The state of the wicked may also be conceived. On earth his delight has not been in communion with God. Sensual gratification, unholy merriment with profane companions, the tumult of restless ambition, the amassing of wealth to be hoarded from the poor and needy, or expended in luxurious folly, the revelry of drunkenness, the useless and unmeaning bustle of giddy dissipation, these have been his only sources of enjoyment here, and at death they are ravished from him. Oh, who can conceive the void of feeling, the total and irreparable loss of every joy to which the heart had clung, and still would cling, the removing of every hope that can sustain the sinking spirit, the reproaching reflection on every sin that has been done, on every duty that has been omitted, on every better feeling that has been stifled! The soul will revolt from such a state

"Of tideless, waveless, sailless, shoreless woe:"

but whither shall it hasten for relief? Not to the deadening influence of sensual pleasure,-not to drown its reflections, or supply its void of feeling in the loud laugh of merriment,—not to the giddy gaiety of fashionable life, these resources are for ever withdrawn; there remains nothing for him but to gaze with remorse on the past, and to shrink with horror from the future. But he too is not as yet susceptible of impressions from surrounding objects, he knows not as yet all the glory

that he has lost, or all the misery to which he is reserved.

But at the sound of the last trump the dead shall be raised, and every soul re-united to its body, shall stand before the judgment seat of God. The eyes long closed shall be opened on a scene transcendently glorious, or dreadfully appalling. The sentences shall be pronounced, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world! Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." What tongue can tell the glories of that judgment day! God and the Lamb triumphant in holiness, and an innumerable host of the redeemed, of every nation, and kindred, and people, and tongue, standing before the throne! What holy raptures, what mutual congratulations, what views of the Divine goodness and perfection, what fervent love, what joy unspeakable and full of glory, what bursts of universal gratitude and adoration shall pervade the armies of the redeemed! But O! how humanity revolts from conceiving the groans and wailings of the damned. The glories of that day are not for them, and that they know full well. The wicked meets the companion of his wickedness, the drunkard the companion of his drunkenness, the adulterer the sharer of his adulteries, to recriminate, not to sympathise, -to curse, not to condole; the seduced meets the

seducer, the apostate the instigator of his apostacy, the criminal the man by whom he has been initiated into vice, with reciprocal reproaches and shame; cursing and cursed, injuring and injured, the victims of remorse, of regret, of despair, gnashing their teeth with pain, and misery, and malice at one another, torn from every thing to which they could fly for refuge from misery and conscience.

CHAPTER XVII.

OF HUMAN AGENCY.

As it seems unlikely that, by once reading, any one should have mastered the whole bearings of so complicated a subject, it is humbly suggested that the studious reader should pause here, and deliberately review the preceding part of it. For this end it has been written in as few words as convenient; the author being well convinced that the fewer the words employed, if they be sufficient to state the meaning, the more easily the reasoning will be apprehended. The closer the contact of the successive steps of the reasoning, the more clearly their mutual dependencies will be seen. Hence the amazing success of algebra, in which the steps are placed before the mind, without the intervention of words at all. Yet, although by this means the sureness of the reasoning is much increased, it becomes necessary to devote more attention in the perusal. Why moral reasoning should be supposed easier than mathematical, I

know not; it is in reality more difficult, and requires more caution, because it is destitute of those artificial aids, which are possessed in the notation of mathematics.

It is therefore recommended to the reader to re-examine all the ground we have gone over,—to test in the severest manner every step of the reasoning, to mark every conclusion which may seem stated more broadly than is warrantable from the premises, -to consider it again and again, and, if in any case he should think it erroneous, to consider well how far it bears upon the general subject,-whether any other conclusion be invalidated in consequence, and how far the evil extends, what propositions are affected by it, and what are not. By such careful proceeding he will learn more than by the superficial reading of many metaphysical treatises. And I feel confident, that, on a second perusal, many things which at first seemed fanciful or doubtful, will be discerned to be in accordance with strict logical truth.

We have considered in order, the constitution, capacities, and powers of man, with all the essential features of his generic character. These are now before the reader. He has had leisure to survey them part by part, limb by limb, joint by joint. If now we suppose the creature so constituted going forth to the active exercise of his several faculties, what more is necessary to make