in the style and utterance, that belong to that kind of vehement declamation, which we find often attached to a strain of bitter invective. Some allowance may here be made for the strong impulses of ardent minds, and for the mistaken apprehensions of duty. In this manner we may excuse, but cannot justify, their boldness or severity, when they would have been more successful, if they had resorted to a milder and more persuasive strain. Were such persons to remember, that, while they are declaring the doctrine of endless punishment, they may be at the very same time alleging arguments which are to effect themselves and to evince their own final destruction, as well as that of many of their friends, would not their mode of address be changed, and an air of unaffected tenderness and a spirit of genuine compassion be preserved? The violence and exaggeration, which have characterized the addresses of many public speakers on this subject, have no doubt awakened mere horror concerning it, and led some to the conclusion that the principles on which it was based were selfish and revengeful.

But awful, affecting, and perplexing, as this subject is, it is often taught in the sacred Oracles. In establishing the doctrine under consideration, we must rely wholly upon the testimony of the Bible, since it is impossible, in the very nature of things, that the fact and duration of future punishment should be proved by arguments drawn from the light of nature; because the intention of God can be known only by express declarations. Human reason has no eye to penetrate beyond the grave-no lamp to explore the deep recesses of eternity. Without the aid of revelation, man in his fallen state can know nothing of his future destiny. But the Bible unfolds this subject with absolute certainty.

It should be our supreme concern, to hear with candor and docility what the Holy Scriptures teach-and to submit ourselves to the decisions of these sacred Oracles. We should not presume to form a theory of religious faith for ourselves, which shall accord with our prejudices and prepossessions, and then attempt to support it by legitimate and grammatical interpretations of the Bible; but we should repair to the Bible, divested of every pre-conceived opinion, and determined to receive nothing as evangelical truth, for the support of which we have not an express precept or example.

Bearing in mind these remarks, let me now call your candid attention to the testimony of God respecting the endless punishment of the wicked. This testimony cannot fail of being peculiarly interesting to us. To know and believe it, as established by the clear and infallible proofs of Inspiration, may be the very means of preventing your final ruin, and of turning your wayward feet into the path of life. To cavil with, or to reject this testimony without impartial investigation, on the other hand, can be of no possible benefit to you, and may prove fatally injurious. Were there no possible way of escape from the wrath to come" provided for lost and perishing sinners, and were not this way published to them during their probation for the rewards of eternity, they might indeed remain in the most profound ignorance of the evils to which they are advancing. But as the knowledge of the final destiny of the sinner is absolutely necessary in order to induce us to repent and believe the gospel, this knowledge is of the highest practical importance. Permit me then to lay before you a concise and comprehensive view of the Scripture Proofs of the endless duration of future punishment. And let me hope that you will listen with calmness, and decide with impartiality.

'

I. ALL THOSE PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE, WHICH SPEAK OF THE DURATION OF Future PunishmENT BY THE TERMS “EVERLASTING,” "ETERNAL," "FOREVER," AND "FOREVER AND EVer," prove that

THIS PUNISHMENT WILL BE ENDLESS.

"The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites; Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire ? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?— -And many of them (or the multitudes of them) that sleep in the dust of the earth, shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.- -It is better for thee to enter into life halt and maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.- -Depart from me ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.And these shall go away into everlasting punishment. But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with

his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christwho shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.-And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and

the cities about them, in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.—These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever.—Wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.If any man worship the beast, or his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation: and 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 said Alleluia! and her smoke rose up forever and ever.——— -And the devil that deceived them was cast into a lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever."*

To destroy the practical influence of this testimony, the objectors to the doctrine of endless punishment allege the few instances in which the terms everlasting, eternal, &c., are used in scripture, as connected with punishment. To decide whether a doctrine is taught in the Bible, it is not necessary to ascertain how many times it is asserted, but whether it is asserted at all. The truth of a doctrine cannot depend upon the frequency with which it is repeated. One divine asseveration of any truth is sufficient to bind our faith. Let no one think that the evidence is not conclusive, because the

Isa. xxxiii. 14. Dan. xii. 2. Matt. xviii. 8-xxv. 41, 46 2 Thess. i. 7-9. Jude 6, 7. 2 Peter ii. 17. Jude 13. } Rev. xix. 3. Rev. xx. 10.

