You will please to observe further, that these two ftates are contrafted with each other in the text before us, and contrasted in this very point of view, as to their duration. This appears from the face of the words, Thefe fhall go away into EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT, but the righteous into life eternal.

To fay the nature of the fubject fuggefts the different fenses, in which we are to understand the original word here used, though our Lord gives no hint of it, is begging the question. This is the very thing that is denied, and which has never yet been proved.

I fhall only add, we are affured in 2 Theffalonians, i. 9. That the wicked shall be punished with EVERLASTING defruction from the prefence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. This is that which infufes the bitter ingredient, despair, into the cup of JEHOVAH'S indignation. No hope-no hope-no hope through an endless eternity.

III. I am to confider the danger of thus lofing the soul. This danger is great, and arises from various fources; but all our time admits of at prefent, is briefly to touch upon the few following:

1. The fate in which we are by nature.

The Sacred Oracles uniformly represent this as a state of fpiritual death. And you bath be quickened, who were dead in trefpaffes and fins. Every foul, by reason of fin, is, in a finfe, in a lost state already, that is, they have loft the favour of God; they are, by nature, children of wrath. They have loft the image of God. Having the underftanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindnefs of their heart. From the former arifes the neceffity

of

of being juftified freely by God's grace, through the redemption that is in Jefus Chrift; and from the latter, the neceffity of being renewed in the spirit of our mind. Agreeably to this, every unbelieving finner is represented as under an actual fentence of condemnation to fuffer the pains of eternal fire. He that believeth not is condemned already; because he bath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. He that beli veth on the Son bath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son fhall not fee life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.

You will therefore perceive, that it is only for finners to continue in that state, unpardoned and unrenewed, and they are inevitably loft to all eternity; and the danger there is, that they may continue in this state, appears,

2. From the many obftructions that lie in the finner's way to a recovery to the favour and image of God. I cannot stay to enumerate these, much less to illustrate them at large in this place. I fhall only mention the following: The blindness of the human mind; the estrangement of the heart from God; nay more, its enmity against him; the unfaithfulness of the confcience; and the various depravity of the affections; all these are properly of an internal nature; they are obftructions that arife from ourselves. But befides thefe, fuch is the power and influence Satan, the adverfary of our fouls, has in obftructing the finner's recovery to God, and affecting his ruin, that he is styled the Prince of this world. For the prince of this world cometh and bath nothing in me: And alfo, the God of this world. In whom the God of this world bath blinded the minds of them which believe not, left the light of the glorious gospel of Chrift, who is the image of God, fhould fhine unto them. He is, for his cunning, called the Old Serpent, and, for his malice, the Devil and Satan.

Now,

Now, when you confider the power, the cunning, the malice, and the industry of Satan and his accomplices, that are continually employed in ruining the fouls of men, the danger of their being loft is greatly heightened.

Again, This world is another fruitful fource of obftructions in the finner's way to eternal life.-The corrupt opinions of the world, its vicious examples, its smiles, its frowns, its neceffary and lawful cares, its riches, its honours, its amusements, with all its various pleasures, lawful and unlawful, all, all contribute, by reason of our depravity, to heighten the finner's danger of lofing his foul.

3. This danger appears from the many ways in and by which the foul may be loft. The principal of these are, ignorance of God, and of fpiritual and eternal things, carnal fecurity, and indifference respecting the falvation of our fouls, a prefuming on the abfolute mercy of God, without proper regard had to the atonement of Chrift, hypocrify and formality in religion, the imbibing of such false principles as are incompatible with gospel-holinefs, particularly the principles of infidelity, the neglecting of God's public ordinances, which never fails, if persisted in, to iffue in the ruin of the foul; procraftination, or putting off the business of our fouls to fome future time ; this is the ufual, and, alas! too frequent bane of youth; to which we may add, the many ways of open profanenefs, fuch as drunkenness, uncleannefs in all its various forms, curfing and profane swearing, lying, dishonefty in dealing with each other, fabbath-breaking, contempt of God and facred things, with every other species of vice; all and each of these may be confidered as so many dif ferent paths which lead down to the chambers of eternal death; fome more fecret, and fome more open; and which

ferve to illuftrate the danger of lofing the foul; which danger is not a little heightened by the confideration of the immediate and fatal influence fome of these things must have, from their very nature, upon the ruin of the foul.

4. This danger appears from the great difficulty of recovering the foul from all thefe evils.

Nothing lefs can effect it than the almighty arm of God, and to this it is uniformly afcribed in the Sacred Oracles The bent of the foul, by nature, is against its own reco, very, as appears from the internal obstructions in the way to it already mentioned.

The cafe of the finner may be justly compared to that of a perfon deprived of his reason, who refuses to use the means prescribed for his recovery, however judicious; or who counteracts them to the utmost of his power, or both. The charge of our Lord against the Jews of old, is equally juft with respect to every unbelieving finner under the gospel. Ye will not come unto me that ye may bave life. And befides this, all earth and all hell are opposed to the finner's recovery to God, as you have heard in its place. If ever, therefore, it be effected, it must be by the arm of the LORD GOD OF HOSTS.-And now put all these confiderations together, and yourselves being judges, is not the danger of lofing your precious fouls great?

But it is time I should finish the fubject by a few practical reflections upon what has been said. And you will eafily perceive, that,

1. Whether we confider the value of the foul, the nature of the ruin to which it is expofed, or the danger it is in of falling into this ruin, all confpire to teach us the evil nature of fin, that fin which exposes this precious

foul

foul to all this ruin.-My brethren, fin is not that trifle men in general esteem it. It has loft us the Divine favour, and juftly exposed us to the displeasure of heaven; it has loft us the Divine image, and rendered us wholly unfit for the enjoyment of the God of holiness; it is the procuring caufe of all the numerous and complicated evils of this life. For as by one man fin entered into the world, and death by fin; so death passed upon all men, for that all have finned.

"If every individual of our race," fays a pious divine, "that has ever existed, from Adam down to our day, were "collected into one mighty heap, and an inquest held up"on them, fin would be found to be the murderer." But this is not all; for we are affured, that those who perfift in the ways of fin, shall be punished with everlasting de ftruction from the prefence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.-Muft it not then be an evil and a bitter thing to fin against the Lord. Would to God that I could imprefs each one of you,

and my own foul with

yours, with a proper sense of the evil and deftructive nature thereof, that we might be hereby excited to hate it in a suitable manner, to turn from it to God through his Son Jefus Chrift, and to maintain a careful and conftant guard against it.

2. How indebted are we to rich grace for a Saviour from the ruin, which the lofs of thefe precious fouls involves?-a ruin of which we are in fo much danger. God might have paffed by our race as he paffed by the fallen angels, and have left us to perish in our unnatural rebellion against him, as he left them. But O! the riches of redeeming love! Having laid his plan in the eternal councils of peace, he was pleased to execute it in the fulnefs of time, by fending his Son into our world, made of