spirit. In such seasons they are liable to overlook all they have seen, and heard, and felt of the divine influence. But this betrays most criminal stupidity and absurdity.

IMPROVEMENT.

1. Is the Spirit of the Lord not straitened? Hence we may be assured that he will completely fulfill all the promises he has made respecting the spread of the gospel, and the enlargement of Christ's kingdom. He has promised that Christ shall reign. till all his enemies are made his footstool,-that all people and tongues shall serve him—that peace, and holiness, and happiness shall universally prevail, and that there shall be none to hurt or destroy. Now if the Spirit be not straitened, he can remove all the obstacles in the minds of men, against the universal spread of truth and holiness-all that lie in the minds of the seed of Jacob-of Mahometans-of Pagans-of kings -of philosophers of religious.teachers.

2. If the Spirit of the Lord be not straitened, then it is extreme folly and wickedness to oppose his operations. This, mankind have always been disposed to do. The Jews always resisted the Holy Ghost. The Gentiles have done the same, and are still found fighting against God. But this is absurd and criminal. The Spirit can, and does operate upon them, as well as others, and will defeat their designs.

3. If the Spirit of the Lord is not straitened, there is ground and encouragement to pray for the revival of religion in the darkest seasons. He has often appeared in such seasons.

4. If the Spirit of God is not straitened, then wherever he has begun a good work he can carry it on-in any place-in any family-in any soul.

21*

SERMON XX.

THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD UPON THE WICKED IN THIS LIFE INDICATIVE OF THEIR FUTURE RETRIBUTION.

"FOR if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judg ment to be punished."-2 Peter, ii. 4--9.

The

MANKIND naturally desire to be happy, both in this life and that which is to come. Their eyes and ears and hearts are always open to those false teachers, who employ all their art and sophistry to persuade them that they shall escape future punishment, and enjoy complete and endless happiness. apostle Peter found many in his day, who manifested a strong disposition to embrace the pleasing doctrine of such artful deceivers, whose character, and conduct, and pernicious sentiments, he reprobates in the strongest terms. Having mentioned the true prophets, in the last verse of the first chapter of his second epistle, he proceeds, in the ensuing chapter, to say, "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves, swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." Now to prove that God would certainly destroy such deceivers and their followers, he argues in the following conclusive manner: "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the

eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; the Lord knoweth how to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." This mode of reasoning from what God has done to what he will do, is plain and obvious to every capacity. Since God has actually inflicted temporal punishment upon impenitent sinners, who can help drawing the same inference from it, which the apostle has drawn, that God will reserve them unto the day of judgment, and then inflict an eternal punishment upon them. If we believe the Bible, we must believe that God has punished the fallen angels; that he has punished the inhabitants of the old world; that he has punished the men of Sodom and Gomorrah; and that he has, from age to age, revealed his wrath from heaven against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. And if we believe

these plain, stubborn facts, we must believe the apostle's declaration, that they presage the future and eternal punishment of the finally impenitent. Accordingly, I propose in this discourse, to illustrate the apostle's argument:

That since God punishes the ungodly in this life; he will, if they remain ungodly, punish them eternally in the life to come.

The force and conclusiveness of this argument must appear to all, who will attentively and candidly attend to the following observations:

1. God's punishing sinners in this life shows that they deserve to be punished. Sin and guilt are inseparably connected. It is the nature of sin to deserve punishment. If sin did not deserve punishment, God would never punish men for it. It is wrong, in the nature of things, for God to punish an innocent creature, who has done nothing to deserve punishment. If sinners were not verily guilty in the sight of God, he would not be displeased with them, nor inflict the least pain or punishment upon them as a mark of his righteous displeasure. "He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." Punishment is his strange work, which nothing can induce him to do, but the guilt and ill-desert of sin. So that his actually punishing sinners in this life affords infallible evidence that they deserve to be punished for their disaffection and disobedience to him. But if they deserve to be punished for these sins in this life, they will deserve to be punished for them in the life to come. For punishment has no tendency to remove or even diminish the guilt and ill-desert of sin. Does the punishment inflicted upon the transgressor of human laws, take away

