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THE ETERNAL
DURAiJON
OF
t11,15C.
Xflf.
petuity
or
eternity
of
these punishments; are not liable
to
the same criticism
or
ambiguity
of
a
word.
`°
Their
fire
shall
be
unquenchable, or
is
not quenched, their
worm
dieth not. They
have
no
rest day
nor
night,
they shall
be
tormented
day_and,
night for ever and
ever;"
Rev.
aiv.
10, 11,
and
xx.
10.
These
expressions
seem
to
carry
with
them
a
more certain signification
of
the
perpe-
tual continuance
of
the
punishment. Now can the
tempter and
the,deceiver of
souls have
so
unhappy
an
influence
over you,
as
to
persuade
you to
venture
onward
in the paths
of
sin, to
put
off religion and delay
your
re-
pentance, and neglect
the means
of
salvation,
in
hopes
that
hereafter
this
,
weak criticism,
upon
some
of
the
threatenings,
may
take place before
-the
Judge of
the
whole
.earth,
and
thus excuse or
save
you
?
Is
not
such
a
sorry refuge and presumption
a
dangerous and
dismal
sign
upon impenitent sinners,
that
sin
and Satan have
darkened your
understanding,
and
confounded
your
judgment,
as
well
as
hardened your
hearts,
in
order to
your
everlasting
destruction
?
Answer
II.
Suppose the
punishments
of
hell
continue
only for
a long time, and not
for
an
endless
immortality,
yet
this time
would
certainly
be
found exceeding long for
sinners
to
bear
the
torment
even
according
to
their
own
criticisms.
Let
us
consider
this
matter under
some
par-
ticulars.
The Jewish
dispensation,
which is sometimes
called everlasting,
stood,
near
about
fifteen
hundred
years, from Moses
to
Christ;
and are
ye
content
to
lan-
guish and groan
under
torments' and
miseries,
for
fifteen
hundred
years, merely to satisfy
your
vicious
appetites
of
pleasure for
a
few
days
or
a
few
years of
this
mortal
life
?
Again,
The
rebellious sinners,
who
were destroyed
at
the
flood,
and their
spirits, which were
sent
into
the
prison
of
hades or
hell,
were
certainly
confined there fohr and
twenty
hundred
years:
And
if
they were released then,
as some imagine,
by
the preaching
of
Christ
to them,
it
is
a long and dreadful time
to
continue under
the ven-
geance
of
God
;
and
is
it
worth
while
for
any man
to
continue
in sin on
earth, and
to
venture
this length
of
punishment
in hell
?
What
I
build
this
computation
upon,
are
some
expressions
of
St.
Peter
;
1
Pet.
19,
20.
where
Christ
is
said
"
to
preach unto
the spi-