truction of the text, but understands him as praying to die
himself, before sentence should be executed on his people, if they
were not pardoned. And in the declaration, _whosoever hath sinned
against me, him will I blot out of my book_, he discovers an
intimation, that that offending people should die short of the
promised land! A discovery without a clew. This sin of Israel was
pardoned. Sentence of death in the wilderness was occasioned by a
subsequent act of rebellion, as will be shewn in the sequel.*

* Vid. Hunter's Lect. Vol. iv. Lect. iv

Mr. Fismin considers Moses as here praying to be blotted out of
the page of history, if Israel were not pardoned; so that no record of
his name, or the part which he had acted in the station assigned him,
should he handed down to posterity. An exposition differing from the
plain language of sacred history--_Blot me, I pray thee, out of thy
book, which thou hast written_. The page of history is written by man.

Such are the constructions which have been put on this scripture. The
considerations which have been suggested, oblige us to reject them
all, as founded in mistake. Our sense of the passage, and the reasons,
which in our apprehension, support it, will be the subject of another
discourse.

* * * * * *

SERMON VIII.

Moses' Prayer to be blotted out of God's Book.

Exodus xxxii. 31, 32.

"And Moses returned unto the Lord and said. Oh! this people have sinned
a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou--wilt,
forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray they, out of thy book
which than hast written."

In the preceding discourse we endeavored to show that the idea of
being willing to be damned for the glory of God is not found in the
text--that the sentiment is erroneous and absurd--then adduced the
constructions which have been put on the text by sundry expositors, and
offered reasons which oblige us to reject them as misconstructions.

It remains, _to give our sense of the passage--the grounds on which it
rests--and some reflections by way of improvement_.

As _to our sense of the passage_--We conceive these puzzling words of
Moses to be no other than a prayer for himself--that his sins which
might stand charged against him in the book of God, might _be blotted
out_, however God might deal with Israel. "SINS are compared to debts,
which are written in the creditor's book, and crossed, or blotted out,
when paid.* Man's sins are wr