been mixed with the droppings of a neighbouring sanctuary: and if Universalism is to be preached over the whole of our country, the devil, who has heretofore been in the habit of "going about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he might de"vour," may in future save himself that trouble, since the Universalist doctrine is calculated to do that work most effectually.

The Universalist scheme does indeed inculcate the ordinary duties of morality, and some of the ordinary duties of religion: but it takes away the sanctions by which God enforces those duties; and thus renders its preaching of none effect. In vain do we teach the wicked to " do justice, love " mercy, and walk humbly with God," if we rob them of the only inducements that can secure obedience to this precept. If they are not compelled to it by irresistible grace, what shall cause them to deny themselves, to take up the cross, and to lead a godly life? Conscience? Multitudes have no conscience the conscience of multitudes is seared and inactive-the disbelief of future punishment leaves the conscience of the unawakened sinner altogether powerless and wherever conscience does strike its scorpion sting into the bosom, suicide can instantly extract it, and hush its loudest clamours into peace. What then shall induce the wicked to renounce their guilty pleasures, and practise the self-denying religion of the Gospel? Do men restrain and deny themselves because this yields them pleasure? Our Saviour's argument for self-denial is founded upon the certainty of future punishment. He says, it is better to pluck out the right eye and cut off the right hand, than to have the whole body cast into hell. But if there be no hell after death, and men are rewarded for committing suicide and murder, by being delivered out of all trouble and admitted to perfect happiness, where is the force of our Saviour's reasoning-where is man's inducement to be virtuous?

Let it not be said that gratitude to God for his love and mercy will constrain sinners to be religious. This is true of saints and angels; but it is futile to expect it from the ungodly. It is enough for them, that the mercy which saves them from hell, will likewise, at death, deliver them from all sin: and they would be very unwise to give themselves any further trouble about it. As long as affection and gratitude cannot keep children, and servants, and subjects, and dependants obedient, it is against all reason and experience to say that men will, by this means alone, be led to embrace a self-denying religion and obey God.

The Universalist then can find no refuge from the charge of acting the part of an incendiary, by preaching a doctrine that is calculated to throw society into combustion, to destroy the very foundations of civil order, and to let out the very life-blood of virtue and religion-unless he makes virtue its own reward, and can prove that men will become religious merely for the sake of that happiness which religion affords its possessor in this world. But where is the libertine that ever became chaste for the mere pleasure of chastity-or the drunkard who reformed purely to enjoy the pleasure of temperance? How many worldlings can be found, who abandoned their beloved idol solely for the present gratification that arises from an opposite course-and how many can we think would probably be converted to God, if they had nothing else to persuade them but the comfort which will probably flow from it in this world? Future rewards and punishments have been found sufficient to control the motives and actions of sinful men; but none are found who are virtuous purely for virtue's sake, and who lay themselves under the self-denying restraints of religion merely for the satisfaction which this yields in the present life, without any regard to the next.

The preceding views we corroborate, by the following facts, and passages of Scripture.

The Universalist scheme asserts, that vice and sin, of every description, meet always, in every instance, without one single exception, with all the punishment that God has ever threatened-with all the punishment that the welfare of society requires and with all the punishment that impartial distributive justice demands. And this scheme further asserts, of course, that exemption from this punishment, and the positive satisfac

tions consequent upon virtue and piety, are never-failing consequences of a holy life and that this constitutes, in every individual instance, the present reward of religious obedience. Now this is directly contrary to both fact and Scripture.

It is contrary to fact. That virtue is not, in this world, its own reward, nor vice its own punisher, in any uniform or consistent degree, is manifest from daily observation. Are there not numerous instances every where, of unjust, cruel, licentious, and ungodly persons, who live in health, pleasure, and prosperity all their days; and who even pass into eternity without any remorse of conscience, and by a short and easy death? And are there not, on the other hand, multitudes of the most virtuous and pious, whose life is one incessant struggle with misfortune-who are set as affliction's markand who, through poverty, disease, sickness, and numerous other calamities, notwithstanding their holiness, are subjected to a lingering life of martyrdom? These facts are so notorious and manifest, that they are the subject of common and every-day remark: and those who deny them therefore, deserve no more to be reasoned with, than those who, like Hume, deny the existence of the sun in the heavens.

