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condition of mere innocency, to that of angelic knowledge, and an ever-advancing progress towards the glory of the Head of All Things.' And the consideration that threefifths of the human species that are born, as it is estimated, are taken away in infancy, wholly undeveloped in the ca pacities of their intelligent or moral natures, is another argument that the Paternal Wisdom has appointed suitable and ample provision in the immediate post-mortem life, for the sustenance, well-being, and growth of so immense a host of intelligences, and for their ultimate attainment of the immortal sphere. May there not be a peculiar meaning in the following passages which has not been generally observ. ed? Unto the Angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come?'--Heb. ii. 5. 'Are the Angels not all Minister ing Spirits, sent out to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation ?'---Heb. i. 14. 'Do ye not know that the Saints shall judge the world ?'---1 Cor. vi. 2. Thus saith the word of the Lord, not by might, nor by power, [not by coercion,] but by My Spirit, [which is Omnipotent Love,] shall ye Prevail.'---Zech. iv. 6.

Away then with the notion of any after state of unmitigated or hopeless pains for the immortal spirit of man !--The dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God that gave it.' And the Scriptures assure us of the presence of the Infinite Love in Sheol,---Ps. exxxix. 8; Amos ix. 2. We are told that 'the day of man's death is better than his birth,---Ec. vii. 1; that 'no man dieth to himself, but unto the Lord,' and that, in fact, 'to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.' Sheol then is not a miserable world, else, again, Job would not have prayed to go there, as he did,---O that Thou would'st hide me in Sheol.'---Job xiv. 13. Job believed that, 'There, [in Sheol,] the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. There the Prisoners rest together, and hear not the voice of the oppressor. The small and great are there, [see Isa. xiv. 9, 10; Ezek. xxxi. 14-18.] and the servant is free from his master.'---Job iii. 17--18. 'Do not All go unto one Place?' asked Solomon,---Eccl. vi. 6. 'All

go unto one place.'---Eccl. iii. 20. Neither can we believe with Rev. Mr. Balfour and others, that SHEOL is an unconscious State. In addition to the evidence against this which many of our former proofs contain, we name the following: 'Swallow them up ALIVE, as Sheol, and whole, as those that go down to the Pit.'---Prov. i. 12. 'And the earth open her mouth and swallow them, and they go down quick [LIVING] into Sheol.'---Numb. xvi. 30. The language of Solomon, Ec. ix. 10, 'there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge in Sheol whither thou goest,' is not to be interpreted so as to contradict his own teaching in many other places, and repeated declarations of Jesus, and the apostles. Some of the best critics are agreed in understanding this passage to be a precept, simply, against procrastination, against putting off what our hands find to do,' enforced by the consideration that death places our earthly work and devices beyond our power of completion, because it changes our sphere of being, and all our knowledge and habits. Taken ever so literally, however, this passage does not disprove Sheol to be a place of conscious being.

We think the prophecies of the Old Testament have a good deal to do with the scenes and beings of the Middle World, which has several other scriptural names beside Sheol. Various terms expressive of the idea of sub-terranean, (we would only refer to Rev. v. 13, Phil. ii. 10, Col. ii. 20, and Eph. iv. 8,) also that frequent, mystic term Sea, and others even, which, without a more extensive opening of the subject we should not care to name, we have a strong prepossession to consider as evidencing the doctrine of The Three Worlds. Yet we do not of course attach an undue importance to these opinions, and have only introduced them because we believed them to afford an additional argument for Universal Reconciliation. The Scriptures are always plainest upon those doctrines which are most essential, and we freely acknowledge that if the Bible reveals anything at all upon the subject of an Intermediate State, we as yet see but as 'through a glass, darkly.' Undoubtedly, we shall all know a great deal more about the future state, when we come to get there.

"For birth, and life, and death, and that strange state,
Before the naked soul hath found its home,-

All tend to perfect happiness, and urge,
The restless wheels of being on their way,
Whose flashing spokes, instinct with infinite life,
Bicker and burn to gain One destin❜d Gaol."

SHELLEY.

2d. That 'Hell' shall ultimately be Abolished.

