y understood by
Christians, and therefore practically admitted with greater readiness,
let them be as grateful as they will for the great privilege, but beware
of supposing that the sanction is abolished to all besides. Under the
various obscurations of this sanction, savage virtue may be inferior to
civilized,--Hottentot to Roman virtue, as both are to Christian
holiness; but there is every reason to believe that the savage who
surrendered his hard-earned meal to the hungry stranger, and the Pagan
senators and warriors who toiled and bled for their country, were as
sure of an appropriate reward as the most benevolent and heroic of
Christians.

The unlimited nature of salvation in this sense, leads us on to another
great doctrine of the Gospel; viz.

III. A Future State.

This truth, the most important to human improvement, the most
interesting to human affections, was so fully brought to light by the
Gospel, that Christians have differed respecting it no further than as
to the time and mode in which future retribution will take place. That
Jesus died on the cross, was inclosed in the sepulchre, and was led
forth thence by the manifest power of God, are facts too well
authenticated to be questioned to any purpose by the most hardy sceptic;
and on them securely rests the sublime belief which, from the midst of
obscurity, had already cheered the bereaved, animated the martyr, and
exalted the hopes and fears of the great body of the Hebrew nation. They
had been led, like many of the Gentiles, by the mournful questionings of
their affections, to inquire concerning a future state, and at length to
believe in it; but their indistinct belief was widely different in
nature and far inferior in power to the firm and clear faith with which
the resurrection of Christ authorized them to look forward. Their former
belief was strong enough to reconcile them to death; and perhaps they
had sufficiently clear convictions that the future life would be a scene
of retribution, to govern their own conduct by some regard to it; but
the evidence was not such as to authorize their pressing on the minds
of others the motives which the doctrine now affords. Without the
evidence of the facts of Christ's resurrection, Paul could not have made
Felix tremble at the prospect of judgement to come; or have enforced the
duties of masters to their servants by considerations of their
accountability to a master in heaven; or have felt how far better it w