eternal punishment. Pain, with a view to reformation, is justifiable, but pain as an end cannot be vindicated; and if punishment be eternal, it must be wholly an end, there being nothing beyond it. To call creatures into existence whom, it was foreseen, would incur the penalty of sin, and to surround them with the circumstances which will inevitably lead to transgression,-to inflict upon them much misery in the present life, and eternal torment in the future world, is to make the promotion of misery the end of man's existence. The few short years allotted to man on earth are as nothing in comparison with the eternity of woe which it is asserted is the result of his being, and the doom is maintained to be that of the race as a whole. But all our knowledge of God's perfections contradicts this dogma. If we turn to man, we find that his constitution answers to the purpose of the Creator. The outward world is fraught with blessings to him, and we find that his mind is capable, by the exercise of his powers, of deriving enjoyment. The existence of evil is the means of calling forth his faculties, and forming a loyal and noble character. There is also a higher life, in which, though sin will be punished, while goodness will be rewarded, the great design of God, the promotion of happiness, will be accomplished-instantaneously recognizes. The Bible places goodness will be perfected, and evil will be cleansed away. To these views it cannot be objected with success that in the vegetable world much fails of its purpose, and yet the ways of the Deity are justifiable. Nothing in nature is really lost, still less is anything perverted, so as to be a means of evil; but the dogma under consideration supposes not that the object in man's creation will be rendered useless, but that human nature will be totally perverted to evil, and be sunk in eternal misery. The nature of man, as well as the attributes of God, show us that the Deity designs to promote happiness because he is a benevolent being; and if so, his purposes cannot fail, and eternal punishment is impossible.

benevolent, although the manifestations of his character may vary, yet this design and tendency must be the same. The scriptures, we know, receive important illustration from the exercise of reason, and the testimony of experience. The early Christians believed in the re-appearance of Christ within a few years; non-resistant principles were generally recognized by them; a kind of communion of goods existed; the prayer of faith was deemed sufficient to heal the sick; and many other matters were believed, because the scriptures seemed to say so, and with a force so great-as in the case of our Lord's immediate re-appearing-that the body of Christians were in a constant state of expectancy and excitement. We know now that numerous interpretations of scripture, such as those to which we allude, must have been erroneous. The commentary of our reason and our conscience supplies us with the true signification. While it is difficult to determine to what extent we are indebted to nature for the general conclusions of what is termed natural theology, thoughtful divines heartily acknowledge that it is the basis of revealed religion. Hence, when the Bible speaks of goodness, love, justice, as belonging to God, it refers to attributes which man himself possesses, and whose meaning he

The inquiry may now be made, how the considerations we have advanced affect the scriptural question; and to this point we beg to refer. The Bible must harmonize with the revelation of God in nature and in conscience, and with the operation of his providence. If the Deity be essentially

before us manifestations of divine goodness, and we welcome them because we feel that they are native to ourselves. Indeed, we expect that the gospel would confirm our faith in the benevolence of the Deity. We find accordingly that the scriptures iterate, with a persuasiveness peculiarly belonging to them, the considerations we have advanced, and that their grand purpose is to bring home to man, by very touching evidences, the consideration that God is love, that his purposes are good, and that we have reason to hope for ourselves and our race.

To parry the force of the argument against eternal punishment, much ingenuity has been used, or rather thrown away. If the doctrine could be successfully maintained on such grounds, it appears to us that there is nothing in any system of religion which could not be successfully vindicated. It is suggested, for instance, that sin is infinite, and requires an infinite punishment. The reply is obvious, that the statement is altogether gratuitous. It is admitted that there

are degrees of guilt, and hence sin cannot being sin. It would not be just in man to infinite. Sin, it is said, is intrinsically punish without any regard to the reformation wrong, and therefore requires punishment. of the criminal, still less would it be just in Its peculiar characteristic is that it promotes God. Vindictiveness, cruelty, revenge, conmisery, and thus prevents the accomplish- sists in doing an injury to others who may ment of God's design. It follows that have injured us; and this we know to be punishment is just, so that the purpose of wrong. Punishment is also the infliction of the Deity our felicity—may not be defeated, pain; but the motive or design is different, the sin being removed by the infliction; but and human laws, in having more and more eternal torment would be itself a manifesta- directly in view the reformation of the tion of evil, and would be, in fact, the offender, are held to approximate, in proportriumph of sin, by its eternal wide-spread tion to strict justice, to that high attribute dominion, over purity and goodness-ideas of the Deity. It is argued, that eternal quite incompatible with the divine perfec- punishment is necessary, so as to prevent tions, and affording a notable illustration of evil from spreading. Without now stopping the fact, that a narrow and ungenerous in- to inquire whether the eternity of punishterpretation of the scriptures, travesties the ment is the potential circumstance in checkdesign of a written revelation, and impugnsing sin in any considerable number of perthe basis on which it rests. God's justice is often brought forward as an argument for eternal punishment. It is maintained that his love prompts him to pardon, but his justice interferes to prevent him, and the result is that eternal punishment is inflicted on the vast majority of the race. It is incredible, however, to believe that there can be any such conflict of attributes in the divine character. It would be of no consequence that justice was pointed out as belonging to the Deity, as it would be essentially an evil attribute, which inflicted misery as an end. Justice, as well as goodness, must be of the same nature in man as in God. Men are related to each other and to the Deity, and hence certain duties arise, whose faithful performance realizes justice, and we often find in the scriptures the term applied to express the totality of character, as Prov. iv. 18; Heb. ii. 4. Justice, with reference to man, may be otherwise defined as rendering his due to every one. God's justice prescribes that he should watch over his offspring, provide them with the means of serving him, and govern them righteously. That justice is displayed in the punishment of sin, so that his will may be obeyed, and his purposes accomplished. Sin is opposed to the diffusion of happiness, and hence must be checked by punishment; and it is the order of God's providence, that, while goodness leads to happiness, sin is followed by a penalty, which acts as a restraint upon it. Justice, then, is invariably an expression of the divine goodness, whether in directly encouraging virtue, or in punish

