--"The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the people
that forget God."

It should be carefully observed too, that these awful denunciations of
the future punishment of sin derive additional weight from this
consideration, that they are represented, not merely as a judicial
sentence which, without violence to the settled order of things, might
be remitted through the mere mercy of our Almighty Governor, but as
arising out of the established course of nature; as happening in the way
of natural consequence, just as a cause is necessarily connected with
its effect; as resulting from certain connections and relations which
rendered them suitable and becoming. It is stated, that the kingdom of
God and the kingdom of Satan are both set up in the world, and that to
the one or the other of these we must belong. "The righteous have
_passed_ from death unto life"--"they are delivered from the power of
darkness, and are translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son[91]."
They are become "the children," and "the subjects of God." While on
earth, they love his day, his service, his people; they "speak good of
his name;" they abound in his works. Even here they are in some degree
possessed of his image, by and by it shall be perfected; they shall
awake up after his "likeness," and being "heirs of eternal life," they
shall receive "an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that
fadeth not away."

Of sinners, on the other hand, it is declared, that "they are of their
father the devil;" while on earth, they are styled "his children," "his
servants;" they are said "to do his works," "to hold of his side," to
be, "subjects of his kingdom:" at length "they shall partake his
portion," when the merciful Saviour shall be changed into an avenging
Judge, and shall pronounce that dreadful sentence, "depart from me, ye
cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels."

Is it possible that these declarations should not strike terror, or at
least excite serious and fearful apprehension in the lightest and most
inconsiderate mind? But the imaginations of men are fatally prone to
suggest to them fallacious hopes in the very face of these positive
declarations. "We cannot persuade ourselves that God will in fact prove
so severe." It was the very delusion to which our first parents
listened; "Ye shall not surely die."

Let me ask these rash men, who are thus disposed to trifle with their
immortal interests, had they