We are therefore necessarily led to conclude, that the present state of the moral world is only a small part of the great plan of God's moral government-the commencement of a series of dispensations to be completed in a future scene of existence, in which his wisdom, as well as all his other attributes, will be fully displayed before the eyes of his intelligent offspring. If this conclusion be admitted, it is easy to conceive, how the moral disorders which now exist may be rectified in a future world, and the intelligent universe restored to harmony and happiness, and how those moral dispensations which now appear dark and mysterious, will appear illustrative of Divine Wisdom and Intelligence, when contemplated as parts of one grand system, which is to run parallel in duration with eternity itself. But, if this be rejected, the moral world presents to our view an inextricable maze, a chaos, a scene of inter. minable confusion, and no prospect appears of its being ever restored to harmony and order. The conduct of the Deity appears shrouded in impenetrable darkness; and there is no resisting of the conclusion, that imperfection and folly are the characteristics of the Almighty--a conclusion from which the mind shrinks back with horror, and which can never be admitted by any rational being who recognises a Supreme Intelligence presiding over the affairs of the universe.

SECTION IX.

On the unequal distribution of Rewards and Punishments in the present state.

The unequal distribution of rewards and punishments in the present state, viewed in connexion with the justice and other attributes of the Deity, forms another powerful argument in support of the doctrine of a future state.

It is admitted, to a certain extent, that "virtue is its own reward, and vice its own punishment. The natural tendency of virtue, or an obedience to the laws of God, is to produce happiness; and were it universally practised, it would produce the greatest degree of happiness of which human nature in the present state is susceptible. In like manner, the natural tendency of vice is to produce misery;

and were its prevalence universal and uncontrolled, the world would be transformed into a society of demons, and every species of happiness banished from the abodes of men. By connecting happiness with the observance of his laws, and misery with the violation of them, the Governor of the world, in the general course of his providence, gives a display of the rectitude of his character, and the impartiality of his allotments towards the subjects of his government.

But, although these positions hold true, in the general course of human affairs, there are innumerable cases in which the justice of God, and the impartiality of his proce. dure, would be liable to be impeached, if this world were the only scene of rewards and punishments. We behold poor starving wretch, whom hunger has impelled to break open a house, in order to satisfy his craving appetite, or to relieve the wants of a helpless family, dragged with igno. miny to the scaffold, to suffer death for his offence. We behold, at the same time, the very tyrant by whose order the sentence was executed, who has plundered provinces, and murdered millions of human beings, who has wounded the peace of a thousand families, and produced universal consternation and despair wherever he appeared-regaling himself in the midst of his favourites, in perfect security from human punishments. Instead of being loaded with fetters, and dragged to a dungeon, to await in hopeless agony the punishment of his crimes, he dwells amidst all the luxuries and splendours of a palace; his favour is courted by surrounding attendants; his praises are chanted by orators and poets; the story of his exploits is engraved in brass and marble; and historians stand ready to transmit his fame to future generations. How does the equity of the Divine government appear, in such cases, in permitting an undue punishment to be inflicted on the least offender, and in loading the greatest miscreant with unmerited enjoyments?

Again, in almost every period of the world, we behold men of piety and virtue who have suffered the most unjust and cruel treatment from the hands of haughty tyrants and blood-thirsty persecutors. It would require volumes to describe the instruments of cruelty which have been in

vented by these fiend-like monsters, and the excruciating torments which have been endured by the victims of their tyranny, while justice seemed to slumber, and the perpetrators were permitted to exult in their crimes. The Waldenses, who lived retired from the rest of the world, among the bleak recesses of the Alps, were a people distinguished for piety, industry, and the practice of every moral virtue. Their incessant labour subdued the barren soil, and prepared it both for grain and pasture. In the course of two hundred and fifty years they increased to the number of eighteen thousand, occupying thirty villages, besides hamlets, the workmanship of their own hands. Regular priests they had none, nor any disputes about religion; neither had they occasion for courts of justice; for brotherly love did not suffer them to go to law. They worshipped God according to the dictates of their conscience and the rules of his word, practised the precepts of his law, and enjoyed the sweets of mutual affection and love. Yet this peaceable and interesting people became the victims of the most cruel and bloody persecution. In the year 1540, the parliament of Provence condemned nineteen of them to be burned for heresy, the`r trees to be rooted up, and their houses to be razed to the ground. Afterwards a violent persecution commenceu against the whole of this interesting people, and an army of banditti was sent to carry the hellish purpose into effect. The soldiers began with massacring the old men, women, and children, all having fled who were able to fly; and then proceeded to burn their houses, barns, corn, and whatever else appertained to them. In the town of Cabriere, sixty men and thirty women, who had surrendered upon promise of life, were butchered each of them without mercy. Some women, who had taken refuge in a church, were dragged out and burnt alive. Twenty-two villages were reduced to ashes; and that populous and flourishing district was ́again turned into a cheerless desert. Yet, after all these atrocities had been committed, the proud pampered priests, at whose instigation this persecution was commenced, were permitted to live in splendour, to exult over the victims of their cruelty, to revel in palaces, and to indulge in the most shameful debaucheries.-If the present be the only

