ho objection to admitting his words in the above text to be true. The strongest metaphor of misery, describ ed in the passage, is that of giving up the ghost. There is no intimation of torments severer than the pangs of death. And then, the idea that the hope of the wicked shall fail, is very consoling; especially, when we read in the word of God that "the expectation (hope) of the wicked is wrath." There is a singular agreement between the hope of the wicked and this man's own creed. True yoke fellows are they in the bloody business of wrath and revenge. And his quarelsome friend Zophar, the Naamathite, would have made an admirable preacher of such an abomination, had it been lawful to teach it in his day. And such is the character of the evidence with which the gentleman justifies himself in his career of blasphemy. He builds the temple of his creed on the broken hopes of man, and prostitutes the glory of heaven to prop up its brimstone walls. But such a shed as this shall fall down upon the guilty heads of all the Zophars and Naamathites who have reared it, to be an awful illustration of the texts they quote, that "the hope of the wicked shall fail."

CHAPTER III.

Explanation of Malachi iv. 1. temporal deliverance often. damnation of the wicked. ecuted upon the sinner. a damanble heresy-brought in privily-by those who deny the Lord that bought them. Wrath, and vengeance of God, signify the punishment of God; metongmy for punishment.

Meaning of salvation— Psalms. cxix. 156. The God's judgments speedily exThe doctrine of endless misery

"Psalms i, 5. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous."

The meaning of this text, one would think, could not be misunderstood. The context plainly limits the passage to the present time. The Psalmist begins by saying, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the council of the ungodly." He says their blessing is a present good-it was not future. He then adds, "The ungodly are not so ; " i. e. they are not "blessed." Then follows the text, which simply says that the wicked shall not stand in judgment. That is, they cannot abide the test of wisdom, which discerneth quickly the right from the wrong. The word judgment is often used in this sense in the Scriptures. Cruden says that

this word means, "The spirit of wisdom and prudence, enabling to know and discern right from wrong, good fromevil," Psalms lxxii. 1. We shall have occasion hereafter to show that the general meaning of the word judgment is the chastisement which God inflicts upon the wicked in this life. But in the above text it evidently means the discrimination which wisdom makes between the "ways of the ungodly" and "the congregation of the righteous." At any rate this is all the Psalmist himself says of the matter in the context.

Deut. xxviii. 20. "The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings whereby thou hast forsaken me.”

We cannot better show the folly of quoting this text to prove infernal sufferings than by continuing to read a few verses following the text. "The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land whither thou goest to possess it. The Lord shall smite thee with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blistering, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish. And thy carcase shall be meat unto the fowls of the air. The Lord shall smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed. Thine oxen shall be slain before thine eyes, thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies." Verses 21, 22, 26, 27, 31. So it turns out that the

gen

tleman's hell consists in being cut to pieces with the sword, and in being blistered with the fever, in having their carcasses eaten up by the fowls, in having their oxen and sheep slain before their eyes; and to cap the whole are to have the itch and botch of Egypt. Too plainly this is a very bad hell; but one would think that no man in his senses would locate it in the future world. We request the reader to read the whole chapter, and if he has half a head, he cannot fail to perceive that there is not the least shadow of truth in the gentleman's application of the passage.

Malachi iv. 1. "For, behold. the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all they that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch."

"I refer to this passage that I may remove the gloss which Universalists have put upon it. They tell us it refers to the coming of Christ to destroy Jerusalem, and refer to the 5th verse in proof. But in this there is not even the appearance of plausibility. No doubt it refers to the time of the judgment, when the wicked shall be destroyed."

Well, he is a brave man to remove the gloss! i. e. if his bare assertion, unsustained by a single word of proof, will do it. His application of the passage is not only without the least authority from the word of God, but it would go too far for his own doctrine. To be destroyed root and branch, if literary construed, would prove annihilation. But we cannot mistake the meaning of this text. The destruction of the Jews is often described in the Old Testament by the figure of burning. See Isaiah, xxxi. 9, Ezek. xxii. 17–22. And then we have the plain word of Malachi himself,

that his threatenings were addressed to the Jews. He introduces his subject by saying, "The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel." This settles the fact, that it was the Jews who were to suffer nationally the punishment threatened. And then, just after the events of the text are described, the Lord says, "Behold I will send Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." And we also read in the 3rd chapter, "Behold I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me." Now in the eleventh chapter of Matthew these predictions were quoted and applied to John the Baptist who announced the coming of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem. For this is he of whom it is written, "Behold I will send my meesenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee." Verse 10. "And if ye will receive it, this is Elias* (Elijah) which was to come," verse 14. So it is plain, that the day which was coming, that should burn as an oven, was the day of the destruction of Jerusalem. The prophet declares that the Lord would send Elijah to announce the coming of the great and terrible day that should burn as an oven. And Christ declares that the Baptist was that Elijah which was thus to come.t

"Psalms exix. 155.

Salvation is far from the wicked; for they

seek not a knowledge of thy statutes."

The gentleman took it for granted that this passage refers to the great salvation of the future world.

But

* Clark says, "This should always be written Elijah. Com. Matt. xi. 14.

†See Dr. Whitby on Heb. x. 25.