worship of the Deity should be a liberal unmercenary service; and that to be bribed or terrified into an honest practice bespeaks little of real honesty or worth." All this is true, but it proves nothing against the christian doctrine of future retribution. Christianity is the worship of God in spirit and in truth; and the corner-stone of its morality is purity and sincerity of heart. They therefore who are incited by the mere hope of reward to practise those virtues which they hate, or deterred by the mere dread of punishment from committing those sins to which they are in their hearts inclined, can have no scriptural title to the mercy of God in Christ, or to the rewards of christian obedience. It is nevertheless the word of inspiration, that "by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil." 'A God disarmed, must be a God despised." Had the gospel contained only fine harangues on the beauty of virtue, and the deformity of vice, instead of working upon the passions of hope and fear, by the awful sanctions of eternity, it had never been effectual to call sinners to repentance, and turn the nations from the worship of dumb idols to serve the living God. The great mass of mankind, being incapable of abstract reasoning on moral obligations, or the fitness of things, need some surer and safer

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guide than their own wisdom in the paths of duty, often dark and doubtful; require some stronger curb to their violent and inordinate passions, than their own virtue, the world's opinion, or the world's law: That guide is the revelation of God; that curb the terror of his righteous judgments, which can alone effectually restrain the unruly wills and affections of sinful men, and hold them steady to their duty when unchecked by human laws, unseen by human eyes. If religious fear then be so powerful a principle of religious obedience, whence comes it that its effects are so inadequate to its power? The reason is twofold. The punishments of a future world are not thought of, or they are set at defiance. The main endeavour of the children of this world who profess and call themselves Christians, is to fly in every direction from the thoughts of leaving it: too sensual to live for another world, yet too enlightened to disbelieve its existence; as if they could annihilate their danger by forgetting it, they strive to drown reflection and stupify conscience in the unceasing hurry of worldly business, or the tumultuous delirium of sensual pleasure. But it is a miserable expedient with which they themselves who have recourse to it are dissatisfied, as conscious all the while that they are dealing

treacherously by their own souls, and seeking peace where there is no peace.

But whilst men by every artifice shut out future judgment from their thoughts, with strange inconsistency they show a practical unconcern about the judgment itself: and though afraid of looking into that account which they must finally give of their actions to the Judge of the universe, they scruple not by continuing impenitence to inflame its amount, and render it from day to day more intricate and more alarming. In fact, they who supremely desire to enjoy all the good and avoid all the evil of the present state, look more upon that which man can do unto them, than upon all that God has promised or threatened relative to a life hereafter. Man's resentments they know are quick, and instant in operation, whereas the consequences of God's indignation they regard as at an immense distance: on his long-suffering therefore they presume to continue in sin, on his mercy they rely for final pardon and acceptance. Have they offended any great man who is able to promote their worldly interests, they will not rest until they are reinstated in his favour; but whilst the Judge of all the earth has heavy things to lay to their charge, and his just indignation and judgments are hang

ing over their heads, immersed in sensual secu rity they can sleep and take their ease, with no interruption to their pursuits of business or of pleasure. Another class of christian professors, assuming to be wise above what is written, regard the terrors of the Lord as the offspring of superstition upon weak minds, or explain away the import of those several texts of scripture which describe the future punishment of the wicked. That weakness of mind gives birth and sustenance to that superstition which dishonours God, and degrades and enslaves man, is not to be denied. But if it be strength of mind to contemplate with unconcern a heaven or a hell, salvation or perdition depending upon our conduct in this life; if it be strength of mind not to fear that total privation of God, that banishment from the presence of him who is the source of life, and joy, and comfort, and happiness, not to dread that state of bitter remorse, of agonizing reflection, of hopeless despair to which the guilty soul shall be consigned in realms of horrible darkness peopled only with reprobate spirits, and vocal only with the sounds of their lamentations; if not to dread all this be strength of mind, may God preserve us, my brethren, from its fatal influence.

Such unconcern, however, on the subject of

future punishment arises in the case before us, not from superior strength of mind, or moral heroism, but from a proud and cold philosophy which would exclude all warmth of feeling, all seriousness of impression from every thing which concerns religion. These philosophizing Christians, rejecting all such parts of the gospel as are adverse to their loose notions of religion, and perverting the sense of others by the most arbitrary and unwarrantable explanations, descant upon the scriptural representations of heaven and hell, of death and judgment, with as much apathy and indifference as they would consider a fact in history, or a problem in science. But if they admit the gospel to be a divine revelation, by what authority do they assume to invalidate its penal sanctions, by what sophistry can they evade the declarations of a teacher sent from God with a

majesty and authority to which Moses and the prophets and all the sages and legislators of ancient and modern times must bow and obey. He who has the words of eternal life, has said, "Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear; fear him which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell;" and then, that his awful admonition might pierce