If it will, what reason is there for supposing omnipotence thus exerted in contrary effects, in the destruction of its own works? Such a supposition seems to arraign the wisdom of the first cause; and would, one should think, reflect more strongly on him who foresaw all things, than on a less knowing workman, who destroys what he makes, when it wears old, and becomes useless.

But all these things are matter only of probable conjecture, which, without revelation, we should never have been able to build on with any certainty. That indeed hath confirmed these conjectures, and 'brought life and immortality to light,' which were before covered with such a degree of darkness, as rendered them scarcely discernible. It is, however, observable, that the immortality of the soul is no otherwise discovered in Scripture than by the eternity of the rewards or punishments, to which it is to be adjudged; so that we can draw no argument from thence for our existence, beyond the duration of our happiness or misery. In speculation, the belief of immortality precedes the belief of retribution; but in revelation, which is practical, not speculative, the eternity of the retribution is all that is inculcated; and we are left to infer from thence, by a necessary consequence, the immortality. The truth is, happiness is always represented in Scripture as the same thing with life, and misery as the same thing with death or destruction; which opens a much nobler field for reflection than hath been commonly imagined. It intimates to us, that the soul, once called into being, can be truly said to live and exist, only in its piety, virtue, and happiness; that is, in its union with God; and that it admits of no other death but sin, and separation from the source of all good. Its endless happiness results necessarily from its goodness, and its love; and why should God ever destroy that which is good, that which loves him? And its endless misery results as necessarily and naturally from its wickedness and aversation from God; and why should he reduce that to nothing, which he did not make merely that it might be wicked for some time, and then ceasing to be, should wholly disappoint the wise ends he had in creating?

The punishment of the wicked is said in my text to be everlasting, and the reward of the righteous eternal.

Everlasting, and eternal, signify the same thing in our language, and are put for one and the same word in the Greek original wherefore in that passage of Scripture they are to be taken as precisely importing the same thing; because it cannot be supposed, that any writer, much less that Christ, could have two very different senses to the same word, repeated in the same short sentence, without giving the least warning of his change of meaning, or adding any mark of limitation to it in either place of that sentence. We are then to look for but one interpretation of the word in this place, when applied both to the reward and punishment.

But here it is to be noted, that the word is sometimes applied to things that had both a beginning, and an end, as well as to such things as had a beginning, but shall never have an end; or that being, that is without beginning and end. It must, therefore, be determined by Scripture, and the reason of the thing, what extent of duration is to be understood by it here.

The happiness and misery of our future state have their duration expressed to us, Daniel xii. 2. by the same term our Saviour uses; Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame, and everlasting contempt.' For the reason already given, the word applied to both must signify the same thing; and that this is the same as eternal, appears from ver.3. where we are told, 'They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever.' That in the original Hebrew, which is translated by 'for ever and ever,' expresses endless duration so strongly, that all the ancient translations render it by the words which, in their several languages, best intimate eternity, or duration absolutely without end. Our future happiness is called, Luke xii. 33, 'a treasure in the heavens that faileth not,' and 1 Pet. i. 4, 'an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in the heavens.' By these expressions, and many more that might be brought for the same purpose, we may see the sense of eternal applied in my text to the joys of the righteous after this life; which may serve to give us the sense of it likewise when applied to the torments of the damned.

But those torments also are expressed in other places by terms that set forth an endless duration. Our Saviour represents them, Mark ix. 43, by an inextinguishable fire;' and thrice over in the same chapter by a worm that dieth not, and a fire that is not quenched.' But why an immortal worm, and an inextinguishable fire, so often reiterated, and so alarmingly inculcated, if the thing to be tormented were, after some time, to be delivered from them? To tell us we should suffer by two eternal instruments of vengeance, and to mean only, that we should suffer under them for an age, a year, or a day, would be nonsense, or a wretched shuffle of words, calculated merely to frighten us. Why should the worm be called 'immortal,' and the fire 'inextinguishable,' if we were no way concerned in either of the epithets? But the eternity of hell-torments is still more directly expressed, Rev. xiv. 11, where, in relation to such as had received the mark of the beast,' the words intimating the endless duration are applied to the very torments, 'the smoke of their torments ascendeth up for ever and ever.' 'He,' saith St. James, ch. ii. 13, shall have judgment without mercy, that shewed no mercy.' Here is a particular instance, wherein a criminal is assured of punishment without end; for, if it were to have an end, it could, with no regard to truth, be said to be without mercy.

