It will here be faid; the Doctor has been mistaken. He main. tains the law to be holy, juft, and good: the juftice of God to be moft amiable and glorious: that juftice cries, and cries continually for the death of finners, but the death of Chrift prevents this awful event: that juftice accepts the death of Chrift in the room of the endless death of finners.

per

It is granted that the Doctor fays all this. He alfo says that the death of Chrift has fo far magnified the law, neither the juftice nor honour of God has any further demand on finners, as to penalty or fuffering, and whether they live in rebellion against him or not. To imagine there is any need of the eternal fonal torment of any finner of the human race,' fays he, in order further to illuftrate the holinefs and juftice of God; or further to imprefs the minds of the intelligent fyftem with a fense of the infinite odiousness of fin, and the infinite purity of • God, and his infinite hatred of all fin, is plainly to fuppofe that the great work of the Son of God can admit of fome amend ment. For any man to think this neceffary or expedient, or any fuch thing, is an amazing reflection on him (Jesus Christ).'* Thus he defpifes the fuppofition that the fufferings of finners can do any thing toward illuftrating the juftice of God, or answer any of the above ends; as he would defpife an attempt to add to that work Chrift finifhed on the crofs. And it is remarkable, the Doctor fays this not with reference to the fufferings of penitent believing finners only, but, in his own words, of any finner of ⚫ the human race.' What demand then has juftice, or this vengeance Dr. H. tells of, on finners? Certainly no good demand: for none of the above good ends can be anfwered by its being executed upon them. In another place Dr. H. fays, you derogate from this glory,' the glory of God, in juft proportion, as you hold, that any number of the mere human race fhall be 'perfonally damned, be that number more or lefs.'* What then does this vengeance cry for? And what can be the nature of this vengeance, which cries against the good of all mankind, and against the glory of God? If it be any thing more than a folemn empty found, it must be a cruel unrelenting rage.

The truth of the cafe appears to be this: Dr. H. makes a mighty fhow of the curfe of the law, of vengeance, and of awful terror; then, to have us believe it never will be executed, he applies it to all men alike, whether friends or enemies to Chrift, and whether they be on earth or in heaven. Every one fees how the inhabitants of heaven are fecure from the curfe, and that it will not come on believers, who are here in the body. But har

P. 263.

dened

dened finners, who put darknefs for light, will be difpofed to flatter themselves that the law fpeaks but one language, to be. lievers and unbelievers, to all mankind the fame. And they will vainly think it will not be executed on one child of Adam, be cause it will not on believers. Hence they will be in danger of fixing themselves down in the most fatal fecurity.

After all it will be objected, Although the death of Chrift meets the cry of juftice, and fatisfies every demand it has against all men, yet as juftice is juftice, an unchangeable attribute of Deity, if ever it cried, it must ftill cry and cry forever to show what men deserve.

Anfwer. If justice is an unchangeable attribute of Deity, it is unchangeably right. When it has a real demand, it will make this demand. When it has no demand, it will be fure to make none. And after its demands are all fatisfied, it will exprefs itfelf fatisfied, instead of crying for more. The nature and direct tendency of juftice is to make reparation to the injury done to divine honour, and to fecure the happiness of all holy beings. But to fuppofe juftice can go any further, or cry after this is done, is an absurdity. And, although the full defert of all men will forever be kept in view, yet not by an impending evil, or threatened punishment; that is, to thofe for whom juftice is completely fatisfied. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Chrift Jefus, who walk not after the flesh, * but after the Spirit.'* Against such there is no law,'t or no curfe. Therefore, to apply the curfe of the law to all men alike, whether believers or unbelievers, as the Doctor does, is a grofs perverfion of the truth. This leads to obferve,

II. One main article in the Doctor's fcheme of law and gofpel, is, That these two capital points are, throughout the whole bible, kept in conftant view, running fide by fide, in open fight, from the beginning to the clofe of the facred oracles. Thefe points are very different from each other, yea directly oppofite, except only as harmonizing in Chrift.'-But where is the harmony, when juftice cries after it is fatisfied, as we have juft feen? The object, however, is to fhow, that the Doctor holds the voice of law or justice, to all characters of men, and whether they be in heaven or earth, to be uniformly the fame, and, of course, to produce the fame effects upon them. Yea, I fay fur'ther,' he adds,' that the fame thing will be kept up view in *heaven to all eternity.'- Striking difplays of pure justice, 'the fanction of law in awful terror. Such difplays will remain forever, as I have faid before, in the full view of all the faints 'in

Rom. 8. 1.

+ Gal. 5. 23. P. 26, 27.

P. 62.

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in heaven to all eternity. In the glafs of pure juftice, they will forever fee themselves lifting up their eyes in torments. Though in their furety, they fhall find the bread and fure wat ⚫ers of eternal confolation.'* The difplays of pure juftice,' here on earth, the Doctor has told us what these are; as in his account of Judas. That threatening to Judas, Good were it ⚫ for that man if he had never been born,' he fays was inflicted on him here in time. And this he fays, Might be underflood, only as one of the many awful denunciations we have of the ' voice of juftice. Thus, the difplay of juftice here on earth, in the Doctor's fenfe. And the fame thing,' he fays, will be kept in view in heaven to all eternity.' Which must produce the fame effects in both cafes.

