press their ideas of a place of future punishment; but he has not been able to produce any authority in favour of the assertion but the Talmudical writers, the earliest of which is the Targums of Jonathan and Hiero, works of no great merit, even among the Jews themselves. They abound with silly fables, and with both Jewish and pagan superstitions, and were not written until several hundred years after the destruction of the Jewish hierarchy, long after the days of our Saviour. And according to Willan's own account of the matter, the Jews never used the term gehenna to express their ideas of a place of future punishment, until after their nation, city, and temple were laid in ruins by Titus,the Roman general:for, says Mr. Willan, "so many instances of destruction and of God's vengeance having appeared in Gehinnom, the Jews held it in such abhorrence that they applied the same name to the place of punishment for the wicked after death; concerning which place the Talmudic writers say, "The law, gehenna, and paradise were formed before the creation of the world." Thus we see the term gehenna was never used by the Jews to express their notion of a future state of punishment, till after they had seen God's vengeance in the destruction of so many of the rebellious Israelites in the valley of Hinnom. And this use of the term did not take place immediately after the overthrow of their nation; for Josephus, several years after that display of divine vengeance on the Jewish nation, in which, he states, there were 600,000 dead carcases of the Israelites cast out into the valley of Hinnom, in speaking of the Jewish ideas of a place of future punishment, calls it hades, instead of gehenna: and this he gives as the term used by his nation to express their ideas of a place of future punishment. Hence we may safely affirm, that so late as the days of Josephus, he term gehenna was not used by the Jews to express their views of a state of future punishment; and as the scriptures were all written before the history of Josephus, it clearly follows that the term gehenna was never used by our Saviour, nor any of the apostles, to express an idea of a place of future punishment, but that it was simply used by them in reference to the valley of Hinnom, a place near Jerusalem: hence it will follow that by the phrase hell fire, we are to understand a fire in the valley of Hinnom, in which the filth of the city was consumed, and where criminals were sometimes burnt to death in this fire. It is admitted by all the learned writers, the word Ghihinnom in the old Testament was never used by the

Jews to express an idea of a place of future punishment; and it is well known that gehenna, in the Greek of the New Testament is simply a corruption of ghi hinnom in the Old. Dr. George Campbell says that gehenna was originally used to express the valley of the sons of Hinnom, but in process of time it was gradually brought into use by the Jews to express their ideas of a place of future punishment. This I admit to be the case, but I have already proved, that it was never so used till after the days of Josephus, and consequently not until long after the scriptures of the New Testament were written. And even admitting that the Jews,in the days of our Saviour, had used the term gehenna to express their ideas of a place of future punishment, would that use of the term prove their ideas of a place of future punishment to be the truth?Would not their ideas of a place of future punishment still remain to be examined, and its authority, and the source from whence it took its rise be determined? It is admitted, the Jews did not always believe in a place of punishment for the wicked after death. Dr. Campbell admits that Moses and all the Jewish prophets preserved the most profound silence as to any place of future punishment. If, then, as Dr. Campbell admits, the Jews did not receive their ideas of a place of future punishment from their holy prophets, I ask from what authority did they derive their ideas concerning such a place of future punishment? To this question let Dr. Campbell himself reply. The Dr. says that neither the Jews or the Chaldees remained fixed in their opinions, and that the Jews, in their state of captivity at Babylon, among the Chaldees, felt themselves at liberty to adopt opinions on subjects about which their legislat or had been silent. Thus the doctor shows the source from whence the Jews obtained their ideas of a place of future punishment; some of them imbibed the ideas of the Chaldeans on that subject, while in a state of captivity at Babylon. And in borrowing the Chaldean ideas of a place of future purishment, they also adopted the Chaldean name for their place of punishment, (hades) and continued to speak of the place by that name,till long after the days of our Saviour, as I have already shown. Suppose I admit, for the sake of argument, that the Jews, after having imbibed the Chaldean ideas about a place of future punishment, borrowed the name of a valley near Jerusalem, and applied it to that place as its proper name, would it follow that our Saviour used the name by which this valley was expressed, in the same corrupt sense in which it was used

by these Jews, who had partly become pagans? If it be admitted that the Jews, in the days of our Saviour's ministry, used the term gehenna to express their views of a place of future punishment, the ideas of which they borrowed from pagans, and that our Saviour used the term in the same sense, would it not follow that he was simply speaking of a pagan hell, and teaching the ancient notion of heathens respecting a place of future punishment; the very ideas of which were so absurd, that the more enlightened among the heathen themselves considered them as mere silly fables, introduced among the vulgar for political purposes. But I have sufficiently proven that neither the Jews nor our Saviour used the term gehenna to express the idea of a place of future punishment in his day: therefore it clearly follows that it cannot be proven by the scriptures, that there is any such place of punishment in another mode of existence, unless it is expressed by some other name than that of gehenna: and it is admitted by all the learned world, that there is no other word used in the Bible that properly means such a place. They will not even admit that the Greek word hades, used by Jews and Pagans to express their ideas of a place of future punishment, was ever used in that sense by our Saviour or his apostles.

