put upon such a plain phrase as eternal punishment, a meaning so forced, so unnatural, and so unphilosophical?

We will only add that, if it were proposed to express the received doctrine of eternal punishment in the plainest and most unequivocal form, we can hardly conceive how it could. be done more effectually than in the present passage; unless indeed one were to declare of the wicked that they should be tormented in the fire of hell day and night forever and ever. This is affirmed of Satan, whom the author correctly takes to be a proper person, yet he raises the query: “will Satan actually cease from being?" and he thinks that "the prophecies all look that way." It is abundantly manifest that no declaration whatever of Scripture can induce him to receive the doctrine of eternal punishment as true.

5. The lake of fire, Rev. 19: 20; 20: 10, 14, 15; 21: 8. We have anticipated in part what was to be said on these passages. The devil is admitted by the author to be a real person. We add that the beast and the false prophet are the representatives of real persons. They stand for organi zations of wicked men opposed to Christ and his gospel. These organizations are to be destroyed as such upon earth, while the men who composed them must receive their personal judgment from Christ at the last day. Now it is said that the devil, who deceived the wicked, is "cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever." Afterwards it is said that "whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." On these passages the author remarks: "This passage cannot be claimed as proving directly anything beyond the eternal existence of Satan, the Beast, and the False Prophet. To this it may be answered:

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1 He quotes Gen. 3: 15, "where the true sense," he tells us, "is that the seed of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent." His error is in confounding the annihilation of Satan's kingdom with that of his person.

2 The sacred writer adds that this "is the second death," Rev. 21: 8. The sec ond death is then simply equivalent to suffering eternal punishment in the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. We need inquire no further respecting it.

First, this is enough, since the question is not how many shall suffer eternal punishment, but whether any such principle as eternal punishment exists under God's government. If we can show that Satan is the subject of eternal misery, the main argument of the writer, which is directed against eternal punishment, as such, is overthrown.

But secondly, the devil also includes "his angels," a mighty organization of wicked beings, as the scriptures teach us. Will any one venture to affirm that the devil will be tormented day and night forever and ever in the everlasting fire that was prepared for him and his angels, and they be annihilated? Again, the beast and the false prophet (who are represented as leagued together with the devil against Christ) include all their followers. Of every one that worships the beast it is said: "he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name." No one, we think, will be bold enough to affirm that this is the lot of a particular class only of those who have their portion in the lake of fire. But if he sohuld, it will not help our author; since the question everywhere discussed by him is whether any such principle as that eternal punishment, in the sense of the eternal infliction of misery upon sentient beings, exists under God's government.

But it is said that Death and Hades are also cast into the lake of fire. "By parity of reasoning," says the author, "Death and Hades, named in v. 13, and appointed to the

1 Rev. 14: 9-11. This the author tells us" refers properly to the scenes of time, and not to the final judgment” (p. 211); as if the Apocalypse knew any other lake of eternal fire and brimstone but that into which the wicked shall be cast at the last day! His mistake lies in confounding the time of the annunciation of this punishment by the angel with the time of its infliction. The former belongs undoubtedly "to the scenes of time," the latter to "the final judgment." This announcement of "the wrath to come" upon those who worship the beast is plainly intended to strengthen men in their present conflict with him. Hence the sacred writer immediately adds: "Here is the patience of the saints."

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same lake of fire,' are also immortal. But this is not allowed." That the interpretation of this passage is encumbered with difficulty we frankly admit. So far, however, as the present question is concerned, it does not embarrass us. Without entering into details, we will simply state our opinion, that Death and Hades are here personified as the enemies of man.2 To complete the representation of Christ's victory over the foes of his church, they also, as well as Satan, must be cast into the lake of fire. This implies, as in the case of Satan, the Beast, and the False Prophet, both their punishment, and the destruction of their power. But they are not real beings. They are only figurative persons; and therefore both their punishment, and the destruction of their power as persons, are figurative. Is it not absurd to raise such a grave comparison between the immortality of true persons and mere personifications?

