"And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army; for his camp is very great; for he is strong that executeth his word; for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?" verse 11. See also verse 31, and compare Acts ii. 16-20, and it will be seen, that Peter applies this language of Joel to the events connected with the introduction of Christianity into the world, and the destruction of the Jews. So we see that this time of visitation was called THE GREAT DAY OF THE LORD. In Zeph. i. 14. we read, "The GREAT DAY of the Lord IS NEAR, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord; the mighty man shall cry there bitterly." No one will think of applying this to eternity; but yet it describes "the great day. So again, in Rev. vi. 17, it is said, "for the GREAT DAY of his wrath Is COME; and who shall be able to stand?" Let me repeat, that we learn from the Scriptures now adduced, that any time of remarkable visitation was called "the great day" of the Lord. We then reaffirm the proposition, that there is nothing in the passage from Jude, which heads this article, that makes it necessary to apply it to any other beings besides men, or to any world besides that in which we now live.

If any person will read the 5th, 6th, and 7th verses of Jude in connexion, he will see that three classes of persons are brought forward as illustrations and proofs of a fact which Jude had stated, verse 4. He was writing of the false teachers, who had crept unawares into the church, and showing that they were before of old ordained to condemnation, verse 4. They should not escape swift retribution, for, as Peter said, "whose JUDGMENT NOw of a long time. LINGERETH NOT, and their damnation slumbereth not." 2 Pet. ii. 3. Their judgment was not in eternity; it was coming upon them swiftly. To prove that this was the way God had ever dealt with men, Jude refers to three classes of men. 1st. To those who were delivered out of Egypt, but were afterwards destroyed, because they believed not,

[verse 5.] 2d. To those messengers, ministers, or angels, who kept not their proper offices; and who, so far from escaping punishment, were doomed to darkness of mind, and were judged in the great day of God's visitation, [verse 6.] 3d. To the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, who forsook God, and did wickedly, and who were punished with an entire overthrow, [verse 7.] Is there not all the reason (we ask the candid reader) for men to apply the verses which speak of the rebellious and unbelieving Jews, and the wicked inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, to the future world, and to make out that they were all superhuman beings, that there is to give the verse in question such an application?

LXXXIX. "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Jude, verse 7.

We have spoken repeatedly, in these pages, of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. See particularly what we have, said on Matt. x. 15, Section IX. of this chapter. It cannot be necessary that we enlarge upon the subject here; and we shall content ourselves by offering the following very full and learned note from the commentary of Dr. Whitby.

"That this is spoken not of the cities themselves, but of the inhabitants which dwelt in them, that is, of them who had given themselves over to fornication, and gone after strange flesh, is evident; but yet I conceive they are said to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire, not because their souls are at present punished in hell fire, but because they, and their cities, perished from that fire from heaven, which brought a perpetual and irreparable destruction on them and their cities.

and iii. 7,

"For (1,) we have proved, note on 2 Pet. ii. 6, that even the devils themselves are not tormented, at present, in that infernal fire, but only will be cast into it at the day of judgment; and, therefore, neither do the wicked Sodomites yet suffer in those

flames. (2,) I would admonish you, saith the apostle, though you once knew this, that Sodom and Gomorrah thus suffered the vengeance of eternal fire. Now, from the history of Genesis, and the writings of the prophets, they might know that these cities, and the inhabitants of them, were overthrown, siç aiara, with a perpetual desolation, Zeph. ii. 9, but they could not know from thence that their souls were afterwards cast into hell fire. (3,) To Seiyua, an example, is to be taken from something visible to, or knowable by, all who were to be terrified by it, especially when it is an example manifested and proposed. Now such was not the punishment of their souls in hell fire; but nothing was more known and celebrated among authors, sacred and profane, Jewish, Christian, and heathen writers, than the fire that fell down upon Pentapolis, or the five cities of Sodom, they being mentioned still in Scripture, as the cities which God overthrew with a perpetual desolation.

