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THE CONGEEGATIONAL LECTURE,

TWELFTH SERIES.

THE REYEALED DOCTRINE OE REWARDS
AND PUNISHMENTS.
BY RICHARD "WINTER HAMILTON, LL.D., D.D.

xn.

LONDON :
BLEED AND PAEDON, PE.INTERS,
PATER.NOSTEE EOW.

THE

EEVEALED DOCTKINE

EEWAEDS AND PUNISHMENTS.

KICHAED WINTEK HAMILTON, LL.D., D.D.

LONDON:
JACKSON AND WALFORD,
18, st. paul's churchyard.

MDCCCLIII.

" 'ES Ta Beta Kal Ta rjfieTepa, Kal ras Kaff iyxas eKefflev airoieeipivas
/laariyas. 'AXXa Kal «r« rods a-ois e'X<?e \6yovs Kal (pofiovs, oi
TroirjTais fiovms, dWa Kal dvbpdariv epikotrotpois dpeerKovras, Kai
JlvpiepXeyedovrds (rov, Kai tovs Kiokvtovs, kcu. tovs Axepovras, ois
dhiKiav KoXafoCtri, TdvraXos Tirv6s, l£lwv."
Gregory Nazienzen, Orat. iT. Adversus Julianum.

' Verbera, carniflees, roour, pix, lamina, taadae,
Quse tamen et si absunt, at mens sibi conseia facti
Praemetuens, adhibet stimulos, torretque flagellis :
Nee "videt iriterea, qui terminus esse malorum
Possit, nee gum sit posnarum denique finis:
Atque eodem metuit magis hac ne in morte gravescant."
Lucretius : De Rerum Natura, lib. iii.

°?

PREFACE.

The Author of the present Volume must have felt it, in
most circumstances, a flattering distinction to be appointed
Congregational Lecturer. As the selection was as unex
pected as unsought, private consideration could be of no
account ; nor was it for him to complain of unworthiness
and incompetency. To be associated with the cause of
Theological Science was not quite indifferent to his ambi
tion : to be enrolled with his honored predecessors in these
tasks, was, at least, exciting to emulation.
" Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis."
But he confesses that his thesis almost instantly sub
dued any rising pride. He submitted to it as " the burden
of the Lord." In addicting himself to the necessary studies
for the praelections required of him, in honest purpose,

Vi PREFACE.
yet with unsuppressible anxiety, — he invoked alike that
strength of conviction, and that seriousness of temper,
which befitted a subject so tremendous.
It must be remembered that the doctrine of Future
Punishment is only a part of his theme. Had this been
that which was assigned to him, the reader might fairly
object to the delay with which such question is approached.
This seemed to be a general impression. It will be seen
that it was not correct. He knows full well that they who
have the charge of any reasoning are seldom thought to
travel fast enough. It is a natural impatience. But in the
conduct of a great argument they are bound to maintain
a far-looking and wary course. Therefore, though he
believes that all his premisses bear upon this extreme
conclusion, he had other duties, and if these had been
neglected, it would have been to the dishonor of his trust.
Concerning the plan of his own Work, it is generally
hazardous for a writer to speak. It should declare itself.
The reader will adjudge upon it. It ought to be so
explicit as to need no key. The permission is pleaded,
notwithstanding, in this case, to offer a few explanatory
remarks. He has shunned every pretension to rest his argument
upon special and disputed points. It becomes us to be
jealous of singular and original defences of truth : not the

PEEFACE. Vll
less, of impressing our own mental type. Such a course
betrays a state of disposition more vain of adroitness and
ingenuity, than liege to truth. It engenders unbelief by
the division of those who hold the common principle, and
by the rash advancement of doubtful proof. He has rather
been inclined to inquire, Is it the uniform teaching of the,
Seriptures ? Is there any reserve in them respecting it ?
Is there any part of their informations which does not, and
cannot, fall under it ? Does not all go in one way ? Is
there exempt fact, or hesitating statement, to raise a doubt ?
And if there be supposed anomaly, does it not admit of
quadration with that uniform teaching ?
He has found it necessary to maintain a calm steadiness
amidst the boasts of an affected liberality and the conces
sions of a popular charity. If the character of particular
speculations be thus prejudiced, the controversy is fore
closed. He deems that the belief of truth is not unloving.
Truth must be good. It cannot be good to hide the truth.
The peril which that truth, perhaps, supposes may be
avoidable ; but it can only be escaped by being made
known. If, indeed, certain opinions invariably led to a
disregard of human welfare, it would be their sternest
refutation. But if that which is now involved does not
show itself cruelly, — if it be unexceptionably seen linked
with earnest effort to save mankind, — then the con
viction of another's danger is not incompatible with love
to him.

Vlll PREFACE.
It is not argumentatively logical or just to appeal, in
these disquisitions, to the Divine character. That concep
tion is to be formed upon what is revealed of God. We
may not assume that what we have entertained is right.
We must not guide our reasonings by it. Now only let it
be supposed, that eternal retribution is taught us by revela
tion ; then, until it be allowed, the Divine character cannot
be understood. All our views of it, until that admission,
are partial and false, being dictated by a foregone and nar
rower conclusion. This ought to assist, or possibly to
rectify, our first and immature conception : the conception
cannot, with any reasonableness or equity, weigh against it.
Receiving nature, in its largest sense, as an earlier reve
lation, the Author has mainly addressed himself to the
a priori treatment of his subject. Thus, if the reversal of
any Scripture testimony be demanded, because of its im
puted contradiction to natural demonstration, — he has,
throughout his entire argument, rejoined upon it. He has
endeavored to prove that nature brings no relief by sug
gesting any alternative. According to its decisions, even
to the apprehensions of sense, moral agents are happy or
miserable, just as are the qualities of their agency. More
over, it must follow that it can only be right so to make
them happy or miserable. If these qualities of such agents
be permanent, thus permanent must be their happiness or
misery. To the dark boundary-line of death we trace the
equal permanency of these characters of conduct and of

PREFACE. IX
their awards. No known treatment of these agents, conse
quently, is at variance with these actual results. Whatever
can be ascertained coincides. It is always so, to our best
knowledge and experience. The difficulty may be only
thrown back, — but it now presses upon the impugners of
the Scripture doctrine of future punishment. It now be
comes their own.
The Lecturer, in the confession of these common prin
ciples, felt himself warranted, at every stage of the argu
ment, to seize the analogy between nature and proper
revelation. It is his reiterated urgency that the latter, in
this very dispute, only follows up the former : that Chris
tianity, as a remedial system, proceeds but on the assump
tion of an antecedent, independent, dilemma ; and that it
is perfectly irresponsible for it. His mottoes are but in
dices to the idea.
He has written, in a few instances, according to his
Denominational opinions. He trusts that this cannot be
esteemed unjust and offensive, when it is remembered that
this is a denominational foundation.
Should these Discourses be severely criticised, the
Writer will not consider himself in anywise wronged. He
has taken those points which he conscientiously regarded
as chiefly important and relevant : but another mind may
hold light what he feels to be difficult, and consider diffi-

X PREFACE.
cult what he thinks light. He well knows how different
must be the mental surveys of the same question, and of
the same question maintained with equal fidelity.
It may also be, that some opponents of the doctrine
which he has attempted to vindicate shall resort to pubhc
animadversion. He does not arrogate such a notableness.
But should censure of this kind appear, he must be par
doned in saying, that he cannot imagine the circumstances
which would bind him to reply. He has attacked no one :
none can he have offended. Far from the tumults of con
troversy, he wishes to spend his few remaining days in the
quiet blessedness of his pastoral duties.
In vain will any one look for descriptive, scenic, passages
in this Work. Did he wield that power, he should have
forborne. He loves not, in such grave discussions, the
fierce imaginative art. He would not borrow the terrible
fictions and machines of Dante, Buonarotti, and Milton.
Sinner as he is, his " soul has wept in secret places."
But he shrinks not from the perfect affirmation of the
dread conclusion which he has reached. He the more in
sists upon it, not only on account of the complete evidence
of its particular truth, but for the sake of its essential rela
tions to all moral truth. For those who differ from him,
he can cherish respect and favor : he asks their candor and
forbearance. Towards their theory, however, of this mo-

PREFACE. Xl
mentous issue, he knows no sparing terms or indulgent
blandishments. Though many deem it rational, he deems
it absurd, — though many feel it plausible, he feels it incon
gruous, — though many pronounce it benevolent, he pro
nounces it cruel. It can ill conceal its origin, notwith
standing its mockery of aspiration and its pretext of
mercy. " Qufle quantum vertice ad auras
jEthereas, tantum radice in Tartara tendit."
Virg. Georg. ii. lib. 291.
Leeds, March 22, 1847.

CONTENTS.

LECTURE I.
THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF.
1 Cor. si. 14. PAGE
The necessity of seriousness and caution in all moral inquiry — Defini
tion of terms employed — The present thesis not a mere question
of Revelation — The province of Reason — The being and constitu
tion of man — He is, although impressed and acting by external
mediums, a spiritual creature ; responsible, immortal — The proofs
of these characteristics of his nature,, however elsewhere attested,
to be found in his own mind — These constituents of man the postu
lates and guides of the whole ensuing argument  1

LECTURE II.
THE LAW AND GOVERNMENT OF KESPONSIELE AGENTS.
John xiv. 1.
Law — Confined to the idea of moral rule — Difference between Divine
and human — Injunction, obligation, sanction, essential to it — The
goodness of the law to which man, as a moral agent, is subjected —
Its operation — Habit, character, consequence — Bearing of commonly
admitted principles of mind and action — Revelation independent of
all the evils antecedent to it — An exclusively remedial system — The
existence and use of Analogy  68

LECTURE III.
THE HARMONY OF REVELATION WITH NATURAL RELIGION.
Psalm cxix. 10.
Revelation recognises the great properties of man, his spiritualism

XIV CONTENTS. PAGE
responsibility, and immortality — -Induction of its informations — It
proceeds upon all the grounds and measures of moral government —
Its discoveries in relation to the Resurrection and the Judgement —
How it assumes the shape of a law, and exercises the authority of a
jurisdiction  105

LECTURE IV.
THE NATURE AND REWARDABLENESS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE.
Rev. xxii. 12.
The limit of the rule which infers right and wrong from the pleasure
or pain of the acts — The invariableness of moral ideas — Disparity
of rewards and punishments in human legislation — Under revealed
grace, the conduct of the truly religious is constituted rewardable —
Proofs of the fact — Reasons which vindicate it — The question of
temporal rewards in the present ceconomy of Revelation . . . .147

LECTURE V.
THE HEAVENLY STATE.
1 John iii. 2.
The heavenly state — A reward — The perfection of law — The develop
ment of sanctified manhood — Its proper sphere — Preparatory
earnests — From these inference cannot be too lofty — Its historic
development — The present and the ultimate — Necessary that it
should exceed the Mud of every holy enjoyment now experienced —
Beauty, concord, proportion — Truly eternal  188

LECTURE VI.
THE NATURE AND DESIGN OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT.
Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7.
Moral government supposes possible defection — Punishment — Man
under condemnation — Revelation, while it assumes, may affect it —
The nature and duration of this condemned state may be argued
from the constitution of man — Suffering, with one or two allowed
exceptions, must be pcenal — Self-infliction — Punishment not re
stricted to this — Not intended to exercise corrective influence — Its

CONTENTS. XV
PAGE
only relation is to justice — Justice must enforce its character and
its conception of sin. No benefit of the atonement except to them
who are under its moral influence — Objection from the Divine good
ness — The progressive power of evil — Degrees of retribution . .237

LECTURE VII.
THE ETERNITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT.
Luke xx. 16, 17.
General descriptions of the future state of the wicked — Sheol and
Hades — If eternal punishment untrue, it ought to be boldly dis
avowed ; if true, as solemnly forewarned — General impression —
Analytic investigation of terms — Hebrew and Greek words com
monly used to denote eternity — -Applied, in the highest acceptation,
to future suffering — Examination of passages of Scripture supposed
to favour universal restoration — Whether sin can be regarded as an
infinite evil — The theory that the remission of punishment isindebted
to the atonement — Judas — Classification as well as adjudication
suggested by final punishment — The immortality of the effects of
sin rather a physical than a moral difficulty  286

LECTURE VIII.
THE ETERNITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT.
Jer. xlix. 12.
Considerations which might be supposed to render future suffering
endurable — Necessarian perfectibility — -The hypothetical withdraw-
ment of immortality from man — The conjecture of Destruction —
Particular objections — Eternal punishment opposed, because involv
ing the eternal existence of sin — Motives and means of an evangelic
nature impossible — The Doctrine defended — Enforcement of it as
revealed — Despair — The Second Death — Our first duty respects the
Divine faithfulness — The prevalent scepticism — Appeal to Christian
pastors and churches, urging the earnest maintenance of the truth . 345

Xvi CONTENTS. NOTES. PAGE
A  409
B  412
c  413
D. !.'.'. '  413
E  414
F  4L6
G.  417
H  420
j  421
j .'.".'  422
 426

429 431

K 
L 
M 
N.  432
0  435
p  436
d '.'.'. '  437
R.  437
S  439

THE REYEALED DOCTRINE OE
REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS.

LECTUEE I.
THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS OF MAN DEDUCED
FROM HIMSELF.
" Both not even nature itself teach you ? " — 1 Con. xi. 14.
Conclusions in science cannot fail often to appear un
reasonable, unless they be intelligently and approvedly
conducted from their several first principles. They can
only be shown generally reasonable, when every step in
their progress is clearly reasonable. They are but accu
mulations of individual elements, every one of which must
be as entire and convincing as themselves. We are bound
to trace these intermediate conditions in their arrange
ment and correspondence, one to another, and each to all.
The link ought to be no less perfect than the chain : if it
be not, the coil is loosely inserted and easily broken. And
stupendous facts and recondite truths — which seem un
likely and indefensible at first — may thus be established,
redeemed from improbability, and confirmed beyond doubt.
Especially in morals, and in all branches of inquiry
connected with them, is it demanded that the investiga
tion be most searching, and the synthesis be most com
plete. A fault of reasoning, a mis-statement of fact, is as

'2 THE PHYSICAL AND M0EAL CONDITIONS
fatal as a break in mathematical demonstration. Studies
of such moment must be rigidly cautious if we would
reach satisfactory results. The well-being of man is too
implicitly involved in them to warrant lightness and
haste. For morals are not, in our idea and scheme either
of philosophy or of religion, simple suggestions of reflec
tion and experience, — not mere dictates of fitness, — not
only calculations of utility, — but they presuppose a Go
vernor in the Creator of mankind ; not exclusively the
Contriver of the final causes which we mark in material
nature, but the Designer and the Master of that conduct
which shall lead us to our happiness. " He hath showed
thee, 0 man, what is good!"
And, therefore, is it besought, at the threshold of the
long and solemn argument which the Lecturer now
anxiously, tremblingly, attempts, that candid patience be
exercised, that precipitate decision be repressed, — that he
be suffered to clear space after space, to lay stone upon
stone,— as honestly resolved to discard the vicious proof
by which his argument may have been defended, as to
meet fairly, point to point, the most weighty objections by
which it has been oppugned.
The whole question is a problem of truth, — truth what
ever it may be, truth wherever it can be found, having any
relation to it. But truth is not sternly cold : majestically
unbending from the claims of its very nature, it is the
only standard of benevolence and source of sympathy.
He who is summoned to discourse of truth in its
severest aspects may encourage and incite himself, that
he but more secretly, and certainly more painfully, pro
motes all the good which alone can be found in truth, and
which truth only can secure. Vanity, error, and falsehood
are the necessary causes of misery and beacons of peril.
There can be no worthy peace, no true safety, in forget
ting, evading, and opposing, truth. " The light is the life
of men "

OF MAN DEDUCED FBOM HIMSELF. O
One Intelligence, one only, exists, which can compre
hend the universe. We often speak of that universe as
though our mind could embrace it. He who reared that
system, he who preserves and superintends it, can alone
conceive it. We cannot strike out the thought. It is the
outbirth of the Infinite Mind. It lies in the Eternal Will.
" He hath done whatsoever he pleased." We do not pan-
theistically call this universe infinite and eternal, for that
would be himself. But it so resembles him, that to all
other beings it is scarcely less than unbounded and un-
beginning. None but he can grasp its interests and its
connexions. In its stretch, in its utmost limits, it is con
fessed to him alone. All its ideas and motives are within
his cognizance and moral control. It is not, then, a term
to be rashly used. It is a word for the mouth of God.
He only understands the interpretation thereof. We can
not employ it with a just significance. Neither model is
before us, nor archetype in our mind. When the highest
creatures have explored the amplest fields which their ken
can discern and their thought can measure, it becomes
them to acknowledge with fainting amazement : " Lo these
are parts of his ways : but how little a portion is heard of
him !"
Our chief mistakes arise from a false pretence of know
ledge. We vainly exaggerate it. It is not only proper to
sift thoroughly what we know, but to remember what we
do not know at all. Finding our ideas incongruous, our
conclusions contradicted, we satisfy ourselves by what
we represent the difficulties and anomalies of nature.
There are none in nature. It is idle charge. And those
which we suspect in morals, are only in our views, and
would not find a place even there, but from supposing
that our knowledge is far more complete and clear than it
is. We must learn when to pause, and when to proceed :
we must distinguish between the artificial, and the neces
sary, limits of information. The question is principally

THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
this : What is that idea upon the subject which it is
proper for the human mind to entertain ?
We are compelled, then, to regard ourselves as occupy
ing but a little nook, a narrow corner, of this universe :
not quite shut up within our abode in respect of know
ledge touching other provinces and relations of it, but
little qualified to pronounce on anything extraneous to
ourselves. We can gather no information, can seize no
fact, spontaneously, — however far natural discovery may
extend, — which pertains to a single moral history or bear
ing apart from the confines in which we dwell.
We may unhesitatingly pronounce, however, upon our
own quality and order of existence. We possess not barely
senses which reveal it, — and nothing can be stronger ac
cording to its kind than sensible proof, — but we command
consciousness, which, by its affinity to a subject far higher
than aught which sensible proof can entertain, is our most
perfect evidence, — or, more strictly speaking, our most
perfect faculty of divining and appreciating whatever evi
dence affects our being. Sensation belongs to the mind,
and is the excitement of thought : consciousness enables
us to examine that mind, and to pursue that thought in
its complexion and cause. We can bring our mental state
and action under a very analysis. We can commune with
our heart, and our spirit makes diligent search ! The things
of a man, knoweth the spirit of man which is in him !
There is but one thing in the created universe essen
tially great, or truly worthy of infinite greatness. Others
are things of space and time. They are not the full con
ception of the Creator, but only preparation for that which
is. They are the hidings of his power. It is not light,
the first-bom of the omnific word. It is not life, teeming
in its countless structures and sensibilities. It is not har
mony, floating from sphere to sphere. It is not sun and
planet, matter in any of its forms and conditions, whatever
its immensity, or whatever its beauty,— it is not to be
found in tb.e furniture of mountains, mines, or seas. It

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 5
has not sign in height or depth. What is this mightiest
production of boundless wisdom, power, and benignity?
It is Mind, intelligent, reflective, accountable, immortal,
mind ! The Self-Existent " hath made us this soul !"
Mind is the only medium for the Divine glory. This
glory consists of certain manifestations which Jehovah
gives of himself. He does skilfully, wonderfully, benevo
lently. He imprints on every side his signatures and
characteristics. They are inscribed on the firmament,
they fill the earth. But all hitherto is unconscious and
unreasoning. Until now there is nothing to observe and
appreciate. There is no power of intellectual sympathy.
Matter does not investigate matter. World does not ad
mire world. Star does not confess the loveliness of star.
There is yet wanting a faculty which these do not include.
Let this essence be created, and all the marks and proofs
of this glory may be recognised. That which is taught,
is learnt. That which is revealed, is understood. That
which is impressed, is received. The Creator is acknow
ledged and adored. The orbs of heaven, which always
declared his glory and showed his handiwork, have now
found an ear on which to quire, and an eye on which to
gleam. The volumes of instruction, which could not
peruse and meditate themselves, are now searched by that
which best resembles their author, by that which can in
terpret their meaning.
Mind is the only capacity for the Divine enjoyment.
Our Maker loves to communicate of his happiness. He
blesses his inferior portion of creatures with no mean
measures of good. The insect riots through its blithe
some hour. The birds sing among the branches. In the
great and wide sea leviathan was made to play. But these
cannot share in any high and pure delight, — in the love of
truth, the complacency of excellence, the pursuit of holi
ness. Nothing in them can correspond to these qualities.
God has, however, made mind in his image. It contains
a similar, though most unequal, susceptibility of blessed-

0 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
ness. He can enable it to " drink of the river of his
pleasures." He can bid it " enter into his joy." He con
descends to appropriate it as his own true nature and
description: "My soul!" "God is a Spirit:" that which
is not can haye no fellowship with him !
Mind is the only subject of motive in the performance
of the Divine will. Those worlds which roll in the con
cave of heaven received a first and complex impulse, which
gave them their revolutionary sweep and rotatory axis :
certain principles perpetuate that impulse : and those
worlds obey it still. Atom cleaves to atom as they ori
ginally cohered. But in these larger or smaller works of
creation there can be no moral disposition. The)' yield to
neither love nor fear. They can only be passive to me
chanical forces. Mind alone knows respect for authority,
love of excellence, sense of gratitude, dread of retribution.
It alone is moved by considerations of right and wrong,
of good and evil. It alone entertains the ideas of duty
and. of obligation.
Mind has a fearful power. It can sin. The stars of
the sky might rush into wild eccentricity, the lion might
lash itself into unknown fury, the serpent might spring
with unprecedented treachery; but who would charge
them with sin ? There is, however, nothing incongruous,
irreconcileable, in "the sin ofthe soul!"
Mind has a tremendous susceptibility. It may suffer
punishment. It may he made conscious of infinite dis
pleasure and opposition. It may be wrecked in all its
highest interests and hopes. All things else fulfil their
course. None fail. None are frustrated. But this, in its
defeat and perversion, may draw down upon itself an insup
portable misery. It may be undone in its own undoing !
These may be regarded as rudimental propositions, and
as fore-shadowings of our design. They lie close to every
question which can be raised. They affect and determine
every argument which may be mooted. We, also, state
them as so many postulates without the allowance of

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 7
which, discussion is arrested at once, and proof or dis
proof is utterly invalidated.
Since terminology, almost itself a science, acquires in
creased importance with the growth of all liberal and
severe inquiry — since it must deeply concern every debate
of principles — since the use of writing will vary in most
men, and all generally impress their own character upon
it — since a slight difference in the employment of lan
guage will invariably produce a more serious modification
in ideas, we will offer the following definitions of words
which cannot fail frequently to recur, or what shall be our
fixed application of them.
By physical — when applied to man, we would denote his
whole constitution or nature, those conditions of being in
which it has pleased his Creator that he should exist.
This, therefore, includes the mind, not less than the body
with its animal life. Mind is a physic ; or a constituted
thing: The word cannot be justly opposed to imma
terial : it as truly embraces what is intellectual, as it does
what is sensible, in us.
By moral — when spoken of God or of man, we under
stand any predicament of legislative authority, or of cor
responding accountability. It must always answer to some
case or question of government. * Moral rule is that of
creatures, who can be influenced by intelligent motives,
under laws suitable to them. Moral obedience is the Con
formity of such creatures to those laws. The word is not,
then, convertible with spiritual. This refers to mind,
to whatever partakes of its nature or has its seat in it. We
may speak of " spiritual wickedness" and of moral evil ; the
one term declares the kind of the act or principle : the
other signifies its guilt, or that quality which renders the
evil-doer obnoxious.
* One exception to the rule may seem to arise when we speak of moral
evidence and moral certainty. But the idea is retained, — it is that which
we must responsibly admit aud may most justifiably entertain : that on which
¦i moral agent may proceed.

8 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
By mind — when restricted to men, we intend that chief
element of our being which stamps our proper self, simple
in substance but capable of various states and moods,
exercises and manifestations ; which can judge concerning
things, their truth or fallacy, their desirableness or per-
niciousness ; which is excited by these discriminations to
passion or emotion according as objects are presented to
it which can stir these feelings. Philosophically speaking,
judgment and passion are not diverse in their nature, but
are the unequal order and degree of interest which the
same mind takes in those different objects as they im
press it.
"By fitness and necessity — when ascribed to truths anterior
to anything which is constituted by will, independent of
anything which is the effect of formation, primary to any
that has had beginning — we mean such principles the con
trary of which cannot be conceived, which the earliest
created mind must have apprehended, the reckless denial
of which involves anarchy and absurdity, without which law
could find no basis and Deity admit of no demonstration.
By the will of God — we may express distinct but not re
pugnant ideas. It cannot always stand for an unalterable
one. There is a will, a good pleasure, which he may or
may not exercise : there is a determinate will which must
prevail, however opposed : there is a moral will that may
be withstood, but which is always provided with the means
of vindication.
By sovereignty — we point out that form of divine will
which solely respects gratuitous good. It consults no law,
known to us, in its disposals. The word cannot be pre
dicated of justice. It is mere favour or mercy. It is, in
our use of it, a negative term. It supposes not that God
thus acts without reasons, but simply confesses that they
are unknown. It is as far removed from merit in those to
whom it is directed, as from compulsion in Him who
exercises it.

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 9
In all propositions in which eternity may be employed, we
would convey the notion of the longest possible duration,
the strictest sense of endlessness, the perpetuity in which
the idea of termination would be more difficult than that
of continuance, — uninterruptedness, incessancy, of which
we can conceive : a duration which physical purposes and
moral considerations forbid us to believe can close.
If the proposition be deemed vitiated which admits into
it any strictly unintelligible term, if any proposition be
thought void, — for example, in which eternal may arise^ —
because we cannot grasp its import to a strict abstraction ;
then those which are fundamental, the resting-places of all
religious truth, are incapable of proof. You cannot prove
that there is a God, for who can by searching find out
God ? You cannot prove that he is infinite, everlasting,
self-existent, for who can realize these perfections ? The'
truth of a proposition must depend upon its evidence : on
its truth it must be received : and our ignorance of much
contained in it is no ground for its rejection. Every man
may know enough of Him who " dwelleth in the light
which is unapproachable," to love and obey Him. Every
man may gather enough of consequences which lie in
eternity, to lay hold of what he feels to be an endless good,
and to flee what he feels to be an endless evil.
A few more distinctions might be specified : such as
between the effect and event of things — between appoint
ment and sufferance — between complacency in any course of
conduct and the subordination of it : but these suffice.
Common language, not technical, not scholastic, best re
presents all truth which is founded on the common ideas
and sensibilities of man, which truth enters most in
timately into our present inquiries.
We notice a very general observation, at this early stage,
which, if correct, would abandon these inquiries to a
hopeless issue. It is averred that its settlement entirely
depends upon Eevelation. As justly might the truth of

10 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
the Divine existence be remitted to that testimony. Revela
tion is equally unsusceptible of defence if it rest upon
nothing save itself. The Being and general attributes of
Deity must be demonstrable antecedently to any credible
testimony from Him. The constituents and laws of our
manhood must be known, or be open to knowledge, ere
that testimony addressed to it can be shown adapted to its
powers and wants. Who God is, what man is, are to be
determined beforehand, or no independent revelation can
supply the information and proof. Possessing revelation as
we do, earlier than our earliest capacity of thought, we yet
reason according to the original necessity of the case. Not
thus to conduct the question, would contradict the tendency
of our mind. We could not teach our children and cate
chumens in any other way. " There is a God. *' The fool only
hath said in his heart that there is not. " This is the Word
of God." It agrees to his acknowledged character. It bears
the impression of that mind, that wisdom, that greatness,
that benevolence, that justice, the traces of which we
mark in the works of his hands. Ye are men. He hath
made you and not ye yourselves. It commends itself to
you. " It is profitable " for eveiy end you can propose. It
is coincident with every feeling you can divine. It proceeds
in the line of all your secret yearnings. It thoroughly
understands you. It does more, it anticipates you. It
reveals you to yourselves. It explains what was only felt,
and solves what was hardly guessed. It deciphers the
mysterious characters written on the soul. It stamps them
not, but only interprets them as they are. They are
wrought into it. All its discoveries act in like manner.
They agree with the more solemn movements and deeper
sympathies of the mind. It lays our whole being open,
enforcing nothing that is alien to it, infusing nothing that
is uncongenial with it. It causes it to understand, to muse,
itself. "Do not its words do good?" "They are the
words of eternal life." There is, then, this double

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 1 1
parallelism : first, between the character of God and his
revelation ; afterwards, between that revelation and the
character of man.
We are not unmindful of the probability that the first
man was really treated in a similar manner with ourselves.
A special communication was made to him by his Maker.
Intercourse supposes it, and was itself a revelation. But
not the less true is it, that " the invisible things of Him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being
understood by the things which are made, even his eternal
power and Godhead." Not less true is it, that "that
which may be known of God is made apparent among
men, for God hath made it apparent to them."* It was a
distinguished favour, disturbing no previous constitution
of things, a superadded benefit in perfect harmony with all
which had before existed. The thesis is by no means con
fined to revelation. We totally disclaim the opinion that
our exclusive business is to look for it within those in
spired leaves. It requires anterior knowledge. It de
mands a more original foundation. Not only the external
world must teach, but its government ; we must, also, look
determinately into our mind. In the former we discover
the footsteps of Deity, in the latter his face. This is the
principal subject and source of moral science. Whatever
belongs to man, every ingredient of his nature, falls most
strictly within the province and under the functions of our
reason. Because some may have exaggerated the force,
and misdirected the use, of human intellect, it does not
become us to derogate from it. Sin is its perversion, but
not of necessity, its diminution. The unholy disposition
which turns it aside, leaves it as strong in its present
direction as it was in its proper course. It is not denied
that this unholy disposition may lead to mental habits and
to sensual indulgences which shall actually cloud, and
weaken it. This is not, however, necessary to the pre-
* Romans i. 19. <Pavep6v . efpavepuxre.

1 '2 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
sumed case. The mind may be filled with prejudices
which shall warp the judgment when particular objects are
presented to it ; but the capacity of that judgment is the
same whatever may be submitted, and whether or not
those prejudices operate. " The first principle of religion,"
says Bacon, "is right reason." Reason is of its own
nature concerned with facts and principles. We are not
only permitted, but are bound, to investigate all the truths
which involve our happiness or misery, all which bear
upon our state as actually subsisting, or on any destiny
reserved for us. It is reverent to address the eternal God
in the manner of those who would learn, and who, that
they may learn, inquire of him : " Shall not the Judge of
all the earth do right ?" not in inference that he will, but
in protest that he should not. " Suffer me a little, and I
will show thee that I have yet to speak on God's behalf. I
will fetch my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe
righteousness to my Maker."* " Bighteous art thou, 0
Lord, when I plead with thee : yet let me reason the case
with thee of thy judgments."! There can be no piety in
foregoing inquiry and refusing scrutiny into the rules of
the Divine conduct. We cannot see that love to God
should be indifferent to his character. We cannot honour
that trust in him which is careless of every inducement to
its exercise. We cannot applaud that jealousy of his glory
which passes by every crimination of his justice and his
goodness. A revelation, indeed, can make nothing true. It is
merely an attestation to truth. Truth has independent
rank and place and subsistence. The attestation does not
constitute the truth, but it can render that which is already
true, sure and certain to our minds. The appeal of Scrip
ture is, therefore, as commonly as confidently directed to
our judgment. "Why even of your own selves judge ye
not that which is right?" "Judge, I pray you, betwixt
* Job xxxvi. 2, 3. t Jeremiah xii. 1.

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 13
me and my vineyard." " Prove all things; hold fast that
which is good." Whatever the evidence, reason alone can
appreciate it. Through reason alone can the mind receive
the seal of correspondence from the image of truth.
He, who, from whatever motives, disparages reason as it
now exists in man, reflects no honour upon revelation. To
what is this remitted, if not to reason? When it unfolds
its claims, what else can decide upon them ? It seeks to
produce conviction of its truth. An external proof seems
first in natural order : but this consisting of various parti
culars must be subjected to an intelligent process. It is to
be examined, sifted, collated, applied. More frequently,
though not so naturally, the internal evidence first appeals
to us. We hold back most firmly from the opinion that
our understanding has nothing to do with this species of
evidence. The substance ofthe volume is essential to the
vindication of its authenticity. Nothing could make it
true, if it contradicted truth. Nothing could make it rea
sonable, if it contradicted reason. We are asked : If you
knew from foreign evidence that this was the Book of God,
would you not be bound to acquiescence in all which it
contained ? But there is no foreign evidence which could
do this, unless God himself gave it to every man. The
case is necessarily that of mental research. Then do we
affirm that no mental research into external evidence could
be satisfactory, in blindness of what internal evidence in
cludes. No rational being on presumptive evidence (though
the highest that historical argument can admit and, in such
instances, as convincing as demonstration itself) could thus
commit his belief and all the issues of his existence.
Reason is, likewise, concerned with interpretation, and not
only with evidence. And these are not separable depart
ments: interpretation belongs to evidence and must affect
it, evidence mixes with interpretation and must impress it.
Little do they foresee, who talk so lightly of reason, whither
their language tends. What mean they by prostrating it ?

14 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
Let it rise to revelation, — expanding to its greatness and
soaring in its effulgence.
We are now in a condition, we have now reached the
place, to inquire, independently of any revealed authority,
into the true character of man. What is his nature ? In
what relations does he stand? What are his prospects of a
future life and allotment? How is he constituted ? What
survives of him at death ? In what manner shall he be dealt
with in any period subsequent to death ? How is he re
garded ? How is he treated ? We speak of man as he now ap
pears ; we would describe him in his present being. We be
lieve, at the same time, that he is what he always was, and
always will be. With his circumstances and dilemmas we
have now no question : we only ask, — What is his proper
being? The present disquisition is merely introductory.
It concerns the true nature and condition of man. Until
these be known, we cannot inquire into the manner of his
treatment, or into what awaits him.
I. We cannot doubt that there is in us a twofold consti
tution ; that we partake at once of material and spiritual
properties, — that we consist, in one person, of a body and
of a soul. Man is only organised matter, or that organised
matter is only a machine for what is not matter. To avoid
the grossness of the first predicament, some assert that
man is homogeneous, a monophysite, of an indivisible
nature. Yet this opinion can only be entertained by the
materialist, thus representing man as unmixed matter, —
unless we except the Pyrrhonist and Idealist, some anti-
hyloist dreamer, a class of mystics we can scarcely expect
to find. The immaterialist would make no such statement.
The parties are divided thus:, the materialist is he who
thinks that matter alone enters into the composition of
man; the immaterialist thinks that it not only does, but
that there is superadded an immaterial principle. The
former, then, affirms that mind is the effect of a certain struc
ture and physiology of matter, not separable from it, and

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. lo
having no nature independently of it : the latter supposes
that, though he cannot define mind, nor understand the
mode of its exercise, apart from certainmaterial instruments
and manifestations, that it is different essentially from matter,
and that the human being is made up of these two constitu
ents, existing in compound, yet capable of discrimination.
We can only know things by certain phenomena, or the
indications of specific qualities. By such a mode of ob
serving, we distinguish between various objects. Why do
we not mistake an animal for a vegetable ? Why do we
not rank a vegetable with a mineral ? A child will instantly
tell the reason, — they are not alike. We may clothe our
reason in a loftier style, still it is no better. All comparison
and contrast are founded upon this apprehension of what
is similar and dissimilar. But matter comprehends all
sensible things. We recognise as material whatever occa
sions our perceptions of vision, taste, hearing, smell, touch.
We pronounce as material whatever possesses figure, so
lidity, resistibility, magnitude, porousness, extension. We
leave out of discussion all dispute concerning the primary
or secondary order of these sensations of external accidents.
That which presents these signs and induces these feelings,
we justly call matter. We take a metallic bar into our
hand, — it has a shape, it is cylindrical, — it has a density, it
is massive, — it has a solidity, it is compact, — it has an ex
tension, it is oblong, — can we for a moment doubt what it
is ? Yet really all this discernment must pass in our mind
ere we determine its nature. It may seem'in voluntary, but
it is actually related to a duration of time, and proceeds in
an order of succession: the powers necessary to produce
this discernment are voluntarily directed.
There is, then, something — if these be the marks by
which matter is invariably to be known — which is not
matter. That something as truly exists as matter, and it
is by it alone that matter can be proved to exist. It is
certified by equally descriptive phenomena. It is not onlv

IG THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
to be known like matter, but, unlike matter, it is Icnown
to itself. Mind is conscious of all with which it is affected.
It exercises choice and volition. It can abstract and com
bine ideas. It can understand, reason, imagine, remember.
These are its cognizable properties : that which manifests
them is, mind.
Every particle of the human frame, however attenuated,
—every filament, though most delicate,— eveiy globule of
blood, though most minute, — is but matter, and is, there
fore, plainly reducible to its criteria and laws. None of
these reciprocate with the characters of mind. The mind,
on the other hand, does not put forth a signal in common
with the indications of matter, and cannot become a thing
of shape, hardness, size. The body is not the spirit, the
spirit is not the body, on the simple showing which distin
guishes between opposites, or, in other words, between
subjects which possess no congruous, interchangeable, at
tributes. If they should be seen in closest parallel, they
are lines which never touch.
When we speak of substrata and essences, we often de
ceive ourselves. We know nothing of matter, except as a
congeries of qualities — properties recognised by the bodily
sense: we infer that there is something which presents
them, and in which, after some manner, they inhere. This
is our utmost information. Of that secret substance we
cannot form a conjecture. And we readily confess that we
know nothing of mind except as a series of qualities, of
which we are individually conscious : we cannot but con
clude, that there is something on which these rest. This
is our largest solution. Of that support we can entertain
no fiction. Half of our explanations are differences of
language without any nearer approach to truth : and (he
boasted progress of our knowledge is often the substitution
of one kind of ignorance for another. This much is cer
tain : that mind may be as distinctly discriminated as
matter, for by none other process can the existence of

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 17
matter be argued but by adducing its properties, — while we
know in our mind the sureness of those properties by which
it is revealed.*
This invariable difference of matter and mind has been
disputed by an adroit allegation that there is to be found a
common law in both. Must not the mind, it is asked, be
somewhere? If so, is it not capable of extension? But
this is to claim the point in dispute. It begs the question.
The fallacy and the artifice consist in the term. Eor the
answer, that it was no where, would raise the ridicule of
the unreflecting. We cannot scruple to render that answer,
whatever the award of a thoughtless derision. That which
exists in space need not to have its "whereabout" in it.-j-
The mind is related to the body. They co-exist and co
operate under a present vital ceconomy, in a present ob
jective scene. The nexus of that relation is not more
inconceivable than would be the law of local habitation in
the sense of extension. Nor can any conclusion be more
arbitrary and violent than to affirm that the relation must
be rather of the nature to which the mind is bound, and not
of the nature of the mind itself. We attempt no definition
of this relation. It exists. It is placed beyond the possible
doubt. All its remoter speculations — how spirit exists to
space, how spirit passes through space — we contentedly
forego. Mind has no extension in matter. Mind has a
relation to matter. We are assured of each proposition.
From our present limitations of knowledge, further inquiry
is as reckless as vain. Language is generally as precise as
* "This primary and supposed obvious quality of bodies will be founij,
when examined, as incomprehensible as anything belonging to our minds :
and a solid extended substance as hard to be conceived, as a thinking im
material one." — Locke : Essay on Hum. Under.
t " The maxim is, that an object may exist, and yet be no where, and J
assert that this is not only possible, but that the greater part of beings do an:!
must exist after this manner." " Thought, therefore, and extension <ivl-
qualities wholly incompatible, and can never incorporate together in un...
subject." — Hume.

18 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
intellection. We give little credit to them who complain
that they cannot express what they conceive : the fault is
essentially in the conception, and only accidentally, or per
haps consequently, in the expression. The sculptor might
as well accuse the marble, when he has wrought Psyche
into statue, that its senselessness debarred the pure, the
intense, the visionary, impersonation which he had studied
and had impressed upon his mind: but was his image truly
more instinct and idealised than that cold form on which
his eye rests thus dissatisfied ?
Motion has been considered as alike the property of mind
and matter : thence it has been argued that their nature is
the same. But motion is not a property of matter. Matter
has a capacity for it, and motion is a condition in which it
may be found. An external impulsion is necessary to give
it this activity. That this activity is not necessary to matter
is obvious in that it is more commonly wanting to it; matter
does exist without it, and may be conceived of in a state of
rest. There are no better reasons towards the proof of any
thing than these, that it can be shown thus to exist, and
that the mind can only thus apprehend it. Now the body
moves. The mind retains its relation to the body whither
soever it moves. But this is not mechanical. There may
be mental independence. 'When tossed on the deep, we
may in thought be present with our households, traversing
far distant haunts and conversing with long-departed
friends. No man can doubt the being of mind distinct from
matter but, by that doubt, to confirm it. There is the
power in that doubt which is neither nervous nor muscular :
there is a power turned upon a question of its own nature
which a power of matter cannot do: there is a power
voluntary and self-directed. Strange and unworthy as may
be the doubt,— whence does it arise ? What entertains it?
What, save that which was different from matter, could
take such a distinction ?

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 19
We feel little disposition to controvert every hardy and
obtuse assertion by the coarser schools, the dissecting
rooms, the vivisections, of materialism. There is one
which, however, we will notice. It is affirmed that, as
certain organs of the body perform their separate functions,
so is it equally evident that judgment and other intellectual
phsenomena are only functions of their appropriate ap
paratus, the brain, the central organ of the sentient system.
Let us, then, examine the workings of those other organs
first. The glands are appointed to form certain secretions.
In their ducts all these secretions have been detected
through alternate stages. The mechanism of the heart can
be traced, together with many of the actions and changes
of the circulating fluid. The alimentary canal has been
frequently laid open, and the successive processes of
digestion been minutely ascertained. This is intelligible,
inductive, experimental. But who can apply similar
examinations to the mind ? Who has identified its organ,
or traced its intermediate formations ? Who can say what
there is, in even the organs of sensation, which induces
their fitness ? What scalpel has revealed the peculiar
quality of that string which we call the optic nerve,
enabling us to see rather than to hear ? What ingenious
theory has explained the mode in which the inverted
image of the retina correctly impresses us with the true
position of the thing? In what does the encephalon of
the hero differ from that of the poltroon, the poet's from
the hind's? Following' up the physiological counterpart,
as it is urged, we may rightfully demand: Where are these
productions, slow, gradual, immature, of thought? All we
ask is, consistent proof. Certain organs fulfil their parts.
We see not only the result but every step of the process.
In like manner, we are assured that the brain fulfils its
part in educing thought. Show" it to us at work. It is
possible. Its mechanical movements, its hidden chambers,
have been explored. What did they indicate of any

20 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
business with mind ? What declared, assured, embryo
has been detected in its duplicatures ? Have any of its
nicer tissues, any of its secret recesses, betrayed, like
palace-approaches, the mysterious presence ? If thought
be the effect of animal organisation, it should partake of
some material adjunct. But so far from realizing, in these
researches, mind made known to us by sign or essence,
we cannot learn the method of any external impact upon
it. There is a visual impression, a picture, reflected upon
the eye. Whence is the perception of the mind? Was
the nerve, which is behind the eye and foliated through it,
shaken by the simulachrum, so that it vibrated ? Was there
any transmission of change to the thalamus out of which it
curiously shapes itself? Was there any effect which could
be noted upon the great medullary substance?* There is
the eye itself, — its convex cornea, its three lenses, — an
achromatic instrument : but how the mind is affected by it
continues unexplained.
If thinking result from matter, it can only be in one or
other of the following ways. It must be an inherent pro
perty in it. This no reasonable man asserts. Matter
abounds in all kinds and forms without any accompani
ment of intelligence. Or the alternative is, that thinking
may be induced by combinations of particular portions of
matter. Two substances, in contact or compound, often
elicit what seems wholly new. But a third can never
* " The efforts of philosophers, constantly renewed, to penetrate the rela
tions of the soul to animal life, have all along retarded the progress of physio
logy. In this attempt men left the province of philosophical research for
that of fancy ; physiologists, carried away by imagination, were far from being
acquainted with the laws of purely animal life. They professed to explain
the most obscure psychological phenomena, and yet they were unable to say
what fever is, and in what way quinine acts in curing it.
" Let us, first, endeavour to refer to their ultimate causes those phenomena
of life which are not psychological ; and let us beware of drawing conclusions
before we have a ground-work. We know exactly the mechanism of the eye ;
but neither anatomy nor chymistry will ever explain how the rays of light act
on consciousness, so as to produce vision."— l.iebig : Animal Chymistry.

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. !il
spring from them without being perfectly similar, or with
out a change of themselves. An aggregate may be de
composed by an addition, which, by combining with either
of the elements it finds already united, liberates the one
or the other. No conjunction of parts can produce a
permanent property which is different from those parts
when separated. Chymistry only explains the changes of
bodies — it does not create anything. Mechanism only
applies the laws and agents which are independent of it —
it does not create anything. The mighty laboratory and tool-
house are built for them, with all their substances and
dynamics. By what analogy is it, then, maintained that
material combinations can give birth to an element, an
entity, unlike them, and transcendently superior to them ?
Where, indeed, is there this combination ? Where are the
two things, different from each other, which this com
pound supposes ? There is, according to the presumed
case, matter alone and only. An arrangement and juxta
position of brute flesh is thus combined with power, and
invested with prerogative, to originate those elevated sen
timents, those imperishable arguments, those glowing
imaginings, those sphere-voiced lays, which bind age- to
age, which excite congenial efforts in successive genera
tions, which constitute the glorious wealth of the Great
Intellectual Community !
Atoms make up the human body : but they, as in
dividuated, do not think, for then every atom would be a
seat of thought, and every body would possess innumerable
souls. Any particular distribution of atoms could not
give this effect. Any rapid circulation could not stimulate
it. You may attenuate them until imponderable and in
appreciable, but you have acquired no mental result.
Magnetism and electricity are only blind agents, however
refined and subtile. By chymic law the power of attrac
tion and repulsion will affect atoms : their position and
temperature are altered, but there is no change in them-

00 the PHYSICAL AND MOltAL CONDTTIONS
selves. If it be allowed that mind is a super-addition, we
demand no more. But a super-addition is not an effect of
a foregoing state of things. If a super-addition, it must
have existed previously and independently, however mo
mentarily. If it be a mere effect, it stands unrelated to a
cause, and, according to all nature, it can have no cause,
because itself is superior to any which could presume to
be one.
We do not think that these reasonings are at all weakened
by any proofs of the influence which is exerted by the
human frame upon the intelligent principle. We are pre
pared for such a fact, and freely confess it. The body is
the machine of the mind : its irregularity must disturb the
agent. If the medium of vision be dim and distorting, the
eye can only thus apprehend the object. But we may
argue the converse. The mind is infantile with the body :
why not rather say, the body is infantile with the mind ?
Let the soul be apprised of some danger — a danger which
the senses cannot mark — and though the health and
energy of the man until that moment is complete, you
shall see the appetite fail, the check blanch, the strength
wane : you may see, if the struggle be sufficiently fierce,
the convulsions of death itself. There is often the work
ing of a mind upon a material too frail to bear it. A super
natural and superstitious terror seizes upon its victim, an
idle and fanatical imagination only, — but no poison could
spread more surely, could operate more fatally, than were
the venom really in his veins. Nor can any statement be
more gratuitous than that mental insanity proves the
entire dependence of mind upon organisation. When
pulsation is fevered and overspeeds all the wheels of life,
stimulating the nervous influence beyond its proper control,
delirium ensues. The mind is abused with the impression
of diseased organs. Sensation is vitiated. But even then
the mind is not infrequently conscious of the default, and
will vigorously argue against it. In settled madness, the

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 2o
mind may inhabit a perfectly sound body, enjoying high
health and reaching old age. There is neither organic
nor functionary disease. There is no morbid structure
nor physiology. The disease is, therefore, in the mind.
Why may we not speak of the derangement of intellect as
its ill, as of that of flesh with all the ills that it is heir to ?
Why may not there be its peculiar disease, its idiopatiiy ?
And if we needed to confirm the independence of the
thinking principle on its material covering, we might
dwell upon its victories over sorrow and temptation : we
might unfold the scene of death ! How strong has it proved
itself amidst that fall, how spiritual amidst that decay,
how glorious amidst that eclipse ! Its greatness had not
until then been proved, nor its triumph signalized ! It is
its dawn of a brighter existence ! It is its theatre of con
summated achievement !
Perhaps nothing more entirely agrees with our argu
ment than that the mind is so little aware of the bodily in
struments and their operations. Some of these are below
any consciousness, in its widest meaning. The contraction
cf the heart in forcing the circulation of the blood, the
causes of the temperature of that fluid, the process by
which the pure air we inhale imparts some quality of
renovation to it in its passage through the lungs, the pro
pelling power which repeats this passage seventy times in
the minute, for the whole course of our lives — these vital
acts are very partially explained. If we were of one simple
nature, why should we not be conscious of all these move
ments? Why does consciousness extend to nothing, with the
exception of a few sensations which are really mental, but
to the subjects- and exercises of thought ? On the supposi
tion that the body is only the organ of the mind, there
seems a fitness in these blind and independent laws.
There is little necessity for scanning them. They could
not be included in proper consciousness. The spirit may
know and examine itself: but its ministering attendants

VJ4 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
wait upon it with a mute mysteriousness and inexplicable
reserve !
The sway of the mind over the bodily powers is as
generally allowed, as it is commonly exercised. We beget
change in it by muscular excitements. We " bend up each
corporal agent for it:" and thus we "bend up every spirit
to kis full height." All is subservient and subsidiary to
the behest of the nobler principle. By assuming the ex
pressions of passion, we work ourselves into it. There is
ready obedience and assistance. What but an instrument,
bound and subordinate, can the body be, when mind can
agitate it at pleasure, gain reinforcement from it, put it to
every use, claim it as help-meet, and yet exact reverence
and subjection of it?*
We do not feel that we are pushed to any difficulty by
the rebound of our argument in support of a principle,
incorporeal and independently superinduced, in adducing
the case of the inferior animals. We firmly believe that
there are in them many phsenomena of mind. To call it
instinct, relieves no embarrassment of this admission. It
is a valueless word. There is no distinction in it. It
tells nothing. In every animal there is that which corre
sponds to mind. Does it not think ? Does it not decide
between difficulties and choose between alternatives? Does
it not remember? Does it not love, hate, hope, fear?
Instinct has been supposed to intimate acts which are
* "The most ordinary experience shows that at each moment of life, in
the animal organism, a continued change of matter, more or less accelerated,
is going on ; that a part of the structure is transformed into unorganised
matter, loses its condition of life, and must be again renewed. Physiology
has sufficiently decisive grounds for the opinion that, every motion, every
manifestation of force, is the result of a transformation of the structure, or
of its substance ; that every conception, every mental affection, is followed
by Changes in the chymical nature of the secreted fluids ; that every thought,
every sensation, is accompanied by a change in the composition of the sub
stance ofthe brain." — Liebig: Animal Chymistry, p. 9.
We are not bound to approve of the whole quotation : it is made to support
our Inversion of a common objection.

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. Ui)
blindly perfect, automatic, performed without will and
reasoning. But it can be shown that such acts are some
times committed in error and end in failure. There must
have been reason, for there is mistake. It does not follow,
nevertheless, that while mind presents points of resem
blance, that it is not susceptible of the greatest distinc
tions. The power of analyzing mental phsenomena, .we
may surely affirm, is denied to these humbler existences :
we may, in comparing ourselves with them, boast it as our
exclusive faculty. To our mind, so superior to whatever
looks like it in them, other endowments may be added.
Speech, language, together with the fixed form and ready
facilities of knowledge which these gifts and capacities
secure, abundantly exalt and discriminate it. If there
were only that wonderful property of progression by which
every generation of man may surpass the former, leaving
animal intelligence to its original restrictions, it would be
sufficient to demonstrate that, though we even shared with
it in genus, we stood at the greatest possible distance from
it in species. Think of the human mind, and a gulf lies
between it and every brutal form of sense : it means, as a
term, quite a different idea. Nor have we any warrant to
think that their mind is superinduced, or could be inde
pendent. It is but a higher form of life. It never passes
into anything higher than animal acts and functions. It is
of the body, its adjunct, its instrument rather than its guide.
We only attempt a condensed view, a summary of the
argument in behalf of man's spiritual nature. This is his
conscious conviction. Whenever he has done justice to it,
he has thus defined himself. Plato describes the soul as
"an essence, bodiless, and intellectual:"* Aristotle, as
" an essence independent, and easily separable from its
present form of existence, "f All the future which the
ancients anticipated, and all which modern nations, when
* Ouaia a<ra>fLuTO<; Kai voriTtir.
\ Ourri'a X'i)/j('rTTi) Kal Kextoptcyievtj Tare avOptanStv.

°,0 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
unenlightened by revelation, yet foretel, respects the
simple spirit, as not of the nature of the body, as divi
sible from it, as detached by death. The classic poets,
the true priests of mythology, call it " eternal exile,"*
represent it " the surviving soul,"f ascribe to the manes a
sort of divinity. J Though the lyric, from its tender sad
ness and from its lofty sublimity, might be expected to
chiefly impress this doctrine, we find it in the tragedy even
to its parts, and in the epopee even to its scenes. Here
and there, — as often as the atheist may be detected, — men
may be found who deny this spiritual exemption of their
nature. But no sophistry, no decree of power, could ever
convince the multitude that this material form is the en
tirety of their being, and that death, sparing nothing, is its
entire extinction. WTe claim for the proper distinctiveness
of mind from the outward form, — in every substantive use
ofthe phrase, — universal consent.
II. In attempting to properly estimate man, we cannot
doubt that he was designed to be the moral agent, and
that responsibility must attach to him. That which is
called Conscience, we hold to be the tendency and capacity
of every man to examine into duty. It is a principle or
bias natural to his mind. The question strictly considered,
only involves the mature and the social mind of man : at
least it is most justly illustrated by reference to it. We
have no right to expect a fair exhibition of it from a mind
undeveloped, or from a man denaturalized by separation
from his fellows. There is nothing, however, which the
infant intellect so readily catches ; nor is there the iso
lated outcast — if ever such existed — in whom this power
could not be awakened. In the brute tribes no cognate
propension can be traced. Their percipience, after all
* " In eternum
Exilium." Hor. Car. lib. ii. 3.
+ " Aninise superstiti." — Ibid. Car. lib. iii. 9.
J " Quib vis Deorum est Manium." — Ibid. Epodon, lib. v. 5.

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 27
the training it may allow, cannot receive any impression
to be compared with it, or that looks to it. They were
made to obey the dominion of man, and not of God.
They were formed only for their present life, and cannot
launch a thought into an hereafter. They can at best
hope to please, or learn to dread, their earthly lord. But
whithersoever you turn your research, man is seen with
this predisposition. He knows, or he can understand,
that he is accountable.* He is capable of distinguishing
between right and wrong. He is peremptory in his demand
of duty from others to himself. This is all for which we
contend : this is all upon which we insist. Our inquiry is
into the fact of man's capacity : very indirectly and second
arily into the fact of its exercise. Now, a race of beings
who can conceive of responsibility, whose highest philo
sophy affects it, whose universal language expresses it,
must be responsible. No creature rises higher than his
just and appropriate ideas. These ideas reflect what he
is, and for what he is intended. They are as true to him
as he ought to be to them. He could never be empowered
to entertain them unless he was obliged to determine
himself by them. If the rank of his nature fell below this
capacity, if he was necessarily inferior to that which he
naturally conceived,— most inconsistent suppositions ! —
his level and his nature would contradict each other, and
the only conclusion which could be left us to form must
be this, that his Maker had created him for abortive hope
and vain emulation. Failure would be the law of his
being. But his Maker must regard him responsible in
conferring the gift of this faculty upon him. To assert
that these ideas are accidental to the human mind, that
education and will-worship have injected them, cannot
account for their ready coalescence with it, — and only
serve to prove that its requirements, its very cravings,
* We do not contend for what the ancients called irrjoXtirJ"?, but only for
natural capacity to estimate such moral ideas when presented.

•2'i THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
have induced and shaped this system of external discipline
and obligation. From the objection we may advise our
selves that man every where confesses such a rule. His
inward sense demands a binding authority and an en
forcing sanction. He feels that he is not in his. due place
among surrounding creatures, but as he thus yields to a
will higher than his own ! Upon that will his happiness
rests.* The argument might satisfy whatever we have need to
show, were we to adduce the ready admission, by the most
uninformed individual, of those moral distinctions on
which the notion of responsibility proceeds. Though he
should never have revolved them, perchance never have
heard them, until now, — at once they commend themselves
to his approving judgment. He is compelled to affirm
them. They possess his intuitive assent. Now this mental
sympathy can only exist in affinity with what we call
natural, or naturally perceptible, truth. When revelation
announces its verities, verities which never could be known
save for revelation, — we believe them upon its evidence,
yet without any such consciousness of coincidence as that
of which we speak. We revert not to the past, though
dreamy, thoughts of our mind, nor wonder in ourselves
why we did not discern these things before. All is new.
It had not entered into the heart to conceive them. But
in moral inquiries, every conclusion comes back upon us
as that which we might have decided, which lay within our
own field of knowledge and our own range of mind. Or if
they who have never reflected, on these subjects, who have
never addicted themselves to these researches, do not in
variably justify principles which true ethics bring to light,
— still you will observe this susceptibility of moral dis
tinctions in their objection. To something of account
ability, affecting particular duty or particular retribution,
is the objection made. The duty is, perhaps, denied as
" Note A.

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 29
reasonable, the retribution as just. This is to betray
conscience, — to allow those thoughts which " excuse and
accuse one another." The reasoning which this includes
anticipates the proof we might offer that this conscience
exists. Already it has questioned some law : already it has
challenged some penalty. It has held its inquest : it has
poised its balance. The impressions of right and wrong
are, therefore, the basis of the demur. It will be in vain
for the objector henceforth to deny his capacity of moral
distinctions ; and as vain for him, possessing that capacity,
to deny that he is accountable.*
Were reason not a guide to morals, — if morals could be
ascertained exclusively by supernatural aid, — then, until
and unless that aid were afforded, man could not be a
moral agent. If his law might only be read in a revela
tion, then until and unless that revelation visited him, he
could not be a transgressor. If of himself he cannot dis
cern between moral good and evil, then only, when the
difference is shown to him, can his conduct present any
moral stamp, any character of virtue and vice. We see no
ground to suspect that the mental powers of our nature
are especially injured in their strength and clearness by
any moral revolution in it. Depravity belongs to dis
position, its bent to evil, and does not consist in weakened
capacity. There is no pretext for supposing that man is
more incompetent to form a judgment on morality than
on geometry. Man, wherever found in his state of true
nature (that is, social and developed,) is a law unto
himself. Any remedy for guilt, which revelation may bring, pre
sumes guilt in him to whom it is brought. How can he
be guilty who cannot, in consequence of an absolute loss
of power, perceive a law and his amenableness to it ? If
this be the effect of his disobedience, once he must have
been able to certify that law, and his obligation to it.
* * Note B.

30. THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
Henceforth is he merely placed under its punishment,
But it may be rejoined, that morals being very largely de-
ducible from the constitution of man, if he be now a fallen
creature, the source of information must be most imper
fect and deceptive. It is like beholding our natural face
in a glass full of flaws. We allow that apostasy to be as
deep and inveterate as ever it was regarded by the humblest
and most agonized mourner of the fact. We have no pal
liation to offer : no reserve to propose. We see it a law
in the members, — " from the birth, and from the womb,
and from the conception." We trace it unexceptionably.
It must have a source and origin commensurate with itself.
If man, in every place and in every age, go in one way,
there must be a reason for it. You may, or may not,
call it tendency and disposition. It is universal event and
issue. It has happened, it does happen, it will happen.
What is the solution ? Hereditary depravity, original sin.
We blench not from the strongest statements. We dislike
every qualification of them. We find nothing gained by
such refinements. The difficulty still exists, though re
moved to some more speculative ground. The pseudo-
philosophy with which it is encumbered adds to its weight.
Displaced from its just authority, it is left open to every
objection. We are not responsible for any of these ex
tenuating views. Whatever be the disposition, sin can
only be spontaneous and responsible. But we see in man,
thus lapsed, all the nature of man. Sin is not his nature :
it is its depravation and abuse. Sin is not natural to him,
however it is native. His constitution, truly understood,
is apt for virtue : vice deranges and defeats it. " The
carnal mind is enmity against God :" the mind, as it is,—
not "renewed after God," — is enmity against him, in the
misapplication and perversion of its powers. It has "gone
out of the way," it is "alienated," it has "turned aside."
It might be love to him in its right direction. As siii
takes away nothing from the properties of our being, re-

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 81
generation adds none. We may, therefore, search our
nature for its true interests, duties, and bearings, nor can
any demand be more imperative upon man than thus to
peruse and judge himself. Whatever the depraved dis
position of man, his declared war is not with virtue. He
does not hate justice as justice, truth as truth, benevolence
as benevolence. He admires their excellence, he defends
their importance, he urges their exemplification. He
approves and urges them. From depraved disposition he
may violate them all. In the blindness of passion he may
conceal from himself the enormity of that violation. But
show him the case in another. Let a far minor offence be
cited. His " anger is greatly kindled." Far more pitiless
himself, he denounces him " who did this thing, and be
cause he had no pity."
Wrhat is that particular exercise of mind which immedi
ately seizes the distinctions of right and wrong, has often
been made the subject of dispute.* Precedently to this
inquiry, another claims its notice : Why is any act right
or wrong ? What constitutes it such ?
We need not allude to those theories which base them
selves upon rules of human legislation and conventions of
human opinion. These can only cast the whole question
of accountability into the scales of caprice and chance.
Legislation and opinion are notably diverse and fickle.
Tyranny may follow tyranny, and opinion succeed opinion,
in the most varying forms. Yet is the idea of rectitude
so fixed and independent in the human mind, that no
decree of the one, and no licence of the other, can destroy
it. What could compel men to think adultery, parricide,
robbery, right ? What array of power could force the sub
version of all their ideas? Moral distinctions are not
fluctuating, but essential. Despots and their minions
may attempt to wrest the common sentiments, but they
thus betray their weakness and hasten their doom. " The
* Note C.

32 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
throne of iniquity," always tottering, tumbles when it
" frameth mischief by law." The human mind is pre
possessed, there is a lodgement in it which cannot be
assailed, there is a nature in it which cannot be perverted,
and all such arbitrary violence is impotent. For we cannot
ascend to that which is too ultimate in this inquiry. If it
be asked : Is there any other ground of these principles
than the Divine will ? we must utterly dissent from that
assumed appeal. The infinite excellence must have an
infinitely excellent will. We speak of the necessary per
fection of that excellence in accommodation to our only
methods of thought and language, but not to the injury of
its freest choice. Itself authorizes these methods : " He
cannot deny himself." For every divine determination
there must be a congruous and worthy reason. " The
righteous Lord loveth righteousness." " The Lord loveth
judgment.'- It necessarily follows that the principles exist
which for their own sake he approves and prefers. But if
his authoritative requirement, his mandate, communicates
the quality of the act or disposition, making it accordingly
good and evil, then the act or disposition would otherwise
be indifferent, and each would be without good and evil
until his pleasure was announced. That will, too, would
render all acts of obedience alike virtuous : that which
was circumstantial would rank, when commanded, with
that which was founded in fitness, and a confusion would
arise in our minds the most disturbing to all proper views,
the most subversive of all just apprehensions. We are
accustomed to speak of a class of duties as positive, that
is, presenting no reason but the command of God : we
contra-distinguish another class of duties as moral, their
reason being obvious in their agreeableness to a pre
existing order of things. But this is not the highest view
of moral relations. An order of things may not be neces
sary. There are truths which were always — which always
will be— truths. The properties of the line, the cone, the

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 33
circle, the triangle, are not earlier nor later, cannot be
more nor less. We borrow an illustration from the fact.
Good and evil, right and wrong, truth and falsehood, are
equally immutable. They are truths in themselves. They
are independent of any constitution of things, and of any
creation of agents. They are inceptive and primordial.
They must have been always what they are. The con
trary cannot be conceived, or, if conceived, is absurd.
We speak of mathematical as eternal truths. The epithet
is apt and just. There can be no contradiction and no
alternation to them. They depend upon no arrangement
of matter, upon no distribution of physics or forces. Were
there no heaven or earth for their diagram, were there no
intelligences to demonstrate them, they would be the
same. They are archetypes, if they never had been
shaped ; they are true, if they never had been proved.*
So we reason touching virtue, or that which qualifies an
act and disposition as right and good. It is conformity
to nothing accidental, contingent, dispensational. Its
standard and reason are to be found, likewise, in eternal
truths. The contrary cannot be conceived, or, if con
ceived, must be absurd. It is no more violently absurd to
imagine the laws of mathematical figures, or rather prin
ciples, to have varied from their present laws — to imagine
that they now vary from their past laws — that the circle is
not necessarily convex nor its radii necessarily equal, that
the triangle does not necessarily contain two right angles,
— than to suppose that moral distinctions could ever have
a beginning, or that they can ever conditionally exist.
Good is as exactly separate from evil, justice from iniquity,
in all duration. No course, no origination of events can
affect their substance. System and ceconomy may arise,
new settlements and ordinances may be established, worlds
may be created or crazed, — these principles are normal
and imperishable. We must remember, also, that all
* Note D.
XIII. D

34 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
truths which are necessary are universal. They are the
same in every case and to every being. — It is evident,
indeed, that such a difference exists between these and
other truths. All things are not established in a rigid
necessity. Another kind of laws and another scale of pro
portions are not inconceivable, if we look into the great
created system. Deity may have possessed boundless
diversities of operation. He might have recourse to other
styles of work. Gravitation is the law : and it is absurd
to attempt any other explanation of what is. But there is
nothing absurd in supposing the possible substitution of
another mobile power. The planets exhibit, in probable
respect to this power, their dimensions, relatively greater
or less, but there is nothing absurd in supposing that they
might have been fashioned according to other degrees of
magnitude and density. There is nothing absurd in sup
posing that they needed not to be moulded into spheric
shape, or if orbs, that they needed not to be impressed
with rotatory motion, or if made to circle in a mighty
course, that they needed not to travel in a common plane,
or that moving in their revolutionary circuit, they needed
not all turn and pass from west to east: — because the
wisdom which has decided these regulations as even in
evitable to the present constitution of things, could have
formed a different constitution. But can the thought be
momentarily suffered to enter our mind that the Deity
could invert the distinctions which we affirm ? Is not the
thought only a little less irreverent that they consist in his
will? Is not the perfection of these qualities, as made
manifest in him, the moral demonstration of his supre
macy ? Is not the perception of these qualities, as distin
guishable from his being, the only method of glorifying
him as God ? How can we ascribe these qualities to him,
if they depend for their mere existence upon his volition
or his decree ?
We, therefore, rest all virtue upon a foundation the most

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 35
reasonable, while it is the most remote. It is necessary
reason. It is eternal truth. Its idea cannot be changed.
Near or distant, in abstract or concrete, it is still the same.
If we cannot lift her veil, like that of the fabled divinity,
her self-announcement might he copied from its mystic
fillet, — She is what has been and shall be ! More appro
priately may we confess her as the Wisdom of the inspired
personification, the companion and delight of Deity, the
spectatress of his works and the genius of his command
ments !
A virtuous act or disposition is, then, inherently virtuous
by its resemblance to the essentia], indefectible, impre
scriptible, rule of rectitude, — not to allow which were more
unreasonable and more profane than not to allow a first
cause of all that we prove by sense and attest by experience.
If the hypothesis, that the Divine Will is the true founda
tion of every difference between right and wrong, cannot be
maintained without an insult, even to blasphemy, against
> the Divine character, much less can we favour opinions
which place the very truth of virtue in the perceptive faculty
of the creature. Our approbation or disapprobation of any
conduct cannot make that conduct otherwise than it is. If
that approbation or disapprobation invariably follow the
supposed conduct, the exciting cause of such complacency
or disgust must be found in the conduct itself. Then a
law of connexion may be shown to exist and operate between
these sentiments of the mind and the object which moves
them. We must conclude from this connexion that we are
constituted to feel in this manner. We cannot ascribe it,
with Hobbes, to the assumption of authority; or, with
Mandeville, to the love of praise. But the impulse is ex
ternal to us. We need no verbiage of a moral sense.* We
need no machinery of a circuitous sympathy.! Our mind
judges of moral distinctions with an irresistible precision
and facility. In the same way as necessary truths affect
* Hutcheson. + Smith.

86 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
every mind alike, so do moral truths. They are quite as
independent of us. The process of the one is indeed slower
and more ratiocinative than the other. Many necessary
truths exact a tedious demonstration. They appeal to no
intuition. They carry not conviction by impact and im
pression. Moral truths have only to be set before us, and
they are so self-convincing that we immediately close with
them. By these remarks we in no wise commit ourselves to any
theory of conscience which supposes its innate knowledge,
its subjective efficiency. We speak not of its independence,
though we do resolutely concerning that of the first prin
ciples which it appreciates. It is only the religious judg
ment of the mind, exercised upon the great rules of morality
presented to it. A law is given to it, but it gives no law: a
light is set before it, but it sets up no light.*
To this natural competency of human reason to decide
upon our moral relations, it is replied, that reason does not
enounce a uniform suffrage, that its dictates are widely di
vergent, that the conclusions to which it leads are palpably
contradictory. This dignity and ornament of our nature
has even been not infrequently assailed, by different par
ties, on these alleged grounds of difference. Cotta, in the
Dialogue of Cicero,f spurns the gift, as an injury and a
curse, reviling the gods in language of rancorous coarseness
and impious scorn for its bestowment. Among Christian
writers, engaged in the defence of their religion, a depre
ciating style, in referring to this power, may be sometimes
observed. One eminent instance may be quoted; " Reason,''
says Soame Jenyns, "in her natural state, is incapable of
making any progress in knowledge. Even when furnished
with materials by supernatural aid, if left to the guidance
* NoteE.
+ De Natura Deorum, lib. iii. It has been the fate of Epicurus always to
be misrepresented. In this very Colloquy, Velleius asserts that this philo-
sopher argued that there must be gods, from the impression which nature
herself makes upon the minds of all men.

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 37
of her own wild imaginations, she falls into more numerous
and more gross errors than her own native ignorance could
ever have suggested. . . . She has persuaded some,
that there is no God; others, that there can be no future
state ; she has taught some, that there is no difference be
tween vice and virtue ; and to murder a man and to relieve
his necessities are actions equally meritorious : she has
convinced many, that they have no free-will in opposition
to their own experience ; some, that there can be no such
thing as soul or spirit, contrary to their own perceptions ;
and others, no such thing as matter or body, in contradic
tion to their senses. By analysing all things, she can show
that there is nothing in anything ; by perpetual sifting she
can reduce all existence to the invisible dust of scepticism ;
and by recurring to first principles, prove, to the satisfaction
of her followers, that there are no principles at all." * The
ravings of the ancient Academic we need not confute, — the
less so, because he seems constantly to confound reason
with that intellectual ingenuity and force which are abused
to a refined invention, and a colossal magnitude of crime.
But the opinions of the Christian philosopher, ef our
country, and almost of our age, demand a closer and a
more lengthened examination. He affirms that "reason,
in her natural state, is incapable of making any progress in
knowledge." By " natural " he evidently intends, unas
sisted. This statement is exceedingly crude. Who sup
poses that reason is held by the creature independently of
his Maker, or that it was ever placed apart from instruction?
But it could always act in a way of freedom, and it always
tended towards improvement. It taught man, no more the
embowered heir of Eden, to " build the city : " when he at
tempted to rear a tower that should reach to heaven, it, not
having inspired such presumption, instructed him to "burn
brick thoroughly for stone," and to dig from the surround
ing: plains "slime for mortar;" it raised up "the fathers of
* " Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion."

<j8 THE PHYSICAL ASD MORAL CONDITIONS
such as dwell in tents and have cattle," " of all such as
handle the harp and the organ," " of every artificer in brass
and iron." We love to acknowledge and honour God in
even the humblest operations of husbandry and handicraft:
God "doth instruct the plowman to discretion." He
" hath created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire."
But it is by reason that he thus produces these effects. In
this manner man has been prompted to achieve those crea
tions of art, whose few- specimens, but numerous fragments,
enrapture taste and surpass imagination, even in our far-
distant times. What, save reason, conducts analysis in the
exact scienc.es to its present incomparable accuracy? throws
open and maps the highest heavens ? looses the most in
tricate combinations of elementary substance ? marshals
the experiment? gathers the history? fires the epos? This
writer proceeds to say, — for his book contains not a few
paradoxes, — " that reason, even when furnished with ma
terials by supernatural aid, if left to the guidance of her
own wild imaginations, falls into more numerous and more
gross errors than her own native ignorance could ever have
suggested." What those "materials " are, he does not show.
Perhaps the advantages of civilization may be intended. If
so, we consider that this is the " natural state" of man, and
consequently of reason. Barbarism is his lapse and its,
deterioration. But where has social, civilized, man been.
found destitute of a moral code, or of a conscience?
Reason never did persuade that there was no God ; that
there was no future state ; that there was no difference be
tween virtue and vice. In the proportion in which it was
consulted and obeyed, it built up the opposite conclusions.
Where it has been allowed its simple exercise and native
authority, it has condemned cruelty and fostered bene
volence ; it has taught the free and accountable agency of
the will; it has proclaimed the independence of the spirit
¦on the bodily frame. It might scarcely be silenced : it
could not be extinguished. The sophist has laboured hard,

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 39
has wrought his utmost, to prevaricate with it: he has often
and widely suborned it to error and crime. Yet there was
always resistance ere it could be overborne. There was
tampering and menace to secure its prostitution. A false
religion engenders an evil conscience. Men may be .so
perverted in [their judgement that they shall believe that
by blood-shedding they do God service. The murder of
their fellows may be perpetrated by them as a consecrated
rite. There was, however, a first sentiment of repugnance
and horror to be conquered. The shock was felt: the
mind required to be seared that it might look upon the
deed. The mother, beneath the vow of a fell superstition,
has east her child to the monster of the deep: but she was
taught that the pang of such unnatural devotement consti
tuted the merit of the sacrifice. Among the most savage
nations there is the common rule of morals : theft, adultery,
homicide, are offences declared and punished. Private re
sentment may take the place of law, but it is in execution
of supposed justice. There "the thief is ashamed." "The
eye ofthe adulterer waiteth for the twilight." " In the secret
places is the murderer of the innocent." There is con
fusion of face: and there is remorse. The high qualities
of virtue are " the things of good report," in every period
and country, however rude: they win esteem; they demand
protection: the "virtue" and the "praise" go together-
Violence and depredation may be thought right by many
peoples upon their enemies ; but then hostilities have
exasperated their revenge, are supposed to place them in
an exceptional course, and teach them to suspend all the
duties which they confessedly owe to each other and their
allies. The particular infraction of these duties and its
justification, imply that these duties are ordinarily in force.
And were this not fact as to particular peoples, — to escape
the argument, it must be proved that they have not sunk
into mental dotage, under the influence of wildness, fanati
cism, and vice. Did they once know the judgment of God?

40 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
Did their conscience ever interpret aright ? Have they lost
the discrimination by wilfulness and sin? Moreover it
must be proved, that there is not buried now beneath all
this degeneracy, that natural direction and power of thought
which we call conscience, that religious peculiarity of man.
Still further must it be proved that this capacity could not
be evoked by any. appeal, that it would not ratify the dis
tinctions of right and wrong, when clearly, fully, and
earnestly laid before it. To us it seems most certain, that
no where is to be shown a people, however fallen, so utterly
debased: that in none, even the most abject, is this power
utterly lost.*
These representations are impugned on historical autho
rity. The Lacedaemonian Institute is cited against them.
The vices of lying and thieving are said to have been
inculcated by it as good and useful. But the whole system
(though much that is commonly believed of it rests upon
tradition and myth, and not on veritable testimony) sup
ported itself in a thorough dethronement of nature. It
formally interdicted all the laws and sympathies of hu
manity. It annulled marriage ; it took possession of all
offspring ; it required, as the test of endurance, the self-
infliction of the severest cruelties. It was a martial
school ; it was the contingent force of a great general com
munity ; and it sought to be considered a proud experiment
haw far all that was common to other nations might be
expelled. Much that has been quoted as a sanction to
wrong was rather an encouragement to its concealment or
* " Wherefore our decision is this ; that those precepts which learned men
have committed to writing, transcribing them from the common reason and
feelings of human nature, are to be accounted as not less divine than those
contained in the tables given to Moses ; and that it could not have been the
intention of our Maker to supersede, by a law graven on stone, that which is
written with his own finger on the table of the heart." — Melancthon.
The only remark on this fine sentence of the Eeformer which we offer is,
that " learned " men are not needed for such " transcription : " mankind had
done it already.

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 41
to escape from its consequences. This was done on the
supposition that wrong unfelt was unreal. It also connected
itself with military tactics. But the entire tale of Sparta,
allowing all its literal truth, is not an episode in the history
of our species, but an exception to it. To legalise un
righteousness they had to dissever man from antiquity,
from internatiouality, from kindred, from philosophy, from
instinct, from every stronghold of our being. We wonder
at no monstrous growth of license out of such circum
stances. As reasonably might we expect the limb of beauty
and strength, which from the birth had been cramped with
ligature and chain, as hope to find the workings of nature
in a scene contrived to withstand it. The objection becomes
our triumphant argument that immorality is abhorrent to
the standard. of natural reason, until that be intimidated by
power and debauched by crime.
Nor is it denied that individual and communal man may
so corrupt their way and pervert their judgment, that they
shall justify wrong-doing, and feel a very complacency in
it. But after what indurating processes has the hardihood
been reached ? Do their sophisms quite convince them ?
Is all within at ease ? Know they no satedness and dis
gust ? Nor is it denied that these may also, " not only do
such things, but have pleasure in them who do them."
" The pleasures of sin " may be excited by these manifesta
tions in others. Besides, a wider example and countenance
are lent to evil, the shame of a minority which all virtue
condemns is better encountered, a hope is cherished that
punishment becomes more difficult in proportion to the
number of the delinquents, even the chance of detection
is calculated amidst the increased instances of guilt. Still
reason never justified this complacential love of sin. It
knew nothing of this prudence, and nothing of this taste.
It is the fatuity of the vile. A proper intelligence is im-
bruted in them. " But these speak evil of those things
which they know not : but what they know instinctively,

42 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
as unreasoning beasts, in those things they corrupt them
selves." It has been contended that the consciousness of respon
sibility in man depends upon a fear of future punishment.
But these may be parts of the same truth. It is for us to
require the time and the manner in which that fear was
first introduced. We are wholly ignorant of such intro
duction : we are entirely distrustful that it can be success
fully shown. If it were ever taught to man, it must possess
some sympathy with our nature, to have obtained universal
belief. Let us suppose that statesmen published the
doctrine for the end of social subordination, to reduce men
to civil subjection. Is it, then, wanted for this lower pur
pose ? Surely it is of the Creator, when his creatures need
its influence for their own social well-being. If we say
that the rulers of men invented it, it can be proved dis
tinctly to the contrary, that the most powerful of them
have been troubled with its wide-spread impression, have
found resistance in it to their schemes, and have confessed
that it was too strong for all theu- efforts to erase it ! None
can deny that wherever reason has been most cultivated—
where its power was vindicated and its majesty revered-—
where its suggestion was the philosophy, and its study was
the art, — there the question of morals has been most ad
miringly exalted and most rigorously explored. Intellectual'
and ethical inquiries are akin to each other, and have always
proceeded hand in hand. Involuntarily we think of the
Lycseum, the Stoa, and the Grove. Visions gather thence
of exquisite loveliness and beauty. They play around us
still in unfading brightness. Nor are they unsubstantial.
The disorder * of the mind was reduced by theory to its
proper adjustment, f The scheme of a government was
devised, and a polity was imagined, recommended with all
that is necessary to code and executive. \ Invention went
still further, and human virtue, in its diversified bearing,
"* 'Arabia. t EuTcrfia. t IIoXtTeujua.

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 43
was likened to the pyramid, * while, in its even stability,
it was compared to the cube.f
Nor can we forget the great ideas of justice which these
nations maintained. Nemesis and Themis were not only
their abstractions and deities : they were embodied in
their systems of jurisprudence. Law secured property
and sanctified life. Law guarded every relation and or
dered eveiy act. Law was the theme of philosophy and
the burden of song. Their language gave us the word,
but not the meaning, of tyrant ; and their kings were the
shepherds of men.
Indeed the revealed code (and we may be allowed this
anticipation,) answers not only to the statutes of universal
jurisprudence, but to the general opinion, or, in Plutarch's {
phrase, the common sentiments, of mankind. We might
take the Decalogue, and trace its transcription upon the
soul of man. That which is the more speculative and
dogmatic corresponds with invariable conviction. That
there is a superior power is. allowed by all. Its unity
of nature is not maintained, nor its concentration of
supremacy; but, from the remains of every polytheistic
system, we may infer that these truths were originally
held, and that they now are but forsaken and forgotten.
Time was, when the immorality of idolatry was esteemed
" an iniquity to be punished by the judges." It must de
grade and weaken the intellect, for. its every plea can
be only unreasonable — it must loosen the foundations of
virtue, not merely by distracting devotion and dividing
allegiance, but by the necessity under which it lies to
invent something else than infinite excellence and truth.
It must find a creature to worship. It must body forth
the inferior : it will image the sinful. The reviler of the
Divinity has been always regarded with horror, be the
object representing it true or false : moral obligation was
sure to decline with religious levity and irreverence. —
* Plato. Timasus; + Aristotle's Nieomaehaean Ethics. I Koiviv Ivvoiav.

44 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
Sacred ceremonials have been celebrated by every people,
and though the kinds and periods of their cult have greatly
disagreed, the principle is scarcely capable of a modifica
tion. — The reciprocal bonds of parent and child are not
more widely extended, than is the idea of their importance,
and ofthe duties involved in them. The filial relation as
much supposes respect and obedience as helplessness and
dependence. — None would vindicate the right of destroy
ing human life but upon some exempt case, reprisal or
self-defence. — The violation ofthe marriage chastity revolts
the very instinct, " for jealousy is the rage of a man."—
Property, the defence of which forms the first basis of the
social community, guards itself, of absolute consequence,
against every trespass upon it, and its laws everywhere
condemn all rapine. — Veracity, especially in juridical pro
ceedings, has ever been considered most binding, and the
perjurer has been pursued with universal execration. — It
must follow that what is sinful in act, cannot be right in
thought, and that coveting anything which is our neigh
bour's, is the first step towards injuring him.- — -We do not
intend by this induction, that men have kept this law.
They have been transgressors of it from the womb. But
to be guilty in transgression, they must know and be able
to understand that which they transgress. There is a rule
before them which they understand, or, which is the same
thing for our argument, might understand. They possess
the capacity of appreciating its evidence and its rectitude
Their mind must be on its side. To reason otherwise,
would exonerate millions, who have every facility of moral
knowledge, from all responsibility. They have not thought
nor meditated. Their understanding is vacant, and their
ideas are unformed. " The light which is in them is dark
ness." They even publish another standard of opinion
and taste. But are they absolved from obligation to the
law which they thus slight and supersede ? So long as
they are capable of its moral perception, so long they are

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 40
accountable. If at any time " the commandment came "
to them, occupying their attention, closing with their con
science, they must confess its righteousness, they must
feel their condemnation; "sin" would "revive" in peni
tential awakening, they would " die " as to self-sustained
claim and hope !
It is most worthy to be noted that the moral impressions
of mankind are so greatly uniform. They may, in some
cases, be blunted, distorted, perhaps effaced, — but these
eases are comparatively few. In the incalculable majority
of instances, among the polished and the rude, the com
monwealth and the horde, crimes have been regarded with
the same aversion, and virtues have been lifted to the same
celebrity. The rule of moral arbitrations has been sub
stantively one. The objection, then, to our view of natural
conscience and of the essential difference in the quality of
actions, arising from an imputed contrariety in the suffrage
of the former and in the estimate of the latter, may be
turned against itself. Can the exceptions destroy the
rule ? What is it that reveals and constitutes the excep
tions ? Where are the nations which the objector dares
to summon for witnesses ? What are the ages, brilliant
or dark, which he shall range upon his side ? If he boasted
because he found, or thought he found, that the moral
umpire varied in some few points and amidst some few
parties, hoping thus to break it down altogether, how does
he account for its very nearly universal acknowledgment ?
If this objection have any force, how much more is con
tained in the great aggregate testimony, this general con
cert of sentiment and discrimination ! We need not be
surprised at this. Human nature is the same. Mankind,
in Jew and Gentile, are compared by Scripture to the olive
tree. The Jew is the cultivated olive, the Gentile is the
wild. The flavor and richness of the fruit are to that
degree of distinction unequal. But whether more ex
panded or dwarfed, more refined or coarse, the fruit is gene-

46 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
rally one. Revealed and natural excellence thus far must
differ : in nature, in kind, there is inalienable agreement.
We must repeat it, that it is to conflict with all fact and
all evidence to represent the moral standard among our
species as variable and fluctuating. We have appealed to
the schools of philosophy. We have not to learn their
jealousies and disputes. They quarrelled with each other
in a rancor of intolerance. They placed the good of man
and the reason of morality in most incongruous things.
But they never differed concerning the conduct which was
right. They perfectly coincided in its form and style.
They firmly insisted on its immutable obligation. Epicurus
and Zeno knew no divergence here. The great elements
and waymarks of duty were unanimously defined. Nor do
we allow that evidence to be inferior which may be dis
covered in the common laws of communities, in popular
verdicts, in national archives, in the revolutions which cast
down oppression and tyranny, in mind untrammelling
itself from sophistry and superstition, in opinion bursting
open its way, in the resentment of grievance, in the demand
of right. We hail the expressions of the common soul of
man in the burning apostrophes of the orator, and in the
soft warblings of the poet. When Demosthenes sought
the crown of professional pre-eminence, he could little stir
the people, for he could not work on any of the great lean
ings of their nature. But when he defied the invader and
denounced the tyrant, he could cite the shades of their
ancestors and invoke the altars of their gods, because, now
his cause took part with all their sacred principles and all
their natural sympathies. This lent him his masterdom
over their spirits. They might not know it, but he only
commanded their own sentiments to vibrate, and in yield
ing to his impression they only obeyed themselves. If the
¦sterling understanding which loves truth, and hates every
evasive art, had not been found predominant among the
Athenians, the satire of Aristophanes had fallen harmless

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 47
on the sophists. It was the general horror of all infringe
ments upon the order of nature which created the awful
spell of .Eschylus in that Trilogy which still shakes the
soul ; and clothed Sophocles with his fearful power in the
QMipsean tragedies ; and had not domestic love been
honored, Euripides had in vain essayed his pathos in the
sorrows of the bereaved Admetus, and in giving back
Alcestis to her home. Terence roused up in the Romans
many a noble emotion, — like the lode-vein long hidden in
some neglected mine,— new only in form, but ancient as
the nature which gave them its response.
Nor let it be said that the morality of the classical
nations was of the romantic complexion : that it was not
practical. It constantly reposed upon the utility of virtue.
It vehemently urged the noxiousness of vice. It not only,
as was seemly and just, expatiated among contemplations
of the fair and beautiful and lovely : it unfolded the benefit
of good actions and the mischievous consequences' of those
which are evil.* The great pandects of an everlasting-
right and wrong were studied, universal conscience accorded
to them, history was written to illustrate them, philosophy
was cultivated to defend them, drama and poem were their
representation and praise, nor did wit and profanity dare
to trifle with their august decisions.
But the proof from fact is superabundant, it is almost
gratuitous, it is scarcely due. For the question is of faculty
to discern what exists of right : not to originate the idea
of right, but to conceive it. There is no disproof of this
faculty, whatever notion may be entertained concerning
the source of that idea. Be it an early revelation, be it an
unbroken tradition, — not, as we regard it, an inference
from the original bias of the mind, nor a construction upon
an external administration of things, — it is of no account
to the argument. The faculty of estimating the idea is
connatural and universal. The idea, itself, is, from the
* "Tifviaaicei tou? xpwrrovl Kai ixox^npovs" — Plato.

48 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
beginning, a law as old as man. Both faculty and idea
form the ground of our accountability. Both are indis
pensable to establish against us the charge of guilt. Both
must be presumed by every overture of restorative mercy.
We bring the question to its humblest merits. We have
confined it to what is. But for ourselves we are dissatis
fied with its position. We should maintain that this could
be the only law : that it was not institutional but necessary :
that it lies in perfect and eternal reason : that no proper
intelligence could exist without perceiving and justifying
it : that, though it affects many relations which of course
are dependent and conditional, its principles are independ
ent and unconditional : that its claims are imperial and its
bonds everduring.
If, however, certain speculations which some have ad
vanced concerning man be correct and well-founded, it
would be vain to assert, it would be impossible to prove,
that he was free, that he was responsible, that he was
amenable to law. For though eternal rectitude fills the
universe, man must be endued with a capacity for it to be
its proper subject.
There is a theory of bodily conformation, of physical
organology, which seems to release our conduct from ap
proval or blame. Dispositions are supposed by it to be
expressed according to outward, material, measures and
proportions, — that these are developed by specific quanti
ties of that which is assumed to be the seat and magazine
of the mind, if not the mind itself, — and that, though the
primitive bent maybe counteracted by setting prepossession
against prepossession, this must be rather the task of
others than of the immediate individual, — and that the
original bent must always remain. In extenuation of the
inconsistency of this theory with liberty and accountable-
ness, it is pleaded that since all admit particular originali
ties of disposition, the difficulty is one, whether they subsist
with or without material indications. But the difference is

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 49
perfect between them who maintain that all such original
dispositions, if evils, are things of fault, of disobedience,
of depraved self-will, and them who see no more than an
ill-digested mass of qualities and propensions among which
the creature is only left, if he have any volition at all, to
choose. Beyond them he cannot pass. A peace and com
position must be arranged by him of all these contraries
as his only ground and germ of virtue. We are not to be
deceived by quibbles and disclaimers. Specious ingenui
ties are the sure sign of untruth : flattering negociations
the certain preliminaries of insincerity. The purport of
these views cannot be mistaken. All, save those who will
hoodwink themselves, must see to what they point and
lead. But their apologists are sleeplessly wary. Their
common artifice is, that their system knows no quarrel
with revelation. Believers are thrown off their guard.
There never 'existed a deeper-plotted conspiracy against
revealed truth. It is not honestly formal and declared.
It marches to no assault and defiance. Its device is, to
destroy every relation in which man can stand to true re
ligion, to relegate him from its province and category, to
mock all its claims upon him, to degrade him into soulless
indecision, to abandon him a sport to the whirl of chance.
It would blot out all religion from his nature. Its last
design is to make it impossible that he should be religious.
The real, the esoteric, doctrine of this school is, a gross
limitation imposed upon the moral capacity and improve-
ableness of our nature. It raises a resistless fence beyond
which the human agent cannot pass. It is invincible re
striction. It means nothing more nor less. We cannot
make light of it as the fashion and plaything of the day.
But in detestation of its lying words and pernicious con
sequence, we suffer ourselves to be betrayed into no ex
treme. We disparage not the wonderful fabric of the
human body. We deprecate all descriptions of it as the
coil and dungeon of the mind. The temple is worthy of
XII. E

50 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
its genius. It is entirely contrived and consecrated for its
service. Nor can we be driven, by fear of implication in
inconsistency, from those conclusions which common con
sent draws as to the connexion between physiognomical
development and mental inbeing. We can still read the
eye as the mirror, and the brow as the throne, of the in
tellect !
Another opposition is raised to the accountability of
man from the circumstances in which he is placed. Their
power is alleged to be so assimilating and formative, that
his character must be shaped by them. He is supposed
to be always within a sphere of attraction, within the sweep
of a vortex, out of which he cannot escape. A process is
affirmed to be always going on from without, changing to
itself all the determinations of the mind. But this theory
passes by unexplained the cause that circumstances exist.
They do not exist independently of us. For by them are
not intended the scenes and operations of material nature,
but our social opinions and practices, in custom, in insti- '
tution, in amusement, in expectation, in requirement, in
law. They are made and moulded by us. The fashion of
the world is its own tyrannous demand. Circumstances
may be stamped with an evil character, and charged with
an injurious influence, but they are shaped on our forge.
And withal, circumstances are generally more on the part
of virtue than individual taste would choose. They are
often, in many of their forms and distributions, salutary and
counteracting. They interpose difficulty and scandal be
tween the tempted and the temptation. They are safeguards
of morality, and have grown out of social reflection and
experience. They are built upon the general conviction
that "righteousness exalteth a nation." They offer resist
ance to appetite, and entrenchment against exaction. They
are checks, producing shame and repressing selfishness.
They are nearly always favourable to the general decency
and order. Every man addicted to vice feels in them a

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 5 ]
restraint. Therefore multitudinous life is so incomparably
more regulated than insulated life. No community can be
great and good without the force of opinion, and that
opinion must be on the side of what is great and good.
It is written of the wicked : " They will not frame their
doings to turn unto their God." Their guilt is not in con
forming to others, and in yielding to external arrange
ments : it is their own circumstances, their own " doings "
— lying altogether in their power, — which they will not
" frame." " Their heart gathereth iniquity." Circum
stances merely reflect ourselves. — We are aware that a
more fearful aspect of circumstances has been exhibited on
every stage of the Pagan world. There is often a concen
tration of the worst vices of our nature. But what is this
save the ascendency of their depraved taste and temper ?'
It is the "will of the Gentiles." Such a state is pro
nounced by revealed truth to be the result of unholy in
clination. " They did not like to retain God in their
knowledge." The consequence was : " God gave them
over to a reprobate mind." The stricter sense, the closer
reading, of the original is : " That since they did not use
their judgment* to retain God in their knowledge, he gave
them up to a misjudging mind."j- A moral cause blinded
them. Only on this account can it ever bo true of man,
that " God's judgments are far above out of his sight."
Amidst the abominations of " the worst of the heathen,"
—whatever the general example might indicate, however
wide-flung the flood-gates of licentiousness, — the under
standing and conscience never inculcated and honored them,
no true tribunal within or without approved and justified,
— virtue still could appeal to reason and right, fearless that
she should be driven from their judgment seat.
Two remarks may here be introduced. The first, re
spects the authority and power of those superstitions by
which individual reason seems all along to be seduced.
* 'EdoKtflacav. t 'Aooki/aov vovv.

02 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
We do not suppose that they are exactly what each idolater
might dictate and prefer. They were the collective evil
of ages. " The vain conversation was received by tradition.
from his fathers." " The Gentiles were carried away unto
those dumb idols, even as they were led." They were
captivated or overawed. Their reason did not agree : their
wickedness sympathised and assented. — The second remark
relates to the influence of wickedness in corrupting reason.
We are not called to debate the doctrine of judicial blind
ness. At most, we regard it in the light of non-inferven-
tioh, or abandonment. All that our present statement
requires is this, that the course of evil is prone, — that the
tendency of every error is to error, of every crime to crime.
He who blinks truth, becomes the dupe of falsehood. He
who rebels against conscience shall quickly find it " seared
with a brand." If, therefore, the moral faculty of man can
be shown, at any period or in any place, unsusceptible of
right impressions and exercises, it is nothing more than
the result of a certain, well-known, influence. We need
not ask the explanation of a higher agency. There is no
contradiction of what conscience is in itself, nor refutation
of the truth of its proper capabilities and prerogatives. We
do not concede that it is ever thus dead to the process
of moral reasoning, and to the conception of moral ac
countability. Let it, however, be conceded that it may
thus be dead, — all that the concession includes is this, that
he who is fatuous by the enervating influence of vicious
habits, has wasted and disinherited his intellect of all that
was true to it, and is now besotted in imbecility and lost
in aberration.
Fatalism is the additional restriction which some have
set upon human liberty, and, consequently, upon human
accountableness. It is not denied that a perfect scheme
of providence is indispensable to the character and abso
lutism of the first Great Cause of all. It is not denied
that the right must dwell in him of subordinating all acts

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 53
and dispositions to his purpose and glory. It is not denied
that fixed results of Divine government are, in every sense
and view, necessary. It is not denied that every agent,
with the same motive and in the same circumstances, will
be seen pursuing the same conduct. Yet while these pro
positions are wholly true, they do not comprise the whole
of the truth. That which asserts that, things being equal,
men would always behave alike, may be most strictly true,
or, which is nearly the same, utterly undeniable, — still is
its foundation a pure hypothesis. We do not discredit it
on that account, for we can conceive of hypothesis as the
ground of reasoning and as the triumph of demonstration.
But it is only just to repeat what has been objected to it :
to acknowledge that some of the objections cannot be very
consistently disallowed. There has always been some point
of diversity between them whose resemblance has been
closest in character and conduct. Any stringent pressure
is contrary to whatever we know, and whatever we feel :
we know, that any doing of ours might have been reversed,
— we feel, by that law of consciousness which can alone
certify our existence and our reason, that we retain the
fullest power of choice. Passion does not hurry us away,
does not overpower us : it is the momentary, mistaken
judgement and preference of that which we deem happi
ness or good, — though, when gratified, reflection will decide
that it is evil. No subtlety, no abstraction, of argument
can convince us that we are otherwise than free. We would
not speak of philosophical necessity and of fatalism with
out a just contradistinction. The one makes every account
of a moral difference in conduct : the other does not. But
the writing of the necessarian has not seldom been am
biguous : not allowing an independence of motive which
might sway circumstance, but converting circumstance
itself into motive.*
III. We now proceed to inquire into the evidence which
* Note F.

