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Thirdly, I would fpeak a word or two by way of exhorta tion to those who are wife virgins, and are affured that they have on a wedding-garment. That there are many fuch amongst you, who by grace have renounced your own righte ousness, and know that the righteousness of the LORD JESUS is imputed to you, I make no doubt, GOD has his fecret ones in the worft of times; and I am perfuaded he has not let fo loud a gofpel cry to be made amongst his people, as of late has been heard, for nothing. No, I am confident, the Holy Ghost has been given to many at the preaching of faith, and has powerfully fallen upon many, whilft they have been hearing the word. You are now then no longer foolish, but wise virgins; notwithstanding, I beseech you also to suffer the word of exhortation; for wife virgins are too apt, whilft the bridegroom tarries, to flumber and fleep. Watch therefore, my dear brethren, watch and pray, at this for perhaps a time of fuffering is at hand. LORD begins already to be driven into the wilderness. Be ye therefore upon your watch, and still perfevere in following your LORD, even without the camp, bearing his reproach: the cry that has been lately made, has awakened the devil and his fervants; they begin to rage horribly; and well they may; for I hope their kingdom is in danger, Watch therefore, for if we are not always upon our guard, a time of trial may overtake us unawares; and, instead of owning, like Peter we may be tempted to deny our mafter. Set death and eternity often before you. Look unto JESUS, the author and finifher of your faith, and confider how little a while it will be, ere he comes to judgment; and then our reproach fhall be wiped away; the accufers of us and our brethren fhall be caft down, and we all shall be lodged in heaven for ever, with our dear LORD JESUS.

time efpecially; The ark of the

Laftly; what I fay unto you, I fay unto all, watch: high and low, rich and poor, young and old, one with another, I beseech you, by the mercies of JESUS, to be upon your guard: fly, fly to JESUS CHRIST, that heavenly bridegroom: behold he defires to take you to himself, miferable, poor, blind and naked as you are; he is willing to cloath you with his everlasting righteousness, and make you partakers of that glory, which he enjoyed with the Father before the world

began.

began. Do not turn a deaf ear to me; do not reject the meffage on account of the meanness of the meffenger. I am a child; but the LORD has chofen me, that the glory might be all his own. Had he sent to invite you by a learned rabbi, you might have been tempted to think the man had done fomething; but now GOD has fent a child, that the excellency of the power may be seen not to be of man, but of GOD. Let the learned Pharifees then defpife my youth: I care not how vile I appear in the fight of fuch men; I glory in it. And I am perfuaded, if any of you fhould be married to CHRIST by this preaching, you will have no reason to repent, when you come to heaven, that GOD fent a child to cry, "Behold the bridegroom cometh !" O! my brethren, the thought of being inftrumental in bringing one of you to glory, fills me with fresh zeal. Once more I entreat you, "Watch, watch and pray :" For the LORD JESUS will receive all that call upon him faithfully. Let that cry, "Behold the bridegroom cometh," be continually founding in your ears; and begin now to live, as though you were affured, this night you were to " go forth to meet him." I could fay more, but the other business and duties of the day oblige me to ftop. May the LORD give you all an hearing ear, and obedient heart, and fo closely unite you to himself by one fpirit, that when he fhall come in terrible majefty, to judge mankind, you may be found having on a wedding garment, and ready to go in with him to the marriage.

Grant this, O LORD, for thy dear Son's fake!

SERMON XXVI.

The Eternity of Hell-Torments.

To the INHABITANTS of SAVANNAH in

GEORGIA.

My dear Friends,

HOUGH the following fermon has been preached

TH
Telsewhere, yet as the occafion of my preaching it

among you was particular, as you feemed to give an uncommon attention to it in public, and afterwards expreffed your fatisfaction in it to me, when I came to visit you in your own houses, I thought proper to offer it to you.

