fcripture, of their redemption; but every thing to the contrary! The ferpent's head is to be bruised, or crushed, &c. Therefore, the curfed from among men are left without a faviour, and left to remedilefs punishment; for they have the fame doom with devils. Dr. C. grants this fire may be ftrictly everlafting. He allows the wicked may, at the day of judgment, be fent into fire which never fhall be quenched. In the fame place, he holds that the damned are not to be eternally in this endless fire. The fire may be endless, he fays, but the damned are to be taken out of it, and taken to heaven. He had forgotten, it feems, that Chrift, in this fame difcourfe, joins this everlasting fire with everlasting pun ifhment; therefore makes them both one, as to duration. And If this fame everlafting fire is called, in another place, fire which never fhall be quenched, this explains both the fire and the punishment as being endlefs; provided they need an expla nation. But this, Dr. C's opinion, that the fire of hell may never end, though wicked men will certainly be taken out of it, is only adding one more to his tirefome fcroll of contradictions. He had before faid, It is as great an abfurdity to fuppofe fire to be ftridly and absolutely eternal, as to fuppofe the earth, or mountains, to be fo. Fire naturally tends to an end, and will, in time, actually come to an end; and it is impoffible, according to the established laws of nature, but that it should ⚫certainly do fo.' Thus, to perfuade finners not to be fright. ened at the fire of hell, in one place, he tells them it is impoffible, in the nature of things, this fire fhould continue without end. Again, he allows this fire may continue without end; but finé aers have little or nothing to fear from it; the damned, he afferts," will all be taken out of it, and as foon as ever they repent. Because the everlafting punishment of the wicked, in the fame verfe, is fet over against the eternal or everlasting life of the righ #eous, this is no reafon, Dr. C. fays, that the former fhould be taken literally, although the latter must have a literal meaning. The former everlafling, he fays, is limited, but the latter unlimited; and because the latter is unlimited, this is no reason why the former fhould be fo. The Doctor pretends to cite oth er texts, wherein ever lafting is twice ufed, in the same sentence; and, as he says, in a different fenfe.' That is, once in the lim ited, and once in the unlimited, as in Rom. xvi. part of the 25th and part of the 26th verfes, and in Tit. i. 2. But his miftaken notion of these texts has already been fhown. See page 194 Trying to have the above paffage, Matt. xxv. 46, agree with his fcheme, fcheme, Mr. Winchefter alfo pretends to produce another, wherein everlasting, occurs twice, in the fame fentence; and is applied,' he fays, to two different things, whofe exiftence is not the fame, or the time of their continuance not alike.'* As in Hab. iii. 6. He flood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove afunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow his ways are everlafting. God will forever manifeft himself by his ways, it is granted; his ways alfo are everlafting as to their effects. But, taken detachedly, his ways are in fucceffion, one after another. In this view, they are reftricted to days or times. And, in this view, may be coupled with the hills or mountains; therefore, with them, may be figuratively called everlasting. What seems to favour this conftruction, the paffage might as well be render. ed, He flood, and the earth was measured: he beheld, and the nations were driven afunder; the perpetual mountains were fcattered, and the everlafting hills did bow to his everlasting ways.' But if, in every fenfe, the ways of God be firictly ev erlafting, as Mr. W. argues, then the deftruction or punishment of the Egyptians, Edomites, and Midianites will have no end. For of the ways of God, to their deftruction, the prophet here Speaks. There is no difficulty however, in allowing that everlasting may be twice ufed, in the fame fentence, and in a diffierent fenfe. Thus the words, Everlafting God,' and everlafting hills,' in a certain connection, may both be counted in one fentence. So, the infinite ftrength of God, and the infinite ftrength of Nineveh, may both be mentioned in the fame fen tence, as well as in the fame bible. These cafes are very plain. The ftrength of Nineveh is an object feen, and well known, without the ufe of words; which cannot be faid of the God of Ifrael, or of the God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift. But, probably, enough has been faid to fhow how words may be ufed different from their primitive meaning. It has alfo been made clear, perhaps, that unlimited terms, without any mistake, may be figuratively applied to things temporal and finite, when these things are well known; which cannot be faid of things unfeen and unknown. But when the judge of all' fays, Thefe fhall go away into everlafting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal,' this is carrying things into the unknown world. In this cafe, as nothing except the force of words can acquaint us with the nature of the fubject; fo unlimited terms muft he.. have their literal meaning, unlefs there be exprefs no tice 。 