you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer, they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me." The passage is figurative, but the meaning is obvious, and is expressed more literally thus:-"For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore, shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them." And the whole is strikingly applicable, as well to what we experience here, as also to what religion teaches to be expected hereafter.

We see many persons receiving checks and warnings in the ways of vice and folly from their own experience,—from examples of others,—from advice of friends, &c.-and persisting, till the long delayed consequences break in upon them like a flood, and involve them in poverty, remorse, infamy, or death, beyond the possibility of escape.

And this is an account only of what is the general Constitution of Nature.

It is not meant, that men are uniformly punished in proportion to their misbehaviour; but that there are very many and dreadful instances of it; sufficient to show what the laws of the universe may admit; and sufficient to answer all objections against the credibility

of a future state of punishment, on the plea that our natural frailty and external temptations almost annihilate the guilt of our vices: as also to answer objections of other sorts, connected with the uncontrollable will of the Divine Being, and His incapability of offence or provocation.

Reflections of this kind are good, to put down that fearlessness for the future, which nothing but atheism can warrant. For if dreadful punishments often fall upon men in this life, according to a course of things appointed by God ;-is there any pretence of reason to think, that let them live as licentiously as they please, there shall be nothing analogous to this, in a future and more general interest, under the providence and government of the same God?

CHAPTER III.

ON THE MORAL GOVERNMENT OF GOD.

ARGUMENT.-The natural government which God exercises over us here, is moral, or righteous; not being tyrannical or capricious, but rendering rewards and punishments generally, according to the viciousness or virtuousness of men's conduct. The Divine government, however, which we now experience, is admitted not to be the perfection of moral government; men not being in all cases rewarded or punished in exact proportion to their merits or demerits-owing to accidental causes which occur to prevent it. But yet there are the principles or rudiments of a moral government clearly discernible in it, quite sufficient to lead us to conclude, that it shall be completed and carried on to perfection in a future state.

GOD's natural government over the world has been shown to be of the very same kind with that which a

master exercises over his servants, or a magistrate over his subjects. But this alone seems not to afford any certainty as to the moral character of His government, or prove Him the righteous judge of the world. Moral government consists, not merely in rewarding or punishing men for their actions, but in rewarding the righteous, and punishing the wicked; in rendering to men according to their actions, considered as good or evil; and the perfection of it consists, in doing this to all intelligent creatures, in an exact proportion to their personal merits or demerits.

Now the thing here to be inquired into is, whether in the constitution and conduct of the world, a righteous government be not discernibly planned out; whether besides the proof arising therefrom, that God is a governor over us, there be not clear and distinct intimations therein, that His government is righteous or moral; clear to every observant person, at least, though not to the careless ones.

The Divine government, however, under which we are in the present state, taken alone, is not allowed as the perfection of moral government; but still a righteous government may plainly appear to be carried on in it, to some degree; sufficient to give us an apprehension that it shall be carried on to that degree of perfection, which religion teaches us it shall; but which cannot appear, till much more of the Divine

administration be seen than can be in this present life. And the design of this chapter is, to inquire how far the principles of a moral government over the world, may be discerned, amidst all its confusion and disorder.

Were it even a doubtful question (as it is not), whether virtue, in itself, be not on the whole happier than vice, in the present world; yet the beginnings of a righteous administration may be certainly found in

nature.

I. God does plainly manifest himself to us, as governing mankind by the method of rewards and punishments, according to some settled rules of distribution. What presumption therefore can there possibly be, against His finally rewarding or punishing them according to this particular rule, viz: as they act virtuously or viciously? This rule falls in completely with our natural apprehensions; and the adoption of any other rule, would be harder to be accounted for, by minds formed as He has formed ours. Be the evidence of religion more or less clear, the expectation it raises in us, that the righteous shall upon the whole be happy, and the wicked miserable, cannot be absurd or chimerical; because it is no more than an expectation that a method of government already begun, shall be carried on; and that, by a particular rule, at first sight

C 5