to England. On coming to London, he found a small congregation of the Lord's people, who had kept themselves together in that trying time, encouraging and helping on each other as best they could. He was invited by them to undertake the office of pastor amongst them. Remembering, perhaps, the solemn call and charge which on a former occasion he had given to Knox, and finding himself placed in circumtances like those in which Knox then stood, he found himself constrained to listen to this call, and accept of it. He undertook and devoted himself to the work, waiting upon the Lord's will, and committing himself to the Lord's hand to dispose of him as should seem best. In that little congregation there was a Judas a man of an unfaithful, base, and treacherous spirit. Upon information given by this person, Rough and others were apprehended, and the congregation dispersed. In the treachery of this false brother, and many instances of the same kind, a solemn warning is addressed to all professing Christians. We are called upon very diligently to examine ourselves as to the truth and sincerity in the matter of our religious profession. If in times when the profession of discipleship implies the actual sacrifice of much worldly comfort, and exposes to the peril of life, those are found attaching themselves to Christ's persecuted people who yet are none of Christ's; is there not reason to fear that, in quieter times, this may be the case with thousands? We are called upon by this consideration to examine whether we are not imposing upon ourselves, and dealing falsely with our souls, to the hazard of their everlasting condemnation.

Having been apprehended and examined, Rough was sent to Newgate. His examination and answers were despatched to Bonner, bishop of London, that he might proceed in the matter as he thought fit. "Bloody Bonner," say the history, "now minded to make quick despatch, within three days he sent for Rough out of Newgate, and questioned him on certain points. Upon giving his answers he was dismissed, and next day brought up again before Bonner and others. When they perceived his constancy, they determined to have him brought next day before the consistory, that he might there be adjudged and condemned as a heretic. This they accomplished."

The reader will find in Fox's "Acts and Monuments" the points on which Rough was examined. They are the same in substance as those on which such examinations in those times generally turned. His answers were short, and to the following purpose:That their Popish orders were nothing at all; that being a priest, he might lawfully marry; that touching the service then used, he utterly detested it; that should he live as long as Methuselah, he would never come to the church to hear mass and other service, being as it then was; that he had lived thirty-eight years, and yet had never bowed his knee to Baal; that he had been twice at Rome, and there had plainly seen with his eyes, what he had often heard before, that the pope was the very Antichrist; that he had seen the pope carried on men's shoulders, and the false named sacrament borne before him; and that there was more reverence given to the pope than

to that which they counted their god. "Hast thou," said Bonner, "been at Rome, and seen our holy father, the pope, and dost thou blaspheme him after this sort?" 'Having spoken these words, he indecently flies upon Rough, plucks him by the beard, and makes speedy haste to his death. "Let him be burned to-morrow morning, by half-past five o'clock. The land must be cleansed of such." They proceeded to the degradation of Rough; exempting him from all the benefits and privileges of their Church. Having condemned him as a heretic, they delivered him over to the secular power, duly to carry out the sentence. Many of those who suffered martyrdom had a presentiment of the kind of death they would die. An anecdote is recorded of Rough, which shows he had an impression of this kind. He had witnessed the burning of Austoo, at Smithfield. Returning home he met an acquaintance, who asked him where he had been. Rough replied, "I have been where I had not for one of my eyes but I had been." "Where have you been?" Forsooth, to learn the way." He met his cruel death with Christian fortitude, and enjoyed much spiritual comfort.

EVIDENCES OF ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. THE principal grounds on which I rest my belief of the doctrine of the eternity of future punishments, are as follow:

I. All those passages of Scripture which describe the future states of men in contrast

"Men of the world, who have their portion in this life: I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness.-The hope of the righteous shall be gladness; but the expectation of the wicked shall perish.-The wicked is driven away in his wickedness; but the righteous hath hope in his death.-And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.-He will gather his wheat into the garner, and will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.--Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be who go in thereat; because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that' leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. -Not every one that saith, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he who doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.-Gather ye first the tares, and bind them in bundles, to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.-The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gaashing of death: then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the king

