unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live." That is, your soul or mind, by possessing itself of the principles of righteousness and truth, would hereby find itself eating that which is good, and rejoicing in the fatness or richness of moral life and blessedness. But here our doctrinal opposers would come forward, and with a coldness which would seem to bespeak a non-acquaintance with the sublime pleasures and enjoyments of true religion or godliness, declare that the inducements which I now offer to virtue are altogether insufficient. The present rewards of godliness which I have now been urging, they speak of as a matter too inconsiderable to be held out as sufficient inducements to the service of God. Nothing is sufficient to be held out as an inducement to engage and hold men in the service of God, but the promise of an eternity of blessedness hereafter, as the reward of their labours here. But would not these religious people be as well satisfied to have it understood that they shall enjoy great present benefits as the reward of their righteousness here, and then receive that immortal life and blessedness in the future world as the gift of God's grace, not according to their works, but according to his own good pleasure, whereby he will gather into the same life and blessedness his whole rational family? Would not this view, I say, satisfy them as well? No. For this would allow those who are not holy here, to be holy and happy hereafter. No; they must have it understood that they are to receive immortal life and glory, in eternal distinction from their sinful neighbors, as the reward of their labours here, else there is no sufficient inducement for them to serve God! How passing strange! Why, these same people were just now arguing that all selfishness is sin; and that all the services which we perform with regard to our own benefit are sinful in the sight of God. No services, they said, could be acceptable unto God, but such as proceed from a supreme regard to holiness, in disinterestedness with regard to self. And as Universalists, who love God because he first loved us, and profess that one great encouragement we have to continue in the service of God, is the great happiness which we find in it; us they condemn as unholy, because our religion, they say, is selfishness. We deny not that we are selfish. And we are willing to be understood as maintaining it as right that we should exercise self love enough to regard our own happiness, providing we do not get into that exclusive selfishness, which would seek our own interest to the injury of others, or would be unwilling that others should be sharers of hap piness with us. But selfish as we acknowledge ourselves to be, all our selfishness is abundantly satisfied with the rewards of virtue which we find here in the practice of virtue. We feel satisfied that our reward is altogether sufficient, we are abundantly compensated in the happiness which we find in loving and serving our heavenly Father; and are willing that the whole human creation should finally be redeemed from the bondage of corruption and sin, and all our dependent fellowcreatures made sharers of God's love in common with ourselves. But these persons who condemn our self-love, and profess to exclude all selfishness from the principles of godliness, are yet so monstrously and exorbitantly selfish themselves, that nothing but the prospect of an immortal life of blessedness, in infinite distinction from others who do not serve as they do here, can satisfy their selfishness as any competent inducement to engage and hold them in the service of God! The eyes of their selfishness have become strained and extended to such great objects, that they would have to look through a microscope to see the trifle which satisfies our selfishness as an abundant inducement to hold faithful in our heavenly Father's service. Yes, while they sternly condemn our selfishness as corrupt and sinful, which loves to serve God because he is so good to us, because we feel filial obligations to him, and because we are so happy in his service, they are at the same time in constant labour to build up in mankind all around, that exorbitant, exclusive, and monstrous selfishness, which shall regard nothing as a competent inducement for them to serve the Lord, but the prospect of being paid for these present services by an admission to the inheritance of immortal life and glory, to the final exclusion of all who do not serve as they do here!! I must here give place to the words of Jesus, -" Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel." My friends, I am satisfied with the Bible inducements to godliness, which I have been urging upon you in this discourse; viz. that godliness is life and good. We all desire to enjoy life and good; and consequently, as much as we believe the sentiment which has now been urged from the scriptures, we shall seek and practise godliness, as our highest good. I have extended my remarks to so great a length on the way of life and good which God has set before us, that I cannot at present say but a word on the way of death and evil. 2. The way of sin is death and evil. We have seen before that the context shows that the death and evil spoken of in the text was the misery and destruction which sin would bring upon the people in the land where they dwelt. This sentiment is as abundantly taught in the Bible, as that which we have just considered. While the Bible teaches that, "To be spiritually minded is life and peace," it teaches also that " to be carnally minded is death." That "there is no peace to the wicked," that "destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known." Here then are the two ways which God has set before us. On the one hand is the knowledge, trust, and love of God, and the practice of moral virtue; and this is the way of life and good. On the other hand is the way of ignorance and vice; and this is the way of death and evil. And this life and good, or death and evil, we are to enjoy or suffer, according to our choice between these two ways. We shall enjoy this life and good.. just as long as we pursue the way of godliness, and we shall suffer this death and evil, just as long as we pursue the way of sin. "But we cannot believe," say some, " that all sinners suffer sufficient punishment in the state in which they sin. Are there not many wicked people who get along through life without suffering competent punishment?" Surely I know of none. But if sinners cannot be sufficiently punished while they are sinners, when can they be punished? After they have abandoned sin, and engaged through love, in the service of God ? Will their heavenly Father then lay upon them |