And fhall we repine or murmur at this forbearance, This indulgence of God towards finners? Are not we ourfelves all of us finners, miferable finners: and do we think that God treats us with too much indulgence? Is there any one here prefent who would be content that God fhould immediately, and without mercy, inflict on him the utmost punishment which his fins juftly deferve? What, alas! would become of the very best of us, if this was the cafe; and who could abide these judgments of the Lord? And how then can we refuse to others that mercy of which we ftand fo much in need ourselves?

It is evident, and we fee it every day, that men who once were profligate have in time become eminently virtuous; and what pity would it have been if extreme or untimely severity had either fuddenly cut them off, or hardened them in their wickedness! Great minds are fometimes apt to fly out into exceffes at their firft outfet, but afterwards, upon reflection, and with proper culture, rise up to the practice of the nobleft virtues. And it is mercy worthy of God to exercise, and which men instead of cenfuring ought to admire and adore, if he chooses the milder, though flower methods, with those who are capable of being reformed by them. These fentiments cannot be better illustrated than by the example of St. Paul. That illuftrious apostle was we know once, as he himself confeffes, the chief of finners; he was a fiery zealot, and a furious perfecutor of the firft Chriftians, breathing out continually threatening and flaughter against them, making havoc of the Church, entering into every houfe, and hauling men and women to prison; and being, as he expreffes it, exceedingly mad against them, he perfecuted them unto strange cities, and when they were put to death, he gave his voice against them. In the eye of the Chrif

tian world then at that time, he must have been confidered as one of the fittest objects of divine vengeance, as a perfecutor and a murderer, who ought to be cut off in an inftant from the face of the earth.

But the great Difcerner of Hearts thought otherwise. He faw that all this cruelty, great as it undoubtedly was,

arofe, not from a difpofition naturally favage and ferocious, but from ignorance, from early religious prejudices, from mifguided zeal, from a firm perfuafion that by these acts of severity against the first Christians he was doing God fervice. He faw that this fame fervor of mind, this excess of zeal, properly informed and properly di rected, would make him a most active and able advocate of that very cause which he had fo violently opposed. Instead therefore of an extraordinary act of power to deftroy him, he visibly interpofed to fave him. He was in a miraculous manner converted to the Chriftian faith, and became the principal inftrument of diffufing it through the world. We fee then what baneful effects would fometimes arife from the immediate punishment even of notorious delinquents. It would in this cafe have deprived the Chriftian world of the abilities, the eloquence, the indefatigable and fuccessful exertions of this learned and intrepid apostle, whose converfion gave a strong additional evidence to the truth of the Gospel, and who laid down his life for the religion he had embraced.

Yet notwithstanding all the reasons for fometimes delaying the punishment of guilt in the prefent world, it cannot be denied that there are some instances of profperous wickedness, which cannot well be accounted for by any of them; and therefore, for a complete vindication of the moral government of God, we must have recourfe to the concluding part of the parable, which will give us the fulleft fatisfaction on this interefting fubject. To the queftion of the fervants, whether they fhould gather up the tares from the midst of the wheat, the householder anfwers, nay; left while ye gather up the tares, ye root up the wheat also. Let both grow together until the harveft, and in the time of harvest I will fay to the reapers, gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn." The harveft, our Lord tells us in his explanation, is the end of the world, at which awful period the Son of man fhall fend forth his angels, and they shall "gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall caft them into a furnace of fire; there fhall

be weeping and gnafhing of teeth. Then fhall the righteous fhine forth as the fun in the kingdom of their Father. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear*."

Here then is the great mafter-key to the whole of this myfterious dispensation of Heaven. God we fee, has appointed a day when every deficiency in his administration fhall be fupplied, and every feeming difproportion and inequality fhall be rectifiedt.

Even in this world it appears that wickedness is punished in fome measure, and to a certain degree; and we have seen that the interefts of virtue itself, among other confiderations, require that it fhould not be inftantly punished to the full extent of its deferts. God is perpetually showing, even in the prefent life, his different regard to right and wrong, by every fuch method as the conftitution of the world which he has created admits; and therefore no fooner fhall that world come to an end, and all obftacles to an equal administration of justice be taken out of the way, than he' fhall come to execute righteous judgment upon earth.

