all things here, it often involves its votaries in great afflictions. So sin, by the admirable arrangements of Divine Providence, often and generally drags after it many miseries. My general principles of retribution agree with those who deny its future existence; only I extend them into the future, on the ground, that they are not fully carried out here. There is so much of the manifestations of divine justice in this world, that we may find in them assurances of an over ruling hand. But the passions of men are often so strong, and temptations so great, that great and weighty considerations, drawn from divine retributions, scem requisite to counteract them, and guard the citadel of human volition; especially among the depraved. It has been shown before, that the doctrine of endless punishment, nullifies substantially all retribution, and is therefore, the worst view of the subject ever taught.

6. To conclude, let me say, I advocate no world of perfect wo; no local hell of material fire, to torture spiritual beings; nor indeed any purgatorial flames. But the prolongation of our present conscious existence, and its progressive exaltation to the fullness of Christ. That during his reign, all the inequalities and wrongs of this incipient state of our being, will be rectified; and the perfect justice and goodness of Jehovah will be manifest. That our present state is the embryo or childhood of our existence; and when this mortal coil decays, our youthful being will come into circumstances far more favorable to its developement and progress. Jesus is the great Master; Lis moral kingdom is his school. All mankind are to become his pupils, and to graduate in the science of morals and of heaven. There is a moral power in this system of most efficient and mighty energy. It is destined to conquer error, and elevate the intelligent creation to the boundless sunshine of truth, and pour the broad glories of moral day, over the retiring waves of the darkness and tears of ages past.

CHAPTER XII.

THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF ENDLESS PUNISHMENT; AND THE PRACTICAL, MORAL, AND POLITICAL TENDENCY AND BEARING OF UNIVERSALISM AND PARTIALISM CONSIDERED.

CAN the dogma of endless punishment for the sins of this life, be just? If so, the sins of this life must be infinite. Well, if each and every sin a person commits be infinite, then he must deserve as many endless punishments as the number of his sins; and then a whole cternity of pain would only punish him for one sin, and all the rest must go unpunished. And according to this, when we have committed one sin, we have deserved as much as we can ever get, and therefore, we might then sin on with impunity. But if no one sin alone is infinite, then all sins together could not be so. Because no possible number of finite things added together, would make one infinite thing. But man has no infinite faculty-no infinite power. How then can he commit an infinite act? Even man's intentions in sin are not infinitely evilthere is nothing infinite about him. But some say, he has power to sin equal to his power to suffer. Very well; but he has in his constitution no power to live endlessly; nor a moment longer than sustained by the Divine hand; much less has he in himself power to suffer endlessly. All that belongs to man's nature, is limited, finite, and so must be his acts, and their retributions.

2. None will deny, that the Bible doctrine of punishment, is, that it will be inflicted on the sinner, and re

nothing short of endless punishment satisfy the desires of the good? Let us reason and calculate. What punishment would seem enough for the sin of a single minute? Suppose a christian stands by and sees a fellow being writhing in a furnace of fire-see his agony-see the crisping of his flesh--the boiling of his blood and marrow; and hear his shrieks and screams for a whole day; would he not think the peor creature sufficiently punished for the sin of one minute? If not, suppose the same punishment prolonged a thousand years-ch, how long for such suffering! Would that satisfy the justice of a God of infinite mercy, benevolence, and goodness? Would it satisfy the good and just feelings of christians to see all this inflicted for one minute's sin? If not, let it be still extended. We wish to see how long merciful christians and a merciful God would wish to punish the sin of a single minute. The nearest fixed star is estimated at 5,000,000,000,000 miles from us-a distance which a cannon ball would not pass over, in less than eleven hundred and eighty thousand years. Suppose this earth to be the centre of a globe of fine sand, whose circumference should embrace the fixed stars; and suppose one poor sinner should be living and agonizing in the hottest flames, as many millions of centuries as the sands in this supposed globe-suppose this sum to be multiplied by as many figures placed in a row as would reach round the earth-and again this product into itself a hundred thousand million times-and all this punishment for the sin of one minute! Would that be enough? I ask not a Devil whether that would satisfy him; for I am told that he is so cruel as never to be satisfied; but I do ask all christians, if they would not suppose that enough? I ask too if a God, who is worthy of our homage-whose "tender mercies are over all his works"would not be satisfied that such a punishment was enough for the sin of one minute? Well, if this is enough for one minute's sin, when a person had suffered all this as many times over as he had lived minutes in

sin, his punishment would end. And all this is not endless misery. Nay, it is not so much as a drop to the ocean. The whole ocean is made up of some given number of drops; but no possible number of periods above described, could amount to endless duration.

4. Now suppose one has suffered a day-a year-or millions of years-or during a period like that described above. Must this be considered punishment for his sins --some punishment-at least some part or portion of the punishment due to him; or no portion of it at all. If it be no part or portion of his punishment, then he might be always suffering, and still never receive any of his punishment. And if he is doomed forever to suffer without ever receiving any of his punishment, then he never suffers endless punishment at all; but he is made the victim of arbitrary and wanton cruelty. Eternal miseryand no part of it any of the punishment which he deserved. And who will accuse God of inflicting ages of agony upon any person, without intending thereby to punish him at all for sin? But if the other horn of the dilemma be taken, and it is conceded that these years or ages of pain are punishment-that they are some portion of what justice required, then when an individual has received this part or portion of his due, there cannot reinain as much due him as at first. There must have been some certain amount of punishment his due at first, else there could have been none his due. And the amount due him at first, must have been according to the amount of his sins. Well, when he has received a part of this amount, the remainder must be less than the whole. Take any portion of a thing from the whole, and the remainder must necessarily be diminished in the same proportion. Hence, the moment a person has received some of his just punishment, the amount still due, is so much diminished. Therefore, if all this period of suffering above described should ever be experienced by any person, it must be experienced either as no punishment at all, or as some portion of just retribution, which