ly still are these persons interested in this exhortation! When the blessed Redeemer of mankind came preaching the kingdom of God, he commanded all men every where to repent, and believe the Gospel. A thousand times has he repeated this command to you. Without faith in him, without repentance, without holiness, you cannot abide in this awful Day. Remember, then, while life lasts, that this is all for which you live. How invaluable is this golden season; this accepted time; in which, if you hasten to the employment, you may work out your salvation. Far downward have you advanced in the broad and crooked way, which leads to destruction; but the night of death has not overtaken you. Look upward; and you will see the Sun of Righteousness still shines to illumine your path back to life. Seize the inestimable moment; and flee for your lives, as Lot escaped from the cities of the plain.

To these all-important duties, Christ knew that your hearts would be, as you know they are, utterly opposed. That you might overcome this opposition, he has given you all the means of grace, to become, under the blessing of his good Spirit, the means of your salvation. Feel, then, their immense importance; and seize, and employ, them with all possible earnestness and anxiety. Let no Sabbath pass, until it shall have blessed you. When the sanctuary opens its doors; let your souls long, yea, even faint, for the courts of the Lord. Let no sermon escape without enlightening your minds, and amending your hearts. Every morning, and every evening, bow your knees in secret, before the Father of all mercies; and send up your cries to Heaven for the salvation of your souls. Prize the word of life more than the most fine gold; and relish it more than honey, and the honeycomb. Seek for wisdom as for silver, and for understanding as for hidden treasure.

To rouse yourselves, every day, to every effort for the attainment of eternal life, keep in perpetual view these amazing events. Of all the astonishing scenes, which have been recited, you will be witnesses. You will hear the call of the Archangel, and rise from the grave. You will see the Judge descend; the Judgment set; and the books opened. You will hear the sentence pronounced on the Righteous, and on the wicked. You will ascend with your glorious Redeemer to the Heaven of Heavens; or be sent down, with evil men, and evil angels, to the world of perdition.

Does not your heart tremble at this? Is it not moved out of its place? When the mountains quake at the approach of their Creator, and the hills melt; and the earth is burnt at his presence; the world, and all that is therein; who can stand before his indignation; who abide in the fierceness of his anger? What emotions will then be felt by every impenitent sinner! With what agonies will he sigh for the return of the accepted time! With what delirious ecstasy would his heart heave, to hear another day of grace, another opportunity of repentance, proclaimed by his Judge! But no day

of grace will ever return to him. No voice of mercy will again announce the birth of a Saviour. The doors of Heaven will be opened no more. The smiles of a forgiving God will never dawn on the regions of sin and sorrow. Season will hasten, after season, and age roll on, after age, the melancholy round of darkness and despair, and not a beam of hope glimmer through the cheerless void, to revive the wearied and dying eye. Oh, that ye were wise; that ye understood these things; that ye would consider your latter end!

SERMON CLXVII.

THE REMOTER CONSEQUENCES OF DEATH. THE PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED.-ITS DURATION.

Matthew xxv. 46.—And these shall go away into everlasting punishment.

IN the last discourse, I gave an account of the final Judgment, and of the sentences pronounced upon the Righteous and the Wicked. The next subjects of consideration are their future allotments. I shall first consider that of the Wicked. This subject naturally divides itself into two parts; its Nature, and its Duration. The latter of these will be the subject of discourse at the present time. In the text it is asserted, that impenitent sinners shall go away into everlasting punishment. Christians have very generally regarded this declaration of Christ as intending in the strict sense a punishment without end. But there have been multitudes of persons, styling themselves Christians, particularly in modern times, who have decided otherwise; and insisted, either that there will be no punishment beyond the grave, or that it will be temporary. In support of this opinion, and in opposition to that, which has been generally received, they have advanced various arguments, and objections, which they professedly consider as having great weight, and to which, apparently, they yield their own assent. teacher of systematical Theology seems obliged, therefore, to examine this subject; to meet such objections and arguments; and either to refute them, or to acknowledge that he is unable to answer them.

As the abettors of this scheme blend their objections and their direct arguments together: and as they are too numerous to be examined in every instance separately, in a single sermon; I shall not feel myself obliged to discriminate very solicitously in this respect; but shall take the liberty to follow, in some measure, the path which my opposers have trodden.

