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it were in our power to believe the Doctor perfectly honest in what he there says. Let the reader re-examine it. He then finds but a single text in proof of a yet future coming of Christ to judgment. And what is it? Matt. xvi. 27: The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his holy angels; and then shall he reward every man according to his work.' This, he avers, is a 'real, personal appearing of Christ'-' more important than the purposes of his other comings.' Will the reader believe, that Dr. Macknight himself has, in another place, produced this passage, or the remaining part of it, to prove that this very coming was at the destruction of Jerusalem? See his language under the first division: Further, that the apostles, by the coming of Christ, which they represented as at hand when they wrote their epistles, meant His coming to establish His spiritual kingdom over all people, nations and languages, and NOT His coming to put an end to this mundane system, is evident from what Christ himself told them, Matt. xvi. 28, [the very verse after the above,] There be some standing here, who shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.' This, then, both was and was not an event to take place at the end of this mundane system-according to Dr. Macknight. We leave the Dr. with this mortifying contradiction, and the reader with the rest of his remarks, which are not contradictory, but natural, consistent and useful.

WM. A. DREW.

ART. VI.

Modifications of the popular Doctrine of Endless

Misery.

The design of this article being somewhat novel we would have the reader clearly apprized of the course we intend to pursue. Our immediate

aim is not to confute the doctrine of endless misery; but to point out the inconsistency of certain modifications it appears to be undergoing. Some of our speculative divines, unwilling to dispense with so imposing a tenet, and feeling, nevertheless, unprepared to maintain it in all its native barbarity, have hoped to accommodate it, in a degree, to the dictates of reason and humanity. But while attempting this, they seem wholly to forget the ground on which they rest the very doctrine itself. With an oversight, remarkable, but not uncommon with ingenious speculatists, they, in the first place, advance the general hypothesis on certain alleged proofs; and then they proceed to modify it, till they remove it entirely from the reach of those proofs, even were the original appositeness admitted: thus leaving the structure, much improved perhaps, but deprived of its foundation. The exposure of this fact, if made with sufficient plainness, will lead the advocates of the doctrine to see that they must either bring it back to its proper though horrible character, or abandon it altogether. In such an

alternative, we doubt not that many of them will choose the latter course; and when the case becomes generally understood, we believe that the tide of improvement, which is already felt, will be directed more fully to the abolition of the obnoxious dogma, instead of being diverted in vain attempts for its amendment.

The soul ground on which endless misery is believed and urged, as an article of the Christian religion, is, if we mistake not, the supposed fact that the Scriptures teach it; or, at least, that they explicitly mention a punishment in eternity, without warranting the hope of its termination. It is on the Bible, we are told that the doctrine rests. And if, for the purpose of reducing the question into a definite compass, we ask, on what part of the Bible? a multitude of noted and oft repeated texts is brought forward. As it is important to mark the character of the testimony on which so much depends, we shall do well to insert it at some length. It consists of such passages as the following:

As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ; for it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God." 'We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to

1 Heb. ix. 27

2 Rom. xiv. 10-12,

that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.'3 When the son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

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Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick and in prison, and ye visited me not. . . . . And these shall go away into everlasting punishment,' I say unto you, that every idle word that man shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment; for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.'5 'After thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God ; who will render to every man according to his deeds. Because I have called, and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early,

3 2 Cor. v. 10. 4 Matt. xxv. 31-46. 5 Matt. xii, 36, 37. 6 Rom. ii. 5, 6.

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