erlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.""And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." I confess, that I know not how the Lord Jesus could have taught more explicitly the doctrine, that there shall be a final judgment of all nations by himself; that in that coming judgment he will divide some portion of mankind from the rest; and that while some are received to everlasting life, others shall be doomed to everlasting punishment, which is symbolized by everlasting fire. This fire is said to have been originally prepared for the devil and his angels; and of course it means such an everlasting punishment as will be inflicted on spiritual beings. In the Greek, one word, aiwviov, is used to denote the duration of the fire, the punishment, and the life. If the life is to be without termination in futurity, so is the fire, so is the punishment. The word, you know, is compounded of two roots, which signify always being, or ever continuing. If the life of the sheep is eternal in the heavens, then the punishment of the goats is eternal in eternal fire; for the same duration is divinely predicated of each.

To show that aiwviov, rendered everlasting and eternal, primarily and naturally signifies duration without end, refer to Matt. xix. 29, in which place Christ promises Zwny aiwviov, everlasting life, to all who in this world for his sake shall leave houses, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, children and lands. This is to be their portion "in the regeneration" of the world of mankind, by which they are to be raised from their graves, "when the Son of man shall sit upon the throne of his glory," v. 28. "Verily I say unto you, that ye who have followed me, in the renovation, when the Son of man shall sit upon the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Ye, who shall reveal my will to man, shall, by your word thus revealed, judge all the visible people of God to whom your word shall be sent; and then, every one who so believes this gospel as to suffer the loss of all worldly friends and possessions for my sake, shall have everlasting life; though not all

shall have equal honour with the apostles, for whom thrones of judgment are prepared. In Luke xviii. 30, we read that no one hath forsaken house, &c, "who shall not receive manifold more in this present time," Ev TW Kalρw TOUTW, meaning in the time of his continuance on earth; "and in the world to come life everlasting;" rw alwvi Tw exoμeve (why alwviov; in the endless duration to come, endless or always being life. We have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal (alovov) in the heavens," 2 Cor. v. 1. The same word is used, when Timothy is exhorted to "lay hold on eternal life," (1 Tim. vi. 12,) and when God promises that eternal life (Rom. ii. 7.) which you say all men shall possess. It is this very word which is applied to Jesus Christ when he is said to be "the true God, and the Life eternal," 1 John v. 20. "And as many as were ordained to eternal (atwviov) life believed," Acts xiii. 48. The same word is used to denote "the eternal Spirit," Heb. ix. 12, 14, and "the eternal redemption," which Christ shed his blood to procure; and this is "the eternal life" which he has promised us, 1 John ii. 25.

The Greek of the New Testament, it is well known, is the same language in which the Septuagint Translation of the Old Testament was written, which was often read in the Synagogues and quoted by Christ and his apostles; and in the Septuagint the eternity of God is expressed in the very words which teach the endless punishment of the wicked. In the xcth Psalm, v. 2, for instance, it is said of Jehovah," from everlasting," απο του αίωνος, from the always being, εως του αιώνος συ εἰ, to the always being thou art, that is from eternity to eternity, thou art. In short, I repeat it, that if any word in the Greek Septuagint or New Testament expresses, unequivocally, interminable duration, that word is frequently applied to teach the everlasting punishment of some sinners. I could cite a hundred passages in which this truth is confirmed, but it would render this discussion tedious. If the righteous when they die are to be received into "everlasting habitations" of blessedness, (Luke xvi. 9,) then it is equally

certain that when the Son of man shall be revealed from heaven, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, the wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment. They are not to continue on earth, and experience, as some feign, alwviov, punishment in this world, but they are to GO AWAY from the throne of the Saviour's glory into everlasting punishment.

