emiah's people, the hands of the Romans stayed on her,' from the 14th of April, to the 8th of September, when the siege terminated, leaving Jerusalem the subject of a thousand prophecies-destroyed by the flame, bleeding on every side, and sunk in ruin and desolation." How well the dreadful catastrophe of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the Jewish nation, agrees with the prediction of Jeremiah, let those who choose to read this fourth chapter of the Lamentations determine. But in reading this, it is not possible to miss the fact, that the "day of judgment" for this guilty people, was at the time to which I allude, and that temporal calamities, sufficiently dreadful indeed, filled up the cup of affliction for this devoted people. Thus the tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to his mouth for thirst-children ask bread in vain, those who had fed delicately were to be desolate, and those who were brought up in scarlet, to embrace dunghills. After this description, comes the text already cited; but the prophet does not stop here. He describes their visage as black, and their skin cleaving to their bones, two marks of famine, and gives his testimony in favour of the state of those who are slain by the sword, rather than of those who are slain by hunger; and finishes the appalling description of these dreadful calamities, by declaring in the energetic language of prophecy-"The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children; they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people." Here then is the punishment of a people which is greater than that of Sodom. But why was all this? See 5: 13.-" For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her." Now turn to Mat. 23: 34, to the close, and answer me, whether these passages do not perfectly correspond, and whether the records of the siege and sacking of Jeru

salem, do not so completely coincide with the comparative prediction of Jeremiah, as to settle an indisputable fact, that the destruction of Jerusalem was the fulfilment of the prophecy. The judgment day of Judea was indeed dreadful beyond all which had preceded, or which would succeed it—but the whole was temporal suffering. Much correlative testimony, and many corroborating facts might be introduced in confirmation of these arguments, but close attention to the subject may convince any rational man that I have always brought forward sufficient of both to sustain the argument.

Yours in truth,

JULIUS.

LETTER 8.

Dear Sir, I am certainly gratified by some of your remarks on my last production; more especially, because I perceive that your candour has in some measure triumphed over long cherished prejudices. Perceiving, however, that some of these ancient prejudices are so deeply engraven on your mind, as still partially to obscure the mental vision, I shall now pursue the subject further. You fairly grant that the Bible does not directly declare the Sodomites to be now suffering the vengeance of eternal fire; but yet contend that it is fairly inferred-and how? "By the current understanding of Jude 7." But are you willing to abide by the current understanding of the christian public respecting the article of baptism? You certainly are not; for, judging by the tenor of your latest epistle, you are even now prepared to renounce water baptism altogether. But let us examine this passage which is supposed to relate the condemnation

of the multitudes composing "the cities of the plain" to interminable burnings.

"Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."

Be pleased now to accompany me in a comparative view of this language. Giving themselves over-going after-suffering the vengeance. Here giving, going, suffering--are used in the same tense, without a distinguishing word which can even be wrested to imply any difference in their application. You cannot deny the inference; if this passage intimates that they are now suffering, it also intimates that they are now giving themselves over to fornication, and that they are now going after strange flesh. The absurdity of the latter propositions is too palpaple to escape notice---that of the former is not less so, for they are indivisible, and nothing but the "current understanding" on which you rely for authority, continues to shield it from absolute contempt.

But you urge that they are set forth for an example. -Granted; but how are they an example? Can the sight, or hearing, or any other sense, take cognizance of the sufferings of those who occupy nameless regions, where pain must hold the sceptre of empire while God shall continue to exist? No. Man has not seen, man has not heard, and man has not felt it. God has no where revealed it. The imagination of man has conjured up this and other phantoms; the metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls, has been current among tens of thousands; it is current still; the belief in possessions by evil spirits has been sufficiently current in our own country to disgrace it by the stain of innocent blood, and the prolific fancy of enthusiasts in all ages, has given currency to numer

But the source of

Truth is older

ous and abominable absurdities. these currents is not inexhaustible. than error, and will finally triumph as darkness recedes before the rising sun, so will ignorance and superstitious fear disappear the light of that divine knowledge which is destined to visit the children of earth, until all shall know the Lord, and rejoice in his salvation.

But we will return more directly to the subject. The common understanding of Jude 7. as already shown, affords no example. That of which we have. not any knowledge can afford neither precept nor example; it can neither warn the vicious to depart from iniquity, nor encourage the virtuous in a right course. If the import of this citation be that for which you evidently contend, it is perfectly nugatory as an example. That it is not submitted to the perception of our faculties, is perfectly demonstrable; but even this is not more indubitably certain, than that we have neither divine nor human testimony, on` which the general opinion of this text can find a resting place. You would undoubtedly inquire, on this ground, What then are we to understand by the text, and how apply it as an example? I answer, first, the destruction of these cities is set on high in history: and, secondly, the bituminous earth on which these cities stood, continued to burn long after the days of the Apostles. It was under these views of the subject that Jeremiah wrote in Lam. 4: and that Ezekiel, in his 16th chapter, reproves Jerusalem. It requires no strained and unnatural exposition of this verse to find the example; on the contrary, a perversion of the sense, completely obscures the example behind the fog of traditional lore. The example was truly terrible, but far less dreadful in its nature than was that of Jerusalem, as stated by Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and fully confirmed by Christ.

Relative to the phrase eternal fire, it signifies no more than the fire of the age, aionion fire. This has no possible allusion to another state of existence. If the cities of the plain were destroyed by fire, why need we carry the idea any further? We certainly read of no other fire than that in which their bodies were consumed, nor do the scriptures say or intimate that they are now in a conscious state of existence. Let who will, prove by the Bible, the reverse of this position, before he pretends to fix the particular situation of the Sodomites. I hardly need say to you, that suffering implies consciousness. Neither Moses, nor Jeremiah, nor Ezekiel in the Old Testament-nor yet Jesus Christ nor Jude in the New Testament, notice such a catastrophe as that to which you advert. The scriptures speak of them as being overthrown, and suddenly destroyed; but of their after-state, not a lisp is known, save that which relates to their final restoration. Let us then have the modesty to receive the testimony as we find it, not striving to be wise above what is written. Having in vain called upon you to show that eternal life is so used in the scriptures as necessarily to point out another state of being, I waive the further consideration of this topic until convinced by facts and counter-arguments that the position already taken is untenable.

Having occupied room which would necessarily exclude a portion of the next subject under contemplation, the remainder of this number will be occupied by additional remarks on the subject already partially examined in a former, as also in the present Letter. You are aware that the cases of the antediluvians, the Sodomites, Judas Iscariot, and probably some others, have been considered as not only desperate, but absolutely out of the pale of possible salvation. I shall now endeavour to show that the people of whom we have lately been speaking are not in this