embrace our holy religion until it shall appear rational and those who have been educated as Christians, are in danger of making shipwreck of their faith, unless they throw many of the superfluous and absurd tenets into the ocean of oblivion.

If it must be deemed irrational by all, who have not been systematically educated, to admit that the greatest, the best, the wisest, the most powerful of Beings, has decreed that a large majority of the human race, nay, of his own offspring, shall be eternally miserable for the sins and errors of a few years, and that either he cannot, or that he will not prevent these horrors, although he had professedly sent his Son to redeem them from sin and misery, Christianity cannot prevail until such sentiments shall be disgraced. Reason has been in perpetual conflict with opinions and prejudices for many ages; but we are at length arrived to an æra, in which we can boldly pronounce, for we can fully prove, that Christianity rejects every absurdity and it is incumbent upon all who wish for its universal acceptance, to remove, not to protect, the stumbling blocks which have been so profusely laid in the way. We may also assert, that the Presumption originates with those who boldly maintain that they

are intimately acquainted with the whole counsel of God, respecting the destination of the Wicked; notwithstanding, the obscure manner in which their punishment is stated; and it can be no presumption to detect those errors, which are not honourable to God, and which are most distressing to the human mind.* Animated by these considerations we shall proceed.

If the advocates for the doctrine of annihilation, should deem the solution given above to be consonant with truth, they will readily give it the preference. Their system is manifestly consonant with humanity. It is embraced from an ardent desire to vindicate the justice of God, and from a principle of compassion to the Wicked. But the sentiment we have proposed, supports the cause of justice and of compassion, with still greater efficacy. It not only relieves the offender from eternal misery, but inspires the hopes that he may be happy at some future period. It not only vindicates the justice of God, but it renders his Wisdom more conspicuous; and it inspires us with the most exalted conceptions of his infinite Benignity. The command is, "thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy

*See Note N.

dency to excite, and

soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind." These principles best correspond with the command. They have a natural tenperpetuate the affection to the extent required. For they remove every painful apprehension, and forbid every chilling suspicion. Although the doctrine of absolute annihilation greatly diminishes our horrors, it cannot entirely satisfy our minds. There is a deficiency remaining. We are still surprised that he who has done so much to reclaim sinful man, should have met with any insurmountable impediment to the completion of his plan that he who wills that no man shall perish, but that all should come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved, should not have his will accomplished; and that the very obstinacy of man, who is a being of his own formation, should finally become an insurmountable impediment to this desired object; that infinite wisdom itself should not be able to discover resources, which must be so pleasing to infinite benignity. Man, imperfect man, whom his Maker has appointed to be lord of the creation, is able to táme animals the most ferocious. He can do more; he can, by the force of discipline, introduce order and prompt obedience into extensive armies, composed of the most refractory and

abandoned of the human species. He can render thousands and tens of thousands, who in their individual characters, were the pests of society, its brave and powerful protectors. Is man more powerful than his Maker? Cannot he who best knows our frame, discover an efficacious discipline, correspondent to our characters and our errors? Is he compelled to have recourse to an act of annihilation of the man, resembling an act of desperation, as the only expedient left to annihilate sin and misery? Unless he be absolutely compelled, by some inexplicable cause, to such a measure, we may be assured that the essential benignity of his nature would forbid even this punishment. The wicked are still a part of his own creation. They were brought into existence, not by their own choice, but by laws beyond their controul. The passions and propensities, which they have egregiously abused, were not of their own emplanting. They are still his offspring. They were passively placed in that sphere of action which has exposed them to these sinful aberrations. When they awake into a new state of things, for they must all appear before the judgment-seat of God, will they not possess the same intellectual powers to receive instruction, and to profit by discipline? It is more than possible, that if some of the Good and

Virtuous, who are to enter into the joys of their Lord, had been placed in their situations, and exposed to their temptations, they would have been as abandoned. It is more than possible, that if they had passed similar advantages, and means of improvement, they would have had their portion with the Righteous. If they be not raised destitute of all the principles common to the human heart, may not new connections be rendered efficient to their final reformation?

The argument which has been urged relative to the premature destruction of plants and animals, is manifestly an argument of necessity. It is an attempt to soften difficulties which it cannot destroy. The profuse expenditure in the vegetable creation is no loss in itself to the perishing object; they are inanimate, and not capable of enjoyment or of sufferings. Nor are the inferior animals to be placed upon a level with the professed candidates for an eternal existence. These phænomena are the result of that wise and beneficent law, which provides a superabundance, as a protection against the possibility of an injurious deficiency, through the influence of contingent incidents; while the destruction of the superfluous multitudes augments the vigour, and promotes the