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AN INQUIRY 
 
 CONCERNING 
 
 THE ETEMITY OF FUTUEE PUNISHMENT, 
 
 IN EIGHT LETTERS TO A FRIEND. 
 
 WITH AN APPENDIX. 
 
 BY A LAYMAN. 
 
 OCCASIONED BY A SERMON FROM THE REV. H. MELVILL, 
 
 PREACHED IN ST. BRIDE'S CHURCH, FLEET STREET, ON BEHALF 
 
 OF KING'S COLLEGE HOSPITAL. 
 
 I said, I will axtswer also my part, I also will shew iny opinion. — EUhu. 
 
 The Bereans were more noble than those in Thessalonica, ia that they 
 received the word with all readiness of miad, and searched the 
 scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore many of 
 them beheved. — Acts xvii. 
 
 YBRITAS PSEVALEBIT. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 HARVEY & DARTON, GRACECHURCH STREET 
 
 WHITTAKER & Co., AVE MARIA LANE. 
 
 J. BROWN, MAIDSTONE. 
 
MAIDSTONE : 
 
 PBINTBD BY J. BBOWN, KENT AEM9 OPFICB, 
 87. -WBBK 9T8BBT. 
 
n^ty 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 It is an acknowledged fact, however much to be regretted, 
 that many sincere and excellent Christians have entertamed 
 veiy erroneous notions, and yet have thought them supported 
 by Scripture, and while this impression remains it is impossible 
 to persuade them to quit those opinions, for no person, who has 
 a due regard to the Scriptures, will give up an opinion that he 
 believes he receives upon Scripture-testimony, till, by recon- 
 sidering that testimony, he is convinced that he has mistaken 
 the meaning of the text or passages on which his opinion is 
 founded. 
 
 We, therefore, solicit thinking persons of judgment and 
 candour, deliberately to search and seriously inquire upon what 
 basis their views are grounded, for we advisedly affirm that the 
 popular opinion, ' the Eternity of Hell Torments^' is anti- 
 scriptural, and no where a doctrine of the Bible when fairly 
 interpreted, and if duly weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, 
 it will be found wanting. 
 
 No rendering of the original terms or translation of words 
 ought to be admitted which are made to be at variance with 
 
IV. PREFACE. 
 
 the unity and perfection of the Divine attributes, because these 
 must be the only foundation and test of Scripture truth ; 
 and if there be any such sense put upon any expression or 
 passage in Scripture which makes it clash with itself, or con- 
 flicting with any of the known attributes of God, we may rest 
 assured such passages or words must be either wrongly inter- 
 preted or misunderstood. 
 
 The inquiry is one of immense interest, as it involves 
 and investigates an announcement respecting the future final 
 state and condition of man. " But why disturb or call in 
 question ^popular doctrine, and one which the Christian public 
 generally receive as a truth, there being few only who believe 
 in the writer's view of it, especially among Divines and Minis- 
 ters of the Gospel, and are the minority in this case to deter- 
 mine ?" I answer No ; neither the minority nor ih^ majority, 
 but the word of God alone. There is a criminal subserviency 
 of mind manifested in the Christian community to the dogmas 
 of the day, in implicitly adopting opinions without duly inves- 
 tigating and ascertaining how far such sentiments comport with 
 the unity and simplicity of Divine truth. Although mankind 
 are universally made capable of knowing the truth, their pro- 
 gress towards it is slow and obstructed by many difficulties. 
 What absurd errors have b^en received and consecrated by 
 public authority, and by their antiquity become the formidable 
 obstacles of truth, gaining such a fatal ascendancy, even over the 
 minds of those whose understandings reject them, as leads them 
 
PREFACE. V. 
 
 to suppress the truth, and tacitly to immolate it at the shrine of 
 falsehood, by imposing upon it the most rigorous silence, leaving 
 to error, knoAvn to be such, the exclusive privilege of appearing 
 publicly, and of being perpetuated and openly taught to the 
 multitude. 
 
 But if the writer in his views differs from those generally 
 held, candid and judicious readers will not be repulsed by 
 the cry of heresy^ for it was to Truth thus stigmatized that 
 the Reformation owed it rise. Let them read, examine, and 
 determine for themselves. Nor let the humble pious follower 
 of the Gospel take the alarm, or apprehend the motives to 
 virtue will be weakened and mankind grow more licentious. 
 To behold the plan of Deity as more consistent with his nature 
 and attributes, and more merciful to his creatures, can never 
 be an incentive to vice ; and we would ask, have the terrors of 
 the Lord, when represented in all the horrors of never-ending 
 torments, been sufficient to deter many from sinning who have 
 been familiar with the idea from their infancy ? Universal 
 observation shows the contrary. But if there be a wretch so 
 base as to sin because grace abounds, and with dauntless 
 effrontery ventures to challenge the power and justice of his 
 Maker, let him learn, tliat in proportion to his guilt and depra- 
 vity will be his future punishment both in degree and duration. 
 But let the honor of the wise and merciful Creator be vindi- 
 cated, and mankind be taught to consider Him as altogether 
 amiable, whose punishments are as much the effect of His 
 
Vi. PREFACE. 
 
 goodness as His rewards. Thus shall His love and Hi^fear 
 arise together in our hearts, and wisdom he justified of her 
 children. 
 
 The contents of the Letters, it is believed, are founded upon 
 reason, scripture, and the Divine attributes, and if read with 
 attention, we doubt not the candid reader will perceive the 
 force and feel the efficacy, by their introducing him to a more 
 enlarged view of God's benevolence with respect to mankind in 
 general, as well as the gracious designs of His providence in 
 particular, so that he will be led from these considerations 
 to comprehend a consistent Providence, and to justify the 
 ways of God with his attributes, which we think no other 
 view can do. It is manifest, and will be readily perceived, that 
 the opinion of endless torments is based and is solely argued 
 from the assumed meaning put upon a few ambiguous terms 
 and equivocal words found in the original text ; whereas the 
 contrary opinion is grounded upon undoubted axioms and 
 immutable principles, founded upon the known character 
 of the Divine Being, and the arguments for its support are 
 simple and true logical inferences, drawn from His attributes as 
 revealed to us in Scripture. The infinite benignity of Deity is 
 most seriously impeached by the o]}m\OYioi endless torments,— 
 the relative character of God as Creator is darkened, — and His 
 parental character obliterated by the doctrine of a miserable 
 eternity ; but truth, however long it may be obscured, will 
 finally be triumpliant ; it will make its way in si)itc of the 
 
PREFACE. Vll. 
 
 united influence of force and fraud, and it will one day enlighten 
 the earth and bless mankind with its benign and cheering 
 influence. 
 
 In reference to the Sermon upon which the Letters so freely 
 comment, the writer begs most expUcitly to repudiate any 
 personality whatever as intended in his remarks ; he has never 
 had the pleasure of seeing or hearing the talented Preacher. 
 A deep conviction of the truth and importance of the matter 
 submitted, is the apology offered for committing to the press 
 that which was intended originally for private perusal. 
 
 R. H. 
 
 Maidstone, 
 
 December, 1843. 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Maidstone^ Dec. 1843, 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 My attention has only recently been directed to the ser- 
 mon preached at St. Bride's chui-ch, on Sunday morning, 15th 
 Dec. 1839, at which you were present; it is pubhshed in 
 " The Pulpit" for that month, and is now before me. 
 
 The incongruity of the subject discoursed upon, namely, 
 " The Eternity of Future Punishment," with the occasion, a 
 *' charity sermon," is so apparent, that I am not surprised at the 
 kind of apologies we meet with, or that the preacher should 
 more than once caution his hearers agamst thinking the subject 
 "irrelevant to the clamis of Kmg's College Hospital," or the 
 " transition unnatm-al to the charitable cause" he was requested 
 to plead ; and what could be the motive, think you, for thus 
 choosing ? 
 
 I feel no hesitation in submitting, at your request, some ob- 
 servations upon its contents, for if it be correctly given to the 
 pubKc, the character and perfections of the Deity are, in my 
 opinion, most seriously impugned by the sentunents and princi- 
 ples set forth in this very extraordinary sermon. The preacher 
 says — 
 
 " We frankly own, that there is something so awful in the fact of 
 God's apportioning interminable misery to any of his creatures, that 
 we would wilUngly leave it in its fearful mysteriousness, and not 
 make it the subject of prolonged argument or debate." 
 
 But surely, sir, there is something more than awful in this 
 statement, and I would earnestly and solemnly demand, is such 
 " the fact V Can the Divine Being so act ? St. John'repeatedly 
 assures us, that " God is love." Is it then true, that " Our 
 Father" created innumerable creatures to such a purpose, or 
 
I AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 with the omniscience of such a result? I emphatically say No ! 
 for T cannot conceive a grosser libel. All the ideas of goodness we 
 are masters of fly in the very face of such an assumption, and the 
 harmony and perfection> of the Divine attributes, as revealed to 
 us in scripture, forbid the adoption of such revolting sentiments. 
 But this be far from God, '• whose mercy endureth for ever." 
 He is Jehovah who change th not ; " The Lord is good to all, 
 and his tender mercies are over all his works." Read the cxlv. 
 Psalm. 
 
 It is with unfeigned regret and surprise that I observe 
 throughout the sermon, much declamation in the place of argu- 
 ment ; so many assertions instead of proofs ; so much that is 
 hypothetical, rather than demonstrative; a great paucity of 
 scripture reference, with much that is dogmatical. Was it 
 thought that the preacher's name and attainments were a gua- 
 rantee for truth, and would suffice to induce the audience to 
 receive and adopt opinions and doctrines of such a momentous 
 import unaccompanied by valid evidence ? or had he not duly 
 studied the subject matter of his discourse ? In either case it is 
 open to considerable animadversion. Controversy is by no 
 means agreeable, and not often profitable, yet occasions may arise 
 when it is needful, and if conducted with charity, and an honest 
 and anxious desire to knoiv the truth, and not for victory, it 
 is not forbidden ; nay, were not the Bereans more noble-minded 
 than their neighbours, because " they searched the scriptures 
 daily whether those things were so T' 
 
 Wc will endeavour, in the first place, to follow the preacher 
 through his sermon, and inquire upon what basis he grounds 
 the " eternity" of future punishment. I shall afterwards sub- 
 mit to your notice some observations in reference to the design 
 and residt of future punishment, which is not mi end, but a 
 mean, — a dispensation of chastisement, conducted by infinite 
 wisdom and immutable goodness, and beneficial to all in its final 
 issue. I will then give some reasons why I cannot at present 
 receive, as a truth, the popular dogma of the Eternity of hell 
 torments. 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 3 
 
 The text is taken from Mark ix. 44 — *' TFhere their icorm 
 dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.'''' 
 
 These words are also found in the book of Isaiah's prophecy, 
 the last chapter and part of the last verse, and indicate the pu- 
 nishment of those criminals whose bodies were either burnt in 
 the valley of Himiom, or permitted to lie upon the ground in the 
 form of dead carcases, to be fed upon by worms, that delight in 
 putrefaction ; but as the fii'e which bm-nt these bodies, and the 
 worms which fed upon them, have ceased and are no more, the 
 words do not bear out the preacher's assumption, and can in no 
 other sense be said not to be quenched and not to die than this, 
 that they continued till those carcases were entirely consumed, 
 or that they remained to the end of the Jewish dispensation. 
 We are, therefore, under no necessity of supposing, in direct 
 contradiction to the scripture account, (for they are represented 
 as carcases, or bodies, deprived of life) that the subjects that 
 were destroyed by this fii-e must be preserved alive in a state 
 of never-ending torments. That these emblematical expres- 
 sions, and the phrase of " miquenchable fii'e," upon wliich so 
 much stress is laid, do not denote a fire which shall never 
 cease to exist is most certain, and the following passages afford 
 the clearest evidence that they are used in scripture in a limited 
 sense. " But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the 
 sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the 
 gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day ; then ^^dll I kindle a fire 
 in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, 
 and it shall not be quenched." — Jer. xvii. 27. " Moreover 
 the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man set thy 
 face toward the south, and drop thy word toward the south, 
 and prophecy against the forest of the south field ; and say to the 
 forest of the south. Hear the word of the Lord ; Thus saith the 
 Lord God ; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall de- 
 vour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree ; the fiaming 
 Jiame shall not he quenched, and all faces from the south to 
 the north shall be burned therein. And all flesh shall see that I 
 the Lord have kindled it : it shall not be quenched. — Ezek. 
 XX. 45—48. A 2 
 
4 AX INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 I presume it will be allowed that these threatenings were ac- 
 tually executed when Jerusalem was destroyed, and it must be 
 admitted that the fire which consumed it is already extinguished, 
 and that therefore the scriptural meaning of an unquenchable 
 fire is not one w^hich is interminable. Again, in Isaiah, xxxiv. 
 9 — 11, we read, " And the streams thereof (the land of Idumea) 
 shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, 
 and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not 
 be quenched night nor day ; the smoke thereof shall go up 
 for ever ; from generation to generation it shall lie ivaste ; 
 none shall pass through it for ever and ever^ No fire, with 
 which the wicked are threatened, is expressed in language so 
 strong as this, yet it is most obvious that this phraseology can- 
 not denote a fire which shall never come to an end, and it is im- 
 possible to suppose that it will continue burning throughout the 
 ages of eternity. The quotation and use of these metaphorical 
 terms by our Lord can give no additional force to their primary 
 meaning. 
 
 We come now to the sermon, and the preacher says — 
 " We purpose to endeavour to prove to you that the future punish- 
 ment of tlie wicked will be eternal — that it will never terminate ; in 
 opposition to an opinion, of which we fear that it has been gaining 
 ground in the world, that this punishment will be but temporary, so 
 that the inmates of hell shall be finally delivered. No opinion can 
 be more dangerous than this ; it goes directly to the undermining 
 the whole Christian system — to the destroying all its power as an 
 engine for reforming the world. Men are so constituted, that if 
 they could once persuade themselves of the truth of what is called 
 universal salvation, they might fairly be expected to throw off all 
 moral restraint. The essence of hell is the absence of hope ; and 
 you must never look to prevail upon men to abandon present gra- 
 tifications and submit to present hardships, if you have no " worm'* 
 with which to threaten them but a worm which will die, and no 
 *'jire" with which to scare them but a fire which will be quenched.'* 
 
 The inferences which we gather from the above are, That the 
 opinion of the " Eternity'^ of future punishment is a principal 
 prop of the Christian system ! That its power as an engine for 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH, 5 
 
 reforming the world depends upon the truth of the doctrine of 
 the eternity of hell torments! and, That unless the eternity oi 
 hell torments be dwelt upon and enforced from the pulpit, moral 
 restraint will be destroyed and little good will be effected ! 
 
 That any Minister of the Gospel (except we assume his mind 
 to be overwhelmed with creeds and systems and barred by pre- 
 judice) should venture to express himself in such unmeasured 
 terms, as we meet with in this sermon, does, we confess, excite 
 om- utmost astonishment, and is much to be deplored ; there may 
 be zeal in the preacher, but certainly it is not according to know- 
 ledge. Does hell cease to he hell merely because its duration 
 is not eternal ? and although it be supposed to be oi finite conti- 
 nuance, is it therefore not hell? and if it may, in some sense, be 
 considered a state of purification, it is only such in regard to its 
 design and use, as a mean to an end ; and in regard to the pains 
 and torments proper to it, we may justly call it hell, and take 
 the Avord in the M'hole extent of the ideas given us of that state 
 in scripture, and consider it as a state of" wailing and gnashing 
 of teeth," — a state of privation and darkness, — a state of positive 
 torments, faintly represented under the notion of a '* lake of fire 
 and brimstone ;" — a state of devouring hunger and thirst, in op- 
 position to the pleasures which men have tasted in this world ; — 
 of shame and mortifying confusion, in opposition to vain glory 
 and love of praise ; — of remorse and imvard anguish, occasioned 
 by an acute sense of our being the only authors of all the woes 
 and misery we endure. When, therefore, we suppose that hell- 
 torments will one day end, we do not depart from the ideas 
 which both scripture and good sense give us of it. We may 
 even make use of the words " everlasting," " for ever,"' &c. pro- 
 vided they be taken in the same sense as when applied to the 
 dispensation of the Mosaic economy, — the Levitical priesthood, — 
 the covenant of circumcision, — the hills, — the doors, &c., namely, 
 of '* seonian" duration ; or, for an age, — ages, — age lasting, &c. 
 And are the following denunciations of holy writ of no force and 
 nothing imthout such appendages? — " Upon the wicked he 
 shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest : 
 
6 A.N INQUIRY AFTEK TRUTH. 
 
 this shall be the portion of their cup." — Ps. xi. 6. " God is 
 angry with the wicked every day," — Ps. vii. 11. "• Though hand 
 join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished." — Prov. 
 si. 21. " The righteous judgment of God will render to every 
 one according to his deeds : unto them that do not obey the truth, 
 but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath ; tribulation 
 and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil."— Rom. ii. 
 Let the preacher dwell to his heart's content, if he will, upon 
 the aicfid certainty of future punishment, — the indissoluble 
 imion of sin and misery, — the infinite opposition there is in the 
 Deity towards sinners while in rebellion against him, — the im- 
 mutable requirements and obligation of the moral law ; to all 
 this the conscience will echo its assent, but he has no divine 
 authority — no scrii)tural sanction, to endow sin and misery 
 with the attribute of eternity. This it is which forms the Gor- 
 dian knot in theology, " the permission of evil;'''' take away its 
 eternity, it unfolds itself; and it is inconceivably more difficult 
 to believe that sin and misery will continue as long as God ex- 
 ists, than to believe that omnipotent goodness and infinite wis- 
 dom will one day separate sin from his creatures, and annihilate 
 it with all its consequences ; nay. His sanctity is immutably 
 pledged to effect this ; and I will joy in believing that a period 
 will come, when " The tabernacle of God is with men, and he 
 will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God 
 himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall 
 wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and there shall be no more 
 death, neither sorrow nor crying ; neither shall there be any 
 more pain : for the former things (sin with ail its concomitants) 
 are passed away." — Rev. xxi. 3, 4. Then, and not till then, 
 shall be heard and sung by all intelligencies, the universal 
 doxology, " Saying with a loud voice. Worthy is the Lamb 
 that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and 
 strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every 
 creature which is in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, 
 and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I 
 saying. Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 7 
 
 him thiit sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever 
 and ever.' — Rev. v. 12, 13. Amen ! Even so be it. Lord God 
 Ahnighty. 
 
 There is a more excellent way than to ^^ threaten and scare"" 
 men into the Christian religion ; this may sometimes succeed 
 with ignorant and vulgar minds. St. Paul has set an example 
 worthy of imitation ; his efforts were directed to persuade and 
 beseech men, and God had committed unto him a " ministry of 
 reconciliation ;" his glorying was the "preaching of the cross," 
 Christ crucified, which is the power of God, and the wisdom of 
 God. The eternal misery of mankind was no part of the minis- 
 try given to the apostles when they were sent forth to preach 
 the gospel ; they warned sinners that if they continued impeni- 
 tent they would aggravate their guilt, but they were not com- 
 missioned to proclaim the eternal misery of all those who 
 sliould neglect the gospel; their threats were occasional and in- 
 dejinite ,■ their promises absolute and intelligible, — Life, — 
 Immortality. Their more acceptable office was to proclaim 
 the glad tidings of salvation, and to assure the human race that 
 the Son of God was not sent into the world to condemn the 
 world, by proclaiming to the multitude the horrid tidings of dam- 
 nation into interminable woe, but to call men to repentance 
 and salvation. These considerations must surely evince that 
 we are not under the painful and absolute necessity of explain- 
 ing those solemn declarations, occasionally used respecting the 
 punishment of the wicked, according to i}\Q prevailing opinion 
 attached to them. 
 
