thee to offend, 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; for every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt."

It is argued that our Lord in this passage repeats five times that the fire into which the wicked are cast, shall never be quenched; that three times he speaks of hell as a place where the worm dieth not, and that still farther to show the perpetuity of the sufferings of the wicked, he adds, "for every one shall be salted with fire" As it is the property of salt to preserve, it is argued, that the inference justly deducible from this awful intimation is, that this fire, while it torments its unhappy victims, shall not put a period to their existence, but, contrary to its natural effect, continue them in being.

A careful examination of this passage will show that this argument is founded upon a false interpretation of the metaphors which are here employed, and that it is altogether fallacious. Jesus speaks of the wicked as being cast into the valley of Hinnom, into the unquenchable fire, where the worm dieth not. Yet "in the valley of Hinnom, the worm died when its food failed, and the pile on which human sacrifices were burnt to Moloch was often extinguished." New

come.

"These emblematical images, expressing hell, were in use among the Jews before our Saviour's time. The son of Sirach says, vii. 7, godly is fire and worms.' will take vengeance on the

"The vengeance of the unJudith xvi. 17; The Lord nations, &c., in the day of

judgment, in putting fire and worms in their flesh."" Lowth's Note on Isaiah Ixvi. 24.

When it is said that every one shall be salted with fire, or every sacrifice is salted with salt, this is to be understood, "not literally as the law requires, Levit. ii. 13, but figuratively, with the salt of divine assistance and instruction. Salt being a preservative of food from hasty corruption, was among the Jews an emblem of virtue and knowledge, by which the mind is purified. Coloss. iv. 6; Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt."" New

come.

That the phrase unquenchable fire, upon which so much stress is always laid in the argument for Endless Misery, does not denote a fire which shall never cease, is most certain. The following passages afford irresistible evidence, that it is constantly used in the Scriptures in a limited sense.

Jer. xvii. 27; "But if ye will not hearken unto me, to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burthen, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then will I kindle fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, AND IT SHALL NOT BE QUENCHED. Yet the same prophet predicts that Jerusalem shall be rebuilt, ch. xxx. 18, &c.

99

Ezek. xx. 45-48; "Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, set thy face towards the south, and say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the Lord. Behold I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree, THE FLAMING FLAME SHALL NOT BE QUENCHED, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein, and all flesh shall see

that I the Lord have kindled it; IT SHALL NOT BE QUENCHED."

If it be supposed that these menaces were actually executed upon Jerusalem, and that when this devoted city was destroyed, the prophecy was literally accomplished, it must be admitted that the fire which consumed it is already extinguished, and that therefore the scriptural meaning of an unquenchable fire is not one which has no termination. If these dreadful threatenings be more justly considered as figurative, it must be allowed that they express the Divine displeasure, and the severity of the punishment which is inflicted on the disobedient, but not that they determine any thing relative to its duration.

Isaiah xxxiv. 9—11; "And the streams thereof (of the land of Idumea) shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. IT SHALL NOT BE QUENCHED NIGHT NOR DAY; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever; from generation to generation it shall be waste; none shall pass through it for ever. But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; also and the raven shall dwell in it; and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stone of emptiness."

the owl

No fire, with which the wicked are threatened, is expressed in language so strong as this, yet it is obvious that this phraseology cannot denote a fire which shall never end; for if any one can believe that Idumea was really turned into pitch and brimstone, and set on fire, yet it is impossible to suppose, that it will continue burning through the ages of eternity; and if

the denunciation be interpreted in a figurative sense, the calamities it threatens must be understood to be of a temporal nature, and therefore of limited duration.

Robinson on the Spirit of God.

[The fifth and sixth numbers, being the third volume of Sparks' Theological Collection, have been received in this city. The former of these contains some admirable pieces from the works of that spirited and popular writer, Robert Robinson; and the latter gives us Cogan's Letters to Wilberforce, on the doctrine of Total Depravity. We copy below a few paragraphs from the commencement of one of Robinson's Village Discourses, entitled "The Spirit of God the Guide of Good Men."]

THE old prophets had a spirit of prophecy, and a spirit of holiness; that is, they had the Spirit of God; they knew a little of those future events, which God perfectly understood, and which little he imparted to them; and they possessed a little degree of such justice and goodness as God possesses in infinite perfection. Jesus Christ is a new character, having the Spirit of God without measure, possessing wisdom, justice, goodness, and every excellence in unlimited variety, and in absolute perfection. What did Jesus Christ with this fulness of the Spirit of God? He communicated it to his disciples, and so sent them even as his Father sent him, saying, receive ye the Holy Ghost. Christ did not communicate to them, for they were not capable of receiving it, all the Spirit of God that dwelt

in him; but he communicated it in part, therefore they knew in part, and prophesied in part. When they were children, they thought and spoke as children; but when they became men, they put away childish things. The question is, what did Jesus communicate to his Apostles for the Holy Ghost? This question is properly answered by distinguishing extraordinary powers, peculiar to themselves, and necessary to obtain a hearing of their doctrine in the world, from ordinary communications common to them and to all other good men to the end of the world.

When Christ came into the world, and condescended to ask a distracted race of men to give him a hearing, what glorious reasons did he stoop to bestow! He healed the sick, he raised the dead, he fed the multitude, he empowered his Apostles to speak with divers tongues, and to perform many miracles, all for the good of society, all to convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. During the life of Christ he communicated to his Apostles his own ideas of things, what notion he had of God, what of scripture, what of a future state; and his wisdom made them wise. He imparted to them his own just and gentle tempers, and through his goodness they became good. He communicated to them proper actions, and by seeing how he conducted himself, they learned how to behave themselves. These communications, ordinary and extraordinary, are what one of them calls, a receiving out of his fulness grace for grace.

Before Jesus Christ left the world, he promised the Apostles to supply his absence, after he should have left them, by another Comforter, even the spirit of truth, which, saith he, ye know, for he dwelleth with