not, at any time, be of efficacy; but we deny that ignorant man is a proper judge respecting this penitence, or concerning the nature and extent of the efficacy produced by it; and we maintain, that the decisive tone which is too frequently assumed upon such occasions, is of no essential service to the dying, while it inspires the healthy sinner with the most dangerous presumption.

1

NOTE Q.

After "writhing agonies of his enemies." Page 421.

That the above censure may not appear too severe, or not founded upon facts, we shall, in justification of our assertions, present to the Reader the following passages, and leave him to decide whether a belief of the eternity of hell torments have not a powerful tendency to harden the heart. They are extracted from the works of that celebrated metaphysician and polemical divine, the President Edwards, originally published in America, about the year 1750, and republished in London so recently as in 1811, in 8 vols. 8vo.

The article from which the following extracts are made, is a "vindication of the wisdom, justice, and goodness of God, in the eternal 'misery of the wicked."

"The saints in heaven will behold the torments of the damned. The smoke of their torments ascendeth up for ever and ever! They shall be tormented in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the lamb. So shall they be tormented in the presence of the glorified saints!

"Hereby will saints be rendered more sensible how great their salvation is; when they see how great the

misery is from which God has saved them, and how great a difference he has made between their state, and the state of others, who were by nature, and perhaps for a time by practice, more sinful and hell-deserving than any. It will give them a greater sense of the wonderfulness of God's grace towards them! Every time they look upon the damned, it will excite in them a lively and admiring sense of the grace of God in making them to differ!" Again,

"The sight of hell torments will exalt the happiness of the saints for ever. It will not only make them more sensible of the greatness and freeness of the grace of God in their happiness, but it will really make their happiness the greater, as it will make them more sensible of their own happiness. It will give them a more lively relish for it; it will make them prize it the more, when they see others who were of the same nature, and born under the same circumstances, plunged into such misery, and they so distinguished! Oh! it will make them sensible how happy they are!!! A sense of the opposite misery, in all cases, greatly increases the relish of any joy or pleasure!!!" Again,

"The sight of the wonderful power, the great and dreadful majesty, and aweful justice and holiness of God, manifested in the eternal misery of ungodly men, will make them prize his favour and love vastly the more; and they will be so much the more happy in the enjoyment of it!"

NOTE R.

After, "to render them explicit." Page 473.

It must be admitted, that those theologians who en

tertain different sentiments from the reputedly orthodox, respecting the atonement, the nature of future punishments, &c. have not, in the general tenor of their writings or preaching, been so tenacious of scriptural language as their opponents. In some instances they evidently avoid scriptural expressions, lest they should appear to entertain the sentiments which they reject. But this has the appearance of yielding the field to the adversary, and of setting reason and scripture at variance; which is very injurious to the disseminating of their principles among illiterate Christians. While we are inundated by one class of instructors with scriptural phraseology, which seems to be cautiously avoided by the other, we cannot be surprized that the populous should steadfastly adhere to those, whose habitual language seems to evince, that they, and they alone, are preaching the Gospel. It is to be lamented, that the important doctrine of Man's redemption from the wrath of God, and the just punishment of his violated laws, is seldom treated, by those who are termed rational Christians, in any other than in an argumentative manner; and their arguments are solely employed to confute the popular notions concerning it. When the Apostles mention the death of Christ, which is their favourite topic, or describe the blessings flowing from it, in varied phraseology; when they represent him as a propitiation for sin, as a ransom, as the redeemer, the sanctifier; when they assert, that he has washed us from our sins in his own blood, that he who knew no sin, was made sin for us, &c. it is invariably to call forth the best affections of the heart, that we may "love him who first loved us, and

gave himself for us;" it is to animate and encourage us" to walk worthy of the holy vocation wherewith we were called." The total omission, or superficial attention to such motives, induces a languor into their compositions which is not compensated by the most accurate chain of reasoning, or by a superior elegance of language.

Nor can it be expected that their sentiments, however just in themselves, who invariably adopt the language of ethics, in the place of the infinitely more energetic language of theology, should make a due impression upon illiterate Christians. When the terms virtue and vice, which the Scriptures know not, are incessantly substituted for holiness, righteousness, purity of heart, &c. which the Scriptures do know; or for sin, ungodliness, wickedness, which present themselves in every page, is it surprising that such preachers should be considered, by the multitude, as lecturers in Ethics, rather than as preachers of the Gospel? The multitude naturally conclude, that the Divines who retain most of its language, must also retain most of the truths of Scripture; and they as naturally give to such divines the preference. Nor is there any plea, either of necessity or of propriety for this deviation. We have proved, in another place, that by the universal consent of Mankind, in every age and every nation, whatever respects Religion has its appropriate language; in order to elevate it above sublunary concerns, and impress the mind with a sense of its superior importance.*

Again. The just horrors excited by the doctrine of

* See Ethic. Treat. p. ii. Disq. ii. Sect. iy.

everlasting Misery, impel those who disbelieve in the doctrine, entirely to wave the subject, or seldom to expatiate upon the dangers of a wicked course, and the just punishments which await the impenitent. They speak of future punishments with a delicacy which excites no alarm; and not believing that the terrors of the Lord, are such as our popular Creeds represent, they omit such expostulations with sinners as might prove efficacious. Rude minds must be alarmed. They who are deaf to every ingenuous motive, may still be awakened to consideration by the apprehensions of danger.

These are the means to which the mild Jesus, and all his Apostles, had recourse occasionally, in terrific, although indefinite language; and they well deserve imitation.

We shall leave it to our readers to decide, whether the sentiments we have advanced, and attempted to establish in the above Disquisition, do not afford a salutary medium; whether they do not fully authorize all those glowing and influential expressions which the Apostles incessantly employ, without exciting ideas in which reason cannot acquiesce, or which shock humanity.

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