 How and where did the preacher learn that " the essence of 
 hell is the absence of hope" ? Our Lord has said, '' I have the 
 keys of hell and of death," and he visited that abode of wretch- 
 edness and woe, " he descended into hell," when he was " put 
 to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit ; by which also 
 (in his ghostly state) he went and preached unto the spirits in 
 prison ;" and St. Peter informs us it was the gospel then de- 
 clared. I. Pet. iii. 18—20. iv. 6. For the present I shall leave 
 these very remarkable words, so preg-nant with the utmost im- 
 port in the economy of Grace ; and if it be the will of God that 
 
8 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 " the inmates of hell shall be finally delivered/' I presume no 
 Christian man will object to such a result. That the " Eternity'''' 
 of future punishment is the prevailing and the generally receiv- 
 ed opinion in the religous world we readily acknowledge, but 
 we have yet to learn that this doctrine produces any very observ- 
 able good effect, or proves a sufficient curb to prevent men 
 going on in their wicked courses, neither has it operated on the 
 mass of the people in stemming the wickedness in the land. 
 Most men profess to believe in the truth of the doctrine, and 
 their prejudices are not a little shocked when it is called in 
 question, while some I could name have reminded me of a nest 
 of owls, when the light is breaking, that wince and scream and 
 shut their eyes lest the sun should put them out. What, there- 
 fore, can be the reason of this amazing indifference we find 
 about an evil of so extreme a nature, which they profess to be- 
 lieve, and yet do nothing towards avoiding it ? That the pro- 
 mulgation of the doctrine of eternal torments is not that moral 
 restraint so much needed is too evident to require illustration, 
 but cannot we account in some measure for this failure ? One 
 of the principal causes is, that this opinion is grounded on 2i false 
 basis ,- it is not built on a right knowledge of the attributes 
 and perfections of God, as revealed in scripture, which are, or 
 ought to be, the basis of all rehgion. There is an impress ex- 
 isting on the mind of every thinking man (ingenitively perhaps) 
 that God is an infinitely good God — a Being of perfect justice 
 (equity) ; that this pure and perfect Good cannot do or confer 
 any thing but what is good, and did it communicate anything 
 else it would contradict its own essence. This undoubtedly is 
 the first and principal idea of God that offers itself to the mind, 
 which idea is not equivocal, but positive and unchangeable, and 
 most men, bad as they are, find within themselves some traces, 
 though partly effaced, that bear witness to this truth of God's 
 goodness and equity. The doctrine of eternal misery cannot 
 be satisfactorily reconciled with these convictions, hence it 
 arises that although men imagine they believe it, partly from 
 their having been accustomed from the cradle to read in the 
 Bible, " everlasting fire," " for ever," &c, the false association 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 9 
 
 from the literal meaning of these English words, conflicting with 
 their intuitive idea^ of Divine goodness and equity, prevents 
 them embracing a true and solid conviction of the certainty of 
 future punishment, and what is worse, so confuses their judg- 
 ment, that they too readily fall into the fatal delusion that God 
 will not punish at all. Again, the idea of equity is stamped in 
 the minds of all men so indelibly that it alone has an unexcep- 
 tionable authority over them. When children complain of their 
 parents, servants of their masters, subjects of their princes, it 
 is always done under the pretence that they are not equitable. 
 Let us exemplify these remarks : Although men profess and 
 imagine they believe in the doctrine of eternal torments, ob- 
 serve how they nullify its impression ; every one is persuaded 
 that he himself is not of the number of the wicked whose por- 
 tion shall be ^''everlasting jire ;" in short, if they are not noto- 
 riously wicked, thieves, robbers, blasphemers, &c. they cannot 
 conceive that God will condemn them to frightful and endless 
 torments ; they are sensible indeed they are guilty of some faults, 
 but where is the man without sin ? besides, they ask forgiveness 
 daily, and cannot deserve misery without end,- and what are 
 the merits of Christ good for, if they do not deliver man from 
 " everlasting misery ?" Not only these persons flatter them- 
 selves with impunity, but even sinners of the deepest dye, all of 
 them to a man, hope to escape hell, either by repenting as they 
 propose to do sooner or later, or through the infinite mercy of 
 God, that will get the better of justice, as they say ; hence the 
 more terrible hell becomes, by supposing it eternal, every one 
 more easily persuades himself that Divine mercy will exempt 
 him from it. Thus, every opinion proceeding from 2l false prin- 
 ciple, destroys itself ; nay, more, it produces a conclusion quite 
 contrary to what was intended ; and the opinion of the " eternitf 
 of hell torments is more calculated to lull men to sleep than 
 awaken them to their duty, and it is not presumptuous nor con- 
 trary to fact to believe that it materially checks the germ of 
 true piety, which may be springing up in the mind of enquiring 
 Christians ; and what is still worse, in some instances, the 
 eternity of it has " scare 23? men into absolute Deism. 
 
10 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 Dear Sie, 
 
 The next paragraph for our enquiry reads thus — 
 *' We may assume that all admit that the happiness of the righteous 
 will be eternal. To be consistent in their doubts and objections, 
 men who question the eternity of future punishment, should also 
 question that of future happiness ; the two are spoken of in lan- 
 guage so precisely the same, that nothing can be proved in regard 
 of the duration of the one, without being equally proved in regard 
 of that of the other. But men have no interest in abridging the 
 period of reward, and therefore we never hear a doubt thrown upon 
 the statement that future happiness will be everlasting." 
 
 However specious this parallel may seem, it will not answer 
 the purpose driven at ; it has no point, although it cuts both 
 -ways ; the subjects being perfect opposites, the premises are 
 incompatible and the inference fallacious, and if it prove any 
 thing, it proves infiniteh^ too much ; for if we are obliged to 
 conclude that the eto^aity of misery* and the eternity of hap- 
 piness are of equal extent and continuance, because " the two 
 are spoken of in language so precisely the same, that nothing 
 can be proved in regard to the duration of the one without 
 being eqiially proved in regard of that of the other," then 
 it necessarily follows that the evil and the misery connected 
 therewith must have been from all eternity^ and either without 
 any beginning at all, or must at least have an endless root in 
 God, and consequently be God, for this latter is the case with 
 happiness, for although man's participation of happiness may 
 commence here in time, yet the glorious kingdom of God itself 
 is without any beginning, and existed in and with God from all 
 inconceivable eternity. 
 
 Again, If the duration of evil and misery, is in every re- 
 spect to answer to the eternity of glory and happiness, then the 
 
 * The term " misery" is not used in the passaj^e, but it must be inferred. 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. I I 
 
 duration of evil must be bachvard as well as forwards, and 
 consequently has been from all inconceivable eternij;y, the 
 holding of which is the heresy of the ancient Manchmees. 
 Should it be replied, that the equality of these two eternities,'^ 
 of the evil and the good, is not backward but forward, that is, 
 although the evil, to wit, sin and the punishment connected 
 therewith, was not without beginning, as happiness considered 
 in itself and according to its nature was, yet that the duration 
 of the misery is without end, and forwards of the same duration 
 with the eternity of happiness, it is evident that if the extension 
 is not the same as well backwards as forwards, the parallel is 
 worthless, and if we are obliged, to avoid falling into heresy to 
 shorten its duration one way, where is the inconsistency that 
 we should, for good and weighty reasons, do so another way ? 
 And the rule of interpretation authorised by every other ex- 
 ample is, that the duration of the subject is not to be predi- 
 cated by the terms, but the extent of the term itself is to be 
 ascertained from the nature of the subject. We will admit 
 that sometimes duration as applied to both conditions, is 
 spoken of in language the same, and we will go farther and say, 
 that the happiness of the saints in the kingdom of Christ is 
 limited, and will come to an end, according to the intimation 
 of St. Paul — " Then cometh the end, when he shall have 
 delivered up the kingdom to God even the Father ; when he 
 shall have put down all rule and all authority and power for 
 he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The 
 last enemy that shall be destroyed is death, for he hath put all 
 things under his feet. But when he saith, All things are put 
 under him, it is manifest, that he is excepted, which did put all 
 things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto 
 him, then shall the Son also himself, be subject unto him that 
 
 put all things under him, that God may be all in ally 
 
 1 Cor. XV. 24—28. 
 
 t Tlko eteraities r-, a contradiction in terms; we admit them to shew the 
 consequences. 
 
12 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 But does it follow that future happiness will come to an 
 end ? by no means, for the passage significantly proves that the 
 dispensation of the gospel kingdom issues into a more glorious 
 one, that of God the Father. But the two are not always 
 *' spoken of in language so precisely the same, that nothing can 
 be proved in regard of the duration of the one without being 
 equally proved in regard of that of the other." Read the fol- 
 lowing scripture. St. Paul informs the Romans, that " If 
 children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if 
 so be that we suffer with him, that we also may be glorified 
 together." Again, he tells the Colossians, *' when Christ, who 
 is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in 
 glory.*' And our Lord in the interesting chapter, xiv. John, 
 when comforting his disciples with the hope of heaven, said 
 unto them, "Because I live, ye shall live also," We shall do 
 well to observe with attention the terms and expreesions used 
 by our Lord, when pointing out to his disciples the future con- 
 dition both of the righteous and the wicked, in the parable of 
 the tares of the field. " His disciples came unto him, saying. 
 Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered 
 and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of 
 man ; the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the 
 kingdom ; but the tares are the children of the wicked one ; the 
 enemy that sowed them is the devil ; the harvest is the end of the 
 world;* and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are 
 gathered and burned in the fire ; so shall it be at the end of this 
 world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and shall 
 gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them 
 which do iniquity ; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire : 
 there shall be waihng and gnashins: of teeth. Then shall the 
 righteous shine forth, as the Sun in the kingdom of their Father. 
 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." Matt. xiii. 36—43. 
 And at the 47th verse—" Again, the kingdom of heaven is like 
 unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every 
 
 * The original word, here rendered " world.;' is tlie same as in other 
 places is translated " everlasting" &c. 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 13 
 
 kind : which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat 
 down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad 
 away. So shall it be at the end of the world ; the angels shall 
 come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and 
 shall cast them into the furnace of fire : there shall be wailing 
 and gnashing of teeth. Jesus said unto them, Have ye under- 
 stood all these things ? They say unto him. Yea, Lord." We 
 have no appendages expressing " eternitif in these parables by 
 our Lord, and with such an example, we think it w^ould be 
 wise for Divines, when descanting upon future punishment, not 
 to meddle ivith its eternity. And if w^e further attend to the 
 expressions employed by our Lord, we shall perceive an impor- 
 tant discrepancy in his mode of statmg the rewards of the 
 righteous, and the punishment of the wicked. It is not any 
 where said of the wicked, that they shall go into eternal life, 
 — an endless life of misery, which is the language preferred 
 by our hypothetic reasoners, and would be the most pertinent 
 if their system were true ; nor is there a single passage in 
 which it is declared in a manner equally explicit, that the 
 wicked shall rise again into a life and immortality of absolute 
 misery. It remains for those who believe that such will be 
 their destination to explain the cause of a distinction universally 
 observed, or why does the revelation of God always avoid those 
 expressions, which they always prefer ? 
 
 And have we no other foundation upon which to ground the 
 
 eternity of future happiness than the construction of languao-e, 
 
 the arrangement of arbitrary symbols,— the forms of human 
 speech ? What, if all language were obliterated, could such a 
 catastrophe in any way affect the duration and certainty of the 
 happiness of the righteous, whose source and centre of felicity 
 emanates from, and rests in, the communicable and immutable 
 perfections of God ? Flimsy, indeed, would be the hope of the 
 good man, — yea, thinner than a cobweb, — did his future condi- 
 tion require to be certified by the English translation of an 
 ambigiious icord ! But, adds the preacher, " men have no 
 interest in abridging the period of reward, and therefore we 
 
14 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 never hear a doubt thrown upon the statement that future hap- 
 piness will be everlasting/' And certainly we never ought, from 
 any one who reflects a moment and can read his Bible. What, 
 then, can we think or say of the preacher, who, by bad reason- 
 ing and false analogy of subjects, in placing opposites — good 
 and bad — the saint as the sinner, and inferring co-enduring 
 consequences, has, given occasion, for such doubts ? All we will 
 say is, that he did not mean to do so ,- and we have yet to 
 learn what " interest" can be served by stretching the punish- 
 ment of the other beyond the declarations of Jesus Christ, We 
 next read — 
 
 " The only thing debated is, whether future misery will be everlast- 
 ing ; and this therefore we take as the single point on which there 
 may exist difference of opinion, the single question to which we are 
 to seek a satisfactory answer. And having thus narrowed and de- 
 fined the subject of discussion, we may simply state to you the 
 course we shall pursue, in order to determine and establish the 
 truth. We shall examine, in the first place, what is the fair and 
 candid interpretation of the statements of Scripture, We shall then, 
 in the second place, endeavour to show that this interpretation is 
 not at variance either with the scheme of redemption, or with the 
 known attributes of our God." 
 
 From the foregoing intimation, and at this stage of our inquiry, 
 I deem it needful to introduce a digression, previous to entering 
 upon an investigation of what is, or what is not, a true interpre- 
 tation of the statements of Scripture. We will suppose a Tra- 
 veller, a sincere and earnest enquirer after truth, but one whose 
 mind is verging into Deism, thrown into a mixed company of 
 Christian professors. He is asked, how did the Christian religion 
 appear unworthy of your choice ? But where shall I find it ? re- 
 plies the stranger. What a question, says an Mbot ; doth not 
 the Catholic Apostolic Roman Church bear all the marks of it ? 
 Hold, sir, cries a Protestant ; those marks belonged to the Be- 
 formed Religion, it is entirely founded on the Holy Scripture. 
 What heresy, rejoins the Ahhot ; it seems to favor you only as 
 you wrest it to serve your turn. Another Professor present 
 asked the stranger whether he admitted the testimony of Scrip- 
 
AN INQUIB.Y AFTER TRUTH. 15 
 
 ture. What is the Scripture r asks our Traveller ; what sort of 
 a language does it speak? One party assures me it says 
 " white ^'' where others maintain it says " hlack ,- " whicli of 
 them must I believe ?•" At this point of the discussion the Pro- 
 fessors were not a little embarrassed, and it was enquired what 
 method was to be taken for converting persons of this class ; 
 one was for beginning with proving the divinity of the Scrip- 
 ture. Very well, replies another, when that is performed, shall 
 we have made much progress in the work ? the difficulty w^ill 
 still be, to determine the sense of it. If this is not done, the 
 Deist W'ill reason thus : I grant, says he, that the Scripture is 
 divine, that consequently it has some divine sense ,- have you 
 found this sense ? If you have, it ought to reconcile and 
 unite you. If you have not, what use can you make of the 
 divinity of a book, while you are ignorant of the sense of it ? 
 Some of the company flew into a passion at this discourse, and 
 after a pretty long dispute, they parted with mutual dissatis- 
 faction. It is not the doubting of the divinity of the Scripture 
 that divides Christian societies ; all unanimously acknowledge 
 this. The opposite senses, which they imagine they find in 
 it, is the only source of their contests, and these opposite senses 
 are what serve the Deists as a pretence for rejecting all use of 
 the Scripture itself. 
 
 I dare not enter into the detail of the contradictions which 
 are found among professing Christians, not only the division 
 which separates them into so many opposite bodies, but the 
 division of each society within itself into parties, which it is im- 
 possible to reconcile ; the facts are sufficiently notorious, and to 
 say the least, is a lamentable instance of the frailty and obli- 
 quity of the human mind. Such are some of the evils sur- 
 rounding us in the religious world, and, I fear, are too deeply 
 
 * This is the common language of the Deists ; the contradiction which 
 they find between the different opinions among Christians emboldens them 
 to declire against Scripture. They do not distinguish that the Scripture is 
 not the cause of such contradictions ; it i? only made the occasion. 
 
16 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 rooted in attaoliment to forms and ceremonies, — in fondness for 
 creeds and systems of divinity, — in strong prejudice for precon- 
 ceived notions, — in contracted habits of thinking, — in indolence 
 for enquiry, — but, above all, in a want of charity, and are too 
 firmly seated to hope for any considerable mitigation. It is 
 more difficult to awaken the sleepy part of mankind, than to 
 convince the ignorant ; when the eyelids are closed, all visible 
 impressions are precluded ; when they are opened, the mind 
 cannot but perceive and distinguish. In like manner, when 
 prejudice (which often keeps the door of the intellect) is re- 
 moved, perception and judgment do their offices honestly, and 
 knowledge and truth gain an admittance. Hence, these differ- 
 ences point out the necessity for some axioms, some plaiti 
 incontestable principles and rides for the interpretation and 
 understanding of Scripture, which abounds with numerous 
 figurative, allegorical, equivocal, and even contradictory ex- 
 pressions, so that we must judge of their t^me sense, not by 
 what the words may seem to import, but by those eternal 
 and unchangeahle truths which can never vary, — The 
 KNOWN ATTRIBUTES OF GoD; which are the basis and 
 essence of all religion ; such are the spirituality, eternity, 
 omnipotence of God. These are undoubted and fundamental 
 truths, whether known by the written word, or by internal 
 testimony stamped on the consciences of all men ; secondary 
 truths are such as we know only by scripture testimony, and 
 perfectly connected with the former, such as the sanctity, the 
 justice (equity,) the icisdom, and the mercy of God, and the 
 unity of these is the consolidation of eternal and infinite 
 perfection. 
 
 Let us seek for some illustration of these premises ; mankind 
 are agreed that the ideas of goodness and justice are inseparably 
 connected with the idea of God, but our custom of setting those 
 attributes in opposition to each other, is a proof that we are 
 strangers to their nature. We have heard it said, that justice 
 gives way to goodness, or goodness gives place to justice, but 
 the knowledge of the unity of God should make this false 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 17 
 
 notion fall to the ground, and satisfy us that the distinctions 
 we make between the Divine attributes proceed from the narrow 
 limits of our understanding, which is obhged to consider the 
 different parts of a whole successively. What we know with 
 certainty concerning the spirituality of God prevents us from 
 taking literally, which is said of his ei/es, hands, nostrils, he. In 
 like manner, what we know concerning his sanctity, prevents 
 our understanding, in a literal sense, those expressions which 
 seem to ascribe to him the passions of ivrath, jealousy , fury , and 
 partiality. This rule is applicable to a thousand places in Scrip- 
 ture, and would clear up many difficulties, and prevent many 
 disputes, if rightly applied. God is ivise,just, and good ,- no one 
 of his attributes destroys another. Justice is not opposed to 
 goodness, nor goodness to justice ; they are so inseparable that 
 we cannot so much as think a man to be just unless he is good, 
 or good unless he is just. In God, goodness and justice are 
 boundless : by his goodness, he offers his creatures all the trea- 
 sures of his bliss; by his justice, he fills with the same treasures 
 those who accept of them, and leaves those who refuse them 
 destitute of them. Divine justice is, therefore, widely different 
 from the idea commonly formed of it. It is represented under 
 the notions of vengeance, hatred, wrath, 2C[\^fury ; and therefore 
 goodness and mercy are often set in opposition to it, to prevent, 
 as it were, the effects of its rigid severity ; but this is humaniz- 
 ing the Deity, for were Divine justice of such a nature, God 
 must cease to be just when he exercises his goodness, or good 
 and merciful when he employs his justice, since it is evident that 
 goodness and wrath, mercy and revenge, can never subsist to- 
 gether. Let us note well the following extract, from Chevalier 
 Ramsay's work on " Natural and Revealed Religion." He 
 says — " The Divine nature cannot be unappeasable for the fol- 
 lowing reasons : 1st. Wise and good legislators have no vindic- 
 tive wrath nor implacable aversion to the most execrable male- 
 factors ; they hate the crime icithout hating the criminal ; thej' 
 punish only to prevent the one, or correct the other. If the 
 torments of the damned be eternal, God can have none of these 
 
18 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 two views : instead of correcting damned spirits, his punish- 
 ments serve only to confirm them in their vicious habits and 
 hatred of God ; instead of putting an end to their crimes, eternal 
 pains will but augment despair, rage, aversion to God, and 
 blasphemy. 2ndly. If the Divine Nature was unappeasable, 
 wherein could his goodness consist ? How could his mercy 
 be said ' to prevail over all his works* ? All grant, and the 
 Scripture says expressly, that the number of the elect is small, 
 yea very small, in comparison to the number of the damned ; 
 now wherein does the mercy of God appear, if the most part of 
 fallen spirits be eternally miserable ? This is infinitely more 
 absurd than if we should say that a king is a good, humane, and 
 merciful prince, because he rescues four or five criminals, while 
 he condemns thousands, yea innumerable millions, of his sub- 
 jects to racks, slow tortures, and languishing pains. This, how- 
 ever, would be much less cruel than the conduct of God, if he 
 continues his punishments eternally. 3rdly. This doctrine of 
 God's being unappeasable, destroys at once all our ideas of his 
 most perfect distributive justice. There is no attribute of which 
 men have falser ideas than of Divine justice; they fancy that it 
 is an attribute of God, which obHges him by necessity of nature 
 to torment for ever and pursue with implacable vengeance beings 
 that are criminal. This is again humanizing the Godhead. 
 Justice is that perfection in God, by which he endeavours con- 
 tinually to make all intelUgencies just, as goodness is that at- 
 tribute in God by which he endeavours to make them all happy. 
 Now these two perfections are one and the same in the Infinite 
 Being, though their effects be different according to the nature 
 of the subject upon which he exerts them. We have already 
 demonstrated that all the communicable perfections of the God- 
 head are reducible to three, power, wisdom, and goodness. 
 Now, since all the active attributes of the Godhead, power, life, 
 and force, are the same ; and since all his intellectual attributes, 
 wisdom, light, and truth, are the same; it follows, by the rules 
 of analogy, that all his moral attributes, goodness, love, and 
 nistice, are the same. God punishes, therefore, only to pm'ify ; 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 1.9 
 
 he chastizes only in order to reclaim ; he wounds by physical 
 evil, that he may cure moral evil ; he shews his essential love of 
 justice and holiness, by doing all he can to destroy what is con- 
 traiy to these attributes. Supposing, however, that these per- 
 fections were distinct in their cause as in their effects, yet, since 
 all the Divine attributes act in, with, and by each other, they 
 can never be separated ; they are never incompatible^ and there- 
 fore God's justice is always accompanied with goodness and 
 love ; his punishments must be cures, and his most terrible 
 judgments remedies. 4thly. It is true that God is represented 
 in Scripture as vindictive and revengeful, as he to whom ven- 
 geance belongs ; as a consuming fire ; as punishing with fuiy, 
 anger, and hatred. But unless we suppose that his perfections 
 are incompatible and mutually destructive of each other, we 
 must allow that all these expressions signify only, that God is 
 an irreconcileable enemy to vice, that there can never be any 
 alliance betwixt holiness and sin, purity and corruption, order 
 and disorder ; not that he ceases to be eternal love and essential 
 goodness. Though he hates the crime, yet he loves the criminal. 
 Vindictive justice, therefore, is that attribute in God by 
 which he pursues vice with all sorts of torments, 'till it be totally- 
 extirpated, destroyed, and annihilated ; yea, this' avenging 
 wrath is an emanation and a necessary branch of God's distri- 
 butive justice, which is that attribute in God by which he pro- 
 portions the rewards and punishments, the happiness and misery 
 of all his creatures, to their dispositions of fidelity or infidehty, 
 to the degrees of their co-operation or resistance. Distributive 
 or vindictive justice consists, then, in this most exact equity, in 
 this admirable proportion, and not in that cruel enmity and 
 aversion, by which God is represented as hating the criminal for 
 ever, and defeating for ever the design he had in creating, 
 ceasing to be essential goodness and love, neglecting to destroy 
 injustice, and voluntarily leaving fallen beings in a state of 
 rebellion, unholiness, and injustice. According to this inhu- 
 man doctrine of the schoolmen, God must either be impotent, 
 so that he cannot convert the creature ; or must lovp eternal 
 
 B 2 
 
20 AX rNQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 disorder, since he will not employ almig-hty power to destroy it. 
 In both these senses the doctrine of Eternal Punishments is a 
 disguised Manicheism, and supposes that the evil principle is 
 co-eternal with God, since it is indestructible."' 
 
