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it could not be opposed to that which signifies such a duration, ever so long; and if it did not mean an endless duration, it would have no force or sense at all in this place, but would signify nothing, and might as well be used to express the duration of the things that are seen as of things that are not seen, and the words might as properly be put thus: For the things which are seen are eternal; but the things which are not seen are temporal; if both words signify only a temporal or limited duration.

THIRDLY. It is not only expressly said in Holy Scripture, that the future punishment of the wicked shall be everlasting, and yet more emphatically, they shall be punished forever and ever, but the endless duration of it is yet more strongly asserted, if possible, by negatives, or expressly denying that it shall have any end.

John the Baptist, speaking of Christ, says, "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (Matt. iii. 12.) That is, fire that cannot be put out; there will be no end to its burning.

Our Savior expresseth this in a yet more pointed and solemn manner: 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. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off; for it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out; it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." (Mark ix. 43, etc.)

This is a remarkable and singular passage, in which our Savior, full of love and grace, sets himself to warn men of future punishment, and persuade them, from a particular, awful view of it, to avoid and renounce every thing that will expose them to it. He dwells on the subject, and particularly mentions the hand, the foot, and the eye; and, with relation to each of these, describes the punishment that is connected with not parting with them when they offend. And this punishment is represented in strong and frightful colors; it is to be cast into hell fire; and what adds infinitely to the dreadfulness of it, it shall never be quenched-the punishment never shall have an end. And he expressly says, there shall be no end; not once only, but repeats it over and over again, and uses

negatives eight times in this short discourse, with every one of which he asserts that this punishment will have no end.

Our Savior does here, doubtless, allude to the words of Isaiah: "And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me, for their worm shall not die, neither shall the fire be quenched."

There are two ways in which the bodies of men are consumed after they are dead, viz., by being cast into a fire and burnt, or left to consume away, and be eaten up of worms, which naturally breed in them. But as the body is soon consumed by the worm, or by the fire into which it is cast, and the worm of course dies, and the fire goes out, the endless duration of the punishment of the wicked is asserted by saying the fire into which they are cast shall not be quenched or go out, and their worm never dies. If they who are cast into this punishment can ever cease to be, or shall be delivered from it after they have suffered for a time, then it could not be said their worm dieth not, and the fire in which they are burnt is not quenched, or put out; for the worm and the fire continue only by the continuance of the subject upon which they prey; when that ceases to be a subject of punishment, the worm dies, and the fire goes out. There could, therefore, be no other expression, perhaps, thought of, which would, with so much precision and so clearly, assert that the wicked shall be preserved in a state of endless punishment. And this fixes the meaning of Christ's words, when he says they shall go away into everlasting punishment, everlasting fire, if there could otherwise be any possible doubt about it. Everlasting fire, the fire in which the wicked shall be tormented forever and ever, is, if we allow Christ himself to tell us, the fire that never shall be quenched.

FOURTHLY. The future punishment of the wicked is proved to be endless, not only by its being expressly said in the Scripture to be everlasting, or eternal, and that it shall endure forever and ever, and also in a pointed manner declared that it shall never end, as has been shown, but from many other pas sages of Scripture, in which this truth is plainly, and even necessarily implied.

Our Savior says, "The Son of man goeth as it is written of him; but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It had been good for that man if he had not been born." (Matt. xxvi. 24.) Not to be born, is the same as to have no existence; therefore it is here said of Judas, that his existence was worse than non-existence; which could not be true, if he were to be happy forever, after suffering a temporary punishment, though ever so long and severe. Judas is, therefore, in these words, sentenced to endless punishment;

and there is the same reason why all impenitent sinners should be punished without end as that Judas should.*

Our Savior says, "Whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven." (Luke xii. 10.) And if such a one can never be forgiven, then he cannot be saved; but must be cursed and punished as long as he exists. This is expressed in different words by St. Mark, iii. 29: "He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation." In Matt. xii. 31, 32, it is said, "The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world. to come." Here it is asserted by Christ, in the strongest

In order to evade the evidence of future endless punishment from those words it has been said, (see some deductions from the system promulgated in the pages of divine revelation,) if Judas had given up the ghost before he had been born, he would have escaped all the exquisite distress which he suffered in this life, and so have been happy forever, without being born into this state of misery. This represents Christ as solemnly pronouncing an awful woe on Judas, which yet was nothing more than that which comes on every man that is born, and is therefore equally true of every man as of the traitor; for every man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward, and his life is full of trouble; all which they might have escaped by not being born. Solomon says, It is better not to be born (i. e., not to exist) than to have an existence in this state only. Is not this to make our Savior say nothing, or, rather, to trifle about the most solemn matters?

Not to be born is opposed to existence, and the only natural meaning of the phrase is, not to come into existence.

It is further said, that Christ promised Judas, that he, with the other disciples, should sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, which is inconsistent with his being miserable forever.

