tical manner? He seems here to explain his own meaning of the other phrases, which he sometimes uses upon this subject. If scruples be raised, however unjustly, about the import and extent of the word aivos, here nothing depends upon that term. It rather appears from hence, that that term, as applied to this subject, must be understood in its full extent since it is here repeated, time after time, that the fire is unquenchable, and the worm never dies. And it is our Lord's manifest design, to warn his disciples to part with any thing in this world, however useful or dear to them, rather than expose themselves to the danger of this state, because it is irretrievable. One would not, methinks, set aside the evidence of so plain and so strong a testimony of scripture, upon so interesting and so important a subject, without something of very considerable weight on the other side to overbalance it. Let us see then what engine Mr. W. employs to remove it; and whether he does it by fair strength, or only by artifice and evasion. He allows, in the first place, that "this affecting description of the torments of "hell looks at first sight liker their proper eternity, than almost any other in the whole Bible. "We have had the same discourse of our Saviour's,

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indeed, already from St. Matthew xviii. 8, 9. (see "Num. XIV.) but not set down so distinctly, nor "under quite so terrible a representation as here. However, it being directly taken from the last

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verse of Isaiah, where it evidently belongs to a "judgment upon some wicked men in this life only, "which is very far from eternal; and belonging to "dead carcasses, which can never be eternal ages in

d P. 41.

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consuming, either by worms or fire; and being joined either with the sight, or abhorrence of those carcasses by all flesh upon this earth only, it is "most evident, that it does no way infer the proper eternity of such punishment, but rather the contrary."

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The great engine, we see, that is played against us, is the last verse of Isaiah, which is this; And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh. Now supposing here every thing that Mr. W. supposes, that this judgment, and this consumption of the dead carcasses, is in this life only; and that this sight and abhorrence of them, is upon this earth only; then indeed it is most evident, that we can no way infer the proper eternity of this punishment, which Isaiah speaks of: but it is so far from being most evident, that it is not evident at all, that therefore we cannot infer the proper eternity of the punishment which our Saviour describes in this passage of St. Mark's Gospel. For see how the argument will run; our Saviour, in describing the punishment of the wicked in hell, has taken some images and expressions from the last verse of Isaiah: but Isaiah meant to describe by those images and expressions only a temporal punishment, or a judgment executed upon this earth only; therefore we cannot infer from our Saviour's description of the punishment in hell, the proper eternity of such punishment. No; what should hinder us? Are the words capable of denoting a proper eternity, when the subject will bear, and the occasion and context

lead to it? This is not denied. On the contrary, it is acknowledged, that this description, at first sight, looks liker a proper eternity, than almost any other in the Bible. But then it is taken from Isaiah, where it does not denote a proper eternity. And how should it, according to Mr. W.'s own account? Since the whole scene of the transaction, the judgment, the consumption of the carcasses, the sight and abhorrence of them, is all to be in this life, and upon this earth only. If so, reason and good sense will lead every one to understand the description in such a sense, and such a sense only, as the subject described will admit of. But what is this to our Saviour's description in St. Mark? He is plainly describing a judgment which does not belong to this life; a punishment which is not to be inflicted in this world, or upon this earth. If then our Lord could borrow from Isaiah a description of a punishment in this world, and apply it to the punishments of another world; why might he not (if the words will bear it) intend to denote the eternity of these punishments, though the punishment intended by Isaiah is only temporal? For it is plain, though the description or representation be the same, the subject is changed; and that, after all, must be the key to let us into the meaning ". Our Saviour repeats the description so often, and seems to lay such a stress upon it, that one can scarce forbear thinking he designed to teach us, that, whatever may become of the worm and the fire mentioned by Isaiah, he was describing a punishment, under those images, which really and truly should never end: here, in

e Quem non terreat ista repetitio, et illius pœnæ comminatio tam vehemens ore divino? Aug. De Civit. Dei, lib. xxi. cap. 9.

deed, the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. The matter, at last, will come to this dilemma; Isaiah, in his last verse, is either describing the punishment of hell, or he is not. Upon the

f N. B. The ancients understand Isaiah's words of hell torments. So St. Cyprian, ed. Fell. p. 195. ad Demetrianum. So Eusebius, Præparatio Evangel. lib. xi. ad finem.

