when the schoolmen go about to reconcile the Divine justice to that severity, and consider why God punishes eternally a temporal sin, or a state of evil, they speak variously, and uncertainly, and unsatisfyingly.”—(Christ's Advent to Judgment, Sermon 3.) This passage from Taylor will, I should hope, convince English readers that the "most various, uncertain, and unsatisfying" doctrines respecting future punishment have not been unknown to the Church in any age; have not been confined to followers of Origin, could not be unknown to the translators of our Bible or the framers of our Articles. Gieseler says (Period 2, c. ii. 82) speaking of the time from A. D. 324-451: "Die Meinung von der unverlierbaren Besserungsfähigkeit aller vernünftigen Wesen, und der Endlichkeit der Höllenstrafen war so allgemein, auch im Abendlande, und bei Gegnern des Origenes verbreitet, das sie, wo nicht ohne den Einfluss der Origenistischen Schule enstanden doch von derselben ganz unabhängig geworden war." "The opinion of the indestructible capacity of reformation in all rational creatures, and of the finiteness of the torments of hell, was so common, even in the West, and so diffused among opponents of Origen, that though it might not have sprung up without the influence of his school, yet had it become quite independent thereof." No one, I believe, will refuse to accept Gieseler as an authority in a matter of fact. I quote him, first, to prove that a doctrine which is said to have been unknown to our Reformers, except in connection with Origen or the Anabaptists, gained a very great influence in the Church at an early period; secondly, to show how naturally a belief in purgatory was produced by the efforts to coerce the expression of this doctrine, and to condemn the authors of it. I may add that there is a very remarkable passage in Gregory of Nyssa (close of the treatise De Animâ et Resurrectione) of which Taylor has taken no notice. 12 BURROUGHS PLACE, April 21, 1858. REV. DR. ADAMS:- - Dear Sir. It was my privilege to be one of your auditors, last Sunday evening, when you delivered the discourse, listened to with great interest by a large assembly, on the "Reasonableness of Eternal Punishment " I take the liberty to address you, with the request that you will repeat the discourse in the Hollis Street Church next Sunday evening. Members of the committee of my society, and many others of the parishioners, express to me the hope that you may find it consistent with your engagements and in accordance with your sense of duty to accept this invitation. Our church is very spacious; on such an occasion I doubt not that it would be crowded with an audience of "Liberal Christians." I am sure that they would eagerly embrace an opportunity to hear so able an advocate of "Orthodoxy" upon a theme so important as the eternal punishment, by the Infinite Father, of all who fail to comply with the terms of grace which He has established for His children during this brief life. Let me assure you that, if you accept this offer, the pulpit shall be entirely at your disposal, precisely as if it were your own. And let me say that I expect no such offer in return. If you consent, I shall simply urge my people to attend your service, and listen, as I shall listen a second time, with the respect your abilities deserve, and with the earnestness which the momentous question you discuss about which we differ so widely should inspire in us all. In the hope of an early reply, I am respectfully yours, T. S. KING. 4 BOYLSTON PLACE, April 22, 1858. REV. T. S. KING :— My Dear Sir. Your note of the 21st inst. reached me this morning, and I need not say that it has greatly surprised and deeply interested me. The sermon was written in 1852, and was then preached to my own people on a Sabbath morning, in the ordinary course of ministerial labor. The subject has weighed much on my own mind during the present religious interest, and this alone induced me to present it at my lecture last Sabbath evening. That it did not strike you and others as an unfeeling exhibition of mere theological opinion upon an infinitely important and very trying subject, is truly gratifying to me. Your invitation to repeat the sermon in your church, next Sabbath evening, is conveyed in such terms that I feel impelled to accept it, and I will therefore comply with your request. It is due to you as well as to myself to say, that parts of the discourse, as originally written, were omitted last Sabbath evening, and their place was supplied from brief notes, and by a few extemporaneous remarks. All this I will endeavor to repeat; and I infer from the tenor of your note that should I further explain and reenforce some of my statements, it will but accord with your wishes. I ought, moreover, to add that none but myself can properly be held responsible for my sentiments and expressions on this subject, however much I may suppose my views to agree with theirs. With sincere regard, I am, dear sir, very truly yours, N. ADAMS. At the request of parishioners I had concluded to publish, in a tract form, several discourses recently prepared with reference to the present religious interest. The subjects of two of these tracts, which were nearly ready for the press, are I. CONVERSION AND ITS RELATION TO PIETY; and Without any reference to these intended publications, I preached, on Sabbath evening, April 18, at my stated lecture, the discourse referred to above. Owing to the peculiar circumstances connected with this discourse, I have concluded to make it the first in this series of tracts. Others will appear without delay. N. A. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by GOULD & LINCOLN, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. THE REASONABLENESS OF FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. FOR THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH. -ROM. vi. 23. LET us endeavor to think how it would be with us, should it come to pass, as the fool in his heart wishes it to be, that there is no God; that God is dethroned. Some disaster has happened in the universe, and rival spirits, we will suppose, have triumphed. Malignity has supplanted benevolence; wickedness is enthroned over virtue; chance does not rule, but the government of all worlds is in the hands of the enemies of God. Prayer now is useless; public worship may as well cease. Bibles are like old books of history, and nothing more, for the promises of the Bible are now like irredeemable bills. Repentance and faith are useless. The deity to whom this world has fallen by lot is Mammon, or Moloch; or it may be that Satan himself, out of spite for all which he has suffered here, takes it under his charge. Every thing now is perverted; darkness is put for light, evil for good, bitter for sweet. The strongest must rule; to get all he can, by all means, is the governing principle of every man; no rights are respected; Virtue is driven out of the world; her defences and her great reward have perished. Every where we are assailed with the sight of these words, and with this cry: No God! No God! Whether the (3) devils have power to control the elements and rule the heav enly bodies, or whether all things will rush to ruin, is a fear ful question, which every day and hour appals the stoutest heart. For, instead of One, Almighty, Supreme Being, who can say, as formerly, "I am God, and there is none else," and instead of that unity of purpose, and independent will, and unrivalled might, which governed the universe safely and happily, a band of devils, we suppose, is at the head of affairs, the superior demon holding his sway by force over the rest, or by their assent; but no unity of purpose, or permanence, can be expected in things controlled by hateful and hating creatures. We look up to the heavens; they no longer "declare the glory of God," but telegraph his discomfiture. As one says, "What were the universe without a God? A mob of worlds, careering round the sky." Law every where would be likely to be mob law. If we could, by armies and any sacrifice of treasure and blood, reinstate Jehovah in his throne, our own self-interest, and sense of justice, and outraged feelings, would impel us to any and every effort to drive Satan and his hosts from heaven, and shut them up in hell as long as they should continue rebellious; and the return of the day when God Almighty should resume his peaceful reign in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, would be a jubilee. But alas! if the almighty arm, so called, could not prevail against his enemies, how could mortals help him? Let it once be that usurpers have the throne of God, and annihilation would be coveted by every one of us more eagerly than any despairing suicide ever yet longed to prove or to find it true. Every one of us has done his part to bring about this state of things. Should the natural feelings and conduct of each |