54 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
reason may obtain and apprehend, touching the duration
of human being. There are natural proofs, strong and
convincing, that this is not the only life of man:, these
we must carefully select from those which are presumptive,
and from those which overreach their suggested use. It
is, also, very equitable to lay the burden of disproof upon
them who would withstand the general consent of the
species. We admit no weight in any argument for immortality
drawn from material organisation. Animals possess, in
their upward scale, all the germs which are perfected in
ourselves. They approach us in symmetry, and often
exceed us in the quickness of the senses. To ask, Can
such a structure perish ? is to doubt, if with lessened con
fidence, whether other sentient creatures can perish also ?
If there be any truth to which this doubt can refer, it is
the resurrection of the body. But this truth we wholly
rest upon Divine revelation. What uninspired mind ever
indulged the thought ? The inference, could it be sup
posed, would lead us to expect the resurrection of mam
moth and of creeping thing buried in the wreck of a former
world, of the exuvise of uncomputed periods, of the monster
and the insect whose congeners are unknown to the living
system, strewn in frightful embalmment among our cliffs
and rocks. Still more strongly would it apply to that of
all known creatures now subjected to us.
Not less firmly do we reject any imaginary evidence
attached to the immateriality of the soul. We may believe
that human intellect is an independent super-addition to
the-body ; that whatever resembles such intellect in animals
is only a high degree of functional life. But we do not
think that reason could deduce any such consequence from
this premiss. Every analogy would show that there is
constant destruction of a power which thinks and wills.
If it be said, May we conceive that a spirit, active until
the very moment of death, can in that moment cease to

OF MAN DEDUCED FHOM HIMSELF. 55
be? it is only to be rejoined, with some abatement of the
improbability, May we conceive that the intelligent prin
ciple of the brute can thus suddenly determine ? To the
present position of the argument it only belongs to decide
upon immaterialised properties, and upon their possible, or
likely, extinction.
Nor do we feel the force of any statement which asserts
the independence of the human soul on the animal func
tions. These cannot originate thought, or any intellectual
agency; but then no proof, at this stage of the inquiry,
can be given, that thought, or any intellectual agency, may
proceed in separation from them. This would be to tread
precarious ground. Our only known development of mind
is by the means of that organism which it rules. The inde
pendence of the mind might, indeed, be better supposed
than that of its frame, which we know comes to nought.
But no reasoning of this kind could be sustained. For all
we can adduce to the contrary, these are mutually subser
vient. Besides, we are at an equal loss to account for the
operations of intelligence in the inferior tribes : how does
their structural ceconomy assist it? Who can trace the
reciprocal connexion ?
We deny not ingenuity to some methods of reasoning,
but they look to us as retrospective views. Already, it is
pleaded, the spirit survives the flesh. In a given interval
the body is changed and reproduced. Yet the old man
tells the tale of youth : he appropriates a distant past.
But the irresistible conviction of every one is that, through
all these transformations, it is his own body, his one body,
liable to any outward evil which the most distant crime of
the mind may have incurred. Nor has it, — unintelligible
as may be the theory, — though it may be an untenable
conceit, — been finally and demonstratively disproved, that
there is some ultimate particle, some rallying nucleus, the
secret subject and pivot of all the chymical and mechanical
influences which affect our frames. So likewise, it has been

5 0 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
affirmed that annihilation is no law of the ascertained uni
verse. Not an atom is lost. To the philosophy of this
opinion, perhaps discovery, we readily accede. But then
this fact as much wars with identity as it favours immor
tality. The mutations which convert our earth into one
vast laboratory are all conversions. Nothing returns to
what it was. Creation is not diminished by a corpuscle
from the beginning. But its elements have passed into
different forms. Who can recall them ? The forest is
consumed. It is exhaled. The ashes which are left are
its smallest portion, a residuum which has not escaped
in volatile flame and air. Who can collect the dissipated
essences ? Our body moulders in the dust. It returns
to the ground. Worms devour it. It does not reintegrate
itself. Like other physical decompositions, it passes on
from change to change, farther and farther from what it
was. If the soul be separated from it by some similar law,
it has passed away, intermixed, perchance, for so was it
fabled, with some infinite mind. These are not the results
we seek.
Reasonings, like these, have been pursued in our age :
we have little proof that they are ancient. Former gene
rations did not find in them their hope of immortality.
They are not sufficiently natural and elementary. Not
organisation the most perfect, not immaterialism the most
conscious, not any established inferiority of the body to
the soul, not any presumed independence of the soul on
the body, not any evidence, could it be obtained, that the
mind is identical amidst corporeal change, not any resem
blance of that change to a metempsychosis of mind, can
satisfy us that these are sound rudiments of judgment, or
that they were ever prevalently allowed. True, original,
reason demands something clearer, stronger, always as it
is found to be the expectant and advocate of immortality*
And there are firm grounds on which to settle this belief.
* NoteG.

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 57
Some of these may be traced in our mental constitution,
others in our relations. We must esteem these grounds
sufficient ; for otherwise, though all are treated as immor
tal, millions could never know themselves. They are suf
ficient; because truths, which are readily believed and
practically followed by all, rest not on a moiety of their
convincing force. But this admission by no means involves,
in so serious a problem, the undesirableness of other and
still more explicit evidence.
It is no arbitrary assumption that, of all earthly crea
tures, we alone can entertain the idea of a future existence.
We know not that the thought of a morrow ever flits across
the imagination of a beast, save as it lays up stores for an
emergence, which it cannot define, because it has never
proved it. To us the thought is easy and inevitable. Now
it may be taken as certain, that whatever conception is
simple to us, it is fitting for us to cherish, — that we were
formed to indulge it, — since no nature can rise above its
strict limit. We, therefore, sought no better evidence that
man was responsible than the fact of his capacity to re
volve the question of responsibility. We argue now, with
equal confidence, that as man can meditate his immor
tality, he cannot be less than immortal. But man feels —
except when the fear of consequences drives back the
desire — a powerful bias and aspiration towards such per
petuation of being. He shudders at the prospect of non
entity. Death is dreadful because it cuts him off from the
light and land of the living, but is relieved if it open the
gate of another life, or rather of a continuous one. This
is the yearning of the soul. And who does not observe the
provision which is made to meet every deep-implanted need
and longing of the vast animations around us ? Who does
not admire and attest the beautiful description of the Uni
versal Parent, that " he openeth his hand and satisfieth the
desire of every living thing?" Surely, then, this lofty
tending and greed, so characteristic of man, so peculiar to

58 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
him, so true to his proper reason, so interwoven with his
superior condition, is not the only one which shall find no
encouragement and scope, is not the only one reserved to
be shamed and mocked !
Responsibility furnishes no barren proof. Man knows
that there is a Power with which he " has to do." He
stands in inseparable contact to it. He is now in favor
or displeasure. But the reckoning is not made. The
common sentiment is that, beyond death, the Power may
continue unfavourable still. There may be arrear of retri
bution. Wrath may be unappeased. Hence posthumous
sacrifices and prayers. All this points to a future award,
and necessarily to the existence of him who is the subject of
it. It is obvious that, when the present life is regarded as
theterm of man, itdoesnotadmitaperfectmeasureof justice,
The ancients, who inveighed against a future state, invari
ably made light of all moral distinctions. Responsibility and
immortality are truths of accord, and weigh each other !
A most obvious reason demands the survivorship of the
soul, if moral responsibility attaches to man. For not only
is this life too contracted a sphere for rewards and punish
ments, — some last act of life, at least, falling under nei
ther, — but its uncertainty defeats them. Were it only
broken short by the Creator in his immediate act, we might
suppose that the administration of both was complete. But
the hand of violence may interrupt the present reward of
the virtuous. The wicked, by breaking in upon the sanc
tuary of his own life, may escape his only punishment.
Law would, thus, be set at defiance. Moral government
would be helpless towards its self-defence. In such a state
of things it could not be properly said to exist. Must there
not be a hereafter, in which the interrupted reward and the
baffled punishment shall be renewed ?
We speak of future existence and of immortality as very
proximate, if not indissoluble, truths. There is a plain
distinction. The existence which is future need not be

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 59
immortal. Yet in our argument they possess a very equal
character. Few allow the one without the other. There
seems no fitness in the resumption of a life after death only
to await another death. Whenever the cessation of being
might happen, that cessation would be alike startling and ab
horrent. The remotest futurity would not mitigate the shock.
Why should life, thus renovated and prolonged, cease at all?
In any period of eternity, the destruction would be only more
improbable, more unreasonable, and more violent !
While the cast of our moral ideas and cravings doubtlessly
raises the doctrine of our immortality to presumptive cer
tainty, — though, these being founded in our nature, some
strongerform of statementmightbe used, — there are circum
stances which give it an impression of necessity. Inferring
from the recognition of a primitive and universal law, that
there is not only a lawgiver, but a government over which
he presides, we cannot but notice many instances in which
the course of retribution fails in uniformity. Wickedness
prospers. The sentence against an evil work is not exe
cuted speedily. " There is a vanity which is clone upon
the earth ; that there be just men, unto whom it hap-
peneth according to the work of the wicked ; again,
there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according
to the work of the righteous." The system of Divine
administration must he perfectly equitable : but then to
affirm this, requires us equally to affirm that it is im
perfectly developed. It needs expansion and maturity :
not less counterbalance and reparation. If it terminate
here, it is left incomplete. It is broken short. The moral
question is unsettled, which it involves. There is no
settlement, nor adjustment, nor conclusion. The issue is
cut off. In the middle of the drama the curtain falls.
Injustice has prevailed. Wrong has triumphed No in
ferential argument can be more stringent than that which
we now enforce. The lawgiver, the law, and the govern
ment, must be worthy of each other. To none of them may

60 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
failure be imputed. They demand but an adequate theatre.
That is not found on earth. There must be, therefore, an
after life, in which they shall enforce their entire claims
and receive their righteous satisfactions. Nor can it be
forgotten, that events occur which it is impossible to con
sider as justly and benevolently complete to them who are
the actors in them. These events lift tyranny f o power :
they trample down the patriot and the freeman. They
may be ultimately advantageous. But it is by the indirect
ness of overruled evil. If they call forth the resistance of
the champions of liberty, the good is bought — should it
even be secured — at a fearful price. A long interval, a
weary pause, holds back the purchase from generations.
These are senigmas. Their solution is not now. " The
end is not yet." It does not satisfy the case, to suppose
that the intricate plot of the tragedy shall be explicated
and evolved. That is not indemnity to the individual;
that does not bring conviction to the countless witnesses
who perished in ignorance and stupified suspense. Let a
posterior existence be conceded, let this life be supposed
the opening scene and primary act, and then may we
understand how all that is anomalous shall be reconciled,
and all that is perplexed may be arranged ! As an imperfect
retribution and an unequal providence intimate the future
life, and demand it for their vindication, so have they,
conjointly with our natural sentiments, wrought in man
kind the firm general impression, that they shall exist
beyond the grave. The argument is not sufficiently ad
vanced and ripe to admit analogical reasoning. This,
otherwise, might be adduced, not to confirm this impression
by direct proof — which is not its province — but showing
that no counter impression can be presumptively enter
tained. We turn to facts. We cite not the Jewish nation,
for the question of supernatural discovery is involved in
their history. We may, however, think that such a refer
ence to them would not be argumentatively unjust and

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 61
partial, because, in order to manifest the prseter-human
administration of that theocrasy, its sanctions wholly con
cern the present life. And they would be as competent
witnesses, as other peoples, to the natural capacity for such
an idea. Nevertheless, take peoples the most uncultivated
and unlettered, the rovers of the desert and of the fell,
where fallen nature is the most sunken, and olden civiliza
tion most obliterated. They possess their spirit-tale.
They chant the wild hope of future feast with their sires,
and perhaps of future triumph over their foes. The clouds
compose, to their eyes, the ghostly array, and the moun
tains girdle the shadowy home. Associate with peoples
the most philosophical and refined. Sit at the banquet of
their dialectitians, follow to the death-scene of their sages,
gaze upon the hieroglyphs of their temples, dig into the
riches of their languages, and all will reveal the pervading
power of this belief. Doubtless it was a darkling view
they took. There was no spiritual congeniality between
their general principles and this solemn anticipation.
But it urged itself. And when it was brought into contro
versy, it was not among the multitude, but by the few, who
entangled and confused it with their strifes about words
and contentions against facts. With what toilsome labor
do they oppose the opinions of nations, and the monu
ments of ages ! How feeble do they stand before the con
sciousness of every man in a reasonable state ! This
heavy, fruitless, labor, always confined to a narrow range,
is no mean proof that the expectation of immortality is
proper to us, and cannot be dissevered from our nature
but by the crafty logomachy which blinds, or the arrogant
profaneness which desecrates, it.
There is a speculation, to which we may just advert, con
cerning the immortality of man. It regards this as con
ditionally bestowed or withheld. Some of the ancient
theories forerun it. The doctrine is, that man may, or
may not be, immortal, according to certain moral terms.

62 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
It is itself a reward, and its denial is a punishment. Now,
in investigating the truth of immortality, we could not
overlook this statement. Nothing can be more fallacious
or self-inconsistent. Reward and punishment are con
tingents. The nature of him upon whom they pass re
mains the same. They must respect, they cannot change,
it. Immortality cannot be mere reward, or its loss mere
punishment, through the means and capacity for it, for
that would constitute a difference of being. In a nature,
created only perishable, there can be" no physical power to
become immortal. But, if created immortal, then immor
tality cannot be the reward of obedience, for it would exist
without it : and its abscission cannot be punishment, but
escape from it, seeing it was in the creature's original
nature that the sin was committed, and the forfeiture was
incurred. Besides, there are serious objections to any
supposition that nature's physical constitutions can be
reversed. They are seen by us, through all their types, to
be insuppressible. However we torture them, they can
not be eradicated. For perishable nature to become im
mortal, or for immortal nature to become perishable, con
tradicts all we learn from the counterparts and analogues
of the creation, and, therefore, equally opposes all we infer
of the consistency which belongs to Him " in whom we
have our being."
And the immortal life which pagan reason contemplated
was not vague and inactive — it was retributive. There
virtue found its reward, and wickedness its punishment.
When the Grecian and the Latin bards cause their heroes
to descend by the Kimmerian portal, or by the Cumsean
gate, into the Erebus of their mythology, they beheld the
bowers and groves of them who were renowned for excel
lence, the blest : and, the instruments as well as the con
ditions of punishment, to which the reprobate were doomed.
The patriarchs of philosophy descanted, in like manner,
upon the happiness or misery of the future state. It may

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 63
be said, that the common poetry of the age moulded its
philosophy. Then whence was the poetry inspired ? It
is not of this mighty art to invent opinion and usage ; it
can but cast back their image on mankind, in colors of its
own. It calls into existence, or commands into combina
tion, the forms and types of sentiment : it were not only to
transgress its bounds, but to lose its power, did it attempt
any realms but those of imagination — that law of mind
which must not desert, in all its parables and allegories,
the substance of what is known and real — which can only
reflect, though with diffused rays, what actually exists —
which can only give its pomp to history and its intensity
to truth ! Whatever be its flights, the poetry to which the
column is due, is but the picture of a common conception,
the sublimation of the popular sentiment and belief. And,
if poetry tinged the ancient philosophy, it did not give it
legend or machinery. It might embellish it with beauty.
But what is so beautiful as reason ? It was reason which
prevailed. Homer often must veil his fancy before some
later sage. His tenderness and magnificence yield when we
" Unsphere
The spirit of Plato, to unfold
What worlds, or what vast regions hold
The immortal mind, that hath forsook
Her mansion in this fleshly nook."*
The constitution of man, as an immortal being, depends
altogether upon the will of God. It hath pleased him so
to constitute man. It is his design and plan. He foresaw
all that it comprehends. If we be asked : Is man neces
sarily immortal ? we have already answered thai he is not,
but only physically. God has given him an immortal
nature. Should it be asked : Cannot the power of God
undo his work ? we reply : That we know of no power of
God to be inconsistent, to recall a purpose, to evade a de ¦
sign. We might, perhaps, have been spared some imper-
* Milton : II Penseroso.

64 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
tinences of sophistry. We are taunted by the query:
How can God create an immortal being ? The supposed
dilemma is, that such a being must be independent.
But he is only a creature, therefore dependent, and only
exists in immortality, as he is immortally vivified and up
held. It is put forth, that the utmost which can be under
stood, is an intention to make him immortal. Assuredly,
if by the epithet were meant that he has run out his im
mortality, there could be no such creature, since, in every
age of eternity, he can be no more immortal than he is
now. He never can be immortal. Immortality flies be
fore him. But this is trifling. How can God make man?
He sustains him in manhood. But the nature is specific.
He sustains him as man. God made the man immortal.
He gave him — as a part and condition of manhood — a
capacity for immortality, or, an immortal nature. Immor
tality is as much a property and determination of his
nature as reason, or any quality besides. God sustains
him at every breath and pulse : he sustains him in immor
tality. It is as sound speech to say, that he created him
immortal, as to affirm, that he created him accountable.
Both were cases of development. Man was to be immortal.
He was to be accountable. " He calleth those things
which be not, as though they were."
Wonderful is the fact of man's immortality. But there
are laws and tendencies around us which require it. All
matter changes through ever-shifting modifications. It
does not perish. For the extinction of animal intelligence
and life we are prepared, they being mere subserviences to
human welfare and authority, and also attaching to races
which are incapable of progression, and which " have no
understanding." That intelligence and that life are never
seen in independence of particular animal acts. They are
involved things. They cannot be conceived in separation
from each other. The intelligence is exclusively directed
to the life. The former is but a quality of the latter. Far

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 65
other is the human soul ! It has its own essence. It can
disregard and spurn the earthly, fleshly, life with which it
is now associated. It holds an independent dominion.
It looks afar. It soars on high. Its affinities are without.
Its communings yearn beyond itself. It is drawn to a
mysteriously distant centre. It longs after another form
and order of being. It reads its own- book of light. It
rules its own world of ideas. If the soul does not survive,
while nothing properly perishes around it, it stands the
lone dread exception, it is the solitary prey of annihilation !
There is some aid afforded to the evidence of immor
tality by proofs which, as distinct and while apart, we can
not allow. They help the cumulative argument, which the
highest truths need not disdain. The spiritual nature, the
immaterialism, of mind is not a sufficient prop, but it is
not without its strength in the clustered pillar. Though
it cannot prove that the mind is immortal, the mind could
not be immortal were it disproved. The two exactly,
naturally, consist. We may say with perfect right that
nothing agrees with the annihilation, that everything
agrees with the immortality, of the soul. Suppose it as a
theory. You now search for evidence. You must support
it. What you want presses upon you. All is in harmony
with it. Nothing jars. It is the key-note, the pitch, of
the universal song.
And the anticipatory impression which immortality gives
to man is not in any violation of those rules by which he
is ordinarily governed. He is adapted to the present, and
the present is adapted to him. It does not divert him.
It becomes his greatest motive for whatever his hand now
findeth to do. He best fills the present in the degree of
his conviction that there is always something beyond it.
The comment of nature is at hand. In the human body
there are, at its successive stages, prospective contrivances
for future functions. They are only at fixed times in a
course of development. They always proceed to their
xii. F

00 THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
maturity, and find their true result. Similar providence
is there for the progress of the mind. And these are so
many counterparts to the preparations of the soul for its
future state. Its destined immortality contradicts no pre
sent law, but is favoured by the most striking analogy.
It must be remembered that we speak of reason making
its way to this truth, and clinging to it, with no eulogy
upon its innocence and holy impartiality. We know that
depraved disposition is in full effect. We know that the
whole intellectual and moral nature is corrupted by it.
But this does not destroy the power of the understanding
to establish the certainty, and to harbor the consciousness,
of human immortality. Our apostacy of guilt and wicked
ness alters our relations to it : many may attempt to thrust
away sits impression : but it still remains the common
faith.* The exceptions to it are no more than to other
laws and proportions of humanity. There are those who
are wanting in common emotion, who are lost to rightful
principle, who cannot in habitual insincerity distinguish
truth, whose judgment is covered with darkness, whose
fancy is bewildered with levity. These may not respond.
They " despise their own soul." They "count themselves,"
— by a low depreciation, by an abject estimate, of their
nature, — " unworthy of eternal life." But this is an alien
ation. And if the idea of future existence, like that of
accountableness, be ever indiscernible in man, both have
faded from him by one process, — it is equally possible for
him, at the same time, so to brutify himself by voluptuous
ness as no more to feel himself immortal, and so to debase
himself by crime as no more to feel himself responsible.
This is, however, true, wherever he is found, and in what
ever condition, — in the last pollution, in the deepest ignor
ance, in the extremest abandonment, — he may be recalled
* " Conscience and the present constitution of things are not corresponding
terms. The one is not the object of i exception to the other. It is consci
ence and the issue of things which go together." — Davison on Prophecy.

OF MAN DEDUCED FROM HIMSELF. 67
to this consciousness, he naturally agrees to it, he unfolds
a capacity which justifies and appropriates it, he allows in
the newly-awakened sentiment that which, even mentally,
he had always wanted to complete the integrity of his
being ! We speak not of Seneca and Antoninus, but of
man, however low his degree and narrow his philosophy.
The truth of this immortality is not speculative, but rests
in consciousness and capacity, — consciousness, not that it
is so, because we cannot be conscious of the future, but
consciousness of a nature which requires it, together with
a capacity to conceive it. No argument can refute it,
when it can be shown that man can, and does, entertain it.
He cannot have escaped beyond himself. He does not
prefer it. No prejudice cherishes it. No pride dictates
it. It is forced upon him, and rises up necessarily within
him. No revelation could overthrow the fact, for to dis
pute the fact would be to overthrow its own pretensions
It could not come from him who made us, who made our
spirit in the image of his own. A revelation, denying the
existence of God and the immortality of man, would be
equally worthy of belief !
Such are the outline and the base of those great notices
of our nature which we must receive, if we would reason
on its condition, duties, prospects : which we must be
capable of taking, or any such reasoning is neither availing
nor obligatory.

LECTURE II.
THE LAW AND GOVERNMENT OF RESPONSIBLE AGENTS.
"Ye believe in God, believe also in me." — John xiv. 1.
While we have offered but little direct proof of the
existence of an Almighty Cause and Governor, at no stage
of the argument could we treat it as a question, in no step
of the discussion could we stoop to labour for its defence.
We assume not only his being and moral government, but
also the truth of the Christian revelation. We, indeed, ,
are argumentatively working out our way to the results of
this revelation, — not our way to its authority, but to its
fitness and application. If there is but one being, he must
be God : if there be a second, he must be a creature of
that God. We are not indifferent to the outshining of the
Divine glory which we behold in the material creation, —
the firmament, with its hosts of luminaries, — the world
we inhabit, with its oceans, mountains, vegetations. But
we obtain more exquisite and worthy evidence in the
intellectual features and exercises of man. There is the
image of him who created us. And when we can, upon
this, superinduce the moral capacities of man, we must
infer that all which is cognate to both has its seat in the
Divine mind, — and thus the demonstration that there is a
God who is a Spirit, and that there is a God who is Lord
over us, becomes perfect ! And most impressive is the
contrast between all that we discern of Divine and human
ruling power. " The Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our

THE LAW AND GOVERNMENT OF RESPONSIBLE AGENTS. 69
Lawgiver, the Lord is our King." Society could not sub
sist without magistracy and legal restraint. In surveying
the operations of earthly government, we are struck with
the complexity of its proceedings and the jealousy of its
principles. On every side, there are its inquisitions and
menaces. It clothes itself in pomp. It is full of stir and
ferment. There is parade and obtrusion. It loves cere
monial and emblem. It holds court and erects tribunal.
It constantly publishes itself. Its sword is always naked.
Its balance is always raised. It " bringeth the wheel over
the wicked." It is palpable through all its workings and
all its checks. It imposes itself with pageant and state.
It cries aloud. Yet in all this apparatus, there is the
effort of a conscious feebleness. It is display to make up
the want of power. It rebounds to its own strokes. It
bends under its own burdens. There is an unceasing con
fession of its impotence. There is perpetual sign of sus
picion and self-distrust. Little can it punish. Little can
it prevent. Its inefficiency is in a very close proportion
to its external magnificence. But the dominion of the
Most High moves in a far different course. " The law of
the Lord is perfect." It seeks and needs no badge and
observance. It disdains ministry and instrument. Its
sword is " bathed in heaven." Its balance is that in which
the hills are weighed. It is noiseless and unseen in its
mechanism. It has access to mind. Its power is in con
science. By inscrutable influences it enforces itself.
There can be no partiality, no indecision, no resistance.
It cannot be turned aside, — warped by indulgence or in
timidated by danger. Vain is every hope to elude and
defeat it. It allows no difficulty. Silent as time, serene
as star, it keeps its way. Obedience is attended by happi
ness, transgression by woe. So linked together are offence
and suffering, that "the tormentors" are ever waiting and
ever ready to exact the connexion. The blow may be long
delayed which strikes down the oppressor, but his first act

70 THE LAW AND GOVERNMENT
of injustice smote him. The punishment which appears
slow, has already fallen. The dealing is summary. The
punishment has begun. The wicked flee when no man
pursueth. There are arrows which drink up the spirit.
The transgressor may vaunt loudly, he may be the object
of general envy, all may flatter him, — yet shall he be the
drift of an inward tempest, the wreck of the soul's own
sea. "All darkness is hid in his secret places." " In the
fulness of his sufficiency, he is in straits." To cause the
mind to punish itself, to work a retribution out of our
selves, to secure it by fixed nature, to inflict it by inflexible
necessity, to convert the capacity of sin into the instru
ment of suffering, is the prerogative of Divine rule. It is
unlike any other, though inferior jurisdictions may be
helped by this its conduct. The feelings which it awakens
may subserve far lower administrations. In the prison-
houses of earth there may be mental anguish : but man
there trembles under the original liability. He agonises
in his troubled thoughts as a subject of God. There is,
indeed, the sense of social guilt, unworthiness, and shame.
But unless he had first felt that he was the subject of God,
little had his mind suffered for anything he had done as
the subject of man. It is in this infinite ease, and repose,
and omnipresence, of the " kingdom which ruleth over all,"
that we learn its unparalleled and inimitable excellence.
It is uniformly, and it is universally, administrative and
executing. " There is no darkness where the workers of
iniquity may hide themselves." Its design is direct, and
its effect sure. This is true majesty !
The irrespectiveness and universality of human law,
which are its highest honour when they obtain, are the
occasions of its frequent failure and injustice. It being a
human enactment and administration, its very generaliza
tion betrays its imperfectness. It cannot comprehend
every case of claim or grievance. Another form is needed.
Men call it equity. Its province is to provide for that

OF RESPONSIBLE AGENTS. 71
which law could not reach, and did not contemplate. It
is the control, and eurb, and custody, of law.
We are wont to speak of certain laws as subsisting in
physics. We tell of the laws of matter and mind : the laws
of mechanism, electricity, and heat : the laws of relation,
of suggestive thought, of reasoning judgment. Such a use
of language is arbitrary and unjust. In these instances we
suppose and can conceive no proper rule. We understand
these things, they being found in given states, conditions,
successions. We know what are electrical affinities, and
that they invariably act : we know when water will freeze
or evaporate, and when metals will fuse or volatilize : when
bodies will become precipitates, and atoms chrystals.
Yet all these phsenomena reveal no law : at most are they
seen in obedience to one. They prove, in Aristotelian
phrase, a universal. They lie within uninterrupted experi
ence. Their sequence has never been known nor reported
to fail. But when we speak of law in reference to a
responsible agent, the application is strictly correct. It is
the only use which is proper and true. At best is it, in any
other employment, an accommodated term. In this, it
stands up to the idea. It proclaims authority rather than
power. It asserts its right over intelligent nature. It is
a grand exhibition of moral principles. It binds all in
justice, but that justice addresses all in inducements. A
law, whatever it be, which moves matter, can never describe
a law which operates upon the mind.
Any parallelism between material necessary effects and
moral contingent actions must be, therefore, very remote
and strained. They involve perfectly different subjects of
influence. They oppose to each other the relations which
are borne towards those subjects. They respectively pre
sent, — uninformed and irresponsible matter, impelled by
a foreign and resistless will of pleasure, — and rational and
amenable mind governed by an independent but legislative
will of right !

72 THE LAW AND GOVERNMENT
We must now, then, represent to ourselves this world,
this dwelling-place of our species, as a Divine monarchy, —
ruled by allowed, definite, self-interpreting, law, — every
man accountable to that law, — that law placed before every
man, — moral obligation being immutable in all times and
regions, its substance one, its force eternal. In following
it, there is conscious profit and peace. In its infraction,
there is evident confusion and misery. Its great compen
dium is in the volume of nature, and its copy is on the
tables of the human heart.
The right conception of law is easy and ready : it is
within the compass of every mind. We may begin with
the simplest form and earliest case. A child is com
manded to do, or not to do, certain things. That is the
Injunction. He owes this obedience to his parent, but in
all moral duty only through him to what is primal virtue
and truth. This is the Obligation. The child is assured
that reward and punishment will ensue on obedience and
disobedience. This is the Sanction. We have now reached
the full idea of law. Let us analyse the terms which it
has suggested, or these its proper elements, as they apply
to ourselves.
We have taken our illustrations from domestic discipline
as most apt, familiar, and intelligible. The child is directed
or forbidden in a particular course of conduct. Injunction
must be indicative or prohibitory. " Thou shalt not," is as
necessary as " Thou shalt." The tree of knowledge is
that discrimination which shows both good and evil. We
may perceive and understand what is to be pursued, and
what is to be shunned. There is an essential distinction,
and " woe unto them that call good evil, and evil good ! "
When the injunction is laid upon the child, he feels
what he ought, and ought not, to do. He is conscious of
duty. He knows that he is bound by what is right. He
is conducted by his parent to a higher Being, Father, and
Governor, by whose will this right is made known, and in

OF RESPONSIBLE AGENTS. 73
whose nature it inheres. The obligation is exemplified to
every man in the same way, associated with authority and
rule, but in itself right, and universally and ever found to
be reasonable and just.
The child is warned that particular consequences of
benefit or disadvantage will attend upon his acts. Favour
or displeasure will greatly enter into the form of those
consequences. The order of the household, its happiness,
could not otherwise be maintained. Civil government
steps beyond the hearth of fond instinctive yearning, — too
tender and partial to be more than a most imperfect type
of popular rule, — and, erecting itself into a great social
protector, exhibits the sanctions by which it confirms and
enforces as to all its subjects the consequences of their
deeds. God sets before us life and death. Law may
appeal to some higher principles of our nature, but the
sanctions of law are no more than persuasions to obedience
and discouragements to transgression, by showing that
thus far the several agents are happy or miserable. Both
the happiness and the misery may be far removed from
the sensible and the gross : they may be highly intellectual
and moral : they may be that which such creatures only
can share. Still it is the question of interest. It is com
pressed in this : " Say ye to the righteous, that it shall
be well with them : Woe unto the wicked ! it shall be
ill with him." Self-love is Godlike : it inspheres each
angel in his bliss. It is a deep-seated principle of our
nature, it is inalienable from our being, it ruled our inno
cence, it follows our apostacy, and, however debased, it yet
supposes the desire of good and the disgust of suffering,
and the promises and threatenings of law are but calls to
its right decision.
We cannot be too strongly impressed with the goodness
or benevolence of the Divine law. Right and good are
correlative ideas, but we are not equally affected by them.
More spontaneously can we conclude that all good is right,

74 THE LAW AND GOVERNMENT
than that all right is good. And we more slowly confess
the good of law, because we commonly regard law itself as
restraint rather than as protection. We forget that it is
far more restraint upon others than upon ourselves, and
that our protection is in that restraint. Every interdict is
on all, and each one obtains the benefit. Every obligation
binds the whole race to the security and welfare of the in
dividual. The best definition of liberty is, protection from
wrong. And if we inspect the great social law, what is it
but a fence and safeguard thrown around our dearest,
most precious, interests ? Its heed holds back that which
receives every denouncement, when we call it lawless. Its
observance defends the allegiance of our household, the
sanctity of our life, the legitimacy of our offspring, the
possession of our store, the reputation of our character,
even to the proscription, and to the driving from the heart,
of any secret wish that might seek to injure U3. It sets a
seal upon all. Our forbearance to aggrieve others, which
must be harmful to ourself, is repaid by forbidding any
grievance against our welfare from the millions upon mil
lions who might otherwise inflict it. The duty which
every man owes to love us as himself, is a blessed and
rich return of our duty thus ourselves to love every man.
The rule commands and obliges every man to love me, to
uphold me, — invests him as my brother, authorises him
as my keeper, arms him as my defender, pledges him as
my surety, adorns him as my example, couples him as my
coheir. It is the law of love. It is the perfect commuta
tive justice. How benign must be the universal regulation,
all whose requirements, bearings, consequences, motives,
aims, are fulfilled by love ! The same reflections are
appropriate to the law which respects the claims of Deity.
Polytheism is not only unreasonable, but the conception
of any god, save the One, must be an accumulation of
other qualities than those which reason shows can dwell in
that one God alone. Therefore these qualities are less

OF RESPONSIBLE AGENTS. 75
than Divine, and contrary to divinity. The degradation
of a man must commence at the first act of adoring quali
ties so unworthy. To materialise worship by idolatry is to
break off the spiritual medium between the Deity and our
selves, is to induce the most besotting superstition, is to
assimilate the human mind to the vanity of this mean and
crude idea. They must be in the last stage of fatuity who
worship the works of their hands. " They who make
them, are like unto them ; so is every one that boweth
down to them." " An idol is nothing in the world: " but
it acquires a fearful power as the type of evil passion, and
as it then becomes the pattern and the god. — Eveiy
irreverent and light employment of the Divine name indi
cates and induces a low estimation of the Divine nature
and character : the depression of the moral standard im
mediately takes place. In that depression, all well-being
sinks. — The celebration of Him who made heaven and
earth, the sea, and all that in them is, must elevate the
mind towards' him, purify its feelings and calm its cares;
will bring a respite from labour and a solace to grief;
tends to awaken the soul to its true portion and rest. — The
reversal of these rules, or their mere absence, would draw
down upon us evils which it appals the heart to fore
shadow. Anarchy would rage with unappeasable malig
nity. The conflict would not be of interests, but of listed
minds. It would be the unrestrained grapple of spirits.
Chaos has been painted to us by poetry : however wild, it
works itself to quiescence, and its fury stills. Not such
the end of the intellectual elements when in their strife
and uproar. They cannot rock themselves to peace.
Theirs is ever-rising surge. Where all power is ill, and
all motive is selfishness, there can be no controlling prin
ciple, no attempering pause. That sea, self-wrought,
cannot rest. There is no voice to bid its proud waves
stay! Let us honour law as the crowning blessing of
blessings. Let us remember that intellectual creatureship

76 THE LAW AND GOVERNMENT
without it, is as inconceivable as it would be insupportable.
Let us acknowledge it as the most sublime of ideas, the
true exponent of happiness, the proper basis of dignity,
the exclusive shield of freedom, the pure fountain of good
will, — inaugurating truth in its state, decking benevolence
in its majesty, lifting right to its throne, and then pro
claiming with imperial authority that all this is but God, and
that, therefore, there is none good but one, and that is God !
The administration of this law raises a most important
inquiry. It is ever vigilant and operative. It is no idle
symbolism and parade of government. It executes itself.
While there is nothing arbitrary in its principles, there is
nothing partial in its enforcements. Reward and punish
ment are not annexed, but involved. The administration
can scarcely be conceived of separately from the law.
When it is obeyed, or broken, the sanctions are already in
the course of fulfilment. They are drawn out from the
acts themselves. The sweet peace dawns forth from an
approving conscience : the viper is self-engendered by an
evil one. " In keeping of God's judgements there is great
reward." " The wicked is cast into a net by his own feet,
and he walketh upon a snare." " God's commandments
are not grievous." " The way of transgressors is hard."
There are those who must say, as of a present thing, " Our
transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities we
know them."
Were we to exclude every other consideration from the
enforcement of this law, except its self-acting influence,
we should grievously shock our strongest convictions. We
speak not of it as blind and unintelligent ; we speak not
of it as subsisting in independence. We detach it not
from an accompanying mind and disposition, from the
power which rules by it. Whatever be its grounds, the
perfect counterparts are in that power. Whatever be its
natural effects, these invariably agree with the will of that
power. All coalesce with an infinitely wise and energiz-

OF RESPONSIBLE AGENTS. 77
ing government. " The judgements of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether." " Who hath given him a charge
over the earth? or who hath disposed the whole world?"
The outward creation, and human nature enclosed in it,
may be the ark of his witness in which is laid up his law ;
but we overlook not his glory which is upon it, nor the
oracle which speaketh from above. Far be from us the
Godless philosophy which exiles the cause of all from the
habitation of his creatures, however it may affect to leave
his law behind : that law needs his government to give it
subsistence, life, force, explicitness, application. " He is
not far from every one of us." " God speaketh once, yea
twice, yet man perceiveth it not." The wicked are too in
different to listen, too hardened to obey. " They are far
from his law."
We now invite attention, in treating upon the adminis
tration of Divine law, to three peculiarities in it, confining
ourselves at present to its ordinary and silent course. We
must often recur to them, and consequently desire that
they may be well understood. In some respects these
peculiarities require, according to our ideas, no positive
will to direct them. They must happen. But, then, why
must they be ? They are the results of our physical con
stitution, and are so far the expressions of his mind who
formed and rules us. They are founded on the very prin
ciples of that constitution, and when put in force, we read
the counsel and pleasure of God. According to our own
guarded definition, we cannot call them laws; though they
are as much so as any other conditions of nature and
being. They stand, however, related to that which is
indisputably law — they are the means of its constant
operation. The first peculiarity on which we cast our notice is,
Habit. Its facility of acquirement, its strength when formed,
its power for good or evil, are universally allowed. Its
philosophy has been closely studied, and its finer transi-

78 THE LAW AND GOVERNMENT
tions have been traced. It has been seen how thought
can thrid with thought, and feeling flow into feeling. The
tissue is woven of countless filaments, each of which the
infant might break ; the mass of which the man cannot
rend. The painting Idoks forth in its broad effects as
though a few bold strokes had produced them, when really
is hidden from us, though not lost to the composition, the
labour of touches which only the artist knows. It has an
important place in morals. The conduct of all men in
clines to some particular direction : in all, some particular
acts will prevail. " They have turned every one to his own
way." There is a sort of coherence and affinity between
these acts. They declare a strong disposition determining
them. Whatever be their quality, in their progress they
become less and less consciously difficult and laborious.
They run into each other. The path is prepared and
cleared for all successive steps. But, though the ease of
proceeding is thus secured, an equal impediment is raised
to halt or to return. The bias increases, until what was
once deliberated, grows into what is little more than me
chanical ; like some impulse of velocity, which, overbear
ing our powers of resistance, hurries us away. The moral
accountability of such a mental series comprehends the
whole. Every act retains its character, as though insu
lated from the rest. But not such is the relative influence
of all. The earlier, if not more blameworthy, are the more
decisive. And any just view of habit, applies alike to holy
and unholy agency. Still we must take a distinction. The
spiritual apostacy of our nature, the sin which is in us, in
clines us to what is like itself. Custom, in this case, forms
a species of necessity, only the more guilty as it is the more
unyielding. But the same description cannot denote the
evolution of virtuous habit. It must contend with every
thing contrary to itself in fallen humanity and external
life. The way to heaven is steep. Nevertheless the same
rule applies. Good principles and good works cannot be

OF RESPONSIBLE AGENTS. 79
cultivated with diligence, and cemented into order, but their
struggle is diminished, and their hold confirmed. "The
path of the just is like the shining light, shining more and
more," — with less and less danger of obscuration, with less
and less effort to overpower cloud and rain, — " unto the
perfect day."- Now, in this working of habit, reward and
punishment are greatly comprised. A pious deed hand
sels a second. It facilitates it.- It renders it probable.
It is a motive to it. It is an encouragement. It is an
earnest. It is a specimen, which seeks repetition and
demands consistency. Look now upon vicious practice.
The way to destruction is a quick — if concealed — descent.
Conscience is silenced. Taste is depraved. Check is with
drawn. Disposition has only to follow its unbridled li
cense. — We see in the upward course, tlie joy of victory.
There is self-respect. A fellowship is gained with all the
righteous. There is peace of conscience. The yearning
of a new happiness is felt. There opens a higher exist
ence. — In the course of sin, we behold an inveterate and
hoary wickedness. The fruit is matured of folly and shame.
" His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and
he shall be holden with the cords of his sins." What
darker sequel can we conceive ? What juster doom can
we imagine ?
The second peculiarity, in connexion with our argument,
which we consider, is, Character. Acts constitute habits,
and from habits is evolved a form or cast of the man who
contracts them, which constitutes his moral individuality.
This is very different from any original modification or
idiosyncrasy of mind. It belongs to him as a candidate
for rewards and punishments. It becomes more and more
strong and decided. Its elements gain force and expan
sion. It is not so much external, for that manifestation is
only an incident : it may be hypocritically shrouded, or be
sincerely portrayed : true character is the stress and ascen
dancy of the soul, of the real self, of " the hidden man of

gO THE LAW AND GOVERNMENT
the heart." Every man takes some part, is found on some
side, in respect to good and evil. He cannot be neutral,
nor balanced between them. Deception, urged by a sup
posed policy, may restrain the seeming of what is. But
the actual, the ruling, energy of the mind, is known to
consciousness and exposed to omniscience. The whole
essence corresponds. This is the in-being. If it be known,
it is known to be this. If it be laid open, these are its
springs Here lies the truth, the identification, of the
man "As he thinketh in himself so is he." Dive deep
enough into the spirit, and you may seize the nucleus of
idea and passion; the master-predilection, which shapes
it to all its distinctiveness. It is this inconvertibleness,
this self-discrimination, of every spirit, which assists us to
conceive how, in some future judgment, each shall stand
apart, find its lot, take its place, and inherit its portion.
All this doctrine of character may be traced in its relation
to the Divine government. Men are for it or against it.
Their dispositions are in sympathy with it, or in repug
nance to it. The real idea, the predominant desire, of the
mind settles this. To every anticipation of a future state,
in that awful light it stands forth confessed. No longer
can it be an equivocal thing. Now it seems to waver. We
may misjudge. It is not, however, the less true, that the
soul wears its own moral features. It cannot be indifferent.
Such an affectation is fearfully insincere. There is not a
type of nature more fixed than is every human agent's
character. It is in as determinate a direction. There is
not an instinct of nature more certain, than is eveiy human
agent's will. It is as susceptible of notation. By this pro
cess is retribution largely conducted. In the settled state
of the mind it bestows its good, and inflicts its evil. They,
whose character is righteous, live according to rules and
motives which they can approve. They are not at variance
with themselves. They have the answer of a good con
science. There is a dignity in their principles, and an

OF RESPONSIBLE AGENTS. 81
assurance in their hopes. This honour have all the saints.
They are good men, just, devout. They have "hidden
treasure." Their coffer-house is their heart. In these
qualities consist the rudiments and pledges of happiness.
They, whose character is unrighteous, contradict then-
reason, and desert all the ends of being, which they must
revere in others, and could only justify to themselves. The
accusations come all from within. There is the restless
ness which makes a vacancy of all that is without. Every
principle which sways them is a proscription upon hap
piness, and an incapacity for good. Though the Divine
government secures moral purposes by natural causes,
though the disposition of the mind itself make the chief
difference of the joy and the suffering, this is the basis and
index of its rule. The simplicity- of the arrangement is not
only like the acts of God, but strictly agrees with his em
ployment of whatever means of acting may already exist,
and his avoidance of superfluous accessories, The con
nexion between these dispositions and their reflex states
of mind, cannot be disputed. Such a connexion marks
the design of the Creator. It is his will that it should
exist, and he has subjected our humanity to it. And, what
is his greatness of power to rule, when our character, — our
mere " inward part, and hidden part," that which we should
be demonstrated to be, were our innermost spirit in its
cogitations and motives exposed, — is so large a contrivance
to enjoy his favour, or so ample an instrument to exe
cute his wrath! "Blessed are the undefiled in the way."
" There is no peace, saith my God, unto the wicked."
The third peculiarity which our argument, concerning
the operation of the Divine government, suggests is, Con
sequence. Since habit has moulded character, that definite
bearing of the whole mind, and thus in a measure a con
sequence itself, every consequence of which we now speak
is something, not necessarily external, but future, however
proximate, — something successive to the act. It may be
XII. a

82 THE LAW AND GOVERNMENT
that our conduct is followed by peaceful feeling, honour
able esteem, the health of body, and the strength of mind.
It may bring remorse, disease, the wounded fame, the
heavy-laden heart. We are expectant of all these issues.
We are aware of the order in which they will occur. It is
no difficult prediction of what intemperance must induce.
It is as easy to foretel the result of evil in the mind.
Experience attests what is the entail of vice upon the cir
cumstances of the present life. " The seed of evil doers
shall never be renowned." That which we must seek to
distinctly trace is the affinity between such conduct and
effects. In many instances this is too obvious to need a
remark. The fall from a mountain-precipice is not a
plainer cause of destruction. But even in more remote
and entangled consequences, study and reflection will con
vince us that a moral antecedent accounts for all. The
recompense is meet. Like follows like. The philosophy
of medicines and poisons cannot be better understood.
The ordinances of seed-time and harvest cannot be more
perfectly developed. It is thus that the Divine govern
ment can promise good and forewarn evil. It is thus that
men can anticipate, as in any secular affairs, what must
flow from virtue and vice. These are events which must
proceed, which only can ensue. To arrest them, all things
must be changed. Outward and internal nature must be
nver ted. There must be a dissolution of every social tie
and bond. Tendency must be stemmed. Prudence must
be falsified. Probability must be destroyed. Analogy
must be annulled. Experience must be frustrated. But
we have the proof in ourselves. We know that all is under
our control by being at our choice. We can place it before
us. We can look into the seeds of time and of things.
We possess a power of infallible foresight. Wre can, with
perfect sureness, determine what will impart dissatisfac
tion and inspire complacency : what will excite uneasiness
and secure peace. And we believe that these are evidences

OF RESPONSIBLE AGENTS. 8 l
that God judgeth in the earth. It is his doing. He has
not originated, which were impossible, eternal laws of
right, but he has enacted them in his government of us,
and has created us in reference and subordination to them.
He has caused us to feel the influence of conformity to
them, or of departure from them, at every point. He hai
honoured them, and established his own perfect excellence
by reflecting them in his law. " For the work of a man
will he render unto him, and cause every man to find
according to his ways." That the contrary cannot be, that
the contrary cannot be conceived, is only an example which
might find numberless parallels, and derogates in nowise
from the holy and legislative rectitude of the Infinite Will.
The principles of right and goodness are unconditionally
and universally necessary, but the consequences of which
we speak are only relatively necessary to a system which
might not, and need not, have been, to a particular con
dition of Divine government and creatural responsibility.
As that rule is based, as that responsibility is imposed,
consequence is not only clue effect, the result of the nature
of things, what we must feel in any circumstances, — it
rises into moral requital. Its undeviating uniformity only
better confirms the fact, and glorifies the law which finds
in it so constant and so exact a retribution !
We can pursue these peculiarities only until death.
But a strong presumption arises that they do not terminate
with it. The spirit survives. They are chiefly things of
the spirit. How can they be separated from it? How
can it throw them away ? They are wrought into it. How
can it turn from them, escaping or overcoming them?
They must acquire only a broader stamp, and a more cer
tain perpetuation. What if they continue for eternity?
Who can say that they do not ? Who can show how they
shall not ?
But while the conditions of habit, character, and conse
quence, are the general means by which Divine rule is

54 THE LAW AND GOVERNMENT
administered and enforced, we may not infrequently mark
more direct and tangible manifestations. Virtue some
times receives a prosperity, and is crowned with a success,
which its own principles do not explain. Leprous plagues,
which have no early record, which are inexplicable on any
natural cause, are suddenly let loose upon particular vice.
Visitations of pestilence, storm, earthquake, assert the
punitive resources of Nature's God. Innumerable in
stances rise up to the observer of events which cannot fail
to convince him that, beyond the ordinary train of simple
consequences, there is a perpetual regard to the good and
evil of conduct, and a perpetual acting out towards men
according to their deserts.
An objection to these judicial views is taken from the
possible contrariety between an act and its motive. The
act may be good, the motive may be wicked. It may be
done in Irypocrisy. How, then, can retribution distinguish
between these different things ? It is clear that the whole
transaction is evil. It does not arise from the proper, the
true, man, — the inward man : it is foreign to him. The
goodness of the naked deed is quite separate from the
agent. So far as it is good, it may do good. So far as it
may do good, there may be some consequence agreeable
to that good. The beneficiary will give him thanks. He,
having done it to be seen of men, has verily his reward.
But the motive leaves him only guilty. He is already
punished, for he is miserable in that motive. He feels
that the gratitude is undue. That motive is a part of his
character and disposition. The duplicity supposed in the
contrast of the act and the motive, will certainly aggravate
that misery. There is^ no deeper misery than the con
scious shame which feels that pretension is false and praise
unmerited. In such a case retribution is not embarrassed :
it has fallen upon the inward thought, which is very wick
edness. It has seized the treacherous spirit which had
sought the honour of goodness in the indulgence of evil,

OF RESPONSIBLE AGENTS. 85
and pierced it with its own shaft where it was most vul
nerable and most sensitive.
A reward or a punishment may frequently be observed
in the Divine government of us, in which no formal con
sequence, no natural tendency, can be shown, but which
answers most accurately to a precedent virtue or vice. A
course of events, on which that virtue and vice could, as
we should judge, have no possible effect, is wrought out
most independently, and yet nothing could be more nicely
adapted to place both upon the stage again. At a vast
interval that virtue reappears in a most appropriate con
summation, covered with the ensigns of triumph : the vice
is resented with its righteous catastrophe. No final cause
could be more unerring. We may account for much by
simple operation, events bringing about similar events,
dispositions exciting kindred dispositions : — but this order
of retribution stands by itself; and we might deem it for
tuitous, save for the resemblance, like an image from a
mirror, — like a rising from a grave ; and that resemblance
points to a direct interposition of the Deity.
We may be reminded that the administration of the
Divine government is not without exceptions ; that there
is no infrequent deviation from it ; that rewards and punish
ments are confounded; that obedience and sin are treated
indifferently; that its uniform recognition of moral dis
tinctions cannot be maintained. The objection is admitted
to a certain extent,— it has been anticipated in a foregoing
argument, — but always with this limitation, that it is only
the external retribution which can be brought under it.
The principal happiness or misery attendant upon certain
eourses of conduct, consists in a state of the mind. The
objection cannot show that this severer proportion is dis
turbed : it can merely refer to the sensible constitution of
things. Something of this irregularity might be expected.
Our future reasonings will not lose sight of it.
For the present state is probationary. It is filled with

80 THE LAW AND GOVERNMENT
tests and temptations. There is an admixture and a strife.
It is not clear nor dark. It is the mystery of God which
is not finished. Its plain intention is to prove and disci
pline us. Were it perfect, there could be no trial : there
could be no room for faith, no exercise for patience. But
an actual, immediate, unreserved, administration would
render it perfect. Its probationary character would, from
that moment, cease.
Moreover, — since many virtues which holy law encou
rages and rewards are those of humble submission and
acquiescing belief, a complete exhibition of all reasons, a
complete solution of all difficulties, — nothing short of
which this objection demands, — in the entire vindication
of that law, would withdraw the scope and blur the modesty
of such virtues. They could not grow in such a soil, nor
bloom in such an air. It would be a dispensation of sight
and not of faith.
Likewise, if eveiy judicial result were at once mature, if
law were visible in all its workings, if there were imme
diate awards, if there were no delay nor interruption;
moral motive would find no opportunity for itself. The
high questions of authority and right could scarcely be
entertained. The mind would be left without pause to
approve, obedience would not stand in choice and freedom,
the present grounds of responsibility would be all dis
placed. It may be added, that the state of things which the
objection contemplates, would be as unnecessary as un
suitable. For, seeing that there is a future existence, a
sufficient theatre is afforded by it for all results growing
out of probation. As it is improbable that the present and
the approaching state should be exactly of the same cha
racter, for then they might have constituted but one, — so
is it the more likely that the first should be less perfect
than the second.
Two analogies do we derive from the most ordinary

OF RESPONSIBLE AGENTS. 87
view of the present life, its interests and its results,—
which we deem of the greatest value in simplifying the
preceding law of responsibility, and in illustrating those
final issues which such responsibility involves.
The first respects the sagacity or foresight which belongs
to man in the general arrangement of his concerns. He
is a provident being. He acts upon rules of prudence.
He reasons them out of general experience. Prudence
speaks to him of the whole ceconomy of life. It enters
into his noblest phrase. There is nothing which he more
impressively knows, nothing which he more intuitively
feels, than that his future happiness — whether of the next
moment, or of the last stage of life — depends upon present
conduct. He perfectly understands the fast connexion
between what he is and does and what he shall be and do.
It is an unquestioning conviction. Were we shut up to
the actual instant, never looking beyond it, never reasoning
upon what must follow, there could be no polity, no con
tract, no engagement, no plight, no undertaking: the
wheels of society would stop and the sensibilities of nature
die. How precisely does the doctrine of rewards and
punishments adapt itself to this property of the human
mind ! It asks none other calculation than that it is con
tinually giving to this transient scene ! It assumes only
the same admitted relation between what is, and the here
after ! It requires only the same sacrifice of momentary
gratification which we are accustomed and compelled to
make in seeking health, and fortune, and fame ! It is a
notorious fact, that present conduct is most potent on
future condition, does concern and affect our successive
being, as far as we can trace it : it is a notorious motive of
human conduct to forecast such an end. " The God of
recompenses " proceeds on these grounds, and invokes these
dispositions. The second analogy which is suggested to us is, that
one error or fault, committed even in a very early period

88 THE LAW AND GOVERNMENT
of our life, may entangle and prejudice the remotest
portion of it, as far as our knowledge of its course extends.
It may be the bane of character, insidiously corrupting it
unto the last. It may be the taint of reputation which no
subsequent reform can retrieve. There is a compromise,
an injury, of the entire being. We may conceive of this
error or fault as contradicted by the most solemn proofs
of repentance. The party shall be changed into another
man. But that first sin is on him. Everywhere it im
presses itself. Like the one dark vein of the purest
marble, it intersects the entire mass, or gives sinister ex
pression to the fairest statue which can be moulded from
it. That first false act pursues its victim still. You cannot
cut it off from his fate. It lives on with him. However
forgotten, it returns. The spectre of evil omen, it crosses
every path, and meets every turn, of existence. The re
membrance of that step, which has made every other
stumble, destroys the power of principle and the glow of
virtue. It is like the sense of a cleaving curse. It is a
serpent coil. It is as the cyst of ever-gnawing virus.
How often has this description been realised ! For great
ness, for ascendancy, for independence, for usefulness,
this single cause has been the life-long disqualification.
The Divine retribution which we defend, operates, then,
only in agreement with what all allow. The sin of our
youth may stamp its bias on all our future acts and circum
stances. In the extreme hour its injuriousness may be
felt, and its guilt deplored. The vibration has travelled
through every link of the chain. We see not beyond
death ; but until that mysterious pass, we marked the
early sin still in effect and the early penalty still in ex
action. We have thus endeavoured to build wide and strong the
foundations of moral science, or rather of natural theology.
For if there be a revealed religion, it can only be addressed
to man as already a religious being. It must come from

OF RESPONSIBLE AGENTS. 89
Him who is previously known to be the Creator and Ruler
of man. It must take its place among relations antece
dently established and ascertained. But if this revelation
convey a restorative means, it can only be addressed to
this religious being as fallen. It must, therefore, in both
cases, be subsequent to such a state of man as supposes
his responsibility, and to such a state of man as supposes
his defection.
This "glorious gospel of the blessed God " we possess.
We verify it by abundance of authenticating proofs. Mira
cle and prophecy surround it with an external divinity.
Yet were it our business now to arrange its evidences, —
we should willingly forsake the prouder signs, the more
trophied monuments, dwelling upon that intrinsic credi
bility which it presents in its contrivance and adaptation
to engage the faculties, and reach the wants, of man. He
who was its Author " knew what was in man : " all the
motives by which he can be affected, all the relations in
which he stands.
Now, upon these strict, just, ideas of man, is the
Christian revelation superinduced. It appeals to man as
a being of rational discourse, of moral obligation, of true
immortality. It premises the law by which he is bound.
It proposes none other. It only lends it a more distinct
articulateness and a more solemn authority. It lays no
new basis of responsibility. That responsibility must
include every requirement to believe and to obey any
system of truth which the Lord of man may make known.
The principle and ground of every duty challenged by such
system lie in the constitution of man and in the nature of
things : it is only differently applied. Always must it have
been binding upon us to credit whatever God might aver,
to accept whatever God might bestow, to forego whatever
God might restrict. A law does not know, indeed, any
thing of repentance for sin, or of plea for mercy, yet, only
because stringently it debars all hope. But these exercises

00 THE LAW AND GOVERNMENT
of mind in the sinner, even under law which cannot encou
rage them with any intimation of success, would be proper
in themselves. The abandonment of all claim, of all self-
righteousness, on the part of the sinner, would correspond
to the best conceptions of that law. And as revelation can
initiate no new principles of obligation, so it can inflict no
new sanctions. The moral system is fixed and necessary.
It is not modal and dispensative, but absolute and immu
table. Christianity insults not the sacrament of Eden, nor
the decalogue of Sinai, nor any earlier elements of law that
these express. Law is the term which it often adopts for its
own designation. It is " the law of faith." It can only be
received by " the obedience of faith." It is a government of
royal sway. It is " the kingdom of God." All of account-
ableness and authority is native to it. It only places itself
on common moral grounds, and only strengthens itself by
common moral enforcements. The question of higher de
gree which belongs to it does not yet arise. The nature
of our first relations is unaltered. Nothing as to its kind is
changed. God rules in the Gospel, only, as he rules by the
law. Two discrepant orders of moral rule are impossible.
We might, for the sake of argument, suppose that
Christianity had failed, its evidence being discredited, or
its efficiency being disproved. Take suppositions less
violent. Suppose that it had been withdrawn. The moral
agency of man would remain, its grounds and principles
unchanged. Moral evil would remain, its characters and
tendencies unaltered. What we observe, feel, hate, dread,
of the defection of man from rectitude, would be still with
us and around us. The history of man would remain, his
wars, his vices, his crimes, his remorseful apprehensions,
his wrongs done or suffered, his laws and their penalties,
his temples and their offerings, his alternate presumption
and desperation. All his guilt, danger, helplessness,
would remain. The only difference would be that the
remedy, or the alleged remedy, had been withdrawn. No

OF RESPONSIBLE AGENTS. 9 1
evil could have been aggravated by its short-lived presence.
It came and departed. Bitter disappointment would it,
indeed, bequeath : " we trusted it had been that which
should have redeemed ! "
We behold, then, the Christian revelation settled down
upon the original principles of all law and of all religion.
It exactly coincides with this basis, it falls easily into this
frame. To suppose the contrary, is to suppose a self-con
tradiction in the Deity, and a variance between his plans.
A remedial revelation, the doctrine and purport of
which are the recovery of man to the Divine favour and
service, takes for granted the apostacy of man. It sees
him, in all cases, the sinful, guilty, ruined, creature. It
regards him as "without strength," to raise himself from
the consequences of his transgression. It declares this
depravity to be universal as to individual nature, and uni
versal as to the race. " They are all under sin." " The
Scripture hath concluded all under sin," because it found
it to be so. "All the world has become guilty before
God," and it represents the world accordingly. This is
all that Christianity does in the matter. It creates no
evil. It only brings it to light. If everywhere it recog
nises in man the sinner, man has sinned independently of
it. It cannot have reduced him to this condition. It
cannot have laid one of his woes upon him. In other
relations must it be that his condemnation has fallen.
There must have been a law which he, of old, has broken :
there must be an existing law, which still he breaks. If
he be guilty, this law must be in force. If in all the con
ditions of humanity he be guilty, then it is a universal
law. " Now we know that what things soever the law
saith, it saith to them who are under the law." Chris
tianity has as little to do with the consequences of our
apostacy, is as little chargeable with them, as with that
apostacy itself. All the punishments which are now going
on, or which shall still go on, retributively upon sin, are

92 THE LAW AND GOVERNMENT
perfectly disconnected with it. Had its tidings never been
heard, every present suffering would still have been en
dured and in inconceivable aggravations. Sin would have
radicated itself in habit, would have shaped every rudiment
of character, would have embittered every efflux of conse
quence, just the same. Man would be obnoxious to every
penalty which sin deserves. What he was, would be infixed
in his immortal nature. He would have continued the
sinner. He would have continued to receive the due of sin.
Sin would have cankered the core of his final destiny.
That Christianity, by the character of its discoveries,
should enhance the element of aecountableness in man,
that it raises the motives and may exasperate the penalties
of aecountableness, we are prepared to expect, we are ready
to affirm. It is an unavoidable possibility. It springs
from moral necessity. The mind can allow nothing else.
" To whom men have committed much, of him will they
ask the more." Where "the kingdom of God comes
nigh," human responsibility must enlarge in comniensu-
rateness with its blessings. There may be a guilt which
would never have been otherwise borne. There may be a
remorse which would never have been otherwise felt.
There are threatened forms of punishment, until now
unrecorded and undenounced. These threatened forms,
until now, could not have fallen upon their proper mark
of guilt. This is the effect of greater light and advantage.
There is a richer trust. There is, consequently, a height
ened obligation. But we abide by our statement. The
nature of every legislative principle, of every moral rela
tion, is unchanged. Whatever was certain in retribution,
is not now more certain : whatever was enduring in retri
bution is not now more enduring. Man is universally sinful ;
man is, at all times, and in all places, consciously, demon
strably, guilty. With this undenied admission, Christianity
merely coincides. It authenticates the independent fact.
It seals and imprints the natural conclusion of reason and

OF RESPONSIBLE AGENTS. 93
conscience. It takes and confirms the judgement of the
human mind. It avails itself of an invariable testimony.
Having done so, its high and exclusive business commences !
But in order to impress and exercise that mercy which
is its only work, — its restorative mercy, — we willingly con
cede that, in the first instance, it more fully explains and
establishes the law. It adopts it as its own. It discovers
that which has been so frequently and universally forgotten,
corrupted, abused. It gathers up the broken tables, re
constructs the fragments, and writes its characters anew
upon the flaws. A clearer exposition is afforded of its
spirituality, latitude, and force. Nothing is added, it is
but elicited, it is but laid open, from what it always was.
It is recognised as the standard of all decision. Every
man is convicted of having broken it. He is exhibited as
shut up by it under condemnation. " Was then that
which is good made death unto him ? God forbid. But
sin, that it might appear sin, working death in him by
that which is good, that sin by the commandment might
become exceeding sinful."
And it must, also, be remembered, that for the very
purpose, as well as in the very act, of saving man, the
Christian revelation supports all the claims and honours
of law. It abolishes nothing. It came not to destroy but
to fulfil. Its glory is, that it far more solemnly vindicates
right, and asserts obligation, and enforces sanction, than
could be done on any other conceivable principle, or in
any other supposeable case. If mercy rejoiceth, it is upon
judgement, as the propitiatory rested upon the ark which
contained the tables of the law. Until justice shall first
receive its most perfect acknowledgement of due, its most
perfect reparation of injury, its most perfect proof of con
sistency, its most perfect demonstration of impartiality,
its most perfect range of punitiveness, — the Gospel has no
province, no place, — not a sinner can be pardoned, not a
sin can be purged ! It " magnifies the law, and makes it

94 THE LAW AND GOVERNMENT
honorable." Its atonement, in the awful sacrifice of
Calvary, is the removal of the moral difficulties to the for
giveness of sin. It is the measure of the Divine govern
ment, protecting its law, but publishing amnesty to its
rebellious subjects. It is a declaration of righteousness in
the remission of sins : it is the exhibition of God as just,
and as the justifier.
The case of man is the argument of revelation. He is
perishing. It offers an effectual remedy. He need not
perish, if he will embrace the overture addressed to him,
and employ the means directed for his deliverance. The
case and the remedy must be clearly understood. Even
the style and condition comport with the manner and bear
ing of moral legislation : it treats man, whatever the beset-
ment of his wicked dispositions, not the less responsible,
than if wholly innocent ; and it urges compliance only on
promise of greater good, or on pain of greater misery : the
very terms of the original law.
The cardinal doctrines and blessings of Christianity are
known by the names of Justification and Regeneration.
We propound them in the twofold form of doctrine and
blessing. They are doctrines — for they are pure disco
veries, not admitting of approach to the remotest guess,
not to be learnt from any other source, wholly depending
for their truth and their knowledge upon this single testi
mony ; to be believed, in order to any effect : they are
blessings — for they must be accepted from a feeling of utter
need, they are to be appreciated on account of their trans
cendent grace and mercy, they are of no avail unless
appropriatingly received ; and the destitution of them can
only be imagined with horror.
Justification is a word, as peculiar in its theological
sense, as the original term it renders.* They both take
an arbitrary meaning. They are made to express an idea
that is new to them. The man who reads concerning
* AtKa'.OCTuvrj.

OF RESPONSIBLE AGENTS. 95
justification in the Bible, sees at once, that it does not
intend to exculpate and clear. It has to do with all that
is unjustifiable, all that makes vindication impossible.
This is an inconvenience which cannot be escaped, when
you introduce a new conception into established languages
which contain no expression suitable to it. The incon
venience can only be repaired by periphrases, or by the
writer's demand for a peculiar use of a common term.
Paul spoke of a righteousness : he found none other word :
he claimed his plea, that it should be understood in another
that the current acceptation, than he himself would have
attached to it in a debate upon philosophy, or in a court
of law. * It belongs to Christian technology.
Evangelic Justification considers man as liable to punish
ment, and, as consequently or implicitly estranged from
Divine favour. Its purport, viewed doctrinally, its effici
ency viewed beneficially, is to destroy the necessity of this
punishment and of this perpetual estrangement. Pardon
releases the first, but does not touch the second. Pcenal
consequences being absolved, it cannot follow, of any ne
cessity, that the forgiven one shall become the object of
complacency. The prison does not open into the palace.
The alternative from the grasp of the deathsman is not
the embrace of the prince. A new connexion of things
is wanted. Acceptance, or more properly acceptableness,
must be supplied. These two elements are inconsistent,
their combination is impossible, in any instance of human
impleading. The charge is confirmed or disproved. If
* The complaint uttered by Lucretius of the difficulty he found, in the
necessity of employing the Latin tongue, to convey the sublimity of Greek
philosophy, may apply to the Christian case ; only, Us idea is new and exces
sive to every language : —
" Neo me animi fallit, Graiorum obscura reperta
Difficile inlustrare Latinis versibus esse :
(Multa novis verbis prffisertim quum sit agendum,)
Propter egesiatem lingua et rerum novitatem."
De Rerum Natura, lib. i. 136

96 THE LAW AND GOVERNMENT
confirmed, the guilty may be pardoned, but never can be
justified : if disproved, the innocent must be justified, but
never can be pardoned. These are perfect incongruities.
Both are secured, as both are needed, in the justification
of the sinner with, and before, God. But justification, in
this treatment of the sinner, has a moving cause or reason ;
it is unmixed mercy. Nor less does it demand a satisfac
tory ground ; it is the entire moral effect, compensative,
expiatory, and meritorious, of the Incarnation and Death
of Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son, the One Mediator, who
on the cross — in the completion of his mission — offered
an atonement, and paid a ransom ; so that, indebted to the
whole, we are most peculiarly "justified by his blood."
This virtue, this desert, this influence, of his advent and
sacrifice, is his " righteousness," in respect to which
" God who justifieth," not only remits sin, but favours and
accepts the sinner, that being accounted to the sinner the
moment he believes, that being imputed to him at once,
so that it cannot be reckoned more or less. All this is
ensured by a substitution. The just is for the unjust.
There is no change of character. " He was made sin for
us, as we are made the righteousness of God in him;"
showing that it was but a transposition of relations, Christ
no more personally becoming sinful, than we personally
become righteous. There is no confusion of distinctions.
He died for our sins, and was treated as if accountable for
the consequences of those sins, not being for a moment,
or by any fiction, identified or mixed with them. We
receive the benefit of the death, as endured instead of us,
and are treated according to its merits, not however by any
supposition that it is our death, not by any virtual chal
lenge which we have on it, — it being only capable of con
struction into an act of independent and authoritative
grace, and being for ever reserved unto the government
and purpose of that God who was in Christ reconciling the
world unto himself. The scope of the justificatory act is

OF RESPONSIBLE AGENTS. 97
simply objective. It cannot be possibly wrested to imply
an infused grace or an inherent work. The whole is a
question of state and relation. But there is great dano-er
of contradicting this by exaggerating the character of faith
in this process. We are justified by faith. Why is this
the medium? " It is of faith that it might be of grace."
We maintain its Divine origin. Though the earliest exer
cise, it is of God. Though its most characterless form,
" it is given to us on the behalf of Christ to believe on his
name." Yet is it not, in this stage, the operation of a
sanctifying, but only of a disposing, an inducing, grace.
It is not selected, in preference to any other mental act,
for its present holy nature or on account of its future holy
influence, but because it is the most simple, the least
operose, the farthest possibly removed from any appear
ance of goodness. It just "sets to its seal that God is
true." " They who receive Christ believe on his name."
Were this faith that instrument of potent change, that
source of spiritual fruit, which many describe it, our justi
fication would be by works, instant and foreseen. But
" God justifieth the ungodly." Yet if this faith were re
garded actually and seminally holy, according to these
descriptions, in our justification, then would he justify
the already sanctified, those who are godly. Much of the
error — which really goes to establish justification on works
¦ — arises from attaching an occult power to faith. We are
justified by it, but it does not justifyus. " Can faith save ?:'
By it we " come " to Christ, but we come to Christ for
"life." It, in no sense, enters into our justification ; it is
no part of its form or matter. — Such, we believe, is the
justification which Christianity reveals ; it corresponds
most exactly with the phraseology and illustration of the
Hebrew Scriptures. A righteousness is announced there
most correspondent to this. In the records of both we
may remark that this blessed state of justification is con
firmed by juridical allusions and forensic terms in a

93 THE LAW AND GOVERNMENT
manner repeated to uniformity. These are not to be
slighted, for they give a peculiar complexion to it, even if
they do not belong to its essence, while they invest all its
immunities with a Divine adjudication !
Regeneration, in contradistinction to the justifying act,
is a change, not upon our state and relation, but our nature
and disposition. It is the work of God upon the soul.
Unlike the former, it bears a less simple unity of cha
racter. That referred but to the question : How we stand
towards God ? This implicates all the motives and tend
encies of our mind. These doctrines or blessings are
always to be discriminated but never detached. For not
only, whatever be the succession, are they invariably be
stowed together, — that is, are without exception to be
found combined in the same persons, and never known
apart, — but they are intimately connected. The faith
which receives Christ the righteous, or our righteousness,
having formed the union between Christ and the soul, he
becomes its life. " Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the
Christ is born of God." The soul is regenerated. This
mental transformation is represented by various terms, all
expressing some distinctive idea, — all involving the common
effect. It is to be " washed," " renewed," " quickened,"
" converted," " new created ; " while its chief characteristics
are vitality, knowledge, and purity. Regeneration and
sanctification may be considered one work, — the former
the origin, the latter the continuousness ; the first imme
diate, the second progressive ; both proving that there is
no holiness without spiritual life, and no spiritual life
without holiness. The Third Person of the Trinity is the
Covenanted Author of this Divine effect. The truth,
which he inspired, is the means which he employs to
accomplish it. We do not, however, so interpose the truth
that his influence shall act through it upon the mind : we
hold that his influence is direct, and acts upon the mind
towards the truth. We see in this view an efficient agency,

OF RESPONSIBLE AGENTS. 99
and also an intelligent evolution. Again, we mark the
function of faith in its mere subordination. God purifies
the heart by faith, but faith does not purify the heart. It
discerns and receives the holy testimony. " Being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible," (" the
seed of God," his effectual grace,) " by the word of God,
which liveth and abideth for ever." " Sanctify them
through thy truth, — thy word is truth."*
It need not create surprise if we be most anxious, ex
tremely anxious, to be understood concerning the way of
human salvation, when so dark a shadow rises with every
step of the argument, and becomes at every step more
lengthened and profound. We owe it, not only to prove
that Christianity is perfectly clear of every ill and every
sentence lying upon man, but that it provides for their
entire and eternal reversal.
How glorious is this grace ! How great is this salvation !
Mercy compasses us about ! These blessings reach to all
our spiritual necessities ! There is nothing which comes
not under them. Justification is a qualification of title :
Regeneration of nature. Justification alters the relative
character: Regeneration the personal. Justification recon
ciles us to the Divine favor ; Regeneration to the Divine
* It has of late been declared by the sciolist, and uncontradicted by the
incurious and the ignorant, that, though we speak freely of regeneration as
an approved and common Scripture word, its con-elate only occurs twice in
the New Testament : Matt. xix. 28 ; Titus iii. 6. It is objected likewise,
that in these places it means not what we intend. We think it worthy of
Christianity, as an oeconomy, to call itself by the name of one of its primary
truths — it is " the Regeneration;" we see no mystic allusion to any rite in
the "washing of regeneration;" water signifying the cleansing power of
Divine influence, to be no more literally understood than "the fire ofthe
Holy Ghost." We confine ourselves to the first cavil. Is IluXiri'er'eo-i'a the
only correlate or equipollent ? The description of this change as " birth," as
being "begotten," as being " born again," is the rule of the inspired word:
John iii. 3, 5, 6, 7 ; 1 Pet. i. 3, 23 ; 1 John, passim. The same style is pre
served when man is regarded as the agent of producing this change. 1 Cor.
iv. 15. Philemon 10. The whole structure of Scripture phraseology seems
studiedly accommodated to this idea.

1 00 THE LAW AND GOVERNMENT
service. Justification removes every obstacle of law : Re
generation every obstacle of disposition. Justification
destroys the incapacity of guilt : Regeneration the resist
ance of depravity. Justification makes us one with God
in acceptance : Regeneration makes us one with him in
will. Justification opens heaven : Regeneration causes us
to walk in its white. Justification furnishes the song of
deliverance : Regeneration teaches us to modulate it.
We must not conceive, if we would think aright, of
revelation as tardy in its introduction. The great outline
of it was made known to the guilty pair, from whom we
are descended, on the evening of the day of their fall. It
was in promise, that it might be believed : it was in alle
gory, that it might be impressed. A salvation was insured
by the woman's offspring, her's alone. An enemy, detected
by the evil he had brought upon them, was denounced.
The wound, which the deliverer should receive, was to be
inflicted in the act of trampling upon that enemy. The
heel of the foot, while crushing the head of the serpent,
was to be bruised. This is " the first principle of the
doctrine of Christ," or "the first word of Christ."* At
the " head," on the outer roll, of " the book it is written,
Lo, I come." Revelation is Christology. All its subse
quent disclosures have not affected the substance of that
first promise. It was unfolded gradually in " many parts
or sections," in "many styles and mediums. "\ When we
speak of the fact of revelation, we intend that which was
made to man almost in the moment of his apostasy, refer
ring wholly to it, occasioned wholly by it : when we speak
of the discoveries of revelation, we denote all the informa
tions which have been educed from that first breviate, and
Which it now perfectly conveys. We speak of it as distinct
from any revelation which may have been presented to
innocent man, and equally from that doctrine of ends or
* Hebrews vi. 1. — " Tiv i-fir apxrjr tou Xpto-Tot \6yov.''
| UoXvpCpSl?, 7T0\uTp6Trft)S. Heb. L 1,

OF RESPONSIBLE AGENTS. 101
final causes, of laws and sanctions, which is inscribed on
the scenes of nature, on the external administrations of
the Divine government, and in the conscious workings of
our own mind. It is a scheme of extra-judicial grace to
recover man. Nothing in it could have been anticipated
by us. It has no subsistence apart from the will of infinite
mercy, It rests simply in the purpose of God. " It is
the good pleasure of his goodness." He "hath made
known to us," that which has no independence nor out-
being, that which he alone could know, " the mystery of
his will." But this revelation is in variance with nothing
which is already constituted. It expands every ceconomy :
it confirms every law. It ratifies all the principles hitherto
recognised. It proceeds on all the operations heretofore
allowed. It brings with it no rival claim. It surrounds
itself with no disturbing force. It ascends its " glorious
high throne" with the statute-book, by which this world
could alone be governed, in its hand ; and reigns in har
mony with all the physical and moral facts with which this
world is distinguished.
And we are thus conducted to a great canon in regard to
all the problems, the deep things, which revelation is sup
posed exclusively to comprehend. Its Author is the God
of nature and of providence ; that latter term being em
ployed to express not only care and bounty, but moral
rule. Now an analogy may be expected between the
works, and the doctrines, of this same Being. He can be
no more inconsistent than untrue, he can no more contra
dict than deny himself. This canon of analogy, therefore,
— if not a stout argument in itself, — is an invincible re
joinder to all the general objections against revelation.
For if we can show that the same objections lie against
the system and administration of mundane affairs, the
opponent must either withdraw his objections as being any
longer pecuUar, or deny, in one reckless falsehood, the
experience of history and the demonstration of sense. He

1Q2 THE LAW AND GOVERNMENT
has his choice, but at the worst, revealed religion only is
invalidated in the ruin of all evidence and truth. Even
another choice is left him. Allowing the evils of this
world, — evils palpable and inexpugnable, — sparing himself
the folly and the hardihood of denying them, — he may
assail the system in which they exist. He may curse the
day of his birth. He may war with all as unjust. He
may arraign high heaven. But having done this, amidst
his execrations and ragings, the system still girds him in.
His quarrel with revelation, which only affirms these evils
to heal them, is to be expected from such maniacal fury.
It is enough for sober reason to defend revelation in its
presumption of evils, by showing that they do exist. It is
enough for true faith to exhibit revelation in respect ' to
those evils, as producing none, as redressing all. The
analogy is between insisting on human misery as it actually
subsists, and in holding out its remedy. This is the only
charge which can be brought against Christianity. This
is a charge in which we glory, — A more positive argument
is derivable from the use of analogy than this. So far we
have merely seen revelation not questioning the fact, or
the justice, of the evils which surround us : allying itself
only to them to extinguish them. But it is strongly pre
sumptive that anything comes from God, if it bear the
impression of those clear and solemn signatures which are
emblazoned upon all his acknowledged doings. " This also
cometh from the Lord of hosts." The principle, if not the
use, of this canon of analogy was understood by the an
cients.* Their verisimilitude -f- answered very nearly to it.
Cicero descants upon it in his writings.]: But in the Phi-
localia of Origen lay its true philosophy in application to
revealed religion, — though, in a single sentence, there for
centuries it lay, — a mighty, universal, truth, — a truth most
* Note H. + The Greeks express it by eUor, sometimes by ntOavis.
I De Natura Deorum, lib. i. — " Quod maxime verisimile est, etquo omnes
duce natura vehimur."

OF RESPONSIBLE AGENTS. 103
staid, most germinant, — surrounded by an African wild-
ness of fable, by an Asiatic profusion of romance, — when
a mind in a far distant region, a mind most differently
formed and schooled, — with the least possible kindredness
to his, — caught the idea, as a ray from heaven, kindling all
the elements of thought and reasoning susceptible of it,
and from that one idea built up a demonstration, though
with a humbler name, matchlessly complete. It is not too
much to say that Butler, with his unpretending diffidence,
stands in the highest rank of logicians. If the sentence
of the Alexandrine Father first gave movement and direc
tion to his great undertaking, his originality is not dis
paraged by the fact. Incidents are inpulses only to genius.
Philosophers have owed their discoveries, and poets their
inspirations, to that which is casual ; but such casualty
can excite only philosophers and poets. The dignified
modesty of reserve with which he reasons, his contentment
with sufficient proof when overwhelmed with his amplitude
of store, his quiet homage to truth though his loyalty in
wardly throbs to ecstasy, his conscious strength, his subor
dination as from a secret centre of all that was convertible
to his aim, his intuition of the most difficult relations, the
impression of a sacredness which he stamps upon the
most common things, his unambitiousness of originality,
his grasp of the chain which binds the universe, withal
that subdued manner which betrays and does not boast
his might, render his well-known disquisition * a master
piece of ratiocinative redoubtableness. In its own high
qualities, no work of ancient or modern times approaches
it. Nor is it too much to say, that it has given a new,
though a natural, turn to thinking wherever its questions,
which are of world-wide interest, are entertained, — and
that it places the defence of Christianity upon better
* " The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution
and Course of Nature." The passage of Origen is quoted in the Introduc
tion, p. 6.

104 THE LAW AND GOVERNMENT OF RESPONSIBLE AGENTS.
grounds than new, even the everlasting foundations of
reason, experience, and truth. Applying the argument of
such physical and moral correspondences, we see the
Christian system taking its station as in native scenes and
amidst rightful circumstances. Its way is prepared, and
its high-way is made straight. It follows in the footsteps
of that . God, " known unto whom are all his works from
the beginning of the world." It is no intrusion upon the
earth. Laws necessary for its premisses it has not to
establish, — they are already enacted : resemblances favor
able to its probabilities it has not to invent,— they are
already shaped. It rises like a majestic temple in its
integrity and its independence, but still within an earher
outer court, a noble basilica, most inferior but not un
worthy : even to be compared with it, if only its subordinate
design be remembered, and presenting many points of
agreement, in its more unhewn and unadorned style, to
the perfect and glorious structure which it surrounds !

LECTURE III.
THE HARMONY OF REVELATION WITH NATURAL RELIGION.
" I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts."
Psalm cxix. 10.
Revelation, having appropriated and identified all the
moral theorems of reason, — the great truths, the first
principles, taught by the light of nature, by the constitu
tion of mind, by the administration of Providence, —
having raised its peculiar and exclusive discoveries upon
them, — might have been absolved from any blame of
deficiency, had it assumed them silently as matters
already proved. But, not satisfied to leave the possibility
of mistake, it retraces their outline — often dim, sometimes
effaced — in more than its original vividness, because, in
its infinite mercy, it charges itself with a remedy which
can only be shown necessary, and rendered availing, by
the demonstration of human apostasy, and, of conse
quence, by an exhibition of the law by which that apostasy
can alone be demonstrated. It supposes a universal law,
because it contemplates in mankind, " the children of dis
obedience." It supposes guilt and penalty, because it
addresses mankind, as " children of wrath." This law is
but one, though its copies were not equally clear. This
guilt and penalty were but one, though their degrees
largely varied in aggravation. The Jew had received the
recapitulated law, — precise and full and cogent, — "the form
of knowledge and of truth." The less favoured Gentile

1 06 THE HARMONY OF REVELATION
was left to explore a wider volume, but, being more diffuse,
less distinct and emphatic. The Israelites had learnt its
general features before they received their special code ;
but there was transcendant advantage in such digest,
defining their ideas and affecting their sensibilities. The
Gentiles were not abandoned without instruction and im
pression, but in a more uneompacted shape. They often
cherished the most beautiful refinements of sentiment, the
most analytic ideas of obligation.* Among many of them
the grosser and more monstrous vices were not only de
nounced, — they were " not so much as named among
them." The stern fact is declared concerning both :
" There is no difference ; for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God." The Gospel clears its imme
diate, urgent, way to this conviction of universal liability
to punishment that it may sound forth its pardon and its
peace. In the same manner of eager haste it determines
the invariableness of the enmity of the human heart to
holy good, that it may at once put into operation its power
to renew it.
And we now pursue the inquiry, whether those great
characteristics of man, and whether those main instru
ments of retribution, — which we think have been proved
to exist, — do actually enter into the ground-idea of revela
tion ? For since we have deemed it most important to
learn whether the primary, universal, law be recognized by
it, it is equally imperative to ascertain whether it regards
our nature, we will not say truly, for the bare notion of
alternative, having assumed its divinity, would be offen
sively profane ; but whether it regards our nature as we
think, after our most careful estimate, that it is just and
necessary to regard it ourselves.
We have argued, from the several phsenomena of
human nature, that it is composed of inconvertible
substances, corporeity and mind. We see in it the
?Note I.

WITH NATURAL RELIGION. 107
different attributes of matter and spirit. This has been
the universal belief. There is a body and a soul in man.
In no method can you derive one from the other. By no
occult organization can you confound and intermix them.
Without reasoning upon the questions of particular nexus
and reciprocal influence, we are content with the indubita
ble fact that this twofold constitution has been affirmed
by all men. The fact is not weakened nor disestablished
by pointing to the subtleties of the dialectician arguing
himself into universal scepticism ; or to the imbruted
habits of the savage, lost to all the distinctions of his
being. It is of that class of truths which are peculiarly
human. Man may be easily convinced of it. Man finds
in himself whatever aids and answers to the conviction.
Man cannot be naturally dissuaded of it. But our only
inquiry now is : Does Revelation speak to this idea of
man ? Is this its theory and assumption ? It is almost
trifling to offer proof and example. " There is a spirit in
man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him
understanding." "Whose spirit came from us?" "He
is God of the spirits of all flesh." He is " the Father of
spirits." " The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord."
" All souls are mine." " He giveth breath unto the people
upon the earth, and spirit to them that walk therein."
This is discriminated from matter, and animated corpo
reity : "-Their horses are flesh, and not spirit.'' This is
also distinguished from the vital principle : " Why is life
given to the bitter in soul ?" And when soul is employed
to represent the vital principle, as it occasionally is, that
which is more intellectual is added : " Body, soul, and
spirit." " What man knoweth the things of a man save
the spirit of man that is in him ?" " The spirit of the
mind," is the perfect designation. The Scripture, there
fore, in all its conceptions and declarations of man,
separates between the frame and its doings, and the soul
and its powers. " Fear not them which kill the body, but

108 THE HARMONY OF REVELATION
are not able to kill the soul." " Glorify God in your body
and in your spirit, which are his." "A spirit hath not
flesh and bones." "Let us cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of the flesh and spirit." " The body without the
spirit is dead." To this spirit, as distinct from the body,
the Gospel appeals, demanding its choice and offering its
salvation : " Hear, and your soul shall live." " Receiving
the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls."
Should judicial visitations of disease end in " the destruc
tion of the flesh," it is that " the spirit may be saved in
the day of the Lord Jesus." Surely none can doubt that
this structure of inspired language is consistent with itself.
When is its uniformity broken ? Surely none can deny
that its common, is its plain and unforced, interpretation.
Surely none can dispute that the popular notion of man
is reflected most unwaveringly from its page. This is all
for which we ask. We have not to learn how the most
precise and perfect language may equivocate on the neo-
logical rack.
We have argued, from the relations in which man is
found, and from the capacities with which he is gifted,
that he is a moral agent, that is, he is responsible. The
freeness of the individual is due to him who is placed in
such a condition, but his freeness must be under law, or
no fellow of his species could be free. If they were not
reduced to obligation, all his fellows would exercise a
liberty incompatible with his. Law, properly considered,
is the defence and exposition of liberty. It is absurd to
suppose that any creature can have a right to contravene
the will of the Creator. It is absurd to suppose that the
Creator would resign the creature to purposes, however
unworthy and anarchical, of his own. The Creator would
notbe free. Here arises the question: Does revelation
thus regard us ? Is our responsibility its assumption ?
It cannot seriously and formally, as in some protocol, pro
claim it, for without it there could be no claim upon bur

WITH NATURAL RELIGION. 109
attention. It cannot stoop to define and urge that which
alone warrants it to teach and to command. It cannot
deign to prove the great natural truth that God has the
power, and marks the design, of calling men to account
for their conduct, and to reward, or punish, it accordingly.
But in all its assertions and implications the principle
shines out. It cannot be hid. "Ye are not your. own."
" Do all to the glory of God." " Yield yourselves to God."
" A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master : if
then I be a father, where is mine honor? and if I be a
master, where is my fear?" God is a great king: sin is
rebellion. God is just : sin is iniquity. God is good :
sin is an evil work. One law binds us. " There is no
respect of persons." " So, then, every one of us shall
give account of himself to God." Nor does Scripture
allow that anything from without hampers that moral
liberty, in the withdrawment or injury of which respon
sibility must cease. Human agency is always referred to
motive, or choice. Instead of bodily conformation excusing
us from responsibility by impairing our liberty, we axe
commanded to "mortify our members," to "keep under
the body and to bring it into subjection." Instead of
circumstances overpowering the will of the agent, we are t
commanded to " come out and be separate," and to " keep
ourselves unspotted from the world." Instead of any
necessity binding us to a course of disfavoured conduct,
(though Prophecy and Providence must ordain means as
well as ends,) every step of that conduct is proved to be
most free. It cannot be otherwise in the nature of things.
What but our personal, conscious, motive could sway us ?
Can we do anything without inducement? They who
" condemned " Christ, " fulfilled the voices of their pro
phets:" but it was "their own voices which prevailed."
" They desired a murderer to be granted unto them."
"They delivered him for envy.'' By wicked hands they
crucified and slew him." Pilate " delivered Jesus to their

1 1 0 THE HARMONY OF REVELATION
will." We have not yet to learn how the doctrine of
aecountableness is assailed in our day, but the quiver of
hostility fills itself from other armouries than revelation.
There it stands, inextricably gathered up with the whole.
We have argued, from the moral susceptibilities and
inappeasable longings of the soul, that it is immortal.
The power of conceiving it, amounts to demonstration.
Universal impression is a voucher, which cannot other
wise, than on its truth, be explained. We know not the
gross ambition, which some have boasted, to rest in
animal laws and to perish with animal stems. But our
business is now to inquire : Does revelation thus account
us ? Does it not promulgate the fact ? Is it not its
intimation, when it is not its assurance ? Is not the treat
ment of man, as it describes it, on any other consideration,
laboriously vain ? We have only spoken hitherto of the
immortality of the spirit when separated at death. Some
thing more than this lies behind our argument ; but we
now satisfy ourselves to examine the doctrine of Scripture
touching the parting of the soul from the body, into a
conscious, distinctive, state. We find that it is the in
struction of the Old Testament, and, also, of the New,
that death is connected with an unseen state of things.
'imi, "A8nr, and the old Saxon Helle, all present the
same idea. It is an invisible issue. Is that condition of
secrecy and concealment, simply the grave, or is it a state
of the soul after death ? Now it is not denied that the lot
of death, as it appears to us, mortality, interment, is often
only in the sacred writer's mind, — he has merely to speak
of it, and he intends no more. It is not, however, that
these respective languages contain no other equipollent
terms. From no such cause of poverty is this selection
made. The Hebrew gives us rto, death, nmi, corruption,
lip. 1i3' tomb ; the Greek, Bdvaros, ptoipa, TrdrfMS, KardKva-is,
death, reXevrda, to die, Karopirrca, to bury, rdtfios, p-vrjfia,
6rjp.av, tomb; the Anglo-Saxon, death and the grave.

WITH NATURAL RELIGION. Ill
A peculiar reason must, therefore, have prompted this
specific preference, though that reason may not in
variably apply. It cannot be an accident. Often they
must mean more than simple dissolution and burying
place. Jacob could not hope that, in going down into
Sheol, to his son Joseph, to find his body there, as if it
suggested to him no more than the grave, for he believed
his body to have been devoured by some ravenous beast.
Many other instances might be assigned, when mention is
made of being gathered to their fathers, or to their
people, whose ashes were far away, and which expressions
could not imply the sepulchral mingling of remains. But
that the word denotes far more than this re-assemblage of
mortal dust, may be inferred from the introduction of the
idea of reward and punishment into it. It is often de
scribed as a resting-place.* Sometimes it is described as
a scene of suffering. "Afire is kindled in mine anger,
and shall burn to the lowest hell." Surely something
more is intimated than the deepest grave. It is sometimes
set forth as distinct from punishment and yet connected
with it. " Hell is naked before him, and destruction, or
perdition, hath no covering." "Hell and perdition are
before the Lord." -os, seems easily associated with
punishment. " A false witness shall not be unpunished,
and he that speaketh lies shall perish," In the fearful
descriptions of " the strange woman," Sheol is solemnly
repeated to denote something ulterior to the death of her
victims. " Her feet go down to death, her steps take hold
of hell." "He knoweth not that the dead are there, and
that her guests are in the depths of hell." But,
waiving any such retributive idea, the word, so often
rendered hell, cannot be understood of the grave in many
passages of Scripture. Their sublimity forbids. " Canst

* Many examples might be quoted : Job xiv. 13, 15. The inquiry of the
11th verse shouldbi endered : " If a man die, shall he not live again ?"

112 THE HARMONY OF REVELATION
thou by searching find out God ? canst thou find out the
Almighty unto perfection ? It is high as heaven ; what
canst thou do ? deeper than hell ; what canst thou know? "
" If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there ; if I make my
bed in hell, behold, thou art there." " Though they dig
into hell, thence shall mine hand take them ; though
they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down."
This is the abyss. Punishment is not supposed, but we
must think of that vast and universal abode of all de
parted spirits, to which all are rapt, whatever be their
respective condition, wherever be their local separation, —
the [Scripture representation generally laying it subter-
raneously, a nadir, the deep ! It is the under-world.
When Korah and his company went down alive in it, only
the chasm of the earth may be meant, yet it is not the
superficial [grave. The suggestion is that it is more.
When the monarch of Babylon is hurled into it as from a
throne of stars, when the king of Egypt goes down into
the midst "of it, mysterious spirit-shades greet him scorn
fully, the Rephaim. It is the region of ghosts. To
prevent mistake we repeat, that though this word, em
ployed seventy-nine times in the Hebrew Scriptures, does
not infrequently, nor necessarily, mean any more than
death, yet it is death as something secret and inscrutable,
following out in many cases a state in which the spirit can
only share, of good or evil ; sometimes shadowing forth
an awful profound in which all spirits are irrespectively
beheld, the translated word not signifying a condition of
suffering, but only of concealment, the original import of
it, though its modern use includes pcenal suffering alone.
So, inferus, among the Latins, merely intended that which
was beneath,'_in comparison of the surface ; it was applied,
without disparagement, to the god and to the blest ; we
find, in our own language, how it is changed, for only in a
bad sense do we speak of what is infernal.*
* So were the Greek words inoffensive : imoiaios, KaraxOovtos.

WITH NATURAL RELIGION. 113
In the same contrasted style is the "aBtjs of the Christian
Scriptures portrayed. It is one, a whole. But its de
partments of reward and punishment, its hemispheres,
are now made distinct. All parting souls go to Hades :
but their character determines to which of these portions
of it they are severally assigned. Hades never expresses
of necessity any other idea than that of death and the
grave as invisible, or leading to invisible consequences,
but from its possible connexions it may intend all that is
frightfully condemnatory !*
We have referred, not for the sake of authority but of
illustration, to a vernacular term. The real conception of
hell, is that which is unseen, the invisible state. When
the Bible was translated into our language, this was its
proper use. When the grave is only to be understood, we
think the translators never adopt it : they employ it for
that which ensues on death. In the ecclesiastical symbols
of that, or of a higher age, the same nicety of signification
is preserved. " He was crucified, dead, and bmied ; he
descended into hell." Here are the common stages,
though not in order of time. His " descent into hell,"
that is, into the state of separate spirits, is discriminated
from the act of dying, from the ceremony of interment.
But now in conventional use, hell speaks only of punish
ment, and no little perplexity arises to the unlearned from
the difference between this ancient, and this current,
acceptation. f
It is not, however, by the exegesis of particular words
so much as by the consensus and use of Scripture, that we
are anxious to establish its uniform doctrine, that the soul
* Josephus, speaking of the Sadducees, says : " They take away the belief
of the duration of the soul, and the punishments and rewards in Hades." A
Jew, -writing in Greek, would be well-informed upon the lexicographical,
theological, and popular sense. Wars of the Jews, book ii. chap. 8.
+ We think that an advancing sense in the use of "A5rir may be traced in
collating the Septuagint with the New Testament. The Alexandrine
Translators certainly apply it, as the writers ofthe New Testament never do.
XII. I

1 14 THE HARMONY OF REVELATION
is self-existent. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, testified
it in his announcement of the judicial advent. We learn,
from unerring cypher, that the patriarchs " died in faith,"
and that they " desired a heavenly country." If we review
the book pf Job in the light of a specimen of the earliest
postdiluvian faith, the doctrine is most clear. The pious
sufferer "would yet have comfort," though "cut off."*
The impenitent sinner shall be " brought to the king of
terrors." In the sublimest strains of the poem is found
that prophecy of the descending Messiah and ofthe final
resurrection, that spectacle of the conscious soul con
templating its bodily devastation, yet assured and tri
umphing that, from the midst of that restored frame, it
should see God, — than which Christianity has nothing
more perfect to unfold, to which a timid criticism than
that perfection has nothing more to object. If we regard
the book of Ecclesiastes as a treatise of plain, oracular,
truths, or as a reply to the scepticism of its period, what
can be more explicit than its dictates ? " There is no
man that hath power over the spirit, to retain the spirit,
neither hath he power in the day of death." "Who
knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward ? " " Then
shall the dust return to the earth as it was : and the spirit
shall return unto God who gave it." It is in the con
trasted consequences of death to the pious and to the
sinner that we read the truth and perceive the necessity
of immortality. " The wicked is driven away in his
wickedness : but the righteous hath hope in his death."
How, otherwise, can we understand the wish of Balaam ?
"Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last
end be like his." How, otherwise, can we interpret the
conviction of David ? " God shall redeem my soul from
the power of the grave, for he shall receive me." "In
Zion the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for ever-
* ch. vi. 9, 10.

