tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall utter perverse things: Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as

he that lieth upon the top of a mast.' (Prov. xxiii. 29–34.) “I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding: and, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well; I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: so shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.' (Prov. xxiv. 30-34.) Let these testimonies suffice out of many, very many; they are enough to establish the bible decision of the point, that "the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth, much more the wicked and the sinner." (Prov. xi. 31.)

In, order, then that punishment should be effective of the ends intended by it-in order to its fulfilling its purposed objects in the scheme of divine government, it is seen that it must be certain ; it must also be a natural consequence of sin--as necessarily connected with it as other effects are with their causes; and it must also be proportionate to the offence. Hence, the scriptures constantly speak of the divine retributions as being according to our deeds. But does the doctrine of endless misery so represent it? Nay, verily, but quite the contrary.

Charles and Henry were brothers-twin brothers; they grew together until they had attained their 20th year, when Charles died; and as he made no profession of religion, he was sentenced to endless pains. Had Henry died at the same time, he would have shared a similar doom, for he was as destitute of religion as his brother; luckily for him, however, he lived until his 70th year, during the whole of which time he was in an unconverted state, excepting the last six months: for the last six months he had lived a pious life, and, consequently, was admitted after his death to heaven. "The punishment of sin,” saith the theory of endless misery, "does not take place here, but is deferred until the parties arrive in the spiritual world." Consequently, Henry

received no punishment in this world for his long career of sinfulness; and it will not be pretended that he received it after he arrived in heaven-he was therefore not punished at all! But how fares it with his brother Charles? He, poor fellow, must welter in unceasing flames for the crimes of his brief existence on earth! Has God rendered to these twins according to their works? The above, I think, is not a strained view of the subject; on the contrary, it corresponds to facts which, if the notion of endless misery be true, are constantly transpiring. Not only is it commonly supposed that a man may secure an exemption from just punishment by repentance, and after serving sin for the main part of his life, be prepared in a few days, or hours, or even moments, for heavenly bliss-but it is also supposed by Arminians, that if a christian be overtaken with sin at the last, and die unpardoned, although the whole of his former days may have been devoted to virtue, yet he shall sink to hell, and be lost past redemption! It is indeed impossible to avoid innumerable and most gross anomafies in connexion with that doctrine, and for the reason that it is essentially absurd in itself. In the theory of forgiveness and of punishment, as herein advocated, and which has been shown to be in striking agreement with scripture and fact, no such anomalies are involved: it seems to meet all the requirements of reason and justice it reflects a glory and a praise upon the all-perfect Creator and Ruler of the universe-and it affords a guarantee that the great and benevolent ends of his government, (which can be nothing less than the promotion of the greatest possible amount of eventual good to the greatest possible number of his subjects,) shall be infallibly and triumphantly achieved.

"That be far from thee," said Abraham, when God had revealed to him his purpose of destroying the Sodomites, and the patriarch was remonstrating against the involving the good and the bad in a common destruction-"That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked; and that the righteous be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen. xviii. 25.) Here was a fitting occasiou for Jehovah to have informed the patriarch, (ane through him the world,) that in his present dispensations he does not discriminate between persons of different characters, but treats all alike, deferring unto a future period the making of those disting

tions which justice seems to require. But no such information did Abraham obtain; on the contrary, the justness of his remonstrance was practically acknowledged. God did not slay the righteous with the wicked, but saved Lot and his family, whilst he overthrew with a judgment of fire the wicked inhabitants of the cities of the plain. Nevertheless, we are informed by modern theologists, in the face of this, and of a hundred kindred scriptural facts, and the experience of all ages and of every day, that a suitable distinction is not here made betwixt the righteous and the wicked; and therefore, that to satisfy the requirements of infinite justice, there must be a future dispensation for this special end. Such is the conclusion-you have seen, reader, that the premises are false, and, consequently, the conclusion is false also.

HELL PUNISHMENT EXAMINED.

Dr. Adam Clark, speaking of the English word hell, says, "It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon helan, which signifies, to cover, conceal, or hide, and hence the tiling, or covering of a house, and the covering of books are to this day called heling; and the phrase to hell is still used as synonymous with to cover, or hide, in several of the western counties of England. Thus the true and primitive meaning of the word hell, was perfectly accordant with the idea suggested by the Hebrew sheol, and the Greek hades, for, as nouns, all three of these words imply something unseen, concealed, or invisible, and have, therefore, with propriety been employed to convey the notion of an unseen world, the grave, or the state of the dead in general." Thus far the great Arminian

commentator.

