one, and undying
worms, as used in the Scriptures of the New Testament, is the same
as that drawn from heathen sources with modifications and employed
by the Pharisees before the time of Christ and his disciples; and
we must therefore, since neither Persians nor Pharisees were
inspired, either suppose that this imagery was adopted by the
apostles figuratively to convey moral truths, or else that they
were left, in common with their countrymen, at least partially
under the dominion of the errors of their time. Thus in every
alternative we deny that the interior of the earth is, or ever
will be, an abode of souls, full of fire, a hell in which the
damned are to be confined and physically tormented.

The elements of the popular doctrine of future punishment which we
thus reject are the falsities contributed by superstition and the
priestly spirit. The truths remaining in the doctrine, furnished
by conscience, reason, and Scripture, we will next exhibit, in
order not to dismiss this head, on the nature of future
punishment, with negations. What is the real character of the
retributions in the future state? We do not think they are
necessarily connected with any peculiar locality or essentially
dependent on any external circumstances. As Milton says, when
speaking of the best theologians, "To banish forever into a local
hell, whether in the air, or in the centre, or in that uttermost
and bottomless gulf of chaos deeper from holy bliss than the
world's diameter multiplied, they thought not a punishment so
proper and proportionate for God to inflict as to punish sin with
sin."

God does not arbitrarily stretch forth his arm, like an enraged
and vindictive man, and take direct vengeance on offenders; but by
his immutable laws, permeating all beings and governing all
worlds, evil is, and brings, its own punishment. The intrinsic
substances and forces of character and their organized
correlations with the realities of eternity, the ruling
principles, habits, and love of the soul, as they stand affected
towards the world to which they go, these are the conditions on
which experience depends, herein is the hiding of retribution.
"Each one," as Origen says, "kindles the flame of his own
appropriate fire." Superior spirits must look on a corrupted human
soul with a sorrow similar, though infinitely profounder, to that
with which the lapidary contemplates a splendid pearl with a dark
flaw in its centre. The Koran says, "Men sleep