WITH NATURAL RELIGION. 115
more." " Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an ever
lasting salvation : ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded,
world without end." And if such be the suffrage of the-
Old Testament, it was the direct purpose of the mission
of our Lord to substantiate all that the light of nature and
of earlier revelations had poured upon this anxious ques
tion. " I am come that they might have life, and that
they might have it more abundantly." In the New Testa
ment we, therefore, discover the most absolute proofs.
Concerning the departed saints, the Saviour testifies that
their covenant relation to God consists in unbroken being-
" for all live unto him." He received the spirits of the
contrite malefactor and raptured martyr. Concerning the
wicked we learn the same continuance of existence, turned
only into a source of misery. Judas " goes to his own
place," and they who were, of old, disobedient, are "the
spirits in prison." •
In one most emphatic disclosure, our Lord has set
before us the invisible world in its rewards and punish
ments. Perhaps the curtain, which overhangs it, was
never so widely drawn aside. It is not entitled a parable.
The description stands out with a realness which pro
claims its certainty and truth. And well it may ! " He
hath the keys of death and of the unseen state." In some
sense we may call it a parable : we should not oppose the
most absolute application of the term. Its great princi
ples become not, by this concession, ambiguous. Such a
vehicle always contains some history, what might be, what
has been, what is. A fixed moral does it invariably pre
sent. Even its accessories are often pregnantly instructive.
In this forewarning, we follow two human beings, — their
circumstantial states are merely to be considered as expo
nents of character, types of their respective moral classes,
— in life, in death, into eternity. That eternity opens at
once. Its distinctions are, without any formality of pre
paration, unveiled. The indifferent, common, character

116 THE HARMONY OF REVELATION
of Hades, as held by some, as apparently warranted by its
often indefinite use, is suddenly refuted. The poor man
is in Abraham's bosom, and is comforted : the rich man
is tormented in the flame. It is impossible to evade the
immediateness of these distinctions. We feel the stroke of
the spirit's wing towards its perfection ; we hear the
plunge of the spirit into its fiery abyss. All is taught to
us of consciousness. They remember, know, feel, them
selves. It is an unalterable state. There is a great gulf.
Where is the crossway which can span it ? Where is the
hidden path from those opposing strands ? It admits of
no relief, however intense the suffering. Not the tip of
the finger of the blessed may be dipped in water to cool
the scorched tongue. It may be, that there are new con
ditions introduced into those spiritual realms since the
resurrection and ascension of the Son of God. It may be
that the dread allusions, which we have marked, more
nearly corresponded to what existed previously to these
august events. But if we be asked, Does the machinery,
the incidental description, agree to fact? We believe
that, substantially, it does. Though these abodes be not
now contiguous, — and even then "Abraham was afar off,"
— the thought of the lost heaven is present to the minds
of those who themselves are lost. Though this dialogue
were never held, there must be a knowledge of the saved
by the lost, and of the lost by the saved. Such appeals
and answers, though only supposed, are not less the
assertions of general truths. It is due to the whole of the
genius and framing of this disclosure, that its perfect im
pression be allowed to settle upon our souls. We may
well submit the judgement of those souls to Him, who,
with unapproachable authority, could say : " We speak
that we do know, and testify that we have seen."
Though the illustrations which we have selected lead to
conclusions which involve retribution as well as immor
tality, this only, as connected with our spiritual nature
and the separableness of our spiritual principle, has a

WITH NATURAL RELIGION. 117
strict place of right in our present argument. It may,
therefore, to meet the question of our real nature, be
proper to look around us, and to inquire whether we
can contemplate it as elsewhere reflected, beyond our par
tialities, and without our evils? Or if our evils should
attach, it might be by a voluntary assumption of them, in
condescending to our nature as far as possible in its
present circumstances.
It has always appeared to us an irresistible demon
stration in favour of the immaterialism of the human soul,
and its capacity of independent existence and action, —
irresistible as its biblical defence and exposition, —
to think of " the man, Christ Jesus," and especially to
meditate his death. " He became obedient unto death."
We see him die according to the mortal conditions of our
manhood. The virtue of the sacrifice depends upon the
most exact conformity. " It behoved him in all things to
be made like unto his brethren." His death is the sepa
ration of the spirit. "Father, into thy hands I commend
my spirit." With the causes of that resignation we have
not now to do. The fact is plain. The avouchment is
infallible. " He descended into the lower parts of the
earth." His spirit entered Hades, though it was not to
be "left in it." His spirit returned. Then he rose
bodily; the "body of the flesh," the corporeal organ,
remaining exanimate until his spirit, resuming it, caused
it to revive. This is our nature. We trace, in " this
fashion of a man," our laws of change and separation.
It is the complete pattern. If it were not the true course
of our nature, its native evolution, that which is predicable
of every man, He would not have tasted death for every
man, nor been our proper substitute.
But here an enquiry arises — it is not new — whether we
may not have mistaken the lessons of nature and Scrip
ture, in attributing to man a physical immortality? Was
he made immortal ? Or, is this but conditional reward ?
We will not again open the question, which respects the

118 THE HARMONY OF REVELATION
teachings of natural reason : we have reported our honest
convictions upon them. From these we cannot recede.
The inspired testimony may, however, be examined touch
ing this fact. This is the proper order in which the
examination should occur.
Now an immediate thought arises, that, if men perish,
their sin forfeiting the immortality which accrues to
obedience, it is probable and fitting that such perdition
should take place at death. This is the sentence. This
is the only termination of being made palpable to us.
Every thing of external sign and token answers to this
supposed catastrophe. It is the limit beyond which we
cannot follow any sensible evidence of life. At this point
it seems most reasonable, if man be not immortal, that all
existence should cease. Death is by sin. It is, then, the
prepared execution of the sentence. It is a ready stroke.
Why should another fall ? Man has sinned to his utmost
reach of responsible motion and action. Why should
he not now suffer the threatened doom ? If life be carried
on, subsequently to death, it is a new gift, an addition to
the proper term. It is more than mortal, though it be
less than immortal. It is not included in the original
case. Then it cannot be necessary to it. To us, who see
in the suggestion only a vain conceit to serve a particular
purpose, it appears an arbitrary prolongation of misery, an
hereafter which was not forewarned, something beyond
forfeiture ; an unnecessary revival of life, contrary to its
own conditions ; an excess of punishment, because a
strain of law.
Another thought might arise, that, if it be true that
revelation contradicts the general confession of mankind,
their most precious moral instincts, then the greatest
professed blessing ever extended to them, casts them
down to a grovelling far below their once ardent and
elevating hopes; depresses the standard of their aims
and fears ; and strangely teaches them that their capacity

WITH NATURAL RELIGION. 119
for this belief was not given to them to be exercised.
While the idea might be encouraged that every man, by
the practice of virtue, would become immortal, no man
could be prompted by this as a yearning of his nature, —
no man could feel that he truly was. It might be a
motive to us, for it would be a gain set before us, but it
could be nothing drawn out of our proper sensibilities
and aspirations. But surely it is not like Christianity
thus to lower the pitch of what is noble and refining. It
is surely inverse to its spirit. Besides, this contradiction
must invalidate itself. What is the law of nature ? Is not
common consent its promulgation ? * Eternal truths are
supposed, not in human immortality, for that being a
divine effect is but a contingency, a physical maintenance ;
but in the inference of a First Cause, in the demonstra
tion of a moral law, and in the connection of that im
mortality with these eternal, necessary, facts. The first
clash of any system with such truths must be its sub
version ! But in examining the sacred volume we can
detect no lineament of the hypothesis that man is not
by nature immortal, and only possibly immortal by
* The argument is employed by Cicero, and with great fairness, considering
his sceptical turn and habit of mind, both as to the existence of a higher
power and as to human immortality. "Ut porro firmissimum hoc afferri
videtur, cur deos esse credamus, quod nulla gens tam fera, nemo omnium
tam sit immanis, cujus mentem non imbuerit deorum opinio. . . . Nee vero
id collocutio hominum aut consensus efficit : non institutis opinio est
confirmata, non legibus. Omni autem in re consensio omnium gentium, lex
naturse putanda est." ..." Quod si omnium consensus, natural vox est :
omnesque, qui ubique sunt, consentiunt esse aliquid, quod ad eos pertineat,
qui e vita cesserint : nobis quoque idem existimandum est. Et si, quorum
aut ingenio aut virtute animus excellit, eos arbitramur, quia natura optima
sunt, cernere naturse vim maxime : verisimile est, cum optimus quisque
maxime posteritate serviat, esse aliquid, cujus is post mortem sensum sit
habiturus." Tusculan: Qucest: lib. i. cap. 13-15. It is to be regretted that
the writer of these fine sentiments did not better found them. He compares
the belief of a Deity to the naturalness of grief. " Atque ha?c ita sentimus
natura duce, nulla ratione nullaque doctrina." He rests the belief of immor
tality upon the passion for posthumous fame.

120 THE HARMONY OF REVELATION
acquisition. Our nature is there regarded as one: an
assumption, or a negation, of immortality would perfectly
diversify it in different individuals. It addresses that
nature fully, religiously : it governs it with equal laws
for good and evil. It throws a solemn character over this
probationary life, because of the future depending upon
it. It shames to glory and virtue now, by what we must
be. Its hand ever points to indefinite consequences.
Let us study the creation of man. We possess its
history. We are prepared to see in him no common
greatness. If he be wanting in faculties necessary to the
brutes, it is because his life is to be different from theirs.
He crowns the whole. " There was light." The heavens
are stretched into their arch. The stars peal out their
courses. Even these are for his seasons. The creatures
of every element are his attendant retinue. Does he
spring forth to the fiat which alone has been already
heard, — " Let there be ? " The very accents of consulta
tion are heard, — there is plan and model, — there is the
first intimation of personal Godhead,— there is the com
munication of infinite benevolence, — " Let us make man
in our image, after our likeness ! " What was that image
— that likeness ? Any resemblance of form, it were as
gratuitous to deny as impious to suppose. We may learn
something of its reality, by that which regeneration works
in the disciple of Christ. "He puts on the new man,
which after," or according to " God is created in righteous
ness and true holiness : " " he puts on the new man, which
is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that
created him."* These are the master-strokes. But upon
what ground could they be drawn if not on an immortal
nature ? It is, therefore, worthy of notice, thatafter man
had become deathful, — after he had begun to "bear the
image of the earthly," even after the awful judgement of
* Ephes. iv. 24 ; Coloss. iii. 10.

WITH NATURAL RELIGION. 121
the flood upon his race, God throws a singular protection
around him, from the consideration of this original nature,
then spiritually defiled, but not physically destroyed, nor
physically destructible : " For in the image of God made
he man."* It may be replied that so long as the image
was unmarred there would be immortality. Yes, agree
ably to this hypothesis, there might in the sense of a
conditional favor. Our question is, however, of another
kind : we demand how that image could be delineated
upon a nature which, though it might be rendered im
mortal, was not then immortal, which could only grow
into immortality by J the most entire change? For such
an impartation, — whether at first, or in present renew
ing, — since it is nothing short of the appearance of the
Divine similitude in all the features of the soul, no
adequate subjectiveness can be found save the mind, not
breathed for an insect existence, but itself formed for
endless knowledge, rectitude, and holiness in truth.
When we proeeed to survey the actual Adam, con
stituted upon this honourable archetype, we are assured
that he was "made a living soul." That similar lan
guage, though accompanied with important distinctions,
is employed concerning creatures inferior to man, is
allowed. This, in the confined range of speech, must
often occur. Life may be applied to the most different
species and conditions. But can we doubt that man, —
so created and so signalized, — is thus indicated for the
express design of marking his rational and deathless soul,
the only exception to all the other tribes, whose spirit
goeth downward, and only inferior, though with an in
finite remove, to Him who is " a quickening Spirit? "¦(•
We may be reminded of the discipline of Eden, in
which man was placed, and of the tests of his obedience
there. Life and death were set before him. It will be
* Gen. ix. 0, 6. + Note J.

122 THE HARMONY OF REVELATION
said, that he could only understand what death was by
what he saw of vegetable and animal death. It is un
hesitatingly granted that mortality is the rule of all mere
animal life, and that it is quite probable that he wit
nessed specimens of it. But as to himself, sin was not
followed by the immediate loss of life. Shame and
horror intervened. Another mental state arose in him.
A new arrangement of toil and privation was decreed.
He had died, though not physically when he sinned.
Nine hundred and thirty years prolonged that spiritual
death, unless Divine mercy recalled him during that
interval to spiritual life. We see the immediate effects
of this disobedience in conscious disgrace, in remorse
without penitence, in evasion of guilt, in concealment of
sin, in sullen flight from the voice of God. These are
the symptoms of spiritual death. — He was tried most
properly by a positive enactment. It was not founded
on any necessity or fitness. It was the pleasure of God.
No other reason was given why it should be obeyed. It
was also most proper that it involved restraint rather
than effort or enterprise. It is called the tree of know
ledge of good and evil, because, being the test of obedience
and disobedience, like any other law, by it was the know
ledge whether he obeyed or disobeyed, by it was the
discrimination of good and evil. The fruit itself con
tained no virtue which could give the intuitive sense.
But arbitrary tests excite moral dispositions. In the
transgression of this commandment, bourgeoning forth
in this particular tree, lay every sin : all that belongs to
the essence of sin. Herein was every misery : the fibres
of all curse struck out from it. They who deny the
natural immortality of man, think that in the sequel of
this narrative they acquire a strong position. " Behold,"
said the Triune God, "Behold, now the man is become
as one of us, to know good and evil : and now, lest he
put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and

WITH NATURAL RELIGION. 123
taste and live for ever " — there the sentence abruptly ends.
It is from this inferred that man was not immortal, but
that his attempt to become so might succeed. This is
sufficiently extravagant. It would seem that the prize
was all but in his grasp. It might almost appear that
he could have anticipated prevention. It could, perhaps,
be speculated that this was a possible issue, and that it
was, at least for a moment, in his power to snatch the
mighty boon. But what was that tree of life? The
sign and pledge of life to man so long as he obeyed,
not only of a present undying life, — it promised spiritual
life, that which consists in divine favour and self-approv
ing peace. He may have eaten of it again and again, for
its fruit was not forbidden. Yet we are inclined to sup
pose that it was untouched : the presumption may be
that its purport acted as the interdict which certainly
is not declared. A mysterious sacredness would most
probably fence it. Our progenitor has fallen ! The lure
was that he should be as God. He feels that he is
duped. His eyes are opened, — not as he was tempted to
expect, in Godlike illuminations, but to his debasement
and ruin. He despairs. Looking only to himself, he
would clutch at any relief. This sacrilegious attempt
would destroy the only hope ; it would cut off man irre
trievably from God. That sin might not be remedilessly
sealed and consummated, a voice is heard of terrific
irony, but of tender mercy. It is not derision : it is
the exposure of consequences. The result of the snare
laid for man is shown. The kind of success attendant
upon his emulation of Divinity is described. He is
exhibited in all the folly and impotence of his ambition.
"Behold, the man is become as one of us ! " But farther
infatuation shall be checked. It is not the effect, but
the wickedness of seeking it, which is resisted. The
effect itself, if attempted, would only be as void as the
first. Man would no more secure impunity, — for that

124 THE HARMONY OF REVELATION
was his futile scheme, — than he had become a god.
Yet the mere essay, however abortive, must be fatal. It
had been inexplicable temerity. It had superseded and
surpassed the power of mercy by spurning it. " Lest he
put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and
eat and live for ever " — lest he should act again under that
credulous idea, which moved him first ; lest he should as
vainly dream that the fruit of one tree can constitute him
deathless, as he hoped that the fruit of another could
make him wise ; — no more is added, the hiatus is supplied
by deeds. The sinner is driven from the scene of his
double temptation. The meaning of the symbol, how
ever, by which he would have last transgressed, is pre
served. A language is employed which denotes a ritual
of typic mercy. A tabernacle envelopes the wonted
emblems of communion, favor, and pardon. There is a
glory, — " the shining of a flaming light," — a sword of fire,
— not only to scare impiety, but to protect contrite and
sacrificial access. Arid the true secret of deliverance, the
true blessedness of immortality, is "kept," is honourably
and graciously guarded, nor ever since was lost !
Confident that the hypothesis of conditional immor
tality cannot establish itself upon this dread narrative, it
is only just to add that it considers itself greatly sup
ported by the general tenor of Scripture. That of the
Christian records is deemed especially favourable. We
observe in it frequent allusions to an alternative of life and
death. It is contended that this is the alternative, man
not being essentially immortal, whether he shall continue
to exist or not. It would prove nothing for the hypothesis,
if life and death were always put in antithesis, because it
would still remain to prove that immortality and corrupti
bility only were expressed. The terms of the proposition
would continue undefined. And it is no small vice in any
proposition, no loose ground for suspecting it, when terms
formally opposed to each other are differently applied. It

WITH NATURAL RELIGION. 125
may be said that life and death are ordinary terms to be
understood in an ordinary sense. This is, however, to beg
the question. It is the very point of debate. But even
they who say this, do not give the ordinary sense for
which they contend. Life would then mean only this
human life : death only bodily dissolution. They intend
by life a future existence, and if they allow any life con
sequent on death, it is a life which soon may cease. We
altogether dispute the rule of interpretation. For life and
death in all these cases respect the soul : the life is not
dependent upon common life, nor the death upon common
death. They are spiritual states, of which the soul only
can be capable. "To be spiritually minded is life."
" Your life is hid with Christ in God." " Now we live if
ye stand fast in the Lord." " This is life eternal to know
thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent." " The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,
hath made me free from the law of sin and death." So
death does not necessarily imply the cessation of being.
" You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins." This " quickening," is spiritual life : the reverse
which is overcome, must be spiritual death. " The life I
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God : "
this is independent of organic and mental existence. " She
that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth :" this is a
death equally distinct. We are now " dead to sin." " To
enter into life," " to enter the kingdom of God," are the
same thing. — And we even find that the terms are not
invariably opposed. "He that, believeth not shall not see
life,"- — that is, not in ceasing to be, " but the wrath of God
abideth on him," — " he shall not see life," — good, favour,
blessing, " the life of God," " the light of life," " the
grace of life," " the crown of life," but he shall live on
under abiding wrath. The resurrection of life is not con
trasted to that of death, but to that of damnation or judg
ment. " He that hath the Son hath life ; and he that hath

126 THE HARMONY OF REVELATION
not the Son hath not life :" it is a present distinction
during a common present life. Therefore the rebuke :
" Ye have no life in you." Moreover, Christianity never
claims more than a clearer discovery of the future state.
" It hath brought life and immortality to light." Its gift
of life, and abundance of life, is the good to which it con
verts our immortality. " Eternal life " is, consequently,
not the language which it ever adopts to denote a mere
immortal existence. It is the fruition of that duration. It
is the perpetuity of bliss. " To them who, by patient
continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, honour, and
immortality, — eternal life ! "
Nor is this hypothesis solely untenable on the grounds
of revelation : objections lie against it arising from the
nature of things. The following, out of many, may be
mentioned. It strives to induce man to think of himself,
— we will not say unnaturally, that being the involved
dispute, — contrary to whatever of the noble and the great
he so readily entertains. We will not say that he was
made to revolve the question of immortality, — the argu
ment forbidding it, — but he does entertain it as if he were
thus made. The wicked have thoughts and fears which
fill a dread futurity. The righteous crave the " pleasures
which are for evermore." But each must regard himself
henceforth as unenduring. Immortality is no part of
them, nor enters into their natural being. It may, or may
not, be superadded. — The religiousness of motive is im
paired by this opinion, if not destroyed. An instinctive
love of life and fear of death are the only inducements.
The higher appeals, which sound up through the soul, are
stilled. How unworthy a construction is given to the
inspired words, — " H ye live after the flesh, ye shall die :
but if ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the
body, ye shall live ! " In the one case, it has only the
power of human legislation : in the other, it only per
petuates what civil magistracy as long as possible protects.

WITH NATURAL RELIGION. 127
Depravity has so deadened the mind of the voluptuous
transgressor, that the thought of this threatened non
existence, would scarcely awaken alarm or repel allurement.
It is an end to which the sensualist consents, rather than
the hazard of a renewed life. For while piety pants for
the immortal, sin struggles against it, not against being as
such, but that which is feared to be retribution. It would
be difficult to prove that non-existence was an evil. If
man live out his original term, he suffers no injury. He
has sinned, — but by conditions of nature, had he not
sinned, — though there would not have been this form of
death, — his life must have determined. Immortality,
being adscititious, may be withheld, but the human nature
cannot be said to have suffered deprivation. It is at
utmost a loss of what it never properly possessed. — The
whole theory is weak and mean compared to the grandeur
of Christianity. It reduces, it does not honour, man. It
enfeebles, it does not confirm, religion. It supposes a
treatment of moral agents, inconsistent, and that which
defeats itself.
If any inquire why life and death are set forth so
invariably to express joys or sufferings of a present, but
especially of a future, life, — why they should be the
constant figures employed to denote them, it is sufficient
answer that they present the greatest natural good and
evil. Some figure must be selected. None could be so
solemnly expressive as this :
" "Tis not the whole of life to live,
Nor all of death to die."*
Trusting that it has been fairly argued that Scripture
avouches all the great characteristics of man, — the spiri
tual, the accountable, the immortal, — it is time to prove,
that it appropriates all the great ideas of law, which we
have exhibited as dictated by reason and experience, in
* Montgomery.

128 THE HARMONY OF REVELATION
injunction, in obligation, in sanction. In every sense, it
is a system of rewards and punishments. What law
would have done, it either does or permits to be done.
The principle and operations of law it only more firmly
establishes. Some of these have passed under our
review. In habit, character, and consequence, we have
pursued the universal law in its often silent, but always
sure, enforcement. All this is identified with the strongest
emphasis. Habit may be seen in any series of acts or of
principles. " Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the
leopard its spots ? then may ye also do good, that are
accustomed to do evil." " But evil men and seducers will
wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived."
" Profane and vain babbling increase unto more ungodli
ness." Character is laid open in its elements and con
stituents. We are taught that in every man there is a
biased frame of thought and course of action, — not im
probably concealed by more powerful temporary motives,
— "the hidden man." There is "rejoicing" in "the
testimony of a good conscience." " Many walk," in all
the decencies of profession, who are " the enemies of the
cross of Christ." Men are happy or miserable in what
they are. — Consequence forms a matter of the most
earnest admonition and warning. " So run that ye may
obtain." " Lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth
sin : and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."
" The end, everlasting life." " The end of these things is
death." " We shall receive the things done in the body
according to that we have done, whether it be good or
bad." To these consequences the supreme Governor has
but to relegate the wicked. " So I gave them up to their
own heart's lust." "Ephraim is joined to idols : let him
alone." If we be perplexed by the delay or partial
execution of law, revelation anticipates the objection :
" Because sentence against an evil work is not executed
speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully

WITH NATURAL RELIGION. 129
set in them to do evil." " The Lord knoweth how to
reserve the unjust untf> the day of judgement to be
punished." And there are other operations of the Divine govern
ment which we have noticed, that find a correspondent
report in Scripture. Not only do we see men under the
influence of their habits, characters, and consequences of
conduct, — " then own doings besetting them about," — but
we are forewarned, according to what has been already
recognised as the prudence of life, touching the de
pendence of the future upon the present, as the very
sanction of responsibility and secret of retribution.
Eternity rolls on time. Moral agency is a vast calculation.
"Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation
against the time to come, that they may lay hold on
eternal life." — We are likewise adjured, agreeably to a
well-known fact, to be watchful unto the end, lest one
error endanger all. In a moment the labour of years may
be undone. A single offence may permeate an entire life.
" The righteous shall not be able to live for his righteous
ness in the day that he sinneth."- — If, again, we have
marked in these administrations issues for which no order
of consequences and arrears can account, — if we discern
the fall of punishments very distant from what we may
presume to be their provoking sins, and yet most even to
them, — such idea is not unknown to revelation, which not
only asserts an ordinary system of things, but that " God
cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the
earth for their iniquity."
But while Christianity seems to do little more than to
replace the questions of law and obligation upon their
just grounds, — than to address man in his true charac
teristics, — though it repeats them only with greater clear
ness, and promulgates them only with greater force, —
reserving for its sublime originality the doctrine and the
means of redemption, — there are announcements in it
XIT. K

130 THE HARMONY OF REVELATION
which may be called its discoveries, however they be most
strictly related to the first constitution of things. They
grow out of that constitution, but as they fall neither
under our consciousness nor experience, they could not be
known save by explicit revelation.
The Resurrection of the human body after death, may
' be as necessary for the purpose of moral recompense as
the immortality of the surviving soul. It does not owe
itself, in any probability, to the remedial system of grace.
If morally necessary, it cannot be contingent on what need
not have been. It was, we must believe, equally in the
scope of the law and in the mind of the Lawgiver, when
the sentence was denounced : " Thou shalt die, thou shalt
return to the ground." It is a universal event. The body,
being the organ of the mind, is held to an account beyond
this sentient life. The full development of the mind
depends upon the restoration of its organ. Justice could
in neither instance be exercised unless by their rejunction.
If it have relation to man in a future existence, it is to the
whole man. That man may be modified, — he is now con
stantly modified in every advancing stage of his being, —
but he is still the same. He is a fitting subject for the
same justice. This speculation, could it have presented
itself to reason, must have appeared reasonable. It did
not, however, cross the mind : by none was it entertained.
Mankind were conscious of the soul, and frequently felt it
strong in its life, glorious in its triumph, amidst corporeal
dissolution. They more than inferred, — it was a spiritual
intuition, — that it could not perish. There was no proof
that it had died. There was every counterbalancing argu
ment that it could not die. It was a different result which
forced itself upon the sense when man had given up the
ghost. There lay the ruin. The eye was glazed. The
heart was congealed. It was a mouldering heap. It was
earthed among its kindred dust. It resolved into it.
Nothing promised change. Spring dressed again its

WITH NATURAL RELIGION. 131
flowers : autumn renewed its riches : but man returned
no more. His urn crumbled, and his sepulchre was
effaced. Nor was this the hope and solace of them who
themselves awaited death. They could only think of the
body's entire waste and wreck. No device, no monogram,
was engraven on the tomb which could intimate that those
ashes should revive. But wherever the voice of revela
tion was heard, the resurrection was made known. It was
early taught. It became the popular belief. The common
people held it fast. Only the proud disciple of Sadoc said
that there was none, — nor angel, nor spirit, so far being
consistent with his first denial, for these are cognate
truths : we are only true to Scripture, so long as we con
fess both.
It may be asked, whether the separation of the soul and
the resurrection of the body can be considered as occurring
in an order of nature ? Doubtless neither of these
changes would have been known to unsinning nature
had man retained it. He would have been upholden in
his undivided integrity, and his body been deathless like
his soul. But he is so constituted that any change, which.
is the effect of sin, shall, as little as possible, disturb and
set aside the order of nature. The foresight of the sequel
(how can it be denied to infinite prescience ?) is seen in
these new effects. He dies. His body decays. But when
it was newly-created in purity and happiness, " the Lord
God formed it of the dust of the ground." There is little
violence done to general nature, immense as the evil is to
man, when it returns thither and decomposes into its
native clay. The spirit separates. This is an immense
evil to man, considered in itself. But nature, by its antici-
pative provisions, is in this not greatly deranged. The
spirit is not of the earth ; it often acts to control the body,
and, in independence of it, it maintains its own inward
life. It was given separately to man, it is his heavenly
dower, and we may conclude that it may still exist

132 THE HARMONY OF REVELATION
separately, apart from the frame, in its own conscious
ness, and in every exercise which the frame did never,
could never, share. The resurrection, only properly affect
ing the body, synchronises with the restitution of the soul :
the one, by an act not inferior to creation, is taken from the
ground; the other, by an act not inferior to the first
inspiration, is infused into its former tenement : and that
two-fold event is the reintegration of the long-disparted
man. The resurrection of the dead being the doctrine of both
Testaments, there are facts in both which prove its possi
bility, and foreshadow its certainty. And in these facts
we mark a peculiar coincidence. They stand in parallel
to one another. They regard death in its gradual effects.
The son of the widow of Zarephath is restored to life
shortly after decease, as is the daughter of Jairus. The
child of the Shunammite mother is raised to life after
lying dead for a longer period, laid out for burial, — while
she hastens from the city of Issachar to Mount Carmel;
and so is the son of the widow of Nain, after protracted
interval, restored, while he is borne forth to interment. The
corpse, which is hurriedly cast into the sepulchre of Elisha,
revives and stands upon its feet : and Lazarus comes out
of his grave. Thus, in far remote histories, we see bodily
restoration in all the stages of death. To suppose that
such events could take place among the same people,
though at very distant periods, without convincing them
of the great fact of the resurrection, or, which is equal to it,
without answering to their settled belief, seems impossible.
Concerning the resurrection, it is enough to say that it
is one event in time and action, that it is simultaneous;
that all who have lived must reappear in their moral order,
be they just or unjust; that it is accompanied or imme
diately followed by the change of our planet, — that it is
preparatory to a great judicial decision.*
* Note K.

WITH NATURAL RELIGION. 133
In language of mysterious resplendence and sethereal-
ness, as though reflecting the outward brightness, as
though breathing the spiritual interest, of the scene, is the
resurrection of the saints described. Their forms are
invested with lustre, knitted in strength, sublimated to
mdestructibleness, refined after spirituality. They are
material, albeit for offices high and holy, only for impres
sions gladdening and pure. We do not read literally any
where in Scripture ofthe resurrection ofthe body, though
it must be understood when we read of the resurrection of
the dead. There must be a reason for this. The silence
condemns the various theories which would explain the
reorganization of the body, or which would, because of its
supposed difficulties, deny the doctrine altogether. " The
vile body," the humiliated flesh, is to be " changed." That
of the righteous shall be around them in its completeness,
but rather as it existed in germ than as it was ever hitherto
evolved. The seed is of the nature of the fruit, but the
fruit may not always be discoverable in the seed. The
seed-body is sown : the only pledges of incorruption,
power, glory, spiritualism, were couched in corruption,
weakness, dishonour, materiality. Has all been unfolded
according to a principle and tendency ? Apostolic descrip
tion would imply it. A process has been going on, like a
slow vegetation. We know not what is the influence of
Divine grace, relatively considered, upon the flesh. It
brings it into obedience and service. We know not what
may be the effect upon it by union between the soul and
Christ, and by the temple-inhabitation of the Holy Ghost.
It is bought with a price. It is sanctified and preserved
blameless. It is for the Lord. It may have received some
power of development which shall be consummated by the
resurrection. Or is the resurrection that special form of
Divine interposition, without auxiliary, beyond law, which
we call miracle ? We would not dogmatically affirm or
contradict. We know that it is by "the power of God."

134 THE HARMONY OF REVELATION
"The fashioning" shall be "according to the working
whereby Christ is able even to subdue all things unto him
self." We are disposed towards both ideas. Something
we deem to be in preparation, which may be illustrated by
the figure of the seed. The figure is not to be pushed to
the reality. Grant us but the force of that analogy, and
we are satisfied. The raised thing is corporeity still : it
is identity still. That which we sow is not quickened except
it die. That which we sow is not the body which shall
be. What must be the Power which shall achieve this
mighty result ! Yet need not we call it miraculous ; it is
not likened to it in its design ; it follows a great pre-
arrangement ; it follows in a succession of principles and
events. Our view of the fact, — the only one which now
concerns us, — is to help the moral argument. The change
in the saints is a resurrection to life : immortality is
already sure, and is not peculiar to them. It is a prelude
to their bliss. It is their equipment for their destiny : it is
their capacity for a full reward. They put on robes of
state : they are clothed with the badges of incorruption
and immortality. Their body has become " glorious :" it
covers the spirit as a holy veil, or as an imperishable
enshrinement, One stage only is wanting for their con
summation. The pattern of their resurrection is that of the Son of
God. And this statement is offered to mark an important
distinction. We are inclined to think that there has been
an exaggeration of certain qualities supposed to attach to
his risen frame, in contradistinction to those of " the holy
thing " which he received at birth. Familiar approach is
not checked. Another awe is not thrown around him.
He is the same. If he exclaimed, " Touch me not,"* it
was only because the hold which would have detained
him, implied the fear that he was about immediately to
• John xx. 17.

WITH NATURAL RELIGION. 135
ascend : ample interval for communion remained ; " For*
I am not yet ascended to my Father." " In the days of his
flesh "he had often stood in attitudes of greater majesty
than after rising from the dead. He had then given his
form impalpability at will. He had rebuked storm and
wave. All his miracles, with one exception, were done
within that term. Now he ate and drank. He went in
and out. "Reach hither thy finger.f and behold my
hands ; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my
side," was his method of convincing his incredulous dis
ciple. Nothing was reserved : none were repelled. We
only know most indefinitely what was the glory of his re
surrection. It is not most passingly described. We are
not told the appearance which he wore. A calm and a
facility are just intimated in the manner with which his
grave-clothes are disposed. The guards become as dead
men, but it is before the angel and amidst the earthquake.
In the whole narration he is not once seen. And until his
ascension " his glorious body " is not assumed. There must
be a reason for this. Why did he not rise as his saints
shall rise ? His flesh could see no corruption. It could
therefore, hke theirs, need no restoration. The proper
glory was restrained. It was always ready to be mani
fested. At his pleasure its coruscations would have
streamed around him. But he was to be recognised by
his disciples, to his voice, to his features, to his wounds.
Then, when " he showed himself alive, after his passion,
by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days,"
the heavens receive him, he is by the right hand of God
exalted, he sitteth down upon his throne ! It is not so
much to the risen body of Christ that his people shall be
assimilated, as to his ascending and glorified one. They
are his at his coming. They shall be like him, for they
* tap-
+ There is the truth of description in this : the " finger " to follow the
wound of the nail ; " the hand " to certify the larger orifice of the spear.

136 THE HARMONY OF REVELATION
shall see him as he is. Yet is there for them the judg
ment. It is honorable and safe. It shall be their public
acquittal and vindication. It is not the less solemn and real.
Concerning the resurrection of the wicked, the change
wrought in the texture of their bodies, whether there be
any tendings save those which are moral to the event, we
are little informed. That all men shall rise is sure. That
the unjust rise under the arrest of justice is certain. Christ
is the author of this amazing effect in all. The resurrec
tion of the just, as to its character and result, depends
upon their union to him. He is their head. But the
mere effect itself is not so related. That of the sinner,
it is plain, cannot be so ascribed. It would be false
to treat it as any benefit which flows to him from Christ.
The resurrection of both belongs to the creative rule,
or to a modification of it ; it may be a physical com
pensation for its disturbance. It is a requirement of
retribution. It is, therefore, however different the awards,
strictly judicial. The matter is thus determined by
Christ. " The Father hath given authority to the Son to
execute judgement. Marvel not at this : for the hour is
coming, in the which all that are in their graves shall hear
his voice and shall come forth." " The resurrection of
the dead " is thus conjoined with the " execution " of
"judgement." In that " end of the world," in that general
resurrection, a fearful discrimination shall be pursued. It
is the harvest : the reapers shall gather the tares of the
field and bind them in bundles to burn them. The net
which is full shall be drawn to shore, and they shall cast
the bad away. The figures are explained. " The angels
shall come forth, and sever the wicked from the just." It
may, at least, be assumed respecting the soul, which we
think has been proved immortal, that the resurrection of
its body cannot disfavour its immortality. Why is that
body raised ? Is it commanded to a second life, with the
omnipotence of its first creation, to be the companion and

WITH NATURAL RELIGION. 137
auxiliary of what is perishable ? All looks tremendously
serious in the way of retribution. " The things done in
the body " rise too, verifying their agent and their instru
ment. All stand ready for the sentence !
The judgement, as a great event and universal summons,
can only be made known to us by revelation. The
resurrection is its antecedent and preparative. Reason
would tell that a decision waited to pass upon us. The
consciousness of obligation would lead us to believe that
God would bring us into judgment with him. In the
progress of life we should fear that " He would come near
us in judgement." But that there shall be the gathering
of all men, small and great, at that tribunal, — that three
worlds shall attend the citation,- — that it shall be the
judgement of a day, — that Christ the Mediator shall be the
judge, — no independent powers of our mind can teach.
How does every hope and fear tremble in that balance !
An immediate adjudication of man's responsible conduct
would be wanting in that high instruction and impression
which such a scene must command. It is held back for
this public and universal inquest. " After death is the
judgement:" there can be no suspense. Character and de
cision are instantly confirmed. But it is not generally
known. It is in the hiding-places of the spirit. It shall
now be proclaimed. " The day shall declare it." " Their
folly shall be manifest unto all." " God must be justified
when he speaks, and be clear when he judges."
And though character and allotment be confirmed to
every one who has passed into a future state, there is an
obvious reason in the entail of sin for such a pause.
" Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to
judgement; and some men they follow after." It is
frightful to reflect what an extent of injury the evil
influence of no long life may propagate through far
distant times and peoples. The written infidelity, and
obscenity, and blasphemy, is still actual and demeritorious

138 THE HARMONY OF REVELATION
as in the moment of their nascent thought. Maxim and
example travel on, when the very dust of those who gave
utterance and vitality to them is no more. Guilt may lie
in augmenting amount. Mischief may spread in a self-
renewing process. This prolongation applies to the good,
as well as to the wicked. " Their works follow them."
" He being dead, yet speaketh." And, therefore, this final
judgement stands back until probation shall close, when
every man shall appear in it to account for all that he has
done, and for all which has sprung out of what he has
done, as the matter of his responsibility. If it be objected,
that responsibility only concerns the moral agent's life, —
we admit this, in general terms ; we admit that he cannot
be responsible for the acts of others in scattering the
unholy store he has bequeathed ; but is he not punishable
for the accumulation of that store ? is he not punished, in
the fact, surely known to him, that he is still " teaching to
sin?" Is not the righteous happy, not only in his life
reviewed by him, but in surveying the good, that comes
after him in deep-descending lines, which he promoted,
and the impulse of which never may be lost ?
The perfect recognitions of this one judgement are ex
acted by the confusion and irregularity which, upon earth,
often seem to overwhelm the cause of truth and justice.
In the mean while the Divine wisdom and righteousness
are arraigned. And even human government is not in
frequently wrested to violence and wrong. " Moreover,
I saw under the sun the place of judgement, that wicked
ness was there ; and the place of righteousness, that
iniquity was there. I said in my heart, God shall judge
the righteous and the wicked." There needs the open
setting forth of the great principles upon which man has
been uniformly governed, and earth as uniformly ruled.
There needs the finishing of that mystery which has en
veloped so many transactions in its folds, and that a
notable solution should be given to it. There needs that

WITH NATURAL RELIGION. 139
God should plead his own cause, and that he prove his
invariable regard to it in those periods which have seemed
to justify the charge of indifference and neglect. There
needs the public avowal of his people and children, and
the public disgrace of his enemies. Reason agrees to
the justice of those declarative proceedings which such a
judgement includes, and to which the Scripture bears its
fullest testimony.
The first consequence of the judgement is, the separa
tion of mankind into two classes, — classes which are
sufficiently broad to receive all shades and distinctions
of character. To one or the other is every man attached.
For the first time is the separation notoriously made.
The right and the left hands of the Judge form the points
of division. Nothing can be more intelligible, marked,
certain, extreme.
This awful scene respects the issues of all human
conduct. It leaves and confirms all those influences
for good or for evil, which attend every moral act, — it
gives them an undiverted course. These influences have
been partially and occasionally suspended during earthly
probation. Self-accusation may have been lulled. Fac
titious circumstances may have countervailed disgrace.
The heart has deceived. Long-suffering and mercy have
interposed. A check has been laid upon countless reac
tions. Tendency has been arrested, consequence for
bidden to arise, — in other words, punishment has been
restrained. But now the crisis is presumed when the
full direction and scope may be allowed to the bearing
and determination of all that has been done. Nothing
requires it to be delayed. Nothing requires it to be con
trolled. The perfect result is there ! " They shall pro
ceed no farther." Character is fixed. It has taken its
final form. Nothing can affect it. The last vibration
between good and evil has stopped. An entire, thorough,
choice has been determined. It is perfect self-decision.

140 THE HARMONY OF REVELATION
The vessel is fitted by internal moulding for destruction.
We may believe that none are delivered to this punish
ment but those who would still sin, whose hearts are set
in them to do evil, who would not repent. The irrevoc-
ableness of disposition is settled ere the irrevocableness
of doom. Since punishment mainly depends upon con
science, it may be supposed that this faculty will then
gain its entire ascendency. Amidst the illusions of life
and enticements of society, its remonstrance may be
repressed. It is, even now, sufficiently terrible to guilt.
" We still have judgement here ! " In the few intervals
when its upbraidings are heard, it can bow down the
stoutest heart. It has much in its manner, in its power,
in its independence, of " the judgement to come." " Our
heart condemns us." Then shall there be no blinding of
the mind, no forgotten deed, no evaded charge. The soul
shall live through all its depths, and in the certitude of
things. Memory shall present its woven chain of what
was, and the order in which it rose, true to the natural
succession, but as we never traced it, though the tissue
lengthened out itself beneath our eye. Remorse shall
utter all its taunts and reproaches, brandish all its scor
pion scourges, and stretch wide its racks. The wicked
"have rewarded evil to themselves." And, within this
range, may be considered the motive which made evil so
many acts, which were not evil in themselves. It remains
for evil. It rages in the heart. It gnaws the soul.—
Yet justice is not tied down to the measure of punish
ment which is filled with consequences, nor to the self-
infliction of the sinner. These do not necessarily express
its proportions. And now has the period come when it
shall forego all oblique retribution. What, in its earthly
administration, it only sometimes, and very rarely, did,
it may now find necessary to do once for all. Its satis
faction, until that direct prooedure, may have been in
complete.— Counterparts of retribution to crime were not

WITH NATURAL RELIGION. 141
unknown before this "judgement was set." We could not
always follow them up in the train of events, — they pro
ceed upon an immediate interference, which, if frequent,
would give a sensibleness to present probation, — still
these have appeared, though at distant asra-s. An in
visible hand was at work. An unerring remembrance
kept the record. But now in this last assize, that which
was rare becomes the universal rule, — no reasons growing
out of an immature dispensation forbid, — the parallelism
is perfect, — the bed of wickedness is the torture-bed, the
cup of abomination is the cup of wrath. — These several
circumstances ofthe judgement towards the wicked, equally
apply to the righteous. Their holiness acquires all its
due and natural influence and effect. "Their righteous
ness endureth for ever." The felicity of their conscience
and of their motives is complete. They receive a reward
far greater than the simple consequences of their princi
ples and acts could secure. All is seen of their former
history, it returns to them, how they fed the hungry,
clothed the naked, visited the sick, and comforted the
prisoner. They are recompensed. They have a reward
in heaven.
The chief doctrines of Christian grace, already adduced
and defined, maintain a direct reference to a certain state
of mind and of conduct in all who embrace and experience
them. They presuppose the infraction of the Divine law.
This infraction involves both guilt and depravity. That
guilt and depravity it is their business to remove. But
they contemplate an ulterior end. That law, being rein
stated in all its inviolable dignity, becomes the code of the
kingdom of grace. It is to be kept and obeyed, and every
thing besides is a mere contrivance and pre-requisite that
it may be kept and obeyed. Justification removes the hin
drance of guilt. Condemnation cannot co-exist with obe
dience. Were the obedience conceivable, the condemna
tion would vitiate it. We cannot speak of the loyalty of

142 THE HARMONY OF REVELATION
the branded traitor. His dungeon and fetters not only
declare his treason, but his incapacity for being anything
else. Loose his chains, forgive him, trust him, honor him,
restore him, and he may be — he has the full opportunity
— loyal yet. Regeneration removes the hindrance of de
pravity. The disaffection of the traitor would preclude his
loyalty, did even his pardon allow him to display it. But
if that traitor were absolved and received by his prince, —
if his disaffection were purged, and greatly by the influ
ence of this clemency, from his soul, — what would be the
design ? The clemency of the prince would be magnified,
but that would be rather a personal celebration. The
public grounds of the clemency would be to restore the
convict-rebel to the privileges and sentiments of a good
subject. And until these evangelic blessings be obtained
by us, obedience in its welcome and disposition is debarred.
Though duty is all the while the same, the sinner is not
in a case nor in a temper to obey. In both these respects
there is a disqualifying taint. Nothing is acceptable : no
thing is of love. But now he has " by the faith of Jesus,"
"access into this grace." No guilt need intimidate him
as though his obedience were proscribed. It is taken
away. No depravity need discourage him as though his
obedience were impracticable. Sin now suffers a cruci
fixion, and it shall perish. " God now accepteth thy
works !" Enlightened views of the justifying righteous
ness of Christ Jesus, and of the regenerating inworking of
the Holy Ghost, support all these conclusions. " That the
righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." " How
much more shall the blood of Christ purge your con
science from dead works to serve the living God?" " Of
his own will begat he us by the word of truth, that we
should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures." The first
care of the Christian system is to enthrone the law of
God, with a full redress, in all its rightful honors, beyond

WITH NATURAL RELIGION. 143
a possible charge of vacillation and indifference, of con
nivance at sin, or of partiality towards the sinner : then to
" put it into our mind, and to write it in our hearts."
The new occasion and motive of obedience, which Chris
tianity furnishes, constitute a feature most marked and im
portant in the operation of Christianity. It is shown to
be not a mere indemnity. The believer " yields himself
to God as alive from the dead." Gratefully acknowledging
the justifying acquittance, and the regenerating element,
to which he owes his all, he is set in a new probation.
His state and principle are brought to the test. A con
stant discipline is conducted, to prove what is in his heart.
Temptation tries his courage. Affliction ascertains his
submission. Amidst the good and evil of the present, his
character must be formed and developed. It is to be de
termined, whether his state be real and his principle valid.
A profession is to be sealed. In these adverse scenes the
pilgrim moves. There is much to encounter, much to
endure. But it is salutary. The furnace purifies the gold
by its rigorous assay. The vine is pruned until it bleeds,
that it may bear its richer clusters. A theatre is raised
for lofty struggle and celestial dint. No evidence can
supersede this. It belongs to Christianity. The Christian
is justified before God, by faith, without works : he only
can be justified as to the genuineness of that faith before
man, by works. Any impression of his mind that he is
safe, in carelessness of holy endeavour, is perilously vain.
Consciousness is, indeed, necessary to the proper exa
mination of this evidence, for the dispositions of the mind
form a large part of it : but the outward is that of which
others can only judge. " Tribulation worketh patience,
and patience proof:" the corroboration that we are "in
Christ Jesus." It is in this way alone that Christianity
can receive its visible portraiture ; and it is from the exer
cise of its principles in the minds and lives of its disciples,
that this receives its finest touches and strokes. " The

144 THE HARMONY OF EEVELATION
trial of faith," is the great business of this probationary
arrangement. " They that are approved are made mani
fest." Others are detected who are "reprobate concerning
the faith."
These views of the holy purpose of evangelic revelation,
and of the new probationary oeconomy into which it calls
us, have a distinct bearing upon our relations to the final
judgement. We are informed, repeatedly, most solemnly,
of its rule. That is not, indeed, what we might have ex
pected. It is another ordeal and process. It is true, that
" we shall be judged by the gospel." It is most legiti
mate, in anticipating it, to breathe the prayer, " the Lord
grant that we may find mercy of the Lord, in that day."
The whole constitution of things, of which this event is
the close and the climax, is founded on " the gospel," and
is the express covenant of "mercy." But it is not to be
mistaken, that the great bias of Scripture directory and
warning, is to draw off our special thoughts from grounds
like these, when it points to the " day of God." We are
not to be adjudged as justified, but, whether we be justi
fied : we are not to be adjudged as regenerated, but, whether
we be regenerated. In order to this proof, we shall be
judged every man according to his works. The judgement-
seat is not the mercy-seat. We must regard this awful
transaction as an inquest into character. It is in our
character of responsible agents that we must give account
of ourselves to God. In that simple condition shall we
stand there. The question is only implicitly, whether we
have obtained mercy, and found grace in the sight of God :
the question truly and directly is, whether such mercy and
grace — supposed to have been received — have moulded the
righteous character, and stamped the holy life? These
sovereign favors are reflected in their proofs, but the
proofs are the exclusive subjects of the scrutiny. The
merit of Christ is still the ground of hope. The power of
the Holy Ghost is still the cause of difference. But the

WITH NATURAL RELIGION. 145
adjudication proceeds on the evidence of character and
conduct, not the righteousness, but the mind, of Christ, —
not the gift, but the sanctification, of the Spirit. Faith is
dead without its work, love is dissimulation without its
labour, hope is not hope without its waiting patience,
repentance needs to be repented of without the fruits meet
for it. These statements are due to a healthy, masculine,
Christianity. It is a system of rewards and punishments.
The Christian is a candidate for the approval of his Judge.
He labors that, whether present o* absent, he may be
accepted of him. He is a probationer for that sentence,
"Well done, good and faithful servant!" It is not a holy
humility to hide and weaken views like these. It is false
and profane to set any honors of mercy against them.
The constitution under which they, who were " enemies in
their minds by wicked works," may now "walk before God,
unto all well-pleasing," may know that he " has a favor
towards them," may seek a recompense, is necessarily a
constitution of mercy. To affect a greater jealousy for the
claims of mercy, than its own constitution demands, is most
hypocritically to insult it. Well-being is the state and the
disposition which it confers : but well-doing is the course
it enjoins and the evidence it requires. There is allotted
to us a charge and a trust. We must give account of that
stewardship. We are a peculiar people, zealous of good
works. We must carry out that description. Wisdom
must be justified of her children. We must study to show
ourselves approved unto God. The men who have most
clearly and triumphantly vindicated the unmixed purity of
the Divine grace, to whom it was most reverently dear,
even saturating all their thoughts and emotions, have
ever thus spoken of duty and its remunerableness. We
will be no parties to the dilution of their vigorous style.
It agrees with " the words of the Lord, which are pure
words." We will not enfeeble it by explanation, nor
dishonor it by concession. Duty would cease to be duty
XII. L

146 THE HARMONY OF REVELATION, ETC.
if not urged upon such terms. All will admit that this
would be true were it attempted against law; that it
would surrender its authority, betray its name, and con
tradict its notion, but for its sanctions. Yet, what is
law, save the handwriting of duty ? Was it a sordid thing
in the lowly suppHants for mercy, to emulate the crown of
eternal life? It was thus that the ancient saints "had
respect unto the recompense of reward," and struggled
" for a better resurrection ; " it was thus that the first
propagandists of the Gospel, amidst the gathering clouds
of mortality and the rising terrors of martyrdom, could
address their converts — " Look to yourselves, that we
lose not those things which we have wrought, but that
we receive a full reward ; " could each lift his eyes to
heaven, and assuredly exclaim — " I have fought a good
fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith ;
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteous
ness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me
at that day ; and not to me only, but unto all them also
that love his appearing ! "

LECTUEE IV.
THE NATURE AND REWARDABLENESS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE.
" And, behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man
according as his work shall be." — Rev. xxii. 12.
The analogy which we ascertain in the physical to the
moral world must so fully convince us that there is a unity
of design in both, as to banish every doubt concerning the
oneness of their Author. The dual hypothesis of good and
evil powers is not only proved to be absurd, but it is tin-
needed to explain any difficulty. All is now anticipated
and relieved. The physical and moral worlds, as we are
accustomed to call them, are but one world: their elements
and laws are mutually subservient and perfectly blended.
They are not parts and divisions of a whole : there is a
transfusion of the qualities from which the whole is con
stituted. They are not properly different systems adjusted
to each other, but are one entire and mature system. They
may stand as mighty gates, furnishing distinct entrances,
but they are covered by the same porch and lead into the
same temple.
In examining the constitution of things amidst which we
are placed, we find that certain pleasures, or pains, follow
on certain courses of conduct. This may seem monitorial,
but it will be necessary to make some exceptions ere we
establish upon this sequence a rule of right. For our sen
suous nature in its solicitations and refusal, cannot be an
ultimate criterion. Reason assures us that these must be

148 THE NATURE AND REWARDABLENESS
often withstood and always moderated. Gratification, or
aversion, where the animal propensions are concerned,
constitute these exceptions to a general rule, exceptions
taught us by the obvious facts, that there are higher prin
ciples in us to regulate them, and that they cannot guide
themselves. They are blind and headlong : they require
control. Judgement and moral motive are given, and are
competent, for this. But soon as we reach the province of
mind and morals, we are impressed with a clear distinction.
Right is good, wrong is evil. The tests of real happiness
and misery present themselves. The distinction is, indeed,
worked out very beautifully in the operations of insensate
nature. None of its ordinances can be violated without a
particular resentment. However disturbed, they will revert
to their true direction. There is a fixed relation which,
ever and anon, renews itself. However you break in upon
it, it is presently repaired. The original order triumphs.
However combined, or disintegrated, the same primitive
proportions remain. If the intrusion be on sentient nature,
a shock is immediately felt. Signs of resistance appear,
not to be mistaken. It cannot be forced, nor perverted,
without suffering. So far, nothing of moral conclusion
could be drawn. Hitherto, it is but a wise and benevolent
arrangement, a preservation against confusion, a guardian
ship from danger, a warning to care. But it is a first step
by which we ascend. It prepares us for a progressive law.
The order of oeconomy merges in the order of obligation.
There are acts and affections which cannot be cultivated
without convenience and advantage, which cannot be
crossed with impunity. Here the pleasure, or the pain,
being predominantly, though not to necessity exclusively,
mental, we find in them the indications of a rule. Unlike
inferior indulgences, these can look to nothing higher in
our nature. They belong to intellection and conscience.
They are, therefore, though not the reasons, the sanctions,
of a law. For we, as it must have been seen, dissent with

OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. 149
utter scorn from the theory which places virtue in pleasur
able emotion. We bow before its holy essence as enshrined
in eternal necessity, we adore its perfect image in God.
But that which accompanies, or succeeds, compliance with
it, is its enforcement. Vice is its opposite, deterred by
the opposite to real happiness. Destruction and misery
attend on wicked doings. These effects are only the more
silent operations of conditions which the revealed law
avows : " Obey my voice, that it may be well unto you ; "
" If ye walk contrary unto me, I will walk contrary unto
you."* In this distribution of good and evil, the sanctions which
the law of nature dictates, we shall detect a peculiarity
which will be found to operate more widely and impres
sively in revealed law. The benefit is as real as the dis
advantage, the good as the evil, or, which is the same
thing, the reward is as real as the punishment. But
it is not so instantaneously visible. Health is soon
shattered, peace broken, character destroyed. These con
sequences are more sudden, notable, direct. Health and
peace and esteem, the true results of virtue, may be greatly
defeated by the contingencies of this life. They may be
almost too uniform for notice, almost too habitual for con
sciousness. So, even they who now possess these bless
ings, would learn their truth and value, their absoluteness,
more intimately and sensibly, though certainly more pain
fully, by any interruption of them, even in momentary ill
ness, agitation, and reproach.
It is most desirable, then, that we carry our natural,
common, ideas of obligation and sanction to the govern
ment of God and to his revealed dispensations. We must
* " ' But all this is to be ascribed to the general course of nature.' True.
This is the very thing which I am observing. It is to be ascribed to the
general course of nature, i. e., not merely to the words or ideas, course of
nature ; but to Him who appointed it, and put things into it ; or to a course
of operation, from its uniformity or constancy, called natural, and which
necessarily implies an operating agent." — Butler.

150 THE NATURE AND REWARDABLENESS
not employ language of a two-fold interpretation. Justice
and truth and right, mean always the same things. They
are in God, what they are in man. We disclaim all esoteric,
and exoteric, distinctions. It might be the boast of the
Homeric deities, that for everything named on earth, they
had another name.* But the ideas of moral rectitude, as
they exist in the Divine and human mind, — taught to the
human by the Divine, — differ not in substance, however
they shall in clearness. The medium which conveys them
is strictly one, it is of earth, — than this none other has
been employed. It can only be used in its own determinate
sense. Nor is there any intimation that a higher sense is
reserved for these ideas in the infinite intelligence, so that
a real difference takes place in them. This would be self-
contradictory. The ruler and the subject would be seen to
act upon different principles. Opposite significations would
sway them. Surely this definite acceptation of moral ideas
and terms is confirmed by Him who spake of old : " Yet
the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not
equal; but as for them, their way is not equal."
The principle of legal sanctions, finds an early analogy
to itself in the constitution of our minds. It is always
most important in moral reasonings, to trace, if possible,
such analogy. No argument is more convincing to the
reflecting observer, than that which arises from the fact.
Whatever is the law of the wise and righteous God, must be
consonant to him who is the subject of it. Are we, then,
formed to act from such a motion as sanctions presume ?
The question resolves itself into one, only different, by
being more simple. Would we be happy? This is instinct
ive choice. When reason is unhinged, that choice might
cease, but not until then. The most solemn sanctions may
be to us only the solemn application of the daily use of
means and ends. "A prudent man foreseeth the evil,
» ""0,/ Edi/flov naWono-! Bei,, ivSpet Si ZKapav&pop." Vide Scholium. Iliad, .
1. 20, ti.

OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. 151
and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are
punished." The dependence of the future upon the present, we all
unhesitatingly admit. Our bodily vigor, our mental peace,
our reputation, our influence, are greatly in our own keep
ing. We know, with obvious exceptions, that we have
power and command over them. This is the care which we
exercise as prospective beings. None dispute the fact.
Youth is bound to age, and lays up its store of good or
evil. Successive moments are not only related to one
another, but each bears on each. This may be called natural
reward and punishment. It prepares us to expect some
thing far more unerring and determinate in that govern
ment, by which motives are sifted and actions are weighed.
The obnoxiousness of crime to punishment is an idea
quite easy to the mind. The degree and matter of it must
depend upon the demerits and the relations of the crime.
The most ready application of this idea is to society. We
readily understand that a community of persons and of in
terests can alone be guided by regulations and protected
by laws. The magistrate but represents it. He enforces
its covenants and conditions. Offence committed against
himself affects all the members of the commonwealth :
offence against any or all of those members affects him.
The claims of both are inseparable. They hold together
for general order and safety. The disturber, the marauder,
the violent and bloody man. are regarded with horror.
Their wickedness is anticipated by precautions in statute
and police. The first view taken of crime is its mischievous
and destructive tendency. It is to be repressed. But
enlightened governments soon legislate in reference to its
desert. They cannot always, nor often, repress by pre
vention. That attempt, in the most favourable circum
stances, will be very commonly void. They must punish.
This is required to satisfy the justice of the state ; not a
poetic impersonation, but its consistency, its impartiality,

152 THE NATURE AND REWARDABLENESS
its trustiness, its strength. Their function is also to con
vince, by such punishment, that the protection of the
peaceable and obedient citizen is not overlooked. More
over, by examples of retributive justice, they must warn
and coerce other offenders, whose crimes are not sufficiently
obtruded for notice or matured for vengeance. The propor
tion of desert, therefore, becomes a most serious study.
Severity and leniency are equally injurious extremes. Nor
must distinctions be confounded. To punish all classes of
offenders alike argues a blind resentment. It will speedily
efface the sense, or destroy the care, of such distinctions.
Men will grow reckless. The most enormous transgres
sions will be dared when but a uniform penalty is affixed
to them and to the least. To conceive of a social system
without these self-supports, without resting upon defined
laws and fixed retributions, is to conceive what perhaps
was never projected, what certainly never did exist.
We soon find, in examining the best governments of
earth, how very unequally rewards can keep pace with
punishments. The citizen must be satisfied with the
security and quietude of his humble station. This is what
he earns. It is his merit and his meed. Virtue is not
notorious as is vice. The fame of goodness is not like the
clamour of ill. Every social offence jars through the
social frame. The public attention gazes upon the in
dividual delinquent. The general disgust is awakened
towards his particular act. He is known, who was un
known before. Obscurity bursts into light, and insig
nificance rises into prominence. And now are prepared
the forms of judicatm-e. The emblems of justice are held
on high. Law sits in throned state. Pleadings of accusa
tion, it may be of defence, are heard. Crowds gather
around the court and the prison. In a breathless silence,
which seems to still the nation, sentence is awarded. And
then, amidst dread publicities, falls the inflicted stroke.
But it is not this proof alone which we adduce. In wise

OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. 153
and good jurisdictions the grosser offences are not suffered
to escape their due punishment. Yet are there many evils
with which civil polity can scarcely intermeddle. Merely
their overflowings can be cheeked. Yet if we look among
the lieges of that state we shall find the independence
of the social virtues which they cherish and maintain.
They are meek and retiring. Of their own nature they
follow an order of quiet and unpretension. Contentment,
industry, temperance, modfesty, domestic love, household
faith, do not report themselves. They ask no chronicler ;
they seek no blazonry. Society unconsciously feels its
health, its sweet rest, in their cultivation. They mildly
grow like the olive ; they beautifully entangle like the vine.
They are committed to prove their own reward. All that
they can obtain, save inward peace, is security and respect.
Splendid guerdons fall to few, and seldom to the lowly
good. The arm of power, if desirous to honour them, is
short : there is very little which it can do. Feeble is even
its succour, slow its recognition, and faint its praise. The
punishment of the oppressor is not necessarily the indem
nity of the oppressed.
In the institutes of earthly legislation we possess a very
imperfect copy ofthe Infinite rectitude. God is righteous.
Justice and judgement are the occupation of his throne. To
think otherwise of him were to undeify him. Better would
be the foolishness which denied that he is, than the blas
phemy which represented his power as lawless, arbitrary,
will. By his justice we understand a disposition to rule
his intelligent and accountable creatures, with a constant
reference to their well-being ; to " give them all the goods
which fall unto them: " when his rule is obeyed, to reward:
when his rule is opposed, to punish. We do not see how
the propriety of rewarding, and not of punishing, can be
momentarily entertained. This would not be justice. We
cannot understand the merey of reward. Mercy may be the
basis of the constitution under which it is given, but reward

154 THE NATURE AND REWARDABLENESS
can respect rule and condition alone. Did he not punish,
the forbearance would be an encouragement, and an implied
love, of evil. God would be tempted by it. He would not
set himself against it, nor walk contrary to it. He would
pass by the breaches of right, and truth, and happiness.
He would abandon his creation. He would abdicate his
throne. Horror-struck by these dilemmas, we look up to
him, and adoringly exclaim : "Thou art not a God that hast
pleasure in wickedness, neithei*shall evil dwell with thee."
" Thou hatest the workers of iniquity." We feel the force
of that declaration: "The righteous Lord loveth righteous
ness." We allow the weight of that demand: "Is God
unrighteous who taketh vengeance? God forbid; for then
how shall God judge the world?" We bring the whole
question, therefore, of distributive justice, punitive and com
pensative, to bear upon those great events which we have
found assured in holy Scripture, — the resurrection and the
settlement of the last day, when " God shall judge the
world in righteousness ; " when we, and all who have either
risen or been changed, shall behold " the revelation of the
judgement of God."
This rectitude knows none of the limitations and inca
pacities which attach to human government. It measures
all its exercise by a faultless rule. It is baffled by no diffi
culty, it fails of no end. Right cannot perish nor wrong
overcome. There is no physical restriction to this law.
It has access to mind. It has sovereignty over conscience.
The whole man is helplessly in its power. Reward and
punishment suppose delay. Yet this is not conceded on
the part of the Divine government, in any rigid view or to
any large extent. The inward emotion, itself reward and
punishment, accompanies the act. The judicial issue may
be withheld. But when it is reckoned up, there shall be
shown no inequality, no evasion, no compromise, no giving
way, no turning back, no capitulation, such as the power-

OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. 155
lessness of earthly rule so frequently betrays. All obedience
and disobedience shall receive its due.
Now it may be necessary to adduce proof that the Chris
tian revelation does aver the doctrine and promise of re
wards. The theme of pcenal retribution must afterwards
be considered. To the question of these rewards our pre
sent attention is claimed. Not a few, who bear the Christian
name, survey the subject with jealousy and dislike. They
suspect its interference and incompatibleness with salvation
by grace. Its vocabulary is repugnant to their taste : they
never employ it but with qualification. They might almost
account inspiration incautious in its style. They are always
ready to correct it. They affect a concern for the Divine
character which it does not confess. They are always im
patient to set it right. It is a sentiment morbid and pro
fane ! It is " speaking wickedly for God ! "
The sacred Volume plainly defines what is, and what is
not, its principle upon this question. It supposes the
case of an unfallen man, who has kept the whole law, who
is entitled to the life of justification by works. " Now to
him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but
of debt." That ease is purely hypothetical, — it is utterly
inapplicable and unavailing, — it is for ever past. The
ground of a sinner's justification is altogether different.
He of himself can do nothing to recover favor and accept
ance. The attempt to do so is a fearful aggravation of his
guilt. "He worketh not." He can claim no "reward of
debt." When " he believeth on Him that justifieth the un
godly, his faith " — that which is its object, or that which it
embraces — "is counted for justification." Now, in such
an instance, after such a pre-requisite, may we prepare
ourselves to understand " the reward of grace." Let us,
with this distinction in our mind, examine inspired lan
guage concerning the well-doing of justified and re
generate men. " God is the rewarder of them that dili-

156 THE NATURE AND REWARDABLENESS
gently seek him." " The Lord rewarded me according
to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my
hands hath he recompensed me." "Verily, there is a
reward for the righteous." " Great is your reward in
heaven." " And whosoever shall give to drink unto one
of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name
of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise
lose his reward." " Let no man beguile you of your
reward." " Ye shall receive the reward of the inherit
ance."* The principle is not dependent upon a word,
or some nice shade of expression. The conditional
manner in which all promised good or benefit is en
sured, confirms it. It is pledged to character : it is un
intelligible and unsuited to them who possess not kin
dred sentiments and tastes. Character is here the con
dition, being the capacity. We therefore read, " With the
merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful ; with an upright
man thou wilt show thyself upright ; with the pure thou
wilt show thyself pure." Nor is it less so when this pro
mised good rests with our dispositions to give it effect.
" If I do this thing willingly, I have a reward." " Cast
not away your confidence, which hath great recompence
of reward." The final state of happiness to which Chris
tians are admitted is thus described : something to be
enjoyed by a peculiar aptitude and under a condign claim.
They are " accounted worthy to obtain that world." They
are "worthy of the kingdom of God for which they
suffer." " They walk in white, for they are worthy."
The theory of Christian reward depends upon a fixed
constitution of holy law which has its foundation in the
atonement of Christ. From that Real Sacrifice proceeds
• Reward maybe used in the sense of punitive recompense. So our trans
lators occasionally employ it. Psalm xci. 8 ; Hebrews ii. 2 ; 2 Peter ii. 13.
Sometimes it is employed indifferently for good or evil. MirrrJairoSoo-ia is
taken to be stronger than avraTtoooats, This cannot be proved. We adopt it
in its conventional acceptation, exclusively as the premium of virtue : punish
ment can only have an invariably evil meaning.

OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. 157
a consideration by virtue of which the strict justice which
regarded the sinner is satisfied. That justice no longer
forbids his salvation, but confirms it. An infinite merit,
or righteousness, becomes the basis for the acceptance of
his person and his works. Could his works challenge a
perfect conformity to the Divine will, he would not need
the aid of any atonement. They now look to the satisfac
tion of Christ for the sole reason why they can find favor
with the Righteous One. The entire basis and scope for
such treatment of them is the Mediatorial system. All
is done " through Jesus Christ," and " in his name." All
is received " for his sake." " Whatsoever ye do in word
or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God and the Father by him." " For his name's
sake they went forth." We are explicit to guard against
misconception. We would found the doctrine of rewards
aright. But we would speak in no tone of exception and
excuse. Whatever its relations and its reasons, it is a
perfect doctrine, — to be understood and defended in itself.
God, the rock of faithfulness, binds himself to it. It is
not that pseudo-scheme which stipulates his dishonor by
the allowance of a sincere, instead of a complete, obedi
ence ; itself adjusted and accommodated to a mitigated
law ; (a predicament which, by its terms, must make in
sincere what it tolerates as incomplete,) but an order and
arrangement which insisted on, against the Substitute of
man, a perfect obedience even unto death, ere the imper
fect virtues of them upon whom the penalty has no farther
claim and force could be approved, and still exhibiting
that obedience as the exclusive ground of approval. This
course being settled, God having engaged himself to it,
there arises an order which he authorises, an expectation
which he fulfils. " God is not unrighteous to forget your
work and labor of love." " Blessed are they that do his
commandments, that they may have right to the tree of
life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."

I 58 THE NATURE AND REWARDABLENESS
It may be said that, while punishment is considered as
a recompense, every benefit of salvation, and all that flows
from it, is ascribed to grace. The one may be of desert,
but the other is gratuitous bestowment. " The wages of
sin is death ; but the gift of God is eternal life, through
Jesus Christ our Lord." To any such statement we
assent. It must, nevertheless, be remembered that the
former applies properly to the first constitution, while the
latter is peculiar to the second. And assuredly we speak
not now of eternal life, otherwise than a gift, certainly
not as the wages which we have earned — however, beneath
the dispensation which secures this gift of eternal life, there
be terms and rewards which serve the better to illustrate
its simple mercy, its holy character, its glorious immunity !
We now enter upon an inquiry, which passes beyond the
fact and the doctrine of reward : we investigate what may
be called its philosophy. Are virtuous affections and acts,
in the circumstances which we have supposed, rewardable?
Can the contrary be imagined ? Could it be gravely urged?
Is it fitting, reasonable, agreeable to right, consonant to the
nature of things, that they be considered and treated as
proper subjects of reward ? Should we succeed in our
proof, one thing may be demanded. We must be shamed
out of constant apology for the term itself. We are bound
as openly to declare the doctrine as any other. In main
taining all truth, we shock many classes of persons and
many orders of feelings: why are they, who oppose the
theology of Christian rewards, only to be accommodated
and soothed? Are they the most worthy defenders of
Divine grace? Are they the most devoted assertors of
morality ? Are they the men of large views, of connected
ideas, of holiest principles ? We must revere the diction
of Scripture, nor trust ourselves to refine upon it
1. If it be objected that a mercenary feeling is implied
in this idea and expectation, we disclaim, once for all, that
religion ever proposes itself to an abstract disinterestedness

OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. 159
in man. Such a tenet holds not with the first speculative
view of law. It contradicts all the love of happiness, and
fear of misery, which are our earliest conscious emotions.
It is at variance with our probationary position during the
present life. It wars with every sanction of obligation.
The greatest exercise of reason, the best conduct of under
standing, to which we can have recourse, is to seek the
most extensive measure, and the most durable continuance,
of good. We are not called to " serve God for nought."
We are warranted to anticipate "profit, if we pray unto
him." Every duty is but a path to the pleasant direction,
and cheerful use, of our being. Every sacrifice is secured
its ample indemnity. Every restraint is the prevention of
so much ill. A proper self-love finds in religion, a perfect ex-
patiation. It is " a fulness of blessing." This is recipro
cally explained and understood, God declares it: "that
they may fear me for ever, for the good of them ; and I
will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will
not turn away from them, to do them good." His people
avow it : " Lord, to whom shall we go but unto thee ? thou
hast the words of eternal life." We need not, then, appre
hend that the purest sentiments of piety, the most dis
interested repose on the Divine beauty, the most compla-
cential veneration and esteem, the warmest spontaneous-
ness of gratitude, can in any wise be impaired by the
creature's necessary desire and pursuit of happiness. Re
ligion is itself a reward, — but one reward, — and it appeals
to all who are capable of emulating it. "Eat ye that which
is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness."
2. Whatever was rewardable at any time, and in any cir
cumstances, on account of its own intrinsic qualities, or
its agreement with the nature of things, must be always
rewardable. Light and darkness, sweet and bitter, are not
less interchangeable than good and evil, right and wrong.
It was not arbitrary in God, to connect happiness with
obedience to his will, for his will is not arbitrarily holy.

160 THE NATURE AND REWARDABLENESS
It must be holy, he being infinite perfection. That will
towards moral agents, is now a governing will. It rules
us in rectitude, and for good. It is necessary that it mani
fest its nature, its delight in rectitude and consequent
happiness, by corresponding laws. It, from the beginning,
gave life and energy to them. Is there variableness with
the Father of lights ? It is to say nothing in the shape of
argument, to reply that we are now in another history.
This we have assumed. In this new history, our nature
is restored. We may, and can, obey. We obey from an
acceptable and sanctified motive. We do it not perfectly,
but the consideration of acceptance is always perfect, and
the sanctifying work in us is always pressing towards per
fection. As far as we obey, there must be the restitution
of the original good. That is only another term for the
originally affixed reward. Obedience must not be un
marked and neglected, for that would suppose indifference
towards it. This would be injurious. It would induce
in the creature a similar slight. A general indifference
would prevail. But, we may indeed ask, why, after such a
manifestation of mercy, in nothing more signalized than
in this privilege and capability of obeying, any advantage,
ever bound up with it, should be withheld? Let us re
member that the oeconomy, beneath whose grace obedience
is now rendered, supplies more abundant reasons, than
could exist in any other, for its recognition, encourage
ment, and support. Is reward, the natural and the appro
priate incentive, to be excluded ?
3. An analogy will be found to the conditions of reward
in the highest examples, as well as in the humblest forms,
of moral motive. We wish it to be understood that motive
of this kind can alone constitute the freedom and signifi
cance of any moral act. It is inconceivable that a motive
can sway such an agent, even any rational being, which is
not prospective of a beneficial result. We cannot moment
arily think ofthe inducement for this course of conduct in

OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. 161
preference to that, or for that in preference to this, without
the certainty of the conviction that the inducement is in
some presumed good, in the tendency of one course rather
than of the other to immediate or ultimate happiness.
Place the question however low. " Who goeth a warfare
any time at his own charges ? who planteth a vineyard,
and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock,
and eateth not of the milk of the flock ? Say I these
things as a man ? or saith not the law the same also ?"
From humble instances like these we may ascend to glo
rious illustrations. We must find a motive for the daring
of the confessor and for the constancy of the martyr. Did
they not listen, amidst tortures and flames, to the com
mand and promise : " Be thou faithful unto the death, and
thou shalt receive the crown of life ?" But we cite that
benevolence which only was without abatement of self-
sacrifice, — that perfect devotion, — that holocaust of purest,
intensest, love, — and yet, in emphatic explanation of that
love, are we taught, that " He, for the joy that was set before
him, endured the cross, despising the shame."
4. If human conduct, so influenced and performed, be
acceptable, it must be capable of praise, as the opposite
would be liable to blame. This is praiseworthy. There
are forms of it which are met by " the honor which
cometh from God only." "Whose praise is not of men,
but of God.' "For not he that commendeth himself is
approved, but whom the Lord commendeth." This is a
clear distinction, a fixed idea, of Christian obedience. It
would be cold and inert in their withdrawment. The
praise marks its true quality, and pronounces its just
ratification. The refusal of praise would be unreason
able and discouraging. What is distinctively excellent,
demands distinctive notice. But distinctive notice is
honor. What is this plaudit but reward ? Thus our
Lord, in speaking of affections which are supposed to be
selfish or self-requiting, asks : " What thank have you ?"
XII. M

102 THE NATURE AND REWARDABLENESS
It is assumed that affections more generous and useful
would be entitled to thanks. If disregard to virtue be
impossible in the virtuous mind, then it is impossible
in God. Can there be higher reward than his approval?
" Study to show thyself approved of God." "He that in
these things serveth Christ, is acceptable to God, and
approved of men." If " the trial of our faith be found
to praise and honor;" if it be truly laudable in its own
features, what must be the crowning esteem and favor of
Him whose smile is the light and life of all such " praise
and honor ?" „Then shall every man have praise of
God." 5. The character of these dispositions and acts will
support our argument, that they belong to a moral order
and classification, and that they are consequently reward-
able. They are commonly described in holy writ as
"good works." They are so allowed. "We are created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them." " That ye may
abound to every good work." " This is a faithful saying,
and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that
they which have beheved in God might be careful to
maintain good works : these things are good and profit
able unto men." They, as good, are convenient and bene
ficial. They extend that which is good. All duties, even
the most ordinary, yield appropriate advantages : " Chil
dren, obey your parents in all things, for this is well-
pleasing to the Lord." They are " well-pleasing " on ac
count of their " necessary uses :" they reach the foundations
of social life. They supply want, maintain order, spread
affection, heal strife, diffuse happiness. They propagate
their own influence. Only omniscience can estimate how
they soothe the passions of men, bind the breaches and dis
locations of civil life, and hush the commotions of earth.
These are the patterns which arrest the general corrup
tion of manners. These perpetuate the voice of reason

OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. 163
and truth. They cannot be separated from their agents.
These are " good men." They are " full of goodness."
This "goodness" is "the fruit of the Spirit." Their
" goodness extendeth not to God," but it does to his
saints and his creatures. Precious are the effects of such
habitual principle. Nor need we restrict our definition of
" good works " to that of benevolence. The good man is
" good in the sight of God." What he does is " good and
acceptable before God." But surely He, who is "good
and who doeth good," cannot fail to regard whatever is
like himself, and to bless it. He will signify most de
cidedly liis complacency. He will " do good unto those
that be good." This is nothing else than reward.
6. Christianity is moral administration. It is a " king
dom." Even its immediate blessings enter into this form,
while it authoritatively addresses the children of men. It
is " made known to all nations for the obedience of faith."
" God commandeth all men everywhere to repent." What
ever is done under this "reign," and according to it, par
takes of the same quality. The Divine will, or law, is
proclaimed. If we " obey the gospel of God," we see the
rule of our conduct, we know what the " will of God is ; "
we approve it as " good, and perfect, and acceptable ; "
we " live to it ; " we " do it from the heart." His dominion
is thus restored. But shall only the code be reinstated ?
Shall not all the principles of moral government be re
sumed ? Shall He not rule in equity and in truth ? If
his will be now done on earth, shall he not favor that
act ? Is not this obedience that which he loves to mark
with peculiar honors, with tokens of satisfaction ? Why,
then, abrogate the sanctions of moral government at the
moment of its most solemn inauguration ? Why invali
date its very meaning and support in its most signal
crisis, just as it is adopted and incorporated into the
greatest system of order and sway which ever can be
framed? Why deprive it, in such a conjuncture, of all

164 THE NATURE AND REWARDABLENESS
that is vital and executory ? Why invest it with newer
dignities, while it is shorn of all inducement and de
fence? Why speak of its mightier power, at the time
that it is abandoned without any means of enforcement ?
Destroy its sanctions, you destroy itself. To build Chris
tianity upon that negation, to take that defunct authority
and therewith to deck it, is once more to put the reed
in its hand, and to cover it with the ensigns of derisive
royalty. This would be to seek occasion of it, of its awful
marvels and deific truths, to break up the system of con
duct which God has invariably pursued towards intel
ligent beings. And " thus the kingdom of heaven " would
be postponed to every creature-administration. Its sceptre
would be impotent. " Wilt thou not be afraid of the
power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise
of the same\" Law can exclusively operate by these con
siderations. Despoil it of sanctions, it may be counsel,
but it is no more law. God, in thus legislating, ap
peals to the motives which he, at the first, implanted
in us. If that which is good is the subject of precept,
that precept must be enforced with a reason, a reason not
in answer to the question, why it is required ? but to the
question, why the creature should obey it ? " That he
may see good." "So shall it be well with thee." "So
shall good come unto thee." An act could not be one of
obligation were it not susceptible of reward, and connected
conditionally with it.
7. We might desire to know in such an inquiry, how
far those things which, by fixed constitution, must be
esteemed rewardable, are, in themselves, pleasing to God.
We have marked them as objects of his praise, as well as
entitled to general honor. Is this a relative, or a real,
approbation? Certainly it revolts all our sense of his
consistency and truth that he could accord it in secret
disgust, or with the absence of a distinct delight and
satisfaction. His mind must be towards it, if he pro-

OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. 165
nounce his pleasure in it. So far as simple good is sup
posed, he is most ready, we believe, to bestow it. But
reward is a legal condition and shape of good, only to be
bestowed on particular character and conduct. Now these
can only be made the subjects of this good, in proportion
to the manner in which they correspond to the will of
God. The testimony is very early that the restored chil
dren of Adam may " by faith please Him." " He worketh
in us, that which is well-pleasing in his sight." They
" keep his commandments and do those things that are
pleasing in his sight." Their language, invoking the most
solemn scrutiny, is " Not as pleasing men, but God, who
trieth the hearts." Their love and service towards each
other, are " an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice ac
ceptable, well-pleasing to God." "With such sacrifices
God is well pleased." It must be perfectly agreeable
to his moral government and to his covenant promise to
" reward " that " openly " which pleases him, to let his
" beauty " be upon that which he truly loves, to crown
those who "walk before him unto all well-pleasing," with
" the favor which is life ! "
8. Since whatever pleases God must conduce to his
glory, we may justly desire to know whether there be
proof that his glory is thus promoted, whether he has
declared that Christian obedience is so regarded and
admitted by him as subserving this end. He who re
wards will surely consider, in acting after this manner,
what is due to himself. He cannot compromise his cha
racter in honoring anything by which he is dishonored.
His glory will he not give to another. We find the rule
of his conduct proclaimed by himself : " Them that honor
me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly
esteemed." Now we shall infallibly learn from Scripture,
that those acts and virtues which are the proper subjects
of reward, are formally identified with this great purpose
which he invariably and necessarily pursues. " Herein is

166 THE NATURE AND REWARDABLENESS
my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit." " That
others, seeing your good works, may glorify your Father
which is in heaven." " Being filled with the fruits of
righteousness, which are, by Jesus Christ, unto the glory
and praise of God." He delights in them who display
these excellences. They are "his signet." They are "a
royal diadem in his hand." He will "make them up as his
jewels." " The riches of the glory of his inheritance are
in his saints." The end of his glory being secured by the
holiness of his people, they who have in this manner glo
rified him being the objects of his most favorable regard, no
reason can offer itself why there should not be the expres
sion of all this, why that holiness should not be applauded,
and those holy ones should not be set on high for distinc
tion and admiration, " the glory of Christ," " glorified in
him," " glorified together with him," " shining forth as the
sun," " shining as the brightness of the firmament ! "
9. Nor can any other conclusion be suggested when
fact rather than argument, is revolved. In every virtuous
deed and feeling, (and the case supposes them to be of the
purest principle and standard) there is immediate and •
consequent pleasure. We are conscious of this. This is
a natural state of the mind. Christianity does not break
in upon the order of our moral sentiments. Our original
constitution of being is not changed, but renewed. We
may, therefore rest assured, that the whole operation of
true religion, — notwithstanding its difficulties, arising from
much remaining disaffection and infirmity, — is, of itself, an
actual, though not of its nature a formal, reward. " Great
peace have they that love thy law, and nothing shall offend
them." " Godliness is profitable unto all things, having
promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to
come." Even this promise, here standing for tendency,
does not fully state the fact. There are more transcen
dental views. " There is no man that hath left house,
or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or

OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. 167
children, or lands, for my sake, and the Gospel's, but he
shall receive an hundred-fold now in this time, houses,
and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and
lands, with persecutions ; and in the world to come eternal
life." Language like this can only admit of spiritual con
struction. Such pledge can only redeem itself. All is
restored, while all is confiscated ; and the pleasures which
the possession of these acquisitions gave, their loss multi
plies, and heightens into a century of far higher pleasures ;
— held beyond the possibility of a loss, in the conscious
ness of him, around whom, and upon whom, at the very
moment, these persecutions rage. Sublime as this in
ward restitution is, enriching the Christian to the pro
portion of his spoliations, and then beginning the vast
accumulation upon his recovered store, it is but consistent
with other numerous appeals. " Count it all joy when ye
fall into divers temptations." "For this is thankworthy,
if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffer
ing wrongfully." This " rejoicing," this " leaping for joy,"
is made to originate in present, and not reversionary, good :
or it is " the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen," now realised to the soul. God says,
" I am thine exceeding great reward." And this he proves
in innumerable ways. He can cause liberality so to pre
vail against selfishness, that " it is more blessed to give
than to receive." He can impart that assurance, amidst
the most discouraging efforts, which shall incite us, " in
asmuch as we know that our labor is not in vain in the
Lord." Every service his people perform, repays itself
in the joy which it brings with it. " The joy of the Lord
is your strength." " Light is sown for the righteous, and
gladness for the upright in heart."*
10. That good works look properly for reward may be
inferred from their source, and from the purpose of their
* Note L.

168 THE NATURE AND REWARDABLENESS
inspiration. God is the author of all holiness. Whatever
of its beauty his creatures possess, can only be derived
from himself. " Thou hast wrought all our works in us."
Man is wholly depraved. The sanctity which he may
exhibit, must be a simple and independent acquisition,
In him — that is, in his fallen nature — there dwelleth no
good thing. " The veiy God of peace sanctifies him
wholly." His piety and purity are the promptings of a
spiritual principle, implanted in him. " God has begun,
and still performs a good work" in him. But why is this?
" He fulfils all the good pleasure of his goodness." " He
worketh in us of his good pleasure." He makes us perfect
in every good work, to do his will." In this transforma
tion, does he behold and glorify himself. We are " changed
into his image, from glory to glory." He dwells in us,
and walks in us." Since we were "precious in his sight,"
we have been "honorable." We " show forth his praise."
We are to make him known. The Christian is " a vessel
unto honor, sanctified, meet for the Master's use." And is
it unfitting that his own work should be acknowledged,
and his own design declared? That he should have a
desire toward all who are the subjects of them ? That he,
who now rests in a sabbath of love towards his people, and
now rejoices over them with singing, should make triumph
of their final redemption ? Oh ! every reward is summed
up in this : " I will confess his name before my Father,
and before his angels ! "
11. It must be remembered that "the world shall be
judged in righteousness." All men shall be brought into
judgement. There shall be the same rule for all. Some
are not to be judged by equity, and others by favor. In
such a process, partiality, the respect of persons, cannot
be supposed. The evil-doers shall be punished for what
they are. But the sentence pronounced on them who do
well, must be according to truth. " The Lord, the righteous
Judge," gives the crown. It is " the judgement-seat of

OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. 169
Christ." " The good works of some are manifest before
hand ; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid." Nor
need we, nor can we, dismiss from our minds, that the
scrutiny is that of justice. It is directed into the cha
racter of each candidate, into the quality of each work.
The tribunal knows nothing of foregone conclusions, and
of inconsequential awards. Who, what, are they standing
there ? The scrutiny concerns not the question, how
character was formed, or how conduct was influenced ? it
regards it only as it is. By the character and the conduct
of the individual, shall he be tried. It is the chief reason
of this final and universal account, that the justice of God
may be made apparent, that all intelligent creatures may
attest that every sentence is right, as right towards the
good as towards the wicked. The wicked are condemned
for their crimes — justly ; but then, for the opposite virtues,
the good could not be justly condemned. An equal treat
ment would be demoralisingly and flagrantly unjust. It
would be a contravention of moral government. If, how
ever, their condemnation would be so far unjust, there is
only the alternative of acceptance. They are the righteous,
the just — they are so dealt with, and their reward respects
their character and their works, (of whatever grace these
are the index and development,) and this is " righteous
judgement." It is too late to urge, it would be equally superfluous to
refute, that duty precludes reward. For duty is correlative
to authority. They are in equipoise. It is monstrous, if
it indeed be possible, to think of mere naked, unrelated,
obligation. That duty may be intelligent and reasonable,
it must act upon intelligent and reasonable grounds.
Among the tyrannies of earth, a contrary doctrine may be
imposed. Vassals are made for their despot : slaves for
their lord. In milder forms of civil administration, it is
too difficult to discern, that government is the means, and
not the end. But any statement like this, shocks all our

170 THE NATURE AND REWARDABLENESS
principles and revolts all our feelings. Something is
always due from man to man. No one has any natural
superiority over his fellow. We are not compelled to
speak of what is due to man, from God. Yet we need not
shrink. He has a right to every capacity which moral
requirement necessitates. If called to account for a talent,
it has been deposited with him. God, however, anticipates
us in these delicate, and somewhat hazardous, prejudge
ments. He proves that, even in his rectoral character, he
legislates for the highest happiness of his creatures. "His
commandments are not grievous." They are the expo
sitions and remembrancers of our good. Their reiteration
is to call forth our means and faculties of true enjoyment.
Instead, therefore, of duty being incongruous with reward,
reward is, not accidentally but essentially, involved in
duty. Our perception of such duty may not always appre
hend the reward : we may not always seek it. It is a
ready thought, a holy prompting. It takes immediate
counsel from command and admonition. But the duty
itself, is only duty as it is thus confirmed. Reference, for
the opposite opinion, is commonly made to the parable of
our Lord. * " But which of you, having a servant ploughing
or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is
come from the field, Go and sit down to meat ? and will
not rather say unto' him, Make ready wherewith I may
sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and
drunken ; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink ? Doth
he thank that servant because he did the things that were
commanded him ? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye
shall have done all those things which are commanded
you, say, We are unprofitable servants : we have done that
which was our duty to do." The citation is deemed to
establish the futility of rewards. But it cannot avail. For
the servant has his reward. It is only delayed for a
* Luke xvii. 7 passim.

OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. 171
higher claim: He eats and drinks after he has prepared
and attended the master's board. The great Householder
first claims his own glory. He can require no end so
diffusively beneficent. In that very end, only a little later,
his servants share. Their services are rightfully his. He
does not " thank " them, as if indebted to those services.
They are " unprofitable " servants, if considered in any
view of benefit they can confer upon him. They cannot
exceed their " duty," because all their powers are given to
them for its performance. Every idea of obligation rests
exclusively upon them. Being a parable, it is not to be
pressed ; for the relation between an earthly master and
servant, is a mere civil agreement, and cannot express that
creative condition which binds us to our Master in heaven.
Its conclusion, or moral, is not to be strained ; since what
is only true and proper for us to confess, may not satisfy
the goodness, which not only apportions but lavishes its
gifts, which does exceeding abundantly above all that we
can ask and think ! He may turn to unexpected account,
he may interpret in unexpected manner, acts which we
should not prefer. " When saw we thee an hungered and
fed thee?" "Inasmuch as ye did it to the least of these
my brethren, ye have done it unto me." On no account
would we, then, suppose that the measure of these rewards
is regulated by simple justice. There is counterpart,
there is consequence, there is adjustment, in them. They
belong to a great settlement of moral righteousness.
They maintain an important place in moral government.
He who receives them is treated as one that " worketh
righteousness." But were they stinted to any standard,
or proportion of justice, how small would they be ! Other
considerations often attach to earthly honors, bestowed
for services of the council or the field. There is royal
generosity and bounty. A precise calculation would
destroy the grace. Let us remember that, while God is
" faithful and just " to us, these attributes have respect to

172 THE NATURE AND REWARDABLENESS
that which can endure their severest application. " Messiah
has brought in an everlasting righteousness." There is
an evangelic constitution, all whose " promises are yea
and amen." We can now better understand the glorious
eminence of these rewards. Though they are perfected to
us through duties, yet we feel their mighty excess. Of
them we are unworthy. They contrast with our " unprofit
ableness." Though they follow in an order of rule, though
they are adjudged, they are infinitely munificent !
But that the idea of reward may not be lost by being
swallowed up in mere mercy, — which would convert it
from its strict character to that of sovereign, or adven
titious, gift, — we must remember that it admits of degrees.
Were all who differ in moral excellence to receive the
same honor, that difference would be slighted as much to
the injury of those who fell short, as to the disparagement
of them who surpassed. Reward must imply proportion.
This proportion does not respect the outward act alone,
but the internal man, the whole man. " If there be first a
willing mind, it is accepted according to what a man hath,
and not according to that he hath not." " Thou didst
well in that it was in thy heart.'' This rule allowed, the
idea of such proportion is always maintained. " He
which soweth sparingly, shall reap, also, sparingly ; and
he which soweth bountifully, shall reap, also, bountifully."
The apologues, of the Prodigal son, and of the Labourers
hired at the eleventh hour, cannot be employed to oppose
it without wresting their most obvious scope. They refer
to the calling of the Gentiles. The younger brother,
unlike the elder born of Israel, had wandered from his
home, the seat of patriarchal counsel and discipline, the
church in which salvation was revealed. He went forth,
not without some knowledge : his earlier youth had been
trained beneath the broken rays of truth. Even then,
breaking away from his only hope of permanent shelter
and instruction, the " divided substance " was not refused.

OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. 173
All natural and moral claims were granted to him. He
returns after the wretched experiment of his boasted self-
sufficience : he was dead, he was lost. His Father, the
God, not of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles also, folds
him to his breast ; and his home, the unpartitioned
church, welcomes him with its festivity. He is alive
again, he is found. Now hath God granted to the Gentiles
repentance unto life. — The Husbandmen had wasted the
day in sloth, while many of their occupation had toiled
from the morning light. The'eleventh hour came. The
Israelites had from the beginning been " hired :" the
Householder, having " agreed with them," " sent them
into his vineyard." The Gentiles had been, though not
unmeritedly, passed by, " no man had hired them." Both
were now to be received to a common " agreement," to a
common "hire," to a common "vineyard." " For there is
no difference between the Jew and the Greek." " Seeing
it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by
faith and the uncireumcision by faith." This is the
denarius which all alike receive.
Connected with the general argument for the dis
tinctions of future reward, is that which arises from our
consciousness. All are not equal now in holy excellence
and harjpiness. There are those who "labor in the
Lord," and those who "labor much in the Lord."
There are those whom we "have for ensamples." "The
good man is satisfied from himself," and to the degree
of his goodness. The greatest happiness experienced by
the saints has been in circumstances of personal post
ponement and suffering. " This my joy, therefore, is
fulfilled." "I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches,
in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's
sake." Those circumstances were the occasion and the
measure of their delight. Is not the glow of satisfaction
which the generous spirit feels, amidst its sacrifices and
labors, correspondent to their disinterestedness and dint ?

174 THE NATURE AND REWARDABLENESS
Can the contracted mind know the joy of expansion ? the
churlish, of liberality ? the proud, of humility ? the im
placable, of forgiveness ? the selfish, of love ? Can these
contracted emotions affect us otherwise than in the pro
portion of their influence ? It is plainly impossible to
make men feel alike, though they should be engaged in
the same course of action. But in feeling, does Christian
reward very mainly consist.
Moreover, this distinction is agreeable to the truth of
things. The consciousness, upon which it principally
depends, meditates particular acts. But he who is not
a party to those acts, cannot partake of the satisfaction
which springs from their performance. " The anointing "
of the Saviour's body "for his burial," by Mary of Bethany,
secured her a " memorial " which is all her own. So there
are various distinctions, more or less prominent in the
present life, which look forward to their kind of reward.
" Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of un
righteousness, that, when ye fail, they may receive you
into everlasting habitations." " He that reapeth receiveth
wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal." " That I
may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in
vain, neither labored in vain." "For what is our hope,
or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the
presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For
ye are our glory and joy." There is " a prophet's reward,"
and " a righteous man's reward." All this is specified'
and individualised : each distribution is inconvertible, in-
transferable, agreeing to certain characters, certain classes,
certain doings, and to nothing else. Thus the self-
revolved reward is presented in those sublime words:
" Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from
the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and
shall hide a multitude of sins."
No feeble proof of the fact that these distinctions exist,
is furnished by the practical use made of their idea in

OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. 175
scriptural admonition, "for instruction in righteousness."
We are exhorted to aspire after the highest degrees of
glory. " Knowing that whatsoever good thing a man
doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord." There
fore are the saints commended who " come behind in no
gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ : "
therefore is prayer offered "that their love may abound yet
more and more, that they may approve things that are
excellent, that they may be sincere and without offence
till the day of Christ." These states of mind and conduct
are regarded in their intimate connexion with heaven, as
meetness for it, as germs, and earnests, and preparations,
— yearnings which it only can satisfy, and tastes which it
imbues. And still more declaratively is the connexion
told. " Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue ; to
virtue knowledge ; and to knowledge temperance; and to
temperance patience ; and to patience godliness ; and to
godliness brotherly kindness ; and to brotherly kindness
charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they
make you that they shall neither be barren nor unfruitful
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. If ye do
these things, ye shall never fall : for so an entrance shall
ministered to you abundantly into the everlasting king
dom of our Lord Jesus Christ." The original gives the
thought far more elegantly and fully. The word "add,"
which governs all these cumulative virtues, is the same
with "minister,"* which bestows this " abundant entrance."
If we " minister " these virtues, they will " minister " this
" entrance " in a surpassing manner. They will turn it
into a glorious progress, with greeting and acclaim, with
festal garland and triumphal arch. The conception is of
a chorus or a choral train. All these graces of the Holy
Ghost are like the notes of a musical progression, clear,
resounding, sweet, concordant, — or they resemble celestial
figures, lovely in attitude, woven in movement, harmo-

1 76 THE NATURE AND REWARDABLENESS
nious in voice. And when the saint expires, — his faith, his
hope, his love, his humility, make sweet music to him, fall
ing like requiem upon his departing, spirit, with a blended
strain: or, as a sister-band, gathering around that spirit,
animating it and strengthening it, they ascend and descend
upon it, they point its way, entone its song, and carry it on
their wings to heaven.
Nor can any other condition of things, than the existence
of such degrees, be supposed without the grossest con
sequences. If there be no distinctions of reward, we must
allow that there are no distinctions of character, for cha
racter is capacity and security for reward. But at death
there is undeniable difference in character between those
who pass to the inheritance of the sanctified. There is
as undeniable difference, then, in the reward of joy and
triumph. Until death every form and variety of difference
can be proved. If all this ceases immediately after death,
there is no supposeable predicament but that universal
character is assimilated, and universal capacity equalised,
to one standard. Yet by what process ? Is it that any
is forcibly reduced, or forcibly raised ? It is not possible
that higher excellence should, in the region of excellence,
be depressed. It cannot be brought down and made to
merge in an inferior quality. Besides, excellence, however
inferior, being the development of intelligent principle,
cannot be mechanically elevated. The assimilation, on
either theory, would be unlike an act of God. It sup
poses a violence which ill accords with his love of holy
discrimination. It contradicts all that we know of his
righteous procedure. " For I say unto you, That unto
every one that hath, shall be given, and he shall have
abundance : and whosoever hath not, from him shall be
taken even that which he seemeth to have."
In conjunction with these sentiments, we must bring
to a scriptural inquisition the language which is employed
by us respecting states of Chistian mind and conduct.

OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. 177
To our conviction, that inspired authority always stamps
the impression of what is strictly personal on whatever these
suppose. The grace of God is the source of all spiritual
light, and purity, and love. " It is given to us to believe,"
but that act of belief is our own. We are not the instru
ment, but the agent. " God worketh in us," but the effect
of that operation is on our " willing " and our " doing."
Most guarded is every representation of the first inducing
cause : not less guarded is the representation of the man
ner in which it enters into responsible motive and exercise.
" Yet not I," exclaimed the apostle Paul, " but the grace
of God which was with me : " that " grace," however,
" was not bestowed on him in vain, for he labored more
abundantly than they all." " Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me : '' that " life," however, " he lived in the flesh by
the faith of the Son of God." The language becomes most
clear and steady when the thought of aecountableness is
declared : " Let every man prove his own work, and
then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in
another. For every man shall bear his own burden."
The doctrine, thus, is that this grace interferes with no
personal relation, and absolves from no personal responsi
bility. At every moment this is true of us. We allow it
in the defection of any1 professed believer, when he is
overtaken by a fault, or declines into sin. He is to be
blamed. It is his guilt. Greater or less as may be the
degrees of his delinquency, there is no question of his
censurableness. We may pity everything about his fall, —
his exposure, his shame, the consequences, — but not the
crime. The charge is entirely upon himself. We Ought
surely, then, to speak in parallelism, when we acknowledge
the stability of the righteous. We have seen whose is the
backslider's fault: whose is the established Christian's
virtue? He owes the disposition to the grace of God.
But then he is responsible in respect to that disposition.
He was bound to have always exercised it, and would have
xn. n

178 THE NATURE AND REWARDABLENESS
been culpable for its loss. Now that by the Divine in
fluence he may recover it, lost as it is by native sin, he is
bound to seek it, and is responsible for its possession.
By "faith he stands." He "watches unto prayer." He
"keeps himself in the love of God." He "keeps himself
pure." These are all personal exertions. Then this is
"worthy of praise as the opposite instance is of blame. No
right view of the case can justify us in speaking of the
defection as only active, and of the consistency as only
passive. It is not just to describe our depravity with its
power to exercise itself, and our piety with no such power.
God keeps us from falling by the cherished habits and
incumbent duties of an inward, heartfelt, religion : it is
no small part of our responsibility to acquire, to lay hold
on, confirming grace. It is a frightful perversion of the
truth to allege that the reason of apostasy was that God
did not directly and independently uphold : and it is as
practical a perversion of the truth to allege that the reason
of Christian perseverance is that he did. This is to destroy
aecountableness, which cannot be asserted of particular
forms of conduct, if it cannot be maintained of all. It is
surely " sound speech not to be condemned " to say, that
the alternative of obnoxiousness to punishment is title to
reward : that what it would be unjust to disfavor, it is only
just to approve. We can enter into the humble disclaimer
that all our acts are so imperfect, and all our motives so
impure, that they cannot challenge an appeal to Him
" who marks iniquity." But this is to forget the accepting
righteousness and the sanctifying element which precede
those acts and motives, and which are the characteristics
of that mediatorial constitution under which those acts
and motives are wrought. Grace, as the cause of good,
takes from us any perfect, unmixed, claim, — any suit of
absolute right. Still this mediatorial constitution has its
own conditions, gives us the means of satisfying them,
and therefore " the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in

OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. 179
us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
"We labor that, whether present or absent, we may be
accepted of God." Responsibility is quickened and sus
tained by grace, was always presumed by it, can never be
superseded by it, while its most serious and stirring sense
is the strongest proof that " grace has not been received.
in vain."
A physical power to obey belongs of justice to every
moral agent. He must be physically capable of whatever
he is morally obliged to do. The disposition, the motive,
may be produced by an outward influence on the agent,
but only by working upon his real nature or capacity, and
only by recognising them as his personal disposition and
motive. Scripture, therefore, never wavers in its language.
It calls upon all who have the physical power of action, to
act. " Be converted." " Make you a new heart and a new
spirit." " Repent of thy wickedness, and pray God, if
perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee."
" Cleanse your hands, ye sinners ; and purify your hearts,
ye double-minded." It is to be feared that we concede
too greatly to prejudice, that we equivocate with these
explicit terms, that we qualify their, earnest tone of
responsibility. Do we find a commandment laid upon
men accompanied with an explanation that they cannot.
obey it? Why should we divert its point and weaken its,
strength ? Why should we falter in urging it, when it is
enunciated from on high without apology or reserve ?
Why should we soothe men with the notion of the in
adequacy of their powers to meet the requirement ? When
we show them, " out of the law " and out of themselves,
that the state of their will is the only bar, they understand
the charge, they feel it, they are shamed : but tell them of
deficiency of powers, or employ a style of phrase which
can scarcely be otherwise construed, they are furnished by
you with a sound and reasonable excuse. — In the same
view may those acts be placed which are related to the

180 THE NATURE AND REWARDABLENESS
conversion of others by our agency. Not shrinking from
the healthy language of " saving ourselves," of " working
out our own salvation," — we are taught that God accom
plishes the salvation of man by man. It is supposed of
the sinner that " one converts him and saves a soul from
death: " encouragement is given, that " the wife may save
her husband, and the husband his wife." We love not the
use of the word, instrumentality, when a rational being is
employed. The act is man's, in all that constitutes an
act : its efficiency or success utterly depends on the
power of God. The manner of the act, and the character
of the agent, are connected with the result: "They so
spake that a great multitude believed." " He was a good
man, and much people was added unto the Lord." "We
also believe, and therefore speak." The arrangement,
reciprocal and reactive, is fixed : " I have planted, Apollos
watered, but God gave the increase." The "planting"
and the "watering," are coupled with the "increase," and
are not less necessary as means to the end than the end
is to the means. The rules of conduct are even laid down
for securing the result. " H by any means I may provoke
io emulation them which are my flesh, and might save
some of them." "I am made all things to all men, that
I might by all means save some." " Take heed unto thy
self and unto the doctrine ; continue in them : for in
doing this, thou shalt both save thyself, and them that
hear thee." "And of some have compassion, making a
difference : and others save with fear, pulling them out of
the fire." This language is bold and clear : it proves the
agency, — not the instrumentality, which is only a blind,
involuntary, thing,— of man in saving man. Why do we
hesitate to speak forth this strain ? Why should circum
locution and comment betray our misgiving ? Why should
we arrogate to ourselves a purer idiom than that of in
spiration ?
Before we pass to consider that future scene in which

OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. 181
Christian reward shall obtain its development and con
summation, a question urges itself upon our attention :
Does Christianity promise any temporal, secular, rewards
to its disciples ? We are not to be informed that much
and obtuse mistake exists upon this subject. Promises,
necessarily involving a theocratic jurisdiction, attached to
an abrogated ceconomy, resting upon a preeternatural order
of things, are quoted as now valid and as availing our
selves. If we " honor the Lord with our substance," it
is gravely inferred " that "our barns shall be filled with
plenty and our presses burst out with new wine." " Length
of days, riches and honor," are borrowed from a former
dispensation, to which they were the appropriate append
ages, and transferred to this which they encumber and
contradict. These citations will illustrate our meaning.
They are specimens of a theory which we feel compelled
to oppose.
We deny, indeed, that the outward advantages which
some are anxious to establish as the tests of Divine favor
and the sanctions of true religion still, were ever invari
able and consequential in any dispensation. When men
were authorised, in any specific case, to regard them as
marks of personal acceptance, they were the exceptions
rather than the rule. " Behold, these are the ungodly who
prosper in the world ; they increase in riches. Verily I
have cleansed my heart in vain." " The sinner was a
hundred years old." " There is one event to all." These
more than anomalies urged themselves upon general no
tice. It was a common problem and complaint. The
rule, if such it could be ranked, was not unequivocal. The
question, at least in present times, is not, whether God
may bestow present good on the Christian, but whether
the Christian is warranted to expect and plead that good ?
Whether any promise assures it ? Whether it be bestowed
in the way of reward ? Is there a settled connexion be
tween this character and this benefit? The inquiry is

182 THE NATURE AND REWARDABLENESS
delicate ; its discussion must combat many prejudices ; it
would demand spacious limits ; but though it is inevitable,
when our theme is considered, only a few of its prominent
points can we touch.
We may claim preliminary admission : we may protest
agamst consequences which might be alleged and opinions
which might be assigned.
The Providence, which is properly antecedent to Chris
tianity, cannot be limited by it. Subserving it, frequently
an active movement of it, incorporated with it, how can it
be less bounteous, and kind, and just beneath such a gra
cious institution ? Whatever, to say the least, that general
government would dispense of good and redress and
honor, this particular institution will not thwart.
Christianity, all things being equal, does exercise a most
beneficial influence on the earthly lot of its followers.
Contentment and cheerfulness, prudence and discretion,
industry and probity, are not the meanest lessons which it
inculcates, and for these virtues it finds an ample sphere.
No man in civilised and communal life, — persecution being
unknown, — is less prospered because he is a Christian :
tendencies being calculated, he is the more. All other
blessings, physical and domestic and social, are naturally,
reasonably, enhanced.
It is almost tiresome to repeat that state of mind which
Christianity promotes in all who are the subjects of its
influence : it is its present reward. But it may be found
amidst poverty which it does not necessarily remove, and
amidst disease which it cannot possibly heal : it may exist
in the most adverse scenes and repulsive circumstances.
Here it distils its balm and breathes its peace.
Nor can it be denied that a Christianity, professing
secular recompense, that which should sensibly act upon
the present, would so disjoint every idea identified with it
of hope and greatness, that little present satisfaction could
it yield. In this manner, as shorn of its mighty future,

OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. 183
the apostles disclaimed it. " If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." Is it
asked : How could this be ? Is not virtue its own reward ?
Christianity is the very code of virtue, but it is infinitely
more. They were called to profess it unto bonds, and.
stripes, and threatening deaths. For what? They cham
pioned a religion which lay in the bosom of eternity.
They behaved only reasonably as this was true. Without
any adherence to it, any suffering on its account, they
might have cherished all the virtues which shed their grace
over this life, — which are favourable to health, and tran
quillity, and reputation, — which may well be cultivated for
their own sake. This was a perilous superaddition. For
it there was no present indemnification, — what, if there
were no future? A doubt turned all into an egregious
wilfulness, an aimless sacrifice, a fatuous adventure. They
felt the impossibility, they saw the madness, of embarking
in the Christian cause with this suspense of uncertainty
and disregard of result.
But, then, it is obvious inference that, thus placing the
reasonableness of their conduct in future compensation,
they let go the hope of reward in this life. Since nothing
could be more unmeaning than Christianity without a
future state, so nothing could be more unmeaning than
committing themselves to persecution for such a system.
They linked themselves fearlessly to all its hazards for the
sake of its glorious destinies.
And, therefore, we contend that the only personal bless
ings which our religion secures are spiritual, however its
indirect influence may be physically and civilly salutary.
It tells of no exemption from calamity, of no extended life,
of no earthly increase. It knows no idea so poor : it plies
no inducement so ignoble !
The New Testament writers do certainly transfer, from
the Old, particular declarations which formerly, without
doubt, looked to sensible, present, good. The command

184 THE NATURE AND EEWARDABLENESS
upon the child to honor his parents is said to have been
" with promise." It was thus originally distinguished and
dignified as " the first " to which " promise " was attached.*
Why is this repeated ? To be urged in a literal sense on
those addressed ? In those times of cruel persecution did
filial piety bring a respite from early and violent death ?
Did Stephen's martyrdom convict him of disobedience to
this commandment, or was it a violation of any promise
on which he relied ? Could the apostle intend that the
promise was then in force, length of days, while they who
could plead it were " killed all the day long," in the land
which the Lord their God gave unto them, while they were
" driven to strange cities?" The "promise " is adduced,
he having to impress the same duty, — to prove how high
that duty always stood, how it had been ennobled for its
fitness and importance. Though that adjunct was now to
be lost in spiritual motives and considerations, it was only
that what had existed should be remembered, that such a
note of pre-eminence should be chronicled still. It is the
primary statute of the second table, it is the foundation of
all social requirement, it is worthy of every commenda
tion ! — " He that will love life and see good days " is ad
jured to " refrain his tongue from evil : " but when Peter f
borrows this admonition of David, he need not, he does
not, diminish its original reason and strength by the most
Christian interpretation. For it seems never to have been
more than what we can perceive it now to be, a means to
an end, the due regulation of the tongue, that " world of
iniquity," if we would enjoy an unembittered life. — And
when the promises of our Lord are examined, a spiritual
comment is often necessitated. We must understand that
an equivalent is intended, and not the very thing. " Give,
and it shall be given unto you ; good measure, pressed
down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men
give into your bosom." " He that findeth his life shall
» Eph. vi. 2. + 1 Peter iii. 10. Ps. xxxiv. 10.

OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. 185
lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."
" He that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto
life eternal." Such promises are incapable of proof in their
literal sense, being impossibilities in their own nature,
and contradictions to fact.
The doctrine taught by the apostle Paul to the Corinth
ians,* has been supposed to favor the opinion, that Chris
tianity employs, in its administration, temporal rewards.
The church in that city was urged to liberal contributions,
on behalf of the needy saints in Jerusalem. Not one pledge,
however, is offered of reimbursement in this life. There
is no usury, until He, who gave those cheerful givers their
talents, shall come again. A spiritual motive is derived
from a future recompense, which must be spiritual. And
if any part of the language be deemed to point out a secular
benefit, it is only the assurance, to which none would ob
ject : " God is able to make all grace abound toward you;
that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may
abound to every good work;"— or it is only the prayer,
which none would refuse to offer : " Now, He that minis-
tereth seed to the sower, both minister bread for your food,
and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of
your righteousness." There is no mention of reward.
It has been supposed, that the promise of Christ, " Seek
ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all
these things shall be added unto you," — affirms the ques
tion. But the connexion points to a general providence.
The illustrations are borrowed from the fowls of heaven
and from the flowers of the field. Christians may surely
cast themselves, without any distrust, upon the same. Let
them not think that God will forget to feed and clothe
them. They may be persecuted, but the Care, which is
over all, will not forsake them. Our view, still, would
rather favor the interpretation of a spiritual reparation for
earthly loss. * 2 Cor. ix.

186 THE NATURE AND REWARDABLENESS
In this withdrawment of the temporal and secular, the
more immediate and sordid, from Christianity, we mark
its contrast, we acknowledge its superiority, to Judaism.
That religion, — in order to convince all of its divinity, to
confound the nations which worshipped graven images, to
demonstrate that no human policy could invent and wield
it, gave a chief prominence to this lifetime, and made it
the sphere of its most signal proofs. It dealt the good and
evil of earth for its sanctions. It unfolded the inventory
of the most ostensible blessings. It shook the scourge of
the most ostensible ills. All might be weighed and appre
ciated. It put the decision of its evidence to present proof,
the proof of sense. The religion of Christ inverts all this,
It discovers most fully its immortality, and, by the bright
ness of that glory, darkens the present scene. The world
which was as everything to the one, is as nothing to the
other. Judaism told us " earthly things," Christianity tells
us " of heavenly things ! "
In this casting from it all of sensible lure, we behold the
grandeur of the gospel. It is wholly spiritual in its sanc
tions as well as in its principles. The passing prize it
turns from and disdains. Things which perish in the
using, it little regards, seldom commends, and never ap
propriates. It stoops not thus to win our hearts. Its
is an incorruptible crown. Its are durable riches. In this
world, it plainly testifies that we shall have tribulation.
The only good it insures to us now — save its ineffable
blessings— is inward peace, the light of the Divine coun
tenance, and the witness of the Divine Spirit. "It is
through much tribulation that we must enter into the
kingdom of God." Thorns strew its path. Persecu
tions are the attendants of its profession. It seems to
oppose its design to give us ease and rest. It beckons
hence. It calls us away. It weans us from transient
advantage. It teaches us to overcome the world. It sets
a balance in our hand, to weigh all things with eternity.

OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. 187
It fills the mind with this conception. It seizes it with
this ambition. In penury, it assists us to lay up treasure
in heaven. Amidst reproaches, it amasses for us the
exceeding weight of glory. "We walk by faith, not by
sight!"

LECTURE V.
THE HEAVENLY STATE.
" It doth not yet appear what we shall be." — 1 John iii. 2.
While gazing upon such openings into future happiness
as this, we are often conscious of an indistinctness. There
is a vastness, an intensity, a magnificence, not to be denied,
but on that very account most difficult to be appreciated.
It is general, bodiless, impalpable. Metaphor scarcely
offers any aid. Comparison hardly yields any illustration.
They as much bewilder as they explain. Nothing is
defined. Impression takes the place of idea. A confused
majesty overpowers us. It is not like star coming forth
after star, each beautiful and a resting-place for the eye :
it is as the mighty firmament, in all the depths of its con
cave and with all the constellations of its glory, covering
and perplexing the eye at once. There is no relief, no
repose, no distribution. We are amazed with sublimity.
We are absorbed in immensity. We wander on and meet
no confines. We search around, and find no parts. All
that affects us is the illimitable and the unimaginable.
There is no manner of similitude. It is the unbroken
and undelineated mass. The mind aches with the oppres
sion of its effort and attention. It staggers beneath this
burden of bliss, this sun-light splendor. An inferior
disclosure, that which was more shaded, more subdued,
would be rather welcome than this excass, this infinity.
Our vision fails. The wings of the soul falter and fold.
We cannot awaken from the trance.

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 189
Do we, then, complain of this transcendence ? Do we
murmur at so much bliss and glory ? We speak thus in
order to ascertain, whether there be that which can afford
fixedness and precision of thought concerning heaven,
which can bring it into the compass of strict and legiti
mate conception, which can make it intelligible as well as
sure ?
So full is the delight, so rich is the interest, of heaven,
that its exclusion of all known and possible evils is the
feeblest claim to our notice, the lowest call to our aspira
tion. Yet when we read how every cause of grief and
desolateness has ceased, it is told with a manner so beau
tiful and touching, that it is difficult to dwell upon it as
only a negative description ; it imposes itself upon us as
absolute and all-comprehensive. " They shall hunger no
more, neither thirst any more." " And God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes ; and there shall be no
more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall
there be any more pain : for the former things are passed
away." A passing reference may be made to the hieroglyphical
representations of heaven. All figures are pressed into
them. Light and verdure and living water, — palm and
harp and regal diadem, are but specimens of their diversity
and multiplicity. We maintain that in all this lavish pro
fusion, there is nothing casual and nothing wasted: a
meaning is to be extracted from every type. We rest not
in themselves : they are poor and unworthy when com
pared with what they signify, We ask but one right of
interpretation, the most reasonable and necessary. Figures
are employed only because the ideas they would convey
cannot be more abstractedly presented, and, because,
whatever those ideas are truly, we are compelled by the
substitution of figures for them always to conclude, how
far nobler they must be than any mediums which only
struggle so ineffectually to unfold them.

190 THE HEAVENLY STATE.
The mystery of the celestial state is not a purposed
reserve, — that which might be, but is not, told. No con
cealment is sought. No veil obtrudes. No haze interposes.
The realities themselves forbid the realisation. The ob
jects are too large for admeasurement and too bright for
discernment. They master sense. They outgrow ana
logy. They task faith. Language is no invention to.
speak them. Hope is no passion to anticipate them.
They alike subsist beyond experience and prepossession.
They are not of a nature to be taught. Their knowledge,
in our present state, could not be imparted.
"It doth not yet appear what we shall be." Yet this
shuts us not up to the suspense of a merely privative idea.
It lays an absolute condition of things, a perfect conscious
ness, for the foundation of the future destiny. There is a
very lofty sentiment in this confession of ignorance. It
labors with meaning, and swells with expectation. It
tends mightily and greatly. It takes to itself wings and
flies toward heaven. There is in it a throbbing ecstasy of
undefined instinct. It is a prophecy hastening to its ful
filment : desire desiring its consummation. It is a dark
saying upon the harp, resounding and tremulous as its
strings: yet not less a sure word, a faithful saying: a
vision of the Almighty which for a time tarries, but in the
end shall speak out and shall not tarry. Withal there is
in this language a breathless pause, well-nigh an impa
tience. It is earnest intentness. It heaves as the bosom
of the heir on the eve of possessing his inheritance. It
glows like the brow of the warrior whom the next onset
must crown with victory. It quivers with rapture and with
awe, like the touch of the newly-anointed high priest, when
preparing to draw aside for the first time the curtain of
the most holy place. And still is there something in the
tone of the expression that breathes of a resigned, attem
pered, confidence. It is crossed by no vexatious doubt^
and chilled by no depressing suspicion. " The hope is

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 191
laid up in heaven," and we " hear of it before," even now,
" in the word of the truth of the gospel." We know what
withholdeth. The limitation and inferiority of our mortal
state restrain its instantaneous manifestation. We have
considered it in itself. It is not arbitrarily delayed. Its
own essential excellence forbids. Its grandeur would
baffle our faculties. It is too large for our littleness. It
is too strong for our weakness. It is too spiritual for our
sense. Nor is it here that it could be evolved. The scene
could not contain nor bear it. The difficulty is only in
creased when we turn our thoughts to ourselves. Our
probation is not finished. The government under which
we are placed has not completed its history. Great events
are to arise. Comprehensive predictions remain to be
fulfilled. The prffimillennial apparatus is not complete.
The millennium has not begun to count its ages. The
postmillennial measure of iniquity is not full. The end
is not yet. And least of all, need we wonder that this
issue is not hastened, when we consider our own unfit
ness. Where is our affinity and equipment? Where is
our preparation for that which we shall be ? The man
sions were long since reared, but the days of our purifying
are not numbered. The works were finished from the
foundation of the world, but we have not worthily labored
to enter into that rest. The marriage feast is spread, but
the fine linen, which is the righteousness of the saints, is
not sufficiently white for those mysterious espousals.
But this is our defence. We are mocked by scorn and
scoff. Our soul is exceedingly filled with contempt. We
are taunted. Where are the proofs of favour attached to
the saints ? What profit have they ? What is their re
ward ? We concede that there is little which is apparent,
nothing strictly sensible ; that there is much to try and
perplex our faith. This should, however, be remembered,
that when we argued the immortality of the soul, and con
sequently of a future state, we rested no small portion of

192 THE HEAVENLY STATE.
the proof upon the mixed and imperfect character of the
present life. Had we found a visible Providence, adjust
ing all right and avenging all wrong ; the good outwardly
happy, and the wicked outwardly miserable; nothing
crooked left to be made straight, and nothing wanting
which called to be supplied, — we could not have deduced
the necessity of a future state, and so far must have aban
doned the implicit argument for our immortality. If there
be no future state, that immortality cannot be entertained.
Whatever judgement we then pronounced upon the pass
ing condition of things, their unsatisfactory aspects, their
inconclusive lessons, their immature results, strictly coin
cides with this calculation. We know no disappointment.
We do not repine. Derision shall not tempt us to fret
ourselves. " We wait for the Son of God from heaven!"
A momentary concealment ought not to be refused to that
which, once revealed, no more shall be obscured. A tran
sient pause need not be grudged to that which, once
commenced, shall never be interrupted. That it " doth .
not yet appear what we shall be," is most nicely true to all
the inferences which this stage of probation would suggest,
and to all that we are taught concerning the spirituality
and futurition of Christian rewards.
This language, nevertheless, while it • confesses igno
rance, does not suppose entire ignorance. It declares
only that there is not now the consummate blessedness
and honor of the righteous. The glory is not hitherto
revealed in them. But there is intimation. There are
grounds for some judgement; we possess some guiding
views ; we may certify some particular features. Our
minds incline in a right direction ; they are disciplined
with explanatory principles ; they are filled with substan
tive informations. They are in a progress of transition ;
they approximate not only by the course of time but by a
process of assimilation. " Now is our salvation nearer
than when we believed."

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 193
Nor must we suppose, notwithstanding this state of
future being so far surpasses all our hearts can conceive,
that its superiority consists in any element or perception
which shall constitute an abrupt reversal of all we know,
or violent estrangement from all we feel. It is not the
shock of a bewildering surprise. The mind does not reel
beneath the sense of the utter new. " It doth not yet
appear : " yet are there signs and intimations. The scale,
whose degrees the saints had begun to climb, is only so
much higher than they had supposed. The paradise,
whose overhanging flowers they had plucked, is but so
much lovelier than they had hoped. There is something
actual, known, experienced, on this side of heaven from
which we may deduce some of the characteristics which
distinguish it ; from which we learn by necessary inference
what it is ; on which we found this hallowed knowledge
and anticipation ; by which we may descry, as quick reflec
tions from a mirror, glances and glimpses of that blessed
condition. And this is the idea which now we seize. There is a
present germ in the Christian soul which seeks a nobler
expansion. There is a yearning which tells of congeniality
with something far higher than that which has been
attained. It is the bias of nature, original and renewed.
It reaches forth to the things which are before ; it mounts
to the things which are above. Faithful to this " power
that worketh in us," the evangelic hope soars toward the
world to eome, with sufficient warrant for its certainty,
with sufficient presage for its direction, amidst escaping
shoots of light which lead and cheer its expatiations.
When we yield ourselves to this celestial impulse, kind
ling and energising in us, we have the foretaste which
assures the banquet, the cluster which pledges the vint
age. Well may we believe, when thus it can at once
foreshow and substantiate the region after which it
lones !

194 THE HEAVENLY STATE.
Only we would not let it be supposed that we believe
this heaven as simply future. To the living it must be,
but not to the pious dead. It now exists ; it is real, and
not only true. Each saint finds his way thither. There
is the gathering of all the sainted host. That celestial
state is permanent in its existence, but not in its character.
It has changed. Still shall it be changed. Like its sub
jects, it is to be seen in development and progression.
That " kingdom was prepared from the foundation of the
world." The righteous Abel stood in it for a time alone.
Ages may have intervened ere companion-spirit stood at
his side and assisted in his song : yet may it be considered
the rudiment of that kingdom which now is, as this is but
that of the kingdom which shall be, each form of it in
vested with richer array, each succession advancing with
more holy resplendence.
Then are we bound, in obeying our previous course of
argument, to regard the heavenly state in relation to the
doctrine of Christian rewards. Only as the comprehension
and pre-eminence of all rewards, could it find a place in
these dissertations. It has been contemplated, in all holy
obedience and conflict, as the prize. They who run the
race set before them, so run that they may obtain. They
who fought the good fight, so fought that they might lay
hold of eternal life. This was their encouragement and
incentive. The connexion of their past conduct and their
present felicity is as certain as that of cause and effect, as
of any means and end. " They sowed to the Spirit, and
of the Spirit they reap life everlasting." Did they on
earth know the "joy of faith?" What must be the joy of
realization ! Did they prove that to be spiritually-minded
is life and peace ? What must be that life in its intensest
throb, and that peace in its purest calm ! If their con
fidence had in itself great recompense of reward, what must
be that confidence in its fulfilment ! " Through faith and
patience they inherit the promises." "They strived to

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 195
enter the strait gate and the narrow way which leadeth
unto life." " They were diligent that they might be found
of the Lord in peace, without spot and blameless." " They,
having this hope in Him, purified themselves even as he
is pure." " Having been wise, they shine as the bright
ness of the firmament ; and, having turned many to right
eousness, as the stars for ever." " Delighting themselves
in God, he has given them the desires of their heart."
" They were dead with Christ," and now consequently
" live with him : " " they suffered," and now consequently
" reign with him." " If so be they suffered with him, they
shall be glorified together." " Having endured to the end,
they are saved." " They, through the Spirit, mortified the
deeds of the body, and they live." " They had their fruit
unto holiness, and the end is everlasting life." " To him
that overcometh," are the celestial badges and allotments
given. " They eat of their own fruit." " They long enjoy
the work of their hands." " They receive the things which
are good, done in the body." They " sought for glory,
honour, and immortality," or rather for a glorious and an
honourable immortality, and there is bestowed upon them
" eternal life." They sought this " by patient continuance
in well-doing." " They laboured to enter into that rest."
In expectation of this, they " loved the appearing of the
righteous Judge ; " " they hasted to the day of God." The
heaven, so anticipated, is unfolded greatly from that which
is already holy and blessed ; it is the reward not only of
congruity but of self-evolution ; and of its own nature it
must grow and endure. This is the reward, the last and
the perfect, which, different from others, multiplies itself
into higher and yet higher degrees. The series knows not
exhaustion, renewed and propagated in an endless pro
gression. It is as the tree of life, its seasons ever revolving
and still ever in their prime, its fruits ever enriching and
still ever matured. According to well-approved principles,
which must be applied again and again, and which re-

196 THE HEAVENLY STATE.
appear in every stage of the argument, — all of the present
must affect their eternal well-being. Habit has been ac
quired, and shall then be confirmed. "He that is right-.
eous, let him be righteous still ; and he that is holy, let
him be holy still." Character has been formed, and shall
then be sealed. " He that doeth the will of God abideth
for ever." Consequence has been drawn out, and shall
then be adjudged. " Righteousness tendeth to life." "To
him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward."
Has an apparently trivial event of individual histoiy, or an
apparently insignificant emotion of individual mind, proved
the turning point of all this distinguished bliss ? So have
we already learned from present analogous facts that pru
dence, the true ceconomy of life, itself often determined by
the minute and incidental cause, lays up a rich inheritance
of life-long good. All proceeds in a course. All is regu
lated according to an order. " All things work together"
in mutual subserviency and for a common end. And
when we examine all gracious and providential means, we
shall see them in full operation towards this result. Is it
the internal influence of religion ? " The water that I
shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up
into everlasting life." Is it circumstantial sorrow and trial ?
" Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."
Here is the plainest view of proper tendency and of con
stant elaboration. When our mind shall be sufficiently
enlightened, perhaps this result will seem to us as naturally
facile as that of the most common physical occurrence.
Seed-time and harvest have a known connexion ; but that
connexion cannot be traced. God alone can constitute and
mature that connexion. He has ordained, he consummates,
this moral connexion between holiness here and happi
ness hereafter. In harvest there is increase which a hun
dred-fold exceeds the grain that was cast into the ground :
" but to every seed its own body." And it is of the nature

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 197
of heavenlyreward that, while it corresponds in quality to that
out of which it grows, it manifestly surpasses all the labour
and all the suffering which, according to the terms of the
mediatorial system, it acknowledges, accepts, and dignifies!
Next to this idea of heaven, suggested by darkling but
earnest intimations, while " it doth not yet appear what we
shall be," — we may conceive of it as a state in which per
fect law is loved and obeyed. That perfection impresses
itself upon the love and the obedience. Perfection in the
creature, considered as moral excellence, requires a stand
ard for its aim and for its recognition. When we read,
" Knowing this, that law is not made for a righteous man,
but for the lawless and disobedient," not law itself is to be
understood, for then how could the righteous man be dis
criminated ? — but punishment, the execution of the law.
The thoughts of heavenly order and subjection are some
of our sweetest and most wholesome thoughts. The Divine
law is good, is ordained to life, is full of blessings. What
had been apostate angel, what lapsed man, had law been
their monitor and defence ! This constitutes the true
heaven and them that are heavenly. Law has there its
seat and sovereignty. There is universal delight in its
principles and administrations. This is the concord of
the song: this is the bond of the multitude. They move
round this centre. Oh how they love this law ! The
emblems of royal dignity glorify the scene. " The throne
of God and of the Lamb is in it." It is " the kingdom of
Christ and of God." " His will is done in heaven." " Here
are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith
of Jesus." Nor must it be supposed that this obedience is
necessary in any sense which disjoins necessity from will.
The approving judgement, the ardent affection, direct the
soul. It is no longer the probationer : its reward is found
in an eternally-sustaining power, inspiring its disposition
and impelling its exercise. " God dwelleth in them and
walketh in them." " They are the complement of Him who-

198 THE HEAVENLY STATE.
filleth all in all." They are " kept from falling," not by
adventitious grace so much as by a graciously unchange
able constitution, acting upon intelligent and consistent
principles and motives. But it is the promptest will. It
is the loyalty of subjection and dependence. All submits
and yields, but from the freest, most complacent, choice.
Every being is in his right direction and in his proper
sphere. Yet is it government. Still is it obedience. The
reward of ever-increasing good is its sanction, and is fully
felt. " The work of righteousness shall be peace ; and the
effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever."
What will be perfect justice and amiableness ! We have
indulged visions of even such an earthly scene. Looking
down from some mountain-brow upon the dale beneath,
there has risen the simple village with domestic air and
rural peace. Sequestered in those sylvan solitudes, there
contentment seemed certainly to dwell and order to pre
vail. There might be supposed no room for turmoil and
strife. Ambition, in surveying it, might long for such
calm, and affliction for such asylum. If innocence could
be found, there might it dress its bower and forego its
shield. The charm is broken when we suspect or learn
that this is not even comparative truth, that passion ob
trudes upon that stillness and that wickedness pours its
taint over that retreat. But it was lovely as it was unreal :
embosomed in the associations of virtue, however soon
their spell might break, it awakened right emotion, it was
worthy of our delight, and its momentary influence soothed
and improved. And so have we been taught by the form
ative minds of all ages to fable out a happy commonwealth.
Here the social fabric was to be laid upon new foundations.
Right and truth, reverence for law, sympathy with afflic
tion, could be enacted at our will. Prescription might no
longer protect error, nor usage sanction wrong. And who
has not retired into this beauteous model, this microcosm,
when the ideal polity was framed, and felt that could this

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 199
be embodied, that were a recovery of that happy state whose
vestiges remain to tell us only what once was? Such
illustrations, poor in themselves, unworthy of application,
are only touched by us because they strike a sentiment
which makes us feel that could perfect obedience be ren
dered to perfect law, that would be perfect happiness ; and
that every trace of this, though but a dream, reminds of a
condition from which man has degenerated, but also of
one to which he yet may look. Heaven presents this
view, — alone can present it. Its brightest glory is its ever
lasting reign. That reign cannot be disturbed and marred.
How real is that description of sin, — " it defileth, it work
eth abomination, it maketh a lie ! " It is uncleanness, un-
loveliness, untruth ! But it shall "in no wise enter" there.
There " shall be nothing to hurt and to destroy." Moral
evil cannot for a moment dwell in it. As though the
leprosy of sin had struck too inextricably into the abode
of man, had even contaminated the habitation of angels,
we anticipate a scene purer than earth could afford how
ever it were changed, purer than the heavens from which
the angels fell. And when we can conceive of such a
state, that which gives to law all its power of sway and yet
debars its curse, that is heaven, the highest heaven, the
heaven of heavens ! We know it by this, we desire it for
this,. f' wherein dwelleth righteousness ! "
But since law is social, and not only the index of our
relation to God, since the fruit of obedience to it would be
always benevolence and not only piety, we may now think
of heaven as the development of all that affection and good
will which man owes to universal being. The excellence
shall not provoke envy. Personal elevation shall not in
spire pride. Each shall love his fellow as himself. The
law of truth and the law of righteousness are completed by
the law of kindness, and their triple influence must operate
perfect good. Love is the fulfilling of the law. " Blessed
and holy," is the title of all the subjects of this state : " in

200 THE HEAVENLY STATE.
love serving one another," is the best conception we can
form of their relationship. " The comfort of love " was not
unfelt on earth, even by the unregenerate. Sympathies
are essential to whatever we understand by communal life.
Parental, filial, fraternal, attenuating into others less tender
because more general, though scarcely inferior in import
ance, — these ties lend a grace to existence and a strength
to society, — these are elements which purify, refine, and
soothe. The regenerate prove the genuineness of the
change which has passed upon them, by " unfeigned love
of the brethren," and are " taught of God," — not so much
by law as the instinct of a new nature, — " to love one
another." Enlarge these thoughts : multiply their appli
cations. The redeemed are seen in perfect accordance
with Him who hath said : " Be ye holy, for I am holy."
They are, distributively, "without fault," "without spot,"
" without rebuke." But they are beheld in an entire com
prehension, " made perfect in one." They are " one body,"
a " whole family," a "general assembly." They are not
merely united to each other. " They are gathered together
in one with all things in heaven," all its native spirits.
Here is the celestial fellowship ! What is the vibration of
its reciprocal ideas and sensibilities ! What is the inter
change of congratulation and triumph !. Love which never
faileth, — which is an immortal thing, — once had a humbler
duty to exercise. It ministered supply to want. It allayed
the pang of woe. It visited the fatherless and the widow
in their affliction. It moved with a carriage suited to a
vale of tears. It wept with them who wept. But now is
it acquitted of every painful and toilsome task. It has
here obtained its true abiding place and appropriate range.
It was born here. Earth is its exile, this is its home. It
has hereditary claim. It recognises every scene, and iden
tifies every familiarity. Its bosom freely breathes, and its
heart healthily pulsates. Accustomed to the present re
quirements which press upon its commiseration, we can

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 201
ill understand those functions which exist in a region
where need, and disease, and trouble are unknown. Where
there is not ignorance, nor suffering, nor death, — where
there are not tears, — what can be its scope ? Our minds
must essay to rise. We must think of spirits made perfect,
but spirits which are creatures of motive, of impression, of
still greater perfectibility. We must think of those spirits
as bound to duty, and incapable of happiness save as thus
bound. Then let us think of them in their intercommunity
of intelligence, of interest, of feeling. Their's is a treasury
of ideas and emotions wliich all increase and share.
Their's is an action and an impulse from each to all, from
all to each. It is influx and it is diffusion. It is the excita
tion, ever circling, of ardors and delights. No harp can
thrill, but every string of heaven awakes : not a note can
warble, but myriad strains respond. What must be the
power of those spirits one upon another, none of them
living to themselves ! What must their communications
of thought and passion be through all that throng, quick
ened in every stage of the transition ! What must be the
mingling of minds of the most diversified modification,
and of the most complete affinity ! Individuality of tem
perament exists for the common good. The mystic " four
square " of that city, — its equal length, and breadth, and
height, — tell not of sameness and uniformity, but of union,
and impenetration, and compactness, and strength : its
corner-stones bind it into stability, and its head-stones
crown it with grace. This is nothing but the end of the
law, which is love. Heaven is unfolded from its mere
operation. All now, while in this world of strife, testifies
to us, within us, how good and a pleasant thing it is for
brethren to dwell together in unity. This friendship of
the glorified is its highest and eternal exemplification.
" He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in
him." The Dove once descended from heaven to earth, if
that he had not sat aforetime upon the deep of chaos

202 THE HEAVENLY STATE.
brooding, — and though Jordan had of old been driven
back before the terrible symbols of Deity, now its waves
were hushed to calm beneath this gentle, loving presence :
but heaven is his proper abode, and there he sheds his
perfect peace, " Love is of God :" " God is love :" both
must be heaven !
Pursuing this principle of moral development from con
siderations of reward thus fully allowed, and of law thus
indefectibly obeyed ; rising, after this manner, in our
thoughts toward heaven, we may apply the same principle
to the human mind in its descriptive powers and tendings.
We have seen that man is a spiritual being. Not depre
ciating his material organism, believing him to be incom
plete, according to the terms of his nature, in separation
from it, we yet regard it only as an instrument and machine.
It is not himself. The soul is the integer of the man. He
is spiritual, whatever he be else, in possessing perfect mind.
It can exist and act separately and independently. It is
capable, if opportunity be granted it, of understanding all
subjects of which created intelligence can be informed.
There is not an angelic track but it may, in proper season,
overtake. It is a likeness, though finite, of that under
standing which is infinite. Its knowledge, though derived,
is assimilated to that which is underived. Its essence is
necessarily limited, but not defective. Its information,
though partial, need not be confused. The mind in what
it is, in that of which it is capable, is a thoroughly furnished
contrivance to the extent of its province and to the purpose
of its creation. — We have seen that man is an accountable
being. He was formed to be happy in proportion as his
will coincided with the supreme will. That supreme will
promulgated its law in order to be the guide and induce
ment to happiness. Obedience was the condition, not
arbitrarily, but because there was none other happiness
and could be none. The relation between God and the
creature, which this supposes, is unchangeable. Neither

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 203
can be released. And no rule of created existence can be
so honourable as this. It is a treatment the most ennobling
and advantageous. It does all, except take away the re
striction of our nature, in the usury of unrestricted good.
— We have seen that man is an immortal being. This
springs from the simple will of his Maker, and so it becomes
his birthright. The death, which may be threatened and
inflicted on him, can disturb the natural order of his ex
istence, but cannot impair its truest and highest qualities.
That greater life, his proper life, is indifferent to the world
he now inhabits, and to any other in which he may dwell.
All worlds are indifferent to that life. That is an imperish
able entity. None could kill it but God ; and if on any
supposition he is described as able to do it, it is by a moral
blow, and not by undoing his most foreseen and purposed
work. — Now such are the attributes of man. In these are
the capacities of his fruition. Looking upon them, in
ignorance of sin, we should pronounce that he must be
happy. How is he placed on high ! With what noble
faculty is he endued ! He is capable of the favor of his
Maker ! He may be worthy of his reward ! He may rise
indefinitely towards his blessedness ! By sin, these facul
ties grow into frightful means of dishonour and misery.
But the Christian is restored. His sin is forgiven, his
person is accepted, his nature is renewed. Again they are
for good. The Spiritual ! What are his pleasures of
knowledge, his kin with intellectual existence, his elevated
rank, his inquisitive facility, his independent conscious
ness, his inner life, his access to Deity, his brotherhood
with angels, his sympathy with all the advancing scenes
and unfolding glories of the universal system ! Holy prin
ciple governs all. What may such a being become, and
what attain ! What a power of increase is in him ! Along
what a progress does he speed ! Mind is the one and
perfect ascendant ! The immaterial essence is fully
evolved ! Nothing opposes the entrance of Divine know-

204 THE HEAVENLY STATE.
ledge ! Nothing contradicts the reign of spiritual joy
Upon such a mental power, enlarged as it is sanctified,
what of the great and the transcendent may not be grafted!
From qualities like these, what a heaven may be raised !
The Accountable ! This being interpreted, implies a de
gree and store of good which no independent gift, no
physical ordination, could command. It is of our own
motive, however inspired, it is of our own doing, however
prompted, that it is produced. It is personal in all its
bearings. And thus is laid open a course for the constant
pursuit of good. There is always duty. There is always
reward. We can never exceed duty. We can never go
beyond reward. Responsibility is a measureless means of
well-being. It is the Divine largess in giving to man a
happiness so peculiar, that none other procedure could
realise it for him, rendering it certain by making it an
operation of the mind, securing its interminablenefis by
directing it towards infinite perfection. Here is a percep
tion and a susceptibility by which heaven is more than
shadowed forth. Open heaven to this perception and sus
ceptibility, and how shall they emulate its thrones, what
ever their boundless range, and win its crowns, what
ever their heightening glory ! The Immortal ! From his
initial point of existence, man numbers ages parallel with
the Everlasting One. He is henceforth His coeval. It is
an inestimable donative. It must be solemnly significant.
Unlike the swarm of life, this must include an awful pur
pose. Such a gift cannot be lightly doled. Irrevocable,
— the character of the Giver, the seriousness of the gift,
the responsibility of the recipient, all required that such a
duration should not be bestowed in vain. Wherefore is
this ? Lavished by infinite benevolence, we must be con
vinced that it is only a blessing for the accumulation of
blessings', that it is only an earnest for the fulfilment of
earnests, that it is only a capacity for the outgrowth of
capacities, that it is intended for all of infinite happiness

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 205'
which a creature can know, by finding all but an equivalent
to infiniteness in perpetuity. Here is a sphere of being,
and of power, and of endlessness, on which, as on its
natural foundations, more than on its twelve rocks of pre
cious stones, heaven may rest ! " It doth not yet appear
what we shall be :" but there are latent feelings which
begin to appear, and slumbering sentiments which begin
to rouse. The unformed thought takes shape, and the
nascent emotion acquires vigour. The spiritual aspires,
the accountable awes, the immortal expands, within us.
We are strangely moved. " A fire is shut up in our bones."
This is not our rest. This cannot be our portion. "That
which is wanting cannot be numbered." An inextinguish
able desire, an insatiable capacity, throws us forward on
the vast, the indefinite, the unknown, the boundless ! If
the greatest possible felicity was the design of the Creator
to bestow, can we imagine a receptacle for it capacious as
the nature of man ? What is that greatest possible felicity,
which man was made to receive, which man is capable of
enjoying, but heaven ?
But as these outlines of our natural constitution are only
obscure predictions of our future blessedness, we may the
rather think of what is already done, change which is wrought,
impression which is induced, in true Christians. Effects
are accomplished. Processes have passed upon our minds,
purifying their tastes and elevating their desires. Acts of
mercy, operations of grace, have succeeded each other, until,
in Scripture language, we are now " the saved," " the ran
somed," " the redeemed." Every behever has experienced
these transformations. This is the ground-idea of all
future improvement, of heavenly destination. And when
this language rises to our lips, amidst these longings for
better and higher stages of being, " It doth not yet appear
what we shall be," — we are conducted by it to something-
certain and intelligible. " Behold what manner of love
the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called

20& THE HEAVENLY STATE.
the sons of God ! " The idea of the description which thus
labours to explain the love so wonderingly introduced is,
that of something foreign, belonging to another region,
bearing an impress of entire singularity and strangeness.*
It is extraneous to whatever has been known and proved.
It is a new thought, an unrealised conception, meeting no
intimation, finding no germ, in the human mind. It was an
unprecedented thing in the earth. Where was it not new ?
In heaven ? In its archives there was no such record of
grace. In hell ? In its prisons there had been no remis
sion. There was no type of such a principle. There was
no formula for such an idea. And to this moment it stands
detached, isolated, unmixed, unreflected; a pure originality,
a sublime anomaly, to every created community and mind.
Only had it its element in infinite benignity, its coalescence
with eternal mercy, its home and in-being in the bosom of
God. What manner of love ! When did love assume such
forms ? When did it overcome such difficulties ? When
did it repress such disgusts ? When did it incur such
sacrifices ? When did it endure such wrongs? When did
it afford such proofs ? When did it expend such efforts ?
When did it suffer such provocations ? When did it dis
tribute such blessings? When did it abide such tests?
What a manner ! What a bearing is this ! It is not the
manner of men. It is the manner of God. It is Uke Him
who doeth wonders ; whose march is among marvels ; who
can never be anticipated and prejudged. It is true to him.
It is worthy of him. But if we may trace the resemblance,
if we can recognise the style, and pronounce it to be so
like, — "Who is a God like unto Him?" This love takes
a subsistence in all its proper objects, in all who feel its
influence and glory in its manifestations, distinct and
abiding. This manner answers to itself, to its original
mien, its earliest seeming. It commiserates the hardened
sinner, — his case of woe, — but how can it proceed ? It
* Uorantfv.

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 207
sees in him disaffection and hostility. He, is an enemy.
The general love rose unimpeded in a spontaneous over
flow : but every thing obstructs this application of it. It
seems as if mercy were pierced with the consciousness of
the hopelessness of interposition : " How shall I put thee
among the children ? " But it can achieve the tender con
quest. " I said, Thou shalt call me, My Father, and shalt
not turn away from me." He is adopted ! He is God's
child ! God's favor covers him with its smiles ; God's
image shines through him with its features ! And we
behold him advancing amidst ministering spirits and
guardian angels, with a dower of indestructible* riches and
in a kingly state. Every thing combines to show what is
the magnitude of the change. If, is " the exceeding grace
of God in us." It is " the exceeding greatness of his
power towards us." It calls into " marvellous light."
" The peace of God which passeth all understanding rules
in our hearts." Then all these views surely will suggest
heavenly meditation ! All suggest it. Our justification is
" of life." Our repentance is " unto life." Our regenera
tion is " the grace of life." What is not indicated and
augured ! How absolute is the inference that all this
honour and privilege shall not run to waste ! Was it given
to fail ? That which is so elaborate, was it fashioned to
perish ? The costly vessel, was it embellished to be
marred ? " We are called the sons of God." Does not
this speak of mighty issues ? " It doth not yet appear
what we shall be." But can expectation stretch itself too
far? The strictest reasoning henceforth banishes all ne
cessity for sentiment and imagination; it forces upon us
conclusions which sentiment and imagination cannot de
pict. " If children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and joint
heirs with Jesus Christ ! " We discover now a perfect
resting-place on which- to project our scale. "We know
that we have eternal life." " The adoption of sons," the
present privilege of Christians, was never intended to be

208 THE HEAVENLY STATE.
fully developed in this life. It is concealed under infirm
ities ; it is clouded by afflictions ; it is connected with a
probationary dispensation ; it is subjected to moral tests;
the sons of God are to be approved. But it shall not
always be circumscribed by this narrow and unpropitious
sphere. It yearns with prospective aims. Its more beau
tiful lineaments begin to set ; it already expands itself into
more worthy proportions. It carries with it "the example
and shadow of heavenly things." To this correspond the
premonitions awakened in our minds. We verify within
us congenial emotions. " He who hath wrought us for the
self-same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the
earnest ofthe Spirit." " We rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory." We are " partakers of the glory that
shall be revealed." We are "vessels aforetime prepared
unto glory." We are " partakers of a heavenly calling."
" Our conversation is in heaven." This stirs within us
heavenly foretastes and predispositions. We now " do
enter into the rest." We " hold that fast which we have,
that no man take our crown." " The first-fruits of the
Spirit " are waved over our souls. " We sit with Christ in
the heavenly places." "Eternal life dwelleth in us."
These are not only prophecies going before upon us, they
are experiences. We " know in part," as we " prophesy in
part." Pledge is fulfilled. Promise is experienced. Faith,
and hope, and love, have not only spied out the land, but
have returned with specimens and spoils. Yet, remem
bering how great this adoption is, we feel that nothing
present, though consciously real, can satisfy it, can com
port with it, can answer to it. It has scarcely been ap
proached. It is still hidden in the mysteiy of this " man
ner of love ! " It needs heaven itself,— though it brightens
with it, though it savours of it,— to ripen its results. It is
checked where it cannot find infinite range and eternal
duration. Thither all its affinities tend. There all its
transports enlarge.

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 209
We have reasoned upon a particular blessing of the gos
pel, that of which the sublime text on which we comment
is but the augment, that text which is less a betrayal of
ignorance than a foretelling of faith ; and when we con
sider that specific blessing of adoption, we feel that we
cannot draw it out too fully and too permanently. It is
the guarantee of all the glory, and all the happiness, which
heaven can contain. But the gospel itself is the compre
hensive index. We see in it, " all the words of this life."
We require that this emphatic description should be under
stood. " This life ! " Commonly it is a little phrase. We
read of " the cares of this life," of " the things which per
tain to this life," of " the affairs of this life." These all
are poor and mean : they belong to an earthly existence.
But when we read of " the words of this life," it is eternal
life, — "this life is in the Son!" It is life, which stands
alone from all besides, life, incomparably greater than any
other life, that which is only worthy of the name. It is
the scope and inspiration of the whole. Its doctrines,
like stars, sweep onward to- that source of light. Its pro
mises, like gentle whispers, cheer the Christian pilgrim's
heavenward way. Its duties, like self-denying but self-
recompensing means of health, brace the spirit for its
struggles with mortality. Its graces, like angels, just alight
below, that they may waft us in their swift return where
they can only rest. It summons us to forecast. We look
beyond ourselves. It answers to what we already feel.
We have the inward experience. We boast a present sal
vation. " It doth now save us." " Our faith hath saved
us." "We are saved by hope." "God who hath saved
us !" Mysterious preparations are hastening in our heart.
" Christ is in us the hope of glory." And so manifestly
does " grace " prepare for " glory," so plainly is the rudi
ment of heaven contained in genuine piety, that we may
mark, as it were, the growth of the spirit's wing, its supple
j oint and callow down, whicb , when clothed with its plumage

210 THE HEAVENLY STATE.
•and poised in its strength, shall bear it up, and speed its
flight to that heaven, from which suns, left far beneath,
look little, poor, and dim !
But what we now understand, what we now feel, is only
incipient. The principle of development still must be
applied. Of heaven, the pattern and the presage are very
imperfect. Then are we required to extend all that we
understand, and all that we feel, concerning it, to think,
and to cherish them to the utmost, while we cannot give
them that way and career which they deserve, while they
fall so unworthily short of the true illimitability. " It doth
not yet appear what we shall be." Immediate confirmation
is yielded to us. For who wrote that pregnant sentence?
A man of little mind ? of cold affection ? of lifeless soul ?
A man who knew scanty enjoyments of devotion, and
possessed narrow opportunities of improvement ? A re
cluse of the desert, with heart barren as its waste ? A
churl, who repined beneath his lot ? It is the disciple who
leaned on the bosom of Jesus : who heard and felt that
heart, which it enclosed, to beat ! " A door was opened
in heaven." " Immediately he was in the spirit." He
stood amidst the celestial wonders. He beheld, he talked,
he enquired, he heard ! He saw the great number of the
redeemed, which no one can number. He listened to the
voice of many angels — " ten thousand times ten thousand,
and thousands of thousands." The tree of life fanned his
brow ; the river of life brightened to his eye and made
sweet music to his ear. He ascertained the admeasure
ment of that city which is " continuing," which " God hath
prepared;" he counted its gates, he traced its walls, he
searched its foundations. Hewas collected in all his sur
veys, and self-possessed in all his thoughts. There is no
bewildered manner, nor does his spirit sink. The spirit
of the prophet is subject to the prophet. " I John saw the
holy city." But after all, little can he tell. It baffles his
report. And as Paul, in an earlier rapture, had declared

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 2.1.1
that he "heard the unspeakable words, which it is not
lawful for man to utter :" so does the beloved disciple,
whose heavenly spirit might have retained, if any spirit
could, so much of heaven, might have, most readily of
all, caught its idea and reflected its splendour and drank
its bliss — confess his utter incapacity to set it forth. " It
doth not yet appear what we shall be ! " What must it be,
when an infinite accumulation upon all that was ever
imagined and desired by the most ecstatic saint is neces
sary to constitute it !
But as "it doth not yet appear what we shall be," so
when the heavenly order of existence has begun, there is
still a necessary development. It is carried out in pro
gressions. We may mark it stage by stage. There was
the patriarchal heaven, whither the spirit of righteous
Abel passed, in which the fathers of Israel lived to God.
in which each walked in his uprightness, — Abraham's
bosom — the paradise to which Jesus commended his
spirit, and bore that also, which he had saved amidst such
a contrast of weakness and omnipotence. This state is
invariably described as nether, subterranean, requiring
descent. We do not dogmatise, whether " these lower
parts of the earth" ought to be literally or figuratively
understood ; whether they denote local habitation, or com
parative inferiority of honour and joy. It continued the
same until the ascension of Christ, though we may suppose
that it would share in every increasing disclosure and
advantage, allotted to the saints on earth. Considering
what departed spirits had known, the holiness they had
attained, the spiritual-mindedness they had enjoyed, that
state must have been most desirable to them. It was a
great exaltation of their being. It was the scene of a
¦peculiar Divine manifestation. The anticipated advent of
the Messiah, their reliance on his righteousness, and sal
vation, forbade them to sink away into darkness, or into
silence. They " became not like them who go down into

212 THE HEAVENLY STATE.
the pit." It was the abode of light, and confidence, and
repose. They " had their good thing," though not " the
better thing."* It is quite impossible to ascribe to them,
mental inactivity and trembling suspense. Did they leave
their new song, which they chanted here, for no corre
spondent strain? When heart and flesh failed, was not
God their portion for ever ? Their often faltering distrust
of the immediate future, their ignorance, their gloomy
views, are not the proper measures of what they found
that future to consist. If it could be the refreshment and
tlie reward of the Redeemer's spirit, between his death
and his resurrection, we may not think that it could be
unworthy of them "who first trusted in Christ." But it
did " not yet appear what they should be." Christ, in his
Spirit's visitation, descended to them. He has now " as
cended up, far above all heavens." He has " sat down at
the right hand of the Majesty on high." His dwelling is
" higher than the heavens ; " all known, and supposeable,
firmaments. The idea of altitude is not incidental, but is
continually impressed. "He is made higher than the
heavens." The blessedness of departed saints is, that
they are with him. " Absent from the body, they are
present with the Lord." He has " willed that they be
with him, that they may behold his glory." This is that
towards which they aspire, that they may "follow him,"
if not "now," yet, "afterwards," soon as their course is
run. They who have died since the ascension of Christ,
have unquestionably, like himself, " gone into heaven."
They are " before the throne." But what is the condition
of those who died previously to the ascension ? We know
what it was. Are there, then, two different allotments?
Are the disadvantages of the first retained ? Is the supe
riority exclusively theirs, who are placed later on in the
history of time, believing in Christ as come, but with no
stronger faith than was exercised by them who believed
« Heb. xi. 40.

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 213
that he should come? They, in the strictest sense of all,
had " not seen, and yet believed ;" they were, of all, most
entitled to the " blessedness " of that peculiar faith. Is it
conceivable, that they are left, while others, for no pre
eminence of excellence, are advanced ? It is then clear,
that the Hades of the righteous, under the law, is not the
heaven where the ascended Christ is, and where all his
disciples, since his ascension, are gathered. May we then
infer that such Hades is absorbed in this heaven ? that
its place is changed ? that its spirit-throng is transferred '?
that its restrictions are abolished ? that the patriarchs and
prophets have risen thence ? This is but presumptive
reasoning; we may expect that, if it correspond to fact,
there can be found more substantial evidence. Now, that
was paradise : there the soul of Christ was, on the day of
his crucifixion, together with the soul of the rescued male
factor. Where is now that fair and bowered garden, in
which happy spirits dwell, eating its immortal fruits, and
drinking its living waters ? The rapture of the apostle
Paul seems to identify it with the third heaven. Thither
he had been caught. It is replied that, this is the de
scription of two different events. * We readily concede,
that in the verb is no necessary sense of elevation, t But
the designed impression of the narrative seems to us to be,
that of simultaneousness : that he went into paradise, and
into the third heaven, at once. Nor do we feel the force
of that which is cited to prove the difference of the events :
" visions and revelations." Might not these include dis
closures ofthe same object? If they were but two, would
they be denoted by, " the abundance of the revelations,"
— " revelation," pointing out specifically each ? Can abund
ance be applied to two ? Besides, his account is only of
one : the unutterable things were of paradise, nothing is
said of the third heaven, unless it be included in paradise ;
and, therefore, we hold the inference to be just, that the
* See Campbell on the Gospels. Prel. Diss. + 'Apirofm.

ill THE HEAVENLY STATE.
scene was one.* The paradise, if the same with that which
was of old, was inferior to the third heaven, but it is men
tioned climacterically ; is the third heaven visited first, and
then, is this explored, as the more glorious place ? There
is in the repetition, only the natural rhetoric of awe and
partial information : the manner of the vision is indescri
bable, and its indescribableness is twice told. The same
kind and direction of motion, as to the region or regions,
is expressed by a common verb, which would be unfaith
ful, at least undescriptive, were these regions so different
and extreme in their sphere. — It is a Christian promise,
which unfolds this more exalted view of the present para
dise : " To him that overcometh, will I give to eat of the
tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."
This is the last employment by Scripture of the particular
word ; not so of the thing. For in the concluding chapter
of the concluding book of Scripture — in a description of
the final heaven, the new heavens — this very imagery is
preserved : " On either side of the river, was there the tree
of life." We are congratulated in a sublime tone of con
fident appeal : " Ye are come unto the city of the living
God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable com
pany of angels, to the general assembly and church of the
first-born, which are written in heaven, and to the spirits
of just men made perfect." This is their present, actual,
state ; for we, living men, now come into contact with
them. They are beheld in the Divine residence, in the
true heaven, in a common congregation, in a celestial
enrolment, in all possible perfection, according to their
circumstances of bodily deprivation. From this "-general
assembly," are all the believers of the ancient eeconomy
excluded ? Could the scantling of those, who were empha
tically, at that instant, " the dead in Christ," constitute
the whole of that assembly ? Were not Jew and Gentile
made "both one ?" Was there not a perfect t3*pe of this
* 2 Cor. xii.

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 215
union " of twain," in " the one new man ? " Would a
"middle wall of partition," here "broken down," be left
between their states beyond the grave ? We are distinctly
informed that, " God has provided some better thing for
us." Their participation was suspended upon our, attain
ment of " this better thing," " that they without us should
not be made perfect." But they now share it: "ye are
come to the spirits of just men made perfect." It is
the same word, " Without us they could not be made
perfect," — they are now comprehended in " the general
assembly," — their historic precedence pointing them out
distinctly, " the church of the first-born," — they are " made
perfect." — The resurrection of Christ, almost invariably
identified with his ascension, is represented as possessing
a retroactive influence. He has " become the first-fruits
of them that slept." This seems not only to secure their
happy resurrection, but it supposes some previous disad
vantage. This is retrieved. It could not be as to their
resurrection, for that was pledged before. But their spirits,
in comparison .with those believers who die under the
present dispensation, were subjected to detriment. They
were held in a species of captivity, — implying rescue and
ransom, hut also detention and suspense. They were like
a liberated band, consciously safe and joyfully grateful,
but who saw not the issue. Their feelings answered in
some measure to their own " law," which " made nothing
perfect." They could not cast off all .the limitations which
had beset them : the veil was not entirely removed : they
" could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is
abolished." They knew better from what they were
delivered, than to what they were reserved. But he, in
entering heaven, "led captivity captive." They who were
held of death, he had freed : he took them, the children
of captivity, captive to himself. Until heaven was prepared
fox them, he put them into charge and safe-keeping, " that
they should rest yet for a little season." How happy were

216 THE HEAVENLY STATE.
they to be his, — even his captives, — as their souls were
upon earth brought into captivity to his obedience. They
were disenthralled by his power, and awaited a share in
his triumph. He led the way, he showed them the path
of life, and they shall reign with him.* The " inheritance
ofthe saints in light" is " among all them which are sanc
tified," — they are the redeemed of all nations, and kindreds,
and people, and tongues, — they are sealed according to
their tribes, — they are called in one hope of their calling,
they form one mighty complement and aggregate, like the
city in which they dwell, a quadrature of perfection. " Jeru
salem, which is above, is the mother of us all ! " " Blessed
are the dead who die in the Lord, /rom henceforth." This,
then, is the heaven of Christian souls. Nothing better
awaits them in their state of separation. The believer
dies, all of him that can suffer dissolution, — and even
something more, earthly life,- — not forgetting that the
separation of the spirit from that which may be dissolved
is an effect of death, and that the separated spirit is under
the influence, and in the state, of death. They whose
spirits are separated are called the dead : but they are
" the dead in Christ.'' " The body is dead because of sin,
but the spirit is life because of righteousness." The soul
has no parts to be separated : in Butler's phrase, it is
indiscerptible : it, therefore, lives in defiance of mortal
decay. It is released. We esteem not this to be a desir
able escape, considered in itself. It would be a greater
good that need should not exist for release, that the exist
ence of the body should always go on with the existence
of the spirit. This is the consequence of sin. The penalty
is cut off from the believer in Christ, but not the incon
venience. It involves suspense, incompleteness, unfulfilled
aim, defective instrumentality. It is now redeemed to
him, and turned to inestimable account. He who is
* The author, in another work, has endeavoured to support this criticism
by Genesis xiv. 14, &c, Judges v. 12, 1 Samuel xxx. 18.

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 217
"absent from the body is present with the Lord." He
who "departs," "departs to be with Christ!" "The
spirit is made perfect," but it is only its own perfection,
and amidst an immature state. That perfection is not
absolute, development being a condition of spiritual nature,
and its higher developments depending upon the restora
tion of the body. " It doth not yet appear what we shall
be ! " Holding a material resurrection, putting from us
every dream " that it has passed already," we are now to
think of those perfected spirits awaiting a destiny so glo
rious, that in their vehement aspirations, while upon
earth, they were wont to seem unmindful of all besides :
" I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness : "
" If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of
the dead." The most costly worth is attached to this
recovery of our whole manhood. The perfecting of the
soul, though the nobler process in itself, is not compared
with it, — not merely because this is the confirmation of
that precious effect, but as it gives our nature its integrity,
its right position in creation, and is the proper sera for the
" manifestation of the sons of God." The glorification of
man now strictly begins. The body is " raised in honor,"
it is a " glorious body." This may intend outward form,
beauty, and grace, — power and facility of influence, — the
assimilation to Him who was "fairer than the children of
men." But it is " raised a spiritual body," — not by a
conversion and transmutation of different properties, yet
matter exquisitely astherealised, refined, unmixed as spirit,
active as spirit, indestructible as spirit, — wholly subservient
to it, wholly informed by it, its stay, and mirror, and wing.
And thus a new development of heaven ensues. The heaven
of spirits was not, indeed, divested of all adjuncts which cor
poreity might apprehend and enjoy : for it had received
some of our nature in its entireness, some who had not died
and'some who had been raised bodily from the grave. Still
shall unfold another heaven, more adapted to the expressions

218 THE HEAVENLY STATE.
ofthe incarnate God, to the exercises of his risen saints, to
the triumphs of redeemed and immortalised mortality!
That development depends upon a far distant event. No
transition of abode can we anticipate ulterior to it. These
are the new heavens and the new earth. But progression
belongs to their inhabitants. " It doth not," at any point
of their perpetuity of bliss, " appear what they shall be."
In the revolutions of that duration there is room and verge
for proficiency in knowledge and for advancement in hoU
ness, which may be as inconceivable to them as their pre
sent knowledge and holiness can be to us. They may
acquire new mediums of perception, susceptibilities which
we should not understand how to explain save by compar
ing them to new powers and faculties, though we must
maintain that they can only be high and nobler conditions
of their original mind. That mind, in its blessed circum
stances of physical completeness and of final glorifica
tion, may evolve in capacities, and subsist in states, of
which we cannot conceive. Where study cannot be a
weariness, it may be illuminated with thoughts and ex
panded with reasonings to which we cannot unite an
analogy or attach a name. How may it rise, not only
above all ignorance and prejudice, but gain the mastery of
essential truth, — unravelling mystery, solving problem,
sounding depth, as it careers along ! In the Divine light,
it shall see light. What will be the effusing savor of the
knowledge of Christ when it is now so sweet ! What will
it be to comprehend with all saints and know the love of
Christ which passeth knowledge, when now that meditation
can fill us with all the fulness of God ! The will, the
movement of the purest affections, cannot then be left to
traverse in a narrow round, — vibrating amidst incessantly
recurring duties of humble import, and low temptations,
and fretting cares, — it must pursue its way among unmixed
good, choosing only from the less to the greater, finding
its pivot in the infinite volition and its inclination towards

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 219
the infinite glory. It is of the nature of mind, in its under
standing and will, to keep this active and opening course.
No present information can content it. No present hap
piness can satisfy it. We see this bias, by a wretched
perversion, in the restlessness of the wicked. We see this
same intellectual order in the pious, their growth in grace,
the abounding of their love more and more, not counting
themselves to have attained or to be already perfect. —
This, then, is the basis and history of all the celestial
developments from the beginning, — how heaven has grown
and shall grow, heaven out of heaven, it never appearing
what shall be, — yet taking a permanent form at last,
though all its blessings still proceed in an infinite series.
What has been, and what is, in comparison with " what we
shall be," is only as the first bar of light in the orient,
though the harbinger of day, — the most partial unhooding
of the bud, though a yielding to the outpressing flower, —
the infant lisp ere it strengthens into manly speech, con
taining, however, its true articulations, — the baby curiosity
ere it settles into scientific reason, anticipating, neverthe
less, its proper elements.
We have withheld a principle, in speaking of heaven,
which we think may regulate its evolutions. It is, that
while they are always in advance, as to clearness, of the
religious dispensation at any time subsisting upon earth,
still must they be in conformity to it. " The righteous
men " of old desired to see the things which we see ; but
not from their heaven could they see things which had not
come to pass. Their ideas, until Christ came, were those
of expectancy. Now that Christ is come, the ideas of
heaven are in resemblance to him and his mediation.
" The Lamb is the light thereof." So, whatever may be
the enlargements and triumphs of the Christian church,
the sympathy with these cannot be unknown to those who
compose the church which is above. This sympathy can
only be progressive. Until the events themselves it can-

220 THE HEAVENLY STATE.
not be awakened. Voices are heard in heaven only when
these events occur. And this view relieves the question
of any arbitrary character. The knowledge of Divine
things is in revelation. It is given to man. All other
beings must acquire it thence. The higher conclusions
cannot be otherwise anticipated. " Into these things the
angels desire to look." " The principalities and powers
in heavenly places learn from the church the manifold
wisdom of God." The unfolding light of earth passed
over celestial spirits, and each changing scene of heaven
answered to the rising splendour. When the earth shall
be full of the knowledge of the glory of God, thus brighter
shall the heavenly places glow. It may be that the final
heaven shall reflect, though earth has passed away, the
glorious transactions of the universe, whatever the hand
of Deity may still produce and govern in its farthest
realms! Central to that universe, its gates, open night
and day, may receive glad tidings from other worlds, and
heaven continually swell forth to newer proportions, and
echo distant songs !
There is a special sympathy in these later developments
which we must distinguish. It will appear necessary and
reasonable that Christianity should bring us into close
fellowship with its Founder. Every present blessing pro
pounded by it depends for its vital experience upon our
union to him, — one of its leading doctrines, — and that one
effect by which we are made "partakers of Christ." He
is the subject of its facts and revelations. He is never
seen but " at hand, and not afar off." His present, living,
influence animates it. " Christ in you," is the appeal
which every Christian understands. The closer his union,
his identification, with Him who is his Head and his Life,
the more glorious is the aspect, the more intense is the
operation, of Christianity. Love to him is the grand cri
terion that we are in him, that we abide in him, that we
grow up unto him in all things. " Formed in us," he is

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 221
the model after which we are fashioned. " For us to live
is Christ : " while this is the plan of our life, our life is
the fitted scope for its fulfilment. We may become " the
glory of Christ." We cannot anticipate, we cannot con
ceive, any state of superior, preferable, blessedness to the
Christian life on earth, which does not bring us nearer to
Him, into a more distinct presence, into a fuller realisation,
than we now enjoy. But this is assured us. Heaven is
heaven on this account. " We are confident and willing
rather to be absent from the body and present with the
Lord." To the future heaven, consequent on the resur
rection of his followers, more marvellous manifestations
shall be unfolded. "When Christ shall appear, then shall
we appear with him in glory." " When we shall see him
we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." He
is visible. He is known. There shall be a peculiar ascer
tainment of him. He wills that we may see his glory.
He will come and take us to himself, that where he is we
may be also. So shall we be for ever with the Lord. It
shall be vision the most certain. " See Him as he is ! "
Not as he was in " the days of his flesh;" not as imagina
tion has lent hues to hope when we have cried, Come, Lord
Jesus, come quickly ! but in a realness which subsists,
though that which we cannot now apprehend. The trans
forming power of that vision depends upon its truth and
fact, that it is of Christ indeed ; that it is clear without
cloud, full without stint, constant without interruption ;
as at every period he can be only worthily regarded, justly
considered ; in exactest recognition, in closest communion ;
with nothing to be exempted, nothing to be corrected, no
thing to be supplied ; the medium as perfect as the object,
— as He is ! What heart does not bound at the thought
of " the glory of his presence ? " To see as with a glance
all the virtues scattered among creatures, — in them ir
regular, detached, unharmonised, immature, — collected
in his character, perfect, concordant, the infinite conver-

222 THE HEAVENLY STATE.
gence of spiritual loveliness ! It is " the King in his
beauty!" It would not be heaven were it not desirable above all
that is now known of highest happiness on earth ; were it
not to the most holy Christian, in the most advantageous
circumstances, a blessed exchange. If to our minds it be
that in which we only acquiesce, to which we are barely
reconciled, — an alternative to which, being inevitable, we
yield, — we have not found the true conception of heaven.
The first Christians, when they must enter it by violence
and cruel deaths, passionately sought it, and strove for it
the more. They supplicated for patience, because their
temptation was to repine at the delay. They saw how the
meteyard of the present and future inclined, and without
hesitation pronounced the decision. " They took joyfully
the spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves that
they had in heaven a better and an enduring substance."
This confidence was put into the most summary form. " I
count not my life dear unto myself." "For to me to die
is gain." " To depart, and to be with Christ, is far bet
ter." The superiority of advantage is there. Yet seems and
sounds it paradox. What disarrays like death ? It defaces
the fascination of the beautiful. It breaks the lamp of the
wise. It withers the strength of the mighty. It snatches
the store of the rich. Kings are stripped of trapping,
trophy, treasure: "their glory shall not descend after
them." The Christian is really more interested in the
present than all men besides. None have such a stake in
it as he. Life is his. Things present are his. He must
know the denudation of death as any other man. Is it not
loss to be withdrawn from the fruits of our industry, the
frugal recompense of toils and pains ? Is it not loss to be
torn from all our endearments of nature and love ? Is it
not loss to forsake the spectacle now unfolded to us, the
arched sky and verdant earth ? Is it not loss to forego
every haunt where the sole of our foot bas found its rest

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 223
and our heart its hold ? But he who awarded that death
was gain, that to depart was far better, had learnt to count
all things but loss for Christ, and had been caught up into
the third heaven. We receive from him the double esti
mate. He can pronounce respecting both. Does he
simply regard as an equivalent for life, — not only when
harassed but when most gifted and enviable, — whatever
ensues upon its close ? Something to which it is our duty
and wisdom to consent ? In his view, it is not indemnity,
not compensation, but an incomparable good. It is an
incalculable exaltation. The actual, the absolute, desire-
ableness of heaven, must then be established in our mind.
We know what sacrifice there is in death : what proves it
such a capacity of happiness ? such a melioration ? such a
gain ? As an isolated judgement it can stand on no ground :
it cannot momentarily impose. It must belong to some
system : it must spring from a peculiar class of principles
and affections. It is a relative, a contingent, — not a neces
sary, nor a universal, truth : but for certain things it would
not be true, and as to certain persons it is not true. Nor
do we think that the profit of death could be shown by any
measure of general happiness. That happiness might not
seem congenial : it might not allure nor draw. We might
not be capable of appreciating it. We might be reluctant,
for that greater enjoyment — indefinitely great — to part
with that less and inferior which we now understood and
possessed. It is necessary, in order to inspire the just
emulation, to prove that there is an augmentation of that
kind of happiness which Christians experience in their
present state.
Now we do think that there is a frequent intimation in
Scripture, that heaven, with all its amazing secrets, follows
in a natural order from the present, that while it affects
our physical constitution of body and of soul, putting ex
quisite refinements upon both, so it regards our present
habits and acts and dispositions, consulting them, directing

224 THE HEAVENLY STATE.
them, enuring them, and always in reference to our hap
piness, by making them the means of it. We are not to
think of it as strange. If we be now " made meet for it,"
there must be a correspondence to that meetness. If we
are bid to prepare for it, there must be that which agrees
to the preparation. All the good done in the body is
received again. The first-fruits answer to the harvest.
There must be, therefore, some medium of anticipation.
There must be some ground of comparison. And it is
this which we would confirm ; for it is not another species
of happiness, — however transcendent, and that only the
more indefinable, — which can, in man's judgement, satisfy
him for the loss of that which he feels now to be happy.
Is there Life, as we now understand it ? We are con
scious of it, we value it more than any good, we shrink
from whatever may endanger it. To speak of a metem
psychosis, is to speak of another's life and not of our own.
To speak of the continuance of a life which had ceased, is
to speak of a new existence. To speak of the revival of
a forgotten past, is to speak of the creation of the present. •
A life without perception, a life without intelligence, a life
without memory, a life without identity, we can neither
conceive nor prize. Any such, whatever else it can be,
sets aside, supersedes, annihilates, our being. The Scrip
tures represent to us that heaven sustains our life. "We
keep it unto life eternal." < It is life in its intensity and
fitness and concentration, corporeal, mental, spiritual.
" We shall reign in life." The final heaven, — and we must
pass through all the stages to it, — shall restore and sub
limate all the essentials of our being, all its instruments
and capacities, with the accession of whatever besides may
belong to life everlasting !
Is there Devotion, as we now approve it ? The Omni
present can now manifest himself to the religious mind as
he does not unto the world. He can see in secret where
piety bends and pleads. He is " in heaven," after a man-

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 225
ner in which he is not elsewhere. There is his " presence,"
his "right hand," his " majesty," his " high and holy place."
There He is most proximate. His glories ray out their
brightest splendor. " To draw near unto God," is the
Christian's present delight. " God is his exceeding joy."
" He has boldness to enter into the holiest." He may
" walk with God." Any abridgement of this privilege,
whatever could check its tenderness, its freedom, its wel
come, would be an alienation of his purest good. But
heaven cannot interpose repression or restraint. It is
consecrated to praise. It is a shrine full of incense and
music. They have every one censers. Harpers harp with
their harps. The soul, which the ancients defined to be
a harmony, now first finds its proper song. Communion
with the Lord God and the Lamb constitutes the rite and
the spirit of heaven. Of those multitudes we are told, that
they " serve God day and night in his temple," that " He
who sitteth upon the throne shall dwell among them."
" His servants shall serve him." All this is assured. We
believe it. We know not how this shall be. " We know
not with what we must serve the Lord, until we be come
thither." Is there scope for Benevolence ? The love of creatures
is sweet to us, and life were heavy could we not exercise
it. It is a part of the law, " the royal law : " its neglect is
sin, and sin is misery. On earth we cannot deplore the
unsuitableness of the sphere for this virtue. There are
objects for its complacency, and far more for its pity. To
spread happiness around us is our happiness. We may go
about doing good. Love is of God, and is Godlike. Who
would be "shaken from this labor?" Who would be
stayed in this career? We have the "opportunity" of
doing good. What a " stewardship " of trusts is committed
to us ! It would not be heaven, if that opportunity, if that
stewardship, were suddenly denied. But it only otherwise
directs that sympathy. It is even now a higher act of
xn. Q

226 THE HEAVENLY STATE.
mind to rejoice with them who rejoice, than to weep with
them who weep. It is greatly more difficult. It is far
more generous and noble. It is a better triumph over our
little and envious nature. It does not, as when we con
dole with the miserable, place us in a more advantageous
position and commanding light : it does not invest us with
an imaginary superiority : it does not suffer us to look
down : it does not invite by any sense of power nor repay
by any expression of gratitude. It can scarcely not be
pure, if it be sincere. In the eternal world there will be
only excellence to admire. There will only be happiness
in which to exult. Fellow- convicts may pity each other:
no sentiment may be less moral and laudable. Com
miseration may shed a selfish tear. Pride may erect itself
in assisting the weak and relieving the indigent. A mixed
passion, however unconscious and however deprecated,
almost belongs to such exercises. You bestow. You re
lieve. You lift up. They call you benefactors. It is a
gift. But what will it be, when all the affections of our
nature, purified of all possible pride, shall have soared
above all that could tempt it in benevolence itself ! The
evil eye of jealousy looks not forth ! To prefer one an
other is the common consent ! Heart, soul, and mind, in
all their strength, will be constantly engaged in the com
placency of holiness which is perfect, and in the congratula
tion of joy which is full. We shall feel no mortification at
any good which is superior to our own. It will affect us with
as much pleasure as though it were ours, and yet excite us
to emulate it. This is the love which never faileth, whose
lowest exercise was of succor and compassion, which,
now surviving the existence of misery, gives all her ardors
to good and purity, which pursues her best and immortal
triumphs in seeking not her own !
Is there facility for Friendship ! We know that word,
how it turns our thoughts to a few, how it particularises
the chosen objects of our love. No universal esteem and

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 227
sympathy could compensate its loss. Now while all those
glorified saints shall call forth perfect love, while their
spiritual loveliness might attract the entire heart, we be
lieve that there will be the reappearance of eveiy character
which death conceals, and the renewal of every tie which
death dissolves. Not only shall remembered worth inspire
afresh its proper regard, but recorded personality shall he
individualised to us. The multitude shall stand confessed.
They who must he the objects of holy curiosity shall not
remain undistinguished. We shall see Abraham, and
Isaac, and Jacob, iu the kingdom of God. " We shall
know even as also we are known." But it is in the recog
nition of those, to whom natural and religious bonds have
united us — "lover, and friend, and acquaintance'' — that
we must feel the most immediate concern. To lose them
by their death, to leave them behind by ours, is a bitter
woe. The pang would not be medicable, were this final
separation. It could not find relief in a general assurance
of their happiness. To know that they were near to us,
without the power of discerning them, would not be joy,
but the torment of a baffled sense, of a withholden desire.
Do we now " come to the spirits of just men," without a
warrant of discrimination? May we not think specially?
,May we not stretch forth our hands towards those com
panions of our pilgrimage, who have outrun us to the
tomb, and sped before us to their rest? And if this re
union be not assured, this resumption of Christian friend
ship, heaven seems postponed to earth, and that refused to
the future which principally blesses the present. But is
not Scripture emphatic in its testimony ? How otherwise
is it to be understood, when the mourning Thessalonians
are not left in ignorance concerning them who had fallen
asleep — their relatives and their fellow-disciples — but are
certified that " them who sleep in Jesus, shall God bring
with him ? " How otherwise, when Paul anticipates in his
converts, his glory and his crown ? How otherwise, when

228 THE HEAVENLY STATE.
Philemon receives Onesimus for ever ? How otherwise,
when " every man " shall be " presented " by him who
" warned and taught him in all wisdom," perfect in Christ
Jesus ? How otherwise, when He who raised up the Lord
Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus, and present us with
each other, with those to whom we write and speak these
things ? How otherwise, when the appeal is " by our
gathering together unto him ?" How otherwise, when we
are commanded to " remember them who had the rule
over " us, to " follow their faith," to " consider the end of
their conversation," that when " they give account, they
may do it with joy?" Is all the fellowship of saints, all
the comfort of love, to be broken short ? Are these memo
ries all to be blotted out ? Have we no hostages in heaven ?
Are none of our first-fruits garnered there ? We might
well inquire, Can the spirit be made perfect in the destruc
tion of its sensibilities ? What has plucked its veiy nature
from it ? Is the garment of glory a disguise ? Are parents
and children, pastors and flocks, intermixed, without one
identifying sign, one happy greeting ? We recover when
we die, far more friendships than we forego : and there is
none but shall be perpetuated. It is a reasonable thought
that the age of eternity may come, which shall have com
pleted an interchange of ideas and feelings, with all the
angels and all the saints. From the first, our studies, our
beatitudes, our songs, shall be the same. From the first,
we shall be one. Yet does not this exclude the more
descriptive affection, and the more defined relationship, to
which religion now owes so much of its strength and sweet
ness ; nor is heaven ever thrown into such contrast with
our hopes and desires, as to render it conceivable that this
recognition can there be denied. It is the implicit doc
trine of entire revelation, not avouched because assumed,
not propounded because unquestioned, with which all
agrees, which embarrasses and impedes nothing; in the
abrogation of which, man is deprived of his most natural

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 229
principles, and those humanities which familiarise hea
ven, in its most attractive representations, are violently
effaced. Is there ground for Security ? The changes and uncer
tainties of this life betray us into indifference, or tease us
into disgust. We would not live alway. Here we abide
not in one stay. In a still more saddened mood, we may
regard our spiritual instability. " It is a good thing that
the heart be established with grace," but how imperfect
and languid is that establishment ! Is there a world, where
bond is never weakened, prospect never overcast, safety
never endangered ? Where the apprehension of vicissitude
can never rise ? Where we need never tremble ? Where
sin can never tempt, nor doubt annoy ? Where hearts can
no ¦ more sink nor chill ? This is revealed. The city we
seek, hath foundations. The house we shall inhabit, is
eternal in the heavens. We go where health and strength
know no decay, love and attachment no blight, connexion
and fellowship no decline. Character cannot degenerate,
nor principle deflect. Influence cannot lessen, nor useful
ness pause. The corruptible has put on incorruption, and
the mortal, immortality.
Is there range for Research ? The delight of pious study
and investigation in the great fields of nature, is of the
purest kind. " The works of the Lord are great : sought
out of all them who have pleasure therein." "I will tri
umph in the works of thy hands." Philosophy and science,
baptized by religion, are the best ministers of human hap
piness. They who thus addict themselves are the best
benefactors of mankind. What realms — vast, profound,
measureless — remain yet to be explored ! Death would
bring a pang to the Christian, versed in discoveiy and
ardent for illumination, if it must for ever quench his
knowledge, and debar its enlargement. Must he leave
every question unsolved ? every suspense unrelieved ?
Must his invention be waste, and his labour vanity ? Is

230 THE HEAVENLY STATE.
there nothing in his elevation which shall still lift him ?
Nothing in his present pathway, which still is onward ?
Perhaps sublimer results await him. Here he wrought at
principles, was en-grossed in calculations. Here was his
toil of pupilage and initiation. There he may build his
orrery among the stars, and look out over all the heavens !
There he may discern the compositions of this sphere, or,
if they be unworthy of further thought, he may be guided
by them to those awful periods which preceded it, and to
those mighty histories of which its changes are the sche
dule and mark. Nor need we suppose, that the lettered
taste finds there no gratifications. In thought, beautiful
and graceful, only can religion live, and piety meet its-
congenial element. What numbers, spontaneously sweet,
may flow ! What imaginings, self -excited, may kindle !
And if we may speak our impression of that heaven, it is
not so much that particular directions of inquiry and dis
quisition prevail, but that they have given formation and
strength to mental habits, and have furnished resources
which heaven only can fully occupy and employ. All
nature may appear to them one self-interpreting symbol,
bringing out to their eye far more than those secrets which
once they sought ; and all knowledge, in its exquisite and
lovely refinements, may prove to have been but one intel
lectual preparation for perceptions and relishes of the great
and wonderful to which it could never have aspired. And
yet shall the earnest student of revelation find the most
congenial perpetuity of his research. Something there
may be in it which none at present fully understand:
something maybe inferred from it which all will need to
correct. Who has grasped all its treasures'? Who has
scooped its mines ? " They keep the sayings of this book."
It is " hidden in their hearts." It is " fitted in their lips."
" For ever it is settled in heaven." The sensible form has
perished: its truth, its power, its glory, survive. It has
" thoroughly furnished " the Christian for all the " good

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 231
works " of earth : it shall be his text and song for eternal
ministrations. Is there opportunity for Progression ? No happiness can
be satisfying and lasting which lies in any imposed limits ;
knowledge could yield little pleasure had it reached its
utmost possible extent ; and holiness would, of its very
nature, die, might it not rise into higher and higher per
fections. This may now be attained. " Grow in know
ledge." " Follow holiness." The aspiration, the effort,
induces delight. It rewards itself. Wine cometh of the
winepress. With striving- we knit our strength. Think
then of heaven. There is the infinite to explore, the divine
to enjoy, the eternal to pursue. In this is no restraint.
An unprogressive immortality is inconsistent and incon
ceivable. We speak of ourselves. We know the workings
of our nature. Such an immortality could not make us
happy or great. It would wrap us in a trance. It would
deaden every activity. Nor can argument avail from what
we know of the Deity. And if it be said, that his is unpro
gressive perfection, and that he is blessed for ever, we dis
pute the justice of the deduction. We cannot argue from
his essence to our nature. Nor do we allow the fitness of
the terms. What is meant by unprogressive perfection?
That he cannot be more glorified than he is ? that in his
existence he does not continue and endure ? that facts and
events as they arise, are not real to him ? that he does not
distinguish order, relation, succession ? that he is ignorant
of whatever all other beings perceive ? that past and future
are to him as a present, that is, what they are not ? A
metaphysical argument may disprove the possibility of any
augmentation of the Divine happiness. We distrust it.
Scripture cannot be read by such a rule. That happiness
is boundless plenitude. May not the will, the fulfilled
purpose, the evolving agency, of God, affect it with some
change, some influence, we speak not of excitements, nor
strictly of degrees, which shall correspond to his own

232 THE HEAVENLY STATE.
word? He pronounces some of his works "good," and
some "very good," he can " rejoice with joy," he can "joy
with singing." We do not suppose that this is all the
truth. We do not suppose that we could understand it
were it all placed before us. But as we concede that there
can be no proper increase of the Divine blessedness, so are
we alike convinced that unprogressive perfection does not
truly denote the operations of the Divine nature. And
such cannot express ours. The soul shall expand in its
immortality, and that heaven is worthy of the name which
is itself immortal !
Is there celebration of Redemption ? This is the blessed
desire and practice of true Christians in their earthly lot.
Their song is now : " Unto him who loved us, and washed
us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings
and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and
dominion for ever and ever." They show his death till he
come. They glory in his cross. Can they forget him ?
Can they cease to worship him ? Would that be heaven
where they saw no memorial of his atonement and heard
no anthem of his praise ? It is the high place of this
service. There sitteth the Lamb in the midst of the
throne. His worshippers wash their robes and make them
white in his blood. They sing a new song, — new, for
deathless are those realms, — new, in its awful, tender, bur
den, — new, in its copious matter and inextinguishable in
spiration. " Thou wast slain ! " Not only in the present
heaven, the scene of the evangelic administration, but in
the final heaven, when all administration shall have closed,
there is the holy city of sacrifice, everywhere presenting the
marks and the associations and the high honors of the
Lamb. Therefore do we conclude that not only is heaven to be
desired and " sore longed for," on account of its general
happiness, but because of every kind of happiness which
the Christian at present knows. "We praise the dead,

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 233
which are already dead, more than the living, which are yet
alive." And the glory of all consists in the beatific vision of
Deity. This is sublimely expressed : " That God may be
all in all." But this is always associated with sanctity, as
though this were the very medium of the perception.
" Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see God."
" Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord."
" His servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face."
There are mystic tokens of the celestial happiness which
we must not overlook. Beauty, concord, proportion, are
familiar ideas ; we mark their actual application ; we must
endeavour to understand how they shadow out higher
elements ; and how their archetypes are in heaven.
Beauty, the most sensible, only impresses the corres
ponding emotion, by standing forth the emblem of intel
lectual attraction and moral loveliness. Light andcolor and
shape do not constitute, but represent, it. And when we
muse of heaven, though we shall there " in our flesh see
God, whom we shall see for ourselves, and our eyes behold,
and not another's," though we shall gaze on sensible won
der and glory, we must endeavor to transfer the more
materialised impression to that which is ultimate and more
refined, the tree of life to life itself, the pure river of water
to purity itself, whatever is bright to knowledge, whatever
is fair to innocence, while " the beauty of the Lord " is but
the assemblage of " the beauties of holiness."
Concord, the most exquisite, is not merely an animal
delight; it stirs the memories, the imaginations, of the
soul. We know not why there should not be ode and song
in heaven. We know not why we must refine away all
such literal intimations. Still is a deeper signification to
be found. That which was divided, is now the united,
heart. The mind and body, which struggled against each
other, are now in a perfect concert of exercise. Sweet
harmony sways all thoughts and all feelings. The com-

234 THE HEAVENLY STATE.
bination of every interest is exact. The company is a
choir. The unanimity is a chorus. There is a strain of
praise and thanksgiving, beyond the power of voice to
utter and of harp to resound.
Proportion charms the taste, as something more than it
is in itself. It lies removed from artificial rule. It tells
of order and subordination. It gratifies an inner senti
ment. We think of heaven. There is configuration. We
may measure it by the typic reed. These admeasurements
speak of grander relations. Heaven is complete. There
is no irregularity, no want, no excess. Unlike the crooked
things, the ill-balanced events, the extreme passions, of
earth, it is moulded to one standard, and answers to the
exactest plan. Judgement is its line and righteousness
its plummet.
And on this " glory is a defence," that of immortality.
The eternity of heaven, so far as we know, is undenied.
None steal a beam from that crown which fadeth not away.
None abridge a moment of eternal life. None would
shorten eternal redemption. None would lessen eternal
salvation. None would reduce eternal inheritance. Other
wise could it be heaven? The heathen never supposed
the end of their Elysium. All descriptions, save where
argument has grown, under opposition, wilful and des
perate,* sustain its immortality. If the certainty were
that all this must end, however distant and still unknown
the period, that oppressive conviction could never flee the
spirits of the blest. It would hang like a dark cloud over
every scene. It would haunt every thought. How every
voice would falter in its hymn ! How eveiy hand would
quiver as it struck its harp ! Suspicion would hasten the
drawing nigh of that doom. Deep, dread, suspense would
anticipate its approach. The vesture would seem to decay,
and the crown to dim, while yet they were unimpaired.
The amaranth would seem to sere amidst its brightest
* Whiston is the only assertor of it whom we recall.

THE HEAVENLY STATE. 235'
bloom. " The twelve foundations " would seem to shake
long before they sunk away. Was it but the pageant of
ages ? Must it, when they expire, dissolve ? It is an in
conceivable catastrophe! No reason, no fitness, could!
explain it. Faint was the shriek of Sin, — embodied by
our bard in hideous form, — when she brought forth, full-
armed, her monster sob, and " fled and cried out, Death,"
and hell " back resounded, Death," — in comparison with
the horror which would awaken in these " nations of the
saved ! " Their last look, their clinging hold, their dying
groan, their annihilation ! It is an unholy, lawless, dream,
— alike impossible to be true, and impious to imagine !
Rather be it our part and pleasure to meditate heaven
in its glories and raptures because thus eternal. Let the
" everlasting joy " be now upon our heads. Let us en
deavour to conceive those lengthened measures of duration,
which we must renew and still renew, though all is endless
still. There shall not be lack, for there is " fulness of .
joy;" there shall not be satiety, for there are "pleasures
for evermore." And yet may heaven be seen in a certain
development, agreeing with the progression of its inhabit
ants, through this eternity. "What we shall be," may
always be an experience to gain ! It may rise continually
in refinement and spiritualism ! It may advance perpe
tually towards fuller impenetrations and transfusions of
the Covenanted Godhead ! So in the Apocalypse thoughts
of this order are not withheld. It opens in a temple, but
at its conclusion there is seen no temple, for the Lord God
Almighty and the Lamb are the temple. There was silence,
but afterwards the song never dies away. At the first we
behold more of arrangement and activity, more of recent
earthly remembrance and association, but at the end there
rise more congregated wonders, more calm, more fixedness,
more rest. All becomes more enlarged and ample, more
elaborate and glorified: not "the living fountains," but
" the river of life ;" not a door just opened in heaven, but

236

THE HEAVENLY STATE.

the twelve gates which are not shut night nor day ; not the
restraint of the sun from its smiting vehemence, but itself
outshone, so that there is no need of its further shining ;
not the tree of life in the midst of the Paradise, but flourish
ing on either side of the river ; not the dim and distant
mysteriousness of Him who sitteth upon the throne, but
his tabernacle with men; not the throne of the rainbow,
mitigated and faint, but of peerless glory ; not the throne
of undefined Deity, but of God and the Lamb !

LECTURE VI.
THE NATURE AND DESIGN OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT.
" The Lord, the Lord God, that will by no means clear :" literally, clearing
he will not clear, or not treat with impunity. — Exodus xxxiv. 6, T.
In revolving in our minds all questions which affect
eternity and its interests, it is certain that we cannot think
too intensely, if we think aright. Our thoughts being once
in the due direction, may travel forward in a boundless way.
The difficulty afterwards is in giving to those thoughts a
correspondence with their theme. The idea of eternity is
simple and undivided to none save to Him who "only hath
immortality:" to the human mind, when it most nearly
approaches it, it is a succession of many ideas ; or, so to
speak, idea resuming and relieving idea, that starting anew
when this has wearied, others carrying it forward when pre
ceding ones have failed. We " know not the numbers
thereof." " The powers of the world to come " quickly
overwhelm us.
Punishments, as they stand in connexion with our argu
ment, respect the same subjects and the same principles
as rewards. They belong to one government, and their
existence in the light of sanctions, though they were never
called for, are indispensable and essential to it. Whatever
rectitude and benevolence can be in reward, must be like
wise in punishment. The law cannot know, in these alter
natives, different dispositions. The Lawgiver cannot be
directed by different motives. The government designs

238 THE NATURE AND DESIGN
only good : punishment, equally with reward, is a precau
tionary measure, a provision, to secure it
We might ask, Why does God deal with men in govern
ment? But there are anterior questions, and not more
presumptuous. Why did he make them reasonable, and,
consequently, free ? We dare not put the ultimate demand
in its supposed tone of impiety : " Shall the thing formed
say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus ?"
" Shall thy work say, He hath no hands?" " Shall the
thing framed say of him who framed it, He had no under
standing ?" The wise are satisfied to abide by final, though
prescriptive, limitations. They yield to the fact which
they cannot oppose. They obey the system of physical
and moral subordination, of which they are a created part.
They, however, do not merely forbear to gainsay what they
cannot subvert. Moral government admits of a clear
defence and easy justification. None other means could
make the creature so great. The faculties which render
him accountable are his exact capacity to be happy. They
give him the power of an indefinite rise and melioration.
Nor could any system illustrate the principles of rectitude
and purity which must be of infinite account. God must
be known, that he may be glorified as God. " I am the
Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgement, and
righteousness, in the earth : for in these things I delight,
saith the Lord." Moral government is their exercise.
Besides, no reason can be stronger for the arrangement,
so far as our mind is concerned, than the impossibility
which every objector feels of suggesting any other. If
men will challenge the right of the Creator to form such a
race, upon them be the profane temerity of the protest.
We are content to begin our inquiries with the existence
of man, and challenge, with perfect confidence, the con-
ceivableness of any different scheme and regimen.
But moral government is prepared, by its terms, for
possible defection. It is no compulsory instrument for

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 239
individual happiness. The best for all, the best for each,
to prove itself this, it may be requisite to punish some.
Though punitive infliction is no end of this government,
it is its resource and alternative. A moral system is not
frustrated, so long as it can enforce its sanctions. Always
conditional, it is sustained while it keeps its conditions.
With this it can only be occupied and charged. It must
rest with infinite goodness whether it resort to any other
method, either of securing obedience from defection, or of
retrieving the consequences of defection when it has taken
place. The first might be effectuated by upholding in
sovereignty: the second, by forgiveness on satisfaction and
atonement. Let us, then, think of original man. He sinned. The
penalty ensued. Men sin. The penalty falls upon them
still. The first government is in force. It is not pressed
by any difficulty, nor betrayed into any inconsistency.
Strong at this hour as at the beginning, it vindicates itself
whenever transgressed. The law remains the same : it is
holy, just, and good. Speculations offer themselves to dis
array the authority of this government, to make null and
void its law. It is conjectured by not a few, that our first
parent would have suffered alone, that none would have
been born of him to share his fall, unless remedial mea
sures were contemplated. But this is to suppose the
defeat by sin of the whole creative system, — of all the laws,
rudiments, tendencies of this mundane constitution, — the
subversion of this stupendous work. That would have
been failure, a reduction to insurmountable dilemma, a
necessity not to proceed. Who dare entertain the thought ?
Our ancestor was not considered in himself. He was
proto-plast. Whom did he type? He was the federal
head. Who were his constituents ? It has also been con
jectured that the justice of the representative test applied
to our manhood, depended upon the certainty that reme
dial measures were in store. This is a vieious theology.

