CHAPTER II. 



JEWISH BELIEFS. 



E come now to consider the attitude the 

 ^ LL Jewish nation, distinctively, sustains to 

 the doctrine of Hell, and the fact of future 

 eternal punishment. 



If the decision of nations has been in favor of 

 a belief in Hell, and that decision the attainment. 

 of intuition and philosophy, we are not unrea- 

 sonable in expecting the one nation which God 

 chose as a special people, and a medium for the 

 transmission of truth, to throw a clearer light, if 

 possible, upon this subject, and more perfectly 

 relieve the question of errors' and ignobilities 

 which cluster around the crude ideas of those 

 who groped in the comparative darkness of 

 natural religion. 



The Jews as a nation were specially guarded 

 against theological errors. God. through their 

 representatives and leaders, spoke openly and 

 definitely to them. At any times of digression,, 

 the prophet sounded the tocsin of alarm, and by 

 fierce denunciations and scathing reproofs, would 

 he proclaim the judgments of God against those 



