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none but believers will ever have. If the wicked die in. their fins, they die without any part in Chrift: dying thus, they will never fee life nor immortality, and will die the SECOND DEATH, being burnt up like the chaff, like the stubble, like the tares, like the tree twice dead. When we confider the lake of fire to mean this earth on fire, how awful muft that fight be! But how much more fo is it to think of sharing in the fecond death, which all will experience who are caft into that lake to be punished with everlasting deftruction from the prefence of the Lord and the glory of his power,when he shall be glorified in his faints. This I fhall fpeak more largely upon in the next fermon, in defcribing the fecond. death in the lake of fire.

Let each one who reads this defcription of the lake of fire, or hell, confider it if they forget God, left he tear them in pieces, and there be none to deliver. O Aly to the Saviour, that fo you may efcape the damnation of hell,

SERMON XVI.

"WE HAVE ALSO A MORE SURE WORD OF

PROPHECY," &c.

I now proceed to a fourth particular, mentioned in a foregoing fermon, viz. The Second Death, which all the wicked will die after they are judged out of the books, and caft into the lake of fire.

THIS

HIS will be the time when Chrift will put all his enemies under his feet, and fubdue all things to himself, and thus prepare the way for the new heavens and earth to be created, wherein dwelleth righteousness. This all the faints according to his promife look for.

It is a certain fact, that all the pofterity of Adam who live and die in rebellion against God, will, after the day of judgment, be punished with the fecond death for dif obedience.

As men are to die for a crime, or are to be punished at the day of judgment; it is proper here to attend to two things:

1. What are the disobedient condemned to the fecond DEATH for?

2. What is that DEATH which the difobedient will experience at the day of judgment?

1. We are to enquire, what the difobedient are condemned to die the fecond death for. All nations allow that there will be fome punifhment after death; this is allowing there is a crime. All who profefs to believe the bible, believe this, excepting fome of those called Univerfalifts. Mr. Winchester fays, we may as well de

ny any other part of the bible, as future punishment. What he contended for was, that the punishment after the day of judgment was limited, and would end in the deliverance of the ungodly. Had the bible read exactly opposite to what it does, he might have proved it; but unhappily for him, to make out his fyftem he was oblig ed to contradict the word of God.

There is not a person on earth who can prove the propriety of future punishment, if he holds the cause to be,. what is generally taught for truth. Before I fhew what the difobedient are condemned to die the fecond death for, I fhall mention what is preached in general as the cause of future punishment. Among the many causes. mentioned I fhall name four.

1. That God made a certain part of the human family, which they call the non-elect, on purpose for eternal mifery, to display the glory of his vindictive juftice. Is. this true? It is not. If men are created for eternal mifery, there is no propriety in saying they are punished. There can be no punishment where there is no crime. The innocent may fuffer; but they cannot be punished. To fay the God who is love, made beings on purpose for eternal mifery, is to represent him as cruel as the prince. of darkness. Those who hold to this, to clear themfelves from inconfiftencies, fay, "God is a fovereign and has a right to do as he pleafe." Afk them if they are. willing to fhare in this part of his pleasure; they are

not.

2. Many people are taught that the caufe of future punishment is original fin; a fin which Adam committed, which is charged to all his children. Many honeft well meaning people, through the force of education, think they brought fin enough into the world to caft them off forever. They tell of two forts of fin; original and actual. Is this juft among men, for one to fuffer for what another did? No. Is it just in God to punish millions for what one man did? It is not. mention original fin? They do not. the Jews, that he vifited the iniquities of the fathers up. on the children, unto the third and fourth generation of

Do the fcriptures
Once God faid to

them that hate him ; but not to a thousand generations. It is not fo now even among the Jews. The Lord fays,. Ezekiel xviii. 3, 4, "As I live, faith the Lord God, ye hall not have occafion any more to use this proverb in Ifrael: Behold all fouls are mine; as the foul of the father, fo alfo the foul of the fon is mine; the foul that finneth, it fhall die." This does not look like original fin,. or one perfon being punished for a fin which another. committed and was punished for.

This confufed mafs called original fin, which no perfon on earth ever knew the meaning of, was invented in the fith century by an African monk, fince known to the world by the name of St. Auguftine. According to his. notion of original fin, God created one man and one woman upright, and no more; that he contracted - with them for happiness on condition of obedience, and threatened to punish them and all their pofterity forever, if they difobeyed. They did difobey, and it was confidered juft that the guilt of this fingle act of disobedience should be charged on them, on their children, on their grandchildren, and on all their pofterity, in all future generations, a guilt to be punished with endless mifery. This.. is unjust, because it is unfcriptural. This made the people difcontented, and led them to have hard thoughts of their Creator, that he should doom them to eternal. damnation for a crime which they never committed. No wonder they complained of fuch abominable doctrine. as this!

Original fin is not the cause of future punishment; for if men could fuffer for what another did, it could not be a punishment,

3. There are fome who teach that the disobedient will be punished at laft for not keeping the law after they have tranfgreffed it; when it is impoffible for them to keep it. Is this true? It is not. Was it ever known that a man was hung for not keeping a law which forbid murder after he had committed the crime?

How this looks to a thinking man, to hear a preacherfay, "Sinners, you are commanded to keep God's law perfectly, though it is not in your power to do it; and

could you keep it you could not be faved by it. God has not loft his power to command, though you have loft your power to obey." This is defcribing a God like Nebuchadnezzar, who required an impoffibility of his wife men,and then threatened to destroy them becausethey did not perform what they could not.

If men are condemned to future punishment for not keeping the law, they cannot be punished for disobeying the gofpel; for in a righteous government men are not put death for two crimes.

4. There are fome in this day who preach that what the disobedient will be punished for at last is, because they do not believe the gofpel, when there is no provifion for them, and though it was never poffible for them to be faved. There are men who come forward and publish to the world, that all that ever did, are, or ever will be faved, were given to Chrift in the covenant of redemption before the world was; that many are given to him who are not yet born. After they have faid this, they tell their hearers, if they do not believe in Chrift, they will be damned for not believing. Some of thefe inconsistent preachers, tell of a fufficiency in Chrift for all the world, and invite all to trust in him; that falvation is free for all; and yet believe the reason why no more are faved is, because God decreed they should not be faved. Neither of these four things are what is said to be the cause of that death threatened in the fcriptures.

5. I will now fhew what is the real caufe of the punishment, which the gofpel fays the impenitent fhall have at the laft day.

The cause of the punishment of the wicked at the last day is this; difobeying the gospel of Jefus Chrift.

All men are in one fituation by nature, Rom. iii. 9, 10, "What then? are we better than they? No in no wife; for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under fin: As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. Verse 23, "For all have finned and come short of the glory of God." These verses fhew that all nations are in one fituation; all finners. What fin have they committed & They have hated the light

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