is undoubtedly some grand apostate from, and persecutor of the church; without doubt it is the same as is alluded to by Paul, under the appellative of the "man of sin," whom the Lord should consume with the brightness of his coming. "I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand, until a time and times and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." (Dan. vii. 21--27.)

On the passage in Rev. xx. it cannot be necessary to say much, it is evidently parallel with the above in Daniel, whence also its representations are borrowed: it shadows forth the universal reign and judicial authority of Christ Messiah: in those days the regal and judicial functions of government were invariably united; hence in scripture phraseology, to judge, always imports the same as to govern: when it is said that such and such persons judged Israel at particular times, we are to understand that these persons exercised the supreme rule; when it is said also that "the Lurd shall judge his people," we may understand it precisely as if it read, the Lord shall govern his people. In accordance with this usage the moral government of Messiah during the gospel era is set forth under the representation of a judgment, or trial in judicial form. Christ told his disciples they should sit with him on thrones, "judging the twelve tribes of Israel :" in other words, that as his instruments they should assist in the moral govern

ment of his church or kingdom: "to stand at the judgmentseat of Christ," then, is to be amenable to him as our moral governor etc., etc. It is most marvelous that erudite expositors of the bible, seeing that these matters were not unknown to them, should have suffered themselves to be so warped by prejudice as to charge it with teaching the heathenish dogma, that Jehovah has need to arraign the spirits of dead men at his tribunal, in order that he may form a decision upon their actions while in the body! That the heathen nations should have generally adopted this persuasion is less wonderful, seeing that all their notions of their divinities were gross, and grew out of usages amongst themselves. The Jews deemed better of their God-more philosophically--an all-seeing-all-pervading spiritall just, and pure, and good-whose tribunal is in the bosom of every thinking Being: what needs he of an external bar?-Of books, and witnesses, and other of the forms and ceremonials of trial? The Jewish scriptures sanction no such puerile representations of the infinite Jehovah. Shame to christians, that they have copied the crude conceptions of heathenism!

The book of Revelation abounds with prosopopœia, or personification. Sin, death, hell, the devil, antichrist, heresies of different kinds, are all personified: and to such length is the figure carried that they are even in some cases represented as suffering; hence we find mention of a lake of fire and brimstone, "where the beast and the false prophet are:" (these represent a spirit of apostacy and a spirit of persecution.) And hence also we find mention of the casting of death and hell into the lake of fire; also the cases of those who had suffered martyrdom in the cause of Christ, are represented under the figure of the souls of these persons, which are set forth as crying out for vengeance upon their persecutors. This latter circumstance was seized upon by my opponent, who, understanding it in the literal sense, supposes that saints in heaven are actually impatient for the day of judgment, that they may be avenged in the endless damnation of their oppressors! Merciful God, what saints are these! if such is the character of the inhabitants of heaven, demons of darkness were preferable society to them. This portion of Scripture, as has been before shown, revealed things which were shortly to come to pass-the trials and sufferings of the infant Christian

church-the judgments which should be executed upon its opposers and corruptors—particularly those impending over the Jewish church and nation, are the prominent subjects of the book. These judgments are sometimes expressed under the phrase "second death;" a death which some have persisted in representing as interminable, in the face of the declarations that death is to be destroyed-be no more-be swallowed up in victory-and that in its extinction the last enemy shall be extinguished! Undoubtedly the several passages in this book which speak of these events, are to be understood as implying that under the benign government of Messiah, all evils, both physical and moral, shall come to an ultimate end; no more tears-no more night—no more death-no more sin-no more sickness, nor sorrow, "for the former things shall be done away"—no farther need of sun, nor moon, for the quenchless and unsetting glory of Jehovah shall be the future light of all intelligences forever. "And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels roundabout the throne, and the beasts, and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." (Rev. v. 11—13.)

What now remains in proof of a judgment after death? I truly know of nothing, either on scriptural or philosophical ground; my opponent, it is true, supposes that Christ's question relative to the advantage to be derived from gaining all the world, and losing one's soul, has a bearing in favor of that doctrine, "especially," quoth he, "as this question was propounded in immediate connexion with the account of his coming to reward men according to their works." It was so, I grant; but then what is said in the same instance as to the time of said coming? It was to take place in the life-time of some that heard him speak; and consequently, instead of favoring my friend's position, it makes against it-for if God rewards men according to their works in this world, he certainly does not defer that business until the end of time.

