or haars, not being persons, must necessarily be mads figures, and so the other must be construed as figurative also. But figurative or literal, the fire imports the destruction of all things cast into it, and the death of all the living. The wild beast will be prevented from destroying; the dragon from deceiving the nations; and the false prophet from deceiving God's people.

As the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomor rha, with fire and brimstone from heaven, are set forth as a pattern of the aionian burning, or the burning at that age, and as the burning of these produced the sulphurous lake Asphaltites, or Dead Sea, so the final destruction of the wicked may produce another lake, which may be for a time a lake of fire; but as the Dead Sea is to be cleansed, so Gehenna and its lake of fire will be cleansed and delivered over to Abraham and to Christ in a heavenly condition, according to the terms of the everlasting covenant.

THE LOWER AND LOWEST PARTS OF THE EARTH.

The phrase "the lower parts of the earth," is used for the sea-coasts, for the islands of the sea, and for the grave, but never for a place of conscious torment.

Ps. 63: 9, "But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth;" (the grave). Isa. 44: 23," Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it shout ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorifi ed himself in Israel." The lower parts of the earth, in this sublime poetical personification, may mean the seacoasts, the valleys, or the grave opened at the resurrection of its inmates. Ps. 139: 15, "My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and cu riously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth." Here the womb seems to be implied. Eph. 4: 9, "Now that he (Christ) ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth," the grave. for the resurrection of Christ is here spoken of: though perhaps here, the phrase, the lower parts of the earth, contrasted with Christ's exaltation, may mean no more than the deepest abasement. The phrase cccurs like

wise in Ez. 31 c. and 32 c, where it is used interchanga bly with grave, pit, and sheol; but no where does it mean a place of conscious torment

THE WORD TARTARUS.

This word occurs but once in the N. T., viz., 2 Peter 2: 4, "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment."

Observe,

The word translated hell here is tartarosas. it is not men, but angels who are spoken of; and these not as now undergoing punishment, but as reserved to be punished at a future period. Moreover, their chains are chains of darkness; a highly figurative expression. In the 9th v, The unjust are likewise said to be reserved "unto the day of judgment to be punished." Then it is clear, that neither angels nor men receive their punishment before the day of judgment, for rewards and punishments are reserved for that day.

The original meaning of Tartarus seems to have been an abyss; the thick darkness that is supposed to encircle the universe-the bounds or verge of the material system. The Pagans afterwards perverted this word, and made it signify a place beneath the earth, where the Titans, the giants, that they fabled to have rebelled against Jupiter, were confined; and as the Pagans originated the idea of the immortality of the soul, so requiring a place to put these fanciful inventions, these immortal, tangible intangibles, that could see and be seen, and yet be invisible; could feel and be felt, and yet be too etherial for cognizance; they put them in Tartarus, so deep that none could obtain a correct knowledge of their exis tence. But if the original meaning of the word Tartarus be in perfect harmony with revelation, and the chief of these angels be called "The prince of the power of the air"; (Eph. 2: 2,) although the word has been used in later ages by Pagans, in their fables, to designate their receptacle of wicked souls; and although professed Christians have adopted these fables, and inserted them into their creeds; we feel no inclination to attempt to make a Pagan of Peter to save these precious sectarian creeds! We assume, therefore, that Peter used the

word Tartarus to cxpress the region of the atmosphere or abyss.

CONCLUSION RESPECTING HELL.

We have now examined all those words that are translated hell, and all others that bear any relation to the word hell; and the result is, the Bible does not teach that there is any place now in existence, where the wick ed dead are in torments. Nay, that neither the wicked nor the righteous are collected in one common receptacle, excepting so far as all of them who have died, are in the dominion of death-that is, in sheol, or in hades—in a STATE of entire unconsciousness; of destitution of all life, and not in any particular place. Further, that none of the terms referring to the future punishment of the wicked imply that the wicked will be tormented for ever; but that many of these terms do most emphatically teach their utter extermination. These facts, taken with the mass of direct, positive, and plain testimony, that the wicked will be so destroyed as to be entirely put out of existence, as living beings, make assurance doubly sure, that the universe will be entirely purified of all wicked beings; not by rendering them holy, but by their anni hilation. Amen. Rejoice, every creature, that universal holiness and universal happiness, will ultimately prevail ! We have seen, too, that as the word hell conveys an entirely different meaning now, from that which it formerly bore, the word hell should be entirely blotted out of any revision, or new translation of the Scriptures; there be ing no Hebrew, nor Greek word, that corresponds with it, or indeed that bears the slightest affinity to it in its present acceptation. The ideas that are now so prevalent respecting hell, have been necessitated from the er roneous belief, that has increased of late years, of the immortality of the soul, the consciousness of the dead, and the everlasting misery of the wicked: which three errors have well nigh subverted the gospel of the Son of God. The words from which hell is now rendered, should either be anglicized, and left untranslated, as is baptism; or should have a corresponding English synonym: us sheol and hades, death, and the dominion of death; Ge henna, the Valley of Hinnom; Tartarus, the outer re

gions, or regions of darkness: and Abussos, an abyss, an abyss of waters, or a profound deep. Nothing can be more absurd than to translate all these words by the word hell, burdened as it is, with its present theologica! definition.

The terms applied to the ultimate destiny of the wicked, are utterly at variance with the fable of" eternal misery," and of the present suffering of the wicked dead in any place called a hell of fire; as these terms all imply the extinction and not the preservation of life and consciousness; and no honest interpreter of the Scriptures will henceforth attempt to reconcile these terms with eternal life in misery. Consider a few of them: Death-second death-perish―utterly perish-devour-destroy-cut off -burn up-consume-utterly consume-destructionperdition-corruption-they shall be as though they had not been, and annihilation. The fire that will consume the wicked, will be a fire that consumeth to des truction." Job 31: 12. The theologians that are de termed to sustain their tottering sectarian creeds, must invent some other words more pliant, and now less known than the terms we have examined. May we not indulge the hope that some of these professed teachers for the sake of honesty, and the truth, will abandon their vain traditions for the teachings of the Bible? Who is on the Lord's side? Who? WHO?

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CHAPTER XII.

ON THE FINAL DESTINY OF THE WICKED

We are now to examine what the Bible teaches rela tive to this awful subject. We have already proved that man is a unit—that the soul of man comprehends his whole being--that man is a soul--that man has no soul, nor spirit, that can exist, as a living thing, apart from his body that man in his whole nature is mortal; which of course implies that his body is mortal, his soul is mortal-and that his spirit, being merely the principle of life, is neither mortal, nor immortal-that it has not and cannot have conscious existence independently of the or ganized being it animated-that the compound being, man, becomes entirely unconscious in death, so that a man hath no pre-eminence (in death) above a beast," "they all have one (ruah) breath or spirit," "they are all made of the dust, and all turn to dust again :" Ecc. 5. 19-that one event happeneth to all, to the righteous and the wicked; Ecc. 9:2. Death ( destroyeth the perfect and the wicked," and "no man can deliver his soul from the hand of sheol, or death." Ps. 89: 48, "The soul (see margin,) of the hypocrite dies in youth.' Job 36: 14. Of the wicked, says the Psalmist 49: 19, margin, "His soul shall go to the generation of his fathers, they shall never see light. For like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them." 14 v.

As we have already proved that all the dead are unconscious in their graves, if there be no resurrection they have perished like brutes; they have been already blot ted out of existence. Not a question could have arisen respecting the destiny of the wicked, had it not been as