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LETTERS 
 
 THE NATURE AND DURA TTCTN 
 
 OF 
 
 FUTURE PUNISHMENT; 
 
 IXCLIDIXG 
 
 REMARKS ON THE STATE OF THE DEAD, 
 
 .VXD THE 
 
 VIRVVS ENTERTAINED OF A FUTURE LIFE. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION, 
 AND NOTES, 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE AND EXPLANATORY. 
 
 Ayiv Si ocvS^oi, "TuqoSiveiv fJi.it rot (iiov tutcv, iTtHyia-^oci Si 
 yf^o; 'rt^av ^a>»v. 
 
 " Tell us, ye Dead, will none of you, in pity 
 To those you left behind, disclose the secret ? 
 Oh ! that some courteous ghost would blab it out ; 
 What 'tis you are, and we must shortly be." 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 LONGMAN^ REES, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, AND 
 
 LONGMAN ; 
 
 ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK, EDINBURGH ; 
 
 AND LEWIS SMITH, ABERDEEN. 
 
 MDCCCXXXV. 
 
LETTERS 
 
 ON 
 
 THE XATURE AND DURATION OF 
 
 FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
A15ERDEEV : 
 
 IMITXTE'D V.Y D, CHALINIERS AND CO. 
 
 25, ADErPHI COURT. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THIS IS THE HEAVEN IN WHICH I LONG TO BE — A HOLY WORLD; 
 A WORLD WHERE I CAN BE TEMPTED NO MORE, AND SIN NO 
 MORE ; WHERE I CAN BREATHE AN ATMOSPHERE THAT IS NOT 
 TAINTED, AND BREATHE IT WITHOUT EVER TAINTING IT ; 
 WHERE I MAY REST FROM THE CONFLICT THAT NOW WEARIES 
 MY INMOST SOUL— CAST AWAY ALL WATCHFULNESS AND FEAR — 
 GIVE THE DESIRES OF MY HEART THEIR WIDEST AND FONDEST 
 RANGE — AND YET NEVER WOUND MY SPIRIT, NOR OFFEND 
 MY GOD." 
 
 The writer of these pages ought, perhaps, to 
 apologise, before embarking on the troubled waters 
 of theological collision, for suffering any of his 
 untutored lucubrations to swell the overgrown 
 mass of publications on such subjects, many of 
 which have fallen dead-born from the press. But 
 as he writes solely to employ (if not to improve) the 
 leisure hours of retirement, and invites none to pur- 
 chase, he hopes he may without unpardonable pre- 
 sumption gratify the harmless (and not uncommon) 
 weakness of giving his thoughts to the printer, 
 albeit none may be found adventurous enough to 
 a 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 disturb their repose on the shelves of the bookseller, 
 or, peradventure, inconsiderate enough to risk a 
 shilling for a production of so dubious a character, 
 and so forbidding an aspect. 
 
 La Bruyere has, indeed, said, that we are come 
 into the world too late to produce any thing new ; 
 and, accordingly, in obedience to the aphorism of that 
 accomplished moralist, our object in the following 
 pages has been only to collect and arrange : — for 
 beyond the general information of a private gentle- 
 man, (who has not always sauntered in the Groves 
 of Academus,) we have no pretensions. Like the 
 bee hastening from flower to flower, and laying up 
 store for the winter of the year, we have only wan- 
 dered from thought to thought, and from book to 
 book, groping for light to dissipate the shadows of 
 death, and looking for hope beyond the confines of 
 the grave. And our humble purpose has been 
 served, if the result of our labors, and the reflections 
 they suggest, be in any way calculated to soften the 
 asperity of intolerance — to infuse more of the milk 
 of human kindness, and the spirit of human for- 
 giveness, into our dealings one with another — and 
 to pour something like the oil of gladness over the 
 hopes and fears and final destiny of man. Cha- 
 rity on earth growing up into love in heaven, is, we 
 verily believe, the whole alchemy of the Gospel of 
 Jesus ; and he that feels not the current of his affec- 
 tions changed by the power of its godliness, and 
 running in the direction of an anxious benevolence 
 of purpose, is yet, we fear, of the earth, earthy — 
 
INTRODUCTION. Vll 
 
 is yet a stranger to the swell of its mighty and sub- 
 duing wisdom. 
 
 And something better^ it appears to us, is due to 
 such inquiries as we are now pursuing, than the 
 jaded intellects of our second childhood, when we 
 can no longer cleave to objects of sense, and to means 
 of aggrandizement. Perhaps the drudgery of busi- 
 ness is the doom of the generality of men — and the 
 labour for independence is a sweet and honorable 
 toil ; but to suffer the work of accumulation (or of 
 worldly care of whatever description,) to fix its in- 
 satiable desires on our hearts, and to die in its har- 
 ness, is to forget God, and serve the idol of a paltry 
 and grovelling ambition ; and to live up to the last 
 hour of existence in the bustle of worldly gains and 
 excitement, without seriously attempting to look 
 beyond the curtain of life, before it closes on this 
 brief and busy scene — and then, perhaps, by some 
 pious fraud, as it falls, to make a virtue of necessity, 
 in the shape of repentance — is really no better than 
 to attempt to deceive God by a contemptible juggle. 
 
 If life had been given us only to be exhausted in 
 the pursuit of objects of sense, man had been placed 
 on a level with the brute, without a thought beyond 
 the lusts of the flesh, or the limits of this corporeal 
 existence. 
 
 Yet truly in this age of mechanism, and of things 
 tangible, when men seem disposed to apply the un- 
 divided pow ers of the mind to the production of the 
 exchangeable commodities and the visible enjoy- 
 ments of this life, and to throw into corresponding 
 a2 
 
Vlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 distance the labors of the student of the unseen, and 
 the philosophy of the spiritual, it certainly is out of 
 fashion, and may appear somewhat out of joint, and 
 not a little out of time and place, to put forth the 
 following speculations, bearing, on the head and front 
 of their offending title-page, a call to the investiga- 
 tion of things beyond the grave. 
 
 Indeed, he that feels not there is an hereafter, of 
 overwhelming importance, may at once cast these 
 lucubrations aside, for they embrace subjects which 
 must be to him irksome and forbidding. He 
 is content to enjoy the pleasures of this world 
 (into which, he concludes, he has been somehow 
 unaccountably introduced,) for a season, trust- 
 ing to the same chapter of accidents for a place in 
 the next ; and we possess not the power of awaken- 
 ing him from this sleep of indifference to his '' latter 
 end." Nay, he that believes, (or fancies he be- 
 lieves,) and is content with an undefined, or specu- 
 lative, or hereditary creed — which is in itself inope- 
 rative, from conviction on his heart, of devotion 
 towards God, and unproductive, in its effects, of 
 benevolence towards his fellow-men, and of kind- 
 ness towards every living thing — may follow the 
 example of the former : a stranger to vital religion, 
 he has entrenched himself, let him be assured, de- 
 spite all flattering unction, in an evil heart of prac- 
 tical unbelief, insensible to the power of godliness, 
 and barren of its blissful works. The devils believe 
 and tremble — and we have no spell of sufficient 
 potency to neutralize the possession.^ It is to the 
 
INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 man who really believes, and habitually feels, there 
 is an hereafter of unspeakable value in which he is 
 destined to share — the prospect of which is ahvays 
 before him, influencing and controlling his every 
 thought and action c — that these pages are ad- 
 dressed. And sure we are, that the economy of 
 that eternity we investigate will appear to such 
 an one to require his undivided attention, and to 
 throw a ridicule over the whole scene of this world's 
 engagements, save in as far as they affect that prac- 
 tical melioration of the heart, and that entire sub- 
 mission to the will of the Deity, which is the great 
 lesson we have to learn in this life, and which its 
 whole probationary drama — from the helplessness 
 and pains of infancy, to the infirmities and childhood 
 of age — is so obviously calculated to impress. 
 
 The writer is conscious that much of what he 
 has said may be founded in error ; but such a 
 reader, without being strict to mark the imperfect 
 execution of his labours, will not be without peculiar 
 apology for the weakness of human reason, when 
 venturing to traverse the regions of the unknown, 
 and to explore the economy of that everlasting city, 
 which hath no need of the sun, neither of the 
 moon, to shine upon it, for the glory of God doth 
 enlighten it.* 
 
 If all who live must die, let us remember that 
 the innumerable dead are living still in some form 
 of capacity or actuality : for to this conclusion we 
 
 'See Rev. .\x:. 23. 
 a 3 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 must come, whether we believe in the sleep of the 
 soul after death, or in an intermediate state between 
 death and judgment, or in the immediate passage 
 of the disembodied spirit into the presence of the 
 Eternal : whether, in short, we rely on the reve- 
 lations of the Christian, or confide in the reasonings 
 of the pagan. And we essay, with trembling steps, 
 to approach the realms of the countless dead — to 
 hold converse with the mighty populations of eter- 
 nity — and to investigate the dealings of the Godhead 
 in the final economy of his creation. 
 
 A discovery here (and we are answerable not for 
 the rightness, but for the uprightness, of our en- 
 deavours,) will not leave us when this scene is done, 
 nor can we be deprived of the advantages attending 
 it. It will serve, in the meantime, to prepare us 
 for the change, come when it may ; and when it 
 does come, we shall still, perhaps, be attended by the 
 thoughts and employments of our most serious and 
 happiest hours, and may possibly find, when eased 
 of our doubts by the transition consequent on the 
 dissolution of this body, that our labour has not been 
 in vain. Animating thought ! most glorious of all 
 discoveries ! to be able even in fancy to penetrate 
 the palace of the Eternal — to throw athwart the 
 gloom of this life the bright glory of another — to 
 raise our aspirations from this cold world of visible 
 darkness — and to fix our serious thoughts on that 
 other world of living light beyond the grave. Death 
 cannot steal a march on such investigations ;d the 
 inquirer is ever discoursing with him — is ever on 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the watch for his approach — and is prepared, not 
 with the reckless indifference of ignorance, but 
 under the submissive resignation of devotion, to 
 pass the boundary of all human affairs, supported 
 by the firm conviction, that the change can only 
 affect the matter of this evanescent form of body ; 
 but that the soul in its individuality must return to 
 God : and his great care here has been to adapt it 
 to its future condition, and to return it as perfect as 
 possible to the Creator who called it out of the inno- 
 cence of nothing, and sent it abroad for a season on 
 the journey of this trying and fitful scene. 
 
 There are three cardinal points, of which, in the 
 writer's opinion, were every one thoroughly per- 
 suaded, it were impossible to disregard their con- 
 trolling influence ; — he means the existence of an 
 almighty Providence of Goodness, the Immortality 
 of the Soul, and a state of future Retribution. And 
 it seems to him that these conclusions are made out 
 by the efforts of natural theology, although it is ad- 
 mitted that the basis of our reasonings here is laid 
 in the most inexplicable of all things to human 
 intelligence — the existence of a cause uncaused. 
 Yet, nothing is positively, so certain, and the more 
 so the more we consider it : for, it is abundantly 
 clear that something cannot come from nothing e — 
 that there cannot be an effect without a cause — that 
 there never was a period when nothing was, for if 
 so, nothing could now be. Galen was led from 
 considering the structure of the human body, and 
 particularly of the human hand, to the inference of 
 
Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 a God. Every thing, in short, we see, is a demon- 
 stration of some originating cause beyond the visible 
 — so palpable that it is impossible to suspend the 
 conviction. Man, a microcosm of surpassing de- 
 sign, is himself a walking demonstration of the ex- 
 istence of a Deity ; and he that can resist the evi- 
 dence of the unseen energy within him, the visible 
 world without him, and the starry glories above 
 him — perhaps, beyond all, the motion which actu- 
 ates the whole, and which necessarily must be the 
 effect of some power continually originating motion, 
 (as we believe,) or communicating a continuity of 
 motive power from the beginning (as others think,) 
 — is beyond the reach of the inferences of a rational 
 logic.a 
 
 Again, without entering into any lengthened ar- 
 gument to prove the immortality of the soul, we 
 may observe, that what we call death, and are apt 
 to consider as destruction, is a mere change of con- 
 dition. There is no such thing as absolute death, f 
 that is, destruction or annihilation, observable by us 
 throughout the wide range of universal being. The 
 body which we consign to the grave (or scatter to the 
 winds, or deposit in the deep sea,) is not destroyed 
 or annihilated, — nay, not a particle of it is lost ; 
 but it is changed, and contributes in some other form 
 to the purposes of the material creation. It is true 
 the soul is not cognizable by our senses, neither is the 
 wind palpable to our eyes, neither can we see God ; 
 yet since nothing dies, or rather is annihilated,g but 
 only reverts to its elementary principle and con- 
 
INTRODUCTION. Xlll 
 
 dition, we must conclude, from the whole pervading 
 analogy, that mind forms not an exception. This 
 argument from negation is, I conceive, conclusive, 
 amounting to a probability — I had almost said a 
 demonstration — which we cannot gainsay, and 
 which he who denies combats, by opposing his own 
 isolated opinion, founded on no observable analogy, 
 or rather in opposition to every analogy with wliich 
 we are conversant. But if we see not the soul, how 
 are we assured of its existence ? ^ By its operations. 
 Nay, our very doubts assure us of its existence, for 
 a nonentity could not doubt ; i and when we view 
 the cold and hfeless body, we are sure thus far, at 
 any rate, that that which once inspired it with rea- 
 son and reflection, and filled it with blessed hopes 
 beyond the limits of earthly things — that that su- 
 blime energy which warmed it with moral feeling, 
 and devout emotion — the Godlike spirit (be it what 
 it may,) is not there — it is gone somewhither; for 
 we cannot conclude (by any process of reasoning, 
 however we may assert by any desperate plunge, in 
 default of all argument,) that it dies — that it is ex- 
 tinguished utterly, in opposition to all experience, 
 and to all analogy. 
 
 Again, of the goodness of God, no man can 
 doubt who attends to the state of his own case. He 
 cannot conclude that the Being who rendered him 
 capable of any portion of happiness, might not have 
 reversed the order, and made that happiness misery. 
 I am not now arguing whether God might not have 
 been better ; I merely claim the unanswerable in- 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ference^ which no opponent can deny me, that he 
 might have been worse^ if it had so pleased him, 
 and subjected me, a controllable and dependent ob- 
 ject of his creation^ to greater suffering and pain. 
 Yet not only has he not done this, but he has unne- 
 cessarily, nay contradictorily, unless he intended our 
 happiness, superadded to the exercise of every sense 
 (excepting precautional suggestions for our safety,)^ 
 gratification and pleasure. And in no instance do 
 we find suffering the end in view ; where it exists, 
 it is in connexion with some good, and is apparently 
 precautional or remedial, or, at any rate, the evil is 
 never pure and unmixed, and purposely of use, 
 only and exclusively for the infliction of gratuitous 
 misery, as it evidently would have been under the 
 direction of a Creator of evil intention, and not in- 
 dicative of benevolence. To say that there are evil 
 and suffering in this life, is merely to complain that 
 we are free yet imperfect creatures, and prone to 
 error, and delinquency, and death, as all imperfect 
 yet active creation must be in a preparatory stage. 
 I say advisedly, preparatory, because it is essential 
 to acknowledge this preliminary position, proved 
 as it is beyond question from the nature of the 
 human faculties alone, which are superior to this 
 world's business, and which cannot here be 
 gratified or fully developed. The accomplish- 
 ment of one wish is, we all experience, but the 
 opening of another — the solution of one problem, 
 or the discovery of one truth, is, the learned 
 acknowledge, but the stepping stone to further 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 progress in our intellectual horizon, which is ever 
 thus expanding into the future, and ever thus 
 evincing the ultimate destination of our capacities, 
 in the filling up of that longing after immortality, 
 after somewhat further, and beyond us, which is 
 worked up in the very weft and woof of our being. 
 The foetus, in its organization in the womb, bears 
 not more explicit marks of an incipient stage of the 
 future and matured body, than the human faculties 
 enveloped in our present corporeal rind afford, of 
 some future field for their operation in some future 
 and matured existence emancipated from the flesh. 
 Now, with reference to the evident tendencies and 
 determination of things here, let us follow out the 
 inference, and push the effects to their maturity 
 hereafter. A state of preparation implies a state of 
 destination and advancement suited to, and co-rela- 
 tive with, our progress — and this preparatory stage 
 is, accordingly, we find, fitted to refine us beyond 
 the power of enjoyment from the external and tan- 
 gible objects of sense, i by the most convincing of 
 all arguments — their utter uncertainty — their utter 
 insufficiency if they had certainty — and lastly, their 
 extinction, in so far as our present enjoyments are 
 concerned, by death. It is clear, then, that this 
 cannot be our ultimate and abiding place — that the 
 ocean of this life cannot be the scene of our entire 
 emancipation from sin — that here we cannot fulfil 
 the full purposes of our being — and cannot arrive 
 at the full developement of our rational and virtu- 
 ous capacities. It is clear, therefore^ that to some 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 futurity, to some destination, be it where and what 
 it may, we are tending ; and thither we must look 
 for home, for happiness and security, and the 
 full manhood of our intellectual capabilities and 
 moral endowments. Now, when I find in this hfe 
 that man has the power of willing and of acting — 
 of doing good or evil — I cannot but infer some con- 
 sequence from voluntary conduct — that is, accoun- 
 tability where there is choice ; and keeping in view 
 the attributes which reason enables me to ascribe to 
 God, particularly his justice and goodness "^ — and 
 seeing, also, the mixed nature of things here — it is 
 not possible to resist the conclusion, that the work- 
 ing of this system of means is prospective of a so- 
 lution of the enigma it involves, and that the Creator 
 must finally adjust all this economy by a result 
 having the felt and acknowledged force of a right- 
 eous administration. With these stubborn facts 
 and considerations before my eyes, under the irre- 
 sistible conclusion that the tendencies observable 
 here must have place somewhere — that the troubled 
 current of human affairs, and of all things else, 
 must ultimately subside into some permanency and 
 order — it is impossible for me to resist the inference, 
 that I am now on the threshold of existence only, 
 and that the valley of death, as it closes this pre- 
 liminary kaleidoscope, is the appointed avenue 
 which opens upon scenes of real life, and by which 
 I am destined to move on to future being ; when 
 the plan which I have seen, evidently but in pro- 
 gress, will be developed, and the tendencies and 
 
13 
 
 according to that which is written of purification by 
 fire. But how long this purification, which is 
 wrought out by fire, shall be applied, or for how 
 many ages the sinner shall endure torments. He 
 alone can know, to whom the Father has committed 
 all judgment." c It is clear from this passage alone, 
 that Origen supported the doctrines of the Uni- 
 versalists; — the remedial nature of punishment, and 
 the eventual purification of the lapsed soul. 
 
 We have then Gregory of Nazianzus, a laborious 
 Presbyter, and the master of St. Jerome, who has 
 been called by some, the most learned of all the 
 Latin fathers, — " as eminent a divine (says Dr. 
 Calamy) as any among all the fathers." * Gregory 
 flourished between 326 and 389, and St. Jerome 
 terms him a most eloquent man. He distinguishes 
 between the fire for purifying and the fire for 
 punishing, which last he determines to be the worm 
 that never dieth, " unless, indeed, we are to in- 
 terpret all these modes of suffering in a sense 
 more merciful towards man, and worthy of God." ^ 
 
 Gregory of Nyssa, again, who was ordained about 
 370, positively asserts that evil must be utterly 
 banished from the whole range of being. Evil 
 (says he, in substance) cannot be without a wiU and 
 purpose, and as all will and purpose must proceed 
 from God, evil must be eventually abolished, e 
 
 After Gregory we have the learned and laborious 
 
 * Calamy's Life and Times, vol. i. p. 20. 
 B 
 
14 
 
 Jerome, who flourished about the year 390. Of 
 the doctrine of hell torments, in which this eminent 
 father acquiesced, he observes, in his commentary on 
 Isaiah, (as it were in modification; — and) in the true 
 spirit of Christian humility, — " which matter we 
 should leave to the judgment of God, whose mercies 
 and punishments are in weight and measure, and who 
 alone knows whom, by what means, and for how 
 long, he ought to punish." f And we have a passage 
 from the "City of God," of the celebrated St. Augus- 
 tine, the contemporary and friend of Jerome, and 
 who died in the year 430, which shows that so late 
 as his day the creed of the Universalists was not 
 without its supporters. " And now I find (says he) 
 I have to do with our merciful men, and I must 
 dispute with them peaceably, — those, I mean, who 
 w^ill not believe that everlasting punishment shall 
 be inflicted on those whom the most righteous Judge 
 shall condemn to the pains of Gehenna, or at least 
 not on all of them, but that after certain periods, in 
 proportion to the crime of each, they shall be deli- 
 vered from their sufferings." g 
 
 Indeed it has been asserted, by no mean authori- 
 ty, h that the belief of the eternity of hell tor- 
 ments is no part of the ancient creeds of the two 
 first centuries, and that the stern TertuUian, who 
 flourished towards the end of the second, is the first 
 who makes the happiness of the good and the mise- 
 ry of the wicked of equal duration. Be this as it 
 may, we have noticed some of the earliest and best 
 
15 
 
 fathers of the church who have recorded their senti- 
 ments in favour of the restitution of all things ; and 
 it ought not to be forgotten that the contrary doc- 
 trine forms no part of the Articles of the Church of 
 England, It is said, it is true, in the Athanasian 
 creed, '' which faith, except every man do keep 
 whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish 
 everlastingly ;" but this leaves to the believer the 
 benefit of the Scriptural interpretation of the word 
 " everlastingly " in the sense his conscience and rea- 
 son dictate ; and this inference is distinctly implied 
 in the fact that, in the 42 Articles, settled in Edward 
 the Sixth's reign, the eternity of hell torments is 
 asserted, but it is omitted in the 39 Articles, as they 
 were altered and framed in the reign of Eliza- 
 beth, i Not so in the Catholic and Presbyterian 
 Churches ; and among the IMoravians the belief of 
 the eternity of hell torments is expressly required. 
 And although we evade the more forbidding infer- 
 ence in the Articles of the Church of Engknd, it is 
 still manifest that they require a particular faith, or 
 rather an adherence to a particular creed, as neces- 
 sary to salvation, and are therefore in so far intoler- 
 ant, unless we explain the creed as implying belief 
 in the essential articles of Christianity only. ^ I do 
 not forget that the 17th Article of the Church of 
 England would imply that those only are saved, 
 who '' by the everlasting purpose of God, before 
 the foundations of the world were laid, being chosen 
 in Christ out of mankind, are decreed by his coun- 
 cil, secret to us, and are delivered from curse and 
 b2 
 
16 
 
 damnation." But I have already given my reasons * 
 why I reject these doctrines of election and repro- 
 bation — why I cannot see the use of God's laws^ if 
 some are infallibly rejected, and some as infallibly 
 saved. 
 
 " What else (says the learned Eusebius) does 
 the name of a Christian denote, but a man who, by 
 the knowledge and doctrine of Jesus Christ, is 
 brought to the practice of sobriety, righteousness, 
 patience, fortitude, and the religious worship of the 
 one and only God over all."t If this opinion of 
 this most excellent father had been preached and 
 practised, in sincerity and truth, what a world of 
 absurd logomachy, and unchristian persecution, had 
 never disgraced the annals of our species ! 
 
 * Notes on Rel. Mor. and Met. Sub. p. 236, note n, &c. 
 t Lardner, vol. viii. p. 7I. 
 
17 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 Let not that trouble you, Philopolis : For, for my part, I look 
 upon the Christian Religrion, rightly understood, to be the 
 deepest and the choicest piece of Philosophy." 
 
 Morels Divine Dialogues. 
 
 " My trembling steps, Oh ! Sybil, lead 
 Through the dominions of the dead." — Hamilton. 
 
 The reader will bear in mind^ that many of the 
 Fathers whose opinions we have quoted lived close 
 to the age of the Apostles ; and a question here 
 naturally arises, — ^by what means we of modern days 
 have arrived at the knowledge of an explicit article 
 of faith which escaped their patient and unwearied 
 research ? 
 
 It is certainly true " that all things necessary to 
 be believed and practised, by all Christians, are 
 clearly and plainly declared in the gospel ;*' * and 
 it is equally true '' that there is no visible Judge, to 
 whose determination in matters of faith and prac- 
 tice, necessary to salvation. Christians are bound to 
 submit, Avithout examination whether these things 
 
 • Tillutson, fol. vol. 2, p. 202. 
 B 3 
 
18 
 
 be agreeable to the doctrine of the gospel or not ;""' 
 for " cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and 
 whose heai't departeth from the Lord." Yet the 
 generality seem disposed to reverse these truths, 
 and to take Christianity as they find it, disfigured 
 under the daubing of a particular preacher, — not as 
 they see it painted in the graceful simplicity of 
 Scripture. 
 
 Neither are these opinions, as to the restoration 
 of all things, confined to the pdges of some of the 
 most celebrated of the ancient fathers : they are 
 admitted by learned names of our modern church - 
 Dr. Henry More, an eminent divine of the Church 
 of England, and poet and philosopher of some cele- 
 brity, may be classed among the number ; for, as he 
 maintained the pre-existent state of souls, and that 
 wisdom and goodness are the chief attributes of the 
 Deity, it is reasonable to conclude he inferred the 
 universal restoration of all things, which, indeed^ 
 may be gathered from the following lines of his 
 poetry : — 
 
 " For I would sing the pre-existency 
 Of human souls, and live once o'er again, 
 By recollection and quick memory, 
 All that is past since first we all began." 
 
 He goes on to invoke the '' sacred soul of Plotin 
 dear :" 
 
 " Tell me ^hat mortals are ; 
 A spark or ray of the divinity — 
 Clouded with earthy fogs, y'dad in tlay ; 
 
 • Tillotson, p. 203. 
 
19 
 
 A precious drop, sunk from eternity, 
 
 Spilt on the ground, or rather slunk away ?" 
 
 « • « • « 
 
 " Shew fitly (he continues) how the pre-existent soul 
 Enacts and enters bodies here below, 
 And then entire^ unhurt, can leave this moul."* a 
 
 The great Dr. Tillotson (whose clear and decisive 
 exposition t of the doctrine of Transubstantiation 
 would alone entitle him to the highest rank among 
 able reasoners,) considered these pvmishments only 
 threatened; — and that neither the justice nor the 
 veracity of the Deity required he should execute 
 threatenings ; % which are never to be stretched be- 
 yond the " plain words/' and which " do not seem to 
 reach any farther than to the exclusion of impenitent 
 sinners out of Heaven, and their falling finally short 
 of the rest and happiness of the righteous." It is 
 abundantly evident that the pleasantness of peace 
 can never be the portion of sinfulness here, or of 
 obduracy hereafter ; — and to fall finally short of 
 happiness is a very different consummation from 
 that of suffering eternal misery in the life to come. 
 In fine, without entanghng ourselves in the con- 
 troversies and recriminations of the period, we may 
 observe, on the whole, that the Archbishop virtually 
 refuses the doctrine of the absolute eternity of pu- 
 nishments, although the pith of his opinions (not 
 always consistent) has been modified by some, and 
 
 • Campbell's Poets, vol. 4, p. 318. 
 
 t Notes on Rel. Mor. and Met. Sub. p. 24-1, 25i>. 
 
 X See note f, let. 1. 
 
20 
 
 explained away by others. In truths the substance 
 of all he admits in defence of the doctrine is, that 
 the terrors of the Lord are threatened; and the 
 drift of his reasoning is to show, that being only 
 threatened, the justice of the Deity is not engaged 
 to execute them.* And no man can deny that God 
 may execute any threatening, of whatever nature, 
 not contradictory of his attributes. Thus much we 
 must believe, if we believe the Scriptures, that God 
 may eternally punish, — that is, make punishment 
 commensurate with his eternity, if that doom be 
 consistent with his righteousness, justice, goodness, 
 and mercy, (but only under this supposition,) which 
 is the point to be proved, but which never can be 
 proved on this side of the grave ; nay, the proof 
 here is all the other way, and the very essence of 
 just punishment is proportion. This admission, 
 however, of the possible execution of a possible or 
 probable commination, although opposed to all our 
 natural notions of things, — although we see not the 
 way of it, and deny that it is revealed in the oracles 
 of God, is very different from that which leads the 
 majority of divines, to use Tillotson's words, " sau- 
 cily to determine and pronounce what God must do 
 in this case." 
 
 '' Comminations (observes the celebrated Stilling - 
 fleet.t as it were following out Tillotson's reasoning) 
 do speak only the dehitum pcence, and the necessary 
 
 * Tillotgon, vol. 1. p. 325, et seq. Tucker's Light of 
 Xature, vol. 4, p. 337. t Or. Sac. vol. 1. p. 222. 
 
21 
 
 obligation to punishment ; but therein God doth not 
 bind himself up as he doth in absolute promises : the 
 reason is, because comminations confer no right to 
 any which absolute promises do ; and therefore God 
 is not bound to necessary performance of what he 
 threatens." 
 
 The well-known Dr. Priestley too was, if I mis- 
 take not, an Universalist. His opinions on this sub- 
 ject are not expressly given in his '' Corruptions of 
 Christianity/' although, I think, they may be pretty 
 accurately inferred ; and it is, I beheve, understood 
 that he ultimately embraced the doctrine we now 
 advocate. " In the Deity* (says he), justice can be 
 nothing more than a modification of goodness or 
 benevolence, which is his sole governing principle, 
 the object and end of which is the happiness of his 
 creatures and subjects." Again he says, (what 
 seems to me incontrovertible,) the great outline of 
 Christianity is,t " that the universal Parent of man- 
 kind commissioned Jesus Christ to invite men to 
 the practice of virtue, by the assurance of his mercy 
 to the penitent, and of his purpose to raise to im- 
 mortal life and happiness all the virtuous and the 
 good ; but to inflict an adequate punishment on the 
 wicked." Now, in what sense can this purpose of 
 God be said to be fulfilled by inflicting everlasting 
 punishments for temporary transgressions } b And 
 (as is observed by the amiable Dr. Blair %) '' noth- 
 
 * Coir, of Christy, vol. 1. p. 15!)— 260, &c. 8vo. 
 t Vol. 2, p. 447. X Ser. vol. 5, p. 108. 
 
22 
 
 ing can make any resistance to God's purpose, or 
 fall out in any way beside or beyond his plan." 
 Again, " nothing (says Bishop Newton) is more 
 contrarient to the divine nature and attributes, than 
 for God to bestow existence on any beings whose 
 destiny he foreknows must terminate in wretched- 
 ness, without recovery." * Even Jeremy Taylor, t 
 who confidently infers, that " the worm of con- 
 science and the unquenchable fire of hell have no 
 period at all, but shall last as long as God lasts, or 
 the measure of a proper eternity," tells us, " it is 
 certain that God's mercies are infinite, and it is also 
 certain that the matter of eternal torments cannot 
 truly be understood ;" — sentiments which, (taken 
 in connection,) as I do not pretend to understand, I 
 shall not (in deference to the excellent Jeremy) 
 attempt to explain. 
 
 * See Edwards on Salvation, 8vo. p. 3.30. Newton's Dissert : 
 
 on the Final State and Condition of Men.c 
 
 t Ser. vol. 1, p. 60, vol. 2, p. 349. 
 
23 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 Look to me, all the ends of the earth, and be saved, — is the 
 wide and generous announcement hy which he would recall, 
 from the very outermost limits of his sinful creation, the 
 most worthless and polluted of those who have ventured 
 away from him." Chalmers. 
 
 " Behold the merry minstrels of the mora, 
 
 The swarming songsters of the careless grove. 
 Ten thousand throats ! that, from the flowering thorn, 
 Hymn their good God, and carol sAveet of love." 
 
 Thomson. 
 
 Names, I readily admits are of no avail in matters of 
 this sort ; and I only mention these learned authorities 
 of the Churchy to relieve the reader from any uneasi- 
 ness he may feel at the thoughts of an attempt to 
 disturb what he may have been led to consider was 
 scriptural truth hitherto^ unchallenged and unchal- 
 lengeable. Here we see some of the ablest and most 
 pious men of which the Church can boast, either 
 questioning the tenet of the eternity of hell tor- 
 ments, or unequivocally entertaining the belief of 
 the final restoration of all things, as the doctrine of 
 Christ, preached by his Apostles. Indeed, when I 
 look to the epistles of St. Paulj or peruse the glow- 
 
24 
 
 ing language of the Prophets^ it is impossible for 
 me to reconcile the expressions they use with any 
 other conviction on their part, than that of the 
 universal restoration. 
 
 " For God (says the great Apostle*) hath con- 
 cluded them all in unbelief, that he might have 
 mercy upon all." 
 
 (( Fort as in Adam all die^, even so in Christ 
 shall all be made alive. But every man in his own 
 order : Christ the first fruits ; afterwards they that 
 are Christ's, at his coming. — 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 imay he all in alV 
 
 '' Having:}: made known unto us the mystery of 
 his will, according to his good pleasure, which he 
 hath purposed to himself: that in the dispensation 
 of the fulness of times, he might gather together in 
 one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, 
 and which are on earth, even in him." 
 
 '■' Rom. xi. 32. f 1 Cor. xv. 22—29. X Ephes. i. 9, 10. 
 
25 
 
 " Wherefore"^' God also hath highly exalted him^ 
 and given him a name which is above every name ; 
 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of 
 things in heaven, and things on earth, and things 
 under the earth ; and that every tongue should con- 
 fess that Jesus Christ is Lord." 
 
 " For t it pleased the Father that in him should 
 all fulness dwell : and (having made peace through 
 the blood of his cross) by him to reconcile all things 
 unto himself: by him I say, whether they be things 
 on earth, or things in heaven." 
 
 " For J this is good and acceptable in the sight of 
 God our Saviour ; who will have all men to be saved, 
 and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For 
 there is one God, and one mediator between God 
 and men, the man Jesus Christ ; who gave himself 
 a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." 
 
 I do not stop to examine, at present, the foregoing 
 passages from the New Testament ; but if words 
 have meaning, three things are clearly declared : — 
 First, the universal restoration of all things. Second, 
 the end of our Saviour's mediatorial office and vi- 
 carious government. Third, the universal empire of 
 Almighty God, <' that God may be all in all," in the 
 fulness and plenitude of the Triune Deity. — How 
 these results are to be accomplished it is not our 
 province to explain ; but that they ai-e here revealed 
 by the inspired Apostle seems to me to admit of no 
 question. If it be objected, that in Luke we are 
 
 * Phil. ii. 9-11. t Col. i. 19, 20. I 1 Tim. ii. 3, 4, 5. 
 
 C 
 
26 
 
 told — Of""' Christ's "kingdom there shall be no end :" 
 we might reply from the same Evangelist — " For 
 the things concerning me have an end;" and we 
 might shu' over these apparently contradictory alle- 
 gations by thus neutralizing them. But there is no 
 occasion for any such process — the passages are per- 
 fectly intelligible ; for, although Christ's mediatorial 
 kingdom shall have an end, when its purposes are 
 fulfilled, the reign of Christ, the IMessiah, in a Scrip- 
 tural sense, shall then commence, we are assured, in 
 unity and equality, and throughout eternity, with 
 the Father ; — in a way no doubt quite inexplicable 
 to me, (so far as his equality and unity are concern- 
 ed,) and certainly transcending my utmost powers 
 to comprehend in any manner of way. a But my 
 ignorance, or apprehension, is not the measure of 
 possibility even here, far less hereafter ; and to ex- 
 pect clear and distinct views of such matters, is at 
 once to forget the nature and extent of a finite and 
 limited understanding, and the condition of darkness 
 and of blindness in which it now moves, t 
 
 Again, we find the same doctrines are inculcated 
 in the Old Testament : — 
 
 " The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to 
 anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always 
 chide ; neither will he keep his anger for ever." J 
 
 " And§ it shall come to pass in that day (of 
 
 * Luke i. 33, and xxii. 37. t See Notes on Rel. Mor. and Met, 
 
 Subjects, p; 69. t Ps. ciii. 8, 9. 
 
 § Is. xxiv. 21; 22, 23, 
 
27 
 
 judgments), that 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 
 shall they be visited. Then the moon shall be con- 
 founded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of 
 Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, 
 and before his ancients gloriously." — " And the 
 glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh 
 shall see it." '■' — " I have sworn by myself, the word 
 is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall 
 not return, that unto me every knee shall bow, 
 every tongue shall swear." t — " For I will not con- 
 tend for ever, neither w411 I be always wroth." J 
 
 " Who§ is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth 
 iniquity, and passeth by the transgressions of the 
 remnant of his heritage ? He retaineth not his 
 anger for ever^ because he delighteth in mercy." 
 
 "^ O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, 
 for his mercy endureth for ever." Here, as is ob- 
 served by the late Dr. Brown, || the " very cause 
 of giving thanks to him is the perpetual duration 
 of his mercy." 
 
 • Is. xl. 5. t Is. xlv. 23. I Is. Ivii. 16. § Mic. vii. 18. 
 11 Comp. View of Christy- vol. ii. p. 329. 
 
 c 2 
 
28 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Thus, I am sure, the best and most ancient Philosophers thought 
 in this very controversy." Sherlock, 
 
 " We are biit fools, 
 To trifle in disputes, or vainly struggle 
 With that eternal mercy which protects us." — Ford. 
 
 The foregoing references to Scripture are purpose- 
 ly few j and I have confined these brief notices to the 
 names of Churchmen in ancient and modern times; 
 but if we extend our inquiries to laymen, we shall 
 find abundance of authority. It has indeed been 
 said^ by a late learned Divine/"* (and was before 
 observed, if I remember well, in the " Minute 
 Philosopher" of Bishop Berkeley^) that the doctrine 
 was admitted by the most enlightened Heathen 
 Philosophers ; and we have a quotation from Plato 
 given us^ in corroboration of this conclusion. I 
 readily admit the excellence of the authority quoted; 
 but it seems to me that the scope of Plato's reason- 
 ings suggests a different reading, — and that Philoso- 
 pher must be admitted to the privilege of explaining 
 
 • Dr. Brown — Essay on the Existence of a Creator. 
 
29 
 
 and reconciling the drift of his opinions with the 
 whole spirit and tenour of his writings. Neither 
 can he be fairly interpreted from one solitary pas- 
 sage^ without relief from the strength and confidence 
 of contrary assertions, and the whole bearing of his 
 Theology, as a professed Pythagorean, who express- 
 ly lays down the doctrine of Transmigration, repre- 
 senting the fall of man, the re-appearance of God, 
 and the restoration of the whole human race. 
 
 " The Philosophy of Plato, (says the very learned 
 Chevalier Ramsay, ") as we have shewn, is an 
 emanation of the Pythagorean doctrine; and we 
 know that Phythagoras derived his from the sages 
 of Egypt, the IMagi of Persia, and the Indian Gym- 
 nosophists, whose sentiments and philosophy he had 
 studied. We may therefore look upon the Platonic 
 scheme as the quintessence of all the oriental learn- 
 ing on this important subject. This Philosopher 
 speaks thus of the primitive earth : — ' The ethereal 
 earth, the first abode of souls, is placed in the pure 
 regions of Heaven, where the stars are seated. We 
 that live in this low abyss are apt to fancy that we 
 are on a high place; and we call the air the 
 heavens, — ^just like a man that from the bottom of 
 the sea should view the sun and stars through the 
 waters, and fancy the ocean to be the firmament it- 
 self. But if we had wings to mount on high, we 
 should see that there is the true Heaven, the true 
 
 • Princ. of Xat. and Rev. Rel. vol. ii. p. 280.— See also his Dis- 
 course on the Mytholoarv of the Pagans. 
 
 c 3 
 
so 
 
 lights and the true earth. As in the sea every thing 
 is altered and disfigured^ by the salts that abound in 
 it^ — so in our present earth every thing is deformedj 
 corrupted;, and ruinous^ when compared with the 
 primitive earth, which was immense — whereas, now, 
 we know and inhabit only a small part of it.' By 
 this (continues tlie Chevalier) Plato and the an- 
 cients seem to believe, that the earth we now inhabit 
 is only a small portion of a luminous star detached 
 from the ethereal regions, and changed into a dark 
 opaque gross planet.' In the same dialogue we have 
 this magnificent description (according to the Che- 
 valier) *of that ethereal earth of which ours is only a 
 broken crust' : — • In that ethereal earth every thing 
 was beautiful, harmonious, and transparent ; fruits 
 of an excellent taste grew there naturally, and it was 
 watered with rivers of nectar ; there men breathed 
 the light, as we breathe the air ; and they drank 
 waters that were purer than air itself.' In the 
 dialogue (I still quote from the Chevalier) called 
 the Politicus, he names this primitive state of the 
 earth, the reign of Saturn, and describes it in this 
 manner — ' God was then the prince and common 
 father of all : he governed the world by himself, as 
 he governs it now by inferior deities. Rage and 
 cruelty did not then prevail upon the earth ; Avar 
 and sedition were not so much as known. God 
 himself took care of the sustenance of mankind, 
 and was their guardian and shepherd. There were 
 no magistrates or civil polity as there are now ; all 
 men were governed by right reason and the love of 
 
31 
 
 order. In these happy days the fertile fields yielded 
 fruits and corn without the labour of tillage. Man- 
 kind stood in no need of raiment to cover their 
 bodies^ being troubled with no inclemency of the 
 seasons ; and they took their rest upon beds of turf 
 of perpetual verdure/ Plato, in other places, (adds 
 the Chevalier,) describes how souls, by neglecting 
 the Divine guidance," fell from the happy state 
 which they enjoyed in this primitive, ethereal, ce- 
 lestial, paradisiacal earth : — ' They grew heavy and 
 sluggish, broke their wings, fell down upon the 
 earth, entered into human bodies more or less vile, 
 according as they had been more or less elevated. 
 Souls less degraded than others dwell in the bodies 
 of philosophers. The most despicable of all dwell 
 in the bodies of tyrants and evil princes. It was 
 after this degradation of spirits that Saturn, the 
 maker of the universe, having quitted the reins of 
 his empire, hid himself in an inaccessible retreat. 
 The foundations of the world were shaken by mo- 
 tions contrary to its first principle and last end, and 
 lost its beauty and order. Then it was that good 
 and evil were blended together.' After this (con- 
 cludes the Chevalier) Plato describes the third state 
 of the earth in the clearest terms : — ' In the end, 
 lest the world should be plunged in an eternal abyss 
 of confusion, God, the author of the primitive order, 
 will appear again, and re-assume the reins of em- 
 pire. Then he will change, amend, embelHsh, and 
 
 * S'ee the Phsedrus, p. 323. Bip. vol. x. 
 
32 
 
 restore the whole frame of nature, and put an end 
 to decay, to age, to disease, and to death.' " 
 
 Such is the substance of the highly figurative de- 
 scriptions of Plato, as given by the learned Chevalier 
 Ramsay ; and in more particularly considering the 
 matter, we shall take occasion to advert generally to 
 the opinions of antiquity on some important points. 
 
