men shall sometime pay the forfeit of their offences, and incur punishments exactly proportioned to their illdesert, that which was unequal here being then made equal, is very evident, ifGod be an all-just, powerful, wise, and consistent being. But that any free being polluted by unexpiated sin (and such beings are all men, if none have been redeemed) should attain to future reward, is a belief at war with all analogy, probability, and natural light. If in the foregoing pages I have spoken of future reward to be attained by man, I have done it, not as thinking such a thing probable (consulting, I mean, the light of nature, and the suggestions of reason alone) but merely for argument's sake, and to shew if such a blessing should arrive, who would be the most fit, or I should rather say, the least unfit subjects of it.

Let us see what arguments oppose the probability of future reward to be received by sinful, and unredeemed

man.

First, has any man found this life other than a state in which good has preponderated? If not, no man can plead the imperfection of earthly happiness as giving him reasonable ground to expect future bliss. For if he do, his plea is virtually this; I count upon being rewarded hereafter, not for having borne patiently a state in which evil has prevailed, but for having passed through a life in which happiness has much more abounded." By the amount in which my enjoyments have exceeded my sufferings, I am already God's debtor: of this he has made me a free gift; no previous desert of mine could entitle me to it; it was imparted freely, gratuitously..

And

whom he addresses, that he holds this language to them--"But some man will say, how are the dead raised up ?" &c. &c. 1 Cor. xv. 35. And in the second place, this expectation, if it were universal, would no more prove the reality of the thing expected, than the expectation which every man feels at one period of his life or other, that he shall attain to some degree of eminence in this world which he yet never arrives at, proves that he shall arrive at it.

shall I found hopes of a second blessing, or the possession of a first, which first I must confess that I have often abused ? Moreover, of that evil which I have not brought upon myself, (and how great the sum of that which has sprung from my own misdeeds,) I am forced to think, that though of present inconvenience, it has in the main promoted my happiness; that with propensities so sinful as mine, I should have been less happy without it, seeing that in spite of all my corrections I still continually subject myself to the misery consequent upon sin. To a being, constituted like man, with a nature changed from that perfection of purity which he must originally have had from his Maker, (for that Maker could not create him other than pure) joy and grief are chiefly such by comparison. His sum of enjoyment therefore would be less, were his sum of suffering not so great. Ease is delightful only as it is relaxation from labour; independence is desirable only as it is contrasted with dependance.

ment.

Now that good does preponderate in the lives of all men, at least that all men have a preponderance of good within their reach, (if they reject it and wilfully give the ascendency to evil, this does not at all affect my general position, for it does not at all suppose any punishment inflicted by God) I think few will dispute. We may perhaps cite days, weeks, or it may be years, in the happiest lives, where the suffering has exceeded the enjoyBut all have had more of good than of evil, more of pleasure than of pain, or (what, as I have before said, is the same thing as to the argument) may have had, if they would condescend to enjoy the good things within That they should have proudly failed to do so, no more proves that God in giving them life, has not bestowed a blessing on them, than a man's refusing to avail himself of the advantages afforded him by wise human laws, would prove that those laws did not place a blessing within his reach. That good does preponderate

their reach.

however, is proved by the unwillingness which men, the best men, commonly feel to die. With a lively expect

ation of future bliss, grounded on scripture promises, they are unwilling to quit this world; and why? Because they feel that they are quitting a state, which they know by experience, to be fertile in blessings.

"For who to dull forgetfulness a prey,

"This pleasing, anxious being e'er resigned;
"Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
"Nor cast one longing ling'ring look behind ?*

That a desperate sinner, too impatient to bear his present load of suffering, should violently cast it from him, or beg to be snatched from it, does not prove, that evil has preponderated in his life.

That men would not willingly live their lives over again, does as little in disproof of my argument; for of that which we have enjoyed, much of the zest has resulted from its novelty. In a state of re-existence, such as I am supposing, this would be lost to us. We should draw little delight from enterprises of which we foresaw the termination, and feel little ardour in pursuits, of which we knew by experience, that they would end in defeat.

Thus little prospect of future reward have we, if we found our expectations of it upon our sufferings in this life: let us inquire how far we are warranted in anticipating it for the sake of our services.

Reward pre-supposes desert, and desert, if it be not the doing of something over and above that which is required of us, is at least the fulfilling of that. But who of all mankind has accomplished this? Who can lay his hand

*This is strong evidence, from a fretful discontented poet. We know also that Dr. Johnson, whose life, the prey alike of mental and bodily disease, was certainly as little fruitful of blessings as that of most men, held exactly the same opinion on this subject as Gray.

upon his heart, and affirm that his conscience has never reproached him for committed sin; or that he cannot recal to mind, many offences against his God, his neighbour, and himself, which his internal monitor cautioned him to refrain from, and which his free agency gave him the power of avoiding? Or who can affiirm that if he have so sinned, he has atoned for his crimes? If such a

man there be, let him step forth to love, and admiration, of mankind.

claim the wonder, Now the only sort

of expiation that man pretends to make, is either by sacrifice, or repentance, i. e. sorrow for past misdeeds, and present amendment. I certainly need not waste time in an endeavour to prove that the blood of bulls and goats can be no expiation of sin, unless God should absolutely promise to receive it as such. Nor have we the least right to suppose, that repentance is in any wise a better expiation, or one, to accept of which, would better answer the end of preserving man from the commission of evil, or disorder from abounding in the univers. To repent is to regret that we have brought ourselves into present danger, and to resolve that we will no more expose ourselves to the same risk. Repentance is the regret of a fool for his folly; the supplication of an intimidated being to be forgiven; the promise of a politic being to do better in future. But it is no more an atonement for the evil done, than a murderer's regret that he has brought his neck into a halter, is an atonement to the general body for the outrage he has committed. Place it in what light we will, repentance is, in unredeemed man, neither more nor less than regret that he has brought himself into peril, and a hearty, and politic, but (in all rational expectation) fruitless endeavour to avert the impending evil.

* A fool, that is, for having done ill, not for regretting it when done.

To expect future reward for sinful, unredeemed man, is to impute folly to the Almighty: it is to suppose his laws imbecile, inconsistent : it is to suppose that he declares something which shall never happen. If there be any thing declared more certainly than all others, by the light of nature, it is, that the Almighty must will order; that to forgive disorder in one free and intelligent being, would, with an impartial God, be to forgive it in all such beings; and therefore that disorder, (i. e, sin) shall be forgiven in none, in other words, that it shall be punished in all.

Man has a post assigned to him on earth, and certain duties attached to it, which duties he is called to fulfil. If he fail frequently, and egregiously in the performance of these duties, (and what man has not so failed either by sins of omission, or commission) he may reasonably expect what? To be raised to a higher post? In the name of common sense can this be? Nay, rather to be degraded to a lower. To suppose that creatures who play their parts here so very ill; who having stations ap. pointed them, are continually deserting those stations, when as free agents they might retain them-to suppose I say, that such creatures should be degraded to some lower order of animated being, is much more rational than to expect their exaltation to a higher. If to act a virtuous

part be difficult to man, it is difficult through his own fault; there must, as I have before said, have been a time when it was easy; he must have come from the hands of his Maker, pure in will as in act; an all-pure and all-kind Being could not have made him otherwise. And if such a change as this supposes, have been effected in man's nature, and effected by himself, (by whom alone it could be brought about) with him and his progeny is the responsibility; they must submit patiently to consequences which they have brought upon them

selves.

To conclude: to reward man hereafter would be to raise a being already too high ; to promote a servant to a