"Nor is there any thing more common and familiar in Scripture, than to represent a thorough and irreparable vastation, whose effects and signs should be still remaining, by the word aiarios, which we would here render eternal. I will set thee, is ignμov aiavior, in places desolate of old, Ezek. xxvi. 20. I will destroy thee, and thou shalt be no more, is tòv aiara, forever, verse 21. I will make thee, onuar aidívior, a perpetual desolation, and thy cities shall be built no more, chapter xxxv. 9. See also Ezek. xxxvi. 2; Isaiah lviii. 12. They have caused them to stumble in their ways, to make their land desolate, and ougiyua alúrior, a perpetual hissing, Jer. xviii. 15, 16. I will bring you, orεidioμor diariov, an everlating reproach, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten, Jer. xxiii. 40, and xxv. 9. I will make the land of the Chaldeans a perpetual desolation, they shall sleep, vлvov aiorov, a perpetual sleep, Jer. li. 39. And this especially is threatened, where the destruction of a nation or people is likened to the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah; thus Babylon shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, οὐ κατοικηθήσεται εἰς

το

Tov aiuva zgóvov, it shall never be inhabited, Isa. xiii. 19, 20. And again, Jer. 1. 40."

This furnishes full proof, that Dr. Whitby believed in the doctrine of endless misery, and probably believed that many of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah would suffer eternal torments; but he did not believe, that the words, Jude, verse 7, should be applied to a future state of punishment at all, but to the overthrow and destruction of those cities upon the earth. XC. Jude, verse 13.

Here we find the phrase forever applied to punishment, as we did also in 2 Peter ii. 17. For our remarks on this point, see on Rev. xiv. 9–11, section XCII. of this chapter.

XCI. Rev. ii. 11; xx. 6, 14; xxi. 8.

In these four passages, and in these alone, in the whole Bible, we find the phrase SECOND DEATH.

It is fortunate for us that we are not left to learn the import of the phrase in question from men. The inspired writer has himself given us a clue to the subject, which it will now be our business briefly to trace. From two passages it seems very manifest, that being cast into the lake of fire, is the second death. See Rev. chap. xx. 14, and xxi. 8: If we can learn any thing in relation to the lake of fire, we shall at the same time learn the circumstances attending the second death.

The lake of fire is mentioned five times only in the Bible, viz. Rev. xix. 20, xx. 10, 14, 15, and xxi. 8. And here we beg leave to ask the advocates of endless misery, if they believe the lake of fire and brimstone spoken of as the place of the second death, to be a lake of literal fire and brimstone? If they are pleased to answer in the affirmative, we would again ask them, if they consider the beast, mentioned xix. 19, and 20, to be a literal beast? If so, we suppose death and hell, mentioned xx. 14, are to be understood as literal likewise, and they too, cast into the lake of fire. By turning to chap. vi. 8, we shall see death mounted upon

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a pale horse, which of course was literal, "and hell," literal also, followed with him." If all these things are to be received as literal, death mounted upon a pale horse, and hell following with him, the beast with seven heads and ten horns," and last, though not least, the lake of fire burning with brimstone, into which the others were cast, Catholic credulity itself will, we fear, prove insufficient for the task. But this no one in his sober senses will pretend. Still, if the lake of fire must be understood to be literal, why not all the rest? Let consistency be preserved, and let us not cast a figurative beast, and death, and horse, and hell, into a literal lake of fire and brimstone.

But, by looking a little closer to the subject, we shall find very good evidence to believe, that the lake of fire, terrible as it may be, is yet in this our insignificant and passing world, and makes no part of the apparatus of eternity. We read, chap. xix. 20, "And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet, that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast ALIVE into the lake of fire and brimstone." Now, whatever may be said to the contrary, it cannot be reasonably supposed, that, literal or figurative, the beast and false prophet could be cast alive, that is, without suffering death or change, into the lake of fire, allowing that to be in the future and eternal world. But that they were so cast there, must be believed, or the notion that the lake of fire is removed from this world be given up. Dr. Clarke's notes on this passage are amusing; "The beast," says. he, has been represented as the Latin empire; the image of the beast, the popes of Rome, and the false prophet, the papal clergy." On the phrase, "were cast alive into the lake of fire," he says, by way of exposition, "Were discomfited when alive, in the zenith of their power, and destroyed with an utter destruction;" that is, the Latin empire and the papal clergy were discomfited, &c. This is being cast into