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wicked shall be turned into hell in the future world? No, it does not. It merely asserts the fact, that the wicked shall be turned into hell; and it is mere assumption in any writer, without offering proof, to consider sheol, in this instance, as signifying a place of endless punishment. It is taking for granted the very point in dispute. Let the believers in endless misery prove, if they can, that sheol signifies a place of endless punish

ment.

Dr. Allen, then president of Bowdoin College, published a sermon in reply to Balfour's "First Inquiry but he was constrained to confess, that Psalms ix. 17 could not be justly considered as proving endless misery. He said, "The punishment expressed is cutting off from life, destroying from the earth, by some special judgment, and removing to the invisible state of the dead. The term (sheol) does not seem to mean, with certainty, any thing more than the state of the dead in their deep abode." Dr. Allen was not a Universalist; he was not led by any doctrinal bias to come to the conclusion which he adopted; indeed, the bias was all the other way; but the force of truth constrained him to make the above acknowledgment.

Those who wish to see a full explanation of this subject, and its true sense clearly set forth, are referred to an article in the "Universalist Expositor," Vol. IV. pp. 65-68. See also Ely and Thomas's Discussion," pp. 128, 129; and Balfour's "First Inquiry," on the passage.

The passage will bear a general application to all wicked men, although we suppose David originally had reference to the heathen nations with whom he had to contend. Sheol is frequently used by the sacred writers, as a figure of darkness, and deep distress of mind, into which sin always plunges the transgressor. In this sense it may be said, all the wicked, and all the nations that forget God, shall be turned into sheol. Thus David was turned into hell, when he was a sinner. Hence he said, "the pains of hell gat hold upon me,"

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(Psalms cxvi. 3.) which he explained by adding, “I found trouble and sorrow." This is precisely the Universalist's understanding of this matter. When men disobey the commands of God, they find trouble and sorrow, the pains of hell get hold upon them, they are cast into sheol. This is a sense which the word very frequently bears in the Old Testament. When David, by timely repentance, was delivered from his trouble and sorrow, he considered himself as having been delivered from sheol, hell; and hence, in one place, he praises God for such a deliverance. "I will praise thee, O Lord my God, and glorify thy name forevermore, for great is thy mercy toward me; and thou hast delivered my soul from the LOWEST HELL." "" (Psalm lxxxvi. 12, 13.) The Psalmist surely was in this world when he uttered these words; he had suffered the pains of sheol in this world; he had been delivered from the lowest sheol while in this world. He attempted to augment the force of the word sheol, the lowest sheol, which added to the power of the description. He was plunged into the deepest sorrow, the lowest depression; and that state of mind and heart is what he intended by the "lowest hell," from which God in mercy delivered him. A similar use of the word, we find in Jonah ii. 2. "I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me ; out of the belly of (sheol) hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice." What did he intend here by the belly of sheol? See the 1st verse. "Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly." God had cast him into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed him about, the billows and waves passed over him. He had been swallowed by a great fish, and had been in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. This was the hell, or sheol, out of which he cried, and from which God delivered him.

This is all we think it necessary to say, on Psalms ix. 17. Before this passage can be adduced in proof of endless punishment, it must be proved beyond all

dispute, that sheol, in this instance, refers to a state of misery beyond the resurrection of the dead.

XIII. "Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of their cup." Psalms xi. 6.

Several of the principal defenders of endless misery quote this, viz. Strong, Davis, Hawes, Ely, and others. But what proof does it afford of the doctrine of endless misery? Is there the least intimation given, that this punishment was to be poured out in the future state? David was justified, by his knowledge of sacred history, in using the above language as descriptive of the punishment of sinners in this life. God had punished sinners in this world, before David was born, in the manner referred to by him. “The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground." Now here is an instance in which the language of the passage before us, was literally fulfilled in this world. Dr. Clarke says of these words, "This is a manifest allusion to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah." Com. on Psa. xi. 6. Before we can allow that the above passage refers to a future state of punishment, we must see some proof of it. It seems to us, the evidence is all on the other side.

XIV. "Arise, O Lord, disappoint him, cast him down; deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword; from men which are thy hand, O Lord, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life." Psalms xvii. 13, 14.

Andrew Fuller, President Edwards, J. M. Davis, and many others, adduce this as proof of endless punishment. The argument is this; if men of the world have their portion in this life, there will be no happiness for them after death. But try this argument on the other side. If "men of the world," i. e. wicked men, have their portion in this life, there will be no misery for them after death.. Why is not this inference

as good as the other? The plain question is, what is the portion of the wicked? Look at the passage under section XIII. " Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of their.cup." Well, where do they get this portion? Ans. In this life," according to the passage we are now considering. We read in Job, "This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God." xx. 29. Now let any one read the preceding verses, viz. 4-28, and he will see that it is trouble and sorrow upon the earth, which is declared to be the portion of a wick-. ed man from God. Eternal torments in hell is the portion denounced on the wicked by uninspired men ; but trouble and sorrow in this life "is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God." Job himself says of the wicked, "their portion is cursed in the earth." xxiv. 18. Isaiah says, "God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. And behold, at evening-tide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us." xvii. 13, 14. Was not this portion in this life? It was said of Nebuchadnezzar, "Let his portion be with the beasts. in the grass of the earth." Daniel iv. 15, 23. See also, Matt. xxiv. 51, Luke xii. 46.

The portion of a righteous man is directly of an opposite nature. He trusts in God. "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance." Psalms xvi. 5, lxxiii. 26, cxix. 57, "I cried unto thee, O, Lord; I said,. thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living." cxlii. 5. Lamen. iii. 24.

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Warburton is clearly of opinion, that this passage (Psa. xvii. 13, 14) has no reference to the future state. See Div. Leg. Book vi. Sec. 3; and Dr. A. Clarke gives the passage a similar interpretation in that respects See his Com. on the place.

XV. "But the wicked shall perish; and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away." Psalms xxxvii. 20. "The transgressors shall be destroyed together; the end of the wicked shall be cut off." Ver. 38.

Strong and Hawes, with several others, adduce these passages as proof of endless misery. But how weak are such attempts to sustain that cruel and unscriptural doctrine! This is the common language - employed by the sacred writers to describe the trouble and vanity of wicked men in this life. "When it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth; and when the wicked perish there is shouting.' Prov. xi.

10. Shall this be fulfilled in the immortal state? or does it take place in this world? The sinful prodigal perished when he left his father's house. Luke xv. 11. The scriptural sense of the word perish is to sink, to fail, to be overcome, to be driven away, to be disappointed, to be slain in battle, &c. &c. All these things happen to the wicked in the present life. The word consume has the same sense. 66 I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence." Jer. xiv. 12. The same may be said of the phrase destroy. Thus Moses describes God's overthrow of the Egyptian hosts. "In the greatness of thy excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee; thou sentest forth thy wrath which consumed them as stubble. * * * ** My lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them." Exodus xv, 7-9. This is explained further by ver. 10. "Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them; they sank as lead in the mighty.waters.

How can it be doubted, that all the terms employed in the passage before us, are used by the sacred writers to describe the overthrow and punishment of the wicked in the present life?

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We call the writers who adduce these passages in support of the doctrine of endless misery, to bring

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