faults can escape, and who penetrates with infinite knowledge into the inmost secrets of our hearts. The more we labour to become familiar with the legislation of the mightiest and wisest of all Judges, the more firmly we are persuaded, that he lets no virtue go unrewarded, no wickedness unpunished; the more correct our knowledge of the nature of his rewards and punishments is, so much the more unshaken will be our trust in him, so much the more ardent, disinterested, and pure our virtue, so much the more informed and fearless our mind, and so much the more lasting the happiness and contentment of our life.

No part of Scripture is better suited to instruct us with clearness and decision on this point than the text.

ROMANS ii. 6-12.

Who will render to every man according to his deeds: to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; but glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: for there is no respect of persons with God.

THIS important instruction of the Apostle will give us occasion to meditate on its true signification,

and will employ us for the present hour in a Christian contemplation of divine justice. This contemplation is of two parts. First, God has connected essentially unalterable happiness with virtue, unalterable misery with vice. Secondly, God so guides the destinies of men, that the most perfect balance is preserved between their moral conduct and their real welfare.

1. There is no stronger and more expressive proof of our resemblance to God, and of the high destiny of our immortal spirit, than this, that the Eternal has given us a judge in our own conscience, which loudly condemns our misdeeds, and applauds only our righteous and honourable sentiments and actions. If this cannot by any means be corrupted, nor bribed by any flattery of a foolish self-conceit; then must the favour of the highest of all Judges be the most unchangeable and invariable, and we must, in the first place, take this view of his justice, that he has connected unfailing blessedness with virtue. Do we not ask, beloved, wherein this blessedness, inseparable from the real worth of our actions, consists? Where is there an earthly felicity to be compared with the satisfaction which the silent applause of our own hearts imparts to us after the conscientious performance of our duties? Speak yourselves, my brethren! ye, who with clean and guiltless hearts have borne all the toils of a laborious day with unwearied zeal; ye, who have

distributed to deserving indigence the superfluity which Providence gave you; ye, who have scattered the seeds of truth with intrepidity and prudence; and ye, who have improved your minds by sciences and arts to your own happiness and the good of your brethren, say, has ever a joyous gratification, has ever any voluptuous delight, equalled the purity and fulness of that heavenly pleasure, which penetrated your hearts at the thought of having fulfilled your duties to the utmost? In this contentment with ourselves, and in the consciousness that we have exercised and applied our powers in the most rational manner, lies an inexpressible reward of virtue. This high satisfaction in the soul of the virtuous is enhanced by the love and esteem, which are surely entertained for him in the hearts of all generous and good men.

Nothing, indeed, is more common, my beloved, than for the greatest part of mankind, (who, being themselves weak and deficient in moral worth, would gladly obtain some merit by pronouncing decisive judgments on others) to depreciate the most meritorious and most blameless actions, to defame the purest integrity, and to seek to expose it, under the most odious names, to misconception and calumny. But how much is the true friend of Christian virtue recompensed for these uncharitable judgments by the unfeigned approbation of generous and worthy men, who, after much experience, and afflic

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tion of various kinds, have learnt to value earthly goods according to their real worth, and who now fraternally share their heart and their affection with every true friend of religion and virtue! Thus, great is the reward of the pious,--to be esteemed by wise and sensible persons; but a superior, an unutterable felicity still awaits him,-the applause of his wise Creator and Father. To feel persuaded that one has fulfilled the commands of the Most Holy, to whom we owe our existence, our reason, our faculties, and our whole happiness; to know, that by disinterested, great, and noble actions we are brought nearer to his infinite holiness; that we have become worthy of his grace, love, and fatherly care; and that we may now lay claim, through Jesus, to all the benefits to which his children are heirs; where is the mortal and the Christian, who must not find the supreme and most perfect good of his life in this conviction? Oh, my brethren, that every one amongst us possessed this glad sense in full efficiency; that every one of us could look up to his Father with filial confidence; that this blissful approbation of the most exalted and mightiest Judge were present to us all, and strengthened us to do good and not be weary, that we might reap without ceasing!

But the thoughts and aims of the human heart are sensual and evil from youth up; we are, therefore, 2dly, made sensible of the divine jus

tice in another point of view, where it has connected unalterable misery with vice. Nothing has at all times, so long as men sought their highest enjoyments in sensual delights and earthly treasures, occasioned stronger objections and more unjust doubts of the guidance of Divine Providence, than the apparent prosperity of the wicked upon earth. Full of dejection and despondency, the innocent but suffering Job exclaims, "When I remember, I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh. Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them." And yet, my beloved, nothing is easier for the attentive observer, than to see the hand of Divine justice punishing vice even in the lap of riches and abundance. Cast a glance into the soul of the miser, who with insatiable covetousness scorns no means, by which he can increase his wealth and his treasures, who, inexorable and unfeeling, repels every suffering and necessitous man, banishes every sentiment of philanthropy from his breast, and inflicts pain upon himself, merely in order to feed his greedy eye on his prosperity; how is he harassed by a thousand cares, racked by unbridled desires, and tossed about by constant uneasiness! If we observe the voluptuous spendthrift, who invokes every thing which can gratify the senses and procure him the greatest variety of en