the text. As to the idea of the glory of the Father, in which Christ said he was to come, see Daniel, vii. 9, 10: "I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the ancient of days did sit; whose garments were white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool; his throne was like the fiery flme, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judg ment was set, and the books were opened." There was nothing like this seen at the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans; Christ was not seen, nor any of the angelic hosts; how then can the text we are now considering, describe any thing more or less, than the day of the final judgment of the human race, and end of the world. That this was the meaning of the Saviour, see what he said to the high priest, who examined him at the time of his trial, the evening before he was crucified; when that high priest asked him, and adjured him by the living God, to say whether he was the Son of God or not. To which he answered, "thou hast said," which was as much as to say, I am; and so the high priest understood him. But to this he added, as he still replied to the high priest, "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." If, therefore, this means his coming, as Universalists say it does, namely, to destroy the Jews by the Roman sword, then he should have been seen sitting at the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven, at that time.

But in further proof of the real coming of Christ to our earth, in a manner which has not yet taken place, see Acts, i. 11, "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." But for what purpose is he to come? Why, to raise the righteous dead, and to destroy the wicked who may be then on the earth, and to restore the world for a thousand years to a condition of moral rectitude; and at the end of that time he is to raise the wicked dead, and to judge the world in righteousness, and to give to every man as his work shall be.

There are many passages in the Scriptures, from which this doctrine, that of rewards in heaven for the righteous, is inferred, and several of which assert that it is positively so, as already quoted. But we shall give one more example of the kind, before we leave the subject: Mark, x. 28, 29, 30" Then Peter began to say unto him, (the Saviour,) Lo, we have left all and have followed thee, what shall we have therefore?" Matth. xix. 27, "And Jesus answered and said, verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundred fold, now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and

lands, with persecution: and in the world to come, eternal life.” But St. Luke states it, "in this present time," (or life,) chap. xviii. 30, "and in the world to come, life everlasting." From these two places-Mark, x. 30, and Luke, xviii. 30-we see that the words eternal and everlasting are used in precisely the same sense, both meaning one thing, which is eternal life in eternity. But as to the fulfilment of the temporal part of the above promise, it is fulfilled in the benevolence the Gospel prompts in the hearts of Christians toward one another, and produces those fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, children, houses, lands, which are promised; but at the end, eternal or everlasting life.

These remarks of the Saviour to his disciples, as above recited, were occasioned, as we find-Matth. xix. 27-by a question put by Peter to Jesus Christ; and this is the question: "Then answered Peter and said unto him, behold, we have forsaken all and followed thee, what shall we have therefore?" To this he answered as above, and promised them as a reward, for having forsaken all for his sake, eternal life in the world to come. But says a Universalist, the world to come there mentioned, meant the next age, or some other age which was to follow the time of the Saviour; and that Christians all along the course of time, in every age, or in every world to come, should have this eternal life, and therefore did not mean after death, or in eternity. Were this a proper explanation of the promise, then it will follow, that the disciples to whom the promise was immediately made, never realised this promise for themselves, as they did not live to the time of the next age, or world to come. It is of no manner of force, if it is said that they then had this eternal life in them, because the promise had nothing to do with that present time, so far as it related to eternal life in them then; but extended to the world to come, and then was to be fulfilled or no where. And as the disciples to whom the promise was immediately made, did not live till the next age, as Universalists interpret, it follows of necessity that if these very disciples ever received the fulfilment of that promise, because they had forsaken all and followed Christ, that they must have received it after death, in the eternal world, as a reward for their love, and for proving that love, by forsaking all for the sake of Christ and his gospel, which reward is God himself; as said to Abraham, Gen. xv. 1. "Fear not Abraham, I am thy shield and exceeding great reward."

From a review of this subject, it is clear that the terms,-now in this present time, are set opposite to the terms world to come, in which eternal life, in its fullest sense, is to be conferred as a reward. But if eternal life, as Universalists hold, is the natural and unalienable right of man, by virtue of the goodness of God, as a Creator, how can it be held out as an incitement to virtue, or as a

reward to the righteous and be embraced in a promise in that light? It is inconsistent and impossible. But from this Scripture, we see that eternal life in heaven, is the subject of promise to the disciple, to induce a belief and perseverance in Christ, with all the benefits of religion on earth. Who can deny this with impunity? Yet this is denied (see Notes on the Parables) by Hosea Ballou ; who says, on the last page of that work: "Nor is it believed by your servant, that any passage (in the Bible,) can be found, which speaks of rewarding men for their good works, and of punishing others for their evil works, which can with the least color of propriety, be applied to the state of men, when this mortal shall have put on immortality, and this corruption incorruption." This is strange work: as Mr. Ballou knew well at the moment he wrote the above opinion, that Christ had said to his disciples, (Matth. v. 12,) "Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." And St. Luke, vi. 22, 23, says the same thing: "Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake; rejoice ye in that day, for behold your reward is great in heaven." Surely the doctrine of rewards, and that in heaven, is taught in the foregoing, and could never be denied, except by such as are theologically mad.