'O, SHEOL, I will be thy Destruction !'---Hosea xiii. 14. 'O, HADES, where is thy Victory ?---1 Cor. xv. 56. If St. Paul had believed Hades to be an immense and eternal world of dreadful sufferings, which the Lord had built and fitted for the everlasting abode of His sinful offspring,---is it not surpassingly marvellous that, in all his numerous writings, which, indeed, constitute one-third of the New Testament, he should never have but once named it, and even in that solitary instance, that he should have alluded to it in a burst of rapturous exultation at its being swallowed up in a glorious. victory? And yet he affirmed that he 'failed not to declare the whole counsel of God.'

'And Death and HADES were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.'---Rev. xx. 14. 'And THE LAST ENEMY shall be Destroyed, DEATH. Death is swallowed up in Victory!'

"Evil away for aye!

In the beginning, ere God bade things be,
Or ever He begat the worlds on space,
He knew of it, and fix'd the eternal laws,
For its continual good-evolving power,
And ultimate exhaustion, perfect, final,
And issue into Universal Joy."

"It suits not the eternal laws of Good,

That Evil be immortal." $ "Sin is burn'd,

In hell to ashes with the dust of Death."-FESTUS.

PROPOSITION THIRTIETH.

The Lord has the same solicitude for the Happiness and Salvation of His Offspring, and the same Power over All Hearts, in the Future Life as in the Present.

PROOFS.

'Neither DEATH, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, (Diabalos is not excepted,) shall be able To SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'---Rom. viii. 38.

'Can a woman forget her suckling child, that she should not have compassion upon the son of her womb? Yea, she MAY forget, YET I WILL NOT FORGET THEE.'---Isa. xlix. 15.

'If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change (death) come. Thou shalt Call, and I will answer Thee. THOU WILT HAVE A DESIRE TO THE WORK OF THY HANDS.'---Job xiv. 14, 15. 'His Mercy endureth forever.'---Ps. cxxxvi. 'His Truth,' and His Faithfulness,' 'endureth to All generations.'---Ps. cxvii. 2; lxxxix. 1.

"The Lord is not willing that any should Perish, but that All should come to Repentance.'---1 Pet. iii. 9. And 'He is THE SAME yesterday, to-day, and FOREVER.'---Heb. xiii. 8.

The Lord is very Pitiful, and of Tender Mercy,'---Jas. v. 11, 'FULL of Compassion, Gracious, Long-Suffering,' &c. Ps. lxxxvi. 15. And He is a God that 'CHANGETH NOT.'

'He maketh His sun to shine on the evil and the good,' 'He is slow to anger,' 'rejoiceth more over the single stray sheep which he sought and found, than over all that went not astray,' watcheth even the sparrow's fall which is sold for a farthing, much more taking care of man, His last and most perfect work. But He is moreover, 'without variableness, neither the SHADOW of turning.'---Jas. i. 17.

"The defect in most minds, which leads to doubt and unbelief in regard to a final reign of universal holiness and peace, is in being too hasty, too limited, in estimating the time which God has allotted Himself for the accomplishment of His will and His purposes. Jehovah has at His command the entire duration of Eternity, for the completion of His designs. Yet from this absolutely limitless duration, it is singularly supposed, He confines himself to about threescore years and ten, (which is but a moment in comparison with eternity,) to work out all those purposes towards each man, which fix his everlasting destiny. It is imagined that He selects this brief, introductory period of human existence, when man is in the greatest imperfection, when he is involved in ignorance and blindness, subject to the passions and infirmities of the body, and surrounded by alluring temptations,---to accomplish all He intends to do, towards bringing His offspring in conformity to the requirements of His government. If, during these brief years, and amid all these imperfections, God succeeds in working out His Will upon the children of men,---if He succeeds in renovating a soul, and to make it fit, in this life, for the abodes of blessedness above, it is well. But if His efforts are not successful,---if that soul is not made meet for the society of angels, when this fleeting space of time has elapsed---then God abandons the work, and ceases all exertion to reform and elevate it, and allows it to fall into utter and endless ruin. His power, wisdom, resources, and love in behalf of that fallen child, are all exhausted, Sin, Misery, and Death are triumphant---a human soul, the offspring of God, the redeemed of Christ, is endlessly miserable, and hell shouts, Victory! Not only is it supposed, that, at the close of man's short life on earth, the Creator desists from all farther attempts to reform His creatures, but that He immediately changes His whole policy toward them, and places them where it is made impossible to repent---where they shall not even have the poor privilege of becoming better, however much they might desire to do so. Death is supposed to cut short all the efforts of God, and Christ, and Angels for the

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