ART. VII.

Punishment and Forgiveness.

1. The Scriptures of the Old Testament teach that God renders to every man according to his work; and they also proclaim the Lord God merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin. Nor is either of these doctrines of the Old Testament abrogated under the Gospel dispensation. The Scriptures of the

New Testament expressly state, that God will render to every man according to his deeds,3 in the day (or dispensation) when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ; and also that he hath exalted Jesus Christ to be a Prince and Saviour, to give repentance and forgiveness of sins. These two important doctrines of the Bible have been so defined by a respectable class of christians, as to appear inconsistent with each other. They hold that the sentence of the law against transgressors, in recompense to them according to their deserts, is their consignment to endless punishment. And as all have sinned,' the just desert of all is the aforesaid endless punishment. Yet the class of christians of whom I

1 Deut. xxx, 15. Ps. lxii, 12.

2 Ex. xxxiv, 7. Ps. xxv, 11, 18.

3 Rom. ii, 6.

4 Acts v, 31. xi, 18.

Prov. xi. 31. Ezek, xviii.

Jer. xxxi, 34.

speak, notwithstanding they believe that the just desert of all men is eternal misery, and though they urge it as the plain doctrine of God's word that every man shall be dealt with according to his desert, do not mean to be understood as believing that all men shall be made to suffer that deserved recompense of misery. For the doctrine of forgiveness, they say, is likewise a doctrine of the scriptures; and they hope that God, through the exercise of forgiveness, will make millions of sinners to be participants of eternal happiness in heaven. Thus the sinner's hope of final happiness is made to be the hope of an escape from his deserved punishment.

Indeed forgiveness has commonly been understood to be the clearing of a person from some deserved punishment. How then shall the person who is tempted to sin, know what to expect from the threatening of God's law? If divine forgiveness be a deliverance from deserved punishment, then, though God has positively declared that he will render to every man according to his deserts, yet he may render to no man according to his deserts,-nor can he punish any to whom he extends forgiveness. In this way the doctrines of punishment and forgiveness are set in opposition to each other; and many, while they profess to be strenuous advocates, both for the doctrine of divine forgiveness, and of God's rendering to every man according to his works, do, in the very labors in which they undertake to urge these doctrines, alternately deny them both. In urging the doctrine of the punishment of sin ners, they preclude the possibility of their ever being forgiven, and in urging the doctrine of the

forgiveness of sinners, they preclude the possibility of every man's being recompensed according to his deserts.

II. But we hope to be able to show, to the satisfaction of the candid reader, that there is no inconsistency between the doctrines of punishment and forgiveness, as taught in the sacred scriptures. The better to accomplish our purpose, we will view the two subjects both separately, and in connexion with each other.

In the first place we will take a view of the teachings of the scripture concerning the punishment of sinners. In the 18th chapter of Ezekiel there is recorded a kind of judicial decision, from the court of Heaven, upon the meaning of the divine law, about which the people had fallen into mistakes. "The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying, What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge? As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have any more to use this proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.' Hereby we are informed that the law of God makes the wages of sin to be death. Not eternal death, however, or endless punishment, as they affirm whose sentiment has been Defore stated. The death pronounced on sin

ners by the divine law is only to be co-extensive in duration with sin. To this point the word of God proceeds to say, But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him; in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live.' Hence we learn that it is the principle of divine law, the justice of the government of Heaven, that when a sinner has turned from the way of sin, and walks in the possession and practice of principles of godliness, he is no longer a subject of that condemnation or death which is the just portion of sinners. Justice condemns him only while he is a sinner. And since the divine law does neither ordain nor predict that men shall always continue in the character of sinners, it it does not determine that any shall be subjects of eternal death.

This view of the death or punishment of sin, that its duration is measured by man's continuance in the character of sinners, accords with the experience of all who have been reformed. St. John says, 'We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.” He and his christian brethren, when they were in the spirit of opposition to the law of God, were in that death which is the wages of sin. On them was executed what God's law declares, that sinneth it shall die.' For to be

1 1 John iii. 14.

The soul carnally

minded is death."2 But when they turned from the way of sin, and walked in that love which is the fulfilling of the law, they passed from death unto life, and felt that as far as they were holy no just law in the universe could condemn them. What is contained in the word of God by Ezekiel, The soul that sinneth, it shall die,' is expressed in other words by the apostle Paul, in Rom. ii, 6-10. 'Who will render to every man according to his deeds; to them who, by patient continuance in well doing, seek for glory, and honor, and immortality; 3 eternal life; but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and

2 Rom. viii, 6.

3 Aphhadsian, Incorruptness, or purity of doctrines and designs.

4 Aionion life. Some have contended that the punishment of evil doers, spoken of in this passage, is eternal punishment in the future world, because the reward of the well doers, is eternal life. I know that the christian hopes for an eternity of life and happiness beyond the grave, not however, as the fruit or reward of his present doings, but as the free gift of God's grace. The aionian life, which is the christian's reward, is the life and happiness which he receives and enjoys in believing and obeying the gospel. In possessing himself of the glory, and honor, and incorruptness of principle which he seeks, he possesses himself of aionion life. As in John v, 24, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting (aionion) life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.' Here what is called everlasting life, is also expressed by the single term, life; as in 1 John iii, 14, quoted above : and Rom. viii, 6, To be spiritually minded is life and peace ;' and in many other places. And in this passage, the reward which, in verse 7, is called eternal life, is in verse 10, called glory, honor, and peace. The doctrine of an eternity of happiness, as the reward of our good deeds here, is as unscriptural as is the doctrine of an eternity of punishment for our evil deeds.