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Bible. That eternal life depends on repentance as a condition is abundantly manifest from the word of God. "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," Matt. iii, 2, and iv, 17. Repent "for the remission of sins," Acts ii, 38. "John did preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins," Mark i, 14. "Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation," 2 Cor. vii, 10. "After thy hard and impenitent heart, treasurest up to thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God," Rom. ii, 5. "Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die," Ezek. xxxiii, 11. "Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish," Luke xiii, 3. If repentance is not a condition of salvation according to these scriptures, there is no meaning in words.

3. Obedience is a condition of salvation.— But when I say obedience is a condition, I do not mean that it is in this sense a condition of pardon and regeneration; because obedience does not go before regeneration, but follows after it. And this observation is the more important as it shows that obedience is not, like repentance and faith, a condition of justification here, but of the continuance of that salvation which we have received by faith, and of future, everlasting salvation. "And being made perfect, he becomes the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him," Heb. v, 9. "God will render-to them who, by patient continuance in well doing, seek for

glory, and honour, and immortality, eternal life; but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish," &c., Rom. ii, 6-10. The same apostle tells us. that God will present the saints "holy," &c., "in his sight, if they continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel," Col. i, 22, 23. Again he says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling," &c., Phil. ii, 12. St. John says, "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city" of the New Jerusalem, Rev. xx, 14. I say as before, if these passages do not prove that obedience is a condition of eternal salvation, there is no meaning in words.

4. The argument is strengthened by a multitude of testimonies which show that the "disobedient shall not inherit the kingdom of God." "If judgment begin at us, (the Church,) what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God," 1 Pet. iv, 17. "The Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence, of the Lord, and from the glory of his power," 2 Thess. i, 7-9.

Were I now to leave the subject with the

intelligent and candid, without saying another word upon it, it is impossible that Universalism should stand; because it is as evident as the word of God can make any thing, that salvation is conditional, and that those who neglect the conditions will miss of salvation. But I will pursue it farther, and in order to show you that this impleaded doctrine has no countenance in the word of God, I will anticipate an objection or two, because the answers to these will set the subject in the clearest point of light.

Obj. "The mistake, on which the whole weight of your cause rests, consists in supposing that when the inspired writers speak of eternal life and salvation on the one hand, and of everlasting punishment, condemnation, and wrath, on the other, they refer to the future state; whereas it is evident from a great variety of passages that they use these words and phrases with reference to the circumstances and states of believers and unbelievers in the present life: and hence your foundation is removed, and the system you endeavour to build must fall to the ground.”

To this I answer: it was never denied by those who hold future punishment that the words and phrases, eternal life, everlasting life, salvation, condemnation, wrath, punishment, are sometimes used with reference to the states of believers and unbelievers in this life; not, however, to the exclusion of the future state. Because that life which is en

joyed here by faith is the same in nature, and is the beginning of that which shall be enjoyed in the future state. If this "life" is called "eternal" for different reasons, we must wait till the objector informs us what they are, and till he show us how that can be strictly eternal which is limited to the present life. And so in the case of unbelief, condemnation, wrath, and punishment. They commence in this life.

In the mean time we thank our opponent for admitting that he that "believeth not shall be damned," that is, for agreeing with us that the verb in the former clause, believeth not, is in the present tense, and that the verb in the latter, shall be damned, is in the future, though it seems to give their argument some advantage against us. For, in applying this language to unbelievers at the present time, it enables them to say, with some degree of plausibility, "He that believeth not now, shall, some time before he leaves the world, be damned, that is, suffer according to the demerit of his sins."

But this advantage is only in appearance; for if we consider the unbeliever with reference to another period, this advantage all flows back, and leaves Universalism in ruins. The period to which I allude is the last moment of his natural life; the moment that separates time from eternity: that moment which all former generations have passed, which all that now live, and that shall hereafter live, must pass; that dark and dreaded

moment, involved in tenfold darkness by the mists of error thrown around it;—that moment, I say, shall reveal the horrors, the falsehood, and the blasphemy of Universalism! For that word is as true now as it ever was, "He that believeth not shall be damned!" Here believeth not applies to his last moment in this world; shall be damned applies to the future state.

O Universalism! what hast thou done? Thou hast deceived and ruined multitudes of immortal beings! Thou deceivest, with false assurances of peace, those who should be admonished, and leadest them down to the chambers of eternal death, as the unsuspecting sheep are led to the slaughter! Thou blindest them with the reasonings of sophistry, and leadest them to the brink of an awful precipice; and the moment which thou hast told them should bring them into the paradise of God, plunges them into the vortex of despair, and they sink down! down! down! into the bottomless pit, the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone !

Are these the vagaries of a distempered brain, as Universalism would persuade us, or are they the sayings of the true and faithful Witness? They are as true as the word of the Lord, "for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken them." "He that believeth not shall be damned;" "Except ye repent ye shall all perish;" "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord;" "Except ye be converted, and be

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