truth over the tempting scene, and raise up a brighter creation out of the promises of God to out-tempt the tempter, and he would fill it with the beauty of angelic forms, with the feast and fatness of God's house, and the raptures of his ravished people, and so preserving the youth uncorrupted, lead him into settled manhood, and make him a man great in well-doing, the patron of good works, an honour to his name, and the boast of the country round.

Thus it doth appear, that the tendency of Christ's constitution is to husband these active spirits, which else would stagnate and corrupt and endanger the whole, to conduct them down into good courses, and employ them for blessing that part of the social body where they are found. It endureth contentment, yet keepeth up activity. Ambition it restraineth not, but directeth to good and honourable ends. Business it pursueth, without permitting men to drudge themselves out of spirit and thought. And therefore I hold it to be the best safeguard of a country, from these discords of rank and derangements of its inward economy, which alone can bring revolution to a head.

I know not whether my subject beguiles me, but I have often seemed, while writing these pages, to see with the eye of my mind the purest state of society resulting from the universal adoption of Christian rules. More virtuous and invincible than the republic of Sparta, more polished and active than Athens, more free and wise than England, and more happy than Araby the blest,

or the fabled islands of the Western Main. I see kings ruling in righteousness in the hearts of a free and happy people. I see judges ceasing from their noble function for want of accusers, and prisons open for want of criminals. I see the streets without watchmen by night or by day; houses undefended with bolt or bar; vęstal purity reigning in the foulest quarters of the city; justice running down the streets like a stream, and judgment like a mighty torrent. I see the people, love in every eye, and concord in every sound, and manly freedom in every step, moving to and fro about their labours, recreating themselves with innocent sports, dwelling in peace at home, and training up a virtuous and holy progeny for the service of the state. And statesmen I see debating of justice and equity and national happiness; and learned men teaching the people to be virtuous and holy; and discoverers cheering their inquisitive spirits to research by the high motives of God's glory and the common weal. And the soldiers who keep the battles from the gates, every one of them a mighty man of valour, terrible only to the terrible, and soft as childhood to the needy and oppressed. And what more shall I say of the complete happiness of a society thoroughly governed by the laws of Christ, than what the prophet hath written of these latter days, when the root out of the stem of Jesse shall come forth. "With righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity, for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod

of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed, their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."

OF JUDGMENT TO COME.

PART V.

ACTS XVII. 30, 31. GOD COMMANDETH ALL MEN EVERY WHERE TO REPENT: BECAUSE HE HATH APPOINTED A DAY, IN THE WHICH HE WILL JUDGE THE WORLD IN RIGHTEOUSNESS.

RESOLUTION OF DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES CONCERNING THE GENERAL JUDGMENT.

THE HE Almighty Governor of heaven and earth, having such claims upon the human race and such a regard for their well-being, as we set forth in the first head of this argument, did accord to the wants and welfare of human nature that constitution of laws whereof we have unfolded the principles, and the excellent adaptation both to the individual and the social state of man. Having done so much, he might have left it to make way upon the strength of its own merits, without any further recommendation than its present fitness and advantage: in which case he would have stood to us in the relation of a counsellor who points out the good and evil of conduct, and the way to tranquillity and happiness; or of a father, who, before he departs, bequeathes to his children the legacy of his wisdom and affection. Having made an appeal to every good and noble principle of nature, having introduced it with a moral grandeur which made the host of heaven to admire, at a sacrifice which none but himself doth know,

and having sustained it with every advantage present and to come; he might have stood to a side and waited the determination of man.

From earliest youth to latest age we are solicited to accept his overtures; our former delinquencies are offered to be cast into the shade, and our late obedience to be accepted, as if it had been yielded from the very beginning of life. It argues in the heart, by which such easy and advantageous offers are rejected, a callousness and deadness to the voice of God-in lieu of which, it is not to be expected that any attainments in knowledge, reputation, or morals will compensate. Our Creator is not served with the powers which he gave, nor is our Preserver acknowledged for the blessings which he sent, nor our Father loved in return for that love wherewith he hath loved us our King is held at nought, our Redeemer trampled under foot-heaven is not sought. nor hell eschewed: meanwhile the world is courted, the approbation of our fellow men is hunted after, every fleeting pleasure is grasped at, and every phantom of hope pursued; and, though life be unstable as the morning cloud, it is doated on and preferred to all which God is able to bestow. In sum, God, in his most gainly attributes arrayed, is rejected for the sake of this world, clothed though she be with sickness and sorrow and change, and every symptom of speedy dissolution.

Perceiving in us such contumacious neglect of himself and of all that he could do for our sakes,