Since the eternity of future rewards and punishments is thus exhibited in terms admitting no limitation, we must take those that do, in the same unlimited sense, especially as they are the very terms appropriated to the eternity of God himself, and in so great a variety of places applied to the happiness and misery to come, that we cannot rationally believe the inspired writers could have used them to express a certain portion of time only. Surely, if they had, they must, in some one place among so many, have hinted that intention, which they never do.

As to the rewards to be conferred on the obedient and the good, they are every where represented as endless and everlasting. I know,' saith Christ, speaking of his Father, John xii. 50, 'that his commandment is life everlasting;' that is, that he who keepeth it shall live for ever. St. Paul, Rom. vi. 22, thus comforts the penitent converts to Christianity, 'Now being made free from sin, and become the ser

vants of God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.' Thus also he encourages such as are in trouble, 'Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,' 2 Cor. iv. 17. 'I give unto my sheep eternal life,' saith Christ, John x. 28. Passages to this purpose so abound in all parts of the New Testament, that, unless we think the Holy Spirit intended to deceive us, we must believe the blessed reward of a good life here will be life, and joy, and glory, without end hereafter.

And are not the punishments of the wicked said to be eternal, as frequently, and in terms as express? Are they not called 'everlasting burnings?' Isa. xxxiii. 14, ‘everlasting shame and contempt?' Dan. xii. 2, 'everlasting fire?' Matt. xviii. 8. 'everlasting punishment?' Matt. xxv. 46. 'eternal judgment?' Heb. vi. 2. 'eternal damnation?' Mark iii. 29. the blackness of darkness for ever?' Jude 13. Were these expressions thrown out only to frighten us into our duty with false terrors? Doth God, who forbids us to do evil that good may come of it,' use equivocal words, and pious frauds, in order to make us honest men, and lovers of truth? No; but these epithets of everlasting and eternal, although applied here to that which may last for ever, must signify only a limited time; because they are so to be understood, when applied to things that of necessity must have an end. Is this a consequence? I may venture to say it can only be such to a very bad head, governed by a worse heart, that cherishes in itself the hope of a temporary punishment, in order that it may sin with less restraint or fear.

Who expects eternal happiness on any other footing than God's promise? And hath he not the menaces of God to fill him with the dread of eternal punishment, couched in the same terms, as to its duration? Is the God of truth less to be believed when he threatens us with what we deserve, than when he promises what we neither do, nor ever can, deserve? No; but God is just, say the objectors to this doctrine, and therefore will not punish a temporary offence with eternal misery. But I say God is just in having set eternal happiness and misery before free and rational beings, and left them to choose which they will. If they choose the latter, who is it makes them eternally miserable? Not

God surely, who willeth not the death of a sinner;' but themselves, who, for the pleasure of sin, trample on all his goodness, violate all his laws, proclaim open war with him, associate with the devil, and so debase and pollute their own nature, as to render it for ever incapable of glory and happiness. That such men are very unfit to prescribe their own punishment, is plain; because they say, vice sufficiently punishes itself here, and have found a way to make their vices sit so easy on them, that, were they to submit to a future suffering of any sort, we may be sure it would be a very gentle one, and of a mere momentary continuance. He who chooses hell, rather than heaven, for any consideration in this world, as the difference is doubly infinite, sins infinitely against his own reason. And he who wilfully insults God with his vices, sins infinitely; because he sins against infinite Majesty. All indignities rise in proportion to the known grandeur of him, to whom they are offered, and in strict justice ought to be punished in the same proportion; if offered to our earthly father, they are an unnatural breach of filial duty, and are punishable with the forfeiture of his favour; if offered to our king, they are rebellion and hightreason, and are punishable with the loss of honour, fortune, and life; if offered to God, they are blasphemy and impiety, and punishable, as they are committed against the infinite Being, with endless disgrace and misery. This gradation cannot be denied without levelling God and all his creatures, and confounding all distinctions. Wherefore sins of indignity are to be rated and punished according to the known dignity of the being offended, and the littleness or insignificance of him who commits them rather aggravates than lessens their guilt, the offence being always esteemed so much the more provoking, as the offender is more inferior to the party offended. Besides, there is another consideration whereby the heinousness of sin is to be esteemed; and that is the importance of the law, and the ends of the government, against which they are perpetrated. Now the importance of the law we transgress, and the ends of God's government over the world, which sin tends to frustrate, are both infinitely great; and therefore, if the duty and happiness of the intellectual world are to be provided for, it must be by the eternity of punishments inflicted on the of