fifth chapter, after a description of the proceedings of that last day, in which he declares his own purpose of coming again, to judge the quick and the dead, he thus explains what is meant by that fearful expression, the damnation of Hell. For-Then '-it is written in the forty-first verse-Then shall he say unto the 'wicked on his left hand-"Depart from me, ye "cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the "devil and his angels!"-: and therefore in the last verse it is stated-These shall go away into everlasting punishment.'

Accordingly in the book of revelation this spiritual and eternal death is called the second death. The fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and all

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liars,' (it is written in the eighth verse of the twenty-first chapter) shall have their part ' in the lake, which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.' And in the tenth and eleventh verses of the fourteenth chapter, the portion of the wicked is thus described. The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indig

nation; and he shall be tormented with fire ' and brimstone in the presence of the holy

angels and in the presence of the lamb; and 'the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever; and they have no rest day, ' nor night.'

Such are the frightful particulars, into which the holy scriptures expand the terrible denunciation in the text-The soul, that sinneth, it 'shall die.'

Moreover these particulars are not mere inventions, like the dreams of heathen philosophers. They are not flourishes of rhetoric, like the declarations of professed orators. They are either the express declarations, or they are statements, made upon the authority of one, who said of himself I am the first ' and the last, and have the keys of Hell and ' of Death.' If then the bible and all its contents be not a mere fiction, these are statements, drawn from facts by one, who had a most certain knowledge of them, who had an absolute control over them, and who in all, that he has told us concerning them, was

enabled to say- We speak that we do know, ' and testify that we have seen.'

Still further we are ourselves witnesses

of the fulfilment of one

threatenings every day.

part of these divine

Death is an object

of sight, a palpable fact, with which we arė, alas! only too familiar. It is true, that Adam did not in this sense of the word die on the day, when he ate the forbidden fruit. But he died afterwards. The sentence was respited, but not remitted. And of all the denunciations of punishment, recorded in scripture, whether relating to the flood, to the overthrow of Sodom, to the destruction of Nineveh, to the captivity of Judah, or to the subversion of other states, the same thing may be observed. The sentences were sometimes respited through the forbearance of God, and a further term of grace allowed. But there is not one of them, which, when that enlarged season of favour had expired, has not been executed to the full. And with respect

to the case of death in

particular, two in

dividuals only out of the incalculable millions of the human race have been spared from it,

Enoch before the flood, and Elijah after it, so, that we have the most ample confirmation before our eyes, and in the history of the ages, that were before us, of the truth of that assertion of the apostle, 'Death passed upon all men, ' for that all have sinned!'

If then the sentence of natural death has been thus inflicted, and is still being inflicted daily, what ground have we for doubting, that the remaining sentence of spiritual death will be inflicted also? The soul, that sinneth, it shall die. The word of warning shall be found a word of truth; and they, who reject or despise it now, will hereafter drink, as you heard their doom denounced to you in the language of inspiration, of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.

But in fact we may ask-Is it a mere prediction? Is not the fulfilment of it actually begun? On the day, when Adam transgressed, the image of God departed from his soul; and the first symptom of spiritual death was thus felt. Nor from that time have his descendants been ever free from it. "Your iniquities,'

(says Isaiah,) have separated between you and your God.' Wherever the spirit of God is not present, the soul is dead. A spiritual death has oppressed and benumbed its faculties and hence saint Paul declared of the heathens in his day, that they were dead, already dead, in trespasses and sins. And this spiritual death moreover is itself a sure indication of the wrath of God; which is therefore sometimes in the new Testament not so much denounced as assumed. Thus saint John, the baptist, affirms of every one, who does not believe in the saviour, in the last verse of the third chapter of saint John's gospel, that the wrath of God abideth on him; not, that it will visit him hereafter, but that it is his already, and that it will not be removed, but abideth on him. All sins are symptoms of spiritual death; and all sufferings are signs of that wrath of God, which is its sure and inseparable accompaniment, so, that, when we look abroad into the state of the world in its present fallen and sinful condition, we have too much reason to say-There is wrath gone out from the ' lord. The plague is begun.' And why is

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