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This allusion of Mr. Fuller's is unfortunate for his cause, since it does not apply to the time in question, for ver. 12. proves that the warning in the 11th verse is intended to operate for the reformation of men in the present state so as to prepare them for Christ's coming at the day of judgment." Behold I come quickly; do not therefore, if wicked, continue in wickedness; or, if righteous, do not renounce your righteousness, seeing that, at my coming, which will quickly take place, I shall bring a reward with me, to give to every man according as his works shall be." Thus the Reader paraphrases ver. 11, 12. This allusion, then, gives the cause of eternal punishment no support. It is incorrect. And if it were correct, it applies to a period, previous to the day of final judgment, at the second coming of Christ; and is not intended to condemn, but to save mankind.

The next allusion of Mr. Fuller is most probably to Rev. xx. 1-4. Here it is said that the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, being bound for a thousand years, was cast into the bottomless pit. But Iwish Mr Fuller would instruct the Reader where it is said that any of the human race was cast into this bottomless pit together with him ? For it is said, ver. 5. "But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished," so that, unless the righteous mentioned ver. 4. were thrown in, I know of no other, that could possibly. This allusion to the bottomless pit then seems to have no colour, even of similitude, in favour of Mr. Fuller's cause.

This bottomless pit, Mr. Fuller next tells us, his Readers, " was prepared for the devil and his angels." The Reader would be glad Mr. Fuller would please to direct him to any passage in Scripture which authorizes this affirmation. Mat. xxv. 41. there is mention of a fire prepared for the devil and his angels, and Rev. xx. 10. of a lake of fire and brimstone, into which the devil should be cast, where the beast and the false prophet also should be tormented day and night during the period there specified, and ver. 15. that whosoever shall not be found recorded. in the book of life, shall be cast into the lake of fire. But no where in Scripture can the Reader find any mention of a bottomless pit prepared for the devil and his angels. The reader begs Mr. Fuller to point him

to such a passage.

The next thing with which Mr. Fuller acquaints his Readers, is that "the Scriptures teach us, that those who at a certain period are found filthy-they shall dwell with everlasting burnings."

The Reader supposes Mr. Fuller to allude in this expression to Isaaih, xxxiii. 14. "The sinners in Zion are afraid, fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites; who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?"

Surely Mr. Fuller never attentively considered this passage, or he would hardly think of alluding to it as though it proved the eternity of hell torments. Yet the Reader knows of no other passage whence he could extract the phrase "everlasting burnings." As some understand it, the prophet here, so far from teaching the eternity of hell torments, only repeats after them, the language of affright, in which hypocrites discover their apprehensions of punishment, in a moment when terror

had entered into their souls: or, as, perhaps with still greater accuracy, it has been remarked, "The inquiry contained in the verse is made, not by the sinners and hypocrites mentioned in it, as the Chaldeeparaphrast and others understand it, but by the prophet, who having observed that they would be terrified at the interposition of God in the destruction of the Assyrian army, proceeds to put this general question tohis own countrymen, "Who among us shall dwell with Gop, who will be a consuming fire to the wicked part of us, as well as to our enemies?" See Deut. iv. 24. ix. 3. and Heb. xii, 29; and with the question and the answer immediately following it compare Ps. v. 4-6. ; xv, and xxiv. 3—5.

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The Reader thinks the manner in which Mr. Fuller argues from Scripture (if arguing it can be called) highly objectionable. Mr. Fuller's object is to prove the future punishment of mankind eternal. In order to this he takes one passage from the xxiid of Revelations, which he supposes to refer to eternal torment, he sets it down very differently from the sense and even words of the sacred writer; to this he joins an expression found in the xxth chapter of the same book, which does not refer to mankind at all, to this he conjoins a third expression found in Mat. xxv., he then subjoins a fourth, extracted from the prophet Isaiah ;› these he connects into one sentence, and affirms of it, so the Scriptures: teach us! The Reader is apprehensive that any thing most impious and false may be proved from Scripture after this method, and cannot but be of opinion that the sentence now under consideration, may be added: to the well known instances of delusive proof from holy writ, namely "there is no God," and, "Judas went and hanged himself;"" go, thou and do likewise."

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P. 52. Mr. Fuller asks " What doctrine BESIDES that of Universal Salvation will you find in the Bible which aff. rds encouragement to a sinner going on still in trespasses, and which furnishes ground for hope and joy, even supposing him to persevere in them till death ?”. Now the Reader does not think there is any reason for that air of triumph with which this question is asked. For, the question admits that the doctrine of Universal Salvation is found in the Bible. If so, is it not true? And if true, what does it avail towards the support of Mr. Fuller's doctrine. of eternal punishment, to ask what doctrine BESIDES encourages the sinner in the way Mr. Fuller mentions?

