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THF, ETERNAL DURATION
of
[DISC.
XIII.
The
arguments
which shall
be
employed to prove
it
are
such
as these
Argument
I.
The
express words
of
Christ
and
his
apos-
tles
pronounce
the punishments eternal
;
and surely these
words
are
given
to
us
to be
the
foundation
ofour
faith and
practice,
and the rules of
our
hope
and
fear. My
text
seems
to
carry
plain and unanswerable evidence
in it.
"
The
worm
dieth
not, and
the
fire
is
not
quenched."
And
it
is
many times
repeated
in
this
chapter,
..
and that
with
a
special
accent
on
the eternal
duration of
it,
to make
that
circumstance
of it
more observed,
and
to aggravate the
terror.
Such
an
awful
repetition
from the lips
of
the
Son
of
God
should make the sound
of
the vengeance
dwell longer
on the
ear,.
and
the
threatening
sink
deeper
into the
soul.
Let
us
next
observe the
final
sentence which Christ,
as
judge pronounces
against impenitent sinners
among
the
sons
of
men,
as well
as
against fallen
spirits, in
Mat.
xxv.
41.
It
is
this,
"
Depart,
ye
cursed,
into
everlasting
fire
prepared
for the
devil
and
his
angels
:"
And
as
soon as
the sentence
is
pronounced,
it
is
immedi-
ately executed,
as
our
Saviour foretels
in verse 46.
"
These
shall
go
away
into everlasting punishment,
and
the righteous into
life
eternal."
What
he
pronounces
as
judge,
he
foretels
also as
a
prophet,
that
it
shall
be
put
in
execution.
The
express
word.
of
God,
in
describing
the punish
-
ment of
sinners
by the
pen
of
his two
apostles
Paul
and
John,
declares the
same thing
;" 2
Thess.
i.
9.
"
They
shall
be
punished
with
everlasting destruction
from the
presence
of
the Lord." And the book
of
the
Revelation
gives us
assurance,
that
these miseries shall have
no
end;
Rev.
xiv.
10, 11.
"
The
antichristian idolaters,
who worship the
beast, shall
drink
of
the
wine
of
the
-wrath
of
God,
which
is
.poured
out,
without mixture,
into the
cup
of
his
indignation, and
shall
be
tormented
with fire
and
brimstone
in
the presence of the Lamb,
and
the smoke
of
their
torment
ascendeth
up for ever and
ever.
Jude,
the
apostle, bears
this
testimony
in
the
same manner,
verse
6.
" the
damned
spirits,
who
kept not
their
first
station,
are
said to
be
cast down into
hell,
and
bound
in
chains
of
everlasting darkness."
Now suppose
a
man plunged
into a pit
of
thick
darkness,
by
the
coma