their conduct may be, to enjoy it? Christ would not, in such a case, be the author of eternal life, but only a Savior from temporary evils, and the author of happiness, during that limited period.

II. The text and other passages of similar phraseology, are unequivocal evidence against the doctrine of restoration. They declare that the wicked shall be punished with unquenchable fire, or that there shall be no termination to their torments. "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner, but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable." "And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." These declarations will receive a separate and particular examination. It is important, however, to make my younger hearers first acquainted with a rule of interpretation, to be applied in the subsequent part of this discourse and of essential use in decipher

Luke 3. 19. Mark 9. 43, 44.

ing the meaning of language. The rule is this. Words are to be used in their common and obvious impo t, unless it is modified by the nature of the subject or by the design of the writer. Universal terms, as the world, mankind, all men, are sometimes to be limited, but never, unless the context makes it apparent, that the whole human race is not intended. It thus happens, also, that terms expressing duration denote the longest period of which the subject united with them, is capable. The same word may, in one application, express an absolute eternity, while in another it includes only a short period of time. But no ambiguity, or perplexity arises from this various use of language, because the subject itself always announces its exact signification. You sell an estate, assigning it to the purchaser and his heirs forever, and though forever in its common sense expresses an absolute eternity, it is not in this connexion thus understood. If you should speak of losing your soul forever, the language would be equally intelligible. In the first instance, forever signifies the longest period in which an estate can be entailed, or until it shall be voluntarily disposed of; and in the other case,

it signifies the longest period, in which the soul can be lost. Let this rule be applied, and no doubt will exist, whether the duration spoken of is limited or not. When that which is said to be eternal, without end, unquenchable, or forever, is something which belongs exclusively to time, it limits the signification of these terms. But when it is something, which in its nature extends beyond the grave, and may subsist without end, these terms are not to be limited, but to be taken in their literal sense, as denoting an absolute eternity. The everlasting hills or mountains, are hills or mountains, which remain as long as time endures. The subject, of which everlasting is here predicated, does not admit of a longer duration than the continuance of the earth. The everlasting God is a being, whose existence is not bounded by time. In the first of these instances, everlasting denotes a temporary, but in the second, an endless duration.

It

may be said of the fire of a perpetually active volcano, that it is unquenchable, that it never shall be quenched, without causing any misapprehension or leading the hearer to suppose, that his informant believes the earth shall never be destroyed. And the language

might be true, under the limitation which the subject imposes. When it is said also of the fire of hell, that it is unquenchable, that it never shall be quenched, the declaration is equally unambiguous; for as the subject is not limited by the boundaries of time, it is capable of an absolute eternity. It is satisfactorily inferred, that the fires of hell shall never be quenched, or never cease to burn; or, by stripping the idea of its figurative dress, that the miseries of lost men will never terminate. It is, therefore, scarcely necessary, when we examine these passages by just principles of interpretation, to give them any further notice. It is enough to assert, without other proof, that they teach the endless duration of future torments. For such an assertion cannot be disproved. Instances may perhaps be cited, in which unquenchable is applied to punishments which have an end, but never in any case where future punishment is the subject of affirmation. Temporal calamities may be described, under the figure of unquenchable fire, provided they continue so long as the subjects of them exist, but the punishments of the future world cannot be thus described, unless they are absolutely

endless. Allow me to comprehend what has been said in one sentence. If God threatens a nation with his displeasure, declaring that his wrath shall burn and none shall quench it, it is understood, that this nation shall be involved in calamities as long as it endures, but if he threatens persons in reference to the future state with indignation, which shall burn and not be quenched, it can only denote an endless punishment. It may be remarked, too, that as God never threatens men with temporal calamities, in language of such severe reprobation, unless they are very abandoned sinners, it may be used, even in such cases, with reference to punishments which shall succeed this life and be literally perpetual. In illustration of these facts, nothing better could be desired, than the passages so often quoted from the Old Testament to show, that the terms terms everlasting and unquenchable, when applied to the miseries of the damned, do not denote eternal punishment."It shall not be quenched night day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever, from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever." "Behold, mine anger and my fury

nor