"the Jews in his days, paints God as agi،، tated by violent affections; partial to "one people, and hating all other na"tions." A third of the same communion (Semler) presumes to say, that “Peter

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speaks according to the conception of ،، Jews, and the Prophets may have deli"vered the offspring of their own brains." Such is the reverence of those who profess to hold that the Scriptures are the only repository of God's will; and such the conclusions which spring from their presumption, that they may reject, whenever they think proper, any of the particular doctrines contained therein. Their arbitrary version of the Scriptures is one of its consequences; but the poison, which that offers, carries to all who will examine it with accuracy, its own antidote; and by God's providence there have not been wanting those, who were both willing and able to guard their fellow Christians against that device of the unbeliever. May the Lord in his mercy still stretch his arm over us, and preserve the incorruptness of his word in our hands; and also a dutiful and

reverend care in us, to hold fast that form of sound words which we have learned of him, till he shall come to take account how we have occupied that most precious talent committed to our charge.

SERMON VII.

ON THE ETERNITY OF PUNISHMENT.

MATTH. XXV. 46.

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

IN

our proposed examination of those articles which the Unitarian advocate has set forth as the confession of faith of his party, in opposition to the Church of England, we come lastly to this particular, that "they reject the horrible doctrine," as he calls it," of the future eternal torments of "the wicked; but believe, that their pu"nishment will be remedial, as a purgation "of crimes and evil habits; after which "they will be restored to virtue and hap

piness." Against this their belief two things are to be urged. The first, that it is unfounded in Scripture, and repugnant to

Scripture. The second, that it is inconsistent with the nature of God's avowed designs in regard to man, because its natural tendency is to produce an evil course of living.

Now the passages in holy Writ which apply to this matter are so clear, that they appear to be incapable of misconstruction; for they distinctly teach, that the pains of the damned shall be not only inconceivable, but also eternal. Such, in the first place, is my present text, which announces, in our blessed Saviour's own words, that "the wicked shall go into everlasting pu"nishment: but the righteous into life eter"nal." The trifling variation of expression in regard to the reward and punishment which we read in the English, does not exist in the Greek. Both are described as precisely of the same duration. The word used in the original, in both parts of the sentence, has not only the same signification, as is the case in our version, but it is precisely the same word; so that no

* Και απελεύσονται ούτοι εις κολασιν αιώνιον· οἱ δε δικαιοι εις ζωήν αιώνιον.

reason whatsoever can be drawn from this very plain and positive passage, for making any manner of difference between the duration of the happiness and of the torment. Now the Unitarian system holds the future certainty of happiness, both to the blessed and the cursed; with this distinction alone, that such happiness is not to commence equally soon with both; for after a course of purgatory pain, the most grievous sinners are to be restored, according to that system, to virtue and happiness. But if they build on the Scriptures, and there is no other foundation on which we can build securely, there is in them to the full as much and as decisive assurance of eternity of torment, as of eternity of enjoyment. That it is a horrible doctrine, if by horrible they mean such as must excite terror as its natural consequence in the heart of man, is not only the most true, but would to God that it produced that effect more deeply and more universally. For it is, if mankind would give to it full and due consideration, the most powerful of all inducements to urge them to work out their own