ANSWER. We are told, in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, that this was not true of Judas personally, but of the twelve when their number was filled up by choosing one to take the place of Judas, from which he fell by his transgression.

Some have said this last expression means no more than that this sin should not be forgiven under the Jewish or Christian dispensation, as the word here translated world is used sometimes for an age; and this world may signify the Mosaic dispensation, and the world to come the Christian, and not the future state. ANSWER. It is said in the preceding verse, and in the other evangelists, that this sin shall not be forgiven unto men, without any limitation or exception whatever. And these words that are here added, neither in this world, neither in the world to come, cannot be considered as limiting the other words, as they are not in the other evangelists; but they are added to express the same thing in a yet more strong and striking manner. We know what our Savior meant by the world to come, by his use of it elsewhere. "There is no man that hath left house and brethren," etc., "for my sake and the gospel's, but he shall receive a hundred fold now in this time, and in the world to come eternal life." (Mark x. 29-31.) Here the world to come means the future state, and an endless or eternal state, if the followers of Christ will be happy without end.

46

It is clearly shown, by Dr. Whitby, that this was used as a proverbial expression, and that it only signified a thing should never be, when it was said, It shall not be, either in this world or the world to come." - - Dr. Doddridge on Matt. xii. 32.

terms, that this sin shall not be forgiven. Therefore, they who are guilty of this sin must suffer endless punishment, unless they can have eternal life without forgiveness.

What is said in Heb. x. 26, 27, serves to illustrate these words of Christ: "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins; but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." Where there is no sacrifice for sin, there cannot be forgiveness of sin; therefore all who commit this sin, and all who die in their sins, are got beyond forgiveness, as the sacrifice for sin does not extend to them.

That the wicked will never be released from punishment, and pass from hell into the abodes of the blessed, is asserted by our Savior in the words in which he represents Abraham speaking to the rich man: "And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed; so that they who would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us that would come from thence." (Luke xvi. 26.)

Agreeably to this is what Christ hath declared since his exaltation, and when he is speaking his last words to his church and to the world: "And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book; for the time is at hand: he that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that his holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." (Rev. xxii. 10, etc.)

The time here spoken of is evidently the time when the events foretold in this book shall be accomplished; when Christ will come to judgment, and reward every man accord ing as his work in this life shall be found to have been, whether good or evil. And then, he says, every man's character shall be fixed, and remain forever as it shall then be found to be. He that is then unjust and filthy shall still continue so, without any possibility of being recovered to rectitude and purity at any future period. And, on the other hand, he that is then found righteous and holy shall be confirmed in holiness, and continue so to all eternity. What could more fully express the fixed ruin and endless punishment of the wicked? And what words could be invented more directly against their notion who dream that they who shall appear unrighteous at the day of judgment, shall in some after period become holy and enter into everlasting life? If the exalted Head of the church here declares that they who shall be found righteous at the day of judgment shall continue so forever, without any danger

or possibility of ever falling from their righteousness, which all allow to be so, how is it possible for any one not to see that he equally and in the same strong terms declares that he who shall then be found unjust shall continue so from that time, without any possibility of being recovered to holiness, even as long as the righteous shall be righteous still?

There are many other passages of Scripture which are clearly inconsistent with the salvation of all men, and which, of consequence, necessarily imply the endless punishment of the wicked. These are too numerous to be particularly mentioned, but they will be pointed out to the reader who attends to the Bible, by being ranked under the following heads:

1. The everlasting life and happiness of the righteous, and the destruction and punishment of the wicked, are, in a multitude of instances, and commonly, set in opposition to each other, as two direct contraries, which could not be a proper way of representing it, or agreeable to the truth, if they were both to enjoy everlasting life together in the kingdom of God. If the wicked are to be afflicted but for a time and then be delivered from misery, and be as greatly happy as the righteous and as long, then their perishing, their punishment, is as light as nothing, and but for a moment, compared with the eternal weight of glory and happiness, which they shall enjoy equally with the righteous, and therefore cannot be set in opposition to eternal life, or the blessedness of the righteous, as this would be highly improper, and a gross misrepresentation. A few instances out of many which might be mentioned will be sufficient to illustrate this remark. "The Lord knoweth the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever. But the wicked shall perish," etc. (Ps. xxxvii. 18, 20.) Here the perishing of the wicked is opposed to the everlasting, incorruptible inheritance of the righteous, which could not be if their perishing were consistent with their enjoying this everlasting inheritance as well and as long as the righteous. For, on that supposition, it is as true of the wicked as of the upright, that their inheritance shall be forever, and in this respect there is no distinction, much less opposition. Therefore, to set them in opposition would be a misrepresentation, and not agreeable to the truth. If the perishing of the wicked runs parallel with the inheritance of the upright, and forever excludes them from this inheritance, then these words express a great and important truth, but on any other supposition they are perfectly unintelligible, or not true.

These same remarks will apply to those words of Christ and John the Baptist. "That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the