tory. O Death! where is thy Sting! O Grave! where is thy Victory? The Sting of Death is Sin, and the Strength of Sin is the Law. But thanks be to God, who giveth us the Victory through Jesus Christ our Lord."

AP.

APPENDIX

ΤΟ

DISCOURSE IV.

SINCE these Discourses were written, I have met with two more publications in favour of Annihilation, by persons who reject the doctrine of the Trinity. Mr. Whiston, indeed, can hardly be considered as an advocate for the doctrine, as he grounds his belief only on the literal meaning of the words, and expresses himself with great diffidence on the subject, and sometimes seems to indulge a hope of final restoration. His book has for its title, "The Eternity of Hell-torments considered; or, A Collection of Texts of Scripture, and Testi

monies

monies of the three first Centuries relating to them."

In this work he confirms, in the most satisfactory manner, every thing which was offered in a preceding discourse in explanation of the meaning of the original words, which are rendered eternal, everlasting, and for ever. To the same purpose he gives us many quotations from writings, certainly of great antiquity; and which he himself (who, although a man of great learning and sterling integrity, yet had adopted many singular opinions) included in the Canon of Scripture. To the Old Testament he adds the Apocrypha, and to the New the two Epistles of Clement of Rome; the Apostolical Constitutions, the Recognitions, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Epistles ascribed to Ignatius. All these, he shows, abound with passages in which the terms in question are used to express a limited duration.

He

He asserts that the doctrine of the Eternity of Hell-torments is not to be found in any of the ancient creeds, nor in any of the writings of the two first centuries. Tertullian, (who flourished in the third century,) he says, "is the first writer he has met with who makes the punishment of the wicked of equal duration with the happiness of the good in the world to come." The passage he cites to this purpose is the following, Apol. c. 18. "After the world is over, God will judge his worshippers; so as to bestow on them the reward of eternal life; and to cast the profane into a fire, æque perpetem et jugem, equally perpetual and continual." But may not this refer to the fire, whether that be taken literally or figuratively, and not to the victim?

The genuine Eusebians, he says, page 90," or that part of the church which retained

retained the old Christian faith, never appear to have come into this notion of the proper eternity of the punishments of the wicked, as the Athanasians gradually did, and but gradually." He then refers us to Fabricius in proof that Eunomius, one of the chief patrons of what he calls old Christianity, and one of the best men of the fourth century, was certainly and directly against it.

His own singular, and I trust wholly unfounded, opinion he gives in the following words. Page 105, Page 105, "For myself, when I carefully compare Nature and Scripture together, it seems to me, that after the destruction of the last enemies of God's church on earth, the general conflagration shall begin; and our earth shall be turned from a Planet into a Comet; and the Devil and his angels and dæmons, together with the incurably wicked among mankind, shall be

thrown