These facts too have been noticed in all ages of the world. The ancient stoic philosophers, who maintained stoutly that virtue was its own reward in this life, confessed that these facts furnished an insuperable objection to their reasonings : and the word of God is upon this point so explicit, that it should silence at once all further opposition. Let us quote a few passages.

Wherefore, says the prophet, doth the way of the wicked prosper? Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously? Says Job: The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure. Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Their seed is established in their sight. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice. They spend their days in

• Jer. xii. 1.

wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.d-Says the psalmist: My steps had well nigh slipped, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they are not in trouble as other men-they prosper in the world and there are no bands in their death. Verily then I have cleansed my heart and washed my hands in innocency in vain. For all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning. Thus far the Scriptures.

If then the wicked often live long, prosper, enjoy themselves, and die easy-while the righteous, like David, are often plagued and chastened from day to day-it is not true that sin is always fully punished in this world; and that holiness is, of course, always rewarded with an exemption from that punishment. It follows therefore, that the Universalist doctrine is, in this point, contrary both to fact and to Scripture; and therefore a false doctrine.

But if wickedness is not so punished in this life as to deter men from the commission of it-and if holiness is not so rewarded as to ensure its practice then the Universalist scheme offers nothing that can induce us to be virtuous, and nothing that can deter us from a course of sin: and this doctrine, therefore, stands fully chargeable with all the grossly immoral tendencies and shocking consequences above described. If this doctrine is preached, embraced, and followed, there is nothing to restrain men from all that licentiousness, and all those crimes, to which their passions naturally lead them. We have no security for our virtue, our property, our liberty, our happiness, or our lives. Nothing can preserve the peace, order, and prosperity of society, from the baneful and ruinous effects of such a licentious and demoralizing scheme of religion. And the enormous crimes of perjury, suicide, and murder, will multiply upon us from day to day, and cover the fair face of society with the mantle of mourning, and the pall of death!

These conclusions, which are legitimately drawn from the preceding arguments, we now further support by facts, and passages of Scripture.

That the wellbeing of society cannot possibly be promoted and preserved without the doctrine and the expectation of future rewards and punishments, is a truth of which mankind have been convinced by the experience of every age. All the celebrated legislators of antiquity laid this doctrine at the foundation of their laws and their governments. And though some of the philosophers theorized themselves into dangerous systems of infidelity, the philosophers generally, and magistrates and legislators always, explicitly maintained that the fear of future punishment was necessary for the welfare of society. Atheists and Materialists even, and freethinkers of different kinds, who disbelieved a future state, or denied that it was known before the preaching of the Gospel, have nevertheless admitted this necessity, and pretend that magistrates and legislators invented this doctrine, because, without it, government could not be upheld, nor wicked men sufficiently restrained.

The truth of this opinion is further confirmed by the effects which this doctrine of the Universalist has already, in different ages, produced upon those who embraced it. For the doctrine that there will be no future punishment, is by no means new. The Sadducees, among the Jews, held this tenet: and the licentiousness of their lives furnished both a reason for their believing so, and a practical comment upon the immoral tendency of their creed. The sect of the Epicureans, among the ancient heathens, maintained this opinion. But Epicureanism, in process of time, became only a name for every thing abandoned and licentious. The founder and first propagators of this system were highly extolled for their morality; and Epicurus, like the Universalists of the present day, endeavoured so to explain his system as to guard against perversion and licentiousness. But all in vain. Depriving men of the wholesome restraints which the fear of future punishment imposes upon their conduct, is like depriving a vessel at sea of its rudder. They will readily yield to every breeze of inclination, and be carried about by every gust of passion. The Epicureans, through the natural influence of their doctrines, became so disorderly and abandoned, that