240 THE NATURE AND DESIGN
For every act of moral government must be entire in itself.
To suppose that it looks to any foreign solution, to any
superaddition of an utterly diverse element for its vindica
tion, is to condemn and reject every principle proper to it.
It would not, then, be righteous unless completed by some
thing else. But that something must be of justice or of
grace. If of justice, then without it man would not have
been treated justly. Justice coming to the aid of justice,
seems to us no very intelligible nor holy thought. If not
of justice, it must be of grace. Grace, however, is extra
judicial. It may, or may not, be exercised. It can never
be needed until justice is obliged to punish ; then its need
is founded upon just punishment. Grace thus admits that
the punishment is just. It does not rescue from the jus
tice, but only from the punishment to which the sinner
became liahle. So far from arraigning the justice, it ac
knowledges, honors, and supports. It celebrates it with
sacrifice and expiation and satisfaction. It provides a
perfect moral indemnity. It brings in " an everlasting
righteousness," and constitutes this the basis of forgiving
and accepting mercy. We cannot conceive of a sentiment
more dishonoring to Christianity than this, — that it was a
new law ; that it was the mitigation of the original rule ;
that it was an arrest upon a course of things which would
have been unjust had it continued alone ; that it was a
virtual apology for a method of trial, if not absolutely
opposed to righteousness, severe and extreme.
Practically every man is now placed under the original
law, and so he would have been had there been no act of
mercy. The forms of that law may be varied, but our
responsibility is always the same. We believe that this
act of mercy has respect to all men, and regards all whom
it reaches as responsible for its believing welcome,  re
deeming them from the curse of the law which they have
broken, recovering them to die dignity of the nature which
they have debased, but leaving them morally accountable

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 211
as they were before. What was their duty cannot be less
their duty now. " Not as being without law, but under
the law to Christ." In whatever relation we stand to a
sinful parentage, whatever may be its influence, guilt and
depravity are personal considerations ; for ourselves we
stand or fall. Not doubting the transmission of sinful bias
or disposition, we behold it in all as choice, as the opera
tion of moral liberty.
By these lights cast on the state of man, by these clews
to his real history and condition, we proceed to consider
him in his fearful catastrophe of present and future con
demnation. " Cursed is every man who continueth not in
all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them." Continuance is the requirement : on its failure the
curse is precipitated. This is assumed by Christianity.
It takes for granted that this is the true state of all. Its
doctrines and overtures proceed on the admission as that
which cannot be denied. But it surely follows that it is
independent of this catastrophe. It only " plentifully
declareth the thing as it is." Had it never been known,
had it never existed, that condemnation would have been
upon us. It does not bring us into it. It finds us there,
and proclaims to us salvation. Its language is that of the
Saviour: " Think not that I accuse you." Hell is not its
pile. It creates no hell. " God sent not his Son into the
world to condemn the world ; but that the world through
him might be saved."
To stave off future objections, we modify these state
ments without remitting their truth. Christianity, though
it be no part of its nature, though it be no consequence of
its design, may affect the punishment of man. For while
it is a mere system of restorative mercy, it is invested with
legislative authority and judicial power. It is possessed
of the attributes of government and law. It is raised, for
the purpose of its moral enforcement, upon common moral
grounds. It could not be allowed a place in the universal
XII. R

242 THE NATURE AND DESIGN
administration except it were in nicest harmony with it.
It could not be suffered to intrude on the presence of any
sacred principle, or to rush into collision with any esta
blished right. One character of moral rule, having refer
ence to all the motives of mind and the interests of being,
is stamped on the Divine procedure : Christianity must
receive the same impression. Its reception, therefore,
wherever it is known, is the turning point of salvation, —
its rejection, of punishment. — And, also, it may not only
inflict punishment, in its moral bearing and jurisdiction;
it may cause, incidentally, its more dread degree. This,
according to a condition or predicament previously urged,
is inevitable. It does not fall within its true design. But
it may arise, — certain circumstances being given, it must.
Increase of light, and favor, and privilege, enhances ac
countability. What is the Gospel of the kingdom but this
increase ? A " sorer punishment " may be the result, and
yet not at all proceed from its direct purpose, while it even
opposes its immediate end.
Leaving on record these exceptions, — which argumenta
tive consistency requires, — we revert to the case of man
who has corrupted his way, and has become obnoxious to
punishment. We demand the independence of all this on
Christianity. There may be mystery in the condition of
man, but Christianity does not weave the web. There is
evil, — that simplest of consequences, that profoundest of
problems, — but Christianity does not call it into existence.
An amnesty might as truly be charged with the rebellion,
or a medicine be held accountable for the disease.
The condemnation is thus upon every sinner : all having
sinned, it is upon all. What is the punishment which is
necessary? We ask not, at present, what it should be, in
the desert of sin ; but what it must be, in the nature of
man ? Well-defined principles are capable of inverse appli
cations. They are far-seeing and comprehensive. Their
influence is steady and searching. Those which we have

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 243
previously established, we must still pursue. We have
argued them at length : we have built them upon broad
foundations. We have proved their subserviency to cheer
ful, pleasant, desirable, truth : we must now try them upon
truth painful in itself, but which it is equally necessary for
our happiness to understand.
Man is a spiritual being, though the spiritual nature
subsists with certain limitations. There is an animal
restriction. This may be exaggerated. His body is not
the clog and den, but the instrument, of the soul. When
viewed aright, everything conduces to his higher nature,
his intelligence, his conscience, his immaterial life. In
this is a vast power, a world for suffering. Troubled
thought, evil passion, headlong despair, may fill it. Sin
is its corruption, its loss, its ruin. Consciousness, memoiy,
foreboding, may render needless and imperceptible any
external infliction. Abandonment to itself, to its " vile
affections," its pride, its envy, its malice, its mortification
its satiety, its vacancy, — fulfils its doom. " Sin is ever
before it," — in its 'freshest shame and first remorse. What
more can justice, if it meditated the misery and destruction
of its subjects, demand ? A soul like man's, in enmity
against God, filled with hatred of every other soul, at vari
ance with itself — this is the torture-chamber, in which all
the engines of agony are contained, and which the victim
can never fly ! What anguish can be compared with that
of the spirit? when it grovels in shame, when it rouses in
fury, when it lours in disappointment, when it pines in
jealousy, when it stagnates in apathy, when it crouches in
fear, when it congeals in despair ? What arrows could be
so sharp ? What poisons could be so deadly ? We must
so think of it, that nothing of itself is concealed from it,
and nothing of its state. The past burns in light to its
remembrance, and yet yields no ray. The consciousness
fills up its solitude, and yet finds no rest. It is alone with
its thoughts and reproaches. It is surrounded by other

244 THE NATURE AND DESIGN
minds alike wretched. It has no secret. It is explored'
and detected. Shame covers it. It is made Icnown to all,
and debarred the sympathy of any. There is nothing that
it loves. There is nothing that loves it. It is in the outer
darkness, that verge and confine of being, which is cheer
lessly removed from every struggling beam of light, every
meaner pittance of joy. " A wounded spirit, who can
bear ? " An outcast spirit, who can imagine ?
Man is a responsible being. This distinctiveness, the
noblest alliance between a God and his creature, brings
him now under a Creator whose law he has disobeyed, a
Creator displeased and bound to punish. Every faculty,
without which he could not be accountable, becomes an
inlet of woe. The upward degrees by which he might have
climbed to a heavenly throne, — the scale from earth to
heaven on which angels ascended and descended and which
was given him for his glorious pathway, — are inverted;
they are those which decline to the wards of a prison-house,
they are the downward steps to a dungeon, in which all
evil, fallen, natures are immured. Within the soul, this
sense of its abused responsibility is made to dwell. What
are its necessary reflections ! It has trodden down all
that was right for it ! It has withheld all that was due !
It has cast away the most honourable opportunity of rising
to a measureless dignity! The violation of claim and
equity never yet brought to the most unjust soul any por
tion of peace. But this is the disruption of whatever binds
man to his Lord. It is to "rob" him. It is to "come
short of his glory." The sense of this abused responsi
bility is now supposed to be full, clear, undisputed, unre
lieved. There is the evil conscience ! It wields its scor
pions. The foreboding of punishment often suffices ere
it strike. " My punishment is greater than I can bear,"
was the cry of Cain, when really there was only the mark,
which secured him from present punishment, as yet upon
him. There is a " disquietness of the soul," which no

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 245
judicial inflictions can overtake. When the " heart medi
tates terror," no symbols of vengeance could horrify that
mood. Nor can any argument lie against this retribution,
because of its distance from the period of transgression.
To say nothing of its inherence in memory and conscious
ness, it is a principle of all legislation, that man is answer
able for his acts after the longest possible interval.
Man is an immortal being. He is this, just as he is of
any other quality, by the will of God from whom his nature
is derived. Always a solemn attribute, in certain con
nexions it becomes terrible. Sin has no tendency to wear
itself out, or to loosen its hold upon the mind. Sated
passion disgusts. Menacing consequence alarms. But
iniquity can only find its way to the heart through its love
and desire : in these it securely rests. Therefore sin
reigns. Other feelings come and go: this abides. It is
of the soul : its aim and determination. Therefore " they
cannot cease from sin." Moreover, instead of a supposed
tendency in evil to exhaust itself, it unfolds all the powers
of a self-multiplication. We see it in the individual : " I
saw, and I coveted, and took." " The counsel of the un
godly, the way of sinners, the seat ofthe scornful," are the
different stages of one career.* This is, likewise, socially
true. It lends influence and encouragement. It " makes
to sin." " Hand joins in hand." " The wicked rejoice on
every side." We have simply to follow out these views of
sin through the future duration of the sinful soul. There
is nothing in this to limit such tendencies. The wretched
ness of the spiritual, the horror of the accountable, merely
are perpetuated in the immortal. When need this punish
ment cease? When can it cease? So far as we have
* (i Nemo repente fuit turpissinrus.'' . " Nam quds
Peceandi flnem posuit sibi ? quando recepit
Ej'ectum Bemel attrita de fronte ruborem?
Qnisnam hominum est, quem tis cc-ntentum videris uno
Flagitio?" Juvenal. Sat. 2. Satir. 13.

246 THE NATURE. AND DESIGN
supposed it, it is not from without ; the derangement of
spiritual nature, the remorse of accountable nature, the
confirmation of these in immortal nature, complete the
whole. If the sin inhere in the soul, the burden of proof
is upon them who maintain that there shall be a termi
nation of it. When? we may ask. How? we may con
tinue to inquire. It is obvious that nothing of its present
influence favors the supposition, that it terminates of itself,
or, that it can " trammel up the consequence." The spring
is in the soul, and thence flow the streams. The streams
may be cut off, but they are not lost : the spring remains
until it be sealed. What can destroy its fulness and its life ? *
These are constituents of nature ; they are what must
always belong to man. Save as possessing them, he is
not man. An unspiritual, an irresponsible, a non-im
mortal, creature, has no affinity to the human family. He
has no share or portion in it. But we have, also, traced
principles of human nature, which serve as instruments of
moral government, by which men become very mainly the
authors of their own happiness and misery, or, in other
words, of their own rewards and punishments. These may
be now reviewed and applied.
The Force of Habit impresses itself upon our every ob
servation of man. Effort is necessary to any new course
of thought or action, and not infrequently a disgust is to
be overcome. Then there may be a growing facility. The
exercise will be soon almost unconscious. Nor is it at
all uncommon to perceive the gradual encroachment of
such custom from childhood until the end of life. Habits
of self-indulgence, of carelessness, of untruth, of envy, are
too readily acquired : while vice, on its repetitions, gives
* "Autii toi 6Ui] eo-Tr deiav, k. t. X. " This, then, is the judgment of the gods
who inhabit Olympus, to thee, 0 inconsiderate youth, that supposest thyself
to be overlooked by them, — he, that becomes more depraved, shall be joined
to more depraved spirits, in life, in death, to suffer, and to do, whatever like
may expect from like." — Plato : De Legibus, lib. x.

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 247
to its practices a proclivity which it is hardly within human
power to stem. Life may be a series of these links. " We
will seek it yet again." " We have loved idols, and after
them we will go." " There is no hope ; but we will walk
after our own devices, and we will every one do the ima
gination of his evil heart."
Upon the preponderant number and strength of habits,
considered in their mental, quite as much as in their out
ward quality and type, Character is induced. If " custom
be the principal magistrate of man's life,"* general usage
governing him, a man's own serried and familiar acts be
speak his moral bias, and constitute his moral identity.
He is thus shaped from himself. Our judgement of cha
racter is necessarily defective. We mark the bent of con
duct. He may dissemble, but so must he be reckoned.
It is not that we " glory in appearance " rather than " in
heart," but this is all of which we can judge. The view,
however, which concerns the argument is, that which in
volves the real complexion and cast of his whole moral
being and agency, what he really is, his entire disposition,
the prevalent and determinate — in short, his will. This
is his " manner of person." These are his " secret parts."
The natural proof is that in judging men — " By their fruits
ye shall know them." The general course would be, — "A
good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth
forth that which is good : and an evil man, out of the evil
treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil."
But these are not certain indications. Hypocrisy may
mask the real. Men may " speak peace to their neigh
bours, while mischief is in their hearts." But character,
in its just and perfect acceptation, is that which the indi
vidual would be and do, were there no check, no counter-
inducement, to his being and doing thus.
Not with greater certainty may be predicted particular
effects when particular causes exist, than we can calculate
* Bacon.

248 THE NATURE AND DESIGN
the Consequence of eveiy moral act and emotion. We are
sure that malignant dispositions must agitate and corrode
the mind in which they dwell. We are sure that, with
whatever arrogance the transgressor " lifts up his horn on
high," there is only misgiving and shame. We are sure
that remorse has not left vacant its serpent-throne. The
external reactions and issue are often terribly exact. A
very counterpart reappears. These, however, are not suf
ficiently invariable, to preclude the necessity of an ulterior
vindication. But " iniquity is ruin." Now, in these facts,
we have a conception of misery the most tremendous. The
sin of the spiritual, accountable, and immortal, creature, is
seen in full and perpetual operation, confirmed by habit,
indicated through character, evolved inconsequence. While
upon earth, the wicked may "flatter themselves in their
own eyes," but the time is coming when " their iniquity
shall be found to be hateful." Here sin may be palliated,
and the sinner say, " They shall find none iniquity in me
that were sin ; " then, " out of his own mouth shall he be
condemned." He now " follows a multitude to do evil ; "
then, he shall "mourn apart." "Be sure your sin shall
find you out." Like the deep-seated, long-latent, leprosy,
the depravity of the wicked shall then rise to the forehead,
be visible, be loathsome, be inveterate, cutting off all who
are infected by it from the congregation of the holy. It
is necessary alienation. Sin, thus subsisting and develop
ing, is opposed by no check : its punishment, self- inflicted,
is mitigated by no extenuation. " All iniquity shall stop
her mouth," retract each complaint of capricious infliction,
forego each charge against external circumstances, and
strongly feel within herself, to a perfect consciousness,
that she is the source of all this woe. The idea presented
by these views of moral evil is, that it is necessarily infixed
and perpetuated in our being, long as that being endures,
if it be left to its own dispositions, and to its own demerits,
— if nothing greater than itself interpose to rectify it.

OF FUTUEE PUNISHMENT. 249
This is the unaided result and portion of moral evil.
We have not, in educing it, spoken of the hand of God.
Nor do we yet. We treat it as a fact which has occurred,
or as an event which only could have fallen. It is, never
theless, according to His will. Human nature, in its con
trivance, makes it possible and sure. A complex train of
causes is ever moving to give it effect. It is not according
to his will that any man sin, but he has "prepared the
instruments of death" in the very moral and physical
stamina of man : it is not according to his will that there
should be any wickedness, but it his will that " the wicked
should not go unpunished."
We see what only could ensue. All that was given to
ennoble and bless man is abused to his degradation and
misery. The workings and developments of all his natural
characteristics and principles are determined against him.
That spiritualism and intelligence which associated him
with the highest Spirit and Reason, — that responsibility
which attached, in the mind of Him who is the exceeding
great reward, an interest and importance to all his hum
blest aets, — that immortality which lifted him high above
all the things of creation which can be shaken, and leaves
him among the things which, when creation is dissolved,
shall eternally remain, — only the more alienates the out
cast, brands the rebel, and darkens the wreck. He is
sinful, in guilt and depravity ; it was the eause of his
undoing; it is the punishment whieh pursues him now
that he is undone. Habit still disposes him, character
still expresses him, and the arrears of demerit still weigh
upon him, not yet run out, not intimating any pledge that
they can terminate. " In the place where the tree falleth,
there it shall lie ; " but as it inclines, so it falls !
It certainly cannot be unjust in God to suffer this. It
is his own law which is thus fulfilled. The least judicial
part which he can be supposed to take is, that he will not
interfere. Must he strive against his own law ? Must he

250 , THE NATURE AND DESIGN
interfere to prevent its execution ? His law, in this sup
position, but takes its course by a natural outworking and
instrumentality, — in fact, by the self-determination of the
sinner. For all that God need directly do in this depart
ment of retribution, he may stand by, he may retire into
his secret place, he may exclaim : " I will hide my face
from them, I will see what their end shall be."
And when we consider the question more profoundly,
moral consequences will appear to lie beyond the control
of Deity. They rather agree with his will than arise out
of it. They depend not upon the constitution, but the
nature, of things. Some harm or injury may be arrested
by him, which, in strict justice, is due to the transgressor,
but this must be of an external and circumstantial kind.
Turning to mental conditions, as following disobedience,
how could Almighty power break them short ? Could he,
to say nothing of the monstrous inconsistency presumed,
prevent the sense of shame in wrong-doing, the anarchy
of passion in sin, the loss of self-respect and peace, the
conscious defeat of all right end and aim, the creature's
remorse, — that is, his proper view,- — in having rebelled
against his Creator? Man, being what he is, must feel
in one way : his moral nature informs us what that way
is : nor could a mechanical omnipotence turn aside its
proper sympathies.
It must not, indeed, be overlooked that God, in sup
posed cases of withdrawment from the active direction of
punishment, may pronounce a virtual sentence the more
severe. There is not intervention, he whetteth not his
sword nor furbisheth his spear, — but there is a standing
back, a calm abandonment, not the less terrific. "Why
should ye be stricken anymore?" "He that is unjust,
let him be unjust still : he that is filthy, let him be filthy
still." " Thy way and thy doings have procured these
things unto thee." " Your sin remaineth."
If God could interpose, if any consideration could re-

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 25 1
quire him to interpose, between the sinner and his own
law, so as to interrupt its exercise and to bar its enforce
ment, the inference must be strong and ignoble against
his character and government. The law cannot be sepa
rated from the lawgiver,nor can either be separated from
the sanction which both alike proclaim. Is it unwise to
proceed ? Is it unbenevolent to administer the law ? Is it
unjust to apply it ? Is there that which was unforeseen ?
Is there something for which wisdom has not provided ?
Was it contrary to benevolence to threaten ? Was it re
pugnant to justice to denounce ? Where leave you the
Divine faithfulness ? How regard you the Divine con
sistency ?
While there was yet the evangelic probation, God might
have mercy : He might be just and the justifier of him who
believeth in Jesus. This scheme of redemption is one
mighty expedient to prevent any violation of law. Until
now every menace and imprecation implied that they might
be remitted. They were uttered as means of check and
calls to repentance. But probation is now shown to be
past. "It is the time of the dead that they should be
judged." Repentance is not supposed. " The space to
repent " has ended. The case as much precludes its dis
position as its availableness. And, until now, God, in
infinite condescension, has described himself repenting,
turning towards, the sinner. He is grieved for the evil.
But all that these accommodations of language veiled, is
past. " There is no place for repentance to be found,"
no opportunity of inducing any altered course in his
conduct. What, then, is the revealed doctrine of the future treat
ment of the wicked ? " Vain," says Butler, " is the ridicule
with which one sees some persons will divert themselves,
upon finding lesser pains considered as instances of Divine
punishment. There is no possibility of answering or
evading the general thing here intended, without denying

252 THE NATURE AND DESIGN
all final causes." If this sagacious remark be so evidently
true of present suffering, how much more of that wliich is
future ! The awards against the sinner, at the last, — the
awards of judgement, — must be most unequivocally punish
ments ; if recorded results springing from the natuxe of
things, then punishments, provided that there was design
in those things ; if allowed and ratified, though without
any augmentation, by the Judge, then punishments, for
they are but the operation of that design, under this his
pubhc approval ; if increased in their severity, then punish
ments, this being their more signal and determined inflic
tion. Revelation beholds in these punishments, as we
have been frequently compelled to state, that of which it
takes the cognisance and affirms the justice, but not the
responsibility. They are independent of it. Whatever
may be their pressure, it did not lay them. Whatever
may be their horror, it did not affix them. Whatever may
be their duration, it did not extend them. It. cannot sub
vert nature nor annul law. Its purpose is to exhibit a
plan of justice and mercy which shall abolish condemna
tion, and " deliver from the wrath to come." It is so elear
in this independence of all present and future evil, that it
merely knows them to retrieve them, — like some meek
and venerable sanctuary, only proclaiming calamity by its
shelter, and disease by its cure. And if Christianity do
enter as an element or as an aggravation into the con
demnation of men, it is exclusively of them who are favored
with its privileges, and who reject them, — of them, to
whom the Gospel having come, that " obey not the Gospel
of God."
It may be rashly said, that God could save all. To such
gratuitous, unproveable, assertion we demur. Bf a truth,
it is never brought before us. We can have no right nor
capacity to deal with it How is it known ? But need He ?
Then our claim is upon his justice. He owes the debt
WiU He ? Then He may require no punishment, since he

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 253
may remit it all. Can He ? This is not a business of
omnipotence. Indeed, this attribute never stands alone.
It is never set forth as simple power. We cannot speak
more unworthily of God, than to aver that he can do every
thing, unless the reservation be most distinct in our mind
that it is only everything which is wise, and just, and good.
Instead of allowing this statement, that God could save all
men, we hold it to be utterly false.* In the sovereign
vouchsafement of mercy to some, we do not suppose a
deficiency of reasons : we most firmly believe that they do
exist. They are unknown to us. By the quality of sove
reignty, we negatively express not only this, but that what
ever they are, they are not contained in any points to be
preferred, in any titles presented, in ourselves. The con
demnation of the wicked cannot be thus expressed. Sove
reignty only respects favor and mercy. It is only predi-
cable of independent and absolute will or pleasure. But
condemnation is related to justice. It proceeds upon a
recognised arrangement and basis of government. Unlike
the acts which sovereignty describes, its progress is open
and its reasons are always declared. If, therefore, reasons
do exist, however unknown to us and independent of ns,
for the salvation of some, these do hot exist for the salva
tion of others. To save all would be to contradict these
reasons. We know that the judgement is according to
truth. He consequently cannot save all. Or let reasons
be supposed. The just punishment of certain sinners is
necessary to mark the evil of sin, or to warn and deter as
an example. If there be such reasons, then, He cannot
save all. That he does not, in any known manner, is
the presumption which may well assure us that it consists
* The flippant manner in which men speak of the Divine power, what it
can so easily do, might remind us of the freed-man's prayer in Horace : —
" Unum
(Quid tam magnum? addens) unum me surpite morti,
Dis etenim facile est, orabat." Satir. lib. ii. 3.

254 THE NATURE AND DESIGN
not with his moral ability, his only omnipotence, thus
to act.*
We must distinguish, if we would appreciate the fore
going argument, between the different aspects of the One
Will of God upon this question. He is known to us by a
legislative will, in the Law which we have broken and in
the Gospel whereby we may be saved. But that will, when
proposing the means and blessings of salvation, always
respects moral mediums and dispositions. " As I live,
saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the
wicked ; but that the wicked turn from his way and live."
" Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the
knowledge of the truth." "Not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance." " This is
the will of God, even your sanctification.'' Sincerely He
offers these provisions of mercy to all, and it is his will
that all should accept them. It is not that determinate
will which, wherever it acts, secures a resistless effect, nor
the inworking will which directly induces a corresponding
will. It is moral and authoritative. It is His will that all
his creatures be holy. They are not all holy. It is his
will that all sinful men be saved. They are not saved.
Being moral and legislative, it must be enforced, if dis
obeyed. It impresses this authority upon Christianity.
If men reject it, it is his will that they be punished just as
it was his will that they should be saved. It is not the
will of God that any should refuse the terms of salvation :
it is the will of God that all who do refuse should bear the
liabilities of their refusal.
It cannot escape our notice, it cannot but awaken our
surprise, to find more terrible description and enforce
ment of future punishment in the teachings of Christ and
of his apostles, than in the former dispensation, where they
might seem more appropriate. We are prepared for the1
blasts of the trumpet which rung out from the precipices
* Note M.

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 255
of Sinai : " for its blackness, and darkness, and tempest."
We are prepared for the eurses of Ebal. When we enter
this dispensation, we await the meekness and gentleness
of Christ. We expect an infinite tenderness, and we find
it in him. He pleads to weeping : he agonises to blood.
Yet what voice ever told so much of hell? He reiterates
illustration after illustration : he heaps image upon image :
he adds warning to warning. In one of his discourses
there is a departure, when urging a terrible retribution,
from his accustomed style of address. An emphasis and
collocation the most perfectly rhetorical, the true sublime,
prevail. The repetitions roll along as successive and loud
ening thunder-peals. "And if thy hand offend thee, cut
it off ; it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than
having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never
shall be quenched : where their worm dieth not, and the fire
is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off; it
is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two
feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be
quenched : where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not
quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out ; it is
better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one
eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire : where
their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."* And
who is He ? The Judge of the rebel-angels, — the Judge
of all men, — the First and the Last, — the Living Being,- —
the I Am, — whose goings were of old, from everlasting, —
having perfect knowledge of every realm and province of
the universe, the height and the depth, — the Controller of
all events, the Proprietor of all worlds, the Lord of all
spirits, — His words must be true ! And he stamps such
distinctness upon these fearful revelations for two causes,
— to prove the greatness of redemption, by showing that
from which it delivers us ; and to urge, by the solemn
* Mark ix. 13 &c.

256 THE NATURE AND DESIGN
motive of consequences, all to take hold upon its
blessings.* What may we, then, conceive to be the sufferings of them
who are surrendered to these punishments ? We may be
lieve that they are not only in a state of sin but in a course
of sinning. How far that course is like the present, — still
bringing down new punishment, — we pretend not to know.
Of this we may be assured, that self-punishment must grow
out of such a course. Proper probation is past. Retribu
tion is understood by us of a former portion, the earthly
allotment, of our being. It would appear that the course
of sinning, debarred from most of its present forms, is
almost entirely personal and mental. This is more pro
bably, then, of the nature of a punishment. The sinner
is cast upon his sin. No doom can be more frightful.
When it is said of him now, " Let him alone," — we can
conceive of nothing more appalling, — what must this rele
gation to every evil tendency be in that hell where sin
henceforth alone can dwell ! And what there must be its
operation ! That, which was always enmity, is now lashed
into fiercer hatred against righteousness and benignity!
The restraint, which was seldom quite removed, is now
* " The utmost space I would allot in my writings to this part of the
revelations of our religion should not at any rate exceed tlie proportions
which, in the New Testament, this part of truth bears to the whole of the
sacred book, the grand predominant spirit of which is love and mercy." —
Life and Correspondence of John Foster, vol. i. p. 187. But did it not occur
to this profound, though fatalistic, thinker, that such proportion is very large,
and that if imitated by the modern preachers of the Gospel, it would bring
them into the " class " which he finds " denominated ? " He would indeed
be a " son of thunder " who preached these " revelations as fully and often as
the Saviour." How would his taste and tenderness be condemned! We
have called this writer fatalistic : we specially intend the charge in this ques
tion. Speaking of infidel publications, vol. ii. p. 418, &c, he says: "The
thing seems like a moral epidemic breathed from hell, destined to be per
mitted for a time to sweep a portion of the people to destruction, in defiance
of all remedial interference. They are a doomed race, and their destiny will
be accomplished." The "writers" whom he more than sarcastically con
demns, never (thank God!) utter any sentiments so horrible.

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 257
utterly withdrawn ! Hypocrisy and dissimulation having
no further use, it is seen in its most unreserved manifesta
tions ! We may believe that remorse, a sense of folly and
shame, a confounding remembrance of the past, are domi
nant in the minds of the lost ! We may believe that all
which emboldened them while on earth, which assured
them of some ulterior escape, which "put off the evil day,"
can be no more entertained ! We may believe that the
delusions of sin, the blinding influence of pride and volup
tuousness, the spells of avarice and lust, are now exposed !
We may believe that despair sits heavy on them, in con
tradiction to that imagination of the heart in which they
hitherto walked ! There is hell in these passions of evil,
and in these detections of falsehood. There can be nothing
to modify sin, nothing to deter it, nothing to attemper it.
Example, influence, expectation, have now an influence
which cannot then be known. Fear is cast off. Evil exists
in unrepressed maturity and strength. If the resistance
of the Gospel be the crime beneath whose charge, including
all others, they perished, it must constitute an unspeakable
aggravation of their state. The misery, avoidable once,
must press upon them ; the once attainable happiness,
self-neglected deliverance, self-defeated good, self-baffled
victory, must mock them with redoubled severity. Tor
ments seize upon the soul, its own engendered brood,
feeding upon its own vitals and hiding in its own recesses.
" Thou hast destroyed thyself!"
But though it is a general rule of moral government to
make the sinner punish himself, — for his " own wickedness
to correct him, and for his own backslidings to reprove "
him, — it is most competent and righteous, as we have seen,
to add positive inflictions. And we cannot doubt that so
Scripture is to be understood. We find it impossible,
after its most cautious research, to refrain from the idea.
Solemn as it is, we cannot conceive of another judicial
course. To leave the sinner to himself is rather a priva-
XII. s

258 THE NATURE AND DESIGN
tive measure than an act. Something more determinate
must be supposed even in leaving him. His mind must
be quickened to its full tension in order to suffer. Any
external punishment, indeed, can only avail as operating
through his capacity, be it sensible or intellectual. But to
assert that no punishment can fall from without, seems
to deny all external relations and circumstances. These
seem requisite to draw forth the powers, the reflections, the
horrors, of the soul. They then fulfil all the part of punish
ment. Nor can we thus restrict ourselves. Truth compels
still stronger conclusions. Looking into the revealed page,
we discover a most uniform representation that there is a
place of suffering, and not that the mind is its own place ;
that there is painful fellowship among the sufferers ; that
the Divine wrath afflicts their souls ; and that sensible
suffering is consequent upon a raised body and a physical
restoration. " His flesh upon him shall have pain, and his
soul within him shall mourn."* One identification is
dreadly recurrent. The elemental fire is the selected me
dium of the retribution, or of describing it. It is not
the flame which bursts from within the sinner, — it is some
thing distinct from himself: he is "cast into it," he is
" tormented in it," it is " the furnace of fire," " the lake of
fire." There are allusions, all foreign to the native self-
actings of the soul : The " stripe," the " horrible tempest,"
the " cup of wrath," the " mist of darkness," the " taking
vengeance," "the tormentors," "indignation and wrath,
tribulation and anguish," rendered. As some of these de
scriptions seem incapable of a literal interpretation, none
may require it. The more general theory of a diverse in
terpretation, the arbitrary cipher, we cannot allow. We
express our near approach to a conviction, — it is all we
dare, — that they must not be verbally understood. Incon
sistencies too violent, we think, forbid it. The necessity
of the case seems to be sufficient reason for disallowing
* Job xiv. 22.

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 259
the literal explanation. A common principle must be
adopted. If it can apply to any, it must to all : if it can
not to . all, it must to none. It is a fearful question :
" Shall thine anger burn as fire?" But in asking it, we
imply the analogical, and not the actual, thing. It is
only the comparison which we attempt to divine. It is a
still more fearful doom upon the sinner than the storm of
the reddest fire,—" A fire not blown shall consume him !"*
Concede, or demand, that these can be only figures.
They are figures, at least, of an alarming kind. Why are
figures, and of such an order, employed ? Because the
naked truth, the absolute reality of the retribution, cannot
be set before our mind. It is too intimate, too intense, to
be made known in any abstract manner. There is no
idealised, soul-like, language fitted to impress and explain
it. To supply the deficiency images are sought. But,
therefore, it follows that if the full force of these images
be understood, still a vast amount of signification" lies be
yond them, they being, after all, confessedly inadequate,
except to shadow out the fact. Nor can guilty presump
tion more egregiously err than when it soothes itself by
the thought that these are only images : they are only
images, and consequently what they intend is inconceivably
more severe. " Who knoweth the power of Thine anger?
even according to thy fear," the darkest apprehension and
foreboding, " so is thy wrath." " If our heart condemn us,
God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things."
Are these sufferings corrective ? a species of moral dis
cipline ? We may answer by a reference to the character
of the sufferers, and to the description of the sufferings
themselves. The wicked are the wicked still. "The wicked
shall do wickedly." "Without are dogs, sorcerers, and
whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whoso
ever loveth and maketh a lie." They " depart the cursed."
There is every tendency of evil in them, and their evil dis-
* Job xx. 26,

260 THE NATURE AND DESIGN
position has now been loudly denounced. No penitence,
no humility, no submission to a righteous sentence, are
confessed. There is no cry of prayer. To the last is it
the audacity of claim, " Open unto us ;" it is the challenge
of right, " Lo, there Thou hast that is thine." These re
presentations point them out as the irreclaimable and the
incorrigible. Turn now to their sufferings. They are not
portrayed with any power to barely chasten, and then to
heal. The figures which have passed before us are judicial
and pcenal. They belong to justice in its punitive retri
butions. It is not the rod of paternal love : it is not the
pause watching for the signs of contrition. It is the execu
tion of sentence. " The wicked perish in the presence of
God." " There shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnash
ing of teeth." " 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 the smoke of their torment
ascendeth up for ever and ever : and they have no rest day
nor night." It is concerning the fallen angels that a word
of the pagan mythology is employed. Tartarus is tlie
name of its fabled hell. By a verb derived from it, their
condemnation is told.* But though affirmed of another
race, it has its equal application to those " who go into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." It
is part of an inferential argument: "If God spared not
the angels that sinned, but delivered them into chains of
darkness, — The Lord knoweth how to reserve the unjust
unto the day of judgement to be punished." The doom is
not, therefore, specific or exclusive. These are not expres
sions to denote God's " dealing as with sons," that " chas
tening" which they must not "despise," that "rebuke"
under which they must not " faint." This is iiot a style
* S6if><u9 fo0ou TAPTAl'fl'SAi. Pamphilus, in his Apology for Origen, quotes
from that Father's Book on the Proverbs of Solomon : " Manifestum est
quod una poena tam da'monum natursp, quam humano generi peccatorum a
Domino prrefinita sit ilia, quam Dominus sua sententia designavit dicens:
Matt. xxv. -11."

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 261
befitting the correction which he dispenses " for our profit,
that we may be partakers of his holiness;" that which,
however " grievous, nevertheless afterward yieldeth the
peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are ex
ercised thereby." Language like this causes us to " exceed
ingly tremble and quake." It intimates no relief. It has
a final manner and sound. It gives rise to a "fearful
looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall
devour the adversaries." It entirely contrasts with those
relentings, those beseechings, which God in his mercy
now enunciates. " Oh that thou hadst hearkened unto
me!" " Why will ye die ! " " Be ye reconciled unto God ! "
It is utterly unlike the calls, the entreaties, the tears, of
the Redeemer ! Suddenly all is stern and remediless.
Probation is lost in decision. The most different thoughts
and representations fill the scene. " The Lord Jesus is
revealed in flaming fire." " The wrath of the Lamb."
" Tormented in the presence of the Lamb." Other accents
are heard, even to scorn and to derision : " Because I have
called, and ye refused ; I have stretched out my hand, and
no man regarded ; but ye have set at nought all my coun
sel, and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at
your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh." The
sentence is of banishment, even to disgust and execration :
" Begone from me."* Why, if all be but alterative and
emendatory, this precipitate change of language and man
ner ? Could such descriptive terms be apt to the moral
treatment and trial of men in the present state ? Could
they happily and unmistakingly show forth Divine patience
and long-suffering ? Do they not speak of different things ?
Do they not teach the tremendous reverse? " It is a fear
ful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." " The
wicked would fain flee out of his hand."
If the argument in favor of disciplinary punishment (for
we cannot surrender the term) be founded on the supposed
* noperiecrfle u7r' kfiov KaTnpafievot. — Matt. XXV. 41.

262 THE NATURE AND DESIGN
tendency of all suffering, we may combat this doctrine by
the most notorious facts, by experiences most obvious and
solemn. In this world there is perpetual suffering in the
disorders and bitter fruits of sin. Frequently is it of so
retributive a character, that it startles the most careless
and convinces the most sceptic. " Then are commended
the ingredients of our poisoned chalice to our own lips."
But it is more than possible that the human heart shall
become only the more hardened. Depravity may be sti
mulated into a more headlong course. "In the time of
his distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord :
this is that king Ahaz." In the apocalyptic visions, we
behold similar proofs of heightened impiety beneath the
judgements against sin. When the fourth angel poured
out his vial upon the sun, and "power was given him to
scorch men with fire," — " they blasphemed God which hath
power over these plagues, and they repented not to give him
glory." When the fifth angel poured out his vial upon " the
seat of the beast, and his kingdom was full of darkness,"
" they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the
God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and
repented not of their deeds." And when the seventh angel
poured his vial into the air, " men blasphemed God for
the plague of the hail, for the plague thereof was ex
ceeding great." Our own observation must have fur
nished many counterparts ; our consciousness may inform
us that it is too natural to resist the most salutary lessons
of affliction.
Yet it will, perhaps, be contended that, the fascination
and illusion of evil being necessarily precluded in the
endurance of these punishments, more sober reflection,
more contrite feeling, more self-control, must now super
vene ; that reason will now take the place of passion ; that
submission will henceforth be readily made, and forgive
ness universally sought. In the absence of all applicable
proof, we can only resort to that which most nearly ap-

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 263
proaches the case in other histories. From some inti
mations we are induced to believe, that an almost rigid
parallelism subsisted between the former regimen of angels
and the representatives of ourselves. Both were ruled by
law ; both were set in probation ; both were brought to a
test ; both suddenly fell. The angels forfeited all happi
ness, they incurred the utmost misery, when they " sinned."
" God cast them down to hell, to be reserved unto judge
ment." Though they be thus " reserved," their punish
ment of a long time commenced. " Hell" is the hold and
safeguard of their keeping. They await but the public
denouncement. Satan and his legions have for thousands
of years felt the " unsparing " wrath of their Judge. " The
devil sinneth from the beginning." This is equally true
of his host. Have " the chains of darkness " subdued their
rebellion ? Has the fire purged their sin ? They still are
unclean and wicked spirits. They " now work in the
children of disobedience." "They are the rulers of the
darkness of this world." " They seek rest and find none."
" They go forth to deceive the nations." What a field
would their powers and capacities have furnished for expe
riment were the castigatory principle of punishment at
issue ! How much was there in the recollections of heaven,
in the contrasts of hell, in the terrors of downfall, in the
burnings of shame, in the lashings of remorse, to recover
them from their fell enterprise, to win them back from their
course, to renew them unto repentance ! But all has failed.
We may presume that, as there is in the endurance of pun
ishments like these no such tendency, so are they dealt
with no such design. That tendency, that design, did they
inhere in punishment, would long since have wrought out
themselves in spirits so intelligent and mighty, once so
glorious and blessed : the fact that these spirits are not
merely rebellious as they were, but that they advance in
that rebellion, "having great wrath, because their time is
short," — constitutes the appalling proof that sin does not

264

THE NATURE AND DESIGN

change under punitive process, and that punitive process
contemplates no such change upon sin.
" If the next state," says Dr. Chauncy, " is a state of
punishment not intended for the cure of the patients them
selves, but to satisfy the justice of God, and to give warning
to others, it is impossible that all men should finally be
saved."* Now without at once pre-judging the conclusion
which he deems untenable if certain premisses be allowed,
we cannot capitulate the premisses. Punishment is to
"satisfy justice," and cannot have another basis. Avery
important use of punishment is " to warn others," proving
how benevolent is justice. We cannot conceive of punish
ment unless associated with the first purpose, though ihe
second is not alike necessary. Circumstances may be sup
posed in which there are none others to warn. The dilemma
suggested by the author is, that these things being granted,
"the cure of the patients cannot be intended." Certainly
not : justice can meditate no such end ; it is altogether
foreign to its nature. What a confusion of ideas is this !
" Justice," " patients," " cure ! " " It is impossible that all
men shall be finally saved." Certainly it is, if to secure it,
punishment must be annulled and justice be dishonoured!
The inquiry will now arise : How punishment is neces
sary, why is it indispensable, and what case for justice
exists ? It is a simple answer. The function of justice,
in its sole resource of punishment, is to mark its view and
sense of sin. It is the Divine idea of it. That idea must
find its exponent. If the punishment be light, the sin is
light : if the punishment be heavy, the offence is aggra
vated. Sin is " the abominable thing which God doth hate."
His conduct towards it is the only criterion by which crea
tures can measure his hatred. " He cannot deny himself: ''
every variance between his sentiments and his acts would
constitute that denial. " He doth establish equity." But
punishment has never, hitherto, been utterly enforced. It
* " The Salvation of all Men."

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 265
has not, at any time of our earthly histoiy, exposed the full
turpitude of sin. " How long shall the wicked triumph?"
Once, indeed, (but that awful exception pertains not to the
argument !) God condemned sin in the flesh. Man in his
present state cannot receive an adequate condemnation.
His " frame," his " dust," are unsusceptible of its full
weight. The circumstances of trial and probation, in
which he stands, restrain and retard its entire infliction.
The Divine government rules man as an immortal being,
prospectively of all his future. It would be impossible to
account with him now, and to visit upon him all his doings.
They are related to another sphere and duration. If that
government were to " seek out the wickedness ofthe wicked
and evil man until it found none," it would not be the
search which could be accomplished in time. Universal
conscience bears out the principle. The self-expiatist
everywhere confesses it. A cruel uncertainty hangs over
all his hopes. His repentance has not shed sufficient
tears. His maceration has not included sufficient tortures.
He gazes into eternity with a shuddering distrust. But
turning from the conceits of man, let us think of creation
and its wrong by sin. Had it no final cause ? Is not that
threatened to be frustrated ? Was it not appropriated to
holiness ? Is it not profaned ? Does no harm befal it in
the daring openness, and example, and ascendency, of sin?
Needs the Maker of all no proof, amidst this degeneracy,
that he formed creation good, that he will maintain his
intention and establish his work ? " Shall I not visit for
these things ?" That proof has not yet taken demonstra
tive shape. It is not made sensible. Think, too, of His
moral government. It has asserted and embodied many
of its principles, many of its sanctions have been carried
out, yet those principles are to this hour insulted, and those
sanctions, which are not immediate, are not only defied,
but are argued to the support of an actual impunity. Needs
the great and everlasting Kingno proof thathe" reigneth?"

266 THE NATURE AND DESIGN
that he is most high over all the earth ? that his law shall
be upholden ? that he will vindicate it from all the asper
sions and indignities which rest upon it ? Requires he no
personal and relative amends ? The only reason why we
do not speak of vindictive justice, as did our earlier divines,
is that the etymological meaning of that epithet is lost in
a popular acceptation. All that they intended by it, we
retain. That process still waits. We were quite willing to
conduct our moral reasonings by natural principles, show
ing how fitting is virtue and how hurtful is vice. We were
quite willing to settle our moral reasonings on this im
moveable condition of things. But only thus did we make
our way. There we could not stop. In that constitution
we read nothing arbitrary and contingent, but the justice
of God. Of justice so propounded, whatever our more
transcendental ideas, we need conceive, for practical pur
poses, nothing more than that it will see to the obedience
of the law or punish its disobedience. It already arraigns
the sinner. It already condemns him. But its curse is
not poured out. When is justice to decide and act ? There
is a solemnly calm provision for its satisfaction. All has
been considered and advised. " As for such as turn aside
unto their crooked ways, the Lord will lead them forth
with the workers of iniquity." " The Lord knoweth how
to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgement to be
punished." " He will render to them their desert." That
will be " the great and notable day" of his justice, retriev
ing all its injuries and substantiating all its ends. " He
shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that
he may judge his people." "The heavens shall declare
his righteousness, for God is judge himself."
Most clear is the connexion, to be traced link by link,
between the sufferings of the sinner and Punitive Justice.
It " discerns between the righteous and the wicked, the
precious and the vile." " It is a righteous thing with God,
to recompense tribulation." " His hand taketh hold on

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 267
judgement." "Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest
mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand." The lan
guage which describes these judicial inflictions, speaks of
a severity which meditates no reform, which admits no
relief. " He will heap mischiefs." " Thine hand shall
find out all thine enemies." " Thou shalt make them as
a fiery oven in the time of thine anger : the Lord shall
swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour
them." " Upon the wicked He shall rain snares, fire,
and brimstone." Justice unshrinkingly undertakes the
charge and the doing of all. It averts not its eye ; it holds
not back its hand. It looks for no excuse in tendency, in
consequence, in existing things. It assumes the defence
and responsibility of all the misery in the universe !
Upon this basis, we are alone satisfied to establish the
reason of any suffering. We, of course, now speak of
suffering proper to the whole man. It is not denied by
us, that want, uneasiness, pain, may enter into a scheme
of perfect benevolence. The inferior creatures know
hunger and thirst, are exposed to disease and danger ;
and thus, kept alert in every instinct, and thus, learning to
acquire supply by diligence and defence by watchfulness,
enjoy their life as otherwise they could not possibly do.
Had man retained innocence, while his was an earthly
lot, suffering might have been possible to him, even as a
means of his greater happiness. But the suffering which
our argument presumes is that of the whole man — not
chiefly, only most subordinately, animal and sentient —
that which racks the mind, the self-distilling poison which
corrodes it, the fire which kindles from within. When sin
is pardoned and subdued in the Christian, it leaves a train
of sufferings. The iniquities of youth may encompass
him : God, having forgiven his people, may take vengeance
on their inventions. Not to permit this, would be to break
up the present ceconomy, to substitute sight for faith, to
indicate spiritual blessing by temporal exemption. It is

268 THE NATURE AND DESIGN
not strict justice : " There is now no condemnation." Still
this discipline respects the sinfulness of our nature. Our
heavenly Father visits our transgressions with the rod.
He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. And when
we die, though we sleep in Jesus, and are the dead in
Christ, " the body is dead because of sin."
We may be reminded that the sacrifice of Christ is the
vindication of justice, and that this satisfies all its claims.
The statement, imperfect as it is, may pass. The»idea
wholly approves itself to us. We regard the atonement as
universal in its aspect, though rather related to the govern
ment and law of God, than to us. It is the act of God
alone : " Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the
sin of the world." It is his method of clearing himself, —
his sacrifice to truth and righteousness — yet always with
the design of laying a foundation for the consistent pardon
of sin, and for the honorable acceptance of the sinner. We
believe, but for this act, that God could have stood in no
covenant with man : that probation must have ceased :
that hope must have perished : that the whole system,
embracing the present interests of our nature, must have
come to an end. We look upon it as a great legislative
measure, by which patience and long-suffering towards
sinners are explained, by which the necessity of immediate
punishment is arrested, by which the moral scheme is
extended and secured. It is his own self-vindication. He
sets himself right with the universe. He establishes the
justice of his conduct. He shows the utmost displeasure
against sin, in the manner, and as the ground-work, of his
mercy. All this, however, has nothing to do with the i-,tle
ofthe sinner to forgiveness. That rests on "the fa.-'rful
saying," "the record which God hath given of his Son,
that we may believe;" upon "the commandment of the
everlasting God, for the obedience of faith." The Gospel,
the only warrant of faith, proceeds in a moral way, with
sanctions. " He that believeth shall be saved : he that

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 269
believeth not shall be damned." Any view of the atone
ment, which gives it an occult, unconscious, influence ;
which assigns to it a perforce, necessary, effect ; is most
contrary to every principle of revealed truth. Man is
placed in most favorable circumstances by it. There is
hope for him. Mercy addresses him. The general course
of events is directed to his welfare. Wrath forbears to
strike. Judgement tarries. But this is all. The Gospel
can insure no saving effect, but through a moral influence
and medium. It informs all men that they are perishing.
This state of wretchedness it finds, and did not cause. It
is equally true, whether it had addressed men or not. Its
doctrine is reconciliation. The bright orb of its mercy
may just touch the outer edge, the penumbra, of that dark
shadow which covers man, but is never immersed in it.
Nothing is to be done to reconcile the Creator ; this he
has done and expressed by the atonement. He has taken
care — a solemnly jealous care — of his character and govern
ment, ere he did move, or could move, towards the recon
cilement of man. Now man is entreated to be reconciled
unto God. The appeal is to him, as reasonable and
accountable ; and not the less because of his guilt and
depravity. In -believing he has life. He shall not perish.
Pie is reconciled. He partakes of all the blessings of
redemption. This was, at once, the purposed and the
moral end of the Redeemer's death, " to purify to himself
a peculiar people, zealous of good works." He died not
for any sinner to leave him a sinner, but to turn him into
a loyal and holy subject. The largest passages, breathing
the infinity of Divine love, necessarily define themselves
within these moral conditions,—" God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son : " but yet we see that
the moral distinction is the practical scale of this love —
" that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but
have everlasting life." " The love of Christ constraineth
us'; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then

270 THE NATURE AND DESIGN
were all dead : and that he died for all," — not indifferently,
nor for the purpose of an extraneous salvation, — "that
they which live, should not henceforth live unto them
selves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again."
The whole of the moral testing, which the Gospel passes
upon us, should warn us, as it is most effectually prepared
and evidently designed to do, that in no blind manner can
we become "partakers of the benefit," but that we must
"come to Christ" in an intelligent manner, — swayed by
authority, persuaded by truth, melted by goodness, moved
by fear, impelled by anxiety, — sinners who would be saved
from wrath by him, and who would gladly submit to his
righteous yoke and will. No sinner is " in Christ," by
any personal interest, until he believes in Christ. No
sinner may boast of security and impunity because of the
atonement, until he accepts it with all its scope and inten
tion. Until then, as far as he is concerned in this salvation,
" Christ shall profit him nothing," " Christ is of no effect
unto him," " Christ is dead in vain." Nor has he any suit
of right, from the fact of the atonement, by which he may
demand exemption from punishment. It is a transaction
with which he has nothing to do. The Gospel is published,
with it is his simple business, and its belief is the only
channel to all its blessings.
We fear that this theory of a salvation, independent of
all consent, sympathy, subserviency, — a salvation having
no operation but from without, — involuntary, inoperative,
uninfluential, — very widely obtains. It may not be enun
ciated, — it may not take a regular form, — but it is too
commonly cherished. It may be but an idea, — -even that
idea may be almost indefinite and often latent, — but that
idea exists. Men are lulled into the hope that they are
under some unexplained dispensation of independent,
direct, power to save them, and that in spite of their own
selves. That idea admits of a very natural enlargement.
Christianity may exert the same vague but constraining

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 271
influence in the future : it may compel a final regeneration of
the soul, and violently meeten the most reluctant for heaven.
It is, at least, perfectly clear that they who disjoin
punishment from justice, who represent the atonement as
only abstract and virtual and not the spring of piety and
holiness, venture on ground perilously new. It may well
be required of them to show how they have established
for the future world principles utterly unknown in this.
They may be justly challenged to prove how it is that,
after judicial sentence, punishment ceases, and a treatment
with a view to recovery begins. They cannot complain if
we urge them to demonstrate that there is an extension of
the atonement, that a change is wrought upon it enlargedly
beneficial and powerful, immediately after the glorification
of those who have experienced its blessings, — and only in
favor of those who have hitherto rejected them ; that its
facilities are extended and its efficacies simplified ; that a
range of necessary influence and action is given to it, de
ferred until now, but now accomplished just to meet the
untowardness of those who have hitherto " counted its
blood a common thing."
To this we can anticipate but one reply : Infants, whose
undeveloped mind cannot apprehend and appreciate the
blessings of salvation, are saved. We doubt not their
entrance into the kingdom of heaven. We doubt it not of
all, whatever their descent, who die at that early age, — the
age which precludes moral discernment, and, therefore,
responsibility. We see in the initial visible ordinance of
Christianity the pledge of this, affirming it, however, as a
universal truth, which is quite independent of the emblem
atic rite. It was always, it is invariably, a fact. That
service intimates both the fact and the manner of it. All
dying at that period are blessed : all dying at that period
are cleansed for that blessedness. Christianity, in this
beautiful institute, meets them with assurance of its grace
on the threshold of life, and with assurance of its glory on

272 THE NATURE AND DESIGN
the threshold of eternity. A rite may be significant of it,
may give certitude to it, but cannot operate to help the
effect. We are satisfied that this arrangement depends
upon the mediatorial system. We suspend it upon the
atonement. But rather speak we now of that effect secured
to departed infants in their glorification. This cannot be
a claim. It is grace and favor. It is this which belongs to
the death of Christ. We cannot think that their condemna
tion could consist with moral righteousness. They are
guiltless. They are not condemnable. We speculate not
as to the treatment which they might have otherwise
received. It is certain that it would have been just. The
sacrifice of the cross has precluded inquiry by a new and
merciful arrangement of the case. It is argued, from these
admissions, that a similar operation of influence may take
hold of more developed minds. • Why may they not be
unconsiously, inertly, impressed? The answer is, that
while, if done at all, it must be done blindly or unintelli-
gently as to the child, there is no such necessity as to the
adult. Nor in the latter instance could it be so effectuated.
You cannot convey to the thinking mind anything save
what comes within its consciousness. Besides, the notion
of an unconscious grace in the dying child is not more
inconceivable than an unconscious depravity. By that
depravity we mean a tendency, a disposedness, by which
it will become sinful: by the grace which regenerates
dying infants we intend that tendency, that disposedness,
now imparted to them, by which they will become sainted
and happy, by which they unfold into spiritual beauty and
loveliness. Thus far we have indulged the objection. But
it is unsound. There is no analogy in the case. Our
argument deals only with moral agents. And the analogy
is attempted to be drawn from those who never were moral
agents, to favor not simply those who are, but those who
are mercifully placed in a new probationary condition :
from those who never had capacity to disbelieve the

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 273
Gospel, to serve those who wilfully do, that they may
enjoy in this probation, rendered strangely unconscious to
them, advantages and helps they possessed not in their
first. The objection may probably allege the case of the
heathen. But these are moral agents, and will be judged
according to their own law. From every right missionary
view of their case, it can only be affected and relieved by
the Gospel as received by them; or, to state the fact in
another way, by the Gospel being understood and em
braced by them as moral agents.
It may be contended against this antinomian view of the
atonement, this view which dissevers it from moral govern
ment and holy influence, this view which supposes the
forcible abduction of the sinner from claim and law, — that,
if it explains the absence of punishment in another world,
it leaves unexplained its presence in this. Why is not the
curse removed from man at once ? Why are not the evils
of his state immediately redressed ? Under what equity
are they allowed ? Our doctrine of the atonement is, that
the sacrifice enables and authorises the Divine government
to pardon and save in a certain manner : that it is its own
means of honorable mercy. We impose on that govern
ment no necessity to show this mercy, but that of its own
assurance : we allow to the sinner no suit of right, no
challenge of claim, unless the humble form of faith in that
assurance. Nothing is compulsorily done. God is not
obliged. Man is not enforced. But this view of the
atonement now combated, ought to effectuate a perfect
and a universal salvation without delay. Its operation, at
least, should date from the cross. Then not only should
one sinner have passed to Paradise, but all the dying.
Then not only should a few graves have opened, but those
of all the dead. Righteousness and joy should have
sprung up before all nations. Sin should have ceased.
Earth should have rolled away its reproach. Eden should
have bloomed afresh. The wonder of creation, man, should
XII. t

274 THE NATURE AND DESIGN
have stood up once more, as when " made upright," anew
" crowned with honor and glory."
The manner of justice, its unperturbed and collected
majesty, has been pleaded against this durability of punish
ment. " Fury is not in me : " but not less is it true that
if " the briars and thorns be set against the Lord in battle,
he would go through them, he would burn them together."
" My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of
Israel, and make confession unto him ; " but not the less
did the Lord " trouble Achan that day." " Son, remember,"
is the language of Abraham to tlie rich man in hell ; but
not the less is the mitigation of his torment denied.
" Friend, how earnest thou in hither not having on a
wedding garment?" but not the less is he " cast into the
outer darkness." This fearful calm only proves the absence
of fugitive passion, of sudden excitement, — that an un
sought necessity prevails, that punishment proceeds in an
order and with a necessity which nothing can control. The
thought which should most affect the sinner is, that there
is no proper, personal, resentment in his condemnation,
but only an issue which no disposition could avert.
If that which is due to the demerit of sin, or to the guilt
of the sinner, be only the discipline which is necessary to
bring to repentance, let us seriously ponder the conclu
sions which are unavoidable on such a view. This dis
cipline, never exceeding the degree sufficient and requisite
for restoration to a better mind and to original happiness,
is the curse of the law. That was threatened, that was
incurred. Yet it never contemplated more than this.
Though we might become by sin " a cursed thing like unto
it," that is but a disguised word of love ! Though we
might be " cursed in the city and cursed in the field, cursed
in coming in and cursed in going out," that is but a salu
tary regulation ! Though " the Lord might send upon us
cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that we set our hand
unto for to do, until we w-ere destroyed and until we

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 275
perished quickly," that is only his harsher call to amend
our ways ! His judgement upon them who do evil is not
to be considered a display of righteous displeasure against
them, but the mere consultation of their benefit ! All
denouncements and maledictions are but intended bless
ings ! They are the circuitous means and instruments not
of general, but of individual, good,— the welfare of the very
persons against whom they are aimed ! They are exactly
measured out for moral cure ! Then of future suffering,
if it be at all allowed, the same experiment must be main
tained. Not a pang must be inflicted beyond this curative
effect. That which was not necessary, save to awaken
repentance, would be unjust. The kindest expressions of
paternal love only could apply: these would be made
more tender by the accents of saving mercy. "As many
as I love I rebuke and chasten." "By this shall iniquity
be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away sin."
The curse is, then, a blessing ! Why should we be re
deemed from it ? It is the means of amendment and
repentance ! It is the security of endless good ! How
was Christ made this "curse for us?" But justice does
not commonly suppose that the offender is its proper
beneficiary. Punishment does not ordinarily appear an
implicit method of favor. And if these things be so, — we
must write another nomenclature, we must recast our
ideas, justice and punishment must be released from their
functions, must be dissevered from their archetypes, must
be torn asunder from their bonds, — flung away as obsolete
and abrogated terms ! *
* It has been said that KoAdferr/, which they who maintain annihilation
assert to signify, to destroy, may only mean to correct. Does Demosthenes so
employ it, in his first Olynthiac, when he denounces "t«« <5' aSiKolnas
noAafeiv?" Lysias counsels, in his oration against Eratosthenes, that he
should be punished with death, using the same word. The criticism was first
suggested by Petit Pierre, but without any cited proof, saying that he was
told that Grotius had so explained it. KoXaan may mean restraint, but then
it is that which is included in punishment. The verb KoXd{opai occurs

276 THE NATURE AND DESIGN
For if there be one idea of justice, as correlative to
punishment, more necessary to us than another, it is that
e^n which we have felt ourselves more than once bound to
insist,— it is the expression which it presents of the evil of
the crime committed against it. Its province is to regard
it precisely as it is, to treat it precisely as it deserves, to
declare it precisely as it operates. To represent it more
or less than its actual enormity is a perversion and a snare.
Misrepresentation must be most injurious. The estimate
of it can alone be known by punishment. That estimate
must be agreeable to eternal right and reason. It must
harmonise with the strict demand of the case. If the law
do not threaten such adequate punishment, it is not a per
fect rule : if it does threaten it, and does not execute it, it
is either inefficient or insincere. On any supposition a
false moral impression is induced and propagated. " The
knowledge of sin " is blinked. A harm is thus done to all
who would escape from sin, and to all who are in danger
of falling into it. The beacon stands in a false bearing,
and throws a treacherous light ! Now what place can
justice, with its minister and safeguard, Punishment, find
in respect of sin, if all that is due to the sinner is a retriev
ing process ? Is this the way in which God setteth his
face against that soul ? Is this the idea wliich creatures
ought to entertain ? Is it that which the whole of the
Divine conduct is designed to teach? Is this all its
demerit? Is its rectification all that it deserves? Is
curse, and vengeance, and wrath, exhausted in this settle
ment? And doth God array himself in judicial ensigns,
doth he sit upon his throne judging right, — doth he pro
claim himself the God of truth without iniquity, that
twice in the New Testament, Acts iv. 21, 2 Pet. ii. 9. How the later classical
writers understand it, is plain from the following passage in Lucian's Dia
logues of the Dead : Menippus asks of Tantalus : "si. ae I, ^uXij, irSt &„ en
il atr/rwnf fi TTirroip ; " Tantalus replies : "Tout* aino >i KoAam? eff-ri, to di^tjv p.ov
tJji> lirux'ii' rtff cGipa ot'rrav.

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 277
vengeance is his and that he will repay, that he is a jealous
God,- — to prove that other intentions and reservations of
his mind make all this a mockery and a fraud ? Is there
an under-plot which is destined to defeat all the scenes
and lessons of that great drama, long since passing before
the eyes of a world old with its ages and crowded with its
nations, and now hastening to its catastrophe ? Is there
some clause, which invalidates and deforces all public acts
and declarations of the Divine government ?
Instead of being led to expect a feebler manifestation of
retributive justice in a future state, we are prepared by
every anticipated issue, by every sentiment of conscience,
by every testimony of Scripture, to forecast that which
shall be far more distinct, demonstrative, and awful. It
would be in opposition to the genius of the present dis
pensation that this Divine attribute should now shine
forth with a perfect clearness : and not less so, that the
"righteous acts of the Lord" should compose an adminis
tration of things sensibly complete, an ceconomy of exactest
order and unperplexed right. Why otherwise do we look
for a judgement? For a heaven and a hell ? Do we await
these things, that the present irregularities may be per
petuated ? that there may be a more indiscriminate confu
sion ? that the orderings of justice may be less decisive ?
Do we not, on the contrary, feel convinced that this shall
be the winding up of a government which forbore much
evil which it must now resent, and endured much provo
cation which it must now no more pass by? permitting
the existence and progress of moral evil as incidental to
free agency ? allowing physical and social evil as essential
to probation ? calling upon us to judge nothing before the
time ? leaving the sinner to treasure up wrath unto him
self against the day of wrath ? " God hath appointed a
day in which he will judge the world in righteousness."
How perverse must appear, with these considerations
pressing upon us, all that speculative reasoning which goes

278 THE NATURE AND DESIGN
to invert such order, such natural expectation, such inspired
assurance, — which concedes to justice a far more restricted
course in the future than it now takes, — which assigns to
punishment even another range of qualities than it now
possesses, for here it is often final and irrevocable, — which
founds a new probation upon the basis of an eternal judge
ment,- — which transforms the sentence of condemnation into
a warrant of hope, and this from the date of its proper and
formal beginning ! *
Nor are proofs wanting that there is an enormity in sin
which renders it more than incompatible with the design
of the present dispensation, more than legislatively incon
venient, to express and exercise towards it that righteous
idea which it awakens and demands wherever it can be
justly estimated. Special visitations of judgement have
fallen upon it. This living world, with the exception of a
little remnant, once perished. That desolation, that over
flowing scourge, has bequeathed ineffaceable monuments.
It was not to be repeated whatever might be the crimes of
man. The sign of our security is in the prism of the sky.
It was not too severe. Another event of the same kind,
however, was irreconcileable with that moral trial to which
man was more strictly subjected when his longevity was
abridged and when his distance from the period of the
creation receded. "And the Lord said, My Spirit shall
not always strive with man," — that is, His angry power,
not his gracious influence, — " for that he also is flesh."
" The law could not condemn sin," — to its full desert, — ¦
not from any incompetency of that law, but " in that it was
weak through the flesh," having so feeble a subject as
present man on which to inflict its penalty. Duration,
then, must be considered in its counterbalancing influence.
That may be protracted which, when summarily dealt,
might overpower. The crushing stroke may be commuted
* "Dei quanto judicium tardum, tanto magis justum est." — Minucius
Felix.

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 279
for stripes. The fact has been set before us in the moral
history of earth. Acts of justice have continued, long after
the individual delinquents have ceased to live. There has
travelled on a long entail of punishment. The sin has
been accounted so heinous that one term of life could not
bound it. Though the punishment was always deserved
by them who suffered it to the remotest period, yet in that
original offence it took its rise and found its occasion.
" The third and fourth generation " upon whom this sen
tence of God might rest, were " of them that hated him,"
— yet did "He visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children and upon the children's children." The sin of
Manasseh, himself a pardoned penitent, was charged upon
the descendants of that people which he ruled and cor
rupted ; because of his idolatry and bloodshed, they were
"removed into all the kingdoms of the earth."* Upon
the contemporary generation of our Lord, that "genera
tion" whose guilt none could "declare," "came all the
righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of
righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias slain between
the temple and the altar." A fearful intimation is thus
given that sin may pursue the sinner into the conscious
and personal futurity consequent upon death ; that he may
find that death has no power to abstract his guilt ; that
what could not be meted out in this life may be traversed
for the next; and that the punishment, hitherto dis
proportionate and straitened, may project itself into
eternity !
It is very common to separate the question of punish
ment from its strict relationship to justice, and to argue it
on infinite goodness. What is this proper view of God ?
" Good is the Lord." But is he good to restrain any
administration of government, or to impede any exercise
of law? Does his goodness look more indifferently on
moral evil, than his justice ? Is it not its peculiar pro-
» Jeremiah xv. 4.

280 THE NATURE AND DESIGN
vince to check the consequences of sin ? We know not of
the goodness which exists only to pity and to spare, —
which is a misprision of right and holy principle, which is
a connivance at every moral perturbation of the universe.
It is easy to reduce this " awful goodness " to our depraved
wish and idea. Phrases, uninspired and contrary to truth,
give us aid. In the apocryphal Book of Wisdom it is said,
in appeal to God : " Thou abhorrest nothing which thou
hast made, for never wouldst thou have made anything if
thou hadst hated it."* If this means only that God never
could create what he hated at the time of its creation, we
do not object : but may not moral nature so corrupt its
way, as to become hateful? Does not He declare his
hatred of his enemies ? It is to be regretted, that the
Established Church of England should have incorporated
this language in her forms, f And perhaps more un
guarded expression may be found in another portion of its
service : " O God, whose nature and property is ever to have
mercy, and to forgive."} Neither of these phrases seem
to us echoes of Scripture. For we cannot conceal from
ourselves, those terrible descriptions of anger, and of deter
mination to punish, which contradict the principle on
which they proceed. God may walk contrary to those who
are perverted from his creative design. Instead of its
being " his property and nature ever to have mercy and to
forgive," he spared not the angels who sinned. " Our God
is a consuming fire." " He is terrible out of his holy
place." " God shall destroy for ever." " The enemies of
the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs." Those passages
which speak of his ire and wrath are many, reiterated and
vehement. Do they tell of goodness, partial and fond, as
it is now presumed ? A mere indulgence ? A figure, most
beautiful and frequent, does holy Scripture present. God
is our Parent. "Have we not one Father?" It is a
» Chap. xi. 24. + Collects for Lent and Good Friday.
I Prayers for Several Occasions.

OF FUTURE TUNISHMENT. 281
figure, — "like as a father." It is argued that, all punish
ment, except for the improvement of the child, would be
inconsistent with that relation. But may not the case of
the son's disobedience be so heinous, that all, under the
influence of the most natural feeling, would justify a treat
ment the most extreme ? disownment ? disinheritance ?
final separation ? The paternal relationship, though not
as to its fact, yet, as to its exercise, may be altered by the
conduct of the offspring : moral government cannot be
altered. The one might be renounced : the other is neces
sary and insubvertible. May we not fear that, in conse
quence of sin, the paternal favor is withdrawn, and the
filial privilege forfeited ? — Let that father be the magis
trate. The child is now under his jurisdiction as well as
discipline. That child may be the transgressor of social
law. It is conceivable, that his father may be called to
pass sentence upon him. Will not all, if it be his inevi
table duty, see in its discharge a title to their admiration ?
Without any impeachment of his tenderness, is not such
bearing truly great ? Does not history hallow it ? Has it
not saved commonwealths ? Why should not the same
suffrage be accorded to God ? He is the " righteous
Father." Pie sitteth King for ever. He reigns not for a
part, but for the whole. His goodness must agree with
universal justice, or with that which is the same thing, the
protection of universal claim and interest. Justice, there
fore, has not only been distributed into commutative and
distributive : its third division is something more than
each of these, — it is called, public. And if this notion
of goodness is to be entertained, how frequently would it
have been disappointed ! Plad earlier creatures than our-
¦ selves been forewarned, that our earth was soon to be
formed, and our race to be created, it would have seemed
improbable to them that aught but good could be admitted.
The entire scheme would have demanded this expectation.
What evils do exist, moral and physical ! Then their idea

282 THE NATURE AND DESIGN
of that which goodness can allow, would have been dis
appointed. It would have been false. — When men have
been threatened with Divine judgements, they have ima
gined a presumption against them in the Divine goodness.
To the antediluvians, the impending fate appeared most
unreasonable : the men of Sodom derided the fear of over
throw. If they thought of God at all, arguments, like those
which we have considered, were ready and more ingenious
then. Goodness forbids it. A parent cannot do it. He
who made all things for their own happiness, cannot deso
late his works. Then their idea of that which goodness
can allow was disappointed. It was false.^-So we may
speculate concerning the future state. Its punishment
may affect our views as exaggerated beyond all showing of
truth, of reason, of analogy. We may interpose the Divine
goodness. We may pronounce that this state of things
cannot be. But we are not placed more favorably, to give
judgement, than they who have palpably erred. Our idea
may be disappointed. It may be false.*
While justice has been divorced from punishment, the
puipose of example has, also, been denied to it. In the
Divine conduct towards the wicked, this has been held to
be no idea or motive. Their simple benefit, it is main
tained, is sought. A thought beyond that result is pro
nounced unjust. None, it is argued, are warranted to take
benefit of it. The supposition that any such advantage
is intended, supposes an excess, and therefore inflicts .an
injury. The wicked would thus be made victims to
some hypothetical general good. It is forgotten that the
punishment is the same, without any superflux to signalise
the example. It is forgotten that man belongs naturally to
a social condition, and cannot be detached from social in-
* " Et cum in poenis est natura vitiosa, excepto eo quod natura est, etiam
hoc ibi bonum est, quod impunita non est. Hoc enim est justum, et omne
justum procul dubio bonum. Non enim quisquam de vitiis naturalibus, sed
de voluntariis, poenas luit." — Aug. De Civit. Dei, lib. xii. cap. 3.

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 283
fluences. It is forgotten that every act of Divine govern
ment is public, and of universal interest. All human
legislation studies this very end. Its main design, when
righteous in its principles, is to proportion punishment to
crime, that, when it takes place, the good may justify it,
and the wicked dread it. The infinite Ruler calls our
attention to the same design in his judicial proceedings.
" And the man that will do presumptuously, even that man
shall die : and thou shalt put away the evil. And all the
people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presump
tuously." " When the scorn er is punished, the simple is
made wise." " Smite a scomer, and the simple will be
ware." " Now all these things happened unto them for
ensamples ; and they are written for our admonition, upon
whom the ends ofthe world are come." " Even as Sodom
and Gomorrha, and the cities about them, are set forth for
an example." The mere treatment of the individual, with
none other reference than to himself, would destroy the
" neighbour " relation of man to man, and the unity of
moral administration.*
It is a portion of the revealed doctrine of punishments
that they are of different degrees. Justice suffers no com
promise and no confusion. None can suffer for others :
none shall suffer but for his particular demerit. The scale
is graduated to a most perfect moral adjustment. There
is " the greater sin." We read of those who shall receive
" the greater damnation." Some shall be " beaten with
many stripes," some "with few." The doom which shall
fall on others is so tremendous, that " it shall be more
* In the Gorgias of Plato we find these concurrent sentiments : " They
who are held back from hope of liberation by their extreme wickedness, and,
on account of such crimes, are adjudged incurables, serve as examples to
others. They can derive no advantage from punishment, being incurable :
but they can profit others by example, who behold them constantly tormented
by the most severe and terrible punishments, exhibited as an example,
and monument, and spectacle, in Hades, to all the unjust who descend
thither."

284 THE NATURE AND DESIGN
tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgement than for
them."* Nor need we suspect that there is difficulty in this moral
arrangement. It is enough for us to know that " God
distributeth sorrows in his anger." We can believe that
every sinner is naked and open to him. No throng can
embarrass his separate acts towards all. This is the che
rished prejudice of the wicked. He fondly dreams that he
may thus hide himself. Vain delusion! He stands ex
posed as though he stood alone : the single mark for the
arrows of heavens to strike. But did external difficulty
arise, it would vanish before the assurance that the future
retribution of the transgressor chiefly is engendered from
himself. His own unsubdued pride, his own unpausing
sinfulness, his own unappeasable remorse, form the ingre
dients of his own hell. The individualities of character
kindle the individualisations of punishment. It might
even suffice for all to remember their irreparable loss.
They have rejected the counsel of God against themselves.
What might now be theirs ! The pearl of great price was
once within their reach! They might have reigned in
life ! What reproaches must they heap upon themselves,
what upbraidings of fatuity and wilfulness, remembering
how they have squandered advantages and opportunities of
such transcendent value ! They see the prize of which they
have failed ! They behold the heaven which they have re
fused ! What needs a retribution more personally pointed
than this ? But they are in the arrest of a justice which
cannot be baffled. " Strong is the Lord God that judgeth."
" Do we provoke Him to jealousy?" " He maketh a way
to his anger." " I will pour their wickedness upon them."
Ah ! what will the every variety of punishment include !
We declare that such varieties exist, because necessary to
justice, because conformable to truth, because agreeable to
* " 'H^eit \efopev fiaBpovt iroAAoirr;, Kai oia(p opal, Koi perpa, Kal h aWtf rr\ /Sarri-
Aeia, Kai hv ai/rtj Trj feevva.' — Chrysostom, Horn. xl.

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 285
fact. Yet is the doctrine never preached for the relief of
fear and for the consolation of conscience. All is dark,
though not alike dark. All is lost, though not equally lost.
It will be tolerable for none, though not exactly as intole
rable. Waste not the precious season for fleeing from the
wrath to come, by any of these speculations. Think not
of the mitigated hell, when you may escape it altogether.
Give all your thoughts and diligence for this. It can be
no extenuation, beneath that doom, to compare your less
degree with that of greater around you : it will not soothe
you that your flame is less fierce, and your worm less
insatiate ! *
* " Fuge, frater, ilia tormenta, ubi nee tortores deficiunt, nee torti mori-
untur ; quibus sine fine mors est, non posse in cruciatibus mori. Et exar-
desce amore atque desiderio sempiternse vitee sanctorum, ubi nee operosa
erit actio, nee requies desidiosa : laus erit Dei sine fastidio, sine defectu :
nullum in animo tsedium, nullus labor in corpore ; nulla indigentia, nee tua
eui subveniri desideres, nee proximi cui subvenire festines." — Augustine :
De Catechizandis Kudibus.

LECTUEE VII.
THE ETERNITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT.
" And when they heard it, they said, God forbid. And he beheld them, and
, said, What is this then that is written?"— Luke xx. 16, 17.
When the revelation of the states of men after death was
confessedly imperfect, when it fell far short of its present
distinctness, when invisible was written over the great exits
from this passing life, when the impenetrable cloud gathered
between the actual and the future existence, — there was
much taught, and still not dubiously, that behind the mys
terious confines, men were differently and respectively
treated, according as they acted here. Ever was the dis
tinction marked and confessed between the excellent and
the wicked of the earth. Ever was the assurance repeated
that the Divine conduct towards them should strictly cor
respond. " The gates of the shadow of death," though not
then thrown open as they are now, sent forth reflections ,
and sounds to cheer the one and to appal the other. No
doubt, wicked men wished that this dark curtain might be
the limit of being. What they could not pierce they might
deny to subsist. Sheol and Hades might be on their
jeering lips. The terms, denoting a deep obscurity, might
bring relief to their fear. The unseen and the unknown
might also be the unreal. But even these terms were not
only negative. Variable and common might be their use,
but they often spoke terror. Fearful images did they sug
gest. " A fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn

THE ETERNITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 287
unto the lowest hell." " Hell and destruction are before
the Lord." " Hell is naked before him, and destruction
hath no covering." Could these expressions only intend
the grave ? Did they not intimate a region of punish
ment? When it is said of the evil-doers, that " in a moment
they go down into Sheol,"* it is added, "their destruction
cometh upon them," and that " God distributeth sorrows
in his anger." " The wicked shall be turned into Sheol,
and all the nations that forget God." . This must be a sen
tence ulterior to the common sentence of mortality. The
warning against vice cannot surely be only drawn from
premature death, declaring with such solemn emphasis,
that the licentious " die in youth and their life is among
the unclean," that the "steps ofthe harlot take hold of hell,"
that " her house is the way to hell," that " the Rephaim,
ghosts, are there," that "her guests are in the depths of
hell." " The way of life is above to the wise, that he may
depart from hell beneath." This can scarcely mean his
avoidance of what would tend to an earlier dissolution.
" Thou didst abase thyself unto hell." The grave is not
surely the gauge of this abjection. Nor was Hades.f in
the New Testament sense, ever an insignificant word, im
plying nothing but common death. " And thou, Caper
naum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down
unto hades." Now, was that city destroyed ? its edifices
prostrated to the level, and its foundations crumbled to
the dust, of the grave ? Or did any uncommon mortality
seize upon its citizens ? It still survives on the shores of
the Galilean lake: "it remaineth unto this day." No de
population is written against it. The trace of such inflic
tion cannot be recalled or discerned. It was " in the day
*- Job xxi. 1 3.
+ " Vox Gra?.ca ASnc, cui respondet Hebnea biMfflr et Latina inferorum, de-
notat ilium locum communem, in quem recipiuntur omnes hominum vita
functorum animce. Nunquam vero significat aut sepulchrum aut eoeluro." —
Wetstein : Luke xvi. 23.

288 THE ETERNITY OF
of judgement," that " the intolerableness " of the doom was
to be felt. By what ? The city then must fall with every
other of the earth. Only can the doom light upon them
who inhabited it, them who did not believe nor repent
notwithstanding "the mighty works done in it." They
were to be " brought down to " the place of retribution.
The ^doom was at their death : in the day of judgement it
shall be confirmed and aggravated. "And in hades the
rich man lift up his eyes, being in torments." He was
buried. What torments were there in his grave ? Then,
whatever the place to which he was consigned, there is
nothing in it alien to these torments, nor forbidding them :
they found there a native scene.
But if we quit terms like these, and ponder the strong
descriptions of future punishment found in the earlier
testimonies of revelation, we shall confess that there can
be no excuse for their disbelief and slight. " The eyes of
the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their
hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost." " The wicked
is reserved unto the day of destruction : they shall be
brought forth to the day of wrath." " Terrors take hold of
him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night.
The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth; and
as a storm hurleth him out of his place. For God shall
cast upon him and not spare." " Because there is wrath
beware, lest he take thee away with his stroke : then a
great ransom cannot deliver thee." " Evil shall slay the
wicked." " The transgressors shall be destroyed for ever :
the end of the wicked shall be cut off." " He shall take
them away as with a whirlwind, both living and in his
wrath." " In the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the
wine is red ; it is full of mixture ; and he poureth out of
the same ; but the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth
shall wring them out and drink them."
It is certain that man is not only susceptible of punish
ment, but that this susceptibility enters largely into his

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 289
moral constitution. He can conceive its justice ; he can
entertain its fear ; he can foreshadow its certainty. He is
filled with its presentiments. Already he suffers it. The
question is therefore past, whether he can or shall. Pre
paration is wrought in him for the consequences of sin.
When God shooteth at him with his arrows, there is a
nature for them to transfix. The subject and the infliction
are fitted to each other. No man could ever deny it. He
cannot protect himself. His heart cannot endure, nor his
hands be strong, in the days that the Lord shall deal with
him. Reasoning from capacities, we may learn what man
can enjoy and suffer : arguing from experience, we learn
what he does : that temperament which points to rewards
as easily adapts itself to punishments.
Nor is the argument feeble that man cannot, whatever
be his wishes, and whatever be the obvious cause of those
wishes, dissuade himself of retribution. Pie attempts in
vain. He cannot satisfy his reason that there is none,
while it adduces its simplest dictates. He cannot abuse
his conscience, while it urges his harrowing fears. He
cannot put another construction upon the great system
around him, and of which he forms so serious a part.
It now becomes us to state what we believe to be the
doctrine of Scripture in respect to the duration of future
punishment : a question before which all difficulties in
volved in its nature seem, comparatively, unimportant, and
to almost disappear. Eternity is endlessness. When this
is predicated of future punishment, it alleges that this
punishment admits of no reversal ; that it is lasting as the
being of the immortal sufferer. But this is not any proper
question of Christianity. Therefore the early apologists
always throw back the charge upon its adversaries, who
sought to confound the question with it. They remind the
pagans of their own hell. They establish the fact of this
hopeless retribution in far earlier convictions and greatly
antecedent truths, which mythology could not resist, and
xtr. tr

290 THE ETERNITY OF
upon which Christianity only proceeded.* Yet there is
one thing which we are warranted to expect from it. Not
to prove it. There is much to establish it in other fields
of inquiry. Natural theology shows a perpetuity of evil
without any means and principles to intimate or necessitate
its surcease. Abundant analogies are found of inveterate
habit, incorrigible character, and unrestrained consequence.
All this, according to presumptive evidence, would be going
on, were there no revelation. But though we might not
expect revelation to prove it, we must that it would certify
it. It will surely clear up every doubt. It tells not, that
by its will is the punishment, whatever its duration ; but
only that which, independently of it, is "the truth. It makes
known what always was. We cannot doubt that there is
explicitness in its informations. It is not a problem which
it will unfeelingly hang in the vibrations of an irresoluble
uncertainty. When our Lord, with the inimitable grace of
truth, said of the heaven which he went to prepare for his
followers, — " If it were not so, I would have told you," — his
language warranted an equal inference concerning the
pcenal state. And who ever so much explained and ful
minated it as he ? The fact, be its character what it may,
is surely revealed. It is contrary to all we know, that it is
unadjudged, that it cannot be ascertained. Can such a
* Theophilus, always connected with Justin Martyr, thus speaks: " Am-
nois Tipujptan, wv Ttjiwpiuiv Trpoeipriuevtiiv rWo twk $po<p!]-(av, utTayeveaTEpoi ytvo-
uevot ol Trocar Kai <pCK6eo(poi, k.t.X. " Eternal punishments, — of which punish
ments mention is made by your profane prophets, your poets, and philo
sophers, even in their sacred writings, that they may establish their own
doctrines. And well is it that they do, for they not only announce these
punishments themselves, but bear witness to them, against the impious and
unbelieving, and leave them without the excuse, 'we have not heard nor
known them.' "
" Tamen admonentur homines doctissimorum libris, et carminibus poeta-
rum ; illius ignei fluminis, et de Stygia palude sfepius ambientis ardoris,
qua? cruciatibus aaternis prajparata, et dfemonum indiciis, et de oraculis pro-
phetarum coguita tradiderunt. Et ideo apud eos etiam ipse rex Jupiter per
torrentes ripas, et ati'am voraginem jurat religiose. . . . Nee tormentis
aut modus ullus, aut terminus." — Minucius Felix.

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. ' 291
point be reserved ? Such a secret be withheld ? One way
or other it is determinable. One way or other it is our
duty to decide our belief.
If it be a revealed doctrine, that there is final deliverance
for all, then revelation proposes this for our belief. It
ought to be held and avowed. It is no mean portion of
the creed to which it belongs. Its influence cannot be
indifferent. Its place in the mind of him who adheres to
it must be broad and commanding. It must not only be
an ascendant view, but that ascendancy must be very prac
tical. The effect will necessarily be most immediate.
Christianity does not save that man, according to his con
ception, from an endless perdition. He does not conceive
that other men are thus exposed. If it be a truth, it is a
large truth, an earnest truth. It should not be suppressed,
it could not be concealed. Who would not set the candle
on the candlestick that it might give light to all the house ?
We speak not of those who only wish it : we can scarcely
forbear to speak in scorn of those who yield their belief,
but think it undesirable to give it assertion. What right
have they to impound this truth ? What title have they
to prevaricate with the hopes and fears of mankind? What
power has committed to their custody keys designed to
open, and which they only employ to lock ? Their con
demnation cometh out of their own mouth. If this be
Christian truth, and they fear its publication, they not only
walk in craftiness, — they not only profess themselves to be
more jealous of the purity and piety ofthe Gospel than it
claims to be, — they not only guard its too tender mercy
and shade its too glorious light, — they not only leave
agonised suspense and devouring despair, which their hood
winked hope at once might heal, — but they outrage and
desecrate all truth. Its results can be only beneficial. We
charge the most systematic cruelty upon them. Their ma
lignity is only equal to their cowardice. They tell us that
their faith rests upon a moral demonstration. So pro-

292 THE ETERNITY OF
foundly do they regard it as affecting the rectitude and
benevolence of the Divine character, as a principle guiding
the interpretation of Scripture, as staking the amiable genius
of Christianity, as setting free the fears which so long im
pended over destiny, — that moral science assumes to their
eye another complexion, a new interest in the Gospel is
stirred, and they may well be expected to give their dis
tinctive view a wide and loud proclamation. If this be a
doctrine of the Christian salvation, it is a chief one : it
must be, then, a motive to gratitude and a stimulus to zeal.
In believing it, all men would be better. The peculiar
influence of such a sentiment ought to be allowed to the
full upon the mind which embraces it, and ought to be
applied to the condition and benefit of all other minds.
Is it to be endured that such an announcement be stifled ?
Is it not insufferable that any should erect themselves into
arbiters of what portion of true religion may be taught ?
Are the mystagogues and hierophants to be installed afresh?
the greater and lesser secrets to be adjusted anew? and
the initiations to revive ? To hold a doetrine, supposed
to be most merciful and religious, secretly, is a craven
part : not to declare it, proves one of two things, — it may
prove both, — that its truth is not felt to be certainly esta
blished, or that its influence is not felt to be certainly
beneficial. On the other hand, if we be convinced, upon rigid and
solemn inquiry, that future punishment is properly eternal,
let us not shrink from its most direct avowal. Can we hold
it back ? May we forbear ? May we qualify it ? Must not
the conviction be as a fire shut up in our bones ? What
are all the provoking epithets applied to us in a faithful
averment of the truth, in its manifestation, compared with
the cruelty which would really and indelibly attach to us,
if we evaded it by artifice, extenuated it by flattery, blinked
it by neglect, and compromised it by silence ? What would
be our blood-guiltiness, if believing it, we did not speak !

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 293
Shall we " strengthen the hands of the wicked, that he
should not return from his wicked way, by promising him
life ?" It may be the burden of the Lord, it may be a tor
ture of many of our feelings to prophesy it, but because it
is so terrible, because it is so impugned, it is our more
stringent duty to assert and vindicate it. " Good is the
word of the Lord which he hath spoken." Contrariety to
that word, of whatever kind and degree, must be evil. If
we should, however, be blamed, in sincerity or in sarcasm,
for the consciousness of any pain or struggle in the main
tenance of what we believe to be the truth ; if we be chided,
in either mood, because our feeling is not so far chastised
as to experience no trial in regarding it, then do we justify
that conflicting state of mind, then would we rather cherish
than discharge it, as true to the mind of God. Is he in
different to these results and alternatives ? Does he not
describe himself in suspense and strait ? Does he not turn
and relent ? Does he will the death of the wicked, or hath
he pleasure in it ? God would that all men believed the
Gospel and were saved ! So would we ! We cannot be
wrong in weeping over them for whom Jesus, the most
awful messenger of doom and preacher of retribution who
ever stood on our earth, — himself wept ! There is another
model, finite and therefore more intelligible, perfect and
therefore quite unerring, — that of the angels who may be
commissioned even to cast the wicked into hell, and they
complain not, but do not rejoice, cannot rejoice, are not
bidden to rejoice, reserving that burst of gladness for the
one sinner who repenteth. In such a spirit we depart not
from the finest tempers of the apostles, their sternest faith
fulness, their sweetest pity, when they tell often, and tell
with tears, that end of destruction which shall overtake the
enemies ofthe cross of Christ !*
* " This gave the apostle occasion to enter into many mysteries, and to
handle with a bleeding heart things which his own very pen even trembleth
sometimes to set ihun." — Hooker. (The italics are his.)

254 THE NATURE AND DESIGN
not with his moral ability, his only omnipotence, thus
to act.*
We must distinguish, if we would appreciate the fore
going argument, between the different aspects of the One
Will of God upon this question. He is known to us by a
legislative will, in the Law which we have broken and in
the Gospel whereby we may be saved. But that will, when
proposing the means and blessings of salvation, always
respects moral mediums and dispositions. " As I live,
saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the
wicked ; but that the wicked turn from his way and live."
" Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the
knowledge of the truth." "Not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance." " This is
the will of God, even your sanctification." Sincerely He
offers these provisions of mercy to all, and it is his will
that all should accept them. It is not that determinate
will which, wherever it acts, secures a resistless effect, nor
the inworking will which directly induces a corresponding
will. It is moral and authoritative. It is His will that all
his creatures be holy. They are not all holy. It is his
will that all sinful men be saved. They are not saved.
Being moral and legislative, it must be enforced, if dis
obeyed. It impresses this authority upon Christianity.
If men reject it, it is his will that they be punished just as
it was his will that they should be saved. It is not the
will of God that any should refuse the terms of salvation :
it is the will of God that all who do refuse should bear the
liabilities of their refusal.
It cannot escape our notice, it cannot but awaken our
surprise, to find more terrible description and enforce
ment of future punishment in the teachings of Christ and
of his apostles, than in the former dispensation, where they
might seem more appropriate. We are prepared for the'
blasts of the trumpet which rung out from the precipices
• Note M.

OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 255
of Sinai : "for its blackness, and darkness, and tempest."
We are prepared for the eurses of Ebal. When we enter
this dispensation, we await the meekness and gentleness
of Christ. We expect an infinite tenderness, and we find
it in him. He pleads to weeping : he agonises to blood.
Yet what voice ever told so much of hell ? He reiterates
illustration after illustration : he heaps image upon image :
he adds warning to warning. In one of his discourses
there is a departure, when urging a terrible retribution,
from his accustomed style of address. An emphasis and
collocation the most perfectly rhetorical, the true sublime,
prevail. The repetitions roll along as successive and loud
ening thunder-peals. "And if thy hand offend thee, cut
it off ; it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than
having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never
shall be quenched : where their worm dieth not, and the fire
is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off ; it
is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two
feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be
quenched : where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not
quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out ; it is
better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one
eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire : where
their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."* And
who is He ? The Judge of the rebel-angels, — the Judge
of all men, — the First and the Last, — the Living Being,—
the I Am, — whose goings were of old, from everlasting, —
having perfect knowledge of every realm and province of
the universe, the height and the depth, — the Controller of
all events, the Proprietor of all worlds, the Lord of all
spirits, — His words must be true ! And he stamps such
distinctness upon these fearful revelations for two causes,
— to prove the greatness of redemption, by showing that
from which it delivers us ; and to urge, by the solemn
* Mark ix. 43 &c.

296 THE ETERNITY OF ,
in his origin, and of creation in its wonders. It is of great
philological value not only to possess this contextual de
monstration of Qnolam, but also how the Hebrew scholars
translated it. There is no doubt concerning the authen
ticity of this version of the Pentateuch, and that it was
extant nearly four hundred years before any productions
of New Testament Greek. As we have traced much simi
litude between Sheol and Hades, so we shall not discover
less between Gnolam and Aion.* Both may signify the
world, or a dispensation of events and principles in it. But
the strict idea of each is, perpetuity. Nov/ the former word
is not the only one to denote this, rrcn might be adopted.
It supposes a long continuance, a growth to maturity, con
summation, and victory : what opposed it, it has overcome
and survived. It is commonly taken as implying what is
final, a perpetual end. Ton -ion* expresses a common notion
of duration, generally given, " continually." Neither are
so powerful as Gnolam. When that takes the plural form,
it becomes very strong. And it is often combined with
another word, in some points of view still stronger, being
a more abstract term. -» bears to be rendered, eternity.
" For thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth
eternity."|- This is to be understood of existing eternity.
Occasionally it. is reduplicated : -» >-tr. Sometimes gnolam
is enclosed between a double gnad. The effect is the high
est which can be conceived. " Ye shall not be ashamed
nor confounded world without end." \ In this combination
it seems to respect prospective eternity, while mp more
* " Adde, quod apud ipsos antagonistas in confesso sit, seternitatem sem
per et ubique denotare durationem rei, quanta esse debet, seu seternum esse
idem significare ac durare tamdiu, quamdiu durare res debet." — Lampe : De
jEternitate Pcenarum. He supports his position by the concessions of
authors whose names are now little known. It may be observed that the
Septuagint does not present more than twenty cases of Aion, except as the
rendering of Gnolam ; and yet Aion occurs more than three hundred times.
Sheol is translated by Hades sixty times out of the sixty-three in which it
occurs. + Isa. lvii. 15. + Isa. xiv. 17.

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 297
generally intimates previous eternity.* It may be added
that the Greek translation renders gnad, whether simple
or in combination, by aion. It does not know a fuller or
more potential word. It may be also remarked, that the
variations of Gnolam are used where inferior words would
be wholly inadequate. When we read, irb -The. from gene
ration to generation, ana rren, for all time, we must note a
designed restriction of the continuance or perpetuity.
Confining ourselves to the Old Testament for the pre
sent, and to the language in which it is written, we find a
veiled allusion to a state of unearthly suffering in the fires
of the valley of Hinnom. They were at first kindled for
idolatry and its merciless orgies : afterwards, when to de
base that scene of moral pollution all the refuse of the
neighbouring city was heaped there, they were maintained
to consume it. These had been at different periods
employed for the purpose of human cremation, and were
the common funeral pile. A more revolting picture cannot
be presented to the mind than that which is given of the
accursed scene. " For Tophet is ordained of old ; yea, for
the king it is prepared : he hath made it deep and large :
the pile thereof is fire and much wood ; the breath of the
Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it."f It
would glare upon every eye, it would haunt every mind, as
a terrible visitation of wrath. It would be no more the
disgusting, but the necessary pyre. It would be elevated
into an awful emblem. " They shall go forth, and look
upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed
against me : for their worm shall not die, neither shall
their fire be quenched ; and they shall be an abhorring
unto all flesh."| But there the impression could not stay.
* Mic. v. 2 ; Habak. i. 12. + Isaiah xxx. 33.
J Isaiah lxvi. 24. " The concluding words of the verse have no meaning,
except there be an implied reference to eternal punishment. Of that punish
ment the impious Jews had a striking emblem before their eyes, in the fires
of Tophet, in which the dead bodies of the Assyrians were bemg burnt." —

298 THE ETERNITY OF
Between the first and the last quotations which we have
made from ' these prophecies of Isaiah, respecting this
scene of judgement, a fearful cry is interposed: "The.
sinners in Zion are afraid ; fearfulness hath surprised the
hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devour
ing fire ? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting
burnings?"* We cannot but think that the appeal is
allusive to this loathsome furnace : that it was now asso
ciated with the flames of a future retribution. Though it
belongs not to exegetical criticism, yet, having the whole
volume of revelation before us, it is impossible to forget
how the Saviour adopted some of the most solemn expres
sions contained in the cited texts, and applied them in a
way not to be mistaken. It is impossible to overlook
that the epithet which distinguishes these "burnings" is
the same with that which speaks to us of the eternity of
the Divine nature and excellence. Nor is the doctrine
taught by this prophet alone. " And the multitude," ex
claims Daniel, "that sleep in the dust of the earth shall
awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and
everlasting contempt." The reward and the punishment,
the "life" and the "contempt," are alike "everlasting."
Nor does any event meet this anticipatory language, this
supposed case, save the general " awaking," or the universal
resurrection. We have examined more at large the continuous and
symbolic passages in the former prophecy, because it stands
so intimately related to New Testament phrase. The
valley of Jehoshaphat, the seat of these sepulchral and
foreboding fires, was also called the valley of Hinnom.
The reason of the denomination is not known. It is early
noticed, f It was not the name of its first owner which
made it execrable, if it be only " called after hihi ; " but its
Henderson on Isaiah. Of this judgement was Cyprian in " Ad Demetria-
ni'in " and also Eusebius in his Preparatio Evangel, lib. xi.
* Isa. xxxiii. 14. + Joshua xv. 8 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 10.

