would go away into everlasting punishment, just as Christ says they will, and have expressed their belief in plain language. Many have argued against it. And those who have argued against it, have been able to express it. They could always tell what they were trying to disprove. Every scholar who understands Greek knows very well that the Greek philosophers, and poets, and other writers, treated upon everlasting duration. And they had words to express their thoughts intelligibly. The Scriptures speak of the eternity of God, and of his everlasting throne, and of the eternal life, or everlasting happiness, of those who go to heaven. And they could equally speak of everlasting shame, or misery without end. It is plain, therefore, that our witness need not be at a loss for expressions to state the fact of everlasting punishment. Now I ask our scholars, who understand Greek, what words a plain honest witness would use to express his intention of sentencing a part of mankind to everlasting punishment? Suppose it were against the law to hold the doctrine of everlasting punishment; and suppose a man was on trial for holding it, and witnesses should testify that they heard him say a part of mankind would be sentenced to everlasting fire, and would go away into everlasting punishment: Would not the jury consider the charge as proved? The charge is proved in respect to Jesus Christ. He has declared this very fact, and in the most plain and simple language possible. Now when a witness has this power of using language in a clear and discriminating manner, we al ways expect to understand him in the most direct and simple manner. He is one who knows what he is saying, and speaks just as he means, and we always know how to take his meaning.

He has no interest in establishing a doctrine of everlasting punishment, unless it is true. He has always an interest in the truth, let it bear where it may. But I do not know of a single interest of his kingdom which would be permanently promoted by his preaching this doc. trine, unless it is the truth. The grand interests which he seeks, are the holiness and happiness of his true followers. It cannot be to promote the happiness of mankind, that he attempts to terrify them with the idea of going away into everlasting punishment. Neither is the doctrine favorable to their virtue, unless it is true. True virtue consists in a supreme regard to God. It may strengthen the virtuous principles of the good to think that God is so holy and pure that he cannot bear sin, and that he will punish the ungodly with everlasting destruction from his presence, and from the glory of his power. And it may operate as a restraint upon the evil passions of the bad, to have it impressed upon their minds, that the wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the nations that forget God. But if it is not true, it must some time or other be found out, and then the effects will all be the other way. The virtuous will no longer regard God as so holy.

Neither will the wicked fear his righteous indignation any more. Thus, instead of growing better by the influence of this doctrine, upon the supposition of its falsehood, the reaction would immediately make them worse. Many persons have flattered themselves that they had detected the fallacy of Christ's testimony on this point, and it has always made them worse.

As Christ has no interest, neither has he any feelings, which would be gratified by establishing a wrong belief about everlasting punishment. He has no desire to add to the burdens of an oppressed and miserable world. He came into the world to preach deliverance to the captives, and the opening of the prison doors

to them that are bound; to heal the wounded spirit; to make the broken heart rejoice. He proclaims tidings of good will and peace. He offers rest to the weary and heavy laden. He declares himself to be the fountain of living waters, and invites all who thirst to drink of the water of life freely. He soothes the anxious breast when he says, Little children, let not your heart be troubled ye believe in God, believe also in me. He comforts the foreboding mind. I will not leave you comfortless. Peace I leave with you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Such a being as this would not afflict people without a cause. He could have none of that idle malice, which takes a pleasure in exciting groundless terrors, and sports with the fears of the ignorant. He would not say that he should send a part of mankind away into everlasting punishment, merely for the satisfaction of witnessing the anxiety which this doctrine often produces. Why should he wish to excite the distressing apprehensions that many persons have had for fear that they should dwell in everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels? Why should he cause that agony with which husbands anticipate that such may be the doom of their beloved companions, and wives of their husbands, and parents of their dear offspring, and children of their parents? Why, if there is no truth nor reason in it.

He did not testify to everlasting punishment because, in itself considered, he wished it to be true. People are sometimes liable to the suspicion of testifying that there is no such thing as everlasting punishment because they wish it to be true. Some have even said as much. They say it would make them perfectly miserable to believe this declaration of Jesus Christ about everlasting punishment. And there can be no doubt that it would,

Persons who have such strong reasons to wish a thing were not so, are not very credible witnesses. Suppose you were on trial for murder, and one of the witnesses should acknowledge that it would make him perfectly miserable to think the prisoner was innocent. Would you think it fair that he should be allowed to testify against you? But Jesus Christ has no wishes which would bias his judgment or give a false coloring to his testimony. His ever memorable declaration when he wept over Jerusalem, is proof on this point. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings, and ye would not.

3. Of the particularity of his testimony.

The honest witness, who knows what he is saying, and who has no wish to have things appear different from the truth, may generally be known by the artless frankness with which he details particular circumstances. In the case before us, Jesus details the circumstances under which he shall sentence a part of mankind to everlasting punishment. He tells how he shall make his appearance. The Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him. Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. He tells also who shall appear before him, and what preparation he will make for the judgment. And before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on the right hand, but the goats on the left. What he will say to one class: Come ye, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And to the other: Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the

devil and his angels. The reason why he calls the righteous to glory: For I was an hungered and ye gave me meat, &c. The reason why he bids the wicked depart: For I was an hungered and ye gave me no meat, &c. Describing exactly the leading characteristic of the two classes. All this is told with the undisguised simplicity of conscious truth.

