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justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." This is applied to men generically, to every generation, both of Jews and Gentiles. "And his Lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my Heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one, his brother their trespasses." "For this we know, that no unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God, upon the children of disobedience." "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these ; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings and such like; of which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." What it is, to inherit the kingdom of God, we are informed in an ac

Math. xviii. 34,-5. Eph. v. 5, 6. Gal. v. 19, 21.

count of the last judgment. "Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." It is to possess the rewards of the righteous in heaven. In the foregoing quotations, the assertion is unequivocally made, that certain sins unabandoned, will terminate in an exclusion from the blessings of salvation. The argument, derived from them in favor of future punishment, is grounded upon the historical fact, that many persons enter the grave, with the characters described. It cannot be supposed, that they who give no signs of repentance until the very crisis of death, then invariably become the subjects of so great a change; especially when it is recollected, how many are suddenly arrested in the midst of their crimes, and destroyed without a moment's reflection. The threatening against such persons must be executed. Is not this an obvious conclusion from the reiterated declaration, that sinners of every description shall be excluded from heaven, and visited with the wrath of God, when it is known, that they often die, as they live, to every good work reprobate? "Then said Jesus unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go,

ye cannot come." "I said therefore unto you, that shall die in your sins: for if ye believe

ye

not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins."

Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come." These passages, addressed to the unbelieving Jews, are as decisive as any can be, in proof of future punishment. They do not, indeed, at first sight, wear this aspect. It is only by an acquaintance with the nature of Christianity, as a system for restoring man to the favor of God through the forgiveness of sins, that we see the force of the denunciation;-" Ye shall die in your sins." Such a death is indissolubly connected with punishment. Indeed, in most of our Lord's addresses to the Jews, he charges them with an opposition to himself, fatal to their souls. "How can ye believe, who receive honor one of another." "Whither go ye cannot come." The very circumstance. that faith in Christ is made essential to salvation, connected with the final rejection of him by the Jews, is complete demonstration of the doctrine of future punishment. It does not show in what future punishment

I

John viii. 21, 24. vii. 34.

consists. A knowledge of this, we must gather from other sources. But it does show, that some men will not inherit the kingdom of Christ and of God. "I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me." "Neither pray I for these alone; but for them also which shall believe on me through their word." For the world, (under that appellation Christ includes all final unbelievers) he does not pray: but only for such as should afterward believe on his name, implying that some men would reject him, in consequence of which they must fail of salvation.

5. "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.". This is another of the numerous proofs of the exclusion of persons in the time of Christ, from the privileges of his kingdom. Enough has been said of the spiritual nature of this kingdom. It was not set up with any temporal design, nor does it secure its subjects from temporal calamities.

John xvii. 9, 20. Math. xxiii. 13.

It is not of this world. It extends beyond the grave, and there, in a peculiar sense, it protects and enriches those, who inherit it, while the servants of sin, are banished and shut up in misery. But the Pharisees entered not into this kingdom, and were accessory to the exclusion of others. Nothing more indubitable is needed in proof of a state of punishment in the future world.

6. "And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence; shake off the dust under your feet, for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city." This passage, which shows that the day of judgment was used technically, for the time when God shall pronounce a final sentence on men of every generation, is of itself sufficient to establish the future punishment of the wicked. The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah are to be called to an account in company with the rejectors of the gospel, who will be most severely punished. "And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil."

Mark vi. 11. John iii. 19.