had been able to attain to!! Oh, monstrous idea! Jesus condescending to take his cue from his archenemy; and to render his undertaking subservient to the everlasting confirmation of that enemy's dominion over intelligent creatures ! ! !*-When, when will those, who would fain pass for the wise and the enlightened of this world, learn to express themselves in a way consistent even with their own professed sentiments?

It is in vain to allege, in opposition to these homethrusts, such declarations of scripture as, where the tree falleth, there it shall be. Ecclesias: xi. 3. True, there it shall be; aye, and as the text is commonly quoted, there too it shall lie for ever. But it is no where said, as it falleth, so shall it be raised again; and until this can be established on divine authority, every allegation that it shall be so proceeding merely from man is absolutely worthless. God no doubt intended, that human nature should, from its origin to its termination, continue ever the same. As it came from the dust, so it was His purpose that to the dust it should in due time return. As it fell, so it was to be or lie for ever. It was to be destroyed, and under the power of destruction it was for ever to continue.-But, was it not to be raised again? Yes: not, however, as human nature. As human nature, it had seen both its beginning and its end in this present state of existence.† In the future world, a new creation, or new state of things, is to exist

* In other words, Jesus made the minister or servant of sin, notwithstanding the abhorrence with which the apostle scouts such an idea. Galatians ii. 17. Corinth. xiv. 49, 50.

and be developed, from which the things of the old creation, whether human nature or its effects, sin, sufferings, and death, are to be entirely and for ever excluded.* Thus, then, the passage so often quoted, and so much insisted on as decisive of the truth of the popular theory, actually makes against the purpose for which it is adduced. Proving, that as human nature falls, so it is for ever to be, it of course proves, that human nature being destroyed by death is to continue destroyed by it for ever.

The only way in which even a plausible attempt can be made to get rid of my present argument, is by boldly denying, that sin, sufferings, and death are the works of the Devil to which allusion is made in the passage quoted. Passing by those proofs of the correctness of my application of the words which might be gathered from the context, I hereby declare myself perfectly willing to dispense with the assistance to be derived from the present text altogether; it being in my power to shew, by express declarations of scripture to that effect, that Jesus is the destroyer of sin, sufferings, and death. Doing so, what more can my adversaries require? And doing so, what becomes of the ordinary doctrine of everlasting sin, everlasting sufferings, and everlasting death?

Well, then :

1. Sin is destroyed by the Son of God.

Once in the end of the world hath he appeared TO PUT AWAY SIN by the sacrifice of himself. Heb: ix. 26.

*Rev. xxi. 3-5.

Observe, it is not one, or a few, or even many sins, which Jesus appeared to put away.* It is sin itself.Unquestionably the text intimates, that he put away, set aside, or brought to an end, sin-offerings; and this, by having been himself the anti-type of all such sinofferings. But this is very far from being its exclusive signification; for, he was the anti-type of sin-offerings by the very fact, that such was the value of his sacrifice, that it swallowed up, destroyed, and obliterated, sin itself for ever. And manifest it must be, farther, that he who died personally to put away sin, can never raise from the dead, to live for ever, intelligent beings clothed with sinful natures; or give everlasting existence to that hated principle which he died to destroy.

2. Sufferings are by the Son of God destroyed.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and there shall be no more death, NEITHER SORROW, NOR CRYING, NEITHER SHALL THERE BE ANY MORE

PAIN; for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne (Jesus) said, Behold, I make all things new. Rev: xxi. 4. 5.

All things shall be made new, says the infallible record; and, in connection with this new state of things, there shall be no sufferings endured. "True," say

antagonists, "in a future state all things shall be made new; but, nevertheless, in that future state sufferings of the intensest kind shall exist for ever." Now, whether is the word of God, or the word of men, in regard to

* The words of the original are εις αθετησιν ἁμαρτίας.

this matter, to be believed?-Besides, are not sufferings a part of the old things, as being connected with this present state of existence? And if so, how can they exist in a state in which all things are to be made new? 3. Death is by the Son of God destroyed. Our Saviour Jesus Christ-hath ABOLISHED* death. 2 Timothy i. 10.

The last enemy that shall be DESTROYED is death.† 1 Corinth: xv. 26.

Death is SWALLOWED UP in victory. Ibid: 54.

If death itself be destroyed, by being swallowed up in the divine life of him who is the victorious one, what possibility is there of its existing everlastingly? Were death everlasting, it would be infinite as to its duration; and, if thus infinite, how could it be brought to an end or destroyed?-Besides, where does the phrase everlasting death occur in scripture ?-It is in vain to allege, in justification of the use of the language, that the word of God makes mention of the second death. I grant that it does: but, as it appears from Rev: xx. 14, that the second death means the death or destruction of death itself, that is, the fulfilment of the sentence denounced against the serpent in Genesis iii. 15, what reason now can be urged in behalf of the proposition, that death, in the case of certain intelligent beings, is

* Karaрynσavтos-the word which is translated destroyed in 1 Corinth. xv. 26, the next text quoted.

+ The last enemy, death, shall be destroyed.-MacKnight's translation. The last enemy who will be done away, is death.-Archbishop's Newcome's

version.

The last enemy shall be destroyed even death.-The improved version, 1808.

S

rendered everlasting? If Jesus, the Prince of life, have overcome death, by dying the just for the unjust, and by rising again from the dead to the power of an endless life, is it very complimentary to him, or consistent with the truth of those oracles which declare him to have been thus the destroyer of death, to represent him as on the contrary conferring on death everlasting existence ? Have I not now established my position?

If sin be destroyed, how can a sinful nature be everlasting? If sufferings be destroyed, how can intelligent beings be subjected to everlasting torments? If death be destroyed, how can there be such a thing as everlasting death? If all the Devil's works be destroyed, how can any of these works eternally exist?

In a word, it is plain, and must by every candid mind be admitted, that whatever the phrase everlasting punishment may imply, it cannot mean the endurance of everlasting torments by beings possessed of an everlastingly sinful nature.

By this time, I suspect, the great bulk of my readers have set me down as hostile to the doctrine of eternal punishment, and are convinced that my object in this work is to undermine and subvert it. If such be their opinion, they are egregiously mistaken.

There does not, perhaps, exist a more strenuous supporter of the doctrine of eternal punishment, than the writer of these pages. And this simply because it is denounced as the portion of the wicked, in terms the most express, in the word of God. To the declarations