or lessen their guilt or ill-desert? Are they not as really guilty and ill-deserving after they have been punished, as they were before? And does the punishment which God inflicts upon sinners, have the least tendency to remove or diminish their guilt and ill-desert? Will any punishment they receive in this life render them less deserving of future and eternal punishment? Has the punishment which the fallen angels have endured for nearly six thousand years, taken away their guilt, or rendered them less deserving of future and eternal punishment? Has the punishment, which the inhabitants of the old world, and the men of Sodom and Gomorrah have suffered for more than four thousand years, destroyed or diminished their guilt, or rendered them less deserving of the vengeance of eternal fire? Did the punishment which God inflicted upon Pharaoh and his subjects, diminish their guilt, or render them less deserving of future and eternal misery? We cannot conceive that punishment in any case should remove the desert of punishment. Those who have once deserved punishment, will forever deserve punishment. But we know that the ungodly deserve punishment, because God has actually punished them in this life; which is an infallible evidence that they deserve to be punished forever. This being true, it serves to illustrate the apostle's argument. For, if God's punishing sinners in this world rendered them less deserving of future punishment, then his punishing them in this world would be an argument against his punishing them eternally after death. But if his punishing them in this life demonstrates that they deserve to be punished forever, then this very desert of eternal punishment, is a good reason, why they should expect to be punished forever.

2. God's actually punishing the ungodly in this world, shows that it is consistent with his goodness to punish them eternally in the world to come. God's actually punishing sinners, demonstrates that it is as consistent with his goodness to punish them, as with his justice; for we cannot suppose that he ever does an act of justice which is not consistent with his goodness. God never exercises one perfection of his nature in opposition to another. He never exercises his goodness in opposition to his justice, and he never exercises his justice in opposition to his goodness. God's actually punishing sinners, therefore, as fully proves that it is consistent with his goodness to punish them, as with his justice. If his dooming the rebel angels to endless punishment, proves that he was just in doing it, it equally proves that such an act of justice was consistent with his goodness. If his drowning the old world, and burning

Sodom and Gomorrah, proves that he was just in doing it; it equally proves that such an act of justice was consistent with his goodness. Or if his punishing sinners, in any instance, proves that he is just in punishing them, it equally proves that it is consistent with his goodness to punish them. If it be consistent with divine justice to punish sinners according to their desert; then it is equally consistent with divine goodness to punish them according to their desert. And if it be consistent with divine justice to punish sinners as long as they deserve to be punished; then it is consistent with divine goodness, to punish them as long as they deserve to be punished. And if sinners deserve to be punished forever; then it is consistent with both divine justice and divine goodness to punish them forever. We have no ground to suppose, that it is any less consistent with the goodness of God, to punish sinners as long and as much as they deserve to be punished, than it is consistent with his justice. And since we know from God's actually punishing sinners in this life, that it is consistent with both his justice and goodness to punish them in this life, according to their deserts; we may justly and infallibly conclude, that it will be equally consistent with both his justice and goodness, to punish them according to their deserts in the life to come. It is impossible to see why it should be any more inconsistent with the goodness of God, to punish sinners according to their desert, in another world, than in this. And since God does actually punish sinners in this world, because they deserve it, who will presume to say, it is not consistent with his goodness to punish them as he does punish them? And who that acknowledges, that it is consistent with his goodness to punish them here, will presume to say, it is inconsistent with his goodness to punish them hereafter according to their deserts? It is strange, therefore, that any who acknowledge the justice of God in punishing sinners according to their desert, should presume to deny that it is consistent with his goodness, to punish them according to their desert, either in this life, or in that which is to come.

3. God's actually punishing sinners in this world, shows that he may have as good reasons for punishing them in another world, as in this. God does not always punish sinners when he sees that they deserve to be punished, but only when he sees good reasons for punishing them. The world of the ungodly long deserved to be punished before God saw best to sweep them from the earth with the besom of destruction. Pharaoh deserved to be destroyed long before God destroyed him. The seven nations of Canaan deserved to be cut off, long