they indulge in those very crimes, which, in the constitution of things, must inevitably carry them to an early tomb.  Of the truth of this we see thousands of instances in the world.  And God has decreed that the meek, the peaceable shall reach the extreme of life, because they pitch upon that happy course of conduct which naturally leads to it.  All that we are to understand by his decree, is that he has inseparably connected the end with the means by so constituting our natures, and so ordering his providence that sin, dissipation, anger, and revenge shall not only destroy happiness, but shorten life, so certain as men pursue such a wretched course.  And that the opposite course of conduct shall not only communicate happiness, but protract life so certain as they engage in it.

Here then, my young friends, you may readily perceive how God punishes vice and rewards virtue.  He does not do it by any abstract law, or arbitrary mode of procedure, but lie has in infinite wisdom interwoven, the whole in the very constitution of our natures, so that the wicked cannot go unpunished, nor the righteous unrewarded.  To teach that man can indulge in vice, and yet escape its punishment by future repentance, is not only dangerous to the morals of society, but is a direct impeachment of the divine administration, as it must in such case, be defective.  And to teach that men may live righteously and godly and yet go unrewarded, is equally dangerous to the morals of the community, as it is but discouraging them from engaging in a virtuous course of conduct.  To teach that men are to be rewarded in a future world for their goodness here, is but in substance saying that virtue is attended with mental misery, and so far as it fails of rewarding its possessor here, the balance is to be made up hereafter.  And to teach that men are to be punished in a future state for their badness here, is but in substance saying, that vice is attended with some mental joys, and so far as it fails of punishing its possessor here, the balance is to be made up hereafter.

It is readily granted that the righteous may suffer.  But we ought ever to make a plain distinction between afflictions and punishments, for the Bible does this.  It is impossible in the nature of things that punishment can exist except in connexion with guilt.  Paul and Silas were cast into prison and fastened in the stocks, on account of their religion.  But nothing could disturb their mental peace—­their heaven-born repose.  They joyfully sung psalms, and lifted up their voices in prayer to God in the calm enjoyment of a pure unsullied conscience.  They suffered afflictions that were, under the government of God, to work out for their good.  There were no doubt others in that prison justly suffering for their crimes.  To them it was punishment.  Because the former were suffering affliction, the latter, punishment.  The scriptures say, “Great peace have they that love thy law; and nothing shall offend them.”  “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked;” and he who says there is, contradicts Jehovah.