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subject, presents an awful picture of the condition of the condemned, and of the torments to which both soul and body shall be exposed in Hell-Gehennathe abyss-the prison, in which the society of the devil and his angels, of malignant and despairing spirits, deeply aggravates the horror.

A still further aggravation of misery-and that 'most dreadful in its nature-is to be expected from the presence and reproaches of those who have been the instigators, the companions, and the victims of our crimes on earth; from the impossibility of being extricated from the tyranny of evil passions which can never be satiated; and from the confederacy of the wicked, whose chief occupation may be the infliction of mutual torment.

The very inequality of punishment, which may be assigned to different degrees of crime, can only tend to give rise to fresh and unalleviated torments. No man hath seen or comprehended the punishments of the impenitent in another state :—a thick veil is mercifully cast over the mouth of the bottomless abyssbut enough of its terrors are made known, to serve as a sufficient warning, that we neglect not the great salvation which has rescued us from inevitable consignment to its dreadful darkness.

§ 7. It is enough to know, that the promise of sal. vation, though conditional, is universal;—that we,— each of us, have life and death-Eternal Life→ Eternal Death-this day set before us ;-that God gives us grace and power freely to choose the good, and to refuse the evil; that the invitations and promises, and the denunciations and threatenings of the Word of God, are all designed as means of grace,

together with many other powerful motives, to draw us to Jesus Christ, the Author and Finisher of our Faith, who is both able and willing to save, to the uttermost, all who come to him in sincere reliance on the efficacy of his atonement, and who desire to manifest their love towards him by keeping his commandments.

Who then shall inherit ETERNAL LIFE? Even they to recapitulate all that has gone before,-even they, who have given evidence, in fruits of holiness and charity, that they have with the heart believed unto righteousness, and with the mouth made confession unto salvation-that they have practically believed in, and sincerely confessed, THE ONE true GOD, subsisting in a Trinity of Persons, co-essential, and co-eternal;-in God the Father, that He is the infinitely great, perfect, and everlasting Creator of the universe; that he is not only our Father, as having called us into existence by his Word, and preserved us by his Power, in the life which he hath given, but especially the Father of us Christians, whom he hath chosen and accepted in his beloved Son, adopted as his children, and made heirs of immortality :-in God the Son, in all respects very and eternal God, being in the bosom of the Father before all worlds ;—that to redeem the human race from sin and death, he descended from the right hand of the Majesty on High, became incarnate by the power of the Holy Ghost, was miraculously boru of the Virgin Mary, of the family of David,-assumed together with our flesh all its infirmities, and was in all things, except sin, like unto his brethren,-took a lowly station,— led a humble and suffering life,-preached the glad tidings of salvation,-proved himself to be the Re

deemer of his people, who had been foretold by the Spirit of God, from the fall of Adam,-was falsely accused by the Jews,-iniquitously condemned by Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judæa,-and ignominiously crucified between two thieves;-that he offered this one expiatory sacrifice of his own body on the tree, for the sins of the whole world;-that his dead body was entombed, and his separated soul descended to the place of departed spirits,—that having remained a portion of three days in the sepulchre, long enough to give assurance of his actual death, he raised himself by his own power from the grave, thus destroying the dominion of death, and giving us a pledge that his prophetical warnings of a General Resurrection shall be fulfilled;-that having continued forty days on earth, to confirm the faith of his disciples, and to instruct them in their apostolic mission, he ascended into heaven, in the sight of his assembled followers, from whence he shall come at the Last Day in majesty and glory to judge every man, who has ever lived upon the earth, according to his works, and to pass on all an irrevocable sentence of eternal reward or punishment :in the Holy Ghost, also very God, proceeding from the Father and the Son,-that he was sent by the Son, after his ascension, to comfort and sanctify his Church, and to be with it for ever;—that he is the efficient cause of every spiritual blessing, working in us every good thought and deed,-that he regenerates and sanctifies the members of Christ's mystical body:-that the Universal or Catholic Church subsists in all ages, unrestricted to place or nation, and shall endure to the end of the world:-that there is a Communion of Saints, or fellowship between all true

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Christians, and with Christ their head, commencing in this life, and to be perfected in another:-that there are two Sacraments instituted by Christ himself, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, by which those who rightly receive the outward elements, obtain remission of sins, and the efficacious grace of the Holy Spirit: that at the General Resurrection of the dead, and re-union of our souls and bodies, if we have walked in our probationary course worthy of our holy vocation, and have died in favour with our God, we shall attain everlasting life,-we shall be blessed with the consummation of all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, and shall be eternally preserved from tarnishing or forfeiting the crown of glory which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give us in the day in which our faith shall be merged in vision, and the omnipotent Jehovah, One God,Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, shall become the Object of our unceasing adorations, and the Source of our perfect blessedness, throughout the endless ages of futurity.

Now, the GOD OF PEACE, THAT BROUGHT AGAIN FROM THE DEAD OUR LORD JESUS, THAT GREAT SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP, THROUGH THE BLOOD OF THE EVERLASTING COVENANT, MAKE US PERFECT IN EVERY GOOD WORK, TO DO HIS WILL, WORKING IN YOU THAT WHICH IS WELL-PLEASING IN HIS SIGHT, THROUGH JESUS CHRIST: TO WHOM BE GLORY FOR EVER AND EVER AMEN.

From Scripture.

SECTION I.

Rom. vi. 23. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. John xvii. 2, 3. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Tit. iii. 4-7. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Matt. xxv. 31-34. 41. 46. When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Then shall he say also unto them on his left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. 1 Pet. i. 3, 4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord

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