The learned Archbishop Usher, has expressed the same opinion, as follows: "We have no word in the French or English language to express the idea conveyed by the Hebrew sheol, or the Greek hades. Our English word hell had anciently this meaning, being derived from the German hell, to hide. Hence, the ancient Irish used to say hell the head,' meaning to cover the head. So that our hell then answered to the Greek hades, which

Not only in regard to the literal sense of the Old Testament word rendered hell, are learned commentators agreed, but also in regard to the fact, that the idea of punishment beyond death was not entertained by the Jewish people, nor inculcated in their sacred oracles this must surely be admitted a highly important concession. Look at it, reader. The Jewish economy continued down to the four thousandth year of the world, and after. For all this period, then, no revelation had been made to man concerning a hell beyond the grave. And although Jehovah had established

a church on earth, and revealed to that church his character and his laws; although he addressed the human will by every motive likely to influence it; yet, for four thousand years and more, no disclosure was made relative to a fact the most awful that finite mind can contemplate; a fact (if true) which ought to have been traced in words of flame on every object in nature!!!

There was not in the Hebrew language a word denoting such a state or place as an ultra-mundane hell; for although in our version of the Old Testament, we occasionally meet the word hell, yet it is derived from a terin (sheol) which literally signifies the separate state. The Jews evidently supposed that all the dead go to the same place. Their usual phraseology in regard to a deceased person was, (whatever might have been his character,) "he was gathered to his fathers." Nor did this relate merely to the body of such individual, for we find it used in reference to those who were interred in foreign lands, as well as to such as were buried in the family cemetery with their progenitors.

That the term sheol suggested no idea to the mind of a Jew answering to the modern signification of the word hell, must be extremely apparent to every candid student of the Old Testament; see for proof the following, among numerous similar instances of the application of this term.

When the patriarch Jacob supposed his son Jacob to be torn in pieces by a wild beast, he exclaimed, "I will go down unto [sheol] the grave unto my son, mourning." (Gen. xxxv. 37.) Job, in the midst of his troubles, supplicated his Maker as follows: "Oh, that thou wouldst hide me in [sheol] the grave, that thou wouldst keep me secret till thy wrath be past." (Job, xiii.

14.) David exclaims, on one occasion, "Oh Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from [sheol] the grave." (Ps. xxx. 3.) In another place the psalmist saith, "For thou wilt not leave my soul in [sheol] hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." (Ps. xvi, 10.) Peter represents him as having used this language in reference to Christ. (Acts xiii. 15.) "The Lord killeth, and maketh alive; he bringeth down to [sheol] the grave, and bringeth up.” (1 Sam. ii. 6.)

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The grave [sheol] is my house." (Job.) This was no doubt said in allusion to the long-home" of man-"the house appointed for all the living." Jonah cried unto the Lord “out of the belly of [sheol] hell.” This was while he was in the belly of the fish; he viewed himself as already cut off from the living, and included among the inhabitants of the separate state, and therefore he says "the earth with her bars closed against me forever." Yet he lived after this to preach to the Ninevites.

"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in sheol, whither thou goest." (Eccl. ix. 10.) People cannot well be tormented in flames, without knowing something about it, but Solomon says, "there is no knowledge in sheol!" consequently, sheol cannot be a place of torment.

The king of Babylon was threatened with being “brought down to [sheol] hell, to the sides of the pit," and that while there, the kings of the earth should see him, and taunt him with his former boasted greatness, saying, "Is this the man that made the earth to tremble? (Isa. xiv. 15, 16.) Hell [sheol] is confounded with "the nether parts of the earth." (Ezek. xxi. 22.) In Amos ix. the Lord threatens to bring the sword upon the Jewish nation, and he says, "Though they dig into [sheol] hell, thence shall my hand take them."

These must fully suffice to show that sheol, in Old Testament times, was not supposed a receptacle of damned spirits. Jacob surely did not imagine that his beloved Joseph had gone to a world of misery-nor did he expect that his own gray hairs would sink in sorrow to such a place neither did David allud to a realm of fire when he said his soul should not be left in he -nor did Jonah mistake the whale's belly for such a realm—n ́ did Peter think that Christ's soul went, at death, to a hell