B

Mark iii. 29. V. xiv. 9-11.

words rendered everlasting, &c., are applied to future punishment but five or six times out of the ninety-six in which they are found in the New Testament. This is as large a proportion as the subject requires, and as could be expected from the nature of the case. They are in the New Testament applied to about twenty different subjects, so that to be applied to one but five or six times only, is about as frequent as could be reasonably expected. Further, if these terms do not teach the doctrine of endless punishment because they are thus seldom applied to it, they do not teach the endless duration of the existence of God, for to this they are not much more frequently applied.

It is also objected that the terms under consideration cannot signify an absolute eternity, "because in the original, they admit of a plural number; that had the meaning of the substantive aion been eternity, and of the adjective aionios, endless, they could not possess a plural signification, since it would have involved the same absurdity as is manifest, when, attaching to the term eternity the sense which it always bears in the English language, we speak of eternities." The words in English, that are properly expressive of endless duration, may not ordinarily admit of a plural number, and if this were invariably the case it would not follow that it is the same in the Greek. In the Greek language there are several instances recorded both by sacred and profane authors, where the plural form of expression is used to convey the idea of endless duration. Permit me to refer you to a few of the many instances in which the plural form of expression is thus used in the New Testament. Gal. i. 5.-Ho he doxas eis tous aionas ton aionon: To whom be glory forever and ever. Thus in Eph. iii. 11.—Kata prosthein ton aionon: According to his eternal purpose. Thus, Phil. iv. 20.—To de theo, kai patri hemon, he doxa eis tous uionas ton aionon: Wherefore to God even our Father be the glory forever and ever. So also in 1 Tim. i. 17.-To de basilei ton aionon aphtharto, aorato, mono sopho theo time kai doxe eis tous aionas ton aionon: Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to the wise God alone, be honor and glory

In

forever and ever. These passages cannot, I think, be properly translated, without expressing the idea of endless duration.

But what if the terms forever and ever, everlasting, and eternal, do not always denote unlimited duration? Does it then follow, that salvation will be the ultimate portion of all who die in their sins,? By no means. We might concede all these terms, and yet the testimony of scripture in proof of endless punishment would remain conclusive. The doctrine of endless punishment does not rest wholly, upon the doubtful interpretation of a few Greek words and phrases. It is asserted in the Bible in such a variety of forms, and is so interwoven through the whole texture of the scriptures, that it would seem that nothing but the consciousness of such conduct as weakens the hope of eternal felicity, connected with the fear and dread of endless misery, could induce any one who is conversant with the Bible to disbelieve or deny its reality.

Since so much is said, however, by the objectors whom I have mentioned, respecting the limited meaning of these terms under consideration, let us inquire into their original and proper import; the manner in which they are uniformly used in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; the manner in which they are invariably used in the New Testament scriptures; and the sense in which Christ and his apostles must have been understood to have used them, at the time they spoke and wrote.

These terms do in their original and proper sense denote duration without end. It is, I believe, generally allowed by our best Lexicographers, ancient and modern, that aion is a compound of the two Greek words aei and on, which properly signify always being; and that the literal meaning of its derivative aionios is everlasting, eternal, endless. The Greeks were a people of a speculative turn of mind, and they had an idea of duration without end; and this is all the idea of eternity that we can obtain. By them these terms were understood and used as signifying an absolute eternity,* and thus

* Aristotle, a Grecian philosopher, who lived upwards of three hundred years prior to the Christian era, explicitly informs us of the meaning which the Greek writers of his age, and those who were then considered the ancients, af