SERMONS, DELIVERED AT CAVENDISH, VT. ON THE DOCTRINE OF ENDLESS MISERY. BY WARREN SKINNER. WOODSTOCK, VT. SEPTEMBER, 1830. SERMON.-No. 1. UNREASONABLENESS OF THE DOCTRINE. LUKE XII. 57...."Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right." THE sentiment that God will punish a portion of his intelligent offspring without mercy and without end, has long and extensively prevailed in the christian world; and, indeed, at the present day, it is considered by many one of the fundamental and essential doctrines of the gospel. Such is the veneration in which this principle is held by many professing christians, that a denial of it is considered a denial of the scriptures; and any attempt to refute, or do it away from the minds of men, are looked on as so many attempts to sap the foundation of Christianity, and to overthrow the whole superstruc ture. That this principle of doctrine should have found its way into the church, in company with the mass of other corruptions, which were introduced from the philosophy of the ancients, and the theology of the pagans; and that it should have been retained as a constituent principle of Christianity during the continuance of the dark ages, is not at all surprising. But, that christians, in the present enlightened age of the world, should continue to adhere to it with such unyielding pertinacity, would be matter of real astonishment, were not one other circumstance taken into consideration. When the arm of civil power was extended for the protection of the church, and for the propagation of that religion which was established in the world in opposition to A |