heavenly city; but some may have not their names written in the Lamb's book of life; and this is a further evidence that all will not be saved.

VI. THOSE PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE WHICH SPEAK OF THE WICKED AS PERISHING, BEING CAST AWAY, REJECTED, BURNT UP AS CHAFF, &C., TEACH THE SAME DOCTRINE. "The preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness, but to us who are saved, it is the power of God."* "For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish; to the one we are a savour of death unto death, and to the other, the savour of life unto life."+ Perishing is here put in contrast with being savcil. "But these are natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption.”‡ "That which beareth briers

and thorns is rejected; but the chaff will be burned up with unquenchable fire." By the chaff, here, is represented the wicked. They are represented as being driven away like chaff before the wind. Job compares them (chap. xxi. verse 18.) to the chaff which the wind driveth away. They are also represented as chaff which the fire consumes.-(Isa. v. 24.) This image is often used to express judgments. "Thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff."-(Isa. xl. 1-15.) By the unquenchable fire is meant the eternal sufferings of the wicked in hell. The image is used to express extreme suffering, since a death by burning is one of the most horrible that can be conceived. "As the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire."** Let such testimony speak for itself. If all arc finally saved there is no propriety in speaking of any as lost, perisied, rejected, and cast out, at the end of the world, into unquenchable fire. We may be assured that the compassionate Saviour and his apostles would not † 2 Cor. ii. 15, 16. 2 Pet. ii. 12. **Matt. xiii 40, 41, 42.

* Cor. i. 18.
Matt. iii. 12.

deceive, or use words to torment and tantalize us. They would not tell us of hell-fire which had no existence. We may be sure evcry word is full of meaning. If they meant to say the wicked will suffer, then they will suffer. To these passages might be added, as every one knows who is conversant with the Bible, a multitude of other passages declaring the same truth, in the same unambiguAnd they must be considered as teaching the doctrine of annihilation or eternal woe. That they do not teach the doctrine of annihilation we shall hereafter show. They must then teach the doctrine of endless punishment. Perdition, destruction, &c. are ever in scripture set in opposition to destruction. But where is the contrast, if those who are cast away, rejected, lost, destroyed, be finally saved?

ous manner.

VII. THE DOCTRINE IN QUESTION IS TAUGHT IN ALL THOSE TEXTS WHICH INTIMATE THAT A CHANGE OF HEART AND A PREPARATION

FOR HEAVEN ARE CONFINED TO THE PRESENT LIFE. "Scek ye the Lord while he may be found, and call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."* "Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded: but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as a desolation and your destruction as a whirlwind. When distress and anguish cometh upon you, then they shall call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early but shall not find me; for that they hated instruction and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of my counsel, they despised my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own ways and be filled with their own devices." These and many similar passages teach us that man has a limited time to prepare for the retributions of eternity, and that there will be no successful calling upon the Lord, and consequently no salva

Isa. lv. 6, 7.

+ Prov. i. 24-31.

tion after a limited period. If God shall never answer their calls, and they shall find they will never be saved

"Great God, on what a slender thread

Hang everlasting things!

The eternal states of all the dead

Upon life's feeble strings!

Infinite joy or endless woe
Attend on every breath;
And yet how unconcerned we go,
Upon the brink of death!

Waken, O Lord, our drowsy sense,
To walk this dangerous road;
And if our souls are hurried hence,
May they be found with God."

"While ye have the light walk in the light, that ye may be the children of the light."* Christ is the true light that will not de ceive us. "He coming into the world enlightened every man.”— (John i. 9.) By his own personal ministry, and by his spirit and apostles, light or teaching is graciously afforded to all. This light however is in the gospel, and not in the creature, until he who was sometimes darkness is made light in the Lord. But it is the duty of all to believe in this light, to subscribe to the truths which it discovers, and to walk in the path to which it directs us. By and by God will take from us the light of the gospel which alone can show us the way to Christ, and then we shall have no longer an opportunity of becoming the children of the light, but shall wander endlessly in mistakes and errors and woe.

"While they (the foolish virgins) went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, say.

* John xii. 36.

ing, Lord, Lord, open to us.
say unto you, I know you not."*
before the bride left her father's house; but a feast was given at the
house of her husband, which was also called the marriage, or a
part of the marriage solemnities. This part of the parable doubt-
less represents the entrance of those who are ready, into the king-
dom of heaven when the Son of man shall come to call us to an ac-
count. The door was shut. No more could be admitted to the
marriage feast. I know you not. You were not in the company
of those who attended me at the marriage feast, and are unknown
to me. The word know is often used in the sense of approving and
loving. You are not my real friends and followers. Now, my hear-
ers, we are all like the virgins going to meet the bridegroom,—the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is coming, not to destroy Jerusalem, but to
judge the world. Like the coming of the bridegroom, his coming
will be sudden; to many it will be an unexpected event. But when
they shall see him coming at death or at the judgment, like the fool-
ish virgins, they will begin to prepare to meet their God. But it
will be too late. They that are ready will enter in, and heaven will
be forever closed against all others.

But he answered and said, Verily, I
The marriage ceremony took place

"To-day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts. Be. hold now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of salvation." Now sinners have an opportunity to hear God's voice, and to hear it not merely externally, but internally, with appropriate feelings, with repentance, faith, and prayer. If they do not avail themselves of this opportunity to hear his voice, they must of course harden their hearts against it. And thus they will fail of securing an interest in the salvation of Christ. For during this accepted time and day of salvation,

when mortals may

Secure the blessings of the day,"

they hardened their hearts.

"He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." They who sin in spite Matt, xxv. 10-12. † Heb. iii. 7.-2 Cor. vi. 2. Prov. xxix. 1. F

of admonitions and reproofs which are designed and adapted to bring sinners to repentance and salvation, will be eventually given up to a judicial hardness of heart. Their day of grace will be spent, and their ruin will be without remedy. For them, there will be no recovering mercy. If we continue to harden our hearts through this our only term of probation, God will swear in his wrath that we shall not enter into that rest which he has reserved in heaven for the people of God.

"See that ye refuse not him that speaketh; for if they escaped not, who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.Lookimg diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest there be any fornicator or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears."* If we turn away from him who speaks from heaven, it will be equally impossible for us to escape the wrath of God, and obtain the blessing of salvation as it was for those to escape punishment who transgressed the law of Moses, or for Esau to obtain the blessing of his father after he had sold his birthright.

"Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

-Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy; for behold your reward is great in heaven.--But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are made partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad with exceeding joy." Here it is expressly asserted that eternal life is the reward of holiness in the present life. Now, if our future condition is not affected by our conduct in this life, why speak of a reward in heaven?

"Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.- -Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he com

*Heb. xii. 25. xii. 15-17. + Matt. v. 12. Luke vi. 23. 1 Pet, iv. 13.