wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous fhine forth as the fun in the kingdom of their Father." That, by the children of the wicked one's wicked and finful men are intended, no one wishes to deny. I wonder what kind of univerfalifts Mr. S. is contending with? He fays, p. 25. "If all the univerfalifts in the world with the moft critical knowledge of the powers of language, fhould attempt to express the propofition, that all men will be faved; they could not do it in more definite and pointed language, than Jefus Chrift hath expreffed the contrary propofition, that at the day of judgment men fhall be feparated, and part of them go into a state of the most extreme mifery." That a part of mankind will go into a state of the most extreme mifery, after the day of judgment, is not, in any fenfe, contrary to this propofition, that all men will be faved. That fome men, at the day of judgment, will go into a ftate of extreme mifery that will abfolutely have no end, is indeed a propofition contrary to this, that all men will be faved, ry propofition that Mr. S. ought to fupport. But not a fingle word yet hath he produced in fupport of fuch a propofition.

And this is the very contra

Mr. S. proceeds to affert a propofition that is moft undeniably deftitute of all truth.

And I adwould affert Speak

mire that a gentleman of his abilities such a propofition, and let it come abroad. ing of the future mifery, he fays, p. 25. ry, which is pictured to us by thefftrongeft expref

"A mife

fons

He

Gons, which the nature of our prefent ftate will admit us to understand." What makes it plain that Mr. S. has reference to the perpetuity, as well as to the greatness of the future mifery is, what he says elsewhere, p. 39. "The description of this mifery is expreffed by a vast variety of words, and expreffions, denoting perpetuity without end, as much as language can do it." I would afk Mr. S. to take his Greek Teftament, and turn to Heb. vii. 16. will there find the Greek epithet, which is rendered endless, joined to life; if he will find the paffage where this epithet is applied to the death or future mifery, of the wicked, I fhall readily acknowledge that he hath done fomething very important indeed, towards proving that future punishment will be endless. Immortal, incorruptible, are words of our language, and used in the new Teftament; and I fhould not be afraid to fubmit it to Mr. S. himself, as a scholar, whether they do not fignify perpetuity without end, much more clearly than any words our Saviour hath used, to exprefs the continuance of future mifery. The next paffage of fcripture Mr. S. cites is Matt. xxii. 11-14• "And when the

king came in to see the guests, he faw there a man which had not on a wedding garment; and he faid unto him, friend, how cameft thou in hither, not having a wedding garment? and he was speechlefs, Then said the king to the fervants, bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and caft him into outer darkness there fhall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, For many are called: but few are chofen.”

"Here this

Upon this Mr. S. observes, p. 27. parable leaves them, as do all the other reprefentations of Chrift upon the fame fubject, in outer darknels and extreme mifery. Who can bring them from the place and state in which the judge hath left them; they are unworthy, and are cast out from the marriage feaft; and if that feaft is to be an eternal one, as none will probably deny, their mifery muft be Zech. ix. 1. "As for thee alfo, by the blood of thy covenant, I have fent forth thy prifoners out of the pit wherein is no water." This is a good answer to Mr. S.'s question, "Who can bring them from the place and flate in which the judge bath left them? The blood of Jefus, the blood of the covenant, will bring them all up from the pit, or from the lake of fire."

eternal."

In the last claufe of what we laft recited from Mr. S., is an example of very extraordinary reasoning, "They are unworthy, and caft out from the marriage feast; and if that feaft is to be an eternal one, as one will probably deny, the ir mifery must be

eternal."

Did it escape Mr. S.'s reflection, that the feaft might poffibly be an eternal one, in the stricteft and most rigid sense of the word, and yet that those now excluded, might hereafter be admitted? Persons unworthy, at one time, may not be fo at another, or not always unworthy.

Looking on the ancient character of the Sodom

ites,

ites, we fhould judge them very unworthy the divine favor. And, if we had feen them buried in the ru. ins of the conflagration of their city, and fuffering the vengeance of eternal fire; we should hardly have entertained a hope of their returning to their former efi tate. Yet God hath affured us they will. And he is fully able to effect such a moral change in those, once abandoned and abominable wretches, as fhall prepare them for their return, and to become the objects of his eternal favor. It was incumbent on Mr. S. to have proved, that this exclufion from the marriage feaft was to be more than a temporary one ; whereas there is not one word in all the paffage he recites, that fignifies any thing of this kind.

At the clofe of Mr. S.'s obfervations on the parable of the ten virgins, he has the following expref fions, p. 28. "There are no earthly events to which fuch defcriptions as thefe can poffibly apply, and the wife faviour of the world either fpake without any meaning, or they must be applied to the clofing of man's probationary flate on earth, and the eternal confequences that enfue." I hope my brother S.'s views will be more enlarged hereafter than they now appear to be. We have no reafon to think that any events, spoken of in the xxv. chap. of Matt. will be any where elfe but on this earth, or near it. Does Mr. S. fuppofe that the fcene of the general judgment will be on fome other planet, and that this earth will be deferted or literally burnt up, and rendered unfit for babitation? St. Peter and St. John

were

were of quite a different opinion. They fuppofe that, at the refurrection, the earth fhall be transformed, in fome part of it at leaft, and made a proper dwelling place for the faints; and that the other part of it will be the lake of fire into which the wicked will be caft at the clofe of the general judgment. This transformation of the earth is no novel ideal; the pfalmift forefaw and predicted it, though, poffi bly, he might not foresee all the ufes of the transformed and renovated earth. Pf. cii. 25, 26.— "Of old haft thou laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They fhall perish, but thou fhalt endure; yea, all of them fhall wax old like a garment; and as a vefture fhalt thou change them, and they fhall be changed."That the confequences of the general judgment, as they respect either the righteous, or the wicked, will be immutable and eternal, we have no reason to think. St. John, as we have feen, speaks of very great changes, both with regard to the righteous and the wicked. Martyrs and faints fhall reign with Chrift a thousand years in perfect peace :-satan fhall be restrained during this term ;-and wicked men fhall be fuffering the fecond death :-at the close of this millenium, perhaps millions of millions of the human race fhall rife to happy life, join the faints in the new earth, and experience the effects of almighty power in destroying the wicked dead, and fatan at their head. Then, St. John tells us, the faints fhall go on and reign with Chrift for ages of ages ;