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 299
original devotement to idolatry, and its subsequent appro
priation to real and typic punishment. This is in Hebrew
.edtth'i- This is transferred to the Greek, Teewa. There
can be no doubt that this was supposed to denote the place
of future punishment. There can be no doubt that thus
our Lord employed it. There can be no doubt that thus
it was popularly understood.* There can be no doubt
that this was the reading of the synagogue and the temple.f
The first employment of it is in Matthew, the fifth chapter,
and the twenty-scond verse : " But I say unto you, that
whosoever is angry with his brother without cause, shall
be in danger of the judgement ; and whosoever shall say
to his brother, Raca," (a term of contemptuous slight and
depreciation,) "shall be in danger of the council; but
whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell-
fire," or Gehenna. To suppose that our Lord would only
remind and warn his countrymen of their owm civil and
ecclesiastical awards, is to impute to him a style quite
unlike to his grave and solemn appeals. Besides, he had
just rebuked them for their inadequate idea of crime : he
informed them that he who hated his brother was a mur
derer. Did their judicature reeognise the incipient prin
ciples and motives of crime ? Nor was he who called his
brother, fool, subjected to be burned in the valley of
Hinnom. He borrows from their tribunals, the judge
ment and the council, similitudes of his own. Gehenna
is not now an accommodated, but an absolute, word upon
his lips. The distinctions and aggravations of future
punishment are, also, thus implied. Immediately after-
* " Nee dubium est quin ista Gehenna? significatio tunc communis et
vulgo nota fuerit, ut antiquissimi Judseorum libri, et inter eos Talmudici,
testantur." — Buxtorf.
+ It is very intelligible that our Lord and that James should alone use
this word. They spoke, in whatever language, Syro-Chaldee or not, perhaps
in Greek, (see Diodati,) to the Jewish people, and to the twelve tribes scat
tered abroad. It is a Hebrew derivative : it was natural that they should
transfer it, and intermix it, whatever their vehicle of address.

300 THE ETERNITY OF
wards, He describes the same doom, conveying the idea in
that which had become a fixed term, though the reference
and derivation might be henceforth lost. " And if thy
right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee :
for it is profitable for thee, that one of thy members should
perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into
Gehenna. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off,
and cast it from thee : for it is profitable for thee, that one
of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole
body should be cast into Gehenna." Again, and again, in
other connexions, at other times, He warns and denounces :
" Rather fear Him, which, after he hath killed, hath power
to cast into Gehenna," "which is able to destroy both
body and soul in Gehenna."* In similar passages, f it is
called " the Gehenna of fire," which fire is aionian, which
fire is not "quenched," or rather, which is quenchless.]:
The proselyte of the Pharisees, is called the child of Ge
henna, both as to his guilt and condemnation, both as
to his depravity and mischievousnes% ; it is of them that it
is demanded, " How can ye escape the judgement of Ge
henna?" And thus the injustice of man — one instance is
mentioned, evil-speaking — is described as " setting on fire
the circuit of creation, and it is set on fire of Gehenna ; "
it is like the flame of hell bursting forth in its fury, it is
like its agony by the consequences thus produced. §
* Matt. x. 28 ; Luke xii. 5. + Matt, xviii. 8, 9 ; Mark ix. 43.
J to iriip to 'aaBearov.
§ It appears that this became a common word, not only among Christian
Greeks, but Christian Eomans. It is presumed that Ausonius was a Christian,
though he does not always write like one.
" Confessam dignare animam, si membra caduca
Execror, et taciturn si poenitet : altaque sensus
Formido excruciat, tormentaque gehennce
Anticipat, patiturque suos mens saucia manes." Ephemeris, liv.
Justin Martyr, in addressing Gentile converts, says — "Gehenna is the
place where those are to be punished who have led unrighteous lives, and
disbelieved what God declared by Christ." — Comment, Luke xii. 5.

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 301
We .bring both Testaments together in the identity of
their language. Their use of terms, in this particular, is
singularly fixed. Whatever be their doctrine of future
punishment, it is common and one. But we need not
confine ourselves to the precision of a terminology. Other
descriptions abound in the preaching of Christ, and in the
writings of his apostles. Some of these have been ad
duced : we would not recall them. More must be adduced :
we will not anticipate them. It is only necessary to add,
that most unsusceptible and inattentive is that mind which
does not perceive, that there is throughout a constant,
solemn, appeal to future punishment — to that punishment
as imminent, as dread, as irremissible.
There is, however, one word which, in its various forms,
so frequently recurs — informing us of the issue of unbelief
and sin — that we cannot pass it without remark. " The
perdition of ungodly men," — the promise, " Ye shall never
perish," — the condition, "that they might not perish," —
convey a sound dreadly familiar to all. Man is placed be
fore us : he has " perished," being already " lost." He is
" that which is lost."* To perish, to be lost, are words
of our language startlingly strong. Derived as perdition,
perish, are from the Latin, to explain them by such a root
is trifling, though this is not seldom done. Pereof signifies
utter ruin, loss of life ; probably, from its radical compo
sition, to pass entirely away. The original verb 'ArroWva,
is commonly opposed to " eternal life," to " salvation," —
" they who perish," are contrasted with " them who are
saved." " There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and
to destroy." Satan, therefore, "in the Greek tongue, hath
his name Apollyon." The unclean spirit cried out, "Art
thou come to destroy I us?" But that perdition was not
* 7ro <WoXuX6s — Luke xix. 10.
+ It is scarcely ever used in the classics, but in this strongest sense.
Peream ! is its solemn form of oath. Perditus and Interitus, almost always
imply destruction, utter and final.
J 'ATroXeo-at. Barravtrrac.

302 THE ETERNITY OF
annihilation, but that which would consist with most con
stant and conscious being: " Art thou come to torment us
before the time ? " The same distinction is obvious in the
warning of our Lord: "Except ye repent, ye shall all
likewise perish." This was an allusion to those Galileans
"whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices,"
and to " the eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell."
Now the same visitation could not be intended : that those
" present at that season " should experience similar fates.
He passed from such lamentable and frightful facts, to the
liabilities of the soul. He urged how it might perish,
" likewise," as truly, far more terribly in proportion to its
superiority over all contingent harm, far more really in
proportion to its higher nature, far more enduringly in
proportion to its immortality. — Man has now perished, or
his perdition is begun. The Gospel is given to arrest it.
Otherwise it goes on, and present guilt and misery are but
" the evident tokens of perdition." We are prepared by
this ordinary style, a style most strongly marked and un
varying, by the very use of the language, — for a punishment
irretrievably extreme.
We now advance to that which is more strictly deter
minate of the question that concerns this duration of the
pcenal state. The language, in which the later revelation
of God is given to man, is known for its nicety and copious
ness. Whatever may be the deficiency of the New Testa
ment idiom, it reflects most accurately tlie ideology of its
times. Not affecting Attic refinement, it speaks as the
Hellenistic nations would readily understand. We find
different expressions which convey the thought of per
petuity. ndVrore yields the notion of anything which is
constant in our habits, and in our observations of the
course of things : it could scarcely intimate what was more
continuous. Ainvex^s,* employed with the preposition els,
— as to oirjveKes, — signifies what is prolonged, uninterrupted,
* Heb. vii. 8.

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 303
as in a succession and order. Swe^s,* supposes a series
of. times closely connected together. Alel, is often accepted
in the highest sense. From this adverb are formed two
words of the greatest value in this inquiry ; dt&ws and muw.f
Both may be put to the fullest sense, or to a sense quite
inferior. The first is to be discriminated from 'A&ns, written
often in the Greek classics poetically, 'AiSr/s, — which either
refers, as in its Scripture import, to the unseen future state
of retribution, or is a personification of its heathen god.
It occurs twice in the New Testament. " His eternal
(a'idian) power and Godhead."]: "And the angels which
kept not their high estate, but left their own habitation,
He hath reserved in everlasting, a'idian, chains. "§ The
philosophic writers apply it to the constancy and durability
of nature. || The second term of this derivative form, is of
greater influence on the argument, from its frequent and
generally uniform use. Its purport in the pagan works of
this language, is confessedly of little service to any opinion
we may embrace, or side we may adopt. Life is its com
mon meaning, and sometimes alav is conjoined with an
epithet which declares its brevity. In the Iliad it is to
be so understood in the speech of Sarpedon, 5 B, that of
Achilles, 9, that of Jupiter to Juno, 1 6, that of Achilles to*
his goddess-mother, ] 9. Twice it occurs with puvwOdfoos.
It is declined in Priam's prayer to Achilles, <j>iXvs al£>vos, 22.
We do not meet with it in the Odyssey. This criticism,
however, principally relates to the poetry of the Greeks :
their philosophical writers apply it far more strictly. Even
the poets are not invariable in its use. Pindar If applies it
to death and its consequences. He even describes it by
" a sorrowless hereafter."** In the Christian records its
* It is not found in the New Testament, and only twice in Homer : in the
Iliad, 82, 28— in the Odyssey, 9, 74, in the latter instance coupled with aid.
t Note N. + Eom. i. 20. § Jude 0.
[| " Ktvorj/xei/o? Kivrlrrfr' atotov, airavcTios bi alwvos." Aristotle. De Mundo. 2.
IT ""Eiret/xi er rov fjopctfiov Klwva." Isth. Od. 7.
** "" AoaKpvv vepovrat kliava," Oly. 2.

304 THE ETERNITY OF
frequency will be apparent, when it is leamt that it occurs
— »-with its auxiliaries, derivatives, and reduplications, inde
pendently of parallel passages — a hundred and forty-five
times. It is never employed by them in its common
classical sense of individual human life. In conformity to
its various acceptations, albeit they pertain to one general
idea, it sometimes means the world, or the period of its
lasting ; what is in it, or what shall ensue at the end of it ;
its course and history; its ages and dispensations. Lest
there should be misapprehension in such cases, it is said —
"This world," tovtos — or "the world at present," w. It
is distinguished from another rov alavos eKeivov. Twice it is
associated with awful periods past, ere the beginning, or
ever the earth was ; " Upo xpdvav alavlav," 2 Tim. i. 9 ; Titus
i. 2. But it cannot be doubted, that the word most com
monly expresses the sense of a duration subsequent to that
of this world and its ceconomies, an after state and a future
existence. When the Divine Being is described, it is that he is
" King of the ages," or eternal ; that he is " blessed through
the ages," or for ever; that he " liveth through the ages of
ages," or for ever and ever ; that glory is due and rendered
to him through the same interminable revolutions. When
the strongest declarations are made in the ancient Scrip
tures of the Divine eternity, — as when Jehovah lifteth up
his hand to heaven, and saith, I live for ever ! — alhv is the
term every Greek translator adopts to express it, whether
of the Alexandrine band, when Greek was classically pure,
or of the New Testament writers, when they render a quo
tation, inspired as they were to understand the whole of
revealed truth. When there is the strongest necessity for
whatever of force this language contains, — when the demand
is most awfully urgent,— this is the term it yields. If there
were greater,- it would offer it. One point of construction
may be noticed : the preposition «'j often governs it, and
seems to increase its signification, or rather more fully to

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 305
unfold it.* This use and form is peculiar to the inspired
style ; the classical writers never adopt it. It is like the
launching of any interest, or claim, or cause, upon the bosom
of its boundlessness. The initial step of our immortality
is marked ; all previous to that immortality is indicated :
" now and unto the day of eternity."t It is a new dawn of
duration. That this strict idea is intended, the Scriptures
abundantly confirm.]; " The things which are seen are
temporal," irpoo-Kaipa : " the things which are not seen are
eternal," alavia. What more perfect contrast can be sup
posed ? What can be its scope but to oppose our thoughts
of the one to our thoughts of the other ? " Our earthly
house of this tabernacle " is set against "our house not
made with hands, aionian in the heavens." The distinc
tion is plainly taken between proper time and proper eter
nity. This is done, as far as the powers of the language
permit. This is done still more in what may be called, its
arbitrary use by Christianity. For its potestas was not
equal to the doctrines of so sublime a religion. Its signs
were to be expanded, and many of them newly fixed, when
it received such a religion into its nomenclature. This is
far more cogent in proof than a strict philological argu
ment. We ask not, — as though shut up to the rule, —
what does a Greek word express ? though we dishonour
not these hermeneutics, — but what would Christianity con
vey by it ? And how this precise word was understood, is
most evident from the later writers of this dialect. The
apostolical fathers are uniform in this acceptation of the
word. The Christian orators of the Byzantine school al
ways employ it when they would inculcate the eternal idea.
Did not Chrysostom, Basil, the Gregories, understand what
* This form occurs fifty-six times in the recension of Griesbach.
¦(- ' NDv Kal eip rjuepav alwvos. 2 Pet. m. lo.
+ " Nam Hellenista? illam phrasin plane ignorant. Unde clarissime liquet,
Spiritum Sanctum id intendere, nt nervosius asternitatem exprimat, quam
stylo humano hactenus factum erat, adeoque omnes eancellos removeat, quos
genius linguae alias videbatur admittere posse." — Lampe.
XII.. x

306 THE ETERNITY OF
was the proper word ? Did not Councils, when they com
piled the symbols of their faith ? The pagan authors of
the same date follow the same practice.*
We have supposed that there is no dispute concerning
the eternity of celestial happiness. An expression of entire
assurance distinguishes its general belief. But it must be
asked on what the assurance rests ? This, unlike the doc
trine of immortality, cannot be inferred from reason, can
not be suspended on consciousness. The Christian believes
it upon the testimony of revelation. It is not true because
he wishes it to be true. It is not true because of its plea
sant conception. It is revealed. One phrase again and
again rises: it is aionian life. "The end" is eternal life.
The future indemnity for loss and pain which may be now
suffered for the Christian cause, which leaves poor the
hundred-fold compensation of this present world, is eternal
life. The kingdom prepared for the righteous from the
foundation of the world, is eternal life. That for which
they are ordained, or marshalled, is eternal hfe. It was
promised before the world began. All that forecasts the
heavenly reward is thus proclaimed. It is eternal glory,
eternal inheritance, the everlasting kingdom, founded on
the faithfulness of the everlasting covenant, ratified by the
declaration of the everlasting Gospel, secured by the ful
ness of eternal salvation and by the right of eternal redemp
tion ! All is eternity !
But this precise adjective is employed in the same fixed,
uniform, unqualified, manner, in representing the punish
ment of the wicked.-)- They are "in danger of everlasting
judgement." " They shall be cast into everlasting fire."
" They shall be punished with everlasting destruction from
* "Xpovov apa Kal alwv TTCpl t'ijv tyuxyv."  ProcluS. PlotinUS WOuld furnish
many proofs.
+ In the fifteenth chapter of the Apocalypse, and the seventh verse, one of
the "living creatures " is represented as " giving unto the seven angels, seven
golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth <fiv Tois- al&var tSv aliirw."
Such anger, then, is worthy of an endless Being, and may coexist with Him.

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 307
the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power." " To
whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever." " To
whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever." " De
part, ye cursed, into everlasting fire."* And that we may
learn that hell is as eternal as heaven, the lips of Christ
declare : " And these shall go away into aionian punish
ment : but the righteous into aionian life."t
" Things which are revealed belong to us and our chil
dren." If there be an eternal blessedness and an eternal
punishment, they will surely be among the things promi
nently revealed, They are both revealed, or neither is
revealed. If any man be authorised to receive one and
reject the other, he "hath a revelation." Whence is it
With what credentials is it enforced ? " If a spirit or an
angel hath spoken unto him, let us not fight against God."
But if he draw it from his own prejudgements, the inward
light must be as fatuous as any tale which scepticism 01
enthusiasm can forge. Add thou not unto His words,
lest he rebuke thee, and thou be found a liar."
We believe that it is most generally allowed, that it is
even freely conceded, that the question, if one of literal,
lexicographical, criticism, is placed beyond dispute. If
the power of words is to determine it, the meaning is
plain. The usus scribendi seems as certain. We may well
restrict our enquiries : What do the words import? What
do the writers intend?
The exegetical proof, then, would be perfect, unless there
be other reasons which necessitate a different construction.
Some of these may be taken from a presumed dispropor
tion between sin and ultimate punishment : \ others, from
a view of the Divine benevolence, supposed to be contrary
to it and which is felt to render this extreme proceeding
impossible. If there be synthetical disproofs, these may
claim a right to be heard against exegetical evidence. It
is also, merely just to add that the impugners of such retri-
* Note 0 t Note P. } Note 0.

308 THE ETERNITY OF
bution generally allow that the terms which express the
duration of future happiness and misery are the same ;
that they contend for the one and against the other, on
wholly different grounds. They describe them to be
superior to the mere tenor of dogmatic revelations.
But there are Scripturists who array against the terms
we have collated, against our more analytic method, what
they think to be the fuller, the general, sense of the sacred
volume : with us, they make their appeal to it, and yet reach
the opposite conclusion. Their versions demand respect
ful attention.
Some passages, commonly claimed as favoring the eter
nity of future punishments, we release. We do not con
sider them argumentatively just. We disabuse our views
of any support supposed to be offered by them. Such is
that in the epistle to the Hebrews, vi. 4, 6 : " For it is
impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have
tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of tne
Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and
the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to
renew them again unto repentance." The case supposed
is egregious apostasy : the impossibility urged is not of the
repentance of these apostates, but the interdict laid upon
the church which they had so disgraced, and upon the cause
which they had so scandalised, ever again, be the showing
of their repentance however satisfying, to receive and
recognise them : even though " God peradventure wrould
give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth."
" They had crucified the Son of God afresh, and put him
to an open shame : " the treason debarred all " possible "
reconciliation of an outward kind and badge with his dis
ciples. — Such a wrongly-applied text we find in the first
epistle of John v. 16, 17 : " If any man see his brother sin
a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall
give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a
sin unto death : I do not say that he shall pray for it. All

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 309
unrighteousness is sin : and there is a sin not unto death."
We trace in this language no distinction of venial and un-
venial sin, but the stern truth, that all disobedience is sin.
But in apostolic times, certain sins were punished with
temporal disease, and sometimes with death. The apostles
thus possessed the fearful prerogative, from the breath of
their Lord, to remit or to retain sins, in these miraeulous
interventions. They " had in readiness to revenge all dis
obedience." We witness the exercise of its infliction on
the perjuries which disgraced the community of goods at
Jerusalem, and on the disorders of the Corinthian church.
" For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and
many sleep." This latter case was not necessarily nor
designedly punitive in the common sense. They were in
this manner "judged," and yet were only "chastened of
the Lord, that they should not be condemned with the
world." Death might be but " chastening," as was that,
though timeless, of Aaron and Moses. " The sin " of these
irregularities was in certain instances "unto death." It
was not to be deprecated. Where it was "not unto death,"
prayer might be heard for the healing of the judicial
disease. We would exercise a most scrupulous justice in selecting
those Scriptural disproofs which we believe to be the most
weighty, and which we believe that our opponents 'gene
rally prefer. What artifice or evasion could we dare to
know in the discussion of such a theme ?*
An argument, on which no little stress is laid, is bor
rowed from the considerate kindness, the tender pity, which
God has expressed towards his creatures. " For I will not
contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth ; for the
spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have
* " Hsec me respondisse illis suffecerit, qui sacrarum literarum, quas com
munes habemus, auctoritatem non spernunt, sed eas male intelligendo, non
quod illse loquuntur, sed hoc potius putant futurum esse quod ipsivolunt." —
Augustine.

310 THE ETERNITY OF
made."* This was spoken "to revive the spirit of the
humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.''
The " failing " of their spirits and hearts was not beneath
the strokes of overpowering vengeance ; it was their peni
tent tenderness which shrunk from any rebuke and frown
of Him they loved. It was not their native strength that
perished, it was their contrition which could endure no
more. How does this concern the " stouthearted ? " What
hope does it bring to sinners ? " I have seen his ways,
and will heal him. Peace, peace, to him that is far off,
and to him that is near, saith the Lord. But the wicked
are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters
cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God,
to the wicked." In the same manner the context of similar
passages contradicts any such extension of their applica
tion. " He will not always chide : neither will he keep his
anger for ever."t But this "mercy" is only "towards
them that fear him," whose " transgressions he hath re
moved from them," " who remember his commandments
to do them." Of this order are those gracious declarations
which He made to captive Judah and Israel." " I will not
make a full end of thee."] This was fulfilled in their
deliverance from the general Assyrian exUe. Yet it not
only implies what might be done, but is coupled with a
threat of that which shall be, " Though I make a full end
of all the nations whither I have scattered thee." Quota
tions, to bear out any general principle, should themselves
be general : these are restrictive, and stand in sternest
hostility to those very parties whom they are adduced to
comprehend. A large class of these passages will be
found, by their evident point and purport, not merely
irrelevant, but to gainsay the design for which they are
cited. So important has one portion of Scripture been ac
counted, that it might be almost called the title and the
» Isaiah v. 7, 16. + Psalm ciii. { Jeremiah xxx. 11.

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 311
motto of those who plead for the final restitution of all :
" Whom," that is Jesus, cried Peter to the people in the
porch of the temple, — "Whom the heavens must receive
until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath
spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the
world began."* This restitution, dnoKaTaa-rdcris, is not that
which all the prophets have foretold, that is, it is not their
burden, — but there shall be a restitution of all things which
they have spoken. What can be the restitution of predic
tions, but their fulfilment ? A redemption of their pledges ?
A completion of their outlines ? A perfect gathering up of
them in their order and their complement ? Just as John,
the prophetic Elias, " restored all things." What? " The
law and the prophets were until John : " he unfolded their
meaning and established their effect.
The fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans has
always been reckoned a strong defence of the universalistic
doctrine. That it is a description of a religious state and
character, — that it is, consequently, entirely of a partial,
specific, bearing, — from the first verse to the twelfth in
clusive, can allow of no dispute. It is a bright picture of
Christian joy and exultation. The apostle speaks repre
sentatively of all true believers, and of them alone. The first
person plural renders this most definitive. No unbeliever,
no stranger to " the love of God shed abroad in the heart
by the Holy Ghost," none who are " unreconciled," can
claim any portion in this blessed state of things. In the
twelfth verse, forward to the close, the person is changed,
and another style of argument adopted. The argument is
no longer of actual Christian experience, but of general truth
and moral sufficiency. The premiss is simply this : all
men suffer evil because of some connexion with Adam,
and this is proved to be pcenal evil, and this connexion is
proved to be federal, because all men are treated as trans
gressors of the law by their obnoxiousness to death. " For
* Acts iii. 21.

312 THE ETERNITY OF
that all have sinned : " this is the cause of universal death.
"Death hath entered by sin:" this is the demonstration
of universal sin. What can be the law ? That of Moses ?
Men died before, without exception, " even from Adam to
Moses." The essential, common, law written on the heart ?
But millions die who have never wilfully sinned at all.
" Death reigneth over them that have not sinned after the
similitude of Adam's transgression." This accounts for
infant mortality. There must be a constituent, hereditary,
relation between the first parent and all his posterity, — all
dying alike, while no one law, save that of the beginning,
can include all. This, then, is regarded as established:
the moral headship of our great ancestor. But in this
species of suretyship, he was the designed counterpart to
Christ, made like unto Him, his "figure." A conclusion
is embraced, — that since condemnation comes upon us
from the one, justification also comes upon us from the
other : in the former instance we "were made sinners," or
treated as such ; in the latter, we are " made righteous,"
or treated as if we were. " Many " is put for " all," in
opposition to Adam as one, and to Christ as one. It can
not follow that " all," in both cases, are equal and the
same. It is absolute in the first, for all do descend from
Adam : in the second, it is conditional, for men are only
justified by faith in Christ. There are those who are not
"in Christ Jesus :" they "are without Christ:" for whom
" Christ is dead in vain." Can we suppose that the design
of this inspired paragraph is to teach that all who are fallen
in Adam are efficaciously included in Christ? Are all
mankind in the state of those who are described in the
earher part of the chapter ? Do all " receive abundance of
grace and the gift of righteousness ? " To them alone is
it assured that they " shall reign in life." — There might be
another view, perfectly just in itself, though we cannot admit
it for the purpose of the present exposition. All men to
whom the word of righteousness comes, are brought within

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 313
its sufficiency. Christ, in a most important sense, has died
for all men. All men, hearing the Gospel, may be saved.
Christ is the Saviour of all, though specifically only of them
who believe. " The head of every man is Christ." The
good news, the overture, the availableness, have come upon
all men unto justification of life. The efficiency depends
upon the acceptance we give to it. — It is plain that neither
view warrants the idea that Christianity can profit us un
consciously, in spite of all contrary dispositions, or that it
can countervail final impenitence. The doctrine is justifi
cation. Is there possible justification except by faith? It
was, when this very writer, when Paul, the great master of
the theme, had preached that " by Christ all who believe
are justified from all things," — that he added, allowing no
indirect benefit, leaving no ulterior hope, " Beware lest
that come upon you. Behold, ye despisers, and wonder,
and perish ! " — The winding up of the chapter has been
pressed into the argument for this theory ; " Where sin
abounded, grace did much more abound. That as sin
hath reigned unto death, so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord."
This triumph of grace over sin we understand to consist
in the greater and more glorious blessings, preponderating
over all the malignities of evil. But it is urged as to the
co-ordinateness of numbers. This is untenable, for at the
utmost all who had sinned could only be saved. But if
numbers be intended, here it is maintained that there shall
be excess. More shall be saved than have sinned ! Is not
the spirit of this peroration caught and honored, when
supposing what it more than intimates, that two conditions
of things do and shall exist, we are authorised to proclaim
that grace superabounds over the abounding of sin in the
character of its operations, and shall superabound over it
in the majority of its subjects, — that, while we must allow
the usurped power of sin, and foresee not its extinction,
we can hail a dominion far stronger and ultimately far

314 THE ETEKNITY OF
wider, only beneficent, only pure, administered by Christ,
and absorbed into the felicities of heaven ?
Another place of this epistle* has been quoted for the same
purpose. " For I reckon that the sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which
shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of
the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of
God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not
willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the
same : in hope that the creature itself also shall be delivered
from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of
the children of God. For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And
not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits
of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves,
waiting for the adoption, namely, the redemption of our
body." Now it is obvious, whatever may be thus ardently
sought, it is bounded by the resurrection ; it is to be looked
for on this side of that event, and not on the other. We
think the passage literally plain. Creature, and the whole
creation, or every creature, is the same word. The creature
is man, as he is now constituted. We never suppose any
other interpretation, when we read the great commission
of our Lord, Preach the Gospel to every creature ; or when
we mark the record of his apostle, " the Gospel was preached
unto every creature under heaven." Manhood,t wherever
found, is desirous of something beyond its present self.
It now feels itself weary and dissatisfied, exposed to vanity,
perverted to failure and death. This was the consequence
of a federal arrangement which was ordained quite inde
pendently of it. Yet this is not hopeless. Manhood is to
be redeemed. In the case of the saints its vanity shall be
done away : the very body as well as the mind shall be
exalted to the proper rank. Throughout the world this is
* Eom. viii. 18.
t Col. i. 23. KTiVir is the word in all the above instances.

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 315
the present condition of man : they who have the first-
fruits of the Spirit are not exempt. It cannot be the ma
terial creation which is to be delivered from the bondage
of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of
God. On no supposition, it is conceived, do any rest the
hope that the finally impenitent will by the resurrection be
delivered at once from this " bondage" into this " liberty."
Be our interpretation just or not, the passage can stand
the hypothesis in no stead : it marks a distinction which is
fatal to it.
The language of Paul in the third chapter of his first
epistle to the Corinthians, has been pressed into the service
of such a hope. " Now if any man build upon this founda
tion, gold, silver, precious stones ; wood, hay, stubble ;
every man's work shall -be made manifest : for the day shall
declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire ; and the fire
shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's
work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive
a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall
suffer loss : but he himself shall be saved ; yet so as by
fire." To warrant any argument in favor of the supposed
remission of future punishment, it would be necessary to
show that this quotation respected a period later than the
judgement. But " the day " can point to no ulterior dura
tion. It is not improbable that the reference is to "the
day " of " fiery trial," of raging persecution, which was
coming upon the church. If not, it is " the day " of final
conflagration. In either instance the lesson is the same.
Greatly upon the pastor, " as a wise master builder," must
depend the edification of the Christian fellowship. He
may seek the mere increase of number, neglecting the
proper test of character. It is " his work," special and
most responsible. If he select " the gold, the silver, the
precious stones," the holy persons, whom these treasures
represent, will maintain their profession in persecution,
and will approve their acceptance in judgement : his "work

316 THE ETERNITY OF
abides," however compassed by the flames, it is inconsume-
able, and he, in its mdestructibleness, "receives a reward."
Another, however, accumulates " wood, hay, stubble." He
has been careless of the discrimination which should have
guided him in the choice of his spiritual materials. He
has gathered the formalist, the hypocrite, the worldling,
the unprincipled professors of religion. " His work is
burned." Persecution detects and scatters them. All his
labor is vain. His pile is consumed. Reward he has
none. He " suffers loss." His is biting disappointment.
Happy is it for him that he possesses the hope of a per
sonal safety, though it be only as a victim snatehed from
the flames. He is saved, "yet so as by fire :" an evident
similitude, a common saw, denoting the difficulty of his
escape. How can a hope be raised upon such a text?
Who can place this scene amidst eternity ? Until the very
last, the wonders of mercy may be wrought : " is not this
a brand plucked out of the fire ? " Until the very last, the
most strenuous zeal may be exercised : " others save with
fear, pulling them out of the fire." But after that day, all
is decision ; there is no purgatorian flame : none is saved,
though as if by fire. It is also plain that the narrowness
of the hazard is thus expressed, and not the means of sal
vation. The magnificent rhetoric and reasoning of the fifteenth
chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians, has been
firmly seized to convince us that it contains the principle
of universal salvation. It is supposed to describe the com
mon resurrection. But a very cursory inspection will prove
that it is the resurrection of the just : simultaneous we
believe to be the one resurrection ; still it is of the just
and of the unjust. It is not a different event, but the issue
of that event is varied by character. There are those who
are "accounted worthy to obtain the resurrection:" they
are "the children of the resurrection." The apostolic

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 317
writer speaks of them who " believe," who have " hope in
Christ," who are "not in their sins," who when they die
" fall asleep in Christ." The principle of interpretation is
as applicable here as in a former ease : universal is death,
particular is deliverance from it as a pcenal eviL " For as
in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."
Who are these, the " all that shall be made alive ?" Man
kind indifferently? "But every man in his own order:
Christ the first fruits ; afterward they that are Christ's
at his coming.'' They are " Christ's ! " Hence every re
animated body " arises in incorruption, in glory, in power,
a spiritual body." Yet what can be more general than this
statement, confirming these distinctive rewards ? " So also
is the resurrection of the dead." The last trump, — the
note of joy and victory, — the apostrophe of defiance, the
burst of triumph, the enforcement of perseverance, which
crown and perfect the climax of this chapter, all show that
this resurrection is the blessedness of personal character
and specific title, — all around is wail, dismay, and shame !
— In the progress of this chapter, — like an episode, but
connected with the main argument, — occurs the abrupt
and sublime announcement : " Then the end ! when He
shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the
Father ; when he shall have put down all rule, and all
authority, and power. For he must reign, till he hath put
all enemies under his feet. The enemy which shall be
destroyed last is death." If the opponents of His Divinity
be induced to hope countenance from this language in their
attempt to cast him down from his excellency, they may be
reminded that he is not, at least, now subject ! He is now
invested with illimitable, irresponsible sway ! The unsub-
jected Creature ! The finite Possessor of the throne of the
universe ! Do they so regard him ? Thus do they address
and obey and adore the temporary Independent ? There
is no more necessity to suppose his essential inferiority at

318 THE ETERNITY OF
the period in which he resigns his mediatorial kingdom,
than to suspect that of the Father during its continuation :
no more necessity to suppose that he ceases to reign gene
rally when he has "delivered up the kingdom to the Father,"
than that the Father ceased when Christ was head over all.
The Redeemer now possesses " the kingdom," a solemn
delegation, a peculiar trust, to govern, guard, and save : in
virtue of it, he now claims peculiar honors. All the sub
jects of his mediatorial charge will he restore to Him who
committed them to his hands. All the distinctiveness of
those honours will he forego. He vacates but an inter
mediate, pending, function. He but lays down what his
" obedience unto death " acquired, claims relative and as
sumed. The surrender is to God, — -that it may be cecono-
mically understood, it is explicated, " even the Father,"
"that God," — ceconomical distinction has passed, explicated
difference is no more offered, — " that God," essential Deity,
simple Godhead, " may be all in all." In the midst of
this majestic abdication, the hope of universal salvation is
thought by many to be encouraged. All his enemies shall
be under his feet. All things shall be subdued unto him.
The enemy which shall be last destroyed is death. This,
however, all takes place at the resurrection ; Then is Christ's
consummation. It is " the end." " The kingdom is de
livered up." Is it the style of mercy, is it an expression of
conversion, that his "enemies are put under his feet?"
Can any find hope for themselves and for others in imagery
like this? Are they to be regarded^as " enemies." among
our race at all ? Death is not a being, but a condition, —
yet its personification is frequent, — it shall, as still per
sonified, perish, the condition denoted by it shall cease.
All live and live for ever. The enemy which is to be last
destroyed is destroyed. " The saying that is written is,
then, brought to pass, Death is swallowed up [in victory."
The wicked are not then to be destroyed. They are sub
dued by punishment. They must exist, for death is de-

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 319
stroyed. They, therefore, cannot die. "Death and hades,"*
death and all its certain or possible effects, " are cast into
the lake of fire." As hopeless is their salvation as their de
struction. There is no Mediator. There is no Gospel ad
dressed to sinners. The kingdom is delivered up ! Except
in heaven, the burden of its acclaim and song, where the
nations of the saved rejoice and sing aloud of it, salvation
is a sound unheard through the universe !
The beautiful allusion contained in the epistle of James,
the opening chapter, and the eighteenth verse : " Of his
own will begat He us by the word of truth, that we might
be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures," has been ventured
for its support of the conjecture. They who are saved at
present, they who shall be the saved at judgement, are only,
it is argued, the first-fruits of those who are destined to be
ultimately saved. But these first-fruits are of the harvest
which is in the end of the world, and not after ; the first-
fruits are of the wheat, and not of the tares. " If the first-
fruit be holy, the lump is also holy."
The language of Peter has been quoted, not only for the
purpose of strengthening the opinion that all shall be saved,
but for the illustration of the means. It is supposed to
confirm that a probation may be granted to sinners beyond
the grave, and that the facilities of recovery may still be
extended to them. " Christ was put to death in the flesh,
quickened in the Spirit, by which also he went and preached
unto the spirits in prison ; which sometime were disobe
dient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the
days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, "f Did Christ
preach to the spirits in prison, when he descended into
hades with his human spirit, even to the antediluvian
rebels, — and why may He not in some future age descend
* Hades is personified or put for Pluto in the opening of Hecuba, 'EKa/Jtj,
by Euripides ; and Clytemnsestra speaks in the same manner, when describ
ing the murder of her lord in the Agamemnon of jEschylus.
+ 1 Peter iii. IS, &c.

320 THE ETERNITY OF
to the dungeon of hell and release its prisoners ? But all
this is assumption. Where is the semblance of proof that
Christ visited disembodied spirits of the wieked ? that he
descended into their hell ? that he delivered any of them
or wrought any change in them ? The flesh in which He
was put to death was his incarnation, his perfect manhood,
soul as well as body. The Spirit in which he was quick
ened must be the antithesis to this : his Deity.* That
was omnipresent. Ere the flood took away the ungodly,
he strove and pleaded with that daring and impious race.
His message was righteousness, and his inspiration in Noah
preached it. It was in vain. They heeded not. Their
spirits passed away, impenitent, to their prison. They
were disobedient, and they perished. He preached to them
•while they were moral agents on earth : not to their spirits
in prison, but to them whose spirits, because of their con
tumacy, were consigned to this dread prison-house. Could
the hypothesis be for a moment maintained that Christ, at
his death, went and preached to these spirits, — from all
that the language intimates, from all the effect which ap
pears, this appeal was as ineffectual as that which he did
make, and could only inculcate !
And carrying out the theory of final deliverance for all,
Scripture is imagined to suggest the restoration of fallen
angels to their alienated bliss. " That in the dispensation
of the fulness of times He might gather together in one,
all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which
are on earth, even in him."f "By him to reconcile all
things unto himself, whether they be things in earth or
things in heaven."] But whatever this union is, it is ac
complished. The holy angels and true Christians are
placed under a common head, they are incorporated into
a common family, they shall occupy a common heaven.
Their meditation is upon the same theme, and they sing
» Eom. i. 3, 4. 1 Tim. iii. 16. Heb. ix. 14.
+ Ephes. i. 10. j Col. i. 20.

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 321
the same song. It may be that these " elect" spirits attri
bute their establishment where we owe our redemption.
It will be, perhaps, expected that we should meet a very
common allegation of the universalist, that his cause is
greatly strengthened by inspired prophecies. He quotes
freely both from the Old and New Testaments. He sees,
in the predicted glory and extension of the church, the
enforcement of his views.* The reason why we do not
reason with this allegation is, that it is altogether unsound
in criticism. Prophecy is the fore-shadowing of things
which must be done hereafter. Earth is the stage, and
time is the period. It has no relation to retributive awards-
in another world. Its perfect scope is contained in this.
An absolutely universal and certain salvation cannot be
conceived but as the effect of a decree, working coercively
or spiritually to its end. But a salvation, like that we
understand, including a true hatred and determined dere
liction of sin, cannot be coerced. It is a process of dis
position. No force nor constraint can awaken grateful and
complacent love. God cannot thus change the soul of
man. Or if this necessary salvation of all be produced by
spiritual influence of a moral kind, in congruity with the
faculties and affections of the soul, " working within us to
will and to do," then this must be an act of grace which
for ever removes the reason of interposition from any basis
of justice, which clearly supposes that the mind would have
otherwise preserved its hostility, and which must urgently
demand from all who experience it that it be regarded
as no right of their own. What can impose it on a right
eous ruler that he should only and always operate on the
minds of his subjects to convince them of duty, to call them
to allegiance, to impel their pursuit of good ? This shadows
the operation we have conceived. But then this is not legis
lation : it is favor. Take away from this conception its
universality, and you leave the system of grace. "Who
* Winchester;
XII. Y

322 THE ETERNITY OF
maketh thee to differ from- another ?" In this spiritual
inworking is the difference. Yet how many, who, while it
is special, call it repugnant to the freedom of the will, jus
tify it when they can think it invariable, see no unright
eousness in it when extended to all, and no more complain
of an untrue philosophy, whieh hitherto they have imputed
to it, when they consider it not so much the business of
this world, as of the next !
The opposite theory to that of sovereign and efficacious
grace, has been thought to lend very important sanction
to the final salvation of all. Some of the statements, occa
sionally and unguardedly made by its diseiples, may have
this tendency : this does not, however, attach to itself. We
deem it most faulty. It makes nothing perfect. It esta
blishes nothing sure. It is a palsy of uncertainty over all
the features and members of truth : it gives them tremu-
lousness and distortion. It accounts for no conversion.
It secures no victorious sanctification. The reward of
Christ may be forfeited to caprice and chance. There may
be no peopling of heaven. Any certainty, as assured to
prescience, is only contingent volition. But the conclusion,
from general redemption to the salvation of all, is denied
most strenuously by this system. Its general redemption
is entirely conditional, depending upon present probation,
attainable only in the present hfe. It is merely just to
add, that thousands and tens of thousands who hold it, are
the most strenuous opponents of any future discipline and
hope. It is not unjust, notwithstanding, to express our
conviction that, the premisses of general redemption do —
or, at least, may be so made to appear — favor a universal
salvation. For if Christ died equally for all, if all are
bought by his precious blood— Judas equally with John-
then is there a great facility for this issue. H all be given
to Christ, there is the strong presumption, that he wUl
undertake for them, and that the Surety will claim them.
But we press this no more: we seek alliance and not

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 323
division: and we remember that moral indisposition is
allowed in every sinner, by those who abet general redemp
tion, as much as by ourselves.
It is not denied that we feel a complexity in the present
state of the argument. The cause we plead is attacked
from very different directions. There is the repugnance
which is felt against it on the ground of alleged injustice :
there is the mooted hope of an indefinite availableness in
Christianity, after the abrogation of its ceconomy. These
are competing and inconsistent views : both cannot be cor
rect. Each shall receive a passing notice. No kind or
diversity of objection would we overlook.
The first casts an unreasonableness, an injustice, on
the duration of this punishment. It contends, that such
consequences cannot be righteously meted to a tempo
rary probation, a life-long term, however it has been
abused. But it would be for the disputer to show, against
out former proof, that these consequences do not naturally
ensue, even though there were no positive infliction. If
they naturally ensue, can they be unjust ? We possess no
measure, no idea, of justice, to advance against such ope
ration of natural results. In this view, we seek not to
excuse Christianity. It necessarily approves of these con
sequences as just, though it does not entail them. The
Author of Nature and Christianity is one. And surely it
becomes us to confess some disqualification, at least, to
decide upon the proportions of sin and suffering, when we
remember that this is solemnly our question, that we are
arraigned under it, that the temptation is to a selfishness
of pride and interest, that our most enlarged conception is
essentially defective and partial. " The heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked : who can know
it ?" "Who can comprehend his errors ?" Sin may seem
to us a far more frightful evil, when certain views of it are
presented to us. Thoughtless, enwrapped in its pleasures,
entangled by its seductions, we may not have examined it.

324 THE ETERNITY OF
At last it is very commonly made to appear enormous.
The sinner sees it then as he did not before. " Though
wickedness be sweet in his mouth, it is the gall of asps
within him." Nor can the Christian forget that point in
his history, when he "was alive without the law once."
He boasted his righteousness and his impunity. " But
when the commandment came, sin revived, and he died."
Surely it seems immeasurably more heinous, when we
" look upon Him whom we have pierced," and behold it
reflected from the sacrificial sufferings of the cross. Is it
not the most reasonable of all probabilities, that the first
view of sin, taken by us in the light of eternity, will exceed
any, even those most solemnly matured, formed in the
present life ? that scales shall fall from the clearest eyes ?
that false judgements shall pass away from the purest
spirits ?
In considering the enormity of sin, many have main
tained its infiniteness. We may call it indefinite, that
suits our ignorance of its demerit and entail — but infinite
is a positive quality, where it really exists. Eliphaz in
quires, "Are not thine iniquities infinite?"* It should
be rendered: "Are not thine iniquities without end?"
No acts of an earthly creature can be numberless ; no in
finity can attach to any of his acts. To assert that such
a quality is derived from the character of the Being whom
he offends, is more than vague : qualities cannot be pro
duced from without. They are personal, inherent, things.
No law which man has broken is infinite. Would his obe
dience towards an infinite Being become infinite? The
requirement upon man is finite. It is only to the utmost
of his powers, his heart, his soul, his strength. We satisfy
ourselves with the conviction, we rest in the conclusion,
that the character of God, and the rectitude of his law, are
most aggravating circumstances in every act of sin. " If
a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him?"
* Job xxii. 5\ vp »n.

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 325
" How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against
God ? " This thought may well engross the mind, and
swallow up every other : " Against thee, thee only, have I
sinned, aud done evil in thy sight. " What we contend for
is, that there is an endlessness in sin. We dwell upon
its outstretching influences and results, and by these ideas
we abide. We cannot denominate it, even relatively, infi
nite. We might allow ourselves Aristotle's phrase, — " it
has a procession to infinity,"* but this is all. Infinity
need not be proved to characterise the act, in order to
justify the eternity of its consequences. The first is incon
ceivable, plainly impossible : the last is a certain fact.
Such consequences can only go on, unless arrested by a
foreign force. They are interminable vibrations. Like
displacements of the elements, like impulsions propagating
impulsions, like action and reaction, though not always to
be appreciated, they are demonstratively sure. Still we
have no such idea of any succession, as a law which can
fulfil itself. We can regard nothing as independent on the
will of Him who regulates all. Consequence is punish
ment. It is not only his will, but his doing.
The common argument in favour of the infinite evil of
sin is, because it is committed against an infinite Being.
The common inference is that, so being infinite, it de
serves an infinite punishment. But if by infinite, an end
less, punishment be intended, the terms are changed. An
infinite punishment qualifies the act, or the acts, of punish
ment. Still an infinite act against a finite nature is insup-
poseable. It would appear that many adopt the endless,
instead of the infinite, idea as a sort of necessary com
mutation. This is, however, low moral reasoning. It
takes for granted that something ought to be which cannot
be. It proceeds upon the assumption that the due rela
tions of Creator and creature cannot be carried out. Finite
measures of punishment can never constitute an infinite
* "Err aneipov Trpoerrrrrr.'' Nicomach. lib. i. Cap. 7.

320 THE ETERNITY OF
punishment. Yet we find in such a writer as Edwards the
following passage : " Whence it follows, that if it be suit
able that there should be infinite hatred of sin in God, it
is suitable that he should execute an infinite punishment
upon it; and so the perfections of God require that he
should punish sin with an infinite, or, which is the same
thing, with an eternal punishment." We are little pre
pared to find in so acute an intellect this monstrous con
fusion. It leaves the argument most dangerously exposed.
It could not be maintained. It was weak through its ori
ginal fault, — the aim to prove too much.
Yet we would not dismiss this view, without impressing
on our minds, the exceeding sinfulness of sin. We re
quire to be vehemently urged concerning it. We see an
unspeakable aggravation in it, as committed against the
most Holy, the Lord our Governor. But its evil is in its
own dispositions and acts, in what it is. The turpitude is
inborn, and the tendency native. Looking at it, we ought
to feel alarm, horror, detestation. Take away its character
of disobedience, its relation to law. Consider it intrin
sically. It is the opposite to all we can respect and love.
Justice is the rendering to every creature of his due and
right. Injustice reverses this. Who does not feel that
such denial is base, and that no society could endure were
it universal? Truth is noble and salutary, the basis of
confidence and the bond of life. Falsehood reverses this.
Who does not feel its meanness, its treachery, its hypocrisy,
its cruelty, its malignant influence ? Benevolence is beau
tiful, admirable, divine. Platred reverses this. All mis
chiefs does it create. And what is sin but the hideous
summary ? It wars against these eternal virtues, against
the eternal archetypes in which they rest, against the God
in whom they are perfected, against the universe which
they only can preserve ! Who may imagine its demerit ?
Who can anticipate its doom ?
If eternal punishment be unjust, then some limitation

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 327
of punishment, in the mind of the objectors, is just. But
who can fix that bound ? Where is the point at which it
is, or is not, right ? If punishment work out release, re
lease beeomes the subject of claim. All that was due to
sin is then discharged. There is legal quittance. This
is not salvation. It is a debt of equity which is sued. Nor
can another conclusion be reached if there be a suppose-
able limit to future punishment. The sinner, self-purged ,
stands on his demand. The principle is new. No period nor
measure of punishment secures him guiltlessness in the
present life. Through it he may have borne the particular
penalty of a particular sin, — the connexion can be traced, —
and, unmitigated, it may have pursued him to the last.
" His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall
he down with him in the dust." If the principle be ad
mitted in a future state, that guilt may wear out, that the
liability of sin to punishment may determine, — then there
shall be those who, having cleared and rectified themselves,
shall prefer a title strange and new. They need not pardon.
They henceforth wash their hands in innocency. What
heaven is prepared for them ? What shall be their song ?
Since this is a simple question of justice, punishment
cannot cease until there be a full satisfaction for sin. Mercy
is no element in the consideration. The appeal is to
justice : to justice must the appellant go. To this corre
sponds our Lord's command : " Agree with thine adver
sary quickly, while thou art in the way with him ; lest at
any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the
iudge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into
prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means
come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost far
thing,"* — " till thou hast paid the very last mite." It is
egregious trifling, mere fooling, to ascribe to this solemn
language a simply secular sense, to quote it as juridical
advice. It places the sinner in his true circumstances of
•r Matt. v. 25, 26: Luke xii. 38, 59.

328 THE ETERNITY OF
obligation. It forewarns him against daring the legal issue.
It shows how hopeless is the deliverance which depends
upon his instalments. It sternly represents that the dun
geon door can alone open by the settlement of the entire
exaction. Justice will have its perfect claim. It is most
perilous to put ourselves upon such a process. Are we
sure that we can pay it all, — have we pondered what the
kind of payment is ? Have we computed the distance
of that date at which the "last mite" shall have been
defrayed ?
We have been caught up into heaven, and beheld in it
the scene and manifestation of mercy. Thither all who
shall be glorified must be conducted. The idea has glanced
upon our mind before, but it was not pressed. They who
are exempt from every claim of punitive justice upon them,
by their own endurance of its every claim, by their own
exhaustion of its every desert, can owe nothing to grace.
Why should they sing of it for ever ? It did not break
their chain; it eat itself away. It did not quench their
fire : of itself it died. They have whereof to glory. They
are not forgiven nor redeemed. What sympathy can they
share with the only revealed heaven ? What note would
its golden harps return to their touch ? What associations
would its white-robed livery recall to their mind ? How
could they sing the song of the ransomed ? Why should
they cast down their crowns ? How incongruous these
states ! How jarring these divisions ! Oh, in far-off re
gions must they find their heaven, their impropriated pos
session, their purchased right ! They only worship justice,
which still they cannot love. All that they have acquired
was wrung from its grasp. They served it not as the free,
but as the bond. Whatever is their enjoyment, it is that
which it no longer could withhold. The redeemed in
heaven yield it reverence, adoration, delight. " Who shall
not fear thee, 0 Lord, and glorify thy name?" But these
act from constraint. They not only boast aloud. They

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 329
have dread. What secures their obedience ? Why may
they not relapse ? What shall henceforth keep and uphold
them ? Why may not the prison again receive them, and
its bolts shut them in ?
If the discrepancy between human guilt and an eternal
retribution be alleged as so obvious that it thoroughly
revolts both our natural reason and sensibility, — we may
demand the clear proof of this. We may examine the sen
timents of mankind. Are they thus uniformly contrary ?
Did Oreus relent ? Did Cocytus divide ? Did nine-fold
Styx ebb in its channels ? Was there ending toil for Sisy
phus or expected rest for Ixion ? Did the vitals of Tityus
numb beneath their horrid torture ? Did not the wretched
Theseus sit transfixed for ever?* It is true that Anchises
in the Elysian fields speaks to his son of purifications simi
lar to those which Plato taught. But these are not wrought
upon the wicked, but the good. They are immortal refine
ments. The blest continually ascend through new trials
and lustrations to higher degrees of purity and joy. The
wicked are not restored. Prometheus, the victim, not of
justice, but of Force and Strength, is twice bound, first in
Scythia, then on Caucasus, — his release from hell was but to
greater sufferings, — and though mythology sets him loose
at last, it is not by legal expiation, but by the descendant
of Io, Hercules, who climbs these crags and pierces the
* " Eostroque immanis vultur adunco
Immortale jecur tundens, fecundaque poenis
Viscera, rimaturque epulis, habitatque sub alto
Pectore : nee fibris requies datur ulla renatis."
" Sedet asternumque sedelit
Infelix Theseus." Virg. jEneid. lib. vi.
In the Phsedo of Plato, the doctrine of an eternal punishment is mtroduced
as indisputable. Having allowed that there are idvtpa aiidprntiara, remedial
offences, Acherusia being the purifying fountain, — Socrates says : " But they
who shall be found incorrigible, on account of the enormity of their crimes,
their many and foul sacrileges, or their unrighteous slaughters, or for the
perpetration of similar acts, — these shall, a fitting doom, plunge into Tar-
tarufe, whence they shall never escape : °Bev oiVoTe eKflaivovaiv.'

330 THE ETERNITY OF
vulture with his shaft. It is not atonement, — it is not
remission, — it is not the yielding of justice. It is violence
overmatching violence ! It is Aleides conquering Jove !
The history unfolded by Scripture is one series of repro
bations against sin. How often has some crime, not the
most aggravated, been suddenly overtaken by death, leaving
no presumptive hope that such infliction was not the mere
hurrying away of the offender to a heavier doom ! Why
might not, in due desert, every crime thus be visited ? Pf
" every transgression and disobedience received a just re
compense of reward," what " carcases " would " fall" around
us, what ashes would consume away beneath the fire which
came forth from the Lord, what pillars of vengeance would
stand thick over the earth ! These things have been.
" Now all these things happened for ensamples : and they
are written for our admonition." " Think ye that they
were sinners above all men?" The latent evil, the unsus
pected turpitude, of the one, the particular, sin, is thus
exposed. This course may now be in operation. We
must not judge. It cannot be wholly, if at all, suspended.
God has not forsaken the earth. " When He hideth his
face, who then can behold him ? whether it be done against
a nation, or against a man only." How slow should we be
to form any opinion which extenuates the demerit of sin
and which objects to its threatened condemnation! How
little can we be qualified to decide upon the relations of
justice to an infinite lawgiver and to a moral universe !
How hesitatingly ought we to adjudge that retribution which
it is proper to measure out to whatever rebels against it !
This is to " speak evil of the law," and to "judge the law."*
* " And then as to the duration of this punishment ; no man can presume,
in our present state of ignorance and darkness, to be able truly to judge
barely by the strength of his own natural reason, what in this respect is or is
not consistent with the wisdom and justice and goodness of the Supreme
Governor ofthe world; since we know neither the place, nor kind, nor man
ner, nor circumstances, nor degrees, nor all the ends and uses of the final
punishment ofthe wicked." — Dr. Samuel Clarke's Evid. of Religion.

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 331
Were we wholly guided by what we consider to be per
fect argument, we should now recall, the Deatli of the
Cross. We should contemplate it as the most awful ex
ample of sin. Its exceeding sinfulness is marked there
with its deepest shades. " God spared not his own Son :"
can the actual transgressor escape ? " For if they do these
things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?"
But we are aware that from this argument certain rea
sonings may be drawn, holding out hope to the guilty
because of this atonement, and liberation to the represented
because of this substitution. This leads to a new division
of inquiry.
A second objection is raised to eternal punishment, not
only from the imputed imparity between it and the acts
of a finite agent, restricted as he is to a mortal period, but
from the supposed availableness of the Christian system
for ulterior benefits. They who attach a very slender esti
mate to redemption, who equivocate with its plainest lan
guage, still may not venture to found their hope upon
abstract justice. Chauncy, speaking of the condemned,
says that " God entertains tender compassion and grace
towards them," and that " their deliverance rests upon the
foot of grace through Christ." The more common idea
is, however, that Christ having died, there is infinite merit
and efficiency in his death : that if largely applied already,
its virtues are yet inexhaustible. But Christianity, while
its redemption is necessarily of infinite dignity, from its
price and its power, is a system complete in its design.
To inquire why it does not save all when it could save all,
is as vain (were there not a fallacious confusion in the
term) as to demand why omnipotence does not establish
new centres of creation, and fill immensity with other
worlds ? We believe that redemption has its purpose, its
final cause. It is not the decretive salvation of all. What
ever its purpose, it must be fulfilled. A moral system can
not be frustrated so long as its sanctions are enforced. The

332 THE ETERNITY OF
Gospel, as a reign, cannot be frustrated. It possesses,
when disobeyed, the alternative of self-vindication. It is
different with a purpose. It is frustrated if it be not ful
filled. There is nothing to which, on failure, it can resort.
It is not law : it cannot, therefore, employ sanctions. Re
demption is a purpose. If it be comprehensive of the
salvation of all men, then it falls short of itself. It fails.
But did it ever contemplate this ? Was this the travail of
his soul with which only the Redeemer shall be satisfied ?
Was this the pleasure of the Lord which shall prosper in
his hand? How, then, can the non-salvation of any be
called a failure ? Besides, redemption operates by par
ticular means and mediums. These are of a moral nature.
Whatever secures their success, they are not the less moral.
" Christ is preached." This institute is most fitted to im
press and captivate the mind. But for the aversion of the
mind, it would accomplish a spiritual revolution in it. And
are the administrations of truth and mercy to be trans
ferred to another state, a state of punishment, punishment
inflicted on account of their former rejection? Are they
who rejected them to be tried again? Is it still to be
proclaimed : " This is a faithful saying, and worthy of being
accepted by all, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners," and equally to save all who, in unbelief and
impenitence, have passed away from that world? Shall
the Holy Ghost still " convince of sin and of righteous
ness," when He can no more convince " of judgement to
come," since that is past ? Shall the Son of Man find faith
in hell ? Shall he travel thither, mighty to save ? " Who
shall ascend into heaven? that is, to bring Christ down
from above." To press such suppositions is to refute
them. Or by some secret power, — moral instrumentalities
being quite withdrawn, — is the influence of redemption to
reach and act upon the mind ? That this influence may
effect its end, it must humble, soften, purify. What are
the incentives of contrition which were not known on

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 333
earth ? Is it that now they see the fruits of their doings ?
their torments, whatever these torments may be ? their
flames, whatever may compose them ? These must rather
work a sorrow unto death. Things like these, so far as we
know them, harden and infuriate the heart. Moreover, an
absolute advantage is given, by this hypothesis, to a state
of punishment over that of moral trial and means. There
the motives of Christianity cannot fail ! There it cannot
return void ! There must it have free course and be glori
fied ! There it shall find its great door and effectual !
Now is come salvation ! There is some overmastering
might (how suited to form contrite and holy character
others must explain !) before which all hostility yields and
rancor mitigates ! Hell and its rigors prevail ! They
transcend all the appeals of mercy and overtures of recon
ciliation ! He who has hitherto treated souls only by
government, ruling souls as souls, now revokes every former
principle and mode, — proceeds, if not in the manner, with
the irresistibleness, of a mechanical agency, — no longer
draws with " the cords of a man and the bands of love," —
his still small voice no more is heard, but he rushes by in
fire, — "another Gospel" supplants "our Gospel," — and
the work of salvation becomes more summary and sure !
Why should Lazarus be sent to the five brethren of the
rich man, as if they must repent when miracle appears, —
that evidence the elder born had himself withstood ; and
horrible as are the means of repentance, hell provides them,
and here " they will repent ! "
It is said, that this very power, which the wicked possess
in the world of retribution, of working out their deliver
ance, is connected with redemption and its blessings. But
if punishment be shortened by redemption, how far would
it be prolonged without it ? Did it not come in arrest of
punishment, or in preparation for happiness, — where shall
be fixed the point of termination ? The supposition is,
that temporary punishment can alone consist with justice,

334 THE ETERNITY OF
and that a eertain term of endurance would exhaust its
claim. Then the utmost which redemption, so under
stood, could do is, — not in giving power to man to deliver
himself, for this he at least possessed by waiting the ex
piry of his sentence, — but in releasing him from the neces
sity of so putting forth all his power: it abridges and
assists his pcenal expurgation. And thus a mercy is fondly
imagined, which mixes itself with right; it hastens that
which would have been only more postponed. And is this
the " redemption in Christ's blood, the forgiveness of sins,
according to the riches of the Father's grace?" Is this
the " redemption in Christ Jesus ? " Are these the means
he sanctifies ? Is he a Prince and a Saviour, to give this
repentance and remission of sins ? Shall they who are
rescued by this ordeal call him Jesus, because he has saved
them from their sins ? Shall they so clearly perceive that
remotest influence of his death upon their enlargement
from hell, as to cry aloud, " Thou hast redeemed us to
God, by thy blood?" Thinking upon this, how is the
unanimity of heaven broken ! While they who first be
lieved on Christ, who first were called to the marriage
supper of the Lamb, shall awake up their glory and their
harp, with shoutings, Grace, Grace, — how many who have
abided the conditions of justice, or who only owe to grace
a little respite of suffering, may rightfully exclaim, that
their hand has done this !
There are statements of Scripture, which we do not
allege for the purpose of denying the doctrine of universal
restoration: they are special. But they inexorably pre
clude the hope of some. And sinee the opposite view
assumes the salvation of all, these exceptions may affect
it, by showing, that it is not true of all who have died in
sin and have passed to punishment, and that if untrue of
all, it may be untrue of any. For the argument is com
monly so put, that it is strietly universal, to the impossi
bility of an exception. A principle would be involved in-

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 335
it. There could be no limit to the restorative act. Whether
it were required by justice or mercy, it would be equally
required to be impartial and unfailing. They who contend
for it, seem to hold that, if it do not comprehend the whole
species, the argument is unsound in substance and un
worthy of controversy. Now what we adduce are facts.
By facts, we mean, cases so proposed by Scripture, that
we cannot but think that they may be real, we cannot but
think that they are. " For, if we sin wilfully, after that
we have received the knowledge of the truth, there re
maineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a fearful looking
for of judgement and fiery indignation, which shall devour
the adversaries ! " How is this doom to be counterworked ?
Is it not hopeless, and irretrievable ? Whatever may be
the sin, the atonement is so presented to us, that it cannot
avail. " There remaineth no more sacrifice for sin." It
must not be looked to for any ulterior efficacy. — "All
manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men :
but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, shall not be
forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word
against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him : but who
soever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be
forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world
to come." This sin, — whatever be its nature, the argu
ment is untouched, — is unpardonable in any state of being.
How is that penalty to be averted ? — There are other threat-
enings and descriptions, which can but justify despair.
" He shall have judgement without mercy, that hath
showed no mercy." " He that being often reproved, hard-
eneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that with
out remedy." " The redemption of the soul is precious,
and it ceaseth for ever." We read in one place of Scrip
ture, that " in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the
wine is red, it is full of mixture," that is, it contains every
ingredient of punishment, adapted to the kinds of sin and
to the character of sinners : we read in another place, of

336 THE ETERNITY OF
" the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out with
out mixture into the cup of his indignation," that is, with
out abatement or restraint. In science, the exception may
prove the rule, because, if there were no rule, none could
prove the exception. But in moral rules there can be no
exception allowed. If the rule, in the present discussion,
be that all men shall be saved, we have quoted instances
which cannot come under it. Now these are not proper
exceptions to the rule, but anomalies, counter-facts, which
contradict, disprove, destroy it.
There is one example, so revoltingly depraved, so appal
lingly guilty, that we may well let it stand alone, indivi
dualised in its baseness and malignity, towards which
accents of vengeance are directed, unheard before and
since. We say nothing of prophetic description and
menace ; how the comminations against Saul, Doeg, and
Ahithophel, terminated in him. We say nothing of the
mysterious, and almost historic, sarcasms which break
upon him, for " the thirty pieces of silver cast to the pot
ter," the " goodly price that " Messiah " was priced at, of"
him. " Woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is
betrayed ! It had been good for that man if he had never
•been born." We are aware that this terrific denunciation
has been extenuated as a proverbial form of speech. But
of whom was it ever affirmed, except of the "son of per
dition ? " It is an irredeemable sentence. The whole case
stands out in those pregnant words. No futurition can
possibly indemnify that wretched existence. It is utterly
undone. " It stands aye accursed." The vessel is so
marred that it cannot be repaired. Like a poisonous
root, it only separates to itself whatever of pest it can
draw from the atmosphere, and whatever of canker it can
absorb from the ground. We could understand, nor t»
yet despair, that it "were better for him that offendeth
one of the little ones, that a millstone were hanged

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 337
about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth
of the sea." We could understand, nor yet despair, the
" woe to that man, by whom the offence cometh." But,
when a man has fallen into such guilt, when a man is
overtaken by such retribution, that his whole being is
transformed into a curse, that it were better that he had
never been born, — when this is pronounced, not by frantic
man himself, cursing the day in which he was born, but by
Him who is the First and the Last, — "the Lord, who
weigheth the spirits," — then surely eternity can bring no
reverse nor compensation. However remote might be his
recovery, his sufferings would not be worthy of thought,
and even less of comparison, viewed in relation to the
blessed sequel. His would be later, but after all, it would
be eternal glory. This would counterpoise any conditions,
the most protracted and severe. This would repay the
lowest hell. Good were it for that man, who, albeit by the
sternest path, attained that glory ! Good were it for that
man that he ever saw the light ! Good were it for that
man that he ever began to be ! Good were it for that man
that he was ever born ! Why should he be " cursed, who
brought tidings to the father" of the apostate, "saying,
A man-child is born unto thee, making him very glad ? "
He was only — with a longer remainder — a heir of purity
and bliss ! How could he be the son of perdition ? How
could that fearful nativity be cast? One dark spirit is,
however, seen going forth to perdition ! It hath the greater
sin! All contempt pursues it! All indignation burns
against it ! None deprecates its doom ! There unfolds
for it, its own place ! It shall be immured alone ! No
sympathy draws toward it ! It is disowned by all ! The
lost stand afar off, for fear of his torment ! Nor can we
^endure the thought, that our Lord could consent to con
form to language and thought, because of proverbial phrase
and popular opinions, — to any forms which were unfounded
xii. z

338 THE ETERNITY OF
in truth and opposed to fact ! Not less would his mercy
than his ingenuousness shudder, to exasperate the terms
of a sentence which could not be fulfilled ! *
We are not unsuspicious that all this specific argument,
argument drawn from cases, may be bent to favor a hope,
that as these are confessedly extreme, so there is a general
ground for hope. But the question is not, how many, how
nearly all, may be saved ; the simple matter is, whether
any one may be remedilessly lost. There is no proof,
however execrable his crime, that Judas has surpassed all
men in sin, and no proof that what is affirmed of him
might not be affirmed of others. And strange is the mental
process which extorts a hope from facts like these. It
might be encouragement were any sentence known to have
been lightened and abridged. It might support conclu
sions in favor of remission had an individual of the con
demned been loosed. Saints have returned from heaven;
what sinner has been momentarily set free from hell?
There would, then, be room for inference. There would
be ground for hope. But nothing of that kind has been
supposed. No semblance has been presented. The argu
ment has only shown that there are those whose doom is
marked with sterner aspects : not that there is any prece
dent for abatement or any instance of release.
It is most important to conceive right views of the state
in which the wicked are eternally placed. Is it solely retri
bution to the wickedness of their earthly life, or is it resent
ment of present sinning ? Perhaps these views need not
be disjoined. The adjudication is for past acts. However
wicked, some of these acts cannot be repeated. They, at
least, must be changed. But these acts have formed and
marked a character. That character is the very compound
of sin. It cannot be indifferently regarded or treated.
The wicked are cast into hell for what they have been :
* Note E.

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 339
there they can only abide, for what they are. Their cha
racter, endlessly fixed, is that of moral agents. As moral
agents they agonise in the unexampled clearness of their
moral perceptions. " The law worketh wrath." Every
claim of moral obligation is upon them still. They owe
to love God and to d© his will. The modification of moral
agency is only this : here it is always associated with pro
bation, there probation is hopelessly cut off from it. Though
it may be said that, such arrangement is simply the result
of the certainty that " they are not subject to the law,
neither indeed can be," — we cannot consent to the affirm
ative. We dare not say that as a mere retribution of the
probationary term, eternal punishment is unjust. But we
think that Scripture does not wholly rest it on this issue.
Probation, though defeated of its favorable intention, has
not morally failed. The sinner has been weighed in the
glances, and is found wanting. The hidden things o,
dishonesty are brought to light. It is seen what manner
of spirit he is of. Character has assumed its final shape,
and is perfectly elicited. The present bears out the past.
He is condemned* There is an onwardness in his evil
principles which leaves a reversal of that condemnation
impossible, were it otherwise to be contemplated. Were
the exclusive ground of retrospective punishment insuffi
cient, which we by no means suppose, still at this point
there is an inextricable dilemma. Where revelation gives
us a twofold explanation, we accept itwith grateful deference.
We find it here. It is thus supplied. Hell is the enforce
ment of retribution. Hell is the characterisation of the
wicked. Nor are we left without illustrations in human
jurisprudence. The convict is dragged to his prison. He
is condemned for some particular crime. That durance
may be variously considered. It is punishment ; it is re
straint from further wrong-doing ; moreover, it is adjust
ment to present disgrace and presumed disposition. Yet
he may continue so to transgress against the general law,

340 THE ETERNITY OF
as to justify his continued detention. His bearing may
show how injurious would be his enlargement. It would
not be alone injurious to society, but, by yielding him the
opportunity of new offences, would be most pernicious to
himself. He is fitted only for bondage. The prisoner is
supposed, by the laws of society, to be,responsible as much
within his bars, as when at liberty. They maintain that
he may become more criminal, and may aggravate his
actual guilt. They may eite him from his cell, under
•another indictment and to a severer doom. Nothing of
moral agency, in its aspect on the community against
which he has offended, has ceased. At this point any
further comparison fails. There can be no second tribunal
before which the finally condemned shall be arraigned. In
the eternal prisonhouse is all the necessary, dread, pro
vision. Hell is punishment, it is repression of the external
noxiousness of sin, it is adjustment to actual character an£
determination. Where else could the sinner dwell? All
his moral affinities, all his chosen aims, all his fostered
habits, all his companion spirits, are round about him.
It is his own place.* •
The Judgement has passed its sentence not only upon
particular portions of conduct and passages of life, but also
upon the character which they constituted and expressed.
* " There must be a certain length of time, the precise measure of wliich
can be known to none but God, within which, the promises and the threat-
enings of tlie Gospel, joined with the experience which eveiy man's life
affords of God's power and providence— of the instability and vanity of all
worldly enjoyments,— there must, in the nature of things, be a certain measure
of time, within which, if at all, this state of experience, joined with future
hopes and feai-s, must produce certain degrees of improvement in moral wis
dom and in virtuous habit. If, in all that time, no effect is wrought, the
impediment can only have arisen from incurable self-will and obstinacy. If
the ordinary period of life be more than is precisely sufficient for this trial
and cultivation of the character, those characters which shall show themselves
incorrigibly bad, will have no claim upon the justice or the goodness of God,
to abridge the time of their existence in misery, so that it might bear some
certain proportion to the short period of their wicked lives."  Horsley.

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 341
That character remains, ever developing itself. Evil is the
full election and entire element of the mind. Sin will con
tinue to be committed, for man, though condemned, must
be always under obligation. " The strength of sin," even
there, " is the law." Sin must always, and most certainly,
in such a condition of things, involve and necessitate its
own punishment. " Cursed is every man who continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them."
Increasing depravity, according to tendency, seems inevi
table. It is simple volition. Increasing misery must
attend upon it. Still is there the lower deep. When, then,
can the loss be guiltless, or cease to be depraved ? How
can they be released ? All that for which they were con
demned, abides in them. They cleave to it. They per
severe in it. Their custody is necessary to the well-being
of the universe. It is the adaptation of sphere and circum-
¦•stance to state and disposition. Another distribution would
be an inversion of order and justice.*
We are not moved by any taunt that this double reason
ing implies dissatisfied conviction. When Scripture sup
plies more views than one, we are not only warranted, but
bound, to argue upon all. We do not find, in its page,
that eternal punishment is exclusively urged as reflective
upon this life, but also as proportionate to character ever
existing : we do not find the latter idea ever disjoined from
the former. Both, we think, are plainly revealed. Why
should we refuse their mutual aid in illustrating this fear
ful issue ? Why should we break in pieces the common
* " Summo enim Deo euncta bene administrante quse fecit, nihil inordi-
natum in universo, nihilque injustum est, sive scientibus sive nescientibus
nobis. Sed in parte offenditur anima peccatrix : tamen quia pro meritis ibi est uli
talem esse decet, et ea patitur qutB talem pati tsquum est, universum regnum Dei
nulla sua f&ditate deformat. Quamobrem quoniam non omnia novimus quas
de nobis bene agit ordo divinus, in sola bona voluntate secundum legem
agimus, in csteris autem secundum legem agimur, cum lex ipsa incommu-
tabilis maneat, et omnia mutabilia pulcherrima gubernatione moderetur."—
Augustine. De Diver. Quiest. Octo-Trib.

342 THE ETERNITY OF
testimony ? For here the facts, or truths, are not properly
distinct. They are but one : retribution did not strike
until character was decided; character is the principal
weapon of retribution. They cannot be considered but
in union with each other. Neither can be understood but
by their re-acting influence. We certainly are not ashamed
to reach our conclusion by their commingled and concen
trated light.
Where we cannot but expect difficulties, we confess to
no small one touching the matter of degrees in punishment
connected with an unvarying duration. It may be asked :
Should not the graduation be of perpetuity as well as of
kind ? The difficulty, if confined to the argument, ceases
upon firm reflection. The punishment, by the nature of
him who suffers it, is eternal. Habit, character, conse
quence, necessitate this. Justice cannot owe it to him to
subvert it. A violence must be done, nor can we see how
there could be the counteraction. What could terminate
unrepented sin ? The Scripture insists most frequently
upon the cast and order of the lost. We find not in it the
statements which never can convince. It tells us not that
every sin alike deserves eternal death. It often touches
lightly the demerit of particular sin. But it portrays the
unworthiness, the incapacity, the degradation, which it has
superinduced. " The wicked shall be turned into hell."
"Know ye not that the unrighteous cannot inherit the
kingdom of God?" The immortality of man is an inde
pendent fact. The lighter or more bitter degree of the
retribution, arising out of the less or greater sinfulness, is
likewise an independent fact. Man being immortal, it is
no prejudice to his nature, it is only in agreement with the
principles and stamina of his nature, that whatever be its
chosen course, should be continued and prolonged as him
self. It, if left to its own tendency, will carry it forward
and work it out. It by no means follows, even in this
probationary state, that a man hates his sins because he

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 343
deplores their consequences. Though the consequences
will be so much more dreadly revealed to the lost, it does
not follow that they will renounce their sins. Every
known operation of the wicked mind points to the contrary.
Even there no compulsion is upon them to be wicked. It
is only of their own will that they do not love God. They
are deprived of no moral power. They have chosen their
own way. Whatever their malignity, it is their real and
cherished disposition.* We hesitate, not, therefore, to
admit, that, in all certainty, the endlessness of punishment
destroys all distinction as to duration : but it does not
affect the distinctions of guilt and its corresponding misery.
This is the only moral branch of the inquiry. This alone
is the question of government and retribution. We have
nothing, in moral questions, to do with duration of being.
Immortality is not a business of right and wrong. It hangs
by constituted tenure. It belongs not to any province of
law. It is an established order of nature. It simply re
gards existence. We may well and deeply consider all
moral rules and proportions. These researches concern
man. They may be converted to his well-being. There
we must stop. He is man. He is immortal. Over
that he can have no control. It is independent of him.
He is not consulted on that arrangement. He is " made
thus." It is a passive effect. But his conduct is the
* "It was the opinion of many of the ancient Christians that with the close
of probation after the final judgement, the existence of the human will ceased.
Some of the Fathers assented to it. "For when," says Hilary, "we depart
out of this life, we depart at the same time from the right of will. . . For
when the liberty of the will ceases, the effect also of the will, if there be any,
will cease." Origen, however, differs. " I am of opinion that God so dis
penses every one of the rational souls, that he regards their everlasting ex
istence ; for they always have free will." To suppose that the lost do not
any longer exercise volition, is to destroy their most intimate nature ; it
alike takes away the source of depravity and the means of punishment. To
assert that they will only sin, and therefore possess not liberty, equally mili
tates against their present liberty : what else do the wicked now will ? This
being their cherished affection, what else can they will ?

344 THE ETERNITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT.
subject of responsibility. It may be what he will. That
is his question. It is his only business. It is in his
keeping and power. The question of duration is strictly
detached from all that is moral, — it is exclusively phy
sical !

LECTUKE VIII.
THE ETERNITY OF FUTURE PUNTSHMENT.
" For thus saith the Lord ; Behold, they whose judgement was not to drink
of the cup have assuredly drunken ; and art thou he that shall altogether
go unpunished ? Thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely
drink of it." — Jeremtah xlix. 12.
It is an overpowering reflection ! — but we have some
times emboldened ourselves to inquire, What would bring
relief and support to the lost in hell ? What could allay
the load of their despair ? What could dull the gnawing
of that worm ? What could soften the keenness of that
flame ? And two considerations have raised themselves in
our mind as those which, could they be indulged, might
yield the assuagement that we had ventured to suppose.
Torment, under the influence of such considerations, would
lose its sharpest severity : the worm would be unfanged,
the fire would be appeased, and endurance might brave
them !
The first consideration we should demand is, that the
sufferer of the doom might feel that it was inevitable. The
idea of fate sets us free from the sense of blame. The
wicked often resort even now to this subterfuge, and find
ease in this excuse : "We are delivered to do these abomi
nations." Yet they know better. Otherwise their heart
would be more quiet : it, at least, would wrap itself in a
sullen peace. And did this conviction make its way into

346 THE ETERNITY OF
those abodes of darkness, did it there find hold, that no
different course, that none other form of character, that
none other stress of effort, could have prevented that which
is suffered there, — that it was irreversibly ordained, that it
was inexorably decreed, — they who were charged with guilt
would be self-acquitted, the whole responsibility of per
sonal conduct would cease to hang around the conscience,
and those spirits with a strong rebound would defy and
conquer the circumstances of a condition which no pains
nor determination could have averted, by a resolved aban
donment to that stem grasp in which they were held pas
sive, and from which there is no escape. It would be joy
to those captives, let them only think, We are the victims
of ruthless destiny !
The second consideration which might subdue the fierce
ness of infernal agonies, would be that they are undeserved.
Punishment is related to crime. The doer of the wrong
knows the penalty which he incurs. Whatever he may
think, society has adjudged the relation between the wrong
and the penalty. That which may be undue in human
legislation cannot be supposed of the Divine. God loveth
righteousness and hateth iniquity. All his laws are based
on essential, eternal, rectitude. And were it possible for
the lost to persuade themselves that aught of caprice
entered into their sentence, that the minutest moral dis
tinction was slighted in it, that it was dealt in cruelty, —
would they not, in a new revolt, rise up against the in
justice and tyranny, and be even soothed by the assurance
that the wrong was done to them ; that they were the in
jured and the aggrieved ; that, though the power was against
them, the claim and the right were theirs ; that though
crushed, they could challenge the universe to their vindica
tion, and enlist its sympathy on their behalf ? It would
be joy to those prisoners, let them only think, We are the
victims of arbitrary injustice !
Spirit has not, however, passed into such regions with

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 347
either of these consolations, nor found them there ! Spirit
never, in fearful soliloquy, spake : Necessity wrought this
chain, and Malignity locked it! Spirit never exclaimed:
Despite of myself I was dragged hither, and here in viola
tion of all truth and equity I am chained !
It is the converse of these thoughts that deepens the
outer darkness, that accumulates the horrors of the pit.
" It need not have been." What a self-upbraiding ! "Jus
tice had none other recourse." What a self-condemnation !
" Why would ye die ?" is the rebuke for ever in their ear !
" We indeed justly," is the confession for ever on their
tongue !
These principles cannot be too strongly established in
our minds. There is no future suffering, any more than
present, which is not the desert of sin and the infliction of
justice. It is the forewarned consequence of the freest
and most spontaneous action. Suffering is punishment.
" Why should a living man complain, a man for the punish
ment of his sins?" Suffering, though always connected
with sin, may, in a probationary state, be overruled to
good. Taking place beneath the operation of the Chris
tian redemption which repeals the curse, it may become
healing and corrective. In itself it has no such tendency
and design. It is judicial recompense of moral evil. And
when we contemplate future suffering, we mark unallayed
punishment. There is none other purpose nor use. But
then, though it be mere punishment, it supposes, and itself
asserts, a perfect benevolence of ends ; for it is goodness in
its entire opposition to sin, and it always, in its warnings,
exposed and deterred the creature's only misery.*
* " Ah ! Seigneur . . . dans vons, je ne vois que des sujets de confiance,
parce que je ne vois dans vous que bonte et que misericorde. Mais comme
cette bonte est essentiellement opposee au peche, et que, sans changer de
nature, toute bonte qu'elle est, elle est justice, elle est colere, elle est ven
geance a l'egard du peche, voyant ce peche dans moi, il faut que je craigne
jusques a votre bonte, jusques a votre misericorde meme." — Bourdaloue : Sur
le Jugement Dernier.

348 THE ETEHNITY OF
Among the theories of a contrary character we may no
tice that which assumes a high philosophical rank. It is
the system of Necessarian optimism. It regards evil as
the means of good. Man is placed in circumstances which
are his only motives. These cannot but induce that for
which this theory may find another name, but which we
call sin. He is, then, placed in circumstances in which he
must suffer and amend. The evil is self-corrective. Many
illustrations are invented. It is the mistake of the learner,
assisting him in seeking better proficiency ; it is the fall of
the child, by which it acquires the art of erect posture.
There is nothing properly culpable. It is involuntary,
hapless, error. It could not have been otherwise. Nothing
could have guarded against it. Thought, word, act, were
in their just and only succession. It is inexperience, it is
immaturity, all necessary to a process, all working out a
result. We must wait for the lowest point of evil from
which all good wil} henceforth ascend. It must reach that
plumb-line, that the good may be properly and naturally
evolved. Virtue is thus the transmigration of vice. Holi
ness is only the apotheosis of impurity. Heaven is but the
elaboration of hell. There are various self-destructive prin
ciples in this theory. It is at variance with the most per
fect consciousness which we can know, that of our moral
liberty. — It formally attempts to obliterate those distinc
tions which the human mind must take, and which in its
utmost perverseness it cannot resist. — It circuitously ac
complishes its formula by the triple fate, that man must
be wicked, that man must be afflicted, that man must be
reformed ; but not a moral agent at any step of the course.
It is through this path, dark and defiled, that he must
attain perfection. — It is in shocking violation of all that
Scripture would have us think of sin. This figures it in
no beneficent gloss. It lays open in it no latent excel
lence. It supposes no possible conversion of it into any-

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 349
thing less base than itself. Its language cannot be mis
taken. " Oh, do not this abominable thing which I hate ! "
" Be astonished, 0 ye heavens, at this, and be horribly
afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. For my people
have committed two evils." " Which I spake not, neither
came it into my mind." Sin exists and operates against
the pleasure of his will. But what is the purport of this
theory ? It admixes sin as a principal ingredient in the
Divine plan. It gives transcendence to it as the chief of
Divine instrumentalities. It presumes that it draws forth
an indirect Divine complacency. Sin is not wickedness :
it is not vanity : it is not that in which there is no profit.
Nor is it the least abhorrent feature of these speculations
that they attach a very dissembling to Him who is " of
purer eyes than to behold evil, and who cannot look upon
iniquity." Inwardly he approves! Covertly he sanctions !
Implicitly he sustains ! He dealeth treacherously ! It is
only his more veiled ministry ! It is his more hidden
work ! — To press such consequences, though only to mark
out our disgust of them, is to taint the mind ! We main
tain that sin is contrary to God, to his nature, to every
manifestation of his mind, that it is what he would not
have to exist, that he cannot enter into fellowship with it,
that he cannot forbear nor connive at it, that he reigns to
counteract it. " Let no man say when he is tempted, I
am tempted of God : for God cannot be tempted with evil,
neither tempteth he any man ! "
There are other opinions which do not so much assail
the doctrine of ceaseless punishment, as question the
immortality of the creatures on whom it might be devolved,
— some rejecting the proper immortality of man, and sup
posing that punishment consists in physical death, — some
maintaining that the punishment consists in the definitive
withdrawment of that proper immortality.
All may not be prepared for this sudden turn of objec-

350 THE ETERNITY OF
tion. It comes upon them as very bold to deny the
immortality of man. * But we have forewarned it. Our
argument has not been heedless. We have in previous
stages endeavoured to establish it. That anticipative proof
we must now apply. And if man be not physically immor
tal, if immortality be not a physical constituent and deter
mination of his being, — not his appanage, but his nature,
— we may inquire, how can its forfeiture be pcenal?
Until he sinned, according to this hypothesis, he was only
mortal, or, not to imply death, a being who must, at some
period or other, cease to exist, unless a sovereign, super
natural, increment be conferred upon him. If he sinned,
this was his term of being : if he obeyed, be should be
made immortal. We must remember what his real nature
is alleged to be : it is determinable : that tendency may
be morally allowed, or morally countervailed. The punish
ment falls within the nature : but since the reward exceeds
it, the nature is to be enhanced by a new physical property.
Now it will be seen that punishment is not dealt, in any
strict sense, upon the man. It descends not upon his
nature. After sin, his nature, as determinable, is only
what it was before. There is withholdment, but of nothing
which was ever his. There is the failure of what was a
possible happiness, but not any infliction of harm or hurt
upon himself. An inheritance is diverted, but he was
never heir. It is loss, but only of an adventitious prize.
This cannot be the philosophy of retribution. It reckons
nothing upon the present and the past. The worst predi
cament of the sinner is only according to the natural
conditions of his existence !

* The opinion is, however, by no means new. Whiston doubts the exist
ence and, perhaps , the possibility of any immortality in the creature, good or
wicked : Dodwell affirms that all men ore non-immortal, though they may be
immortalised in baptism by the hands of those who are in an episcopal suc
cession. More ancient, more philosophic, and more able, names might be
quoted.

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 351
We have, in a very early part of this argument, spoken
of this shifted view of man, now perishable, then immortal.
It leaves him no fixed nature. It cannot be both. The
first cannot be convertible into the second. The second
cannot be compressed into the first. There must be
reconstruction : a totally different nature must be created,
for a creature, whose being is appointed to be short, in
order that he may acquire a capacity of endless durability.
In that case, tlie identity would cease, and the responsi
bility along with it. One nature would be the subject of
the virtue. The other nature would be the subject ofthe
reward. So likewise in the moral inversion.
If this opinion be embraced to relieve the Divine conduct
of any apparent austerity, we must affirm our impression
that it increases it. There is a distinction, immediately
felt, between what a Lawgiver directly and indirectly does.
His interposition to punish is far more harsh than his
permission of the legal course of punishment. If man be
immortal, he must be accordingly treated, Righteousness
owes this to him. If not, then his life should determine
at its proper limit. This also seems the claim of right
eousness. Any renewal or prolongation of it is prseter-
natural. If renewed or prolonged against its nature, for
the very purpose of inflicting suffering, we confess to a
shrinking from so unwonted a measure. This transposi
tion of natures cannot be righteous : nor can this violent
treatment of either nature be so, seeing that it is in oppo
sition to the nature itself. If man has died, why does not
that event, agreeably to the case supposed, — agreeably,
though unaccountably in our idea, to the sentence of
mortality, — suffice ? He was not, it is alleged, naturally
immortal, and the contingent immortality is forfeited.
But thus the probable course is interrupted. Whether
the soul, in this conjecture, be remitted to sleep with the
body, we are not aware. In the resurrection each, at least,
revives. Man lives again. Why is he recovered to being ?

352 THE ETERNITY OF
For suffering, — insalutary and hopeless, except in the ter
mination of the sufferer's being? Is this the amiable
alternative to our sterner faith ? Is not this the stretch of
law ? Is it not gratuitous infliction ?
The theory of destruction is the more commonly enter
tained. It appeals boldly to the language of Scripture for
its support. It admits that the nature of man is immortal :
that is, it might be, and would be, immortal, but from out
ward cause. But it avers that sinful man, not having
received the benefit which earthly life proffers, shall, at a
common period, or at different periods, under judicial
sentence, cease. They shall perish. They shall no more
be. This is also adopted by many, as a view more accord
ant to infinite benevolence than endless punishment.
We are reminded of the terms employed : that they are
internecine and exterminating. * There is, however, this
reply. Since existence is supposed in connexion with
these terms, they cannot indicate, in this case, the cessa
tion of existence. For a certain duration the wicked are
to suffer : these terms are applied to the beginning and
continuance of this suffering. " They are the cursed who
depart into everlasting punishment." Their sentence is
destruction, is loss, is death, is perdition. Pf for any
period they survive, be the period however brief, then
these terms are not inconsistent with survival. They do
not necessarily draw after them annihilation.
But in connexion with the most destructive import of
language, they who perish are described as suffering, most
vividly and consciously, all that destructive import in them
selves. " Before your pots can feel the thorns, He shall
* "OXeBpos, 'AiroXXvpt, 'Arparrt'fw, Qdvaros, KoXam?, <H?opa. Herodotus does
not consider airoXXifieiios iu any sense of annihilation : " Ou-re utioBviiaKeiv
StcvTovs vOjLu'fovrri, levai be tov aitoXXvfievov napa ZauoXfuv balpova. Melpomene.
The Geta? thought not of themselves as destroyed, but only defunct, and
going forth still living,— not having properly died at all, into the presence of
the god." Paraphrased.

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 353
take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in
his wrath." He who is " cut asunder"* is " appointed his
portion with the hypocrites : " he is not thrown out as a trun
cated carcase, but is characteristically classified: there is
unbroken life for " weeping and gnashing of teeth." They
who are overtaken with "everlasting destruction," are
"punished with" it : and their exile in which they endure
it, is " from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of his
power." " He who believeth not the Son shall not see
life ;" still he exists, for "the wrath of God abideth upon
him." " Whosoever was not found written in the book of
life," does not cease from being, but " was cast into the
lake of fire." " They are cast alive into it." " They shall
be tormented day and night, for ever and ever." " The
smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever."
" They have no rest day nor night." It is after that God
has "killed," that he "hath power to cast into hell."
" Where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."
Is it that the worm dieth not, though the man lives no
more ? that the fire is not quenched, howbeit man has
perished beyond its reach ? None more frequently than
the objectors to endless punishment remind us, that these
are figurative expressions. We have never denied that
they are. Then, if this worm be reflection ! Then, if
this fire be remorse ! Another viper might have fallen, at
some mysterious bidding, into another fire. But these are
of ourselves. Our worm, self-engendered, dieth not : our
fire, self-kindled, is not quenched. What words of alarm
are these to the nonentity ? to him who is blotted out of
the book of the living ? Are we not warned on account of
these deathless and quenchless properties ? But if they
affect us not, if they be independent of us, why are we
thus dreadly warned? "The second death" is in "the
lake of fire," " where the devil is tormented day and night
for ever;" into which "whosoever not found in the book
• AixoTOfjeia.
xn. A A

354 THE ETERNITY OF
of life is cast;" in which "the fearful, and unbelieving,
and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers,
and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, have their part."
As the eternal life of the righteous is far more than
immortality, being its blessed fruition, so the eternal
death of the wicked is not the extinction of their immor
tality, but its perversion and woe. While upon earth, in
this state of probation, these opposite terms identify the
sinner. He is " dead while he liveth." " He abideth in
death." He may be "twice dead." With no abstraction
from his present life, he may be " dead in trespasses and in
sins." With no accession to his present life, he may be
quickened and born again. It is the " death of sin : " it
is the " life of righteousness." *• He passes from death
unto life, and shall not come into condemnation." The- ana
logy is perfect, and compels us to explain the death of the
future state, not as a cessation of being, but as a state of
being in its fullest tension of power and endurance, though
under condemnation.
The destructionist very commonly assumes the question,
by his quiet use of the word death. Death, he takes for
granted, is non-existence. Death, he tell us, is death. But
this is a mere dictum, an unwarranted assumption. Human
death we judge quite otherwise : we hold it to be a state of
a more intense being. The first impression of corporeal
death it is the province of reason to correct, and the mission
of revelation to refute. From both we derive superior dis
coveries. It is plain that death cannot operate alike upon
animal and intellectual life. The death of the one depends
upon the divisibility of material parts : the other has no
parts which can be divided. The body decays and cor
rupts : the soul is independent. Their connexion is not
denied : but their identity cannot be established. Death,
then, always involves different things. The effect is two
fold and diverse. Neither supposes destruction. We know
that the bodily disorganization does not waste a particle

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 355
of the frame. It is not loss, but transformation. If this
be true of the humbler instrument, must it not be of that
which has ruled it ? It is seen in vegetation, — " Except a
corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone ;
but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." There is more
than reproduction. " It is not quickened except it die."
In animal decomposition it is disintegration. Neither
analogy can oblige us to infer the extinction of the soul.
One cause cannot explain the different kinds of death :
that which accounts for the bodily, cannot for the intellec
tual. The entire presumption is, that as the body is evi
dently not lost, but really subsists, so the spirit is but
liberated, and survives in its distinctive nature.
They who adhere to this hypothesis, are doubtless guided
by what they consider the amount of Scripture evidence.
We trust that we are not unjust to them, when we surmise,
that they more willingly, readily, resort to it, than to that
of eternal punishment.* They feel that a more benevolent
result has been secured. They can better bear to think.
Revolted at the presumed disproportion between demerit
in sin and endlessness in punishment, they please them
selves with a gentler measure, a kindlier proceeding, on
which their eye may more complacently rest. The doom
is softened. At least, in their idea, it is not eternal. That
property can no longer attach to it. If they have conceded
largely, still they have purchased to themselves deliverance
from this fear. Whatever they are obliged to include in
future punishment, they have erased eternal from that scroll
of lamentation, mourning, and woe. But let them not be
too elate ! They may not have adjudged the whole ques
tion. What have they disproved ? What alternative has
relieved them ? Their cheerless resource is, annihilation !
Have they pondered it well ? A creature strictly immortal,
strictly perishes. He is cut off. He is blotted out. An
interminable capacity for greatness and felicity is destroyed.
* "'o T1 fiolXtjai tovB' 2ruz<rr<» oJtToi." — Demosthenes.

356 THE ETERNITY OF
A flame, which might have burnt with all the ardours of
piety and love, is extinguished. The portion of an infinite
good is snatched away. Do they not think, in common
with many who generally agree with them, that the perished
soul was convertible to this ? Why is it not spared ? Is
it mercy which shortens its misery, or justice which shivers
its being? With them most assuredly rests the charge,
commonly, and not invidiously or unjustly, raised against
us, of following sin with eternal ban and loss. What do we
more than they? They, in the destruction of immortal
susceptibilities, write the eternal doom of sin ! They, in
the deprivation of eternal happiness, show how the sinner
is eternally treated and condemned ! They mark, in the
sudden wreck of immortal hopes and powers, that only an
eternal sentence can satisfy ! They go farther than others :
they do not wait : they precipitate the endless award !
It is plain that while this eternal loss has befallen the
annihilated, that while it is true and real, all consciousness
is precluded by the nature of the event. No self-corrective
benefit can be supposed. If there be a design in this
punishment, it must be the conviction and warning of
others. The sufferers can learn nothing. No advantage
can accrue to them. But then we are reminded, that the
objectors to eternal punishment very generally deny that
example has anything to do with the final disposal of the
wicked. We cannot allow them to avow and to deny the
same principle, according to the expediencies and turns of
the controversy.
Nor can we imagine that the most general conception of
the Divine benevolence can be strengthened by this view.
Let us think of the attitude in which the doctrine of the
soul's annihilation places the Deity ! Man, being immortal ,
a workmanship of the richest store, the heir of measureless
blessings, is directly crushed. He dies not away, nor gives
up the ghost. He dies not of himself, nor does his spirit
depart. He falls beneath the shattering blow. There is

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 357
commonly something that intervenes between the final
stroke of any judgement. There is pause. But here is
punishment prolonged until the last severity is added.
And to us, the most unlikely part of the doctrine is that
God immediately does it. And still this is not all. God
in this act of destruction is seen to revoke his own design.
He made man immortal. Saw he not the end from the
beginning? What else has he cancelled? What other
law has he repealed ? It would be only a conceit to ask,
in parallel or in recrimination, Did not God make man
happy ? Moral happiness is a condition. When we speak
of immortality, we speak not of an accident, but of the
essential nature of man. Nor as such a deed is depicted
to us, nor as we can at all realise it, does it seem in agree
ment with any constitution of things. It obeys no law nor
tendency. It bears no resemblance to what we know of
God. We feel ourselves warranted to attemper much of
Scriptural phrase when his anger is described. We do
not this arbitrarily : we decide according to consistent
principles. The necessity of the case demands it. So we
do not understand literally the descriptions of Deity, cloth
ing him with corporeal organs. But how might his anni
hilation of immortal creatures be described ? Is it not his
fury poured out? Is it not his fierce jealousy ? Is it not
the heat of his great anger ? Could these descriptions be
assuaged ? Might they be qualified and subdued ? Is not
this to make a full end ? — The objection which has been
taken to the eternity of punishment, because, though de
grees might exist under it, there could be no degrees of its
endlessness, very similarly applies in this, instance. De
grees might exist until the stroke of annihilation : of that
there can be no degrees. The retort of an objection is no
positive argument : but that objection is destroyed, when,
having been raised by one party against another's hypo
thesis, it can be proved to be equally opposed to his own. —
Moral difficulty is involved in this catastrophe. If there

358 THE ETERNITY OF
be anything clear in the principles and operations of right
eous government, it is that power can never interfere with
justice. As none can deliver out of the hand of God, so his
equity cannot be overpowered by any of his own natural
attributes. We see this awfully shadowed in the substitu
tionary sufferings of Christ : " If it be possible let this cup
pass from me ! " The requirement was that of justice :
it was not possible ! He could not be saved from that
hour ! The same reasoning applies to the sinner. If
he be obnoxious to the sentence of the law, no force nor
pity can exempt him. Onlyjustice can unbind him. Nor
can justice look beyond itself for its supposed difficulties.
It calls not on omnipotence for help and extrication. Yet
this annihilation is not a moral act. It is physical. Why
should it supervene ? Has justice gone too far ? Can it
go no farther ? It is exhausted, it is baffled, when mere
destruction is its resource. This does not assimilate to its
nature, nor belong to its means. It looks not the orderly,
prescient, holy, arrangement of the Divine procedure. It
more resembles a contrivance to overcome a doubtful or
an impracticable claim. Now if the wicked be destroyed
before the proper vindication of justice, this is to rescue
them from righteous exaction ; if they be only destroyed
at the point that justice is satisfied, why should they be
destroyed at all ?
We cannot, therefore, conclude that any advantage is
gained, of clearer judgement or of happier relief, by the
entertainment of those views. They are new and greater
difficulties. All of justice in God we must reverence and
love. Our minds are formed for these emotions, and are
capable of exercising them when justice is most dread.
All of power in God, as coalescing with infinite excellence,
we can adore. But a power, independent, detached, violent,
we know not, nor is there any like power revealed. We do
not feel that our esteem for Deity is excited by the triumph
of such power over his moral perfections. In punishment

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 359
we saw him just : in annihilation he is irresistible ! Nor
do we acknowledge that the best method of winning our
hearts to him is to lead us to the footstool of the throne on
which he sits, surrounded by the emblems of destruction
and the wrecks of existence !
No doubt many adopt the theory of destruction because
they suppose that this brings the fact of sin to an end.
They cannot contemplate its perpetuity. They can only
see in this expedient the means of its cessation. We who
maintain that perpetuity, by the immortality of its agents,
do not suppose that it can be diffusive, or relatively per
nicious. We believe that it is brought to all that termina
tion of which moral government admits. Wrath is to the
uttermost of which its subject is susceptible. Every pos
sible pcenal measure is in force. And, in any case, could
sin be forgotten ? Could it be, as though it had not been ?
In heaven it must be remembered, or the song of redemp
tion would lose its burden, and the nations of the saved
forbear their triumph. Does annihilation provide for its
effacement? Like a dark pall, it as much proclaims as
hides the hideous devastation. In all that does not any
longer exist, there is eternal waste of existence ! In all that
ceases to be subject to moral government, there is eternal
violation of moral government ! The memorial, includ
ing detriment, failure, precipitancy, evasion, abandonment,
would be for ever ! The epitaph which must surmount
the pit of annihilation would be, Eternal Consequence,
Eternal Desert, Eternal Ruin ! The silence would speak,
and, more sullen and piercing than any knell, would be
one endless expression of retracted purpose and of neces
sitated counteraction.
It maybe fitting now to meet some particular objections.
These might be answered by the general reasonings already
employed, and the comprehensive principles already es
tablished. But they are found in detail : they, by a minute
particularity, seize on the common mind.

