from its being at this period a better preservative from sin, and a better motive to holiness to the individual, for he is just leaving this world, where this can alone operate as a motive to obedience. It must, then, be better to die by than mine.

1st, As a ground of hope in death. Now we ask, what ground of hope it can afford to any man at death, to think that the doctrine of eternal misery is true? Can he look on his wicked wife, and still more wicked children, and neighbours, around him, in the hour of death, and make their eternal misery a foundation of hope for his own eternal blessedness? Can the certainty of their eternal misery afford him any certain hope of his own safety? Can he die with a more joyful hope because their misery is to have no end?

2d, As a source of joy and consolation in death. But to which of the saints of old shall we refer, to find that the doctrine of endless misery to all the wicked, was any source of joy to them when about to leave this world? Can any thing like this be found in all the book of God? What name ought even a joy of this kind to receive, if it was possessed? But we do not think this doctrine does afford any joy in death to the person dying, either concerning himself or those he is about to leave. We rather think, that the doctrine at this hour, is often to the believers of it themselves, rather a source of pain and uneasiness. Should their hopes of heaven be such as to banish all fear for themselves, it often proves a source of misery to them, in regard to the friends and relations they leave behind. This, we think, will not be disputed. Now, allowing that my doctrine is true and the objector's false, how different would be the state of mind in which people would bid a last adieu to friends and relations, yea, to all the world. He and they must part, and truly such separations are often heart rending scenes. My doctrine, if true, it is ea

sily perceived, is here a healing balm, for it is only a momentary, not an eternal separation. But the opposite doctrine adds pungency to every parting pang, and the only consolation it affords to the dying saint, with regard to many of his relatives, is, that he shall have the pleasure of viewing from heaven, their torments in hell forever. Let us suppose ourselves by the bed of a dying person, and hear him say that he was full of hope and joy, arising from his belief in the eternity of hell torments; and that in heaven the torments of his relations, friends and neighbours, would give him pleasure forever. I ask, what would we think of such a person? It would certainly be but charity to believe that he was disordered in his mind. If we did not, we should conclude that some evil spirit possessed him, and that in this state of mind he was very unfit for heaven.

To conclude. We are either too blind, or too perverse, to perceive how the objector can prove that his doctrine is a good doctrine, either to live or to die by. We should be glad to see it shown, if it can be done, how eternal misery in hell can be to any man a good doctrine, in life, or at death; in time or in eternity.

It is a very popular objection brought against my views of Gehenna,-"If you are correct, we must believe that the most learned, and good men, yea, most Christians, for a great many ages, have been in a great error. Do you think yourself wiser than any of them?" See some remarks in answer to this objection, p. 197, 198. In further answer to this ob

jection, let it be remarked

1st, That I make no pretensions to superior learning, or wisdom, or goodness, about this. I only profess to have paid some attention to the Scriptures on this particular point, which those persons, taking the subject for granted, have inadvertently overlooked.

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This all men are liable to. So far from thinking myself more learned, wise, and good than those men, I sincerely think the very reverse. It will be granted, that no man is perfect in knowledge. And it will be seen, that those learned and good men from whom I differ, very unfortunately took it for granted that Gehenna was a place of endless misery for all the wicked. Had they not done this, but as I have attempted to do, examined into the truth of this doctrine, they would have given a very different account of Gehenna or hell, from what they have done. From their superior learning, talents, and means of information to which I have no access, they would have placed this subject in a much more luminous and convincing light. Were those very men alive, they would be the last men, who would blame me for my inquiry on this important subject.

2d, This objection was urged at the Reformation against the reformers, and indeed may be urged against all reformation and increase in knowledge to the end of time. It will serve a Jew, a Mahometan, or a Pagan, as well as a Christian. If it has any weight against me in the present case, it is equally strong against every man, who advances any thing from his Bible, contrary to what learned and good men have believed in past ages. Those very men whom I am blamed in differing from, were blamed in the same way, in dissenting, in some things, from learned, wise and good men who preceded them. They did not scruple to dissent from, or go beyond those who went before them, and assigned their reasons for so doing. And why should not we do the same thing? If this is not done, knowledge would be perfectly stationary, and an end is put to advancement in Biblical knowledge and improvement in every thing else. Had the reformers regarded such objections, urged in their day, and all others since, we

had been at this day all good Catholics, or perhaps idolaters, worshipping the works of our own hands.

3d, So long as such learned and good men are allowed to be fallible men, it must be admitted, that they may have been mistaken. We ought not to receive their opinions about Gehenna, or any other doctrine, without examination. We ought to bring thenr to the Bible for trial, and be satisfied, that they are not the mere opinions of men, but the faithful sayings of God. This I have done, with respect to the common opinion entertained about hell, and I request every man to try what I have advanced, by this infal lible standard. If those men have been mistaken, it is certainly high time that the mistake was corrected. | If they are correct, and the common opinion concerning hell or Gehenna be true, much good must result from the present discussion, in leading men to examine more carefully, the ground on which their faith is built. It will not be denied, that a great many who are believers in the doctrine of hell torments, have received this doctrine by tradition from their fathers, without any personal and Scriptural examination of it for themselves.

4th, In other cases it is allowed, that those learned and good men, lived and died in many errors, and some who may bring this very objection against me, take the liberty to dissent from their opinions in other things. Why may they not have been in an error in thinking that Gehenna was a place of endless misery; and why have not I as good a right to dissent from them in this, as some have done in other things? All we wish is, let the subject be impartially examined, and truth will be brought to light by the investigation. Can any Calvinist, Hopkinsian, Baptist, or Methodist, urge such an objection with a good grace, when they all, each in their own way, dissent from the doctrines of so many learned, wise and good

men, who lived before them? Before they open their lips against me, let them return to the doctrines of their forefathers, and confess how greatly they have departed from the good old way. But each of these sects thinks, that their departure from the doctrines of their fathers, is a nearer approach to the doctrine of the Bible. This is just what we think concerning the departure we have made, from their views of hell or Gehenna. In proportion as we have receded from them, we think we have approached the truth in the Bible concerning this subject.

If we are to believe just as learned and good men have taught in past ages, many things now most surely believed, must be renounced, for men have very greatly departed from their views of many Scripture doctrines. You hear men every day call themselves Calvinists: but Calvinism, now is a very different thing from what is found in the works of John Calvin. You also hear of orthodoxy, but orthodoxy is not the same now that it was twenty years ago, and what is true orthodoxy in America would not be orthodoxy in Scotland. The truth is, men are beginning to search the Scriptures for themselves, and are taking the liberty to dissent from their fathers, however learned, or good they may have been. The Reformation was the dawn of day, after the long night of ignorance and superstition. But were the reformers to rise from the tomb, who were chiefly engaged in it, they would be surprised to see some good, and wise, and learned men, contending that we must advance no further, but must sit down satisfied where they left us. Happy for us, that we live in an age and in a part of the world, where it would not be in the power of man to stop the tide of inquiry and investigation.

Another popular objection against my views of Gehenna, is thus stated. Supposing, that the evidence you have produced, showing that Gehenna is not a