that we could not. Such considerations are not mighty enough to control the human mind. Human depravity will tremble before nothing but the thunders of damnation. It is the "doctrine of endless cruelty," as some poor philosophers, and worse theologians, have called it, that gives our nation its stability. It is the idea of future accountability, and future punishment, that does more for this nation, than all its legislation. It is this keen sense of accountability, and future retribution, that follows man, like the air he breathes, wherever he goes. In the stillness and darkness of the night it awes him. In the retirement of his closet it restrains him. Upon the ocean wave, upon distant shores, upon mountain heights, it lays its mighty hand upon him, and holds him back from crime. Do away this sense of accountability and future punishment from this nation, and you will have acted over the scenes of France. We would be afraid to walk these streets-we would be afraid to cross these mountains, or traverse these seas, then. Then, not strangers, but our parents, and husbands, and wives, and brothers, and sisters, would assassinate us, and drink our blood. Then our temples of liberty and justice would be hung with mourning. Then the death knell of law, of virtue, and of freedom, would roll its melancholy dirges over the land-then all nations would come to attend our funeral, and America, wrapped in the winding sheet of infidelity, would be lowered down into the grave of Atheism.

But who is it, that, under the .name of Christi

anity, are breaking that iron chain which binds this happy nation to the throne of a just God? Who is it that proclaims in the ear of the multitude, that there is no future retribution and punishment?

It is Universalists! It is Universalists who say that vice is its own punishment, and virtue its own reward. It is Universalists who tell men that they have nothing to fear after death. It is Universalists who aim to eradicate the idea of accountability from the mind of man. It is Universalists who would abolish the moral government of God over this world, and leave him without a subject, and without a throne. What enemies are these, not only to their God, but to their country-not only to their country, but to their friends-not only to their friends, but to their children-not only to their children, but to themselves!

I love, on such a subject as this, to get impartial testimony. How, then, do men of the worldmen who are not involved in theological controversies, regard the restraints of future retribution, and the demoralizing tendency of Universal Salvation? Says an old cotton planter, in one of the public papers-"But it seems to me very astonishing, that amid all our vigilance, that which I regard the greatest danger of all, should have been disregarded. I mean the public preaching of the doctrine of Universal Salvation. From an intimate knowledge of the negro character from my youth, I am perfectly assured, that a more direct and efficacious mode of effecting the worst designs

of our deadliest enemies, could not be devised. I confess, I cannot but shudder at the thought, that hundreds of these people should be assembled on the Sabbath day, to hear it declared from the pulpit, as the doctrine of the Bible, that all men will be finally happy-that, whatever crimes they may commit, heaven will be their endless home. What horrible effects may be justly expected from such preaching, upon such minds. How would our whole state be convulsed with indignation, if Louison or Thompson should be found in a public city congregation, uttering their insane ravings, and proclaiming their doctrines of human rights to hundreds of blacks: and yet I solemnly aver, that I would greatly prefer the attendance of my negroes upon such instruction, rather than their being taught the dangerous, demoralizing, incendiary doctrine of Universalism. The man who should urge our slaves to immediate insurrection, I should esteem as harmless, in comparison with him who should persuade them that those fears of eternal torments, which now restrain many of them from atrocious crimes, are fanatical and groundless. It is, therefore, with mingled astonishment and alarm, that I see continual advertisements in the public papers, inviting all the community to attend upon discourses, designed to prove that the Bible reveals the final happiness of all men, without distinction of character."

This is the view which a cotton planter takes of the licentious tendency of Universal, Salvation. And he is not the only one who shudders when

such a system is advanced for human credencehe is not the only one who discovers its bearings upon the destiny of society-upon the ruin of the nation. By breaking the restraints of future punishment, it opens the flood-gates of vice, and bids man sin, unawed by the thunders of perdition. This is one reason why we reject that system of doctrines. We should blush, if we believed or preached this doctrine, every time we might pass the Hall of Independence. We should turn pale in halls of justice, when the culprit is condemned for his crimes-pale, for having contributed to remove those restraints which might have held him back from infamy. We should shudder when we passed our penitentiaries, to think that we were preparing the way for our fellow men to enter their dreary cells. Our sleep would be disturbed -and as the monuments of our system should multiply around us, and every thing retrograde towards ruin and death, we should expect the universal desecrations of all mankind, and the frowns of an incensed God.

FORTY-THIRD REASON.

We reject the doctrine of Universal Salvation, because it teaches that men are rewarded and punished in the present life, contrary to the facts around us, and the observation of all mankind, and the word of God. If any one knows whether vice

is adequately punished, and virtue adequately rewarded in the present life, surely it is the God of the Bible. What then does the Bible say on this point? "One event happeneth to all!-to the good-to the clean, and to the unclean. God maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. There are the ungodly who prosper in the world, who increase in riches; whose eyes stand out with fatness; who have more than heart could wish."

Is that a just retribution, when one event happeneth to all?-when the clean and the unclean fare alike? Is that a state of retribution, when the wicked prosper, and have more than heart could wish? No wonder that the wicked love such retribution as this! No wonder that they profess to be ardently in love with a moral administration, where the wicked fare as well as the righteous!where the sun shines, and the rain pours down upon the unjust man as well as the just.

But what is the language of observation and of facts upon this point. From all that you have seen of the dealings of God with his creatures in this world, can you say that there is a just retribution going on among men? Is your observation, and are the facts on this point different from what the word of God declares. Do not facts, and the observations of men, exactly correspond with the word of God in this matter. You have seen the sun shine, and the rain descend equally upon the unjust with the just. You have beheld the wicked prospering. You have seen a multitude of in