ings of the Son of God, and to warn the impenitent, that they are subjecting themselves to greater indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, than were experienced by the sinners of ancient times; but they have not ventured to describe, in explicit language, or with a positive tone, the nature or duration of these punishments; and we should act wisely to imitate their cautious example.

To speak after the manner of men, the Supreme Being manifested infinite concern for the welfare of his people Israel. He invited, intreated, admonished, remonstrated, threatened; but the expectations of their obedience, or their reform, rested entirely upon the good or evil that should be their portion in the present life. There was no attempts to terrify them into obedience, by the denunciation of eternal woes. Nor were these ideas introduced into the christian church, until some speculative philosophers intermixed their visions with the Gospel of Christ. They had no existence, until metaphorical language was interpreted into a literal sense. The primitive converts repented, upon the revelation of a

future state of retribution, in which every man shall receive according to his works. They were induced to reform, by the promise of eternal life, on the one hand, and the undefined

threatening of just punishment to the finally impenitent, on the other.

But could we suppose that mankind would, in the present day, be rendered more careless and abandoned, because their future misery will not be eternal, their indifference might justly be ascribed to the presumptuous officiousness of those theologians, who have thus blunted the edge of the divine judgments, by attempting to sharpen them; and have rendered those threatenings comparative trifles, in the opinion of their hearers, which the Being who uttered them knows to be momentous. However, attention to the laws of human nature will alleviate such apprehensions. The certain expectation of a known evil always affects the mind more powerfully, than general threats of an evil that is totally unknown, and apparently remote. A criminal will be terrified at the lash, although he does not fear everlasting stripes. He knows that, in a short time, his bodily pain will terminate, and that he may be able hereafter to conceal his shame; but he cannot look through the sufferings before him, into these consolations. No one will be reconciled to the horrors of a prison, because they are to endure but a few years, or because he knows that death will finally release him; nor will he expose himself to the brand

mark, because the agony will not be perpetual. No impression can be made upon those who will not consider, and those who consider, are chiefly affected with the certainty that they cannot escape condign punishment.

But the experiment has been tried for the space of many centuries, and this doctrine has not produced the effects which had been expected. Its terrors have, in various ways, been artfully evaded. Some, who have believed it, have thought that no small degree of efficacy consisted in receiving the doctrine as an indispensable article of faith. They have expected an exemption from eternal misery, by a strenuous belief in the doctrine itself; and have hoped for mercy, by persecuting those who ventured to assert, that a God of infinite benignity will not render any of his creatures eternally wretched. Multitudes have heard these threats reiterated, until they became insensible to them, and their hearts were completely hardened against every other consideration. The oaths and dreadful imprecations, hourly uttered by the reprobate, against themselves, and each other, too loudly proclaim the inefficacy of the doctrine. Some, who would deem it extremely dangerous to deny the eternity of hell torments, attempt to extinguish the flames, by the obser

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vance of superstitious rites of their own invention, and submitting to austerities of their own infliction. As the doctrine itself represents the true God, in a character which resembles that ascribed to the heathen deities, it was not unnatural to expect, that adopting the methods practiced by pagan worshippers, might also render him propitious; and every subterfuge has accordingly been employed, rather than to submit to the severer penance, of "denying all ungodliness, and every wordly lust," in order to escape the misery they professed to dread. Multitudes have considered the punishment of everlasting misery so disproportionate to their guilt, that the most abandoned have secretly indulged the hopes of escaping. Nature prompts every rational creature of God, to trust in his mercy. Numbers will not, cannot, believe, that he is so implacable as their creed has taught them. They will hope that he cannot retain his anger for ever; and they are prone also to consider an escape from eternal wretchedness, as an acquittal

from every degree of punishment.

But some divines themselves are fostering such dangerous delusions. Their compassionate hearts shudder at their own principles; and they have humanely devised a prompt method of saving the most profligate sinner from eternal

wrath. Although they represent sin to be of so malignant a nature, that all the flames of hell cannot, through myriads of ages, purify the polluted soul, yet a simple act of faith, in a crucified Saviour, at the moment of nature's dissolution, or with the terrors of death before their eyes, is sufficient to appease the wrath of God, and effect a change in the heart, to which the chastisement of ages would be incompetent! By this single act, which is manifestly an act of terror, upon which no dependance can be made, the soul becomes instantly purified, as by a charm, and is prepared for the enjoyment of the bliss reserved for the righteous, in a kingdom of righteousness, equally with those who, in humble obedience to the divine commands, have been working out their own salvation with fear and trembling, for a series of years, through numberless trials, afflictions, and anxieties of heart! Nay, so omnipotent is this species of faith, in the opinion of some divines, that wretches, who have been notoriously placed among the workers of iniquity, for a series of years; and whose atrocious crimes have, perhaps, brought them to a premature and ignominious death; will be received by the holy Jesus, with the salutation, "Well done, thou E e 2