Here much I ruminate, as much I may,

With other views of men and manners now,

Than once, and others of a life to come."

Nor have I any cause to apprehend I have stepped out of that path which a gracious God had marked out for me.

No. VIII.

"THE LORD WILL TAKE VENGEANCE ON HIS ADVER. SARIES, AND HE RESERVETH WRATH FOR HIS ENEMIES."--NAHUM, i. 2.

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THIS portion of Holy Writ I conceive as declarative of that vengeance which the eternal Jehovah takes in the present life, as well as of that tribulation and wrath which is to be inflicted in a future state. I am well aware how many awful instances of vice and wickedness pass here, without any singular or visible mark of divine anger. Many a dreadful sinner is permitted to live out his day without experiencing any particular trial; without once smarting under the rod of insulted mercy and justice. While they live this is their language: “Our life is short, and in the death of a man there is no remedy. Come on, therefore; let us enjoy the good things that are present: and let us speedily use the creatures as in our youth. Let

us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments;

Let us

let no flowers of the spring pass by us. crown ourselves with rose-buds before they be withered. Let none of us go without his part of our voluptuousness; let us leave tokens of our joyfulness in every place; let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." That morrow arrives, and "they depart with their breasts full of milk, and their bones full of marrow; they are not troubled as other and better men, neither have they any bands in their death." Stupid, self-confident, and insensible, they quit this stage of mortal existence, and open their eyes in hell, and begin to drink of that bitter cup which the Lord had reserved for them until that day.

Such is the state and the end of many sinners; but it is not the state of all. Some there are, who having lived without God and without Christ in the world, depart hence, with all the sure and irresistible forebodings of eternal wrath; they are not permitted any longer to deceive themselves; they are made to think of eternal concerns, and to know "their summer is past, their harvest is ended, and that they

are not saved." Not a few of these, it may be, were long esteemed, and even denominated, happy creatures by their companions in folly and sin. But in the day of visitation, these companions fly from them, as unable to hear and witness the solemn and salutary lessons of such dying beds. Thus the individual, bereft of hope, and forsaken of man, rolls his eyes in despair, groans as he makes his exit, and quickly enters on a second, an eternal state of indescribable misery.

Others there are, who, in after-life, fight against and overcome every serious impression which the instruction of parents, and the example of pious friends, had once produced. In league with Satan and the world, they contend against all the calls of divine mercy and judgment—they silence all the remonstrances of conscience, and refuse, resolutely refuse, to have Christ to reign over them, until at length the sentence goes forth, "Ephraim is joined to his idols; let him alone." Of this description I fear the number is greater than many Christians are aware of. He that so

journs much among men, not

unfrequently

G

meets companions by the way, who bear every mark of being thus given up to follow the devices and desires of their own hearts-men, whose consciences seem callous, as the flesh seared with a hot iron: who appear to have entirely quenched the Spirit; whose whole conduct bespeaks a reprobate mind, and whose awful end stamps the concluding feature of such a melancholy state. True it is, we ought to be extremely cautious in applying this doctrine to individuals; but it is equally true, that we ought not to confound the sinner with the saint. Charity hopeth all things, only so far as reason, facts, and Scripture authorize her. It is not charity to silence, or contradict, the testimony of these guides. For a Christian to indulge a hope of the eternal happiness of those who persisted in known and allowed sin while they lived, and who died in reviling God, or in uttering oaths and execrations, is not charity. It is, say the least, weakness and error; it is more; it is a tacit disregard or denial of such Scrip

to

tures as declare that the unconverted and un

sanctified sinner, dying an hundred years old, is

accursed.