In the same regal history, Ahab disobeys God; and the prophet is sent to warn him that, as a punishment, he shall be slain in battle. The monarch disguises himself so that he is not known; and "a certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness, and he died." The archer aimed his shaft at no one, but discharged it "at a venture" against the confused masses. Yet it was winged and guided by God's unerring decree.
In the entire volume of the Book nothing is more fearful than the epitaph upon the soul of Judas Iscariot, spoken by the Saviour himself, " It had been good for that man if he had not been born." You at once perceive that this sentence consigned him to everlasting misery. The Universalist can never evade this passage. For if, after myriads of ages, the lost soul shall be released and translated to heaven, those centuries of wretchedness will be only as a moment, as nothing, compared with an eternity of happiness ; and it would not then be true that the culprit had better never been born. But now this treason — though instigated purely by covetousness, the ruling passion of the apostate — was a part of God's pre-arranged purpose. "None of them is lost, but the son of perdition ; that the Scriptures might be fulfilled;" "The Son of Man goeth as it is written of him, but woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed, it had been good for that man if he had not been born;" "Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus."
In fine, the great catastrophe of the Bible, the crucifixion of the Redeemer; if ever a deed was perpetrated by cruel relentless malignity, it was the murder of that innocent benefactor of mankind. The actors in that tragedy were charged with heinous guilt in having "killed the Prince of life," whom "with wicked hands they crucified and slew." Nor did these murderers attempt any palliation. "They were pricked to the heart," and cried out in anguish, "What shall we do?" Yet this conspiracy and its triumph only accomplished the
