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condemnation and misery. How great the contrast they will then perceive between those who have feared God and wrought righteousness, and themselves, who' have delighted in iniquity! What extreme folly and madness it would be, if sin produced no painful effects in this life, to risk the awful displeasure of God, to forfeit the happiness and glory of the heavenly state, and incur future condemnation and misery, merely for the sake, at most, of a few years unlawful indulgence and sinful gratification! Oh that men were wise, that they would consider, and lay these things to heart!

$9. The future punishment of the wicked is described by the most alarming imagery.

The imagery made use of in scripture to describe the future punishment of the wicked, is most dreadful and terrific. Weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth; a worm that dieth not, and fire that is not quenched; a lake burning with fire and brimstone; devouring flames and incessant tortures; indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish; such awful language must convey the most dreadful ideas of suffering, and such is the language, the terrifying imagery, employed by the sacred penmen to represent the miseries which await impenitent sinners hereafter: Their overwhelming condemnation, unalleviated sufferings, and incessant misery, described by such alarming figures, involve a fearful obscurity; as the most terrible imagery is used to describe their punishment, it is impossible to tell how terrible that punishment may be; and, as its duration is utterly unknown to mortals, it extends into an unexplored futurity, loses itself in impenetrable darkness, and blackness of darkness hangs over the miserable sufferers for an undefined duration. This fearful obscurity,

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ON THE DURATION OF

which involves the subject, renders it the more terrible; and is calculated to excite the most dreadful apprehensions in the guilty mind.

CHAP. III.

On the duration of future punishment.

Ir is a common opinion among christians that the punishment of sinners will be of endless duration. A notion so difficult to reconcile with the known character and perfections of God, especially with his infinite goodness and mercy, ought not to be admitted merely on the ground of a few figurative expressions, and detached passages of scripture, as it requires the most clear and indubitable proof. A second opinion among christians is, that after the wicked have suffered for a time, in a future state, they will be utterly destroyed, and endlessly cease to be. There is yet another opinion, which obtains credit with many in the present day, it is, that the future punishment of the wicked will be limited and corrective; that though their sufferings will have no intermission, but continue incessant, for a hidden or undefined period, they will finally terminate in their recovery to purity and happiness. It is proposed, in this chapter, briefly to examine the evidence by which these different opinions are supported. Let us impartially examine the momentous points, exercise our reason in judging of the sense of scripture, and without fear, follow truth wherever it may lead us, fully satisfied that it never was, that it never can be productive of any injurious effects.

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1. An enquiry whether the future punishment of the wicked will be absolutely endless, i. e. an endless life

in torments.

As all our knowledge respecting a future state must be derived from divine revelation, whatever men assert respecting future punishment they are bound to prove from the scriptures; the work of proving that it will be endless belongs to those who assert that tremendous doctrine, not to their opponents to prove a negative; if they fail in the production of sufficient proof a contrary doctrine must follow of course: nor ought itto be believed that a large portion of rational creatures will be endlessly tormented, without the clearest proof. What has been urged in support of the doctrine of endless misery may be brought into a narrow compass: it is summarily comprehended in the following particulars.

1. Those passages of scripture which speak of the exclusion of the wicked from the kingdom of God, from the happiness and glory to which the saints will be raised.

2. Those passages in which the word everlasting is connected with future punishment, as where it is said that the wicked will be sentenced to depart into everlasting fire, that they shall go away into everlasting punishment, that they will be punished with everlasting destruction, and that the smoke of their torment will ascend up day and night for ever and ever.

3. The passages in which it is said, that in hell their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, and that the fire is unquenchable.

4. What is said of the case of Judas, and of those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit.

5. That no change can take place in the state of sinners after this life.

To invalidate the arguments used in support of the doctrine of eternal torments it will be said,

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ON THE DURATION OF

1. That they are founded on detached and figurative passages of scripture, which will admit of a different meaning, and, when taken in their connexion, and compared with other parts of the sacred writings, will not be found to authorize the conclusion made from them. That no clear, unequivocal, passage scripture either is, or can be produced to prove that the wicked will be endlessly preserved alive in misery.

of

2. That it is equally admitted on all sides that the wicked will be excluded from the kingdom of God, from the happiness and glory to which the saints will be raised; but that it by no means follows that they will never be restored to a lower degree of enjoyment, much less that they will be tormented as long as God himself exists.

3. That the words everlasting, and for ever and ever, as used in the scriptures, by no means necessarily mean that the things to which they are applied will be endless; for those terms are, in the Old Testament, applied to things which have had an end, and, in the New Testament, to things which will have an end, as, to the kingdom of Christ, which he will deliver up to the Father, and to his priesthood, which no one supposes will be endless.

4. That some of the strongest passages urged in support of the doctrine of endless punishment do not unequivocally relate to the punishment of men after they are raised from the dead. That Matt. xxv. 31, to 46, relates to the judgment Christ will declare and execute upon the nations, found on the earth at his coming, and does not relate to men after they are raised from the dead; that in the whole account no mention is made of the resurrection, and that when raised from the dead men will not exist in a national form, so as to need being separated the good from the bad, but be found in two vast bodies, the righteous and the wicked. That in 2 Thess. i. 9. no mention

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being made in the context of the wicked dead being raised at that time, the Apostle is most likely speaking of the wicked who will be found alive on the earth at the coming of Christ. That the passage in the Apocalypse, which speaks of the beast and false prophet being tormented day and night for ever and ever, furnishes no proof that the wicked dead when raised will be consigned to endless torments; for no one will contend that the beast and false prophet are persons raised from the dead; besides, the contents of the Apocalypse are too symbolical for its peculiar phraseology to admit of a rigid literal construction.

5. It will be further said, that the words everlasting, for ever, &c. as connected with future punishment, and various other things in scriptures properly mean a hidden period, during which the things spoken of will be perpetual, and that it best agrees with the awful obscurity in which the future state of the wicked is left, to suppose their punishment will be perpetual during a hidden or undefined period.

6. That its being said, Mark ix. 46. Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, by no means proves that the wicked will be fuel to the fire, and a prey to the worm as long as God exists; for as the language is evidently figurative, Christ in using it might not refer to a future state, but to the confusion and misery which would be produced among his disciples and in their minds, like a fire among them, and a worm within them, if they did not practise self denial. Precisely the same forms of expression are applied to the destruction of the carcases of men; Isa. lxvi. 24. but mere carcases cannot be supposed to suffer endless torments. Apply the passage to future punishment to which it is srictly applicable, and what it teaches is that the misery of the wicked will know no intermission so long as their punishment continues. As to the fire being called unquenchable, we