 In such discussions, he will look for much uncer- 
 tainty who has in the solitude of his own heart pon- 
 dered on the mysteries of Creation and of Providence ; 
 and he who has ever explored the realms of metaphy- 
 sical speculation, will not expect to find the enquiries 
 of the most surpassing intellects, on the nature of 
 things, and the final destiny of man, free from intri- 
 cacy and doubt. The eternal truths of religion are 
 of overwhelming importance ; and there are ques- 
 tions in the history of our presence here, as connect- 
 ed with our progress and existence hereafter, before 
 which the mind quails, and reels back in utter help- 
 lessness and confusion. But it is nevertheless the 
 province of reason to endeavour after a knowledge 
 of divine things, and to strive to put away for a 
 while the concerns of time and of sense, before these 
 shall be for ever at an end, and we shall have be- 
 come the beings of another sphere. 
 
33 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 A good poet and an honest historian may afford learning- 
 enough for a gentleman; and such a one, whilst he reads 
 these authors as his divei'sion, will have a truer relish of 
 their sense, and understand them better, than a pedant with 
 all his labours, and the assistance of his volumes of com- 
 mentators." Shaftesbury. 
 
 *' Huge commentators grace my learned shelves, 
 Notes upon books out-do the books themselves." 
 
 Bramston. 
 
 The passage relative to future punishment, to which 
 I have alluded in the foregoing letter, occurs in the 
 Phaedo of Plato.* He is describing three different 
 judgments to be pronounced on the dead ; — first, 
 on those who are neither entirely criminal nor inno- 
 cent ; secondly, on those who are incorrigible ; and 
 thirdly, on those who, though guilty of gi-eat sins, 
 are yet corrigible. The first and third are reclaimed 
 after certain sufferings and purgations ; but the se- 
 cond, according to Plato, are consigned to Tartarus, 
 " whence they return not," {ohv ovtfoIi l}c/3xtvovo-;v) 
 that is (say some) to eternal punishment. Towards 
 
 * Pheedo Bip. Edit. vol. i. p. 257. 
 
34 
 
 the end of the tenth book of the Republic,* Plato 
 speaks, as it would at first appear, most determinate- 
 ly of the interminable punishments of the wicked ; 
 for after representing the proportionate punishment 
 of crime, he then exhibits Aridoeus (the tyrant 
 who had killed his father and brother) in Tartarus, 
 " who shall not come hither ;" but he goes on to 
 say that there are other great criminals in the same 
 stage of suffering, who with Aridoeus make ineffec- 
 tual attempts to return, " who are either incurable, 
 or are not yet sufficiently punished," (as it would 
 seem from the alternative stated,) admitting the pos- 
 sibility of the dismal eternity, — but certainly imply- 
 ing, at the same time, that the period of punishment 
 would only last while they were incurable, or that 
 they would return when purged from their sins. 
 We have adverted to the passages given by the 
 learned Chevalier Ramsay, where Plato lays down 
 the Pythagoric doctrine of transmigration, repre- 
 senting, lastly, the re-appearance of God and the 
 restoration of all things. + Plato J elsewhere dis- 
 tinctly assumes the individual consciousness of the 
 soul after death, when it may be adjuged to suffer the 
 greatest inflictions : § and if we will attentively 
 consider, and consistently interpret, his expressions 
 in the Phaedo, || a and others in the Gorgias,1[ rela- 
 
 • Vol. vii. p. 325. Bip. 
 
 t See Politicus, Bip. vol. vi. p. 39, Phaedrus passim. 
 
 X Epist. ii. vol. xi. p. 6G, Bip. § Epist. vii. vol. xi. p. 115. 
 
 I! Vol. i. p. 257. Bip. ^TVol.iv.p. 1G9. Bip. See also from p. 164. 
 
35 
 
 tive to future punishment, upon which so much re- 
 Hance is placed, we must obviously understand them 
 in connection with the whole spirit of Plato's theolo- 
 gical writings, particularly with reference to what is 
 detailed in the Ph^drus, Politicus, and Timaeus, as to 
 the transmigration and purgation of the soul, and the 
 restoration of all things. Thus we will be led to 
 conclude, that Plato can substantially be understood 
 to mean no more, without stultifying all his prin- 
 ciples as a Pythagorean, and all his authority as a 
 lover of truth, and a philosopher of a consistent 
 theory, than that the wicked condemned to Tartarus 
 shall not be reheved tvhile they continue in that state 
 of stony-heartedness, and of alienation from God ; 
 and until they are sufficiently purged from all the 
 delinquencies of sin, to be again regenerated and 
 born into a new hfe. But, indeed, the account 
 given us by Plato of the punishments of the 
 wicked seems to be either fabular or allegorical. * 
 The very Dialogue b we have been considering 
 from the Phaedo is prefaced by the declaration 
 that it was merely a fable ; and in the Republic 
 it is somewhere stated that such stories, while 
 they weigh with us in sickness, are disregarded 
 by the man in health; while in the Cratylus, 
 Socrates is represented as displeased with the 
 vulgar idea we entertain of a future state as a 
 dark and gloomy abode: — '^ Mankind t (says he) 
 
 * Bip< vol. vi. p. 153. Xiyofiivoi /u.vBoi Tfi^i ruv Iv 'aSov 
 t Bip. p. 269, vol. iii. 
 
36 
 
 greatly err concerning the power of this God, 
 (PlutOj,) and they fear him, without reason, because 
 they consider that, after any one is dead, he continues 
 there (in Hades) for ever, deprived of the body," He 
 goes on to assure us that Pluto, whom he here de- 
 scribes as a liberal benefactor, only admits the disem- 
 bodied soul into his society after it has been '^' puri- 
 fied* from corporeal disease and appetite," and then 
 he engages the affections, and draws them to the pur- 
 suits, and binds them by the love of virtue. Again, in 
 the De Legibus t he says, we ought to disabuse our- 
 selves of the unjust notions we entertain of Hades, 
 ignorant that the greatest good may befall us from 
 the gods who preside there. Bishop Warburton, in 
 his Divine Legation of ]Moses,c will have it, that 
 Plato did not believe in a future state. Dr. Whate- 
 ly,<i in his Essays on " some of the peculiarities of 
 the Christian religion," argues (I think) that the an- 
 cients either were ignorant of, or disbelieved, the 
 immortality of the soul; and the late Dr. Brown 
 quotes Plato for the doctrine of eternal punishments 
 hereafter ; while Cicero J (no mean authority) 
 assures us that it was the universal admission of all 
 Philosophers, that God could neither be angry with 
 nor hurt any one. If, indeed, it appears to our 
 humble judgment the testimony of Plato's writings 
 can be relied on for any thing they prove, if words 
 have meaning, that this great man never entertained 
 
 • Vol. iii. p. 271. t Lib. V. vol. viii. p. 205. 
 
 J De Off. lib. iii. c. xxviii. 
 
37 
 
 the settled notion that death extinguished the intel- 
 lectual consciousness of beings or disturbed the mo- 
 ral permanency of the soul. Although imaginative 
 and beautifully poetical in his thoughts and diction, 
 he never permits any colouring to obscure the glory 
 of an aspiration after the true and good — after some- 
 thing nobler;, and purer, and holier, than any thing 
 which this cold earth and wrong world can supply. 
 Whatever might be the advances of virtue in this 
 life, towards the enjoyment of intellectual happi- 
 ness and the perception of speculative truth, their 
 full influence could only be experienced, when, freed 
 from the trammels of the body, we exchange the 
 shadow for the substance of knowledge, and are 
 enabled to perceive truth, in its uniform, essential, 
 unchangeable, and eternal nature. 
 
 Without adverting to all the particular shades of 
 opinion, and without essaying any lengthened or 
 atteAipting any learned discussion, (which we pre- 
 sume not to be able to give,) we may here endeavour 
 very briefly to collect the substance of the notions 
 of the ancients on this important matter. 
 
 The reader, then, will bear in mind that the per- 
 vading influence of the whole of ancient philoso- 
 phy was that of the to Iv, or one ineffable originating 
 principle, the unity from which all things flow, and 
 the good to which all things tend — involving ulti- 
 mately the refusion of the whole into this one ori- 
 ginating cause of all. No matter how this centre 
 of light became diverted in passing through dif- 
 ferent systems, — or led some gifted minds to dis- 
 
 D 
 
38 
 
 cover the individuality, and immortality of the hu- 
 man soul, created by, or emanating from it — this 
 general principle lay at the bottom of all their rea- 
 sonings, and was the foundation of all their theories. 
 We have it from Laertius, that the prevailing tenet of 
 the Greek Philosophy was (g| ho? ra. ttuvJoc ytyia-Qoci kui 
 itq Tuvrov avoiXvar&oit), that all things proceed from 
 one, and will ultimately be re-solved into the same 
 unity which Aristotle says some call the good (to 
 ocyxdov)/' ^ Sextus Empiricust and Plutarch J re- 
 ])eat substantially the same thing of the Pythago- 
 reans and Platonists, to whom Aristotle alludes ; — 
 the former, according to Syrianus, calling God the 
 one (l» Xiyovluv rov 6i»v) — the latter the super-essential 
 TO iv, the good, ineffable, and unknown cause of all ; 
 and both holding, generally, that the one pervades 
 the whole by '^ force and not by extension" — as the 
 centre of all being, and to which all being returns — 
 recognizing, at the same time, the immortality of 
 the soul, as the work and creation of an eternal 
 Deity — (u(pCcc^rov — g^yev rov ui^iov hov.) The same 
 principle lies at the root of Aristotle's § reasoning, 
 to which we have in another place referred, where 
 he speaks of the immortality of the intellect alone — 
 that only (which, originally divine, and being se- 
 parated from the passive intelligence of this life by 
 
 • Lacr. Pro. s. 3. Aris. Met. lib. xiv. c. 4. Duval. 
 
 t Lib. ix. Adv. Phys. s. I27. 
 
 : Lib. iv. c; 7. Plac. Phil. Plato, (Parm.) passim. Siris.s. 129. 
 
 § Notes on Rel. Mor. and Met. Sub. p. 213. 
 
39 
 
 death) is immortal. Seneca'"" has it^ that we are the 
 parts and members of God, the whole in which we 
 are contained ; and much to the same purpose speak 
 Epictetus and Antoninus, t It may appear difficult 
 to reconcile all this with the opinions ascribed to 
 the philosophers of the individuality of the soul ; 
 but let us remember the difficulty of the subject, — 
 and if it be understood of the Scriptural affirmation, 
 that the body shall return to the dust, but the spirit 
 to Him who gave it, J as implying immortahty, and 
 admitting individuality, why may w^e not conclude 
 that (in explanation of ancient philosophy), as all 
 things return to their original elements, the matter 
 of which we are composed to its parent earth, and 
 the spirit to the parent spirit, — so this is to be 
 taken, philosophically interpreted, as implying the 
 immortality and individuality of the mind. To this 
 let us add the recorded maxim of Cicero, f before 
 noticed, that God could not be angry with nor hurt 
 any one, and we shall have a very good key, if not 
 to the exact creed of antiquity as to what they did 
 positively believe, certainly as to what they could 
 not believe consistently with these fundamental prin- 
 ciples. Keeping in view, then, these points — first, 
 of an originating principle of all tilings, from which 
 the soul emanated, and to which it would ultimately 
 return; and, secondly, the universal belief of 
 
 * Ep. 92. t Notes on Rel. Mor. and Met. Sub. p. 218, 219. 
 
 t Eccles. xii. 7. — See also Horsley, Serm. 39, on this text ; and 
 
 note j, r. 42. 
 
 d2 
 
40 
 
 philosophy^ that God could neither be angry with 
 nor hurt any one — let us advert to the particular 
 tenets of the best schools. Bishop Warburton, 
 as we have said, attempted to show that none of 
 the ancient philosophers, with the exception of 
 Socrates, '^ believed in a future state of retribu- 
 tion ; — Dr. Brown ascribes to the most enlightened 
 of them, the belief of eternal punishments; and 
 Dr. Whately has, as we observed, argued that the 
 immortality of the soul was unknown to, or dis- 
 believed by the ancients. We venture to dissent 
 from these conclusions, however recommended by 
 the great learning of the writers ; and we propose 
 here mainly to endeavour to show, that the doctrine 
 of the eternity of future punishment could form no 
 part of ancient philosophy. And this, perhaps, will 
 be best done by briefly considering the tenets of the 
 leading schools of Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, and 
 Zeno, g with reference to the notion, in some shape 
 embraced by all abstractly, of the absorption of the 
 individual into the universal spirit — a principle 
 which, although unexplained, and perhaps unintel- 
 ligible, especially when held in conjunction with 
 the soul's individuality — yet is it sufficient for our 
 present purpose, to demonstrate its entire incompa- 
 tibility with the doctrine of eternal punishment. 
 
 Of Pythagoras it is admitted that the IMetemp- 
 sychosis was the peculiar and characteristic feature 
 of his teaching ; and the summary of his doctrine 
 
 * Div. Leg. vol. i. p. 30G— 326. 
 
41 
 
 on this particular was, that the sensitive soul pe- 
 risheSj but that the rational mind is immortal, which, 
 being freed from the former, passes into the regions 
 of the dead, where it remains until it is sent back 
 into this world to inhabit some other bodies ; and, 
 after successive purgations, returns to the gods and 
 the eternal source from which it emanated."' Now, 
 Plato was equally favourable to the doctrine of 
 the IMetempsychosis. And he says (in substance) 
 that a strict account is kept,t and will be followed 
 by commensurate awards hereafter, and that no 
 wickedness, could it fly whither it may, or go 
 whither it will, can escape the eye which never 
 slumbereth ; J that all wars and fightings origi- 
 nate in our connection with the body, and the 
 lusts and desires of the flesh ; § ^ and that God is 
 propitiated by the virtues of the soul. || But what 
 makes good our argument as to his negation of the 
 doctrine of eternal punishment, is what is detailed 
 in that strange, mystical rhapsody, the philosophical 
 description given in the Timseiis of the creation of 
 the world, i We are there told, that after the for- 
 mation of human souls, the Deity ordained that the 
 man who passed through life, mortifying his lusts 
 and passions, should enjoy future happiness. If he 
 
 * See Enfields Philosophy, and authorities there referred to, 
 
 vol. i. p. 397. t Deleg. lib. iv. p. 188. Bip. vol. %'iii. 
 
 : Deleg. lib, x. p. 108. Bip. vol. ix. — See particularly Avhat 
 
 the guest says. 
 
 § Phaedo. vol. i. p. 150. 1| Alcibiades, 2d. Bip. vol. v. p, 09. 
 
 d3 
 
42 
 
 failed^ he was to pass into other animals, until the 
 irrational part should at length be overcome^ and 
 the soul restored to its original purity. With all 
 this it is clear that Plato maintained the individuali- 
 ty of. the human soul/"' never confounding the soul 
 of the universe with the great first cause. The 
 truth is, the re-union of the soul after death to the 
 universal spirit, in entire refusion, is, as we have 
 said, an vmintelligible abstraction ; and it is neces- 
 sary to advert to it only to demonstrate that the 
 philosophy of which it was the basis, could by no 
 possibility (however it might leave the question as 
 to individual immortality) lead to the conclusion 
 of the eternity of separation from God, and of future 
 punishment. J 
 
 Of Aristotle, the great disciple of Plato, and 
 founder of the Peripatetic school, we have quite 
 enough to shew, from his own doctrines, that he 
 could not advocate eternal punishment. In another 
 placet we have ventured to give a short abstract of 
 his opinions as to the nature of the human soul, the 
 agent intellect of which he pronounced to be im- 
 mortal, but the passive corruptible — that is, accord- 
 ing to Warburton, J meaning, by the latter, the sen- 
 sations and reflections of this life, which are doomed 
 to pass away — by the former, the divine (Snov) intel- 
 lect, the divinity (if I may so say) within us, which 
 
 • See the Meno. Bip. iv. p. 350, x. Rep. Bip, vii. p. 315, et seq. 
 
 vii. Ey. 
 
 t Notes on Rel. Mor. and Met, Sub, p. 5(j. 
 
 J Div. Leg. vol, i, p. 390. 
 
43 
 
 is lor ever permanent and immortal. This passage 
 has been attended with considerable difficulty, in 
 the opinion of commentators ; but the sense is in 
 any view quite opposed to the doctrines we are 
 combating^ and seems to be substantially, that the 
 power of the intellect remains unaltered by death, 
 although the manner of exercising it here shall be 
 dissolved and perish. We regret to be obliged to 
 add a passage which declares death to be the ter- 
 mination of existence, beyond which there is neither 
 
 good nor evil (» ^wcclov tu Ti&nun 'jj ocyx&ov ^ -xukov 
 
 yma-dai) ; ^ and yet we have another passage where 
 the dead are represented as affected by the condi- 
 tion of the living (t< utto ruv ^avlcov Ion; ndncoa-t). ^ 
 But we have said enough to warrant our con- 
 clusion that Aristotle could not possibly believe 
 in eternal punishment ; and I shall only add, that 
 it seems to me his contradictory ideas relating 
 to the immortality of the soul may be traced to the 
 analogy (partially revived by My Locke in modern 
 days) of the mind to an unwritten tablet, thus 
 deriving all our knowledge from sensation, which, 
 perishing at death, leaves us as we had never 
 been ; — but the intellect, — the divinity which stirs 
 within us, is immortal. ^ 
 
 With regard to the opinions of the Stoics, of 
 which Zeno was the founder, we have perhaps said 
 enough here, and in another place, * to demonstrate 
 that their docti'ine of alternate inundations and con- 
 
 • Xotes on Rel. Mor. and Met. Sub. k. p. 217. 
 
44 
 
 flagrations, destroying all things save the eternal 
 and regenerating principles of all things — matter 
 and God — could not possibly admit the idea of 
 eternal punishments. It is true Zeno « taught us 
 to expect future rewards and punishments ; but 
 Seneca again^ (in contradiction to another passage 
 of the same Epistle,) will have death to be the ter- 
 mination of grief and pain, which consigns us to 
 that tranquillity in which we reposed before we 
 were called into this existence. '" Nay, Epictetus, « 
 the severest Stoic of them all, unequivocally main- 
 tains that there is no such thing as Hell, and that 
 after death we are re-united to the kindred elements 
 from which we originated. The opinions of the 
 Stoics are certainly extremely vague. ^" Perhaps 
 the substance of them will be found in what we 
 have elsewhere said :'"' at any rate it is evident, that 
 by no possibility could they infer eternal punish- 
 ments ; for at most, if, (like Cicero,) they seem to 
 })eoplet the stars with the souls of the virtuous, 
 they could only condemn the wicked to endure for 
 a time, or until the periodical conflagration, and 
 consequent restoration of nature. 
 
 But what then comes of the opinions of the Poets 
 who maintain so decidedly the eternity of future 
 punishments ? Seneca,;}: alluding to the tranquilli- 
 
 • Xotes on Rel. Mor. and Met. Sub. k. p. 217, 218, and 219.— 
 
 Epic. lib. 3, c. 24. 
 
 t See Enfield's Philosophy, c. xi. " of the Stoic sect." 
 
 X Ad. Mar. 19. 
 
45 
 
 ty into which death will replace us^ tells JMarcia it 
 is the last evil^ — for the Poets only disturb us by 
 imaginary fears. Plato banished them from his 
 republic.''^ And Polybius considers the super- 
 stitious fear of the gods and of eternal punishments 
 valuable only as useful institutions, — indicating his 
 disbelief of such doctrines, but at the same time his 
 deference to their utility in controuling and re- 
 straining the public and private actions of the 
 citizens of the state, p It is true Virgil, in the sixth 
 ^neid, speaks of the immortal liver (^'^ immortale 
 jecur") of Tityus — (the torments of an evil con- 
 science, as Macrobius t explains it) — and records, of 
 the unhappy Theseus, in Tartarus, that he shall 
 abide there for ever (" sedet seternumque sedebit") ; 
 but, in the second Georgic, we find him expressing 
 the happiness of the man who can disregard all 
 such fooleries ; and we must not forget that 
 Virgil was an Epicurean, whose sect utterly dis- 
 claimed any belief in futurity, J as Caesar ventured 
 to declare in his place, before the whole assembled 
 Senate of Rome, i Such an unbeliever, too, was 
 Lucretius, in the most extensive sense of the word ; 
 and he complains of the general superstition which 
 would lead us to fear the poetic fables of eternal 
 punishment after death. § I do not give Lucretius 
 as an authority on any disputed point of religious 
 
 * Bip. vol. vi. p. 267. t See Lib. 1, c. 10, in Som.Sc. 
 
 X Notes on Rel. Mor. and Met. Sub. p. 217. 
 
 § See lib. 1,-1. 112,— lib. 3,-1. 16,-990, et seq. 
 
46 
 
 belief, but merely to shew, in connection with 
 what we have before said, that the doctrines we 
 are combating were really confined to the vulgar, 
 and originated in the imaginary horrors of the 
 Poets, or the politic institutions of the state. — 
 Nay, Cicero, (in the first book of the Tuscu- 
 lan questions,*) a professed Academic, ridicules 
 such things as stories which no sensible man 
 would believe ; and Juvenal (who no doubt wrote 
 at a period when the Epicurean philosophy, in 
 its worst sense, had corrupted the whole Roman 
 world) declares these fables only fit for the nur- 
 sery, t And if Lucan, (in the sixth book of the 
 Pharsalia,) uses poetic licence in affirmation of the 
 eternity of punishment, we must remember that he 
 was a rigid Stoic, and that the sober prose and 
 philosophical principles of his sect altogether nega- 
 tive such a conclusion. I may certainly claim Ovid, 
 too, in defence of our position, unless it be con- 
 tended that we are not to use the authority of a 
 work of imagination like the Metamorphoses in sup- 
 porting any philosophical opinion. 
 
 " Why thus affrighted at an empty name, $ 
 A dream of darkness and fictitious flame, — 
 Vain themes of wit, which but in poems pass, 
 And fables of a world that never was !" 
 
 What then are we to make of these contradictory 
 
 opinions, or rather fancies, of the Poets — " fables," 
 
 • Sec. 21. t Sat. 2,1. 149. 
 
 1. Met. lib. 1.^3,-1. 154.— The words are put into the mouth of 
 
 Pythagoras. — Sea note a, p. 34. 
 
according to Euripides ""' by which we are misled 
 and carried away — what Sextus Empiricus makes 
 them^ according to Warburton, '' poetic fables of 
 hell ;" t or what Strabo has declared them to be, 
 fables or imaginary terrors (^^o^fcoXvxxg), calculated 
 to allure or frighten the silly multitude (^vY,7rio(p^6mg'), 
 to whom it is impossible to communicate abstract 
 truth, and who cannot be controuled by the calm 
 and tranquil wisdom of philosophy, the handmaid 
 of religion, whose sweet and consolatory precepts it 
 is her great privilege to investigate ; and the great 
 comfort and consolation of every reflecting mind to 
 be able w^ith all humility to maintain. For, as the 
 belief of a presiding power of goodness is the 
 noblest stretch of our faculties here, — so the neces- 
 sity of an implicit resignation to his will is the great 
 truth we have to learn and to practise in our pro- 
 gress through life ; and he is the rationally happy 
 man to whom this abiding conviction is continually 
 present, not constraining his obedience under the 
 fear of evils inseparable from humanity and beyond 
 his controul, — but receiving a willing, and if pos- 
 sible a cheerful acquiescence, through every dis- 
 pensation of Providence, resulting from the sense 
 he entertains of the Supreme Disposer of all things, 
 and the unshaken confidence he reposes in his mer- 
 ciful and uncontrollable government. 
 
 • Hippolitus, 1. 197. 
 t See Warburton, Div. Leg. p. 92, vol. i. Strabo, lib. 1, Aris. 
 Met. lib. xiv. c. 8. Duval, p. 1003, D. 
 
48 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 " I have meddled with no man's interest, that only excepted 
 which is eternal." J. Taylor. 
 
 " Intent with endless view to pore 
 The schoolmen and the sages o'er : 
 Their hooks from wisdom widely stray, 
 Or point at best the longest way. 
 I'll seek a readier path, and go 
 Where wisdom's surely taught below." 
 
 Parncll. 
 
 That admirable moralist, Plutarch^ gives us a 
 passage involving, as at first it would appear, 
 the doctrine of the annihilation of the wicked : — 
 ^' Those whom the Deity knows to be absolutely 
 incurable, he destroys."* But, on the other hand, 
 we have a passage irreconcilable with this, where 
 the immortality of the soul is distinctly asserted, 
 and the probability of rewards and punishments: — 
 "As the soul survives the dissolution of the body, 
 and exists after death, it is most probable that it 
 will receive rewards and punishments in a future 
 state ; for it goes through a kind of contest during 
 
 • Plutarch, p. 551, vol. ii. C. D. Xyl. 
 
49 
 
 the present life, and when that is done, it will have 
 its recompense hereafter." "■ The same Philosopher 
 tells us, as observed by Stillingfleet,t that Thales 
 was the first who maintained, not that the soul was 
 immortal, for that was admitted before, but that it 
 had '' the principle of motion within itself, J and so 
 could not be supposed to forsake itself, or to cease 
 moving by the denth of the body." 
 
 Now, if the soul be naturally immortal, and sur- 
 vive the body — if it cannot cease moving by the 
 death of the body — it cannot be destroyed, unless 
 by the immediate act of God, " who can kill both 
 soul and body ;" and 1 infer, generally, from these 
 passages (contradictory when taken apart), the 
 existence of the soul and a state of rewards and 
 punishments after death ; — which Plutarch, indeed, 
 distinctly maintains, in his treatise concerning those 
 whom God is slow to punish, a In a question of 
 this nature, it is, it may be said, perhaps, of little mo- 
 ment what were the opinions of the ancient Philo- 
 sophers. It is certainly satisfactory, at least, to 
 observe, that the doctrine we oppose is not one of 
 natural religion ; at any rate it is pleasant to find 
 these illustrious men not opposed to us ; while we 
 discover that much of the censure, and more of the 
 errors, that have been ascribed to them, arise from 
 fixing on isolated passages of their writings, with- 
 
 • Plutarch, 2 vol, p. 5G0, 561. F. A. 
 
 t Orig. Sac. vol. ii. p. 2^ . i -Auy-mlot v.oli ccJlox.tn.hv. 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 out adverting to the general spirit and tendency of 
 the whole. 
 
 That the opinions of the Philosopers to whom 
 we have alluded were, in substance, such as I have 
 endeavoured to explain, seems pretty evident, — 
 shaded, as they no doubt are, by some expressions 
 implying contradictory doctrines, which in truth 
 will be found in some scattered passages through 
 many of the ancient writers — (and, perhaps, I may 
 add, not a few of the modern) — an obliquity which 
 he will not be over strict to mark, who considers 
 the sublimity of all subjects which reach into eter- 
 nity^ — how far they are placed beyond the sphere of 
 the ordinary capacity of man, and how far removed 
 from the possibility of that certainty, through the 
 efforts of the most exalted intellect, which specula- 
 tive minds are perpetually seeking. For my own 
 })art, I confess that, so far as I am acquainted with 
 the spirit of their philosophy, the doctrine of eternal 
 reprobation seems to me at variance with a fair and 
 i"ull interpretation of th-ir opinions generally, and 
 \irtually opposite to the moral and devotional 
 ])rinciples of the purest schools of ancient wisdom, 
 — those of Pythagoras, of Socrates, of Plato, of 
 Aristotle, and of Zeno. 
 
 It is not admissible, in matters of importance 
 especially, to infer the sentiments of men, and then 
 to argue from such inferences as if they were 
 conclusive. If a writer distinctly informs me he 
 believes in the immortality of the soul, and in 
 
51 
 
 future rewards and punishments, he might with 
 equal facihty add his behef in the eternity of 
 future punishments, if that formed part of his 
 creed; and we are not at hberty to deduce so 
 monstrous a conclusion from his ambiguity, far 
 less from liis silence. Marcus Antoninus/* b when 
 he asks by what oversight it could happen, that 
 the gods, who have ordered all tilings so well, 
 should yet suffer good men to be extinguished by 
 death, so as never to exist again, uses language of 
 which there can be no doubt. And why did not 
 many other sages of antiquity express themselves 
 with equal precision relative to eternal reprobation ? 
 Merely, I presume, because it formed no part of 
 their belief. Nor can I trace it to a more accurate 
 source (excepting the authority of Scripture, if it be 
 there revealed, which we shall by and by endeavour 
 to discover) than the Eastern dogma of i\Ianes, c or 
 two eternal principles of good and evil, from which, 
 undoubtedly, the doctrine of never-ending punish- 
 ment may be naturally deduced. And it is, perhaps, 
 from blending the good and evil principle, in some 
 unintelligible mode, that the duration of the hell of 
 the iMahometans is described in language not a little 
 confused. They believe that all things proceed from 
 
 Lib. xii. sect. 5. — EruSxv uttix^ uroQxvua-tf /JcnuiTi avQi 
 yivia-Qcti uKk' ug h TrxvhXic <xria-(ir.Ktvat — Ne reviennent 
 plus a la vie, mais sont eteints pour toujours ? as it is 
 translated by Dacier.— Folio. Paris, 1800, p. 392. 
 E 2 
 
59. 
 
 God, (except the evil which cometh from man,) and 
 in the absolute and immutable decrees of Providence. 
 But they hold also that Eblis, or the Devil (whom 
 they personify) fell, because he refused, at the com- 
 mand of God, to worship Adam; " that he is of subtle 
 fire, and is reserved for punishment at the resurrec- 
 tion. And they recognize, in so far at least, the 
 eternity of hell torments, or the indestructibility of 
 evil, according to that frequent expression in the 
 Koran, (when speaking of the unhappy wretches in 
 hell,) " they must remain there for ever." Yet, 
 says Sale, it is the " infidels alone who will be 
 liable to eternity of damnation ; for the Moslems, 
 or those who have embraced the true religion, and 
 have been guilty of heinous sins, will be delivered 
 thence, after they have expiated their crimes by 
 their sufferings." + 
 
 I will not shock the reader by any reference to 
 the description of the punishments of hell, whether 
 given by Christian or INIahometan. I had occasion, 
 in a former volume, to notice the opinion of the 
 stern Tertullian, rejoicing over " sage Philosophers 
 blushing in red-hot flames.";}; Bellarmin, the re- 
 nowned Italian Jesuit, the able and candid defender 
 of Catholicism, " makes crowding and sweating to be 
 
 • Sale's Koran, vol. i, p. 7, 109, 187 ; vol. ii. p. 7, 104. 
 t Koran, preliminary discourse, p. 122, 137. — See also Barrow 
 on the impiety of Paganism and Mahometanisra, vol ii. 
 p. 155. 
 - t Notes on Rel. Mor. and Met. Sub. p. 248. 
 
o3 
 
 one of its torments/' * But all this is nothing to the 
 Koran, whose lightest punishment is shoes of fire, 
 causing, by their intensity, the skull to boil like a 
 cauldron, and whose more direful inflictions the 
 curious reader will find amply detailed by Sale.t 
 Indeed, the learned but '<^ ill-natured" Dr. South, 
 as the gossiping Dr. CalamyJ calls him, leaves the 
 outrageous Calvinist little further to wish for in 
 this particular. " Every lash (says he§) which 
 God then gives the sinner shall be with a scorpion ; 
 every pain which he inflicts shall be more eager 
 than appetite, more cruel than revenge ; every 
 faculty, both of soul and body, shall have its dis- 
 tinct, proper, and peculiar torment applied to it, 
 and be directly struck there where it has the quick- 
 est, the tenderest, and the sharpest sense of any 
 painful impression. — But I shall use no other argu- 
 ment (adds the Doctor), to evince the greatness of 
 their torments, but only this, that the devil shall 
 be the instrument of their execution. And surely 
 a mortal enemy will be a dreadful executioner; and 
 the punishment which an infinite justice inflicts by 
 the hand of implacable mahce must needs be in- 
 tolerable." Good God ! whose tender mercies are 
 
 * Calmefs Dicty- vol. i. p. 67I.— Mosheim, Ecc. Hist. vol. iv. 
 
 p. 222. 
 
 t Vol. ii. p. 169, 415, 477. 
 
 t See his Life and Times, vol. i. p. 276. 
 
 § Vol. vii. 8vo. p. 143, on Rom. vi. 23. 
 
 E 3 
 
54 
 
 over all thy works — what a picture does this afford 
 us of the universality of thy benevolence ! The 
 Devil, sin personified — that which cannot look on 
 thee and live — is here made the executioner of thy 
 will ; and '' the hand of implacable malice" is suf- 
 fered to inflict the punishments of thy '' infinite 
 iustice." Alas ! poor human reason. Let us listen 
 to the melody of nature : — 
 
 " The quality of mercy is not strained ; 
 It droppeth, as the gentle dew from heaven, 
 Upon the place beneath. 
 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest ; it becomes 
 The throned monarch better than his crown. 
 His sceptre shews the force of temporal power, 
 The attribute of awe and majesty, 
 Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings. 
 But mercy is above the sceptr'd sway ; 
 It is enthroned in the heart of kings ; 
 It is an attribute of God himself. 
 And earthly power doth then shew likest God's 
 When mercy seasons justice." 
 
 Perhaps it is ignorance — perhaps heresy — per- 
 haps both — that leads the writer of these pages to 
 recognize better, more orthodox divinity (properly 
 and strictly so called), in the lines of the poet, than 
 in the logic of the divine. 
 
 " The door of mercy will be shvit (says New- 
 come*), and the anchor of hope cut off, and all 
 bowels of compassion denied by the God of mercy, 
 who will laugh at their destruction — by angels and 
 saints, wlio shall rejoice when they see vengeance — 
 
 ' Catechetical Sermons, 2 vols. 8vo. vel. i. p. 405. 
 
55 
 
 by their fellow -suft'erers, the devil, and the damned^ 
 exulting over their misery." The words which I 
 have placed in Italics will convey to the eye of the 
 intelligent reader a faint image* of the picture here 
 sketched, — and I dare not allow myself to be more 
 particular in bringing out the figures of this satanic 
 representation. 
 
56 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 If any opinions deserve to be contended for, they are those 
 Avhich give us lovely ideas of the Deity, and of our fellow- 
 creatures." Hutchisoji. 
 
 " Every bush and tufted tree 
 Warbles sweet Philosophy ; 
 Mortal, fly from doubt and sorrow, 
 God provideth for to-morrow." — Heber. 
 
 The reader Avho has accompanied me thus far will 
 see that the doctrine we here defend has nothing 
 novel in it; — dismissing, therefore^ all paralyzing 
 scruples, he will feel at liberty to proceed to a more 
 minute investigation^ under the encouraging and 
 satisfactory reflection that it has been advocated, as 
 we have found, by some of the most pious and gifted 
 Churchmen and Laymen of ancient or modern times, 
 among whom we may include the learned Chevalier 
 Ramsay, the ingenious Abraham Tucker, and the 
 amiable Dr. Hartley. » 
 
 Before shaping our arguments, however, it is 
 necessary to premise and fix in our minds some of 
 the essential perfections of the divine nature ; — and 
 Jiere it is matter of no small wonder to find, that 
 
57 
 
 the confidence and certainty of all knowledge com- 
 mences in that which is inconceivable — the belief 
 of a cause uncaused b — of a being absolutely per- 
 fect and infinite in all things — infinite and per- 
 fect, that is God over all — whose goodness cannot 
 (we must conclude) suffer the minds of men to 
 be deceived in those moral truths of which they 
 have a clear conception, or permit them to be 
 hence led, by the legitimate use of their reason- 
 ing faculties to certain deductions, irresistibly con- 
 trary to others, — and which, nevertheless, shall 
 prove false. It is this conviction, that Providence, 
 whose existence is and must be supposed and con- 
 ceded, cannot lead his creatures to false conclusions 
 by the fair use of their reasoning faculties, — that 
 gives certainty and confidence to the operations of 
 our minds, and is indeed the foundation of all firm 
 belief. 
 
 To this gracious Being the attribute of eternity,, 
 metaphysically so called, belongs — self-existence 
 uncaused — that which never had a beginning, and 
 consequently is essentially endless and eternal, in 
 contradistinction to all objects of creation, which 
 are necessarily limited and circumscribed by the 
 charter of their being. 
 
 He is the '' Lord thy God," in unity or oneness — a 
 Being whom no place can confine, and none can 
 exclude, c 
 
 He is ubiquity ^ ; — present everywhere — he pene- 
 trates and permeates all space — ^' a circle whose 
 centre is everywhere, and circumference nowhere." 
 
58 
 
 He is omnipotent to do all things not implying a 
 contradiction, whose hand none can stay, and whose 
 power being necessarily ever at one with reason, and 
 wisdom, and goodness, nothing can arrest or con- 
 troul. In the sublime language of the Psalmist, we 
 read: — "Whither"^ shall I go from thy spirit? 
 or whither shall I flee from thy presence ? If I 
 ascend up into heaven, thou art there ; if I make 
 my bed in hell, behold thou art there. If I take 
 the wings of the morning, and dwell in the utter- 
 most parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead 
 me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, 
 surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night 
 shall be light about me. Yea the darkness hideth 
 not from thee ; but the night shineth as the day ; 
 the darkness and the light are both alike unto 
 thee, e 
 
 He is omniscient, knowing all things, past, pre- 
 sent, and to come ; and he sees and comprehends 
 the whole together, at one and the same moment of 
 time. He is just — '' Shall not the Judge of all the 
 earth do right ?" " Hearken unto me, ye men of 
 
 understanding for the work of a man shall" God 
 
 " render unto him, and cause every man to find 
 according to his ways."t And here we may re- 
 mark (with reference to the drift of much of the 
 reasoning we have in view), that the very descrip- 
 tion of the justice of the Almighty, in the general 
 government of things, is prefaced by an allusion to 
 
 • Pj. cxxxix. 7—12. t Job xxxiv. 10—12. 
 
59 
 
 the reasonableness of the attribute, in the striking 
 appeal — ^' Ye men of understanding ;" and his ways 
 are elsewhere said to be " equal," in opposition to 
 the ways of man, which are " unequal."" Divine 
 conduct is, and only can be, in our view of things, 
 benevolence exerting itself in the production of the 
 widest range of felicity (compatible v/ith the end 
 proposed), under every given stage of being. In 
 short, we hold it to be clear, (in a combined view 
 of the divine character and purpose,) that all his 
 moral attributes of holiness, justice, mercy, and 
 truth, are only the same " div^ine benevolence acting 
 in different ways, according to different exigencies, 
 but always for the same sublime end — the propaga- 
 tion of the utmost possible happiness." t 
 
 Now, looking to the essential nature of these at- 
 tributes, and keeping in view the inference from 
 the whole, it will follow, generally, that nothing 
 can be received as truth which is contradictory of 
 them, and particularly that nothing can be admitted 
 opposed to this inference, which appears to be the 
 sum and substance of their united bearing upon the 
 destinies of man — the diffusion of the greatest pos- 
 sible happiness, — not here, assuredly, where the 
 scheme is in progress, and man is in training ; but 
 certainly hereafter, when the plan of goodness is 
 completed and we are refined up to the full measure 
 of our intellectual capacities, and the eventual pur- 
 poses of our creation. 
 
 • Ezek. xviii. 25.— Col. iii 26. t Enc. Brit. 1st ed. vol. IS, p. 418. 
 
60 
 
 The point then comes to be^, whether we ought not 
 to give way to that result which is in congruity with 
 the divine character and purpose, supposing both 
 sides of our present question placed in equal uncer- 
 tainty, (which we hope to show is not the case) — 
 Avhether^ in shorty we ought not to lean to mercy as our 
 safest guide, to adopt benev olence as the key to the so- 
 lution of all our difficulties, and to suspect the sound- 
 ness of our own hard inferences, wherever we find 
 our paltry reasonings, perhaps from utter ignorance 
 of the reality, at fault, leading us to conclusions 
 certainly repulsive of right conceptions of the God 
 of nature, and equally (as it appears to us) subver- 
 sive of correct notions of the Deity of revelation. 
 " We cannot imagine that God should reveal to 
 any man any thing that plainly contradicts the 
 essential perfections of the divine nature ; for such 
 a revelation can no more be supposed to be from 
 God than a revelation from God that there is no 
 God."'^ " Indeed (as Dr. Clarke observes f), it 
 may universally be looked upon as a never-failing 
 rule, which may in all cases safely be depended up- 
 on, that whenever any notion we entertain is in any 
 degree inconsistent with any of the natural and un- 
 changeable attributes of the divine nature, there is 
 always either some latent error in the notion itself, 
 which at present, perhaps, we cannot exactly dis- 
 cover ; or, at least, there is some great defect in 
 our knowledge cf several material circumstances, 
 
 ' Tillotson, vol. ii. p. 14, 15. f Clarke, vol. i p. 389. 
 
61 
 
 whichj in reality, alter the nature of the whole 
 question." 
 
 Now, with all this before us, consider that the 
 doctrine we combat ascribes the infliction of eternal 
 suffering to a Being not only whose arms of infinite 
 mercy and of exact justice are equally righteous 
 and certain, f but who is emphatically goodness — 
 absolutely and essentially, — yet not necessarily 
 transmitted, like light by the rays of the sun, but 
 communicated through the effects of his wull. The 
 sun cannot render its rays less or more intense ; 
 they are the necessary result of its essential nature, 
 as a secondary or created cause : but the Deity 
 wills, modifies, and controuls the transmission of his 
 goodness. Hence man is not necessarily happy, or 
 happy in an equal degree at all times ; but happy 
 in proportion as he is good, and approximates the 
 goodness of the divine nature, — in the possession of 
 which alone complete happiness is to be found. 
 And this attribute of goodness is the greatest perfec- 
 tion of the divine character — without which, indeed, 
 there could be no perfection ; for perfection abso- 
 lutely and necessarily implies benevolence and 
 goodness, in their most unUmited range. When 
 we talk of goodness in man, we mean the desire 
 and endeavour to communicate happiness to others. 
 So when we talk of goodness (which necessarily 
 includes benevolence) in the Deity, we must mean 
 the communication, mediately or immediately, of 
 the greatest happiness to the created. Again, 
 mercy is only a branch of goodness; and when 
 
 F 
 
62 
 
 we apply it to man, it implies the remission of some 
 merited chastisement. So when we extend it to a 
 gracious Providence, w^e must mean the pardon of 
 some deserved punishment. 
 
 Thus much, at any rate, we may be assured of, 
 that all punishment, by the permission of an omni- 
 potent and merciful God, must be consistent with 
 goodness in the issue. " If man is doomed to 
 suffer, either here or hereafter, the benevolence of 
 the Deity gives me reason to believe, that he will 
 not suffer in vain.^" And I apprehend we can form 
 no intelligible idea of eternal goodness, consistent 
 with the infliction or permission of eternal, irreme- 
 diable suffering, any more than we can imagine 
 eternal happiness consistent with the knowledge of 
 eternal misery. Can we, for instance, form any 
 idea of the happiness of an almighty Being, who 
 is happy under the knowledge of the infinite suffer- 
 ing of the creatures of his own creation ? It is 
 true the Deity must at present know of all the 
 misery which afflicts his creatures ; but, whether 
 arising from themselves, or from the unavoidable 
 nature of imperfect things, in a state of painful pro- 
 gression, their misery is only the means of greater 
 good, as the discipline of advancement in holiness ; 
 and the omniscience that can appreciate the effect, 
 must not only see the necessity of the cause, but 
 may rejoice in the prospective result, — which it 
 must necessarily infer, in the preparation for, and 
 
 • Crombie'8 Thcologj', vol. ii. p. 606. 
 