"He is not flack as men count flacknefst," that is negligent and remifs; he only waits for the proper feaíon of doing all that hitherto remains undone. Human weakness indeed, by a fmall delay of punishing, may lose the power of doing it for ever. "But in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strengths." Human inconftancy may be vehement and paffionate at firft; then negligent and languid. The fenfe of an unworthy action that does not injure us, quickly wears out of our mind; and if we take no immediate notice of it, we fhall poffibly take none at

* Matth. xiii. 41, 42, 43.

"As the foul furvives the diffolution of the body (fays the excellent Plutarch) and exifts after death, it is moft probable that it will receive rewards and punishments in a future ftate; for it goes through a kind of conteft during the prefent life, and when that is over, it will have its due recompence hereafter." 561. A.

How nearly does this approach to the doctrine of the Gofpel, which had been promulgated nearly one hundred years before Plutarch wrote. But thanks be to God, what this great man thought only probable, we have the happiness of knowing to be certain,

all. But we must not think God to be fuch an one a ourfelves. Eternity itfelf will make no change in his abhorrence of wickednefs, nor will any thing either transport him to act before his appointed time, or prevail upon him to give a refpite when that time comes. The finners of the antediluvian world, abufing the long fpace of one hundred and twenty years which he allowed for their re pentance, perished at the end of it without mercy. The angels who fell from their firft eftate before this earth was created, he has referved for torments, that fhall not finally take place till it is confumed*.

The fame important period his infinite wifdom has marked out for the final judgment of men. And undoubtedly it may produce advantages of unfpeakable moment thus to defer juftice, with a defign of rendering some chofen parts of duration memorable throughout the universe, by a more extenfive and illuftrious exercise of it. For it muft needs make an inconceivable strong and lafting im preffion upon every order of beings that fhall then be prefent at the folemn fcene, to hear the final doom of a whole world pronounced at once; and to behold fins that had been committed thousands of years before, punished with the fame attention to every circumstance as if they had been but of yesterday.

How far off thefe judgments of the Lord may be, we none of us know. But with regard to ourselves, they are near, they are even at the door. The few days we have to pafs in this tranfient scene will determine our condition for ever, and bring us into an eternal ftate, compared with which the continuence of the prefent frame of nature, from its very beginning, will be as nothing. Then every act of the government of God will be feen in its true light; the imagined length of distance between guilt and its punishment will totally difappear; and offenders will lament in vain that fentence is executed fo fpeedily as it is against evil works. But with peculiar feverity will it be executed on them, who defpifing the riches of that goodness which would lead them to repentance, "treasure up for themselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of Godt."

Upon the whole then let not either the finner triumph, or the virtuous repine, at the apparent impunity or even profperity of the wicked in the prefent life. To the audacious finner we apply those most opposite and most awful words of the fon of Sirach. "Say not who fhall control me for my works, for the Lord fhall furely avenge thy pride. Say not I have finned, and what harm hath happened unto me; for the Lord is indeed long-suffering, but he will in no wife let thee go. Say not, his mercy is great, he will be pacified for the multitude of my fins; for both mercy and wrath come from him, and his indignation refteth upon finners. Make therefore no tarrying to turn unto the Lord, and put not off from day to day; for fuddenly fhall the wrath of the Lord come forth, and in thy fecurity fhalt thou be destroyed, and perish in the day of vengeance*."

To the religious and virtuous on the other hand we fay, "Fret not thyfelf because of the ungodly, neither be thou envious against the evil doers. Hold thee ftill in the Lord, and abide patiently upon him; but grieve not thyfelf at him whofe way doth profper, against the man that doeth after evil counfels. Wicked doers fhall be rooted out ; and they that patiently abide the Lord, those shall inherit the land+." "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and the latter rain. Be ye alfo patient for the coming of the Lord draweth night."

It is not indeed always an eafy task to exercise this patience, when we fee confpicuous inftances either of individuals or of nations, notorious for their profligacy, triumphant and profperous in all their ways. We can fcarce reprefs our difcontent, or forbear joining with the prophet in his expoftulation with the Almighty, "Righteous art thou, O Lord! yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments. Why do the ways of the wicked profper? Why are all they happy that deal very treacherously?" To