282 TDB WORLD TO COME. SECT. H.The strongest and most plausible Objections against the Perpetuity of Hell answered. I think these reasons which have been given, are sufficient to justify the ministers of the gospel in representing the punish- ments of hell as everlasting : But man, sinful man does not love to hear of this dreadful perpetuity of hell: They would fain find some period to these sorrows, they search on every side if there be no way for escape from this prison, no door of mercy, no cranny of hope left among the reasons of things, or among the attributes, or the transactions of the blessed God : And they are ever proposing some methods to cut short this eternity, which scripture ascribes to the punishment of impenitent sinners. I *hall endeavour therefore here to give a fair and plain answer to the strongest objections against this doctrine which I have ever yet met with. Objection I. The first objection is raised from a criticism on the words of scripture.. The Greek and Hebrew words, say they, which we translate eternal and everlasting, where the tor- ments of hell are mentioned, are not always used for proper and 'complete eternity, they sometimes signify only a long duration : So God gave Abraham and his seed the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession ; Gen. xvii. 8. but now the Turks possess it. Several of the statutes of the levitical law were said to be everlasting; Lev. xvi. 34. But they are all abolished in the gospel. The sons of Aaron had an everlasting priesthood con- ferred on them, Exod. xl. 15. But this office is cancelled by the kingdom of the Messiah, and finished for ever. Besides, let it be remembered, say the objectors, that the Hebrew word p5fy Olam, and the Greek Aimv and Araves signify only the various ages or periods of time which belong to the du- ration of creatures, or to some constitutions of God concerning Ids creatures : And they should be translated an age, or ages, more properly than any thing else : And the adjective nio.`, when applied to creatures, can relate only to these ages ; but these expressions were never designed to enter into God's own eternity, either before the existence of this world or after the consummation of it : Upon which reason it is highly improper and absurd to assert, that die duration or punishment of crea- tures in hell shall be properly eternal and equal to the duration of the blessed God himself. Now since every thing in God's transactions towards his creatures is sometimes limited by these A,,,ms or ages, which are periods of time that shall be finished, why may not the damnation and the sorrows of hell be also fin- ished and cancelled at a certain length of years, though the com- Mon words, which we translate eternal and everlasting, be ascri= bed to them in scripture? Answer I. These are the same words both in Greek and
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