to the relation of man to his Maker. The command is uttered by one who has a propriety in us, such as no created being has in any other. His goodness is boundless; his authority is infinite. Conceive then, of the greatness of the guilt of violating such authority-an authority, which led the pious Eli to exclaim, If one man sin against another, the Judge shall judge him; but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall intreat for him? It is not unreasonable to suppose that the violation of infinite authority, should deserve an endless punishment.

"In connexion with this part of our subject, it ought also to be remarked, that sin is a rejection of God's eternal favor. If a man offered to befriend you in any case of difficulty, and you rejected his friendly aid with disdain, you certainly cannot complain, if that, rejected aid were withheld. The principle would remain the same, whatever your circumstances or necessities might be. If one proffered assistance to the amount of ten dollars, and another offered to bequeath you an estate, and you should reject them both, you would as really deserve to lose the one as the other; the estate as the ten dollars.

If one offered to relieve you from a month's imprisonment and you rejected it; if another afterwards offered gratuitously to save you from imprisonment for life, and you rejected it; and if a third offered to deliver you from immediate death and you rejected it; I say, in such a case, it is plain that you have justly forfeited the proffered assistance in all three of these instances. It is just as clear that you deserve not the assistance which would save you from immediate death, as it is that you deserve not to be saved from a month's imprisonment when of

However great

fered assistance is rejected. the blessing rejected may be, if it be gratuitously and kindly offered, and is rejected, you deserve to lose it. But God does offer to sinners his continued and everlasting favor. By sinning against him they indulge a preference for something else: they give up the favor of their Maker: and where is the impropriety or the injustice of leaving them forever without it? He sets life and death before them, and intreats them to choose life; but if they give up voluntarily eternal life, where is the injustice of leaving them without it?

III. Another thing, which clearly evinces the consistency of eternal punishment with perfect justice, is the fact, that sinners, when they are convinced of sin, feel that they deserve eternal punishment.

Far the greater share of those who pretend to be disciples of Christ, acknowledge that they deserve an endless punishment. You can seldom find an individual who pretends to live a life of prayer, and to hope for salvation through Christ, who will not at the same time acknowledge that he deserves to be cast off from the favor of God forever. Nor does this conviction belong to Christians alone. When the most self-righteous sinners are led to a survey of the motives which have governed them; and to a serious and honest inquiry into their own character, they confess the same thing. When such confession does not take place before, it frequently does take place on the death-bed of the hitherto thoughtless sinner.

These facts can scarcely be accounted for on any other supposition than that such punishment is really deserved. It is the nature of sin to blind the eyes of the perpetrator, and to ren

ac

der him insensible to the enormity of his guilt. But we never heard it reckoned among the weaknesses of human nature, that men count themselves more guilty than they really are. If God has so constituted men that they do in numerous instances feel that they deserve eternal punishment, it affords a strong presumption that such punishment is really deserved. If it be said that there are more who deny their desert of eternal punishment, than there are that acknowledge it, yet this denial, if it exist, proves nothing against it. If twenty men were accused of murder and found guilty and condemned to suffer death for the same crime, and if eight of this number confessed that they deserved death, and twelve denied it, the confession of the eight would afford satisfactory evidence that the penalty of the law was not too severe, while the denial of the twelve would furnish no proof on the subject. The confession would be rightly considered an estimation of ill-desert made with reluctance-made against all the natural biases and dispositions of the heart; while the denial would be only a declaration of the guilty made in their own favor, and would, on that account, be considered as without weight. If there were many more than there are, who could say upon their death-bed that they do not deserve eternal punishment, (and we believe that number is already small in a gospel land) it would not prove that they do not really know that they deserve it.

A man of fair and unblemished reputation in England, was accused of murder. The alleged crime had been committed some years before the indictment took place, and the prisoner had in the mean time exhibited the character of

a peaceable and unoffending citizen. What added still to the circumstances in his favour was, that he had long been a successful teacher of youth, and a good guardian of their morals. When accused, he refused to employ an attorney, but came forward with the calm and composed air of conscious innocence to defend his own cause. He confessed his ignorance of judicial proceedings, but went forward with a lucid statement of some general principles of human nature founded upon his character,to show that he could not be guilty of the crime with which he stood accused. He went through the pleading with the utmost self-possession and with great ability-but after all, evidence was such that he was condemned. No sooner had the sentence passed, than the blush of guilt spread over his countenance; his eye lost its appearance of fixed composure, and the trembling guilty criminal confessed that he had committed the murder, and that he deserved to die according to the sentence of the law. Now can any one doubt whether he deserved that punishment? And while he refused to own the crime, and gave credit to his denial by a composed, and able, and deliberate plea, and a look of innocence, was that denial, and that apparent consciousness that he did not deserve the punishment of death any proof that he did not? Thus it is that sinners, in a multitude of instances may maintain such views of themselves as to deny that they deserve eternal punishment, when the first moment after they shall hear the awful sentence, Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire, they shall be overwhelmed with a sense of guilt, and depart from that bar of judgement, upbraiding themselves, and feeling

within their bosoms the gnawings of the deathless worm, and the burnings of the unquenchable flame.

That you may look with a single glance upon the arguments here suggested to evince the justice of God in eternal punishment, permit me to lay before you a brief analysis of the whole.

I. There is good reason for thinking that no other penalty to the divine law could produce so much holiness and happiness in the universe as eternal punishment.

The motive drawn from such punishment, is like those drawn from goodness and mercy infinite. It is the only view of punishment which is in fact effectual in this world; and we have no evidence that any sinner could possibly be reclaimed without it. It may also, for ought we know, be necessary for securing the saints against falling in a future state, and the amount of suffering may be less under such a penalty, than under any other of milder character; so that this penalty may save more suffering, prevent more sin, and produce more holiness than any other penalty could possibly do.

II. It is not unreasonable to suppose, that the guilt of sinners deserves eternal punishment, when we consider the nature of sin.

Sin in its tendency would destroy all the good which the divine law is adapted to secure. It is a violation of infinite authority. It is also a voluntary rejection of God's eternal favor.

III. The consistency of eternal punishment with perfect justice is inferred from the fact, that men when they are convinced of sin, confess themselves that they deserve it.

This we consider as an admission of the guil