1st, Let us consider how these men were to fill up the measure of their fathers? If we consult the context, it gives us the following answer to this question. Verse 34, "wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets; and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city." That in this way, the scribes and pharisees were to fill up the measure of their fathers, no man will question. Their fathers had killed the prophets sent to them, verses 30, 31. And they were a generation of vipers, proving themselves to be the children of such fathers. The measure of their fathers they did fill up, by crucifying the Lord of glory, and persecuting his apostles and followers. See Acts 2d, where Peter charges them with this crime. Comp. John xvi. 1-3 1 Thess. ii. 16.

2d, Let us now examine, what the damnation of Gehenna was, which those men could not escape? If verse 34, answered the first question, verse 35, as certainly answers the second. It runs thus" that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the Temple and the altar." When it is said here, "that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, all allow that punishment is meant. This, punishment coming on them was near, for our Lord added in the next words" verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation."

The context then clearly decides, that our Lord, by the damnation of hell, referred to the punishment God was to bring on the Jewish nation during that generation. Indeed, if ever the context of a passage can decide, in what sense the writer uses a word or phrase, it is decided in the case before us. But is there a vestige of evidence in the context, which shows, that our Lord,

by the damnation of hell, meant a place of punishment reserved for the wicked in a future state? No, nothing which bears the most distant resemblance to this. Let any one attempt, to make out proof of this from the context, and nothing is so likely to convince him, that the interpretation I have given is correct. It was in making such an attempt, I was led to this very view of the words—damnation of hell. The only thing, which leads people to conclude, that these words refer to punishment after death, is the false, and entirely gratuitous sense affixed to the word hell or Gehenna. But all candid men will allow, that if we affix what sense we please to the words of the holy spirit, an end is put to all correct interpretation of the scriptures. To recur to the context, in ascertaining the sense of any word or phrase used by a writer, is allowed by all, a first rule in explaining his meaning.

But some things in the context, strongly confirm the sense given to the words-damnation of hell. 1st, the expression damnation of hell, or Gehenna, occurs in this discourse of our Lord's about the destruction of Jerusalem, but in no other discourse he ever delivered. Had he used it when preaching the gospel, when enforcing repentance on his hearers, or in speaking on the subject of a future state, one might be led to suppose, he did mean a place of punishment there. But, being used in such a discourse as this, and in no other, seems to put it out of all question, that I have rightly interpreted the words—“damnation of hell or Gehenna."

2d, The persons to whom the words damnation of hell were addressed, confirm my view of this passage, They were Jews, as all must allow. To no other person, is a word said about Gehenna, except them, in the whole Bible. Jews, and they only were concerned in the damnation of hell, for not a word, is said about Gehenna or its punishment, to any Gentile, whether a believer in Christ or an unbeliever.

3d, No man will dispute, that verse 35, refers to the punishment inflicted on the Jews at the destruction of their city and Temple, and more fully enlarged on Chap. 24th. Well, when our Lord said verse 36, "all these things shall come upon this generation," was not the damnation of hell, verse 33, and explained verse 35, the very thing or things referred to. And as the case of the Jews, was past all remedy, and could not escape the judgments of God which were impending over them, our Lord laments over their condition verses 37-39.

To the view I have given above, of the damnation of Hell, I am aware it is objected 1st, Prophecies have a double meaning; and though our Lord by the damnation of hell, referred to the temporal punishment coming on the Jewish nation, in the same expression he might include, the endless punishment of the wicked in another world. Does not our Lord, Math. chap. 24th, blend in one description, the end of the Jewish state and the end of this material world? To this objection several answers might be given. 1st. If prophecies have a double meaning, why not twenty, or a hundred meanings? And if it is said, our Lord might include, both the above meanings in the phrase damnation of hell, let us see the proof of this supposition, from the context or some other quarter. What is it, which we may not suppose, and say, is taught in the bible, if never called on to establish our suppositions. But

2d, Giving prophecies, a double meaning, exposes the scriptures to ridicule, and is abandoned by all rational commentators. Mr. Stuart, in his letters to Dr. Channing, p. 126, gives up a double sense to Math. 24th. Commenting on verse 36, he says" of that day and hour knoweth no man; no not the Angels, which are in heaven, neither the son but the father. The day and hour, according to some, is the day of Judgment; but as I apprehend, (from comparing the context) the day of vengeance to the Jews is meant," But, if he by

comparing the context, sets aside a double view of this text, comparing the context, sets aside a double view of the words damnation of Hell. It does more, it sets aside the common idea, that these words mean a place of endless misery to the wicked.

3d, Let it be noticed, the words-damnation of hell are not a prophesy. No; they are a very plain declaration put in the form of a question-" how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" But had they occured in Math. 24th, and were a prophesy, we see from the quotation just made from Mr. Stuart, that only one sense could be attached to them, and the context must decide, yea has decided their true sense. Their sense is, "how can ye escape the impending vengeance coming on you rnation." So long as an examination of the context, and scripture usage of words, are deemed safe rules in determining the sense of any scripture writer, so long shall we feel confident, that our Lord by the damnation of hell, did mean this, and had no reference to endless misery in another world.

4th, But this double view of the words, damnation of hell, does not deserve notice, for it is not only a mere assumption, but is assumed in face of evidence to the contrary. This evidence has been stated above. Here I add, since people take the liberty, to give a double sense to the words damnation of hell, why not use the same liberty, and give a double meaning to every phrase our Lord ever used? For example, with the same breath he said "how can ye escape the damnation of of hell," and "all these things shall come upon this generation." But why not give a double meaning to the last words, and say, he meant also-all these things shall come upon this generation in a future world. And, all these things, shall come on the generation in which we live in the present day. Why not this, as well as that, the damnation of Gehenna shall come upon us? It was shewn at some length, Sect 1, that Jeremiah

made Gehenna or the valley of hinnom, a source of imagery to describe the punishment God would bring on the Jews for their sins. Let the reader now take into view, what was there said, in connexion with the passage before us, and notice the following things. Jeremiah and our Lord, evidently addressed the same people, the Jews. Both speak of a punishment, a dreadful punishment to this people, and they speak of it, using the term Gehennat to describe it. Both speak of it as punishment in this world, without giving the least hint, that it extended to a future state of existence. Both confine this Gehenna punishment to the Jews, without intimating it belonged to the Gentile nations, or must be suffered by other wicked men. Jeremiah foretold, some hundred years before, a punishment to the Jews, to the fathers of the very men our Lord addressed. Our Lord points them to that prediction, and solemnly warns them, "all these things shall come upon this generation." But there are two things, which the reader ought distinctly to notice, in which Jeremiah's prophesy agrees with what our Lord says respecting Gehenna.

1st, The prediction of a punishment to the Jews, under the emblem of Gehenna was a national one; one in which all classes of the nation were to be involved. Such is exactly the punishment of which our Lord speaks in the passage in question, as we have seen from the context. This rationally accounts for the fact, why our Lord said so much to his own disciples about the punishment of Gehenna, and mentioned it only once to the unbelieving Jews. They could not escape the damnation of Gehenna, but his own disciples might; hence he shews his solicitude, in warning them respecting it, and instructing them how to escape the severity of the vengeance which came on the unbelieving part of the nation. On no other view of the term Gehenna, can it it ever be rationally and scripturally accounted