'_The same slovenliness of thought (he said) and subjection of the reason to fears, wishes, and affections, which enable them to accept a theory involving a contradiction in terms, prevent them from perceiving the logical consequence of the theory._' Now, in spite of its coarse and exaggerated acrimony, this passage doubtless expresses a great truth, which presently I shall go on to consider.

But it contains also a very characteristic falsehood, of which we must first divest it.

God is here represented as _making_ a hell, with the express intention of forcibly putting men into it, and His main hatefulness consists in this capricious and wanton cruelty.

Such a representation is, however, an essentially false one.

It is not only not true to the true Christian teaching, but it is absolutely opposed to it.
The God of Christianity does not _make_ hell; still less does He deliberately put men into it.