial power, and prophetic spirit; to all the blushing, empurpled honours of Jael's more than masculine resentment? It is not your want of talents for government we dispute; it is the suitableness of governments to your talents, your natural dispositions, your real honour and happiness. A wise and good woman never can desire to become the object of universal admiration, nor the subject of every one's discourse. If you aim at so much, depend upon it, you will lose something of what you have, and what is infinitely better

We encroach no farther on your patience, by extending our observations on the subject. And the rather, as a review of the song of Deborah, composed on this memorable occasion, will, if God permit, bring it again before us, and place female genius in our eye, in a new, and not unpleasing point of light; uniting poetic and musical skill to fervent devotion, heroic intrepidity, and prophetic inspiration. A combination how rare, how instructive, how respectable!

HISTORY OF DEBORAH.

LECTURE LXXXIX.

Then sang Deborah, and Barak, the son of Abinoam, on that day, saying, Praise ye the Lord for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves. Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes I, even I will sing unto the Lord: I will sing praise to the Lord God of Israel. Lord, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water. The mountains melted from before the Lord, even that Sinai from before the Lord God of Israel.-JUDGES V. 1-5.

To some it is the gift of Heaven, to per-spicuous than monuments of brass and marform actions worthy of being recorded; to ble, is an universal and a perpetual blessing others it is given, to preserve the memory to mankind: conveying to distant nations of illustrious actions, in writings worthy of and latest posterity harmless pleasure blendbeing read. To both, the world is under ed with wholesome instruction. great obligations, and gratefully permits the historian or the poet, to divide the palm with the hero, or the sage whom they celebrate. To the writer, perhaps, the more ample share of the praise is due. The achievements of valour and strength are local and temporary. They benefit but a few, and quickly spend their force. But the historic and poetic page, more durable, more diffused, and more con

On a favoured few has been conferred the combined glory of acting nobly, and writing well; of serving their own day and generation with credit to themselves and advantage to their country, and of transmitting useful information to regions remote and generations unborn. On the list of those illustrious few, stands with distinguished honour, the name of Deborah, the judge, the prophetess,

Here then the spirit of praise immediately her august audience, the divine poetess seems fixes, and the recent interposition of a gra- to pause for a moment, as if awed by the precious Providence rises instantly into view: sence of such a splendid audience, and overhis "avenging of Israel," in which Jeho-whelmed with the magnitude of the task she vah is acknowledged as at once just and has undertaken, and with renovated strength merciful: just, in recompensing tribulation aims her flight, like the eagle, up to her to them that troubled his covenanted church native skies. The deliverance of that day and people; merciful in giving his troubled brings former wonders of mercy to mind; people rest. and "God, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," is seen and adored in all. Instead of expatiating on the goodness of the Most High in strains addressed to the "kings and princes" whom she had called to attend, she rises at once to "JEHOVAH's awful throne," loses all sense of created majesty, and loses herself in the contemplation of infinite perfection. "Lord, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the field. of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water. The mountains melted from before the Lord, even that Sinai from before the Lord God of Israel."*

Vengeance; the vengeance of God! Fearful thought! but oh, it is sweetly relieved, by the reflection, that the right of executing vengeance, is claimed by the God of mercy, with awful propriety, as his own. This dreadful thunder no arm but his own must presume to wield; "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord." If I must be punished, "let me fall now into the hand of the LORD, for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of a man." The only vengeance permitted to man is a vengeance of kindness and forgiveness; the only coals which he must scatter, are the coals of the fire of love. "If thine enemy hunger, feed him, if he thirst, give him drink:"-" Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good." "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you: that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."

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The voluntary actions of the people in offering themselves" to fight their own battles, are with singular beauty ascribed to the wisdom and goodness of God who has "the hearts of all in his hand," and can "turn them which way soever he will." He who could have saved by miracles, will save by means. If there be a spirit of concord to resist the common enemy, it is of the LORD. If internal dissension aid the enemy without, we behold a righteous God infatuating those whom he means to destroy.

Having thus simply proposed the glorious subject of her praise, "the sweet enthusiast" prepares to unfold and amplify it. She throws her eyes over the face of the whole earth: views all nations and their potentates, as interested in the glowing theme: and summons an admiring world to listen to her song. "Hear, O ye kings: give ear, O ye princes: I, even I, will sing unto the Lord; I will sing praise to the Lord God of Israel." What so delightful to a grateful and affectionate heart, as the enumeration of benefits received! What benefactor once to be compared with the Giver of all good, "the Father of lights, from whom cometh down every good gift, and every perfect!" Having proposed her theme and summoned ↑ Judges v. 3.

* Matt. v. 44, 45.