360 THE ETERNITY OF
The number of the finally condemned has really nothing
to do with the question. The defender of annihilation is
concerned with the same number. According to the non-
immortal scheme, the same number must cease to exist.
And yet it cannot be doubted that this is an objection,
however unfounded, very commonly felt. Men forget that,
as to the holy and benignant government of God, the diffi
culty is the same in any case of evil, be it of greater or
inferior account. Why is there evil at all ? Why are there
wicked beings ? The reason may lie in the impossibility
of prevention wherever the creature is invested with reason
and liberty. We cannot conceive of such a creature made
necessarily, absolutely, indefectible. But we do not ap
proach that question. Much less can we speculate upon
its limits and its operations. It is obvious that we are all
more affected by the number of facts than by their common
principle. Yet it would be the same difficulty in kind,
were only one human being thus condemned. The justice
or the injustice, always personal, would be the same. The
principle which would be seen in the one is only that
which is now seen in the many. If the single instance
could be justified, all other instances could. The preju
dice is strong in us, it is almost hopeless to reason with it,
— but this argued position is unimpeachable. Yet, lest it
should be inferred that we make light of the amount of the
saved, or that our system can exercise any contracting in
fluence over our hopes, we affirm that no doctrinal, worthy
of the evangelic epithet, so far reduces the number of the
lost. It yields up our mind to the perfect liberty of de
siring and seeking the salvation of all. It confirms this
disposition and attempt with the strongest bonds of duty.
It reminds us indeed that none can be saved but by spiritual
conversion ; that the personal application and impression
of redemption can alone give it efficacy. All who are con
verted, it tells us, shall, by a persevering grace, be saved.
None of them shall be lost. They shall never perish

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 361
What system can sum up so many ? Ours are no niggard
views.* Nor do we hesitate to avow the inconceivable
preponderance of this aggregate over the lost. We do not
think that it is an accidental description of the " great
multitude," that " no one can number them ;" and while
we read no such description of hell, we feel that it would be
unlike the Book and the Gospel of God. We have strong,
large, premisses to bear out our conclusion. These we do
not urge. They belong not to our reply. Our only business
is to allege, that numbers have nothing to do with the dis
pute, — is punishment eternal or not ? " Lord, are there few
that be saved?" is a solemn inquiry which respects the
present alone : it is as much every man's question as ours.
No question can be more inappropriate would we have the
secret of the future solved : then should it be framed,
" Lord, will there be few that shall be saved ?"
Time and eternity being established contrasts in our
mind, though more philosophically they should be con
sidered as the commencement and progress, in regard to
us, of simple duration,-]- — there will appear a disproportion
between any conduct pursued in the one, and any effect of
that conduct which shall be coeval with the other. But in
all these questions we must go to the principle. Are we
prepared to contend that no effect of a crime can be justly
prolonged beyond the period of its perpetration ? Are we
prepared to decide that no punishment should exceed the
season of offence ? Since it would be impossible to main
tain judgements like these, the principle is untenable.]
To common sense it is false and absurd. Many are the
* " Neque enim numero comprendere refert.
Quem qui scire velit, Libyci velit sequoris idem
Discere, quam multse Zephyro turbentur arena? :
Aut, ubi navigiis violentior incidit Eurus,
Nosse, quot Ionii veniant ad litora fluctus." Virgil: Georg. lib. ii.
+ " 'o ael xpovor." Xenophon.
J " Duratio poense respondet durationi culpse, non quidem ex parte actus,
sed ex parte maculae." — Schol. Max.

362 THE ETERNITY OF
examples which we might oppose. Adam was " in the
transgression :" the time of committing it could not be of
hours : short was the interval between the acting of the
dreadful thing and the first motion : yet he suffered for it
in our world for nine hundred and thirty years.* We have
already pressed the common remark, that one sin of youth
vitiates a protracted life. It is at death that the conse
quences of guilt are often most terribly revealed. The
summoners to judgement then cry the loudest. A glimpse
of the tribunal is caught. The flame shoots out from its
place. No one of any religious feeling will deny the con
nexion between the present and the future states. When
does that connexion terminate ? It is evident that retribu
tion is not foreign to what is now : to actual conditions and
circumstances. " He that believeth not is condemned
already." It is, therefore, said of some : " Whose judge
ment now for a long time lingereth not, and their destruc
tion slumbereth not." To assert the injustice of that which
may be a necessary consequence, or a Divine determination,
is surely rash. That rashness is as foolish as it is profane,
if the assertion be made in defiance of all analogy. The
consequences of many short-lived acts are, as far as we
know, interminable. They have given bitterness to death.
Eternity seems only to have unfolded to allow them room
and verge. Who disputes that the consequences are just
to the last point which they have reached ? Who may dis
pute the justice of their course hereafter, a course of which
there can be no disproof, and of which there is every pre
sumption ? Who may argue that there is any way of
stemming that course, and of otherwise ordering it ? What
reason can be shown that what is not resisted here, shall
be withstood hereafter? Does not memory go with us,
and is not this a doom? Are we not the same that we
were here, and is not this a sentence ? How can a physical
* " Ille dies primus lethi, primusque malorum,
Causa fuit." yEneid : lib. iv.

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 363
dissolution morally purify ? How can it constitute a new
spiritual character?* How can it interrupt the Divine
administration ? Are not all worlds within that reach ?
Does this do more than open from one to another ? It
must always be borne in mind, that the signs and;the pro
babilities of retribution augment in proportion as we ap
proach the world to come.
It is a common-place against our argument, — plausible
and unhesitating, — perhaps more than any other ensnar
ing, — that God must have formed man for happiness.
Believing that he only is good, and good only, we believe
that he did. Yet we demur that this design must be
primary and exclusive. His creatures' proper good is
secure, but simply in subordination to his own glory.
This is necessary. God cannot act save for the highest
end. It would be inconsistent with his wisdom. His own
glory must be that highest end. He doeth that which
pleaseth him. Grant that he formed us for happiness :
he must decide its nature. We are formed to be happy in
a particular way. The inferior tribes cannot be happy
except in their own element, and according to their own
habitudes. Our bliss must consist with thought, anticipa
tion, self-knowledge, duty. " The law serveth " to impress
what our original happiness was. In studying it, we seem
to lean upon the border of Eden, and to regard the rapture
of its joy. It was the supreme love of God. It was the
love which worketh no evil to any creature. That law is
the remembrancer of the holy, happy, scene : it is as the
wafted fragrance of its flowers, it is as the floating music of
its springs. Still it was law. All depended upon " serving
God in righteousness and holiness all the days of«our life.''
* " Qualities are not to be measured by duration : they bear no more re
lation to it than they do to space. The hatefulness of sin is seated in itself
— in its own inherent quality of evil: by that its ill-deservings are to be
measured, not by the narrowness of the limits, either of time or space, within
which the good providence of God hath confined its power of doing mischief."
— Horsley: Sermons, vol. i. p. 78.

364 THE ETERNITY OF
Reason was to govern appetite, good-will to guide self-love,
religion to sanctify all. This was the way of happiness, to
which were adapted all our faculties, and where only they
could find it. The law was ordained to life : it was good,
a full instrument of goodness. In falling from that rule,
we fell from happiness. How can we exercise a faculty
with pleasure ? How can we remember, reflect, forecast,
but with terror? How can we know a reproachless con
science ? In what shall the testimony be found of self-
respect ? Can there be happiness ? It is only in obedience
that we become that for which we were formed. There is
none other method of endowing a rational creature with
intelligent and pure delight. How then has God failed
us? In what has he departed from his plan? Has he
called back our happiness ? Has he contradicted himself?
There is falsehood, for we have made lies our refuge :
there is undoing, for we have undone ourselves. If the
meaning of the objection be, that our Maker is obliged in
justice to compel us to be happy, whatever our dispositions,
it is something which we cannot conceive, which is contrary
to all known law, which is impossible in the nature of
things. Surely He is not to be required to force happiness
upon us in sinning against him ! How little do we say,
when we but add, This he cannot do ! It is our fault if
' we liave to ask : " What good shall our life do unto " us ?
Our creatureship is an immense capacity for happiness of
a defined nature, in an appropriate order : it must be con
ditional capacity : it may miscarry of its design. This is
the true account of our case. The Creator could only
constitute us for the enjoyment of a particular happiness :
of that happiness sin leaves us bereft and incapable.
It has been urged, that it is inconceivable, that it can
not be allowed, that wickedness can retain its relentless
character, its vile pertinacity, amidst the scenes of future
punishment. It is pleaded that its present infatuation
will there be detected, and its present incentives withdrawn.

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 365
What can then tempt and instigate ? Who of the lost shall
defy the Almighty ? It must be remembered that sin has
its seat in the soul. There is a "filthiness of the spirit."
There are " desires ofthe mind." The sinner is now con
scious, that when he cannot " go to an excess of riot,"
when he cannot "work all uncleanness with greediness,"
that the appetency is yet the same, and that it becomes
the more violent in the impossibility of its indulgence.
All this may be still supposed. As upon earth, the with
drawment of the scene which tempts little affects the fixed
thought and aim of the mind, perpetually revolving them
selves in the chambers of imagery ; so amidst future retri
bution the longings of evil may survive, and rage the more
tormentingly from their necessary denial. The defiance
of God is in sin. We do not otherwise deem it possible
in hell. " Who is the Lord ?" sounds not there. It is no
part of our system, that only the execration, the malignity,
the daring, of sin, are to be found in hell. We do not
expel its humanities. It is the dwelling of wicked men.
They still are men. Why should we say, that the rich man
only dreaded the accession of his five brethren, lest it
might increase his torment ; and why should we deny his
bosom a sentiment of pity ? Where there is wholly ungod
liness in men, we see not necessarily fiendish violence and
rage. Let us make more of self-upbraiding and remorse.*
The daemon is not our nature, and only in our nature can
our sin be condemned. Returning from the digression,
which the terms of the objection demanded, we meet the
inquiry — Can sin continue in the scene of retribution?
Its perpetuity is pronounced impossible. Our argument
for the perpetuity of punishment has in no slight degree
been rested upon the perpetuated sinful habit, character,
* The supposition of Archbishop King, that " the punishment of the
wicked will lead them into a kind of phrenzy and madness," we wholly dis
sent from. It is as intellectual, the most collected, the most conscious, the
most distinct, the most energetic, that we are compelled to regard it.

366 THE ETERNITY OF
and consequence. " Their sins are retained." But if
sinfulness cannot exist among the lost, because of that
which surrounds them, that argument is more than im
paired. Upon what does the statement depend ? Do
wicked disposition and wilfulness never co-exist with the
most terrible judgements of earthly wrath ? The hopeless
ness of inducing men by such methods to repent has been
exposed. " Why should ye be stricken any more ? ye
will revolt more and 'more." What would be the value of
their resolves extorted by suffering ? wrung from torment ?
" When Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened
his heart, as the Lord said."
"Vows made in pain, how soon would ease recant !"*
Let us go deeper into the truth of the case. It is taken
for granted that, if men be withdrawn from evil entice
ments and influences, virtue will resume its sway. But
when had it that sway ? The disposition of the heart is
the core of the character. What has been loved and
sought, inheres in the spirit with an undying tenacity. It
reproduces itself. " Evil men become worse and worse,
deceiving and being deceived." External circumstances
cannot destroy it. " Their mind and conscience are de
filed." The " wicked may more easily forsake his way,"
than "the unrighteous man his thoughts." The deceive-
ableness of unrighteousness, and the deceitfulness of sin,
may possess their continued hold in hell. The taint of
one act of vice infixes and diffuses itself in the mind,
though it never be renewed. Or let us suppose, that none
of the present blinding influences of sin remain — that the
perception is the more intense. " They shall see." " God
rewardeth him, and he shall know it. His eyes shall see
his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the
Almighty." The common reflections awakened by the
memory of crime, are moody and unhumbling. We may
» Milton.

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 367
more easily loathe ourselves than our iniquities. And
future punishment seems, by its declared effects, to possess
no tendency to restore the better emotions. These are
the most contrary to repentance. And, moreover, we must
remember that moral evil cannot be destroyed by pcenal
measures. Is the punishment our remorse ? Then that
would be evil counteracting and consuming itself. Is the
punishment strictly foreign infliction ? Then that is ex
ternal, standing very much in the relation of a force. But
sin, that it may be destroyed — that is, the sinful principle
— must be counter -worked by the opposite to itself, and
within that mind which has been its seat. The achieve
ment can only be by the mind's consent. It must be by
a process of motive. There must be a turning away from
iniquities : a turning unto God. Love must oppose en
mity, and loyalty shame revolt. It is a spiritual subjection.
If such an operation cannot be anticipated in the minds
of the lost, we may safely assure ourselves that punishment
can be no substitute for it.
A most probable forethought of hell is, the malignity of
sin. Its utter selfishness remains. What is the odious
treatment of others it will not excite ? What is the im
placable resentment of God which it will not excite ?
All who believe not the Gospel as it is now offered to them,
hate God — are not reconciled to Him. They, having done
the wrong, are the irreconcileable. This is no uncommon
case. They hate, because every reason why they ought to
love condemns them. They seek no healing of the breach
which they have made.
" For never can true reconcilement grow,
Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep." *
There has been advanced a general notion that the suf
ferings contemplated must either exhaust themselves, or
destroy the capacity of those who are doomed to them.
Every proof we have offered in favor of the immortality of
* Milton.

368 THE ETERNITY OF
the soul, every reasoning we have established against its
destructibleness and annihilation, we have a right to recall
to aid our reply. But we would rather meet the notion at
once. The agonies of the mind may now be terrible.
" The arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison
whereof drinketh up my spirit : the terrors of God do set
themselves in array against me." Beneath these agonies
the body may sink, but the mind endures. It cannot fly
them. If it become itself distraught, these, like the Ores-
tean furies, only multiply and haunt the more. Nor is
this the fullest, aptest, analogy. It is only borrowed from
what we mark in a state temporary and sensible. We will
venture to a higher and more solemn counterpart. When
the angels sinned, " everlasting fire was prepared for them."
But that retribution has not dissipated their existence and
energy. Their essence has not failed. They are still
unbroken spirits. The qualities of sin still cleave to them.
They seek rest and find none. They cannot pluck the
canker from their destiny. And in this precedent we see
the confirmation of a former view, that punishment does
not root out the inbeing and strength of sin, while it de
monstratively establishes the powers of an immortal nature
to bear its keenest, its endless, liabilities.*
It is felt, in the sense of objection, that there can be no
such difference of character between the good and the evil
as can justify this difference of treatment. The distinction
* There is a singular argument in Plato's Republic, b. a., concerning the
indestructibility of the soul by any injurious efiect of sin upon it. " Ti friu-
tpvTOv apa KaKov CKatTTOv Kal h 7ror>npia t^Kao-TOv utoXXvitiv' r\ el fxr\ tovto avoXei,
'ovk av aXXo 76 aire, nt itaQBeipeiev, k.t.X. There is an evil attached to
everything, and it is this bane which destroys everything : and unless this
evil destroy it, nothing besides can. But if we can find that in which inheres
an appropriate evil, making it base yet having no power to destroy, then can
that subject be naturally destructible ? Is there not that which can deprave
the mind? Do not injustice, excess, cowardice, ignorance? But which of
these vices destroys the mind ? If it cannot perish by its own evil, nor by
any foreign evil, then it is manifest that it always continues to be ; but that
which always is, must be immortal."

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 369
of the least aggravated sinner and of the most inconsistent
saint is considered to be too small to warrant this most
diverse result. With such exception we have nothing to
do : it is purely supposititious. May not this least aggra
vated sinner be the saint ? May not this most inconsistent
saint be the sinner ? But with the question, on the assur
ance of these distinctive characters, we do not for a moment
shrink to deal. We may complain, indeed, that the state
ment is not made rightly. If the question be of the wicked,
we see in their punishment the fulfilment of a law : if it be
unjust, so is the law. Pf the question be of the righteous
we immediately renounce their personal claim. "Boast
ing is excluded." " By grace are ye saved." The reward-
ableness of their "work of faith and labor of love," is
subsequent to their salvation and dependent upon it.
Their felicity is not proportioned to works of righteous
ness which they have done, but to the everlasting right
eousness of the Messiah, and to the exceeding greatness of
the Divine power in them who believe. We consider no
act and work of grace to be ritual or sensible : but wide as
the relationship, and deep as the nature, of their subjects.
The Christian heaven would not be due, any more than
congenial, to innocence : much less can the fallen, how
ever restored, have a right to it. It is free inheritance
and gift. Nor would we for a moment conceal, in ponder
ing the difference of heaven and hell, that while the latter
is the distribution of eternal justice, the other is the largess
of infinite grace. Nevertheless as sin forms a character
appropriate to the world of suffering, so does salvation
form a character meet for the world of purity and joy.
And it must not be forgotten that Scripture seems often to
treat of certain known distinctions between the righteous
and wicked as not the most marked and important. We
must look to the respective disposition. The one talent
is restored, though not doubled ; yet how is that " un
profitable" servant punished, while they, who put their
XII. B B

370 THE ETERNITY OF
deposits to usury, are abundantly rewarded ? The virgins
have all slumbered, all have awakened and trimmed their
lamps ; but the wise preparation and the foolish neglect,
respectively, of the necessary oil, makes all the difference
of the welcome or the disownment.
It certainly appears to be the design of Scripture to mark
very strongly the distinction of the righteous from the
wicked. He is not negatively described. He is not com
paratively approved. He is not exhibited as only less
wicked. He is better than his neighbour. Positive excel
lence distinguishes him. His principle and conduct par
take of real virtue. The judgement of the last day is
appointed, among other ends, to make this known. Then
shall " we discern between the righteous and the wicked."
" The precious shall be taken forth from the vile." " He
shall separate them one from another." We are but two
classes advancing towards the judgement seat : we see but
two classes withdrawing from it. The constant tone of
revelation consists with this immense difference between
them. There is nothing in the diversities of their destiny
but perfectly agrees with the inspired statements concern
ing them now. We might well stand prepared for the
result. And the thought becomes very solemn, in remem
bering that there are only two states in eternity, that only
two characters are now known, distinct as those states, and
decidedly appropriate to the one or the other.
All may not be satisfied with the argument that, because
men who are lost will ever continue sinful, it is just to
leave them in circumstances of punishment. It will be
demanded : What certainty is there that they will continue
sinful ? We answer, abjuring all ideas of necessity, that
the certainty consists in their depraved will. Evil aban
doned to itself does thus proceed. It is its tendency. Of
itself it never will repent and turn. " Iniquity is unto
iniquity." The language of Scripture often directs our
attention to the present fact, without controlling any por-

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 371
tion of human liberty. " I am sure that the king of Egypt
will not let you go." "I knew that thou wouldest deal
very treacherously." " It cannot be that a prophet perish
out of Jerusalem." " Make haste, and get thee quickly
out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony
concerning me." This tremendous prophecy is upon the
condemned. Though moral agency may be modified, their
natural will is not destroyed. " To every good work they
are reprobate." " They shall utterly corrupt in their own
corruption."* "They work iniquity." "They cannot
cease from sin." Their will is singly sinful. Its most
distant, its endless, biases may be foretold. Nor can any
prescience work the smallest infraction of its freedom by
any enforcement of its own motive. Everlasting punish
ment had not been prepared but for that which would be,
of its very choice, everlasting sin. To foresee the issue
was necessary to prepare for it, but quite independently of
foresight and preparation sinners follow their inclination
and pursue their course. Only in this sense can we say
of any : " Whereunto also they were appointed : " " who
were before of old ordained to this condemnation." The
proper punishment was always allotted, and always ad
judged^ Yet will it be pleaded, and not quite hypothetically, If
any of these condemned ones were to yield in contrition,
to cry for mercy, to humble themselves, would not the
command go forth for their deliverance ? We doubt it
not. Their chains would fall from them. Their flames
would instantly expire. But this is the merest sophism.
It is no better than to ask, if their hell would not cease, it
* KaTa<pBap(j<rovTat.
t Whiston, in his " Eternity of Hell-Torments considered," speaking of
the theory which advocates the restoration of daemons, remarks : " There
can be no obstacle to my belief of this doctrine, but the supposal of an utter
moral incapacity in the constitutions of these worst of free agents of ever
repenting and amending." It is this fact on wliich we rest in the case of
lost men. as well as in that of fiends.

372 THE ETERNITY OF
having already ceased ? Could those condemned ones
cherish the emotions described, though theirs might be
still the sphere, it would not be the condition, of hell. That
consists in callousness, in impenitency, in enmity, in de
spair. Were they no more callous, no more impenitent,
did enmity no more possess them, did despair no more
bind them, the principal means of suffering would be taken
away. The inquiry is a paralogism, it is to argue without
premisses, it is to beg the question which pends. We can
understand no hell where there is no sinfulness, no hos
tility to the Divine will, no sense of remediless doom : we
can understand no hell where there is the broken and con
trite heart, where there are the tender movements of love,
where there is hope in mercy, where there is entreaty for
pardon, where sin is cast away as loathsome, where the
soul pants after God. That is not hell. Whence is
drawn such inference ? How has gathered such vision ?
What promise lets fall this gleam of hope ? We have in
dulged the thought too long, — a thought founded on no
reason and supported by no evidence.
Not the least formidable difficulty, in connexion with
our argument, — felt by many, — a difficulty to be slighted
by none, — is that it supposes an eternal existence in sin.
We have referred to this as the motive which has recon
ciled many to the harshest treatment, the utter extinction,
of beings. This sempiternal duration of sin has been con
sidered a more serious difficulty than any that might be
involved in its most violent and lawless abridgement. Is
it to be left an indestructible evil ? Were it to be devolved
upon us to determine concerning it, our language would
be, Let it perish ! 0 let the wickedness of the wicked
come to an end ! But we, perhaps, should little under
stand what we meant. What is that end which we desire
to befall it ? We must go back. We forget that the more
formidable problem is that it should have existed at all.
It is injurious to the glory of God. It is contrary to his

FUTURE TUNISHMENT. 373
will. It is thwarting to his benevolence. Why was it ever
momentarily endured ? Was he bound to extirpate it ? It
could only arise under a system of law ; must he, to coun
teract it, employ any other means than that of law ? Must
he, to prevent it, abandon his government ? Must he dis
sever from man moral agency and liberty ? What is the
resource of government, in case of transgression, except
punishment? Is he under any other necessity but to
punish it? The perpetuity of sin is a difficulty, but far
less than its violent pause. The first is a natural expecta
tion and tendency, within obvious rules of moral wisdom
and justice : the other is inconsistent with all that is known
of order and freedom. The difficulty we feel in the endless
perpetuity of evil is only of the same kind with its present
continuation. Why does it last an age, an instant? If
God was never bound to destroy it, he is not still. If God
could never destroy it without making void all his principles
and acts of government, he cannot still. Let us place be
fore us the idea of this coercive, mechanical, overthrow of
sin. This we can never properly form, for the evil is of a
moral kind, which no force can touch. Let it start forth
in some figure. The dragon is slain. The poison-tree is
torn up by its roots. But is not this a slur upon govern
ment? Does it not betray its inefficiency? Does it not
avow its disgrace? Is not this a glaring proof that sin
would have of itself remained ? Is this its decorous and
dignified expulsion? It is the glory of this government
that nothing embarrasses its plans nor exceeds its powers ;
it waxes not old, it grows not feeble ; if there be immortal
enemies, it holds them in immortal bonds ; if it discern
eternal evil, it covers it with eternal punishment. Satan
is a chained captive, and shall be no more loosed. The
wicked are bound hand and foot, and cast into outer dark
ness. The remainder of wrath is restrained. Sin is not
suffered to defy. It ranges not abroad. It is divested of
almost all its known active qualities. It is in moral abey-

374 THE ETERNITY OF
ance. It is not a threatening ill. It can tempt no more.
Its mischievousness is repressed. It is commanded to go
into the deep. It is shut up and a seal is set upon it. In
disposition it exists, it will exist : it is a " thing which
offends:" " in their heart" the lost "work wickedness:"
but it is under perfect restraint as to harm, under perfect
conquest as to resistance, for punishment is victory !
They who boast their hypothesis, whatever may be its
other conditions, because it secures the destruction of sin,
need to be a little more explicit. Can it ever be erased ?
Its remembrance blotted out ? Its vestiges effaced ?
Though it arise no more in heaven, did not the heavenly
places themselves require expiation? Though hell flame
no more, can its site be unknown and its anguish forgotten ?
Though there be issues from that endless death, can they
cease to perpetuate the thought of sin ? Any violence
must operate in one or other of the following ways, — to
crush the sinful will and to coerce it from its exercise, or
to tear in pieces life itself. In either case you have shown
that God thwarts and exceeds his law. There is not
the eternal punishment of sin in its moral acts, but its
eternal punishment in the unreasoning suppression of its
implicit principle, and in the physical extinction of its pos
sible manifestation. All is hurried, incomplete, — the knot
is cut, — the dilemma is outforced ; it is the flight of the
mythological god counterplotted and outvied, escaping
amidst his thunders ; not our God who sitteth upon the
throne, and who will be known by the judgements which
he executeth !
But it may be replied, that there are parties who firmly
oppose our view, and yet do not agree with the theories of
destruction and of coerced volition. They protest against
the perpetuity of sin, and consequently of punishment:
they, however, rely upon evangelic hopes and means for
its consistent conquest. It may, then, be allowed for us
to expose the strangeness of the consequences which this

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 375
opinion involves. A moral government, if the present
analogy be preserved, is conducted in the unseen region
of retribution, offering greater and far more certain advan
tages than any known to its natural and appropriate scene
of earth. How that moral government must secure sub
jection, we cannot understand. Every conception of such
government prepares us to expect possible failure. Still
this form of it shall engage the universal will. It is to
succeed with the remission of all penalties, which have
hitherto been regarded its only resource. But moral
government cannot admit of different constructions. It
is identical and unique. How can law operate necessarily
to obedience and submission ? This view may perchance
be discarded. The stress shall be laid upon the Christian
redemption. We must now conceive of a new dispensation
of it, that which surpasses all which have preceded it, —
the only " ministration which remaineth ! " Its glad tid
ings sound on amidst those gloomy realms. The pecu
liarity is, that nothing can now hinder its success. Its
entrance cannot be in vain. This rod of strength was
never clothed with such might before. This Gospel never
came in such power. It is as though hell were reserved
for its most glorified triumph. It would seem selected for
its most signalised success. " In the place where it was
said unto them," with accents which sounded the death of
hope, "Ye are not my people," — "there shall they be
called the children of the living God." We have, in
another bearing, previously urged this thought. We will
not proceed. Ours is not the irony. We look not for
Pentecost to fully come, we await not the Crowning Triumph.
of Christianity, in a world where punishment alone is dealt.
Shall there its free course be seen, freer than any past
career ? Shall there its chorus swell, whose prelude only
was heard amidst the ages of Millennium ?
The allegation, that eternal punishment cannot be true,
seeing that it shocks so many sentiments of the human

376 THE ETERNITY OF
mind, is presumptuous and unreasoned. These senti
ments supply no moral test. They are wholly different
from those original, impartial, principles to which the proof
of a Deity and of moral distinctions must be proposed.
They are necessarily prejudiced. They cannot compre
hend all the relations involved. The motive which is sup
plied by such punishment is made clear. The fact is the
moral sanction. " Ye shall surely die." But after this,
ought we to expect every attempt to reconcile our feelings
to it ? What right have we to infer that our benevolence,
vaunted against the Divine, demands to be earliest soothed
and satisfied ? What grounds have we on which to insist
that relief be afforded to our agitated sensibilities ? Should
they be composed ? Could all the illustrative principles,
all the justificatory facts, be made plain and intelligible to
us ? The cautions of the philosophic Butler, rising into
stronger language than he is accustomed to employ, might
well be pondered. " We make very free, if I mistake not,
with the Divine Goodness in our speculations." "The
infinitely absurd supposition, that we know the whole of
the case."
And now we may inquire, — How such an expectation
can be entertained, in any consistency with Christianity,
that all shall be finally delivered from sin and its conse
quences ? How can men thus read the Gospel ? How,
even by the most violent effort, can men put this inter
pretation upon it ?
The consummation of the present ceconomy of Christian
means and privileges is marked with a solemnly final cha
racter. "Then the end." "The end of all things is at
hand." " The Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached
in all the world, for a witness to all nations, and then shall
the end come." It is "the consummation." The same
style is recorded concerning the wicked and unbelieving.
" Then saw I their end." " Whose end is destruction."
" What shall the end be of them who obey not the Gospel

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 377
of God?" "Whose end is according to their works." Is
this the catastrophe from which hope can take its rise and
write its date ? Is it there that man begins his best and
most advantageous probation ?
The ceconomy, which follows on the consummation, is
always described as final. It is unchangeably permanent.
" Whose voice then shook the earth : but now he hath
promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth
only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet .once more,
signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as
of things that are made, that those things which cannot be
shaken may remain." The " kingdom," then introduced,
" cannot be moved." It is a definitive ordering and settle
ment of things. But is not the reintroduction of moral
probation, of new classifications, of great spiritual revolu
tions, another " shaking," and of the things which were to
"remain ?"
The judgements inflicted in that " end," seem to pre
clude ulterior reserve and relief. " On whomsoever this
stone shall fall, it shall grind him to powder." " Those
mine enemies who would not that I should reign over
them, bring them forth and slay them before me." " The
desire of the wicked shall perish." " They shall utterly
perish in their own corruption." "When a wicked man
dieth, his expectation shall perish, and the hope of unjust
men perisheth." " The hope of the wicked is as the giving
up of the ghost." "What is the hope of the hypocrite
when God taketh away his soul?" "Which drown men
in destruction and perdition." " The latter end of that
man is worse than the beginning." " The fall of that
house was great." " They shall not escape." " Now con
sider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and
there be none to deliver."
The wicked are represented as having their portion now :
" in this life." " They are not in trouble like other men."
"Ye have received your consolation." "Remember that

378 THE ETERNITY OF
thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things." " Their
houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon
them." But there shall be bitter reverse. • " Go to, weep
and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you."
" Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth." For them can
there remain all this sequel, this eternity, of joy? Is it
not in express contradiction to all these warnings and
denunciations ?
The rejection of the Gospel is described to be the sin
which precludes its own pardon, which secures its own
condemnation. No intimation of hope is breathed. It is
irretrievable. " He that despised Moses' law died with
out mercy : of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye,
shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot
the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the cove
nant, wherewith he was inaugurated into priesthood, a
common thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of
grace ? " " How shall we escape, if we neglect so great
salvation?" " We are in them who perish the savor of
death unto death." " If the righteous scarcely be saved,
where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ? " "He
that believeth shall be saved, and he that believeth not
shall be condemned." Is not this unguarded, gratuitous,
if the denier of Christ shall be ultimately saved, and if his
punishment can bear no proportion to that sure salvation ?
A peculiarity distinguishes the true Christian — all the
people of God. They are elect according to the foreknow
ledge of God. He has chosen them, not to wrath, but to
salvation. " For whom he did foreknow, he also did pre
destinate to be conformed to the image of his Son ; more
over, whom he did predestinate, them he also called ; and
whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he
justified, them he also glorified." All the promises are
specifically pledged to them. "All things are yours."
" For He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake
thee." The arrangements of providence are wielded on

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 379
their behalf. " All things work together for goo* to them
that love God, to them who are the called according to his
purpose." In what is this peculiarity confirmed ? There
is a common conformity of character, a general application
of promise, a universal consummation of providence ; an
interval being allowed, — none are made to differ, and the
portion of all is the same ! *
The manner in which the importance of our earthly life
is aggrandised by Scripture, opposes additional reasons
against this hope. The present is the vestibule to a bound
less existence. On what we now are, our weal or woe is,
at least, intimated to depend. " Work out your salvation
with fear and trembling." " Pass the time of your sojourn
ing in fear." " Strive to enter in at the strait gate."
" Redeeming the time." " Lay hold on eternal life."
" Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found : call ye upon
him, while he is near." In unison with these views of life,
are the importunities of the Gospel. " We pray you, in
Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." " Except ye re
pent, ye shall all likewise perish." " Lest any man fail of
the grace of God." " The Spirit and the bride say, Come."
"While it is said, To-day, if ye will hear his voice." " Bre
thren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert
him ; let him know, that he which converteth the sinner
from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and
shall hide a multitude of sins." We cannot understand
this language, if the most wilful abuse of life can be so
easily rectified, or the most criminal rejection of the Gospel
can be so certainly countervailed, or the most precious
opportunity of usefulness can be so certainly overtaken.
To those who think that all fallen natures shall be re
stored, the inference which we now urge will contain no
force : but they who think that such an idea is utterly
and extravagantly untenable, will not be able to evade it.
" Everlasting fire is prepared for the devil and his angels."
*¦ Note S.

380 THE ETERNITY OF
There is- no shadowing of evidence, that these apostatei
spirits ever called forth Divine mercy on their behalfi
What Redeemer travelled in the greatness of his strength
for them ? They sinned. They were cast down into hell.
Their " lying down is in this sorrow." " Everlasting fire,"
— without intimated hope, — without supposeable relaxa
tion. The head of the serpent is bruised by the heel of
the Messiah. Satan is bruised under the feet of the saints.
He is "destroyed," though not annihilated. Now, into
this " everlasting fire," the wicked " depart," " go." Men
share it with daemons. There is but one hell. " The
destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be
together." We cannot but think that no slight argument strengthens
the interminableness of future punishment, arising from
their main and, as we can only conclude, necessary, cha
racter. We are not taught, in so many words of Scripture,
that it is a condition of despair. This would be essential
to give it its last severity. This would be the sternest
emphasis of its sentence. This would be the heaviest load
of its curse. But we must ask, If any description of these
sufferings encourages the justification of hope ? Do any
of them point to relief? Do any of them lengthen out
towards a glimmering of the most distant light, like a star-
speck, a vista of ultimate escape ? Does a bond loosen,
or a flame abate ? And, moreover, we may ask, Pf any
description of those who are doomed to these sufferings
favors the supposition that they indulge the hope ? Do
they count the ages for their close ? Yet if hope be well-
founded, it would not be without its influence even in hell.
It would bring support and alleviation. They who had
wept, would not always so incessantly weep : they who had
gnashed their teeth, would not continue thus frantically to
rage. " The sufferings of that present time would not
be worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be re
vealed in them." Hope would create a vision of good, of

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 381
holy desire, amidst these dreadful scenes. The period of
deliverance shall come ! The rivet shall be struck from
their chains ! What a different state of mind would such
an expectation produce ! What a new spirit of endurance
would be raised ! And if there be hope for them in their
end, if they be " prisoners of hope," surely its intimation
will not be withheld from them. They shall be allowed,
in pity, all the assuagement it can afford. There cannot
fail, for this must be comprehended in the arrangement, to
be a moral influence in the impartation of such knowledge.
All that we learn, however, precludes the existence, the
indulgence, the operation, of such hope. That which
" comes to all," to the living man of direst state and keen
est woe, finds not there a place. It is the reign of " dark
ness," that fearful image of confusion, misery, desolation.
Nothing brightens it. "The light is as darkness." "It
is the blackness of darkness." It is " outer darkness," to
which no beam travels, on which the reflection of no stray
beam falls. " How great is that darkness ! " The palpable
obscure ! An impenetrable shade ! What does it intend ?
It is the dwelling of despair ! How true is all that moody,
sullen, grief to it ! How every representation agrees !
Reduce, analyse, every element which constitutes the lost
condition, and does not every result proclaim the impossi
bility that it can admit the idea of mitigation or reprieve ?
Does not despair bind and impress all ? Does it not falter
in every accent? does it not deaden in every look ? does it
not terrify in every suffering? It is not " hope deferred,"
it has perished ! So does revelation leave us to think of
hell. So have men always conceived of it. But it can
only be the abode and realm of despair, as its punishments
are eternal !
That " second death," of which we read, solemnly debars
the indulgence of such an expectation. It is an ominous
phrase. It is only the soul on which it can be done. It
is a living, intellectual, death. Were that soul to cease, to

382 THE ETERNITY OF
fall from existence, it must be a horrible fate. For such a
freight to sink into the waters of oblivion ! For such a
star to set in the night of annihilation ! But this is
being in its wretchedness of perversion and desolation.
The soul can die, — it dies when it is cut off from that
Divine support which is its strength, from that Divine direc
tion which is its use, from that Divine favor which is its
good. The first death is the greatest known evil, though
in that the spirit need not " see " nor " taste " it, need not
die : this is, then, unspeakably more tremendous, for the
spirit is its proper subject, the spirit itself dies. Death
falls not on its accidents, but on its substance. The con
trast is appalling. The first is a struggle which quickly
ends : the second is an endless pang. The former is soon
withdrawn : the latter, with its dark badge and ensign, can
never pass away. The one is not truly final : the other is
ultimate. Bodily death is unconscious : spiritual death
feels its own pains, its own bands, — its worm is born and
fed of its vitals. We require every effort to conceive of it,
— every association of the death we know baffling the con
ception of that which admits of no image nor parallel.
The undying spirit dies ! Therefore it is after its own
nature, in a manner scarcely to be supposed by us, — there
is no shroud but its shame, no reptile but its remorse, no
shadow but its grief, no knell but its memory, no grave
but its ruin, — capacious of its perished interests, and closed
with everlasting night. The sting, which is sin, rankles
unmitigated in it. And if the contrast of these deaths only
accumulates horror upon the last, much more does their
succession. Pf that be dread which suggests and prefigures
it, how much more that to which it refers ! If that which
is incipient be so ghastly, what must be that in which it
terminates ! If the preparation which we can mark is so
deprecated, what must be its consummation ! If what is
only relative be so distressing in its fears, what must be
that to which it but conducts and demits ! If we shrink

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 383
from that which may be our sweetest hope, what must be
that which can only be despair ! And does " the second
death " afford the dreamer argument that a destiny, such
as it seems, at least, to intimate, can be reversed ? Can
he repeat these words and be encouraged ? Does all that
he perceives of death fortify the proof? Is it a state so
easily changed, a bondage so easily loosed, a captivity so
easily turned ? Does he borrow his figures of relenting,
of easy entreaty, of yielding partiality, from it ? Is it a
thing to be threatened, or to be won? What has ever
relaxed its hold ? As if to convince us that there is a lost
condition of the soul, irredeemable, inexorable, — the most
resistless ill, the most dire necessity, the most unbending
law, is exhibited as specimen and earnest, — the first deatli
is set forth to signify and confirm the " second ! "
And if what are felt to be hard conclusions must be
drawn, — intended by them who draw them to be painfully
extreme, — we can, perhaps, find our apology for them to
the letter, however unhappily turned, however they differ
from the spirit and manner in which we should hold them.
We have but to select the tremendous testimonies of the
inspired word. We, if guided by our own views and dis
positions, should give them a meaning harmonious to their
entire scope. We should protect them from whatever was
harsh and apparently merciless. There is not one quota
tion but we interpret differently from what their sound at
first conveys. The warfare is forced upon us. All we
want to show is that no statement impugned, as attributed
to them who maintain eternal retribution, is without a
stronger counterpart in Scripture. Should it be said, that
an eternal remembrance and visitation of sin is a relent-
lessness unworthy of God : " Surely I will never forget any
of their works." Should it be said, that any course which
implies an unpitying conduct is impossible with God :
" I will laugh at your calamity ; I will mock when your
fear cometh." Should it be said, that the tie which binds

384 THE ETERNITY OF
the Creator to his creatures, however wicked they have
become, forbids such a course : " He that made them shall
not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will
show them no favor." Should it be said, that immortality
is sustained only as the subject of pcenal inflictions :
" Every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice
shall be salted with salt." Should it be said, that God
will not suffer himself to be provoked into an imitation of
the creature's conduct towards him : " As He cried, and
they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear,
saith the Lord of hosts." Should it be said, that such a
consummation, if certain, cannot be regarded otherwise
than an immediate end and purpose : " The Lord hath
made all things for himself : yea, even the wicked for the
day of evil." Should it be said, that such a spectacle would
solely present the more terrible aspects of the Divine cha
racter, and after a most different dispensation : " What if
God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power
known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of
wrath fitted to destruction ? " Should it be said, that surely
prayer ought always to be made for the wicked, and that it
cannot be offered in vain : " Pray not for this people for
their good." Should it be said, that such an abandonment
of his creatures supposes an utter contempt of his own
work as worthless : " The ungodly are like the chaff which
the wind driveth away." " The wicked of the earth are as
dross." " All that do wickedly shall be as stubble." " The
salt has lost its savor, it is thenceforth good for nothing
but to be cast out and trodden under foot." " Cut it down :
why cumbereth it the ground?" "That which beareth
thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing;
whose end is to be burned."* " If any man love not the
Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha."
Should it be said, that it is an impossible conception that
* The end is of that which " beareth," not of that which is borne ¦ " Sr t4
Tr-XoP."

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 38 a
beings should be compelled to exist who earnestly craved
the cessation of an intolerable existence: " They said unto
the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the
face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath
of the Lamb." " In those days shall men seek death, and
shall not find it ; and shall desire to die, and death shall
flee from them." Should it be said, that an interdict upon
the possible influence of means is unlike all that God has
revealed of himself : " Lest at any time they should see
with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should under
stand with their heart, and should be converted, and I
should heal them."
Many intimations arise, in considering the treatment of
the wicked, which little favor the idea of their eventual
happiness, and of their final assimilation to the state of
the righteous. They are separated from all the holy and
the good. The tares are bound together in bundles. They
who are banished from the presence of the Judge, are shut
up in their own unmixed fellowship, save that to it is added
the fellowship of devils. Christ has said : I never knew
you ! I know you not whence ye are ! Depart from me !
Is this association the likely means of inducing contrition
and working redemption ? The congregated infection of
all earthly and infernal sin, the atmosphere to ripen piety
and excellence ? The example of evil only, the incentive
to holiness ? Cast out in their transgressions, driven away
in their wickedness, we are reminded of the language which
describes the sinner here : " The Lord shall separate him
unto evil." We may learn what that is by known effects v
" God gave them over to a reprobate mind, being filled
with all unrighteousness, wickedness, maliciousness ; full
of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity ; haters of God,
despiteful, proud, without natural affection, implacable,
unmerciful." What an adder knot ! What an infernal
brood ! These are passions which cannot die. They
immortalise themselves. To be " given up " to them is
xh. c c

386 THE ETERNITY OF
the last judicial wrath against the sinner in his probation
ary state : can it be the means of his moral cure in hell ?
— The anguish with which the lost think of the glorified,
is quite discouraging to any hope of their future reunion.
They weep and wail, and gnash their teeth, when they see
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God, and
that they themselves are thrust out. The rich man, when
he seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom, fore
tells no reversal and obtains no mitigation of his torment.
Who, in these descriptions, can catch the faintest glimpse
of the feeblest hope that there is an epoch, though most
removed, at which they who are thus thrust out of the
kingdom shall ever be permitted to enter it, — at which
they who are beyond the gulf shall ever cross it to " the
bosom " of celestial friendship and repose ?
Death is represented to us in Scripture, and is taught
by all that we know of religion, to be the termination of
our probationary state : our conduct on this side of it
determines our condition in that. " The night cometh
when no man can work." " Occupy till I come." " Give
account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer
steward." " It is appointed unto all men once to die, and
after death the judgement." How, then, can a new pro
bation await them? A longer day? A larger deposit?
A more precious trust ? A life more availing and privi
leged after that death ? An opportunity more abundant
after that judgement ?
The descriptions of the condemned, of their circum
stances, of their lamentations, forbid us to entertain the
remotest conjecture of their recovery. " He cannot enter
into the kingdom of God." " Many shall seek to enter in
and shall not be able." "The door is shut." "They
stand without." "None of them shall be bidden." "Ye
shall die in your sins." " And he was speechless." " Out
of thine own mouth will I judge thee." "Our lamps
are gone out." " Every plant which my heavenly Father

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 387
hath not planted, shall be rooted up." " Where I go
thither ye cannot come." " They shall sever the wicked
from the just." " They have pierced themselves through
with many sorrows." " Over them the second death
hath power." "They cannot pass who would come from
thence." The office of Christ as Saviour shall then merge into
the office of Christ as Judge. When he first came into
the world, he came not to judge but to save the world.
At his second coming, he shall appear not to save, but to
judge. " All judgement is committed unto him because
he is the Son of man." " God hath appointed a day is.
the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that
man whom he hath ordained ; whereof he hath given as
surance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the
dead." " When 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 : 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." No
more serious change can be conceived. He has abdicated
the function of "bringing many sons to glory: " his me
diation is wound up in this act of adjudication. But the
hope of universal salvation inverts all again. He recom
mences his saving task. The Judge is merged in the
Saviour ! This is most contradictory. " He hath power
on earth to forgive sins," — but the earth has passed away.
" He is able to save to the uttermost, — that uttermost has
expired. " Behold, now is the accepted time ; behold, now
is the day of salvation," — the angel hath stood upon the sea
and upon the earth, and hath lifted up his hand to heaven,
and hath sworn by him who liveth for ever and ever, that
there should be time no longer. " He hath trod the wine
press alone," a mysterious intimation of his sufferings for
us : then " he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and
wrath of Almighty God." He cometh then " without a sin

3,88 THE ETERNITY OF
offering." We " show his death" only " till he come." His
message shall no more be " peace on earth and good-will
unto men." His blood speaketh not its "better things."
The transformation of his aspect corresponds to the momen
tous change. Instead of the meekly-yielding sacrifice, there
is " the wrath of the Lamb ! "
It seems but idle objection, nor have we deemed it
hitherto worthy of notice, that the words which express the
idea of eternal duration are sometimes employed in a re
stricted sense. But assertions like these impose upon the
unwary and the unlearned. Our answer is, that they may
interchange, as the terms of every language, from higher
to inferior meanings. This, however, is invariably in con
nexions which preclude a possible mistake. They are of
this world : it may be that the gates of a temple or the
foundations of a mountain are called eternal. None are
deceived. The "everlasting doors" crumble; the "per
petual hills " bow. But is there any plausibility that these
epithets are used in a restricted sense concerning a state
beyond this world, — the future which they properly signify,
without catachresis, without license ; while the restrictive
sense is improper, forced, and only to be justified in the
flights of poetic diction. Never is there an instance of
this kind in the New Testament. There are words far
narrower, sufficiently expressive of briefness : why are they
never applied to future retribution ?
There is greater weight in the objection to any argument
which has been derived from the personifications of Scrip
ture, and the punishments which are denounced against
them. Sodom and Gomorrah are " set forth for an ex
ample, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." But, then,
their inhabitants are implied, who alone could " give them
selves over" to the enormities which disgraced them. " The
cities are turned into ashes." Asphaltites has engulfed
them ; their guilty natives now suffer what those cities
never did nor could experience. The names of these seats

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 389
of wickedness are preserved to peipetuate the warning of
their overthrow. " The sinners before the Lord exceed
ingly" alone can " suffer," and their suffering is " the ven
geance of eternal fire." The Apocalypse speaks of death
and hades, of the beast and the false prophet, being cast
into the lake of fire. These are symbols : how can they
be susceptible and conscious of suffering ? They are evils :
this is the public denouncement of them. The beast and
the false prophet have their subjects and dupes. These
are responsible, the errors did not subsist apart from them,
and they are capable of punishment. It would, indeed, be
perverse to argue, because personifications have no pcenal
capacity, though like " sin," they may be " condemned," —
that, therefore, beings of body and soul, when exposed to
this punishment, are impassive !
We hope that we have proved ourselves not disinclined
to fair, unshrinking inquiry in the preceding discussions.
We have evaded no known argument and difficulty. We
have known no ambition of that poor originality which
would rest the awful truth upon the conceit of a criticism
or the venture of a theory. Yet have we felt most deeply
the words of Paley: "It is very difficult to handle this
dreadful subject properly; and one cause, among others,
of the difficulty is, that it is not for one poor sinner to
denounce such appalling terrors, such tremendous con
sequences, against another. Damnation is a word which
lies not in the mouth of man, who is a worm, towards any
of his fellow-creatures whatsoever : yet it is absolutely neces
sary that the threatening of Almighty God be made known and
published." * Nor is the language of D wight less solemn.
" The very preacher, who teaches the doctrine to others,
cannot but know, unless certainly assured of his. own sal-
¦ vation, (a case undoubtedly very rare,) that he may at that
very time be alleging arguments which are to affect himself,
* " The Terrors of the Lord." Sermons on Various Subjects.

390 THE ETERNITY OF
and to evince his own final destruction, as well as that of
others."* Nor have we spoken of recoiling feelings, nor been lavish
in professions of sentiment and charity; not thinking it
our duty, whatever was truth, to discredit it by apology or
to betray it by regret. Different, far sterner, has been our
task : to chastise infirmity, to school reluctance, to raise
misgiving, to shame disaffection. It ought to be enough
for us that it is a necessary part of a great system, that it
is the indispensable act of eternal rectitude. We would
not deify ourselves by imagining that we are more bene
volent than infinite benevolence, and more righteous than
infinite righteousness. t We hold that every thought and
desire of our minds should be satisfied when the vision of
the bard unfolds :
" Thus spake the Eternal Father, etai fulfilled
All juslice."l
Is it revealed ? Then are we bound to allow it as the
teaching of the Christian dispensation. This does not
make it true, but it authenticates it. It recognises and
adopts it. It clothes it with irresistible evidence. That
which must be the consequence of violated law, to an
immortal nature, is taken up and avouched in the direct
testimony which God gives to truth. He henceforth is
pledged to it. He wants not our defences and vindications.
He rests his character upon it. " He will be clear when
he judgeth."
Is it revealed ? Then have we no warrant for that vacant,
dissembling, state of mind, which would waive all opinion,
suspend all decision, concerning the fact. This state of
mind is often made a boast. Such a course is to slight the
* Theology. We not only think the case he imagines rare, but impos
sible. 1 Cor. ix. 27.
t " Et tamen tanto invenitur errare deformius, et contra recta Dei verba
perversius, quanto sibi videtur senlire clementius." — Augustine.
t Milton ; Paradise Lost. B. 5.

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 391
Divine testimony, whichever it may be, to disparage its
authority, to scorn its information. It is to treat it as not
clear, or as not credible, or as not important. If it be a
truth of Scripture, it is to be laid hold of like any other.
There is not a doctrine which we have not equal right to
except and reserve. Besides, this suspended conclusion is
mere pretence ; it is settled unbelief.
Is it revealed ? It is then surely to be taught. There
must not be equivocation or concealment. Can any motive
compare with it ? Whether it operate on us to warn, or on
others to receive the warning, none other motive can be
weighed against it. It must be an ever-present thought.
Can sloth and apathy stand against it ? Shall we prophesy
smooth things ? Shall we heal the grievous wound slightly ?
What is the measure of a proper earnestness ? Zeal may
justify its violence of means. It only has a little time to
act. Let it " save with fear, pulling men out of the fire."
Is it revealed ? It must occupy a large place in Chris
tianity. We might expect to find it uniformly described.
We might expect to find it uninterruptedly reiterated. We
might expect to find it assumed rather than argued, and
threatened rather than explained. We might expect to
find it so interwoven with all the other verities of the sys
tem, that to loosen it is to derange the whole. We might
expect to find it adduced as a clear, unlabored axiom, —
that which cannot otherwise be, nor can be differently
understood. Our expectations are all borne out ; the testi
monies are concurrent, multiplied, unquestioning, integral.
Is it revealed? We have until now chiefly spoken of
the Rectitude and Goodness of God. We have endea
voured to identify his moral government with both. But
another view now presses upon us. From this time it is
a simple question of His Truth. How is that trifled with !
Do we seek to exonerate his justice or his benevolence, by
the denial of his faithfulness ? Can he lie ? Is there with
him the shadow of turning? Hath he spoken it? He

392 THE ETERNITY OF
cannot repent. He cannot deny himself. Let God be
true, and every man a liar. Well would it be to examine,
how far this characteristic perfection of the Deity has been
the last to be considered and revered ! *
It has been said, that since human threatenings are
often revoked, and without any impeachment of veracity,
so God may remit his. But human threatenings ought to
be revoked, if hasty and unjust. If well considered and
truly just, they ought to be enforced. God has revoked
his threatenings, but only those which are conditional.
His truth required the revocation. They had pointed to
the impenitent alone. They could not in veracity be carried
out against those who repented. He has threatened hell
against the sinner. But if the sinner turn — loses his
guilty and evil characteristic — he cannot be, according to
the intent and fidelity of that threatening, adjudged to that
hell. If God has threatened eternal punishment— as we
suppose — He has foreseen all difficulties, weighed all prin
ciples, anticipated all consequences. It could not be
benevolent to threaten, what it was not benevolent to in
flict ; nor just to threaten, what it was not just to execute.
He can use no artifice nor exaggeration. Let us think
steadily upon his truth. What did he always intend ? If
he will not thus punish, he did never intend to punish
thus. It was never the meaning of his mind. But has he
declared that he would ? Then it was untruth. It might
be a kind deception — it was untruth. It might be a judi
cial fiction — it was untruth. From the beginning, however
merciful its arts and attempts, it was untruth. Let others
bear the reproach of making the faithful Creator thus
falsify himself : our hearts turn cold at the supposition.
* Origen in his commentary on Jeremiah xx. 7, — " O Lord, thou hast de
ceived me, and I was deceived," — dares thus to impeach tlie Divine veracity,
in the matter of eternal punishment. He allows that it is declared, but that
God does not intend. It is an amiable deception which he practises upon
his creatures ! The passage itself is most erroneously rendered. <:nTS sig
nifies, Thou hast persuaded me.

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 393
It is a small thing to be ourselves discredited when the
God of truth is not believed. We may little complain, to
be charged with insincerity, when He who is Light does
not escape. We are brought under a double accusation.
Hard must be our nature to allow the tenet, — harder oar
nature still, that, allowing it, our conduct continues what
it is ! The hope, the ingenious effort, is to derive a proof
from our inconsistency that we do not believe it ourselves.
Much may be learnt from the objection. Let them who
believe that there is eternal residue of punishment, not be
angry at the retort. Let them more honestly confess their
convictions, and more earnestly deliver their souls. Le£
them cry aloud and spare not. Let them blow the trumpet
and give the people warning. Let them be goaded to the
decorum of their proper zeal, though by scorn and taunt
But they may reply, to them who reproach them, in no
mean strength of justice. Are they clear in their own func
tion? They ought to feel to the full of that misery which
they can define. They ought to exercise an enlightened
sympathy with that which falls within the standard of then-
ideas. They allege that the theory of eternal punishment
must defeat every end of practically impressing men. They
say that it can only confound and overwhelm. Then let
them occupy their own assured ground. Yet might they
not feel more duly ? They hesitate not to declare the relief
and abatement of their sensibility in their more restricted
view. Do they not enjoy a disproportionate calm? Avs
they adequately affected with their own forebodings ? These
enact before them many a tragedy, which might well move
their terror and their pity. But in the assertion thafc
eternal punishment cannot be believed, because it stirs no
corresponding emotion and zeal, subsists no argument,
rises no conviction. The impossibility that any should
fully understand and feel the entire case is obvious. The
impression ofthe duty which it suggests may be received,
and widely obtains. Towards the whole fact, our concep-

394 THE ETERNITY OF
tion must fail : towards our relation in respect of it, it need
not. It has been often argued that the clearer view of
heavenly glory would impair moral agency by acting too
strongly on human impulse, by disturbing the regulations
and businesses ofthe present life, by withdrawing thought
and sympathy from the objects of immediate duty and
affection. But have we not " the substance of things hoped
for?" Were more of hell understood, it might distract
our freedom rather than move our decision. Have we not
sufficient " knowledge of the terror of the Lord to persuade
men?" This species of animadversion might be apphed
to every other truth. The Incarnation of the Son of God,
— his Sufferings, — his Glories, — his Claims,- — who enter
tains aright ? Who can grasp the infinite of these themes ?
Yet may " we know the love of Christ which passeth know
ledge!" And even such chidings as these we little more than
share with the spirits of heaven. Their awful applause of
Divine judgement, — their halleluia while the smoke of
torment ascendeth up for ever and ever, subject them to
accusations scarcely less severe. By every endeavor to
explain away these acts, we plainly perceive what it is
supposed those acts would deserve of blame and censure
if they were to be truly believed. We are told if all this
were real, heaven could not be endured : that it would be
only a higher point whence to descry a wider horizon of
misery. Concerning this state of mind which approves as
well as acquiesces, we are only bound to ask : Is the judge
ment "true and righteous?" In its truth we have the
pledge of its righteousness. If both true and righteous,
the minds of perfected beings must justify them. The
holiness of these beings consists in their entire agreement
to the Divine Will. They cannot desire, — though this
punishment be the necessary means of demonstrating it, —
that God should be less just and faithful. We, compassed

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 395
with infirmity, often fearing lest we ourselves should be
disapproved, cannot enter into this dread sympathy. But
in Scripture, even in its most devotional portions, do we
discover language most terribly denunciatory. There is
imprecation which we feel that we cannot employ. It may
be very just criticism that it is prophetic. Then is it true.
We may also add, — we cannot do less, — that it is an issue
in which — though we do not pray for it — we are bound to
coincide. Acquiescence is suspended approbation, a state of
mind which assures itself that there are reasons which, when
known, shall secure an unmixed applause. We now read :
" Let burning coals fall upon them ; let them be cast into
the fire ; into deep pits, that they rise not again." It is a
menace against the wicked, and it is merciful to them as a
moral dissuasion. If they be finally impenitent, it is a
prediction. It is an imprecation. Wre are not called to
offer it. Our prayer is for them in their calamities. Yet
we must confirm and justify. To the curse, as to the
blessing, we must say, Amen. When it is fulfilled, what-
. ever be the shock of feeling, like Aaron, with the ashes of
his sons before him, we must " hold our peace." In a
purer state of existence, what is now reluctant shall be
reconciled, what is now hesitating shall be corroborated,
what is now doubting shall be cleared. Our nature shall
be sublimated in all its powers and tempers. In the Divine
light we shall see light.
And we would implore to be heard in our remonstrance
against the earliest scepticism, dwelling but in a thought,
an injected thought, a tempting thought, — " Yea, hath God
said?" It may well claim to be wpmrov \jteii8os, the first lie
ever told to man, worthy of the father of lies, wno, when
he speaketh a lie, speaketh of his own, the first broached
against holy truth, the first to invalidate it still. " Ye
shall not surely die." What is it that causes the low,
unimpressive, views of Human Redemption which find

396 THE ETERNITY OF
their place among us, its freezing descriptions, its attenu
ated glosses? Where is the tongue which fires with its
wonders and tells of it all the day long? Where is the
fellowship of those sufferings into which angels desire to
look ? Where is the ministiy instinct, suffused, travailing,
with it ? Where are the palpitating crowds hanging on its
glad tidings ? Salvation from the wrath to come ! Where
is its cry ? Where is its vibration ? " Who hath believed
our report?" What a sublimity in its pretensions ! What
a humiliation of our acknowledged failings ! How can
we account for our ease and pitilessness,— whencever the
charge may come, — in regarding the spiritual condition of
men around us ? By what stupor are we oppressed ? How
slightly are we alarmed at their danger, or concerned for
their rescue ! What has happened unto us that we are not
wrung with commiseration nor shaken by fear? There
should be a very great trembling ! What is it that steels
the hearts of the attendants on the sanctuary and the
hearers of the Gospel ? Why are the beseechings of mercy
so coldly met ? " Their heart is made gross." The word
comes with no power, it falls with no weight. We, who
minister the Gospel, are unto them as one that mockethr
or as one that playeth skilfully on an instrument. They
make light of it. What is it, — not to blame others only,
— that paralyses our ministry ? Where are its burning
ensigns, its attesting seals, the watching for souls, the
occupation of Christ's stead, the unction, the tenderness,
the much fear and trembling ? Are we true ? Are we
alive ? clothed with salvation? clad with zeal? What is it
that sophisticates our hopeful youth, — new aroused to in
quire, warming with impression, almost prepared to decide,
gladdening pastor, parent, friend, — and bears them insen
sibly, but surely, into the gulf of infidelity ? What a change
has come over their spirit ! Ingenuousness has withered,
and seriousness has fled ! What a speech of daring falls
from their mouth ! Cavils and jests, loose and profane,

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 397
fill up their discourse !* There is one answer,— the want
of an entire, abiding, conviction that this doctrine is true,
— the lurking, undefined, idea, that there may be relief
and melioration ! We need a more fixed faith and impres
sion of what shall be " the portion of the unbeliever." We
require to think of the case of the lost sinner as utterly,
hopelessly, irreclaimable. A few may retain the general
truths of revelation, its grace and its godliness, while they
cherish a different expectation. Yet with them there will
never be found the energy of religion. They are always
under the temptation to bend their remaining creed to this
perilous unit. It is a thing to disturb or to assimilate all
else. It is an " old leaven," which must either ferment
the " new lump," or remain inert and isolated by its side.
In their hands the undertakings of piety presently decline.
The great concerts of missionary efforts owe them little.
They are consistent ! They cannot be moved to grapple
with a temporary evil. They look afar, and the universe
is restored. But know they this ? The influence of their
assumption passes away from them upon others. If they
should "take away from the words of the prophecy of this
book," — and even only understanding it of that specific
book, how full is it of eternal retribution, — they may fortify
unbelief and embolden sin. More frequently is this theory
maintained by them who deny the Godhead and atonement
of Christ, the Divine Personality and Regenerating work
of the Holy Spirit, whatever constitutes the glory and
riches of Christianity. Nor is the process of the scepti
cism darkling and uncertain. Propound the statement,
that this doctrine of eternal punishment need not be
believed, ought not to be believed, cannot be believed !
* " Me-yriTTa brj Tttiv XomZv al TWv veuiv uKoXaaiat Te Kal vftpcts, K. T. X. u But the
greatest among remaining crimes is the petulance and superciliousness ot
youth, when directed against sacred things, much aggravated when uttered
in temple, in assembly, in pubhc convention, or before the multitude in
general." — Plato: De Leg. lib. x.

398 THE ETERNITY OF
Lighter opinions of the desert of sin will instantly possess
the mind. As the evil of sin is diminished, so will the
necessity and worth of an atonement be reduced. When
that again is less and less esteemed, until perhaps alto
gether rejected, why should God, the eternal Son, the
Compeer of the Lord of hosts, take on him our nature and
assume our mediatorship ? Where is now the height and
depth, where is the length and breadth, ofthe love of Christ?
Why should we sing, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain ?
Every step seems just, every reasoning conclusive. The
shipwreck of faith is commonly made upon this rock.
Some controvertists have affected a strong desire to dis
abuse Christianity of this doctrine, because it is the occa
sion of infidelity. They have urged that, so long as the
infidel identified it with the Christian faith, he would per
sist in his disbelief. We affirm, from no narrow observa
tion, from no slight experience, that every attempt to cast
it off he regards as a sorry shift, an ignoble evasion. He
can read the doctrine in Christianity, if others cannot. He
knows that it may not be erased without destroying the
emphasis of the whole. What is the ground of its serious
ness ? What is the reason of its expostulation '? So long
as there was this " going down into the pit," it might boast
its " ransom." So long as there was " wrath to come," it
might exhibit " the Son of God, even Jesus, who delivereth
from it." Dislodge this doctrine, and the entire system is
thrown into incongruity and covered with shame. It no
longer comports itself. The ground it occupied is swept
from under it. Its high bearing is bowed down. Its hand
is shortened. Its pretensions are laid low by the vain
eulogy that it has abandoned none to everlasting punish
ment, which is but the meagre confession that it has
snatched none from it !
We cannot, then, for a moment pursue the too common
course, that which appeals to men, urging them to act as
though this doctrine may be true, as though eternal punish-

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 399
ment may be possible. This, it is said, with an odious
coldness, is the safer side on which to err. We disclaim
,all share in such appeals. Has God left the awful truth
in any, the most partial, the most conceivable, suspense ?
Is it suffered to oscillate a moment in the balance ? Is it
yea and nay by turns ? God being our judge, we do not
know the shadow of an argument, the pretext of a resting-
place, which can help such doubt. All revelation is its
affirmation and its Amen. We dare not warn, lest it be
so ! We dare not remit to the more prudent alternative !
Our lips may falter while we pronounce the treble, end
less, woe, but it is with pity and not with doubt ! And if
it might consist with the staidness of dissertation to offer
counsel and warning, how would we urge men not to trust
to a hope no firmer than a spider's web ! Christianity in
its first, fontal, thought contends against it. To enter into
coalition with it, would be to refute all its own scope and
aim. It cannot be indulged, but to the most serious weak
ening of all its claims ; seldom, but to their entire rejection.
It may be only a secret thought, a reserved wish. But this
is perilous. Be sure it is already something more. Rash
is he who ventures all on such a trust, — who shoots the
gulf because it may drift him to a strand, who leaps the
pit because it may not be bottomless. Scripture rigidly
insists on pre-requisites of character and conduct to our
glorification. This theory annuls them. The wicked are
finally secure. They cannot forfeit this. Though they
have not " done the will of God," they " abide for ever."
Though they have not " confessed Christ before men,"
them will Christ " confess before his Father and the
angels." Though they have "lived after the flesh," they
" shall live." Though they have not " overcome the world,"
theirs is " the victory." Let us ask, what premiss suggests
it? What analogy paints it? What intuition favors it?
Is it not of the spirit and tone of them who say, " Peace,
safety," while " sudden destruction cometh upon them?"

4C0 THE ETERNITY OF
Is it not the reversal of every Christian rule and test?
"Without holiness" men shall "see the Lord." None
" eome short of entering into his rest." " The unright
eous" shall " inherit the kingdom of Christ and of God."
The objection will be that these conditions shall be com
plied with. In a future period they shall be qualified and
prepared. Our answer has been given. There is no tend
ency, no provision, to secure this moral change. How is
"this kind to go forth?" "When shall it once be?"
What is there in their nature to encourage it? " As saith
the proverb of the ancients, Wickedness proceedeth from
Ihe wicked."* What is there in their region to encite it?
"In the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will
not behold the majesty of the Lord."f What is there in
their exercises of thought and feeling to mature it ? " How
long will it be ere they attain to innocency ?"\
We know that it is averred that something defined, con
ceivable, in the measure of retribution will be more bind
ing on the conscience than that which being eternal cannot
be apprehended. Something more palpable is wanted.
But is it not found that the most wicked always prefer this
view? Propose annihilation, and he welcomes it.§ Pro
pose restoration, and he finds in it an opiate for his fear
aiid a license for his sin. It allows the careless trans
gressor a view of punishment which shades off all its
deeper gloom in the certainty of its termination. Tell
him of agonies, only remedial, all self-exhausting, and
scarcely will he tremble. The end redeems, if it does not
overpower, them. " The cast away" shall be thrown upon
a shore of safety and peace. " The lake of fire " flows into
"the sea of glass." The "tongue is tormented in that
flame," to attune and modulate it to sing " tlie new song."
* 1 Sam. xxiv. 13. + Isaiah xxvi. 10. + Hosea viii. 0.
J " Nee ignoro plerosque conscicntia meritorum nihil se esse post mortem
magis optare, quam credere : malunt enim extiugui penitus, quam ad sup-
plicia reparari." — Minucius Felix.

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 401
Hell is the circuitous, rougher, yet the safe, road to heaven.
But while you tell him this, he will think that you tell him
more, — that he may lay too much stress upon the import
ance of time, that he may give too earnest heed to the care
of the soul, that he may be too intent upon attaining the
present blessings of salvation. Though you intended it
not, you have checked his alarm, and soothed his trepida
tion. Eternity is not at stake ! It shall be well with him !
Things to come are his ! No depths shall separate him
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord !
Wrath even unto the uttermost will soon expend itself!
His agreement is with hell ! Though the Master of the
celestial house hath risen up and shut to the door, no
more doth " He who hath the key of David shut, and no
man openeth ! " — There is nothing of Christianity, in a
word, which this view does not loosen and contravene.
Surely adherence to such a speculation debars all Chris
tian fellowship. We cannot be one with them who main
tain it. Our disagreement is not chiefly with the fallacious
view which they take of others, — their mischievous flattery
of man, — but with their self-estimation. We hold not a
common salvation. We confess not the same Saviour.
We acknowledge not the same deliverance. We enter the
fold rescued from an endless perdition. We are alive from
an eternal death. We publish it, we praise it. Brought
up from the horrible pit, redeemed from the lowest hell,
telling aloud how we have been snatched from everlasting
destruction, what would be our meeting with them who
deny like obligations, — who declare that such a doom
would not be just, cannot be true, has not been averted ?
Little need have they of the physician ! * How can we sit
* :< This belief is necessary to teach us to make a fit estimate of the price
of Christ's blood, to value sufficiently the work of our redemption, to acknow
ledge and admire the love of God to us in Christ. For he which believeth
not the eternity of torments to come, can never value sufficiently that ransom
by which we were redeemed from them, or be proportionately thankful to his
XII. D D

40S THE ETERNITY OF
together at the table of the Lord ? If a struggle be ever
known in this hallowed scene, it is, who owes most unto
his Lord ? Who can then " take his bill," and " write " a
lower sum ? Who would defraud the claim ? Who abate
the debt ? " To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth
little." The mystic bread is in our hand, — the muniment
of endless life, the passover from endless bondage : what
sympathy, while in this act of the communion of the body
of Christ, can we cherish with them who allow no proper
punishment, who plead no indefeasible liability, who con
found justice with mercy, and right with grace ? Let their
other principles be correct, this must vitiate them. And
while we celebrate our redemption as a sovereign act, pass
ing by fallen angels, abandoning them to everlasting de
spair, — it may be that they who thus sat with us, would
extend their thoughts and hopes even to their reclamation !
The redemption would not be only of all men, but of fiends
themselves ! They would drink the cup of devils, the cup
of which devils might prelusively drink ! " This is not to
eat the Lord's supper." " We have not so learned Christ."
An " eternal redemption ' we regard as involving an equally
eternal enslavement. Heaven is only heaven while there
exists a hell !
It is equally impossible to maintain the offices of brother
hood with them who "teach men so." They oppose our
great work, our one function, to warn men to flee from the
wrath to come. To give them the right hand of fellow
ship, to bid them God speed, is to avow the innocence of
their error, and the idleness of our faith. None after this
can esteem us earnest, — barely sincere. Our teachings, our
Redeemer, by whose intervention we have escaped them; whereas he who is
sensible of the loss of heaven and the everlasting privation of the presence of
God, of the torments of fire, the company of the devil and his angels, the
vials of the wrath of an angry and never-to-be-appeased God, and hopeth to
escape all these by virtue of the death of his Eedeemer, cannot but highly
value the price of that blood, and be proportionately thankful for so ' plente
ous a redemption.' " — Pearson's Exposition ofthe Creed.

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 403
'expostulations, are all annulled. An air of indifference is
thrown over all. A man shall be called Christian minister
who denies the immortality of the soul! A man shall
be hailed evangelic herald who preaches the disciplinary
flames of the pit ! Well may the people love to have it so !
He may barter for titles to candor and terms of popularity.
But we may not swerve. We cannot turn from the com
mandment of the Lord. We dare not flatter. With what
ever pain, we must stand aloof from those advocates who
with sinuous delusions strengthen the refuges of lies, and
embolden the hopes of sinners. We speak it in no spirit
of denouncement : we obey but stern necessity : ours are
different missions ! God speed ! How could we bid it ?
Brotherhood ! How could we profess it ? We know no
compromise : we brook no alliance : we dream no truce !
One admonition more we cannot restrain. The theology
of our community is an immense and precious store.
Steady attachment to evangelic truth and to its tremendous
sanctions, has been our name. WTe are indeed fallen, if
any take from us this crown. Yet may there be room for
fear, — at least occasion for jealousy. We are surrounded
by evil influences. There are doting questions of specula
tion. There are spurious canons of criticism. The fashion
of the present mind of man is to object and cavil. There
is a love of exception. Error receives much of the homage
all of which is due to truth. There is a dread of credulity,
the by-word of holy faith. It is a boast that doctrine is
held in every extenuated form. It is placed, thus plausibly
enfeebled, rather beneath the protection of philosophy than
of revelation. There is an impatience of what is ancient
and settled. Everything is to be tried and examined afresh.
Let it, — but say not that it was never investigated until
now. Let it,— but remember that the idea, the substance,
of Divine communication can never change. Let it, — but
honor the inspired word with at least the same allowance
of self-intelligence, consistency, honesty, which human

404 THE ETERNITY OF
authorship receives. Concession may be a weakness : the
emulation of candor may tempt, and the meed of popularity
may repay it. To be ranked among the freer spirits of the
age, — independent of party, disenthralled from antiquity,—
is the prize which many a vain and exciteable temperament
ardently would seek. To this wile and snare we must
oppose an unblenching front. The fawning caress and
compliment, the sending of portions one to another, we
must spurn. Let us contend earnestly, let us strive to
gether, for the truth. If there be men who have "crept
in unawares among us," — false to the vows of ordination, —
glozing and undermining the awful retribution which shall
fall upon the impenitent, the unbelieving, the disobedient
— cheapening to themselves worldly favor and applause —
we are not compelled to falsify our standards, or to dis
honor our ancestors. What momentary security have we,
that these bold innovators will retain any other truth ?
This we do ingenuously declare, that beginning with the
denial of any other, they might have stopped : they have
begun with that dangerous denial, at which few stand
still. This we do ingenuously declare, that they have
struck a blow, which, though many others would only have
shaken outwork or battlement, rives the mighty citadel.
We must bear the charge of bigotry and zealotism, but we
can only regard it as a pernicious, and destructive, and
truly damnable, error. We call it not an unimportant de
fect, a point of difference, admitting of simple and easy
accommodation. It is rupture, never to be closed. It is
war from generation to generation. Be it our lowest ap
peal, still we make it — Shall the children of the Separatists,
and the allies of the Nonconformists, turn aside from that
full, strong, rich, theology, which all evangelic churches
acknowledge, from the vessel of which they all borrow oil
to feed their lamps ? We do honestly believe, we must
therefore dauntlessly affirm, that this is the most fatal

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 405
scepticism of the day,— the parent of every other, the bane
of all !
A state of mind, in respect of moral dispositions, is not
less essential to the formation of sound religious conclu
sions, than the capacity for evidence. Error is insidious
in its approaches. It flatters by liberality, and betrays by
sophism. We are not reconciled to it at once. There are
disgusts to be allayed, and fears to be vanquished. Little
by little are we allured. Of none, perhaps, is the equivocal
character more certain than of this. We believe it always
originates in an undue conception of sin. This may be
greatly modified. It does not "appear sin." Often, we
believe, is it strengthened by the forgetfulness that our
facts and faculties are alike limited, and by a pretension to
knowledge, far beyond our actual attainment. Let us be
ware of the first wrong direction of thought and feeling,
however minute the degree : fearful may be the after
deviations. ,
The voyager enters a current which seems propitious,
there is no apparent diversion from his course, his bark
speeds well, his oar does not toil nor his sail strain. In
his confidence all promises success. But while he ex
amines, scarcely does it seem that he has advanced. Much,
again and again, reminds him of what he has noticed just
before. A strange familiarity impresses his sense. Still
current flows into current, while onward and buoyant is
his track. Soon he feels an unnatural vibration. Where
he glided, he now whirls, along. The truth seizes upon
him. He is sweeping a whirlpool. Long since he has
entered the verge of a maelstrom, and he is now the sport
'of its gyrations. Nb power is left his helm or mast : he is
the trembling, unresisting, prey. He hears the roar, he is
drawn into the suck, of the vortex. Not only the circle
lessens, the very surface slopes. The central funnel and
abyss, dark-heaving, smooth, vitreous, yawns. The mariner

406 THE ETERNITY OF
shrieks, the skiff is swallowed up, where the waters only
separate to close, where the outermost attraction was but
the minister to the famine of this devouring maw.
If the doctrine of the preceding argument be true, let it
be asseverated ! Let it possess our minds ! Let us rush
in between the living and the dead ! The gate may be
strait, but it is open ! The way may be narrow, but it is
plain ! If we beheve this doctrine, let us think, feel, act,
as those who not only believe it to be true, but real !

The Lecturer has now fulfilled his solemn task. He
undertook it with much self-distrust. Then health seemed
firm, and life was strong in him. Suddenly the springs of
strength failed. But his task could not be forgotten. It
was a fearful weight which he carried with him to foreign
climes. It was a duty from which, however, amidst wan
derings which brought him no vigor, and lassitudes which
yielded to no excitement, he did not shrink. He held fast
by it. It was in his thoughts day and night. Not the
deep shadows nor the grinding glaciers of Alpine heights,
could turn him from it. Whether this condition were
favorable or not to his meditation, he must not judge. It
may be that it lent feebleness to it. At least, it kept him
serious. Still he regretted not that it was his theme. In
weakness and fear he pursued it. He knew none more
important. Others suggested that none could be more'
seasonable. Often it was impressed upon him that he
could not survive to complete his plan. Then came pen
sive, hut not bitter, thoughts, how some beloved friend
might endeavor to collect and shape the materials which
survived their compiler; and then it -was that he most

FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 407
approved the truth and amiableness of the doctrine which
he has lived to vindicate, and then too, did he feel, when
there could be no boasting, that a better service to the
church and to the world — not to forget or cover countless
imperfections — might scarcely be attempted by a dying-
man !

NOTE BY THE EDITOR.

Dr. . Hamilton, in delivering these "Lectures," in the
autumn of 1846, evidently felt himself to be a dying- man,
about to realize the solemn and glorious import of their
tremendous subject. He entered into the presence of his
Righteous Judge, July 18, 1848; but he possessed firm
confidence in the promises of the gospel, and cherished
the assured hope of eternal " gain " and " glory" through
Jesus Christ.
Dr. Raffles says of his anticipations in his last hours : —
" When informed by his medical men, after their consulta
tion on Sunday night, that all hope was extinguished, and
that his end was near, he exclaimed, ' That is the best
tidings you could have brought me.'"
To the Rev. Mr. Scales he repeated those two beautiful
verses of Cowper, regarding eternal blessedness through
Christ :— " Lord ! I believe Thou hast prepared,
Unworthy though I be,
Por me a blood-bought free reward,
A golden harp for me.
" 'Tis strung and tuned for endless years,"
(" I did not string it," he added, and then went on,)
" And framed by power divine,
To sound in God the Father's ears
No other name but Thine ! ' '

408 NOTE BY THE EDITOR.
May every Reader, by the Holy Spirit, " obtain like
precious faith with us through the righteousness of God
and our Saviour Jesus Christ." — See the "Life of Dr.
Hamilton," by Dr. Stowell.

NOTES.

A. Page 28.
The doctrine of the Sophists was, To tiiKaiov Kal to alcrxpbv ob -bvcrel
oAAcfc v/tfup : that " whatever is just or disgraceful finds not its distinc
tion in the nature of things, but in arbitrary opinion or law. Against
this unworthy notion the greatest of ancient philosophers vehe
mently contends. Nothing can be finer than the whole of the argu
ment and appeal :
" Micrdcoo'ojfj.eda ouv K-npuKa, r\v 5' iyoj ; ff auras b\v eirrw, on b 'Apitrrojvos
tubs tov &pi€rr6v re Kal SiKai6rarov, ev8aifj.oveo~Ta.TOV eKpive. . . Tov 5e
KaKicrrov re Kal aSiKoirarov adAio-rarov. . . . ^H ouv TTpocrayopeva), elirov,
edv re KavBdvcotri rotouroi vvres, ectv re pi)], -rdvTas av6pcor-ovs re Kal
Beous ;" " Shall we have a herald to sound aloud what I have said?
Rather I will take upon myself to proclaim that the son of Ariston
adjudges him who is most excellent and righteous the happiest man,
and him who is basest and most unjust, the most disappointedly mise
rable. And I further ask, May I not so put my ease, that this is fully
the same, whether or not their actions be concealed from men and
gods ?" This is spoken of as an 'Air68ei£is, a demonstration. — Plato :
De Pepub. lib. ix.
" That there are some ideas of the mind which were not stamped
or imprinted upon it from the sensible objects without, and, there
fore, must needs arise from the innate vigor and activity of the mind
itself, is evident, in that there are, first, ideas of such things as nei
ther are affections of bodies, nor could be imprinted or conveyed by
any local notions, nor can be pictured at all by the fancy in any sen
sible colours ; such are the ideas of wisdom, folly, prudence, impru
dence, knowledge, ignorance, verity, falsity, virtue, vice, honesty,
dishonesty, justice and injustice, volition, cogitation, nay, of sense
itself, which is a species of cogitation, and which is not perceptible
by any sense, and many other such like notions as include something

410 NOTES.
of cogitation in them, or refer to cogitative beings only ; which ideas
must need spring from the active power and innate fecundity of the
znind itself, because the corporeal objects of sense can imprint no
such things upon it. Secondly, in that there are many relative
notions and ideas attributed as well to corporeal as incorporeal things,
that proceed wholly from the activity of the mind comparing one
thing with another. Such as are cause, effect, means, end, order,
proportion, similitude, dissimilitude, equality, inequality, aptitude,
inaptitude, symmetry, asymmetry, whole and part, genus and species,
and the like. Put that which imposes upon men's judgments here,
so as to make them think that these are all passive impressions made
ztp-on the soul by the objects of sense, is nothing else but this,
fceeanse the notions both of those relative ideas, and also of those
other immaterial things, (as virtue, wisdom, the soul, God,) are most
commonly excited and awakened occasionally from the appulse of
outward objects knocking at the doors of our senses. And these
men, not distinguishing betwixt the outward occasion or invitation of
those cogitations, and the immediate active or productive cause of
them, impute them, therefore, all alike, as well these intelligible as
the other sensible ideas or phantasms, to the efficiency or activity of
the outward objects upon us." — Cudworth: Eternal and Immutable
Morality, book iv. chapter 2.
This noble statement only needs the modification, that such ideas
are not produced by the mind, but exist without : yet their nature
as congenial to the mind, and the mind is capable of them. Let
them once be presented to it, and it can at once receive, it must at
once approve, them. The " appulse" is wanted, and nothing besides.
" O vita? philosophia dux ! 0 virtutis indagatrix, expultrixque
vitiorum ! Quid non modo nos, sed omnino vita hominum. sine te esse
potnisset ? Tu urbes peperisti : tu dissipates homines in societatem
vita; convocasti : tu eos inter se primo domiciliis, deinde conjugiis,
turn, literarum et vocum communione junxisti : tu inventrix legum,
tu magistra morum ct disciplinae fuisti. Ad te confugimus : a te
opem petimus : tibi nos, ut antea magna ex parte, sic nunc penitus
totosque tradinvus. Est autem unus dies, bene et ex preeceptis tuis
actus, peccanti immortalitati anteponendus. Cujus igitur potius
opibus utamur, quam tuis ? qua? et vitae tranquillitatem largita nobis
es, et terrorem mortis sustulisti." — Cicero : Tuse. Qusest. lib. v.
chap. 2.
This beautiful paragraph too flatteringly depicts and celebrates the
praises of philosophy, but it does show most unostentatiously of
urhnt unenlightened reason is capable in the conception of morals and

NOTES. 411
the regulation, of manners. The error of the description is, that the
writer attributes to philosophy, modal and systematic, what is due to
the workings of simple, original, reason. The truth is, that the sages
of antiquity did little for the highest, for the practical, wisdom.
That which is called the Pre-Socratic Philosophy is elegant and
ingenious rather than useful. The Ionian class, boasting its Thales,
Anaximenes, Heraclitus, — its Anaximander, Anaxagoras, Archelaus,
— descending to Pythagoras ; the Eleatic school, numbering Parme-
nides, Zeno, Melissus, Empedocles ; the Sophist order, — scarcely did
they advance the ethical idea, often obscuring it not only with their
vague theories, but even with their exquisite visions. It was in such
a spirit of disdain for all, that Cicero thus panegyrises Socrates, in the
section of the Tuseulan Questions next, save one, to the former quota
tion: " Primus philosophiam devocavit e ceelo, etinurbibus collocavit,
et in domos etiam introduxit,' et coegit de vita et moribus, rebusque
bonis et malis qucerere."
" That men did not become aware of conscience as a peculiar
power of the mind, till they had long reasoned and meditated upon
actions and rules, — that they did not at first separate it from all other
faculties, mark it by a name and clearly discern its place ; may well
be supposed, for with how much labor and doubt and effort and
struggle have all abstract thoughts, however clear, all foundations of
general truths, however sure, been extricated by man from the com
plex mass of events and appearances which surround him. Tardily
and gradually, no doubt, do the principles of moral truth emerge into
view even among the sagest and most virtuous of the heathen. Put
has not this been so with abstract truths of the plainest kinds?
Even those portions of human knowledge to which we in this seat of
study turn men's eyes as the very type and exemplar of evident and
indisputable speculative truth ; the properties I mean of space and
of number ; were not, these, too, brought into view late and slowly
and partially among the most acute and luminous intellects of the
ancient world ? while over the greater part of the earth and during
the greater portion of the world's history, no clear apprehension, at
all, of such doctrines has found place in men's mind. Yet who
among us holds that, therefore, these doctrines are precarious ? and
who does not see that the faculties by which we apprehend the
properties of space and number are not the less real or the less trust
worthy, because they require to be unfolded and expanded by
exercise and by teaching ? Even though men's moral judgements
should invoke principles as certain and as clear as those by means
of wliich they compare the largeness of visible things ; even if there

412 NOTES.
be, concerning right and wrong, a knowledge as distinct and inde
pendent as that which studious men have established concerning
the straight and crooked forms of material objects ; it need not
surprise us that such knowledge did not manifest itself in a distinct
and speculative shape, till men had made considerable progress in
the speculative exercise of their intellectual powers." — Whewell:
On the Foundations of Morals. Prom Sermons before the Uni
versity of Cambridge.

P. Page 29.
" Nor is the use of the words, good and evil, right and wrong, when
used in a moral sense, altogether unfixed and arbitrary, according to
the variety of notions, opinions, and views, that occasion the fore-
mentioned variety of sentiment. Eor though the signification of
words is determined by particular use, yet that which governs in the
use of terms, is general or common use. And mankind, in what
they would signify by terms, are obliged to aim at a consistent
use : because it is easily found that the end of language, which is to
be a common medium of manifesting ideas and sentiment, cannot be
obtained any other way than by a consistent use of words ; both that
men should be consistent with themselves, and one with another, in
the use of them. Pnt men cannot call anything right or wrong,
worthy or ill-deserving, consistently, than by calling things so which
truly deserve praise or blame, i. e. things, wherein all things con
sidered, there is most uniformity in connecting with praise or blame.
There is no other way in which they can use these terms consistently
with themselves. Thus if thieves and traitors be angry with in
formers that bring them to justice, and call their behaviour by odious
names ; yet herein they are inconsistent with themselves ; because,
when they put themselves in the place of them who have injured
them, they approve the same thing they condemn. And, therefore,
such are capable of being convinced, that they apply these odious
terms in an abusive manner. So, a nation that prosecutes an
ambitious design of universal empire, by subduing other nations
with fire and sword, may affix terms, which signify the highest
degrees of virtue, to the conduct of such as show the most engaged,
stable, resolute spirit in this affair, and do most of this bloody work.
But yet they are capable of being convinced, that they use these
terms inconsistently, and abuse language in it, and so having then-
months stopped. And not only will (must ?) men use such words
inconsistently with themselves, but also with one another, by using

NOTES. 413
them any otherwise than to signify true merit or 11-deserving, a
before explained. For there is no way else wherein men have anynotion
of good or ill desert, in which mankind in general can agree. Man
kind in general seem to suppose some general standard, or foundation
in nature, for a universal consistence in the use of the terms whereby
they express moral good or evil ; which none can depart from but
through error and mistake. This is evidently supposed in all their
disputes about right and wrong, and in all endeavours used to prove
that any thing is either good or evil, in a moral sense." — Pres.
Edwards : The Nature of True Virtue, chap. viii.

C. Page 31.
In analyzing the human mind in reference to its moral perceptions,
we may remember, if we do not altogether approve, both ancient and
modern distinctions. Aristotle dwells repeatedly upon the Dionoetic
and Ethical principles, applying the one to dialectic or logical know
ledge, and the latter to virtue and duty. The Germans, in their
scholastics, discriminate in nearly the same manner. By SSermtnft
they intend Reason, the highest mind of man, the source of ideas.
By fflerjfcmfc, that mind of man, which we call Understanding, — the
power of ascertaining and appreciating relationships and obligations.

D. Page 33.
A truth is not less a truth from whatever quarter it comes. We
know not a better recapitulation of the characters of the natural law
than that which is given by Volney, in his " Law of Nature." " It
is primitive, immediate, universal, invariable, evident, reasonable,
just, pacific, beneficent, and of itself sufiicient."
The last character may be denied by some. It must, however, be
understood of simple human responsibility. Its summary, " in the
hand- writing of ordinances," is a favor, — was not demanded by the
case. That it is insufficient to save, we more than admit. Such a
thought, also, was not in the mind of the author of " The Revolutions
of Empires." It certainly belongs not to the argument. We are
bound to allow, in every sense of moral government, that law is
"sufficient." The following splendid quotation from Cicero is preserved from a
work of his on Government, now lost. Por ages it must have been
extant and known, for Seneca, Augustine, Lactantius, frequently
cite it. It is from the pages of this latter Christian father that the

414 NOTES.
quotation is drawn. "Est quidem vera lex recta ratio, natura?
congruens, dliffusa hi omnes, constans, sempiterna : quae vocet ad
officiuni jubendo, vetando a fraude deterreat : quae tamen neque
probos frustra jubet, aut vetat, nee improbos jubendo aut vetando
movet. Huic legi nee abrogari fas est, neque derogari ex hac aliquid
licet, neque tota abrogari potest. Nee vero aut per senatum, aut per
populum, solvi hac lege possumus. Neque est qua?rendus explanator;
aut interpres, ejus alius. Nee erit alia lex Roma?, alia Athenis ; alia
nunc, alia posthac ; sed et omnes gentes, et omni tempore una lex, et
sempiterna, et immortalis continebit ; unusque erit communis quasi
magister, et imperator omnium Deus. Pie legis hujus inventor,
disceptator, lator : cui qui non parebit, ipse se fugiet, ac naturam
hominis adspernabitur : atque hoc ipso luet maximas poenas, etiamsi
csetera supplicia, qua? putantur, efTugerit." — Ciceronis Opera, vol. iii,
Venice Edition.

E. Page 36.

The charge against Locke of irreligiousness because he denies the
possibility of innate ideas, might be supposed to find favor with all
those who contend for the natural power of every man to discri
minate between right and wrong. But these do not treat right and
wrong as innate ideas, but ideas presented objectively to the mind, of
which the mind has not only the power, but the original disposition
and bias, to judge. This is conscience, — a particular, connatural,
direction and acting of the human soul. The great author of the
Essay upon Human Understanding has, in this instance, received no
little wrong. It was not to be expected that he should express
himself with all the precision of later writers who have possessed the
double benefit of his experience and their own. To improve upon
an hypothesis is far easier than to originate it. He might be
considered as the enterprising geographer of an unknown country:
subsequent travellers made use of bis map and somewhat corrected
it. And where has ever risen a more generous seeker after truth
than he ? Who ever confessed his errors, when they were proved
against him, so candidly and even contritely? Who ever took such
occasion to revolve and work over again all his opinions and con
clusions ? There is abundant proof, — not that he was invariably
discreet and consistent in his language, — but that in denying the
doctrine of innate ideas he retained the strongest conviction of
primary moral principles. And, first, let him show in his own words
that ideas of sensation were not the whole nor the principal part of

NOTES. 415
those which he ascribes to man. « The mind, receiving the ideas of
sensation from without, when it turns its view inward upon itself
and observes its own action about those ideas it has, takes from thence
other ideas, which are as capable to be the objects of its contem
plation, as any of those it received from foreign things."— Book ii.
chap. 6. Then having defined these ideas of reflection, he anticipates
the view in question thus : " I think they equally forsake the truth,
who running into the contrary extremes, either affirm an innate law,
or deny that there is a law knowable by the light of nature, that is,
without the help of positive revelation." "The visible marks of
extraordinary wisdom and power appear so plainly in all the works
of the creation, that a rational creature, who will but seriously re
flect, cannot miss the discovery of a Deity." " Had they examined
the ways whereby men came to the knowledge of many universal
truths, they would have found them to result in the minds of men.
from the being of things themselves, when duly considered; and
that they were discovered by the appKcation of those faculties, that
were fitted by nature to receive and judge of them, when duly em
ployed about them." — Book i. chap. 4. "There is a law of nature
as intelligible to a rational creature and studier of that law, as the
positive laws of commonwealths." "Reason is natural revelation,
whereby the eternal Father of light and fountain of all knowledge
communicates to mankind that portion of truth which he has laid
within the reach of their natural faculties : revelation is natural
reason enlarged by a new set of discoveries communicated by God
immediately, which reason vouches the truth of by the testimony
and proofs it gives that they come from God. So that he that tak.es
away reason to make way for revelation, puts ont the light of both,
and does much-what the same, as if he would persuade a man to put
out his eyes, the better to receive the remote light of an invisible star
by a telescope." — Book iv. chap. 19. These quotations sufficiently
express the real design and opinions of this great mental analyst,
untoward and infelicitous as are some of his earlier statements and
illustrations. We see throughout the just middle-place of those -who
smile at the conceit of innate ideas, and yet maintain the sound phi
losophy of certain original principles in ' ethics, and of as certain.
connatural perceptions in man.
" History, if I may be allowed the expression, is now a vast museum,
in which specimens of every variety of human nature may be studied-
From these great accessions to knowledge, lawgivers and statesmen,
but, above all, moralists and political philosophers, may reap the most
important instruction. They may plainly discover in all the useful

416 NOTES.
and beautiful variety of governments and institutions, and under all
the fantastic multitude of usages and rites which have prevailed
among men, the same fundamental, comprehensive, truths, the sacred
master-principles which are the guardians of human society, recog
nised and revered (with few and slight exceptions,) by every nation
upon earth, and uniformly taught (with still fewer exceptions,) by a
succession of wise men from the first dawn of speculation to the pre
sent moment. The exceptions, few as they are, will, on more reflec
tion, be found rather apparent than real. If we could raise ourselves
to that height from which we ought to survey so vast a subject, these
exceptions would altogether vanish ; the brutality of a handful of
savages would disappear in the immense prospect of human nature,
and the murmurs of a few licentious sophists would not ascend to
break the general harmony. The consent of mankind in first prin
ciples, and this endless variety in their application, which is one
among many valuable truths which we may collect from our present
extensive acquaintance with the history of man, is itself of vast im
portance. Much of the majesty and authority of virtue is derived
from their consent, and almost the whole of practical wisdom is
founded on their variety." — Mackintosh : Discourse on the Study of
the Law of Nature and Nations.