 The above remarks are so pertinent to our enquiry that no 
 apology is needed for their insertion. These views of the 
 Deity are founded on bare good sense, and the testimony of 
 conscience on the nature of justice, which ideas all of us find 
 more or less engraved in our minds, and must necessarily be 
 the w^ork of our Divine Creator ; and from this source we 
 gather the idea of those truths which are eternal and immutable, 
 vizo, God's wisdom, equity, and goodness, and to those he 
 himself directs us to determine between him and ourselves 
 concerning the justice of his conduct towards us ; Isaiah v. 3 — 
 '* Judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard." And 
 again, Ezek. xviii. 29 — " O house of Israel, are not my ways 
 equal T* w^liich words suppose that the rule to which God 
 sends us to measure whether his ways are right, is right in 
 itself, being the workmanship of his own hands. 
 
 I will give an instance of what aj^pears to me the conse- 
 quences of gross inattention and neglect of our premises. Let 
 a neutral person hear two of the most able divines dispute, one 
 a Calvinist^ the other an Arminian ; the more justly they 
 reason, the more embarassed he will be ; he will find that each 
 of them impeaches some one of the Divine attributes, and they 
 charge each other with that bold attempt ; and they have both 
 grounds for so doing. Volumes upon volumes have been 
 written, and centuries have rolled over this dispute without 
 coming to an agreement, and so long as they build on the 
 same principle, they never can. What is this principle — is it 
 simple, evident, and incontestable? Very far from it. It is a 
 bare supposition founded on words and expressions, susceptible 
 of different senses, and the choice each has made of one sense, 
 preferable to another, is what serves as a basis to these contro- 
 versies. Ought then these differences to surj)rise us ? What 
 does astonish me is, that men, generally, do not discover the 
 
AX INQUIRY AFTER TRTttII. 21 
 
 false or a principle, the consequences of which are necessarily 
 conflicting. Build on a simple, evident, and incontestable 
 basis, and the consequences will be entirely uniform ; build on 
 a false principle, the justest arguments will prove the most 
 irreconcileable contradictions. If I do really know the Scrip- 
 ture to be divine by the Divine characteristics, I shall consider 
 only what relates to those characteristics as evident truths; 
 when it seems to speak a contrary language, I shall take it for 
 
 granted that the certain cannot be shaken by the uncertain that 
 
 ambiguous expressions cannot obscure evidence ; and without 
 giving myself any concern for determining the meaning of such 
 expressions, it will be sufficient for me to know what they do 
 not signify. I will make use of the same rule in all manner of 
 subjects in proportion as they have more or less evidence, and 
 content myself with seeing those things in the general, whose 
 particularities I cannot discover ; and resolve to be ignorant of 
 that which seems to me impenetrable, and attend less to the detail 
 and circumstances than to the substance and principle of thin^-s, 
 and without being surprised at seeming contradictions, which 
 certainly he only in the terms and expressions, fix my eyes on 
 the geiieral design, which never varies. Do not the divisions 
 among professing Christians arise from their having taken the 
 contrary method ? Had they been content with an evidence of 
 this kind, how many bitter controversies and disputes would 
 have been avoided ; for, in short, they are all grounded on ex- 
 pressions, on men's pretending to determine in what sense God 
 hath said such or such a thing. It is natural that the rule by 
 which I know the Scriptures to be divine, should be the same 
 which serves to give me the meaning of it. I know the Scrip- 
 tures to be divine by divine characteristics, therefore I will not 
 ascribe to it any sense contrary to those divine characteristics. 
 I.et us give some examples. The Scripture says, " God wills 
 not that any one should perish, but that all should come to re- 
 pentance." It also says, " God hardens whom he will harden." 
 " It is impossible that those who have been illuminated should 
 be renewed by repentance." Here are two contradictory propo- 
 
22 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 sitions. I ask, which of them bears a Divine character ? Again, 
 " The Lord revengeth, and is furious." — Nahum i. 2. It else- 
 where says, " Fury is not in me." — Isa. xxvii. 4. Which of 
 these two propositions, taken hterally, bears a Divine character ? 
 Do you ask, What then can these contradictory propositions 
 signify ? I ansAver, it is enough for me to know what they do 
 not signify. Again, Jesus Christ said, " This is my body." 
 Here, then, is made out transubstantiation ! He said, '' Thou 
 art Peter, and on this rock," &c. Therefore, the Pope is head 
 of the Church ! The Scripture says, " That God makes some 
 vessels to honour, and others to dishonour." Here, then, are 
 made out absolute election and reprobation ! It says, '* There 
 is no name but that of Jesus Christ by which men can be saved." 
 Therefore all Pagans, Jews, Mahometans, are damned, and 
 damned eternally, for it is also said, " That the fire of hell shall 
 not be quenched" ! 
 
 The generality of Christians, who maintain the eternity of 
 hell torments, have taken some particular expressions for the 
 rule of the true, such as ^' everlasting fire," " the worm that 
 dieth not," &c. and these expressions have been allowed the 
 preference to the most simple intuitive ideas, not only of Infinite 
 Goodness, but even to that of Sovereign Justice. Tell them 
 that the idea of justice and that of equity are but one and the 
 same, — that equity requires a perfect equality, an exact propor- 
 tion between the crime and the punishment, and make them 
 observe that an infinity of creatures are culpable in some degree, 
 such as wild, heathen, barbarous nations, &;c. and cannot have 
 deserved eternal punishment. No matter, here the curtain 
 must be drawn, the expression of " everlasting fire" is positive, 
 and we ought to adore the Divine justice in its judgments, and 
 not pretend to be wiser than God. Have not many Christians 
 excluded Pagans, Jews, &c. from salvation on this declaration, 
 ** There is no other name given unto men whereby they may be 
 saved" ? and made the most simple ideas of universal goodness 
 and of sovereign equity (which will render to every man accord- 
 ing to his deeds, and judge every creature by the use or abuse 
 
AN IXQUIEY AFTF>R TKUTH. 23 
 
 of his kiiowledi,^e) have they not, I say, made them give way to 
 icords and exjyressions ? What are we to think of the contra- 
 diction between these two ways of speaking ? Which ought 
 we to consider as the true, that by w hich men unanimously and 
 without hesitation assent to the same axioms, or that by which 
 they prove inconsistent with themselves, for no other reason but 
 the support of their own systems, and without any other demon- 
 stration than that equivocal maxim, we must lay our hand on 
 our mouth and not attempt to penetrate into the secret will of 
 God ? and this maxim, taken in a wrong sense, gives those who 
 make it, room to settle down, and confirms them in i\\efahe. 
 We admit that it is mu^ more easy to perceive the false ap- 
 plication made of /|, than exactly distinguish the true use of it. 
 This is the nice and difficult point. Let us bring to mind the 
 clear, simple maxims on which we presume all are agreed, when 
 not on their guard for some favorite opinion. 1st. That the 
 Deity, being self-sufficient, could have no end in estabhshhig 
 religion than the interest of his creatures. 2ndly. That, being 
 pure goodness, he can will only the happiness of his creatures. 
 3rdly. That, being sovereign equity, and consequently impar- 
 tial, he cannot will the happiness of some and the misery of 
 others. Lastly, That if he calls them all to happiness on cer- 
 tain conditions, he must provide all with means and opportunity 
 to perform them. Let us now put two propositions. 
 
 God is holy, just, and good, but future punishment is eternal 
 misery I 
 
 God is holy, just, and good, therefore future punishment is 
 corrective, and its end eternal hajjpiness. 
 
 I ask which of these bears a Divine character r 
 
 The foregoing maxims are grounded on the idea we conceive 
 of the Divine goodness and equity. Shall we draw the curtain 
 over these ? Must we cry out, " O, the depth ;"' and add, it is 
 not our business to judge of the equity of God ? Are we sen- 
 sible of what would be the consequence of all this ? There 
 would then be nothing certain, either in religion or civil society. 
 If men do not find the rule of the Just within themselves, they 
 
24 
 
 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 will never be able to agree on anything ; they will have nojixed 
 principle to build on, and this being supposed, the laws, which 
 are essentially founded on the same idea, would lose their 
 force, and what a chaos of strange consequences would be the 
 result. 
 
25 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 We will again return to our enquiry, and once more take up 
 the thread of the sermon, which we now hope to do with some 
 advantage. The preacher says to his audience — 
 " Now you are of course perfectly aware that the terms in which the 
 Bible speaks of future punishment are such, according to our 
 translation, as make out this punishment to be * everlasting.' " 
 That our translators have denounced future punishment to be 
 everlasting, for ever, &c. is evident, and such translation is 
 too indiscriminately received as literally the words of God, 
 But to this we demur, and affirm, first, That the original terms 
 do not necessarily imply eternity in its literal sense ; this is 
 indisputably well known to all scholars,* and we presume the 
 preacher is not ignorant of it from the guarded manner of the 
 sentence. It is the perplexing variety in our translation of the 
 original word " ceion,'' and ceoniaiiy'] and the want of discern- 
 ment in readers, which have been a principal mean in propa- 
 gating the opinion of endless torments, — That God will kindle 
 a fire, and so constantly supply it with combustible matter, 
 brimstone, &c. by his all creating power, as to endure as 
 long as he himself shall exist, and that the subjects of future 
 
 * Vide Rev. T. Broughton, (formerly Prebendary of Sarum,) his disser- 
 tations on Futurity, iv. dissert, sec. viii. See also Dr. Hammond on Matt, 
 xxiv. 3 ; xxviii. 20 ; Luke i. 70 ; Rom. ix. 5 ; I Tim. i. 17. 
 
 + The word " (zxon" as a substantive, occurs 128 times in the Greek 
 Testament, and in our translation is rendered 72 times ever, twice eternal, 
 36 times world, 7 times never, 3 times evermore, twice worlds, twice ages, 
 once course, once ivorid without end, and twice it is passed over. The word 
 " ceonian," as an adjective, occurs 71 times, is once rendered ever, 42 times 
 eternal, 3 times world, and 25 times everlasting. (Vide N. Scarlett's 
 translation of the New Testament.) 
 
26 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 punishment being- raised incorruptible and indissoluble, shall 
 for the same period endure burning in the lake of fire, God 
 having no ultimate end in view, hut as mi example, they say, 
 *' for the sake of the general good !" You will excuse this plain 
 statement, and understand by this time the drift of what we 
 have advanced, and I now ask upon what bottom the preacher 
 has grounded the doctrine of " interminahle misery V why, 
 purely upon some equivocal and metaphorical expressions, to 
 "vvhich we have referred, and it is indisputably proved, that these 
 original words do not necessarily indicate eternity proper. This 
 is evident from their various renderings and application ; and 
 how is it possible that words which sometimes mean one thing, 
 and sometimes another, C2in prove anything ? 
 
 A.nd w^e affirm, secondly, that those English expressions, as 
 thus annexed, do not determine and establish the truth of this 
 opinion, and willingly leave it to the preacher's own shewing. 
 We read — 
 
 *• The wicked are spoken of as * going away into everlasting pun- 
 ishment;' their sentence is, 'Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting 
 fire.' And in the book of the Revelation, we read that, ' the 
 smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever.' But are 
 not the words 'eternal.' 'everlasting,' 'for ever,' sometimes used 
 in the Bible of periods which were to come to an end ? They are. 
 "We read of ' the everlasting hills,' though elsewhere we are told 
 that ' the earth shall be dissolved' and ' pass away.' We read that 
 God gave the land of Canaan to Abraham and his seed ' for an 
 everlasting possession,' and yet we know that the Jews possessed 
 the inheritance but a little while. Among the laws given in the 
 book of Exodus, with respect to servants, we find, that if a servant 
 did not choose to be freed at the end of seven years, his master was 
 to perform certain ceremonies, and the servant was to serve him for 
 ever ; here ' for ever' is undoubtedly used of a very limited period 
 — of the remainder of the slave's hfe, or of the time which was to 
 elapse before the jubilee commenced. But in all such cases there 
 is no danger of our being led into any mistake ; by the use of the 
 term there is always proof at hand, that the use is metaphorical 
 denoting some longtime, but not an endless. Try it for yourselves. 
 
AX INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 27 
 
 Take any case in which the Bible speaks of something as eternal, 
 which you can prove not to he eternal ; and see whether it be not 
 in its own nature temporary, or affirm to be temporary in other 
 parts of the Bible, and whether, therefore, there is not full security 
 against your being led into error by the use of the word."* 
 
 The construction of the above passage is extremely bad and 
 most unfortunate, for although it is very true our English 
 JSible speaks of many things "as eternaV which can be proved 
 '''•not to he eternal^''' yet for us to admit that Scripture speaks 
 of something as eternal, which is not so, is too gross an 
 assumption to be intended ; and here, again, we are forcibly 
 reminded of the conference Avith the Traveller and the Ciiristian 
 Professors, and the necessity and importance of applying the 
 premises noticed in the digression, which must not be lost 
 sight of in our enquiry, and to which I claim your attention, for 
 we ought not (swallow like) to skim over the surface of things 
 in searching for truth ; when we expect to find diamonds, we 
 must dig deep. The next paragraph is bold and challenging, 
 and I hope you will tolerate my taking up the gauntlet, and if 
 I wear upon your patience my excuse is, the contents of the 
 sermon and the cause of truth seem to demand it. We next 
 read — 
 
 **But this is not the case with future punishment. The word 
 ' eternal' is distinctly and repeatedly used, but we challenge you to 
 find any thing in other parts of Scriptm-e, which shall prove that 
 the word is only metaphorically used ; and we equally challenge 
 you to find any thing in the nature of the case, to prove that it can- 
 not be literally used. And the Biblef is not content with affirming 
 that hell shall be everlasting, and thus using the word which it 
 elsewhere uses in a limited and metaphorical sense ; it speaks in 
 our text of * the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not 
 quenched.' Surely if there is to be a deathless worm and an un- 
 quenchable fire, the eternity of the punishment is distinctly alleged ; 
 
 * For the use and abuse of words consuh " Lock on the Understand- 
 ing." ii. III. 
 
 t Read " our Translators are not content," &c. 
 
28 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 and thit too, in language, of whose use in reference to any finite 
 duration you cannot produce a single instance from Scripture" 
 
 In denial of this, see our notes and references on the text. 
 We deem our preceding observations more than ample for the 
 above. I have only one remark to offer here. As we advance 
 more fully in our enquiry, I think we shall be able to prove a 
 something (if not already done) " in the nature of the case," 
 that no 7nere words or expressions can reconcile, " either with 
 the scheme of redemption or with the known attributes of (our) 
 God." And here ends the strife ahoiU words, which I am 
 heartily tired of. 
 
29 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 Our next paragraph will be of some length. It is a little 
 confused, but it proves to demonstration, tirst, That the preacher 
 possesses talents, and the gift of declamation in no common 
 degree ; secondly, That hjpothetical matter was much more at 
 hand than argument. How much beyond this the reader must 
 be the judge, and he will excuse the dogmatism which prevails. 
 I shall have some observations to submit on the case of Judas, 
 on which great stress is laid. The preacher says — 
 *" There is one saying of our Lord which has always seemed to me 
 conclusive of the fact, that the Bible must be literally interpreted 
 when it speaks of ' everlasting punishment ;' it is that saying which 
 had reference to Judas the traitor — ' It had been good for that 
 man if he had never been born.' Creation is a blessing, if wretch- 
 edness stops short of being immortal. Let the man wear away 
 milUons upon millions of ages in the prison house of woe ; heap 
 upon him torment upon torment, and let there be no abatement, 
 nay, rather an increase of misery as century crowds upon century, 
 till imagination is wearied in telling up the period ; still if there is 
 ever to break upon him a moment of dehverance, we affirm it to 
 have been good for him tliat he had been born. He may often 
 have cursed the day of his birth, as he tossed to and fro, and could 
 gain no rest in the torment of his condition ; he may often have 
 cried bitterly, though vainly, for the blessing of annihilation, 
 desiring in the desperateness of his agony the extinction of his 
 being, that he might reach the termination of his sufferings. But 
 if he exhaust the penalties which are the retribution of crimes done 
 on the earth, if the worm and the fire wear out the long reckoning, 
 and leave him having nothing more to pay, there is yet spreading 
 before him a period of rest, and even of happiness, compared with 
 which the ages of his anguish are nothing but a point, and his own 
 feeling must be to forget all the past and bound with exultation in 
 the prospect of the future. Can he subscribe to the saving, that 
 
30 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 * it would have been good for him not to have been born,' seeing 
 that at whatever point his snfferings terminated, there woiihl 
 remain an immeasurabl}^ longer period for happiness than had been 
 consumed in his agony ? Must he not feel, that the boon of exis- 
 tence demands from him the most glowing gratitude, and if there 
 were an exclamation wrung from him in his wretchedness, which 
 he now wishes to retract, and over which he mourns, must it not 
 be that which execrated the moment when he rose into life and 
 panted with the desire of being reduced into nothingness ? No, 
 no ; there lives not, there cannot live, the man of whom it can be 
 said, * It had been better for him not to have been born,' if hell 
 be but a temporary place — if those tremendous gates, which close 
 on lost souls, are ever to fly open, that the victims of wrath may go 
 free. I care not what may have been the man's misdoings and 
 sufferings whilst dwelling upon earth ; let his life have been un- 
 cheered (if ever there were such an one) by a solitary smile — one 
 black and biting calamity — and then let him have gone down an 
 accursed thing to the pit of despair, and let a period which we can 
 scarcely compass have been spent in the penal fires of a fierce retri- 
 bution, and yet, if the close of this appalling tale is to be, that the 
 wretched being is emancipated, his crimes purged away, his vast 
 debt cancelled — then I am certain, from the known principles of 
 our nature, that as he beheld an eternity of peace opening brightly 
 before him, his first impulse would be to join in the words of our 
 general thanksgiving — * We bless Thee for our creation.' It is 
 therefore telling me that hell will never terminate to tell me of any 
 one of its inmates, that ' it had been good for him if he had not 
 been born.' And adding this to other reasons, for holding the 
 literal interpretation of Scripture, we may contend that we have a 
 strong case in support of the position, that future punishment will 
 be without end ;* we may at least declare, that there is nothing in 
 other parts of the Bible to warrant us in supposing, that our text 
 speaks only of a finite period, when it declares of the wicked that 
 
 * their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.* But we have 
 allowed that things are spoken of in Scripture in general as ' eternal,' 
 
 * I wish I could " scare" this good man's opinion from his mind, with 
 such powers of desrriplion wliich tell more for the true than for the fahe 
 opinion. 
 
