SECOND VOLUME OF 'TILE OCTAVO EDITION'. IN. the Grst volume of these discourses, I made an introduction to them, 1 -by endeavouring to prove, that " at the departure of the soul from the body by death, the rewards or punishments, that is, the joys or'the sor- . rows of the other world are appointed to commence: And I hope I have there given, from the evidence of scripture, such arguments to support this doctrine, as that the faith of christians may not he staggered and confounded by different opinions, or made to wait for these events, through all the many years that may arise between death and the, resur- rection. I knownothing besides this, that is made a "matter of controversy.hi that volume: and I hope 'those sermons, arid these that follow by ate blessing of God, will be made happily useful to christians, to awaken and warn them against the danger of being seized by death in a state,unpre- pared for the presence of Gocl,, and the happiness of heaven, and to raise the comforts and joys of many pious souls in the lively expectation of fa- lure blessedness. The last discourses of . this second volume,. especially the eternity of the punishments, of hell, have been in latter and former years made a matter of dispute ; and were I to pursue My enquiries into this doctrine, ' only by the aids of the light of natureand-reason, d fear my natural ten- derness might warp me aside from the rules and the demands of strict Justice, and the wise and holy government of the great God. But as I confine myself almost entirely to the revelation ofscripture, in all my searches into things of revealed religion and christianity, I am con- trained to forget or to lay aside that softness and tenderness of animal na- ture which might lead me astray, and to follow the unerring dictates of the word of God. The scripture frequently, and in the plainest and strongest manner, as- serts the everlasting punishment of sinners in hell and that by all the me- thods of expression which are used in scripture to signify an everlasting . continuance.. God's utter hatred and aversion to sin, in this perpetual punishment of it, are manifested many ways: 1. By the just and severe threatenings of the wiseand righteous Governor of the world, which are scattered. up and down in his word. 2. By the veracity of God in his intiñìations or narra- tives of past events, as Jude, verse '7. " Sodom and . Gomorrah suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.» 3. By bis express predictions, Mat. xxv. 46. " These shall go away into everlasting punishment." 2 Thess. i. 9. " ZVhoshaWbe punished with everlasting destruction ;" and I might add, 4. By the veracity and truth of all his holy prophets and apostles, and his Son Jesus Christ, at the head of them, whom he has sent to acquaint mankind with the rules of their duty, and the *certainjudgment of God in a holy correspondence therewith, and that in such words as seem to admit of no way of escape, or of hope for the condemni4 criminals.
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