63 
 
 ultimate reception of, an enlarged measure of bliss. 
 But when we are required to form an idea of the 
 happiness of an omniscient Being in the knowledge 
 of the eternal misery of his creatures, or of the good- 
 ness, under the same knowledge, of an omnipotent 
 Being, able and willing to save, — we confess we are 
 cast down ; and, if we mistake not, no man can form 
 any intelligible conception of such a supposition. 
 Nor can we part with the conviction that a God of 
 goodness has formed every one of his creatures,"- 
 angels and men. Christian and jMahometan, Jew 
 and Pagan, with sufficient means, either here or 
 hereafter, at any rate, to make the sum of his hap- 
 piness outweigh his misery. And I beg the reader 
 may ponder this assertion, if he cannot satisfy himself 
 of the contrary, (which I think he will find it im- 
 possible to do, when he considers the transcendent 
 perfections of the Deity:) he must, I apprehend, 
 go along with the writer of these pages. 
 
 " The light of the sun (it is beautifully observed, 
 I think, by Warburton) is not in the orb itself 
 what we see it in the rainbow — there it is one can- 
 did, uniform, perfect blaze of glory — here we sepa- 
 rate its perfection in the various attributes of red, 
 yellow, blue, purple, and what else the subtile op- 
 tician so nicely distinguishes. But still the solar 
 light is not less real in the rainbow, where its rays 
 become thus untwisted, and each differing thread 
 
 * iee Bishop Xewtoii on Luke x. 37.— Suud. Lib. voL v. 
 
 p. 235. 
 
 F 2 
 
64 
 
 distinctly seen, than while they remain united and 
 incorporated with one another in the sun. Just so 
 it is with the divine nature : it is one simple undi- 
 vided perfection in the Godhead himself; but when 
 refracted and divaricated in passing through the 
 human mind, it becomes power, justice, mercy, 
 which are separately and adequately represented to 
 the understanding." The amazing perfections of 
 the divine character are indeed inexhaustible and 
 incomprehensible ; and we can, at the utmost 
 stretch, form a most obscure and imperfect con- 
 ception of them, drawn from some observable or 
 supposed correspondency in our frail and erring 
 selves, in this our earthly state. We can have 
 no conception of those attributes of God which 
 have no correspondency with this earthly sphere — 
 with that " which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
 nor hath it entered into the heart of man to con- 
 ceive." One thing is certain, that it is ^^ goodness""' 
 that finishes the idea of God, and represents him to 
 us under that lovely character, of being the best, as 
 well as the greatest being of the universe. — Immense 
 and eternal goodness — all-powerful and all-wise — 
 goodness invested with supreme dominion, and 
 tempering the rigour of unrelenting justice." 
 '' There is none good (says our Saviour) but one, 
 that is God." t 
 
 Again, — ^if we suppose the doctrine of eternal 
 punishment to be part of Christianity, and part of 
 
 • Clarl e, vol. i. p. 90. t Mark x. 18. 
 
65 
 
 the plan of a wise, merciful, omnipotent God, then 
 it must have the same confirmation with the whole 
 scheme of our religion, and be certainly revealed in 
 Scripture ; — and, were this the case, w^e should 
 have the evidence of miracles, founded on a satis- 
 factory examination, in support of a doctrine con- 
 tradictory of our apprehensions of right and wrong 
 — of a doctrine that is, we conceive, inconsistent with, 
 and contradictory of, both natural reason and ra- 
 tional notions of the Deity. And the question 
 would come to this, whether a man can give any 
 saving faith to any revelation, if you will, — and 
 withhold his assent from the evidence of his reason 
 and of his moral sense, — shall he believe his reason 
 and his moral sense, giving evidence of our natural 
 notions of a Deity, who has not left himself 
 without a witness in every man's breast — or shall 
 he beheve a supposed part of revelation, explained 
 and expounded, contradictory of these notions ? 
 But the doctrine of eternal punishment, if re- 
 vealed at all, is, at any rate, not clearly revealed 
 in Scripture, (where the believer must look for an 
 exphcit state of the consequences of his disobe- 
 dience) ; — and we have the absolute evidence of our 
 moral sense, and our natural notions of the Deity, 
 to support us against the supposed inference of this 
 '' horrible decree" of Calvin, g The evidence against 
 the doctrine preponderates ; and it is impossible for 
 a moral and accountable being to give credit to a 
 doctrine as of God, when the difficulties and objec- 
 tions against it are stronger than the evidence by 
 F 3 
 
66 
 
 which it is supported. If any one tells me that 
 God is just;, omnipotent^ and merciful, and yet 
 that he hath ordained some to eternal punish- 
 ments, I must deny the compatibility of the posi- 
 tions; and I rejoice to believe, (although I see 
 not the way of it,) to use the language of an accom- 
 plished writer, " that the happy consummation 
 which I desire is appointed, and must come to pass; 
 but that when it is to come depends upon the obe- 
 dience of man to the will of God." *' 
 
 Our subject does not require me to enter into 
 any metaphysical discussion relative to the nature 
 of the soul. It is only necessary to premise, as a 
 principle flowing from the admission of one un- 
 created first cause, that it is a creation, and conse- 
 quently, though it may be, and is, we believe, im- 
 mortal, that impHes merely that it is naturally so. It 
 is not necessarily immortal and eternal, in the sense 
 in which the Deity is, who can " kill both soul and 
 body," but would be, like all creation, subject to 
 decay, were it not sustained by the communicated 
 influence of divine grace, or continued by the abso- 
 lute power of the Creator. In God there is an im- 
 possibility of dying, — in the soul of man only a 
 possibiUty of not dying. " Who ever taught (asks 
 .Air. Clark fh of Mr. Dodwell) any other immor- 
 tality of the soul than a precarious one, — that is, 
 depending upon the pleasure of God Almighty.^ 
 
 • Southey's Colloquies, vol. i. p. 28, 160. 
 t Works, vol. iii. p. 722, 787. 
 
67 
 
 or who ever imagined that any thing which was 
 yinytrov, and had a beginning, was not capable of 
 being destroyed and having an end, if God should 
 so please ?" Now, the doctrine of eternal punish- 
 ment infers generally, that the Creator continues and 
 sustains the created in an immortality of suffering. > 
 '' It is remarkable (says Jeremy Taylor), when our 
 blessed Saviour gave us caution, that we should not 
 fear liim that can kill the body only, but fear him 
 (he says not that can kill the soul, but rov ^wx/^ivov 
 
 Kxi 4^v^ViV y.xi a-Uf^oc XTFCoXis-oti Iv ygsvvjj.) that is able to 
 
 destroy the body and soul in hell, which word sig- 
 nifieth not death, but tortures." * ^ Indeed St. Paul t 
 assures us, that the '' King of Kings only hath 
 immortality"; — and this eternity of life we can only 
 arrive at in our regenerated state, through the sus- 
 taining power of God, — or, in Scriptural language, 
 '' being J born again, not of corruptible seed, but of 
 incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth 
 and abideth for ever." Jeremy Taylor, § in another 
 part of his writings, as if to meet the drift and 
 consequence of the reasoning we are now pur- 
 suing (the incompatibihty of the attributes of the 
 Deity with the eternity of future punishment), has 
 it, that God did not design the evil portions in the 
 next world ; — '' he did not at all intend it for man 
 
 * Discourses, vol. ii. p. 345.— The Aimihilists may dispute 
 this interpretation ; but it is not necessary for our present 
 purpose to examine it. 
 
 t 1 Tim. vi. 16. t 1 Pet. i. 23. § Disc. vol. i. p. 56. 
 
68 
 
 but man would imitate the devil's pride, — and then 
 God, also, against his first design, resolved to throw 
 such persons into that place that was prepared for 
 the devil." While Dr. South,* in reasoning of 
 God's decrees, observed, ^' there can be no new 
 emergent inconvenience that may unframe his reso- 
 lutions and cause a change." i I shall not here 
 stop to discuss these contradictory passages, inas- 
 much as they touch not the inference we are reach- 
 ing, — that the soul is not necessarily immortal; and 
 can, and shall, after death, be continued in an im- 
 mortality, whether of misery or of happiness, solely 
 through the power and influence of Almighty God. 
 '' Whereby t are given unto us exceeding great and 
 precious promises, that hy these ye might be par- 
 takers of the divine nature." "And J this is the 
 record, that God hath given to us eternal life." 
 
 • Works, 8vo. vol: vii. p. 383, — on Gen. vi. 3. 
 t 2 Pot. i. 4. J 1 John, V. II. 
 
69 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 With the reasonable Christian, examination precedes assent ; 
 the accuracy of that examination is always suited to the 
 importance of the suhject ; and the degree of that assent to 
 the probability of the evidence." Parr. 
 
 " Yet thro' the wastes of the trackless air 
 Ye have a guide, and shall ^ve despair? 
 Ye over desert and deep have pass'd, — 
 So may we reach our bright home at last." 
 
 Hemans. 
 
 I NOW proceed to examine the point more imme- 
 diately before us ; but it is yet necessary to trespass 
 on the indulgence of the reader, while I premise a 
 few words relative to the interpretation of Scripture. 
 And, first, I would observe, in tlie language of 
 Priestly,* (a proof, perhaps, it may be thought, how 
 much better men can preach than practise,) that 
 " when we inquire into the doctrine of any book, 
 or set of books, concerning any subject, and parti- 
 cular passages are alleged in favour of different opi- 
 nions, we should chiefly consider what is the general 
 tenour of the whole work witli respect to it, or what 
 
 * Introduction to Early Opinions concerning Christianity. 
 
70 
 
 impression it would probably make on an impartial 
 reader." Be this as it may, religion, a at any rate, 
 it will be admitted, is a reasonable service, founded 
 in a regard to the improvement and happiness of 
 the created. It discovers, and can discover, no- 
 thing contradictory b of intuitive moral truth — of 
 our moral obligations, which existed prior to and 
 are independent whether of the Jewish or Christian 
 dispensations — upon which indeed they are both 
 founded, — although the latter assuredly established 
 a more extended and sublime standard, and ex- 
 hibited a more perfect and exalted pattern. Even 
 ^'a. miracle (it is somewhere said) could not establish 
 a general principle, at open variance with clear in- 
 timations, arising from the light of reason and of 
 conscience," and from the visible ordinations of 
 Providence, — for it cannot be supposed that " God 
 should commission any to enervate his own funda- 
 mental law, and by one will to contradict another." 
 Nor is any doctrine to be received, which, when 
 fairly interpreted and clearly understood, is palpably 
 opposed to our moral sense. I do not say that a 
 doctrine is to be rejected because it could not have 
 been discovered by reason, or because I cannot 
 understand its exact mode of operation, or because 
 it may be attended with difficulties which I cannot 
 explain ; but I do say, that what is palpably and 
 intelligibly contradictory of the moral sense — of in- 
 tuitive truth — of the moral fitness, and proportion, 
 and congruity of things — of that which enables me 
 to know that any thing is what it is, just or unjust. 
 
71 
 
 proportionate or disproportionate, fit or unfit, be- 
 coming or unbecoming — can be no part of a revela- 
 tion from God applicable to a reasonable being. 
 " Whatever (says Stillingfleet*) speaks a direct 
 repugnancy to any of the fundamental dictates of 
 nature, cannot be of divine revelation." If the con- 
 trary be maintained, then is Scripture a dead letter 
 as to all reasonable motives of belief, — for, if reason 
 be given to enable me to judge of the general prin- 
 ciple, and I am at the same time required to assent 
 to propositions subversive and contradictory of rea- 
 son and of the moral sense, the whole light of reason 
 and of conscience is benighted ; and I may grope 
 in the dark for the ordinations of Providence, and 
 stumble on any creed which the sophistry of priest- 
 craft, the errors of lay-craft, or the policy of state- 
 craft, may invent. 
 
 IMoreover, when we consider the apparent con- 
 tradictions c in Scripture, it is impossible not to 
 conclude, from their frequency, that they were in- 
 tentional, — as evincing the required necessity of 
 that sincere, sober, and candid scrutiny which 
 Christianity demands of a rational agent, for the 
 discovery of her precepts, — and by inference of 
 those principles which are set before us, not cer- 
 tainly that we may torture any particular passage 
 into utter unmeaningness, or into words of defence 
 or palliation for our particular errors or individual 
 aberrations, — but that we may ehcit the admonitory 
 
 • Stillingfleet, vol. i. p. I97.— Or. Sac. 
 
72 
 
 substance of it, by reasonable deduction, as a prin- 
 ciple for the guidance and practical improvement of 
 our lives. 
 
 It is farther apparent, that if, in prelecting here, 
 on subjects purely moral and intellectual, it is yet 
 necessary to have recourse to analogy to aid our 
 imperfect understanding, much more is it required 
 to assist our conceptions when speaking of things 
 pertaining to the next life. In truth we are like 
 the blind, groping in pursuit of the knowledge of 
 the visible ; and the Being that would open up to 
 us, views of the invisible, must proceed by such 
 analogical representations as we can apprehend ; — 
 just as we endeavour to convey to the blind, 
 however inadequately, something of that informa- 
 tion which the eye affords to us. It is clear also, 
 that evident conti'adictions cannot be both true — 
 the metaphors cannot be strictly interpreted, if ob- 
 viously opposite ; and the inference is to be obtained 
 by the fair use of our reasoning faculties and moral 
 a])prehensions, in accordance with, or at any rate 
 not contradictory of, the general tenour of Scripture, 
 and the attributes of the Deity. 
 
 " If any man come to me, and hate not (says our 
 Saviour) his father and mother, and wife and chil- 
 dren, he cannot be my disciple."" Again (says 
 the same authority), " he that loveth father or 
 mother more than me is not worthy of me."t On 
 the other hand, St. Paul declares that " He who 
 
 • Lukr- xiv. 20, L'3. t Matt. x. 3J. 
 
73 
 
 provideth not for his own house is worse than an 
 infidel."* Literally interpreted, then, were our 
 Lord's first injunction to be followed, (which is im- 
 possible,) the world would be a scene of heartless 
 hypocrisy ; for St. Paul's assertion is undeniable — 
 such a one must be '' worse than an infidel." A 
 man of common sense will, however, expound the 
 precept reasonably, — and he will be led to the con- 
 clusion that our Lord speaks comparatively — that 
 all the objects of this life, in contrast with those of 
 another, are as nothing, and must be disregarded 
 when they interfere with our interests in eternity, t 
 In the parable of the virgins, J the King says, — 
 ^' Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit ye the 
 kingdom of heaven ;" and the reasons are added, in 
 the 35th and 36th verses, — '^ For I was an 
 hungered, and ye gave me meat : I was thirsty, and 
 ye gave me drink : I was a stranger, and ye took me 
 in : naked, and ye clothed me : I was sick, and ye 
 visited me : I was in prison, and ye came unto 
 me." Unto them on the left hand, however, the 
 King said, — " Depart from me, ye cursed, into 
 everlasting fire ;" and the reasons are just the con- 
 verse, — " For I was an hungered, and ye gave me 
 no meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink : 
 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in : naked, 
 and ye clothed me not : sick, and in prison, and 
 ye visited me not." Now, here, charity, and 
 
 * Tim. V. 8, t See Chillingworth's Works, vol. i. p. 69. 
 
 X Matt. XXV. 
 
 a 
 
74 
 
 charity only, is, by our Saviour, made the one 
 thing needful to salvation : but, if we turn to St. 
 I\Iark, we are told, " He that believeth, and is 
 baptized, shall be saved ;"'"' and St. Paul has it, 
 '' By grace ye are saved, through faith ; and that 
 not of yourselves, — it is the gift of God." t Again, 
 James, in his second epistle, would appear to con- 
 tradict both his Master and his Apostle, — for he 
 assures us, that " faith witliout works is dead." 
 Abraham, he tells us, was " justified by works." 
 '' A man is justified by works, and not by faith 
 only." Turn we to St. Paul again: J — we are in- 
 formed, on the contrary, " if Abraham were justi- 
 fied by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not be- 
 fore God." — '^ Abraham § believed God, and it was 
 counted unto him for righteousness." — '' Being jus- 
 tified by faith (saith the Apostle elsewhere ||), we 
 have peace with God." — " A man is justified by 
 faith." ^ — " The law was our schoolmaster to bring 
 us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." "* 
 Here is abundant trial for the exercise of our rea- 
 soning faculties ; and what is the conclusion of 
 common sense } Not, certainly, that charity alone 
 is the only one thing needful, (although it covereth 
 a multitude of sins ;) for a profligate may be actively 
 charitable ; — not that faith without wprks, or works 
 without faith, can be sufficient — not that belief and 
 
 • Mark xvi. 16. t Eph. ii. 8. X Rom. iv. 2, 3. 
 
 ^ See Benson on Scripture Dirticulties. 
 
 I, Rom, V. ^ Rom. iii. ** Cal. iii. 
 
baptism are the only requisites ; — for all this would 
 be positively absurd. And we are no more at 
 liberty to repudiate the moral law, written in the 
 heart of man, than the divine law, (which, in truth, 
 is one and the same,) written in the Bible of God. 
 But the reasonable conclusion is, that, if good works 
 are an essential and vital part of the duty of a 
 Christian, so is trust and faith in God, and belief 
 in Christ— not a speculative barren faith, (touching 
 a particular mystery, which we neither understand 
 ourselves, or can explain to others, — and which, it 
 is therefore reasonable to conclude, was not meant 
 to be, and cannot be, comprehensible by our limited 
 faculties ;) but a faith productive of active benevo- 
 lence and duty, in the various relations and posi- 
 tions of a rational and accountable life. Again, 
 " Do not your ahns before men, to be seen of them, 
 otherwise ye have no reward of your father ;" "^ 
 and yet, " Let your light so shine before men, that 
 they may see your good works,"t says the same 
 Evangelist.— Assuredly shew our " good works," 
 when the influence of our example can benefit 
 others— for this is doing good ; but not, certainly, 
 send a crier to proclaim them, merely for the grati- 
 fication of personal ostentation — for this were con- 
 temptible vanity. 
 
 '' If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast 
 it from thee.";— Not certainly to be literally inter- 
 preted, but admonitory ; to clear our progress, as it 
 
 " Matt, vi. 1. t Matt. v. IG. i Matt, xviii. 9. 
 
 g2 
 
76 
 
 were, by excision of all minor obstacles, to advance- 
 ment in holiness. 
 
 " No man knoweth the Son, but the Father ; — 
 and who the Father is, but the Son ;" — yet, " from 
 henceforth ye know him, and have seen him ;" — 
 " the Father is in me, and I in him :" — " I and 
 the Father are one. *" Strictly interpreted, all this 
 would seem contradictory ; which cannot be : and, 
 humbly and rationally, our common understanding 
 explains the passages (intelligible only) as declaring 
 the incomprehensibility to us of the divine and in- 
 effable nature of the Godhead. ^ 
 
 ^^ I determined (says St. Paul), not to know any 
 thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him cruci- 
 fied.":}: A man of candour will not interpret this 
 sweeping sentence as disclaiming all knowledge of 
 God, or of aught else save Christ crucified, as liter- 
 ally it imports ; but, recollecting that, in the lan- 
 guage of the Bible, "^ not to know," and not to 
 speak of a thing, are synonymous, he recognizes 
 the learned Apostle, in this particular instance, and 
 under the peculiar circumstances, determined to 
 exhibit no other knowledge, and disclaiming every 
 assistance, save the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the 
 preaching of him crucified for the sins of men. § 
 
 " Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall 
 
 * Matt. xi. 27.— Luke x. 22.— John x. 30, 38 ; xiv. 7. 
 
 t 1. Cor. ii. 2. 
 
 1 See 1 Cor. ii. 5.— Macknight.— Gltig's History of the Bible, 
 
 vol. ii. p. 321. 
 
77 
 
 we eat ? or what shall we drink ? or wherewithal 
 shall we be clothed ? But seek ye first the king- 
 dom of heaven."" — Implying not, certainly, reck- 
 lessness, — but the pervading truth inculcated in 
 every page of Scripture, that all things are ordered, 
 and ought to be subservient to the advancement of 
 spiritual life and holiness. " And all these things 
 shall be added unto you :" — not, assuredly, neces- 
 sarily, or in an unrestricted sense ; but in so far as 
 they are conducive, and may reasonably be sup- 
 posed to lead to our spiritual good, associated witli 
 the reasonable discharge of our duty, in our en- 
 deavours to obtain them. Nor are we to imagine, 
 that '' all we ask in the name of Jesus" shall be 
 granted without discrimination ; — but what a con- 
 scientious follower of the commandments of God 
 can reasonably beg for his spiritual welfare, — the 
 great end of Scriptural discipline. The '' thorn in 
 the flesh" may not be removed, because, by its 
 continuance, the spiritual remedy — the good, the 
 primary benefit of preparation for another life, con- 
 templated by the whole mechanism of the gospel, — 
 may be promoted. 
 
 " I know him, that he will command his chil- 
 dren, and his household after him, and they shall 
 keep the way of the Lord, to do justice." t — Not, 
 certainly, that Abraham could undertake for those 
 who were to come after him, — but that he should 
 
 * Matt. vi. 31, 33. f Gen. xviii. 19. 
 
 G 3 
 
78 
 
 set before their eyes the obligations required^ of de- 
 votion to the one only true God^ and righteousness 
 and justice to man. 
 
 " Thou shalt keep my covenant, thou and thy 
 seed after thee, in their generations. — Every man- 
 child among you, that is eight days old, shall be cir- 
 cumcised : — for an everlasting covenant. — And the 
 man-child (who is not circumcised,) that soul shall 
 be cut oif from his people ; — he hath broken my 
 covenant.""^ — Now, a child of eight days old could 
 neither make nor break a covenant ; but the mean- 
 ing is, that, being admitted to a participation of it 
 without his consent, by a particular ceremony, if he 
 afterwards refused to perform the conditions of it, 
 he should not derive any of the advantages. 
 
 '^ If thou canst believe, all things are possible to 
 him that believeth."t When these words were 
 spoken, miraculous gifts of faith were conceded to 
 the disciples of Christ ; but, in the present day, 
 they can only be understood as implying, that the . 
 most difficult exertions, and the most painful 
 struggles, can be cheerfully made by him possessed 
 of this qualification, because these bear no sort of 
 j)roportion to the divine promises regarding the 
 life to come, 
 
 '' Every idle word that men shall speak, they 
 .shall give an account thereof at the day of judg- 
 rnent.":|: — Every word, morally evil, no doubt ; — 
 
 • ^ee Gcji. xvii. 9, 14. t Mark ix, 23. X iMatt. xii 30. 
 
79 
 
 but, certainly, not every expression of harmless 
 pleasantry, calculated to while away a tedious, or, 
 peradventure, to amuse a painful hour. 
 
 God gave Canaan to Abraham, for an everlasting 
 inheritance. — But (as is asked by Sherlock*), "^ does 
 any thing in this world deserve the title of an in- 
 heritance — much less of an everlasting inheritance ? 
 Can there be any such thing in such a mutable and 
 changeable scene ?" Certainly not ; — and we read 
 the land of Canaan as prefiguring the inheritance of 
 the kingdom of God. 
 
 I cite not these chance passages (and others are 
 at hand), in order to afford me an opportunity of 
 detailing the various explanations which have been 
 given of them, or to shew how easily they may be 
 reconciled by a willing mind, and the fair applica- 
 tion of our common understanding, (without which 
 many may be turned into utter nonsense ;) — but 
 simply to illustrate the principle which seems to 
 pervade Scriptural information, that of exhibiting 
 apparent doubts and contradictions, — enticing us to 
 investigation, as it were, in order to lead us to exer- 
 cise our intellectual capacities, and to determine us 
 to that discipline of mind which (as well as labour 
 of body) is our portion in this life ; obhging us to 
 have recourse to the moral sense and common un- 
 understanding of man, when seeming difficulties 
 present themselves ; and, by a candid, and earnest, 
 and sincere use of our faculties, which are not less 
 
 On the Immortality of the Soul, p. 175. 
 
80 
 
 the ffift of God than the Bible itself, to correct these 
 supposed inconsistencies, to reconcile these apparent 
 contradictions, and ultimately to instruct us, by 
 evolving the admonitory substance of the whole. 
 
 Applying, therefore, the same principles in the 
 exposition of the threatened punishment of the 
 wicked; it is clear, we observe, beyond contro- 
 versy, that when metaphors are used, and these 
 necessarily contradictory, they cannot by any possi- 
 bility be both true ; and can, at furthest, only be 
 intended to convey to us, by analogical representa- 
 tion, drawn from the things of this life, such degree 
 of suffering and punishment as is consistent with 
 the metaphorical import of the images, or as it is 
 requisite or expedient to represent to us. e 
 
 Unquestionably he who explains away these 
 threatenings altogether errs, and has no ground for 
 his indifference ; but equally, as it appears to me, 
 does he misinterpret, who expands them beyond a 
 fair and reasonable inference ; — because it is impos- 
 sible to doubt, that any doctrine so revolting to our 
 natural notions as the eternity of any punishment, 
 must have been revealed, if revealed at all, in the ' 
 fullest and clearest manner.* If, however, we ex- 
 amine the passage in question, by the side of others 
 apparently inconsistent with, and contradictory of 
 it, — observing the principle of improvement in- 
 tended, the caution suggested, and the general 
 
 • St. Paul tells us, " The Spirit speaketii expressly.-— See 
 Dcut. xxix. 29,-1 Tim. iv. 1.— Ezek. i. 3. 
 
81 
 
 scope of God's laws involved, — we have reason to 
 believe that we may arrive at the fair import, in so 
 far as it w^as meant to bear upon our lives here, or 
 our hopes hereafter. 
 
 But, if we torture passages (which in every in- 
 stance may be met by others of opposing significa- 
 tion, or which are in themselves, or in their import 
 and construction, doubtful) into positive unvarying 
 denunciations of eternal damnation, do we not, so 
 far from permitting them to operate as admonitions 
 for our improvement, — as problems for the exercise 
 of our capacities, — as admonitory cautions for reason- 
 able and devout fear, transmute them into thoughts 
 painfully alarming, and revoltingly disgusting, 
 which lead us insensibly to withdraw our medita- 
 tions with aversion from their dismal apprehensions, 
 or drive us into recklessness from the consideration 
 of their reahties. If, on the other hand, we apply 
 to them the use of our reasoning faculties, and ex- 
 pound them at any rate in a possible and conceiv- 
 able sense — in short, look to them as beacons hung 
 out for our direction — as prohibitory cautions, im- 
 plying the full and rational import of the meta- 
 phor in which they are conveyed — and with all the 
 full and fair (because conceivable) extent of the 
 danger to be avoided — but without contradiction of 
 other passages, and in harmony with the general 
 tenour of the whole, (thus giving to them the felt 
 and moral force of an acquiescence in their just- 
 ness,) — are we not striving to educe from them 
 those salutary principles of controul which they are 
 
82 
 
 calculated and seem to have been intended to afford. 
 I presume not to push my humble faculties into 
 dangerous latitudes, which Providence never in- 
 tended us to explore ; but I cannot persuade my- 
 self that the general scope of the gospel is not to be 
 read by a fair and candid mind. The Founder of 
 Christianity addressed himself to the common 
 understanding and experience of men ; and his 
 directions are obviously the result of the most inti- 
 mate knowledge of the human character. — Hence, 
 if to teach us how to live well be the great object of 
 Ethics, the best system the world has yet produced 
 is to be found in his morals ; and if the paramount 
 aim of wisdom be " to know ourselves," that infor- 
 mation is to be obtained unerringly only in the 
 deej) philosophy (I say it advisedly) of his lessons. 
 
83 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 '• However, since the written word of God is our entire rule of 
 faith, — and since, provided a doctrine so important as this 
 is, be indeed true, we must assuredly find very cbar and dis- 
 tinct traces of it in Scripture,— I will make it ray first and 
 immediate business to inquire, whether, by any texts di- 
 rectly affirming it, or leaving it to be indirectly inferred, 
 such Scriptural authority does really exist." 
 
 D'Oyly. 
 
 " Earth's cities had no sound nor tread, 
 And ships were drifting with the dead, 
 To shores where all was dumb." 
 
 Campbell. 
 
 Let us now consider the arguments in this case on 
 either side : 
 
 First, — derived from Scripture. 
 
 vSecond, — from the nature of evil. 
 
 The doctrine of eternal punishment is mainly 
 founded on those passages of Scripture which de- 
 clare, that " the wicked shall go away into ever- 
 lasting punishment; — but the righteous into life 
 eternal," (or everlasting.)* Now, it is obvious that 
 
 * Daniel xii. 2. — Matt. xxv. 41, 46.— Mark iii. 29.-2 Thess. 
 i. 7, 8, 9.— Jude 6, 7. 
 
84 
 
 the whole strength of these passages lies in the ac- 
 ceptation of the word '^ everlasting ;" » and if the 
 reader will turn to Genesis/^ he will find that the 
 same word is applied to the land of Canaan, as an 
 " everlasting possession/' — and to the covenant of 
 circumcision, as an '' everlasting covenant/' — al- 
 though the former shall, like all things earthly, pass 
 away ; and the latter is abolished. We read also 
 of the '' everlasting mountains," and of the '' ever- 
 lasting gospel :"t — yet the former shall dissolve, 
 and the latter cease, when its purposes are fulfilled. 
 So, in Leviticus, :j: the precept of offering the first- 
 fruits is called '' a statute for ever /' and that of the 
 Passover, § where a similar expression Q' an ordi- 
 nance for ever") is used, b Hence, says Stillingfleet, 1 1 
 the Jews inferred, '^ that no alteration can happen 
 to the ceremonial law, since God himself has de- 
 clared that it shall continue for ever." But to this 
 it is replied, he adds, that the "■ word in which the 
 main force of the argument lies doth not carry with 
 it an absolute perpetuity, but it signifies according 
 to the subject it is joined with ; so, when it is ap- 
 plied to (xod, it signifies eternity, not so much 
 from the mere importance of the word as from the 
 necessary existence of the divine nature." Nay, 
 adds he, '' it is so far from signifying a necessary 
 perpetuity, that it is applied to such things as even 
 
 • xvii.7,8, 13; and xlviii. 3, 4. 
 
 t Hab. iii. 6.— Rev. xiv. 6. t xxiii. 14. 
 
 5 Kxodus, xii. 17. 11 Or. Sac. vol. i. p. 247—249. 
 
85 
 
 have no long duration, as. Exodus xxi. 6, ' And 
 he shall serve him for ever/ — that is/' adds Stil- 
 ly ingfleet, " (as the Jews themselves expound it,) 
 to the next Jubilee, though it were near or far off. 
 So in 1 Samuel,* where Samuel is said to abide be- 
 fore the Lord ' for ever'." 
 
 Again, we are told of the endless torments of the 
 wicked, from the words " for ever and ever," as 
 found in Revelations xiv. 11, xix. 3, xx. 10 ; but if 
 we refer to Isaiah xxx. 8, and Jeremiah vii. 7^ xxv. 
 5, we find the same words applied to limited dura- 
 tion : — " Write it before them in a table, and note 
 it in a book, — that it may be for the time to come, 
 for ever and ever." — So in Ecclesiastes i. 4, Psalm 
 civ, 5. 
 
 Jesus, it is said, " sat down on the right hand of 
 God, for ever /'+ yet he will come again. J " For 
 they themselves shew of us, — how ye turned to 
 God from idols, to serve the living and true God; — 
 and to wait for his Son from heaven."§ 
 
 The throne of Christ is declared to be " for ever 
 and ever ;" || yet it must end, " when he shall 
 have delivered up the kingdom to God." IF 
 
 The doctrine of endless punishment is founded 
 also on the fire that is " never to be quenched," and 
 '' the worm that dieth not /' ** but if we turn to 
 
 • 1 Samuel i. 22. t Heb. x. 12. 
 
 t Phil. iii. 20. § See 1 Thess. i. 9, 10. 
 
 II Heb. i. 8. H 1 Cor. xv. 24—28. 
 
 •• Mark ix. 44. 
 
 H 
 
86 
 
 Leviticus, * we read of the fire burning upon the 
 altar, which shall " never go out ;" yet this fire 
 hath gone out, for the Messiah caused " the sacri- 
 fice and the oblation to cease." t Again^ the 
 fire to consume Jerusalem, which shall " not be 
 quenched," is threatened ; yet this fire, that shall 
 " not be quenched," hath ceased ; and Jerusalem 
 is at this moment inhabited, and shall be more 
 flourishing than ever.§ 
 
 We read, too, '' the smoke of their torment as- 
 cendeth up for ever and ever." || Here the whole 
 import, in so far as duration is concerned, hangs on 
 the reduplication " for ever and ever," which we 
 have already noticed ; and the expression is clearly 
 metaphorical, — conveying limited duration ; for the 
 smoke can only last so long as the substance from 
 which it is evolved burns : and we cannot conceive 
 that any substance can burn to perpetuity, without 
 loss of parts^ which here are perpetually evaporat- 
 ing and ascending : — '' Where no wood is, there 
 the fire goeth out."ir Isaiah** uses the metaphor 
 in a limited sense, — where (when speaking of the 
 judgments of God, and of the land of Bozrah) we 
 are assured, among other things, that the fire, the 
 instrument of its desolation, " shall not be quenched 
 night nor day ; the smoke thereof shall go up for 
 ever :" yet, subsequently, we are told, that the wild 
 
 • Lev. vi. 12, 13. f Daniel ix. 27. X Ezek. xx. 48. 
 
 § Isaiah Ix. 16; Ixii. 4.— Ezek.xvi, 60. H Rev. xiv. 11. 
 
 % Prov. xxvi. 20. •• Isaiah xxxiv. 2—17. 
 
87 
 
 beasts and birds of the desert " shall possess it for 
 ever; — from generation to generation shall they 
 dwell in it." Now, be the import of the prophecy 
 what you will, it is clear that the language implies 
 limited duration ; for the fire must be quenched, 
 and the smoke cease, before bird or beast could 
 possess and '' dwell in it ;" — neither can bird or 
 beast possess any thing '^ for ever." 
 
 Again, '' Thou shalt by no means come out 
 thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing." " 
 Some infer from this, eternal punishments — the 
 Cathohcs, Purgatory ; and if I could agree with 
 either, it would be with the latter — for it is at least 
 evident, that you shall come out when you have 
 paid the last farthing, and your ability to do so is 
 implied in the act of incarceration spoken of in the 
 preceding verse; from which, and from what is 
 subsequently said,t it would seem that the Evan- 
 gelist speaks in illustration, and with reference to 
 the things of this life, the promotion of concord 
 and harmony, and the avoiding of strife and litiga*^ 
 tion, by the evils and terrors of the temporal law. 
 
 Endless punishment is allotted to those guilty of 
 the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost — that 
 is, ascribing the miracles of Christ to the power of 
 the devil. J ^ Now, here is an unpardonable offence, 
 (/^ a sin unto death,") which shall assuredly be 
 
 * Matt. V. 26. t xviii, 34.— See also Luke xii. 58, 59. 
 
 X Matt. xii. 31, 32.— Mark iii. 28, 29.— Luke xii. 10.— 
 
 1 John V. 16. 
 
 H 2 
 
88 
 
 visited with punishment of the highest nature. The 
 offender " hath never forgiveness, but is in danger 
 of eternal damnation." Still the exact inference is 
 to be elicited from the fair and legitimate interpre- 
 tation of the word " eternal," which we have al- 
 ready adverted to, as not invariably applied in 
 Scripture to an eternity, properly so called. And, 
 if our reasoning be correct, the whole import of the 
 commmation is, that the offender shall be subject 
 to the ultimate consequences of sin — the further 
 punishment of wickedness and wicked men, after 
 the advent of our Saviour — ^the torments of the 
 second death — the lake of fire into which the wicked 
 shall be cast; — having never forgiveness (as the 
 Evangelist is made to express it), neither in this 
 world, neither in the world to come ; or, according 
 to the original, (as the word is usually translated,) 
 neither in this eternity, nor in the eternity to 
 come, — or, as some will have it, neither in this 
 age, nor in the age to come ; but, in any view, 
 inferring limit, which is the main point, (for there 
 cannot be two eternities : d ) — thus confining the 
 punishment to that state of existence after the ad- 
 vent of Christ, yet before '^ he shall have dehvered up 
 the kingdom to God, even the Father, who shall be all 
 in all." And this interpretation is, we apprehend, in 
 accordance with Scripture, and without which many 
 passages (as of Isaiah xxv.8, Hosea xiii. 14, 1 Cor.xv. 
 2(3, 28,) are unintelligible, where we are positively 
 assured that death shall be '*^ swallowed up in vic- 
 tory," and that it shall be finally destroyed. " The 
 
89 
 
 sting of death is sin," but Christ came that he 
 « might destroy the works of the devil/' — neces- 
 sarily inferring that all suffering, the consequence 
 of sin, the work of the devil, must cease with the 
 cause producing it. " That as sin hath reigned 
 unto death (it is not written eternal death), even so 
 might grace reign through righteousness^ unto eter- 
 nal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord."* For, a time 
 is coming when " God shall wipe away all tears 
 from their eyes ; and there shall be no more death, 
 
 [ neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be 
 
 i any more pain, for the former things are passed 
 away."t Now, be the period of duration of suffer- 
 ing stated by the Evangelists what it may, it seems 
 
 ; clear that it must imply a termination, unless we 
 throw aside other passages of Scripture, which^ as 
 
 , we have seen, are only to be understood by its im- 
 plying something at any rate short of a metaphysi- 
 
 I cal eternity. 
 
 Indeed, in the Apocalypse, we are told that the 
 wicked, in their several varieties, " shall have their 
 part in the lake which burneth with fire and brim- 
 stone, which is the second death;" J but, waving 
 the finite import of the metaphor, we have to op- 
 pose to this the fourth verse of the same chapter, 
 (which we have before given,) where a state is in- 
 dicated beyond all death, beyond all sorrow, and 
 
 i 
 
 • Rom. V. 21.— See also 1 John iii. 8 ; Heb. ii. 14 ; Rom. 
 
 viii. 6. 
 
 t Rev. xxi. 4. t Rev. xxi. 8. 
 
 H 3 
 
90 
 
 beyond all suffering. " There shall be no more 
 death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there 
 be any more pain." e 
 
 Happy ! thrice happy, the man ! who, raising 
 his thoughts above this cold and jarring scene of 
 disappointment, and reposing on the beatific vision 
 of the inspired Prophet, can enjoy the shadowy 
 longings of his aspirations, assuming, like palpable 
 reahties, the substance and the form of this glorious 
 consummation, — when " the former things shall 
 have passed away," and a merciful God having 
 wiped all tears from our eyes, — 
 
 " The sovil, enlarged from its vile bonds, will mount 
 And range the starry orbs, and milky-ways, 
 Of that refulgent world, where we shall swim 
 In liquid light, and float on seas of bliss.' 
 
91 
 
 LETTER XI. 
 
 " No man thoroughly understands the whole of the Christian 
 Revelation ; and, therefore, no man assents to it, except 
 with a general implicit assent." Erskine. 
 
 " The face of the earth hath madden'd me, and I 
 Take refuge in her mysteries, and pierce 
 To the abodes of those who govern her." 
 
 Manfred, 
 
 There is an awful mystery thrown over these 
 visions of the Apocalypse ; and the term " second 
 death" Qivn^tq betDotrti) may excite the apprehen- 
 sions of the most unthinking ; and, although some- 
 what out of place, we must consider the subject a 
 little further. 
 
 First, — The second death cannot import annihila- 
 tion, for after it there shall be " weeping and gnash- 
 ing of teeth." It is then, evidently, a transition into 
 some other state, be that state what it may, — and 
 as to duration, finite or infinite. 
 
 Second, — What is meant by the second death we 
 mast collect from Revelations.^ On them that 
 
 • Rev. XX. 6, U, 15; xxi. 8, 
 
92 
 
 " have part in the first resurrection, the second 
 death hath no power." Death and hell (cih?, e. e. 
 the " mansion of the dead, having no relation to 
 vice or virtue, reward or punishment") " were cast 
 into the lake of fire — this is the second death." 
 Sinners, we are assured, " shall have their part in 
 the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, — 
 which is the second death." The second death then 
 is, the punishment of wicked men after the day of 
 judgment ; and it cannot be annihilation, — for our 
 Saviour expressly says, that there shall be wailing 
 and gnashing of teeth. It is beyond all question, 
 therefore, a transition into a state of suffering, — but 
 for what period of duration ? 
 
 Now, it is admitted that the wicked shall suffer 
 in the next world, and it is apprehended that they 
 shall endure a " second death ;" but it is main- 
 tained, that the Scriptures contain no unequivocal 
 expressions as to any eternity of punishment. " It 
 is (says St. Paul) appointed unto men once to 
 (lie, — after this the judgment ;" " a but the wicked 
 shall die (St. John informs us) " a second death." 
 Now, in the absence of clear and explicit revela- 
 tion, I ask whether, since we have two deaths 
 mentioned in Scripture, and whether^ since the first 
 death precedes a resurrection and a judgment — I 
 ask, I say, whether in such a case, and under such 
 a similitude of expression, it be not more reasonable 
 to conclude that the second death will also precede 
 
 • Ileb. ix. 27. 
 
93 
 
 a resurrection and judgment, or transition into a 
 better state ? A twofold resurrection is not an vin- 
 supported doctrine, as the reader may suppose ; for 
 several of the ancient Fathers have acknowledged 
 it, — ^' the first as that which is to precede the reign 
 of the IMessiah, — the second as that which is to fol- 
 low his reign."* ^ 
 
 God forbid that so fallible an individual as I am 
 should indulge in the odious sin of presumption ; 
 but I put it to common sense, guided by fair ana- 
 logies, whether this be the more reasonable, as it 
 certainly is the more intelligible, conclusion ;— or, 
 that the wicked are cast into the lake of fire — the 
 second death — there to suffer through the countless 
 periods of eternity ; — an inference not only confess- 
 edly unintelligible, but clearly opposed to all our na- 
 tural notions, and founded, at the most, on equivocal 
 expressions of Scripture. " And I saw the dead, 
 (continues the vision,) small and great, stand before 
 God ; and the books were opened ; and another 
 book was opened, which is the book of life ; and 
 the dead were judged out of those things which 
 were written in the books, according to their 
 works." t In the next chapter, the vision proceeds, 
 '^ And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying. 
 Behold, 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 
 
 • Calmet's Dictionary, vol. ii. p. 539. f Rev. xx. 12. 
 
94 
 
 their eyes, (not certainly from the eyes of the 
 blessed, for they are assuredly beyond weeping;) 
 and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow 
 nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain ; 
 for the former things are passed away." Now the 
 reader will bear in mind, that this is figurative 
 of a state after " the dead were judged ;" and 
 we are previously informed^ '' that death and 
 Hades (z. e. the place of the dead) were cast into 
 the lake." 
 
