duce
to our good. Surely, after such a display of his love, it were highly
criminal in us, to permit the least shadow of suspicion or distrust to
intercept the sweet, and cheering, and purifying beams of his reconciled
countenance. Whatever may be his severity against sin, and whatever terror
it may strike into the conscience of evil-doers, we can most cordially
acquiesce in its justness: for we most clearly perceive, that the penalty
of the law was not established to gratify any private appetite for
revenge, but to uphold and secure the highest happiness of the moral
universe.

Chapter IV.

The Eternal Punishment Of The Wicked Reconciled With The Goodness Of God.

And thus,
Transfigured, with a meek and dreadless awe,
A solemn hush of spirit, he beholds
All things of terrible seeming: yea, unmoved
Views e'en the immitigable ministers,
That shower down vengeance on these latter days.
For even these on wings of healing come,
Yea, kindling with intenser Deity;
From the celestial mercy-seat they speed,
And at the renovating wells of love,
Have fill'd their vials with salutary wrath.--COLERIDGE.

Having considered the sufferings of the innocent, it now becomes necessary
to contemplate the punishment of the guilty, in connexion with the
infinite goodness of God. This conducts us to the consideration of the
most awful subject that ever engaged the attention of a rational
being,--the never-ending torments of the wicked in another world. Though
plausible arguments and objections have been urged against this doctrine,
we are perfectly satisfied they will not bear the test of a close
examination. They have derived all their apparent force and
conclusiveness, it seems to us, from two distinct sources, namely: from
the circumstance that this appalling doctrine has been too often placed,
by its advocates, upon insecure and untenable grounds; and from the fact,
that the supporters of this doctrine have too often maintained principles
from which its fallacy may be clearly inferred. In the defence of this
doctrine, then, we shall endeavour to point out, first, the false grounds
upon which it has been placed; secondly, the unsound principles from which
its fallacy may be inferred; and, thirdly, we shall endeavour to show the
means by which it may be clearly and satisfactorily reconciled with the
goodness of the Supreme Ruler of th