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perish, that they will be rejected, destroyed and lost; if they all are finally to be saved? Be the wish ever so strong that the doctrine of universal salvation may be true, for myself I cannot embrace it, because I cannot find scriptural authority for its support. If God has intentions of mercy for the wicked in a future world; he has not, to my understanding, revealed them in the gospel.

SERMON XXVIII.

ON THE ANNIHILATION OF THE INCORRIGIBLY WICKED.

MATTHEW x. 28.

Fear not them who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

IN discoursing on the subject of future punishment, I have discussed the doctrine of endless misery, and of universal restoration. We are now to review that of absolute extinction, viz.

3. Future punishments will be of limited duration, and will terminate in the annihilation of the wicked.

This branch of our subject has been canvassed with great ability by several English divines. I shall attempt little more than to compress their arguments and observations within limits suited to a publick discourse. Judging of their remarks by

the test of scripture, my candid hearers, you will form your own opinions on the authority of revela

tion.

The declaration of the Old Testament is, "The soul that sinneth shall die." Jesus Christ, the mediator of the new covenant, in our text cautions us, "Fear not them who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." St. Paul, in the letter and spirit of both Old and New Testament, informs us that, "the wages of sin is death;" that "if we live after the flesh, we shall die," &c. Let us then in the first place inquire into the meaning of the word death: and examine whether we are to understand the word, when connected with future punishments, in a literal or a figurative sense.

Death, when applied to our present existence, signifies the privation of life. When this term is applied to the soul, or to a future mode of existence, if understood in a strict or literal sense, it must mean the loss of that existence, that is, annihilation. A being cannot in strictness be said to die, unless he be deprived of a life which he before possessed. When therefore this word is used by the sacred writers to express the future punishment of wicked men, if understood literally, it cannot mean merely that they shall be excluded from the happiness of heaven-this they never enjoyed; nor can it mean, that they shall be kept forever in existence, that they may forever feel the severity of divine vengeance. To form an opinion of the meaning of any writer, we ought not to depart from the strict and proper sense of words, unless obvious reasons ren

der it necessary. Whoever then considers the word death, when applied to sinners in a future world, to signify an eternal life of misery, must assign some substantial reason why a sense so opposite to its strict meaning should be adopted.

Let us next inquire, whether a figurative sense of the term death, when applied to the future punishment of wicked men, is necessary to render the language of scripture on this subject consistent with its general principles. Do the scriptures any where teach us, in plain and simple language, that wicked men shall for an endless duration be kept alive in a state of misery? If they do, we must understand death, when applied to this subject, in a limited and figurative sense. But what passage of the New Testament states expressly that the wicked shall be preserved in a state of endless misery? If there be no such passage found, then surely we ought not to advance the doctrine on the authority of revelation. the sacred writers, say the advocates for the doctrine of annihilation, have made use of various terms on the subject under consideration. They describe the punishment of the wicked by calling it a deatha destruction-a corruption-a fire that consumes and burns up the substances that are thrown into ita worm which never dies-and a fire that is not quenched. Add to these, an everlasting destruction-an everlasting fire-an everlasting judgmentan everlasting punishment-a blackness of darkness forever; and, if those passages in the 14th and 20th chapters in Revelation relate to the final judgment, a torment forever and ever. But when the strict

and proper import of these phrases, as they stand in the original, comes to be considered, not one of them will be found necessarily to imply a perpetual existence in life, though a life of misery; and a great part of these, if understood in a strict and proper sense of words, imply the contrary; for to die-to be destroyed-to reap corruption, or a dissolution of parts-to burn up-to consume, when applied to the persons of men, are so far from implying a perpetual continuance of their lives, that on the contrary, these terms, if literally understood, suppose that a period will be put to life and should their death or destruction be so circumstanced, as not to admit of any subsequent restoration, it may for that reason be styled an everlasting destruction; and the means by which it is accomplished an everlasting or eternal fire, as Sodom and Gomorrah are said to have been set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire; that is, a fire, the effects of which would continue forever; not that these cities are still burning, which long since have been reduced to ashes. And if this death or destruction be administered by way of punishment, for the same reason that the death or destruction are said to be eternal, so may the punishment; for by supposition it is a punishment which will never be reversed-a punishment, the effects of which will not, like the first death, be taken off, but continue forever. All this may be true, and the phraseology of scripture sufficiently accounted for, without laying us under any necessity of supposing the subjects of this punishment to be continued alive unconsumed, in a state of misery, contrary to that

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