mere statement of the doctrine would secure the acquiescence of every intelligent Universalist.

But to the soundness of the doctrine. From this we decidedly dissent, and would without hesitation record our unequivocal disapprobation, though we deem it not of sufficient importance to enter into any lengthy and regularly framed argument to controvert it. It appears to us that it would be a very difficult task, for us to induce a sick man to believe, that the healing and efficacious medicine which proves to be an effectual remedy for his virulent malady, .should be looked upon as severe and condign punishment. Yet this but illustrates the unpleasant task of a Universalist, that all punishment for sin is inflicted on the sinner for. his benefit, and that a deliverance from punishment would be a curse and not a blessing. To` us it appears beyond controversy, that either the punishment of sin is designed to vindicate the law and authority of God, and not to effect the chief, personal, present and eternal good of the punished; or else there is no such thing as punishment for sin. It requires but little acumen, for any one to see, that a doctrine which maintains that to realize a deliverance from punishment is a curse, and would in fact be an escape from the Good Physician, who healeth all our diseases,' that such a doctrine sweeps with its besom of destruction - the atonement of Christ from the catalogue of christian doctrines. If punishment of sin is a blessing, affords a healing remedy, and acts the Good Physician, and presents, the means of salvation, what need is there of an atonement of Christ and his spilt blood? Or was it impossible for God to punish man for sin without the sufferings, death and atonement of Christ? It is our province to show the fallacy and error of this speculative system, and leave the adjustment and reconciliation of its crudities to those who stand forth before the world as its advocates if the recon

ciliation of absurdities does not surmount the stretch of their philosophic and moral powers.

A want of discrimination and a false rule of interpretation, not to say, a willful corrupting of the truth, has led to all this astounding error. When the Bible speaks of the afflictions of the righteous, and that all these will accomplish good to those whose minds are imbued with humility and grace; to apply all these declarations to the wicked, is a slander upon divine wisdom, a prostration of truth, and hoisting the floodgate of polluting and desolating falsehood. The judgments which the Almighty pronounces upon the wicked are not declared to effect their good. When the wicked shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and his glorious power, then shall the Lord vindicate his law and authority, and condemn the unrighteous to an everlasting overthrow-when God shall pour out his fury and anger upon the bloody and deceitful sons of men, they will not be the fury and anger of love; but the fearful manifestation of his vengeance and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.

Thus far we have been passing over the ground occupied and argued by Universalists, with the primary object in view, to show what Universalism is in reference to the doctrine of punishment, as well as briefly to expose its fallacy and its worthlessness. We shall now proceed to investigate the doctrine of the punishment of sin as taught and supported by Scripture and reason.

While we take up the subject positively, we shall scan the various features of punishment in succession, and present the orthodox views and argument as far, and as fully as our capacity shall enable us.

I. DIVINE PUNISHMENT INFLICTED UPON THE WICKED. 1. The simple doctrine of punishment. We should possess some definite conception and a clear discernment of the primary meaning of the term punishment. This doctrine presupposes a Being who is clothed with the authority to inflict condign punishment-a subject upon whom it is inflicted-and adequate reason for administering punishment—God inflicts, the wicked are the subjects, and the sins and iniquities of their lives afford sufficient occasion.

The doctrine of punishment teaches that the sinner receives a just and adequate infliction for his crimes; having become a transgressor of the divine law in despite of goodness, justice and truth, incurred the penalty of death, and consequently being doomed to suffer the condign inflictions of wrath. That Reason, after searching the natural government of God, and scanning the common affairs of life and divine providences, most readily accedes to the doctrine of the punishment of sin, is admitted without any disclaimer. This is also the unequivocal and positive language of sacred history and the revelation of God, from that dismal hour when the primordial pair first partook the forbidden fruit, down to the close of the apocalyptic visions. In the punishment of sin, desolations have covered the face of nature, cites have been overwhelmed and become heaps of smoldering ruins, governments subverted and nations rent asunder and dispersed, their treasures pillaged, and their land made to reek with human gore. The scathing judgments of heaven have shaken the mountains, and filled the valleys with lamentations and woe.. Down the course of time the hand of God has reared monuments for our admonition, which speak in thunder-tones the plague of sin, and the just judgments of God against the perpetrators of crime. So various, minute and prominent have been the inflictions for crimes, in the dispensations of God, and the moral govern

ment of the world, that the most Stoical in heart, and skeptical in faith, lack stupidity and indifference not to discern, and nerve to enter a bold denial of this doctrine. For even the teachings of reason are so lucid and convincing, that the most degraded and depraved nations and kindreds of the earth, entertain some notions, more or less definite and correct, of merited punishment for crime. Whatever argument and propriety reason may assign for such a connection between vice and its reward in this life, reason does not arrogate to itself the province to show cause why such a state of things shall not exist hereafter.

II. THE OBJECT OF JUST AND ADEQUATE PUNISHMENT.

While Universalism teaches that all punishment is wholly reformatory, designed and always resulting in the highest possible good of the sufferer; orthodoxy declares that one of the chief objects, if not the most prominent, of all judicial inflictions is

1. To vindicate the moral government of God as consisting of laws which are inviolable. The laws of God enjoined upon his rational creatures constitute his moral government. This government is moral, because it claims the voluntary services of man and holds him responsible for all his activities. Every breach of divine law, of which man becomes guilty, and every departure from its holy requirements in affection and action, incurs its penalty. And in order to save his moral government from entire prostration, inefficiency and total disregard on the part of the human family, it is absolutely necessary for our Creator to subject the transgressor to its judicial inflictions. Only in this way can he sustain his government, and vindicate his character from the charge of insincerity, exclusive of a remedial system of mercy. For it is well known that "Christ has become the end of the law for righteousness to every

one that believeth;" therefore the believer shall be saved from the penalty of the law, and yet the moral government of God is sustained without the semblance of reproach; but independent of this system of grace in Christ, the moral Governor of the Universe has seen an absolute necessity of punishing the guilty in order to show his rightful authority and unswerving integrity. Should God not punish the guilty, his law would very soon lose its sanction and wholesome restraint, and his own character would be void of moral honesty and truth; therefore the importance of vindicating his laws in inflicting merited punishment upon “every soul of man that doeth evil.”

How far does the Bible go to prove and uphold the declaration, that the Almighty in the punishment of the wicked, vindicates his law and character-justifies his providential dealings-establishes his righteousness before a gainsaying and rebellious world? We read the following record of truth in Ps. li. 21-22. “These things thou hast done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver." The wicked thought and concluded, because of the long-suffering of God, that they might trample under foot the divine laws of Jehovah with impunity. They were stupid enough to imagine that God regarded with the same feelings, the perverseness, depravity, and open violation of truth by man, as they did themselves. And every successive display of divine goodness and forbearance, was unsuccessful in correcting such impious feelings and sentiments, and only emboldened them to persist in sin with shameless audacity. Therefore the only alternative left, was for God to take the work of judgment and punishment in hand, and thus reprove and set in order their case before