this Description, at first sight, looks liker a proper Eternity, than almost any other in the Bible. But then it is taken from Isaiah, where it does not denote a proper Eternity. And how should it, according to Mr. W's own Account? Since the whole Scene of the Transaction, the Fudgment, the Consumption of the Carcasses, the Sight and Abhorrence of them, is all to be in this Life, and upon this Earth only. If so, Reason and good Sense will lead every one to understand the Description in such a Sense, and such a Sense only, as the Subject described will admit of. But what is this to our Saviour's Description in St. Mark? He is plainly describing a Fudgment which does not belong to this Life; a Punishment, which is not to be inflicted, in this World, or upon this Earth. If then our Lord could borrow from Isaiah a Description of a Punishment in this World, and apply it to the Punishments of another World; why might he not, (if the Words will bear it,) intend to denote the Eternity of these Punishments, though the Punishment intended by Isaiah is only temporal? For it is plain, though the Description, or Representation, be the same; the Subject is changed: And that, after all, must be the Key to let us into the Meaning.1 Our Saviour repeats the Description so often, and seems to lay such a stress upon it, that one can scarce forbear thinking he design'd to teach us; that, whatever may become of the Worm and the Fire mention'd by Isaiah, he was describing a Punishment, under those Images, which really and truly should never end: Here, indeed, the Worm dieth not, and the Fire is not quenched. The matter, at last, will come to this

1 Quem non terreat ista Repetitio, et illius pœnæ Comminatio tam vehemens ore divino? Aug. De Civit. Dei. Lib. xxi. Cap. ix.

Dilemma;1 Isaiah in his last Verse is either describing the Punishment of Hell, or he is not. Upon the first Supposition, what Mr. W. has said above is all foreign

1 N. B. The Ancients understand Isaiah's Words of Helltorments. So St. Cyprian, Ed. Fell. p. 195. Ad Demetrianum. So Eusebius, Præparatio Evangel. Lib. xi. ad finem.

Ο σκώληξ αὐτῶν οὐ τελευτήσει, καὶ τὸ πῦρ οὐ σβεθήσεται, καὶ ἔσονται εἰς ὅρασιν πάσῃ σαρκί. Τηρεῖ δὲ ὡς καὶ ὁ Πλάτων συνᾴδων τούτοις, τοὺς ἀσεβεῖς εἰπὼν χωρήσειν εἰς Τάρταρον, ἐπιλέγει, ὅθεν οὔποτε ἐκβαίνουσι.

And so Ferom, on the Place: He does indeed speak of some qui volunt supplicia aliquando finiri, licet post multa tempora; and expresses some Hopes of this kind himself, with regard to Christians; but as to the Devil, and wicked atheistical men, who said in their Hearts, there is no God, credimus æterna tormenta. However he plainly understands Isaiah's Words of Hell-torments. So do, amongst the Moderns, Vitringa, who confutes the jejune Interpretation of Grotius; Dr. Clarke, in his Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion, p. 397. 7th Edit. And Dr. Chapman, in his Eusebius, Vol. II. N.B. Mr. Whiston quotes St. Cyprian's Words referr'd to above, in his 90 p. And though they contain as full and clear a Testimony for the Eternity of Hell-torments as can easily be given, yet he concludes his Remark upon them thus ;-But whether he (Cyprian) believed the Torments to be properly eternal, I do not certainly know. That is, he will know nothing but what he has a mind to know, and makes for him. St. Cyprian does not only call them æterna supplicia Gehenna, but says expressly, Cremabit addictos ardens semper Gehenna, et vivacibus Flammis vorax pœna; nec erit unde habere tormenta vel Requiem possint aliquando vel Finem. Servabuntur cum Corporibus suis Animæ infinitis Cruciatibus ad dolorem. Spectabitur illic à nobis semper, qui hic nos spectavit ad tempus et in Persecutionibus factis oculorum crudelium brevis fructus, perpetua visione pensabitur.—Erit tunc sine fructu Pœnitentia, dolor pœnæ, inanis ploratio, et inefficax deprecatio. In æternam pœnam sero credent, qui in vitam æternam credere noluerunt. In the next page, Cyprian declares as clearly against Mr. W's Repentance in Hades, as he does here against his temporary Punishments in Gehenna.

