wo more? is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore? No. It is impossible. Whoever shall attempt to persuade me that there can come a period when he will eternally shut up in his tender mercies-I will repeat to him this passage, I will say, It is your infirmity.

anger

5th. The Final Restoration of all mankind to purity and happiness is favoured by those passages which represent God as declaring that he takes no pleasurein the punishment of the wicked.-Have I any pleasure · at all that the wicked should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should return from his ways and live?—As I' live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked, should turn from his ways and live. The Lord is long-suffering towards us, not' willing that any should perish, but that 'all' should come to repentance.*

The doctrine of Endless Misery teaches, that from all eternity, God, for the praise of his glorious justice, decreed the great majority of his creatures to irreme- · diable and eternal death; yet the Scriptures repre- · sent him as contradicting this in the most express terms, and in the most solemn manner. As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should turn from his ways and live.

6th. The final Restoration of all mankind to Purity and Happiness, is favoured by those passages which

Ezek. xvii. 23.-xxxiii. 11. 2 Peter iii. 9..

represent the Deity as chastising his children with the disposition of a parent, and by those which affirm or imply that future punishment will be corrective.Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that as a man. chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee.Happy is the man whom God correcteth; therefore, despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty-Blessed, O Lord, is the man whom thou chastenest.-My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord lov eth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh who cor◄ rected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not rather be in subjection to the Father of Spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days, chastened us after their own pleasure: but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.*

These passages declare in the strongest and plainest language, that God chastens his creatures in the same manner as a wise and benevolent parent corrects his child. Those who maintain that this is true only of the virtuous, or that he treats the wicked in this man

* Deut. viii. 5. Job v, 17. Psa. xciv. 12. Heb. xii. 5. to 11.

ner in the present life alone, must conceive that he is the Father only of a part of mankind; or that there will come a period, when his treatment of his children will be unworthy of a good parent.

7th. The final Purity and Happiness of all mankind is favoured by those passages which affirm that all men will partake of the benefits of the mission and death of Christ.And I, although I shall be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.-We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour, that by the grace of God he might taste death for every man. These passages declare in the plainest language that every individual of the human race shall be bene fitted by the mission and death of Christ.

As through Adam all die, so likewise through Christ shall all be made alive.t-In this passage, the evil produced by sin is compared with the benefit receive by Christ, and it supposes that the life imparted by him is a blessing; but if the wicked are to be raised from the slumber of the tomb, only to be kept in endless misery, the restoration of their existence, instead of a benefit, is an unspeakable disadvantage.

8th. Let the reasoning in the following passage be considered. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead; much more the grace of God, and the gift by.

John xii. 32. Heb. ii. 9.

† 1 Cor. xv. 22,

grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justifi cation. For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ: Therefore, as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners; so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered, that the offence might abound: but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.*

Nothing can be more evident than that it is the apote's intention, in this passage, to represent all mankind, without exception, as deriving greater benefit from the death of Christ, than they suffer injury from the fall of Adam. The universality of the apostle's expressions is very remarkable. The same many who were made sinners by the disobedience of the one, are made righteous by the obedience of the other. If all men are condemned by the offence of the one, the same all are justified by the righteousness of the other.

Rom. v. 15 to 21

These universal terms so frequently repeated and so variously diversified, cannot possibly be reconciled to the limitation of the blessings of the gospel to the elect alone, or to a part only of the human race. Unless the wicked are reformed by their punishment, can there be any truth in the declaration, that the favour of God by Christ abounds much more than sin and death? If the great majority of mankind are to continue in sin and misery through all eternity, it is they that triumph: they are infinitely more extensive than the abounding of favour. According to this doctrine, therefore, the reasoning of the apostle in this passage is totally inconclusive.

The passages which have been quoted, appear decidedly to favour the doctrine of the Ultimate Restora tion of all mankind to Purity and Happiness, since in every case a denial of this opinion is a contradic tion of the declarations they contain. There are pas sages, however, which seem still more expressly to confirm the truth of this opinion,

The passages that now remain to be adduced are those which do not seem to admit of any meaning, unless it be true that the whole human race will fi nally be restored to virtue and to happiness. Among these are the following.-Having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fulness of time he might gather together in one all things in Christ."

** Ephes. i. 9, 10.