Having shown that the word gehenna, and consequently, the phrase fire of gehenna, was never used by Christ or his apostles with reference to a future state of punishment, I shall now show the sense in which our Saviour spoke of hell-fire, and the fire that shall never be quenched. He spake of it as being a judicial punishment, inflicted on offenders by the Jewish council, in the valley of Hinnom. A council of twenty three judges held their sessions in this valley, and formed a court of judicature, possessing civil and ecclesiastical powers; having cognizance of cases of slander, blasphemy, heresy, and other crimes. Hence, when our Saviour says, "whosoever shall say to his brother, Racha, shall be in danger of the coun cil"--he alluded to this court of twenty three judges--and when he says, "But whosoever shall say thou fool, shall be in danger of hell-fire"-he alluded to the nature of the punishment the court would inflict on such offenders. When he tells his disciples it was better to pluck out the right eye, cut off the right hand, or right foot, than to be cast into hell-fire, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched"—he alluded to the eminent danger in which his disciples stood to that court, who considered them as a set of heretics; and who pos

sessed a Judicial power to sentence them to the gehenna of fire. In every instance where our Saviour speaks of this hell-fire, or the fire that shall never be quenched, he refers to this council, directly or indirectly and in no case does he threaten his enemies with hell-fire, but simply speaks of his friends as being liable to this gehenna of fire: and advises them, as the most certain way to escape this punishment, to "beware of men, for" says he, "they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues."

As the term gehenna is fully explained in my vocabulary, I refer the reader to my remarks on that word, and the authorities I have there recited, in favour of the position I have here taken. And shall now remark, that, although our Saviour never used the phrase, gehenna of fire, in reference to a future state of punishment, it appears to be used figuratively by the prophets, to give a more lively representation of punishment in this mode of existence; or the judgments of God on the Jewish nation; and more particularly, because these judgments were to be more specially manifested in the valley of Hinnom, where the gehenna of fire was kept burning. As a proof ⚫ of this, I refer the reader to Jeremiah, Chap. vii. from verse 29, and the whole of Chap. xix, where he will see the severe judgments, which was to take place at Jerusalem and in that valley, pointed out. These judgments were called by our Saviour, in Matth. xxiii. 33, the damnation of hell: and in verse 36, he declared, this damnation of hell should take place in that generation. The phrase damnation of hell, in Willan's translation, is rendered judgment of gehenna: and this judgment of gehenna, foretold by Jeremiah, did take place in that generation, according to the words of our Saviour.

Having thus shown that hell-fire and the damnation of hell, simply mean temporal judgments, executed in the valley of Hinnom; I shall now attend more particularly to the fire that shall never be quenched. This phrase, Mr. Ray seems to think, is proof, of itself, of future and endless punishment; and cannot, in truth, be applied to a limited punishment in this mode of existence. It will be readily admitted that this figure of expression is borrowed from the circumstance of that fire of ge henna being continually burning, in the valley of Hinnom, to consume the filth of the city, and keep offenders in awe. And as the execution of criminals in this gehenna of fire, was a capital punishment among the Jews, and well calculated to strike terror on the mind, it is very natural to suppose it should

be used figuratively, and applied to any severe judgment inflicted in this life; and we have abundant proof that it was so used among the Jews, who were familiarly acquainted with that gehenna of fire. The prophet Jeremiah, in speaking of a temporal judgment, calls it a fire that shall not be quenched, Chap. vii. 20; "Therefore thus saith the Lord God: behold mine ager and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched." See also Chap. xvii. 27. "Then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched." In Isaiah, Chap. i. 31, temporal judgments are compared to a fire that none shall quench. See also Chap. xxxiv. 8, 9, 10, 11. "For it is the day of the LORD's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust hereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever: But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it, the owl also & the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness." The reader by consulting the whole chapter will find that this unquenchable fire was simply a bloody war prosecuted on the land of Idumea, and probably a prophecy of that dreadful slaughter of the Idumeans, recorded in the history of Josephus, which immediately preceded the destruction of Jerusalem, under Titus, the Roman general. Yet the prophet represents that all the hosts of heaven were to be dissolved-the heavens rolled together as a scroll--all their hosts were to fall as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree-the Lord was to come down to judgment--and the streams were to be turned into pitch, the dust to brimstone--the land was to become burning pitch, it was not to be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof was to ascend up for ever. Yet the owl, the raven, the cormorant, the bittern, the vulture, the screech-owl, the draggon, the beasts of the desert and of the island; and even the satyr was to dwell there; thorns, nettles, and brambles were to grow there, and even the great owl was to make her nest, lay, and hatch her young, in this place of unquenchable fire. See also Chap. Ixvi. 24, Jeremiah iv. 4.-Chap, xxi. 12. Ezek. xx.