God; which also was prepared for them from the foundation of the world. There may be a woe against the wicked, that they shall be kept from their consolation for a long time, but not that they have received it. Those who, in the present life, believe not in Christ, shall not perish, but have everlasting life. This life, also, is improperly represented as the seed time, and the life to come as the harvest, inasmuch as the seeds of heavenly bliss may be sown in hell; and though the sinner may reap corruption, as the fruit of all his present doings, yet that corruption will not be the opposite of everlasting life, seeing it will issue in it. Finally, Though they bear briers and thorns, yet their END is not to be burned, but to obtain salvation. To the foregoing Scripture testimonies may be added,

II. All those passages which speak of the duration of future punishment by the terms "everlasting, eternal, for ever, and for ever and ever:

"Some shall awake to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.-It is better for thee to enter into life halt, or maimed, than having two hands, or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire.-Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. And these shall go into everlasting punishment.-They shall be punished with everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. -He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit is in danger of (or subject to) eternal damnation.-The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.-Wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. -If any man worship the beast, or his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out, without mixture into the cup of his indignation: and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone, in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night.-And they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.--And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are; and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever."

To the above may be added,

III. All those passages which express the duration of future punishment by implication, or by forms of speech which imply the doctrine in question.

"I pray for them: I pray not for the world. -The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven unto men, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. He hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damna

tion.-There is a sin unto death: I do not say that ye shall pray for it.-It is impossible to renew them again unto repentance.-If we sin wilfully, after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more! sacrifice for sins, but a fearful looking for of judgment which shall devour the adversaries. -What is a man profited if shall gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? -Woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born.-Their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.-Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed; so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us who would come from thence. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.-I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins; whither I go ye cannot come.-Whose end is destruction.He that showeth no mercy, shall have judgment without mercy."

If there be some for whom Jesus did not pray, there are some who will have no share in the benefits of his mediation, without which they cannot be saved. If there be some that never will be forgiven, there are some that never will be saved; for forgiveness is an es sential branch of salvation. Let there be what uncertainty there may in the word eternal in this instance, still the meaning of it is fixed by the other branch of the sentence: they shall never be forgiven. It is equal to John x. 28: I give | unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. If there were any uncertainty as to the meaning of the word eternal in this latter passage, yet the other branch of the sentence would settle it; for that must be endless life which is opposed to their ever perishing; and, by the same rule, that must be endless damnation which is opposed to their ever being forgiven. If there be a sin for the pardon of which Christians are forbidden to pray, it must be on account of its being the revealed will of God that it never should be pardoned. If repentance be absolutely neces sary to forgiveness, and there be some who it is impossible should be renewed again unto repentance, there are some whose salvation is impossible. If there be no more sacrifice for sins, but a fearful looking for of judgment, this is the same thing as the sacrifice already offered being of no saving effect; for if it were otherwise, the language would not contain any peculiar threatening against the wilful sinner, as it would be no more than might be said to any sinner; nor would a fearful looking for of judgment be his certain doom. If the souls of men will be lost or cast away, they cannot all be saved, seeing these things are opposites. A man may be lost in a desert, and yet saved in fact; or he may suffer loss, and yet himself be saved: but he cannot be lost so as to be cast away and yet finally saved; for these are perfect contraries.

grovelling and mercenary view of morals which not unnaturally sprung up in such a mind as Hume's-a stranger to the elevating influences and hopes of true Christianity, limited to the earth, and at the same time shrewd and kindly in temperament. It is not, however, our object to characterize his moral system, but to mark how inconsistent he himself was with its dictates. We have already seen how Hume, on principle, patronized lying. We beg to ask, Is falsehood in harmony with the public good? Who does not know that nothing is more thoroughly destructive of it? Subvert public confidence by private falsehood, and what becomes of the public welfare? It is like robbing an arch of its keystone, or a wooden erection of its bolts and nails. Hume's doctrine of lying is in the teeth of his utilitarian theory of morals. When the philosopher became the patron of falsehood, to the other disgraces with which he covered himself, he added the disgrace of stabbing his own favourite moral theory. Perhaps, he would defend himself by saying that it was for the public good, and so virtuous sometimes to tell lies! Why sometimes? Why not always?

