quantity of silver, which Micah stole from her. Vexed at her loss, she uttered such dreadful im-. precations as frightened him into a confession of the theft, and restitution of the silver.

The fond mother now blesses her son, and says, "This silver I had wholly dedicated to the Lord, to JEHOVAH, for my son, to make a graven image, and a molten image." She did not intend to renounce the God of Israel; but to worship him by an image, which she considered as having the divine presence residing in it. This, though not the grossest kind of idolatry, yet was an impious degradation of the glory, and a vile corruption of the worship of that infinite and invisible Spirit, of whom there can be no corporeal similitude. And it naturally led to still more gross superstition. When men begin to depart from God, they can prescribe to themselves no bounds. They know not how far they shall wander, where they shall make a stand, nor how they shall return. God has instituted the order of his house. If forsaking this, we follow our own inventions, we shall soon fall under the power of a wild imagination, and become subject to the influence of infernal artifice; and there is but a precarious hope, that we shall recover ourselves out of the snare.

Micah agreed to his mother's proposal. The silver was given to an artificer, who made thereof a molten, and a graven image. These Micah placed in his house. He then made an ephod in imitation of the pontifical vestments, and teraphim in resemblance of the urim and thummim; and he consecrated one of his sons for a family priest. Well pleased, no doubt, he was with this fine device. He had not renounced the God of Israel: He had only contrived to pay him an easy service. He should be excused from the trouble of going to Shiloh, and attending at the tabernacle, for he had

gods and a priest in his house. It appears, from the next chapter; that his neighbours were drawn into the same superstition; and neglecting the instituted worship of the sanctuary, they attended on the ministrations of this new fangled priest.

Some time after this, a young man, who, by his father's side, was a Levite, wandering about for employment, or perhaps for an easier subsistence, came to the house of Micah. In those days of anarchy, the Levites were probably neglected; and this youth, quitting the service of the tabernacle, travelled the country in quest of a better livelihood.

Micah enquired, who and whence he was; and, learning that he was a Levite, he invited him to of ficiate in his house, as a priest. For this service he promised him food and raiment, and ten shekels of silver by the year. "And the Levite was content

to dwell with the man, and he became unto him as one of his sons; and Micah consecrated the Levite, who became his priest."-"Now," says he, “Í know that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest."

This Levite however, had no better right to the priesthood than Micah's son; for by divine institution, this office was confined to Aaron's family. It was an impious presumption in Micah to attempt the consecration of a priest, and in the Levite to accept it from his hands. This service belonged not to every man; but was assigned to the priests themselves. And indeed, if the Levite had been of the priestly order, and regularly consecrated, he was still grossly impious in favouring Micah's superstition, and in encouraging his separation from the appointed place, and instituted form of divine worship.

But his motive was to obtain a subsistence. Little encouragement had he hitherto found in his excursions. A maintenance is now offered. Rather

than forego the advantage, he will alter his religion, and comply with the humour of the man, on whom he is dependent.

Of the same complexion were Jeroboam's priests. When the king erected his golden calves in Dan and Bethel, the orderly priests and Levites forsook him. They refused to assist in his idolatrous worship. He, therefore, made priests of the lowest of the people, who, being in needy circumstances, readily accepted the appointment, to secure for themselves a subsistence.

These idolatrous priests, and the false prophets who acted in concert with them, and the rulers who patronized them, are the men so often condemned, in the writings of the prophets, as devoted to worldly gain. "The heads judge for reward, and the priests teach for hire, and the prophets divine for money." The regular, standing priests are not the persons here intended; for they had no occasion to teach for hire: A stated provision was by the devine law made for them. But the idolatrous priests, who went about to make divisions in God's church, and to corrupt men from the purity of his worship, these "taught for hire." "They loved gifts, followed after rewards, and cried, Give ye."" They looked to their way, every one for his gain from his quarter.”—They were blind watchmen; shepherds who could not understand; they rejected knowl edge, and forgot the law."-"They ate up the sins, and set their hearts on the iniquities of the people." They lived on the sin offerings of the people; and took pleasure in their transgressions, because the more transgressions among the people, the more sin offerings for the priests to consume. Therefore God says, "He would reject them from being priests"-would disown them in their assumed, but prostituted character.

They, who, according to God's institution, min istered at the altar, had a right to partake of the altar. And so still, they who preach the gospel, have a right to live of the gospel. But the man who desires to be put into the priest's office, only that he may get a piece of silver, and eat a morsel of bread, is unworthy of the trust; "for, for a piece of bread, that man will transgress." On the same motive, on which he accepted, he will profane, or desert his office.

This Levite was a transient person; he came from a distance; he had nothing, but his own word, to recommend him. Micah took him into his service, with hasty and implicit confidence, and without proper information; and no wonder if he was deceived.

"I know," says he, "that the Lord will do me good, because I have a Levite to my priest." Poor, deluded man! If Aaron or Samuel had been his priest, he was not to hope that the Lord would do him good, unless he attended to his own duty. "Let no man glory in man," says the apostle; "for, Who is Paul, or who is Apollos, but ministers, by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man ?”

Some promise themselves much good, because they worship God in such a place, and hear such kind of preaching: But they should remember, that all things are of God: that the best ministers are instruments in his hands; that God will then do them good, when they strictly conform to his institutions, humbly rely on his grace, and seek his blessing in the way which he has appointed.

Had Micah considered, that he had forsaken God's tabernacle-had corrupted the purity of divine worship had chosen for his priest a man unauthorised and unrecommended-had taken him implicitly, and consecrated him presumptuously, he must have seen, that God would not do him good

at all the more for his having this man to his priest. If we are dependent on God for the good which we desire, we must seek it of him in the manner which he prescribes.

Let us pursue our story a little farther, that we may learn how far Micah's expectations were answered.

The tribe of Danites, being straitened in their inheritance, sent five men to explore the country for a new plantation. These messengers, in their jour ney, came to Mount Ephraim, and, lodging near Micah's house, they heard the voice of the young Levite; probably as he was performing religious service; and they immediately recollected him; for as he had lived a vagrant life, they, perhaps, had heard him hold forth before. They turned in to see him; and, finding, that he had commenced a priest, was dressed in the pontifical robes, and furnished with images and teraphim, they informed him of the object of their expedition, and desired him to enquire of God concerning their success. Lost to all sense of piety, he, after a formal pretence of consulting the oracle, answered, "Go in peace; before the Lord is your way." As he had assumed the office and habiliments of the priesthood, he would decline no part of the sacred function, lest he should baulk his employers, and lose credit with his patron.

High pretensions to divine intercourse, to visions, illuminations, supernatural discoveries, and heavenly directions, are common with impostors : Thus they deceive the hearts of the simple, beguile unstable souls, and draw away disciples after them.

One sinner destroys much good, and more in proportion to the publicity of the character in which he acts. This dishonest Levite, officiating as an idolatrous priest, corrupted the religion of all around Vol. II.

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