fight, he says, made their cafe a thousand times worfe than if they had never been born.' This we thall hereafter confider. What he makes fome of mankind fuffer in this world, now comes before us. And those children' or infants, made food for their ⚫ mothers,' whofe cafe would have been better if they had never 'been born;' if thefe did not fuffer all they deserve, in this world, let Mr. W. fhow, on his own ground, what more they did deferve; or what degree and duration of mifery infants do deferve; efpecially as he denies that fin deferves endless punishment. But thofe who fuffer to an infinite degree in this world, it is impoffible to fhow that they deferve ftill more, even on the ground of holding to the utmoft defert of fin. Thofe thoufand. circumftances into which the children of Adam fall,' he tells of, that make their cale infinitely worse than though they had never been born, without fuppofing a ftate of future punishment at all,' make it impoffible they fhould deferve ftill more, on any plan whatever. What they fuffer only in this world, makes it infinitely worse than if they had not been born, or had never exifted. This certainly must be a balance to the evil of fin, allowing of it to be infinite; or it cannot be faid that strict justice demands further fuffering, either in this or the coming world. The infinitely worse, which Mr. W. here ftates, is not infinite in duration, therefore must be infinite in degree. And it cannot be fhown that any finner ought to fuffer more than to an infinite degree. This is what he makes fome men fuffer in this world, and in a thousand inftances.

It will now be objected that Mr. W. does not mean ftrictly, or unlimitedly, by infinitely worfe; but only to a very great degree. x

Aufwer. He gives no intimation, nor fays any thing in connection, so as to decide the point, but what he means an unlim ited degree-unlimitedly worfe than if they had never been born. This he fays in his zeal to fave Judas. It may be fuppofed he means not frictly, but only a great degree worse. So it may be fuppofed he means, by the falvation of all men, not strictly all men, but only a great number, or nearly all. It is granted, in the next fentence after infinitely worfe, he fays, thousand times worfe. But there is not a neceffary connection between the two fentences, fo as to decide that he means the fame by infinitely, as by a thousand. To fay the moft, therefore, his expreffion may be taken in the unlimited fenfe. Which in a thousand cafes is to make men fuffer to an infinite degree, in this world.

Befides.

Befides, if we allow the objection, that Mr. W. intends only a great degree worse, by infinitely worse; as he denies fin de ferves endless mifery, it is impoffible for him to fhow that fuch as fuffer this infinitely worfe, do not fuffer all they deserve, in the prefent life. For if he ufes the word infinitely in a limited fenfe, it is then a bold figure, to come as near to that which is ftrictly unlimited, as any word can, and not actually exprefs it. So Mr. W. could fay nothing more as to the fufferings of men, in this world, unless he fhould fay they fuffer firictly to an infinite degree; and he denies that they deferve to fuffer to an infinite degree, or to infinite duration. Therefore, on his own plan, he could not exprefs that men fuffer the full demerit of their fins, in this world, in ftronger terms than he does.

It is not only part of mankind, but the whole of them that Mr. W. would make to fuffer in this manner. When he says, 'There are a thousand circumftances into which the children of 'Adam fall, that make their cafe infinitely worse,' &c. this is making of it fo general or univerfal, it appears difficult if not impracticable to find an exception of one individual. He also fays, Who would not, a thoufand times, choofe rather never to have been born, than even to fee, far lefs experience the * miferies which came upon Jerufalem and its inhabitants ?'— Only to fee' the mifery of others, therefore, occafions fuch mifery to him that feeth it. But taking this with the other cafe jut mentioned, and the whole race of men would feem to be involved in infinite inifery, while in the prefent life. Or certainly Mr. W. makes them all fuffer, while in this life, equal to what he calls their full defert.

And he afferts and argues this fentiment, in a number of inlances; fo that he might efcape this moft awful threatening to Judas, Good were it for that man if he had never been born.' We fhall fee in one inftance more. Job and Jeremiah, he says, curfed the day in which they were born, not because they had any fear of future damnation,' they had then full affurance of eternal life ;'* but becaufe of their prefent pains and tortures, being greater than they could bear. He not only fays this, but he juftifies them, in curfing the day of their birth. His friend objects, That both Job and Jeremiah paffionately exclaimed, and, through forrow, uttered fuch rafh words, as, in 'their cooler moments, they repented of; and therefore what 'they fpoke of themfelves cannot wholly fet afide the objection."

But Chrift, though under great forrows himself, faw the cafe of Judas fo deplorable, that he expreffed himself thus re fpecting

** P. 83, 84.

tion.'*

fpecting him; which was the fober truth, without exaggeraTo this Mr. W. anfwers: We do not find that Job or Jeremiah ever recanted, in their cooler moments, what they • uttered in their forrows.'t He then goes on to cite Matt. xxiv. 19. Mark xiii. 17. and other fcriptures, and argues from thence that they had no occafion for recanting or repenting, because they had curfed their day. Their prefent forrows were fo great as to justify them in fo doing, notwithstanding they then had full affurance' of an endlet's ftate of happiness, after death, Whether, in the moft trying ftate whatever, men can be juftified for curfing their day, and fo curfing the providence of God, is a cafe for Mr. W. to folve. But if thefe men can be justified for curfing their day, then they had a good reafon for curfing their day; which good reafon will hold a good one forever; time or duration can neither wear it out nor alter it. And if they had a good reafon for curfing their day, when in a view of eter nal life, or taking their prefent and future exiftence together, then they have this moment a good reason to curse their day, fo will have to eternity. As, therefore, this good reafon is because of their great mifery, it argues their mifery to be fo great that their existence, on the whole, is an evil-a curfe instead of a bleffing. Therefore, their mifery fuffered in time, overbalances their good enjoyed in eternity. Hence, this their evil fuffered in time, as it is greater than an eternal good, muft be an infinite evil. Elfe how could their reafon for curfing their day, because of their great mifery, be good? or how could they be juftified in fo doing?

