the place of punishment after death. As all religions have supposed a future state of existence, so all have their hell or place of torment, in which the wicked are supposed to be punished. The hell of the ancient heathens was divided into two mansions, the one called Elysium, on the right hand, pleasant and delightful, appointed for the souls of good men; the other called Tartarus, on the left, a region of misery and torment, appointed for the wicked. The latter only was hell in the present limited sense of the word.

Amongst Christians, there are two controverted questions in regard to hell; the one concerning the locality, and the other the duration of its torments.

The locality of hell, and the reality of its fire, began first to be controverted by Origen. That father, interpreting the Scripture account metaphorically, made hell to consist, not in external punishments, but in a consciousness or sense of guilt, and a remembrance of past pleasures. Amongst the moderns, Mr Whiston advanced a new hypothesis. According to him, the comets are so many hells appointed in their orbits alternately to carry the damned into the confines of the sun, there to be scorched by its violent heat, and then to return with them beyond the orb of Saturn, there to freeze in the dismal regions of eternal cold. Another modern author, not satisfied with any hypothesis hitherto advanced, assigns the sun as the locality of hell.

As to the second question, the duration of hell torments, we find Origen again at the head of those who deny that they are eternal. It was his opinion, that not only men, but devils, would, after a due course of punishment suitable to their respective crimes, be pardoned and restored to heaven. The principle upon which Origen mainly built his opinion, was the nature of punishment, which he took to be emendatory, and applied only as physic for the recovery of the patient's health. The chief objection to the eternity of hell torments amongst modern writers, is the disproportion between temporary crimes and eternal punishments. Those who maintain the affirmative, ground their opinions on Scripture accounts, which represent the pains of hell under the figure of a worm which never dies, and a fire which is not quenched.