retribution. And now there are, as I think, among the body of Protestants, certain speculative, or rather, may I say, mechanical views of the future state, and of the preparation for it, and of the principles of mercy in its allotments, that tend to let down the strictness of that law which for ever binds us to the retributive future.

Is it not a question, let me barely ask in passing, whether this universal evasion does not show that the universal belief has been extravagant; whether men have not believed too much to believe it strictly and specifically to its minutest point? It certainly is a very striking fact, that, while the popular creed teaches that almost the whole living world is going down to everlasting torments, the popular sympathy interposes to save from that doom almost the whole dying world.

But not to dwell on this observation,-I shall proceed now briefly to consider some of those modern views which detract from the strictness of the law of retribution.

I. And the first which I shall notice is the view of the actual scene of retribution, as consisting of two conditions, entirely opposite, and altogether different. Mankind, according to this view, are divided into two distinct classes, the one of which is to enjoy infinite happiness, and the other to suffer infinite misery. It is a far stronger case than would be made by the supposition, that man's varied efforts to gain worldly good were to be rewarded, by assigning to one portion of the race, boundless wealth, and to the other, absolute poverty; for it is infinite happiness on the one hand, and, not the bare destitution of it, but infinite misery on the other.

Let me observe, before I proceed farther to point out what I consider to be the defect which attends this popular view of retribution, that the view itself is not warranted by scripture. The Bible teaches us that virtue will be rewarded, and sin punished; that the good shall receive good, and the evil shall receive evil; and that is all that it teaches us. It unfolds to us this simple, and solemn, and purely spiritual issue, and nothing more.

All else is figurative; and so the most learned interpreters have generally agreed to consider it. It is obvious, that representations of what passes, in the future world, taken from the present world, must be of this character. When heaven is represented as a city, and hell as a deep abyss, and Christ is described as coming to judgment on a throne, with the state and splendour of an oriental monarch, and separ ating—in form and visibly separating the righteous from the wicked, we know, or should know, that these representations are figurative de scriptions of a single and simple fact; and this fact is, and this is the whole of the fact that is taught us, that a distinction will be made between good men and bad men; and that they will be rewarded or punished hereafter, according to the character they have formed and sustained here.

It is to be remembered, too, in appealing to the Scriptures, that there are other teachings in them than those which are figurative, and teachings which bind us far more to the letter. It is written, that whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap; and that God will render unto every man according to his deeds-i. e. according to his character, as by deeds is doubtless meant in this instance.

But now to return to the view already stated: I maintain, that the boundless distinction which it makes in the states of the future life, is not rendering unto men according to their deeds,-that is to say, according to their character, because of this character there are many diversities, and degrees, and shades. Men differ in virtue precisely as they differ in intelligence; by just as many and imperceptible degrees. As many as are the diversities of moral education in the world, as numerous as are the shades of circumstance in life, as various as are the degrees of moral capacity and effort in various minds, so must the results differ. If character were formed by machinery, there might be but two samples: but if it is formed by voluntary agency, the results must be as diversified and complicated as the operations of that agency. And the fact, which every man's observations must show him, undoubtedly is, that virtue in men differs just as intelligence does; differs, I repeat, by just as many and imperceptible degrees. But now suppose that men were to be rewarded for their intelligence hereafter. Would all the immense variety of cases be met by two totally different and opposite allotments? Take the scale of character, and mark on it all the degrees of difference, and all the divisions of a degree. Now, what point on the scale will you select, at which to make the infinite difference of allotments? Select it where you will, and there will be the thousandth part of a degree above rewarded with perfect happiness, and a thousandth part of a degree below doomed to perfect misery. Would this be right, with regard to the intelligence or virtue of men?

We are misled on this subject by that loose and inaccurate division of mankind, which is common, into the two classes of saints and sinners. We might as well say, that all men are either strong or weak, wise or foolish, intellectual or sensual. So they are, in a general sense; but not in a sense that excludes all discrimination. And the language of the Bible, when it speaks of the good and bad, of the righteous and wicked, is to be understood with the same reasonable discrimination, with the same reasonable qualification of its meaning, as when it speaks of the rich and poor. The truth is the matter of fact is-that, from the highest point of virtue to the lowest point of wickedness, there are, I repeat, innumerable steps, and men are standing upon all these steps; they are actually found in all these gradations of character. Now, to render to such beings according to their character, is not to appoint to them two totally distinct and opposite allotments, but just as many allotments as there are shades of moral difference between them.