3 E

The former part of this animated address probably refers to that passage in the history of Israel which we have in the book of Numbers, chap. xx, relating to the passage of Israel through the land of Idumea, which was humbly and peaceably solicited, and unkindly refused. Of this, some particulars might have been preserved by tradition to the times of Deborah, though not admitted into the sacred canon, and suggested to her the lofty expressions which she here employs in celebrating the praises of Israel's God. Though he would not permit them to force a passage by the sword, through the country given to the pos terity of Esau their brother, yet in guiding them round the confines of Idumea, in the majestic symbol of his presence, the pillar of cloud and fire, the great God might by some sensible tokens, make Edom to know, it was not from want of power, but of inclination, that he led his people in a circuitous course. The language of the prophetess, divested of its bold figurative dress is simply this, "The wonders of this day, O Lord, recall and equal the greatest wonders of ages past. We have seen the stars in their courses fighting against our enemies, as our fathers of old saw mountain and plain, heaven and earth, giving testimony to the presence and favour of the God of Israel. The field of Edom and the vale of Kishon are equally filled with the glory of the Lord. We recognize in the hand which has discomfited the host of Sisera, the same almighty power which restrained the Idumean, and conducted our ancestors, if not the nearest, certainly the best road to Canaan."

The latter part of the address evidently refers to the awful solemnity with which the law was given from mount Sinai; in which all nature, without a figure, bare witness to the presence and power of nature's God

*Judges v. 4, 5.
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"The earth trembled, the hills melted like wax," the face of heaven was covered with blackness of darkness, lightning flashed, the hoarse thunder roared, the louder and more dreadful voice of the Eternal drowned its tremendous sound, men's hearts fail them for fear, Moses quakes.

What matter of joy to Israel, that he who of old had thus revealed his fiery law, that day, that very day had come riding on the swift wings of the wind for their salvation! To fix these emotions of rising gratitude and wonder, the bard dexterously and imperceptibly slides into a review of the recent distress and misery of her unhappy country; distress yet fresh in every one's memory, misery out of which they were just beginning to emerge: and she takes occasion to pay a just tribute of respect to the memory of a great man, whom God had honoured to be the instrument of redemption to an oppressed people.

which has reduced slavery to a system, has invented an article of commerce which God and nature abhor, and concur to prohibit; and what is the subject of the infamous, impious traffic? the souls and bodies of men.

Who can turn his eyes, without weeping tears of blood, to the fertile soil, element air, and the simple, harmless inhabitants of the eastern world, and observe the gifts of nature perverted into a curse, the goodness of Providence thwarted by the cursed lust of power, or more cursed lust of wealth, and the patient, uncomplaining Asiatic, perishing for hunger, in his own luxuriant domain: and the Ganges disgorging millions of fetid corpses into the ocean, the corpses of wretches who died for lack of food, to purchase for a still greater wretch an empty title, and a seat among the lawgivers of the wisest, most polished, and humane of the nations of the western world.

Look to the thin and scanty remains of the populous and prosperous nations of the southern hemisphere, and a land whose veins are gold and its mountains silver, of which Spanish cruelty and avarice have been constrained to make a desert, in order to secure the possession of it. Behold the sullen, dejected native trampling under his feet gold and diamonds, which he dare not put forth his hand to touch; and reproaching Heaven with heaping upon him in its anger, treasures which have attracted, not the pious zeal and attention, but the infernal rage, of men who nevertheless dare to call themselves Christians.

Behold yet again--No, I sicken at the hor

Those who are themselves the most deserving of praise, are ever the most liberal in bestowing it, where it is due. It is a slender and contemptible merit which seeks to shine by obscuring, concealing, or diminishing the worth of another. Deborah is but the more estimable, for the frank and unreserved commendation which she confers on departed or contemporary virtue and talents. In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through by-ways. The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel."* What a melan-rid prospect-and will no longer encroach choly picture have we here of a ruined, wretched country! By means of oppression, all intercourse is interrupted; commerce is languishing to death; life and property have become insecure: every thing dear to man is at the mercy of a haughty tyrant; ever exposed to the ravages of a lawless band of armed ruffians; the scanty and dejected inhabitants tremble at the sound of their own feet, at the sight of their own shadow; behold them skulking from place to place, stealing through by-ways, to carry on a starved and precarious traffic; suffering much, and fear-arose a mother in Israel." If ever there ing worse.

Ah, little do we reflect, living at our ease, enjoying the blessings of mild and equitable government," sitting every one under his vine and under his fig-tree, while there is none to make us afraid:" little do we reflect on the misery and tears of myriads of our fellow-creatures oppressed, and there is none to help them; whose cry incessantly rises up to heaven, but rises in despair. Think what multitudes of the bold and hardy Africans are yearly driven or trepanned into servitude, through the violence or craft of their own countrymen, or, through the more fierce and unrelenting principle of European avarice,

* Judges v. 6. 7.

upon the feelings of humanity, by exhibiting the more than savage barbarity of systematic cruelty and oppression. God of mercy, put a speedy end to these horrors! assert thy offspring into liberty, the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Let us return to the sweet mistress of Israelitish song; I see her warm, and rise into native, conscious worth and importance: and honour the lovely pride, the honest vanity of the female patriot. The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I

were ability, if ever there were services, if ever there were an occasion, which could warrant self-praise, it was the ability, the public services of Deborah, and the glorious occasion on which she wrote and sung. Show me such exertions for the public good, and let a man, let a woman be as vain as they will, and let affected humility and self-denial say what they will, it is an honourable and laudable ground of glorying that God has made us the means of conveying happiness to others. But occasions of doing justice to eminent, public female worth so seldom occur, that I must reserve to myself the pleasure of accom panying this great woman, this more than * Judges v. 7.