among the Greeks, and determined according to the scope of the apostle's argument. Homer represents Tartarus as a deep placc, under the earth.-(Iliad viii., line 13.) In like manner Hesiod speaks of Tartarus as a place far under ground, where the Titans are bound with chains in thick darkness.-(Theogon, line 119-718.) The Greeks had no definite idea of it, but according to their poets it was a deep, dark place-the lowest hell. It probably was derived from tarasso, to trouble, to disquiet, to fill with consternation; and its meaning is probably synonimous with the meaning of hades. In the case before us the context is so decisive as to the meaning of the word, that if it had been left blank, we could not fill the blank with any thing short of what means a place of future punishment to the wicked. This is manifest, for the writer is speaking directly of punishment. In the verses preceding, speaking of false teachers, who privily introduce destructive errors, 'he says, "whose judgment now of a long time," that is, whose punishment threatened of old "lingereth not and whose damnation slumbereth not." And he then proceeds," For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but confining them in Tartarus with chains of darkness hath delivered them over to be kept for judgment; and brought a flood in upon the ungodly, and overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,” he will not spare them. Since the Greeks named the place where they supposed the enemies of their gods would be confined after death, Tartarus, Peter when writing in the Greek language concerning the confining of the evil angels, calls the place of their confinement Tartarus. I will not now stop to notice the trifling objection, that, the "angels that sinned," here, mean Korah and his company or any other company but the angels that sinned, whom Jude tells us left their own habitation' and are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day; and whom our Saviour represents as having prepared for them everlasting fire.

Thus I have noticed the principal passages in which the word hell is used to denote a place of future punishment; and have we not found abundant evidence that the assertion is false, that this

word does in no case denote the place of future punishment? I hope, my impenitent hearers, that you will ponder well the paths of your feet, and not be inclined for a moment to rest the future and eternal destiny of your soul upon a system that must be supported by such a wretched perversion of the plain declarations of Scripture. And if there be a hell, as I humbly conceive I have proved, I feel constrained as I take my leave of this part of my subject, to say to those who pervert the Scriptures to prove the contrary, as Paul said to the sorcerer- -“O full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord ?"

LECTURE VII.

SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

Acts xiii: 8-10.-"But Elymas, the sorcerer, (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. Then Saul, (who is also called Paul,) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, and said, O full of all subtlety, and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord ?”

SERGIUS PAULUS, a proconsul of Cyprus a candid and intelligent man, called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear from them the import of their new doctrine. It is an evidence of his candor that he was willing to listen to the instructions of the professed ministers of God. But Elymas, the magician, being sensible that, if the influence of the truth should be extended over the mind of the deputy, he himself would be seen to be an impostor, and would have to give up his impositions, endeavored to prevent the salutary influence of the truth on his mind. Then Paul, inspired to detect sin, looked at him intently and said, "O full of all subtlety and mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord ?" The mischief and subtlety of Elymas, consisted, probably, in slight of hand, legerdemain, or tricks, aided by skill in the abstruse sciences. Practising deceit and iniquity, and being under the influence and promoting the designs of Satan, he is called his child, and an enemy to all righteousness. A man who lives in sin will hate the truth and will directly or indirectly oppose it. In what way he opposed

Paul and Barnabas, is not known. It is probable that he misrepresented their doctrine, and vilified their character; and thus retarded the progress of the gospel. The expression "wilt thou not cease?” implies that he had been sedulously employed for a considerable time, in perverting the right ways of the Lord. "The right ways of the Lord" denote the strait paths or doctrines of the Christian religion, in opposition to the crooked and perverse arts of deceivers and impostors.

What I propose in this Lecture is, to notice some other methods by which the objectors of endless punishment evade the force of Scripture testimony, and thus like Elymas, the sorcerer, pervert the right ways of the Lord. Having remarked in the preceding Lecture, that they evade the Scriptures by adopting false principles of interpretation; I proceed to remark,

II. That they evade the testimony of Scripture by asserting THAT,

NOT SINNERS, BUT THEIR SINS ARE TO BE DESTROYED IN THE FU

TURE WORLD. By this method, all those passages are set aside which speak of the wicked as being burnt up, consumed, cast away, and destroyed. Some take the ground that such passages mean only that the vices and bad dispositions of the wicked will be destroyed at death, while they themselves will be admitted into the kingdom of heaven. But, there is nothing in death to destroy the existence of sin in the soul, neither is there any thing in it to change its nature. It is a part of the nature of sin to produce misery, just as truly as it belongs to the sun to impart heat and light. But owing to the countervailing influences which grow out of our present condition, this tendency is not always apparent. But when the sinner is completely removed from them in the future world, what can prevent sin from having its legitimate operation in rendering him completely wretched? To explain away the obvious meaning of the Bible, by asserting that not sinners but their sins are to be punished in a future state, is too palpably absurd to need refutation. What is sin, independent of a voluntary agent who commits it? How can sin, as an abstract thing, be punished? Sin is the voluntary act of transgressors, and, if reached at all, must be

reached by punishing the transgressors. And it will not be until I can be told how our courts of justice will be able to punish perjury, theft, and murder, in the abstract; while the persons guilty of these offences shall go free; that I shall believe that the sins of the wicked will be sent away into everlasting punishment, while they themselves will be, immediately after death, admitted into the kingdom of heaven.

III. Another evasion is, THAT ALL PUNISHMENT THREATENED TO THE WICKED IS endured in the PRESENT LIFE. By this expedient all those passages are explained away which denounce judgments against the wicked in a future state, as denoting the evils that are experienced in the present life. But can any rational being admit such an opinion? Are the threatnings of Jehovah, the curse of the divine law, the solemnities of a future retribution, the perdition of ungodly men, and the wrath to come, to be so explained away as to mean only the calamities which men endure in this life? I will now show by rational and scriptural arguments that sin is not punished in this life to the extent of its deserts. If sin is punished in this life to the extent of its desert, it must be either in the outward trials and afflictions of the sinner, in pain and distress of body, or in anguish and remorse of conscience, or in all of these.

That the wicked have a portion of the trials and afflictions of this life it will not be denied. But if the whole punishment of sin consists in these, we may expect to see an exact proportion, so far as we can judge, between the degrees of criminality and the trials and afflictions suffered. But is this proved by observation and scripture? No--so far from it that many of the wicked have fewer trials and afflictions than many of the righteous. Says Job, "Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea and are mighty in power? Their seed is established in the earth and their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them."* Jeremiah says, "Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?" The Psalmist is very explicit on this subject, and says, "I

*Job xxi: 7-9. +Jer. xii: 1.