for proof of this, I beg leave to refer you to a discourse, now going to be published ‡.

If the expreffions of being thrown into a furi nace of fire-cast into a lake of fire—into, ever, lafting fire-into hell, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is nt quenched ;-do not import a total deftruction, or annihilation; I must confefs myself to be utterly at a lofs; and must beg your kind affiftance, in order to find out the meaning of them.

If I tell a man whofe houfe is on fire, that that fire is unquenchable; the meaning is the fame, as if I told him, that his houfe would be entirely destroyed. If I tell a gardener, whofe plants, or the bloffoms, are infected by the worm, That he cannot kill that worm, or, that it will not die; it is the fame thing as if I told him, that his fruit will come to nothing, or his plants die? Or, if a patient is afflicted with a diftemper, which is fuppofed to proceed from worms, and he is told that the worm will not die; the meaning of the phrafe must be, that the difeafe will end in the death of the patient. And iffach phrafes be confidered as proverbial among the Jews, and that when any perfon fell into any distemper, or calamity, that would certainly end in destruction, it was ufual for

See the Author: Sermons, vol. 2.

them

them to fay,

"That is a worm that will not die;" or, "That is a fire that will not be quenched;" the fenfe is perfectly intelligible: They meant that it was a loft case; that there was no poffibility of preventing the deftruction of the perfon, or thing, to which they applied the proverb.

Befides, there is fomething abfurd and contradictory in the image made ufe of, if we fuppofe chaff, wood, or other ufelefs materials, thrown into an unquenchable fire, and yet not to be confumed and deftroyed in that fire; or, a living creature caft into it, and yet preferved alive for ever in it: For, throwing into the fire is always understood, to be the moft effectual way to defroy a thing: And the lefs extinguishable the fire is, the more certainly will the fubject thrown in be confumed. And the original term, xalaxαisiv, properly tranf lated, is, to burn up, or utterly confume by fire: which is directly contrary to a being preserved in the fire. Who shall burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. John iii. 12. The expreffion here is probably borrowed from Masachi iv. I. For behold the day cometh that fall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly fhall be flubble; and the day that cometh fball burn them up, faith the lord of hofts, that

it

it fhall leave them neither root nor branch.Similar to this is the expreffion in the epistle to the Hebrews: Our God is a CONSUMING fire, nalavanionov: Which fignifies, utterly καταναλισκον: destroying; the very reverse of preserving.— There is, indeed, fo direct a contradiction between the idea of preferving any creature alive, and that of throwing it into a fire, a fire that cannot be extinguished; that if duly confidered, it is amazing how men came to join fo ppofite ideas together, or imagine them to be confiftent. This inconfiftency Mahomet ridiculously attempts to reconcile by faying, "That God will change their burned skin into a new skin, that they may fuffer the more."

Fire is, indeed, an inftrument of torture, as well as of deftruction. But why men fhould think it more becoming the most just and merciful governor of the world, to make it an inftrument of everlafting torment to his offending creatures, rather than of their everlasting defiruction; or why, they fhould be disposed to take the words of Scripture in a fense contradictory to reason, justice and humanity, when they will not only admit of, but are most naturally understood in a different fense, agreeable to juftice and clemency; is to me inconceivable.

The

The fubject is reducible, as far as the chriftian revelation is concerned, to this fingle question: Whether the afore-mentioned expreffions are intended to convey to us the idea of everlasting torture, or of everlafting deftruction, i. e. annihilation ?-Perhaps fome may be inclined to think, that they ferve to convey ideas, both of torment, and of total destruction. With fuch perfons (if there are any) I defire to have no controverfy. Because on this fuppofition, the torment or misery cannot be infinite. And it is only that Mahometan, Pagan, and (as I must confefs it appears to me at prefent) moft abfurd, cruel anti-christian, and diabolical doctrine of infinite, or never-ending mifery and torment, which I am oppofing, and endeavouring to eradicate: " Quam excutere opinionem (to use the words of Cicero) mihimet volui radicitus."

That there are paffages in the New Testament which imply, that the fentence of eternal death shall be executed upon criminals with circumstances of ignominy, horror and pain, proportionate to their guilt, I readily allow and affirm: Yet am not of opinion, that the figures of being cast into unquenchable fire, and the like, are intended to convey to us any idea

of

of torment, but folely that of total destruction, or annihilation, or ceafing to exift. And the paffage in the book of Revelations, where it is faid, that death and hell (ie. Hades) fhall be caft into the lake of fire, seems to me decifive in this point. For certainly the meaning there is, not that death and Hades fhall be tormented (which is ridiculous) but that they fhall be abolished.

But it is not my defign, either to trouble you with a fuperfluous repetition of what hath been fuggefted in the difcourfe referred to, or to exhauft the fubject: But only to reprefent to you in few words, the view which I have of it at prefent; and to intreat your friendly affistance, in further explaining the subject, and either rectifying, or confirming my fen

timents.

And give me leave to fay, Sir, that it is a fubject worthy of your pen: That according as the doctrine of future punishment is differently explained and believed, it will very differently affect mens opinion of the Supreme Being: And that in a caufe, in which the honour of God, and the credit of the chriftian revelation, are fo immediately concerned, you cannot find yourself unconcerned.

For