ment unquenchable fire, and defcribes their anguifh by weep. ing, wailing and gnashing of teeth. And the final sentence

he pronounces on the wicked is, "Depart from me ye curfed * into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." To which may be added the folemn reflection he makes in our text, and thefe fhall go away into everlasting punishment." Can any words more exprefsly hold forth the endless duration of the miferies of the finally impenitent.

Various are the objections brought forward against this doc trine, such as that God is too good and merciful a being to punish his creatures with eternal mifery. Such perfons may be asked, is not God too good and merciful to punish his crea. tures at all? Is it not cruel to afflict them with pain, misery and death? This we see constantly before our eyes, and there is certainly no cruelty in the one cafe more than in the other. Cruelty cannot be attributed to God. All the punishment which he inflicts both in this world and the next is perfectly juft. Juftice and cruelty never dwell together. Therefore there can be no injuftice with God in the everlasting sufferings of the wicked.But it is alfo objected that the word everlasting is used to exprefs a limited duration, as also the words forever and ever, &c. This is true, but in all those places, it is obvious to the feebleft mind, that the nature of the fubjects spoken of evidently fhow, that they are temporary, changeable, and their continuance limited. But is this the cafe in any one instance when they are used to exprefs matters of an unlimitted duration? Surely not. Is this the cafe, when they are employed to express the duration of God, his perfections, government, dominion, heaven and the happiness thereof? If not, why fhould they be limited when applied to the duration of heil and its torments? If they express a limited duration in the latter instances fo likewife in the former? If hell be temporary fo also is heaven and the divine existence itself, for the very fame terms are used to exprefs the one as the other. And they are often

contrafted and the one fet over against the other, to teach us the equal duration of both. This verfe containing our text is an inftance of this contraft as well as many others. "Thefe "fhall go away into everlafting punishment, but the righteous "into life eternal." Here the word everlasting and eternal is precifely the fame in the original; and its evident intention is to inftruct us in the equal duration of both. If the one be eternal fo alfo is the other. Thefe things fhow.us that the eter nity of hell is as abfolutely certain as the eternity of heaven. Wherefore let all beware how they believe and depend upon the dangerous principle, that the fufferings of the future ftate will come to an end.

But to the authorities already mentioned, it might be eafy to adduce a multitude of others; as, They fhall be punished with everlafting deftruction from the prefence of the Lord, "and the glory of his power. They fhall be tormented day "and night for ever and ever. And the fmoke of their tor. "ment fall afcend for ever and ever," &c. Let what has been faid fuffice for the prefent. If these things will not con. vince the serious and attentive mind, there is reafon to fear their conviction will come too late.

The fubject fhall be finished in a few reflections.

First, we are here taught to magnify the love and grace of God difplayed by Jefus Chrift in contriving, and executing a plan of falvation, whereby guilty finners may thro' faith in the blood of the lamb, efcape from all this endless woe. This doctrine fets the mercy of God and the compaflion of the Saviour in a molt confpicuous light. Oh, let us praife the Lord for the offers of eternal life in the gospel. Let the love of God. the Father and the Son conftrain us to relinquifh the old apoftacy, to forfake our fins, and turn unto him with our whole heart, fo that we may live and not etert ally perish.

Secondly, we here learn the preciousness and ineffable value of the immortal foul. It is capable of and defigned for an eternal existence. The body muft foon drop into the dust, and all the beauties and glories of the world will be no more. But then the foul enters into an everlasting and unchangeable flate cf happiness or mifery. If penitent and united to Chrift, it enters. into that grand apartment in eternity, called heaven. Here is the throne of God and the lamb. This whole region is perfect light, love, grace and glory, and the foul entering into it, its capacity will be compleatly filed with the moft confummate felicity. Bleffed and happy are all they who have entered in. to the fate of glory, for heaven will never come to an endThis works up the pleafure to extacy that it will be everlasting. But on the other hand, if the foul be unconverted, im. penitent and unrighteous at death, as foon as it is diflodged from the body, it plunges into that gloomy and tormenting divifion of eternity, where it is inftantly filled in every part and faculty with all the fulness of the wrath of Jehovah. Here they will blafpheme God, and rend and tear one another, and foam and gnash their teeth, and bound thro' the burning furges for ever and ever. Whofe heart does not tremble at the thought! Let the horrors of the fcene be wrought up by the ftrongest imagination, they fall infinitely short of what every unholy perfon is liable to every moment. You ftand, O finners, on flippery places, and all beneath is hell. Let these things found an alarm to the heart of every unconverted finner, and awake him out of his deep fecurity before it be forever too late.. O finners, awake to repentance and fiee from the wrath that is to come; lay hold on the hope which is now offered in the gofpel, that you may efcape this direful mifery, and be introduced into the joys of Paradife. And that this may be the glorious habitation of us all throughout the unwafting ages. of eternity, may God of his infinite mercy grant, through Jefus Christ our Lord, to whom be all glory, honor, dominion and praife, forever and ever. Amen and Amen.

SERMON XLIL

The nature and felicity of the Celestial State.

Matt. xxv. 34. Then fhall the king fay unto them on his right band, Come ye bleffed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

AFTER the refurrection, in the clofe of the general judg ment when the grand process shall have been finished, then the final fentence will be pronounced upon all in perfect equity and righteousness, according as their characters fhall be found to be. The proceedings of this great day are here in this chap. ter difplayed before us. The glorious appearance, of the judge, the splendor of his advent, and the magnificence of his atten dants, are defcribed in all the glowing beauties and ftrength of Janguage. When you read, you feem as if you faw Jefus feated on the throne of his glory and all nations affembled in his prefence. You behold him feparating this promifcuous throng one from another as a fhepherd divideth his fheep from the goats. This feparation will be as exact as it will be juft. The most in

confiderable faint will not be loft in the croud of finners, nor the most plaufible finner concealed in the throng of faints. Every one will be brought forward, and have a particular, open and fair trial, so that all will be perfectly convinced, on which hand he must be placed. Thus fpeaks the prophet Ezekiel, "As for "you, O my flock, thus faith the Lord God, behold I judge "between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he

goats." A perfect fcrutiny will be made, fo that it will be accurately determined, who are theep and who are goats. The feparation being compleated, the two grand divi fions of the universe will be fituated, the one on the right, and the other on the left of the glorious judge. In this tremen dous fituation, he will first addrefs himself to thofe fixed in the moft honorable place. "Then fhail the king fay unto them, "on his right hand, Come ye blefed of my father, inherit the "kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.", Thus when the process is finithed, and the tranfporting fentence pronounced, all the heavenly arches will ring with joy, in the paffing of the righteous to everlasting life. Chrift Jefus, when he came in the flesh, made a mean appearance in the eyes of a carnal world, was a ftumbling block to the Jews, and to the Greeks foolishnefs, was as a root out of dry ground without form or comeliness, rejected and despised of men; but now on the feat of judgment, he appears in all the fhining fp'en for of a king, arrayed in all the regalia and effulgence of the celeftial ftate, beaming forth in all the radiancy of him, who was cloathed with the fun and had the moon under his feet. Earth. ly kings appearing in the robes of their dignity, fhed a splendor around them on the gaping multitudes, but when Jefus the king of kings appears, the tranfcendant brilliancy of his glory will infinitely more outfhine earthly royalty, than royalty excels the rags and mien of the most abject slave. In all the grandeur of heavenly majesty the fentence will be uttered to the joy of all those who have made their peace with God. Their good works will be produced as the evidences of their appro