A P. TF, tice to the contrary. But not a fingle word has Chrift faid, i defcribing the laft judgment, which abates the literal force of this doom to the wicked; any more than he has to curtail the reward to the righteous. And, as we have all reafon to think, Chrift meant to defcribe the laft judgment in the most plain unqueftionable terms, fuch as fhould not need a particular explanation; fo we are constrained to give a literal interpretation to this fentence on the wicked. Therefore, if everlasting is literally ufed any where in the bible, it certainly is in this inftance. · 6. This perfectly agrees with other things in fcripture, related of the wicked. Rom. vi. 21, 22. For the end of those things, (the lufts of the flesh) is death. But now being made free from ⚫fin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holinefs, and the end everlafting life. Here their end, whatever it be, is fet in oppofition to everlafting life. The next verse is, For the wages of fin is death: but the gift of God is eternal life. This death, the wages of fin, runs parallel with eternal life. 2 Cor. xi. 15. His (fatan's) minifters transformed as the ministers of righteoufnefs; whofe end fhall be according to their works.' Their end is their final state, and being according to their works, they cannot be made happy, or be received to heaven; but muft forever remain in hell. Phil. iii. 18, 19. The enemies of the crofs of Chrift: whofe end is ⚫ deftruction.' Heb. vi. 8. Hypocrites, falfe profeffors, and apoftates are compared to that vile fort of ground that beareth thorns and briars, which is rejected, and is nigh unto curfing; ⚫ whose end is to be burned." Dr. C. allows that this burning, and this deftruction is not annihilation; but a flate of complete torment. This, however, is a moft pointed contradiction to his whole scheme. Which fuppofes the end, of the damned to be deliverance and falvation; for if they are all finally faved, their end, or laft or final ftate is falvation. But the Holy Ghoft declares it to be deftruction, burning, or complete torment. And as they are not annihilated, it can be no other than endless torment, For otherwife their end, would be annihilation. Hence, the threatened punishment to the wicked, and their final doom, has a literal meaning, inftead of a figurative one. The fentence upon the blafphemer againit the Holy Ghoft helps, at once, to decide both the original fenfe of these words, as we have feen, and their application to the ftate of the damned. 'It fhall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.' He hath never forgiveness, but is bound over to sternal damnation.' Christ, therefore, had prepared the the way to let the world know his awful doom on the wicked, at the Taft day, is decifive and unalterable. Eternal damnation he here explains to be a ftate, where forgiveness never comes. The damned fhall never, or not to eternity, as it is in the original, receive the leaft benefit from Chrift's death or purchase. And it is in vain to look for falvation in any other.'* It alfo proves vain and prefumptive to deny what Chrift fo plainly afferts. This example, concerning the blafphemer against the Holy Ghoft, has fo accurately fettled the original ufe of the word, it was im poffible for Dr. C. to deny it, without going his whole length of abfurdity and contradiction. The literal ufe, therefore, of thefe words is not only decided, and decided as to the ftate of the damned, but it is done in fuch manner as all our arguments muft yield to it. God has faid it. Chrift has faid it. The judge of all has declared it. These fhall go away into everlasting punishment;' into that woeful curfed ftate where pardon hever comes, and from which, of course, they hall never be releafed. No arguments can give higher proof than fuch plain affertions, from Chrift himself. So we have here the highest poffible evidence of the endlefs punifhment of the damned. To argue against it is idle, and even daringly wicked. What does it avail to argue from the mercy of God, from his infinite overflowing benevolence, when he is the beft interpreter of his own attributes, and of his own benevolence? Thus far, my dear Sir, have we followed the univerfalifts, in their tirefome round of inconfiftencies. Whether all their cavils and objections have been fairly anfwered, and the meaning of the words we have been upon, fettled, is now left with your candid judgment. One thing is certain. The fubject before us is moft folemn as well as interefting. The very thought, beyond def cription, is amazing and awful! Eternity, O eternity! eternity! We are fwallowed up, we are loft, in the contemplation. Our little minds fhrink into nothing. God alone can furvey the boundlefs profpect. But an eternity of woe or an eternity of bliss, one or the other of thefe being our certain portion, is, in the best manner, fuited to pierce the confcience of the ftupid finner, and to awaken and lead to repentance fuch as know not God. The experience of ages is witnefs to this-Alfo, that this is beft fuited to the cafe of the believer, in his prefent fallible state. So, on one hand, he is made to tremble, and fly from fin, and escape for his life, like Lot fleeing out of Sodom. On the other to thirst, long, & pant after that fulness of joy, where there are pleafures foreverI am &e. more. Univerfalifm confounds and deftroys itself. &c. PART IV. The fufficiency of the Atonement, for the falvation of all, con. fiftent with the final deftruction of a part of mankind. Also the Second Death explained. LETTER I. The Atonement makes provifion for all men to be reconciled to God, and reconciliation to him explained. MY DEAR FRIEND, THE HE fufficiency of Chrift's atonement, for the falvation of all men, appears to be a doctrine plainly taught in fcripture. John i. 29. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the fin of the world!' In the original it is, carrieth away, or bear. eth away, the fin of the world: having an allufion, generally, to the lambs, bulls, and goats offered up by the Jews; alfo fome particular allufion to the fcape-goat, on the great day of expia tion, which bore away the fins of the people into the wilderness. Here it is in the fingular number, the fin of the world: that is, being collectively taken. And muft have reference to any one of the human race, as well as to another; alfo, to the whole, as well as to a part. Therefore, Chrift, by his death, taketh away, or beareth away the fin of the whole world. The fame thing we find, 1 John ii. 2. He is the propitiation for our fins; and not for ours only, but alfo for the fins of the ⚫ whole world.' 2 Cor. v. 19. God was in Chrift reconciling ⚫ the world unto himfelf, not imputing their trefpaffes unto them; ⚫ and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.' Colof. i. 19, 20. For it pleafed the Father that in him fhould ali ful. nefs dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his crofs, by him to reconcile all things unto himfelf; by him, I fay, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.' Thefe paffages, and other fimilar ones, are clearly expreffive of the ful nefs |