482 / 674
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
know
nothing
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
nature
and
-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
wise
and
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
*certain
judgment
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.