This was written to a christian church, and plainly indicated that those who should not overcome the trials with which they were about to be tried, but who should be overcome by them, should be hurt of the second death.

If the hearer will use proper caution on this subject, what is meant by the second death will be very plainly seen. This church of Smyrna had been collected from among the Gentile idolaters. The state they were in, before their conversion to christianity is called death in the language of the New Testament. In his epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul says; "But God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ." The blindness of the Jews and the idolatry of the Gentiles are represented as a state of death from which the gospel was designed to raise and quicken the nations. Jesus said; "The hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." St. John says; "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." And St. Paul again says; "For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."

This state of moral death in which the gospel found both Jews and Gentiles is the first death. From this death the gospel quickened and raised its converts into newness of life and espoused them to Christ.

To the Romans St. Paul says; "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin; but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin, therefore reign in your mortal bodies, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof: Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto

God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God."

Being made alive unto God by faith in Jesus, and having turned their backs on the idols they had formerly worshipped, these Gentile christians were exposed to grievous persecutions; and in this epistle, which St. John wrote on the isle of Patmos, they are reminded of certain trials which they were about to encounter, and are told that those, who should overcome, should not be hurt of the second death. That is, if they remained stedfast in the doctrine of Christ, they should not again fall into a state of death, which would be to them a second death.

In the epistle to the church of Sardis we have an account of this death's having actually taken place. The following is the account; "I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead." This death had come upon them in consequence of their having defiled their garments. The writer says to the minister of the church; "Thou hast a few names even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy." This was a plain intimation that the most of them in Sardis had defiled their garments; and if they had defiled their garments, it proves that they had had clean garments, for that which is not clean cannot be defiled.

Here then the case is plain. Those people had been washed in the water of regeneration; their garments had been made white in the blood of the Lamb; they had been inade alive by the quickening spirit of Christ; but now they had turned from the holy commandments which had been delivered unto them; they had defiled their garments; and though they retained the name of Christ, yet they

were dead; and this death must be the second death; for they had been dead in sin before.

The writer of the epistle further observes ; "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels." Now it is plain that those who had defiled their garments had not overcome, and as they were dead, their names were blotted out of the book of life. This shows that their names had been in the book of life, for if they had not, how could they have been blotted out. Names that are in a book may be blotted out of that book, but it is not possible to blot a name out of a book in which it was never written!

We can now see the reasonableness of saying, that the second death is the apostacy which has taken place under the gospel dispensation.

Of this falling away we read in a number of passages. St. Paul speaks of it to the Thessalonians as follows; "Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come, except their come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed; the son of perdition-whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming."

St. Peter speaks of apostate christians, and calls them "cursed children; which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray." And further he says of them; "If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again. entangled therein, and overcome; the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandments delivered unto them."

It is evident that those of whom the Apostle spake, had been in the right way, otherwise they could not have forsaken it. They had known the way of righteousness, but had turned from the holy commandments which they had received; they had escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of Jesus, but were again entangled therein and overcome. These were dead the second time. Jude speaks of them as follows; "These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding, themselves without fear; clouds are they without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots."

Let it be observed in this place, that the errors by which christianity was early corrupted, and the false doctrines which were introduced into the church, together with all the vile and abominable idolatries and senseless superstitions which have characterised christianity for ages form what we mean by the second death, and constitute what the scriptures mean by a lake of fire and brinstone.

We have an account of this fire and brimstone in the 14th of Revelations as follows; "And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, if any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever; and they have no rest day nor night who worship the beast and his image, and whogoever receiveth the mark of his name.

The hearer is requested to keep in mind that this fire and brimstone, and the second death are the

same. And as we have already seen that the primitive christians did, many of them, apostatize from the truth, defile their garments, were overcome by the corruptions of the world and were hurt of the second death; and as all this appears to have taken place here in this mortal state, and to have not the least allusion to a state of punishment in the future world, we will now examine what we have just quoted concerning this torment with fire and brimstone, and see if it be in this world or in the eternal state.

The first thing the hearer is requested to get possession of is, that this torment is experienced by the worshippers of the beast at and during the time of their worshipping him. This is of importance to understand; for the common use of this scripture supposes that the divine Being will torment men in the future state, out of revenge because they worshipped the beast here in time; as if they were the gainers here by worshipping the beast, and he the loser, but finally the Almighty finds means, in the eternal world to inflict such vengeance on those deluded creatures, as will perfectly satisfy him for the loss he sustained by their wor shipping the beast.

We do not mean to say that those who hold the common opinion of the text, pretend to say, that the divine Being is a loser by men's worshipping the beast, or that they are gainers by such worship, what we contend for is, that the divine Being will certainly act on some principle, and as it is not allowed that this punishment is designed to reclaim or to deter, it must be to revenge, which supposes an injury received.

Let us ask the candid questions, and let them be candidly answered, if God have received no injury from his creatures, why should he be unfriendly towards them? And if there be no real gains to the creature who worships the beast, no profit arising from all his services, why is not this foolish, idol