inheritors of the kingdom of Heaven! It continues us in the odious degradation of "children of wrath," and, while we remain its servants, prevents us from becoming "children of grace." How does it stifle our prayers, damp our holy aspirations, and prevent them from "going up as a memorial before God"! How does it turn our thanksgivings into idle declamation, our offerings into "vain oblations," our supplications into empty formalities, our praises into a mere formal service of the lips without any responsive utterance from the heart! How does it hush holy thoughts when they arise within us!-how instigate us to encourage the lustings of the flesh!-how incite us to question the truths of Revelation, and frequently to deny the Apostle's testimony, "that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for instruction in righteousness"! How does it addict us to cavil-how actuate us to accommodate religion to our pursuits, rather than our pursuits to religion—to "believe a lie," only that we may "receive the greater damnation"! "They who do such things," writes the Apostle, "are worthy of death." Such, in truth, are spiritually dead: and how shall the spiritually dead escape "the wrath to come," if they have ever studiously avoided to do that by which they might be made alive? They who have no vital religion can have no spiritual life, and sin is the author of this spiritual death. The spirit does not strive with such, because they resist his motions; and

where the spirit does not strive, Satan has secured his conquest. "The wages of sin" shall then surely be received, and "the wages of sin is death."

We are, lastly, to consider how sin is the cause of eternal death. This is obvious to all, at least to all who believe the gospel. To the impenitent wicked there is no peace-" For though they live long, yet shall they be nothing regarded, and their last age shall be without honour. Or, if they die quickly, they have no hope, neither comfort in the day of trial."

The divine word had sent forth the doom of eternal death against us for the sin of Adam, and until redemption was offered by the Saviour, this doom was universal. It is now partial only, "thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." But among such as "have been baptized into his death," to those only he "giveth the victory," who “manfully fight under his banner against sin, the world and the devil, and continue his faithful soldiers and servants unto their lives' end." The tremendous penalty against man in Paradise, will be inflicted only upon such and this, indeed, is the pious Christian's especial consolation-as by their continued iniquities render "the blood of the covenant an unholy thing," inasmuch as they fail to make it available to their salvation. If we see that spiritual and temporal death do accrue from sin, it is a sufficient proof to us that eternal death will;

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because, if God has shown us, as far as we are capable of seeing it realized in his life, that "death is the wages of sin," and has so far fully consummated his decree as to make it evident to the experience of us all, that these wages are received by the sinner here, what can we reasonably conclude of it in the life everlasting, when he has pledged his immutable word that it shall await the obstinate sinner there? "For the ungodly, and him that delighteth in wickedness, doth his soul abhor. Upon them he shall reign snares, fire and brimstone, storm and tempest; this shall be their portion to drink."

I need scarcely observe here, that eternal death does not suppose an utter annihilation of body and spirit, but an everlasting exclusion of both from the sight and favour of God.

This, then, will infallibly be the lot of the impenitent wicked, for "the Lord is not a man, that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said and shall he not do it, or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good?" Do not let us imagine, that uniform and persisting sin can receive an adequate punishment in this world. If we die in such sin, is it natural that we should rise again in righteousness? What can there be in the grave to purify the unregenerate soul for the Paradise of God? God is a hater of iniquity, and what he hates he must hate everlastingly, and as long as he hates, he will naturally punish it. He will,

therefore, everlastingly punish where his love is not propitiated by repentance and righteousness of life; for it must be remembered that the divine love and hatred are not mutable passions, but immutable principles. Finite natures, moreover, are only capable of finite suffering. They cannot endure beyond a certain measure of infliction ; shall we then suppose that the little sufferings of this short life can be an adequate punishment for what has incurred God's eternal displeasure? And this must ever be the case with guilt which has never been expiated by contrition, which has never been resisted; while they who die in such guilt can do nothing after death to remove or mitigate that displeasure, since there is no atonement to be made beyond the grave.

As immortal beings will be capable of enduring infinite suffering, so must they certainly become obnoxious to it, so long as they exclude themselves from all chance of infinite fruition; and this they do, by pursuing, under the trials of their mortality, a course of transgression, by neglecting to serve God and to keep his commandments. As we shall be susceptible in the next life of happiness, infinitely transcending any that we could possibly participate in in this, so, by parity of reasoning, shall we be also susceptible of a proportionate measure of woe; and to sin will naturally be the doom of suffering, to righteousness, that of enjoyment; for "the eyes of the Lord are ever over the righteous, and his ears

The present in in every respect, a hosted state of being. Or god and eri here are alike circonscribed In the next He, however, boch -l be waited; the latter the wares of s," the former "the gift of God." The certainty that there will be then no change of condition, as it will establish the bliss of the happy, so will it also confirm the misery of the condemned. When hope is utterly extinguished, how horrible must be the succeeding despair! But "the wages of sin is death,”—temporal, spiritual, eternal death!-a dissolution of the body and depravation of the spirit here an endless and immitigable state of wailing and lamentation hereafter.

Let us then strive for that "gift of God" which is "eternal in the heavens." It is beyond the attainment of none of us. It will infallibly follow our striving after its possession, for "who ever perished, being innocent, or, when where the righteous cut off?" We have only a choice betwixt life and death eternal. We can secure to ourselves either. The gospel fully points out to us how we may obtain the one and avoid the other. Who would hesitate at the alternative? Come then to "the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls," that you may