state of punishments and rewards, how shall we vindicate the rectitude of the Almighty in such dispensations?

In the reign of Louis XIV. and by the orders of that despot, the Protestants of France were treated with the most wanton and diabolical cruelty. Their houses were rifled, their wives and daughters ravished before their eyes, and their bodies forced to endure all the torments that ingenious malice could contrive. His dragoons who were employed in this infamous expedition, pulled them by the hair of their heads, plucked the nails of their fingers and toes, pricked their naked bodies with pins, smoked them in their chimneys with wisps of wet straw, threw them into fires and held them till they were almost burnt, slung them into wells of water, dipped them into ponds, took hold of them with red hot pincers, cut and slashed them with knives, and beat and tormented them to death in a most unmerciful and cruel manner. Some were hanged on the gallows, and others were broken upon wheels, and their mangled bodies were either left unburied, or cast into lakes and dunghills, with every mark of indignation and contempt. Mareschal Montrevel acted a conspicuous part in these barbarous executions. He burnt five hundred men, women, and children, who were assembled together in a mill to pray and sing psalms; he cut the throats of four hundred of the new converts at Montpelier, and drowned their wives and children in the river, near Aignes Mortes. Yet the haughty tyrant by whose orders these barbarous deeds were committed, along with his mareschals and grandees, who as sisted in the execution-instead of suffering the visitations of retributive justice, continued, for thirty years after this period, to riot in all the splendours of absolute royalty, entering into solemn treaties, and breaking them when he pleased, and arrogating to himself divine honours; and his historians, instead of branding his memory with infamy, have procured for him the appellation of LOUIS THE GREAT.

A thousand examples of this description might be collected from the records even of modern history, were it necessary for the illustration of this topic. The horrible cruelties which were committed on the Protestant inhabi. tants in the Netherlands by the agents of Charles V. and

Philip II. of Spain, where more than a hundred thousand persons of respectable characters were butchered without mercy by the Dukes of Alva and Parma, for their adherence to the religion of the Reformers,--the dreadful mas. sacres which took place, on St. Bartholomew's day, in Paris and throughout every province of France-the persecutions of the Protestants in England, during the reign of Queen Mary, when the fires of Smithfield were kindled to consume the bodies of the most pious and venerable men-the Irish massacre in the reign of Charles I. when more than 40,000 inoffensive individuals were slaughtered without distinction of age, sex, or condition, and with every circumstance of ferocious cruelty-the persecutions endured by the Scottish Presbyterians, when they were driven from their dwellings, and hunted like wild beasts by the blood-thirsty Claverhouse and his savage dragoons-the many thousands of worthy men who have fallen victims to the flames, and the cruel tortures inflicted by the Inquisitors of Spain, while their haughty persecutors were permitted to riot on the spoils of nations-the fiend-like cruelties of the Mogul emperors in their bloody wars-the devastations and atrocities committed by the Persian des. pots the massacre of the Gardiotes by Ali Pacha, and of the inhabitants of Scio by the ferocious Turks--are only a few instances out of many thousands, which the annals of history record of human beings suffering the most unjust and cruel treatment, while their tyrannical persecutors were permitted to prosecute their diabolical career without suffering the punishment due to their crimes. When the mind takes a deliberate review of all the revolting details connected with such facts, it is naturally led to exclaim, "Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea are mighty in power? Is there no reward for the righteous ? is there no punishment for the workers of iniquity? is there no God that judgeth in the earth?" And, indeed, were there no retributions beyond the limits of the present life, we should be necessarily obliged to admit one or other of the following conclusions,--either that no Moral Governor of the world exists, or, that justice and judgment are not the foundation of his throne.

When we take a survey of the moral world around us,