CONCLUSION. I have now examined all the more important and popular grounds on which men have attempted to rest the doctrine of Endless Punishment. A few others, of a very trifling character, might be added, but they do not deserve attention. Of the merits of those exhibited I need not speak farther, though I can hardly forego the remark, that they are all obviously the result of an exigency which the advocates of endless punishment feel, if they do not acknowledge. They were invented, not to satisfy the reason and conscience, which the doctrine in question outrages, but merely to soothe them, and make the dogma of endless punishment sit more easily upon the mind. Nothing is more certain than the fact, that the doctrine before us must be believed without any explanation whatsoever; or sin must be shown to be infinite; or, finally, it must be proved that men will continue to sin forever. The first of these is an insult to our common sense; the second is absurd; and the last rationally incredible. I need not observe that all which the majority of the advocates of endless punishment ever attempt, is, to show that it is not unjust; and justice, we know, is, in their conceptions, at an infinite remove from all the amiable attributes of the Deity. The task of proving such a punishment to be consistent with infinite goodness is yet to be assumed seriously, and in a manly 252 EXAMINATION OF ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. spirit. Infinite benevolence, and infinite misery! Who shall reconcile them? Who will soberly attempt it? It would be curious to pursue this subject still farther, and show how various have been the modifications introduced, for the purpose of softening down the torments of hell, or lessening the number of those who are to suffer them. Prof. Stuart rejects the notion of a local hell; Dr. Brownlee scouts the doctrine of literal fire and brimstone. Dr. Burthogge believes that none will be endlessly damned but such as are absolutely incorrigible, and whom no means could reclaim. Dr. Parker makes hell a mere prison of the universe, with scarcely one in a hundred millions of the human race within its dismal walls; and Archbp. King soberly doubts whether the condition of the damned in hell may not be preferable to non-existence. Nor do these men, with their respective opinions, stand alone. On the contrary, they may be taken as representatives of large classes, who thus acknowledge their inward abhorrence at the doctrine of endless punishment, as commonly held. But such modifications will not long avail; the tide of public feeling, the improving sensibilities and sympathies of the human heart, a better exegesis, a deeper love of God, and a more enlightened respect for his honor, will, before another century has passed, sweep the revolting dogma of endless punishment from the creeds,or at least from the hearts, of the American churches forever. THE END. |