we read of, Isa. xxvii. 11. "He that made them, will not have mercy on them; and he that formed them, will show them no favour." Oh! forlorn, undone condition!

James ii. 13. "For he shall have judgment without mercy, who hath showed no mercy." Now does not "judgment without mercy," amount to a most awful condition? Can it be less than the weight of God's hand, in wrath and "fiery indignation?"

Rom. vi. 21, 22. "What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become the servants of God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." Here are two very different ends, set in direct opposition, as following directly opposite states; will either of these ends ever come to another end? Now the death here spoken of as the first end mentioned in this passage, cannot be the natural death of our bodies, for that befalls the righteous as well as the wicked; but this end is put in direct opposition to everlasting life; how then can everlasting life be the end of both states? Does it not turn this passage into nonsense, to suppose the end of both will be the same? We read of some "whose end is destruction." Phillip. iii. 19. Again, "His latter end shall be that he perish forever." Num. xx. 10, 20. But if this destruction, this perishing forever, is to terminate in eternal life, where is the truth of asserting it to be the end? Is not our end, our last state, our fixed and abiding condition? I suppose we never shall have an end, otherwise than, as in a sense, our last state may be so called, though that endures forever. How then can our real end or abiding condition, ever come to another end, and terminate in a quite different state? Surely, if it will, this destruction here called the end of the wicked, is in truth infinitely short of the end. It is a common saying, the end crowns all. Read the lxxiii. Psalm. Here we find even David was ready to be "envious at the foolish, when he saw the prosperity of the wicked." He says, "Their strength is firm, they are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men." And though he saw that "pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment; they are corrupt, VOL. II.-53

and speak wickedly; concerning oppressions they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens." Yet he saw and was puzzled at it, that "their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish;" so he breaks out, saying, "Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world, they increase in riches:" upon this he adds, " verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency." But why did he say so? Why, however exempt the wicked were from plagues and troubles, poor David was afflicted, and says, " for all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning." Here he was almost ready ignorantly to give the preference to the wicked, until his understanding was opened in the sanctuary; for viewing these things without regard to the end, he says, "When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; until I went into the sanctuary of God: then understood I their end." This gave him a very different prospect of the matter, and now he proceeds, "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castest them down into destruction." Oh! how he now speaks of their end, destruction, desolation, and terrors! "O Lord," says he," when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image." And again, all in this one Psalm, " Lo, they that are far from thee, shall perish." Now this opening of his understanding, not only gave him to see the dismal end of the wicked, after all their prosperity; but also the blessed end of the righteous, after all their troubles: therefore, he now looks back on his former reasoning, as upon a beast-like ignorance, saying, “So foolish was I and ignorant, I was as a beast before thee." Now beasts have their goods and evils in this life, and so had David, it seems, been ignorantly viewing things in regard to mankind, and almost ready to prefer the state of the wicked; but, alas! on a view of their vastly different end, from that of the righteous, he adds, immediately upon the mention of his said beast-like ignorance, "Nevertheless, I am continually with thee, thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory." Oh! blessed end indeed! he was now no longer envious at the poor prosperity of the wicked; he saw it was their portion, their greatest good: and that their end was miserable. And now seeing his own portion

so infinitely better than theirs, he no longer thinks the cleansing of his heart, and washing his hands in innocency, to be in vain : but in the consolating prospect of his own eternal inheritance, he rejoicingly sings, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth, that I desire beside thee." Oh! how he could now despise all earthly comforts, all the vain flourishing of the wicked, and desire only the enjoyment of him who had held his right hand! And well indeed he might so, for he says, "God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever."

Job also speaks of the great prosperity of the wicked in this world, and yet declares their dreadful end. See Job xxi. throughout. "The wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power. Their seed is established. Their houses are safe from fear; neither is the rod of God upon them. They spend their days in wealth," &c. And yet, after all their flourish, and however exempt they may sometimes be from the rod of God here below, yet evident it is that Job did not think they would always escape. By no means; for says he, "He rewardeth him, and he shall know it; his eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty. The wicked is reserved to the day of destruction; they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath." Now will any be bold enough to deny that all this points out the destruction and calamity, the terrors, the perishing, &c. of the wicked as their portion in another life? In this they prosper exceedingly; therefore the numerous curses, and denunciations of judgment and misery, so abundantly threatened in scripture, must surely be principally executed upon them after death; and must be what David means, when he says, "then understood I their end." And a woful end indeed it is to be "brought forth to the day of wrath," as their last state, and as their fixed, abiding condition, to" perish forever."

