Page:Beauty for Ashes.djvu/23

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THE OLD DOCTRINE.
17

"We affirm that they [infants] will not be saved and have eternal life, except they be baptized in Christ. * * * * This new doctrine, that there is eternal life independent of the kingdom of heaven, that there is eternal salvation independent of the kingdom of God, was never before heard of in the church. First, see, brother, whether perchance you ought not hence to agree with us, that whosoever does not belong to the kingdom of God, must, without doubt, belong to the number of the damned. The Lord will come, and, about to judge the living and the dead, will, according to the gospel, make two divisions, the right and the left. To those on the left, he will say, Depart into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. To those on the right, he will say, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world. The one he calls a kingdom, the other damnation with the devil. There is no middle place left, where you can put infants."—"Behold, on the right is the kingdom of heaven. Inherit, he says, the kingdom. He who is not there, is on the left. What will happen on the left? Depart into everlasting fire. On the right, an eternal kingdom; on the left, everlasting fire. He that is not on the right, will indisputably be on the left. Therefore he that is not in the kingdom, is doubtless in eternal fire. Certainly he cannot have eternal life, who is not baptized; he will not be on the right, that is, he will not be in the kingdom. * * * In his [the Lord's] last sentence, that he might teach what is the kingdom, and what eternal fire, he says, [Matt XXV. 46,] Then these shall go away into everlasting burning, but the righteous into life eternal.

"Behold, he [the Lord] has explained to you what is the kingdom, and what is everlasting fire; so that when you confess that an infant will not be in the kingdom, you may allow that he will be in eternal fire.