 It is clear, therefore, that the first death, '"" which . 
 all men are appointed to suffer, had passed, — and 
 that the second death is here spoken of; and this is 
 confirmed by the general inference, — '' There shall 
 be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, 
 neither shall there be any more pain ; for the for- 
 mer things are passed away." 
 
 Now it is, I apprehend, impossible to admit the 
 integrity of these asseverations, in conjunction with 
 a knowledge in the mind of the Prophet of the ex- 
 istence, present or future, of millions, in eternal and 
 exquisite torments. Or, if it be contended that, 
 although " there shall be no more death," since 
 " death and Hades are cast into the lake of fire," 
 still the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his 
 angels is in reservation, where the wicked shall be 
 tormented " day and night, for ever and ever :" — I 
 must still, in explanation, beg the reader's attention. 
 
 We liave already ascertained the limited force of 
 
 * See pteceding Note. a. 
 
95 
 
 the reduplication " for ever and ever," when ap- 
 plied to perishable things ; .but here we wish to 
 restrict the argument to the words of the vision : — 
 Death and Hades (L e. the mansion or state of the 
 dead) are, we are told, " cast into the lake of fire," 
 clearly implying that death and the state of the 
 dead are destroyed. Independently of the assur- 
 ance, before given, that there shall be no more 
 death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there 
 be any more pain,, we have before seen also, that 
 the death here spoken of is the second death, i. e. 
 the punishment of wicked men after the day of 
 judgment. 
 
 Now, if death and the state of the dead, and the 
 punishment of wicked men after the day of judg- 
 ment, be destroyed, what have we left ? '' The 
 lake of fire and brimstone." It is surely unneces- 
 sary to push the consequence further ; and I am not 
 disposed to trifle. 
 
 But if, in regard to the expression second death, 
 " the punishment of wicked men after the day of 
 judgment," (as Tillotson has it,) divines are agreed, 
 there seems some discrepancy in fixing the import 
 of Hades ; and Barrow,'^ in his exposition of the 
 Creed, " He descended into hell," finds it attended 
 with considerable difficulty. Without, however, 
 wearying the reader, by any unnecessary inves- 
 tigation, I may observe, that the meaning we 
 have given appears, from the following passages, 
 
 * Sermon xxviii. — See also Seeker, Lee. ix. 
 
96 
 
 to be the Scriptural one, and it coincides with 
 the sense attributed to the word by Heathen 
 writers. 
 
 First, That Hades is a place of punishment is 
 
 evinced from the passage of Luke xvi. 23^ " And 
 in Hades (the unseen state, translated by us in this 
 passage " hell,") the rich man hfted up his eyes, 
 being in torments." 
 
 Second, — The latter part of the verse, and the 
 two following, are equally conclusive that it implies 
 also the place of the happy after death. '' The 
 rich man seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in 
 his bosom ; and he cried and said, Father Abraham, 
 have mercy on me," &c., — " for I am tormented in 
 this flame. But Abraham said," &c., — " Now 
 Lazarus is comforted, but thou art tormented." It 
 is unnecessary to multiply quotations. " Among 
 all the nations, whether Heathens, Jews, or Chris- 
 tians, the usual acceptation of hell was, that it 
 was the common lodge or habitation of separate 
 souls, both good and bad, where each of them, ac- 
 cording to their deserts in this life, and their ex- 
 pectation of the future judgment, remained either 
 in joy or misery."* Socrates resists the entreaties 
 of Crito to attempt an escape, and defends his ad- 
 herence to justice on the ground that he may be 
 able to justify his conduct when he arrives in 
 Ilade8,t that is, the world of departed spirits, c 
 
 • See King's History of the Apostle's Creed. 
 t See the Crito of Plato. 
 
97 
 
 It is of no moment^ however^ to our present 
 reasoning, whether we translate Hades, according to 
 some, as the grave simply, — or, according to a host 
 of authorities, more correctly, as we apprehend, as 
 t!ie place of departed spirits — the dead, good and 
 bad, — for the passage unequivocally imports, that 
 death, i. e. the second death, (or the punishment of 
 the wicked,) and the grave, (or the place of the 
 dead,) are destroyed. They have reached the ulti- 
 mate and final state of happiness, and have left the 
 intermediate stage (whatever it be) in which they 
 had existed. "^ I will ransom thee (says Hosea*) 
 from the power of the grave ; I will redeem thee 
 from death : O death, I will be thy plagues, (or 
 dissolution, as it is translated by some ;) O grave, 
 (or hell,) I will be thy destruction." " The last 
 enemy (says St. Fault) that shall be destroyed is 
 death." For " every creature, (according to St. 
 John, J) w^hich is in heaven, and on the 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 Him 
 that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, for 
 ever and ever." If hell be destroyed — if the 
 last enemy be destroyed — we can have no more 
 last enemies to combat; and if every creature, 
 without exception, through the wide range of 
 universal creation, be singing praises to Almighty 
 
 ' Rosea xiil. 14. f 1 Cor. xv. 26. 1 Rev. v. 13. 
 
98 
 
 God, what becomes of the wailings, of the sorrow- 
 ing, and the howlings of the damned — transmuted, 
 as we read the language of inspiration, by the re- 
 deeming plan of a merciful Creator, into songs and 
 hallelujahs of gladness and of glory. 
 
99 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 He descended into hell.'— Whatever is meant by this, I think 
 we may be certain that it is not the place of torment which 
 usually goes by that name. It possibly means that place 
 where the souls of the dead reside during the separation 
 from the body, between the times of death and judgment." 
 
 Haggitt. 
 
 " Oh, earth ! 
 Where are the past ?— and whereon had they birth ? 
 The dead are thy inheritors, — and we 
 But bubbles on thy surface : and the key 
 Of this profundity is in the grave, 
 The ebon portal of thy peopled cave. 
 Where I would walk in spirit, and behold 
 Our elements resolved to things untold, — 
 And fathom hidden wonders, and explore 
 The essence of great bosoms now no more." 
 
 Byron. 
 
 As to these words '' He descended into hell," » there 
 is, I am aware, a world of logomachy. It is mam- 
 tained by some that this merely signifies, he de- 
 scended into the grave. What we have said will, 
 I apprehend, satisfy the reader, that Hades signifies 
 generally the mansions of the dead, good and bad : 
 and here the restricted signification of the grave is 
 I 2 
 
100 
 
 sufficiently repelled by considering the words of the 
 Creed, — " Was crucified, dead, and buried : he 
 descended into the grave." We are here previously 
 told he was buried, and it would be worse than 
 tautology to add, in the next paragraph, the same in- 
 formation. It is clear in so far, then, from this alone, 
 that Hades here signifies more than the grave, — he 
 descended into hell, i, e. into the place of departed 
 spirits, good and bad. '^ Thou wilt not leave my 
 soul in hell," — " His soul was not left in hell,"^"— ^ 
 are clear implications that the soul of Jesus was in 
 hell ; for to talk of leaving that (in any place) 
 which was never there, is on the face of it nonsense. 
 But not to weary the reader, I shall only refer to 
 the opinions of Barrow, Beveridge, and Burnett. 
 '^ If we do interpret (says the firstt) the descent 
 into hell here affirmed of our Saviour's interment, 
 or being laid in the bosom of that universal grave 
 we before spoke of, or if, in a notion little differing 
 from that, we take these words for a phrase (taking 
 its ground in the manner before mentioned) im- 
 ))orting no otherwise, than when it was spoken of 
 Jacob and others, that our Saviour did really pass 
 into the state of death ; we are sure therein not to 
 err, the proposition so understood being most cer- 
 tainly true." Bishop Beveridge, on the Thirty-nine 
 Articles, is more clear and particular — " As Christ 
 died for us, and was buried ; so also it is to be be- 
 lieved that he went down to hell ; — though this 
 
 • Arts ii. 27, 31. t Vol.i. p. 44G. 
 
101 
 
 article, (adds he) be in itself as clear and certain as 
 any of the next, yet men having exercised their 
 fancies so variously upon it, have drawn, as it were, 
 a veil over it, and eclipsed the Hght of it ; and hence 
 it is, that some do not rightly understand it — others 
 scruple it — yea, and others do in plain terms con- 
 tradict and gainsay it. That Christ descended into 
 hell is not a truth of yesterday's growth ; but almost 
 all the Fathers of the primitive Church have ac- 
 knowledged and received it as an article of their 
 faith." And in this opinion Bishop Burnett, in a 
 very short and clear exposition, seems to concur. 
 '' It imports (says he*) that he was not only dead 
 in a mere common acceptation, as it is usual to say 
 a man is dead when there appear no signs of life 
 in him, and that he was not in a deep extacy or fit, 
 that seemed death, but that he was truly dead ; that 
 his soul was neither in his body, nor hovering about 
 it, ascending and descending upon it, as some of the 
 Jews fancied souls did for some time after death, 
 but that his soul was reaDy removed out of his 
 body, and carried to those unseen regions of de- 
 parted spirits, among whom it continued till his 
 resurrection." 
 
 Again, the preaching to the spirits in prison has 
 been differently interpreted. '' The spirits in prison 
 (says Burnettt) were the Gentiles who were shut 
 up in idolatry, as in a prison." It is perhaps im- 
 material to fix the precise sense in which these 
 
 • Oil the Thirty-nine Art. fol. p. 58. t P. S/. 
 
 r 3 
 
10^2 
 
 words may be understood ; but it is at any rate un- 
 necessary to look for any recondite or metaphorical 
 meaning, when the plain interpretation is more 
 apparent. 
 
 Spirits here are those in a disembodied state. 
 They were the " sometime disobedient/''^ according 
 to St. Peter ; and '' for this cause (says he) was the 
 gospel preached also to them that are dead, (in a 
 bodily sense) that they might be judged/' &c. To 
 which we may add the assurance of St. Paul,t that 
 our Saviour descended into "^ the lower parts of 
 the earth /' and of Acts, J "^ whom God hath raised 
 up, having loosed the pains of death ; because it 
 was not possible that he should be holden of it." 
 Here it is intimated that Christ rose from the dead 
 because he could not " be holden of it /' and the 
 business he accomplished was to loose <' the pains 
 of death." Now, I apprehend, loosing the pains 
 of death, can imply nothing more than opening by 
 his means, or preaching, or what you will, the deli- 
 verance of its inhabitants, at the period of his 
 descent. Calvin 't> § and others, I am aware, have it, 
 that our Saviour went down to the place of tor- 
 ment, and there suffered the pains of a reprobate 
 spirit. Bishop Horsley,|| in my opinion, so far 
 
 ' See 1 Peter iv. 6; iii. 18—20. f Ephes.iv. 9. 
 
 X Acts ii. 24. 
 
 ^ See Inst. lib. ii. sect. 10.— Turretini Opera, vol. ii. p. 393. 
 
 II See also South's Sermons, vol. ii. p. 503—508, on Acts 
 
 ii. 24. 
 
103 
 
 justly condemns this idea, horrible like most of the 
 Calvinistic c notions, maintaining : — 
 
 First, That our Saviour descended into hell, i. e. 
 to the " invisible mansion of departed spirits," not 
 to the place of penal punishment, but to that 
 region of the invisible mansion, " the other division 
 of the same place, where the souls of the righteous 
 rest in hope." 
 
 And, secondly. That he preached to '' the spirits 
 in prison," i. e. to the saints in confinement, ^'^ whose 
 enlargement is the liberation predicted." 
 
 The first position Horsley considers settled at 
 once by the words of the thief on the cross — (and 
 Newcome"' and Barrow, I think, adopt the same 
 inference) — " To-day thou shalt be with me in 
 Paradise ;" which, however, to me, does not seem 
 so easily concluded ; — for, first, that the soul of the 
 thief was to-day in Paradise, we may entertain no 
 doubt, but the words do not import further — that 
 our Saviour was in Paradise only, and no where 
 else — that he visited the unseen regions, and onlv 
 communed with those who, in one division, rested 
 in the hope of coming happiness — and not with 
 those who, in the other division of the same place, 
 endured the expectation of coming misery. He 
 merely tells the thief that he shall that day be with 
 him in Paradise ; but he intimates nothing as to his 
 going no where else, or his visiting the miserable. 
 
 Second, He preached to " the spirits in prison," 
 
 • Vol. i. p. 231. 
 
104 
 
 {. e. (according to Horsley) to the saints^ — to those 
 who, previously to their bodily death, " had been 
 brouf^ht to repentance and faith in the Redeemer 
 to come." Now, on this I remark, that althovigh 
 the " spirits in prison" are certainly said to be those 
 -who were " sometime disobedient/' (and it is suffi- 
 ciently clear that they must have offended,) it is not 
 said that "^ they had been brought to repentance 
 and faith/' which words of the learned Bishop really 
 solve the difficulty by begging the question. — 
 They were sometime disobedient, i. e. before death, 
 and I see nothing, in the bare words of Peter, to 
 force me to conclude that they were not in that 
 region of the mansion which previous disobedience 
 for sometime implies. Again, to what purpose 
 could the preaching be to the souls of the righteous, 
 who rest in hope ? Their salvation was, it is to be 
 presumed, as secure as we can suppose the spirits of 
 the just to be, and their liberation of course equally 
 so. It is true, "^ Justin IMartyr and Origen have 
 thought that the souls even of good men were, after 
 death, under the power of the devil, who made 
 them sometimes appear, at the charms and evoca- 
 tions of magicians. And Anastasius of Antioch 
 strongly supports the sentiments of Origen, and 
 maintains that the souls of the just were in the 
 power of the devil and hell, before Jesus Christ 
 descended thither, and delivered them thence by 
 his power."* In these opinions we cannot concur, 
 
 Calint't'b Dictionaiy, vol. ii. p. 74o, folio, 3 vela. 
 
105 
 
 nor can we acquiesce in the interpretation of Hors- 
 ley ; but we take the preaching to be, where it 
 could be effectual, to those who, having died in 
 their sins, were disobedient — were in prison, as it 
 is said, for their offences — and were, during life, 
 without the knowledge of a Redeemer, by whose 
 means their liberation from prison could and would 
 be ultimately secured, and by whose revelation 
 their lives might have been different, had it been 
 knovvTi to them previously to death. Neither can 
 I apply the word " prison" to the " region of re- 
 pose and rest, where the souls of the righteous abide 
 in joyful hope of the consummation of their bliss." 
 Nay, it is used for hell, as Newcome* observes, in 
 his description of that region, called sometimes " by 
 the name of prison, sometimes utter darkness, some- 
 times death, hell, a lake burning with fire and brim- 
 stone, prepared for the devil and his angels." In 
 such cases it is inadmissible to refine or enlarge. A 
 man is throw n into prison because he has offended ; 
 and the plain interpretation of the word " prison," 
 
 used by Peter (to<? \v (pvXecxyi ), implies a place 
 
 of confinement, from which the inmate or prisoner 
 would gladly escape ; but I cannot conceive such a 
 wish to animate the righteous, who abide in hope or 
 joy. Happiness is comparative : it is granted that 
 the consummation must be greater than the fore- 
 taste, but it is denied that beings who abide in joy 
 
 • Vol. i. p. 403. 
 
106 
 
 can be subject to the achings and longings for 
 change which we feel^, or can experience any thing 
 hke the desire of escape which their confinement 
 in prison would imply. 
 
107 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 I am sorry, then, I have pretended to be a Philosopher ; — for 
 I find your questions very perplexing ; and am in danger, 
 if my answer be too rigid and severe, of passing for a pedant 
 and scholastic ; if it be too easy and free, of being taken for 
 a preacher of vice and immorality." 
 
 Hume. 
 
 " O let him far be banished away. 
 And in his stead let love for ever dwell ! 
 Sweete love, that doth his golden wings embay 
 In blessed nectar and pure pleasure's well, 
 Untroubled of vile feare or bitter fell." 
 
 Spenser. 
 
 I SHALL be reminded, however, of one thing cer- 
 tain, that the spirits in prison were the Antedelu- 
 vians, (a proof, by the way, of the immortahty of 
 the soul, seeing they still existed after the drowning 
 of their bodies ;) and that, consequently, the drift 
 of my argument infers, — first, that the gospel re- 
 velation and the knowledge of Christ crucified is 
 not necessary to salvation, — or, in other words, that 
 natural religion is sufficient. 
 
 And, secondly, — and by imphcation, — that the 
 spirits of the disobedient, after their transference 
 
108 
 
 to the nether mansion, may yet be saved; that 
 our state at death is not irreversibly fixed ; and that 
 forgiveness may be obtained, and happiness secured, 
 in the world to come. 
 
 It is true, Turretin, under a variety of re- 
 ferences, assures us, " Religio salutaris nulla esse 
 potest sine Christo et fide in ipsum/'* And we 
 have it in the Acts,t " Neither is there salvation 
 in any other (than Christ), for there is none other 
 name under heaven given among men whereby we 
 must be saved." It is not necessary to consider this 
 point with reference to the many individuals and 
 nations, of the present day, who reject or deny the 
 necessary efficacy of faith and belief in Christ, — 
 the indispensable necessity of which can apply to 
 those only subsequent to his revelation. The ques- 
 tion with us is as to the Antedeluvians, who never 
 heard of Christ ; and I have great pleasure in here 
 referring to the learned and illustrious Apostle of 
 tlie Gentiles : X — " Tribulation and anguish, upon 
 every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, 
 and also of the Greek : but glory, honour, and 
 })eace shall be to every man who worketh good, to 
 the Jew first, and also to the (xreek ; for with God 
 there is no respect of persons." » Jew and Greek 
 is a division that comprehends all mankind, and, as 
 iM' Knight observes,§ " by declaring that glory and 
 peace shall come not only upon such Jews, but 
 
 • Oper. vol. i. p. 11. tActsiv, 12. t Rom. ii. 9, 10, 11. 
 ^ Kpiftlcs, vol. i. p. 182, Note on Rom. i. 16.— See also p. 200. 
 
109 
 
 upon such Greeks as have wrought good, St. Paul 
 hath taught that salvation is not confined to them 
 who have enjoyed revelation ; that in all nations 
 there are men who fear God and work righteous- 
 ness ; and that, at the judgment, such shall have 
 the benefit of the method of salvation, established 
 at the fall, and revealed in the gospel, extended to 
 them, though it was not discovered to them during 
 their life-time on earth." I am aware that the in- 
 ference here given by ]M '^Knight has been attempt- 
 ed to be evaded^ by restricting the word to a 
 credence in particular doctrines, and by consequence 
 inferring against the salvation of Heathens, who 
 could neither have knowledge of, nor faith in 
 Christ, as the Saviour of the world. To me it ap- 
 pears, in the language of St. Paul, that ^^ whatever 
 is not of faith is sin ;"* that is, whatever results not 
 from a conscientious endeavour to know and do the 
 will of God, (the only just foundation of moral 
 duty,) according to the measure of our understand- 
 ing and means of information, is sinful — whatever 
 is not from the gospel of the Christian, is to him 
 who never heard of it, and whose creed it is not, 
 certainly not sin ; but whatever is not from faith — 
 from the conscience — from a firm conviction of the 
 integrity and rectitude of the purpose, under a sin- 
 cere desire to please God, according to the ability 
 and information (after due inquiry) of the indivi- 
 dual, whether Jew, Christian, or Pagan_, is clearly 
 
 • Rom. xiv. 23. 
 K 
 
110 
 
 sin, and nothing else. '' Every benevolent and 
 useful man in society (says Dr. Doddridge^), I love 
 and honour as such, whether he be or be not a 
 (Christian. Every one that admits the truth of the 
 ^losaic and Christian revelation, and, loving and 
 serving the great Author of our being, looks for 
 salvation, pardon, and peace, through Jesus Christ, 
 practically submitting to the laws he has established, 
 I embrace as a brother, whatever party or deno- 
 mination he may belong to, and however we may 
 differ in our judgment concerning the phrases used 
 in any catechism or creed that can come into ques- 
 tion between us." — " With the heart man believeth 
 unto righteousness." It is scarcely necessary to 
 add, I hope, what it appears to me impossible 
 seriously to deny, that the gospel cannot make a 
 knowledge of Christ necessary to salvation, with 
 those who never heard of the Saviour or of his 
 revelation. ^ 
 
 As to the second inference, — the reasoning here 
 can only be pushed to apply to the spirits of the 
 Antediluvians, who knew not Christ, nor had the 
 advantage of his preaching ; — and if the argument 
 be good, that he descended into hell, properly so 
 called, as Calvin and Beza maintain, and as we have 
 endeavoured to shew, but without alleging that he 
 endured the supposed pains of the reprobate, it ne- 
 cessarily follows that such descent must have been 
 for some purpose or other. It is maintained, I am 
 
 • Corrcsp. and Diary, vol. iv. p. 319. 
 
Ill 
 
 aware, that our Saviour's descent was a necessary 
 part of the great scheme of redemption, " which * 
 required that the Divine Word should take our nature 
 upon him, and fulfil the entire condition of humanity, 
 in every period and stage of man's existence, from 
 the commencement of life in the mother's womb 
 to the extinction and renovation of it." In short, 
 that his detention in the sepulchre, and his descent 
 into hell, in the above sense, exhibit the extremes 
 of bodily inanition and mental agony w hich he was 
 required to endure : t but this necessity, admitting 
 it, required not that he should preach to the spirits 
 in prison, an act which certainly inferred some pur- 
 pose ; and that purpose could only be for good to 
 the spirits so confined — and that good could only 
 be, so far as I can see, the proclaiming to them the 
 glad tidings of the sacrifice he had made, and the 
 reconciliation he had effected — and the means by 
 which their sufferings must ultimately be relieved, 
 and forgiveness obtained. '' Thus saith the Lord,:j: 
 even the captives of the mighty shall be taken 
 away, and the prey of the terrible shall be deliver- 
 ed." — "^ They cried mito the Lord in their trouble, 
 and he saved them out of their distresses. He 
 brought them out of darkness, and the shadow of 
 death, and brake their bands in sunder." c 
 
 With reference to the foregoing observations and 
 
 • Horsley, Serm. 1 vol. 8vo. p, 251. 
 
 t See Turret. Of er. vol. ii. p. 395. 
 
 I Isa. xlix. 25.— Ps. cvii. 10 to 16. 
 
 K 2 
 
112 
 
 inferences, which we think material to our purpose, 
 the reader may now be reminded of the impassable 
 
 • ijreat gulph fixed," in the case of Lazarus and 
 the ricli man, which has been propounded as an 
 insuperable difficulty in the road we are clearing. 
 Vet, whatever be the full interpretation of this 
 striking parable,* one thing is evident — that the 
 rich man was not incorrigible, and that he repented; 
 nor can it affect the fact that Christ is Lord both of 
 " the quick and the dead,"t — of '' the dead and liv- 
 ing" — whom he will judge according to their works. 
 For he has the " keys of hell and death ;" J and 
 he certainly passed the " great gulph ;" for, as we 
 have seen, under whatever interpretation we adopt, 
 he descended into hell, properly so called, and 
 jjreached to the spirits in prison, § and he ascended 
 into heaven, that he "^ might fill all things," || — " all 
 things in the world, within the whole compass of 
 heaven and earth," as the passage is explained by 
 Dr. South. ir 
 
 Before leaving our present ground, it is material 
 to observe here, as bearing strongly on our future 
 observations, — the contrition and repentance of the 
 rich man, indicating the change which had already 
 commenced, and the repentance which was already 
 operating, for the deeds done in the body. 
 
 • Notes on Rel. Mor. and Met. Sub. h, p. 195. 
 
 "t AcU X. 41.— 2 Tim. iv. 1.— Rom. xiv. 9. 
 
 : Rev. i. 18. § 1 Pet. iii. 19. II Ephes. iv. 10. 
 
 11 Serm. on Ephes. iv. 10. 
 
113 
 
 t 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 '•' lu this immense duration, his life will be an unintenuptcl 
 progress of virtue, honour, and enjoyment.'" 
 
 Du-ighi. 
 
 " And some, not here called forth, may slumber on, 
 Till this vain pageant of a world is gone ; 
 Lying too deep for things that perish here, 
 Waiting for life, — but in a nobler sphere." 
 
 Jio'/crs. 
 
 Mr. Tucker* a has suggested reasons for thinking, 
 that opportunities may be afforded in the next life 
 to those who may have been denied them here ; but 
 that this cannot extend to those to whom the offers 
 of revelation have been fairly propounded ; and it 
 would not necessarily follow, from what has been 
 said in the preceding letter, that the disobedient 
 (departed since Christ's revelation was placed 
 within their reach) should have the benefit of a 
 proceeding similar to that to which we have ad- 
 verted, — if, in this life, they have wilfully refused 
 to hear him. Neither does the reasoning conclude 
 
 * Lig'ht of Nature, vul. vi. p. 442 ; vol. v. p. 634. 
 K 3 
 
114 
 
 that our state at death is, or is not, irreversibly 
 fixed — admits not of any improvement in the inter- 
 mediate portion of time between death and the 
 i^eneral judgment. The inference, either way, will 
 naturally evolve itself, as we proceed, and we wish 
 to impose no restraint on the tendency of our rea- 
 soning, or on the judgment of the reader ; for to 
 us it appears, that the opinions of divines on this 
 subject are extremely confused. That the inter- 
 mediate state is not a state of sleep is generally ad- 
 mitted. " It is a joyful state of hope to the righte- 
 ous, — a sorrowful state of miserable expectation to 
 the wicked," — say, in substance, the generality of 
 divines; who inform us, at the same time, that 
 '• the'"' Scripture acknowledges only two times for 
 the remission of sins, — one of the penitent sinner 
 hei-e on earth, t and the other at the day of judg- 
 ment, when sentence of absolution shall be passed 
 uj)on the imperfections of the faithful servants of 
 Christ." J " There is no repenting (says Dr. 
 South §) when we are nailed up in our coffins; no 
 believing in the grave; no doing the works of 
 charity and temperance in the dust ; or growing 
 new creatures among the worms. Life is the ade- 
 quate space allotted by the wisdom of heaven for 
 these matters, which being ended, there is no after- 
 
 * Irollope's An. Theol. vol. i. p. 160. f Malt. ix. ti. 
 
 : 2 Tim. i. 18. 
 
 { Vol. V. p. 4G -49, oil John ix. iv.— See also Notes on Kel. 
 
 Mur. and Met. Subjects, p. 00. 
 
115 
 
 game, or retrieving of a bad choice." With the 
 grave, properly so called — with the filth of the 
 charnel-house — we have nothing to do ; but as 
 there is an after-game, and as we, that is, ourselves, 
 are not nailed up in our coffins, it is to this ive, 
 and to this after-gamey the question applies; and 
 we must not allow any evasion of the question 
 to satisfy our queries. Now we must observe, 
 that any thing hke hope or expectation is to us 
 incomprehensible, unless in conjunction with the 
 necessary influence of its effects. The expecta- 
 tion of misery must, we conceive, (as exhibited 
 in the case of the rich man,) necessarily pro- 
 duce repentance and amendment, and the suffer- 
 ing induced before the great day must certainly 
 abate so much of the suffering to be then imposed.* 
 Dr. Priestly t indeed maintained, that the state of 
 death is one of " absolute insensibihty, being op- 
 posed to life." " If there be (says he) any in- 
 termediate state, in which the soul alone exists, 
 conscious of any thing, there is an absolute silence 
 concerning it in the Scriptures ; death being always 
 spoken of there as a state of rest, of silence, and of 
 darkness — a place where the wicked cease from 
 troubling, but where the righteous cannot praise 
 God." God forbid that we could acquiesce in this 
 comfortless doctrine, or that we could discover for 
 it satisfactory grounds in Scripture, far less in rea- 
 
 " See Notes on Ilel. Mor. and Met. Subjects, p. 100, et seq. 
 t Cor. of Chry. vol. i. p. 3/7-379. 
 
116 
 
 son. Will the reader bear with me while I venture 
 to examine this point ? 
 
 First, then, I remark,* that the doctrine of the 
 soul's immortality, as maintained by the ablest 
 Natural Theologists, necessarily contradicts the as- 
 sumption of a state of sleep after death — a cessation, 
 in truth, of existence, which sleep, in our disem- 
 botlied state, must imply. There is no parallel be- 
 tween the phenomenon of sleep in our present state 
 and the supposed sleep when we are disencumbered 
 from the body. The sleep of this life is the natural 
 effect of the exhaustion of the body, or of the com- 
 pound man, and is the kind restorer which our 
 Maker has provided for the restoration of our im- 
 ])erfect powers ; and death is compared to sleep 
 merely in an analogical sense, because it is the ter- 
 mination of the tug and tempest of this existence. 
 But if sleep, that is, insensibility — temporary death, 
 in short — does necessarily overtake the soul, in its 
 unimpeded state, it cannot be possessed of that 
 natural (I do not say necessary) immortality, which 
 cannot die, excepting through the withdrawing of 
 tlie divine grace, or the immediate act of God. 
 Properly speaking, to talk of the sleep, that is, 
 temporary death, of an immortal and immaterial 
 substance, of spiritual energy, is just as intelligible 
 as to speak of dead life, the dead living, or the living 
 dead. ^ It is unnecessary here to recapitulate the 
 
 * See Bisliop Bull's two Sermons on the State of the Soul on 
 it8 Separation frciu the Body. 
 
117 
 
 opinion of the ancient Theists, (already given in a 
 former volume, to which I beg leave to refer,*) all 
 substantially contradictory of this revolting doctrine. 
 " Moses tells us (says Warburtont) that God, long 
 after the death of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, called 
 himself their God ; but God is not the God of the 
 dead, but of the living ; therefore, the souls of those 
 patriarchs are yet existing in a separate state ;" (and 
 he subjoins in a note,) — ^^ which unanswerably con- 
 futes that semi-pagan dream of the soul's sleeping 
 till the resurrection of the body — they who hold the 
 soul to be only a quality, and yet talk of its sleep 
 between death and the resurrection, use a jargon 
 which confounds all languages as well as reason." 
 Second. — Nor is revelation less explicit upon this 
 point. '' O thou God (prayed the martyr Polycarp, 
 when brought to the stake) of the whole race of 
 righteous men, who live before thee, among these 
 may I be received before thee this day."X ^^^ ^y 
 own part, I cannot but hold the words of our 
 Saviour to the tliief on the cross, § c — the parable of 
 Lazarus, — and particularly the words of St. Paul, 
 " whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent 
 from the Lord ; but ^ * we are willing rather to be 
 absent from the body, and to be present with the 
 Lord :"§ — I cannot, I say, but hold these as con- 
 
 • Notes on Rel. Mor. and Met. Sub. p. 18, 19, with references. 
 
 t Div. Leg. vol. iv. p. 345. 
 
 J See Stackhouse's Body of Divinity, p. 7^1 j and Cave, Life 
 
 of Polycarp, sec. 13. § 2 Cor. v. 6, 8. 
 
118 
 
 elusive proofs from Scripture, (and it is agreeable 
 to right reason, and the opinion of the ablest Philo- 
 sophers,) that, on the departure of the soul from the 
 body, we shall be admitted to the knowledge of the 
 truth and the presence of Jehovah ;"' for the dust 
 must return to the dust, " to the earth as it was," 
 but the spirit shall return to God who gave it.t 
 
 We are farther told, particularly of the passages 
 we have been considering, in this and some preced- 
 ing letters, "that J whatever took place in the human 
 nature of Christ, may be considered as a model and 
 example of what must take place, in a certain due 
 proportion and degree, in every man united to him." 
 " Christ's disembodied soul descended into hell, (that 
 is, the happy part of the mansion of the dead, accord- 
 ing to Ilorsley, whom we now quote;) thither, there- 
 fore, shall the soul of every believer in Christ descend. 
 In that place the soul of Christ, in its separate state, 
 possessed and exercised active powers : in the same 
 place, therefore, shall the believer's soul possess and «|| 
 exercise activity." Now, the exercise of active 
 powers, without the influence of motives, which are 
 the springs of action, is, I apprehend, utterly in- 
 conceivable ; and, if we admit, as we must, the in- 
 fluence of motives, matured into activity — this, 
 again, as necessarily infers accountability for their 
 exercise. Thus have we motives matured into ac- 
 
 " Spp TilloUon, Ser. xxiv. vol. i. p. 218. 
 
 t Kcclfs. xii. 7 ; and si'O Good's Lucretiu?, note 1010, B. 2. 
 
 : Ilorsley, p. 203. 
 
119 
 
 tion, and, consequently, accountability ascribed to 
 the soul after death ; and if so, its date at death 
 cannot be irreversibly fixed, — a conclusion which I 
 think necessarily follows, from the admission even 
 of Horsley here noticed, although he expresses him- 
 self otherwise in another place, d But, further, I 
 observe, we are told in Scripture of the rebel angels 
 '' which kept not their first estate, but left their 
 own habitation."* We read, too, of angels and 
 archangels, of cherubim and seraphim, of thrones 
 and dominions, principalities and powers, clearly 
 implying gradation and subordination. 
 
 Of Lucifer it is written, — '' Son of the morning ! 
 how art thou cut down to the ground. — For thou hast 
 said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will 
 exalt my throne above the stars of God. — I will be 
 like the iMost High.— Yet thou shalt be brought 
 down to hell."f We are, moreover, told, that 
 " there is none good but God ;" and we must con- 
 clude hence, that even the holy angels (an ex- 
 pression to be understood in a comparative sense, as 
 we have " the holy men of God, J" implying, at any 
 rate, not equivalent holiness) have not reached that 
 point of singleness from which deviation is impos- 
 sible, but are in progress, and in so far imperfect. 
 
 So we are told '' Christ tasted death for all," 
 
 (yTTE^ ^avlof, as it stands in the original.) Angels, 
 we must conclude, as well as men, and all without 
 exception, must have the benefit of the sacrifice. 
 
 •= Jude, G. t Is. xiv. 12. \ 2 Pet. i. 21. 
 
120 
 
 Indeed this verse of St. Paul * is considered to have 
 been, in ancient manuscripts, much broader and 
 stronger than we now have it in our translations ; 
 for, so far back as the time of Origen, I believe, 
 most copies had it (xcj^ig 6iov) excepting God, not 
 (;kjǤ*1' 6iov) by the grace of God, as we now have 
 it — so that, if we read, he tasted death for all ex- 
 cepting (not by the grace of) God, the sense be- 
 comes still more determinate as to the universality 
 of his sacrifice. But, waving this argument, the 
 sense imports much the same in either way, — more 
 especially if we consider that the death was endured 
 vTTi^ TTocvlav — ** for all/'t — that is, we may presume, 
 in the same sense as the same expressions are 
 ascribed to God, as (Tram^ Trw^a^X) " ^^ Father of 
 all," angels and men. It is at any rate established, 
 by the fact of the fall of the angels, that they did 
 exist in a state of probation : and I do not see why, 
 in the case of man, the link '' a little lower than 
 the angels," § death should not translate him into a 
 progressive state ; and, if progressive, then must he 
 be exposed to motives inferring activity and ac- 
 countability — his happiness in the end resulting 
 from the perfectibility of his rational nature — de- 
 termining him in all cases to the choice of good, and 
 fitting him for the enjoyment of the presence of that 
 Being who is goodness, in its unalloyed essence. 
 
 Perfectibility, applied to any created being, must, 
 of course, be understood comparatively, with re- 
 
 • Hcb. ii. 9. 1 2 Cor. v. 16. J Eph. iv. 6. § Ps. viii. 5. 
 
121 
 
 ference'to the original and originating cause, which 
 is perfection, — but a perfectibility which enables a 
 rational creature to discover the truth, will also de- 
 termine him to what is right. Right conduct, 
 where all the causes of delinquency are removed, 
 must as necessarily follow right knowledge, as 
 motion the exercise of the motive power, where 
 this is unimpeded ; for right action is only visible 
 truth, and truth is happiness, our being's aim and end. 
 If we are to enter the kingdom of heaven " as a 
 little child," e does it not seem to imply, that we 
 are there afterwards to attain manhood } that, " like 
 as Christ was raised up from the dead, by the glory 
 of the Father, (in the language of the learned 
 Apostle,) even so we also should walk in newness 
 of life. Christ being raised from the dead, — death 
 hath no more dominion over him. Likewise reckon 
 ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but 
 alive unto God:"* — implying that, like Christ's, 
 our resurrection shall be to perpetuity of life — 
 of holiness and exemption from sin — to sinless 
 and enduring perfectibility. If we deny the pos- 
 sibility of this perfectibility, (resulting from con- 
 sidering angels and the spirits of men, after 
 death, as moral agents, as rational beings, di- 
 rected in their choice by the influence of motives, 
 and consequently exposed, like all created sub- 
 stances, to fall, until they have reached that con- 
 dition which discovers to them the truth, and 
 
 * See Rom. vi. 
 L 
 
122 
 
 thus determines them to the pursuit of virtue and i 
 hoHness,) the alternative is, to withdraw from our 
 spirits, in a future life, the freedom of will — to con- ■ 
 vert the liberty of choice into the absolute necessity 
 of obedience, and to rest their and our happiness 
 on the continued sustaining power and gracious 
 promises of God; — promises, I admit, of the most 
 unspeakable satisfaction, but which are in no way 
 endangered by making the period of their fulfilment 
 dependent on the growing capacity of the being to 
 enjoy them. To me it appears, in reference to the 
 moral completion of intellectual beings, that the 
 supposed alternative is in truth to deprive them of 
 the greatest achievement and the highest privi- 
 lege, the very essence of their rational nature. I 
 am disposed to believe that the soul, amid the vast 
 variety of untried being which spreads out before 
 us, must be purified in its capacity by continued 
 actions of obedience, and refined in its immortality 
 by sustained habits of virtue, progressive, from 
 grade to grade, and from world to world, through 
 whatever new scenes and changes we may pass, after 
 our escape from the body, until we reach that per- 
 fectibility which enables us to breathe, unimpeded 
 by any aberration, the atmosphere of holiness, f 
 Perfect in knowledge and goodness, the soul may 
 then, and not till then, know the Godhead : 
 
 " When not a cloud of foar or doubt, 
 A vapour from this world of tears, 
 Between her and her God appears." g 
 
 Then shall his promises be fulfilled, when our intel- 
 
123 
 
 lectual being has become a fit recipient of them, — 
 when all the causes of dehnquency are removed, 
 and the beauty of hohness is intimately and imme- 
 diately seen, and of necessity felt, as the controlhng 
 and uncontrollable influence and motive ; yet deter- 
 mining, not by any other necessity of choice than 
 the preference which must result from the powel of 
 virtue, changing the information of the imperfect 
 understanding into the redeeming energy of the sm- 
 less will. Sin and virtue are antagonists to the core, 
 and, in a state of existence, such as that of spirits 
 made perfect, a dark spot, a faiUng, an aberration, 
 is just as impossible as opacity in a flood of uniform 
 light. I am aware that the existence of angels has 
 been denied ; h « those bright creatures named 
 spirits of knowledge," who are represented in Scrip- 
 ture as employed in praising and serving their God 
 — " praising God, and saying, — Glory to God in the 
 highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men ;" 
 for '' there is joy in the presence of the angels of 
 God over one sinner that repenteth." 
 
 '^ God (says Bishop Atterbury) is pleased to use 
 the ministry of angels, a rank of beings who are 
 freed from all incumbrance of matter/^ and by that 
 means more ready and more able to perform that 
 office alloted them by (rod, of being ministering 
 spirits, and executing God's commands. That there 
 are such beings is evident, not only from divine re- 
 velation, but from natural reason ; because all his- 
 tories furnish us with instances of such effects 
 wrought by some invisible beings as surpass the 
 
 I 
 
 L 
 
124 
 
 power of any man to perform." Be this as it 
 may, I shall not stop at the eleventh hour, in this 
 already overgrown letter, to provoke discussion, for 
 
 " There seems around me some dark chain. 
 Which still, as I essay to soar, 
 BaflSes, alas ! each wild endeavour ;" yet 
 In hopes of glory to be quite involved. 
 
 • « « « « 
 
 " From our decays a pleasure to receive, 
 And kindle into transport at a grave — 
 What equals this ?" 
 
 Under, then, the impressions of this letter, let us 
 return for a moment to the parable of the rich man. 
 Not only did he repent of the things done in the 
 body — not only did this repentance produce change, 
 and a cry for mercy — but he begs that a message 
 may be sent to his surviving brothers, in order to 
 their conversion. Abraham tells him, — " Now 
 Lazarus is comforted," but '^' thou art tormented." It 
 is true we are considering a parable, — yet a parable 
 is not without meaning ;* and the scope of the one 
 now before us is evidently to shew the destination of 
 the souls of the good and the bad after death. The 
 incipient stage of happiness is sufficiently declared, 
 that poor Lazarus, for the integrity of his life, under 
 the miseries he had endured in the body, is com- 
 forted ; but the rich man, for the opportunities he 
 had neglected, or the things he had done in the 
 l)ody, is tormented. And the suffering we see pro- 
 (iucing the natural and necessary effects — change 
 
 • Sec Porteus' Lecturt-s, Lect. xi. 
 
125 
 
 and repentance. Now, it is impossible to conceive 
 how these natural effects of change and repentance 
 can be stationary — can be at once arrested in their 
 salutary progress, and converted into fixedness and 
 impenitence — into irreversible punishment, and in- 
 corrigible wickedness. Nay, the very words of our 
 Saviour, on another occasion, rebut such a conclu- 
 sion, and anticipate gradation in guilt, and dis- 
 crimination in award— abrogating the doctrine of 
 ranging the whole human race into two distinct 
 classes, the elect and the reprobate, the saved and 
 the damned. In the regions of futurity, " there are 
 many mansions." — '' For one star differeth from 
 another in glory ;" and the servant who knew not 
 his master's will, yet " did commit things worthy 
 of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes ; but 
 he who knew his Lord's will, and prepared not 
 himself, neither did according to his will, shall be 
 beaten with many stripes." •* Inequalities in virtue 
 and in intellectual improvement here, infer ine- 
 qualities in enjoyments and gradation in advance- 
 ment hereafter, until the general character is 
 reformed, and prepared for eventual and universal 
 happiness. Inequahties in wickedness, in the same 
 way, imply inequalities in remedial suffering, until 
 the delinquency is removed, and the besetting ten- 
 dency redeemed ; but, if these proportionate inflic- 
 tions (and proportion is the very essence of justice) 
 are to be considered as the fixed and ultimate con- 
 
 • See Luke xii. 47.— Note f, p. 61. 
 L 3 
 
126 
 
 dition, we must have hereafter as many mansions of 
 everlasting misery, not only as we now have shades 
 of temporal crime here, but as we have had sincci 
 man was. The same proportionate distribution oti 
 rewards is set forth in the parables of the pounds" 
 and of the talents, t — particularly in the former,! 
 where the greater improvement of the same sum is 
 rewarded by a higher acknowledgment. It may be 
 argued, that the division which our Lord makes (in 
 Matt. XXV.) is perhaps at variance with these in- 
 ferences ; but, looking to what we have previously 
 said, J we would observe, that here, as in every 
 other case, the discrepancies are to be reconciled by 
 the dictates of common sense, (at whose tribunal 
 the reasonableness of every obligatory injunction, 
 and of every penal sentence, must irresistibly be 
 discussed ;) and, independently of these parables, it 
 is impossible to conclude that the different shades of 
 temporal guilt shall be visited by the same measure 
 of punishment, — or that the eternity adverted to, 
 does not represent that period of time necessary to 
 expiate the guilt of the individual, or rather to 
 purify the creature from those moral stains which 
 must be removed, and to effect that change and 
 bent of disposition which must be produced, before 
 the soul can stem the current of its pollutions, and 
 begin its advancement in the boundless way, and in 
 the vast expanse, of the spiritual and divine life. 
 
