needs no argument to prove it. . . Speech is there had (John iii. 3,) of Christ's kingdom of heaven upon earth, or the state under Christ." So also BEZA, WHITBY, &c. John iii. 14-16, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world," &c. That to perish does not signify to suffer endless punishment is obvious. "There is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness," Eccl. vii. 15. "The righteous perisheth," Isa. lvii. 1. "It cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem," Luke xiii. 33. You say, however, that to perish and to have everlasting life are exhibited in contrast. Granted. But in thence arguing the doctrine of endless punishment, you assume that the everlasting life mentioned in the text appertains to a future immortal existence. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent," John xvii. 3. "He that believeth on him that sent me HATH everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is PASSED from death unto life," John v. 24. "He that believeth on me HATH everlasting life," John vi. 47. The believer enjoys everlasting life in this world, and the unbeliever perishes in this world. The former lives on the knowledge of God-the latter perishes with moral hunger.

Mark xvi. 16, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned." As you apply this passage to a future state, and speak of it in an unrestricted sense, you cannot justly object to being tried by it. “These signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." As these signs do not follow you, you cannot be a believer, and of course you must be damned, according to your own showing! And if to be damned signifies to be doomed to endless punishment, such must be your fate. But the

truth is, the passage, in my judgment, had its fulfilment in the age of miracles. To that age were confined the particular salvation and damnation spoken of, inasmuch as to that age were confined the signs of believers. As to the word damn, Dr. CAMPBELL remarks, that in the text it corresponds exactly to the English word condemn,— and affirms that the passage has no reference to a future life. So also HORNE. If Jesus had intended to teach endless punishment, he would have said, "He that believeth and is baptized in this world, shall be saved in the next-and he that believeth not and is not baptized in this world, shall be eternally damned in the next."

Matt. xxiii. 14, "Ye shall receive the greater damnation." You have not attempted to prove that this “greater damnation" signifies endless punishment. On the parallel passage, Mark xii. 40, PEARCE remarks, "Rather judgment or punishment; by which is meant, that they should suffer more severely than other sinners, when the Jewish state should be destroyed."

Matt. xxiii. 33, "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" You have not attempted to prove that the hell here spoken of is in a future state of existence. You have simply quoted the passage, relying on the prepossession of the reader for the application you desire. Be it known that I as firmly accredit the testimony of Jesus as you can possibly do. The question is simply on the import of the testimony. If you can prove that the damnation or punishment of gehenna [the word translated hell] was to be inflicted in a future state of existence, I will yield the argument, but you cannot reasonably expect me to believe your unsupported assertions. I am prepared to meet you in discussion of all that the Bible says about gehenna. Before you said, "The damnation of hell surely does not mean the salvation of heaven," and before you put the question, "Will you attempt to show that damnation does not mean damnation, but something tantamount to salvation?" you should have attempted to show from the Bible that damnation means misery in a future state, and that the dam

nation of hell surely means endless punishment. Let me respectfully entreat you to forbear assuming the predicates of your arguments.

Proverbs xxix. 1, "He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." I have frequently been surprised to hear this passage seriously urged in proof of endless punishment. When we say of a man in the last stages of consumption, "he will certainly die, and that without remedy," -or of a house enveloped in flames, "it will certainly be destroyed, and that without remedy;" do we mean that either the man or the house will be miserable in a future state? Solomon says of a " naughty person," that" his calamity shall come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy," Prov. vi. 15. Of the "chief of the priests and people," it was said, "they mocked the messengers of God. I until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy; therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men," &c, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16, 17. The most that can be said of the text and the two foregoing cases is, that death was inevitable-there was no remedy-no escape.

Matt. x. 28, "Fear not them that kill the body," &c. The parallel is Luke xii. 4, 5. You remark in effect, that if your view of the text be not correct, our Saviour exhorted men to fear unreal objects of dread! This is assuming that he taught endless punishment in the passage before us. And it supposes also, that, in your opinion, there is no object of dread besides endless punishment. Whatever be the object of dread mentioned in the text, it is certain that the disciples alone are exhorted to fear it! No such language was ever addressed to any but the DISCIPLES of Christ. Be it noticed, also, that whatever is destroyed ceases to exist, and of course ceases to suffer or enjoy. Moreover, if God be intended by the word him, (which is questionable,) it should not be forgotten that his ability to do certain things is not sufficient authority for affirming that he will do them. He "is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham," Matt. iii. 9, but you do not sup

pose he ever will do so. So soon as you present your arguments in proof that gehenna is in the immortal state of existence, and that there soul and body will be destroyed, I will attend to your reasoning-but I am not willing to rest the controversy on your apprehension of the signification of a text.

Ezekiel xviii. 31, 32 : xxxiii. 11: You say, and correctly, that "natural death, or the dissolution of soul and body is inevitable"-but it does not follow that death by famine, pestilence, and the sword, was inevitable to the house of İsrael-nor that "a spiritual, second, and everlasting death in sin and to all holiness," is spoken of in the passage referred to. I do not find the word spiritual in either of those passages, nor do I find aught said about a "second and everlasting death." Nor have you furnished any proof that such a death is intended. And allow me to assure you, that if you "had the sentiments of Universalists," you would not have the slightest cause to address the Deity in the manner you have stated. As we propose basing our discussion on proofs, I shall expect you to furnish your reasons for supposing that a spiritual, second, and everlasting death" is taught in the cited passages.

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Rev. xxi. 7, 8: This passage speaks of "the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death." You have a very summary method of proving the doctrine of endless punishment. You say that “here the pen of inspiration has drawn a contrast between the future state of one who overcometh this sinful world, and persons of a different character." Yet you have not so much as attempted to prove that the future state is referred to! I do not pretend to know much about the Apocalypse, and must therefore request you to furnish your reasons for supposing that this lake of fire is in the eternal world. In Rev. xix. we read of eating the flesh of kings and others-of a battle between the beast and him that sat on the horse and their respective armies-that the beast and false prophet were cast alive into "a lake of fire burning with brimstone," and that "the remnant were slain, and all the fowls were filled with their flesh." I can see no propriety

in referring such language to a future state. Nor indeed do I see the propriety of urging so confessedly hyperbolical a book as the Apocalypse in proof of any impor tant doctrine.

As you acknowledge that poetry proves nothing, I need not notice the stanzas you have quoted. In discussing the question before us, I wish to have nothing to do with the sallies of poetical imagination.

"The poet's eye, in a fine phrensy rolling,

Doth glance from earth to heaven, from heaven to earth:
And as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation, and a name."

Matt. xiii. 38-43: In your remarks on the parable of the good seed and the tares, you have assumed two important points: 1st. That by the phrase "end of the world," is signified the destruction of the material world. Are you aware that two words of essentially different signification are each translated world in the parable before us? "The field is the world,” (kóoμos.) "The end of the world," (alwvós.) On the latter phrase, PEARCE says, "Rather end of this age, viz. that of the Jewish dispensation." And on verse 41, "This is spoken, not of what shall happen at the end of the [material] world, but what was to happen at the end or destruction of the Jewish state." The same phrase occurs in Matt. xxiv. 3; 1 Cor. x. 11; Heb. ix. 26. In the latter it is said that Jesus "appeared in the end of the world [age or dispensation] to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." I need not enlarge.

2d. You assume that the furnace of fire, spoken of in the parable, is in the eternal world. You are aware that Egypt is called a furnace, Jer. xi. 4. And it is said, Isa. xxi. 9, "He shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and HIS FURNACE IN JERUSALEM. And again, Ezek. xxii. 18-22, "Son of man,