sons, it is sufficient to say, that there can be no necessity for the Deity permanently enthroning evil; and that to assert, which is here in effect done, that the price of the ultimate happiness of the virtuous few is the eternal condemnation of the race as a whole, is to suppose that he is fettered in his plans, or is not fundamentally benevolent. Again, it is stated that evil, as it belongs to the soul, could not be eradicated in a future state. "Benjamin" says, "any such change would be equivalent to the annihilation of the identity of the subject, and the creation of a new personality." We see changes of character taking place in this world. These changes occur through a certain action of the soul; and if evil can be thrown off now, it can be so at any future stage of the existence of the same nature. Man is acted on by a thousand influences appointed by the Deity, and it is in God's power to surround him with influences in the future state, tending to awaken remorse, and to lead to repentance and reformation. Connected with the point under our notice is the idea which

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Benjamin" suggests, that hell is merely the natural efflux of the character formed in this world, and hence man, and not God, is responsible for it. The scriptures, however, inform us of the punishment of the wicked -a punishment appointed by God-by the withdrawal of all enjoyment, and the employment of corrective measures. The Deity, then, does not simply leave the impenitent to do as they like, the natural result being misery; the circumstances by which they are surrounded are of his ordination. We

persons reject the 'fire and brimstone' as literal, while they retain the 'everlasting' in its strictest application?" It is from a consideration of the divine attributes, and of the essentially spiritual nature of man, as well as of the general tendency of the scriptures, that such persons reject the notion of a material punishment; and we ask them to apply the same principles of interpretation to the question under our notice, confident that their conclusions would be adverse to the doctrine of eternal punishment. As to the different degrees of punishment, we observe that the punishment is represented in the scriptures as in all cases dreadful; and to punish eternally in that manner is brought no nearer to justice, because the degree of punishment is not always the same. It may well suggest doubt, however, to the advocates of eternal punishment, whether the idea that God punishes some more and others less, is reconcilable with the eternity of the punishment in all cases-a doctrine founded upon the infinite culpitude of man, on account of the essential demerit of sin. The fact of few stripes being inflicted upon certain persons, while many stripes are the portion of others, implies a difference in the time as well as in the degree of the punishment.

think that “Benjamin's" reasoning is not such as the supporters of eternal punishment can generally concur in. He indicates that there are some who may be saved "as by fire," these being exceptions, or extreme cases. He says, "To suppose a work of divine wisdom to end in nothingness, is to imply a defect in the Infinite, which is an absurdity." We wonder if it does not occur to him that it would be still more extravagant to suppose that the Infinite Love could allow the eternal perpetration of sin and misery in reference to the vast body of his children? If the existence of numberless worlds raises a presumption that they are intended for intelligent recipients of God's love, is it reasonable to suppose the myriads of intelligences who have been created are not intended for ultimate felicity? He says that hell has its uses, and that those uses are analogous to those of wild beasts, noxious reptiles, vermin, poisonous and excremental substances, &c. It may be at once allowed that punishment is of use in deterring from evil, and reforming the criminal; but what use eternal punishment can be is not shown, and, disbelieving in Swedenborgian revelations, we cannot take for granted that, whether it be eternal or not, punishment has the kind of use which "Benjamin" indicates. We proceed to notice the arguments deIn the progress of an enlightened criticism duced from certain passages of the Bible in it is now admitted that the future punish-favour of the doctrine in dispute. The chief ment of the wicked is of a spiritual and not stress is laid on the use, in a few places, of a material kind, and that there will be the words rendered "everlasting," "eternal," degrees of punishment. The desire to search "for ever," and "unquenchable fire," in regard for a vindication of the eternity of punish- to future punishment. As to the first class of ment, which is still, to a large extent, passages, the word con, and its derivative assumed, has forced the way for the kind of conios, neither in their primitive nor ordicriticism alluded to; but, after all, it cannot nary meaning signify "endless," and the words support the argument. The Deity con- themselves do not settle the question. It is descends to act by material agencies now, evident, therefore, that the ground on which the and if it can be supposed that he would vast majority believe in eternal punishments inflict eternal punishment on his weak and is thoroughly untenable, and that the queserring creature man, material fire could not tion is only determined by certain principles be regarded as an incredible means, or in- of criticism, on which men may reasonably consistent with the genius and spirit of differ, and which render it a subject of Christianity. The idea of fire connected debate, and no explicit revelation. with future punishment occurs several times, words con and conios have a plural number, and under more than one aspect. The ex- and hence it is difficult to see how they can pressions are totally disconnected from a signify "everlasting" or "eternal" in the strictstrain of language obviously figurative. We est sense. They refer to periods or times in think, notwithstanding, that their signifi- plural number, whose signification must be the cation is spiritual; but we consider there is wider or more extended than in the singular. much force in the inquiry of our able coad-The first word is used in various senses; as jutor, "Sigma""-"How is it that so many an age (in the plural ages of the world), the

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