But does not the Bible speak of two distinct classes of men as amenable to the judgment, and of but two; and does it not say of the one class, "these shall go away into everlasting fire," and of the other, "but the righteous into life eternal"? Certainly it does. And so do we constantly say that the good shall be happy, and the bad shall be miserable, in the coming world. But do we, or does the Bible, intend to speak without any discrimination? Especially, can the omniscient scrutiny, and the unerring rule, be supposed to overlook any, even the slightest differences, and the most delicate shades of character? On the contrary, we are told that "one star differeth from another in glory:" and we are told that there is a "lowest hell:" and we are led to admit that, in the allotments of retributive justice, the best among bad men,

and the worst among good men, may come as near to each other in condition as they come in character.

I am not saying, let it be observed, that the difference even in this case is unimportant; still less that it is so in general. Nay, and the difference between the states of the very good man and of the very bad man may indeed be as great as any theory supposes; it may be much greater, in fact, than any man's imagination conceives; but this is not the only difference that is to be brought into the final account; for there are many intermediate ranks between the best and the worst. I say, that the difference of allotment may-nay, and that it must be great. The truly good man, the devoted Christian, shall, doubtless, experience a happiness beyond his utmost expectation: the bad man, the self-indulgent, the self-ruined man, will, doubtless, find his doom severer than he had looked for. I say not what it may be. But this, at least, we may be sure of, that the consequences both of good and bad conduct will be more serious, will strike deeper, than we are likely, amidst the gross and dim perceptions of sense, to comprehend.

But this is not the point which I am at present arguing. It is not the extent of the consequences; but it is the strict and discriminating impartiality which shall measure out those affecting results; it is the strict law by which every man shall reap the fruits of that which he SOWS. And I say that the artificial, imaginative, and, as I think, unauthorized ideas which prevail with regard to a future life, let down the strictness of the law.

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Let me now illustrate this by a single supposition. Suppose that you were to live in this world one thousand or ten thousand and years; suppose, too, that you felt that every present moment was a probation for every future moment; and that, in order to be happy, you must be pure; that every fault, every wrong habit of life or feeling, would tend and would continue, to make you unhappy, till it was faithfully and effectually corrected; and corrected by yourself-not by the hand of death-not by the exchange of worlds. Suppose yourself to entertain the conviction, that, if you plunged into self-indulgence and sin, diseases, and distempers, and woes, would accumulate upon you, with no friendly interposition or rescue, no all-healing nostrum, no medicine of sovereign and miraculous efficacy to save-that diseases, I say, distempers, and woes, would accumulate upon you, in dark and darkening forms, for a thousand years. Suppose that every evil passion, anger, or avarice, or envy, or selfishness in any of its forms, would-unless resisted and overcome,-would make you more and more miserable for a thousand years. I say, that such a prospect, limited as it is in comparison, would be more impressive and salutary, a more powerful restraint upon sin, a more powerful stimulus to improvement, than the prospect, as it is usually contemplated, of the retributions of eter nity! Are we then, making all that we ought to make of the prospect of an eternal retribution? God's justice will be as strict there as it is here. And although bodily diseases may not accumulate upon us there, yet the diseases of the soul, if we take not heed to them, will accumulate upon us; and he who has only one degree of purity, and ten degrees of sin in him, must not lay that flattering unction to his soul, that death will "wash out the long arrears of guilt." I know that this is a doc

trine of unbending strictness-a doctrine, I had almost said, insufferably strict: but I believe that it is altogether true.

"But," some one may say, "if I am converted-if I have repented of my sins, and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ-then I have the assurance, through God's mercy, of pardon and heaven."

This statement embraces the other doctrinal evasion of the law of retribution which I proposed to consider. And I must venture to express the apprehension, that, by those who answer thus to the strict and unaccommodating demand of inwrought purity, neither conversion, nor repentance, nor the mercy of God, are understood as they ought to be.