4. His consistency.

He has said that at the day of judgment he shall send a part of mankind away into everlasting punishment. And he never has said any thing different. Never did his feelings of anxiety for the salvation of all the sinners in the world lead him to drop a single intimation that all would be saved. Even when he wept over Jerusalem, he says, Behold your house is left unto you desolate. In his most glowing descriptions of the dignity and efficacy of his mission into the world, he always introduces some such language as this: He came unto his own, and his own received him not. This is the condemnation, that light hath come into the world, and men have chosen darkness rather than light. They all with one consent began to make excuse. None of them that were bidden shall taste of my supper. Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life. And it cannot be pretended that he ever varied from this statement. Those

who have labored the most strenuously to disprove the testimony of Christ on the subject of everlasting punishment, have never fastened upon him the charge of inconsistency in his statements.

By the testimony of Jesus Christ then we have the fact fully proved, as far as the testimony of such a witness can prove any fact, that a part of mankind will be sentenced to everlasting fire, and will go away into everlasting punishment.

Still, with all this evidence, there are not wanting those who confidently affirm that all mankind will be saved.

On this point they have not the testimony of Jesus Christ. He testifies to the existence of two classes of men on earth, the righteous and the wicked; he that believeth on the Son of God, and he that believeth not. He distinguishes them at death. One class die and are carried by angels into Abraham's bosom; the other die and are buried, and in hell they lift up their eyes being in torments. There is! a distinction at the resurrection. All that are in their graves come forth; they that have done good, to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. He carries them forward to the tribunal of judgment in two classes, the one on his right hand, and the other on the left. He separates them in their sentence, saying, to those on his right hand, come ye blessed of my Father, and to those on the left, depart ye cursed into everlasting fire. He sees the sentence carried into effect, and testifies to his return. These shall: go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. And we hear nothing more about them, only that the righteous shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of my Father; and that the others shall be cast in outer darkness, where shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. And there the testimony closes. The witness has told what he knows. He leaves them in the everlasting fire, suffering the horrors of everlasting punishment.

The subtle or ingenious advocate on the other side may put the most crafty questions in the crossexamination, in order to draw out of the witness some conjectures or hearsays, or may-bes; but in vain.

The witness is faithful and true, and speaks only that which he knows, and only that which he has seen. Question ?-But is not God too good to inflict eternal misery?

Answer.-God so loved the world, that he gave his only begot ten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life.

Question. But will not his heart relent at last, and his mercy interfere to crush that gnawing worm, and quench the tormenting flame, short of eternity?

Answer. Their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.

Question.-Will not that compassionate Savior finally interfere in behalf of those for whom he has died, and bring them all to glory?

Answer. If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins, and where I am, thither ye cannot

come.

Question.--Will he not draw all men unto him, and so save them all? Answer.-Ye will not come unto me that ye may have life.

Question.-Can the trifling errors of so brief a life deserve everlasting punishment?

Answer. This is the condemnation. Ye have no cloak for your sins. Therefore your sin remaineth.

Baffled in his cross-examination, the learned counsel brings forward the witnesses on his own side. Let us now attend to the testimony on the other side.

1st. Witness.-God is too good to make any of his creatures eternally miserable. He delights to represent himself in the character of a parent, and teaches us all to call him Our Father. Which one of you, gentlemen of the jury, would put one of your dear little children, for a trifling offence, into a glowing furnace, or throw him to be devoured by wild beasts, or plunge him into a gloomy lake. Are you not all God's children? And is

his heart more unrelenting than that of an earthly parent?

Cross-examined.-You, witness, are a parent. Could you drown all your children, as God actually drowned the old world? Could you let the stream of burning lava from a volcano flow over them, as God rained fire and brimstone out of heaven upon the cities of the plain? Could you bear to fill your house with perpetual sickness and pain and death, as God has made this world a vale of tears? Could you disappoint the hopes of your family and break their limbs, and put them to all the varieties of death, as God treats the human family? Is it not possible that you cannot judge so well what God will do, as he could who was the bosom counsellor of the Father? Do you know any thing about it? Our witness knows. He says, all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Did you ever hear God say any thing like this? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? Witness, what if it is so? can you reply against God?

2d. Witness.-God is able to subdue all things to himself, and he has decreed the final restoration of all things. It is evident that this view is most honorable to God's character. It also reconciles all the difficulties of theology. It is also supported by many men of the greatest talents. How glorious is the prospect, that all things will finally be restored, so that praise shall resound to God without a single discordant note throughout all the created universe.

Cross-examined.-Do you know all this? Conjecture, and impressions, and imaginations, are not what we want upon this trial. It is too solemn a case to go upon uncertainties. We want your evidence, not your opinions. Do you know