CONTENTS. SERMON I. SPIRIT OF THE DOCTRINE. "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world."-1 John iv. 1. SERMON II. PAGE 3 THE DOCTRINE UNREASONABLE. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord."-Isaiah i. 18. 22 SERMON III. THE DOCTRINE OPPOSED TO GOD. "God is love."-1 John iv. 8. SERMON IV. THE DOCTRINE UNSCRIPTURAL. "To the Law and to the Testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."-Isaiah viii. 20. SERMON V. EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT. "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal."-Matthew xxv. 46. 40 59 78 In the first place, it is impossible for a man to be at rest concerning himself. He cannot know that he is elected, or that he has and will continue to perform all those acts, necessary to secure an escape from the indignation of his God. And so long as there is a doubt upon that question, there must be fear, which hath torment. But if we put the best possible construction upon the case, and say that a man has no fears for himself; even that, cannot give him rest. There are those around him, in whose welfare he feels an interest, and how can he rest while these are in danger? The mother sits by her fireside, and as the fire emits its cheerful blaze within, all is peaceful there. But without the storm is raging, and the bleak wind is blowing a fearful gale. Why heaves that mother's breast with anguish! And why steals the silent tear down her cheek, as the rain patters upon the casement, and the wind whistles and roars without. Alas! her darling is not there! The adventurous sailor boy, left his home so dear, and is out upon the boisterous billows of the mighty deep. And now the storm king is abroad, the wind blows bleak and furious, old ocean heaves her angry waves, and the dear boy is exposed to its fury. Will that mother rest that night? Nay, but its vigils of prayer will be kept for her child; each blast of the tempest will thrill through every nerve, and her pillow will be wet with her tears of anguish, shed o'er the dangers of her absent child. If such are the feelings of the human heart, tell me I pray you, can that mother rest day or night, when she believes that not one alone, but all her offspring are sailing rapidly o'er life's boisterous ocean, and bound for the gulf of endless wo? Nay, as well might she rest, when she saw her child standing upon the burning crater of Etna or Vesuvius, and ready to fall, and rise no more. The eloquent Saurin, thus closes a sermon in which he had labored to prove the doctrine of endless wo. "I sink, I sink, under the awful weight of my subject; and I declare, when I see my friends, my relations, the people of my charge, this whole congregation, when I think that I, that you, that we all are exposed to these torments; when I see in the luke-warmness of my devotions, in the languor of my love, in the levity of my resolutions and designs the least evidence, though it be only possible or presumptive of my future misery, yet I find in the thought a mortal poison, that diffuseth itself through every period of my existence, rendering society tiresome, nourishment insipid, pleasure disgustful, and life itself a cruel bitter. I cease to wonder, that the fear of hell hath made some melancholy, others mad; that it hath disposed some to expose themselves to a living martyrdom, by fleeing from all commerce with the rest of mankind, and others to suffer the most terrible and violent torments. Such were the feelings of the preacher, and could the people fare better? Nay, such is its effects upon every benevolent mind, that believes in its truth. And when we think how widely this sentiment is diffused abroad, and how keen is the anguish, of thousands at this moment; as we look upon the desolations it has caused, it needs scarcely a figure, to say in the language of the text "the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. 99 Let it be remembered that the doctrine of future torments originated in pagan lands, and that in some of its forms it enters into every system of idolatry under heaven, and it will require no great stretch of the imagination, to see that it is one essential and distinguishing mark of the beast. How long this beast with more than seven heads and ten horns, shall be permitted to deceive and torment the nations God only knows. One thing is certain ultimately. "All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall come and worship before him." Then the beast shall be smitten and die, and his worship shall cease. Meantime I call unto you with earnestness, "Come away! come away, from the samiel's breath, It will weave for your future a chaplet of care, |