V. 30.— For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. For we know him... This is a quotation from Deuteronomy 32:35. In this prophetic song, given out by Moses at the close of his ministry, the peculiar kindness of God toward his people Israel is celebrated, together with their ungrateful returns and the consequent vengeance which he would inflict upon them. Here, as elsewhere, He claimeth vengeance as His peculiar prerogative. We are not to avenge ourselves, Romans 12:19; and it appears that when Joseph’ s brethren, after their father’ s death, besought him to forgive them, the question he put, "Am I in the place of God?" Genesis 50:19, was intended to intimate that vengeance belongs to him alone. This prerogative, however, is, in a certain degree, delegated to the civil magistrate. "As the servant of God be is an avenger, to execute wrath on him that doeth evil.” Romans 13:4. In Israel he that despised Moses’ s law died without mercy; but no power is given to civil magistrates to punish irreligion; on the contrary, while we are commanded to be subject to every ordinance of men, to obey magistrates, and taught that in resisting “ the power we resist the ordinance of God,” the Lord expressly prohibits our acknowledging any civil authority in religion. Here we have but one Master, even Christ. Matthew 23:8-10. This is repeated in order to enforce it more powerfully, and thus a broad line of distinction is drawn between civil and religious obedience. The former we are commanded to render, under pain of the vengeance which God has delegated to the civil magistrate; the latter is absolutely prohibited. In Christ’ s kingdom He is the blessed and only potentate. It is the duty of believers to warn and to admonish each other, and the highest penalty which they are authorized to inflict for false doctrine, or a violation of the laws of Christ, is to turn away from the offender. “My kingdom,” says Christ, " is not of this world,” and therefore he commits to his servants no carnal weapons. And again the Lord shall judge his people; the word judge is ambiguous, it signifies either to plead the cause of his people by delivering or defending them, Psalms 43:1, or taking vengeance on the disobedient, Genesis 15:14, 2 Chronicles 20:12, Ezekiel 7:3. From the connexion, the words quoted by the Apostle appear to bear the former sense: “For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.” As applied in the passage before us they refer to the punishment of apostates: “Vengeance belongeth to me, I will recompense saith the Lord and again, "The Lord will judge his people.” Perhaps the lesson inculcated by the Apostle is, that while sin is that bitter thing which God’ s soul hateth, He, to whom vengeance belongeth, will visit with stripes the shortcomings of His people; but although He cause grief yet He will have compassion, according to the multitude of His mercies. Lamentations 3:32.