The Doctor often advances the fame thing. Showing how the apoftles preached the gofpel, he fays, They, every where, mixed in the law; and this again made no diftinction (between faints and finners): For every word of it damned the preacher, and all his hearers. It condemned every thing thort of abfolute perfection. With one juft and awful voice, it al⚫ways damned all human nature. If the law makes no diftinction between faints and finners, if it damns the preacher, one of the apoftles, and damns all human nature, then whatever this damnation is, it is the fame both in heaven and in carth. Be fides, if the fame thing will be kept in view in heaven, the fanction of law in awful terror,' to all eternity; then the damnation Judas fuffered, here on earth, illuftrates that fan&tion of law in awful terror, in heaven. But this darnnation of Judas, Dr. H. fays was awful anguifh and utter despair.' Which decides the meaning of his words, the fan&tion of law in awful terror,' applied to the inhabitants of heaven. The Do&tor would allow no fuch thing; but he has fo connected his arguments, and ufed fuch expreflions, as to make heaven appear to be a place of awful anguifh and utter defpair!

It will now be objected, What Judas fuffered cannot illuf. trate the difplay of juftice, in heaven; for where there is abfolute perfection, there can be no perfonal fufferings. And Dr. H. has faid, 'The law condemned every thing fhort of abfolute perfection;' which implies a referve of the faints in heaven. It is granted he has faid this; but fays, in the next words, It always damned all human nature.' Therefore, if this damnation Judas fuffered was one of the many awful denunciations of juftice,' then the fame denunciation' in heaven, on all human nature, muft produce the fame kind of anguifh and defpair

* P. 190, 191.

+ Mark 14. 21.

in

in every human foul, in heaven. Dr. H. has given no notice that he means any thing different by the word damnation, in one place, from what he does in another. Furthermore, how can the word, damnation, be only an empty found, or mean no perfonal fufferings, in heaven, while on earth it means moft aggravated Jufferings of both body and mind; and the law and gospel ftill in oppofition, running fide by fide throughout the bible? And how can the fame thing be kept up in heaven to all eternity? If the difplay of pure juftice, in heaven, produce no fufferings there, certainly it is not the fame thing. If the awful denunciation of juftice, here on earth, carriès in it the greateft poffible mifery, inflicted on Judas, and this mifery on him be neceffary to this denunciation of juftice; certainly that which carries in it no mifery at all, in heaven, is not one of the many awful denunciations of justice.

Dr. H. would here fay, The fame thing that is the caufe of complete mifery, on earth, is the caufe of complete happiness in heaven. But it is not the caufe, it is the thing itself we are contending. And he muft grant the word, damnation, always means 'exclufion from divine mercy, or condemnation to eternal punifhment. He muft grant that ftriking difplays of pure justice, or the fan&tion of law in awful terror, always carry the idea of an object, a rational being, either devoted, or actually fubjected, to complete mifery. If he intended, however, wholly to change the fenfe of words, he ought to have given notice of it.

He will fay again, All is filenced and fatisfied in the great furety.' In Chrift may be feen thofe difplays of juftice, awful terror, &c. But, if this be the cafe, how is it that Judas fuffered in the higheft degree? And how is the fame thing to take place in heaven, to eternity ?-Thus far is Dr. H. driven. He muft either grant his voice of terror, of vengeance, &c. to be only a found, or he must fhow us the heaven he tells of, where Judas now is, to be a place of complete torment. Either of which overthrows his fcheme. As to the latter, the cafe is decided. As to the former, an empty found of terror can oppofe nothing. And he fays, I readily grant, if this diftinction,' or oppofition, between the difplay of law and that of gofpel, running through the whole word of God, is without foundation, my whole argument falls to the ground;'t meaning, that his whole fcheme comes to nought.

But Dr. H. gives us the following remarkable expreffions. 'This doctrine of faving, univerfal grace, is perfectly confiftent with the most plain and pofitive declarations of the word of • God,

• God, that the pains of hell fhall be endless; and that the wicked fhall go away into everlasting punishment, in all the boundless extent of these words, and many others that convey the fame idea of the endless punishment of finners, and that in the plaineft poffible manner of expreffion. In their Surety, Vicar, or Subftitute, i. e. in Chrift, the head of every man, they go away into everlasting punishment, in a true gofpel fenfe. In him they fuffer infinite punishment, i. e. he fuffers for them, in their room and ftead. In feveral other plac es, he attempts to show how this everlasting punishment is the confummation of their everlasting happinefs. Thus, with one ftroke, would he dafh out all the threatenings of God's word, all the curfes written against the wicked, from the beginning to the clofe of the facred volume; making them centre wholly in Christ, and satisfied in him. But he muft here abide the confe quence. As,

1. All the dreadful curfes in the bible, denounced against the wicked, which look forward to the day of judgment, and to eternity, are, in his fenfe, fo many affured pledges of their everlasting happiness.

2. Those who perfeverè in the most daring rebellion againft Chrift, openly reviling and mocking his offered mercy, the more repeated and aggravated the threatened curfes are to them, the ftronger affurances have they of happiness, and the moft exalted ftate of happinefs, in the coming world. But why should Dr. H. boaft of his offering new light to the world; the prince of darkness has preached the fame doctrine, many ages ago.

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3. When the prophets tremble at the woes they denounce on the ungodly; when the apostle Paul has great heaviness and ⚫ continual forrow of heart,' at the awful apprehenfion of what he forefees coming on the apoftate Jews; at these things Dr. H. would rejoice. For, in his fenfe, when these things are fulfilled on these despisers of grace, their heaven is complete. '

4. The Doctor must now deny all that fad detail he has given of the fufferings of Judas. Or the evil things he has related of him, in a myftick sense, he must now call them good things. The pains of hell, with Dr. H, are the joys of heaven. And when Judas had arrived to the height of damnation, as he fays he did, then was his happiness completed.

Thus, by the way, the impoffibility of knowing what the Doctor means. In one place, he calls hell the feat of torment; in another, a myftick heaven. At one time, he would have ever Jafting punishment and everlafting happiness both the fame; at another,

*P. 264.