 • iMatt. XXV. 14. t Luke xix. 12. t See Let. ix. 
 
127 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 You are dead to the world, and can no longer live to it ; your 
 life is spiritual and heavenly ; as is your life, such must be 
 the actions which flow from it, the inclinations that attend 
 j^ ,. Sherlock. 
 
 " I'm weary, I'm weary— this cold world of ours— 
 I will go dwell afar with fairies and flowers. 
 « • « * * 
 
 I'm weary, I'm weary— I'm off with the wind : 
 Can I find a worse fate than the one left behind ? 
 Fair beings of moonlight, gay dwellers in air, 
 O shew me your kingdom! O let me dwell there!" 
 
 L. E. L. 
 
 But what comes, then, of the resurrection of the 
 body, a if, immediately after death, we are, in our 
 further progress, to be translated (as we think) 
 into the Dresence of the Deity ? And here I 
 cannot help alluding to what Horsley has said on 
 this subject, whose words imply our re-umon 
 hereafter, if not to the same identical bodies, at least 
 to corporal frames, capable of bodily sensation, and 
 of external impressions, through the medium of 
 
128 
 
 material organs. " Thus the end (says he*) for 
 which all are destined to appear before the judg- 
 ment-seat of Christ is declared by the Apostle to be 
 this, — that every individual may be rewarded with 
 corporal enjoyment, or punished with corporal 
 pain/' according as his behaviour may require. 
 We are told, that without holiness no man shall see 
 God ; and if I can form any idea of this divine 
 perfection, it implies in its very nature an estrange- 
 ment and exemption from all corporeal desires, ap- 
 petites, passions, and enjoyments. If the case be 
 as represented by Bishop Horsley, most assuredly 
 it is opposed to all our notions of spiritual existence, 
 and if hereafter we are to be rcAvarded by '' corporal 
 enjoyments," or punished by " corporal pains," I see 
 not why flesh and blood may not inherit the kingdom 
 of heaven. St. Paul expressly tells us they cannot, 
 " neither can corruption inherit incorruption." ^ 
 Nor can I gather from his words the inference so 
 explicitly given by Horsley. We must, according 
 to the Apostle, appear at the judgment-seat, to re- 
 ceive the things ^'done" in the body, {not things '' in 
 the body ;t") that is, the things done by the act of 
 the soul in the body, in this preparatory stage, — 
 implying, by the way, that things may be done out 
 of the body, — or, in other words, the existence of 
 
 • See Sermons, 8vo. p. 484, and p. 526. 
 
 t See Tillotson, vol. iii. p. 151. — 2 Cor. v. 10.— Macknight.— 
 
 Notes on Rel. Mor. and Met. Subjects, p. 244. 
 
129 
 
 the soul separate from the body. But, as to the 
 mode in which, in our then state, be it what it may, 
 we shall be operated upon by the sentence of Al- 
 mighty God, the Apostle is silent. Nay, we have 
 already seen him affirming that good men are pre- 
 sent with the Lord so soon as they are absent from 
 the body, and he expressly assures us, that that 
 " which is sown a natural body shall be raised a 
 spiritual body,"'^" (i. e. a spiritual substance, (ruf*,ec 
 TrnvfcxrtKov.) " There is (continues the Apostle) a 
 natural body, and there is a spiritual body. How- 
 beit, that was not first which is spiritual, but that 
 which is natural; and afterwards that which is 
 spiritual."*: Now, if the inspired writer assures 
 me, that he desires to be absent from the body, that 
 he may be present with the Lord ; for that, while 
 he is present in the body, he is absent from the 
 Lord; — what am I to conclude, but that, imme- 
 diately after death, he would pass into the presence 
 of the Deity ? And if I am told, that that which is 
 sown a natural substance, shall be raised a spiritual 
 substance — that the natural is first, and afterwards 
 tlie spiritual — am I to infer, that after having 
 passed into the presence of God in a disembodied 
 state, man is to assume, at the resurrection, a 
 spiritual substance ; and in that spiritual substance 
 to be subject to the operation of external bodily 
 impressions, to be acted upon by ^' corporal enjoy- 
 ment," or punished by "corporal pain?"d We know 
 
 • 1 Cor. XV. from verse 35. 
 
130 
 
 not what a spirit is, but we know what it is not, for 
 our Saviour defines it — " A spirit* e hath not flesh 
 and bones, as ye see me have." Christ was not 
 visible to Paul at his conversion ; nor can man see 
 God, who is a spirit, and live. A spirit, then, is 
 clearly not matter, or palpable to material organs, 
 so far as we know ; and if it be not matter, not 
 flesh or bone, and yet possess sensation, and be 
 acted upon by external bodily impressions, and ob- 
 noxious to corporal enjoyment or pain, what are 
 we to understand by it } 
 
 The subject we now consider is one of revelation 
 exclusively, and from that alone, guided by rational 
 interpretation, can we gather any information ; and 
 I know of only a few passages which have been 
 considered communicative on this point. We are 
 told that here are required " meats for the belly, 
 and the belly for meats ; but God shall destroy 
 both it and them :"t for, in the next world, '^ they 
 neither marry, nor are given in marriage ;" J clearly 
 implying, that all our bodily organs of nutrition, 
 and of our most exquisite appetites and passions, 
 shall never be resumed. For§ Christ " shall change 
 our vile body — (it is not said that the soul shall be 
 changed, implying that the body is the cause of all 
 our evils f ) — that it may be fashioned like unto his 
 glorious body," or substance. '' Then|| shall the 
 righteous (says our Saviour himself) shine forth as 
 
 • Luke xxiv. 39. f 1 Cor. vi. 13. t Luke xx. 35, 36'. 
 
 5 Phil. iii. 21. II Matt. xiii. 43. 
 
131 
 
 the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Here we 
 are positively and unequivocally assured, that our 
 vile bodies shall be changed and fashioned like unto 
 the glorious body in which Christ now lives ; — it 
 shall shine forth as the sun. Christ, at his trans- 
 figuration, and before his resurrection, could change 
 his bodily appearance, so that ^^ his face did shine 
 as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light ;"* 
 and after his resurrection he put on various forms — 
 exhibited the wounded side of the natural man (not 
 certainly of the Divinity), in proof of it, and of his 
 identity — and assumed the palpable and impal- 
 pable. t But it is not with the body of Christ, he- 
 fore he ascended to the Father, that the simile and 
 change are connected. We are to be changed, like 
 unto the glorious body or spiritual substance of 
 Christ, as he sitteth at the right hand (metaphori- 
 cally speaking), and in the presence of the Father of 
 Spirits, (with whom, too, we shall hold intercourse 
 in o\xx spirits,) whom no man hath seen, nor can see, 
 and who dwelleth, we are told, in light inaccessible to 
 mortal eye, and full of unapproachable glory. When 
 Christ appeared to Paul, we are informed that " the 
 men who journeyed with him stood speechless, 
 hearing a voice, but seeing no man ;" and Paul 
 himself, although he ^' heard a voice, saw no man ;" 
 yet '^'^ there shined around him a hght from heaven.";}: 
 Now, any change more entire and complete it is 
 
 • Matt. XTii. 2; t See Mark xvi. — Luke xxiv. — John xx. xxi. 
 I See Acts ix. ; xxii. 6 ; xxvi. 13. 
 
132 
 
 impossible to conceive, and accordingly, we are told, 
 it shall be effected by the working of that power 
 competent to subdue all things.""' It is raised in- 
 corruptible — in glory (the glory of the celestial, not 
 of the terrestrial) — in power — a spiritual body or 
 substance. Now, if we will have it, that after this 
 change, still we have the same tabernacle that con- 
 tained the soul in its earthly pilgrimage, and became 
 a loathsome carcase when the soul left it, I can only 
 understand this in the sense that the omnipotency 
 of God may enable him, without the creation of any 
 new matter, to fashion our glorified bodies, out of 
 tlie inert mass of his previous creation, and to give 
 to them, on re-union with the immortal spirit, those 
 spiritual frames (if I may so express it) — those 
 {s-6ifAccla. MTTTctf) which shall be independent of or- 
 ganic structure — require neither blood, nor flesh, 
 nor bones — be insensible to the gratification of any, 
 and the most exquisite animal appetites of our pre- 
 sent state, which shall never die, but which shall be 
 as enduring as the immortal spirit they overshadow 
 or enshrine. It is, I think, mentioned by Mr. Locke, 
 as an absurd inquiry to attempt to ascertain what 
 sort of bodies we shall have at the resurrection ; but 
 it does not seem equally absurd to endeavour to 
 assure ourselves thus far (which Scripture carries 
 us), were it only to enable us to divest ourselves of 
 the weakness and folly of any regard to our dead 
 body, other than opinion and decency dictate ; for, 
 
 • See Phil. iii. 21. t See Burnett's Arch. p. 410. 
 
133 
 
 most assuredly it shall never be resumed in its pre- 
 sent state ; and we may understand the change which 
 we are assured it must undergo, so far, at least, as to 
 be perfectly satisfied (even if we will entangle the 
 inquiry by contending for the same identical body g ) 
 that the change must be so thorough and entire as 
 to be, to all the intents and purposes of a spiritual 
 being, a different body, adapted to a different state, 
 to different capacities and powers.* 
 
 And it is gratifying to find, that this disregard of 
 the present body, after it has served its temporary 
 purpose of materiality on this earth, and has really 
 become (however difficult it may be, from the asso- 
 ciation of ideas, to assent to the position, and I have 
 felt and grant the difficulty) of no more importance 
 than any other dead mass of matter, and equally in- 
 sensible as the food we every day see without any 
 emotion on our tables. It is gratifying, I say, to 
 find that this disregard of the body, and the belief 
 of a spiritual independent existence, in some shape 
 or other, immediately after death, is not more 
 the doctrine of revealed than of natural religion. 
 Socrates gives us St. Paul's doctrine of an im- 
 mediate passage into the presence of the Deity ; 
 for he tells Crito, when he applied to him on the 
 subject of his funeral, that, as he should, after he 
 had swallowed the poison, (or rather after it had 
 taken effect,) " no longer remain with them, but 
 pass to the region of the blessed," he might use the 
 
 * See Burnett, Arch. p. 417. 
 M 
 
134 
 
 dead body as he pleased, and might deem best ; it 
 could be of no consequence to him, Socrates, who 
 would then have escaped, h 
 
 " When coldness wraps this suffering day, 
 Ah, whither strays the immortal mind ? 
 
 ■I » » « » 
 
 Away, away, witliout a wing, 
 
 O'er ail, through all, its thought shall fly, — 
 A nameless and eternal thing, 
 
 Forgetting what it was to die." 
 
 Vet it is clear from Scripture, that, at the re- 
 surrection, we shall be re-united to some sort of 
 Sflorified substance, and that the happiness of the 
 good shall then be more complete than in the inter- 
 mediate state of being, since death called them away 
 from this shadowy world of change, the fashion of 
 which so soon passeth away, i This is indeed 
 tile immortality which the gospel of Christ brought 
 to light — the immortality of a glorified and incor- 
 ruptible substance, encompassing the immortal 
 spirit in some way inconceivable to lis, and with- 
 out any of those gross and material inherencies 
 which degrade our present bodies, and render them 
 what they are, the sepulchres of the soul here — 
 ever tending to corruption — the prey of disease 
 — and ultimately dissolving in loathsomeness and 
 death, " They shall mount (says Isaiah) with 
 wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be 
 weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."* This, 
 1 say, is the immortality which the gospel of 
 
 Ms. xl. 31. 
 
135 
 
 Christ brought to light ; — for the immortality of the 
 soul is a doctrine of natural religion, and was known 
 and taught before Christ appeared.* The celebrated 
 Dr. Warburton, Ave have seen, denies this, whether 
 in the Heathen or IMosaic systems ; but his labours 
 are now (I believe universally) considered as afford- 
 ing only an ingenious instance of paradox, and a 
 splendid example of perverted erudition, k 
 
 And while we endeavour to explore the mysteries 
 of Scripture, may we not hope to discover, at the 
 same time, however obscurely, something of the 
 nature of the ulterior region to which they point — 
 something of the immortal scenery, which, even in 
 the remote distance, and by the dim light of our 
 present imperfect faculties, we may yet see breaking 
 like a sun-beam through the clouds and darkness 
 of humanity. The sea and the earth, we are told, 
 shall give up their dead, — 
 
 " When, rapt in fire, the realms of ether glow, 
 And heaven's last thunder shakes the world below." — 
 But it is impossible that the same bodies of 
 infirmity shall be restored, since we shall, divested 
 of our present structure of flesh and blood, of organs 
 of nutrition, and of our most sensible appetites, be 
 like the angels, and assume the glorified image of 
 Christ. No man can see God and live — no man, 
 i. e. the compound of flesh and blood and spirit 
 God is a Spirit ; he must be spiritually discerned ; 
 and, in a disembodied state, we shall see him '' face 
 
 Notes on ile\. Mor. and Met. Subjects, p. I'J, et seq. 
 
136 
 
 tt) face." — " We shall be like him, for we shall see 
 liim as he is ;"* that is, when this earthly tabernacle 
 is dissolved, " dust has returned to dust, and the 
 spirit to him who gave it ;" — words which, beyond 
 all controversy, imply our existence in a spiritual 
 state, apart from our present bodies, with the Father 
 of Spirits. 1 
 
 The truth iS; we cannot conceive a spiritual sub- 
 stance divested of corporal organization, because all 
 our knowledge in this matter, independently of what 
 Scripture affords, is drawn from experience of such 
 a compound as man in this state. "^ We cannot 
 image a sentient, or rather an intellectual creature, 
 hearing without ears, or seeing without eyes, or 
 feeling without fingers, because our actions here are 
 impressed by the operations of the substance of a 
 material world, with which we are, while in it, in- 
 dissolubly connected. But let us transfer ourselves 
 to the spiritual world — to the presence of the Father 
 of Spirits — and then we may cease to wonder, al- 
 though we see not the way of it, how the immortal 
 energy of mind may operate without the interven- 
 tion of material organization, — and how the indi- 
 viduality of the spirit may be visible and cognizable 
 to the intuitive perceptivity of pure intelligence, 
 which, in truth, here even constitutes our real iden- 
 tity, and in which identity, certainly, be the shape 
 what it may, we must inevitably hereafter receive 
 our award for the things done in the body. 
 
 • 1 Joliri iii. 2. 
 
137 
 
 Now, if we turn from the glorified identity of the 
 blessed^ to the raised body of the damned, — what a 
 picture have we before us, under the doctrine we 
 are combating ? The polluted dust consolidated — 
 the loathsome rind quickened — and the sad and 
 ghastly flesh of our earthly humanity torn from 
 its rotting slumber, and borne from the vile con- 
 sumers of its corruption. Yea, an immortal spirit 
 summoned from the wretched expectation of the 
 reprobate, and driven to the terrible reality in 
 the shambles of the damned. Clothed in a frame 
 identical of its former perishing corporeity, yet 
 capable of sustaining the weight of eternal in- 
 fliction — of enduring the tortures of unutterable 
 woe — of supporting the torments of everlasting 
 flames. Still further, if we keep in view the reflec- 
 tions which this letter suggests, of the opposite na- 
 ture and tendencies of corporal and immaterial 
 agencies, more monstrous will the position appear 
 which would have us acknowledge the eternal 
 operation of palpable perishing matter on the sub- 
 tilty of spiritual being — the action of an embodied 
 flame on the energy of a disembodied spirit. It is 
 not marvellous, perhaps, that the mind which can 
 get over the physical impossibilities, and the strik- 
 ing incongruities these images present in the nature 
 of things, or the moral contradiction they give to 
 the employment, and character, and attributes;, and 
 plan of a merciful Deity, — should be able to dis- 
 tance all reasonable considerations, and bolt, in utter 
 M 3 
 
138 
 
 confusion of ideas, through every opposing bar- 
 rier, to this revolting conclusion ; — but passing 
 marvellous it certainly is, that any man of com- 
 mon apprehension, having once reached the in- 
 ference, should yet be able to enjoy one moment's 
 respite from the incessant beckoning of the madden- 
 ing apparition, or be able to find in the wild range 
 of his dismal hopes one resting-place for one holy 
 aspiration. 
 
 No wonder that the controversy of such doctrinal 
 misery should be that of gall and wormwood — that 
 its bitterness should inveterate the very thought, 
 and word, and deed of its true disciples. And, if 
 the flames of persecution blazed on the altars of a 
 virtuous Trajan — if the philosophy of Antoninus, 
 and the glory of Aurelian, yet gave way to this 
 detestable atrocity — no wonder is it, that the con- 
 templation of such perilous horror should, in later 
 times, have prepared even the priests of a better 
 faith, and the " nursing fathers" of a happier dis- 
 pensation, to outdo the cruel intolerance of the 
 Heathen. No wonder that the melancholy madness 
 of such frightful imaginings, being without the 
 healing inspiration of true religion, is at once the 
 most horrible and the most humbling of all mental 
 aberration. No wonder that the mind, intensely 
 considering such a doom, and intensely believing it 
 too, should feel its faculties give way, its reason 
 crushed into fatuity, and its energies scared into 
 raving. « 
 
139 
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 
 " He that dies in an earnest pursuit is like one that is nounded 
 in hot blood, who for a time scarce feels the hurt ; and, 
 therefore, a mind fixed and bent upon somewhat that is 
 good, doth best avert the dolours of death." 
 
 Bacon. 
 
 " Eternity will not efface 
 
 Those records dear of transports past 
 Thy image at our last embrace." 
 
 Burns. 
 
 And this leads me to the remarkable language of 
 St. Paul, implying our knowledge of each other in 
 a future state : — " Whom we preach, (says that 
 great Apostle,) warning every man, and teaching 
 every man in all wisdom; that we may present 
 every man perfect in Christ Jesus." * Cicero could 
 look forward to that day with joy^, when he should 
 join the assembly of departed spirits. Aristotle, 
 we have seen, goes so far as to say that the dead 
 are even affected by the fortunes of the living ; and 
 Plato thought that they had a perception of what 
 is passing on earth ; a all implying our indivi- 
 duality and knowledge of each other after death, 
 
 • Cul. i. 28.; 2 Cor. iv. 14. 
 
140 
 
 St. Paul's prayer is, that he may be able to present 
 every man perfect, — indubitably inferring the same 
 individuality and knowledge of those whom he had 
 known in this life, and again recognised in their 
 new and spiritual state. And the personality here 
 implied is corroborated by the whole tenour of 
 Scripture. Christ is termed the '' Author and 
 Finisher of our Faith." — " We know that when he 
 shall appear we shall be like him, (implying per- 
 sonality and individuality ;) for we shall see him 
 as he is ; and every one that hath this hope in him 
 purifieth himself, even as he is pure."* We expect 
 hereafter the happiness of seeing God, of seeing him 
 as he is, knowing as we are known, and seeing face 
 to face. Of a perception, therefore, of God's imme- 
 diate presence — of his individuality — of the cause, 
 not of the effect, — our presently imperfect faculties 
 will be rendered capable in a future life. Indeed the 
 whole narrative is, in fact, continued personality — a 
 history of the '* man Christ Jesus," whom we are 
 to resemble hereafter ; and the meliorating proba- 
 tion of this life seems tending to prepare us for 
 the interchange of the benevolent affections. Nay, 
 we know of no instance where the strength of affec- 
 tion and the power of friendship are more strongly 
 evinced, and more beautifully displayed, than in the 
 death of our Saviour. Jesus wept over the grave 
 of his "^friend Lazarus ;" and when about to expire 
 on the cross, he recommended his mother to the 
 
 • 1 John iii. 
 
141 
 
 care of the disciple " whom he loved." It is im- 
 possible to read the affecting detail of this closing 
 scene in the deep tragedy of his sufferings and 
 death, as given in the simple language of the Evan- 
 gehst,* without emotion : — " There stood (it is 
 written) by the cross of Jesus, his mother, and his 
 mother's sister, ]Mary the wife of Cleophas, and 
 Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his 
 mother, and the disciple standing by whom he loved, 
 he saith to his mother, behold thy son ! Then saith 
 he to the disciple, behold thy mother ! And from 
 that hour that disciple took her unto his own home," 
 '' which he had near iMount Zion, after he had sold 
 his inheritance in Galilee to the High Priest, where 
 he always paid her the respect due to a parent." ^ 
 
 I think it is Lord Shaftesbury and Soame Jenyns 
 who argue that the generalities of Scripture — the 
 universal benevolence recommended — preclude the 
 exercise of friendship, or rather tacitly destroy it, 
 independently of the fact that nowhere is it enjoin- 
 ed in the gospel. And here we may again observe 
 Scripture speaking to our reason, addressing us by 
 generalities, yet exhibiting a specific and practical 
 instance for our example, leaving us to draw and 
 apply the inference to any particular occasion. The 
 broad principle of Christianity on this point, as laid 
 down by our Saviour, is to love one another — ^to 
 love our neighbours as ourselves — whatever things, 
 in short, we could reasonably wish to receive from 
 
 • John XX. 2G. 
 
U2 
 
 others, the same ought we to do to them. But we 
 must remember, at the same time, that our Saviour 
 (lid not abrogate the original and moral law of our 
 nature — that which knit the hearts of Damon and 
 Pythias, before his gospel was heard of; and the 
 general injunctions of universal charity and good- 
 will are to be controlled in so far by the dictates 
 of this original law, as evidenced in the striking 
 instance afforded at the close of his life. It might, 
 at first sight, unquestionably be argued, that these 
 universal obligations, being apparently incompatible 
 with the more concentrated nature of private friend- 
 ship, so amiable and so beneficial in influence, so 
 productive of human happiness, could not be claim- 
 ed for Christianity; but the instance of our Saviour, 
 who went about doing good to all, and who died 
 for all, yet had a friend to whom, in the moment of 
 dissolution, he recommended the dearest object of 
 his affections, is in point to prove the contrary ; and 
 seems decisive in shewing, by his example on earth, 
 which he left for our imitation, that in the assembly 
 of the spirits of men made perfect hereafter, and 
 like to him in heaven, this sublime disposition 
 (wlilch otherwise he had not recommended in his 
 practice on earth) shall be fully developed. Be- 
 heving, as we do, that Almighty God is a Being of 
 infinite goodness and uncontrollable mercy, we hold 
 it to be unanswerable, that in no one stage of our 
 progress here or hereafter, will any enjoyment be 
 withheld that can be safely conceded or granted to 
 augment our permanent happiness ; and consider- 
 
143 
 
 ing it equally certain that the tendencies of things 
 observable now, and the character forming in us by 
 the discipline of this life will be completed in the 
 next, necessarily without prejudice to the identity 
 and individuality of the creature, we find it impos- 
 sible to separate this identity and individuality, which 
 thus remain distinct as to ourselves, from the know- 
 ledge of a similar individuality, as it must exist in 
 others. Since the affectionate remembrance of the 
 dead continues with us in this life after the object is 
 removed, we conclude that the friendships and attach- 
 ments begun here are only suspended to be fully de- 
 veloped in a future state of being. Since we pass into 
 futurity with the ever-aching memory of the dead 
 whom we have loved warm upon us, can we imagine 
 that this emotion is suffered to outlive its object here 
 merely to delude us hereafter ; or that, when by the 
 dissolution of this corporal frame, we are prepared 
 to grasp the reality, we are then, and not till then, 
 to discover the mockery and illusion — to find 
 that, although existing like ourselves, as we and 
 the departed must do, in their and our proper iden- 
 tity, still the power of perception and the memory 
 of that identity is destroyed? Living in the strength 
 of our spiritual and individuating energy, can we be 
 utterly unknown to each other, and utterly devoid 
 of all sympathetic and intellectual communion? 
 If the soul exists as an accountable entity here- 
 after, we cannot entertain this inference, or suppose, 
 we conceive, that a benevolent Deity could suffer an 
 
144 
 
 affection to be continued after the object of it is re- 
 moved, to no purpose, save to impose on us in this 
 life the cruel memory of separation, and the pains of 
 unceasing regrets. 
 
 " It must be so : 'tis not for self 
 
 That we so tremble on the brink ; 
 And striving to o'orleap the gulph, 
 Yet cling to being's severing link. 
 
 Oh ! in that future let us think 
 To hold eacb heart, the heart that shares, 
 
 With them the immortal waters drink, 
 And soul in soul grow deathless theirs." c 
 
 It is here, as it is beautifully said by Blair,* we begin 
 to '^prepare ourselves for those happy regions, where 
 charity never faileth; — where, in the presence of the 
 God of love, eternal and invariable friendships unite 
 together all the blessed ; — friendships^ which, by no 
 human infirmity disturbed, by death never separated, 
 shall continue throughout endless ages, a great and 
 distinguished portion of the celestial felicity." The 
 warm language of our Saviour used in comforting 
 his disciples seems as it were intentionally decisive 
 on this point : — " He that hath my commandments 
 and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me ; and he 
 that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father, and I 
 will love him, and will manifest myself to him ;"t — 
 that is, to him, the identical person who hath kept 
 my commandments. Nay, we are told, that when 
 Jesus was asked by the young man, what he should 
 do to inherit eternal life, Jesus, it is written, " be- 
 
 • Scr. vol. iv. p. 377. t John xiv. 21. 
 
145 
 
 holding him, loved him."* " Thy dead men (says 
 Isaiaht) shall live, together with my dead body 
 shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in 
 dust ; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the 
 earth shall cast out the dead." 
 
 Most of the ancient Fathers supposed the angels 
 to have bodies; and, like Zeno, Tertullian seems to 
 go so far as to ascribe a body even to God ; ^ while 
 Pythagoras, again, if I remember well, forbade his 
 scholars to engrave any image of the Supreme. 
 We are, in truth, only children of a larger growth. 
 And I once heard a child of five years put this 
 singular interrogatory : — How can God see us, if he 
 has no eyes — or hear us, if he has no ears — or touch 
 us, if he has no hands ? Nay, the celebrated John 
 Locke (a name of which humanity may be proud) 
 recognizes the possibility of superadding thought to 
 matter, e which, to me, implies the most outrageous 
 contradiction. J That all things are possible to the 
 Deity, not implying contradiction, is true ; but that 
 inert matter (solidity) can, without the immediate 
 and constant agency of some vital perceptivity, be- 
 come of itself perceptive, is, as I understand it, pure 
 contradiction. Matter, the most sceptical will grant, 
 is clearly not spirit, which is essentially perceptive; 
 and if it be possible to give to matter inherent per- 
 ceptivity, it is possible to transmute matter into 
 spirit, and spirit into matter ; and thus to confound 
 
 " Mark x. 21, | Is. xxvi. 19. 
 
 I See Bishop Huntingford on Col. ii. 8. 
 
 N 
 
146 
 
 all the primary and essential distinctions of things 
 estabhshed by the Creator from the beginning. It 
 is certainly not for man to set bounds to the potency 
 of the Creator ; but I cannot conceive this possible, 
 ])ecause it is contradictory, and implies confusion in 
 the plan, principles, and congruity of things, not 
 less repugnant than the calling of good evil, and 
 of evil good. It is, in truth, matter of peculiar re- 
 gret, to be obliged to confess that the writings of 
 this most worthy man have given scope to material- 
 ism and infidelity, by the doctrines which we have 
 here and in another place noticed, f There never 
 was a more unfortunate illustration than the Tabu- 
 la rasa,"' converting, in fact, the human mind into a 
 blank sheet of paper, to be defaced by the veriest 
 scribbler, or adorned by the purest wisdom, as ac- 
 cident may determine, uncontrolled in any shape by 
 the law written on the human heart, by the finger 
 of Omnipotence, the very existence of which is, of 
 course, entirely abandoned. It is true there are re- 
 deeming passages in the \yritings of Mr. Locke, 
 which lead us to believe that these are more the 
 errors of expression than of deliberate judgment ; 
 for of ideas he tells us, — "the mind knows not things 
 immediately, but only by the intervention of the ideas 
 it has of them. Our knowledge therefore is real, only 
 so far as there is a conformity between our ideas and 
 the reality of things :" and by idea he understands, 
 • whatever it is which the mind can be employed 
 
 • See Essay, B. ii. C. 1, Sect 2. 
 
147 
 
 about in thinking."* Yet it must be confessed that 
 the conclusions of Hume, from his premises, are legi- 
 timate, and that, under the illustration we have al- 
 luded to, we can consider man no other than tlie mere 
 creature of circumstance — of absolute indifference as 
 to good or evil, save in as far as they are presented 
 to his mind by externals ; thus abandoning all moral 
 controul from the law indited on his heart, — or 
 rather denying its existence entirely, and explaining 
 away all the moral distinctions — all the innate right 
 and wrong indications of our nature. Indeed, if we 
 follow out this admission to its fair consequences, 
 and consider it in connection with the other tenets 
 of i\Ir. Locke, as to sensation,+ it is capable of being 
 pushed to consequences destructive of human hap- 
 piness here and hereafter. If all our ideas come 
 through the senses, it may be concluded that our 
 thoughts originated from our corporeal frames, and 
 may (nay, must) cease with their dissolution ; or if 
 our minds be a sheet of " white paper," for the im- 
 pression of every daub, we cannot be viewed in the 
 light of moral or accountable creatures, g The 
 dangerous consequences to which some of the rea- 
 soning of this excellent J and acute man may thus 
 be determined, may well lead the less gifted to fear 
 and trembhng in their abstractions. Even tlie great 
 
 See Essay, 8vo. Sect. 8, B. i. C. 1, p. 5 ; B.iv. C. 4, Sect. 3, 
 
 p. 187. 
 
 t Notes on Rel. Mor. and Met. Subjects, p. 21. 
 
 t See Introduction to Beattie's Essays, 4to. p. 7- 
 
 N 2 
 
148 
 
 Pyrrhonist of modern times confessed himself afraid 
 to think. 
 
 Upon tlie whole, then, I conclude by observing, 
 that although we know not what we shall be, most 
 certainly we know what we shall not be. We shall 
 not resume these frail and perishing tabernacles, 
 sown in corruption, in weakness, in sin and dis- 
 honour, and finally dissolvable in the rotting loath- 
 someness of the grave. But we shall assume a con- 
 dition enduring as immortality itself, like unto that 
 of the angels, or of Christ — like unto God^ (for we 
 shall see him as he is) — and capable of sustaining 
 that now insupportable flood of glory which sur- 
 rounds the Eternal." Sure we are, that the same 
 Providence who introduced us into this life, in 
 bodies suited to an imperfect and preparatory state, 
 will not be wanting to our suitable accommodation 
 as we advance in the scale of existence ; and certain 
 we must be, that^ as eye hath not seen, nor ear 
 heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man 
 to conceive, the rewards which are in store for the 
 pious and the good, — so a substance capable of sus- 
 taining this '' weight of glory" shall be our portion, 
 different from our present tabernacle, as the final re- 
 recipient and liome of the immortal spirit there, must 
 be from the sepulchre and charnel-house of the 
 h»athsome carcase here, — transcending, as the joys 
 of that righteous heaven surpass the miseries of this 
 unlioly earth, — pure as that purity which is fitted 
 
 ■ Se.' 1 John iii. 2; 2 Cur. iii. ]8. 
 
149 
 
 to hold communion with a Being who cannot be- 
 hold iniquity, — and eternal as that Godhead with 
 whom we shall for ever dwell. '' Glorious day 
 (exclaims the Heathen Philosopher*), when I shall 
 retire from this low and sordid scene, to associate 
 with the divine assembly of departed spirits." — 
 " Blessed time (cries the Christian Divine t), when 
 mortality shall be swallowed up of life, and death 
 and sorrow shall be no more — when we shall be 
 eased of all our pains, and resolved of all our 
 doubts, and be purged from all our sins, and be 
 freed from all our fears, and be happy beyond all 
 our hopes, and have all this happiness secured to us 
 beyond the power of time and change." And com- 
 forting and consoling it is, to be assured by natural, 
 by revealed religion — by the arguments of the 
 Heathen — by the conclusions of the Christian — by 
 the anxious deductions of philosophy — by the posi- 
 tive assurances of the gospel — that such a con- 
 summation must take place, — when, the present 
 pageantry having passed away, appearances shall 
 assume their realities, reason shall be intuition, and 
 we shall enjoy to the utmost all the faculties of 
 a perfect nature, unimpeded, and in a glorified state, 
 exempt from the infirmities of our present gross 
 bodies, and all the pollutions, wants, and desires of 
 a fallen and degraded condition. God of our spirits ! 
 Parent of universal being ! what manner of men 
 ought we to be in this thy distant creation ; and 
 
 • Cicero. t Tillotson. 
 
 N 3 
 
150 
 
 how caret'iilly ought we to protect from all defile- 
 ment that soul which thou hast destined for so glo- 
 rious a scene : — For, 
 
 '' If, as holiest men have deemed, there be 
 
 A land of souls, beyond that sable shore. 
 
 To shame the doctrine of the Sadducee 
 
 And Sophists, madly vain of dubious lore, — 
 
 How sweet it were in concert to adore 
 
 With those who made our mortal labours light — 
 
 To hear each voice we fear'd to hear no more ! 
 
 Behold each mighty shade revealed to sight, 
 
 The Bactrian, Samian Sage, and all who taught the right !" 
 
151 
 
 I 
 
 LETTER XVII. 
 
 " Imagine it to be said — Love your enemies — Resist not evil — 
 Give to every man that asketh — Lend, hoping for nothing 
 again, &c — must not such expressions be limited, or inter- 
 preted by the nature of things, or the true circumstances of 
 the case ? They certainly must, unless reason be discai-ded ; 
 and if that be once gone, we shall have no test to distinguish 
 the will of God from the illusions of the devil, or the impos- 
 tures of men . " Sykes. 
 
 " So saying, they linked hand in hand, spread out 
 Their golden wings, by living breezes fanned, 
 And over heaven's broad champaign sailed serene." 
 
 Pollok. 
 
 But to return from this digression, we resume 
 more closely our argument. We have the case of 
 Esau^. Avhom " I hated/*"" in contrast with that of 
 Jacob, whom " I loved." Now, we have before 
 seen,t that our Saviour uses the same expression 
 when he requires us to "^^hate" father and mother, 
 wife and children, brethren and sister, and even life 
 itself. It is impossible, therefore, to understand 
 the " hate" expressed in the above passages in a bad 
 or vindictive sense, or in any other sense than com- 
 
 • Mai. i. 2, 3. t Luke xiv. 26. 
 
152 
 
 paratively, and as applicable to conduct here. We 
 inter from our Saviour's language the paramount 
 necessity of the love of God ; and, in the case of 
 Esau, the preference given to Jacob in this life, for 
 Isaac " blessed Jacob and Esau concerning the 
 things to come.""' 
 
 We find it stated (in i\Iatt. xix. 24, and in the 
 parallel passages of Mark and Luke) to be '' easier 
 for a camel a to go through the eye of a needle, than 
 for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Now 
 this, literally, is clearly impossible— quite as impos- 
 sible as the impassable gulf; and the rational in- I 
 ference is, not that it is impossible for a rich man 
 to enter into the kingdom of heaven, but that, 
 from his various temptations, it is extremely diffi- 
 cult to do so ;t yet, granting the difficulty or im- 
 possibility (when divested of a metaphorical sense) 
 of passing an impassable gulf, or of a cable or camel 
 going through the eye of a needle, still, as it is also 
 said that '' with God all things are possible,";}: or ra- 
 ther, as St. Luke has it,§ " with God nothing shall be 
 impossible," the point comes to be, — has God limit- 
 ed his power in these instances — or is he not, as it 
 is expressly written, " able and willing to save to 
 the uttermost }" ^ which we must believe, if we be- 
 lieve tlie Scriptures, — nay, that God is. 
 
 Again, the case of Judas || is taken as a formidable 
 
 • Hcb. xi. 20. 
 
 i See Chillingworth's ^\'oI•lis, ;{ vols. 8vo. vol. iii. p. 180, 
 
 1 Mark x. 27. § Luke i. 37. II Matt. xxvi. 24. 
 
153 
 
 instance against the restoration of all things. It 
 has indeed been argued, that the sense thus implied 
 may be entirely evaded, even when the words are 
 literally interpreted ; for better, certainly, had it 
 been for Judas never to have been born into life, 
 but to have died before leaving the womb ; for then 
 he had passed into another state sinless. And al- 
 though this, perhaps, is refining too much, the 
 inference is tenable ; nor can it be maintained (un- 
 derstand the passage as we may), that so formidable 
 a doctrine can be established on a sort of proverbial- 
 ism, for such the expressions appear to be j ^ and 
 and so we find them applied in other parts of Scrip- 
 ture, and in classical writers, ^'^ Cursed be the man 
 who brought tidings to my father (says Jeremiah"^), 
 saying, a manchild is born unto thee. — Wherefore 
 came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, 
 that my days should be consumed with shame ?" 
 Solomon has it, that an " untimely birth" is better 
 than long life, '' if the soul be not filled with good."t 
 And Job exclaims, J "^ Wherefore hast thou brought 
 me forth out of the womb ? Oh that I had given 
 up the ghost, and no eye had seen me ! I should 
 have been as though I had not been ; I should have 
 been carried from the womb to the grave." Here 
 Jeremiah and Job deem it better had they not been 
 born into life, — and neither, certainly, had occasion 
 to apprehend future perdition ; and Solomon, we 
 see, says, generally, that an untimely birth is better 
 
 • Jer. XX. t Eccl. vi. j Job. x. 18, 19. 
 
lo4 
 
 than a long life, unless filled with good. Now, few 
 or none are filled with good ; and, therefore, the 
 inference is, that in general an " untimely birth" is 
 better than the thousand evils to which human flesh 
 is heir. " Let us not (says Tillotson*) make a 
 mock of repentance, that which must be our last 
 sanctuary and refuge, and which we must all come 
 to before we die, or it had better for us we had 
 never been born." So may it be said of Judas, — 
 better for that man never to have been born — better 
 for any man — than to suffer the dreadful retribu- 
 tions, even in this life, (to say nothing of the next,) 
 of a lancinating remorse for the basest of crimes. f'^ 
 The shorter the life of any wicked man is, cer- 
 tainly, the better ; the fewer sins will he have to 
 answer for — much more such a criminal as Judas, 
 '' the beggarly Jew of Holbein." And it is not 
 possible, unless we understand the exclamation as a 
 figure of speech, that Job should hold himself 
 reserved for everlasting happiness — should confide 
 in the hour when he should see God, "^ whom I 
 shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and 
 not another :"J — it is impossible, I say, that he 
 could exclaim, (in a literal sense,) '' Let the day 
 perish wherein I was born !" and at the same time 
 entertain a hope so full of immortality. It is 
 true, the expressions both of Job and Jeremiah 
 were wrung from them under the severity of 
 
 ■ \'ol. i. p. 270, fol. t See Matt, xxvii. 
 
 1 Job. xix. 27, iii. '-*• 
 
affliction ; and in this view they have still a stronger 
 claim to our indulgence, whether considered as 
 proverbialisms of extensive latitude, or as ejacu- 
 lations of hyperbolical import; neither can our 
 Saviour's words/" whether viewed as a mere He- 
 braism or rabbinical phrase, applied to the guilty 
 criminal or peculiarly unfortunate, be understood 
 to infer what might have been expressed without 
 any circumlocution, or admitting of any doubt, if it 
 had been so intended, e 
 
 Again, " Blessed are the barren, and the wombs 
 that never bare,"t figuratively and prophetically, 
 not with reference to future punishment, but to 
 the coming horrors of the fall of Jerusalem ; — 
 and implying, in a similar sense, that it would 
 have been better never to have been born, than 
 to have experienced the miseries of that desolation. 
 
 Christ came not to call the " righteous, but sinners 
 to repentance ;" and tribulation and anguish (it is 
 not said to be eternalj) shall certainly be on '^ every 
 soul of man that doeth evil ;" for assuredly there is, 
 and can by possibility be, "no peace to the wicked. "§ 
 
 '' He that believeth not the son (says John) shall 
 not see life."|| On this verse much stress has been 
 laid ; and it was pointed out to the writer of these 
 pages, by a Divine of the Church of Scotland, as 
 an unanswerable objection. If the reader will turn 
 to the preceding verse, he will find the same Evan- 
 
 • Matt xxvi. 24. f Luke xxiii. 29. 
 
 : Koin. ii. <:•.— Matt. ix. 13. § Is. xlviii. 1| John iii. 36. 
 
156 
 
 gelist informs us, — " The Father loveth the Son, 
 and hath given all things into his hand." Again, 
 (vi. 37> of the same Evangelist,) the words of 
 Christ are, — ^' All that the Father giveth me shall 
 come to me ; and him that cometh to me I will in 
 no wise cast out." Now, we confess it is written 
 unequivocally;, (for we have no desire, quite the 
 contrary, to conceal or evade the force of any argu- 
 ment on either side,) — " He that believeth not the 
 Son shall not see life ;" but it is also written equally 
 explicitly, '' the Father hath given all things" (with- 
 out exception) to the Son, and ^'^all that the Father 
 giveth me shall come unto me." What then, we 
 ask, becomes of the supposed exception of him that 
 believeth not ? If all things are given, where is the 
 reservation ? The Evangelist must, I presume, be 
 admitted to the privilege of an intelligible interpre- 
 tation, (as we have ventured to apply to other pas- 
 sages, and as must be conceded to all writings and 
 sayings, human and divine ;) and the import, when 
 reHeved of a contradictory meaning, can only ex- 
 clude the unbeliever (in a Scriptural sense) while 
 he remains in that state of unbelief. " He that 
 believeth not the Son shall not see life," (as we 
 read the words,) while he is yet unprepared to 
 receive the truth as it is in Jesus, (not perhaps as 
 men expound it,) who died for us all, and who is 
 willing and able to save, and to quicken and restore 
 tlu* lapsed soul ; for, '' as in Adam all die, even so 
 in Christ shall all be made alive."* " The fear of 
 
 • 1 Cor. XV. 22. 
 
15' 
 
 God (we unhesitatingly admit, in the words of an 
 eloquent preacher) is unequivocally set against 
 evil ; and either the evil must be sanctified into that 
 which is good, or wholly swept away. It were a 
 violence to his nature, that iniquity should pass 
 either without a punishment or without an expia- 
 tion. There may be some mysterious conveyance, 
 (there necessarily must, as we believe,) an egress 
 be found for his goodness towards the sinner ; but 
 towards the sin, there is nought in God but the 
 most unsparing and implacable warfare."* 
 
 • Chalmers on Matt. viii. 11 — preached at the Scottish Church, 
 Regent Square, Mav 16, 1830. 
 
15S 
 
 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 •• Wiiat is the sum and substance, scope and end, of Christ's reli- 
 g^ion, but the love of God and man? — To which all other 
 points and duties are relative and subordinate, as parts or 
 means, as signs, principles, motives, or effects. Now, I 
 would fain know how it is possible for evil or wickedness of 
 any kind to spring from such a source?" 
 