AN TNQFIRY AFTER TRUTH. 31 
 
 in regard of which we know, from the nature of the case or other 
 considerations, that the expression is not to be taken literally. 
 May not this apply in the instance under review ? May not the 
 doctrine of the eternity of punishment involve an impossibility, or 
 be opposed to other and undisputed doctrines ? and, if so, may we 
 not conclude, that the words ' everlasting' and * for ever' should be 
 understood of a long period, but not of an endless ? Yes, if this 
 were so. But this we deny ; and we are now about to cut away 
 this ground of hope, by proving the doctrine of the eternity of 
 punishment at variance neither with the scheme of redemption nor 
 with the known attributes of our God." 
 
 As so much stress is laid on the case of Judas as establishing 
 the opinion of eternal misery, we will give it some attention, 
 and I must beg to insert the passage referred to in full, from 
 Matt, xxvi, 24, " The Son of man goeth as it is written of 
 him : but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is be- 
 trayed ! It had heen good for that man if he had not been born." 
 The parallel one in Mark xiv. 21, reads a little different. 
 " The Son of man indeed goeth as it is written of him : but woe 
 to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed ! good ivere it 
 for that man if he had never been born." You will observe 
 the preacher in the strain of his eloquent and flowing language 
 uses the comparative " hetter^'"' for which I can find no autho- 
 rity. The argument (if any can be deduced) is purely hypo- 
 thetical, for there is nothing in the passages to prove endless 
 torments. St. Peter tells us that " Judas by transgression fell, 
 that he might go to his oivn place ; but this is not thought 
 sufficiently explicit, and most men will have it that Judas must 
 be punished with eternal misery. I am content with the 
 simple declaration of the Apostle. Some commentators con- 
 tend that the words were said prophetically as a warning, and 
 should not be translated "/or Am," but *' to him., (in his own 
 apprehension) it were good he had not been born." Others, 
 more generally, consider it a Jewish hyperbole — a proverbial 
 expression ; the phrase is often used proverbially both by sacred 
 and profane authors, and is often found in the Talmudical 
 writers, (see Wolfin's and LiglUfoot's note on the pass. ; also 
 
32 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 Grotius in loco.) Far stronger expressions are used by Job 
 (iii. I — 16) and by Jeremiah (xx. 14 — 18), and if both these good 
 men could use such awful expressions and wishes while under 
 temporal affliction and distress, why might not our Lord, accord- 
 ing to the idiom of the Jewish scripture, thus speak of the traitor 
 who was on the point of betraying him, whose crime was of the 
 deepest dye, and whose punishment must be proportionably 
 great ? And are we in this case so to consider these expres- 
 sions in order that we should make of them a doctrine, and what 
 may be called " an article offaith^'' in order to inform us, with- 
 out the least ambiguity, what will be the final state of millions ? 
 I trow not. After all, though we cannot explain the sense 
 meant by our Saviour, (and it would be ridiculous to ground 
 our reasoning on a thing we do not comprehend) what follows .'' 
 That the certain cannot be shaken by the uncertain, — that an 
 obscure proposition in a particular case can never be allowed 
 good evidence against plain, universal, incontestable axioms, as 
 noticed in our premises in the digression. 
 
 But these words of our Lord, even in their literal sense, im- 
 ply no more than that it had been good for that man had he 
 died in his mother's womb, — that he had proved an " untimely 
 birth,'' — that he had been carried from the womb to the grave, — 
 that he had never seen the light, — had never been duly born, 
 for Solomon says that such go to the same place with the man 
 of longest life, — Eccles. vi. 3 — 6. If Judas had died in his 
 mother's womb, he would have had all the advantages of the 
 covenant of grace as a son of Adam, and not have been the be- 
 trayer of his Lord and Redeemer, and so would have escaped 
 the awful consequences of his treachery. That the passages do 
 not imply, Good were it had he not existed, — not heen created, 
 is most evident, for we cannot suppose that our Lord could 
 have thrown out an imputation on his own acts, for " all things 
 were created hy him and for him," — Col. i. 16 ; and I think the 
 distinction pointed out natural and conclusive. The preacher 
 says — '' Creation is a blessing, if wretchedness stops short of 
 being immortal" ! This sounds oddly — immortal wretched- 
 
AN INQUIB.Y AFTER TRUTH. 33 
 
 ness ! Misery, wretchedness, and woe, are more negative than 
 positive, and are alwaj's associated with negative qualities, as 
 corniptio?i, perishing, destmction, perdition, and death. I really 
 am sorry to break in upon this beautifully descriptive harangue, 
 but as we are dealing with things rather than words, I must be 
 pardoned in varying this sentence, and ask it to be shewn, How 
 creation is a blessing, if it ends in eternal misery ? Should any 
 one undertake to prove this, we will thank him for his statement. 
 We admire the preacher's powers in running out the detail and 
 agony of future punishment, and perhaps he has not exceeded 
 in the case in question, although that punishment be not end- 
 less, and can such be called " temporary ?" What we contend 
 for is, that future punishment is a dispensation of chastisement 
 — a mean ; and the end of creation, eternal happiness. Then, 
 indeed, not this ontj man merely, but myriads, yea all created 
 intelligencies, can join in the words of our general thanksgiving, 
 *' We bless Thee for our creation." Reverse this idea, and 
 take the opinion of endless torments to be true, then, I say, 
 there lives not one man, but innumerable beings, of whom it 
 may emphatically be said, It had been better for them not to 
 have existed/— SOT created! But this y^ is so mon- /Wiyfe^oj^ 
 strous,— the difficulty so strong, — that it destroys itself; it 
 proves infinitely too much ; it would overthrow all religion, 
 whereof the idea of God ought to be the basis ; it would give 
 the lie to the voice of universal nature, of conscience, and 
 common sense itself, all which unanimously conspire to bear 
 witness to infinite good?iess ,- and this same voice of common 
 sense does likewise teach us, that the ideas we have of perfect 
 goodness are not in the least our own works, but must have 
 superior cause and origin, and since man is not the cause and 
 origin, they must proceed from the Author of his being. I, 
 therefore, ask, whether it be reasonable to suspect such traces 
 imprinted in us by his own hand in ind(;lible characters, or to 
 smother undoubted evidence to make room for palpable difficul- 
 ties and contradictions, built upon metaphorical terms and 
 expressions, which are at least equivocal, if not totally 
 ambiguous { c 
 
34 
 
 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 A difficulty advanced against so clear a principle as that 
 of the Divine goodness falls to the ground of itself, and the 
 stronger it appears to be, we may be assured it is built on a 
 false principle. Now this difficulty depends entirely on the 
 ETERNITY of hell torments ; put the case that this supposition 
 is groundless, the difficulty at once ceases. 
 
 The self-sufficiency of the Deity is infinitely complete and 
 perfect in the adorable Trinity ; hence creation is a free act of 
 God, and intended to shew forth the divine nature in a finite 
 degree by forming creatures after his own likeness ; and he can 
 create nothing but what he loves, for this action being free, he 
 would not have exerted it if it had displeased him ; and for the 
 same reason it is, that God desires necessarily the happiness of 
 all he creates, because it is impossible to love a being and not 
 desire its well-being. Therefore eternal providence knows, 
 wills, and employs continually all the means necessarj" to lead 
 his intelligent creatures to their ultimate and supreme happiness. 
 TheUy that eternity which shall succeed time, will be essentially 
 agreeable to the eternity which preceded it, nor will there be 
 any diffiirence than the existence of an infinite number of beings 
 that did not exist in the former. But all those beings will be 
 the images of the sovereignly happy Being. They will all 
 partake of his bliss, in the degree and measure proportioned to 
 their several capacities ; — they will rejoice at having received a 
 being, and perhaps even at having experienced what pain is ; — 
 they will admire perfect equity in the infinite proportion it has 
 estabhshed among intelligent creatures, and the entire compen- 
 sation of the good and had things of this life, with those of the 
 life to come. The idea of severity will no longer enter into 
 that of justice, and wisdom having answered the designs of 
 infinite goodness in restoring all things to order, God will review 
 the workmanship of his own hands as He did at the beginning, 
 and pronounce it "very good." 
 
 We must express our surprise that no other citations from 
 Scripture are l)rought forward in support of the opinion contro- 
 verted than those equivocal terms and expressions already 
 noticed, and I much doubt whether any otliers can be found. 
 
35 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I WISH we could narrow our subject of enquiry within a 
 more moderate compass, but I imagine the number of pa^-es 
 will not give offence, provided they afford (as I hope they will) 
 satisfaction in point of argument in favour of the truth. The 
 enquiry has carried me far beyond anticipation, and had it not 
 been for the boldness of the attack and the confidence assumed 
 I should not have troubled you with these letters. I hope you 
 will not charge me with being dogmatical, but as our reasonino- 
 is from plain, simple, incontestable axioms, and not from mere 
 iDords and exj^ressions, we have ground for confidence. We 
 now approach, if not the most interesting, certainly a most im- 
 portant branch of our enquiiy, — '* The scheme of redemption," 
 as connected with the opinion in question, and had our preacher 
 favoured us with some scriptural and decided views on this vital 
 subject, we should have been thankful. I can only discover one 
 or two remarks about confounding the terms redemption with 
 salvation, &c. We are then hurried on to its assumed adaptation 
 with future punishment. As we had been told the eternity of 
 future punishment "is not at variance with the scheme of redemp- 
 tion," we naturally expected some elucidation as to its object and 
 design. I, therefore, cannot say ' content !' We will however try 
 to supply this omission^ and shew the design and residt of the 
 incarnation and death of Jesus Christ from Scripture declarations, 
 which are clear and positive on this point. Our Lord said unto 
 Pilate, " To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into 
 the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." The 
 truth ! — what truth ? What truth is that to which our Sa- 
 viour says he came to bear witness ? Why, to the truth of 
 
 c 2 
 
36 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 onr holy religion, — to religion trnly such, — which is miserably 
 obscured by some vain and impious opinions and pretensions to 
 that name, but whose most glorious truth is, God's infinite 
 mercy and compassion to a fallen world of sinners, " for the Son 
 of man came to save that which was lost." (Matt, xviii. 11.) 
 Well, therefore, might the great Apostle call it '* a faithful say- 
 ing and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into 
 the world to save sinners." Again, in his epistle to Timothy, 
 after exhorting that prayer and supplication be made for all 
 men, he adds, " For this is good and acceptable in the sight of 
 God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved, (the origi- 
 nal word means restored) and to come to the knowledge of the 
 truth.*' (I Tim. ii. 3, 4.) This implies something more than 
 a mere wish, a desire, it is a positive decree, — an efficacious will 
 of God, — that all men shall be restored ; and the means provided 
 are equally certain, — their coming to the knowledge of the truth, 
 and '' we trust hi the living God, who is the saviour (restorer) of 
 all men, specially of those that believe." (I Tim. iv. 10.) Here 
 is declared, first, the election of all true believers to this special 
 salvation ; and, secondly, the general salvation — " the great 
 salvation'' — the ultimate restoration of all in some future dis- 
 pensation, for " He gave his life a ransom for all, to be testified 
 in due season." (I Tim. ii. 6.) The Scriptures every where 
 declare that Jesus Christ came to save (restore) all men, and 
 this is repeated in almost every page of the New Testament, yet 
 it is surprising that the expression of all men, a thousand times 
 repeated in Scripture, should make so little impression on the 
 minds of men ; while those of eternity, everlasting, for ever, are 
 received without restriction, though it is most evident they are 
 used in a limited sense, and spoken of and applied to things 
 long since ended. If this dogma of eternal torments were given 
 up, what a flood of light would burst upon the devout and pray- 
 erful Christian in his meditation and study of divine truth. 
 
 The result of the glorious plan of redemption is clearly indi- 
 cated by St. Paul, in the 5th chap. Romans, 12v. to the end, 
 and if the effects of the offence were universal, what may we not 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 37 
 
 expect from the free srift which is to exceed it, as appears from 
 those beautiful parallels of comparison of Adam's transgression 
 and the super-abounding of grace through Christ, " 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." It is worse than trifling to say 
 this only means that all men shall be raised into life at the re- 
 surrection, for what would follow if the free gift be limited to 
 this ? Why, that myriads of our fellow creatures would be 
 raised, and then doomed to eternal torments ! ! Would not 
 annihilation be an infinite mercy compared to such an issue ? 
 Again I ask, does such an idea bear any marks of the Divine 
 characteristics ? Once more, God, because of our Saviour's 
 obedience, humiliation, and suffering, " hath highly exalted 
 him, and given him a name which is above eveiy name, that at 
 the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, 
 and things in earth, and things under the earth, (the latin ver- 
 sion is infernum, those that are in hell) ; and that every tongue 
 should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God 
 the Father." (Phil. ii. 9 — 11.) Here the Apostle speaks of a 
 rational confession, — an act of intelligent beings, — an universal 
 genuflection, adoration, and confession. Now it is certain this 
 could not be to the glory of God if it were to be made by beings 
 that are to blaspheme with fiend-like rage for ever against the 
 Most High. " He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the 
 devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of 
 God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the 
 devil." (I. John iii. 8.) I ask, how are the works of the devil 
 destroyed (which means to abolish, or take away, disannul), if 
 sin audits consequences are perpetuated throughout all eternity ? 
 ^7id ivho is the conqueror in such an issue, Jesus Christ or Satan ? 
 We have here made known unto us the positive and express 
 purpose for which the Son of God appeared in a fallen world, 
 and how can we have the hardihood to assume that Infinite 
 Wisdom and Omnipotent Power shall not finally accomplish 
 His will ? " Behold the Lamb of God, who laketh away the sin 
 of the rcoi'ldr (John i. 29. 
 
38 
 
 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 Nothing is more opiDosite to Scripture and contrary to good 
 sense, than to Hmit the clemency and mercy of God to the span 
 of this life, which is only as the first hour of man's duration. 
 Will another mode of existing place him out of the reach of the 
 effects of a Goodness which is miinite and immutably the same ? 
 Doth the separation of the soul from the body make it cease to 
 be the work of God, — a work which he cannot forsake ? and the 
 Psalmist informs us, " He will not always chide, neither will 
 He keep his anger for ever." (ciii. 9.) 
 
 But whither tends all the wonderful proceedings oi justice and 
 mercy ? To the accomplishment of that authentic declaration, 
 " Every tongue shall give praise to God, and celebrate the good- 
 ness of the Lord, and his wondrous works towards the children 
 of men." Read the whole of the cvii. Ps. But enough. " I 
 know not (says the learned Dr. Burnet) how the doctrine of 
 eternal torments becomes so agreeable to certain severe and cruel 
 divines, who will not even bear that this point should be exam- 
 ined ; the time will come when this opinion will be as absurd 
 and ridiculous as transubstantiation." 
 
 Having supplied an omission on the part of the preacher, I 
 must confess it is utterly impossible for me to reconcile the above 
 full and explicit declarations of Holy Writ with the doctrine in 
 question. The reader will please adopt his own course. The 
 next paragraph, I think, clearly illustrates a position we have 
 noticed in the digression, namely, That when we attempt an ar- 
 gument, or to reason on a false principle, (the preacher is 
 grounding his reasoning on the eternity of punishment) great 
 confusion ensues, conflicting ideas, and false conclusions. A 
 distinction is made between redemption (of which, he says, all 
 are partakers) and salvation, — " that we have not the smallest 
 right to suppose, or even to conjecture, that because all men 
 have been redeemed, all will be finally saved" ! — " that redemp- 
 tion furnishes a vast argument in support of eternal punish- 
 ment" ! and much more to the same purport. Our inference is, 
 that as Christ died for us, therefore we are redeemed ; Christ 
 has redeemed us, therefore man must be restored ; and that the 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 39 
 
 wicked are condemned for a time, namely, from tlieir redemp- 
 tion Avrouj^ht, and its accomplishment. Their restitution ulti- 
 mately effected, contradicts in no degree the doctrine of free 
 grace, because these purposes shall be served in their condem- 
 nation by means of their pains and wretchedness ; and although 
 the redemption of the wicked be finished and infallible in itself, 
 yet that the application of such benefits to them individually 
 may be and is conditional as to the season and period of its being 
 so applied .• and although the final recovery of a fallen world 
 must follow, from the single fact of the death of Jesus Christ, 
 some period sooner or later, conditionally and accordingly as 
 they shall co-operate with the Divine influence, yet awfully and 
 bitterly will men reap the fruits of their own doings in resisting 
 such influence. Frail and ignorant man does indeed contend 
 withhis Maker, but he must one day yield up the contest \ finite 
 cannot frustrate the design and will of infinite. The Deity has 
 not bestowed a gift, moral agency, which he cannot control ; free 
 intelligencies may resist for a time, but God would not have aj) 
 absolute emi)ire over the heart, he would cease to be omnipo- 
 tent ; if he could not at last subdue the most rebellious of his 
 creatures without doing violence to their liberty, man must 
 finally '* be willing in the day of God's power." But let us 
 read on — 
 
 " As to the scheme of redemption, we believe that many now con- 
 found redemption and salvation, as though they meant the same 
 thing, or differed only in some unimportant particular. But re- 
 demption, of which all are partakers* (seeing that C/hrist gave him- 
 self *a ransom for all'), only puts men into a salvable state, or 
 
 * What jumbling it is to say that all men are partakers of redemption, 
 and at the same time to assume that 99 out of a 100 will remnin 
 eternally lost; it is a play upon words and nonsense; — limited salvation 
 procured by an infinite atonement is a palpable inconsistency. V^ by do 
 not divines revise the few, the very few, metaphorical expressions on which 
 they have based the horrid dogma of eternal miserj, and let their zeal fui 
 the Jledeemer, united witli the feelings of Christians, induce them to a2oj>^ 
 a milder interpretation by which all may be restored, and Christ's triumptw^ 
 over sin and misery be rendered complete and universal. 
 
40 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 makes their salvation possible. It does nothing more — it does not 
 make salvation certain. Salvation is not a necessary consequence 
 on redemption, though redemption is a necessary condition to sal- 
 vation. Redemption places certain blessings within your reach ; 
 but those blessings must be laid hold on, and appropriated by faith, 
 in order to salvation. You have, therefore, not the smallest right 
 to suppose, or even to conjecture, that because all men have been 
 redeemed, all will be finally saved. Nay, in place of thinking that 
 the fact of our redemption proves there can be no such thing as 
 everlasting punishment, I should be disposed to take this redemption 
 as furnishing a vast argument in support of its probability. It 
 seems to me as if unredeemed man had no power of sinning, when 
 compared with redeemed. It seems as though no angel, no devil, 
 could perpetrate an act deserving to be characterized as heinous and 
 desperate, when set side by side with what is daily wrought on this 
 earth. The " treading under foot the Son of God," the " counting 
 the blood of the covenant an unholy thing" — this which only man 
 can do, this which perhaps only man would do, must be more 
 criminal than any other imaginable act — the manifestation of a 
 blacker ingratitude and deadlier enmity. Redemption has just made 
 it possible to commit a sin immeasurably deeper and darker, than 
 he could ever have committed had he not been the object of the 
 Mediator's interference, or could be committed amongst other 
 orders of being, who never needed, or never experienced, so won- 
 drous a display of the love of their Maker. There can be no sin 
 rivalled in its turpitude by that of despising and rejecting the 
 crucified Saviour. And therefore, forasmuch as the fact of our 
 redemption may enable us to be immense in our guiltiness, I know 
 not why it should be thought to furnish any argument against our 
 being eternally under punishment. Oh ! you may think, that so 
 much would never have been done for us had not God designed and 
 fixed our everlasting happiness. You appeal to the humdiation of 
 the Son of God ; you appeal to His agonies ; you appeal to His 
 wounds ; you appeal to His death. And I also appeal to these. 
 I appeal to His humiliation, as not subduing man's pride ; I appeal 
 to His agonies, as not exciting man's sympathies ; I appeal to His 
 wounds, as producing no hatred of sin ; I appeal to His death, as 
 followed by no faith in His propitiation. And in place of arguing 
 from the humiliation, the agonies, the wounds, the death, that 
 
 Y' 
 
 urd^i/c^ /(t.^^^ /^^-.^-xf^;*^ y^t^^-^^Sa.'^i'^S*^:!^:^ 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 41 
 
 because they have been endured they must ensure us happiness, I 
 wouhl rather argue that because they may be despised they may 
 entail upon us wretchedness.* Yes, I go with you to Gethsemane 
 and to Calvary ; I travel with you over the hallowed ground ; I 
 mark the amazing conflict ; I hear the mysterious cry ; and I return 
 with an overpowering feeling, that to reject the Mediator must be 
 to perpetrate a sin which no thought can measure, no penalty 
 surpass, and therefore with a strengthened conviction that the Bible 
 is to be understood literally, when it says of the wicked that * their 
 worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.' " 
 
 We shall not now stop to offer any lengthened observations, 
 as we purpose to speak of the design and result of future 
 punishment in a separate letter, but content ourselves with 
 soma passing remarks as we proceed. We are not to consider 
 God in the light of an arbitrary legislator, making positive 
 laws, and promising rewards or threatening punishment to 
 those that obey or disobey, in order to enforce his laws. The 
 eternal love of order is not an arbitrary law, it flows necessarily 
 in the nature of things from the Divine essence ; all who follow 
 this eternal law must be happy, their reward is not arbitrary, 
 God cannot but manifest his communicative goodness to those 
 who love and obey him. JVeither are hell and dam7iatio?i arbi- 
 trary punishmetits ,- they are natural and necessary conse- 
 quences of alienation and separation from God, and so long as 
 we resist the Divine action in us, so long they must last. Man 
 therefore, punishes himself by his opposition and resistance to 
 the Divine nature. It is humanizing and degrading the Deity 
 to suppose that he can be offended by our crimes, or his glory 
 added to by our virtues ; he is interested in the one and the 
 other only in so far as the former retard, and the latter advance, 
 the supreme happiness of our nature. To return to the 
 sermon — 
 
 " But we must advance a step further. Allowing that we have no 
 right to conclude that because all men have been redeemed all will 
 
 * Most certainly, sucli obduracy must do so j no one can doubt it ; but 
 this is not the point contiovcrled. Why was the word eternal omitted here 1 
 
42 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 be finally saved, it may be argued, that the known attributes of 
 
 God — His justice, for example, and His goodness — are opposed to 
 
 the supposition of His consigning His creatures to everlasting 
 
 wretchedness. Let us examine this with some measure of attention. 
 