The day that gave them birth, gave them their exiftence. To curfe the day of their birth, is to curfe their exiflence. To curfe their exiftence, is to declare it an evil. To juftify them for their declaring their exiflence an evil, is faying their existence is an evil. And it is an evil becaufe of the mifery they fuffer in time. The happinefs they have in eternity does not make their exiftence, on the whole, a good or a bleffing; it is ftill a curfe, and justly to be curfed. Therefore, the curfe they endure in time is greater than the bleffing they enjoy in eternity. Therefore, be aufe they enjoy eternal happinefs, their mifery in time, which is greater than their eternal happiness, is infinitely great. All this Mr. Winchefter fays, by faying that Job and Jeremiah did right in curfing the day in which they were born; and when they had full affurance of eternal happiness.

Mr. W. feems to be aware of this abfurdity, and attempts to escape it, by saying that if Job and Jeremiah had died in the womb,

• P. 84, 85.

womb, or been born without life, they then would immediately have entered into reft. So he fays, Had Judas died before he had been born, and perifhed from his mother's womb, he would ⚫ never have finned, far lefs betrayed Chrift; he would have en'tered into peace immediately, where the wicked ceafe from "troubling, and where the weary are at reft: In this cafe, he would have' efcaped the judgment that came upon him, and 'would have had more reft than those who should live in all the affluence of life two thousand years.'*

6

A molt miferable fhift he here makes. For, 1. He goes upon a blind fuppofition. That men have rational fouls, capable of entering into eternal reft, before they are born, is an opinion without evidence. And they must have rational fouls before their bodies are formed in the womb, or whether they ever have human bodies, or not, according to Mr. W's plan. For, if the body is firft formed in the womb, or foul and body together, it is natural to conclude that this body, at leaft, must be born. Then all Mr. W's reafoning on this point comes to nothing. 'Good were it for that man if he had never been born:' which implies that it had been good for Judas if his body had never come into being. And, that his foul could have had a being without a body, is fuch a blind fuppofition as will not do to build our faith upon, for the things of eternity. 2. To say that Judas. might have efcaped the threatened evil, on Mr. W's plan, is reducing the threatening to nothing. It would have been good for all men, on his plan, had they never been born. 3. To alfert that Job and Jeremiah fuffered to fuch a degree, in this life, then to devife a way how they might have efcaped this fuffering, is nothing to his purpofe. A thoufand ways may be devifed, how they might have efcaped; and what then? If they fuffered this evil, they fuffered it. If their being, on the whole, was a curfe, it was worse than no being. If their evil, fuffered in time, was more than a balance to their eternal happiness, then they fuffered, in time, an infinite evil. And no one pretends that the threatening to Judas contained more than an infinite or endless evil. 4. To try to evade the awful threatening to Judas, by faying that Job and Jeremiah, while in time, fuffered the fame; then, to make this out, to magnify their fufferings to an infinite degree, is a twofold abfurdity. But, to devife fome way to palliate for fuch abfurdity, is to make it more abfurd. 5. To fay that the fouls of men, before they are united to their bodies, or before they are born, may enter into reft or into heaven; and, for proof, to bring this, Where the wicked ceafe from troubling,

P. 88.

6

ling, and where the weary are at reft,' is a direct contradiction, For this is faying that the fouls of the wicked, as fuch, do enter into reft or into heaven; which Mr. W. himfelf denies. Their bodies reft in the grave, being paft feeling; which is the meaning of the above words.

After every fhift and turn Mr. W. can make, he must allow that the fufferings of Job and Jeremiah were the occafion of increafing their happiness in heaven-the occafion of endless good to them. But if their temporal fufferings were fo great as to exceed this endlefs good; then were their temporal fufferings infi nitely great. Now, in this cafe, if they did not fuffer the utmoft of their defert, on Mr. W's plan, let it be fhown what they did deferve. And he appears to make all men fuffer, in this life, the extent of their defert. Thofe thoufand cafes, he tells of, may apply to the whole human race. Efpecially when they fuffer the agonies of death, and before their fouls quit their bodies, it appears they muft, in his fcheme, all fuffer the full wages of their fins.

Thus Mr. W. makes all men, while in this world, pay the debt they owe to divine juftice. And fuch as continue obftinate and impenitent, he would have them fent to hell, to pay the fame debt the fecond time. The damned in hell he configns over, as we have feen, to ftrift juftice, to judgment without mercy, and to the second death; where they are never forgiven, and where no more facrifice for fin remaineth. What is ftill more extraor. dinary, if poffible, in his fcheme; after fome men have fuffered one infinite evil, in this, he makes them fuffer another infinite evil, in the next world. Some wicked men, he fays, endure the fame degree of pain and torment, in this life, as did Job and Jeremiah. For he takes the cafe of thefe men to illuftrate the thorfand other cafes, into which the children of Adam fall. So the cafe of thofe wicked men that died in the fiege of Jerufalem, he ranks under the fame head. Thefe things we have already feen. Now, thefe wicked men, after they have once fuf. fered to an infinite degree, in this life, and are ftill impenitent ill they die; Mr. W. fays of them, They fhall hereafter suffer infinitely greater inconveniencies, by being caft into hell.'* Again, he fays, The flate here (of a certain cafe in this life) defcribed by Solomon, is infinitely better than the damnation of hell, though limited by certain periods.'t His own account, therefore, of hell, is a place where they fuffer to an infinite degree. And this he fays, not by a figure, but in its literal fenfe. So he makes the wicked fuffer one infinite, in this life, then

# P. 51.

+ P. 27.

fends