executed, speedily, are fully set in them to do evil. This is the object of my discourse: and certainly I will have accomplished the purpose of addressing you from this place, if I am able to rectify your mistaken opinions about the divine government-to increase your reverence and love for the divine characterand reclaim the sinner from those paths which lead down to death.

The subject divides itself into two heads.

I. I shall show that God's sparing the wicked for a time is consistent with justice, wisdom, and goodness.

II. I shall show that the conduct of wicked men is highly absurd and unjustifiable, in taking encouragement to continue in sin, from this part of the divine providence.

I. I return to the first head, and shall begin with considering how far the justice of God is affected by this objection, or is consistent with this fact in his government.

1. It may be observed, then, that if things are stated in a proper light, and as they really are, objections against this attribute can have no place. God's government is of two kinds, natural and moral. In the former there is the

same connection between actions and their consequences, as between the cause and its effect; so that the time, the manner, and nature of the consequence are precisely determined by the action, and as necessarily result from it, as the effect results from the cause. In God's moral government, on the other hand, though reward and punishment are, likewise, connected with the actions of moral beings, yet it is only in the way of desert: and the action is the occasion, but not the cause of that pleasure or pain with which we expect certain actions to be accompanied. Does any thing happen contrary to this in the divine administration? What is the real state of the case? The wicked man is often great in power; he abounds in riches, and is successful in all his undertakings. But in this there is nothing inconsistent. These are the natural consequences of foresight, application and industry; and they do not hinder the sinner from feeling also the natural consequences of his guilt, which are shame, remorse, fear, and self-condemnation. On the other hand, the good man, who keeps all God's commandments blameless, languishes in poverty, and groans under oppression. But this is not re

pugnant to the justice of God's government. For riches, and honour, and power are not the necessary fruits of virtue; they are peace of mind, and the testimony of a good conscience. In short, vice is immediately followed by its natural punishment, and virtue by its natural reward. God's natural government, then, is perfectly complete; and as far as it is concerned, we have no reason to complain.

Indeed, the greatest part of our complaints is founded on our own inconsistent ideas. Why should we envy the wicked man the pleasures of this life when he has sacrificed ease, and liberty, and conscience, to obtain them? They are certainly purchased at a dear rate. Why do we repine at his success, when he takes the natural and direct road which leads to it: when he rises early, and sits up late when this world engrosses all his thoughts and care? On the other hand, we form unreasonable expectations in behalf of the good. There is a modesty natural to virtue which prevents a man from exerting his faculties to their full extent. The good man, whose prospects lie beyond the grave, puts little value on the things of this world, and undergoes little trouble to acquire them.

The contempt in which he holds those honours and that grandeur at which other men so eagerly grasp, effectually damps his ardour in the pursuit of them. He possesses, in short, a nice sensibility of conscience and a scrupulous adherence to integrity which will not allow him to mingle in the bustle and intrigue of life to conform himself to the maxims and opinions of the world, or go with the multitude to do evil. No wonder, then, that he is poor, neglected, and unsuccessful. God's natural government, would be incomplete, were it otherwise.

But still religion teaches us, that, bad men ought not to be happy, nor good men miserable; that, vice deserves farther punishment, and virtue a further reward, than they have a natural tendency to produce; and we think, that, if God's moral government were equitable, the wicked should not escape, nor the expectation of the just be cut off. But, in the first place, do you suppose, that, wicked men, however great or opulent, are really happy? No, my friends. The main pillar of one's happiness must be placed in his own breast, and if all is not right within, the vain show in which many men walk, the noise and splen

dour which surround them, will only create new sources of uneasiness. The face may wear the smile of joy, but underneath lurk care, anxiety and discontent. Observe the conduct of those who live in the opulence and luxury of life, and whose merits, you think, do not entitle them to such elevation? Does it indicate the possession of happiness greater than what other men enjoy? They fly to business, to company, to amusement, in order to get rid of their own thoughts, and in quest of happiness to which, at home and in private, they seem to be strangers. Nay, frequently, after having been jaded in the ways of vice, tossed in the whirl of pleasure, and lost in dissipation of thought, life at length becomes insipid, its enjoyments tasteless, and existence itself a burden. This is the state of too many of the rich and great, in whatever way their riches and power have been obtained. But if they have been acquired by fraud, by rapine and by oppression, then they are unacquainted with that pure and exquisite pleasure which springs from a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man. Then there is a gall which embitters every feast, there is a poison which is mingled in every cup.

Then