if they escaped not, who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven: 26. Whose voice then shook the earth: but now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. 27. And this word, yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain, 28. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear. 29. For our God is a consuming fire."

Having instanced in Esau, and the giving of the law, the certainty of condemnation to those who neglect the terms on which life is offered, the apostle goes on to exult in the superiority of the christian calling, and enumerates the noblest objects the human intellect can apprehend, as possessed by the faithful. He then shews that the condemnation is in kind the same to all, only more clearly certain to those who refuse Him that offers the clearer display of the riches of God's grace, and never hints that eternity in misery awaits them; but dwells always exclusively on the loss they will sustain, by selling, as Esau did, their birthright for a mess of pottage. The last words of the chapter confirm this; for if God is a consuming fire, it cannot be true that those to whom He is so, shall endure for ever: He must be then a fire that does not consume. I again remark that Jesus, being raised from the dead, has been in the state we are subject to through Adam;-that this was not torment He Him

self declares when He says "It is finished." It is the apostle's argument, throughout his epistles, that all mankind are dead through sin; and that life, or existence, or immortality, after death, are only to be obtained through Christ. Christ, as God, is the universal shepherd. Will He have lain down His life to save a few at the expence of many? Can He be a good shepherd who shall do that which He foreknew would inflict neverending misery on ninety-nine of His sheep, to give a free gift, an unmerited gift, of happiness to one?

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The general Epistle of James, c. i. v. 10. " Because as the flower of grass he shall pass away. 11. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways."

Here the imagery, which on the one interpretation, that of death terminating the existence when it shall have been completed at the last judgment, has great beauty, energy, and propriety; on the other, that of eternal existence in misery, it is altogether delusive and erroneous. In the one sense it is perfectly true, in the other essentially false.

15. "Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death."

Lust, which is but the deviation from nature's dictate, bringeth forth sin, and sin death. Who shall make that produce permanent effects, which has none of the requisites? it being but a perversion of the natural means of continuing an exist

ence, which is given as a means of happiness to all; of animal enjoyment to those who rise no higher; of intellectual to those who cultivate the faculties that depends on; of spiritual to those who, choosing God, employ the immaterial part of them on the only worthy and adequate object, who as He alone hath immortality, can alone furnish wherewithal to supply spiritual food, through the countless ages of eternity without which, we could not exist even in heaven.

17. "Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

Never-ending existence must be a perfect gift; and, as well as every good gift, cometh from above. All to whom it is given will find there is no variableness with God; and that existence, which is a blessing at first, is one to the end.

21. " Receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls."

From what?-from destruction, to which our nature tends; not from a state ten thousand times worse than not being. The power of language would fail should it be endeavoured to put us on our guard against such a danger. Either the apostles give it up as hopeless, (for it is plain they do not attempt it ;) or the fear is chimerical.

ii. 13. "He shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment."

He shall be required to pay the uttermost farthing, which he will have done, when he shall have parted from existence. And "mercy will then rejoice

against judgment;" for infinite Mercy must rejoice when judgment takes effect, though it (mercy) mingles not therewith; judgment or condemnation being on the whole the wisest and the best.

26. "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."

The body without the spirit is dead; the spirit without the body is devoid of consciousness. The body and spirit may be separated, since they were separate previous to creation. Their union constituted man-their separation must destroy man. The destruction of the organs whereby man acts, is agreed on all hands to be meant by death. By sen suality the faculties may be extinguished one after the other. Shall death, which extinguishes all at once, make all immortal, and that in direct contra diction to the end for which it was ordained-that it might put a stop to sin?

iv. 12. "There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy."

If God willeth not the death of a sinner, and yet cannot prevent his continuance in misery, who is the lawgiver" who is able to save and to destroy?.

iv. 14. CC For what is your life?. It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."

Most delusive, if we are immortal. Our life then is not a vapour, but a dense and solid substance, that the power of fire, the wishes of man, and the mercy of God, cannot dissolve.

v, 3. " Shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.' Yet our flesh shall be consumed, as it were by fire. 20. "Let him know, that he which converteth a

binner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins."

To save a soul from death, must be to prevent a final dissolution of the union that constituted man a living soul. On this his existence depended. Death, then, is non-existence.

First Epistle of Peter, c. i. v. 3." Hath be gotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 4. To an inheritance

that fadeth not away. 5. Who are kept by the power of God-ready to be revealed in the last time."

A new life then is ours, who are begotten again; and it is by virtue of this life only that our mortal shall put on immortality, and so fit us for an inheritance that fadeth not away. These are kept by the power of God-who keeps those that are destroyed from the presence of God and the glory of his power? 23. 66 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 24. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. 25. But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you."

On these verses I will only remark, that it is the încorruptible that liveth, and abideth, and endureth for ever; the corruptible withereth and falleth away, and that as grass. Yet the doctrine of Eternal Misery requires that those born of corruptible seed shall, if not live, yet abide and endure for ever, contrary to this text.

Abstain from fleshly lusts, which

ii. 11. 66 war against the soul."

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