be indifferent, or that can pretend to have any reason for being so. And here it may seem, that we are stop ped and foreclosed altogether, from proceeding any farther, with argument or expostulation. But if it be so, let us stand a moment, and see if we can help standing aghast, at the object that is presented before us. It is a being; it is a moral being-we know it, if he does not his every effort to defend himself, proves that he is moral; it is a moral being; it is a man. Look at him. He is a moral being and a man, and he declares this is the supposition-God forbid that it should often be reality, but this is the supposition-he declares that he does not believe any thing religious to be true; that he does not wish it to be true; that he is persuaded that it is not true; and that he cares nothing about it. He declares that he has no deep, intellectual wants, of which other men talk; that he has no glorious aspirations which nothing but heaven can that he has no high and generous affections which nothing but virtue can satisty; that all this about virtue and improvement, about hope and heaven, is a mistake, and a fancy, and a dream. He declares finally, that the senses are to him every thing; that he believes, (to use the words of an unsexed female lecturer in some of our theatres) that he believes in what he sees, and that is all he does believe in;presumptuous and preposterous nonsense! as if thoughts in the mind, ay, and wants in the mind, were not things as really existing, as the objects of vision:and our sceptic declares, moreover, that he seeks for nothing, hopes for nothing, but the indulgences of sense, and that to wallow in sensual pleasures, all his life, and then die for ever, is all that he wants!

..

Let no one start at this representation, and say that it is all hypothesis, and that nobody ever felt thus ; for if it be hypothesis-if no man ever felt this, then there is not a being in the world that can protect his religious indifference, under even the flimsiest garb of reason. There is no defence for religious indifference, unless it be found in that utter, appalling, revolting, self-damning scepticism. But suppose that scepticism to exist; that defence to be set up; that case represented, to be reality; then, I say, in fine, what a reality is it for a man to sit down with, in indifference! Gracious heavens! for a man to declare himself a brute, and to make that a reason for being unconcerned; to take refuge from the calls of religion among the herd of animals; to deny himself the very attributes of humanity, that he, a human being, may be at ease in his sins, his irreligion, and spiritual lethargy-why, what is it but to make an argument that carries with it, its own strongest refutation? Truly such an argument for indifference ought to break it up for ever. The horror of having used it,-though every other resort had failed -the very horror of having used it, like the last warning of death in the ear, should startle the self-indulgent sleeper from his repose, and never suffer him again to sink towards that fatal security!

But, my brethren-to add one word more, and more accordant with the situation of an assembly of professed believers-if the argument of scepticism is so fearful, surely the indifference of faith, is, if possible, yet more so.

Not life with all its teachings, not the love of happiness, not even the belief in a God, in duty, in retribution, in an immortal soul-no, nor the denial of all

these things, is so fearful, as it is, amidst the acknowledgment of such truths, to be unconcerned-to sleep amidst the calls of God and nature, of life and death, of time and eternity! Even scepticism we have said has cause to be distressed, to be overwhelmed with its gloomy doubts. But indifference, with faith, is a step beyond all-more rash, if possible, more heavendefying than any other. There is a hope for it, indeed, which there is not for utter scepticism, but it is a hope amidst perils and threatenings. There is a salvation for it, which utter unbelief rejects; but it must be salvation, if possible, from more aggravated sins. Yes, the light of truth is around this man, and the warning depths are beneath, but he sins on, and sleeps onsleeps on, upon the very brink of destruction! What shall save him! What power shall interpose for his rescue? No hand of miracle will be stretched out to pluck him from that edge of peril and perdition. No power to save, stirs within him, while he thus sleeps in security. What then shall save him? Consider it, I beseech you, if you be a negligent hearer; consider it, before it is too late. Surely indifference never saved any man: it has destroyed millions. Surely, every thing must be wrong in him, whom nothing will arouse, neither to righteousness, nor to the consciousness of wanting it, nor to the fear of consequences. The last hold upon such a man, while such, is lost; and futurity must awaken him to condemnation, whom the present cannot awaken to repentance, to prayer, and to the care of his soul.

But let me not, with such terms, close this meditation. Assailing religious indifference, in its strong holds, as I have to-day, I have felt, and too naturally felt,

perhaps, that my words were to fall, not on the tenderness of the human heart, but, as it were, on the scales of leviathan. But that tenderness-where is it not? -in what assembly is it not? My friends, I knowof many of you at least-I know, that ye are not indifferent. Life is to you, that moving scene, which it is to every thoughtful and feeling mind. The Bible is to you, the book of your faith and trust. Blessed trust!

touching experience! and they are yours. No, ye are not indifferent. But then I beseech you, act not as if ye were so. Think it not enough to admit, to-day, that you ought to be interested in this great subject. Show that you are so, to-morrow, and every day. Let it appear, I entreat you, that ye are men, who believe in your Bibles. Let your life give testimony to the GREAT PRINCIPLE which should guide you. In all things show your fidelity to it. In business, be conscientious; in pleasure temperate; in suffering patient; in prosperity, thankful; in all things, religious. If ye call on the Father; if here, in the holy sanctuary, and if in the silence of your own dwellings, ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons, judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here, in fear, in wisdom, in acts of piety, in works of righteousness.

188

DISCOURSE XII.

THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.

GALATIANS 6. 7. BE NOT DECEIVED;

GOD IS NOT

MOCKED: FOR WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, THAT SHALL HE ALSO REAP.

I UNDERSTAND these words, my brethren, as laying down in some respects a stricter law of retribution, than is yet received even by those who are considered as its strictest interpreters. There is much dispute about this law at the present day; and there are many who are jealous, and very properly jealous, of every encroachment upon its salutary principles. But even those who profess to hold the strictest faith on this subject, and who, in my judgment, do hold a faith concerning what they call the infinity of man's illdesert, that is warranted neither by reason nor scripture, even they, nevertheless, do often present views of conversion and of God's mercy, and of the actual scene of retribution, which, in my apprehension detract from the wholesome severity of the rule by which we are to be judged. Their views may be strong enough, too strong; and yet not strict enough, nor impressive enough. Tell a man that he deserves to suffer infinitely, and I am not sure, that it will, by any means come so near his conscience, as to tell him that he