Ο σκώληξ αὐτῶν οὐ τελευτήσει, καὶ τὸ πῦρ οὐ σβεσθήσεται, καὶ ἔσονται εἰς ὅρασιν πάσῃ σαρκί. Τηρεῖ δὲ ὡς καὶ ὁ Πλάτων συνάδων τούτοις, τοὺς ἀσεβεῖς εἰπὼν χωρήσειν εἰς Τάρταρον, ἐπιλέγει, ὅθεν οὔποτε ἐκβαίνουσι.

And so Jerom on the place: he does indeed speak of some "qui volunt supplicia aliquando finiri, licet post multa tempora;" and expresses some hopes of this kind himself, with regard to Christians; but as to the Devil, and wicked atheistical men, who said in their hearts, There is no God, "credimus æterna tormenta." However, he plainly understands Isaiah's words of hell torments. So do, amongst the moderns, Vitringa, who confutes the jejune interpretation of Grotius; Dr. Clarke, in his Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion, p. 397. 7th edit.; and Dr. Chapman, in his Eusebius, vol. ii. N. B. Mr. Whiston quotes St. Cyprian's words referred to above, in his 90th page. And though they contain as full and clear a testimony for the eternity of hell torments as can easily be given, yet he concludes his remark upon them thus; "But whether he (Cyprian) believed the torments to be properly "eternal, I do not certainly know." That is, he will know nothing but what he has a mind to know, and makes for him. St. Cyprian does not only call them "æterna supplicia gehennæ," but says expressly, "Cremabit addictos ardens semper gehenna, et vi“ vacibus flammis vorax pœna; nec erit unde habere tormenta vel "requiem possint aliquando vel finem. Servabuntur cum corpori"bus suis animæ infinitis cruciatibus ad dolorem. Spectabitur "illic a nobis semper, qui hic nos spectavit ad tempus: et in "persecutionibus factis oculorum crudelium brevis fructus, per"petua visione pensabitur.Erit tunc sine fructu pœnitentia, "dolor pœnæ, inanis ploratio, et inefficax deprecatio. In æternam pœnam sero credent, qui in vitam æternam credere nolu"erunt." In the next page, Cyprian declares as clearly against Mr. W.'s repentance in hades, as he does here against his temporary punishments in gehenna.

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first supposition, what Mr. W. has said above is all foreign to the purpose, being founded upon an entire mistake. If, according to the latter, he is not describing the punishments of hell, but only some judgment executed in this world; then it is plain, our Saviour and he are describing two very different sorts of punishments; and therefore, though our Saviour's representation may allude to his, or be taken from it, it is against all reason to make the one the rule and measure of interpreting the other. Surely it is no unusual thing to allude to the language of another person, or to borrow descriptions from him; and use them, upon different subjects, in a different and more extensive sense. Our Saviour's words must have some determinate meaning of their own, and if that appear to be for the eternity of the punishment which he is representing, nothing that Isaiah has said can possibly make it otherwise.

But Mr. W.'s reasoning is not only inconclusive, but it also comes with the worse grace from him, as it carries some appearance of inconsistency. He is here for setting aside a remarkable testimony of our Saviour's for the eternity of future punishment, because it is expressed in the language of Isaiah, originally intended to denote some punishment only in this world. And yet from this same language, alluding to this text of Isaiah, "which originally re"lated to nothing else but to the utter destruction "of the enemies of God's church, before the end of "the world," he would infer the nature of hell torments, after the end of the world, and the consumption of the bodies of the damned by fire and worms. Yet neither our Saviour in the passage before us,

g P. 24.