 We suppose you all will admit, that in perfect consistence with His 
 
 justice and goodness, God may appoint some measure and period 
 
 of punishment to impenitent sinners. This is only allowing him to 
 
 be the moral Governor of His creatures. He ceases to be such a 
 
 governor if he do not rule by laws, or if when those laws are fixed 
 
 He do not vindicate their authority. But if He punish. He must 
 
 punish only, you think, for a finite period ; it w ould be unjust or 
 
 unmerciful, or both, to extend the punishment throughout eternity. 
 
 Now this assumes, that the ends of punishment will be answered 
 
 and satisfied in a finite period ; if not, of course that punishment 
 
 will be protracted through an infinite. And who is there among 
 
 you, who will undertake to prove that the ends of punishment will 
 
 be answered, if, after a given time, that punishment come to a close ? 
 
 What are the ends of punishment ?* Not the gratification of any 
 
 vindictive feehng in the breast of the ruler — not the repair of any 
 
 injury done personally, nor the payment of any debt due personally 
 
 to the ruler. The great ends of punishment are the maintenance 
 
 of the sacredness of the laws — the striking a wholesome terror into 
 
 those who would be encouraged to imitation by the impunity of 
 
 criminals, and the securing the well-being of the loyal and the 
 
 obedient. Why, men talk of future punishment, as though sinners 
 
 had a certain fine to pay, of which every day's suff"ering exhausted 
 
 some fraction. They forget that they are punished for the sake of 
 
 the general goodf — punished that there may be a full demonstration 
 
 to all orders of God's intelligent creatures, of the hatefulness of 
 
 transgression, and that other beings who might be tempted to rebel 
 
 may be confirmed in obedience by the fearful consequences of 
 
 * With God, first, the separation of sin from the sinner ; and, fioallv, his 
 restoration and recovery to himself,^^.^ *-^^^^WccA^^30^/ CfC*/6 . 
 
 t What, are myriads of our fellow creatures to be exiiibited by God in 
 eternal torments for the good of others, and that only ? Jo assume such a 
 fact as this, is worse than humanizing the Deity ; it is demtmizing Iliuj. 
 No, no, such an idea we cannot entertain a moment. It wants the marks 
 of the Divine characterisitcs. 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 43 
 
 breaking the commandment. There is no vindictiveness in God. 
 God does not punish in order that he may wring out from the suf- 
 fering of the sinner some tribute which has been withheld, or paid 
 but in part. If the question between God and the sinner were only 
 some personal debt which God might remit, or some personal claim 
 which he might forego, it would perhaps be hard to find a reason 
 why God might not pardon without punishing at all. But there 
 could not be a falser view of the case. God does not punish, if the 
 expression be lawful, in his private capacity, but altogether in His 
 public, as the universal Lord, the moral Governor of the countless 
 tribes with which he has peopled immensity. In this capacity He 
 acted, when he refused to pardon without a propitiation, demanding 
 that precious blood should be shed ere He would extend forgive- 
 ness to men. It was not that he delighted in blood — it was only 
 that he had to uphold the majesty of His violated law, and to give 
 an impressive lesson to all parts of His empire as to his hatred of 
 sin and His resolve to take vengeance." 
 
 Yes, from His boundless love to the sinner, He resolves to 
 pursue sin with vengeance — with all sorts of pain and torment, 
 till it is separated and annihilated from his creatures, and so 
 long as they are obdurate — so long will infinite mercy contend, 
 but this will not last for ever, omnipotent power and infinite 
 wisdom must finally overcome finite impotence and human 
 folly. Sometimes the reasoning of the preacher runs as if we 
 denied the certom/y of future punishment; whereas " the only 
 thing debated is whether future misery will be everlasting — 
 the single question to which we are to seek a satisfactory an- 
 swer;" and we think his position very faulty in some other respects, 
 for what idea are we to connect with the expression, " an 
 eternity of retribution," the notion of endless torments? He 
 proceeds, — 
 
 "And precisely the same is to be advanced in regard of the future 
 punishment of those who die impenitent. It is in His capacity of 
 universal Governor, it is with a view to the general good of His 
 intelligent creation, that God gives up the obdurate to the fire and 
 the worm ; and you must show me that it would be for the general 
 good — at least, that it would not be for the general injury — to 
 
44 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 release sinners at some time or another from their wretchedness, ere 
 you can show tliat God woukl act contrary to His character were 
 lie to make that wretchedness everlasting.* But this you can 
 never show ; you can never prove that it may not be advantageous 
 to God's intelligent creatures, that there should be a perpetual ex- 
 hibition of the consequences of disobedience." 
 
 We do not attempt to disprove that disobedience produces 
 wretchedness, for it is mercifully ordained that sin, while it 
 exists, inevitably occasions misery, but we deny the perpetuity — 
 the eternity — of this state of things ; the experience of man's 
 having bitterly known what evil is will serve to confirm him in 
 the good, although all evil and its consequences shall have 
 ceased ; and what man, who has the least pretence to justice or 
 humanity, would wish to purchase a transient good at the ex- 
 pense of, or under the possibility of involving others in eternal 
 torments ! ! But the preacher says, — 
 
 " It may he, that the t wretchedness of lost spirits will minister to 
 the steadfastness of God's subjects in the various sections df His 
 unlimited empire. Who, then, can say, that it will not be essential 
 to the general good that this wretchedness should be for ever ?" 
 
 And it may not he ; one supposition is as good as another, — 
 that is, good for nothing as an argument, yet no other end than 
 this can be supposed for the opinion of eternal misery, for those 
 who hold the doctrine of endless punishment, hold also, that 
 the sufferings of the damned can make no satisfaction for their 
 sins, nor conduce to their benefit. What end then can be 
 answered by this eternal punishment ? It cannot be profitable 
 to angels or saints, who are perfectly confirmed in a holy and 
 happy state, for if their state be then fixed it can receive no 
 addition in these respects. It cannot be profitable to them 
 that suflTer, for their state (according to this opinion) can never 
 be bettered, if they are for ever to remain in an unalterable 
 state of sin and misery. And can we believe that God will 
 
 * To a candid erKjuiring mind we hope we have done tins, but we fea' 
 the preacher's tenacity is too much for us. 
 
 t Why is the word *' eternal" again omitted, wliich is the pith of the 
 controversy. 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 45 
 
 inflict a punishment that can produce no good end, either to 
 saints or sinners ? or that He will make any — not to say the 
 greatest part of his creatures — eteimally miserable, for no other 
 end than to show His implacability, and make His power known 
 in their '• immortal wretchedness.'" The opinion is too mon- 
 strous to be received. It destroys all our ideas of God and 
 wants the stamp of the Divine characteristic, therefore none of 
 the preacher's hypothetical considerations are admissible ; for 
 if we admit that to be done by infinite goodness which is an 
 inconceivable evil to some of his creatures — the infliction of 
 eternal misery — for the advantage of some others, merely on the 
 ground that for aught we know, it may be " essential to the 
 general good that this wretchedness should be for ever," we 
 can never then argue any thing from the Divine goodness, — it 
 can never then be proved that God hath not made some of his 
 creatures on purpose that they might be miserable. And, if it 
 may he " that the eternal wretchedness of lost spirits will min- 
 ister to the steadfastness of God's subjects," it can never be 
 concluded from the consideration of the Divine goodness that he 
 will not annihilate the pure and spotless angels ! and if to say, 
 for aught we know, it may be essential for the general good 
 that some should be miserable for ever, and *• it may be,' some 
 annihilated for the good of others, then I say, we shall never 
 be able to prove any thing from this, or any other attribute of 
 Deity. And if it be enough to answer an argument to say, it 
 may be thus and thus for aught we know, when there is not the 
 least sign or appearance of any such thing, — the7i nothing can 
 he proved, and we are condemned to complete pyrrhonism. 
 We shall never, for instance, from the order, beauty, and wise 
 contrivance of things that do appear, prove there is a God, if it 
 were sufficient to answer, that things are indeed so made in 
 this earth on which we live, hut it may be they are framed very 
 oddly, ridiculously, and incongruous in some other worlds which 
 we know nothing of. If this be arguing, then any thing might 
 be answered. But to return — 
 " And if it he essential to the general good, who again will say. 
 
46 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 that it would not consist with the attributes of the universal Ruler 
 to make it eternal ? •' What !' I hear one of you exclaim, * is the 
 general good to be sought by injustice to an individual ? is a man 
 to be punished beyond his deserts, in order that he may furnish a 
 continued lesson to other orders of being ?' Nay, but, O man, 
 who speaks of a punishment exceeding desert ? I have spoken only 
 of what must be the ends of punishment under such a government 
 as the Divine ; I have contended only that until these ends are 
 accomplished it cannot be at variance, but must be in accordance 
 with the character of the Governor, to continue punishment. The 
 desert of a crime, its proper retribution, is exactly what is required 
 for the general good that the criminal should endure. Any other 
 definition of desert must proceed on some vain idea of injury done 
 personally to the Ruler, which is to be precisely repaid by the suf- 
 ferings exacted from the offender ; and such a definition it is not 
 worth while to stop to prove false, though we should be quite ready 
 to meet the popular idea, and examine the objection as it is com- 
 monly put. There is a disproportion, you think, between sin and 
 its punishment ; sin must be finite, its punishment is infinite. Do 
 you mean to say that the guilt of sin must be finite, because sin is 
 committed in a finite time and by a finite being ? But remember 
 that it is committed against an infinite Being;; and may it not 
 derive, from the immenseness of Him of whose law it is an infrac- 
 tion, an immenseness of criminality, which shall render necessary 
 an eternity of retribution F" 
 
 Moat decidedly we da affirm that sin is a Jinite ofFence, be- 
 cause it is the act of a finite being. It is false philosophy and 
 falser divinity, and the most illogical idea possible, to say other- 
 wise, for it is an indisputable rule in logic that no effect can be 
 greater than its cause,, but here we have the idea of a finite cause 
 producing an infinite effect ! ! and if sin be an infinite offence, 
 because it is committed against an infinite being, then all sins 
 are infinite, hence the distinction and degrees of crime are lost. 
 The criminality of man is in proportion to the extent of his 
 knowledge, therefore he must possess infinite knowledge before 
 he can commit an infinite offence ; and if he can commit an 
 infinite offence, he can effect an infinite good ! It is absurd and 
 a contradiction in terms to say that a finite being can do an 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTEK TRUTH. 47 
 
 infinite act, for the total — the acrgregate of all finite never can 
 amount to infinity. I beg here to insert an extract (from South- 
 wood Smith, M.D.) " on the Divine Government," He says — 
 " The advocates of this extraordinary opinion (the eternity of 
 of punishment) endeavour to establish it by an argument no 
 less singular than the doctrine itself. Sin, they say, is an infi- 
 nite evil because it is committed against an infinite person ; the 
 heinousness of an offence, they contend, increases in proportion 
 to the dignity of the personage against whom it is committed, 
 hence a crime against a king is always visited with greater 
 severity of punishment than an offence against an ordinary per- 
 son. Since, therefore, God is infinite, and since every sin is 
 an offence against God, every sin is an infinite evil. The full 
 reply to this reasoning is, that it is not rank or station which 
 aggravates a crime, but its tendency to occasion misery ; an 
 offence against a king, it is true, is of a greater magnitude and 
 is punished with more severity than the injurious treatment of 
 an ordinary person, but the reason is, that an off*ence against a 
 king is likely to be attended with worse consequences than one 
 against a private person. If a king be treated with insult or 
 injustice, a whole nation may be injured and thrown into com- 
 motion. In the one case, the evil attaches to a single indivi- 
 dual ; in the other, to millions of people ; in the one case, 
 therefore, it is much greater than the other, as the sum of an 
 evil which extends to millions exceeds that which attaches only 
 to a single individual. Besides, were sin an infinite evil, there 
 could be no degree in transgression, for when speaking of infi- 
 nity it is absurd to talk of greater or less; all human actions, 
 therefore, all the language of mankind, all laws, human and 
 divine, and all punishments contradict this opinion, for they all 
 proceed upon the principle, that some crimes are of greater 
 magnitude than others. We know, too, that Deity distin- 
 guishes in the most exact manner between different offences ; 
 that he apportions to each an equitable degree of punishment, 
 and that he who has sinned greatly shall be beaten with many, 
 and he who has offended less with fewer stripes. Indeed, it is. 
 
48 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 when we con^iidor the minute shades by which different 
 sins and even different characters are discriminated, 
 that we perceive in the most forcible manner the im- 
 possibility both of the doctrine of endless misery and of limited 
 punishment ierniinated by destruction. How slight is the dif- 
 ference between the worst good man and the best wicked man, 
 how impossible it is for the utmost exertion of human sagacity 
 to distinquish between them, yet for this imperceptible difference 
 in character, tliere is, according to these doctrines, an infinite 
 difference in destiny ; he who is lowest in the scale of goodness, 
 and who differs from the best wicked man only by the slightest 
 shade, is admitted to infinite happiness ; he in whom wickedness 
 preponderates upon the whole, but in so small a degree that no 
 human penetration can discover it, is shut out from the enjoy- 
 ment of heaven, doomed by one doctrine to inconceivable tor- 
 ments through endless ages, and by the other to dreadful suf- 
 ferings for a very protracted period, and then to endless extinc- 
 tion of being ; according to one opinion, the positive torment^ 
 according? to the other, the positive loss^ is infinite ! yet the 
 difference in desert is indistinguishable ! This is a dispropor- 
 tion to which there is no parallel in any of the works of Deity, 
 and which cannot exist, it is reasonable to believe, in any of His 
 dispensations." But to return to the sermon — 
 
 " Besides, does not the condemned sinner go on sinning ? What, 
 think you, is the society of hell ? Is there a godly sorrow there ? 
 is there contrition ? is there repentance ? Know ye not the sen- 
 tence (the voice of the living God hath pronounced it) — ' He that 
 is unjust let him be unjust still, and he that is filthy let him be 
 filthy still.' Therefore the vices, the passions, the uncleanness of 
 earth must, in one way or other, be perpetuated in hell. Oh ! the 
 anarchy, the blasphemy, the fierce and fiend-like dissoluteness of a 
 place into which shall be carried all that even now, goes far towards 
 turning into a pandemonium this redeemed, this blood-bought 
 creation ! Thus those who are tossing in the troubled abyss shall 
 be continually committing fresh sin, and therefore continually 
 deserving fresh punishment. So that, even if your hypothesis were 
 correct, that the penalty incurred by sins here on this earth must 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 49 
 
 be exhausted in a finite period, would there not be fresh penalties 
 <lenianded in a yet further period ? and when these were wrung out, 
 would there not be another set requiring another age of woe ? and 
 are you not thus travelling on, from one period to another, till you 
 are lost in the calculation, and yet are as far off as at first from the 
 close?" J^.,^^.01^ ^U-^ Ct^o^^^^t^ ^ 
 
 From whence does the preacher obtain all this minute infor- 
 mation ? Certainly not from Scripture. The powers of 
 imagination are truly fertile ; however we cannot but think it 
 very like beating the air, it is darkening counsel with words 
 without know'ledge, and strange indeed thus to speak of " this 
 redeemed^ this hlood-bouglit creation^' if this is to be its con- 
 dition as long as God exists ! Again, we observe, how true it 
 is, that when we attempt to reason from a fahe principle the 
 consequences are conflicting and absurd. Take one instance 
 among many others : if the foregoing statement of the eternity 
 of hell torments be true, we must conclude upon one of two 
 things ,• either, that God cannot put an end to sin and its 
 consequences, or that He will not. If He cannot do this, He 
 ceases to be omnipotent ; if He will not, He must approve of 
 it. Hence we are thrown upon the two horns of a dilemma 
 they are rather sharp ones, (and no alternative) — upon which 
 shall we rest ? There is evidently some uneasiness manifested, 
 and no wonder, for the preacher says — 
 
 " I shall, perhaps, hear something about mercy; I shall be told that 
 such a love as the Divine will surely interpose, and finally deliver 
 those over whom we know it has yearned. But bethink yourselves, 
 that with such a Being as God, there can be no sphere for mercy 
 which is not made by justice. It must be the vainest of all 
 thoughts, (for it is supposing a want of harmony amongst the attri- 
 butes of a Being every way perfect,) that which a longer punish- 
 ment would be just it will be curtailed and contracted. Oh ! build 
 upon anything, sooner than on the hollow expectation that God's 
 tenderness is that effeminate sentiment which is not proof against 
 suffering, and which sooner than allow pain would sacrifice truth." 
 
 It is God's tender love for his creatures that i)ermits pain 
 
 D 
 
50 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 and suffering to overtake the sinner, for the express purpose ot 
 detaching him from his sin. All punishment, under the Divine 
 government, is the chastisement and correction of a Father 
 towards disobedient children, — subduing in its effect and bene- 
 ficial in its result, because it is infinite love contending with 
 finite error and folly ^ clearing the way for the manifestation of 
 the superabounding grace of God through Jesus Christ. Again 
 we read — 
 
 "I know that * God is love;' I know that thought cannot mea- 
 sure His love ; high as the highest heaven, deep as the deepest 
 depths, wide as the east from the west, it occupieth the universe 
 and embraceth whatsoever liveth. It is love of Himself; it is love 
 of His Son ; it is love of the innumerable tribes, which hang on His 
 bounty and celebrate His praise ; — it is not the love of a solitary 
 and sinful race alone, though that race has its full share in the 
 amiable feeling. And if it be love of Himself, love of His Son, 
 love of innumerable intelligent tribes, as well of that single race to 
 which we belong, dare I calculate on a tenderness, which will not 
 suffer me to be tormented, though in rescuing me from the tor- 
 mentor He must perhaps compromise those perfections which He 
 loves, put a slight on the sacrifice of that Son whom He loves, and 
 endanger the well-being of those countless tribes whom He loves?* 
 Yes ; reckon on God's love till you expect it so to act that His 
 attributes shall be forgotten. His threatenings falsified. His oath 
 disregarded ; but remember, that then you are reckoning on a love 
 which would be worse than a weakness. And judge ye how long 
 hell must last, if it be a love such as this which is to bring it to a 
 close ; judge ye, whether it must not be literally an eternity which 
 is denoted by the expression, * Where their worm dieth not, and 
 the fire is not quenched.' " 
 
 • Here, again, we perceive that hydra-headed iDonster opinion (the 
 eternity of hell torments) raising its ghastly front in the inconsistent infe- 
 rences of this hypothetical tirade, and in supposing the endless misery of 
 some in God's creation is required for the benefit of others ! that one man 
 is made miserable merely for the advantage of another, and that only ! Is 
 not such an idea of God's acting most irrational, and can it be exempt 
 from the utmost cruelty and injustice ? 
 
yr- 
 
 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 51 
 
 No, sir ! we will not presume to" judge how long- hell must 
 last ;'"this is not within the province of man's judgment, although 
 the preacher has peremptorily done so in declaring it to be 
 eternal, but God only knows " how long." The eternity or 
 non-eternity of it is a question within our sphere of thinking, 
 and we say to every reflecting man, ""judge ye,''— judge ye, 
 if ye will, which opinion squares with those plain, incontestable, 
 self-evident truths revealed in Scripture, and which of these 
 two opinions hears the stamp of the Divine characteristics. 
 