Before I begin the investigation of this subject, I shall make a few observations, for the purpose of removing, or, if that cannot be done, of lessening, a prejudice, (the strongest, perhaps, cherished by the human mind) against the doctrine in question. The subject is immeasurably awful, and beyond all others affecting. Few persons can behold it in near vision with a steady eye. The very preacher, who teaches the doctrine to others, cannot but know, unless certainly assured of his own salvation, (a case undoubtedly

very rare) that he may, at that very time, be alleging arguments, which are to affect himself, and to evince his own final destruction, as well as that of others. If his heart is not made of stone; he cannot contemplate the subject, as it respects his fellow-men, without overwhelming amazement. The destiny of one immortal mind is an object, whose importance no finite thought can conceive, no numbers estimate. How vast must be this object, when the number of such minds becomes so great, as to reach the lowest limit, to which the most enlarged charity will be compelled to extend it! How entirely overwhelmed must he be who contemplates it, when he remembers, and beholds a melancholy experience verify, the declaration of our Saviour, that, Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be who go in thereal!

At the same time, the subject is unquestionably perplexing, as well as distressing. There are, I know, persons, who speak concerning it with an air of cool self-complacency, as being, in their view, easy of investigation, and free from embarrassment. I am inclined, perhaps uncharitably, to give them little credit for candour, clearness of intellect, or soundness of character; and greatly doubt whether the doctrine has been investigated by them, either to such an extent, or with such a spirit, as might furnish them with just views of its nature. There are others, who discourse of it, in the desk, in the phraseology, the style, and the utterance, belonging to vehement eloquence; such as we often find attached to a strain of powerful invective, or vigorous controversy. Something may here be allowed for the strong impulses of ardent minds ; something to the influence, unhappy as it may be deemed, of controversial feelings; and something to mistaken apprehensions of duty. In this manner we may in some measure excuse, but cannot justify, this unfortunate conduct. Were such persons to remember, that they may, at this very time, be pronouncing the final doom of their own parents, brothers, sisters, wives, children, and even of themselves; I cannot but believe, that their mode of address would be essentially changed; would lose all its violence, and exaggeration; and would become deeply humble, solemn, and affectionate. Every Preacher ought to remember, that the latter of these modes of addressing a Congregation, on this subject, is incomparably better fitted to produce the best effects on those, who hear him while the former will usually terminate in awakening mere horror concerning the subject, and mere disgust at the Preacher.

But painful and perplexing, as this subject is, it is often exhibited in the word of God. Whatever doctrines He has declared concerning it are true; and unfold with absolute certainty a part of the future destiny of man. They cannot, therefore, fail of being supremely interesting to us. To know, and to feel, their proper import, may be the very means of turning our feet into the path of life. To disbelieve them, or to be ignorant of them, can, on VOL. IV.

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the other hand, be of no possible use to us and may easily prove fatally injurious. Were there no escape from this dreadful allotment published to us during our probation; we might, indeed, as well remain in ignorance of the evils, to which we were advancing. But, as a knowledge of our danger may prove the most effectual means of our escape, the importance of gaining this knowledge. cannot be measured.

The punishment of the wicked is, as you well know, often asserted in the Scriptures to be everlasting, to endure for ever, and for ever and ever. The objectors, whom I have mentioned, insist, that all words, and phrases, of this nature, denote a limited duration; and are never used to signify an absolute eternity. The meaning of all language is to be learned, only from those who use it. If the manner, in which they understand it, is clearly discoverable from their writings; we may by critical attention become possessed of its meaning: if not; we are left without a remedy. Let us, therefore, in the present case, have recourse to the writers of the New Testament; the only persons, from whom we can expect to derive explicit views concerning the subject in hand; that we may, if possible, determine this point in a satisfactory manner. It is to be observed, then,

1. That the words and phrases, which have been either mentioned, or alluded to, appear to be used in the Scriptures, to denote the longest period, of which the subject mentioned in each case, is capable.

In one instance the word, for ever, seems to signify merely a long period. One generation passeth away, and another cometh, but the earth abideth for ever. If the destruction of this world, mentioned in the Scriptures, denotes the annihilation of its atoms, as well as the ruin of its form and structure; then the earth can be said to abide for ever, with a limited meaning only; to wit, that it will endure for a long time, compared with a period of a human generation. But, if the elements are to survive this destruction, and become the materials of the new earth, wherein righteousness shall dwell, then the term is used in a literal sense, and denotes an endless duration.

In such other cases, as I have observed, this word is employed to denote the longest period, of which the subject, united with it, is capable. Thus a servant for ever, is a servant during the longest period, in which he can be a servant; that is, during his life. An ordinance for ever, is an ordinance, continuing through the longest time, in which it can be an ordinance; that is, throughout the whole continuance of the Dispensation, of which it is a part; viz. the Mosaic Dispensation.

In the same manner, the everlasting hills, and the everlasting mountains, denote hills and mountains, enduring throughout the longest possible period, which is predicable of them; to wit, while the earth endures.