But if there is Scripture to prove that the righteous are to be rewarded in heaven as a consequence of the course they choose on earth, in Christ Jesus, so also is there Scripture to prove that the unrighteous are to be rewarded in hell, as a consequence of the course they chose on earth, in the error of their ways, out of Christ Jesus, and in default of all virtue; and that both of these conditions are in the invisible world. To this effect see Matth. xxv, 31, 32, 41, 46. "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all his holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. And before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them from one another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep (the righteous) on his right hand, (approbation) but the goats (the wicked) on his left hand (rejection.) Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, (the rejected ones) depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal." Here life eternal is placed as the opposite of everlasting punishment, and consesequently one will as soon end as the other; for in the original Greek in this place, the same identical word, without any variation, or shadow of difference, is used to express the unending nature and duration of both conditions, but were translated eternal and everlasting, merely to avoid a repetition of the same

word so near each other, which any person can see, would not have read as well as it does now, and by no means was intended to alter the sense. The word which is rendered eternal, is in the Hebrew, olam, and in the Greek, aion, and mean the same thing; which is, unending, ever-during, eternal, and is therefore applied to the unending Being of God-to the human soul, and to the judgments of the Divine Being.

No stickler of Universalist opinions, and particularly respecting a limited everlasting, as they seem to believe in, will deny, but the word when applied to the ever during being of God, is, in the fullest sense, eternal, as used in the case of Abraham; who, when he had planted a grove, called upon the name of the everlasting God; Gen. xxi. 33. The following quotations are of the same import, and equally direct to the point-Dan. vii. 18"But the saints of the Most High shail take the kingdom and possess it forever, even forever and ever." xii. 2, 3, " 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. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. Psalms cxii. 6. "The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance." Isaiah ix. 6-"and his name (Jesus Christ) shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The Everlasting Father."-xxvi. 4. "Trust ye in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." Prov. viii. 23. "I (wisdom) was set up from everlasting." Rom. vi. 22. "But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life." Gal. vi. 8. "For he that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the spirit, shall of the spirit reap life everlasting." Rev. i. 18. "I (Jesus Christ) am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of death and hell." In all these instances of holy writ, this word is used in the unlimited sense. It is also used in this sense-2d Thess. i. 7, 8, 9; where it is written to the afflicted and persecuted Christians, by St. Paul: "And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: WHO shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the (approving) presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power (in heaven.)

Mr. Ballou, in treating on this passage, (see Treatise on Atonement, page 183,) endeavors, as appears to us, to wrest the meaning from the true one, and to fix it on that which is not true-as follows: he says "the word everlasting," in the text above given, "is not applied to the duration of punishment, but to the destruction with which the sinner is punished :'

meaning that the sinner's sins are thus to be destroyed, and not the sinner as a person. But a careful reader in looking at the text, will perceive that the sins are not the objects aimed at, in any sense of the word, (for God knows that sin, as sin, cannot be made subject to his law) but that persons, the sinners, who shall be punished, &c. were the objects of the text. Sin, as sin, abstract from the sinner, is a perfect nonentity, and could never be addressed by the terms who, and then-as is done in that scripture. If not, then it follows that the sinner who dies impenitent is thus to be endlessly destroyed, with an everlasting destruction, instead of his sins, abstracted from him; a thing, wholly absurd and foolish. We will repeat Mr. Ballou's ideas, as above, who says that the destruction named in the text, does not apply to the duration of the punishment, but to the destruction with which the sinner is actually punished. And what punishment is this, which he thinks the text means? It is the sinner's release from all his sins, everlastingly:-for he argues that the flaming fire in which Christ is to be revealed from heaven, is the fire of salvation, and this is the vengeance he is to take on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that this vengeance is every day accomplished, when men become Universalists in their opinion, as we presume he means, with all who hold with hin. Is it possible? Does the context to those three verses justify such a belief? We answer-No, it does not. The reader may wish to know what the context is; it is this: (see verse 6 of the same chapter,) "Seeing it is a righteous thing with God, to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you." Now if this destruction, or recompensing of the wicked at that day, who grievously persecuted the Christians, was after all to be nothing but salvation, how can it be called tribulation? Surely, it cannot; seeing salvation is not a process of suffering: yet it must be so, if Universalists are right about the meaning of that passage of Scripture. A terrible vengeance this! and a most happy recompense of tribulation to such as opposed themselves to the Son of God, his cause, and his people, and thus continue to the end of life. Had the blaspheming Jews and Gentiles of that day known this thing, with what surprising fury might they not have rushed upon all saints, even to utter extermination; as so much the more would they have exposed themselves to the vengeance of salvation, and the righteous retribution of a sin-avenging God, in this way. This having been true, what a silly mass of human beings were the multitudes of Christians who went to the death for Christ's sake, when if they had but denied him, as did their persecutors, salvation, equally great and powerful, would have been their lot. It is clear, therefore, that the destruction named in the text, was not salvation, as Universalits