This same punishment is spoken of by Jesus Christ in Matt. xviii. 8, and is compared to one's being cast into 66 the fire that is everlasting." In verse το πυρ το αιώνιον, 9th, of the same chapter, the place and nature of this punishment are compared to the valley of Hinnom, and the fires there. "And if thine eye offend thee," or rather cause thee to offend, or to become a scandal, "pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is good for thee to enter into life having one eye, rather than having two (eyes to be cast into the hell of fire,” εις την γεένναν του πυρος, into the gehenna of fire. This is one of the most forcible descriptions of the state of future punishment found in the Bible; and yelvva is pre-eminently our Saviour's word for hell, a state and place of future punishment, in which the sufferings of the damned are symbolized by the burnings of unquenchable fire and the gnawings of a never dying worm. Some of the original words in Hebrew and Greek translated hell do not always mean either a state or place of punishment, we allow, but the state of departed spirits; the invisible future world; in which there is a paradise, and a gehenna; a place of holy happiness, and a tartarus of moral pollution and misery.

I propose to pursue this subject in my next letter, which I may publish in The Philadelphian of the next week, without waiting for your reply to this. Your letters to me, however, shall be inserted as soon as possible after they come to hand. In this way I will hope to have our letters shorter, by reason of the increase of their number.

Earnestly wishing to convince you that Universalism makes no man the better for believing it, reforms no immoral persons, and has a tendency to drown men in perdition, I remain your friend,

EZRA STILES ELY.

TO MR. EZRA STILES ELY.

Philadelphia, May 9, 1834.

Dear Sir-I perceive with pleasure that you have prac tically renounced a sentiment contained in your letter of March 7; viz. that "commentary and criticism are needful to those alone who wish to believe a different doctrine from that taught by the Holy Spirit of inspiration." And I am not without hope that some of the passages by you cited, to my remarks on which you have made no reply, have also been rejected as furnishing no proof of endless punishment.

You have distinctly conceded, that from the 4th to the 35th verse, inclusive, of Matt. xxiv, our Saviour mentions the signs that should precede, and the circumstances that should attend his coming to destroy Jerusalem and put an end to the Jewish polity. Your only argument in proof of the position that a transition of reference commences at the 36th verse, is drawn from the expression, "But of that day," meaning, in your judgment, a different day from the one previously spoken of. This argument, however, is predicated of your opinion. As you have hitherto wholly neglected my reasoning on this point, I will patiently direct your attention thereto in detail.

Keeping in view your concession that to the 35th verse inclusive the day of tribulation to Jerusalem is referred to, let it be noticed that Jesus immediately added, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." Is it more reasonable to infer that a different day from the one of which the Saviour had just spoken is here intended, than that the same day of calamity, of which so particular an account had been given, is referred to? This question is directed to the common sense that would sit in judgment on the reference of similar language found in any other book. Jesus had expressly certified his disciples, that all the things of which he had spoken should transpire ere the close of the generation then existing-but as to the pre

cise day and hour he acknowledged his inability to inform them.

You seem to think that in Matt. xxiv. 3, the disciples asked our Saviour several separate and distinct questions -so separate, indeed, that one, in your judgment, referred to events which were to transpire within forty years, viz. the destruction of Jerusalem; and another to be distant in its reference as many thousand centuries, viz. the end of the material world. Let us attend to the following considerations.

1st. In Mark xiii. 4, the questions before adverted to are thus recorded: "Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled?" In Luke xxi. 7, "When shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?" In these citations nothing is said of "the end of the world,” συντέλεια του αίωνος, yet you will not deny that the record of the questions in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, substantially expresses the same desire on the part of the disciples. Surely, if you are correct in your interpretation of the phrase in question, Mark and Luke would have recorded something in relation to the subject.

2d. There are but two questions in Matt. xxiv. 4. The disciples are not represented as inquiring for the sign of the end of the world, as a distinct matter. "When shall these things be?" that is, when shall the temple be so destroyed that one stone shall not be left upon another? This is the first question. "And what shall be the sign of thy coming AND of the end of the world?" thus inquiring for the sign of simultaneous events. This is the second question. To the 28th verse inclusive, Jesus speaks in reply to the first question, with a bearing on the second. At the 29th verse it is written, "IMMEDIATELY after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened. . and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven.... and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven." This sign was the sign of his "coming and of the end of the world," for the face of