them, suffering justly for their aggravated crimes, as he said of ancient rebellious Israel-" Pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I WILL NOT hear thee." Jer, vii. 16.

The last means of salvation, which we mentioned, we stated to be, the influence of the HOLY SPIRIT leading to repentance and faith in Christ and promotive of holiness and obedience. "He (the Comforter, or Spirit) will reprove (convince) the world of sin, and righteousness and judgment." John xvi. 8. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." Gal. v. 22. 23. "Ye are sanctified by the spirit of our God." 1 Cor. vi. 11. "Ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth thro' the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren.” 1 Pet. i. 12.

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Quere -Have we any proof that the influence, the operation of this DIVINE SPIRIT extends to the "LOST" in another world? Answer-none whatever, but much to the contrary.

"My spirit shall not always strive with man," is the Janguage of Deity itself on this subject. Gen. vi. 3. Now, if this were spoken of sinners in this world, how absurd is it to suppose that he must necessarily strive hereafter with obdurated offenders, who, in this life, resisted all his motions !-If the spirit of God, not unfrequently, abandons the wilfully hardened sinner in this world, before the term of natural life expires, and that as a judicial visitation, something more than the mere opinion or ipse dixit of an erring mortal is required to satisfy our minds, that He will re-commence his operations on the hearts of persons in another world; especially, as the Scriptures. are not only silent as to this being the case, but as the persons themselves are placed in a state, by the direct in-

terference of God, in which they are said to have received "judgment WITHOUT mercy."

Again :-none can repent without the agency of the Divine Spirit; but of some it is said, "it is impossible to renew them unto repentance"-Heb. vi. 6. With such there is no determination on the part of the Spirit to strive. If this were said of characters then in time, how unscriptural, is it to expect that they will be "renewed to repentance" in eternity!

Again :-We cannot obtain forgiveness, but thro' the blood of Christ, applied to the conscience by the Spirit; but there is a sin, of which it is said, "it shall not be forgiven neither in this world,neither in the world to come.” Matt. xii. 32. It is evident on the very face of the passage, that the opinion, which makes the phrase "this world" mean the "old dispensation" and "the world to come" the "New," is unfounded. For 1. Christ is the, Speaker. 2. He could not, as a man of sense, laying aside a consideration of his Divinity, call a dispensation then PAST "this world," and a dispensation then PRESENT "the world to come." It is also carefully to be observed, that the phrase, "shall not be forgiven," cannot by any proper grammatical construction be made to refer to a dispensation already past; for this would be to employ a future tense, to point out time past, which would be an absolute contradiction. But there is no grammatical impropriety in applying that tense to the present dispensation; for, tho' at the time the words commented upon were spoken, it had but commenced, yet the greater portion of it was still future. Nor must it be overlooked, that the phrase "shall not be forgiven" implies that the person guilty of this sin shall be punished, not by temporal death, or temporal visitations only, but by eternal death or sufferings; for, tho' temporal death or temporal punishments can be inflicted. "in this world," they cannot have existence in the world to come"-to suppose the contrary,

would be to suppose a contradiction, an impossibilityand yet, according to our Saviour, the non-forgiveness, or punishment extends to "the world to come" as well as to "this world." With this view of the subject agrees the parallel passage in MARK; "he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of ETERNAL damnation." Mark iii. 29. "This phrase, It shall not be forgiven him, neither in this life, nor in the world to come," is equivalent to "shall NEVER at any future time be forgiven; hence Mark expresses it, 'is in danger of eternal damnation'. Nor is 'the world' or age to come' to be understood, with others, of the age of the Messiah; for that had already commenced. The expression, as appears from similar phrases in the later Jewish writers, was proverbial for never." (4) St Luke, also, employs the most positive terms, and absolutely declares, that the person guilty of the sin in question, ouk affesetai, "shall not be forgiven." Luke xii. 10.

Here then, there is, at least, one undeniable instance of a sin unpardonable in either world, and punishable consequently with "eternal damnation." To say that the Holy Spirit strives with an individual guilty of an unpardonable sin, to lead him to repentance, or faith in Christ, and thro' these to forgiveness, is to assert the greatest absurdity.

"Again; the nature of this punishment excludes all those works to which the promise of heaven is made. These are, as has been proved, faith and its fruits. Nothing is more clearly revealed in the book of God, than that faith is the medium thro' which a meetness for heaven is communicated to the soul. But what chance for faith in eternity? Now faith,' says the Apostle to the Hebrews, 'is the substance of things hoped for; and the evidence of things not seen. xi. 1. v. The certainty of sight and sense is perfectly incompatible with faith. But

(4) R, Watson, in loc.

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in eternity that record which God has given of invisible: things, and which be requires us to believe as necessary to salvation, will be known to be true by open vision. he, who would come to God here, commanded to "believe that God is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him'? There, these truths will no longer be matters of faith, but of certain knowledge. He that has been judged at God's bar, will know that he is; and he that. has heard the righteous, in his presence, welcomed into everlasting habitations, will know that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Must he, who would be saved, believe that Christ is the Redeemer and Saviour of the world? In eternity, the sinner will know that he is so; for he has seen the righteous admitted to heaven thro' receiving him, and finds himself thrust down to Hell for rejecting him. Is he called upon to believe in the HOLY SPIRIT? He now knows that he is suffering 'sorer punishment, for doing "despite unto that Spirit." short, every one must see, that at the Judgment, or after, it is impossible to exercise that faith, which we are here required to exercise in order to salvation. And as there is no opportunity for faith so there is none for its fruits. How can there be fruits when there is nothing to produce them? Besides, it will be readily seen, that there can be no opportunity to 'fight the good fight of faith' in bell." There can therefore be no operation of the Spirit in hell to produce "faith" when faith there cannot exist.

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If no faith, there can be no "love" in Hell. For love is a consequence of faith. In the first verses of the 5th Romans, the immediate fruits of justifying faith are stated; among these is mentioned love; and love is said to be "shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us," But if no love, there can be no Spirit

there to shed it abroad in the hearts of the damned. Again"We love God because he first loved us:" our

love so unparalled and immense, the Father might say of love of God results from an apprehension, an assurance of his love of us, obtained by faith; we cannot love God until we know that he loves us. But "God is angry with the wicked;" the damned are under wrath; therefore, whilst this is the case, it is utterly impossible, that they can love God.

If no love there can be no holiness; for the perfection of love is scriptural holiness. Nor can there be in Hell any religious obedience; for love is the root of all religious and accepted obedience. "This is the love of God (the effect of it) that we keep his commandments." John v. 3. If then there be no love, there can be no obedience. Besides it is easy to show, that there are many commandments, which cannot possibly be obeyed in another world. For instance;-"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy"-" Honour thy father and thy mother"-" Thou shalt not kili”—“Thou shalt not commit adultery"--"Thou shalt not steal"-Feed the hungry-Clothe the nakedVisit the fatherless and widows in their afflictions-Given to hospitality; &c. and these instances might be enlarged. "Unless then," to use the words of the author last quoted, "the very constitution of the place of salvation is changed; unless the most essential principles of the Gospel are given up; in short, unless there is some other way of getting to heaven, beside the one revealed in the Bible, there is no hope that the future miseries of the damned will ever be exchanged for the joys of heaven."(5)

To every unprejudiced mind, the above observations, we apprehend, are sufficient to show, that the discipline in the future state, so strenuously contended for, by the Universalists, is not. 1. The punishment itself. 2. The Word of God read or preached. 3. The sanctified efforts of the righteous. 4. The Mediatorial and Intercessory offices of Christ. or 5. The influence of the Holy Spirit,. (5) Dr. Fisk's Sermon.