Revelation recognises the great properties of man, his spiritualism, responsibility, and immortality-Induction of its informations- It proceeds upon all the grounds and measures of moral govern- ment-Its discoveries in relation to the Resurrection and the The limit of the rule which infers right and wrong from the pleasure or pain of the acts-The invariableness of moral ideas-Dis- parity of rewards and punishments in human legislation- Under revealed grace, the conduct of the truly religious is con- stituted rewardable-Proofs of the fact-Reasons which vindicate it-The question of temporal rewards in the present œconomy of The heavenly state-A reward-The perfection of law-The develop- 235 LECTURE VI. EXOD. xxxiv. 6, 7. Moral government supposes possible defection-Punishment-Man exceptions, must be pœnal-Self-infliction - Punishment not restricted to this-Not intended to exercise corrective influence -Its only relation is to justice-Justice must enforce its character and its conception of sin. No benefit of the atonement except to them who are under its moral influence-Objection from the General descriptions of the future state of the wicked-Sheol and Hades-If eternal punishment untrue, it ought to be boldly dis- avowed; if true, as solemnly forewarned-General impression— Analytic investigation of terms-Hebrew and Greek words com- monly used to denote eternity-Applied, in the highest accepta- tion, to future suffering-Examination of passages of Scripture supposed to favour universal restoration-Whether sin can be regarded as an infinite evil-The theory that the remission of punishment is indebted to the atonement-Judas-Classification as well as adjudication suggested by final punishment - The immortality of the effects of sin rather a physical than a moral Considerations which might be supposed to render future suffering endurable-Necessarian perfectibility-The hypothetical with- drawment of immortality from man-The conjecture of Destruc- tion Particular objections Eternal punishment opposed, because involving the eternal existence of sin-Motives and means of an evangelic nature impossible-The Doctrine defended -Enforcement of it as revealed-Despair-The Second Death- Our first duty respects the Divine faithfulness-The prevalent scepticism-Appeal to Christian pastors and churches, urging the LECTURE I. 66 DOTH NOT EVEN NATURE ITSELF TEACH YOU ?" 1 Cor. xi. 14. CONCLUSIONS in science cannot fail often to appear unreasonable, unless they be intelligently and approvedly conducted from their several first principles. They can only be shown generally reasonable, when every step in their progress is clearly reasonable. They are but accumulations of individual elements, every one of which must be as entire and convincing as themselves. We are bound to trace these intermediate conditions in their arrangement and correspondence, one to another, and each to all. The link ought to be no less perfect than the chain: if it be not, the coil is loosely inserted and easily broken. And stupendous facts and recondite truths-which seem unlikely and indefensible at first-may thus be established, redeemed from improbability, and confirmed beyond doubt. Especially in morals, and in all branches of inquiry connected with them, is it demanded that the investigation be most searching, and the synthesis be most B complete. A fault of reasoning, a mis-statement of fact, is as fatal as a break in mathematical demonstration. Studies of such moment must be rigidly cautious if we would reach satisfactory results. The well-being of man is too implicitly involved in them to warrant lightness and haste. For morals are not, in our idea and scheme either of philosophy or of religion, simple suggestions of reflection and experience, not mere dictates of fitness,—not only calculations of utility,— but they presuppose a Governor in the Creator of mankind; not exclusively the Contriver of the final causes which we mark in material nature, but the Designer and the Master of that conduct which shall lead us to our happiness. "He hath showed thee, what is good!" O man, And, therefore, is it besought, at the threshold of the long and solemn argument which the Lecturer now anxiously, tremblingly, attempts, that candid patience be exercised, that precipitate decision be repressed,— that he be suffered to clear space after space, to lay stone upon stone,—as honestly resolved to discard the vicious proof by which his argument may have been defended, as to meet fairly, point to point, the most weighty objections by which it has been oppugned. The whole question is a problem of truth,-truth whatever it may be, truth wherever it can be found, having any relation to it. But Truth is not sternly cold majestically unbending from the claims of its very nature, it is the only standard of benevolence and source of sympathy. He who is summoned to discourse of truth in its |