6. Eternal perdition. 2 Thess. 1: 9" Who shall suffer as a penalty everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his might" (otives díkŋv tiσουσιν, ὄλεθρον αἰώνιον, ἀπὸ προσώπου τοῦ κυρίου, καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς δόξης τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ.) With this passage we may conveniently consider another which occurs in 2 Pet. 3: 7— But the heavens which now are, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (εἰς ἡμέραν κρίσεως καὶ ἀπωλείας τῶν ἀσεβῶν ἀνθρώπων). The words ὄλεθρος and ἀπώλεια are of general signification. They denote either the act of bring ing into a lost or ruined state, or that state itself. The form of the ruin is always to be determined by the nature of the subject. The destruction of a house by fire is one thing; of a land by war, another thing; of a man for his pride (" a man's pride shall bring him low") still another. When now we have the express testimony of Scripture respecting

1 p. 214.

2 Compare 1 Cor. 15: 26: "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death;" and Hosca 13: 14: "O death, I will be thy plagues; O Hades (s, Sheol, the Hebrew equivalent), I will be thy destruction."

the nature of the perdition that shall overtake the ungodly at the last day," these general terms, and all others of a like character, are to be interpreted accordingly.

7. Destruction of soul and body in hell. Matt. 10:28. Luke 12: 4, 5. The context makes it certain that these two passages are but different accounts of the same discourse. The former of them reads as follows: "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." The latter, thus: "And I say unto you my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear Fear him, which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you fear him." We see at a glance that casting into hell, and destroying both body and soul in hell, are equivalent expressions. To be cast into hell, is to be cast into the "everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels," "to go away into everlasting punishment." This is the destruction of both soul and body in hell. The Saviour's design is to contrast man's impotence with God's almighty power. Man can only kill the body, without the ability to kill the soul. The writer uses the word kill (aπоKTЄivaι) because it is in this way that wicked men seek to destroy the righteous. God, on the other hand, can not only do all that man can do - kill the body—but after he has killed can cast into hell, and thus destroy (àπoλéσai,2 not άπоктЄîvαι, which would not be here the appropriate word) both body and soul in hell. The nature of this destruction has been already considered.

1 ἀπολέσαι, like its cognate nouns ἀπώλεια and ὄλεθρος, is a word of general signification. It is applied to the demons whom Jesus casts out: "Art thou come to destroy us?" Mark 1: 24. Elsewhere the demons say: "Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?" Matt. 8: 29. Mark 5: 7. Luke 8: 28; and they beseech him "that he would not command them to go out into the deep (ußvorov, the bottomless pit of the Apocalypse, 20: 1, 3) Luke 8: 31. Here we have the manner of their destruction. It is by being despoiled of their power over men, and cast down to the abyss, to be there tormented.

There are many more passages of Scripture that might be considered, did our limits permit, but the above examination is abundantly sufficient for our purpose.

8. Scriptural antitheses to eternal life. eternal death does not occur in the Bible. are the scriptural antitheses to the expression Shame and eternal contempt; Dan. 12: 2. Eternal punishment; Matt. 25: 46. Perishing; John 3: 15, 16. 10: 28.

Abiding under God's wrath; John 3: 36.

The expression

The following eternal life.

Coming into condemnation (кpíσw); John 5: 24. Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish; Rom. 2: 7, 8, 9.

Death; Rom. 6: 21, 23.

Destruction (popáv); Gal. 6: 8.

Life in the sense of eternal life has the following anti

theses:

Perdition (anoelav) Matt. 7: 13, 14.

Being cast into the fire of hell (yeévva); Matt. 18: 9. Mark 9: 43, 45.

Condemnation (piσews); John 5: 29.

Death (generally in the more comprehensive sense including its beginning in this world); Rom. 7: 10. 8: 6. 2 Cor. 2: 16. 2 Tim. 1:10. 1 John 3: 14. 5: 16.

The above contrasts are highly suggestive. They show at once how unfounded is the assertion that, according to the scriptural view, the proper antithesis of eternal life is eternal death literally taken. Rather is it a state of condemnation and suffering.

III. Destiny of Satan.

The destiny of "the devil and his angels" is a question of awful significance, for it cannot be separated from that of the wicked. The holy Scriptures teach us that Satan existed at the beginning of the world; that he first seduced the