CHAPTER SEVENTH.

ON REWARD AND PUNISHMENT.

SECTION FIRST.

THERE is an obvious unity of design in all the works and ways of God. This is observable, more especially in the laws by which he directs the arrangements of his moral government, as having a resemblance to the laws by which he regulates his operations in the natural world. The seed which is sown by the husbandman generates invariably a plant of its own species. We never see a fig tree bearing olive berries, nor a vine bearing figs. A good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and a corrupt tree evil fruit.

So it is in the moral world. It is the natural tendency of sin to produce misery, and of holiness to promote happiness. Idleness is the parent of poverty, but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. The effects of intemperance are debility and disease, but the effects of sobriety are health of

body and vigour of mind. Selfishness contracts the soul, and incapacitates for enjoyment; but not more directly than benevolence communicate delight to the mind and ecstasy to the heart.

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In the natural world, he who scatters sparingly reaps also sparingly; and if he be chargeable with subsequent negligence, the produce of his seed will be choked with weeds. In like manner, is the law of the moral world, that every man shall receive his own reward, according to his o deeds. It is true that chilling rains, and blast ing winds, and nipping frosts may in part cour teract his best exertions, and diminish the pro duce of his labour:—and it is also true, that dis appointments, and losses, and anxieties may, some extent, lessen the joy attendant on a life d holiness, and wither, in some degree, his expec tation of happiness in this world; but still, remains a fact, that felicity and rectitude an bound together by an indissoluble tie; and the so long as rational beings act together, "th work of righteousness shall be peace, and th effect of righteousness quietness and assuran for ever."

That the connexion between happiness and acting well becomes indistinct in particular cases is to be ascribed to the remainder of sin, even i the best of men. This alone produces the sem

blance of obstruction to the pleasures and advantages of worthy conduct. Whatever may be characterized as unhappiness, is the result, more or less direct, of indwelling sin or outward transgression; and, like disease and death, it is a penal infliction, and is demonstrative of Divine displeasure, in connexion with depravity. Reason, conscience, and revelation conspire in telling us, that were we always influenced by perfect rectitude of principle and feeling, our innocence would sweeten our entire passage through life, amidst many outward trials from the wickedness of others. Even as the matter now stands, experience reminds us of delights of great and lasting importance, which flow from affections rightly directed, from pure motives, and corresponding actions. It is very true, that the race in which men are so willing to run, for the attainment of outward prosperity, is not always to the swift; but it is equally true, even in the event of failure in this respect, that the heart-felt satisfaction of the religious man bears him up, in a great degree, amidst all external discouragements. Indeed these discouragements, from whatever source, tend to chasten, to purify, and to elevate his mind; and enable him to testify, amidst the most calamitous circumstances, that, in an interesting and most important sense, moral rectitude is in all respects advantageous in

this present life. Happiness, in short, he always finds, in a degree proportionable to the sincerity and universality of his obedience; and this fact is demonstrative of the truth, that the Moral Governor of the world approves of righteousness, and rewards the upright.

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The state of the careless, immoral, and wicked, very diversified under the present constitution of the world. Varied is the scene in which they The feelings that are awakened in dis passionate and contemplative minds, are only more or less painful-painful as arising from ex hibitions of human misery, and from manifesta tions of the Divine abhorrence of all moral tur pitude, as seen in the prevalence of various forms and degrees of suffering. This diversity exists because, in these persons severally, there is s difference in the strength and influence of the principle by which they are actuated; but, the slightest of these consequences exhibits the tendency of moral evil in the production of wretch edness; opens up the disapprobation with whi it is viewed by God; and, to a certain exten evinces how much his faithfulness and justic are concerned in the punishment of the disobe dient. Even in this world, evil pursues the sin ner, and compels him to feel, and sometimes to acknowledge, that departures from duty lead

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suffering; that the fruit of transgression soon becomes bitter; and that in despising the inward monitor, he is shutting his ear against a voice from heaven, saying, "Oh do not that abominable thing which I hate."

Such are the results which flow, in the present state of the world, from the moral arrangements of Divine Providence. In the conclusions we have drawn from these arrangements, as to the condemnation which God has connected with disobedience; and as to the reward which he has attached to compliance with his will; we have only stated what is approved of by sober reason, and what has universally been acknowledged by sound Theists. Discerning only the commencement of this great design, they have been led, by the strongest presumptions possible, to anticipate its completion in a future state. That the vicious in one direction, and the virtuous in another, are pursuing courses which will extend beyond the grave, into other scenes,-is an inference which cannot be deemed unreasonable. The expectation of an ulterior design in reference both to the virtuous and the vicious, we may almost call universal; and the teachings of philosophy in favour of it, if not absolutely conclusive, form at least an instructive body of moral evidence. Happily we are enabled both to confirm and en

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