 Berkeley. 
 
 " There surely is some guiding pow'r, 
 Which rightly suffers wrong — 
 Gives vice to bloom its little hour. 
 But virtue, late and long!" 
 
 Camoe7is. 
 
 But sin, it has been said^ is an infinite evil, a rebel- 
 lion against infinite majesty and power ; and there- 
 fore it is justly obnoxious to infinite punishment. 
 Besides, it is added, as a minor inference of the will, 
 that an infinitely good Being must be desirous to 
 visit sin with the greatest mark of his displeasure. 
 Now, first, it is not clear that the Deity chose to lay 
 the greatest possible restraint on sin — (it is not 
 clear that he could, without disturbing the free 
 agency of man) — otherwise he must have visited 
 every act of commission with immediate and utter 
 extinction ; or have exhibited the retribution in 
 
159 
 
 such colours as could not but appal ; or have ap- 
 pHed the infliction in such tortures as could not but 
 deter ; (in which view man's discretionary power 
 and accountability are at an end.) Sin appears 
 to be visited with a measure of punishment suffi- 
 cient to mark its prohibition, and ultimately to re- 
 form, by gradually transforming the sinner, and 
 enabling him to see, (by the exercise of his intel- 
 lectual capacity,) and consequently necessitating 
 him to shun its horrible and disgusting deformity. 
 Sin, in truth, is the imposition of an erroneous 
 understanding on the will, of ignorance on the 
 judgment, calling evil good, and good evil. We 
 pursue it because it approaches us under false co- 
 lours and blandishments, and because we mistake the 
 deceiving and evanescent appearance for real enjoy- 
 ment and permanent good. It is only necessary to 
 remove the screen from the intellectual eye, by the 
 efforts of reason and experience, to exhibit the im- 
 posture — to secure our preference to the controlling 
 worth, and invincible attraction, and fascinating- 
 beauty of goodness. And this Providence appears 
 to effect, by repeated trials, and not by any sudden 
 wrench and immediate interposition — suffers the 
 abortion to crawl for a while in its own slime, for 
 purposes inscrutable to us : but its destruction is 
 not the less inevitable — the retribution is not the 
 less certain — nor the reformation by Almighty 
 Power, which eventually must prevail, the less se- 
 cure. God forbid that we should say sin was or is 
 o 2 
 
160 
 
 permitted to abound, that grace and pardon may 
 the more abound. The subject, we admit, is per- 
 haps beyond us. Our path here is, it may be, on 
 the pathless sea ; and we take refuge in the belief, 
 that although sin may, for a while, tyrannize over 
 the world, in all the leprous inveteracy of moral 
 ])estilence, of transgression, of suffering, of disease, 
 and of death, '' the infinite goodness of God shall 
 reign, by destroying sin and death, through a 
 righteousness of faith."* 
 
 But, secondly, and were it otherwise, the conse- 
 quence of infinite suffering would not follow ; for 
 the measure of infliction, or of retribution, must 
 result from the wrong done, — and no effect, the 
 consequence of the act of a finite creation, can be 
 elongated into an infinite operation, unless by the 
 immediate will, influence, and power of an infinite 
 Being ; which we deny, because we cannot infer 
 ultimate irremediable misery from the attributes of 
 the one merciful God of the Christians ; nor can we 
 discover it unequivocally asserted in the revelation 
 of his word. 
 
 The instances of the destruction of Sodom and 
 (romorraht have likewise been produced, as ex- 
 amples of the irretrievable punishments of the 
 wicked ; but if they prove any thing beyond the 
 necessary, and visible, and inevitable results of 
 monstrous sins, in all ages, and in innumerable 
 
 • Macknijrht, vol. i. j) 27O. f Gen. xix. 24. 
 
161 
 
 instances, even in this world, it is rather for us than 
 against us. They are " set forth for an example, 
 suffering the vengeance of eternal fire," as we have it 
 in Jude 7- " Turning the cities of Sodom and 
 Gomorrah into ashes, making them an example to 
 those that after should live ungodly/' as we read it 
 in Peter.-^ But if we turn to Ezekiel,t we find 
 that not only shall these wicked cities be restored, 
 but Jerusalem also, '' which hast multiplied thine 
 abominations more than they, and hast justified thy 
 sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast 
 done." If, then, they are an example of destruction, 
 they are also an instance of coming restoration ; — 
 nay, it has been argued^ that in compliance with the 
 promise made to Abraham^ by God, of possessing all 
 within his sight from the place where he then 
 stood,J the Dead Sea, which now, as it is said, 
 occupies the place of the wicked cities, must 
 eventually be swallowed up, and the plain be given 
 to the posterity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 
 And, further, it has been maintained, (from Ezek. 
 xlvii. 8 — ]!,) that the extreme saltness of the water 
 shall be neutralized, or '^ healed," as it is written, ^ 
 and rendered fit for the purposes and existence of 
 the finny tribe. § Nay, it has been afiirmed by some, 
 that fish have been caught in it, (although this is 
 denied by the latest authority.) At any rate (Dr. 
 Pococke is of opinion) they may live in it ; and the 
 
 • 2 Pet. ii. G. t Ezek. xvi. : Gen. xiii. 14, 15. 
 
 § See Winchester (.a the Uaiveisal Restoration, p. 181. 
 
 o3 
 
I6e 
 
 ^wallows, as they skim along its surface, dip for the 
 water necessary to build their nests, c 
 
 But, whatever we may make of the fate of Sodom 
 and Gomorrah, by the immediate act of the Al- 
 niiiriity — or of Babylon, as it was predicted by 
 Isaiah,* and decided by the arms of Cyrus and 
 Ilystaspes — or of Nineveh, as it was foretold by 
 Zephaniaht and Nahum,t and utterly accomplished 
 (ultimately 1 believe, by the Saracens, in the seventh 
 tentury)-r— certain it is, that nothing can be concluded 
 from these or any temporal examples of wickedness, 
 and instances of consequent desolation here, as to 
 eternal punishment hereafter, when time shall be no 
 more. 
 
 Again, it is written in St. John,§ " Ye shall seek 
 me, and shall not find me ; and where I am, thither 
 ye cannot come." So it is spoken by Jesus to his owm 
 disciples, II '' Little children, yet a little while I am 
 with you. Ye shall seek me ; and, as I said unto 
 the Jews, whither I go ye cannot come ; so now I 
 say to you." Yet we have it in Matthew,1[ " Ex- 
 cept ye be converted, and become as little children, 
 ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." 
 Again, in Mark,** " Suffer the little children to 
 come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is 
 the kingdom of heaven." Matthewtt solves the ap- 
 ])arent difficulties of the whole : — " Ye shall not see 
 mo henceforth, till ye shall say. Blessed is he that 
 cometii in the name of the Lord." 
 
 • I", xiii. t Z.'p'.i. ii. 13. I Nahurn iii. 
 
 ^ Joiui vii. ;M. 11 Jjliii xiii. 33. 1[ Matt, xviii. 3. 
 
 •" Mark x. U. tt Matt, xxiii. 39. 
 
163 
 
 But " He shall have judgment without mercy, 
 that hath showed no mercy ;"* yet " mercy (it is 
 added) rejoiceth against judgment."f '• I will no 
 more (as it is written in IloseaJ) have mercy upon 
 the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them 
 away ; — for ye are not my people, and I will not be 
 your God ;" yet adds the son of Beeri, — '' And it 
 shall come to pass, that in the place where it was 
 said unto them, ye are not my people, there it shall 
 be said unto them, ye are the sons of the living God." 
 
 The words of Solomon, too, have been pressed 
 into the argument, and interpreted as denuncia- 
 tions of eternal punishment in another life, although 
 he confines his language to things ''done under the 
 sun," that is, to the things of the present life. And 
 in this their only and proper sense they may or may 
 not be true, without let or injury, save to his wis- 
 dom and sagacity — as, when he affirms of the dead,§ 
 that " they know not any thing ; — neither have they 
 any more a portion for ever in any thing that is 
 done under the sun ;" — for, " all things come alike 
 to all : (in this world of which he is speaking, it 
 may be so ; but certainly not in the next, to which 
 his words have no reference :) there is one event to 
 the righteous and to the wicked ; to the good, and 
 to the clean, and to the unclean." d 
 
 • James ii. 13. 
 
 t The mercy of God is abundant. — Ps. viii. cviii. 4 ; 
 
 Exod. XXV. 21. 
 
 * Hosea i. § Eccles. ix. 
 
164 
 
 It were, in truth, liopeless to attempt an analysis 
 or explanation, satisfactory to every one, of every 
 passage in Scripture which may be arranged for or 
 against the doctrine of the Universalists, agreeably 
 to the tenets of the particular party who may be the 
 expounder. Indeed, this very diversity of opinion 
 and of inference proves to demonstration the indis- 
 cretion, at least, of wrapping up in an article or 
 Confession of Faith a repulsive doctrine, which is 
 not only not revealed in Scripture, at any rate, 
 with that clearness which can make the belief of 
 it necessary, or the denial of it criminal ; but which 
 has been, as Ave have seen, abandoned by the 
 ablest and most illustrious men. Every passage 
 in Scripture, every word, more particularly touch- 
 ing our final destiny, is replete with matter cal- 
 culated to awaken our most anxious endeavours 
 and painful anxieties for the result of our pil- 
 grimage ; but I know of no passage which, when 
 closely examined, can be made to amount to more 
 than a seeming implication of the doctrine that '' few- 
 only shall be saved." In truth, the restitution of all 
 things seems tobepretty distinctly stated in the Acts." 
 
 '^ Thou hast a fe\v names even in Sardis which 
 have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk 
 with me in white, for they are worthy ."t Here we 
 are told that, in the corrupt church of Sardis, some 
 there are that have not defiled their garments — that 
 
 • S..(. Acts. iii. 21. I K,v. iii. 4. 
 
165 
 
 shall be saved, in short — for they are worthy ; but 
 this negative does not infer, positively, that others 
 are beyond, or by no possibility can be brought 
 within, the pale of salvation. 
 
 St. Paul has it, that " though the number of the 
 children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a rem- 
 nant shall be saved :"^= and again, '"■ I have reserved 
 to myself seven thousand men who have not bowed 
 the knee to the image of Baal ; even so, then, at this 
 present time also, there is a remnant, according to 
 the election of grace." Here the Apostle (the reader 
 will bear in mind) is speaking comparatively, and 
 of the times then present, when few (a remnant) 
 had embraced Christianity; but nothing can be 
 elicited from this against the universal restoration 
 of all men, and of all sects, in time to come. On 
 the contrary, we think w^e have already shewn, that 
 the words of St. Paul are, in a variety of instances,t 
 on the side of the Universalists. St. John beheld 
 "^ a great multitude which no man could number, 
 of all nations, and kindredsj and people, and 
 tongues," standing before the throne and before the 
 Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their 
 hands." J 
 
 " Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, 
 which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find 
 
 • Rom. ix. 27; ii. 4, 5.- See Dr. Clarke, on these texts, 
 
 vol. i. p. 389.- M'Kuight. 
 
 t See Letter iv. and note e, p. 156. 
 
 : Rev. vii. 
 
166 
 
 it ;* — tor many are called, but few are chosen. + 
 Many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and 
 shall not be able/'J Now, what was true in our 
 Saviour's day is true in ours, although times of per- 
 secution anddifficulty existed then, which are happily 
 gone by ; but still, narrow is the way — or rather 
 afflicted and persecuted, through the wilderness of 
 this distracted life, is the way — and few there be that 
 find it, in the hiu*ry and tempest of worldly gratifi- 
 cation and desire. We are all called, § (that is, the 
 privileges of the gospel are freely offered, wherever 
 the " glad tidings" are heard ;) but the many are 
 unable here to stem the torrent of earthly pursuits, 
 with what demerit God only can know. Yet, may 
 not their deliverance be secured by further efforts, 
 in a further state of being and progression ? Must 
 not the Almighty have means without and beyond 
 the discipline of this preparatory stage, of reform- 
 ing or of purifying ? Or are we to deny to the in- 
 fant^ the idiot, or the madman, any entrance into 
 the joys of their IMaker ? But further, we are re- 
 minded, it is added by our Saviour, " I tell you, I 
 know you not whence ye are ; depart from me, all 
 ye workers of iniquity." || Now, to us it appears 
 thatall these passages apply to the kingdom of Christ; 
 and our Saviour accordingly declares his exclusion 
 from his kingdom of those who die in their sins, 
 and in rebeUion against God. They can have no 
 
 • Matt. vii. 14. t Matt. xxii. ]4. | Luke xiii. 24. 
 
 5 Sec Dr. Wliatcly << uii KUction." |i Luke xiii. lTk 27. 
 
167 
 
 part in the first resurrection, introductory of Christ's 
 kingdom, or in the enjoyments of that kingdom, 
 but must suffer the torments of the second death 
 and its consequences. 
 
 For the great and final scheme of redemption, the 
 reader will keep in mind, is the subduing of all things 
 to Christ, that God may be all in all; and if we hold 
 this end steadily in view, we must consider every 
 act and purpose as referential — as means for its ac- 
 complishment hereafter. All things were commit- 
 ted to Christ, with power to judge both the quick 
 and the dead. We are expressly told that '' the 
 Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all 
 judgment to the Son," whose commission em- 
 bracing " all things,"* is finally to restore " all 
 things" to the Father. Hence the punishment and 
 judgment we are considering must be in further- 
 ance of a deputed power; and hence both the 
 one and the other must have reference to the in- 
 termediate government of the deputed Son. The 
 great Parent of all withdraws himself, as it were, 
 from the intermediate and necessary scene of means, 
 of pain, and of suffering; he deputes the great 
 work of universal redemption — all things — to the 
 Son, whether for punishment or for judgment ; 
 but, by the terms of the commission, all things 
 given must be ultimately restored, so that the 
 Father may eventually be " all in all." Be, there- 
 
 * Jolin V. 22.— See Ephes. iv. 10 ; 1 Cor. xv. 24 ; Col. i. 
 20, 25; Phil iii. 21. 
 
168 
 
 fore, our advocacy ever so lame, or our reasoning 
 ever so inconsequential, it is clear, beyond contra- 
 diction, tliat tlie means must be subservient to the 
 end ; and, with reference more particularly to what 
 we have said of the attributes of the Deity, we beg 
 the reader always to remember, that uncontrolled 
 love urged an omnipotent Father to commission 
 the Son, who was sent not to condemn him or the 
 world, but through his mission that both might be 
 saved.* To this conclusion he must come at last ; 
 although we may not be able to conduct him 
 tlu*ough every broken pass to the end of so ardu- 
 ous a journey. — " The word of Christ (says Bishop 
 Huntingfordt) must be true, and that word de- 
 clares, ' He came to give his life a ransom for 
 many,':}: and ' that the world through him might 
 be saved.' "§ — " I am the good shepherd (says 
 our Saviour) ; the good shepherd giveth his life 
 for the sheep." II '* Other sheep I have, which 
 are not of this fold ; them also / must bring, and 
 they shall hear my voice ; and there shall be one 
 fold, and one' shepherd." 
 
 • John iii. 1/, 35. t On Matt. iv. J/. 
 
 : .Matt. XX. 28. § John iii. 17. || John x. 11 , 16. 
 
169 
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 '* I may err and yet be saved.— In the dark and intricate walks' 
 of controversy I may make false steps, without being at all 
 the more out of my way to blessedness.— But, if I am not a 
 Samaritan — a doer of good— either in fact or in inclination 
 and spirit ;— neither have aught to be loved by my neigh- 
 bour, nor to be accepted by God — no,— not though I be a sou 
 of the Church, by an orthodox faith and doctrine, or even 
 a father of the Church, a priest or a Levite." 
 
 Thomas Firmin. 
 
 " Thy praise, O charity I thy labours most 
 Divine, thy sympathy with sighs and tears 
 And groans ; thy great, thy God-like wish, to heal 
 All misery, all fortune's wounds, and make 
 The soul of every living thing rejoice." 
 
 It has been customary for the Universahsts to ana- 
 lyze the threatenings of Scripture^ and show^ either 
 by verbal criticism, that the words in question can- 
 not fairly be held to import the sense in which they 
 are understood by their opponents, — or to neutralize 
 the inferences, by quoting similar passages, where 
 the expressions convey a limited or differing signi- 
 fication ; — and I have endeavoured to condense 
 some of the most formidable arguments, sufficient 
 certainly, if not to persuade, at least to show, the 
 p 
 
170 
 
 most obdurate defender of reprobation, that the 
 views of the '' JNIerciful Doctors" are not without 
 foundation ; and that the matter is by no means, 
 as it is affected to be considered, decided against 
 them. The reader will always bear in mind, that 
 the point condemned by us is — misery in the issue 
 and completion of the scheme. '' I presume," (says 
 Edwards,*) "no behever in endless punishment 
 will plead for any degree or duration of punishment, 
 wliich is not subservient to the glory of the Deity 
 iniplving the greatest good of the universe. There- 
 fore, all such punishment as is not subservient to 
 that end, is foreign to the present question." Here 
 the glory of the Deity is put on its proper footing — 
 the greatest good of his universe — and w ith that we 
 do not quarrel, nor do we object to the admission 
 of punishment, so long as it produces, or tends to 
 produce (as a means) the greater eventual good ; — 
 but we deny that the system can be perfect or com- 
 plete where it is requisite. If it be necessary in the 
 ultimate design of creation, then one of two things 
 follows — first, either that evil was designed — or, 
 secondly, that it was unavoidable. If it was de- 
 signed, then the Deity is not good, (I speak it, even 
 hypothetically, not without quailing) which is a 
 clear and demonstrative fallacy ; and if it was una- 
 voidable, then is the work so far imperfect, and the 
 contriver to that extent fallible, which is equally 
 untenable. Our argument is — that evil may be 
 
 ■ " The Salvation of all men' examined, &c. — 8vo. p. ^b. 
 
171 
 
 useful, unavoidable, as the means — it can never be 
 contemplated as the end, and must finally be ex- 
 punged when the work of Providence is complete. 
 Our Saviour, we know, was permitted to endure 
 vicarious suffering — and w^e are here exposed to 
 probationary pain — even life we see is sustained 
 by the death of the unoffending ;— but it never can 
 be maintained, that in the issue of things, affliction 
 in any shape can be necessary either for the preser- 
 vation or continuance of our being. Such media- 
 tion can be required only in a state of imperfec- 
 tion, and can have no place in the final economy of 
 an omnipotent and perfect Creator. During the 
 progression, means may be resorted to ; but the com- 
 pletion must be the end proposed — that is the design 
 of perfection in unimpeded operation ; — and it is 
 absurd to suppose the ultimate design of perfection 
 imperfect, the plan of unerring wisdom incomplete, 
 or tlie working impeded by the jarring of suffering ; 
 for this certainly would infer imperfection in the 
 agent. Nor can I help adding, although it has been 
 denominated a trite objection, that it seems to me 
 there is some difficulty in apprehending why, since 
 divines assure us that our good works cannot merit 
 eternal Hfe — that is, eternal happiness, — why, I say, 
 our evil-doings should merit eternal death — ^that is, 
 eternal misery. " To this I answer," (says Dr. 
 South,*) " that the case is very different in these 
 two. In the nature of merit, it is required that the 
 
 * Vol. vii. p. 148— or Rom. vi. 23. 
 
 p 2 
 
172 
 
 action be not due ; but now every good action be- 
 ing enjoined and commanded by the law of God^ is 
 thereby made due, and consequently cannot merit ; 
 whereas, on the contrary, a sinful action being quite 
 indfihitum, altogether undue, and not at all com- 
 manded, but prohibited, it becomes properly meri- 
 torious ; and, according to the malignity of its na- 
 ture it merits eternal death." Now, without breath- 
 ing heresy, or splitting straws, I think such reason- 
 ing will appear to common sense altogether incon- 
 sequential ; — for. 
 
 First, — The Deity governs by rewards and pun- 
 ishments, and the reward of obedience to his laws 
 (or, in other words, as we read it, the consequence 
 of virtuous conduct,) is declared to be eternal life. 
 But no man, it is admitted, can give exact obedience 
 to the purity of his precepts ; and, therefore, every 
 man must in so far fall short, and cannot merit or 
 reach the promised reward. Nay, no finite creature 
 can by any possibility merit an infinite reward, but 
 in so far as he complies with the injunctions of the 
 lawgiver, he certainly merits, at any rate, an exemp- 
 tion from the penalty which non-comphance in so 
 far would have inferred. He may not, confessedly 
 is not, able to discharge the whole obligation ; but 
 he has merit in having struggled to do so with an 
 integrity of purpose which cannot be unknown, and 
 therefore overlooked, by him to whom the secrets of 
 all hearts arc known. It is true he has not, cannot 
 of himself merit eternal hfe ; but if the Deity has 
 imposed an obligation which shall merit this beyond 
 
173 
 
 the possibility of erring man to perform ; (" for on 
 earth there is not a just man that sinneth not ; and 
 there is none good but God/''^) He has also in mercy 
 supplied the remedy — in the Redeemer who is the 
 propitiation for our sins.f Yet this impugns not^ 
 disturbs not the merit as far as it goes, and God only 
 can weigh its value ; for he only can know in how 
 far the desire and integrity of purpose have kept 
 pace with the power and capacity of the individual. 
 On this subject we may reconsider a former quota- 
 tion : " And they shall walk with me in white, for 
 they are worthy." " The Church of Rome (says 
 Dr. Clarke, J) has upon these words founded the 
 doctrine of merit ; and others, through fear of fall- 
 ing into that error^ have run into the contrary ex- 
 treme, and denied all necessity of virtue and good 
 works. The truth in this, as in most other cases, 
 lies plainly between the true extremes. Our best 
 virtues or works are so imperfect, as to need pardon 
 rather than deserve reward ; and if they were ever 
 so perfect, we should still be unprofitable servants, 
 having done only what was our duty to do. Yet, 
 through the intercession of Christ, God is pleased 
 to accept them, as if they w^ere meritorious ; and 
 by the gracious promise of God, we have as just a 
 claim to the reward, as if it had been originally due 
 to us of proper right. Our improvement in virtue 
 is the ground of proportion, though not the raeri- 
 
 k 
 
 • See Keel. vii. 20; Matth. xix. 17; Rom.'iii. 12. 
 1 See 1 John ii. 2. X Vol. i. p. 399. 
 
174 
 
 torious cause of reward. So that, though the hap- 
 piness of heaven be given us, not indeed for our 
 works, yet it will be in proportion to them, and 
 though not upon account of our virtue, yet exactly 
 according to our improvement therein; much of 
 of what I have immediately before said will apply 
 to this reasoning of Dr. Clarke, with whom I am 
 sorry in any instance to differ. How our virtue can 
 be the ground of proportion, and yet not in some 
 degree the cause of reward, I confess I do not un- 
 derstand. To what purpose is a good man here ex- 
 posed to trial and temptation, if the successful 
 struggle against passion and appetite is not of it- 
 self meritorious in so far. If the Deity admits the 
 actions of his creatures to proportion the measure 
 of their reward, it seems to me a distinction without 
 a difference to maintain, that the action is not the 
 meritorious cause pro tanto. It is the duty of all 
 men to obey the law of the country which has been 
 made known to them, and under which they are 
 contented to live ; but we do not say that a man has 
 no merit in being a good citizen, and yielding re- 
 ligious obedience to the laW; because it was his duty 
 to do so ; — on the contrary, he merits well, and 
 receives (under good government) in return, 
 not only the protection of these laws and the 
 refjrard of the community, but such offices as 
 may be attainable, for his need. Neither would we 
 affirm of two criminals under different shades of 
 crime, that the one did not merit more or less than 
 tlie other ; the virtue, such as it is, or rather the 
 
175 
 
 absence of crimen is here the proportion of reward ; 
 and being the proportion, it must be, if words have 
 meaning, the meritorious cause. Under any econo- 
 my, human or divine, known to mankind, it is, as 
 it appears to me, impossible to argue, that virtue 
 shall not of itself merit so far. " If by our good 
 works (says Priestly*) we can procure the favour of 
 God to ourselves, which is the uniform language of 
 the Scriptures ; and yet no portion of one person's 
 merit be considered as capable of being transferred 
 to another (which, indeed, in the nature of things is 
 impossible), the very foundation of the Popish doc- 
 trine of supererogation, and consequently of indul- 
 gences, is overturned ; and yet no one false or 
 dangerous principle is introduced in its place." 
 
 Had Socrates no merit in controlling the way- 
 wardness of his natural temper, — in passing a life of 
 virtue in obedience to the law of God, written on 
 the heart of man ? Had Antony no demerit in dis- 
 regarding the same law, in prostituting intellectual 
 gifts of no ordinary standard to lust and lewdness, 
 debauchery and crime ? '^ Abraham, (we are told,) 
 believed God, and it was counted unto him for 
 righteousness ;"t so every good man who lives under 
 the present sense of the Deity, and habitually en- 
 deavours to do the will of God, by obeying the 
 precepts of religion, whether natural or revealed, 
 must in so far merit, and will assuredly be dealt 
 with in proportion to the sincerity of his practice, 
 
 • Cor. of Christy, vol. i. p. 255. f Rom. iv."3. 
 
176 
 
 and the means of improvement placed within his 
 reach which he may have cultivated or disregarded. 
 " Whoever (says Seed) is a sincere natural re- 
 ligionist, cannot be far from the kindgdom of 
 Heaven." •'1 
 
 Second, — That sin merits punishment, — nay, that 
 the latter must unavoidably result from the former, 
 is clear to demonstration ; but that " according 
 to the malignity of its nature it merits eternal 
 death" — that is, eternal suffering, (from what we 
 have said on some of the parables,*) appears to us 
 to be negatived by Scripture, and is assuredly by no 
 means a consequence on the foot of reason. It merits 
 punishment in proportion to its malignity unques- 
 tionably, more it may require, in the economy of a 
 wrong world to deter others, but certainly not in the 
 eventual government of that Being, who metes out 
 to all in weight and measure according to their 
 deserts. " Which of us here present (it is trium- 
 phantly asked) is able, in the smallest degree, to 
 make atonement to God, for any one of those in- 
 numerable sins of thought, word, and deed, of 
 omission and commission, by each one of which we 
 have most righteously deserved everlasting destruc- 
 tion ? The sacred Scriptures are clear, that '' cursedt 
 is every one that continueth not in all things writ- 
 
 • See p. 12o, 12(5. 
 t Cursed is used, the reader will find in a variety of accepta- 
 tions— Gen. ix. 25} Josh. ix. 23; Dcut. xxi. 23, xxviii. 
 IG: Psul. lix. 12. 
 
177 
 
 ten in the book of the law to do them." If this 
 reasoning be good for any thing, it must bear to be 
 pushed to its fair consequence^ and if so, not one 
 could be saved ; for there is not one, the same Scrip- 
 tures assures us, that " continueth in all things 
 written in the book of the law to do them." Here 
 ag-ain we are thrown upon our common sense for an 
 
 "O*^ 
 
 upon 
 
 interpretation ; and we unhesitatingly take comfort 
 in the assurance of our reasoning faculties, that im- 
 possibilities cannot be exacted from us — and that 
 Providence, as seen in the disclosures of revelation, 
 is not only not '' strict to mark," but is declared to 
 be the '' Saviour of all men ;" and has, moreover, 
 in the completion of this gracious and merciful pur- 
 pose of universal salvation, provided a Redeemer 
 to help our infirmities, through whom, we trust, our 
 best endeavours will be counted as righteousness for 
 his sake, and who, in truth, was sent into the world, 
 expressly that the world through him might be 
 saved. ^'' 
 
 '^ Thou shalt do no murder," says the law, human 
 and divine. It is the highest crime, and ob- 
 noxious to the highest punishment. Now, take 
 this in extreme, yet recorded, instances, the most 
 inflexible human tribunal would find it unreason- 
 able to condemn the perpetrator to an eternity 
 of torture ; for, be the measure of offence what it 
 may, being finite as to the patient, any notion we can 
 possibly form of justice, human or divine, is outraged 
 
 • John iii. I7, 35. 
 
178 
 
 by imposing an infinity of misery on the agent. Let 
 him suffer, if you please, to the full extent of that 
 he has inflicted — nay, let a " tooth for a tooth" be 
 "•iven, and over and above the '^ due and forfeit of 
 his bond," let the '' Jew" have his 
 
 "Pound of flesh, to be by him cut oif 
 Nearest the merchant's heart"— 
 
 Yet all this will fall infinitely short of that endless 
 misery which we are required to consider as the con- 
 sequences of the malignity of the sins of a life^ fleet- 
 ing and temporary, such as man's, whose days are, 
 in truth, " a hand-breadth, and whose age is, in- 
 deed, as nothing." 
 
 ** Before my breath, like blazing flax, 
 Man and his marvels pass away; 
 
 And changing empires wane and wax- 
 Are founded, flourish, and decay." 
 
179 
 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 '' For if to have raised out of the womb of faultless, unoffending, 
 nothing, infinite myriads of men, into a condition from 
 which, unthinking, they should unavoidably drop into 
 eternal unutterable sorrows, be consistent with goodness ; 
 contradictions may be trise, and all rational deductions but 
 a dream." Plaifere. 
 
 " Is not this all a mystery ? who shall say. 
 Whence are those thoughts, and whither tends their way?" 
 
 Hemans. 
 
 It seems clear that Providence would not threaten 
 where there was no danger, far less promise where 
 there was no assurance ; and it may appear to some, 
 at any rate, a more agreeable position to rest on the 
 promises of Scripture which are expHcit, than to 
 employ our time under any attempts to explain what 
 may by them be considered impenetrably obscure, 
 and not to be satisfactorily elucidated by any human 
 intelligence. And, as we have not the presump- 
 tion to measure our weakness with the strength of 
 others, or the wish to force our opinions on th^ir 
 better judgment; we shall, therefore, endeavour to 
 close with such safe and cautious reasoners (with 
 
180 
 
 whose prudence we do not quarrel) on their own 
 jrround, by pointing out yet more explicitly and 
 connectedly the passages,, where the happiness of 
 the righteous is secured beyond the possibility of 
 cavil ; and where the restoration of all things, and 
 tlie limitation of future punishment are, so far as we 
 can discover, distinctly indicated. We shall then 
 (doing battle with more secular weapons) pass on to 
 the consideration of evil, and endeavour to deter- 
 mine, whether an eternity of evil or punishment, 
 does not imply a positive contradiction — and w^he- 
 ther the tendencies of things observable in this life 
 (and of virtue in particular) do not irresistibly in- 
 fer the entire destruction of evil in the next, by the 
 inherent, necessary, and absolute prepollency of 
 virtue, when all the causes of delinquency are re- 
 moved. It is, indeed, matter of most serious re- 
 flection to consider, that while we maintain the 
 goodness and benevolence of the Deity, and are 
 able to repell all objections drawn from the most 
 difficult and preplexing instances of evil, on the 
 ground of the prepollency of good, which is all that 
 can be required to defend our position ; it must be 
 confessed, I say, that this most consolatory conclu- 
 sion is shaken to its centre, if it be proved that, in 
 the result, the intentions of benevolence in the Deity 
 are frustrated, or not accomplished. If we consider 
 that the majority of mankind are wicked, beyond 
 all question we might — rather must — conclude (un- 
 <1(T tljc doctrine we are combating,) that the ma- 
 jority must, in the issue, be miserable ; and if we 
 
181 
 
 admit a prepollency of evil in the issue^ the argu- 
 ment for the goodness of the Deity^ drawn from the 
 appearances of this life, must be abandoned. Nay, 
 even supposing that the prepollency in the issue is 
 on the side of happiness — that the majority are 
 happy — if one, even the most worthless in the wide 
 range of creation, shall be eternally miserable, is not 
 the argument for the goodness of the Deity affected ? 
 And is not our confidence disturbed, when we are 
 thus assailed in the position which we rejoice to be 
 able to maintain from the constitution of things 
 here, that in no one instance evil or suffering is the 
 end in view — the design contemplated ? To dis- 
 tinguish, in the result of things, between designing 
 and permitting, seems to us mere trifling. If a man 
 could have prevented a murder, but would not, he 
 certainly may escape from the blame of the original 
 purpose ; but he cannot detach himself from the 
 execution and completion of it. Severity and 
 sanguinary laws may be necessary in the progress 
 of a perfect reformation; but the design completed, 
 either they must become unnecessary, or if required, 
 the design is incomplete or imperfect; or if perfect, 
 and they are suffered to disgrace the Statute Book, 
 the Legislature is blameable. For it is impossible 
 to argue, either that the Deity did not perceive the 
 result, or, foreseeing, could not have prevented it. 
 This reasoning infers not that the Deity is the 
 willing author of the evil of this intermediate stage, 
 inasmuch as there are, confessedly, some things be- 
 yond the power of omnipotency itself — to work con- 
 Q 
 
182 
 
 tradictions — to convert a world of preparatory dis- 
 cipline into a scene of unalloyed enjoyment — ^to 
 make a thing to be, and not to be, at one and the 
 same instant of time — to introduce a wicked man 
 into Heaven, or rather to make wickedness capable 
 of enjoying holiness ; in other words, to make good 
 evil, and evil good. 
 
 The Deity visibly operates by second causes — 
 he foresaw the volitions of men, the actions and the 
 result ; but he also foresaw, we must conclude, that 
 by no effects, save those of suffering and of trial, 
 could the imperfect creature be intimately refined 
 up to the eventual purposes of his creation. Evil 
 is inseparable from a state of imperfection, — and the 
 Deity could not create an imperfect creature which 
 should not be obnoxious to it — that is, which should 
 not be imperfect. But remove the imperfection of 
 the preparatory stage, suppose the design complete, 
 and then you infallibly reach the unimpeded opera- 
 tion of the original pre-existent idea — the idea, 
 which existed in the mind of the Deity previously 
 to tlie fiat of the creation — the plan developed by 
 Avhich he unfolded into being 
 
 " The forms eternal of created things." 
 
 But why, it may be asked, call a creature into be- 
 ing, to subject him to misery in any stage ? I 
 answer, because suffering is required to prepare 
 Inm for the more perfect state. Nor is it, for us, 
 competent, to explain all the intermediate methods 
 and modes of God's government ; — sure we are, that 
 
183 
 
 the completion of a perfect design, emanating frohi 
 an all-perfect Being, can be nothing short of perfec- 
 tion ; — nor can its progress be obstructed by any 
 thing less powerful than omnipotence — that is, God 
 himself, who cannot be defeated in one design or 
 thought.* If the interrogatory, however, be pushed 
 somewhat further, and it be demanded, why (under 
 the supposition of the goodness of the Deity and the 
 admission of the doctrine we are combating) call 
 a creature into existence, whose eventual destination 
 of reprobation was foreseen, and yet was not ob- 
 viated, — nay, whose destruction was thus secured 
 beyond the possibility of escape by the very gift of 
 creation — I profess not to be able to answer the 
 query. " If it is foreseen (it is asked by Bishop 
 Berkeley,t) that such an action shall be done, may it 
 not also be foreseen, that it shall be an effect ot 
 human choice and liberty ?" But this only removes 
 the difficulty without satisfying it — the issue is not 
 the less certain, since it was foreseen, whether it be 
 considered the effect of human choice or absolute 
 necessity. The irreversible, unavoidable bond of 
 perdition was, according to the doctrine we are op- 
 posing, recorded by the act of creation, and fore- 
 closed by the fiat of the Creator. 
 
 Nor is the question we are considering, to be 
 evaded, neither is it pushed beyond its depth ; for 
 it is unquestionably certain that Providence foresees 
 the volitions of moral agents, the acts thence result- 
 
 • Jobxlii. 2. t Minute Philosopher. 
 
 Q 2 
 
184 
 
 in^, and the issues of all things. " Known unto 
 God, (as we have it in the Acts xv. 18,) are all his 
 works from the beginning of the world." And '^ no 
 thought (as we are told by Job, in the passage be- 
 fore quoted,) can be withholden from him."'"'^a 
 
 It is not necessary for our inference, that we 
 should reconcile the foreknowledge of God, which 
 is unquestionable, with freedom of will in man, 
 which appears no less so, (despite of all theory to the 
 contrary,) from the sure experience that we are 
 treated as if we were free. Admitting the foreknow- 
 ledge of God which is undeniable, the result of 
 eventual reprobation must have been foreseen ; and 
 here tlie reasoning of Cotta cannot but obtrude it- 
 self. '' The fault, you say, is in man, if he com- 
 mits crimes. But why was not man endued with 
 a reason incapable of producing any crimes ? How 
 could the Gods err ? When we leave our effects to 
 our children, it is in hopes they are well bestowed, 
 in which we may be deceived ; but how can the 
 Deity be deceived ? ^' * * There could be no 
 excuse for a physician who prescribes wine to a 
 patient, knowing he would drink it, and imme- 
 diately expire. Your Providence is no less blame- 
 able, in giving reason to man, who he foresaw would 
 make a bad use of it."^ We admit the consequence 
 of Cotta' s reasoning, but (disclaiming the doctrine 
 "f the eternity of punishment) we deny the imputa- 
 bility of blame, on the obvious ground of necessity — 
 
 • Xotos on Mor, ami Met. Subjects, p. 75-240. 
 
18o 
 
 of the clear impossibility — the implied contradic- 
 tion,— of creating an imperfect intelligence, which 
 should not be obnoxious to the evils of imperfec- 
 tion, until it reaches the matured stage of spiritual 
 being, when we infer that evil and its consequences 
 are necessarily excluded. Even in this life we dis- 
 cover, that evil and its consequences are merely in- 
 cidental to a state in progress — a design in ad- 
 vancement. The ear, we observe, was made for 
 hearing, not for aching — the eye for seeing, not 
 for smarting — the teeth for the purposes of mastica- 
 tion, not for inflicting pain. We may suffer from 
 indigestion, but it never was supposed that the 
 stomach was not intended for the purpose of di- 
 gesting food.c Calculi have been found in the 
 bladders of infants, and mere children have been 
 subjected to the operation of lithotomy ; but this 
 infers not malevolence, as the mature design of the 
 agent, otherwise the formation w^ould have been 
 general, and a certain and uniform mode adopted of 
 producing the misery intended. It is impossible to 
 argue from exceptions ; in any case the inference 
 must result from the prepollency here, (although 
 hereafter, there can be no exceptions under an uni- 
 versal design fully developed) ; and the suffering re- 
 sulting in all the instances we have noticed (in all 
 instances, without exception, cognizable by us,) is 
 passing, not permanent — not the general rule, but 
 the exception — not the intention, which is uniform, 
 but the accident, which is variable, and natural to a 
 state of imperfection. A man does not decay in 
 q3 
 
186 
 
 health ; but disease, as it gradually destroys, so, it 
 ultimately relieves him from suffering, which, how- 
 ever it may be contemplated as the result of com- 
 plicated organization in an imperfect stage, or the 
 means of moral improvement under a system of pro- 
 bationary advancement, can be defended only on 
 the ground of that change necessarily inherent in im- 
 perfection, or of that mediation, equally necessary 
 in the progress of an ultimate design. The Deity 
 might, for aught I can know, have subjected us to 
 fewer casualties, to less suifering — (although, we 
 nnist conclude, we are permitted all the comfort un- 
 der them, which is consistent with the nature of 
 things and the proposed result) .d Yet, admitting 
 this supposition, it would only infer a limitation of 
 goodness — not that the Deity was not good — only 
 that he might have been better — that is, in our opi- 
 nion, formed, be it always remembered, without ac- 
 cess to the whole case, which as a whole, is utterly 
 beyond our reach, and which we have not, confes- 
 sedly, faculties to comprehend even in part.* 
 
 Hut the complexion of the whole argument is 
 changed, when we look to the design completed ; 
 for then it is impossible to argue, that the result, be 
 It what it may, of suffering, or of happiness, was not 
 intended, without inferring imperfection on the part 
 <»t the contriver, either in the design or in the power 
 to execute it — conclusions which are utterly falla- 
 cious, and which we utterly disclaim. For whether 
 
 • See liuller " u])oii the Ignoraiicr of Man." 
 
f 
 
 18' 
 
 we consider the minute furniture of our minds — the 
 complex frame of the moral, or the stupendous 
 glories of the visible universe, we are equally driven 
 to confess with the learned apostle* — the depth of 
 the riches, of the wisdom, and knowledge and power 
 of God — how past our finding out — how imsearch- 
 able by the ignorance of man ! 
 
 A finite cause can by no conceivable possibility 
 produce an infinite effect. ^ That alone which is self- 
 existent, can be necessarily infinite and eternal, and 
 the duration of created substances can be infinite and 
 eternal in as far only as they are inherent and es- 
 sential effects of the Divine nature or self-existent 
 cause. Truth, " the unspotted mirror of the Deity," 
 can no more cease to be all-powerful while God 
 exists, than the permeating rays of the sun can cease 
 to brighten where he gloriously shines. As there 
 must have been a time when nothing existed, save the 
 self-existing originating cause — and that cause can- 
 not be wicked, but is demonstrably, on the contrary, 
 good ; so evil must have existed, or been created, 
 or have arisen posterior to, and is at variance with, 
 the self-existent Deity. Come whence it will, then, 
 it is a creation naturally or necessarily arising out of 
 the present order of things, and posterior to the 
 first cause. It cannot be eternal, since it is not self- 
 existent ; nor is it an inherent and essential effect of 
 the Divine essence. It must of consequence cease 
 to be, when the causes originating it have passed 
 
 • Rom. xi. 33. 
 
188 
 
 away — that is, when the imperfections of a state of 
 trial in progress have ceased to operate. It is not 
 material to this argument whence w^e derive evil — 
 tliis much is infallibly certain — and this much is all 
 we require to necessitate our conclusion ; it iS;, con- 
 fessedly, a consequence — an effect posterior to the 
 existence of the one first self-originating cause and 
 at variance with the inherency (if I may so express 
 it) of the one only Deity. 
 
 Vanini maintained/' that the idea of sin is a con- 
 tradiction, inasmuch as a finite being cannot resist 
 the will of an Infinite Almighty Power. Applied 
 to the completion of things, the reasoning is, we 
 think, correct ; but while the plan is in operation, 
 sin may, necessarily must^ arise out of the working 
 of an imperfect state ; sin, in truth, being neither 
 more nor less, than deviation, in some particu- 
 lar, from the eternal order and harmony of God's 
 government. We are inclined to think the fore- 
 going reasoning resolves itself into an unanswerable 
 syllogism. 
 
 pjvil, we say, is the effect of error or imperfec- 
 tion — (evil as a means or an end, necessarily implies 
 imperfection). 
 
 Perfection is the absence of error ; therefore, per- 
 fection cannot be " all in all" where evil anywhere 
 is. 
 
 In truth, to speak of evil anywhere as consistent 
 with perfection everywhere, is just as intelligible 
 
 • See C. Ramsay, vol. i. p. o.'il . 
 
