Should we look upon death as a punishment for sin to all who are its victims, then the innocent and the holy would be punished together with the guilty, this would involve the moral administrations of God into injustice and tyranny. As the latter cannot be a true exposition of correct principle, therefore death is not punishment for sin on the posterity of our primeval progenitors, but a mere unavoidable consequence.

2. Another part of the penalty of sin is moral or spiritual death.

This was included in the sentence of death pronounced on our progenitors in the garden of Eden. That a deadly influence should roll in upon their soul as the result of disobeying God, is not very strange, or beyond the stretch of credibility, when the most ostensible reason for complying with the suggestion of the subtle tempter, was, that by eating of the tree of knowledge, of good and evil, their knowledge should be vastly increased-it would have a direct influence upon the mind, and make them godlike. If the arch-deceiver influenced their mind to such an extent as to tear it from its moorings in the positive instructions of God, by holding a temptation to the same, then we might pretty conclusively reason, that the sentence of death, incurred by yielding to the temptation, would materially affect the mind and moral powers, decoyed into unrighteousness. Not only so; but if the body was doomed to a temporal death because engaged as an instrument in the transgression; how much more reasonable is it to suppose, that the soul or mind should incur the greater curse, for being the voluntary, the most prominent and controlling agent in the matter. Indeed, it is not only reasonable to draw this inference; but it is the decisive teaching of sound reason. It would be an unanswerable query, how it could be possible, for the body to fall a victim to the stroke of the penalty of

sin, and the soul, the controlling agent, should escape unscathed. Both were accessory to the transgression, and both were involved in the doom of death; and that death must be adapted to the nature of its victims. The natural and corporeal body must suffer a natural and temporal death; but the spiritual soul, the fountain of all moral action, must be visited with a moral or spiritual death. This will be evident by a further examination of the Bible in reference to this point.

Ezekiel xviii. 4. "The soul that sinneth it shall die." That the Prophet had reference to a moral death particularly, must be very evident to every impartial reader and student of the Bible. We are aware, that the term soul may and does, convey the meaning equivalent to person, as frequently employed, and that it includes both the spiritual part of man and his body; but we think it is never used to designate the body only. In the above passage, it has exclusive reference to the soul; for the address is, the "soul of the father, and the soul of the son. Here then the death referred to has and does exercise its influence exclusively upon the soul; or designates moral death.

Romans vi. 23. "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." The antithesis of the passage consists in God and sin, death and eternal life; while sin confers death on its votaries, God bestows eternal life on all who love him through Jesus Christ. Here the apostle gives room to draw an argument for eternal death; if the blessing bestowed by the Lord is eternal life, then we might conclude, that sin will dispense eternal death upon all who commit it.

Eph. ii. 1. "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." So large a portion of the inspired Word treats upon this subject, and so manifest is the doctrine, that it would seem needless to multiply pas-"

sages in proof of this doctrine; and more so, since the advocates of Universalism seemingly admit this point, while arguing upon the effects of sin. They make an indiscriminate application of the death produced by sin to moral or spiritual death. But how to reconcile and harmonize their views of human depravity and moral death, we frankly confess to transcend our knowledge; unless they adopt the greater absurdity that moral death refers exclusively to the body. That this would be a fair and proper inference for their reasoning is incontestable.

They assume the position, "that sin is the work of the flesh," and "although the mind is in bondage to the propensities" of the flesh, "still it participates not in their wickedness, but retains the integrity of its purer nature." That the soul is as pure as Adam's was when created. Notwithstanding all this, in order to reject with apparent propriety the doctrine of natural death and eternal death, they make a promiscuous application of those passages which speak of death as the result of sin, to a moral or spiritual death; which of course must have exclusive reference to the influence of sin upon the soul. Thus, what they deny in one place for the sake of sustaining their antibiblical theory, they acknowledge in another to support the same. Strange logic this! and a passing strange theory this, to be supported by the Bible!! How much confidence can be reposed in such religious, reckless teachers? Judge ye as wise and accountable men.

3. The third part of the penalty of sin is, eternal death. It is not our object to prove, in this place, that the incorrigibly wicked will be visited with everlasting punishment, for this will fall more appropriately in another part of the work, where we shall treat on punishment. Our object is to show, that eternal death is the penalty of sin. We say endless, for we shall show, that this is the obvious curse in

curred by a transgression of the law. To assert, that since death, at the first transgression and during subsequent events for thousands of years, was not qualified by terms implying its ceaseless existence, such as endless, eternal, everlasting, therefore the penalty of sin was not endless death-would be just as consistent as to deny eternal happiness as the just portion of the saints of God, during that period of time, because those qualifying words are not attached to happiness. Would it not resolve all the difficulty in the estimation of the Universalists, to assign the reason for silence on this subject, that future and everlasting punishment as the proper reward of sin was never denied, therefore no necessity for stating the doctrine so precisely, as the present times would seem to demand.

The point of controversy does not demand so much to show, that endless, never-ceasing, are necessary and essential qualifications to make out eternal death, as the proper penalty of sin, as to show that the very term DEATH implies nothing short of an endless curse. Now, if it can be shown that death, in its strictest and most comprehensive sense, means nothing short of an endless curse, then will be discovered at once, the uselessness of prefixing adjectives to convey such a meaning, for by so doing nothing can possibly be gained. There would be no propriety in this, until the literal and obvious meaning of the word, should be obscured by prevarication and denials. This would then explain the course of Revelation, from beginning to end, relative to this subject. As infidelity arose and darkened the clear orb of the counsels of God, so the Spirit was more precise in its teachings and more explicit in the use of words.

We shall state :

1. That death is the negation of life. The one can exist only by the destruction or extinction of the other; when

life reigns death is not allowed to subjugate the soul or body of man, and when death sways his dire sceptre, then is life extinguished. So that when Jehovah pronounced the curse of death on man for his sin, it involved man in an infinite curse. For death cannot destroy itself, and being the antagonist of life, if ever its reign is subverted, it must be done by another and a superior force, if not it will last to all eternity.

If man was subjected to a moral death by sin, then he lost a godly life and incurred an endless curse, for the reign of death would run on endlessly, if not removed by a superior power, and life restored in its place. Thus moral death would prove to be an eternal death. Let us examine this logic by illustration.

We say that death implies an endless curse, and that its extinction must be effected by an extraneous and a superior power, if not, life can never be restored. Natural death is the result of sin, as we have already shown, and this would prove to be an everlasting curse, the body would be retained in the grave to all eternity, if it were not for the conquest obtained by Christ over death and the grave, and thus the body is raised by the destruction of death. The power of Christ is absolutely requisite to destroy death, and restore life. Death natural does not cease to be of its own accord, nor are we informed that it would ever cease to be of itself, or run out at last, nor can life, the opposite state of death, destroy death and restore itself; but it must be done by the power of Christ, therefore, without the victory obtained by Christ, natural death would prove to be an endless curse.

So the death of the soul, which is the penalty of sin, must be destroyed by the grace of God, and the soul raised to spiritual life, or else the soul will endure the curse of death forever. The moral death of the soul will prove to