Take another illustration of self-contradiction. It is well known that Hume wrote an Essay on Suicide, in which he deliberately laboured to prove not only that it is lawful and innocent, but that sometimes it is an mportant duty, to take one's own life. In the same essay he tries to meet the objections drawn from the Scriptures, and, as he imagines, satisfactorily disposes of them. The essay was written when the author was forty-six years of age, in the midst of his literary career, after having been the spectator, twenty years before, of a most shocking case of self-murder on the part of a friend-a case which might well have haunted him to his dying day. It is true that the essay was suppressed previously to publication, but was suppressed in circumstances which give us no reason to hope that the author repented of the sentiment-that as there would be no crime in turning the Nile or the Danube from their course, so there would be as little in diverting a few ounces of blood from the human body!! It was suppressed shortly after he had been taught, to his own mortification in another publication, that the public would not bear unmoved gross assaults upon its religious faith and moral convictions. Hence, it is to be feared that the suppression was not the result of a change of views, but the dictate of mere prudential considerations, from an anxiety not to hurt the sale of his other works. Now, who does not see, as justly remarked by the biographer, taking the lowest view of the crime, how entirely self-murder is at variance with Hume's doctrine of utilitarian morals? Supposing there were no sin in suicide, yet how injurious is it to society; and therefore, according to Hume's theory, vicious? What a source of distress to the self-murderer's family and friends-what a stain upon his childrenwhat a burden, in all probability, is entailed upon society! The public are doomed to bear the expense of maintaining a family which, had the suicide possessed ordinary courage and magnanimity, he would have borne himself. But Hume, in his forgetfulness of the law of God, and in the love of vanity and para

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dox, cast all such considerations aside, and approved and vindicated what his own moral theory should have taught him to repudiate and condemn. much for the consistency of Infidel philosophy; and yet it is ever crying out against the inconsistencies, doctrinal and practical, of professed Christians.

We may take another and concluding illustration of the same point. Contending that utility is synonymous with virtue, we may well ask, Was Hume a virtuous man, in his own sense of the term, in the scepticism on religion and morals which he let loose upon society? His admirers claim for him the character of having been even a benevolent man in his spirit and manners. He was much liked by his friends; was kindly to the poor; and, in short, was possessed of much general amiability. Admitting the represen- | tation, we ask, Where the consistency between Hume's character and conduct?-where the utility or the kindness of subverting men's principles in be half, according to his own showing, of an uncertainty -an uncertainty so great that it was still men's wisest course to adhere" to the Catholicism which they had been first taught." Was it the dictate of benevolence to rob men of their hopes, and give them nothing in exchange? Did it indicate benevolence, not to be able to appreciate the Divine Benevolence spread on every side, and to indulge in the worst cruelty by seeking to rob those of the belief and serse of it who could? Hume could not possibly show that any good or virtue, in other words, any real utility, would result from sowing universal scepticism. He could not believe that, if successful, he would render society happier. He could not allege that he was under any obligation of conscience to diffuse his principles, irrespective of all consequences; and where, then, the virtuousness or benevolence of Hume, judged of by his own moral theory? May he not, under its standard, be convicted of flagrant vice? and if so, be convicted of gross selfcontradiction?

An anecdote is recorded in "The Lives of the Lindsays," lately published, of Hume spending a Christmas at Balcarras, and of his having written a character of himself (the company had indulged in the exercise as a Christmas amusement). The picture was considered most accurate by those who knew him. In the course of relation, he acknowledged that vanity was his predominant weakness; that it was this weakness which had led him to publish his Essays; and that though he retained the sentiments, he grieved over the results, inasmuch as he believed the publication had been injurious to society. The essayist must have been above forty years of age at this time. Here was the consciousness of injury;.. but did he recall or revoke his writings? Did he even publicly confess his sorrow? No; he continued to publish works as injurious, as vicious as before. And where, then, his benevolence for society?—where his virtue when actively engaged in promoting social injury-that is, vice? It appears, then, that Hume was full of inconsistency and contradiction, not only as respected the Word of God, and the usually received sentiments of his fellow-men and brother philosophers, but that he was at war with himself; that not only did one part of his moral theory conflict

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