189 
 
 as to speak of a round square. They are equally 
 inconsistent and contradictory, and in the nature of 
 things impossible. " If God were not perfect he 
 were not God." Now, if it be maintained that this 
 perfection in the Creator is yet consistent with the 
 eternal suffering of the created out of unoffending 
 nothing — then I confess my wits are at bay, and 
 I have no means left, but to throw myself on the 
 common intuitive evidence or apprehension of 
 man — just as I would, were it asserted, that a 
 square is a circle, or that black is white.*" But, it 
 is an absurdity to suppose, that were any thing re- 
 vealed contradictory of the moral sense, and reason, 
 and intuitive apprehension, (which happily there is 
 not, and cannot be) I could give my assent to it ; 
 for a lesser evidence can never overcome a greater. 
 Scripture is addressed to reason, and for the truth 
 of revelation, I have the evidence of testimony, and 
 of the common and moral sense ; but this evidence 
 rests on the common and moral sense of man, and 
 on the reasonable conviction of the credit due to a 
 moral, and accountable, and sane person under given 
 circumstances, and unbiassed by opposite causes. 
 Now, disturb this progress, the moral and common 
 sense of the argument, and the reasonableness of 
 the conclusion are benighted, and the whole question 
 is confounded. In short, if you insist that revela- 
 tion has discovered that perfection in the ultimate 
 completion of a perfect system is consistent with 
 imperfection, evil, or sufferings reprobation or dam- 
 nation, I can only answer (for the plunge . is be- 
 
190 
 
 vond the soundings of any argument which com- 
 mon sense can fathom,) that the position resolves 
 itself into an absurdity — obscurity in the uniformity 
 of light — opacity in the brilliancy of glory — a 
 square in the circumference of a circle — to be and 
 not to be essentially one and the same thing at one 
 and the same moment of time. 
 
191 
 
 LETTER XXI. 
 
 *' Since we are plainly taught, that our Lord is the Saviour of all 
 men ; and it is consequent hence, that he hath procured 
 grace, sufficiently capacitating all men to ohtain salvation ; 
 we need not preplex the business, or obscure so apparent a 
 truth, by debating how that grace is imparted ; or by la- 
 bouring overmuch in reconciling the dispensation thereof 
 with other dispensations of Providence." 
 
 Barrotc. 
 
 " Thine are all the gems of Even, 
 God of angels ! God of Heaven ! 
 God of life ! that fade shall never, 
 Glory to thy name for ever." 
 
 Madorofthe Moor. 
 
 In prosecuting this subject, it is necessary always 
 to keep in view, that the point is not, what imper- 
 fect, vain, and erring men can, would, or could do, 
 but what an uncontrollable God has clearly revealed, 
 or may be supposed (from the consideration of his 
 attributes, and the nature and design of creation, 
 where revelation is silent or not explicit) to intend to 
 do with the creature of his creation ; and the ques- 
 tion reaches, it will be observed, to the adjustment 
 of universal being, beyond the first resurrection, and 
 the consequences thence resulting and beyond the 
 
192 
 
 second death, to the final state, in short, of those 
 subjected to the pains of this second death, under 
 the completion, and involved in the capacious and 
 ultimate design of an universal, omnipotent, and 
 omniscient, all-wise, just, and merciful Providence. 
 And it is evident that a satisfactory solution can be 
 obtained only — 
 
 First, — By clear, explicit, and unvarying declara- 
 tions of Scriptures ; or, where these are silent, am- 
 biguous, or incomprehensible to human intelli- 
 gence — 
 
 Secondly — By the common sense of man, result- 
 ing from the due exercise of his reasoning faculties^ 
 founded on that unchangeable moral law and obliga- 
 tion engraven on our hearts, written in the Gospel 
 of Christ, which our Redeemer exemplified in his 
 hfe, and which we were created to obey. 
 
 Now, there can be but three opinions on the sub- 
 ject— 
 
 1. That of eternal punishment, properly and me- 
 taphysically so called. 
 
 2. That of limited punishment terminated by 
 annihilation — and 
 
 3. That of limited punishment — some punish- 
 ment short of eternity, and terminating in the uni- 
 versal restoration of things. 
 
 Of the first, I have already said enough — and, 
 of the second, perhaps, I need only advert to three 
 reasons, which, in my mind, negative the force of 
 all arguments for it. 
 
193 
 
 First, — I do not find the word death (introduced 
 into the world, we are told, by the sin of Adam,) "' 
 understood, in Scripture, as by any means import- 
 ing annihilation, properly so called, but merely 
 the termination of one state of being — change in 
 short — the commencement of, and the introduction 
 into, some other state of existence. Neither can 
 the second death of Scripture import annihilation, 
 for after it there shall be *' weeping and gnashing 
 of teeth." And both reason and observation con- 
 firm the inference. Nay, under the contrary sup- 
 position of annihilation, properly so called, the 
 language of the great Apostle is unintelligible^ or 
 rather wildly contradictory. For+ he tells us, that 
 " the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death," 
 it shall be '' swallowed up in victory ;" for Christ 
 " must reign till he hath put all enemies under his 
 feet." Now, who is the conqueror here } Not 
 this last, this second death, for it shall be destroyed 
 and swallowed up in victory. Yet this death must 
 be the conqueror, if we suppose the subject of its 
 influence annihilated, and equally so, if we suppose 
 this death eternal. The death here spoken of, is 
 evidently a stage to somewhat further ; and its 
 being swallowed up in victory, implies, at any rate, 
 the utter termination of that stage, and (as we read 
 the sense of the whole) the triumph of the king- 
 dom of the Eternal.a: — Secondly, 
 
 "Look nature through, 'tis revolution all— 
 All change — no death."— 
 
 ' Rom. V. 12. t See Rom. vi. ; 1 Cor. xv. 
 
 R 
 
194 
 
 Experience and observation enable me to conclude 
 thus far — that matter while it undergoes change^, is 
 not subject to perish utterly. Nothing in short is 
 ]o8t — the rain, which is evaporated from the sea, 
 returns to its source after refreshing the earth with 
 showers, and feeding the springs and fountains ne- 
 cessary for the purposes of life.^ The body, which 
 is fed on the productions of the earth, returns to, 
 and commingles with its parent dust ; and the whole 
 circle of the seasons is but one round of death and 
 resurrection. If, then, nothing material perishes, 
 to infer that the soul does so at death, is a conclu- 
 sion in opposition to the whole analogy of Nature 
 and Providence. That it exists is the most certain 
 of all truths, (if we except the being of a God, 
 Avith which and the existence of whose attributes it 
 is indissolubly connected) and capable of the most 
 explicit demonstration,^' — and, therefore, far less can 
 I conclude, that this — that any intelligent being has 
 been called into existence for purposes of progressive 
 improvement which it has been found incapable of 
 fulfilling, and which has, in consequence, been an- 
 nihilated. For this is unanswerably to infer ina- 
 bility on the part of the contriver, to frustrate omni- 
 j)otence as powerless — perfection as fallible ; and to 
 conclude for the mutability of an immutable de- 
 sign. God must have foreseen the eventual purpose 
 of his creation ; and to call into being that which he 
 found himself under the necessity of destroying, 
 
 • J?ee Steu-arfs Act. Powers, vol. 2. p, I74, and i)art of Note 
 C.p. 144^ 
 
 I 
 
r 
 
 195 
 
 from its inherent incompetency for the end designed, 
 is to infer all these wild conclusions and absurd 
 contradictions. 
 
 Thirdly,—" All that are in the graves shall hear 
 his voice, and shall come forth""" at the resurrection. 
 Now, to what purpose are the wicked to be raised ? 
 :\Ierely to be destroyed, say the annihilists. But, 
 1st, There must be, for disproportionate offences, 
 relative degrees of punishment in the next life ;t 
 and this would infer an equality. 2dly, The word 
 destroyed, (and we conceive undeviating significa- 
 tion essential) does not invariably signify annihila- 
 tion, and is often synonymous with great sufferings, 
 or judgment. t '' Israel, (it is written) thou hast 
 destroyed thyself; but in me is thy help." " The 
 wicked is reserved to the day of destruction." 
 And certainly, "everlasting punishment,"§ be its 
 full import what it may, can in no sense import in- 
 sensibility to infliction, or extinction of being. 3dly, 
 And unanswerably — it is inconsistent with the cha- 
 racter, and contradictory of the attributes of the 
 Deity, to call into existence a majority — nay, even 
 one of his intelligent creation, only to enjoy the 
 pleasures of sin for a season in this hfe, and then 
 to be pubhcly exterminated by a revolting death in 
 the next. For " that God preserves the wicked, only 
 to destroy them, and display his vengeance against 
 them," (to use the language of Calmet||) is a doctrine 
 
 • See Notes on Rel. Mor. and Met. Subjects, q. p. 199. 
 t See p. 125. J See Hosea xiii. 9. ; Job xxi. 33. § Matt. 
 XXXV. 46. 11 Vol. 2, Fol. Diet. p. 441. ' 
 
 b2 
 
196 
 
 which y\c unhesitatingly reject. Yet further, we 
 would observe — the death, sufferings, and resurrec- 
 tion of Christ for the sins and justification of men, 
 seem to us at once to demolish the idea of annihila- 
 tion and the doctrine of eternal reprobation. For 
 under that belief, what benefit have sinners (whom 
 he expressly came to save) derived from his propi- 
 tiation ? If Christ had not offered himself up for sin- 
 ners—death and no resurrection, or at most, retribu- 
 tion on the foot of natural religion, for the sins done 
 in the body, were the apparent doom of all. But, if 
 they are raised from the dead through his sacrifice, 
 merely to be annihilated, they are, in consequence, it 
 would seem, subjected to the misery of a second 
 death. Again, if the doctrine of eternal punishment 
 be admitted, how are we to reconcile this with the 
 declared scriptural facts, that Christ "died for all" — 
 that " he came to call sinners, not the righteous, to 
 repentance" — that he was sent into the world, "that 
 the world through him might be saved" — that he is 
 the " Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the 
 world — that he hath absolutely " abolished death," 
 for in him " shall all be made alive."* 
 
 As Providence foresaw, previously to the sacrifice 
 of Christ, that a given individual was, and would 
 be, among the reprobate, that sacrifice, it would 
 seem, we are required to believe, in no way affected 
 his doom ; and he has derived no benefit from the 
 
 • 1 See Cor. xv. .3., 2 Cor. v. 15.; Julm iii. I7., i. 29. 5 
 2 Tim. i. 10.; Heb. ii. S. 
 
197 
 
 death of the Saviour of all men, without exception, 
 but especially of those who believe.* 
 
 To say that the sacrifice reconciled the sinner to 
 an offended God, and admitted him to salvation, on 
 performance of the required conditions of repent- 
 ance and amendment of life, is merely trifling, so 
 far as the argument in hand is concerned ; for God 
 foresaw that he would disregard all the invitations 
 of proffered grace ; and yet Christ was suffered, nay, 
 appointed to die, expressly to call sinners to repent- 
 ance — of consequence, if there be one reprobate, his 
 death has been so far ineffectual, and the means 
 chosen by an all-powerful God has been powerless 
 to that extent. Nay, God must have foreseen — pre- 
 determined the death of Christ ; and yet (according 
 to the doctrines of election and reprobation) in the 
 case of the elect that was unnecessary — in the case 
 of the reprobate it was ineffectual. But I lose my- 
 self amid such intricacies — and I leave it to those 
 who w^ould be wise beyond the common sense of 
 their fellows, and above what is clearly written, to 
 cut the knot which, in my weakness, I cannot un- 
 tie. Happy, it may be, are the easy-minded among 
 us, and perhaps the less enquiring, (for one is 
 sometimes afraid to begin to think too curiously,) if 
 they can rest satisfied, and may but see and practise, 
 the precepts of essential obligation, which lie in the 
 humble path of life, and which, like flowers scat- 
 tered along the wanderings of the pilgrim, are 
 
 • 1 Tim. iv. 10. 
 
 b3 
 
198 
 
 inercituUy thrown across the thorny journey of his 
 existence, that it may sometimes be a way of rejoic- 
 ing^, and its toils, a labour of occasional repose, in the 
 refreshing consciousness of a faithful discharge of 
 duty here, and the sublime hope of a blessed im- 
 mortality hereafter. 
 
 " The beings of the mind are not of clay ; 
 Essentially immortal, they create 
 And multiply in us a brighter ray 
 And more beloved existence." 
 
199 
 
 LETTER XXII. 
 
 Earth, and Hell, and Sin, shall yield to God's almighty 
 word." 
 
 Marsden. 
 
 " But not till time has calm'd the ruflaed breast, 
 Are these fond dreams of happiness confest. 
 Not till the rushing winds forget to rave 
 Is heav'n's sweet smiles reflected on the wave." 
 
 Rogers. 
 
 I PROCEED now very briefly to review the ground^ 
 from revelation, of the opinions entertained by the 
 Universalists, anticipating that candour and good 
 feeling which the celebrated Augustine* displayed 
 towards the IManicheans — and that peaceful and 
 gentle (I had almost said gentlemanly) bearing, 
 which he recommended and pursued towards those, 
 who, even in his days could not believe that ever- 
 lasting punishment would be inflicted on those con- 
 demned to the pains of Gehenna; but (on the 
 contrary,) that after certain periods they would be 
 restored and delivered from their suflierings.t And 
 
 * C. D. Lib. xxi. c. 17- 1 See Dr. Lardner's Gospel* History. 
 
200 
 
 I beg to premise^ if it should be objected, that I 
 lean more to the promises than to the threatenings 
 of Scripture, that I admit the charge — for, 
 
 I desire to cling to what is clear and explicit, 
 both from nature and revelation, in the character of 
 the Godhead — Benevolence ; — nor can I imagine 
 '^what else deserves the name of perfection, but 
 benevolence, and those capacities or abilities, which 
 are necessary to make it effectual, such as wisdom 
 and power."* 
 
 And I apprehend the reader will agree with me 
 in thinking, that the threatenings — the dismal sides 
 of the question — have been, and are sufficiently 
 sounded — sufficiently denounced by every militant 
 theologian, to be fully known and duly appreciated 
 by every reflecting Christian. Men of the world, 
 or those who reject religion and revelation, care, I 
 am quite aware, for none of these things — the 
 waking dreams, (the cegri somnia) to them it may 
 be, of well-meaning, but of sick and visionary 
 minds ; and I presume not to imagine, that any 
 thing I can say could disturb their repose. It is to 
 the humble enquirer that I address myself — to the 
 man who has tasted the waters of this life and found 
 them bitter — who has experienced by long and 
 patient and painful thinking,a that in his most scep- 
 tical moments, it is impossible to do more, than to 
 doubt of Christianity — who has found the misty 
 frost-work of his misgivings melt before the intensity 
 
 • Ilutchiaon's Inquiry, p. 304, 
 
201 
 
 and warmth and steady light of the gospel of Jesus, 
 as often as he has fairly encountered its searching 
 beams — gazed on its deep philosophy, or listened to 
 its heavenly wisdom ; — who has imbibed the spirit 
 of that gospel, as he has learned it in the peaceful 
 sinless hfe of Christ, not as it is disfigured in the 
 polemical pages of laymen, distorted in the mysti- 
 fying commentaries of divines, or disgraced in theun- 
 divine controversies of worldlings. Sick and weary 
 of these interminable discussions, the writer of these 
 pages set himself down to a patient examination of 
 the Christianity of Jesus ; — he had withstood the 
 coarse and indecent ribaldry of Paine — ^the in- 
 consistencies and abuse of Bohngbroke — the ridicule 
 and flippancy of Voltaire — the minute detail, yet 
 subtle casuistry of Bayle — the sentimental infidehty 
 of Rousseau — and the historical scepticism and agree- 
 able pleasantry of Gibbon ; — but he confesses he 
 had almost fallen before the easy neghgence and 
 gentlemanly bearing of Hume,^ — the apparent in- 
 difference, yet acute dexterity of that wonderful 
 man in exciting suspicions, eliciting quibbles, and 
 evolving argument, out of the darkness and confu- 
 sion and baseless uncertainty he has previously 
 created.* Escaped from the more perplexing tram- 
 mels of the great sceptic of modern days, whose 
 system is one of universal doubt, and whose reason- 
 ing is, in truth, a '' species of sensation,"^ (or rather 
 " bundle of perceptions") — the result was a con- 
 
 • See Hume's Treatise of Human Nature. 
 
'202 
 
 straining of belief from the preponderating weight 
 and strength of decisive evidence. " When I look 
 abroad (says Hume, too truly we admit) I foresee 
 on every side, dispute, anger, calumny, and detrac- 
 tion. When I turn my eye inward, I find nothing 
 but doubt and ignorance." Yet belief can only be 
 the result of evidence — and certainly there is no en- 
 during comfort but in truth — in the sweet philo- 
 sophy of religion, pure and undefiled — whose con- 
 solations alone can reconcile a reflecting mind to the 
 evils of the present scene. Be it ours, to look for 
 this comfort and to hope for its peace, not in the 
 terrors but in the mercies of the Lord. — Going forth 
 in our mind's eye, and exploring the eventual sanc- 
 tuary of his redemption — we rest our broken spirit 
 on the contemplation of his goodness, and the dis- 
 play of his benevolence, seen in the beautiful garni- 
 ture of the material world, and wi'itten in those 
 lessons of charity, and of good will, which Jesus 
 delivered unto all men. — Thus perceiving in the 
 close of our aspirations, the moral purpose of this 
 vast creation, teeming with remedial operations — 
 and hence exhibiting its entire subordination to the 
 gracious design, even now unfolding itself, of an uni- 
 versal empire of happiness and love. We say even 
 now, for that man can have reflected little, who 
 has failed to discover that this jarring scene is un- 
 fitted, and cannot have been designed for the 
 calm and tranquil happiness of a rational and 
 virtuous being. — Man himself is literally a child 
 of misery, of sin, and of error, whose freedom 
 
203 
 
 from the thraldom of vice — whose permanent enjoy- 
 ment of his intellectual liberty can be obtained only 
 by resisting the allurements of sense — by withdraw- 
 ing from the delusion of external appearances, 
 and fastening on the abstractions of reason and reli- 
 gion — thus controlling the besetting influence of ob- 
 jects which really dazzle only to deceive, and thus 
 enabling him to set a just value on the relative im- 
 portance of the seen and the unseen ; the former 
 hastening (as we all feel) to change and decay — the 
 latter alone being durable and solacing. Impressed 
 with these convictions, which experience will force 
 upon us all ; but satisfied of the existence of a be- 
 nevolent Deity, who proclaims to our every sense, 
 the fact of his being and of his superintendency — 
 yet goaded by the stirring evidence of wrong, and 
 the piercing cry of evil in this unhappy world, we 
 are literally driven to the conclusion, both of philo- 
 sophy and religion (as we read the inference,) that 
 the evident design of goodness is only in progress 
 here, but must ultimately be developed hereafter, 
 in some future state, to which rational beings, in 
 the full and perfect energy of their reasonable facul- 
 ties, are adapted, and in which, as a necessary con- 
 sequence, evil and suffering and wrong can have no 
 place. 
 
 I 
 
204 
 
 LETTER XXIII, 
 
 " Though for the present ' you groan, being burdened,' learn to 
 forget your griefs in expectation of the glory which shall be 
 revealed in you." 
 
 Robinson''s Scripture Characters. 
 
 '■ Sighing, as through the shadowy past, 
 Like a tomb-searcher, memory ran. 
 Lifting each shroud that time had cast 
 O'er buried hopes." 
 
 More. 
 
 It is remarked by Mr. Simpson/"' that the '' ad- 
 jective 'cciavioi^ is, fifty times out of the seventy in 
 which it is used in the New Testament, applied to 
 the future state of the righteous, and is then, ex- 
 cept in a few cases, joined with ^&»jj life, which 
 among the Hebrews figuratively denoted happiness 
 also. This implies continued existence, and favors 
 the idea of proper eternity. On the contrary, as it is 
 never joined with life or continued being when it is 
 applied to the wicked, this leads us to understand 
 
 • Essay on Future Punishments, p. 8b". 
 
205 
 
 it in such instances, as denoting limited duration." 
 And it is very remarkable, as Mr Winchester"" ob- 
 serves, that St. John never uses the word to set forth 
 the duration of punishment, but always as implying 
 the well-being of the righteous. To place the matter 
 beyond all cavil or doubt, however, we have nume- 
 rous assurances in Scripture, a very few of which 
 only I subjoin, in a connected shape that their force 
 may be better appreciated; for, believing them, 
 we may say, with Milton — 
 
 '' Then wilt thou not be loath 
 To leave this paradise, but sbalt possess 
 A pardise within thee, happier far." 
 
 " Israel (says Isaiah) shall be saved in the Lord 
 with an everlasting salvation. "t " Ye shall receive 
 a crown of glory, J an inheritance incorruptible 
 and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved 
 in heaven for you."§ '' A kingdom which cannot be 
 moved." II '' I give unto them eternal life, and they 
 shall never perish."1F " Neither can they die any 
 more."*'" Now, it is impossible to misunderstand 
 these gracious promises uttered by our Saviour 
 himself. He tells us of the virtuous, '• neither can 
 they die any more ;" " they shall never perish," 
 " never die ;" they shall " not die ;"tt and it is re- 
 markable, that we no where read of the punish- 
 ment of the wicked, as we do of the happiness of 
 
 * On the Univ. Rest, p. 28. t Is. xlv. I7. X 1 Pet. v. 4. 
 § 1 Pet. i. 4. II Heb. xii. 28. •[ John x. 28. 
 
 *• Luke XX. 36. tt John vi. 50- - 
 
 S 
 
206 
 
 the good, that it shall have no end, '^ world without 
 end ;"* but were it otherwise, we have here the 
 words of our Saviour, which must controul all ima- 
 ginary or supposed inferences. And it is obviously 
 a fallacious conclusion, that eternal, applied to the 
 blessed, must be limited in its duration, if it be so 
 understood when applied to the wicked, + in so 
 far as the substantives which controul the adjective, 
 are, in their sense and meaning, wide as the poles 
 asunder. More especially will this appear, if we 
 consider that all the temptations which assail us 
 in this life are removed by death; and hence it 
 is not possible that the virtuous man here, amid 
 so many temptations, shall not continue to be vir- 
 tuous, or rather shall become vicious, hereafter, 
 when all the causes of delinquency are removed. 
 Yet further, and waving, for a moment, the po- 
 sitive assurances of Scripture, that the good shall 
 not die eternally — for die all must J — nay, admit- 
 ting the above impossibility (just as impossible as 
 that the rays of the sun when shaded by any 
 intervening object, shall not resume their original 
 splendour when that object is removed) still it will 
 make nothing at any rate against the promised hap- 
 piness of the good, which stands recorded by the 
 finger of Providence in characters indelible, and in- 
 dependently of all connection and juxtaposition, in 
 language not to be misapprehended by any possi- 
 bility, or misinterpreted by any ingenuity. Nay, 
 
 ♦ Is. xlv. 17. t See Notes on Rel. Mor. and Met. Sub. p. 93. 
 X See Nott; a, p. 92. 
 
207 
 
 St. Paul tells us, " Our light affliction, which is 
 but for a moment, worketh for us a far more ex- 
 ceeding and eternal weight of glory ;"" words, the 
 full import of which in the original, cannot be given 
 in anyt translation ; for the glory implied is not 
 only termed 'uiuvtovy according to our translation, 
 eternal, but it is (if I may so express myself) 
 elongated and secured beyond the possibility of 
 doubt, by a redundancy of metaphor. One thing 
 would seem to be implied by this celebrated 
 passage, and it strengthens the reasoning of the 
 Universalists, that the word 'utmioq, which is trans- 
 lated by us eternal, and which is taken erroneously 
 (as we have endeavoured to shew) to convey by 
 itself invariably an eternity, properly so called, does 
 not carry in St Paul's mind the full import of the 
 glory to which he here directs our thoughts and 
 aspirations (x«3-' v^g?/3oA>]y ng vTn^/Bo^Ytv uiaviov /icc^og 
 ^o|>!?, a glory exceedingly greater, far more than 
 'ciiCJHov. b ) Doubtless it may be said, that xai^og and 
 'xiav are in the very next passage used, the former 
 as applied to things seen and passing, the latter to 
 things not seen and eternal — and the argument is 
 good, so far as it reaches, in contrasting antitheti- 
 cally the things seen as evanescent, and the things 
 not seen as durable, or 'ctiaviov, or eternal as the 
 meaning may be supposed to imply (we may doubt, 
 however, whether all things, not at present seen, are 
 eternal, properly so called, although, comparatively 
 
 ' 2 Cor. iv. 17. t See Doddricig-e's Family Expositor, 4to. 
 
 vcl. 4. p. 458. 
 
 s 2 
 
208 
 
 >peaking, they are eternal in contradistinction to the 
 passing pageantry before us.)c But in whatever 
 way we interpret this passage, however it may cor- 
 roborate, it cannot in any view enervate our 
 previous reasoning, or narrow the import of the 
 extended sense implied by the redundant metaphors 
 of the Apostle in the words now before us. 
 
 Neither death, nor life, nor things present, nor 
 things to come, can separate the righteous from the 
 love of the Deity. They are emphatically called 
 in Scripture " the children, the heirs of God, and 
 joint heirs of Christ."'^ " Who is made, not after the 
 law of a carnal commandment, but after the power 
 of an endless life." d f Neither are these strong ex- 
 pressions more than we might infer from the na- 
 ture and reason of the thing ; for if God be truth, 
 which shall endure for ever, and if virtue be a sub- 
 stance which shall never die, most assuredly, the 
 nearer we approach to truth and virtue, the more 
 immediately do we become enveloped by the divine 
 essence, and the more intimately blended with, and 
 })enetrated and sustained by, that uniform effusion 
 of the divine life, which can suffer neither diminu- 
 tion nor decay. And since these explicit declara- 
 tions of divine goodness and the nature of things 
 lead us irresistibly to tlie conclusion, that if God 
 had reserved eternal punishment for the wicked, it 
 would have been revealed, at least, with equal cer- 
 tainty, much more ought they to constrain us to 
 
 • See Rooi. viii. + Heb. vii. 16. 
 
209 
 
 thankfulness^ and direct us to the adoration of that 
 blessed Providence^ who has thus announced, in 
 language, (intentionally^ as it were,) admitting of 
 no doubt, even from the most subtile refinement of 
 men, the preference he has given to virtue, and the 
 portion which lies before the pious and the good. 
 Nay, generally, as we must conclude, that in this 
 life, no one innocent pleasure which could have 
 been safely conceded to us is withheld, so, in a 
 more exalted state, we shall experience the fruition 
 of the highest and noblest degree of happiness of 
 which our nature is capable. — And if the Book 
 of God's hallowed Word assures us of this, and 
 the Book of his glorious Works, so far as we 
 understand it, appears so excellent and reason- 
 able, in all its various and beautiful relations, is 
 it not right to believe, that what is now illegi- 
 ble to ordinary, or corporeal, or mixed natures, 
 will, when lighted up by the brilliancy of an im- 
 mortal transparency, and seen and read by the op- 
 tics of an improved, and expanded, and glorified 
 intelligence, appear still more excellent, and still 
 more and more reasonable. Thus may we conclude,^ 
 shall our expanding faculties expatiate over scenes 
 of expanding excellence, until enlarged and refined 
 to the full measure of our future spiritual capacity, 
 they become enamoured of the beauty of hoh- 
 ness, and are prepared for the enjoyment of the 
 Eternal. Nor can we imagine, that under this 
 gracious universality of an omnipotent Providence 
 of mercy, the trail of the serpent shall be visible, or 
 s3 
 
210 
 
 the pains of suffering, or the wailings of sorrow, 
 have place, or be permitted to disturb the unbroken 
 harmony which shall teem from every corner of 
 creation — the sacred calm of peace and of serenity, — 
 the abiding sense of possession and of security, — 
 the thrilling accents of joy and of gladness, — the 
 life — the light — the glory — the extacy — which shall 
 effuse from the centre of all .perfection, with the 
 uniform regularity of a pervading and an exhila- 
 rating circulation, permeating the remotest being, 
 of this mighty, and holy, and sinless population. 
 Nor, are these the ravings of a dreamer, warmed, 
 as he no doubt might well be, by the breathing in- 
 tensity of the glowing aspiration ; the blessed scene 
 is one of reasonable expectation, (and we have 
 tliroughout disclaimed, for we required it not, any 
 unreasonable inference) as well as of Scriptural pro- 
 mise, for, as no man can permit that to take place 
 in which he has no pleasure — which he abhors, and 
 over which he has controul — much less can we sup- 
 pose the Creator of man, the King of kings, and 
 the Lord of heaven and of earth, overruled by any 
 such contradictory necessity. '^ As I live, saith the 
 Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the 
 wicked ; but that the wicked turn from his ways and 
 live."* '' Let him that glorieth, glory in this, that 
 he understandeth and knoweth me, — that I am 
 the Lord, which exercise loving-kindness, judge- 
 ment, and righteousness in the earth — for in these 
 
 * Ezek. XXX iii, 11. 
 
211 
 
 things / delight"* And strange it would be, in- 
 deed, if we could suppose the omnipotent King 
 of glory — the Lord of universal being — the God 
 of love, and the source of all consolation — contem- 
 plating the death of a sinner, or happy under the 
 knowledge of his eventual and eternal misery, t 
 No ; we believe that although the happiness of the 
 Deity is independent of every object of his creation, 
 and necessarily must be complete in the enjoyment 
 of his own infinite perfections, — still we cannot ima- 
 gine its existence compatible with the knowledge 
 of misery in the issue. And, perhaps, the stirring 
 language of rejoicing e is not inapplicable even to 
 the Godhead, when we picture the benevolent Pa- 
 rent of the universe beholding the glory of such 
 emanations as we have attempted to body forth, 
 and viewing, in the ultimate perfection of his own 
 works 
 
 '* Where the heavens are calm above us, 
 And as calm each sainted breast, ":{: 
 
 Images of his own infinity, of his own holiness and 
 happiness, purity and peace. 
 
 * See Jer. ix. 24. i* See p. 62, and Is. xlix. 15, 
 
 i See Hooker, vol. i» p. 133 — 3 vols. 8vo. 
 
212 
 
 LETTER XXIV. 
 
 All things in the world are said, in some sort, to seek the 
 highest, and to court more or less the participation of God 
 himself; yet this doth no where so much appear as it doth 
 in man." 
 
 Hooker. 
 
 " Yet oft a sigh prevails and sorrows fall, 
 To see the hoard of human bliss so small. 
 And oft I wish, amidst the scene to find 
 Some spot to real happiness consign'd, — 
 Where my worn soul, each wandering hope at rest, 
 May gather bliss." 
 
 Goldsmith. 
 
 Without wearying the reader, by an exact reca- 
 pitulation, I must here take leave, (under the censure 
 of repetition,,) to remind him of some of the more 
 prominent texts and assurances of a general restora- 
 tion of all things. God is generally described in 
 Scripture as the Father, Creator, and uncreated 
 cause of all things — "He is love," '^his tender 
 mercies are over all his works"* — he created man to 
 glorify his name here, and to enjoy his presence 
 hereafter. " God (says Jeremy Taylort) is pleased 
 
 • Set- 1 Johniv. 8, 19, l6.5Ps.cxlv. f Taylor's Dis. vol 
 
 u.p. /.'?. 
 
213 
 
 to say that our sins dishonour him, and our obedience 
 does glorify him." He sent the Redeemer into the 
 world, '' not to condemn the world, but that the 
 world through him might be saved."* He hath 
 sworn " that unto me every knee shall bow, and 
 every tongue shall swear ;"t every knee shall bow, 
 '^ of things in heaven, things in earth, and things 
 under the earth.^J His uncontrollable pleasure is, 
 to " gather together (or re-unite 'xvxKi(puXxiu<ret(r0xt) 
 in one all things in Christ, — to reconcile all things 
 unto himself, by him, — whether they be things 
 in earth, or things in heaven ;"§ "he will have 
 all men to be saved, and to come to the know- 
 ledge of the truth." || He is the "living God who 
 is the Saviour of all men, especially of those that 
 believe." » IT Christ came down "from heaven, not to 
 do his own will, but the will of Him that sent me." 
 Now, what is the " Father's will, which hath sent 
 me"** — that " of all which he hath given me I 
 should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at 
 the last day." Again what hath the Father given 
 the Son — "he hath given all things unto his 
 hands," (says the same evangelist) and we are 
 assured by Christ, " that all that the Father giveth 
 me shall come to me ; and him that cometh unto 
 me I will in nowise cast out." Here, we observe 
 no exception, all '^ shall come to me," and by conse- 
 
 • John iii. I7. f Is. xlv. 23. I Phil. ii. 10. 
 
 §Eph. i. 10, 22. ; Col. i. 20. || 1 Tim. ii. 4. 1[ 1 Tim. iv. 10. 
 
 *» See John iii. 35. ; vi. 37, 38, 39. ; xiii. 3. 5 Matt. xi. 27. 
 
214 
 
 qiience none shall " be cast out." Christ receives all ' 
 things, without exception, from the Father, and 
 shall re-deliver the whole at the last day — ^that is, 
 when his mediatorial government shall end, and 
 '^ God shall be all in all." We are assured (be it 
 repeated even to tediousness) that all, without ex- 
 ception, shall come unto Christ, (there is no reserva- 
 tion, the assertion is imperative and absolute) and 
 shall in no wise be cast out by him ; consequently, 
 the re-delivery to the Father must consist of all, 
 without exception .b When this " coming c unto 
 Christ" may be, is another question — his kingdom 
 reaches beyond the grave ; — but, come when it will, 
 and be the resumption of the government by the 
 Father when it may, the declaration is unequivocal 
 — the inference is certain, that the re-delivery in its 
 original integrity must take place — nay, independ- 
 ently of this absolute assurance of an universal re- 
 delivery, we cannot suppose, that they who shall 
 come unto the Son, and who must have previously 
 been awakened to a sense of truth, and the conse- 
 quent and necessary detestation of sin, can be ob- 
 noxious to the Father, whose will the Son came to 
 perform, and of whose will he must consequently 
 have had a knowledge before he could be com- 
 missioned to do it. But the truth is, (as, in- 
 deed, generally happens with all explanations of 
 Scripture) the words of the Evangelist, and of 
 Christ, admit of no commentary which does not 
 tend to confuse the simplicity and clearness of the 
 text. The context is here the centre — the commen- 
 
215 
 
 tary the invisible circle, or in Scriptural language, 
 it '^ darkeneth counsel by words without know- 
 ledge."* 
 
 Now, what are the inferences to be drawn by 
 a man of common understanding from those few 
 texts, which we have more particularly recapitulated 
 in this and the preceding letter ? — clearly that, if 
 happiness be revealed for the good, happiness, too, 
 eternal beyond the possibility of doubt, and made 
 as if by purpose and intention so express as to admit 
 of no dispute, (whatever difference of opinion may 
 arise as to the duration of the sufferings of the 
 wicked) — if the righteous shall have no part in 
 the second death, which is reserved for the wicked, 
 it appears indisputable, be that second death what 
 it may, 
 
 1st, That there shall be a reconciliation and re- 
 union of all things in Christ ; — and 
 
 2dly, That God shall be all in all.t 
 
 And that these things are revealed in Scrip- 
 ture, seems just as indisputable as language (ap- 
 parently intentionally distinct) can make it. It 
 would, doubtless, be consolatory, could we explain 
 all difficulties — and more particularly, if we could 
 satisfactorily reconcile the supposed punishments 
 with these asseverations. But whether we can do 
 so or not, it affords no argument against the express 
 promise, that the extent of the implied commina- 
 tion is unintelligible to us — nay, is even incom- 
 
 * Job xxxviii. 2. i" See p. 25, and 1 Cor. xv. 
 
216 
 
 patible in so far as we see^ with the discharge of the 
 promissory obligation. That the promises of God 
 must be fulfilled to the letter, no man can doubt 
 who beheves that God is. This position there is no 
 disputing. And under this conviction it is for us 
 to reconcile the real or supposed threatenings if we 
 can ; if we cannot, — to ascribe the inability to the 
 weakness of our present state, hiding from us some 
 feature in the case, which, if known, would in fact 
 alter the whole nature of the question, and enable 
 us to see our way without inferring any contradic- 
 tions in the issue, or touching the full discharge of 
 all the promises of a faithful Creator, or repro- 
 bating any one of the perfect and uniform attributes 
 of an all-wise Divinity. 
 
 No man unquestionably, (independently of an 
 explicit and undeviating revelation) is entitled to 
 assert the eternity of future punishments — who is 
 unable to reconcile this fearful doom with the pro- 
 mises, the character and the attributes of the Deity, 
 considered, not with reference to the incomplete or 
 progressing design, but to the final consummation 
 of all things, and the settled accomplishment and 
 full developement of the universal plan of happi- 
 ness and peace. 
 
 " God, to remove his ways from human sense, 
 PJac'd heav'n from earth so far, that earthly sight. 
 If it presume, might err in things too high, 
 And no advantage gain.*' 
 
 Of this truth, no one can be more sensible than 
 
217 
 
 the writer of these pages. Yet as he cannot, even 
 on Scriptural grounds, reconcile these supposed 
 everlasting inflictions with the restoration of all 
 things, which, he has endeavoured to shew, is 
 distinctly indicated in the Gospel, — nor discover 
 under any view, natural or revealed, why punish- 
 ment should be eternal, or how man can be incor- 
 rigible under the scheme of an universal plan of 
 redemption and love, emanating from an uncon- 
 trollable power, — he has attempted, in the foregoing- 
 pages, to obviate the apparent contradictions which 
 the subject presents. And it has appeared to 
 him, c that there is good ground from Scripture 
 — certainly from reason — to believe that all these 
 threatenings have reference to a state before Christ 
 shall have delivered all things over to God, that 
 the Deity may be " all in all ;" — which is clearly 
 revealed, which therefore must take place, and 
 which it seems to him impossible and contra- 
 dictory to suppose, under the admission of co-ex- 
 istent and co-eternal misery and pain. The exact 
 import, perhaps, of these comminatory pains may 
 be disputable — perhaps at most they amount to 
 threatenings, as Tillotson supposes ; and it is not 
 necessary to the justice and veracity of God to exe- 
 cute these threatenings, while both are pledged 
 (independently of his essential attributes) to the 
 execution of promises which are admitted on all 
 hands to be clear and express. Whichever way, 
 however, we dispose of the threatenings, the pro- 
 mises must infallibly be fulfilled — promises which, 
 
 T 
 
218 
 
 we think, are necessarily incompatible with the 
 doctrine of eternal punishment^ and equally com- 
 patible with the deductions of reason and religion ; 
 lor it is impossible to believe, without an express, 
 explicit, and uncontrollable revelation, that God 
 has created any intelligence pure, as we must con- 
 ceive the human soul to be,^ and capable of the 
 most exalted endowments of knowledge and hap- 
 ])iness without end, yet condemned here to enjoy 
 the shadowy pleasures of sin for a season, and 
 hereafter to suffer the pains and miseries of the 
 damned for evermore. I say condemned, for the 
 pleasures of sin are a contradiction not more in 
 language than in reality, — they are condemnatory 
 ])enalties for paltry and passing gratification ; and, 
 if there be no world beyond the present scene, man 
 is certainly of all animals the most miserable. Yet if, 
 for the wretched vices, and vain enjoyments, and 
 transitory errors of this brief life, the sinner can 
 hope for no pardon here or hereafter, then truly 
 is his condition more deplorable than that of the 
 beasts that perish ; and, so far as I can discover or 
 be made to understand, his being rather a theme 
 for the house of mourning, than a song for the 
 house of joy. 
 
219 
 
 LETTER XXV. 
 
 " As sin brought sin suflfering; into the world, suffering must 
 put an end to sin." 
 • Jones. 
 
 " All feeling of futurity benumb'd, 
 All relish of realities expir'd, 
 Renounc'd all correspondence with the skies, 
 Embruted every faculty divine, 
 Heart -buried in the rubbish of the world." 
 
 Young. 
 
 Perhaps the most dismaying argument against the 
 restoration of all things, is to be found in the des- 
 perate state of the wicked in this world, and the 
 almost apparent impossibihty (as is somewhere ob- 
 served) even for God to forgive sin.'"" There is 
 assuredly a recoil of the Divinity from all contact 
 and from all approximation to sin ; and it is this 
 recoil — this repulsion (if we may so express it) of 
 all sinful pollution, nay, of all human weakness — 
 that absolutely constrains a devout man sometimes 
 to despair, and drives him, in utter fear, away from 
 the confidence and the hope of redemption. When 
 he reasons of the transgressions of his youth — of 
 
 See Notes c and d, p. 225 — 226. 
 
 t2 
 
220 
 
 the errors of his riper years — of the infirmities 
 and aberrations which beset and cleave even to the 
 evening of his life, to the maturity of his judgment, 
 and the decay of youthful passion — he may not but 
 be moved to sorrow and shame amid so much cause 
 for trembling. And happy is that man who, in the 
 retrospect of a trying and busy life, finds nothing 
 to remind him of the more deplorable offences of hu- 
 manity ; whose conscience acquits him of rapine 
 and of fraud ; who has not betrayed the confidence 
 of innocence, or shaved the wages of iniquity ; who 
 finds in the record no dark crimes of desperate 
 wickedness, or of deliberate maturity — from the 
 sharp tooth of which he cannot flee, and from the 
 pangs of whose memory he may not escape the 
 vengeance of an ever-reproaching recollection ; no 
 bloody hand which refuses to be washed, and which 
 is ever and anon pointing to the book of count and 
 reckoning. True, the best will find in recollections 
 of the past enough for sadness ; but if this sorrow 
 and sickness of heart be supported by the conscious- 
 ness of unflinching integrity throughout, of a single- 
 ness of purpose towards man, and a soundness of 
 devotion towards God — be it commingled with 
 much of the infirmity of youth, checquered with 
 many of the follies of manhood, yet bloated by no 
 inveterate turpitude within, and, it maybe, relieved 
 by some of the virtues of wisdom and of age — the 
 prospect is not dismay ing.a For the whole life of 
 man is but a struggle between the turbulent crav- 
 ings of the flesh, and the denying watchfulness of 
 
221 
 
 the Spirit; and the merit or demerit cannot be 
 meted (by Him who cannot be deceived) by the 
 success of our endeavours — but by the measure and 
 proportion of their integrity and our ability, consi- 
 dered with reference to the force of the temptation, 
 and the nature, and circumstances, and speciahty 
 of the case. The preacher from the pulpit, and 
 the student in the closet, who have learned and 
 know man in the genus, but are utterly ignorant 
 of the species — its various infirmities and tempta- 
 tions, in its numerous relations and situations — may 
 declaim against human iniquity, and the impardon- 
 ableness of human folly. But what is the worth of 
 that virtue, which has never been exposed to danger 
 in the chase of honors^ of pleasures, of ambition, or 
 of riches, — or the value of that wisdom, which has 
 not been bought by experience of man as he moves 
 in the wide world, and is acted on by all its count- 
 less springs and interests, and pecuniary collisions ? 
 The greatest liberty a human being can possess, 
 and the greatest happiness he can enjoy, is obe- 
 dience to the precepts of reason and religion ; and 
 this great truth man will in the end effectually 
 learn, by intercourse with his fellow-men, by expe- 
 rience of the real (not the apparent) value of this 
 world's gains, and by a knowledge of the utter 
 poignancy of all sin, and the utter (because ulti- 
 mate, if not immediate) pain resulting from all and 
 every pollution, and all and every unreasonable 
 gratification. The man of books only will arrive at 
 the same truth by the successful study and anatomy 
 t3 
 
2^2 
 
 of the human character, and he will reason out the 
 conclusion by a legitimate train of moral deduction ; 
 but the shrewd and thinking will reach it sooner 
 or later by the most impressive of all teachers — 
 experience. It is not by mere academic acquisi- 
 tions (inestimably valuable as they confessedly are) 
 that the human mind is to be dissected, and the 
 human character analyzed : this important know- 
 ledge is to be matured by intercourse with the 
 world — with man in various countries and climates, 
 and under various forms of government — and by 
 that wide-spread and searching information hence 
 resulting, which enables him eventually to judge 
 of his substantial interests — of the real, not the 
 seeming value and relation of things — and to detect 
 and separate the accommodating results of human 
 conduct, arising out of external circumstances, from 
 those original springs of human action which lie 
 imbedded in the human heart, which are the same 
 in all countries and in all ages, which really consti- 
 tute the human character as it fell from the Deity, 
 and with reference to which, its merit or demerit 
 must be determined hereafter, as they have been 
 used or abused under given circumstances of temp- 
 tation and trial, which can only be known to the 
 Searcher of hearts. Now, keeping in view the re- 
 flections which arise out of this digression, and with 
 reference to the atrocity yet pardonableness of sin, 
 we must remember some of our former reasoning. 
 
 o 
 
 1st, That all things with God are possible, not 
 implying contradiction ; and under this, we must 
 
223 
 
 admit the power of Omnipotence to reclaim the 
 most abandoned of men. " I have seen (says La- 
 vater*) the worst of men^ in their worst of mo- 
 ments; yet could not all their vice, blasphemy, 
 and oppression of guilt, extinguish the light of 
 good that shone in their countenances^ — the spirit 
 of humanity — the ineffaceable traits of internal eter- 
 nal perfectibility/' 
 
 2d, The very purpose of Christ's coming Avas, 
 that '' he might destroy the works of the devil." t 
 " He came to save sinners ;" :j: nay, was suffered — 
 appointed — to die, to call sinners to repentance, 
 one and all. Yet, if there be one reprobate, his 
 death has been in so far ineffectual ; and the means 
 chosen and effect anticipated by an omniscient and 
 all-powerful God, have been — to that extent, at any 
 rate — powerless and unforeseen. 
 