 The remainder of the sermon is taken up in its application 
 to the charitable claims of King's College Hospital, and is 
 ingenious enough with the impassioned style of the speaker, 
 and is accompanied by one or two apologies, but I do not 
 think it needful to trouble you with the same. /? . ^ , '^ 
 
 
52 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 Deak Sir, 
 
 The design and jinal result of future punishment having 
 been pretty freely discussed and shewn in the preceding letters , 
 a few observations may suffice in conclusion of our enquiry. 
 
 God said respecting David, through the prophet Nathan, " I 
 will be his Father, and he shall be my son ; if he commit 
 iniquity, I will chastise him with the rod of men, and with the 
 stripes of the children of men, hut my mercy shall not depart 
 from liim.'''' This is precisely the procedure of God in regard 
 to his creatures universally, and is an intimation of his conduct 
 to all mankind. He does not act from one principle to-day, 
 and an opposite one to-morrow. '^ He is the same yesterday, 
 to-day, and for ever ;" and the *' liord will not cast off for 
 ever, but though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion 
 according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not 
 afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men, to crush under 
 his feet all the prisoners of the earth." Lam. iii, 31 — 34. And 
 let it be remembered, that the proper tendency and the final 
 cause of evils and sufferings in this present state are to do us 
 good, they are a suitably adapted mean to this end, and the all- 
 wise, merciful Govei-nor of the world makes use of them as 
 such ; the voice of reason and experience confirm this, and 
 Scripture concurs herewith in speaking of the punishment, 
 evils, or suffering, which it pleases God to bring upon the sons 
 of men as a proper discipline and chastisement, in order to 
 humble, subdue, and bring down, that good may result in their 
 ■final issue. Numerous intimations to this purport are scattered 
 all over the Bible. Note the Ixxxix. Psalm, 30 — 33, — *' If his 
 children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments ; if 
 they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments ; then 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 53 
 
 -will I visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity 
 with stripes. Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly 
 take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail." And if pun- 
 ishment and suffering, correction and chastisement in this life, 
 are mercifully intended for the good of iht patients themselves^ 
 why not in the next life .^ Is the character of God, as the 
 Father of mercies and God of pity and grace, limited to this 
 world only ? Why are we not to suppose, that the intinitely 
 benevolent Deity is the same good God in the other world as 
 in this ? and that He has the same kind and good intentions in 
 the punishment of the next state that He has in this, namely, 
 the benefit and profit of the sufferers themselves ? But St. Paul 
 has decided this point in his epistle to the Hebrews, — "Fur- 
 thermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, 
 and we gave them reverence : shall we not much rather be in 
 subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live ? For they 
 verily for a few days chastened us after their ov/n pleasure ; 
 hut He for our profit, that we might he partakers of His 
 holiness:' — xii. 9, 10. And our Lord has feelingly illustra- 
 ted and taught us how to argue from this relation, — "If ye 
 then being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, 
 how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good 
 things to them that ask him.'' Think, therefore, what is, or 
 ought to be, the disposition and conduct of fathers on earth ; 
 though they are evil to their offspring, they readily do them 
 good as they are able while they behave suitably, and as readily 
 chastise them for their profit when they need correction ; but 
 they do not put off the bowels of fathers, and punish their 
 children without pity, having no view to their indimdual 
 advantage. What an opinion should we form of those parents 
 who should inflict pain and suffering on their own children, 
 without any intention or desire to promote their welfare thereby 
 in any degree ? And shall we entertain such an idea of our 
 Father in heaven (who instead of being evil as all earthly 
 fathers are, more or less, is infinitely good) which we cannot 
 suppose of any father on earth, 'till we have divested him of th<i 
 
54 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 heart of a father ? Can it reasonably be conceived, that that 
 God who calls mankind His offspring without exception, and 
 himself their Father, should torment them eternally and without 
 any intention or design to do them the least imaginable good, 
 as must be the case if the opinion of never-ending misery be 
 true ? Once more I ask, Does such an idea bear any marks 
 of the Divine characteristics ? 
 
 I have to give you some reasons, why I cannot at present 
 receive as a truth the opinion of the eternity of future punish- 
 ment. And, first, I affirm, that " the fair and candid interpre- 
 tation of the statements of Scripture" do not teach such a 
 doctrine ; and we think we have made this clearly evident : 
 as also, secondly. That such an opinion is diametrically at 
 variancCy both with the " scheme of redemption, and with the 
 known attributes of God." And I ask, upon what basis the 
 proofs alleged to support the eternity of hell torments are 
 founded ? Why purely upon some three or four ambiguous words 
 and equivocal expressions of " everlasting," " for ever," " the 
 worm that dieth not," &:c. and which, as has been demonstrated, 
 may be taken in different senses. But what are the supports 
 of the contrary opinion, — *' the restitution of all things, which 
 God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since 
 the world began" ? Acts iii, 21. Those very plain, incontes- 
 table, unchangeable truths (see digression in Letter II.) which 
 are the basis of all religion ; and were I to illustrate this more 
 fully, I must transcribe the whole Bible, from the first promise 
 recorded in Genesis, " The seed of the woman shall bruise the 
 serpent's head," to the final doxology of all beings, as stated 
 in the Revelations, for the whole scope and design of Scripture 
 is to show forth the ultimate triumph and glorious result of 
 the incarnation and death of our Lord and Restorer^ Jesus 
 Christ The apostle Paul in his first epistle to the Corinthians, 
 (xv. 22 — 28) has most clearly pointed out with great force and 
 detail this truth. That Jesus Christ came to restore all things ; 
 but if he saves only a small number, all things are so far from 
 being restored that there would be but a handful so favoured, 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 55 
 
 whilst the many would continue eternally in disorder and 
 misery ! No sooner did Adam fall, but the promise of 
 salvation was made to him, and in him, to all his posterity. The 
 Apostle is very express on this point, I Cor. xv. 22 — " As in 
 Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive." And what 
 the Apostle subjoins is a proof that this will occur at very diffe- 
 rent periods. " But every man (says he) in his own order : 
 Christ the first-fruits ; afterwards they that are Christ's at his 
 coming." It is plain that by this coming he means the last 
 judgment, and by those that are Christ's the souls of the just; 
 nevertheless, he afterwards speaks of another future period^ 
 which he calls the end, v. 24 — " Then cometh the end, when 
 he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father." 
 But what is this end ? That all things shall be subdued unto 
 him — 28. Is this a forced or a willing subjection? If the 
 former, he would never speak of it as a thing to come, because 
 from the foundation of the world all things are subject to him ; if 
 the latter, then there is no more hell ; and what follows seems to 
 prove this very clearly — " The last enemy that shall be destroy- 
 ed is death." Is the separation of the soul from the body the 
 death here meant ? No ; for after the coming of Christ there is 
 no room for death ; besides, this separation is not what the 
 Scripture calls death, which is only termed sleeps and particu- 
 larly in this chapter, where the Apostle never speaks of the 
 dead but under the idea of persons falling asleep ; and what he 
 here calls death, " the great death," (II Cor. i. 10) is a separa- 
 tion from God, which was the death spoken of to Adam, "in 
 the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," and 
 without this death there would be no hell, so that when it is 
 destroyed hell will be no more. Another proof that the death 
 here mentioned is not temporal death is, that St. Paul ranks it 
 with the enemies of God, over whom Jesus Christ shall reign 
 till they are all destroyed ; but temporal death, far from being of 
 the number of his enemies, is an agent of his power, employed 
 in executing his orders. It is the spiritual death which is called 
 enmity against God, — a rebellion of the creature against the 
 
56 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTE, 
 
 Creator ; it is this death to which the title of enemy perfectly 
 agrees. Again, let us observe, that St. Paul supposes this 
 enemy shall subsist even after Christ's coming, and that he shall 
 reign till it is destroyed, abolished, as well as all rule and au- 
 thority and power, (v. 54.) It is evident these titles of rule, &c. 
 can refer only to the power of darkness and the sovereignty of 
 the devil, since all earthly dominion shall then have had an end. 
 But what then is the design of destroying all those enemies? It 
 answers an end worthy of Infinite \visdom, that of reuniting to 
 himself all his creatures by a voluntary subjection, after having 
 reigned over them with a rod of iron, and consumed them as 
 wicked men in his wrath. Then the Son shall deliver up the 
 mediatorial kingdom to his Father, that God may he all and 
 in all.'*' 
 
 These last words seem to me indisputably to prove the total 
 abolition of sin and hell, and the final restoration of the creatures, 
 which is further confirmed by the exclamation of St. Paul, *' O 
 death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ?" 
 If death and the grave have no sting but sin, and this sting must 
 be destroyed, does it not hence follow that hell must be destroy- 
 ed also ? since it is certain, that if sin were annihilated in man, 
 there would be no more hell. But not to stop here, let us see 
 whether the Scriptures do not teach the same truth in other 
 places. St. Paul, in the first of Colossians, declares what was 
 the good pleasure of God in sending His Son into the world. 
 " For it pleased the Father (says he) that in him should all 
 fulness dwell ; that by him (v. 20) he might reconcile all things 
 to himself ; whether they be things in heaven, or things on 
 earth." Observe here an universal reconciliation of all the crea- 
 tures to God, a truth as clearly revealed in verse 15. In 
 the first of Ephesians the same truth is declared, (v. 9, 10) 
 mention is made of the mystery of the will of God, which he 
 had hitherto kept to himself, and what is this mystery ? *' To 
 
 * 'Jhese words would have no sense if hell torments were eternal, God 
 can never be all ami in all but by restoring the order of things. 
 
AN INQtJIRY AFTER TRUTH, 57 
 
 gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in 
 heaA'en, and which are on earth; even in him." And when will 
 He do this ? " in the dispensation of the fulness of time ;" that 
 is to say, when all things shall be subjected to him, and when 
 He shall be exalted above all principalities and powers, and dig- 
 nities and dominion, and above every name that is named both 
 in this life and that which is to come. The same Apostle, in 
 xi. Romans, declares a great mysteiy, that those who before had 
 rebelled against God and been cut off because of their unbelief, 
 should be again grafted in and finally obtain mercy, for he adds, 
 " God hath included them all in unbelief." What for? That 
 he might send them to eternal torments ? No, no ! — " That 
 he might have mercy on all." Well might the Apostle make 
 the exclamation, (wherein much more is understood than ex- 
 pressed) " Oh the depth both of the riches and wisdom of God ; 
 how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding 
 out. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath 
 been his counsellor ?" Let us remark here the relation these 
 words bear to those quoted from I. Ephes. , concerning the will 
 of God, which till now he had kept within his own breast, and 
 which is nothing but the thought of a Saviour, or the design he 
 has conceived of mercy to all, which is evident from the con- 
 clusion, " For of him, and by him, and for him, are all things." 
 It would be easy to quote still a great many more other pas- 
 sages to the same purpose, as Heb. ii. 9, where it is said that 
 '* Jesus Christ tasted death for all menV and elsewhere, *' That 
 he is made the propitiation for the sins of the whole world f 
 and in the ii. of Philp., '' That every knee should bow at the 
 name of Jesus, of things in heaven," &c. We mil only dwell a 
 little on the last verses of the v. Romans, that are very clear and 
 decided, where the Apostle compares Jesus Christ to Adam, 
 as also the fruits we reap from each, '* As by one man sin en- 
 tered into the world, and death by sin ; so that death is passed 
 upon all men. In like manner by the righteousness of one, the 
 free gift is come upon all men to justification of life ;" for he 
 adds, " As by the disobedience of one, many," &c. The word 
 
58 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 many in this place undoubtedly comprehends all men ; all men 
 were made sinners by Adam, therefore all oug-lit to be made 
 righteous by Jesus Christ ,- and here we may justly apply that 
 excellent, but abused text, " Where sin did abound, grace did 
 much more abound." That is, the grace of Jesus Christ is so 
 abundant that it shall at last destroy in all mankind the sins 
 they inherited from Adam, so that as sin has reigned unto 
 death, in like manner grace shall reign by righteousness unto 
 eternal life ; as if he had said, the reign of sin and death must 
 come to an end, to make room for that of grace through all 
 eternity. 
 
 I believe, sir, it would be quite superflous to add more au- 
 thorities to those we have considered, since those include the 
 most clear aud distinct intimation concerning the design and 
 result of the incarnation and death o/" Jesus Christ. 
 
 We may just observe, that all those numerous passages in 
 the Psalms, that speak of the anger of God as enduring but a 
 moment, and His mercy as enduring for ever, are against the 
 doctrine oieternal misery. Mercy respects the objects of misery, 
 as the etymology of the word shows. Now, if this mercy is 
 wholly confined to this short Hfe (which is but a moment), and 
 the wrath of God pursues sinners, who die such, through all 
 eternity, then we may reverse the words and say, His mercy 
 endureth but a moment, but His wrath endureth for ever ! ! 
 
59 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 Dear Sie, 
 
 I CANNOT receive the opinion in question as a truth, because 
 it seems to me contrary to practical religion. God hath com- 
 manded us to pray for all men, even our enemies, that they 
 might be saved, and to pray for it without doubting, (I Tim. ii. 
 1 — 8.) How can those do so who believe in endless misery ? 
 God hath commanded us to love all men, but if he hates and 
 will damn to all eternity millions of mankind, why should I love 
 all ? Must we be more perfect than our Creator ? We are 
 conmianded io forgive all men upon pain of not being forgiven 
 if we do not, but the opinion of endless torments teaches that 
 God will never forgive all men ! We are commanded to do 
 good to all men, but the doctrine of endless misery informs me 
 that though God does good to the unjust in this life for a few 
 days, His mercy will change, and he will utterly forsake them 
 eternally at death ! I ask, how can that opinion be true which 
 so plainly contradicts all these His commands ? 
 
 Note the following extract from a very learned and critical 
 work, " Universal Restitution, a Scriptural Doctrine,'' writ- 
 ten by Dr. Stonehouse, formerly rector of Islington, He says, 
 " Of Damnation and Restoration. All men, as sons oiAdam, 
 are under doom of ceonian death ; all men, as heirs of Christ, 
 are destined to cBonian life ; but then this life being in Christ 
 only as the root, must first be by him quickened in man before 
 that man can live, and this quickening is his Restoration, when 
 we are begotten of God ; then only are we restored, by having 
 a new spiritual life begotten in us, by being quickened in Christ's 
 feonian Hfe, i. e., by being new begotten by our second Adayn, 
 as really as we were before of our natural parent. But then 
 where this regenerating does not happen before the day of the 
 divine wrath is disclosed, there is damnation, or the being 
 
60 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRTJTH. 
 
 condemned to the suffering of that wrath ; as the reverse of this 
 is salcation, or the being saved from the power of that wrath, 
 and thus you arrive at the difference between the terms re- 
 stored and saved. Neither life nor salvation belong to us as 
 men ; as men all are obnoxious to divine wrath, and doomed to 
 the terrors of the eeonian death ; wrath is our natural element, 
 and death our natural tendency. Yet, then, when Christ's seed 
 of immortality is within us, that which in the lost may seem to 
 be the wrath of God revealed, will prove in us a kindling of life 
 instead of death, and heaven instead of hell. And now let us 
 put our question : It being the will of God that all men shall be 
 restored, or become quick in spiritual life, whenever this hap- 
 pens, viz., that all men do so live, is not the will of God in this 
 respect accomplished ? And may he not then have reached an 
 end in creating man worthy his love and benevolence ? If God 
 created man for the enjoyment of divine life, the purpose of 
 God is effected when the divine life is generated in a man ; also 
 the works of Satan, whifch Christ came to dissolve, are then in 
 that degree dissolved. Or to apply the term deliver in this 
 case : God expressly willeth that all men shall be delivered from 
 their misery. This, therefore, their deliverance must certainly 
 he effected in its due time. But God willeth not expressly that 
 all men shall be kept, preserved, or saved from falling into misery. 
 Misery, therefore, may happen to many ; there is no decree of 
 God against it ; it therefore stands among the possibilities of 
 nature." And awful and dreadful will the wrath and the in- 
 dignation be which many will experience in that state of the 
 jeonian punishment to which all who die ungodly will be con- 
 signed at the general judgment. 
 
 Finally, Universal restoration appears to me evidently true, 
 from the many testimonies recorded in the Scriptures, and from 
 the following considerations : 
 
 1 St. From the revealed perfections of God. That He 
 is righteous and loveth righteousness, Psa. xi. 7, " The Lord 
 loveth righteousness ;" therefore He must hate wickedness. 
 Hence this perfection, which is the same as justice, calls for the 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 61 
 
 destruction of all unrighteousness and injustice, and requires 
 the abolishing thereof out of the creation. " Good and up- 
 right is the Lord, therefore he will teach sinners in the way." 
 (Psa. XXV. 8.) This text gives a permanent reason for sinners 
 being taught of the Lord, namely, his goodness and upright- 
 ness ; hence, while he is good and upright, he must continue to 
 leach sinners, till they are brought into the way. " The Lord 
 is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works." 
 (cxlv. 9.) If his goodness extends to all, and his tender 
 mercies are over all his works, his goodness must surely lead 
 all finally to repentance, and his tender mercies must relieve 
 them at last from all their miseries. 
 
 2ndly. From the relation God sustains to His creatures. He 
 is said to be the God of the spirits of all flesh, and in Job xiv. 
 15. we read, "Thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine 
 hand." God will then certainly not forsake any work of his, 
 but recover all his works at last, and bring them into such a 
 state of purity and felicity that he shall rejoice in all his works 
 together. Jehovah is called the God of the spirits of all flesh, 
 (Numb, xxvii. 16) " The Lord, the God of the spirits of all 
 flesh ;" and if our Lord proved the resurrection of the dead, or 
 the future life from this relation, (Luke xx. 37, 38,) may not 
 the recovery of all spirits from the second death be proved from 
 this relation also ? He is called the Father of Spirits, (Heb. 
 xii. 9.) The Apostle Paul affirms also that all are his offspring, 
 (Acts xvii. 29 :) and our Lord hath taught us how much may be 
 expected from such a relation, (Matt. vii. IL) 
 
 3rdly. From God's purpose concerning His creatures. 
 Which is revealed to us in the clearest manner in Ephes. i. 9, 10, 
 *' Having made known to us the mystery of his will according 
 to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself, that in the 
 dispensation in the fulness of the times he might gather in one 
 all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on 
 earth, even in him." This purpose, which is according to the 
 counsel of the divine will and pleasure, must be fully and cer- 
 tainly accomplished, for having spoken it, he will bring it to 
 
62 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 pass; having purpossed it, he will do it; (Isa. xiv, 10, 11.) 
 The original word xendi^Yedi gathered togetlier in one^ is from 
 ana^ emphatic, or again ; and kephalaion, a head, or sum 
 total, and signifies to reunite under one head. This eminent 
 gathering, or union of all things, is to be accomplished in the 
 dispensation of the fulness, or complete number of the times, 
 ages, or seasons, which the Father holds in his own power and 
 appointed for the final accomplishment of his purpose to all his 
 creatures. 
 
 4thly. From the incarnation and death of Jesus Christ, 
 and his mediatorial dispensation. "For it pleased the 
 Father that in Him should all fulness dwell ; and, having made 
 peace by the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things 
 unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in heaven, 
 or things on earth." (Col. i. 19, 20.) This text shows that it 
 is the Father's pleasure that all things shall be reconciled by 
 Christ, and as he will most certainly do all his pleasure, all 
 things must finally be reconciled ; and sin, which is the work 
 of the devil, being that which has broken the harmony of the 
 creation, must therefore be utterly destroyed out of the creation 
 before universal reconciliation takes place, and so we are m- 
 formed, (I John iii. 8) " For this purpose the Son of God was 
 manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." 
 And sin, being a plant that God never planted, it must be 
 rooted up, as Christ himself testifies, (Matt. xv. 13) '"''Every 
 plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall he 
 rooted up ,•" and (Matt, xxviii. 18) " All power is given unto 
 me in heaven and in earth ;" by which power, " according to 
 the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto 
 himself," (Phill. iii. 21,) "That he might fill all things," 
 (Eph. iv. 10.) And when the design and end of the mediato- 
 rial government is fully accomplished, by overcoming all dis- 
 obedience, destroying all sin, and reconciling all things to God, 
 then the iron rod will be broken, and all coercion will cease 
 with the delivering up the kingdom to God, even the Father, 
 which will introduce the final stale of supreme, eternal, and 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 63 
 
 immutable bliss, under an economy in which God will be 
 
 THE ALL IN ALL. (I. Cor. XV. 24 — 28. 
 