T

A judgment eighteen hundred years ago, is rather too far back, I fancy, for the purpose of my opponent. Moreover, the word soul, in the passage under consideration, should have been lifeeven the orthodox Dr. Clarke admits this, and expresses his astonishment at the translator's having rendered it as it now stands. To the mere English scholar it is manifest, from the grammatical connexion of the passage, that it was the life of which Christ was speaking, not the soul; and it is indeed quite surprising that the same Greek term should have been twice rendered life in one verse, and twice soul in the verse next following, and yet an unbroken connexion (both in language and subject) uniting the two verses! "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his psuche shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his psuche for my sake, shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own psuche? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his psuche?" (Matt. xvi. 24-26.) When the rules of interpretation are thus grossly violated, one cannot help suspecting that truth has been purposely sacrificed to the interests of a creed. To perversions of this kind the popular dogmas in theology are mostly indebted for the scriptural countenance they claim. The dangers of losing the soul! How many a thrilling and terrifying peal has been rung upon this theme! And men in their ignorance have not doubted that their aroused alarm on this head had good bible warrant.*

I cannot be persuaded, my hearers, that the doctrine of a judgment after death has been productive of any benefit to mankind; whatever tends to encourage the impression that the retributions of guilt are distant-and uncertain as distant-must necessarily be pernicious in its influences; and without doubt, the common notion of a general judgment has this tendency. We have inspired testimony to this effect. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men

"What shall sing the dirge of a soul that is lost ?" exclaimed the late eloquent and amiable Summerfield. What celebrate the obsequies of an entombed spirit? If the sun should hide his face behind a darkening gust-if the stars should fall from heaven-if the heavens were veiled in sack-cloth-if earth were convulsed throughout her whole circumference, and from mountain-top to mountain-top burst forth the yell of horror and desolation; all would not be adequate to express the event of a fost and damned soul !" Very eloquent this, it is true; but eloquence often lends its gorgeous coloring to paint the face of error.

is fully set in them to do evil." (Eccles. viii. 11.) Still the writer of this text did not suppose that punishment was deferred until after death; on the contrary, he positively asserts that the days of the wicked shall not be prolonged; but the mere circumstance of a delay in the execution of punishment he saw to be of injurious consequence on the hearts of men. How much more so, to tell them that they may possibly escape with entire impunity, how guilty soever they might be? And what must men think of the wisdom and goodness of Jehovah, as our moral governor, if he does indeed deal with us upon principles which himself has declared pernicious? It is nowise probable that in the above passage there is allusion to a tardiness in the retributions of heaven; I think that the reference is to human punishments, which are often delayed, (and even omitted altogether,) and men are apt to be emboldened to repeat their transgressions by this delay and uncertainty. In Solomon's time, nothing was known of a judgment after death; it was a settled point with the people of that day, that sooner or later the judgments of heaven overtook the guilty in life; although then, as now, they were apt to be deceived into false conclusions, from the external appearances of prosperity on the part of wicked men, and from the fact that “there be just men unto whom it happeneth, according to the work of the wicked;" as if the operations of nature, and the contingent events of life must each moment be interfered with, and shaped to suit the ever-changing moral conditions of mankind! Christ himself has told us, that "God causeth his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth his rain upon the just and the unjust." But these circumstances do not conflict with the express testimony of the scriptures on the other hand. "Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth; much more the wicked and the sinner." (Prov. xi. 31.)

The sum of my argument, then, is as follows: 1st. That there is no express nor fairly implied scripture warrant for a general judgment after death. 2d. That on the contrary, all the texts which speak of a judgment, or of judgments in particular, are clearly, (so far as they can be understood,) applicable to time, not to eternity. 3d. Both God the Father, and Christ the Messiah, are expressly and repeatedly represented as exercising the judicial branch of their moral government in the earth. 4th. The