A man says, "I am not to be judged by the law, but by the gospel." But when he says that, let me tell him, he should take care to know what he says, and whereof he affirms. The difference between the law and the gospel, I believe, is much misapprehended in this respect. The gospel is not a more easy, not a more lax rule to walk by, but only a more encouraging rule. The law demands rectitude, and declares that the sinner deserves the miseries of a future life; and there it stops, and of course, it leaves the offender in despair. The gospel comes in-and it did come in, with its teaching and prophetic sacrifices, even amidst the thunders of Sinai-saying, If thou wilt repent and believe, if thou wilt embrace the faith and spirit of the all-humbling and the all-redeeming religion-the way to happiness is still open. But does the gospel do any more than open the way? Does it make the way more easy, more indulgent, less self-denying? Does it say, you need not be as good as the law requires, and yet you shall be none the less happy for all that? Does it say, you need not do as well, and yet it shall be just as well with you? Is Christ the minister of sin? God forbid!" Nay, be it remembered, that the solemn declaration upon which we are this day meditating-whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap-is recorded, not in the law, but in the gospel!

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"But if I repent," it may be said," am I not forgiven entirely?" If you repent entirely, you are forgiven entirely; and not otherwise. What is repentance? It is a change of mind. That, as every scholar knows, is the precise meaning of the original word in the Scriptures which is translated repentance. It is a change of mind. If, then, your repentance, your change of mind is entire, your forgiveness, your happiness is complete; but on no other principle, and in no other proportion. Sorrow is only one of the indications of this repentance or change of heart; though it has unfortunately usurped, in common use, the whole meaning of the word. Sorrow is not the only indication of repentance, for joy as truly springs from it. It is not, therefore, the bare fact that you are sorry, however sincerely and disinterestedly sorry, for your offences, that will deliver you from all the suffering which your sins and sinful habits must occasion. You may be sorry, for instance, and truly sorry, for your anger; yet if the passion breaks out again, it must again give you pain; and it must for ever give you pain while it lives. You may grieve for your vices. Does that grief instantly stop the course of penalty? Will it instantly repair a shattered constitution? You may regret, in declining life, a state of mind produced by too much devotion to worldly gain-the want of intellectual and moral resources and habits. Will the dearth and the desolation depart

from your mind when that regret enters it? Will even the tears of repentance immediately cause freshness and verdure to spring up in your path? "But," it may be said, once more, "does not all depend on our being converted, or being born again? And is not conversion, is not the new birth, the event of a moment?"

I answer, with all the certainty of conviction that I am capable of— No; it is not the event of a moment. That conversion which fits a soul for heaven is not the event of a moment. And, my brethren, I would not answer thus in a case where there is controversy, if I did not think it a matter of the most serious importance. Can anything be more fatal-can any one of all loose doctrines be more loose-than to tell an offender, who is going to the worst excesses in sin, that he may escape all the evil results-all the results of fifty, sixty, seventy years of self-indulgence-by one instant's experience? Can any one of us believe-dare we believe-that one moment's virtue can prepare us for the happiness of eternity? Can we believe this, especially when we are, on every page of the Bible, commanded to watch, and pray, and strive, and labour, and by patient continuance in well-doing, to seek for glory, and honour, and immortality; and this, as the express condition of obtaining eternal life or happiness?

No, Christians! subjects of the Christian law! no conversion, no repentance, no mercy of heaven, will save you from the final operation of that sentence, or should save you from its warning now-"Be not deceived"-as if there was special danger of being deceived here"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. He that soweth to the flesh, shall of his flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the spirit, shall of the spirit reap life everlasting."

It is a high and strict-I had almost said a terrible-discrimination. Yet let us bring it home to our hearts, although it be as a sword to cut off some cherished sin. Oh! this miserable and slavish folly of inquiring whether we have piety and virtue enough to save us! Do men ever talk thus about the acquisition of riches or honours? Do they act as if all their solicitude was to ascertain and to stop at the point that would just save them from want, or secure them from disgrace?—

Enough virtue to save you," do you say? The very question shows that you have not enough. It shows that your views of salvation are yet techninal and narrow, if not selfish. It shows that all your thoughts of retribution yet turn to solicitude and apprehension.

The law of retribution is the law of God's goodness. It addresses not only the fear of sin, but the love of improvement. Its grand requisition is that of progress. It urges us at every step to press forward. And however many steps we may have taken, it urges us still to take another and another, by the same pressing reason with which it urged us to take the first step.

Yes, by the same pressing reason, let him who thinks himself a good man, who thinks that he is converted, and is on the right side, and in the safe state, and in the way to heaven, and who, nevertheless, from this false reasoning and this presumptuous security, indulges in little sins -irritability, covetousness, or worldly pride-let him know that his doom shall be hereafter, and is now, a kind of hell, compared with the