begins to repent of sin till he is convinced that it is not only evil but bitter in its consequences: Ps. cxix. 59.

If then this view of the subject be correct, the Topic is not one to which it may be proper merely to refer occasionally, which is the case with some others, but it should have a place in some form or other in almost every discourse; in uniform application, particularly, it occupies a principal place. It may also be remarked that this Topic does not require that close reflection or patient research which appears necessary to the judicious application of the former Topic. Here a heart truly alive to the glory of God and the value of immortal souls, and a familiar acquaintance with Scripture, are the chief requisites. The Scriptures abound with appeals to consequences in a great variety of forms, which not only set before you the most perfect examples, but likewise furnish both matter and language; such passages, for instance, as Prov. vi. 27, 28 ; Eccl. xi. 9; Prov. i. 24-31, will sufficiently exemplify

this remark.

I shall now proceed to lay before you an example, not of division, but of close reasoning upon the Topic; premising, however, that some few of the thoughts introduced are arranged in a different order to that in which they are placed by the author, and that some trifling verbal alterations are also made. Dr. S. Clarke on Gal. vi. 7: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap."

The arguments proper to persuade men to the practice of virtue, drawn from the abstract consideration of the nature and reason of things; from the intrinsic beauty and excellency of virtue, and the deformity of vice; from the usefulness and proper tendency of virtue to promote the general welfare of men even in this present state, and the mischievous consequences of wickedness and debauchery to the world: arguments, I say, of this kind, in their

proper place and season, to generous and considerate minds, and in suitable circumstances of things, have in them a real weight of truth, and carry along with them, when impartially attended to, an undeniable force of rational conviction. But in a corrupt and confused world, where the wickedness of some hinders the virtue of others from producing its just and natural effects; where the understandings of many are perplexed and puzzled ; where the best are frequently hated and persecuted, even for the sake of their very virtue itself; and where the wills of men are strongly biassed to evil: in such a confused state the most universally proper and only effectual arguments are those which are drawn from the final conse

quences attendant upon their conduct. Some persons, indeed, there are, who will pretend that virtue ought to be chosen for its own sake, and that when it is practised through hope of reward, or fear of punishment, it ceases to have the nature of virtue. But in this they greatly err. For though virtue is indeed very excellent and amiable in itself, and what a reasonable agent cannot but always acknowledge to be his duty to choose; yet, if God had not annexed to it any sufficient encouragement to support men effectually in that choice, it would follow that the nature of things, and the final dispositions of Providence, were an inconsistency; it being indeed neither possible nor truly reasonable that men by adhering to virtue should at any time lose their lives, if thereby they were to deprive themselves eternally of all possibility of receiving any benefit from that adherence. Hence the ancient worthies in Scripture are never blamed but commended for seeking a better country, that is, a heavenly; and even Moses had "respect unto the recompence of reward;" nay, and our Lord himself, "for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hence

also the apostle employs the language of the text as an argument to persuade men. Let us therefore proceed to consider,

I. The fundamental doctrine here stated; that every man shall finally receive of God according to what he has done: "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." This maxim is the reason and end of all laws, the maintenance and support of all government, the foundation and ground-work of all religion. In matters of less importance, and in opinions of particular and more minute consideration, which depend on the truth of many collateral notions, there will always be room for difference of apprehension, and many errors possibly may be of small consequence. But this doctrine of rewards and punishments finally proportionable to men's behaviour, is a truth of the same certainty and of the same importance with the acknowledgment of the very being of God, and of the natural and essential difference between good and evil. For which reason the apostle in the text, by a very lively and expressive figure, represents it under the similitude of things which have in nature the most immediate and necessary connexion: "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." And what our Saviour alleged upon another occasion, to express the reasonableness of judging concerning men's hearts from their actions, may no less properly be applied here, as a rule for every man to judge from his present actions concerning his own future state: "Men do not gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles." As the fruit is always of the same kind with the stock that bears it, and the grain reaped is necessarily of the same sort with the seed that was sown; so men's final state of happiness or misery shall be the proper and correspondent effect of their present actions. "He that soweth to the flesh," as the apostle expresses it in the words following my text, "shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." In

the present time we frequently see this in some degree verified, in what we usually call the natural course and consequences of things; for in this present life, besides the benefits of virtue to mankind in general, and the destructive consequences of vice to the world, the happiness of every particular man's own mind has necessarily a very great dependance upon that consciousness of good and evil which unavoidably attends his actions.

The apostle's similitude therefore in the text, not only in general is a certain and infallible truth, but is also a truth which has in itself a more immediate and necessary connexion than men are usually sensible of. It is not only true that God has actually set before men such and such promises and threatenings; but it will no doubt be found true also, at the final issue and event of things, that he has appointed, by as close and regular a connexion in morals as in naturals, that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap also."

In the natural and material world the more observations men make, and the greater accuracy they arrive at, and the longer periods of time they are able to take in, the more clearly and distinctly do they discern that, in the innumerable variety of the works of God, all things conspire uniformly, with the most exquisite exactness, to produce (and that sometimes out of the greatest seeming confusion) the properest and most regular effects. The moral world is of infinitely greater importance; it is that for the sake of which the material world was created, and without which this beautiful and stupendous fabric of the inanimate universe is nothing. It cannot be doubted then, by any reasonable person, that the same wisdom which, in the unintelligent works of nature, has shown forth itself in the contrivance of such inexpressible aptnesses and proportions of things, will much more in the government of rational beings (which are in a far nobler and more proper sense the subjects of God's power and kingdom) show forth

itself finally in making every event, through a wonderful variety of different dispensations, terminate at length in most evident and illustrious manifestations of perfect jus tice, goodness, and truth.

However therefore melancholy pious persons may be sometimes tempted almost to despond, when they observe how Providence in the present time suffers all things seemingly to go alike to all, yet in reality their reward is laid up for them with God, much more certainly than grain, which in the winter seems to lie dead in the earth wherein it was sown, may yet be depended upon to bring forth fruit in its season. The Psalmist expresses this very emphatically, Ps. cxxvi. 6: "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." The figure is the same with that in the text, and the literal meaning of it is well expressed by the author of the Book of Wisdom, ch. iii. 4, and v. 15: "Though they [the righteous] be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality; for their reward is with the Lord, and the care of them is with the Most High." And by the apostle himself, Rom. ii. 7 : "To them who by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and honour, and immortality," to them God will give "eternal life." And therefore he exhorts, Heb. x. 35, "Cast not away your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward for ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise: for yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry." And St. James in like manner, ch. v. 7: "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh."