tain and present the horrible scene to our open vision? As they take great satisfaction in describing to the imagination of parents their children in hell, would not the effect be still more powerful if the eye could behold the fiery pit, and see the beloved children in the flames? But all this must be carried on in a secret place, out of sight of all the living; and none to report it to us, only those who know nothing about it.

3. Is it not a most evident fact, that for temporal enjoyments, enjoyments of this life, men will exert their utmost powers, face the greatest dangers, and surmount all surmountable difficulties? For these enjoyments the husbandman labors from early morn until the shades of night cover him. And this he repeats day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, until he wears out his strength and his days. Ask him why he thus toils; will he inform you, either that he expects an immortal state of bliss hereafter as a reward; or that he fears eternal torments if he should quit his field? No, he will point to his wife and to his children, and say; it is for them I labor, for them I toil, and the love I bear them makes my labor easy and my burden light; yea it is a pleasure, and content is my companion.

Does not the mariner risk his life on the seas, does he not encounter the most inclement weather, put his face to the violence of the storm, for the sake of the comforts and luxuries of life? For the enjoyments of this temporal state, we see the warrior, far from his family, encountering the fatigues of marches and counter-marches; lying upon the cold damp earth; his food coarse and often loathsome, and when the hour of perilous danger arrives, and he is summoned to the charge, does he now expect immortality and eternal life if he fights, and does he dread endless damnation if he refuses? No, these are not the motives which stimulate him to set his face to danger and his breast to the battle. The defence of his country, the defence of his wife and children, and his honor as a soldier are motives sufficient. Why then, my friends, are we

I that no rewards in this life are sufficient to excite

us to religion and virtue? Why are we told the pitiful story, that nothing short of the hope of endless happiness hereafter, and the dread of everlasting damnation in the world to come, are sufficient incentives to move men to subscribe to a creed which men have invented, and a covenant written by a clergyman, join a communion, and make a few prayers which he learns by heart, and go to meeting on the Sabbath?

4. Since the doctrine of endless rewards and punishments has been advocated and preached by the christian clergy, and the anathemas of eternal condemnation held up on every Sabbath-day; and since all classes of people have been habituated in such a belief, has it all together had the desired effect? Has it made men in reality any better? If we place the least confidence in the most authentic histories, and if we allow experience to judge in this case the matter is plain, that a spirit of the most violent persecution has always accompanied this doctrine, and the most shocking outrages on humanity have marked its progress. 5. Let us ask now, where true wisdom lies, and We find the where her peaceful path is to be found? "Come unto

answer in the words of Jesus, who said; me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your soul. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." By these precious words we learn that the Saviour endeavored to persuade men into his service by assuring them that his service was easy, and that he imposed no burdens but light ones. He compares his religion with its opposite, as an easy service to one that is hard; as rest to fatigue.

As long as we are persuaded to believe that the way of righteousness is a hard way, that it is attended with constant trouble, that few or no enjoyments are found in obedience to its requirements, all the promises which the preacher holds up of bliss in a future world, will never induce us to travel the hated road. On the contrary, as long as we are told that sin and wickedness are attended with ease, pleasure, delight, and

perpetual gratification and satisfaction, and as long as we believe this worst of all deceptions, so long we shall live in sin, notwithstanding we may be told of the most horrid torments in a future world as a recompense therefor.

Man loves happiness and hates misery, and this love and hatred are the only inducements which move him to action. Let us realize then that righteousness will make us happy in the present life, and that sin will make us miserable here on the earth, and let us constantly withstand the testimony of our preachers, and the temptations of the flesh to the contrary, and we shall live as the grace of God teaches, by denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and by living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.

It is worthy of special regard, that the divine promises and threatenings recorded by Moses and the prophets, with which God was pleased to signify his approbation of righteousness, and his disapprobation of sin, relate to blessings and punishments which have been enjoyed and suffered by the house of Israel in the earth.

For their encouragement the Lord promised them all manner of temporal blessings; and as a terror he threatened them with all manner of temporal calamities. And while they walked in the statutes of the Lord, and did his judgments these promises were faithfully fulfilled. The people multiplied greatly and abounded in all the rich blessings of life, of health and peace. But when they rebelled and walked in the way of sin, they were visited with all the plagues, judgments, and calamities with which they had been threatened. No people ever varied their character more than have the Jews. At times they were the most upright, the most pious, the most virtuous of all the nations of the earth; and then they were blessed above all people in the world. At other times they have been the most perverse; have so forsaken the true God, as to carry idolatry to its extremes, have practiced violence and oppression, by which they became a prey to their enemies, and were carried into

captivities, and punished with all the sore judgments which were written in their law or denounced by their prophets. And as no people have ever been more wicked, so none have been more punished than they.

The judgments which our Saviour denounced on the Jews were the same of which we read in the 26th of Leviticus and other writings of Moses, in the Lamentations of Jeremiah and the other writings of this and the rest of the prophets. And it is directly to our argument to observe that all these calamities have come on that people; and that we have no more authority for applying either the promises for obedience, or the threatenings for disobedience to a future state, than we have for believing that the Jews, for their obedience in this world, will be blessed in the future state in the quiet possession of the land of Canaan: and for their disobedience will be visited with sickness and be carried away into captivity by their enemies.

To conclude. Let us, my friends, open our eyes on the certain consequences with which our heavenly Father rewards the obedient here in the earth. Let us regard that calm sunshine of peace within, which we are sure to enjoy as the reward of well doing. Let us endeavor to estimate in a proper manner the rich inheritance which is the certain lot of those who keep the commandments of God.

And

Let us look round us, and see if prisons, dungeons, and gallows are not a sufficient argument to prove, that the wicked are recompensed in the earth. if this sad scene be not sufficient, go draw the veil from still greater horrors, where intemperance and uncleanness exhibit the warning spectacle of degraded humanity. Beloved youth, look, these terrors are no fictions; they are awful realities! Your feet stand in slippery places! O put on the whole armor of righteousness that ye may be able to stand in the evil day; and pray most fervently that you may not be led into temptation, but that you may be delivered from

evil.

LECTURE XX.

DIVINE GOODNESS IN THE DESTRUCTION OF THE
SODOMITES AND OTHER SINNERS.

EZEKIEL xvi. last of 50.

Therefore I took them away as I saw good.

THE spirit of divine truth, addressing Jerusalem by the prophet, informed her that she was more corrupted in her ways than her sisters, Samaria and her daughters, or Sodom and her daughters. The words of the prophet are these; "As I live, saith the Lord God, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters. Behold this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness, was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hands of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me; therefore I took them away as I saw good."

The destruction of the inhabitants of Sodom is the subject of our text, and that to which the most cautious attention of this christian audience is now most earnestly solicited.

By those who believe and preach the "heart-chilling doctrine" of endless torment, the destruction of Sodom is constantly adverted to as an evident proof of this tenet, and an instance of its positive reality.

Now as it is one of the objects of this course of lectures, to disprove the doctrine here mentioned, and to show, that the divine testimony which its advocates apply as proof of this tenet gives it no support, it is thought expedient to show that we have no evidence to believe that the Sodomites are an instance of an