 5thly. From the super -abounding of Grace over Sin. 
 We are informed, that where sin abounded grace abounded 
 much more, Rom. v. '^0, *' But where sin abounded, grace did 
 much more abound." The words rendered abounded and 
 did much more abound^ are in the Greek both expressed in 
 the indefinite tense, and are therefore confined to no time ; so 
 that wherever sin has abounded, doth abound, or shall abound, 
 there grace either hath abounded, doth^ or will much more 
 abound. This sense of the tense must be admitted, or else the 
 words can afford no comfort after the time they were penned, 
 and the Apostle gives no other character oi place, but only that 
 it is where sin hath abounded. We, therefore, conclude, that 
 wherever sin hath abounded, grace will much more abound ; 
 and, consequently, that as sin hath reigned unto death, so grace 
 will reign through righteousness unto life; therefore (Rom. 
 V 18) "As by the offence of one, judgment came upon all 
 men unto condemnation ; even so, by the righteousness of one, 
 \he free gift Q2i.mQ upon all men unto justification of life," and 
 (Titus ii. 11) " The grace of God that brought salvation hath 
 appeared to all men ;" or, as the passage might be read, the 
 grace of God hath appeared that bringeth salvation to all men. 
 Hence God is said to be the Saviour of all men. (I Tim. iv. 10) 
 ''For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we 
 trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, espe- 
 cially of those that believe ;" which text plainly shews the 
 expression of all men is not to be limited to those who believe 
 the gospel in the present dispensation, for those are spoken of 
 as distinct from the all men, of whom God is the Saviour also, 
 though not in such a special manner ; and the Scriptures inform 
 us that the difference will be this, that those who believe and 
 obey the gospel in this life will be saved from the wrath to 
 come, or condemnation to the lake of fire und brimstone ; but 
 those that believe not, will fall into that condemnation and 
 misery, thougli they shall be finally saved out of it. " yet so as 
 by fire," by Him who is the Restorer of all. 
 
64 
 
 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH, 
 
 6thly. From the nature of Prayer and Charity, We are 
 commanded to pray for all men, that all may come to the 
 knowledge of the truth, and be saved ; and to our prayers we 
 are to add endeavours, that as we have opportunity we may do 
 good to all men. All prayer ought to be in faith, and faith 
 must rest on the promises of God, or what he has declared in 
 his word ; and although God has reserved to himself the times 
 and seasons in which he will answer the prayers of his people, 
 so that they must wait with patience, yet he will certainly 
 answer all their prayers, and fulfil all their desires at last, that 
 are agreeable to his will, for the hope and expectation of the 
 just shall never perish, however long they may wait for the 
 accomplishment thereof; and in that prayer of our Lord re- 
 corded, John xvii. He prayed /br some things not yet accom- 
 plished^ which prayer respects four great objects. 1 st, His 
 own glorification, ver. 1 — 5. 2nd, The preservation and 
 sanctification of his Apostles, that he might send them as his 
 witnesses, and their union in the truth, ver. 6 — 19 ; this had a 
 special reference to the Apostles which the Father had given 
 him out of the world. 3rd, Union aynong all those mho shoidd 
 believe in him through their word, v. 20, 21. And 4th, The 
 bringing of the world to the knowledge and belief of the truth. 
 The third of these objects has as yet been accomplished only 
 in a limited and imperfect degree, and \h^ fourth remains to be 
 accomplished, for the world is still in a state of unbelief; but 
 this also will be accomplished, when all nations and all people 
 are brought into the obedience of the faith, and the kingdoms 
 of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of 
 his Christ. So also the prayers of all the saints, that all men 
 may be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, will be 
 accomplished when the rulers of this world, who have opposed 
 the rule of Christ in their hearts, and all who have followed 
 their wicked ways, shall, after their condemnation and seonian 
 sufferings, hear the word of salvation they formerly despised. 
 For that this word will finally be received by all is manifest 
 from the declaration of the angel, who testified that the incarna 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTEIl TRUTH. 65 
 
 lion of Christ should be glad tidings unto all people, Luke ii. 
 10, 11. Now it is plain that this will not be good tidings of 
 great joy unto all people at the general judgment, for sorrow 
 and anguish will then be the portion of very many ; but it will 
 surely be glad tidings to all people finally for, Psa. cxli. 6, 
 " When their judges are overthrown in stony places, they shall 
 hear my words, for they are sweet;" and, Isa. xxiv. 21,22, 
 " The Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on 
 high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall 
 be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and 
 shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days they shall 
 be visited." The kings of the earth and their princes, coun- 
 sellors, or judges, having combined against Jehovah and his 
 Anointed, will surely experience a dreadful overthrow when 
 they are cast down into the pit, or prison of hell, or the lake of 
 fire and brimstone ; yet it appears that they will be at lengtli 
 visited with the tender mercies of the Most High, and they will 
 hear his words which they formerly rejected, and find a sweet- 
 ness in what once appeared to them disagreeable, and then they 
 shall all praise Jehovah with joy, Psa. cxxxviii. 4, 5, " All the 
 kings of the earth shall praise thee, O Lord, when they hear 
 the words of thy mouth ; yea, they shall sing in the ways of 
 the Lord : for great is the glory of the Lord." As the destruc- 
 tion of kings implies the destruction of their adherents, so their 
 deliverance and happiness includes the deliverance and happi- 
 ness of all those who suffered with them, in consequence of 
 their being members of the several bodies of which kings have 
 been heads. The nature of charity, also, necessarily supposes 
 the final restoration of all to the love of God that ever were 
 objects of charity, for " charity never faileth," I Cor. xiii. 8. 
 Charity, or love, therefore, extends to all men, and if we are to 
 love all men in this life, and love being that principle which 
 can only make us desire and endeavour their good as we ought, 
 then charity must fail in its extent, if those who possess that 
 excellent grace must cease to love or desire the ly^ood of those 
 
66 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 who fall into condemnation, for we cannot suppose it consistent, 
 either with their own happiness or submission to the will of 
 God, to love and desire the happiness of all men, if God has 
 determined that some, not to say the greatest part of mankind, 
 shall never be happy. AVe may, therefore, I think fairly con- 
 clude, that the ceonian sufferings of the wicked will be the last 
 painful operation that the Lord, the Deliverer, will perform, 
 and that it will be effectual for the removal of every obstacle 
 that obstructs their deliverance ; and when thus viewed, these 
 awful seonian sufferings are every way consistent with Infinite 
 Goodness, and the purest charity will not recoil, nor will the 
 tenderest sympathies be shocked, at the idea. 
 
 It may, perhaps, be asked, will the future punishment of the 
 wicked then communicate saving knowledge and holiness ? To 
 which it may be replied. It is certain that those on whom God 
 shall inflict this sore chastisement, will in the issue be made 
 partakers of His holiness, and that " the issues of death," even 
 the second death, belong to Him who " quickens all things," 
 and to whom all live ; but the sufferings and death of the wicked 
 in the lake will, perhaps, contribute no otherwise to these great 
 ends than chastisement contributes to instruction, or it may 
 produce in its subjects something analogous to what heat pro- 
 duces in metals, which gives them no form, but renders them 
 susceptible of the most useful forms under the hand of a skilful 
 artificer. 
 
 And 7thly. From the declaration^ that all things are to he 
 inherited by Christ. Heb. i. 1,2, " God, who at sundry 
 times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers 
 by the prophets, hath in these latter days spoken unto us by 
 his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things." This 
 appointment of the Father necessarily implies both a recovery 
 of all from death that have been under its power, and the re- 
 newing of the image of God in all in whom it hath been lost, 
 for Christ cannot be said to inherit what does not exist, nor 
 can he be said to inherit what is unholy, or in a state of enmity 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 67 
 
 against him. His being the heir of all things, as necessarily 
 implies that all things will finally be made subject to him ; as 
 the gift of the heathen for his inheritance impHes, that the hea- 
 then shall become obedient unto him by the preaching of the 
 gospel : since, therefore, Christ is appointed heir of all things, 
 there appears the greatest ground to believe that nothing will be 
 finally lost, nor will any eternally perish, but that all will be 
 restored to the love of God and the enjoyment of him as their 
 chief good. Then, and not till then, will God be all and all, and 
 Christ inherit all things, and Jehovah rejoice in all his works 
 together. 
 
 This transcendantly glorious and inexpressibly desirable, 
 though distant event, appears therefore most certain, or the 
 Lord Jesus Christ must fail in the inheritance of all things ! — 
 the love of God and his tender mercies must be limited or im- 
 potent ! — His purpose to gather all things together by Christ 
 must be defeated ! — the declaration of Christ himself, that he 
 makes all things new and will draw all to himself must be 
 false ! — The will of God that all should come to the knowledge 
 of the truth and be restored, and the prayers of the faithful, 
 that the wickedness of the wicked may come to an end, can 
 never be fulfilled ! — and charity must fail from many of its 
 objects ! if that glorious and desirable event, the subjec- 
 tion, RECONCILIATION, and restoration of ALL THINGS tO 
 
 the LOVE OF God shall fail of its full accomplishment. 
 
 Would not one naturally conclude that a doctrine like this, 
 which is so clearly revealed and so consonant with the feelings 
 and experience arising from the operation of the Holy Spirit in 
 the hearts of Christians, would be good ne^vs to all, and cause 
 them to praise God for this universal efficacious love ? To one 
 who is happy in this belief, it seems as though all upon the first 
 view would come into it. But, no ! Nature, i)ride, prejudice, and 
 unbelief have their manifold objections, and rise up in alarm 
 against it. It is too good news to some ; it is sad,, rather than 
 '*glad tidings" in their ears, who resemble the pettish prophet 
 Jonah, who was displeased and angry at the unlimited mercy 
 
 E 2 
 
68 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 of God to Nineveh. Some cannot, many will not, and more 
 dare not, inquire into or receive this view of Gospel grace and 
 salvation ; but where these shackles are put away and obstacles 
 removed, creeds and systems of divinity laid aside, and there be 
 opportunity and ability, men are certainly bound to use the 
 powers and talents God has given them in seeking to " come to 
 the knowledge of the truth," and Scripture only is the mine in 
 which it should be searched. 
 
69 
 
 LETTER Vlir. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I regret that my observations on the passage recorded, Matt. 
 xii. 32,* failed in giving you the satisfaction desired. I did not 
 *' overlook the point and force of the objection," for in fact 1 
 cannot perceive any ; surely, then, I must be as blind as Ely- 
 mas the sorcerer ? The argument, you say, is this : " some 
 sinners are never to be forgiven, but without forgiveness no 
 man can enter heaven or enjoy happiness, therefore some will 
 be for ever excluded from eternal bliss." 
 
 I admit the premises, *' some sinners are never to be forgiv- 
 en," but demur to the inference. You may say more, for all 
 impenitent sinners, dying such, will never be forgiven ; that 
 is, the just and equitable punishment denounced against such 
 characters will inevitably be inflicted : they are, therefore, not 
 forgiven — they are not pardoned. Perhaps a case, by way of 
 analogy, will illustrate our position. A man commits a crime 
 on which the law denounces a certain punishment, and the 
 crime whenever committed is never forgiven, therefore the 
 offender endures the punishment — he is neither pardoned nor 
 forgiven. You say, ' without forgiveness no man can enter 
 heaven or enjoy happiness;' that is, can never become a changed 
 character and qualified for happiness : but such an inference by 
 no means necessarily follows, for the very punishment inflict- 
 ed has been, or will be, a mean of correcting his bad habits 
 and improving his moral character and restoring him, and at 
 the expiration of his punishment he returns to his home a better 
 man, a useful member of society, in fact a happy man, restored 
 to his friends through the chastisement he has endured. His 
 crime was never pardoned — was never forgiven him, yet we 
 see him now a recovered man, happy in the enjoyments around 
 
 * " But whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it sliall not be for- 
 given him, neither in this world, ueithei in the world to come." 
 
70 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 him. This is not a solitary case, there have been many such in- 
 stances, and all the Divine chastisements have precisely this 
 object, — the reformation and recovery of the individual. (See 
 this fully argued in Letter VI.) 
 
 I presume you do not mean by the expression, ' some sinners 
 are never to be forgiven,' that an individual may commit such 
 an offence which God will eternally resent, — Avill never blot 
 out ; that the individual will never, so long as God exists, be 
 received into his favour, no matter what improvement his moral 
 character may at any future period have received from the pa- 
 ternal chastisement of his Creator. Such an inference would 
 be indeed a presumption, most awfully charging Deity with 
 vindictive implacability ! but which cannot be for a moment 
 admitted as belonging to Divinity, for *' God is loye," (I John 
 iv.) ' But without forgiveness no man can enter heaven, or 
 enjoy bliss.' Such is your inference, but the text does not 
 state any such fact; the conclusions are, therefore, hypothetical, 
 and if I am correct in the principles and views given of the 
 * design and result of future punishment,' a very different issue 
 will succeed than that of torments never ending. Permit me 
 to ask, upon what authority do you gather the presumption that 
 such punishment is nothing less than eternal misery ? Do you 
 not assume what ought to be first proved , and may not the 
 literal and severe interpretation of the text be conjectural and 
 false ? Do not you lay too much stress on the arbitrary as- 
 sumption that the word ' never' must be taken in its most ab- 
 solute sense, when innumerable instances prove the exception ? 
 and would you be content to base the opinion of eternal tor- 
 ments on the Enghsh translation of indefinite words and terms, 
 which are equivocal and ambiguous ? And for how dreadful a 
 purpose is this distortion made —it is to condemn a fellow mor- 
 tal and a fellow sinner into an eternity of woe ! Surely we 
 ought to pause and reflect sufficiently ere we rashly plunge into 
 so awful a sentiment ; and are you not arguing and contending 
 for a principle of vindictive implacability as belonging to God, 
 but which we know cannot exist in Deity ? Once more do I 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 71 
 
 affirm and contend, that no interpretation of words or expres- 
 sions can be admitted which is opposed or contrary to tlic 
 Divine characteristics. We must, therefore, ground our argu- 
 ments on known, unequivocal, immutable truths, and never 
 on mere expressions or words, for these are the fruitful source 
 of all the conflicting opinions afloat in the religious world. All 
 •pretend to find those opinions in Scripture, (vide examples given 
 in the digression) and many divines have peremptorily enforced 
 their interpretation of Scripture language as infallible truths 
 which it is dangerous to disbelieve or to question ! But we 
 have the inexpressible satisfaction to find, that the doctrine so 
 extensively received under the title of * Eternal Damnation,' is 
 unfounded ; the eter7ialims,e,TY0^ a majority of mankind (God's 
 oflspring), " men who are made after the likeness of God," 
 (James iii. 9), is totally unknown in Scripture ; there is not a 
 single passage, Vightly interpreted, which will support the horrid 
 dogma, and unless we be permitted to form our hypothesis 
 first, and have recourse afterwards to Scripture and compel 
 language to speak our sentiments, we shall not find a trace of 
 that doctrine throughout the Old Testament. How could it then 
 have been expected, in a dispensation of Grace, — in a gospel of 
 glad tidings, wliich proclaims " Glory to God in the highest, 
 peace on earth, and good will towards men" ? 
 
 But to return again * to the strife about words.' In the pas- 
 sage alluded to, the original word is '* aion," rendered there 
 " world^' (see my former remarks on the various rendering of 
 this term in Letter III.) The word ' aion' always has refer- 
 ence to periods of time, and when used in the singular number 
 means age, in the plural ages ; this is its literal and true 
 translation. You will discover that in Scripture there are 
 different ages spoken of: ' former ages,' (Col. i. 26) ; ' the pre- 
 sent age,' (Matt. xii. 32, the passage in question) ; ' the ap- 
 proaching age,' (Mark x. 30) ; ' ages to come,' (Eph. ii. 7) ; 
 * the consummation of the age,' (Matt, xxviii. 20) ; ' the end of 
 the ages,' (I Cor. x. 11) ; all which clearly prove \\.\v^iaion doth 
 not indicate eternity (proper.) There are ages in the plural, 
 
72 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 but there cannot be eternities plural ; therefore, tlie rendering 
 of this word in the text, ' neither in this world (age), nor in the 
 world (age) to come,' decides nothing definite as to duration ; 
 and I cannot, therefore, admit the inference, that " all possible 
 (periods of) existence is devisible (included) in the expression 
 of * this world and the world to come.' " 
 
 If the original Scriptures had explicitly affirmed that the fu- 
 ture punishment of the wicked should endure as long as God 
 exists, I think, from the import of such language, perhaps no 
 question could well have arisen on this subject; but as no 
 such fact is thus stated, and no language is used equivalent 
 thereto, I am compelled to demur to the opinion of eternal 
 torments ; and allow me again to refer you to the reasons I have 
 given why I cannot receive this opinion as a revealed truth. 
 Neither am I prepared to admit as truth the translation or ren- 
 dering of any original word or expression so as to impeach the 
 Divine goodness , or that are thus made to appear contrary to 
 those self-evident axioms and attributes which are the true and 
 only basis of rehgious truth ; and I cannot think the arguments 
 deduced from those principles to be a presumption, but logical 
 and true inferences, supported by the whole tenor and scope of 
 Scripture, and you must shew me that those principles and the 
 inferences flowing from them are false, before I can abandon 
 them ; nay more, you must then also please to provide me with 
 better. You seem content to rely *' on the slightest assertion, — 
 the least announcement, however slight, or however isolated, 
 (you say) must be piously received, and reverently acquiesced 
 in." Be it so; but do you not yowiseM first judge of the sense, 
 — the meaning and propriety of such assertions and announce- 
 ments ? And allow me to ask, by what rule or axiom do you 
 test the truth of such passages ? for of this we must be satisfied 
 before we can adopt them ; and be it remembered, our trans- 
 lators were neither inspired nor infallible, and many are the 
 erroneous renderings and mistranslations recorded. 
 
 The tenacity uniformly exercised by the Legal Profession in 
 adhering literally and strictly to the import of words is un- 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 73 
 
 doubtedly needful, and their reading, studies, and habits of 
 thinking all tend to confirm them in such practices ; the reason 
 for this may be that words and expressions point out the nature 
 and intention of documents, as well as the desire and bequest of 
 parties, and declare what is the will of a testator, and therefore 
 no rule or test (I mean as first principles) is required to deter- 
 mine their sense. But it is not so in Theology^ which is a 
 science^ and instructs us in the knowledge of God and divine 
 things, and is based on immutable axioms. A different course 
 of thinking and acting is therefore required from Christian 
 Professors, General fixed principles must be first known and 
 admitted as established axioms, and not departed from in search- 
 ing for the truth, but brought to bear upon words and expres- 
 sions in ascertaining their sense, and those principles and 
 axioms must predicate to the terms used their true meaning, 
 for words and expressions can never be the rule of the true, but 
 the true must determine the sense of words, and the true must 
 be established on fixed principles, — on immutable truths. 
 
 I think you have not sufficiently attended to these distinc- 
 tions, and have perhaps allowed yourself to be swayed too much 
 by the legal process, (which in your case is perfectly excusable) 
 but you should repudiate this, and adopt the other method when 
 theology is involved, for is it not better for us to adhere to un- 
 doubted axioms and principles, which depend upon no book for 
 their truth, than to be agitated and confused by a multitude of 
 opinions taken from the same book., which often contradict one 
 another, or prove the source of contradictions ? Among other 
 opinions, that of eternal torments has not a httle contributed 
 towards giving to many thinking persons a decided aversion to 
 Christianity ; and Avhat increases our surprise is, to find most 
 Christians, though divided on several other points, united in 
 this ! An opinion so injurious to the Deity, — so contrary to all 
 natural equity, is more calculated to make a pyrrhonist than a 
 good man; and this opinion, moreover, is the * moral restraint,^ 
 as they term it, which they pretend deters men from vice and 
 ungodliness ! They undertake to make men virtuous and ffood 
 
74 AN INQUIIIY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 by tlie idea of a cruel, implacable, and unjust Deity ! The 
 event shews how this pretence has succeeded. 
 