And here I cannot but bless God for the general dislike of heretical principles that I have found among you; as alfo for your zeal and approbation of my conduct, when the glory of GOD and your welfare, have obliged me to refent and publicly declare against the antichriftian tenets of fome lately under my charge.

I need only exhort you to beg of GOD to give you a true faith, and to add to your faith virtue, that you may adorn the gofpel of our LORD JESUS CHRIST in all things.

Your conftant daily attendance upon public worship, the gladness wherewith you have received me into your houses, the mildness wherewith you have submitted to my reproofs, more especially the great (though unmerited) concern you fhewed at my departure, induce me to hope this will be your endeavour.

How long GOD of his good providence will keep me from you, I know not. However, you may affure yourselves I will return according to my promise, as foon as I have re

ceived impofition of hands, and compleated the other business that called me hither.

In the mean while, accept of this, as a pledge of the undiffembled love of

London,

1738.

Your affectionate though unworthy paftor,

GEORGE WHITEFIELD.

MATTHEW Xxv. 46.

Thefe fhall go away into everlafting punishment.

TH

HE excellency of the gospel difpenfation, is greatly evidenced by those fanctions of rewards and punishments, which it offers to the choice of all its hearers, in order to engage them to be obedient to its precepts. For it promises. no less than eternal happiness to the good, and denounces no flighter a punishment than everlasting mifery against the wicked On the one hand, "It is a favour of life unto life," on the other, "A favour of death unto death." And though one would imagine, the bare mentioning of the former would be fufficient to draw men to their duty, yet minifters in all ages have found it neceffary, frequently to remind their people of the latter, and to fet before them the terrors of the LORD, as so many powerful diffuafives from fin.

But whence is it that men are fo difingenuous? The reafon feems to be this: The promise of eternal happiness is fo agreeable to the inclinations and wishes of mankind, that all who call themselves chriftians, univerfally and willingly fubfcribe to the belief of it: but then there is fomething fo fhocking in the confideration of eternal torments, and feemingly fuch an infinite difproportion between an endless duration of pain, and a fhort life spent in pleasure, that men (some at least of them) can scarcely be brought to confess it as an article of their faith, that an eternity of mifery awaits the wicked in a future ftate.

I fhall

I fhall therefore at this time, beg leave to infift on the proof of this part of one of the Articles of our Creed; and endeavour to make good what our bleffed LORD has here threatened in the words of the text, "These (that is, the wicked) fhall go away into everlafting punishment."

Accordingly, without confidering the words as they stand in relation to the context, I fhall refolve all I have to say, into this one general propofition, "That the torments referved for the wicked hereafter, are eternal."

But before I proceed to make good this, I must inform you that I take it for granted,

All prefent do ftedfaftly believe, They have fomething within them, which we call a foul, and which is capable of furviving the diffolution of the body, and of being miserable or happy to all eternity.

I take it for granted farther, That you believe a divine revelation; that thofe books, emphatically called the Scrip tures, were written by the infpiration of GOD, and that the things therein contained, are founded upon eternal truth.

I take it for granted, That you believe, that the Son of GOD came down to die for finners; and that there is but one Mediator between GoD and man, even the man CHRIST JESUS.

Thefe things being granted, (and they were neceffary to be, premised) proceed we now to make good the one general propofition afferted in the text, That the torments referved for the wicked hereafter are eternal. "Thefe fhall go away into everlasting punishment." The

Firft argument I fhall advance to prove that the torments reserved for the wicked hereafter, are eternal, is, That the word of GOD himself affures us, in line upon line, that it will be fo.

To quote all the texts that might be produced in proof of this, would be endless. Let it fuffice to inftance only in a few. In the Old Testament, in the book of Daniel, chap. xii. ver. 2. we are told, that "fome fhall awake to everlasting life, and others to everlasting contempt." In the book of Ifaiah, it is faid, that "the worm of those that have trans greffed GoD's law, and die impenitently, fhall not die, nor their fire be quenched." And in another place, the holy Prophet