It was by a desire to attain the knowledge of good and evil, to pry into future events, that our first parents were deceived; and their posterity have ever since discovered the same curiosity. But how much better would their curiosity be employed on that great display of the wisdom and benevolence of the Almighty, the Natural World. In this there is an ample field for their inquiries, and the utmost exertion of their rational faculties; for though so many ages have passed away since the creation, and new discoveries are constantly being made in the economy of Nature, yet is the fountain of Divine Wisdom inexhaustible, and generations to come will never want materials for occupation and research, for praise and wonder.

Let us then.adore the Creator in his works, and not presume to inquire into his secret counsels; and though, in respect to our condition in a future state, we know only in part, and see as through a glass darkly; yet it should satisfy us to know that "when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory;"* that the affliction which we may experience in this life, and which is comparatively light, "worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;†

*Colos. iii. 4.

+ 2 Corinth. iv.

that if "we are led by the Spirit of God," then are we "Sons of God; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ;"* and that if we seek after the truth in holiness of life, "there is laid up for us a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, shall give us at that day; and not to us only, but to all who love his appearing."†

* Rom. viii. 14, 17.

+ 2 Tim. vi. 8.

SERMON XV.

ON ETERNAL PUNISHMENTS.

MATTHEW xxv. 46.

These shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal.

WHILE many of those who call themselves Christians are thoughtlessly squandering away the portion of time allotted them for their state of probation, or perhaps indulging in those vices which, if the Religion they profess to believe to be true, must necessarily expose them to divine vengeance; they who are more in the habit of reflection, will hear with awe the promises and threatenings, by which the Christian Faith is sanctioned; and while, from a sense of their unworthiness, they cannot look up but with trembling hope to the immense reward, the state of extreme glory and happiness, which awaits the devout and faithful

servant of God; they will shudder at the irreversible sentence of eternal misery, which is to be pronounced on every obstinate sinner.

The doctrine of eternal rewards and punishments in a future life cannot, perhaps, be more clearly and explicily conveyed to us than in this passage of St. Matthew's Gospel; the authenticity of which there appears no more reason to question than any other part of the writings ascribed to that Evangelist; and the words themselves it seems difficult to convert to any other sense than such as is obvious at first hearing them. But however clear and explicit they may be thought, it is certain that they have been considered as capable of a less formidable and more qualified sense; and though no one is disposed to contravene that doctrine of Scripture, which announces that the good and virtuous shall be eternally happy in another world, yet against the eternity of punishment appointed for the wicked many objections have been raised by persons of our own Church as well as others.

1.- In the first place it is denied that the terms everlasting, for ever, &c. must necessarily be taken in their most strict and literal sense; since in other parts of Scripture, they are used to signify only a long duration, or space of time, and not eternity. This objec

tion certainly appears to receive some confirmation from several passages which may be adduced both of the Old and New Testament.*

But it is argued on the contrary that, if any modification of this doctrine was intended, terms less strong and decisive, both in the Original and Translation, might have been found in which to express it moreover, it appears that the same epithet is applied to the reward of the just and the punishment of the wicked; in both cases it is said that their destiny is irreversible; that the state of bliss and the state of wretchedness are of equal duration; that as the righteous shall go "into life eternal," so shall the sinners be cast "into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels."†

2. Other objections have been made to this doctrine, as contrary to our notion of the

* See Genesis xvii. 7, 13, 19; Exodus xix. 9; xxi. 6; Romans xvi. 25; 2 Tim. i. 9; Philem. v. 15; Jude v. and Note of the Unitarian Translators on the words of the Text.

+ Matth. xxv. 41. See Archbishop Tillotson's Sermon on this subject. It is the remark of an ingenious foreigner, that the word here translated punishment, more properly signifies correction, or CHASTISEMENT. We meet with it but twice in the N. T. viz. Matth. xxv. 46, and 1 John iv. 18. In the latter place, in our authorized Version, it is rendered TORVide Schleusner ad voc. xoλ2015, and Suicer Thesaur. Eccl. Tom. 2, p. 131.

MENT.