even of the faithful, St. Chrysostom thinks that scarcely one in a thousand will be saved: for he says, "How many think you in our city (Antioch) will be saved? It pains me to say it; notwithstanding I will speak. In so many thousands (Antioch contained a hundred thousand and more) a hundred cannot be found who will be saved and even of these I have my doubts." . . . "St Augustine compares the Church to a threshing floor, in which there is more chaff than wheat, more bad than good, more to be damned than saved."

But Drexelius relates a case still more definite and satisfactory. "A certain woman," he says, quoting from Hieronymous Plautus, "hearing Bertoldus, a very eminent and powerful preacher in. veigh bitterly against a sin, of which she knew herself guilty, fell down dead; but after a while being brought to life again by the pious prayers of the congregation, she gave them an account of what she had seen in her trance, which was to this effect. I stood she said before God's tribunal together with sixty thousand souls, who were summoned from all parts of the universe to appear before the judge, and they were all sentenced to eternal death, three only excepted!" The honest Drexelius thinks it not important to enquire whether this story is true or not, for the Savior has represented the essential fact in the same light, in that notable passage, Matt. vii. 13, 14,

before referred to. He is ingenuous enough, however, to confess that "it might seem indeed astonishing to us, that a God of infinite mercy and goodness, should pass so severe and dreadful a sentence against so many thousand miserable creatures!"—a thought which many of our orthodox neighbors, it is presumed, have never indulged.

It must be evident to all, from what has now appeared, that according to orthodoxy, as well ancient as modern, a very large part of the human family is destined to be fuel for hell-fire, and that, not only of "the world's people," but also of the church itself! How, with this fact before them, orthodox ministers can call God "the God of salvation," and Jesus Christ "the Savior of the world," I do not well understand. They certainly can attach no meaning to such language. Indeed nothing is clearer than the fact that while their whole attention has been fixed on every line and every word that can be construed to relate to "hell and damnation," they have never suspected that such passages as speak distinctly of the final conquest of good over evil, and the drawing and ultimate subjection of all things to Jesus Christ, in order that GOD MAY BE ALL IN ALL, have any force, or deserve the slightest consideration.

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CHAPTER IV.

OF BELIEF IN ENDLESS PUNISHMENT.

We have now glanced at Hell, and considered some of its horrors, as they are exhibited by orthodoxy; and also called attention to the immense numbers of the human race who are to suffer them forever. After the numerous and pointed quotations I have made upon these subjects, it must be useless to say that orthodox divines have exerted all their powers, and employed no little time, in inventing and setting forth these torments. They have sought out every mode of torture, whether of body or of mind, under which it seems possible for man to suffer. They have represented these tortures as the most multiplied in kind, the most intense in degree, and absolutely incessant and never-ending in duration. And when they have exhausted their faculties, and carried the description of the miseries of the damned up to the highest point to be attained by human language or imagination, the most learned and sober among them, coolly tell us that these descriptions, horrid as they are, suggest but "painted fires," and are incapable of giving us more than the faintest conceptions of the unspeakably awful miseries of that world of wo; that they are nothing, indeed, for the dread reality infinitely transcends all the powers of thought or imagination.

The advocates of this tremendous doctrine do not hesitate to represent the Deity as utterly destitute of every form and degree of benevolence toward the damned, and as employing his infinite attributes, and working perpetual miracles to increase their torments. They exhibit him as burning with rage toward them, and stirring up all his wrath. He is as merciless as the grave itself; and it is this that makes hell so fearful. His revenge is infinitely more implacable than that of the most brutal savage, or the greatest tyrant that ever disgraced humanity; and this adds to its fearfulness. No time, no suffering endured by the damned, no repentance, no prayers, no tears will avail to appease him, or in the least degree mitigate his infinite and endless wrath. He has no ear to hear their petitions, and no heart to feel for their sufferings. Nay, he will not even grant them the poor request to withdraw his hand and let them die and cease to be.

How infinitely more rational and scriptural are the views of Swedenborg, who teaches that the Lord is good-good to all and good forever; that he is love itself and mercy itself, and forever wills the salvation and happiness of all men, and is perpetually endeavoring to draw spirits away from hell-to draw all to himself? True, it is painful to think that God will be forever disappointed, and must endlessly fail to subdue his own creatures to himself! But still it is far better to think

God amiable and benevolent, even if we are left to question his wisdom and power, than to regard him malignant and revengeful, and as worse to the damned than even the Devil himself could be. It is gratifying,therefore, to know that these views, which bespeak an improving tone of moral feeling, are already received by many of the best christians in the land, and many, too, who have no connexion with Swedenborg's followers, but stand connected with various orthodox denominations.

In view of the torments to be inflicted, according to orthodoxy, in the future world, and the countless multitude of human beings who are to suffer them, the question naturally forces itself upon every reflecting mind, how is it pos sible for men to believe a doctrine fraught with such appalling consequences-a doctrine that involves such inconceivable misery to man, and reflects so much dishonor upon his Maker? It must be confessed by all to be the most tremendous doctrine ever believed or preached on earth, by Christian, Mahometan, or Pagan. And it obviously demands an amount and a clearness of proof beyond what is necessary to other doctrine received by man. ceives it lightly or with an easy faith, is guilty of a monstrous wrong to his own nature, and to his God. We are not at liberty to believe all that this doctrine implies against the Deity, on mere

support any He who re