F. Page 53.
"I am not much concerned to know precisely, what the ancient
Stoic philosophers held concerning fate, in order to determine w-hat
is truth ; as though it were a sure way to be in the right, to take good
heed to differ from them. It seems that they differed among them
selves ; and probably the doctrine of fate, as maintained by most of
them, was, in some respects, erroneous. But whatever their doctrine
was, if any of them held such a fate as is repugnant to any liberty,
consisting in our doing as we please ; I utterly deny such a fate. If
they .held any such fate as is not consistent with the common and
universal notions that mankind have of liberty, activity, moral agency,
virtue, and vice ; I disclaim any such thing, and think that I have
demonstrated, that the scheme I maintain is no such thing. If the
Stoics, by fate meant anything of such a nature as can be supposed
to stand in the way of advantage and benefit of in use of means and
endeavours, or would make it less worth while for men to desire and
seek after anything wherein their virtue and happiness consists ; I
hold no doctrine that is clogged with any such inconvenience, any
more than any other scheme whatsoever ; and by no means so much.

NOTES. 417
as the Arminian scheme of contingence ; as has been shown. If they
held any such doctrine of universal fatality, as is inconsistent with
any kind of liberty, that is or can be any perfection, dignity, privile°-e,
or benefit, or anything desirable, in any respect, for any intelligent
creature, or indeed, with any liberty that is possible or conceivable ; I
embrace no such doctrine. If they held any such doctrine of fate, as is
inconsistent with the world being in all things subject to the disposal of
an intelligent, wise agent, that presides — not as the soul of the world,
but as the Sovereign Lord of the universe, governing all things by
proper will, choice, and design, in the exercise of the most perfect
liberty conceivable, without subjection to any constraint, or being
properly under the power or influence of anything before, above, or
without himself; I wholly renounce any such doctrine." — Edwards
on the Freedom of the Will. Part iv. section 6.
Such is the protest of this mighty man against certain consequences
charged upon his system. If they be justly imputable to his system,
it must bear them : he is acquitted from every intention, every con
sciousness, of entertaining them.
"Aud binding nature fast in fate,
Left free tlie human will."
There is little meaning in these lines of Pope. Perhaps he in
tended what is the constituted state of material things by "nature,"
expressing thus their uniformity, while he conceded to the will a
" freedom" — without which it could not be will. It seems, however,
to be borrowed from a more noble bard ; Shakspeare says : —
" The fated sky
Gives us free scope."— All's well, &c.

G. Page 56.
That Aristotle, especially in the Nicomacha?an Ethics, should, from
occasional expressions, be misconceived on the subject of this immor
tality of the soul, does not surprise ; but his belief of it, if his whole
¦writings be examined, must be admitted. The passage in the 11th
chap, of the first book, which is quoted agamst this conclusion, when
well considered, strongly fortifies it. " MaKKov S' Itrois re Siarropeio-eai
Trepi tovs KeKfJ.7]K6Tas, et Tivos ayadov Koiviovoucriv, i] Ttov avriKeifievcov,
k.t.a. For rather may be properly doubted concerning the state of
the departed, whether they can partake of good or of calamity. For
it seems certain, that if anything did reach them, whether favorable
or adverse, it is impotent and trivial considered in itself, and especially

41 S NOTES.
to them. For such could not be of sufficient power, and of a proper
kind, to make those happy who are not so, or to snatch the blessed
ness from those who are." The argument does not make light of
earthly events ; only, they are considered indifferent to the departed.
But why ? Pecause these are in a state of reward or punishment,
so solemnly engrossing, that earthly good or evil would come alike to
them, since they could not augment the one or relieve the other. A
stronger testimony could not be borne to the immateriality, the
immortality, and the aecountableness, of the separate soul.
Li the same manner the Stagirite seems to have been misunderstood
in his book, De Anima. Some of his arguments would at first point
to the conclusion, that the soul depended, for its existence and exer
cise, upon the body. But he thus often seems to love a conclusion
which opposes his main one. He is not without a vanity in adroitly
meeting and overthrowing his own reasonings. The word which he
employs concerning the soul, in the first chapter of the second book,
just at its close, is Xoipio-rii, separable, that which can exist in itself.
His argument is, that it is not the 'EvreXexeia, the organ or the per
fection of any body. He, like many others, divides the soul as into
parts — theoretic and sensitive. But his whole aim is, to show that
the higher soul has its own operations and affections. And thus in
the fifth chapter of the third book, he speaks in this sort : — " OGtos
d vous xo"Plo~Tbs Kal apuyjis, Kal airaBifS, tj? outria ihv evepyeia : This soul,
self-existible, and unmixed, and impassive, being in its nature active."
He adds, * ' Tovto fi6vov addvarov Kal aifiiov, This alone is deathless and
eternal." The authority of Cicero may be considered inversely to his opinions.
He is the declaimer against the public creed. All his objections tend
to confirm its existence. He endeavoured in vain to overturn it. The
doctrine of the soul's immortality he so attacks, that we must be con
vinced it was popularly held. Even his scornful, unwincing stoicism,
is not always consistent with itself. " Sed ut ilia secunda moderate
tulimus, sic hanc non solum adversam, sed funditus eversam fortunam
fortiter ferre debemus, ut hoc saltern in maximis malis boni conse-
quamur, ut mortem, quam etiam beati contemnere debebamus, prop-
terea quod nullum sensum esset habitura, nunc sic -affecti, non modo
contemnere debeamus, sed etiam optare." Epistola? ad Familiares :
Mescinio, lib. v. So agam, in the sixth book of these epistles, he
writes to Torquatus, after a similar idea : — " Sed haec consolatio levis
est ; ilia gravior, qua te uti spero, ego certe utor : nee enim, dum ero,
angar ulla re, cum omni vacem culpa : et, si non ero, sensu omnino
carebo." These passages may simply refer to the insensateness of

NOTES. 419
death, as we speak of it, who fully believe that the spirit is living
still. They certainly betray some apprehension and suspense. The
bravado ill conceals the cowardice which is at heart.
" The dread of something after death,
Puzzles the will."
But it is not difficult to set him at variance with himself. The
phlegm of the philosopher ill accords with the ardor of the orator,
and the amiableness of the man.
" Quod si omnium consensus, natura? vox est : omnesquc, qui ubique
sunt, consentiunt esse aliquid, quod ad eos pertineat, qui e vita ees-
serint ; nobis quoque idem existimandum est. Et si, quorum aut
ingenio aut virtute animus excellit, eos arbitramur, quia natura
optima sunt, cernere natura? vim maxime : verisimile est, cum optimus
quisque maxime posteritati serviat, esse aliquid, cujus is post mortem
sensum sit habiturus." — Tusc. Quaest. lib. i. cap. 15.
In lamenting the death of Hortensius, he exclaims : — " Summam
ejus felicitatem non satis grato animo interpretamur."
" O pra?clarum diem, cum ad illud divinum animorum concilium
caetumque proficisear, eumque ex hac turba et colluvione discedam !
Proficiscar enim non ad eos solum viros, de quibus ante dixi ; sed
etiam ad Catonem meum, quo nemo vir melior natus est, nemo pietate
pra?stantior : cujus a me corpus crematum est ; quod contra decuit, ab
illo meum. Animus vero non me deserens, sed respectans, in ea pro-
fecto loca discessit, quo mihi ipsi cernebat esse veniendum. Quem
ego meum casum fortiter ferre visus sum : non quod a?quo animo
ferrem ; sed me ipse consolabar, existimans, non longinquum inter
nos digressum et discessum fore." — Cicero, De Senectute : ad fin.
" $uxal yap ptifivovcriv b,KT]pioi ev QjBifjevoitTi.
Tlvevpia ydp effri Qeov xpy°~ls BvnToicrt Kal eiKiov.
2aj/ua ydp eK yarns exopiev, Kal navres es avT-nv
Av6p.evoi k6vis ecrpiev' o.-qp 8' ava Trveufj,a SedeKrai.
Uavres tcroL veKves' fyux&v Se ®ebs fiaffiKeuei.
Koiva pieAadpa SdfjMV aiu)via, Kal -rarpts aSrjs.
Suvbs X-^P0S airacri, Trevncri re Kal f3acri\evt7iv.
. Oil T-oXiiv Hvdpa-roi fafiev XP^ov, aAA' er-'iKaipov
^vx^f 8' adavaros Kal ayhptos £rf Siajr-avrds."
Phocylides : Poeta? Mmores Graeci.
" Souls uncorrupted live, howe'er we die,—
The gift and image of the Deity.
From earth we come, our bodies turn to'nought,
Dissolved in dust,— the soul high heaven has caught!

420 NOTES.
Equal all parted souls ! 'neath Cod's command,
Common their endless home and native land;
A meeting-place for paupers and for kings.
Short is the time we live, but still it brings
Important seasons on its rapid way —
The soul, undying, towers beyond decay!"
Lanctantius argues the eternity of the soul. In his De Divino Praemio
— which is the seventh book of his Divine Institutions — chap. 9, he
argues from many proofs, its indissolubleness. Li the thirteenth
chapter, he says — " Declaravi (ut opinor) animam non esse solu-
bilem : superest, citare testes, quorum authoritate argumenta firmentur.
Neque nunc prophetas in testimonium vocabo, quorum ratio et divi-
natio in hoc solo posita est, ut ad cultum Dei, et ad immortalitatem
ab eo accipicndam creari hominem doceant ; sed eos potius, quibus
istos qui respuunt vcritatem, credere sit necesse."

H. Page 102.

"In verisimilibus, et in propriis rerum'notis posita est tota (con-
jectura.) Sed appellemus docendi gratia verisimile, quod plerumque
ita fiat. . . . Verisimilia reperiuntur ex partibus, et quasi membris
narrationis. Ea sunt in personis, in locis, in temporibus, in factis, in
eventis, in rerum ipsarum negotiorumque naturis. In personis natura?
primum spectantur, valetudinis, figura?, virium, aetatis, marium, foemi-
narum ; atque ha?c quidem in corpore : animi autem, ant quemad
modum affecti sunt, virtutibus, vitiis, artibus, inertiis ; aut quemad
modum commoti, cupiditate, metu, voluptate, molestia. Atque ha?c
quidem in natura spectantur. In fortuna, genus, amicitia?, liberi,
propinqui, affines, opes, honores, potestates, divitife, libertas, et ea,
qua? sunt iis contraria. . . . Verisimilia autem partim singula
movent suo pondere : partim, etiam si videntur esse exigua per se,
multum tamen, cum sunt coacervata, proficiunt. Atque in his veri
similibus insunt nonnunquam etiam certa? rerum et propria? nota?.
Maximum autem facit fidem ad similitudineni veri, primum exem
plum ; deinde introducta rei similitudo ; fabula etiam nonnunquam,
etsi sit incredibilis, tamen hommes commovet." — Cicero : Oratoria?
Partitiones, cap. 10, 11.
It is plain that analogy to our minds intends far more than verisi
militude so eloquently described in the above passages. The reason,
however, is, that we apply it to a theme which Tully could not
understand. He beheld but one system, the great physical one, — he
knew not that system of revelation which, by an extension of his
principles, we bring into comparison with the previous order of

NOTES. 4-.J 1
things, relieving it of all peculiar difficulties by resting it upon uni
versal grounds.
In the same manner the Magister propounds his purpose in the
Tusculan Questions : " Geram tibi morem, et ea qua? vis, ut potero,
explicabo : nee tamen quasi Pythius Apollo, certa ut sint et fixa,
qua? dixero : sed ut homunculus unus e multis, probahilia conjectura
sequens. Ultra enim quo progrediar, quam ut veri videam similia, non
habeo." Lib. i. cap. 9. I. Page 106.
Illustrations will recur to the memory of every classical scholar :
the following selections are confined to the main argument, that there
is a natural and eternal morality, which the mind of man is formed
to approve : " Etfjoi £uveirf tpepovn fioipa to.v
Evcre-rrov ayveiav X6yu>v
Epywv re iravroiv, tbv vSpioi lrpoKelvrai
Ytj/n-oBes y3 oupavlav 8t aiBepa
TeKvioOevres' 3>v OXufxtros
Harfyp fj.6vos, ouSe viv Bvara.
Averts avepiov eriKrev, ovSe
M-nv -rore Adda KaraKoiptatret.
Meyas ev tovtois Qeos,
OvSe yripatTKet." Soph. : CEd. Tyr. 881, &c.
" May the happy destiny be mine which bears with it that pious
reverence in all words and deeds, which the transcendent laws, bom
of the highest heaven, prescribe ! They owe their origin to God
alone ! The mortal nature of man could not suggest them, nor can
they sink into oblivion. Deity greatly moves in all of them, — he
who grows not old ! "
" Ou ydp Ti fioi Zevs l\v o Krfpu£as rdfie,
Ou5' tj ^vvoikos twv Karat Qeatv AiKrf," k.t.X.
Soph. : Antig. 456, &c.
The following translation is from Potter. It is the answer of
Antigone to the question of Creon, How she could dare to transgress
the laws ? "For this just cause, that nor the voice of Jove,
Nor holy Eight, that with the gods below
Inhabits, e'er to men such laws ordained.
Nor of such force thy edicts did I deem,
That, mortal as thou art, thou hast the power
To overthrow the firm unwritten laws
Of the just gods; these are not of to-day,
Or yesterday, but through all ages live,
And none know whence they sprung."

i'2'2 NOTES.
In the Prometheus of jEschylus, the hero vents his proud com
plaints against Jupiter as an innovator and usurper, ruling by new
laws, and abolishing the things which were formerly venerable :
" irplv TeAojpta."
The words which the Pagan Ethical writers employ, evince their
nice sense of obligation : irpoCTa-ro'-o, Set, avayKafa, dcpelXai, XPV- —
oportet, eonvenio, deceo, — dulce, decorum, necessarium.
The Greek VvZixai would supply abundant illustrations.

J. Page 121.

Few writers have so boldly impugned the Physical Immortality of
man as Edmund Law, formerly Bishop of Carlisle, in his " Nature
and End of Death under the Christian Covenant." His argument is
based upon the supposed knowledge which certain parties possessed
of death in their times, and upon the assumed completeness of the
different relations made to them. Thus it is asked : What could
Adam understand by its denunciation ? It must, it is answered, have
been understood by him that the whole man, individual, person, or
being, at death returned to the dust or ground from whence he was taken.
Now this we are prepared to contest. The wonderful formation of
man belies the opinion. He is made like none other creature. He
is constituted after the Divine image. God breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life. He became rrn m-d;'}. He was not, in his high
est constituent, taken from the ground. It is in vain to allege that,
three times in the following narrative of the deluge, the inferior ani
mals are classed with man as under a common description, — " wherein
is the breath of life." This equal vital condition is not questionedi
and is naturally introduced where there was to be an indiscriminate
judgement. " For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth
beasts : as the one dieth, so dieth the other : yea they have all one
breath." Notwithstanding, let us see that the cases be fairly stated.
The breath of life in man is conveyed by a different word from that
which expresses the breath of the beast. There may, perhaps, be
little force in the difference : * but is not the immediate agency of
Deity in this inspiration most marked ? — " There is a spirit in man :
and the inspiration of the Almighty hath given them understanding."
Is he thus described as acting towards the breathing animals ? — Is
not the doom of man abhorrent to all the auguries which such a cre-
* Yet it is not of our imagination. "S*: Anima, sed humana tantum."— Buxtorf.
See Gesenius und Taylor. Prov. xx. 27; Psa. cl. 6 ; Isa. lvii. 16. In Genesis vii. 22. we
have both words combined, because man and all other tribes are comprehended.

NOTES. 423
ative process suggests ? The hypothesis leaves out all the revelations
which must have been made to man. The history is confessedly in
outline. But is nothing to be supplied ? He was, on every admis
sion, in some sort the representative of his species. AVas he left in
ignorance of this ? Was such an issue of his probation concealed
from him ? Could he have remained uninformed of his power over
all, and the secret of that power ? Was he unconscious of reason ?
Did he not discern his exclusive faculty of speech ? Could disobedi
ence entail, to his apprehension, nothing more than annihilation?
Was he not cognizant of that which we know as sin ? Were no fears
of his Maker's displeasure on his mind? Does not subsequent dis
closure render this certain ? Was not his punishment a long antici
pation of death? Still death was the only commination. Nothing
more was verbally pronounced. We give no weight to the double
form of the curse : nian nio, Dying thou shalt die. It is but an eva
sion of an idiom to describe it as implying more than the certitude of
the law. Thus gi-j is reduplicated in Gen. xxxvii. 33, and properly
rendered, " without doubt rent in pieces." Another example is pre
sented in Exodus xxi. 19, where the repetition of nb-|< is rightly trans
lated, " shall be thoroughly healed." They who think that they find
in the phrase, " dying thou shalt die," any recondite meaning, must
do it at the expense of criticism. But it is plain, that the sentence
' as to death, in the common sense of mortality, was delayed for cen
turies. Yet was death to be certainly inflicted as soon as the day of
transgression. In the interval of these centuries we think that it was,
in a new mental state which was superinduced. The nature of man
had fallen. We see that new tendency in compliance with which
"all flesh corrupted his way." We find, in subsequent Scriptures,
such a state described as death, quite compatible with all the func
tions of life and mainly consisting in their misdirection and abuse.
The continuation of such a state is not impossible, for it is independent
of mortality, being precedent to it ; and, therefore, after mortality, it
may proceed, being at least as possibly independent as it was before.
The whole account, we conclude, is decisive of a spiritual and future
death, besides the bodily disorganisation. — The treatise which follows
this work as an Appendix, proceeds on a most uncritical and illogical
prmciple. The exegesis of Scripture is conducted by instituting in
quiry into what certain parties understood. We defer that the proper
course would be the value of the terms themselves, and the order of
facts which they express. Most limited would be the discoveries of
revelation if such an exponent were applied to them. They are uni
formly progressive. " The Scripture foresees." When they respect

424 NOTES.
facts, the facts are necessarily the same beneath the most different
degrees of information. "Life and incorruption " we believe were
always true of man : Christ hath ' ' brought them to light by his
Gospel." Examples may be given of this most gratuitous criticism. "Soul
is often put for person." It is, but only as we understand person for
individualised man. Does this disprove that he has a soul ? Is not
the presumption strong that he is so entitled on account of this his
superior portion of being ? Thus the " souls " of which we read,
when large numbers are affirmed, are distinguished from substance
and goods. Doubtless, and most properly, it often describes a man's
self. What is the man, but the soul ? When it is said to hunger, to
thirst, to be made full or empty, these phrases represent affections
peculiar to it. When it is " cut off," it is its decease or separation.
When it is " lost," it is its abuse and abandonment, ire: is some
times employed to denote the human body, and even after death; but
then it is by a catachresis, u frame which was lately inhabited by a
soul. But we must remember that there is a " soul " which " man
cannot kill," though sometimes it may be confounded with simple
life ; that " the spirits of just men are made perfect in the heavenly
Jerusalem;" that "the souls of them who were beheaded for the
witness of Jesus are under the altar." Moreover, we must not forget
the contradistinction so frequently supposed : " the fruit of the body
for the sin of the soul ;'' " the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak;"
" the unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she
may be holy, both in body and sphit ;" " abstain from fleshly lusts,
which war agamst the soul ;" " that thou mayest prosper and be in
health, even as thy soul prospereth." And yet this Author denie9
that ever in Scripture there is language which stands for a purely
immaterial principle, or for a principle which can subsist in a separa
tion from the flesh !
A most palpable " petitio principii " is attempted by this prevari
cating writer in his account of the descriptions of death in the Bible.
It is called " sleep," "silence," "forgetfulness," "darkness," "cor
ruption," " destruction." But then this only describes the body,
exanimate and buried. So, likewise, the passages wliich represent
the superior glory of the resurrection epoch are bent against any
happiness immediate on death. Because of the greater consumma
tion, the less is to be altogether denied. Too much stress cannot be
laid upon that final triumph : but it is unreasonable that an inferior
good, great in itself, should be disallowed.
The method which is pursued by the following parts of the treatise

NOTES. 4vi5
to impugn the intermediate existence and consciousness of the de
parted soul, is of that order which an obstinate, a reckless, main
tenance of a favorite tenet only can produce. "The spirit that
ascends unto God who gave it," in opposition to " the dust which
returns to the earth as it was," " the spirit of man that goeth up
ward," in opposition to "the spirit of the beast that goeth downward
to the earth," is simple life ! How is it, then, that, perishing with
the body, it thus mounts ? One more instance of garbling may be
extracted. " To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." The writer
was too discreet to give the period to the preceding language : ' ' Verily
I say unto thee to-day." But he affirms that it is a common idiom
for anything fixed and done. " Hear, O Israel, thou art to pass over
Jordan this clay." "That He may establish thee to-day for a people
unto him.'' " This day have I begotten thee." Now the Hebrew-
word, nvn, may signify, at this time, it was then, in that juncture, that
Israel was to enter Canaan which they had before approached, but
were not suffered until now to cross its river boundary, and that they
were confirmed anew as a peculiar people. But ~Siipiepov is more
literally precise. It occurs twenty-nine times in the New Testament.
Always does it express what is true, real, at the actual instant. Now
what sense could it convey alone to the mind of the suppliant r He
implores to be "remembered of Christ when He should have come
into his kingdom." The answer is, that "to-day" he should be
admitted into paradise. Was such a fitting term to signify that in
the resurrection, he should enjoy that blessedness ? that when thou
sands of years, still to come, had expired, the suit should be granted ?
This is the torture, or burlesque, of philology.
The degrading theory of absolute and relative time is urged as to
many instances in which an immediate happiness, according to the
sense of ordinary language, is interpreted as of a most remote future.
The rigid conceit is used that there can be no delay nor loss where
all is unconscious, — that ages maybe taken from a human being, and
can constitute no subtraction if he be unaware ! Let it be remem
bered that all this insensibility is not regarded by the theory as any
detriment or incapacity. The extinction of life and thought is sur
veyed with no dislike. It is treated as a matter of the most unmoved
indifference. Nay, that hardihood of assertion may not be spared,
the bishop avows his principle to be, "that the times of our death
and resurrection are really coincident ! !"
It is mortifying to find on the same side Archbishop Whately.
" The long and dreary interval, then, between death and the day of
judgement (supposing the intermediate state to be a profound sleep),

426 NOTES.
does not exist at all, except to the imagination : to the party con
cerned there is no interval whatever ; but to each person (according
to this supposition) the moment of his closing his eyes in death, will
be instantly succeeded by the sound of the last trumpet, which shall
summon the dead ; even though ages shall have intervened. And in
this sense the faithful Christian may be, practically, in "paradise the
day he dies." This prelate's mind lead him to detect fallacies in
logic, and to strike out single principles, and this task he achieves
most felicitously. But there is often a strangely inconsistent love of
novelty, and even of paradox, in his writings. The want of synthetic
power is his intellectual defect. He never wields great and general
truths. His spirit seems made for exceptions. There is a species of
gladiatorship, more nimble than brawny and agonistic. The most
painful thing in his literary history,— none other is adjudged, — is,
that he constantly contends with his own admissions, that his pre
misses would naturally place him in the very opposite to his conclu
sions, and that his vigorous eccentricities seem so frequently at vari
ance with his avowed creed and position.

K. Page 132.
It might not be just to leave unnoticed the recent publication of
Professor Bush, of New York University, entitled " Anastasis ; or the
Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Body, rationally and scripturally
considered." It is of a very speculative character. It greatly vitiates
its own professed design, as well as its proper business, by foreclosing
the argument. He would show that the popular doctrine was impos
sible. Now we know not what is the possibleness, or impossibility
a priori, of any physical arrangement. Mathematical and moral im
possibles may be affirmed. But why should this " be thought incre
dible ?" Our Lord referred all its supposed difficulties, as they exist
in our minds, to a twofold ignorance : — " Ye do err, not knowing the
Scriptures nor the power of God." He rests its veritableness on the
one, and its simple accomplishment on the other. It may be remarked
that this volume states the doctrine as few would consent to do. His
countryman, President Davies, may have thrown it into grotesque,
as may our poet Young ; but simple Christians hold not themselves
responsible. He makes his theme, " the resurrection of the body,"
and thus comments on an uninspired phrase. Creeds may enunciate
it, but the Bible does not. We profess the resurrection of the dead.
We believe that this includes a material re-integration, but we do
not ask, " With what body do they come r" Man shall be restored.

NOTES. 427
An objection, rather too antiquated, is pressed with all the ardor of
a new thought, of a mental surprise,— that which respects every pro
cess of decomposition, " in nova mutatas formas corpora." lie ought
to have understood philosophic identity better. This is the great
assault. We go to Revelation after this in vain. For it can avouch
no impossibility. Its authority, therefore, is worthless. A more
palpable ignoratio elenchi cannot be conceived. As a specimen of the
reckless manner of this author, we may mention the following. It
has ever been accounted a just defiance of the impugners of our Lord's
resmTection, that they should produce the body which was crucified
and entombed. If he had not risen, this was the easiest of all con
tradictions. The Professor might consider himself pressed in the
same manner. Denying that Christ arose in a material body, he is
challenged to say, what happened to that true body ? He does not
know ! " An act of omnipotence may have removed it from the
tomb !" — According to this theory, " the resurrection is past already,"
in respect of the righteous dead. Death liberates from them " a
spiritual body," as well as the reasoning soul. What that is we are
not told. It is not the spirit, but something extraneous to it. Be it
film or pellicle of light, it is only a refined conformity to what is not
itself. Here, then, however subtilized, is a material integument after
all ! How httle has been gained ! Who thinks it gross ? a flesh
and blood ? — who gives up the belief of "the spiritual body?" — who
has a right to found an exclusive opinion upon it ? The censure of
Bliimenbach upon another theory would scarcely be too summary for
this ; " That which is true is not new, and that which is new is not
true." The whole seems conceived in the school of Swedenborg.
The words of Barrow may be applied to all such speculations :
"The mere permanency of our souls in being and life could not,
(with any propriety or truth) be called a resurrection, — that which
had never fallen, could not be said to be raised again ; that which did
never die, could not be restored from death ; nor could men be said
to rise again, but in respect to that part which had fallen, or that
state which had ceased to be." — Sermons and Expositions upon all
the Articles in the Apostles' Creed.
The title of the book, which we shall not any further consider,
suggests to us an important criticism. 'Avdcrracris occurs about thirty
times in the New Testament. Scarcely in any instance does it neces
sarily refer to the resurrection of the body. Its radical idea is, re-in-
statement — its sacred application is, to manhood as it shall integrally
exist after death is destroyed. It expresses the proper immortality
of our nature. Resurrection is only the means to it, not itself. It is

428 NOTES.
not in the literal resurrection, that our Lord intends that " they marry
not, nor are given in marriage," but in that state which is consequent
on it. The Sadducee denied the after-life altogether, and only the
literal resurrection inclusively. The recompense which is given "in
the resurrection of the just," points not to that act and "moment,"
but to a condition which follows it. " That world ' ' is associated with
" the resurrection from (ek) the dead." It is one and the same. The
word is not necessarily used in » good sense. There is the full
recovery of being for judgement, as well as life. The interpretation
of the word, as it is repeated by our Lord, just before he raised
Lazarus from the grave, depends upon his own idea. That is given
in a way that precludes the supposition that he expressed by it the
forthcoming miracle, or the literal notion of a bodily resurrection.
It is the highest, the perennial, existence — the final reclamation of
his saints — who, in dying, hve only more intensely and more death-
lessly, — which he converts into a title and a name. The idea of Martha
is quite indecisive as to the point, and indeed seems set aside by our
Lord, as unworthy of his glorious purpose. — The apostles were not
strictly witnesses of Christ's "resurrection," but subsequent proofs
demonstrated to them the fact ; " He showed himself ahve." David
prophesying of " the resurrection of Christ,'' speaks of the ultimate
life, that he liveth for evermore, — "how Ms soul was not left in hades,
neither did his flesh see corruption." The anger of the priests at
Jerusalem was excited, because, "through Jesus the apostles preached
the resurrection from the dead :" nor less was the contempt of the
philosophers at Athens provoked, because Paul combined "Jesus and
the resurrection." Both Stoic and Epicurean held light, and generally
denied, any future existence. — Sometimes the word is employed where
there'can be no such allusion ; "This child is set for the fall and rising
again of man;' in Israel :" sometimes, where there is allusion only ;
"The first resurrection." We argue from this collation, that Ana-
stasis, in nearly all instances, while supposing literal resurrection,
does not formally express it, but its sequel. Another term is em
ployed by Scripture, when the thought is limited to bodily resurrec
tion, 'Eyeipa. The substantive formed from it, iyepais, is given to
the immediate resurrection of Christ; Matt, xxvii. 53. This may
have the most common application, whenever it is said — Arise, he
arose, the tempest arose — yet one idea is preserved. Death casts
down. In the conquest of death, there is "lifting up." We mark
the following references in proof. — Matt. viii. 15 ; ix. 25 ; x. 8 ; xi.
5; xii. 41; xiv. 2; xvi. 21; xxvi. 32; xxvii. 52. Luke vii. 14;
viii. 54 ; xx. 37 ; xxiv. 6, 34. John ii. 19, 22 ; v. 21 ; xii. 1 ; xxi.

notes. 429

14. Acts iv. 10 ; x. 40 ; xxvi. 8. Rom. iv. 24, 25 ; viii. 11, 34 ;
x. 9. 1 Cor. xv. passim. 2 Cor. v. 15. Galat. i. 1. Eph. i. 2o!
Colos. ii. 12. Heb. xi. 19. It is evident, therefore, from this mul
tiplicity of authorities, by no means all which might be collected,
that iyeipa more commonly denotes the act of resurrection, and that
avdaraais expresses the idea of the renewal of the whole man, as
existing in the eternal future after it.

L. Page 167.
Calvin may be consulted on the subject of Rewards, in his Insti
tutes, book iii. chapter 18. It may be doubted, however, if he argues
here with his wonted acumen. " One objection, however, which
has some semblance of reason, it will be proper to dispose of in pass
ing, lest it give any trouble to those less experienced. As common
sense dictates that contraries must be tried by the same rule, and as
each sin charged against us is unrighteousness, so it is right (say our
opponents) that each good wrork should receive the praise of right
eousness. The answer which some give, that the condemnation of
men proceeds on unbelief alone, and not on particular sins, does not
satisfy me. . . . But as they seem to hold that, in estimating right
eousness and unrighteousness, the same rule is to be applied to good
and bad works, in this I dissent from them " ! ! His sophism (" Let
all things be done without partiality") is, that universal obedience is
necessary for justification, and not one good or more, which a single
act of disobedience condemns. This is truth, but not that which is
hi debate. The question — it is hypothetical, because no one good
work will stand by itself, or remain alone — respects a really good
work. There can be but an exclusive standard. By this, each action,
according to its quality, receives praise or dispraise. The real point
of justification is not at all involved. Nor can we admire his equivocal
statements as to the reasons why Rewards are mentioned. " That
the godly may not fail in their great straits the Lord is present, re
minding them to lift their head higher, and extend their view farther,
that in Him they may find a happiness which they see not in the
world : to this happiness he gives the name of reward ; how, recom
pense ? not as estimating the merit of works, but intimating that it is
a compensation for their straits, sufferings, and affronts." But we
should venture to reply, that it is not competent for us to suppose
that rewards are adduced in any but the common sense ; we must
think that those of righteousness and unrighteousness respect the
things themselves. A more healthy sentiment is found in the follow-

430 NOTES.
ing passage : " But though it is by mercy alone that God admits his
people to hfe, yet, as he leads them into possession of it by the course
of good works, that he may complete his work in them, in the order
which he has destined, it is not strange that they are said to be
crowned according to their works, since by these doubtless they are
prepared for receiving the crown of immortality."
" As to the other ground of this doubt," (that intuition to a reward
is unwarrantable and servile,) " there can only be a fear of sinning,
upon this account, to them that make more sins and duties than God
hath made. The doubt supposes religion inconsistent with humanity;
and that God were about to rase out of the nature of man, one of the
most radical and fundamental laws written there — a desire of bless
edness : — and supposes it agamst the express scope and tenor of his
whole Gospel revelation. For what doth that design, but to bring
men to blessedness ? And how is it a means to compass that design,
but as it tends to engage men's spirits to design it too ? .... It
is the mistaking of the notion of heaven, that hath also an ingredi-
ency in this doubt, if it be really a doubt. What ! is it a low thing
to be filled with the Divine fulness ? to have his glory replenishing
our souls ? to be perfectly freed from sin ': in everything conformed
unto his holy nature and will ? That our minding our interest in
earthly affairs, should be the principal thing with us, is not to be
thought : our supreme end must be the same with his, who made
all things for himself; of whom, through whom, and to whom, all
things are, that he alone might have the glory. But subordinates
need not quarrel. A lower end doth not exclude the higher, but
serves it ; and is, as to it, a means. God is our end, as he is to be
glorified and enjoyed by us : our glorifying him, is but the agnition
of his glory ; which we do most in beholding and partaking it ;
which is therefore in direct subordination thereto." — John Howe:
Blessedness of the Righteous.
" Hence we discern the futility of the objection against the doctrine
of future rewards, drawn from an apprehension, that to be actuated
by such a motive, argues a mean and mercenary disposition ; since
the reward to which we aspire, in this instance at least, grows out of
the employment in which we are engaged, and will consist in enjoy
ments which can only be felt and perceived by a refined and elevated
sphit. The success of our undertaking will, in reality, reward itself,
by the complete gratification it will afford to the sentiments of devo
tion and benevolence which, in their highest perfection form the
principal ingredient in future felicity. To have co-operated in any
degree towards the accomplishment of that purpose of the Deity, to

NOTES. 431
reconcile all things to himself, by reducing them to the obedience of
his Son, which is the ultimate end of all his works ; to be the means
of recovering, though it were but an inconsiderable portion of a
lapsed and degenerate race, to eternal happiness, will yield a satisfac
tion exactly commensurate to the force of our benevolent sentiments,
and the degree of our loyal attachment to the supreme Potentate."
Robert Hall: Encouragements and Supports ofthe Christian Minister.

M. Page 254.
Blanco White, speaking of a sentiment in Dr. Woodward's Ser
mons, viz., that God cannot prevent all evil, says, " It is demonstrable
that such a Being is not God. It may be a Jupiter Optimus Maxi
mus, subject to fate ; but God, the Supreme, he is not. The original
idea of God is inseparable from that of unhmitedness. Man is con
scious of his own limited existence | and, without the necessity of a
logical inference, perceives, in his own hmitation, the existence of
the unlimited that limits him. Dr. W.'s God must be limited in
regard to his power over evil, by one greater than he. That Limit-
mg-Unlimited is God. H Dr. W. does not perceive the force of this
demonstration, he isincapable of abstract philosophical reasoning." —
Life, &c, vol. iii. p. 13. This paragraph is quoted, not for the pur
pose of contradicting the general reasoning on which it is founded.
That is taken from Suabedissen's Principles of Philosophical Reh
gion. A creature feels limited ; he would be, perchance, unlimited
or at least less limited ; he is limited by his nature, or by the con
ditions of that nature ; he does not limit himself, his Creator has
limited him ; the existence of that Creator is proved by this limiting
power : he must be, therefore, unlimited. To ali this we do not
object. Let, however, the spirit of this paragraph be considered.
That holy regard to character and principle which every virtuous
being acknowledges, is denied to the Deity. We never honor our
selves more than when we say that we cannot do evil, cannot speak
falsely, cannot act dishonorably. God is a Creator ; he has formed
creatures with faculties of reason and choice. God is a Moral Governor;
he rules those creatures by laws urged with rewards and punishments.
Could He make rational creatures otherwise than free ? or being free,
otherwise than accountable ? Evil must then be allowed, ex-hypo-
thesi, a possible existence. — According to the sophistical and profane
reasoning, the means which God morally employs to resent and
counterwork evil are proofs of his limitation. This is, indeed, to
"limit the Holy One !" How grossly materialised, how senselessly

432 ¦ NOTES.
mechanical, are all these ideas of power ! The moral rectitude of
the Deity is not even surmised.

N. Page 303.
So often is the word altivtos brought into this controversy, and so
great importance really attaches to it, that it is proper to give a
larger attention to it, than could be very easily or popularly devoted
to it in the text. Its true composition and derivation are found in
two words, ael, an adverb — always, — and 3>v, the present participle of
el/A, — lam. Outria, essence, a phrase so much employed by the Greek
philosophical writers, is little varied from the feminine of 3>v, odtra.
Aion is borrowed from it to denote a class of mythological powers ;
and the Latin word azvum, age, is also taken from it, the digamma
passing through the iEolic dialect into the Roman v. In the forma
tion of a'tav and altivtos, we are not left to our fancy. Aristotle
furnishes ns with its definition and its history. In the ninth chapter
of the first book, Tlepl Qvpavov, speaking of Deity and celestial intel
ligences, he says : "TV apiar^v exovra |r»})y -ral avTapKeo-Tarifv, Sio-
TeXeirbv arravra Aliiva, k.t.X. These possessing a most excellent and
self-sufficient life endure to all eternity. For this word has been
divinely or inspiredly enounced by the ancients. For the term
which includes the sum of every man's life, though according to the
most ordinary tenor of nature, is cahed his al&v. For the same
reason, the consummation of the whole heaven and that which con
tains endless time, even very infinity, is properly its Aiav ; for taking its
actual name from ceaseless existence, d-rb tou ael elvai, it is immortal
and divine, aBdvaros Kal Beios." We find this collocation very fre
quently. In Plato, in the tenth Book of the Republic, we find it
twice in the same sentence : " SijAoi' bri aviyKn abrb aei ov eivai' ei 5'
itei ov, aBdvarov. It is obvious that this must necessarily be always
existing, but that which is ever existent is immortal." The ov is the .
neuter of Sv ; and though not in compound, the constituents are in
immediate juxta-position.
It is no reply that alSv often, in the classical writers, means no
more than human life. In Homer this is clearly the case when \puxv
is joined with it. Iliad, b. xvi. In the Fragment of Philoctetes by
Euripides, we read, ' Ave-rvevtrev alava. Sometimes it is personified :
Aiiov K.p6vov i-ais. Eurip. Heraclida?. In^Eschylus, we find, aiava
rrapBeviov, aicova evrrorfiov, aldvos xpovov. In the last, the phrase rises
in value, " Who, save the gods, is happy all the time of his life? "
Then it might express the duration of the gods. Ai' atwvos means,

NOTES. 433
continually : Choeph. JloXuBprfvov alcova, would be well translated, an
age of woe : Agamem. Aristotle, as we see, admits that it expresses
simple life. We have marked, nevertheless, how much more it can
convey and is employed to signify. Our reference is to classical
authorities for illustration and defence. But they are of little weight
in our application of the question. We might find some later Greek
writers employ aixv to give the sense of a mark, and even of the spinal
marrow. Our demand is, What is its radical idea? It invariably
expresses duration. It may be short or long, just as the subject may
be. Human life as to its period, divine life in its immortality, are
alike its powers. And still our more immediate question is, What
is its force in Scripture ? It may take a new or, at least, a stronger,
sense, like some of its other appropriated words. Three peculiarities
of its inspired use we must notice. AiW is never employed to denote
human life, though this is its most common pagan acceptation. Its
frequent government by eis, is as peculiar. It occurs nowhere else,
though an aiavas is not an infrequent form, and though the Latins
used it, — " in omne volubilis aevum." Nor less strange is its almost
constant reduplication, rovs aiijcvas tojv aiiovoiv. This latter phrase is
always rendered in the Latin liturgies, secula seculorum. No canon
is more just than this, — where aliitv respects the limited in time, it is
itself limited in idea ; when it respects the boundless in duration, it
is itself of boundless idea. Most commonly it is applied to a state
of things subsequent to the judgement; after "the last day," when
" time shall be no longer." Then is eternity. It is as to this dread
duration that the word is fully and naturaUy applied.
Perhaps it may be right to notice a counter-argument raised upon
this reduplication. AiSiv, it is mooted, must be definite, or it would
not admit of it. Why repeat what it might express alone ? " Ages
of ages" can only be successions of defmites. We reply, that we rest
not the defence of its eternal meaning on the reduplication. It may
be a rhetorical pleonasm. It may be a Hebraistic superlative and
intensitive. The eternal idea is in the singular form of the word, and
is not strengthened by its plural or its reiteration. But this manner
may more strongly deliver it. When we say, ever, for ever, we mean
eternal. Yet we often reduphcate it : for ever and ever, ever and
aye. What reasoning would that be, which denied taut for ever could
intend eternal, because we said, for ever and ever ? which pleaded
that we could not deem the one sufficient, or that otherwise we should
not utter it again? which tortured the first into necessary limitation
from such practice, and then deduced that the second could only
pledge a continuance of limitations?
XII. F F

484 NOTES.
The reader may be referred, in order to facilitate his inquiries, to
Stephens' Thesaurus. One striking selection may be quoted : it is
taken from Philo, De Mundo : " Ev aiavi Se oure -rapeXrfAvBev ovSev,
ovre pieAAei, aXXa puivov v-pe-rrrfKe." Nor must we forget Suicer's
Thesaurus Ecclesiasticus, e Patribus Graecis. One of his selections
may be cited here. Theodoretus being referred to on Heb. xi. 3,
calling " ' O oei av," Damascenus is described as saying, though much
is the same as Gregory Nyssen gives in his Thirty-sixth Oration :
il Aeyerai aiwv, ov XP0J/0S- ovSe XP0V0V tI MePos> ifXiov tpopa Kal Spofiaj
fj.eTpovp.evov , ijyovv 5t* rifiepwv Kal vvktcov ffvviffTatxevov, aXXa to avfj-ra-
peKreivofievov tois aioiois, olov ti xpoviKOV Kivrffia Kal 8iao~TT}pia dwep yap
tois v-ro XPOVOV ° XP0V0S- tovto tois a'tStois ecTTiv auov."
Passow, as a Greek Lexicographer, is the highest authority of our
day. He translates Aidvios by the strongest explanations of his
language, Smmertucitjreiit', Bluig. An excehent dictionary has been
formed upon his work in our language, by Liddel and Scott. These
writers give alavo^ios, which he also gives, but they supply the au
thority of the Rosetta Stone. Two other compounds are furnished
by them, aiavoroKos, Synesius, Parent of eternity, and aiavoxapris,
Clemens Alexandrinus, Rejoicing in eternity.
Than this word there is none so significant and forcible. It would
be found that, araAevrrfTos, aKardXvTOS, &-ravo'Tos, ooiroTe, ^vSeAexys,
aSidXet-TTos, and other terms, were deficient and feeble in those awful
connexions in which Scripture employs that which we now attempt
to vindicate.
In the text a reference has been made to the use of this word by
the Christian Greek writers. Justin may be quoted with this parti
cular view. He must have been very conversant with this language, —
its philosophy, and genius. The fohowing citations, quite distinct
from each other, are out of his Dialogue with Trypho. " Ta atwvia
StKaia., These everlasting laws," opposed to those which are cecono-
mical and temporary. " Mern touto (x'Aio €T7j) aitiviav SptoBvfiaSbv
apia iravToiv avdaratriv, After these, — namely, the thousand years, —
the universally-allowed eternal after-life of ah." " Airb rov vuv Kal
kus tov aitivos, From now, and until, or through, eternity."
It may just be observed that a?ternus is often used in an inferior
sense by the classics. To go no farther than Horace, " Serviet a?ter-
num." But does he mean no more when he speaks " jEterna?
Vesta??" Or Virgil, " Gleba selenium frangenda." But does he
mean no more in his descriptions of Jupiter,
. ..." 0, qui res homimrmque Deumque
Jiternls regis imperiis ? "

NOTES. 135
And of Cerberus, ' ' Sternum latrans ? " Justified by this authority,
the earliest Latin Christian writers seek no other word, for then-
strongest idea : in a?ternum. Surely Lanctantius knew how it might
be applied, a man who wrote on the immortality of the soul : " Colunt ;
ut mercedem immortalitatis accipiant ; accipiunt immortalitatem, ut
in aeternum Deo serviant."— Epitome : cap. 69. Routh's Script.
Eccles. Opuseula.

O. Page 307.

The original stands thus, " Kal aireAeu<roi/Ta[ outoi eis K6Aatrtv
aidviov ol Se SiKatoi els (a>yv altiviov." — Matt. xxv. 46. To every one
who reads these words without prejudice, they must declare the
equal duration of both awards. Yet an objection has been raised,
founded upon the conjunction, 5e. It is urged that this establishes a
difference in the duration. But while a difference is supposed, it is
not in the predicate, which is one, but in the respective subjects.
The K6Aatrts and the fay, are the differences expressed. The canon
must be, not that a common predicate be disturbed, but that oppo
site subjects, such as the case supposes, fully meet the difference,
punishment in contrast with life. Had the order of the sentence been
inverted, would this criticism apply ? There is this inversion in
Daniel: "And the multitude that sleep in the dust of the earth
shah awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and ever
lasting contempt." Is the " everlasting " in the first instance, to be
considered as less than in the second ? It may be said, that nothing
in this sentence answers to the force of the Se. To this the reply is
simple, -, often has this sense ; and not only as a copulative, it
answers to that idea of the contrary, the alternative, which we
express by, but. Nor can we conceive a better exposition than that
of Augustine. " Si utrumque aeternum, profecto aut utrumque cum
fine diuturnum, aut utrumque sine fine perpetuum debet intelligi.
Par pari enim relata sunt, hinc supplicium aeternum, inde vita
a?terna. Dicere autem in hoc uno eodemque sensu, Vita a?terna sine
fine erit, supplicium aeternum finem habebit, multum absurdum est.
Unde, quia vita a?tenia sanctorum sine fine erit, supplicum quoque
aeternum quibus erit finem procul dubio non habebit." — De Civit.
Dei, hb. xxi. cap. 17.
To this agrees the remark of Chrysostom in his Twenty-fifth
Homily on Romans. " 'Oti to eKei Xri£iv ouk e{,ei -rare, aKovtriv avrov
Aeyovros, k.t.X. And that these future things can never reach an
end, listen to Christ while he speaks : ' These shall go away into

436 NOTES. '
everlasting punishment : but the righteous into everlasting life.' "
To this he subjoins the comment: " Ei toIvvv f/ fay aidvios, Kal if
Ko\ao-is aidvios. If, therefore, the life be everlasting, everlasting
must be the punishment."
"Formula -rvp rb aidviov est imago poenae et miseria? extremae :
Matt. vii. 13, ad significandas poenis post mortem futuras adhibetur
a-rdXeia, cui v. 14, opponitur fay, et hoc loco v. 46 prolegitur KiAaeris,
hoc est, supplicium, poena (Maccab. iv. 38. iElian. His. Var. 13. 2.)
cui opponitur v. 46, fail et v. 34, 'BaaiXeia  Pharasaei,
quoque et Esseni, existimabant, improbos aiSiov Ttpiapiav, Tipimptas
dSidXei-novs, pccnas perpetuas expectare. — Apud Matth. xxv. 46."
Commentaries on the New Testament, by Theophilus Kuinoel.

P. Page 307.
" Everlasting destruction, oXeBpos, properly signifies that destruc
tion of the animal life which is cahed death ; but is nowhere used to
denote the extinction of the thinking prmciple. When, therefore,
the wicked are said to be punished with everlasting destruction from
the presence of the Lord, it cannot from that expression be certainly
inferred that they are to be annihilated." — Macknight. 2 Thess. i. 9.
He proceeds with a theory of his own as to the death of those who
survive in the conflagration of the earth, and then subjoins : " The
punishment of the wicked cast into the lake which burnetii with fire
and brimstone, is cahed the second death, to intimate, that as the soul
or thinking principle in men, is not destroyed in the first death or
destruction of the body, so neither is it to be extinguished by the
destruction of the body in the general conflagration ; which, there
fore, is fitly called the second death. And seeing the wicked shall
never be delivered from this second death, by any new resurrection,
it is properly termed everlasting destruction." His particular theory
is self-contradictory. If they who are " alive and remain " are thus
bodily destroyed, it is their "first death." But the "second death"
follows the judgment, and is the sentence of endless alienation from
" the joy of the Lord."
The Comment of Theophylact on the same passage may show-
how the Greek word was still understood far into mediaeval times.
' ' Uov toI'cuj' flpiYei/iao-Tai ; k. t. X. How then do the followers of
Origen falsely place an end to punishment ? Paul asserts it to be
eternal. How can that be eternal which is temporary ? aidvios
-rp6o-Kaipos ;"

431;

Q. Page 307.
The following passage from President Edwards, though in his
worst style of composition, places the question in a very strong light
of analogy, and is most convincing as an Ulustration : —
" That this is so, we may be convinced by this consideration, viz.,
that when we hear or read of some horrid instances of cruelty, it may
be to some poor innocent chUd, or some holy martyr, and their cruel
persecutors, having no regard to then- shrieks and cries, only sported
themselves with their misery, and would not vouchsafe even to put
an end to their lives ; we have a sense of the evU of them, and
they make a deep impression on our minds. Hence it seems
just, every way fit and suitable, that God should inflict a very
terrible punishment on persons who have perpetrated such wicked
ness. It seems no way disagreeable to any perfection of the Judge
of the world ; we can think of it without being at all shocked. The
reason is, that we have a sense of the evil of their conduct, and
a sense of the proportion there is between the evil and demerit and
the punishment.
" Just so, if we saw a proportion between the evil of sin and
eternal punishment, if we saw something in wicked men that should
appear as hateful to us, as eternal misery appears dreadful ; some
thing that should as much stir up indignation and detestation, as
eternal misery does terror, all objections against this doctrine would
vanish at once. Though now it seems incredible, though when
we hear of it and are so often told of it, we know not how to
reahse it ; though when we hear of such a degree and duration
of torments as are held forth in this doctrine, and think what
eternity is, it is ready to seem impossible, that such torments should
be inflicted on poor feeble creatures by a Creator of infinite mercy ;
yet this arises principaUy from these two causes : (I.) It is so con
trary to the depraved inclinations of mankind, that they hate to
beheve it, and cannot bear it should be true. (II.) They see not the
suitableness of eternal punishment to the evil of sin ; they see not
that it is no more than proportionable to the demerit of sin."

R. Page 338.
It may be only just to refer to extenuating criticisms respecting
the descriptions of Judas. The first is that which our Lord thus
emphatically gives : " Oral Se rip avBpd-rtp iKetvtp, Si ov 6 vibs tov
avBp-tmov -rapaSiSoraf KaXbv r)v aurtp, ei ovk iyevvyBr, b HvBpio-ros

438 NOTES.
iKeivos." This, it is claimed, ought to be rendered, " Woe to that
man by whom the Son of man is betrayed : good were for him if he
had not been born that man." The eoUocation does not favour it,
for the word governed generaUy precedes the word which governs
it. Such we believe to be the present construction. The syntax,
however, would be destroyed by the rendering : eyevvifBy has nothing
to govern it except 6 b-vBponros iKeivos. The personal verb would
have admitted a nominative to follow, but yivopiai is not here a per
sonal one. There is sense of creation, of generation, and not of
simple existence. Were it not so, the construction must remain the
same. Nor is it real extenuation of the terrible sentence. Where
is the difference between, " good would it be that he who betrayed
Christ should never have been born he," and " good would it for him
that he should never be born?" The sentence proceeds upon the
irredeemable curse of such an existence ; that the being imparted at
birth would be only an evU in its issues. Were phUological objection
to be met on grounds of Christian truth, we should complain of the
fatalistic view of the rendering. Almost aU universalists, though
divided by large disagreements, unite in necessarianism. The impli
cation is, that there must be such a traitor, and good were it for him
not to have been born to fulfil the character ! We beUeve that
to "be that man" was Judas' sole doing and perfect choice. The
common sense of the suggested translation is not more defensible :
" Good were it for him who betrayeth Christ not to have been born
the betrayer," not to have been born himself !
The second gloss is proposed for the conclusion of the prayer
offered by the Apostles for divine guidance in the choice of a suc
cessor to Judas : " Aa(3e7v rbv KXypov rrjs SiaKOvias raurris Kal airocrTOATJs,
e£ ys -rapef3ri 'lovSas, -TopevBijvai eis rbv t6ttov rbv iStov." * We should
translate it thus: " That he draw the lot" (which was to be the sign
of election) " of this service and apostolate, from which Judas feU,
in order that he might go to his own place." The attempt is to
represent " going to his own place," as spoken of the new candidate
and not of the apostate : that " having drawn tlie lot, he might enter
upon his proper office." We more than doubt whether -ropevByvai
can bear so slight a figurative aUusion to motion, as we understand,
by accession to a trust or duty. It implies absolute departure for
another locality. We know not what canon can warrant the con
struction of the two infinitives, Xafie'iv, -ropevBrjvai, if they refer to the
same person : -rapePri, however, may govern -ropevBfivai. The Codex
Alexandrinus gives Shtoioy, instead of iSioy, evidently pointing out
» Acts i. 25.

NOTES. 439
" the place," t6ttos, as that of retribution. We think that, on very
satisfactory grounds, we may conclude that the signification is,
Judas was no longer suffered by the Divine wrath, but in his trans
gression had so sinned, that he might be suddenly sent to his appro
priate award. Ignatius, in his Epistle to the Magnesians, reads
it in the same manner, applying it to every one who departs.
Chap. ii. v. 1.
The question of his suicide concerns not our argument. The
affirmative may establish the certainty, but touches not the duration,
of his doom. The criticism oh awyy^aTo, to get rid of his self-
murder, seems to us accommodating and strained. If Ahithophel,
who " hanged himself," shadowed him, such a catastrophe becomes
the more probable. The Septuagint applies to the end of that wUy
intriguer this very word. Thucydides also warrants this sense.
Relating the conduct of the Corcyrseaus towards theu- prisoners, he
says of these latter : " Many of them laid violent hands upon them
selves, some thrusting the arrows shot at them by the enemy
into their own throats ; others, tearing the cordage of their beds
which they found there, or twisting such ties as they could form
from their own garments, strangled themselves : cnrayxopievoi." Lib.
4 De EeU. Pelop. ^Elian in his Various History, b. 5, chap. 8, uses
the same sense : " Socrates being ridiculed in a comedy laughed :
JloXiaypos Se arcriy£aTo."
Saurin has a masterly discourse upon this subject.

S. Page 379.

Perhaps nothing, in the shape of concession, can be found more
remarkable than in the foUowing passage from "Discourses on
Universal Restitution, by John Prior Estlin, LL.D." " But though
all will be thus restored to virtue, and finally admitted to the enjoy
ment of everlasting happiness, the wicked wiU have lost all the
happmess of Christ's mediatorial kingdom ; they will not only have
lost this, but their future situation, their situation both absolute and
relative, to all eternity, wiU be affected by the loss. They must be,
for ever, behind those who made a proper improvement of their first
state, and who wUl be advancing in inteUectual and moral perfection
and happiness, during all that period, in which they are suffering that
punishment, which was necessary to destroy, not themselves, but their
sinful habits, and to prepare them for the enjoyment of eternal
happiness. So that literally, without any straining of the words,

440 NOTES,
theh punishment wiU be eternal." " Of all practical considerations,
this is the most important. It shows that the connexion between
sin and misery is eternal, immutable, indissoluble; that really and
truly, though in a sense different from that in which the wo^ds are
generaUy understood, sin is of infinite demerit; that in its conse
quences, — consequences which cannot be avoided, but which are a
part of those laws by which the moral world is governed, — it affects
the state for ever."
The italics are literally transcribed.

It may not be either irrelevant or uninteresting to trace the suf
frage of ecclesiastical opinion upon the doctrine of future punish
ment. No testimony can be more generally agreed. We shaU find
that every departure from it has been accounted a gross and
dangerous error. The Jewish church was so corrupted by its tradi
tions, that no great importance may be attached to any of its later
and humanly enunciated tenets. But we learn from Josephus, in the
first chapter of his xvni. Book on the Antiquities of the Jews, that
the Pharisees " beheved that souls have an immortal vigor in them;
and that under the earth there will be rewards, or punishments,
accordingly as they have hved virtuously or viciously in this life :
and the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison." He shows
the influence which these views had over the people, even over " the
cities." He then records the opposite notions of the Sadducees, yet
adds that, when they become magistrates, " They addict themselves
to the notions of the Pharisees, because the multitude would not other
wise bear them." But our disquisition rather pertains to the decisions
of Christian antiquity, the palaeology of them who hved near to the
events of redemption. In quoting from the writings of these early
times, we rather look for criticism and iUustration, than for doctrine.
We cannot respect those authors as authorities or textuaries. But
the Patristic Treatises reflect their times, identify their contem
poraries, and expose their controlUng influences. Their genius and
eloquence and frequent unction are deserving of ah admiration.
Because of a few fables, for much wUd dreaming, aU their historic
truth is not to be invalidated, nor all their beauty to be overlooked.
We need not believe the Phoenix of Clement, nor very greatly
applaud the Ichthyology of TertuUian, but it would be unreasonable
to forego then- sober and legitimate use. They are not the inter
preters of Scripture, but they are of archaistic language, of their
own period, of the populai- idea; they are neither to be elevated

NOTES. 441
to an idolatrous veneration, nor to be decried by a vulgar disparage
ment. So little was the doctrine of eternal punishment disputed in the
first ages, that when Origen argued against it, Augustine protests ;
"nonimmerito reprobavit ecclesia." Desiring to give a more dis
tinct analysis of the writings of these great opponents on this ques
tion, in a subsequent page, we shaU not further notice them in this
synopsis. We begin at a much higher point, only observing that,
with almost this exception, one confluence of attestation sets in
towards it.
The ApostoUc Fathers, as they are entitled, occupy the earUest
date. Clement, perhaps, ranks the first. Any tradition that he was
a companion of the apostles, and bishop of Rome, is merely gratui
tous ; indeed, evidently false. As baseless is his identity with him
of the same name, recorded in PhiUp. iv. 3. We possess his two
epistles to the Corinthians. In the sixth chapter of the second, we
read : "If we do the will of Christ we shall find rest. But if other
wise, he wiU in no wise rescue us from endless punishment:'' ovSev
fffias fSvcerai eK rys alatviov KSXacreus. He quotes, loosely enough,
from Ezekiel xiv. 20, to argue the impossibUity of their escape, " tis
-TapaKATfros ;" In the foUowing chapter he Ulustrat.es the fact by the
ancient games. " It becomes us to reflect that the athletes of those
short-lived contests, if he was proved to have suborned or to have
transgressed, was scourged and driven from the stadium. What
should that teach us ? The punishment which he shaU suffer who
has violated the immortal combat. For it is said, concerning them
who preserve not the seal, ryv atppayiSa, " Their worm dieth not, &c,
'O o-KdXrii avroiv ou TeXeuTycri," k.t.A. " If the Potter have gone so
far as to throw the broken vessel into the furnace of fire, he can no
more bring any remedy or succour to it : ovkcti fSoyBritrei," literaUy,
" cannot come to its cry." " Por after we have left this world, in
the next we can neither confess, nor any longer repent."
Ignatius says, in his epistle to the Ephesians, " He that is thus
denied, shall depart into unquenchable fire." And again in that to
the Smyrna?ans : "For what remains, it is very reasonable that we
should repent whilst there is yet time to return unto God."
In the general epistle of Barna'bas we read : " For this cause there-
Bhall be both a resurrection and a retribution."— Archbishop Wake's
translation. Polycarp, in his epistle to the Smyrnaean church, thus makes his
appeal to the proconsul who threatened to consume him with fire :
"nSp d-reiAeis rb rrpos wpav KatSpievv Kal pier' oXiyov trf3evvufj.evov.

442 NOTES.
'Ayvoeis yap to Tr)s fieXKovo-ns Kptcrews Kal alcoviov KoKacreois rots
ao-efSeo-i rnpovptevov Trip. The fire thou threatenest can but burn for
an hour, and wiU speedUy expire : know thou that there is a fire of
approaching judgement and everlasting punishment pcjrpetuaUy fed
for the profane." The whole account is in Eusebius, Eccles. History,
b. iv. ch. 15.
Justin Martyr, (a.d. 140,) from his learning and phUosophy, as
weU as from his constancy, has always received a large share of
deference. In his second Apology, after quoting Matt. xxv. 46, and
Philip, ii. 10, he adds : " Kal rore peravono-ovo-iv ore oi/Se wcpeAno-oicn.
— page 155. Who wUl not repent when it can be no avaU." In his
first Apology to the Roman Senate, he thus strongly speaks : " Ei fir)
tovto eo-Tiv (on Ko\a£ovrai ev aiavia Trvpi ol aSixot) oilre eo-n Qeos, g
et, eariv, ov peAet. avraj twv avBpwrraiv, Kal ov8ev etmv aperq, ovoe
Kaxia' aSiKcos npapovo-w ol vopoBerai rovs rrapafSaivovTas to. SiaTeray-
pieva Kola. If it be not so (that the unrighteous shaU be punished in
everlastmg fire) then is there no God ; or if there be, he troubles not
himself about men, neither vhtue nor vice can exist, and legislators
unjustly punish those who transgress what is set forth as good." —
page 132. Bishop Taylor quotes a passage which says : "They who
are designed to punishment shaU abide so long as God please to have
them to live and to be punished." " Ai (•vp-uYai) 8e Ko/\a£ovrai, ear av
avras Kal elvat, Kal Ko\a£ecr8aL 6 Qeos 8ekn," page 36. The language
might imply, though not necessarily, that such punishment admitted
of possible termination. That " wiU" is not assumed. Nor can any
restoration to happiness be inferred. This, however, is not spoken by
Justin, but by his venerable instructor in Christianity. The writers
who are commonly associated with Justin, who are ranked as his
disciples, Athenagoras, Tatian, and TheophUus of Antioch, especiaUy
the two latter, frequently enforce the same doctrine. He always
speaks with the most confident decision concerning the final doom of
the wicked. Alatviov rrvp very frequently occurs in his writings.
How he understands the adjective is clear : " Alaviav Kokao-iv KoKacr-
Srjtropevojv, aW 0UXL Xl^t0VTa€TV Trepiohov.' ArroK. : B' irpos
Avnvav : Evs. — Paris edition, (Lutetia?.)
Irenaeus, (a.d 178,) in his Symbolum Ex. lib. i. cap. 10, Adver.
Haereses, professes : " Christ shall send the impious, and the unjust,
and the lawless, and the blasphemous of mankind, into endless fire :
els ro alaviov rb rrvp nepi^ri." In another place, he says: "They
who fly from the eternal light of God, which contams in it all good
things, are themselves the cause of their inhabiting eternal darkness,

NOTES. 443
destitute of all good things, becoming to themselves the cause of this
habitation," lib. iv. cap. 76. Bened. edit. 285.
Clemens Alexandrinus, (a.d. 194,) in his admonition to the Gen
tiles, speaks of " eternal torments." In his Pa?dagogus, he says,
" ToiiSe atoivos ecrriv apY/}, to rjperepov reXos.'' And again, " Oi;
yap eoTi ravrov alav Kal xpwos."
TertuUian. (a.d. 200.) In his De Anima we find the taint of his
Montanist opinions. He considers the Paraclete not quite as did his
master — that is, altogether different from the Holy Ghost of Pente
cost — but only that much more was revealed in his own age by Him.
Among these revelations he specifies certain purifications which the
souls of the righteous may requhe in their separate state, ere they
enter heaven. This is a dawning of the gross error which has so
widely spread over the world for centuries, the thunderbolt of eccle
siastical despotism. But this is supposed to precede the Judgement.
Upon the eternity of future punishment he is unwavering. In his
work against Marcion, he says — " Non enim omnes salvi fiunt." In
his Apology, chapters 48 and 49, he maintains that the punishments
of the wicked will endure for ever. In the 45th chapter, he thus de
clares himself — " Recogitate etiam pro brevitate supplien cujuslibet,
non tamen ultra mortem remansuri . . . Enim vero nos qui sub Deo
omnium speculatore dispungimur, quique seternam ab eo pcenam pro-
videmus, merito soli innocentia? occurrimus, et pro scientia? plenitu-
dine, et pro latebrarum difficultate, et pro magnitudine cruciatus, non
diuturni, verum sempiterni." Again in chapter 18, he describes it —
" jEque perpetem et jugem."
Cyprian, (a.d. 248.) Nee erit unde habere tormenta vel requiem
possint aliquando vel finem." " Quando istinc excessum fuerit,
nuUus jam pcenitentiae locus est, nullus satisfactionis effectus, hic vita
aut amittitur aut tenetur ; hic saluti a?terme cultu Dei et fructu fidei
providetur." — Ad Hemetrianum.
Lanctantius. (a.d. 306.) " Tunc et impii resurgent non ad vitam,
sed ad pocnam. Eos quoque, secunda resurrectione facta, Deus exci-
tabit, ut ad perpetua tormenta damnati, et Eeternis ignibus traditi,
merita pro sceleribus suis supplicia persolvant."— Bpitome, Routh's
Script. Eccles. Opuscula. c
Athanasius. (a.d. 326.) " Apa 8e eXei reXos rav dpapraAtDV r, KOAa-
<ns, ii ov ;" The answer is, " When our Lord speaks concermng those
in Gehenna, 'Their worm dieth not,' &c, and again, 'The wicked
shaU go into everlasting punishment ;' and also the apostles, ' Be not
deceived,' for neither adulterers, &c. shall inherit the kingdom of God :'
from these proofs it foUows that, as is the blessedness of the just, so

444 NOTES.
is the punishment of the wicked, eternal. And again, the Lord says
concerning Judas, ' Good were it for that man that he had not been
born ! ' For if that punishment were to have end, certainly would
it be an advantage that he was born, if very late, o^erroTe, after
punishment, he should enter the kingdom of God, as deceived
heretics have fancied." — Questiones ad Antiochum : 102 Quaes.
Jerome, (a.u. 392.) In his commentary on the 66th chapter of
Isaiah, he sums up the passages of Scripture commonly adduced in
his day, just the same as in ours, towards the support of the final
deliverance of the wicked, evidently with strong disapproval. What
ever his admiration of Origen, and his presumed share in the PhUo-
caUa, Hieronymus was quite hostile to any such opinion. Indeed he
formaUy catalogues his errors or heresies, and vehemently condemns
them. Chrysostom. (a.d. 398.) Horn. 23. ad Corin. "'Qo-jnrp alevravSa
Kokacreis ra> napiovri o-vyKarahvovrai /3io>, ovruss at. eKel Siiypeymr
fievovo-i. As here these punishments foUow to the close of the present
life, so there they continue permanently." The argument is, that
they must correspond to the duration of both states alike. It is
felt to be unnecessary to add more from John of Constantinople, be
cause of his redundant mention of it.
At greater length we may refer to Origen and Augustine. They
were both men of the most exalted genius. They can only be caUed
opponents as ranging themselves on the contrary sides of this question,
since the former flourished more than a century and hah previous
to the latter. Of the Greek father much only exists in Latin trans
lation. This is the case with his work, Ilepi 'Apx">v. The foUowing
extract is from it, lib. i. cap. 6. num. 3. — " Interim tam in his qua?
videntur, et temporalibus soeculis, quam in UUs quae non videntur et
aeterna sunt, omnes isti pro ordine, pro ratione, pro modo et merit-
orum dignitatibus dispensantur ; ut ahi in primis, alii in secundis,
nonnulli etiam in ultimis temporibus, et per majora ac graviora sup-
plicia, nee non et diuturna, ac multis (ut ita dicam) saeculis tolerata,
asperioribus emendationibus reparati et restituti eruditionibns primo
angehcis, turn deinde etiam superiomm graduum virtutibus, et sic
per singula ad superiora provecti, usque ad ea qua? sunt invisibUia et
aeterna perveniant, singulis videlicet quibusque celestium virtutuni
officiis quadem eruditionum specie peragratis. Ex quo, ut opinor,
hoc consequentia ipsa videtur ostendere, unamquamque rationabUem
naturam posse ab uno in alteram ordinem transeuntem, per singulos
in omnes, et ab omnibus in singulos pervenire, dum accessus pro-
fectuum, defectuumve, varios pro motibus vel eonatibus propriis

NOTES. 445
unus quisque pro Uberi arbitrii facultate perpetitur." This may be
considered a summary of his opinions. His one idea is that of a
purgatorian fire ; wherever the word arises in Scripture, he almost
always thus interprets it : and often he seems to think that this is
that of the last conflagration, through which the righteous shaU pass
unhurt, whUe it shaU "purify the wicked. Isaiah xiv. 2 ; Malachi
ni. 3 ; 1 Cor. iii. 12 passim, are his frequent arguments. Yet is he not
consistent. He says in the second book of the same treatise — "Cujus
ignis materia atque esca nostra sunt peccata. . . . Cum mens ipsa, vel
conscientia per divinam virtutem omnia in memoriam recipiens, quo
rum in semetipsa signa quaedam et formas, cum peccaret, expresserat,
et singulorum qua? vel foede ac]turpiter gesserat, vel etiam impie
commisserat, historiam quamdam scelerum suorum ante oculos suos
videbit expositam : tunc et ipsa conscientia propriis stimulis agitatur
atque compungitur, et sui ipsa efficitur accnsatrix et testes." — Cap.
x. Num. iv. Vide Contra Celsum, lib. v.
Yet even he, bold as he is, sometimes falters. " Qua? quidem a
nobis etiam cum magno metu", et cautela dicuntur, discutientibus
magis et pertractantibus quam pro' certo ac definito statuentibus."
Nor is he confident that there may not be, after the end of all things,
a revival of sin — contrary to the seductive theory of so many who
quote his authority, and seek his patronage. " Kal to reXos tcov
Trpayparatv dvatpedrjval earl rgv KaKtav rrorepa 8e, ware prjdapirj prjda-
fxms en avrrjv emrparrrjvac Svvaordat, rj prj, ov rov napovros earl \oyov
didagat. C. Celsum, lib. viii. 72.*. The] end of aU is destined to
abolish aU wickedness ; but whether so completely that it never
can in any future instance be permitted to recur, or whether other
wise, it is no part of my present discourseTto determine."
Augustine is well known as the defender of the Scriptural truth of
retribution. In his Civitas Dei, the [twenty-first book, he enters
upon a formal investigation of the objections and difficulties supposed
to attach to its eternal duration. Some of the earlier chapters are
taken up with questions pertaining to the nature of future punish
ment. The ninth is devoted: "De Gehenna, et aeternarum qualitate
poenarum." The eleventh^treats : " An hoc ratio justitia? habeat, ut
non sint extensiora poenarum tempora, quam fuerint peccatorum."
The twelfth concerns : " De magnitudine praevaricationis prima?, ob
quam aeterna poena omnibus debeatur, qui extra gratiam fuerint
Salvatoris." The thirteenth is directed " Contra opinionem eorum,
qui putant criminosis supplicia post mortem caussa purgationis
adhiberi." The seventeenth expatiates : " De his qui putant nullorum
hominum poenas in asternum esse mansuras." The eighteenth dis-

44G NOTES.
courses : " De his qui novissimo judicio, propter intercessiones
sanctorum, neminem hominum putant esse damnandum." The
twenty-third is, " Contra opinionem eorum qui dicunt nee diaboli,
nee hominum malorum perpetua futura supplicia." The inter
mediate chapters refer to points of the Antichristian system from
which the Bishop of Hippo was not himself entirely clear. In
many of the foregoing chapters, whose titles have been given, the
argument is conducted with great judgement and force : in others
it halts, in consequence of leaning upon false science and inapt
theology. The Romish church, dating its secular existence from Phocas,
though its worst errors are of a far later period, has never blenched
from this dogma. On this account Origen has always been refused
canonisation. Cruel and anathematising has been its wielding of it !
Again we repeat the rule of our induction : we seek not authority,
but fact. It may be supposed that its doctrine of purgatory inter
feres with it. But that only respects venial sin, or unatoned
temporal punishment, in the destined heirs of heaven. The im
penitent do not enter it. Besides, its expiations are noc after the
judgement, but before it. Those who desire information concerning
it, may consult the Rev. Dr. Wiseman, in his Lectures, and the
Rev. Dr. Rock, in his Hierurgia. Those who are absolved by
priestly power are released from " the guUt and eternal punishment
of sin." But they may stiU owe disciplinary satisfaction. If not
rendered here, it wiU be required in this middle state. According
to evidence, none can prove who are in that region and who are not.
Suffrages may be offered for them who are allowed no such hope.
Only particular cases are certainly exempt from the purgatorian fire.
Martyrs constitute one. Gross as this theory, often made to obtrude
itself so as to conceal post-mundane retribution, the favourite theme
of the Tridentine CouncU, which is nearly, if not altogether, silent
upon the state of eternal punishment, — the real opinion of the
Roman Catholic Church cannot be doubted. Perhaps she holds it
not concerning any in communion with her : she does most ener-
geticaUy towards them who are without.
The Protestant Confessions, — such as the Helvetic, the Dort, the
Augsburg, decisively agree with the testimony of Christian antiquity.
From the latter we may cite the seventeenth Article. It denounces
them " qui sentiunt hominibus damnatis ac diabolis finem poenarum
futuram esse."
In some of the Continental Churches, especiaUy that of Switzer
land, a different opinion very early found entrance. The eloquent

NOTES. 447
treatise of Curio Ccelus Secundus, published at Basle, 1554, perhaps
prepared the way. It is entitled, " De Amplitudine beati regni
Dei." It is by no means universalistic, yet it has that tendency.
His theory only seems to be half developed. This is a most honour
able name : not a more lion-hearted man ever braved the brunt
of persecution. M'Crie does only justice to him in the History
of the Reformation in Italy. But there is a leaven in his book which
wrought evU. It slowly spread. Other causes gave success to
a doctrine which he had too much facUitated, though he would have
shrunk from that which it was abused to corroborate. The effect of
the doctrine may be seen in the Protestantism of those regions until
this day. There may be reaction, — but a deep mischief has been left
to work. The Huguenots yielded, notwithstandmg the warnings of a
Claude and a Sanrin, — and Geneva opened its gates to it, though the
seat of Calvin, Pictet, and the Turretines.
The Church of England is quite undisguised in its sentiments. A
contrary suspicion has attached to it from an alteration in its
original articles. Under Edward the Sixth, instead of thirty-nine,
there were forty-two. The last of the forty-two bore this title : " AU
men shah not be saved at the length." It is as follows : " They also
are worthy of condemnation, who endeavour at this time to restore
the dangerous opinion, that all men, be they never so ungodly, shall
at length be saved, when they have suffered pains for their sins
a certain time appointed by. God's justice." With the reason and
the history of this omission we are not acquainted. Perhaps " the
endeavour to restore that dangerous opinion " did not continue in
the time of Elizabeth. The Sermons, or HomUies, constantly affirm
the eternity of punishment. It is only necessary to refer to two :
" The Misery of aU Mankind, and of his condemnation to Death
Everlasting by his own Sin:" and "Repentance and of true Recon-
cUiation to God." The Athanasian Creed cannot be objected to as
inexpUcit. " The life everlasting" in the Apostles', "the life ofthe
world to come," in the Nicene, are always treated by episcopalian
commentators as comprehensive of the two future states of aU men.
The phrases, in the Litany, " From everlastmg damnation," — in the
Burial Service, "Deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal
death," are perfectly decisive.
It cannot, however, be concealed that some writers in that church
have spoken with great licence upon the subject. TiUotson is among
the number, though not with a uniform consistency. Jeremy Taylor
hesitates, in his " Christ's Advent to Judgement," and would be a
very unsafe Ductor dubitantium here. Yet we must not forget his

448 NOTES.
peroration to " The Miracles of the Divine Mercy." " Mercy is like
a rainbow, which God set in the clouds to remember mankind : it
abides here as long as it is not hindered ; but we must never look
for it after it is night, and it shines not in the other world. If we
refuse mercy here, we shaU have justice to eternity." " To suppose,"
writes Bishop Newton, "that a man's happiness to aU eternity should
absolutely and unchangeably be fixed by the uncertain behaviour of
a few years in this life, is a supposition even more unreasonable and
unnatural, than that a man's mind and manners should be com-
pletelv formed in his cradle, and his whole future fortune and con
dition should depend upon his infancy, — infancy being much greater
in proportion to the few years of this life, than the whole of this life
to eternity." — Vol. vi. of his Works. Hartley works out his theory
of vibrations into the same conclusion.
" And when we speak of the Christian scheme being necessary to
salvation, we should understand salvation in the Scripture sense of
that word ; as implying a particular state of happmess ; or as the
Christian's heaven ; not as the sole condition of enjoying everlasting
life ; or as strictly necessary, in aU men, to the avoiding absolute
misery; or escaping the pains of hell. Christ has- told us, that
in his Father's house are many mansions ; states suited to every degree
of holiness and vhtue : and as it often appears that men, under very
different dispensations here, differ but almost insensibly from each
other, in the above-mentioned quahfications ; can we conceive, that
their future state of retribution shaU be so infinitely different as those
of heaven and hell are commonly believed to be ? No doubt, there
are great advantages and sure promises, belonging to those who have
been so happy as to be included in the Christian covenant ; and so
honest as to hold it in faith and purity. But let not such exclude
others from the mercies of their common Lord ; or murmur at
the good man of the house, if these also receive every man his
penny. Whether they shah not sometime hereafter be called into the
vineyard, and at length become acquainted with that Person who had
done so great things for them, as weU as us ; or what amends may
be made them for the want of those advantages which we here
enjoy ; is known only to the God of aU mercies, in whose hands
they are. What our Saviour said of the Gentiles, in contradistinc
tion to the Jetvs, may be no less true between Christians, and the rest
of the world that never heard of Christ, but yet are prepared to
enter, and in a good measure worthy to be admitted, into his king
dom ; — who have duly attended to the candle of the Lord which
is set up in tlie breast of every man ; and which would naturally

NOTES. 449
lead such proficients to the clearer hght of his Gospel ;— other sheep
I have, which are not of this' fold ; them also must I bring, and they
shall hear my voice ; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. To
them, likewise, at length may the times of refreshing come from the
presence of the Lord."— Considerations on the Theory of ReUgion, by
Edmund Law, D.D., Bishop of Carhsle.
We gladly quote in opposition to these inconsequential, mis
chievous, allegations, the foUowing passage from Hooker : 
" And because in the subject of God's providence over reasonable
creatures, there is now an addition of sin which was not before con
sidered, the laws of his general providence, in regard of this addition,
are somewhat different from such as have been already noted. For
as nature draweth love from God, so corruption of nature procureth
hatred, it being as natural to him to abhor that which defaceth his
handy- work, as to delight in the absolute perfection which himseh
hath given. So that sin hath opened now in God every way of
wrath which before was shut. Sin hath awakened justice which
otherwise might have slept. Wrath and justice we attribute to God,
by reason of those effects of punishment which God inflicteth. The
first rule, therefore, of providence now is, that sin do not go alto
gether unpunished in any creature ; whereupon it foUoweth that,
seeing aU men universaUy are sinful, punishment hath also fallen
upon aU. Some are, after this life, tormented with eternal flames,
yet here permitted to hve at large tiU the hour of death come.' "...
"The justice, which worketh by way of revenge, proportioneth
punishment with sin. And sin hath two measures whereby the
greatness thereof is judged. The object, God, agamst whom ; and
the subject, that creature in whom sin is. By the one measure, aU
sin is infinite, because he is infinite whom sin offendeth : * for which
cause there is one eternal punishment due in justice unto aU sinners.
In so much that if it were possible for any creature to have been
eternaUy with God, and co-eternaUy sinful, it standeth with justice
by this measure to have punished that creature from eternity past
no less than to punish it unto future eternity. From the other
measure, which is according to the subject of sin, there are in that
eternity of punishment varieties, whereby may be gathered a rule
much buUt upon in holy Scripture : That degrees of wickedness
have answerable degrees in the weight of their endless punishment."
—Hooker : Eccles. Polity, book v. Appendix 1. (Keble's edition.)
To this Ulustrious defender we may add the names of the Rev.
* The authority is only quoted as to the fact of this writer's opinion : this particular
reasoning has been objected to in the text of the Sixth Discourse in this volume.
XII. G &

450 NOTES.
Dr. Matthew Horberry, and the Rev. Sh WiUiam Dawes, afterwards
Bishop of Chester. •
Though most of the modern Unitarians embrace the theory of
universal restoration, they interpret it differently. Some deny
future punishments altogether : to them the Rev. Bernard Whitmam,
and the Rev. Dr. Channing, of America, have powerfuhy repUed.
The professors of this creed in our own country, generaUy, it is
supposed, allow the truth, though not the finality, of those punish
ments. The Raeovian Catechism teaches, however, the received
opinion. The following quotation is taken from a note to Rees'
translation. It is the testimony of Wissowatius. Having referred
for his proofs to the Socinian Confession of Faith, 1642 — to certain
comments of CreUius and Schlichtingius, he adds : " It is, therefore,
a mere calumny of some persons that these churches deny the resur
rection and the punishment of the wicked. For it is evident from
the cited authorities that they, equaUy with others, constantly main
tain that there wUl be a resurrection both of the just and of the
unjust — and that the latter shaU be consigned to everlasting punish
ment, but the former admitted to everlasting life." — page 367.
The Society of Friends, with a few exceptions, retain the same
side of the question. " We are placed, in this life, in a state of
probation ; and though that probation wiU soon pass over, yet the
state of being to which we are approaching is of eternal duration.
And as we enter on the boundless ocean of eternity, we enter in under
one of these awful sentences : ' He that is unjust, let him. be unjust
stiU: he that is holy, let him be holy stiU.' The Divine Master
particularly mentions some offences that should not be forgiven,
either in this world or in the world to come. It has been re
marked by a celebrated writer, ' What ardently we wish, we soon
beUeve.' But however pleasing it may be to those who cling to sinful
pleasures, to suppose that the judgements of the Almighty, in
another state of existence, are temporary, and wUl soon pass over —
however they may resort to inventions to find out expedients and
plausibilities, in the doctrine of purgatory, or the transmigration of
souls, or the expiation of sins by the present inconveniences of vice,
such schemes and notions are but human contrivances, that may
indeed amuse for a whUe, but which they cannot carry with them
beyond the grave. On the manner in whieh we pass our probation,
our final happiness or misery depends. How vain, how delusive, is
the idea, that any may sUght the offers of redeeming love, squander
ing away theh invaluable time which was given them to work out
theh salvation with fear and trembling ; relying on another oppor-

NOTES. 451
tunity to be afforded in some new body, or, perhaps, in some new
world!" "They make that separation between God and their own
souls, which must continue for ever." " How awful is the consider
ation of this important subject ! To despise and reject the heavenly
visitation, and finahy to destroy the only possible means of salvation !
The measure of grace thus given to each individual, as the means of
salvation, is the purchase of Christ's death. If this is destroyed, is
Christ again to suffer in the flesh ? or did the apostle say truly, that
' there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins ? ' Hence the exceeding
sinfulness of sin, and the eternal duration of its consequences." — The
Doctrines of Friends. By EUsha Bates.
The great Nonconformist communities of this country, Congre
gational and Methodistic, have in no wise swerved from their original
confessions. There has been much reflection upon this particular
question of late : this has arisen from the habit of the age, and from
contact with the theology of other lands : but everything shows that
the inquiry has led to settled and solemn conclusions upon it. No
man could retain his station as an Independent minister for an hour
after avowing its disbelief, even should he dishonestly keep possession
of the pulpit. The Connexional bodies might be more formal in their
exclusion of such as impugned it than our discipline admits : but it
would not be more decisive. HappUy.we have no ban : we do not
anathematise : but not less do we own and practise the duty, — From
such withdraw yourselves !
It is not within our knowledge whether any Universalist churches
exist in this country, apart from those which are Arian or PsU-
anthropistic. Some individuals we know holding this opinion, who
are otherwise evangehcal in theh creed. Winchester headed a con
siderable sect of such persons : these are almost entirely gone over
to Unitarianism. Properly the epithet intends universal restoration
to happiness. But under it, wiU faU many parties who deny phy
sical immortality, and who assert the sentence of destruction. In
America, however, the strict Universalist denies future retribution
altogether. The followers of the Rev. Dr. Huntington place the
non-punishment upon the most antinomian idea of the satisfaction of
Christ. ReUy, after whom a considerable number of his followers
were cahed, abets the same. These are now generaUy absorbed in
the two divisions of ImpartiaUsts and Restorationists. The former
are generaUy Unitarian in theh other doctrines, but hold as theh
specific views that man is not immortal, that there is no conscious
ness nor indeed existence of the soul after death, that no effect of
present conduct can attach to an after-state of being, that aU the

452 NOTES.
dead shaU be raised in the last day without any moral distinction,
aU alike good and happy. The latter aUow, like Chauncy, limited
suffering, of a poenal or of a disciplinary character, hereafter, with a
consummation to aU of ultimate restitution. A most perfect cour
tesy does not dweh between these two sections : occasionaUy they
teU each other that they would prefer the common opinion to the
latitudinarianism and the cruelty which they charge upon theh
respective opinions. Transatlantic Unitarianism hves upon theh
strife. Neology, very mainly the offspring of Germany, spread over this
error its fostering wing. Its cavilling and sophistry are favourable
to it. Yet there is a counteraction springing up even in those
regions. Indeed, the truth for which we contend is most firmly
intrenched in the letter as weU as the spirit of Scripture, and can
suffer nothing, but must gain everything, from literal hermeneutics.
The language of our Lord assures our solemn faith : " The Scrip
ture CANNOT BE BROKEN."
Having thus brought his volume to an end, the Lecturer expresses
his feelings in the language of an ancient orator : " Kai el p,ev koXcos
Kal deltas rov ddiKTjpiaTos KaTrfyoprfKa, evrzov eos e'^ovXoprjv' el de
evbeeo-repots, cos ebvvapnv." ^Eschines, In Ctesiphontem.

INDEX.

Accountability, objections to, 48,
50.
Adam, in perfection at his crea
tion, 120, 121 ; his faU by sin,
122, 123 ; the federal head of
mankind, 311, 312.
Agency of responsible beings, 68 ;
in theh own salvation and that
of others, 180.
'Aiavios, criticisms on, 432, 435.
Analogy of Rehgion, by Bishop
Butler, 103.
AnnihUation disproved, 56 ; re
volting to our nature, 57; of
the soul answered, 356, 369.
Aristotle's definition of the mind,
25.
Aspirations after heaven, 216.
Augustine on the justice of God,
282, 285 ; on the just govern
ment of God, 341.
Bacon, Lord, on Right Reason, 12.
Body, the, the machine of the
mind, 22, 24.
Bourdaloue on the last Judgment,
347.
Brotherhood in evangelical truth,
403.
Bush, Professor, on the Resur
rection of the Body, 426.
Butler, Bishop, on the Analogy
of Rehgion, 103 ; on Punish
ment, 251.
Calvin on Future Rewards, 429.
Chauncy, Dr., on Punishment,
264; on grace through Christ,
331.
Character, distinctions in, noted
for reward, 176, 177.
Christ the federal head of his
people, 311, 312; the Judge as
well as the Saviour, 387.
Christ's resurrection, 134, 135 ;
presence in heaven, 220, 221 ;
death, design of it, 269.
Christian experience, 311.

Christian virtue rewardable, 147,
156 ; proofs, 158, 168.
Christianity, its influence on men,
182, 183 ; its superiority to Ju
daism, 186.
Chymistry creates nothing, 20, 21.
Cicero on the general opinions of
mankind, 119 ; on the praises
of phUosophy, 410 ; on govern
ment, 413, 414 ; on the immor
tality of the soul, 419 ; on veri
similitude, 420.
Clarke, Dr. S., on the duration
of future punishment, 330.
Condemned, the number of the,
360.
Crime, its destructive tendency,
151, 152.
Cudworth, Dr., on Immutable
Morality, 410.
Custom, the principal habit of
man's Ihe, 246, 247.
Damnation, its fearful import, 389.
Death, the termination of human
probation, 386.
Definitions of terms, 7, 8.
Deity, the, his Being and attri
butes demonstrated, 10 ; from
his works, 11 ; proofs of the, 68.
Destructionists, theh objection to
eternal punishment, 352, 356.
Divine law, the, good, 74.
Duration of the human being, 54,
55.
Ecclesiastical opinions on future
punishment, 440, 452.
Edwards, President, on the Nature
of Virtue, 413 ; on free-wiU,
417.
Estlin, Dr., on Universal Restitu
tion, 439, 440.
Eternal punishment regards the
character of the wicked, 342,
343 ; may be true, 400, 401.
Eternity of future punishments,
286 ; descriptions of, 288, 269 ;

454

INDEX.

various proofs of, 290, 291 ; the
most awakening truth, 293 ; ar
guments for the doctrine, 300,
301 ; from the terms used, 303 ;
from, the usus scribendi, 307 ;
objections considered, 309. See
Punishment.
EvU, its existence, independent of
Christianity,242; moral, in guUt,
249.
FaU of man, the, 123, 124 ; conse
quent guUt, 242, 243.
Falsehood, the first, 395.
Fatalism, hypothesis of, 52, 53.
Foster, Rev. J., on infidel writers,
256.
Future existence expected only by
man, 57 ; necessary to rewards
and punishments, 60 ; revealed
bv Christ, 115. 116.
Gehenna, 299, 300. See Tophet
and Hell.
God, his necessary existence, 68 ;
our Lawgiver, 69 ; his merciful
disposition, 254 ; his severe jus
tice, 280 ; his paternal relation,
281 ; his laws right in punish
ment, 346, 347.
Good works rewarded, 162, 163.
Grace, the doctrine of, in rewards,
158, 159 ; the cause of good in
man, 178.
GuUt, the, and sin of man, 29, 30.
Habit in vice, 246.
Hades, its meaning, 286, 287 ;
agrees with the Hebrew, Sheol,
295, 296. See Hell.
HaU, Robert, on future rewards,
430, 431.
HamUton, Dr., on his declining
health, 406 ; his joys in death,
407.
Happiness, man formed for, 363,
364.
Harmony of Revelation with na
tural religion, 105, 106.
Heathen, theh punishment, 273.
Heavenly state, the, 188 ; its bliss
cannot be described, 189, 190 ;
anticipations of it, 191, 193 ;

enjoyed by disembodied saints,
194, 195 ; preparations for it,
196, 197 ; its elements, 198, 199 ;
its grandeur, 200, 201 ; its di
vine happiness, 202, 203 ; qua
lifications for it, 205, 207 ; pre
sent salvation for, 208, 209;
descriptions of the glory of the,
210, 211; spirits of the just
made perfect in, 212 ; society
in, 214, 215 ; the blessed change
in, 222, 223 ; Ufeand devotionin,
224 ; benevolence, 225 ; friend
ship in, 226, 228 ; security and
research in, 229, 230; progres
sion in, 231 ; celebration of re
demption in, 232 ; vision of God
in, 233 ; happiness eternal in,
234, 235.
HeU and the unseen world, 110,
113; descriptions of, 288, 289.
Hinnom, the valley of, with its
fires, 298, 299.
Horsley, Bishop, on the probation
of men, 340.
Howe, John, on Future Rewards,
430.
Hume, on the Existence of Ob
jects, 17.
Immortality naturaUy desired, 60,
61 ; certain, 64 ; consciousness
of it, 66, 67.
Immortal hfe, as contemplated by
Pagans, 62.
Infants, theh salvation, 271, 272,
Infernal punishments by the Pa
gan mythology, 329.
Infidelity cherished by wicked
men, 398.
InfideUty, secret, of mankind, 396,
397.
Injustice not chargeable on eter
nal punishment, 323, 324.
Instinct not reason, 24, 25.
Jenyns, Mr. Soame, on the Inter
nal Evidences of Christianity,
36, 37.
Josephus regarding the Sadducees,
113.
Judas, a fearful example of wick-

INDEX.

455

edness and punishment, 336,
338.
Judgment, the last, 137, 139 ; re
wards at, 168, 169.
Justice of God, the, requhes pu
nishment, 279, 283.
Justification andRegeneration,94,
95 ; through Christ, 96, 97; evi
dences of it in good works, 142.
Lacedemonian Institutes irration
al, 40, 41.
Law among the ancient phUoso-
phers, 43 ; necessary for moral
agents, 70, 72.
Law, the Divine, requhes habit,
77, 78 ; character, 79, 80 ; con
sequence, 81, 83 ; Christianity
supports its honours, 92, 93.
Law, Bishop, on the Nature and
End of Death, 422.
Liebig on animal hfe, 20 ; on
animal chymistry, 24.
Life, sphitual, 125 ; and eternal,
by Christ, 126.
Locke on the existence of matter
and mind, 17 ; on moral prin
ciples, 415.
Mackintosh on Moral Principles,
416.
Macknight on " everlasting de
struction," 436.
Man, his physical and moral con
dition, 2, 3 ; his nature, 14 ;
material and sphitual, 15, 16 ;
a moral agent, 26, 27 ; a law to
himself, 29.
Man possessing body and sphit,
107, 108 ; moral relations of,
109 ; a responsible being, 244 ;
an immortal being, 245.
Matter distinct from mind, 15, 17 ;
its properties and changes, 20,
21.
Melanchthon on the reason of man,
40.
Mind, intelligent and self-existent,
our source of being, 5 ; its power
and properties, 6 ; its mysterious
nature, 191 ; definition of, by
Aristotle and Plato, 25.

Moral disorders among the Hea
then, 51.
Moral distinctions essential to
man, 31, 32 ; in the nature of
things, 33, 35 ; manifesj in the
Heathen writers, 46, 47.
Moral impressions uniform, 44, 45.
Moral law and rule, 7 ; Christian
ity founded on it, 90, 91.
Moral science, the foundation of,
68, 69.
Morals indicate the Governor of
the World, 2, 3.
Nature and design, the, of future
punishments, 237.
Necessarian Optimism, 348.
Nonconformity, its theology, 404.
Numbers of the lost and saved,
360, 361.
Obedience required, 179.
Oligation, moral, 35, 44.
Oigenonthe free-wUl of lost souls,
343; on theDivine veracity, 392.
Paley, Dr., on the " terrors ofthe
Lord," 389.
Parable of the Prodigal Son, 172,
173.
Paradise, its glories, 213.
Pardon, how far God -will grant
it, 252, 253.
Pearson, Bishop, on the everlast
ing torments of the wicked, 402,
403.
Perpetuity of punishment rests on
evU character being perpetual,
365, 368 ; the same in men and
devils, 370, 371 ; a final dispen
sation, 377 ; it is revealed, 390,
391.
PhUosophical theories, moral and
political, 42, 43.
Plato's definition of the mind, 25.
Pleasing God will be rewarded,
165, 166.
PresentUfe aprelude to the future,
379, 380.
Probation only in this life, 339.
Promises of God, how to interpret
them, 184.
Providence over the godly, 185.

456

INDEX.

Punishment of sinners at death,
118; its nature, inflicted by the
righteous God, 238 ; man's sin,
and the penalty, 239 ; he is
placed under the law of God,
240, 241 ; the kind of, 255 ; po
sitive inflictions, 257, 260 ; how
is this necessary ? 264, 265 ; du
ration of it, 275, 276.
Punitive Justice towards sinners,
266, 267 ; averted by faith in
the sacrifice of Christ, 268, 269.
Reason the first principle of reH
gion, 12, 13 ; its dictates imper
fect, 36, 37 ; its powerful ope
rations, 38, 39.
Rectitude of God, 153, 154.
Redemption of the wicked from
heU not intimated in Scripture,
334, 335.
Regeneration, its nature, 98, 100 ;
removes depravity, 142.
Responsibility of man, 26 ; proves
the future state, 58.
Responsible agents under law, 68,
85.
Restitution of aU things, 311 .
Resurrection ofthe body, 130,132 ;
preparation for it in the saints,
133; of Christ, 134; evidence
of it, 135 ; of the wicked, 136 ;
state of the redeemed, 218, 220 ;
the resurrection argued, 427,
428.
Revelation is Christology, 100.
Rewards at the judgment, 139 —
146 ; assured by the Christian
revelation, 155, 156 ; granted
through Christ, 157 ; promised
by our Saviour, 160, 168; dif
ferent in degree, 170, 171.
Sadducees deny a future life, 113.
Salvation of men, — wiU God save
aU? 253, 254.
Satisfaction for sin required, 327.

Second death, the, perpetual tor
ment, 381, 384.
Sheol, its meanmg — the invisible
world, 286, 287. See Hades.
Sin not natural to man, but an
abuse of his nature, 30, 31 ; its
enormity, 278, 279 ; an infinite
evU, 325, 327 ; its existence
mysterious, 373.
Sinners, theh awful doom, 280.
Sophists, theh doctrine, 409.
Sphitual life, its principles, 128,
129.
Tophet, with its fires, an emblem
of heU, 297.
Universalists, some, deny the im
mortality of the wicked, 349,350.
Universal restoration does not
agree with the Christian sys
tem, 376, 377.
Universal salvation not taught in
the Scriptures ; not in Rom. v.
311, 313 ; nor in viii., 314 ; nor
in 1 Cor. in. ; nor in xv., 315,
318 ; nor in 1 Pet. hi. 18, &c,
319, 320 ; nor in the scheme of
sovereign grace, 321, 322.
Veracity of God, 392.
Vice produces misery, 148, 150.
Vhtue, Christian rewardable, 147 ;
productive of peace and happi
ness, 148, 149.
WheweU, Professor, on the Foun
dation of Morals, 412.
Whiston on the "Eternity of Hell
Torments," 371.
White, Blanco, on God's power,
431.
Wicked men, in hell, have no
means to work out their re
demption, 333.
Wickedness of men, various, 260,
262.
Wrath, the day of, to be expected
by the wicked, 277, 280.

THE END,

Eeed and Pardon, Printers, Paternoster Eow, London.