 3d, And, waving these arguments, when no con- 
 tradiction appears, it is not for our limited capacities 
 to doubt the means. Whatever is revealed by an 
 incomprehensible God must, in its accomplishment, 
 be attended with apparent incomprehensibility to 
 us; (mere difficulty is nothing to the point, for 
 every thing is attended with difficult}^) ; but when 
 that incomprehensibility infers not a contradiction, 
 or an absolute demonstrable impossibility, it is un- 
 wise to suspend our conviction, — for this is merely 
 
 * Phvsiugnomy, translated by Holcrol't, 3 vols. 8vo. vol. ii. p. 12. 
 
 t I John iii. S. I See 1 Tim. i. 15 ; Note 1; p. 6Sy 
 
 and p. 197. 
 
2^4 
 
 substituting human conjecture, as to means, for the 
 accomphshment of divine purposes — imagining and 
 not reasoning — which cannot in any respect be 
 safely trusted to, and which may, and in all proba- 
 bility will, end in utter illusion, when we come to 
 know the truth. 
 
 Whether the incipient foetus^ is the future being, 
 both in its material and immaterial nature — whe- 
 the still-born infant is to pass into a state of life, 
 and to reach maturity hereafter, — are questions of 
 difficulty, if we consider futurity as the reward of 
 conduct exemplified here, and happiness not as the 
 necessary and ultimate effect of mere existence on 
 earth, but as the result of trial and consequent and 
 advancing purification. The matured infant just 
 born into this existence, and tlie sinless child, have 
 neither, when removed from it, had the means af- 
 forded of the discipline of the preparatory stage, and 
 yet of such, (as the latter,) are we assured, is the 
 kingdom of heaven. Nor may we doubt, what- 
 ever we determine as to the foetus in embryo, or 
 the still-born infant, that, with the breath of tliis 
 world's life, we inherit the spirit divine of another. 
 The very motions of the infant body, and the eye, 
 wliich conveys the images of external impressions 
 to something within, indicate to demonstration the 
 ])ower — which has scarcely yet the means, through 
 the medium of undeveloped organization — of evinc- 
 ing its being. If the opinion of lamblicus be cor- 
 rect, that all our sins are the consequences of our 
 connection with the body, the difficulties vanish ; 
 
225 
 
 and we may conclude that the unpolluted soul will 
 start from the incipient flesh here, into the fulness 
 of the Spirit hereafter. Nay, if the reader rejects 
 the hypothesis, which, we have endeavoured to 
 shew, is fallacious,* that all our knowledge comes 
 through the senses, we shall have no difficulty in 
 concluding, that the mind of the infant body must, 
 when relieved by death, expand into the manhood 
 of spiritual being.t God certainly may have many 
 ways unknown to us of reclaiming sinners, and of 
 purifying humanity, without the discipline of this 
 scene, or the benefits of Christian knowledge; nay, 
 the most abandoned men have often become the 
 most virtuous characters. David, the man after 
 God's own heart, was once a murderer and an adul- 
 terer :c Augustus, after a youth of no ordinary cri- 
 minality, closed a life of no ordinary virtue : St. 
 Paul first persecuted Christians with inveterate 
 hostihty, then preached Christianity with invin- 
 cible constancy : and the follower of jNIanes, in his 
 youth the dissolute Augustine, became, in his riper 
 years, one of the most distinguished ornaments of 
 humanity. Nay, Origen, perhaps the most learned 
 divine of ancient or modern days, when, in his 
 controversy with Celsus, he justly remarks the ex- 
 traordinary fact, not of philosophy reforming a few, 
 but of the ignorant apostles of Jesus reclaiming the 
 many from vice to virtue, adds as the inference, 
 
 * iree Note m, p. 43, and pp. 145 — 147. f See Calmet's Dicty. 
 vol. ii. p. 540. ; Sherlock's Immortality of the Soul, p. 84. 
 
226 
 
 that it is not only not impossible, but not difficult 
 for corrupt nature to be changed by the power (or 
 word) of God.^" The fool and the madman who 
 have stumbled through this life under an eclipse of 
 reason, the incipient foetus passing formless from 
 the womb through death to the grave, the infant 
 from the breast, and the child from the arms of its 
 mother, must all and each go to their place of rest, 
 appointed for them by the universal Parent of cre- 
 ation. 
 
 It has been considered altogether incredible that 
 the devil should be ultimately reclaimed ; but the dif- 
 ficulty here, and the opinion resulting from it, arise, 
 perhapSj out of our entire ignorance of the nature of 
 the opposing principle, or of the manner in which it 
 may be operated upon. The word satan or devil ^ 
 is, in fact, incomprehensible to us, — that is, we 
 cannot here affix any intelligible or specific image 
 or substantiality to our reasonings ; but it is clear 
 thus far, '^ that his power and malice are restrained 
 within certain limits, and controlled by the will of 
 God ;" that he (if I may personify) acts permis- 
 sively of God, both in tempting the gaod and pu- 
 nishing the bad, yet is at enmity with God, and 
 entirely in his power. We read of '' the body of 
 sin," without imagining or understanding by that 
 expression that sin has a body ; so we may read of 
 the wicked one or devil, without ascribing to the 
 cliaracter, personification, or palpability, other than 
 
 • Contra Celsuin, j). 153, 4to. 
 
227 
 
 the natural passions and appetites^ the evil will or 
 purpose^ resulting from the absence or the with- 
 drawing of divine grace^ which matures these pas- 
 sions and appetites into action^ in a state of deaths 
 (as it is denominated by the Apostle,) in contra- 
 distinction to that regenerated state applicable to all 
 created intelligence, when new doings, new affec- 
 tions, a new principle of life and of godliness, are 
 infused into the natural or lapsed — but now re- 
 generated or restored — creature, by the gradual 
 operation of the Holy Spirit. Be this as it may, 
 and be the evil principle what it may, as it con- 
 fessedly acts permissively, the agency may and 
 must be superseded when its inscrutable purposes 
 are fulfilled. The inference — indubitable on the foot 
 of reason alone — is confirmed beyond all contro- 
 versy, when we consider that a God of eternal rec- 
 titude and uncontrollable power hath, in the highly- 
 figurative language of Scripture to which we have 
 before adverted, sworn that to him every knee shall 
 bow, of things in heaven, of things on earth, and 
 things under the earth." When I consider these 
 and similar passages — when I reflect, as Matthew 
 expresses it,t that " heaven and earth shall pass 
 away, but my words shall not pass away," — I can- 
 not allow myself to doubt, (independently of na- 
 tural convictions,) that the declared purposes and 
 promises of an uncontrollable God shall ultimately 
 be fulfilled. '' As the waters cover the sea" — that 
 
 * Seels.xlv. 23.5Phil. ii. 10,11. ; Eph. i. 10. t Matt. xxiv. 35. 
 
228 
 \ 
 >^ God's law shall be put in men's inward parts, and 
 within their hearts/'* — although I see not the way 
 of it, more especially when I contemplate the nature 
 and inherent destructibility of evil ; to which I 
 would now direct attention. 
 
 * See Jer. xxi. 33. : Psal. xl. 8. 
 
2^9 
 
 LETTER XXVI. 
 
 Our happiness in this life is thus upon many occasions depend- 
 ent upon the humhle hope and expectation of a life to come. 
 » * * * It could never have been exposed to the derision 
 of the scoffer, had not the distribution of rewards and pu- 
 nishments, which some of its most zealous asserters have 
 taught us was to be made in that world to come, been 
 too frequently in direct opposition to all our moral senti- 
 ments." 
 
 Adam Smith. 
 
 th' indorious common herd of man 
 
 Sail without compass, toil without a plan ; 
 In fortune's varying storms, for ever tost, 
 Shadows pursue, that in pursuit are lost." 
 
 J. H. Browne. 
 
 We hear a great deal about eternity, — and some 
 there may be, who imagine they understand what 
 they mean by that awful and interminable duration ; 
 yet were an eagle to endeavour to remove a moun- 
 tain of sand by single grains, and were the time 
 required for this gigantic labour extended by any 
 conceivable multiple, still would this period, like a 
 snow-flake falhng on a shoreless ocean, be as nothing 
 in the womb of infinity. Aye, and were one only 
 u 
 
230 
 
 of the damned to enjoy the luxury of a tear of 
 repentance in every thousand years^ through the 
 vast and unchanging revolutions of eternity^ yet 
 would tliis drop of woe produce a tide of sorrow 
 sufficient to deluge the world. In the supposed 
 abode of the accursed^, (whither, we are required 
 to conclude, the ubiquity of the Deity reaches,)* 
 mercy, we are told, can have no place; there, 
 the continuity of unmitigated agony is relieved by 
 no note of time ; and there, eternity is the never- 
 ending hour which strikes on the ear of misery, 
 and is sent back to the cries and the petitions of 
 the wretched. 
 
 Be all this as it may, and be the reader's power 
 of apprehending this scene of merciless retribution 
 what it may, it is evident that eternity, in the sense 
 in which we are now considering it, — that which 
 never had a beginning, and cannot have an end, — 
 can only be predicated of the Being, which was, 
 and is, and ever shall be — '^ the one supreme 
 Cause and Original of things" — ^"^the one simple, 
 uncompounded, undivided, intelligent Agent or 
 Person, who is the alone Author of all being, and 
 the Fountain of all power."t Eternity is inherent 
 in God, the uncreated cause of all things. That 
 which had a beginning must have an end ; for 
 wherever there is a first, there must of necessity be 
 a last, unless it be a portion of the divine essence, 
 and is necessarily sustained and penetrated by the 
 
 • i'age 58. f See Clarle, vol. 4. p. 122. 
 
231 
 
 divine life. jMoral evil and sin are altogether the 
 result of the creature's liberty of choice — to will 
 and to do. Sin assuredly is of man — salvation of 
 God ;* and evil had a beginning, later certainly 
 than the creation of the visible world, — for God 
 pronounced the whole " good/' and our first pa- 
 rents were created sinless, and after his image. » 
 Evilj then, indisputably had a beginning — a first, 
 and it must consequently have an ending — a last ; 
 for it is not only not a portion of the divine essence, 
 but is contrary to it — contrary to the uncreated 
 Cause of all things, (sin excepted,) and cannot look 
 upon God and live. God and sin are essentially 
 opposites, — holiness and vice are inherently anta- 
 gonists ; and to say that the omnipotency of God 
 shall not ultimately prevail over the obstinacy of 
 sin, is purely to confound all distinctions. For, 
 if we believe any thing, we must believe that God 
 is happy, and void of all that is contrary to supreme 
 happiness ; but it is utterly impossible to believe 
 this, and also to admit that his will and purpose are 
 crossed in the ultimate happiness of his creatures, 
 for this must inevitably produce uneasiness. The 
 originating Cause of all may suffer the endurance 
 of sin, (the liberty of choice in man,) as a means 
 for the accomplishment of prepollent good ; or it 
 may necessarily arise out of a system of free agency, 
 where motives imperfectly developed are the springs, 
 and the actors are imperfect creatures ; — but come 
 
 • See Or. Sac. vol. 2, p. 66—73,4—80—101. 
 
 u 2 
 
232 
 
 whence it will^ or arise how it may^ it is a creation 
 necessary or accidental to imperfection, and must 
 cease with the cause, — the imperfection — the error, 
 if you will, — which produced it ; which, be it what 
 it may, is certainly not of God, and which not being 
 of God, nor produced by, although endured per- 
 missively of, God, must, like all other creations, 
 and more than any creation emanating immediately 
 from God, be temporal and finite.^ 
 
 Independently of the fallacy and impiety of at- 
 tributing evil to the Almighty, it is purely absurd. 
 Evil in its very nature is inherently destructible, 
 — and there cannot be in the nature of things a 
 principle essentially evil, and at the same time es- 
 sentially eternal ; for evil is ever tending to destruc- 
 tion, and must ultimately sink under its own natu- 
 ral tendency. And it is a gratifying and conclusive 
 evidence of the tendency and strength of moral 
 v/orth, — of power, when directed by virtue, to 
 })revail over power otherwise directed, — to observe, 
 that in no one instance do we find a nation to have 
 existed for any long period after the subversion of 
 her virtue.^ 
 
 To insinuate an originating cause of pure evil, is 
 pure extravagance, for then we could have no good 
 thing here or hereafter. An originating principle 
 partially evil is little less absurd ; for then the bet- 
 ter being the stronger principle, must ultimately 
 overcome the weaker — be purged of its partial im- 
 perfection, and live, — or perish eventually from the 
 tactual contamination, (as all imperfection not to be 
 
233 
 
 purified eventually, must.) Two originating infi- 
 nitely perfect principles are inconceivable, for they 
 must be substantially one and the same ; and a 
 supposed duality is nonsense, as explanatory of no- 
 thing, and contradictory, as commingling in unity. 
 Two principles, equally poised, of evil and of 
 good — equal powers in opposite directions, the 
 one continually counteracting the other — is an 
 hypothesis, in like manner, obviously untenable ; for 
 then the economy of the world must have stood still, 
 which it has not, and there could be no God Almighty, 
 yet something we must suppose superior to, because 
 creative of, both, which is absurd. In short, when- 
 ever we ascribe evil in any shape to God, as the 
 efficient cause, we must necessarily involve our- 
 selves in the clouds and darkness of the most 
 manifest contradiction. Evil or sin is clearly the 
 result of imperfection, — nay, it is visibly so ; it ori- 
 ginated in the action of an imperfect creature, and 
 it has accumulated ever since, in consequence either 
 of that inherent imperfection consequent on such a 
 created compound as man, or of the exercise of that 
 freedom of will essential to him as an accountable 
 creature." If it be said that, under the first view^ 
 of inherent peccability, one cannot be answerable 
 for the imperfections of his nature, this, I answer, is 
 merely begging the question — taking it for granted 
 the infirmity was not poised or counterbalanced 
 by inherent capability, in powers of controul and 
 
 * See Deut. xxx. 19. 
 
 u3 
 
234 
 
 resistance. In debating this matter, it is necessary 
 to review the previous character. If we have per- 
 mitted temptation and sin to make inroads on our 
 moral constitution by repeated attacks, we are 
 not to blame that constitution if it ultimately give 
 May to a final and desperate charge; we are re- 
 sponsible for our previous trifling, and we must 
 take the consequence. No man becomes wicked 
 at once ; ^ and no man will, I apprehend, succeed in 
 obtaining the great victory of a controul over his 
 passions and appetites, who admits, at any time, the 
 slightest compromise with their incessant importu- 
 nity and restless craving. The history of every 
 good man — of every successful struggle against 
 passion and appetite — proves the strength of the 
 moral constitution ; and the whole attributes of the 
 Deity corroborate the inference of a communicated 
 capability of resistance and control, — for to infer 
 punishment for the act of an agent, controlled by 
 inherent peccability uncontrollable, is manifestly 
 ridiculous. I am quite aware that the reasoning 
 here suggested is opposed by the specious yet fal- 
 lacious adage — " That the cause of the cause, is 
 the cause of the thing caused ;" and Bayle asks, ^ 
 if we maintain that man is the work of an infinitely 
 holy and powerful Being, ought not the work of 
 his hands to be — can it be otherwise than — good ? 
 and he puts, in illustration, the case of the mother 
 who allowed the entreaties of the daughter to pre- 
 vail in suffering her to go to a ball, notwithstanding 
 the mother knew the daughter would in consequence 
 
235 
 
 be seduced. Now, on this I remark, that the daugh- 
 ter here is tempted by the ball ; and we can just 
 as easily account for the originating why — the 
 overpowering temptation — in this case, as in that 
 of Eve with the apple. Unquestionably an evil 
 propension is permitted to assail us in this life of 
 trial, otherwise it would not be what it is — prepa- 
 rative and corrective ; the why is to be found in 
 the fact, that accountable beings must have the li- 
 berty of choice, which presupposes the existence of 
 good and of evil to choose between. The latter is the 
 necessary and unavoidable ingredient in all imperfec- 
 tion. To see a young woman, however, (although 
 this reaches not the root of the charge against the ori- 
 ginal maker,) whose wisdom is not proof against the 
 attraction of a ball, and whose virtue is not proof 
 against the arts of a seducer, is neither a very rare 
 nor a very unaccountable piece of frailty. With 
 regard to the mother, the instance is perhaps some- 
 what complicated ; she is importuned, (tempted in 
 like manner,) perhaps overcome, by the entreaties of 
 her child. Noav, all action in a reasonable being 
 must proceed from some cause, — and the mother 
 here either had some motive, or she had none. To 
 suppose her to act from no motive, is either absurd, 
 and therefore out of the pale of all argument, — or 
 to pronounce her a fool, and her conduct equally 
 beyond the province of reason and example. If, 
 then, she was not overcome by the mere force of 
 entreaty, like many a silly parent, she was operated 
 on by the desperate wickedness of the human heart. 
 
Q36 
 
 (when not counteracted by the controlling powers 
 and communicated capabilities of reason and the 
 moral sense,) in exposing the honour of a child 
 that she might be dishonoured, — (a monstrous 
 supposition, but still conceivable, and, I grieve to 
 add, not without parallel,) — or she was imposed 
 on, or won by some to her seeming advantages, — 
 or, perhaps, the hope of a different result. The 
 honour of her child, in short, was sacrificed to her 
 weakness, or to her wickedness, — no very uncom- 
 mon or unaccountable occurrence either. Be this 
 as it may, the mother had the whole case before her 
 — the going or not going to the ball — the being or 
 not being seduced ; and from whatever cause of 
 desperate wickedness or pre-eminent weakness, no 
 man will deny that she was, as lawyers have it, 
 particeps criminis, — for she could have prevented 
 the consequences — for much immediate good, and 
 without any prospective evil, resulting from the 
 restraint put on the will of the daughter. 
 
 But what imputative analogy has this minute case 
 of human wickedness or weakness — of which we 
 have the whole disgusting subject in minute dissec- 
 tion before us, and which resolves itself purely into 
 an act of vice or folly — of freedom of will on the 
 part of an infirm creature — of a frail daughter of 
 Eve, — to the conduct of the Almighty, (controlling 
 myriads of worlds, and thousands of systems, not 
 one of which we know even in part,) considered in 
 relation to the existence of moral evil ? Are we 
 quite sure, in the plenitude of our survey, that it 
 
237 
 
 was possible^ under the view of man's ultimate des- 
 tination, to avoid the partial evil of a preparatory 
 stage ? or, without producing greater confusion, 
 and without introducing more deplorable conse- 
 quences, could things have been otherwise? Let 
 us reason the point. Is not the bare supposition 
 of no evil in a state of preparation, inconceivable 
 and contradictory ? 
 
 Either man was to be accountable or not ; and 
 if accountable, to be gifted with reason, the use or 
 abuse of which (as Cicero admirably observes f ) 
 must depend upon ourselves, and for which vise or 
 abuse we must, as reasonable and accountable crea- 
 tures, expect, at any rate eventually, the necessary 
 consequences of punishment or reward. And the 
 point comes to be — whether it be possible even 
 for Deity to frame an accountable being, who 
 should not be obnoxious to temptation, — and if ob- 
 noxious, capable of falling : I say, clearly not. " It 
 is consonant to reason to believe, (it is somewhere 
 observed by Dr. Burton, I think,) that God gave to 
 things which he had created a liability to become evil. 
 The fallacy (adds he a little after) lies in suppos- 
 ing, a priori, that evil ought not to exist ; whereas 
 it is more philosophical to argue a posteriori, be- 
 cause evil does exist, that, therefore, it ought to 
 exist." Now, without admitting the legitimacy or 
 infallibility of this a posteriori reasoning, g I would 
 push the inference, in this instance, somewhat fur- 
 ther, and say, not only that God gave to things a 
 liability to become evil, — but that, since it was 
 
Q3S 
 
 clearly impossible for the Deity to create an im- 
 perfect creature without this tendency^ it necessarily 
 follows that this imperfection must naturally in so 
 far be productive of evil^ and the accountability 
 resulting must as necessarily be restricted to the 
 moral evil of the will, and cannot apply to the na- 
 tural evil of the imperfection. The distinction 
 is, we conceive, of the very essence of merit, 
 and can only be known to the Searcher of 
 hearts. If creatures were to be placed in a pre- 
 paratory stage, there must, it is clear, be responsi- 
 bility, where accountable creatures were to struggle, 
 — and if responsibility, of consequence, risk, — 
 and if risk, of consequence the necessary effect in 
 corresponding measures of evil or of good. Why 
 the Deity suffers this risk, is merely asking why 
 the Deity has chosen to place us in a preparatory 
 stage ; or why evil is made or permitted to be a 
 probable or possible consequence of our actions, 
 or a necessary attendant of all imperfection, — is 
 merely asking why we are imperfect creatures — 
 why we are, in short, not infinite and perfect beings. 
 We may condemn the plan altogether, without 
 knowing more of it (as we do not comparatively) 
 than a microscopic corner of a molehill, and, of con- 
 sequence, without the possibility, if we had the facul- 
 ties, (which we certainly have not,) to form a cor- 
 rect conclusion. But it is absurd to take it as we 
 find it clearly is, — a preparatory stage for imperfect 
 creatures to struggle onward to their eventual happi- 
 ness, and then to complain that moral evil, sin, and 
 
239 
 
 error, are (as they may, or rather must be) the result 
 of man's actions ; — for this is to require free agency 
 in an imperfect creature, — to direct him continually, 
 or rather necessarily, to the choice of perfection — 
 of good, — which is a manifest contradiction, and 
 not to be effected by Deity itself. Evil is admitted 
 by the Deity, because it is impossible, and could 
 not have been proposed, not to entangle a system 
 of trial and imperfection with such an effect ; it is 
 not suffered or created for its own sake, but it is a 
 necessary ingredient, which must pass away wuth 
 the imperfection from which it results. A ball of 
 light might just as reasonably be expected to emit 
 darkness, as a stage of preparation, trial, and imper- 
 fection, to elicit only good. All evil, permitted or 
 suffered, must, however, be necessarily limited, and 
 all suffering, the result of evil, must consequently 
 be transient. We admit that evil may be permit- 
 ted or suffered, as the necessary means for the pro- 
 duction of greater good ; but to maintain it to be 
 necessarily eternal — which he must do, who con- 
 tends that it is impossible for God to forgive any 
 one sin — or that the most abandoned may not be 
 reclaimed by the Almighty, is to give to sin the 
 eternity necessary and essential only to that which 
 never had a beginning — to declare the omnipotency 
 of the Almighty Creator powerless against the appa- 
 rent incorrigibility of the dependent creature — the 
 goodness of a God of mercy and of love consistent 
 with implacability and resentment — the evil of the 
 will of created man inherently inconvertible by the 
 power of the uncreated God. 
 
240 
 
 LETTER XXVII. 
 
 A man thus occupied may, almost without a metaphor, be said 
 to be actually placed rather as a distant spectator of terres- 
 trial objects, than as one who has to act his part in contact 
 with them ; so completely have such exercises a tendency to 
 call forth all that is spiritual and exalted in our nature, 
 and to extinguish every sentiment which is earthly and cor- 
 poreal." 
 
 Shuttleworth. 
 
 " Go, let oblivion's curtain fall 
 Upon the stage of man." 
 
 Campbell. 
 
 If it be contended that these imperfect lucubrations 
 (now hastening to a close) convey no fixed and dis- 
 tinct views of an hereafter, I beg to remind the read- 
 er, that here we see through a glass darkly ; our 
 optics are too weak for the undivided rays of glory, 
 and our faculties too material for the pure converse 
 of intelligence. Nay, did I, in my happiest hours 
 of holy aspiration, — did I see, in my mind's eye, a 
 defined picture of the transporting scene ; or could 
 I, in my warmest fancy, when the world and all its 
 
241 
 
 cares seem shrunk in their dimensions before me^, — 
 could I picture in full perspective that blessed coun- 
 try, — I should, in my calmer moments, be compelled 
 to distrust the illusion, — so totally beyond any finite 
 powers must be the full outline of its glorious and 
 boundless landscapes. The heavenly light, brought 
 too near the sight of mortal weakness, dazzles but 
 to confound in utter phrenzy the feeble sightless 
 orb of dark and dismal humanity. 
 
 But it may be objected, that, as the great object 
 of every man ought to be the promotion of human 
 happiness and felicity, a heavier charge than that of 
 obscurity may be levelled against these pages. It 
 may be said, (by those only, however, as^ it appears 
 to us, v;ho misunderstand or misinterpret our rea- 
 soning,) that the doctrine we advocate tends to 
 loosen the bonds of society, and to give a licence 
 and a liberty to the licentiousness of human passion. 
 Be assured, "that no truth — no matter of fact — 
 fairly laid open, can ever subvert true religion."* 
 If to believe in the existence of an all-wise and 
 merciful Creator, of universal and uncontrollable 
 benevolence, whose energy is in constant direction 
 to the completion of ultimate happiness by the best 
 possible means — in whom we live, and move, and 
 have our being here, and must continue to have it 
 hereafter — and from whom we derive every good 
 and perfect gift both of time and of eternity, — ^if 
 to believe that the Being who called man into ex- 
 
 • Lardners Gos. His. Part 2d, vol. 2, p. 812. 
 X 
 
242 
 
 isteiice in this wretched life^ shall exalt his soul into 
 his glorious presence to enjoy happiness hereafter, 
 when fit to partake of it, — if to believe all this, leads 
 to licentiousness, then do we plead guilty to the 
 charge. And, we confess, we see not, in all the 
 merciful dispensations of this Almighty Being, the 
 ultimate damnation of any living thing ; and we 
 dismiss, as an abomination in his sight, that false 
 religion, and that hollow reverence, and that cal- 
 culating adoration, which is extorted (by the fear 
 of coming retribution) from an unwilling mind, or 
 wrung from a worldly heart. Religion is not a 
 compromise of interest, — a question of expedient 
 calculation, — or of value between this world and 
 the next — between the Creator and the created, — 
 a compensation to be obtained hereafter, or a 
 punishment to be avoided, or a favour to be re- 
 ceived, for the partial abandonment of our own 
 selfishness, and for account of our interested ser- 
 vices here ; — but mindful 
 
 "of the crown that virtue gives. 
 After this mortal change, to her true servants," 
 
 it is, emphatically, every thing, or it is tiothing. 
 It is the bond of universal brotherhood — the con- 
 necting link of universal charity — that ceaseless 
 emotion of the contrite in heart — that silent breath- 
 ing of the holy in thought, and that anxious aspi- 
 ration of the devout in spirit, after " whatsoever 
 things are true, honest, just, pure, and of good 
 
243 
 
 report"*— based on the love of God and of our 
 neighbour, and the necessary attractions of a vir- 
 tuous life— all resulting from our moral under- 
 standing, and founded on a just conception of the 
 character,— a felt and abiding sense of the nature 
 and benevolence, of the Deity, both in reference to 
 the creation and future inheritance of man, and to 
 the purposes, present and eventual, of his condition. 
 If religion must be supported, on the ground of 
 fear for evil— of suffering interminable misery, (the 
 great lever of all false worship, and the mighty 
 engine of all spiritual ascendancy,) we apprehend 
 (independently of its superstitious influence) that 
 nothing but a production of selfishness can be reared 
 on such a basis, — a creature just such as we find man 
 in general to be, whose very character is selfish, 
 and whose whole bearing is thus formed by this 
 detestable tendency— so utterly repugnant to the 
 spirit of Christianity, and in all its details so en- 
 tirely opposed, not only to the mission of Christ, 
 but to the virtue and happiness of every stage 
 of social existence. It is in vain to urge upon us, 
 that the sublime motive of our inculcation is too 
 refined a— too excellent for the forbidding defor- 
 mity of the human heart. This honourable objec- 
 tion may be levelled against the purity of Christi- 
 anity, as it was against the noblest sect of ancient 
 philosophy ; and we do not deny this wayward 
 propensity. We admit, in sorrow, this inveterate 
 
 • See Pbil. iv. 8. 
 
 x2 
 
244 
 
 leaning ; but we are not, therefore, to set infirmity 
 
 before us as the prototype for our imitation, nay, 
 
 we maintain that this deplorable tendency has been 
 aggravated, and never can be eradicated, by the 
 principles which are abroad among us, and fos- 
 tered, by the baneful influence of false doctrine and 
 falser practice, into such fearful maturity. No sane 
 man can hope to be '' perfect, as our Father which 
 is in heaven is perfect;" no fanatic can expect to 
 reach the peaceful sinlessness of Christ, and yet his 
 unapproachable excellence is made the pattern for 
 our imitation. The school of Zeno produced the 
 most illustrious characters ; it gave to the heathen 
 world Cato, and Brutus, and Antoninus— yet the 
 good man of the Stoics is a visionary chimera, su- 
 perior to Deity itself, b " My thoughts (says the 
 sublime Prophet Isaiah) are not your thoughts, 
 neither are your ways my ways ;"-— most strikingly 
 is the opposition between man and his Maker here 
 set forth ! Alas ! if revenge be the wild justice of 
 the natural man, bruited forth in the yell of the sa- 
 vage, retribution to the hilt is still the same hungry 
 cry of the human heart. Nothing is so incongru- 
 ous to the vindictive passions of man as a God of 
 omnipotent power, <' who forgiveth iniquity." It 
 IS, indeed, impossible, we conceive, for any man to 
 look on the lovely nature of Christianity, as deli- 
 vered in the Gospel of Jesus, and exhibited in his 
 hfe, and not to feel ready to exclaim— " either this 
 is not Christianity, or we are not Christians." Now, 
 true it is, as evidence can make it, that this is 
 
245 
 
 Christianity ; and true it is, as experience can tes- 
 tify it, that we are not Christians. Nay, our Chris- 
 tianity, and the Christianity which has come down 
 to us in the memoirs of Christ, as it was exhibited 
 y in his benevolent, sinless, yet suffering life, are at 
 variance, both in precept and practice ; — the one 
 calculated to form man for peace, and love, and 
 affection, and to divest him of all selfish propensi- 
 ties ; the other addressing itself to his fears, natu- 
 rally subordinates the love of Deity to the love of 
 self, generating interested feeling and superstitious 
 homage, and vainly proposes to kindle the hallowed 
 fire of pure devotion to a God of love, on the altars 
 of intolerance and terror, lengthening out into pros- 
 pects of interminable endurance beyond death and 
 the grave. ^ 
 
 " The grave ; dread thing! 
 Men shiver when thou'rt nam'd." 
 
 Yet if the greeting of death be severe — if his gripe 
 be withering, — his silent hand emancipates ^ the 
 soul from the walls of her corruption, and bids the 
 weary of a shuffling world be at rest ; for 
 
 'tis life's last shore, 
 
 Where vanities are vain no more ; 
 Where all pursuits their goal attain, 
 And life is all retouch'd again." 
 
 Still it is not in our weakness, we confess, to look 
 
 on lifeless humanity without some emotion ; to be- 
 
 behold the pallidity of the mindless countenance, 
 
 x3 
 
246 
 
 which once smiled on us, perhaps, with warm 
 affection, or delighted us with rising intelligence ; 
 to touch the icy coldness and the quiet heart of 
 departed life; to breathe the heavy silence and 
 the sinking atmosphere of decaying mortality — 
 the creeping unearthly effusion which surrounds 
 the obstruction of the dead.* Yet if our creed 
 be no fallacy, and if the Being whom we adore 
 be indeed a God of all love and of all consolation, 
 where is the victory of this grave ? where is 
 the triumph of this death ? when we throw the 
 living and immortal energy of the spirit out of the 
 thraldom of an earthly tabernacle — burst the fetters 
 of this bounded world — and, winging our way and 
 our thoughts far beyond its feverish excitements 
 and corroding cares, rest our hopes and our wishes 
 with the Father of our spirits, and sit down in 
 peace and security under the shadow of his uncon- 
 trollable Godhead. — Reader, this is the consumma- 
 tion to which we would direct you, and to which^ 
 we believe, true Christianity calls you. At the 
 bidding of the Eternal you came into this uneasy 
 world, ignorant and feeble, called out of nothing 
 by the breath of his love ; and the gates of hell and 
 of death cannot prevail against the power and the 
 mercy of an almighty arm — bared, not against the 
 frailty of the sinner, but against the heinousness of 
 the sin. Yet away with the delusion, that any thing 
 that defileth can enter into the rest of Jehovah — 
 
 • See the Giaour of Lord Byron, line 68. 
 
247 
 
 that the leprosy of sin can be suffered to contami- 
 nate the kingdom of the Godhead. No : the sinner 
 must be reclaimed^ or he must be destroyed utterly, 
 for an eternity of evil is a natural absurdity. If, 
 then, the soul be immortal, all evil must be here- 
 after subdued, — for good and evil must ever be at 
 variance, — and ere virtue and happiness cease to be 
 triumphant, God himself must cease to be '' all in 
 all." Turn, then, in instant prayer, from the pes- 
 tilence of sin, to this God of your fathers, whose 
 unchangeable goodness is the uniform brightness of 
 one untroubled eternal lustre — who made, pene- 
 trates, and sustains you — whose anger can only be 
 opposed to crime — whose love is ever with virtue 
 — whose glory and whose felicity remain unaltered 
 and unalterable, amidst the wreck of passing em- 
 pires, and the crash of transitory worlds. Reader, 
 what a picture for your imitation — what an object 
 for your gratitude, for your love, for your adoration 
 — to behold the goodness and the greatness of that 
 Being who alone is immutable and eternal, who 
 alone stands immoveable and independent of all 
 creation, and v/ho cannot receive returns from 
 any object of his care, — still is he the liberal and 
 unwearied Giver of every good, and perfect, and 
 enduring gift ! Gracious ! merciful God ! what a 
 contrast does the universal benevolence of thy cha- 
 racter present to the selfishness and tyranny of 
 man ! — how earnestly ought every one to labour 
 in works of love and of charity, who desires to 
 imitate the most adorable of all thy perfections. 
 
^48 
 
 who lives under a sense of thy presence — aspires to 
 thy favour here, and hopes for thy glory hereafter ! 
 '' He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God 
 is love." e 
 
 Like the Chaldean, he could watch the stars. 
 
 Till he had peopled them with heings hright 
 
 As their own beams ; and earth, and earth-born jars, 
 
 And human frailties, were forgotten quite : 
 
 Could he have kept his spirit to that flight. 
 
 He had been happy." 
 
249 
 
 LETTER XXVIII. 
 
 ■ If I were to advise any man, who is resolved by his practice to 
 contradict that opinion which he saith he hath of God, or 
 that is not resolved to live with that reverence and useful- 
 ness due to the majesty of Almighty God, in whose presence 
 he always is, I would counsel him not to believe himself, 
 when he professes the omnipresence or omniscience of God." 
 
 Chillingworth. 
 
 How bright my prospect shines ! how gloomy thine ! 
 A trembling world ! a devouring God 1 
 Earth but the shambles of Omnipotence." 
 
 Young. 
 
 Such, then, are the reasons which induce the writer 
 of these pages to look for the restoration of all things. 
 Even in this troubled drama of incessant action, 
 he sees, in every change of scene, much to lead 
 him to forgive the errors and wickedness of man — 
 everything to constrain him to expect mercy from the 
 goodness and providence of God. How much error 
 is abroad ! how much ignorance ! how many preju- 
 
250 
 
 dices ! how many excitements ! how many alhire- 
 ments ! whose united influence in disturbing the 
 moral bearing of a faUible creature, in this fleeting 
 stage of things. He only can duly appreciate, who is 
 not strict to mark the delinquencies of fallen man, 
 and whose tender mercies are over all his works. 
 The mild philosophy of the imperial Antoninus, 
 the noblest Stoic of them all, teaches us, indeed, 
 to return an injury by forgetting it ; but the 
 blessed Gospel of the humble Jesus requires us, in 
 the wide embrace of its more diffusive benevolence, 
 to love all — to forgive all — to pray for all — to do 
 good even to them that hate us. The doctrine of 
 eternal punishment, grafted upon that consolatory 
 Gospel, and tortured out of its redeeming mercy 
 and boundless compassion, would have us believe, 
 that the object of our commanded love, of our de- 
 sired forgiveness, of our solicited prayers, is doomed 
 by a merciful God to everlasting suffering. No : 
 we can never believe so revolting a contradiction. 
 The great Being alone who created the human soul, 
 can make it happy or miserable, — can render it un- 
 utterably wretched while it remains incorrigible, 
 and is separated from his presence, a — can pervade 
 its inmost capacity by inconceivable bliss, when fit 
 to partake of it, in the kingdom of his Zion. But 
 virtue must ultimately prevail ; — a pillar of light, 
 it stands immoveable amid the darkness of sur- 
 rmiiiding evil — beaming forth glory, expanding, 
 and ultimately permeating universal space in the 
 brightness of one uniform and immortal transpa- 
 
251 
 
 rency. Yes : virtue is a substance which can never 
 die — the very being and bodyb of the Godhead. 
 The dying Roman, after the crushing desolation of 
 Philippi, in the bitter hour of his blighted hopes 
 and expiring aspirations, might, in the agony of 
 dissolution, exclaim, as he hastened his indignant 
 soul from the coming glory of the Caesar — that, on 
 this earth, he had found it a shadowy name, — for 
 here, indeed, it is an exile. But in the calm and 
 holy heaven of Jehovah, it has a resting-place, it 
 has a home, — it is there, the chosen of God — the 
 glory of the Deity — the brilliant of his diadem. 
 Can we then despair of the final triumph of virtue, 
 when the Lord of heaven and of earth has honoured 
 it by his choice — has perilled the power of his 
 almighty arm to protect it — and has sworn from the 
 throne of his omnipotence to defend it } Can we 
 imagine that the madness of the spirit of puny man 
 shall be suffered to deform the fair creation of Al- 
 mighty God for ever ; that the wisdom of Omni- 
 science cannot unravel as effectually as the folly of 
 ignorance can perplex ; that iniquity shall ultimately 
 be permitted to drag on an immortality of suffering, 
 and jar in discords of burning agony, amid the 
 harmony of love, the songs of joy, and the shouts 
 of gladness, which shall fill the kingdoms of Jeho- 
 vah — when the universe itself "rings jubilee" — 
 teems with delighted and purified existence — and 
 the mighty and sinless populations of eternity shall 
 live in the visible presence, and " drink life, and 
 light, and glory," from the immediate aspect of an 
 
252 
 
 eternal and omnipotent Godhead ? No, we believe> 
 not more in conformity to revelation than to reason, 
 that the pains of this blighting earth are all prepa- 
 ratory — are all corrective.^ We believe that when 
 the Redeeming Saviour shall have fulfilled the pur- 
 poses of his divine commission, he will deliver up 
 the delegated kingdom and the deputed power to 
 the Father, who, in Scriptural language, shall then 
 be " all in all" — bringing all things "^ out of dark- 
 ness into his marvellous light," and who is even 
 now proceeding watchfully and unerringly in the 
 great, final, and only intelligible purpose of his 
 creation — the purity, happiness, and holiness, of 
 the universality of intelligent being, d We will 
 bless the Lord, " who redeemeth our souls from de- 
 struction ;" with Isaiah will we exclaim — " Break 
 forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of 
 Jerusalem, — for the Lord hath comforted his people, 
 he hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath 
 made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the na- 
 tions, and all the ends of the earth shall see the 
 salvation of our God :" e or, in the poetry of 
 philosophy, as sung by her immortal bard, we 
 ask — 
 
 " Why was man so eminently rais'd 
 Amid the vast creation, — Avhy ordain'd 
 Through life and death to dart his piercing eye, 
 With thoughts beyond the limit of his frame, — 
 But that the Omnipotent might send him forth, 
 In sight of mortal and immortal powers, 
 As on a boimdless theatre, to run 
 The great career of justice ; to exalt 
 
Q53 
 
 His generous aim to all diviner deeds ; 
 To chase each partial purpose from his breast : 
 And thro' the mists of passion and of sense, 
 And thro' the tossing tide of chance and pain, 
 To hold his^ourse unfaultering ; while the voice 
 Of truth and virtue, up the steep ascent 
 
 Of nature, calls him to his high reward 
 
 The applauding smile of Heaven ? 
 » * « * 
 
 There 'his' hopes 
 Rest at the fated goal. For, from the birth 
 Of mortal man, the Sovran Maker said. 
 That not in humble or in brief delig^it, 
 Not in the fading echoes of renown, 
 Power's purple robes, nor pleasure's flowery lap, 
 The soul should find enjoyment : but from these 
 Turning disdainful, to an equal good, 
 Through all th' ascent of things enlarge her view, 
 Till every bound at length should disappear, 
 And infinite perfection close the scene."* 
 
 ^'O quam contempta res est homoj nisi supra hii- 
 mana se erexerit." 
 
 * Akenside. 
 
Princeton Theological Semmary-Speer Libra 
 
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