or of a future existence. And I ask, is it reason able to suppose, if the judgment and punishment of the wicked are connected with events so important as these, that our Saviour should have passed them ever in silence, and said nothing about them?

2. From the language of Christ in the commencement of the parable, we are led to inquire, of what time was he speaking? When was he to "come in his glory, and all the holy angela with him?" for at that time hew as "to sit on the throne of his glory," and then the judgment was to take place. In the parable we do not find answers to these questions; and consequently, wa are obliged to seek them elsewhere. He tells his disciples, Chap. 10: 23, that they should not "have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of man be come ;" and in the same conversation in which he spake the parable, he tells them,"And then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect, from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other :" he then adds the positive assertion that "this generation shall not pass till all these things are fulfilled."But the most clear and decisive declaration is contained in the two last verses of Chapter 16. "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of bis Father, with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." As the judgment in the parable is evidently according to the works of the different individuals who are

mentioned as the subjects of it, can we have, or ean we ask for clearer evidence than is contained in the last quoted passage, that this judgment is long since passed? If Christ did come and "reward every man according to his works” at the time when he said he would come, then we see at once, that the common application of this parable is incorrect; and that it affords no evidence of endless, or even of future punish

ment.

Paul's words to the Thessalonians will next claim our attention. "Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; 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 presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power."(2 Thess. 1: 6-9.) In considering this passage, three particulars must be noticed. I. Those to whom God would recompense rest with the apostles. 2. Those to whom he would recompense tribulation, and punish with everlasting destruction; and 3. The time when this recompense

should be administered.

1. Believing Thessalonians, or those who constituted the church at that place, are the persons addressed in this epistle; and the apostle represents them as enduring "persecutions and tribulations" for the gospel's sake; and as suffering for the "kingdom of God." These were unquestionably the persons who should receive a recompense of rest.

2. We are to ascertain who troubled these believers, and were to be punished for so doing. By consulting Acts 17th, from the 5th to the 10th verse, we find that "the Jews who believed not,

2a

moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a compa, ny, and set all the city on an uproar ;" and we are also informed that they "troubled the people," and did all in their power to destroy Paul and Silas, and to prevent the people from hearing and embracing the gospel. From the disposition always manifested by the unbelieving Jews, we conclude that it was these same persons who continued to trouble the Thessalonian believers, and who were the cause of the persecutions and tribulations they endured at the time Paul addressed them.

3. The time when they were in their turn to suffer tribulation, and be "punished with everlasting destruction,"was "when the Lord Jesus should be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels." We have already ascertained this time, if the express declarations of our Saviour are sufficient to fix it; and it is worthy of remark, that after the destruction of the Jewish polity, and the abolition of the Mosaic dispensation, the Jews, wherever they were, lost all the respectability and influence they had previously maintained; and from that time they have been, as Moses predicted, a "bye-word among all nations."

I had intended to notice some other passages which are supposed to teach the doctrine of interminable punishment; but as those which have been considered have always been deemed as conclusive as any in the scriptures on this point; and as time, and I fear the patience of my hearera, is wearing away, I must proceed to a consideration of those passages which have been thought to teach the sentiment of condemnation and punishment in connexion with the resurrec

tion.

Rev. 20: 12, 13, 15 is the first passage which I shall notice. "And I saw the dead, small and

great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to their works. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." On this passage, a very few remarks must suffice. It is acknowledged by all that the language of this book is highly figurative; and the most learned and able commentators readily acknowledge that they do not understand it. From the first ages of Christianity, there have always been great doubts, not only as to the meaning of its language, but also respecting the author of it, and the time when it was written; and this circumstance should caution us not to predicate any important principle of doctrine entirely on its testimony. But admitting it to be genuine, and to possess equal authority with the other parts of the scriptures, I conceive that the impropriety of referring this or any other prediction contained in it to events yet future, can easily be shown from the language of the book itself. In the introduction, contained in the first three verses, we have these words ;-"The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein; for the time is at hand;" and the opinion that the events predicted in the whole book were then shortly to "come to pass" is confirmed by the language of the Revelator in the last Chapter. "And he saith unto me, seal not the sayings of

the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand;" and again, "behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Connecting and comparing these expressions with the language of our Saviour quoted from Matt. 16: 27, 28, it must be obvious I think, that all the predictions contained in the book of Revelation, to whatever subjects they might allude, had their accomplishment during the generation then existing on the earth; and consequently, that the passage under consideration, can have no allusion to any event yet future.

But the passage on which the greatest reliance is placed to support the doctrine of punishment or condemnation in the resurrection state is found in John, 5: 28, 29. "Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." These words

are supposed to afford incontestible proof, that when the long sleep of death shall be broken by the loud trunip of the Archangel; and when "this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality," a part of mankind at least, will be raised to a state of interminable condemnation and woe; but this, as I shall now show, would be a plain contradiction, not only of the language of the apostle Paul, but of the assertion of Christ himself.

When the Sadducees, for the purpose of tempting and ensnaring our Saviour, proposed to him a question relative to the woman who had been the wife of seven husbands, he replied to them,-"ye do err, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God; for in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven."

This