sensible, to substantiate the doctrine of the passage already rehearsed in your hearing.These all go to prove the universal destruction of sin, universal reconciliation, and universal salvation, which must be the end of all death, pain, misery, and woe. "The heathen are given unto Christ for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession." Will he endlessly reject his own property? "All that the Father giveth me," he says, "shall come to me, and him that cometh he will in no wise cast out.” Will there be a judgment of condemnation after this? I find no such account, nor have I reason to believe it. I have now finished what I contemplated in the present discourse according to what the scriptures appear plainly to teach. This labor I submit to the candor and impartiality of my hearers, under the directing spirit of the Lord, hoping it will not be altogether in vain. AMEN. 1 ATTEND, ye sons of men, give ear; 2 But fear the Sovereign in whose hands 3 Slight not the threat'nings of his word, 4 Fear God with reverential awe, 5 Fear God, ye rash, ye fools be wise; Restrain your tongues, and guard your hands, 6 Lest when before his judgment seat, 7 Lo! see the light of heav'n extend; 8 Tremble, ye sons of vengeance, now; LECTURE III. Delivered June 26. ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL, AND CHRIST'S PREACHING TO THE SPIRITS IN PRISON. So God created man in his own image in the image of God created he him. That ye may be the children of your Father which Have we not all one Father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers? Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device: And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God; being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. For. for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. WE find no passage of scripture that expressly states, man possesses an immortal soul. The idea is not then to be expected from express testimony, but to be gathered by inference or deduction from scriptures that seem to embrace or allude to this sentiment. Although this idea is commonly held in the christian church: yet we find, it is not universally allowed. Its disallowance is necessary to the future annihilation or non-existence of the wicked; and consequently must be embraced by all who hold that doctrine. Man therefore, in his sinful state, according to that sentiment, possesses nothing to be saved, but looks for something given in regeneration, that is fit for salvation in life and immortality. When Christ came to save mankind, what, according to that doctrine, was there for him to save but mortality and dust? |