 The observations and examples you have stated, as objections 
 and difficulties brouglit against the Divine goodness, are fully 
 met and more than answered in the digression, to which I still 
 think sufficient attention has not been given, for had you have 
 done so the strife about words would not have been so rife ; 
 however, a few more words appear needful. What is assumed 
 to be told to the " utter stranger to this world," is unguarded 
 and incomplete ; it is not * the whole truth,' and the inferences 
 of this * stranger' I think are more so, and are founded on the 
 false, consequently they do not meet the facts of the case. And 
 how shall we reconcile men's ideas of the goodness of God ? 
 According to some, it would be agreeable to Infinite Goodness 
 to exempt men from all kinds of misery f according to others, 
 eternal torments are no ways inconsistent with the same 
 Goodness ! ! The problem you submit for solution amounts to 
 this : To reconcile the existence of unhappiness and woe 
 with the revealed attributes of God ,• To vindicate the Di- 
 vine Goodness i7i the permission of misery to his creatures . 
 I know the art of reasoning may indeed make all things appear 
 equally problematical, but it doth not thence follow that they are 
 really so ; men who know how to view things in their origin, who 
 go up to first principles, do not permit themselves to be dazzled 
 with specious arguments ; on the other hand, such as are ac- 
 quainted with no other evidence of truth than what arises from 
 a long train of arguments, depend more or less on the abilities 
 of those whom they hear argue, and are often reduced to the 
 necessity of successively espousing contraries or opposites. 
 
 Now I will undertake the solution of your problem on this 
 condition, that you will try to reconcile and vindicate the Divine 
 character in respect to the other opinion, for this exceeds all 
 ray powers of ratiocination, and I believe it is impossible to 
 reconcile the doctrine of eternal misery with the Divine 
 goodness and equity ; and when you feel yourself prepared fur 
 demonstrating that the system of a njiserable eternity is more 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 75 
 
 harmonious than that of a restoration — more worthy of 
 God — more advantageous to mankind — better calculated for 
 clearing up the difficulties and contradictions which divide 
 Christians — then, I say, let me have your solution of such 
 a problem. 
 
 Do you know whether the * stranger ' and his friend are 
 honest searchers for truth, or are they pugilists, seeking a 
 victory ? But to return for our solution, first citing a former 
 observation, " a difficulty advanced against so clear a principle 
 as that of the goodness of God, falls to the ground of its own 
 accord, and the stronger it appears to be we may rest 
 assured it is built upon a false principle." (See digression.) 
 I consider the idea of Infinite Goodness to be a certain im- 
 mutable principle, and make it the basis of the judgments I 
 form on equivocal effects, whose end I cannot explain. The 
 pristine state, wherein man was placed, has nothing in it but 
 what perfectly corresponds with this principle of Sovereign 
 Goodness ; but the miserable state into which he fell, not being 
 prevented by the interposition of the same goodness, this dire 
 event, I say, is shocking. I place this event among the effects 
 whose causes are hidden from me ; I know not how far God 
 ought to go in putting the liberty he has bestowed on man to 
 the trial. Here I meet with uncertainty and obscurity in 
 several respects, and therefore go back to what is certain, and 
 what uncertainty cannot shake ; hence, I conclude, that one 
 day men will know that Infinite Goodness never was inconsis- 
 tent with itself, not even in this event, which at present they 
 allege makes against it. It is very true that nothing seems 
 more opposite to immense Goodness than the wretched condi- 
 tion in which all the posterity of Adam are born ; here, again, 
 God has not thought proper to invert the order of nature. He 
 might, says one, have deprived Adam of life, and created a second 
 man to be the father of a happy posterity ; but do we know 
 whether it would have been consistent with the Divine wisdom 
 and goodness to have proceeded in this manner? Are we ac- 
 quainted with all the means which the Deity has in his hands 
 
76 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 for, sooner or later, more than infinitely compensating the 
 miserable state into which mankind are necessarily born ? Here, 
 again, we may judge of uncertainty by what is certain. The 
 uncertainty is the condition of mankind in the life to come ; 
 the certainty is two-fold — first, their condition in this life, and 
 the purpose of God to render them all happy. It is certain the 
 design of God must be accomplished sooner or later, and since 
 it is evident it is not accomplished in this life, consequently it 
 is reserved for the life to come. Another remark that presents 
 itself is, that man being at his birth placed in a state of misery 
 before he could deserve it, goodness, nay equity itself requires, 
 that the state of happiness for which he was created should 
 infallibly await him at the end — that his final condition should 
 necessarily be happy, as his first was miserable for a time 
 before his liberty could be the cause of it. We may even 
 presume that boundless goodness will make this transient state 
 of misery an enhancement of happiness ; so that men having 
 had knowledge of good and evil, having experienced pain and 
 sufi*ering, will be thereby susceptible of a greater degree of bliss 
 than they could have been had they not passed through such a 
 state. Without this restoration, the recompense would be 
 incomplete and not answerable to the idea of goodness, as we 
 have established it. Men might comj^lain, that they have 
 necessarily suffered ills, from which God could have secured 
 them, or that those ills have not availed to render them happier 
 at last. Here the idea of eternal misery vanishes, — it is 
 not even conceivable how such a thought could enter into the 
 mind of man. 
 
 Permit me to introduce your friend, ' the stranger to this world 
 and its concerns,' and who has a correct idea of Infinite Good- 
 ness, but has never heard talk of a miserable eternity ; how 
 do we imagine such a person would relish the first proposal of 
 it? what horror would not such an idea give him ? He would 
 conclude that those who admit of sucli a state have a God 
 diff*erent from his, — that they never were acquainted with the 
 immense goodness of the supremely happy Eeing be would 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 77 
 
 ever conjecture that those who espouse such an opinion feel 
 not within themselves those characteristics of benevolence 
 which are inseparable from human nature ; in fact, this strange 
 opinion degrades the Divine goodness, and places it below 
 human goodness ; it even supposes that God could not foresee 
 what would befall the work of his own hands, that he ventured 
 to give being to an infinite number of creatures without any 
 certainty of being able to render them finally happy ! 
 
 This opinion is the source and soul of the greatest difficulties 
 that can be raised against the idea of the Infinite Goodness. 
 The opinion of eternal misery not being admitted, the latter 
 and final state of man is ascertained, and as he was originally 
 created for happiness, so that happiness does infallibly await 
 him, and the design of God, apparently suspended for a time 
 by the incidents of human life, finally prevails and is fully 
 accomplished. 
 
 Qy. But how does this gloomy interval of misery and suffer- 
 ing, which we see between man and the reserved bliss, agree 
 with the idea of Infinite goodness ? 
 
 I answer, that this interval is by no means the work of God, 
 neither has he fixed the term of it, but has left that much in 
 our own power ; it depends purely on ourselves, by our resis- 
 tance to or co-operation with the Divine influence, to retard or 
 hasten on that happy time, that state of felicity already purchas- 
 ed for us ; there is nothing wanting but for us to acquire a 
 capacity for enjoying it, and become partakers of His holiness, 
 and for this end to make use both of our liberty and all other 
 means that are put in our hands. Every thing on God's part 
 contributes to our assistance — he makes even the ills of life 
 (which are consequences on the fall of man) concur to the same 
 end, for all the ways of God towards men tend only to their 
 purification. Hence, man himself is the disposer of his own 
 lot, not indeed for eternity — but at least for a season ; that is, 
 it is in his own power to aggravate and prolong his misery ; or, 
 on the contrary, to shorten it. The present life is the season in 
 which, by the good or bad use of time, we may shorten or 
 
78 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 prolong the miseries of a future state, for we shall reap in the 
 next life what we have sown in this. Mankind have within 
 themselves the true principles of religion ; these are those first 
 ideas, those universal notions mentioned in the digression. 
 Revelation was not given with a view of rendering those first 
 notions useless, much less with that of contradicting them ; its 
 design is to refer men to them and explain them. Had Chris- 
 tians made this use of revelation, had they stopped at what it 
 teaches in conformity with those notions, could they have 
 resolved to be ignorant of the detail of an infinity of things, or 
 at least have left them in suspense what is not clearly unfolded, 
 what rocks of difficulties and contradictions would have been 
 avoided ? 
 
 The great ends proposed by the Deity in regard to mankind 
 are very simple, and consequently withii\ the reach of human 
 understanding ; but the ways taken by His wisdom for attain- 
 ing to those ends are infinitely various, and thus become im- 
 penetrable to a limited mind. They are the thoughts of God, 
 raised as far above the thoughts of men as infinite is above 
 finite. There is much incongruity in the idea, that God should 
 make a person mad, or deprive him of his reason to bring him 
 to the knowledge of his government ; yet, though we cannot 
 see how it was so, I believe there was a suitableness in the 
 dispensation, when some kind of madness or deprivation of 
 reason was inflicted on Nebuchadnezzar, " to make him know 
 that the Most High ruled in the kingdom of men.'' This 
 extraordinary case is perhaps recorded, that we might learn 
 not to be too peremptory in pronouncing about the suitableness 
 of means in the hand of God to produce ends which we cannot 
 perceive to be connected with them. And what particularly 
 renders the ways of Divine wisdom impenetrable is, that it 
 frequently seems to turn its back on its end, and yet that is the 
 very way it reaches it. The sacred history furnishes us with 
 many examples of this kind ; the history of Joseph is one full 
 to our purpose. God's design and end only being revealed 
 and made known, namely, That Joseph was to be the deliverer 
 
AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 79 
 
 of his family. How dark and contrary did the incidents of 
 his life appear to such an event, — how thorny the road he 
 travelled,— what injustice did he meet with, — an innocent 
 person imprisoned like a criminal ; would not means so con- 
 trary to such an end have puzzled and confounded all our 
 reasoning on their details ? Now we have seen the end, it is 
 easy for us to admire the ways of Wisdom, which knows how 
 to arrive at its end by contrarieties and opposites ; and equity 
 will not lose its right— it will more than compensate all the 
 sufferings of the innocent with a glory which he never acquired 
 without these sufferings, for it brings the agents of injustice to 
 his feet—it makes them feel the retribution of their violence by 
 grievous remorse ; in short, they owe their lives to him whom 
 they would have killed. Can a more complete compensation 
 be conceived ? What this and such like histories (those of 
 David, Job, Moses, and others, have in the whole some such 
 resemblance with that of Joseph) represent to the view in the 
 little, is what happens at full length, and the end is reserved 
 for the life to come. 
 
 There are an infinity of particulars in the conduct of Provi- 
 dence which to us appear unjust. The majority of the events 
 related in the Scripture do not justify it. Profane history 
 presents us with such tragical spectacles as to give room for 
 doubting whether the Deity regards what passes among men, 
 nor does sacred history furnish us with difficulties less conside- 
 rable ; so many massacres of whole nations, not only permitted 
 but commanded by Divine wisdom. How shall we reconcile 
 this with the idea of perfect equity > A sentence from Esop 
 might stand for an answer to our problem, *' In all things the 
 end is to be considered." The end will unravel all, and what 
 has in this life appeared to us most contrary to the Divine 
 wisdom and equity, will be the subject of admiration to 
 intelligent beings. We are not to judge of the cause by 
 equivocal effects, of which we know not the precise end ; but 
 of the effects by the cause, of which we do know the general 
 design. This is the only consideration that can make us feel 
 
80 AN INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH. 
 
 satisfied with so many events in all appearance unjust. The 
 general end proposed by God, this absolute design of bringing 
 all men to happiness at last, is sufficient for making us easy ; 
 and though we could not conceive the connexion which such or 
 such effects may have with the general design it matters not, 
 for without our comprehending them distinctly, we in the main 
 conceive that Infinite wisdom can never lose sight of its end, 
 and that those events which seem most contrary to the end 
 proposed are the very means to effect it. Here now is the 
 fixed point on which we may depend, and in which alL ^termi- 
 nates. This point of view once removed, all is chaos — every 
 thing falls to the ground — we have no longer any certain 
 immutable principle to rest on — we lose the idea of the perfect 
 Being ; for in short, whatever efforts we may make, how is it 
 possible for us to think events, like those just mentioned, equi- 
 table, if we consider them separately from the end — from the 
 general design of the Deity to render all mankind finally 
 happy ? 
 
 If we cannot depend on it as an undoubted principle, that 
 there is neither revenge nor cruelty in God, and that what 
 appears so to us is not so in fact, I ask what idea shall we 
 have of the infinitely perfect Deity — the God of Love ? 
 
 I will not say that you are another Elymas, if you do not 
 perceive the above to be a solution of our problem, coupled with 
 other matter supplied, but merely warn you lest scales should 
 grow on your eyes, so that you become one. 
 
 And remain, dear Sir, 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 H. H. 
 
 Maidstone, 
 
 March, 1844. 
 
81 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Should you, or any other reader, feel desirous of investiga- 
 ting further the doctrine submitted in the preceding letters, there 
 are many works which at different periods have appeared in its 
 favour, both among the more early Christian writers as well as 
 in modern times. 
 
 Numerous works may be found on this subject, and I have 
 submitted a list of some of those which have been written upon 
 it, in order to shew, that the doctrine of the " restitution of 
 all things" is " not so strange and unusual, nor counted so 
 absurd a tenet by the pious and learned of elder times, as it is 
 by the generality of persons in the present day imagined to be." 
 Vide— 
 
 Origen, who is celebrated for maintaining that the punishment of 
 the wicked will be limited and corrective, and that they will 
 be ultimately restored to pm-ity and happiness. Origen in fine 
 lib. 8vi. Explanat. in Epist. ad Rom. 
 
 Clemens Alexandrirus, (the Master of Origen) Adumhrat. 
 in Ep. ] Johan. printed at the end of his treatise, Qiiis devis 
 Salvetur. 
 
 Gregory Nazianzen. Orat quadra^. Paris edition, 1630. 
 
 Gregory Nyssenus, in Dial, de anima.et resurrect. Paris 
 edition, 1659. 
 
 SuLPicius Serverus. De Vita. B. Martini. 1647. 
 
82 APPENDIX. 
 
 Among the more modern writers, vide — 
 
 Dr. J. W. Petersen, (Superintendent of Lunenburgh,) at large 
 in folio, and in a smaller work, called *' The Restitution of all 
 things.'^ 
 
 Conferences upon the Universal Restitution of the Creation 
 betwixt Dositheus and Theophilus ; a very ingenious work, 
 written in French by a Nobleman and Minister of the Court of 
 the King of Prussia. 
 
 The Phcenix — the second vol. printed in 1708, there is an ex- 
 traordinary paper on this subject ; it is remarkable for its scrip- 
 ture criticisms, which would be read with much interest in the 
 present day ; the piece is entitled " Of the Torments of Hell, 
 the foundation and pillars thereof discovered, shaken, and re- 
 moved ; with infallible proofs that there is not a punishment 
 after this life for any to endure that shall never end." 
 
 Dr. Rust, (Bishop of Dromore) a learned Prelate of the Church of 
 Ireland, the intimate friend of Bishop Jeremy Taylor — "A 
 Letter of Resolution concerning Origen and the chief of his 
 opinions" 1661. 
 
 Dr. Henry Moore, in his " Divine Dialogues," advocates the 
 doctrine. Printed 1668. 
 
 R. Stafford, — his book, entitled " Some Thoughts of the Life 
 to Come." 1693. 
 
 Peter Sterry, (a German) — " The Everlasting Gospel Message." 
 
 Sadler, in his " Olbia," asserts the doctrine. 
 
 Rev. Capel Berrow^, A.M. (Rector of Rossington, Notts, and 
 Chaplain to the Hon. Society in Serjeants' Inn) is a powerful 
 advocate in its favor in his "Theological Dissertations," 
 printed 1772. 
 
 Dr. Tillotson, (Archb. of Canterbury) seems to incline to this 
 doctrine in his 4th vol. of Sermons, page 164. 
 
 Le Clerc, in his Bibliotheque Choisie, (1705) p. 292, has ex- 
 plained the views of Tillotson, and more directly advocated 
 Universal Restoration ; he also mentions " Mr. Camphuyse, a 
 
APPENDIX. 83 
 
 person famous in Holland," as having publicly declared " that 
 he had been tempted to reject the Christian religion altogether 
 whilst he believed that it taught the eternity of torments, and 
 that he never overcame those temptations until he found the 
 threats of the Gospel might be taken in another sense." See 
 also Le Clerc's " Parrhasiana," 1/01, I. p. 313. 
 
 Jeremia-H White, (Chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, and of Trinity 
 Coll., Cambridge) — his book, " The Restoration of all Things," 
 printed 1712 ; he goes indeed upon the Predestinarian scheme, 
 as appears in several passages of his work, but by this additi- 
 onal view makes it quite another thing. 
 
 Richard Coppin — his book is called " Truth's Testimony, '* 
 printed 1655. 
 
 Dr. T. Burnet, (Master of the Charter House) — his " De Statute 
 Mortuorum," printed 1773. 
 
 Dr. Newton, (Bishop of Bristol) in his " Dissertations (Ix.) on 
 the final state of Man," is an able and ardent advocate of this 
 doctrine. 
 
 Dr. Hartley — his celebrated " Observations on Man," printed 
 1791. 
 
 Dr. Stone house, (Rector of Islington) — called " Universal Res- 
 titution," 1761, a very learned and critical work. 
 
 Dr. Cheyne, a Physician of great learning and abilities, in his 
 " Discourses" holds this opinion. 
 
 Mr. Marsay, (a German) — his " Discourses on subjects relating to 
 a spiritual life," 1749. 
 
 Dr. Chauncy, Cof Boston, New England) — his book, " The Mys- 
 tery hid from ages and generations made manifest by the Gos- 
 pel dispensation," 1 784. 
 
 " Universal Restitution" vindicated, in five dialogues, be- 
 tween Witfeltius and Huber, 1773. 
 
 W. Whiston, M.A.— his book, " The Eternity of Hell Torments 
 considered." 
 
 Rev. R. Clarke, (Curate of Stoke Newington)— " A Voice of 
 Glad Tidings to Jews and Gentiles," 1763. 
 
84 APPENDIX. 
 
 Rev. W. WoRTHiNGTON, A.M. — his " Essay on the Scheme and 
 Extent of Man's Redemption." 1748. 
 
 F. O. Petitpierre, (Minister of Chaux de Foud) — his "Thoughts 
 on the Divine Goodness," 1 788. 
 
 The Chevalier Ramsay — " Principles of Natural and Revealed 
 Religion/' 2 vols. 4to. 1751. 
 
 Harlein Miscellany, 4to., vol. vi., p. 39, and 8vo., vol. ii., p. 
 494, 1795. 
 
 Paul Siegvolck — his book, " The Everlasting Gospel" written 
 originally in German, translated and printed in America, 1 753, 
 and reprinted in London, 1792. 
 
 ** Universalist's Miscellany," 4 vols, printed in 1797. 
 
 Henry Brooke, in his " Fool of Quality" 4 vol. 1777, distinctly 
 advocates the doctrine. 
 
 Elhanan Winchester — his " Dialogues on Universal Restora- 
 tion," edited by W. Vidler, 1799. 
 
 Dr. Cogan, M.D. — his "Theological Disquisitions," 2 vols. 
 
 Theophilus Lindsey, M.A. — "Conversations on the Divine 
 Government," London, 1802. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Brown, (of Sidney Coll. Cambridge) has written an essay 
 in its favour. 
 
 Rev. F. Leicester, (of Peter-ho. Carab.) — " Christ glorified in 
 the Salvation and final Restoration of all Mankind" set forth 
 in two sermons, printed 1788. 
 
 Rev. Rochemont Barbault published some discourses on 
 Universal Restoration. 
 
 Dr. Priestly expressly advocates the doctrine in his works. 
 
 Dr. Estlin, (of Bristol) — his " Discourses on Univeral Restitutio 
 on," 1813. 
 
 Dr. SouTHWooD Smith, M.D. — his treatise on the " Divine Go- 
 vernment" 1826. 
 
 Mr. Asplin — his book, " The great Love of God to Man" 1758. 
 
APPENDIX. 85 
 
 James Weaver — his book, " Free Thoughts on Universal Resto- 
 ration," 1792. 
 
 Mr. Wright, (of Wisbeach) — his" Essay on future Punishment.'* 
 
 Mr. N. Scarlet — his Translation of the New Testament. 
 
 Mr. J. Simpson — critical ** Essay on the duration of a future state 
 of Punishment and Rewards," 1806. 
 
 Mr. W. Vidler's Letters to Andrew Fuller on " Universal Resto- 
 ration," 1803. 
 
 Joseph Young, M.D. (an American Gentleman) — " Calvinism and 
 Universalism contrasted." 
 
 Lectures on the Prophecies, by E. Winchester, 4 vols. 
 
 Lord President Forbes, in his " Reflections on Incredulity," 
 admits the truth of the doctrine. 
 
 "Morsels of Criticism," first vol. by E. King, F.R.A.S. 1792. 
 
 " Vindication of the Honor of God ; or a Scriptural Re- 
 futation of Eternal Misery." 
 
 Mr. Staley's " Essay on Theology." 
 
 Mrs. Sherwood's " Henry Milner," part iv.. chaps, x., xi. and xx., 
 advocates the doctrine. _ , • 
 
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