to the purpose, being founded upon an intire Mistake. If, according to the latter, he is not describing the Punishments of Hell, but only some Judgment executed in this World; then it is plain, our Saviour and he are describing two very different sorts of Punishments; and therefore, though our Saviour's Representation may allude to his, or be taken from it, it is against all Reason to make the one the Rule and Measure of interpreting the other. Surely it is no unusual thing to allude to the Language of another Person, or to borrow Descriptions from him; and use them, upon different Subjects, in a different and more extensive Sense. Our Saviour's Words must have some determinate Meaning of their own, and if that appear to be for the Eternity of the Punishment which he is representing, nothing that Isaiah has said can possibly make it otherwise.

But Mr. W's reasoning is not only inconclusive, but it also comes with the worse Grace from him, as it carries some Appearance of Inconsistency. He is here for setting aside a remarkable Testimony of our Saviour's for the Eternity of future Punishment, because it is express'd in the Language of Isaiah, originally intended to denote some Punishment only in this World. And yet from this same Language, alluding to this Text of Isaiah, which originally related to nothing else but to the utter Destruction of the Enemies of God's Church, before the End of the World, he would infer the Nature of Hell-torments, after the End of the World, and the Consumption of the Bodies of the Damned by Fire and Worms. Yet neither our Saviour in the passage before us, nor Isaiah in his last Verse, say one word about the

1 Page 24.

Consumption of their Bodies by Fire and Worms; nor so much as mention Worms at all. They speak indeed of one Worm, that dieth not; which we have no more occasion to understand literally, for a real Worm; than to understand St. Paul's Thorn in the Flesh, literally for a real Thorn. In a word, so arbitrary and unreasonable is Mr. W's Behaviour in this Case, that he will not allow us to infer from the Texts what they plainly say, viz. that the Worm dieth not, and the Fire is not quenched; (which, whatever the nature of the Punishment may be, plainly implies that the Duration of it is endless;) while he himself takes the liberty to infer from them plainly what they do not say; that is, the Consumption of the Bodies of the damn'd by Fire and Worms. See his 109 p. and compare the Quotation under No. X. above.

No. XXVII.

Mark ix. 49, 50. For every one shall be salted with Fire, and every Sacrifice shall be salted with Salt. Salt is good: but if the Salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will you season it?

It would be endless to recite the different Inter

pretations of this Text. But supposing it to relate to our Subject at all, and that the Fire here mention'd is the same with that, which is spoken of in the six preceding Verses; the only Question will be, about the Import of the word aλo@hoeтai, salted. Not that the Greek Word has any Ambiguity in it; but1 Le Clerc and some others seem to imagine, that our Saviour made use of one that had, and which

1 Supplement to Dr. Hammond.

signified either to be salted, or to be consum'd. But if by being consum'd they mean totally destroy'd, so as to cease to exist, they make our Lord contradict all that he had been saying before, about the neverdying Worm, and the Fire that shall never be quenched. Others therefore suppose, that He here assigns the Reason of their endless Duration, by saying, that every such Victim of God's righteous Vengeance shall be salted with Fire. It is well known, that Salt is the Symbol of Perpetuity; and it is sometimes put synonymously with Brimstone, as Deut. xxix. 23. which in symbolical Language denotes, that the Fire it is join'd with, is not to be extinguish'd. A Lake of Fire and Brimstone, or a Lake of Fire burning with Brimstone, (Rev. xix. 20. xx. 10.) is a Lake of perpetual Fire. And when Hell-Fire is thus described, it evidently shews it to be an eternal Fire of Torment and Destruction; not in the Sense of utter Destruction of Being, but in a Sense exclusive of any Restoration, or Recovery. But be this as it will, the Text before us is too obscure to build any Doctrine of Consequence upon; especially if that Doctrine be contrary to many clear Passages of Scripture, or to the general Drift and Design of it; as that of Annihilation seems to be.

1

No. XXVIII.

Mark xiv. 21. Wo to that Man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed: good were it for that Man if he had never been born. See No. XXIII.

1 If any one would see more on this Subject, he may consult Daubuz on Rev. ix. 17. Lancaster's symbolical Dictionary, under the Word Salt: Dr. Berriman's Sermon preached to the Religious Societies, 1738-9; on Mark ix. 50.