Now let us attend to the story of the rich man and Lazarus, and see if the torment of the one, as well as the joys of the other, do not forcibly strike our minds as something fixed and certain. What else mean these words: "Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed; so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would

come from thence?" See Luke xvi. 19, &c. Here it seems there is no passing either way. And does not this declare the fixed, certain, and abiding torment of the wicked on the one hand, as it does the fixed, abiding happiness of the righteous on the other? I believe none can deny this, who allow that Christ intended in this parable to convey some real and important instruction to his hearers. Or can it be thought he meant to trifle with them? Surely nay. It is not to be doubted that he meant it as an awful and important truth: may it rightly impress every reader's mind. Let none too easily pass over it, nor reason away its only plain, open, and awful meaning, lest too late they bewail their sad mistake, when " tormented in this flame," to use the rich man's mournful language, they with him may have to beg a drop of water to cool their tongues, and yet be denied. This, our Lord asserts, was this poor creature's case, when "in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torment." Now does not this absolute denial of a little water, when he so earnestly entreated for it, in the midst of the scorching flames, clearly point out that there is no possible mitigation or alleviation of the miseries of the damned? And does not his great and urgent importunity to have one rise from the dead to warn his five brethren, in order that they might repent, "lest they also come into this place of torment," sound very different from that daubing with untempered mortar, that teaching of smooth things, that cry of peace, peace, which is so often heard in our age? Surely, the rich man must have been feelingly convinced of the dreadful reality of future punishments! It must have pierced deep, and lain heavy upon him, to induce him thus repeatedly to urge the sending a messenger from the mansions of the dead, to testify these things as a warning to the living!

Oh! why will such as call themselves ambassadors of Jesus, act a part so utterly repugnant to his doctrine of future dreadful torment, contained in this instructive parable? Stand on your guard, O ye who wish to shun this rich man's dismal doom, this fiery indignation, against all the guilded baits, and delusive persuasions of such as presume to flatter you with the false hopes of happiness hereafter, though you live and die in your sins: for Christ testifies that such as so die, shall never go

where he is gone, to glory. Remember the Lord's sore complaint against the prophets of old, against their lying divinations, and against such as "sow pillows to all arm-holes." He says, "They have seduced my people, saying peace, and there is no peace." This is represented as a very dangerous thing, insomuch that the Almighty positively declared they had thereby "strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life."

Here we have the plain testimony of Heaven, as to the pernicious tendency of such doctrine. Let our modern preachers of smooth things, say what they will, as to the innocency of it, or pretend ever so strong, that it tends to no evil, but good, the Lord of life himself has decided against it; and that it tends to strengthen the hands of the wicked. He seems to ridicule their pretences, or, as it were, to laugh to scorn their promises of life, saying, "Will ye save the souls alive that come unto you?" Have a care, my dear fellow-mortals! have a care of the snare of the enemy. Let none deceive you. Be not imposed upon by these vain promises of life; for however these teachers may flatter, promise, or persuade, they cannot save you from the wrath to come. For the Judge of all the earth has said of such as daub with untempered mortar, and of the wall which they have daubed, "I will even rend it in my fury; and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon them that have daubed it with untempered mortar." See Ezek. xiii. for the whole of this affecting testimony of Jehovah against such cries of peace, peace, and promises of life to the wicked.

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And in order to be satisfied that this testimony against the corrupt tendency of such alluring doctrines, is not altogether an Old Testament witness, let Peter's second Epistle, second chapter, be carefully read through; and let his warning against false teachers be as carefully noticed. And though he says, "Many shall follow their pernicious ways;" yet he declares themselves to be the servants of corruption, saying, "When they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were