Page:The Christian's Last End (Volume 2).djvu/14

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ON HELL.


THIRTY-NINTH SERMON.

ON THE ETERNAL FIRE OF HELL.

Subject.

The reprobate shall be condemned: 1. To fire; 2. To eternal fire.—Preached on Quinquagesima Sunday.

Text.

Tradetur enim gentibus.—Luke xviii. 32.

“For he shall be delivered to the gentiles.”

Introduction.

Who was to be delivered to the gentiles? The Son of man, Jesus Christ. He was to be mocked, despised, spat upon, scourged, nailed to a cross, and put to death. And what wrong had He done? None whatever. He was innocence and holiness itself. Why then had He to suffer such treatment? To atone for the sins of the world, and to offer full satisfaction for them to His heavenly Father. O sinners! wo to you and me if we do not atone by timely repentance for our many crimes! For if an angry God delivered up His only Son into the hands of the gentiles to be put to death for the sins of others, how will it be with us if we fall into the hands of an avenging God on that day? If the sentence on us shall be, “Depart, you cursed;” words which we have made the subject of a recent meditation? Alas! thus abandoned and rejected by God, shall we too be delivered up? and to whom, and for what purpose? To the gentiles, to be mocked, and scourged, and crucified? Ah, even that would be tolerable! But far more terrible shall the sentence be. Hear it again: “Depart, you cursed!” Whither? “Into ever-

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