fate hereafter will be determined by our conduct here; and that all application for relief, contrary to the original constitution and ordinary providence of God, will come too late in the other world, and be in vain. Indeed, castigatory punishments by fire, on souls in the separate state, are in a natural view absurd and unphilosophical; and not less so perhaps in a moral one. Correction, in a state of moral discipline, is, without doubt, necessary, and of great use. But they are not such punishments as these, nor merely punishments of any kind, that work a real reformation in this world. And it is still harder to conceive how such causes can produce such effects, in a state which does not seem calculated for any material alteration of our moral character and condition.

The other state succeeding this is that which commences after the resurrection and general judgment; and we need only look into this 25th chapter of St. Matthew, to be convinced, that the fate of the incurably wicked is then decided for ever. The divine Founder of the Christian church may then say, what he said when he had just purchased it with his blood, It is finished. Having accomplished the number of his elect, he delivers up the kingdom to God, even the Father"; and as no man can (nor from the foundation of the world to the end of it ever did) come to the Father, but by him; and his offices of mediation are now at an end, and the purposes of God by him of bringing many sons unto glory are fulfilled; the mystery, or the whole mysterious dispensation of God in Christ, concludes".

He and his saints take possession of the everlasting kingdom, and the door is shut. Without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lieb. And, according to the whole tenor and drift of the New Testament, there is no after-admission for such as these; no intimations dropt, from one end of it to the other, of their reestablishment or recovery. On the contrary, in all our Lord's parables relating to this matter, and in all his discourses about it, their condition is represented as finally and unalterably determined. This is the plain result of the parables of the virgins, of the talents, of the tares, and of the marriage of the king's son d. The time when the bridegroom comes, when the master reckoneth with his servants, when the king comes in to see the guests, and of the harvest, is all the same time, i. e. the end of the world, or the day of judgment. And the wicked and slothful servants are then rejected by Christ, are excluded out of the kingdom of heaven, are bound hand and foot, are deprived of their original talents, and, as tares, are cast into a furnace of fire; or, in our Lord's plain representation of the same matter, their sentence is, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels; and from that time they go into everlasting punishment. I insist not here upon the argument drawn from the strict import of the word aiduos in these passages; not that I distrust it, but, as for other reasons, so because my purpose does not directly require it. For whether it here denotes a proper eternity, or not, it

a Matt. xxv. 10.

b Rev. xxii. 15.

c Matt. xiii.

plainly, and in all reason, must be understood to denote a state of punishment which is final, and will not determine but with the subject; which, however, we have no sufficient reason, either from scripture or true philosophy, to suppose will ever come to pass. This then, I assert, is the constant and uniform view exhibited to us by Jesus Christ in all his parables relating to this subject, in all his representations of the nature and design of this world, and of human life, and of his kingdom, and of the transactions of the last day. And we meet with the same prospect of the state of the wicked after judgment in the writings of his apostles: insomuch that some, who are unwilling to believe eternal punishments, are obliged to suppose that the terms they generally use on this occasion, such as lávatos, plopà, λepos, aπwλeα, with their respective verbs, denote annihilation, or utter extinction of being. There is no reason for this however, these words being never used in the New Testament, at least as applied to intelligent beings, in that philosophical sense; but always in a popular or moral one, for a state of condemnation, misery, sin, and ruin. The context generally limits them to this sense, being opposed to Swn, owτnpía, and the like; which, denoting the Christian's reward, never mean mere duration of existence, but supreme felicity. Existence and nonexistence are philosophical niceties with which the scripture has no concern. The sanctions of Christ's laws are rewards and punishments; annihilation is inconsistent with both. The threats of it would be no terror to wicked men in this world, and the expectations of it in the next would be a comfort to those, for whom it were good if they had never been

born. Besides, the terms above mentioned must be understood consistently with other expressions and descriptions in scripture relating to the same subject. And πῦρ αἰώνιον, κόλασις, κρίσις, κρίμα, (αἰώνιος or αἰώνιον,) ἐκδίκησις, τιμωρία, with several others, point out another sort of state, and excite very different ideas from that of annihilation.

This however seems clear, from what has been discoursed, that neither in the middle state nor that which succeeds it, neither before the day of judgment nor after it, will there be any thing analogous to a state of trial, where they may stand another chance for that improvement and happiness which they neglected here. What prospect then is there of any recovery or restoration of these wicked to the favour of God? Mere power must not be interested in the question. Their righteous Judge must ever regard them as what they are. And the same incurably wicked temper, for which they are commanded to depart from his presence at the great day of retribution, will exclude them out of his kingdom for ever and ever. The consequences of this exclusion will be exactly in proportion to the demerit of each offender's sins, and the malignity of his temper; so that the Judge of all the earth will do right.

There is one reflection arising hence, of the greatest moment to us all; but which every man may make for himself, with much greater advantage than any other can make for him. Our fortunes are now depending; we are laying the foundation, by our virtuous or wicked temper and habits, of our happiness and misery to all eternity. If we die in our f Gen. xviii. 25.

sins, they will rise up against us at the day of judgment; if we die in the Lord, though we rest from our labours, our works will follow us 8. Let no pretences of absurd and weak men remove us from this persuasion for whatever contradicts or defeats the influence of these great practical truths, is a delusion and a lie; and he that hath ears to hear, let him hear h

8 Rev. xiv. 13.

h Matt. xiii. 43.