In addition to this the Reader is of opinion that you, Mr. Editor, have as good a right to charge the consequence of encouraging a sinner. continuing in his sins, upon the doctrines of Calvinistic predestination, vicarious satisfaction; and imputed righteousness, as Mr. Fuller has to charge that consequence upon the doctine of Universal Salvation. It is of no avail to Mr. Fuller, to say, that, he himself does not allow this conesquence to follow from the admission as true of his favorite doctrines, Your word of affirmation or of negation is, I trust Mr. Editor, as good as Mr. Fuller's. If he persevere in pressing this consequence, as conclusive against Universal Salvation; you can press it as conclusive against what he esteems, as the peculiar and most excellent doctrines of the Gospel. VOL. IV.

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If Mr. Fuller should deny ever so preremptorily, that the Calvinistic dochines just mentioned do give joy to sinners continuing in their sins, you also may deny, as peremptorily, that charge from him, and with as good reason at least ·.

And finally, the Reader cannot but judge, speaking of this 3d. letter as a whole, that, the impression, which must necessarily be made by it' upon the minds of those who should peruse it with attention and receive ́ it as true, respecting the divine character, is shocking to reason and directly contradictory to the language of Scripture." Jehovah is good to all, and his tender mercies are over ALL his works."

There are two other ctrcumstances, in which an appeal seems to be lodged with the Reader, and which appears to demand from him an impartial judgment."

The first is with respect to yourself, Sir.

"In a work of which' you are the Editor (says Mr. F. p. 58.) a falsehood has been published concerning me, and you have not honour enough about you to say you' are sorry for it.'

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The Reader hopes this is not true. He cannot believe this of you, Mr. Editor. He cannot but think Mr. Fuller's determination to make“ tio other_reply" hasty, and rash If Mr. Fuller will persist in this, his testimony in his own cause will be taken by "all impartial and intelligent readers," with this grain of allowance-that a speaker, in the course of a sermon, may let fall expressions which he cannot exactly recollect, and the force of which he may be unable afterwards exactly to estimate; especially if he is not certain that he entirely confined himself to a written' composition before him in the pulpit at the time of delivery. The Reader also believes that if Mr. Fuller will afford a fair and reasonable proof of his assertion, i. e. that you have inserted a falsehood în your Miscellany, you will immediately prove, by a suitable conduct with respect to such insertion, the impeachment of your cliaracter in his 2d, assertion, to be entirely destitute of foundation in truth;

The second circumstance I refer to is, the judgment Mr. Füller gives p. 63. and which he thinks he gives upon sufficient evidence, namely, that there is: a near resemblance between your labours, and those of the deceiver of mankind. Is this the way in which Mr. Fuller would gain our belief to his doctrine? Is the conséquence of our holding with him to be that we inust think you and your friends in league with the enemy and destroyer of our race? Is itthus we shall follow more exactly, the lamb of God, who when he was reviled, reviled not again?

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why that our brother Fuller is in Startle not, fellow-feaders; I will shall prove them, in conjunction

Well, then, let us, for a moment, grant. Mr. Fuller. his argument Let us for a moment suppose the doctrine of eternal torments to be exactly as he states it: What follows? danger of that very punishment! prove my words; or, rather, Mr. F. with the Scripture. In Gen. iii. what the serpent says to the woman is altogether upon his (the serpent's) own authority-Mr. F. tells us you, Mr. Editor, have spoken upon God's authority. Mr. F.'s own testimony, in his own

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words, respecting your teaching is, " GOD, hath not said, Ye shall die eternally.",

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Now, Sir, for the proof of our brother F.'s danger

Mat. v. 21, 22. "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kiil, shall be in danger of the judgment: but I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the udgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say μage (more) shall be in danger of hell-fire

Now, Sir, the Reader understands that the meaning of the word ope is " apostate wretch," or something tantamount to that. He will leave it to othe Readers to consider whether the accusation, brought against you by Mr. F. is at all short of the meaning of that word. HE, surely, must be an apostate wretch whose labours are similar to those of the devil!

I have proved before from Scripture, and Mr. F.'s own words, that there is as wide a distance, in point of resemblance, between your persuasions to mankind and those of the serpent, as there is between the authority of God and the authority of the devil. And in this charge against you Mr. F. speaks with deliberation. It is arepetition af a charge brought heretofore, which he persists in.

If, then, our Saviour saith true, Mr. F. is in danger of hell fire, unless he repent. Mr. Editor! Readers! let us tremble for Mr. Fuller! He is our brother! let us pray for him! if, peradventure, God may give him repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth! We believe that he will be raised to happiness, at last, should he die without repentance out of this state. But those are not idle words

Ος δ' αν είπη τω αδέλφω αυτό μωρή, ενοχος έται εις την γενναν το πυρος. Let us then earnestly pray to God, that Mr. Fuller, our brother, in this his day, may know the things that make for his peace, before they be hid from his eyes! One who wishes to be

.......An impartial and intelligent

FURTHER THOUGHTS

ON THE CASE OF SHIMET

READER.

SIR,

INDUCED by a love of truth, and a desire of obtaining information on the subject, I send you some reflections on an article contained in your last Miscellany, p. 233, &c. entitled an "Hebrew Criticism," and containing a justification of the common translation of, 1 Kings, ii. 9.

Before I notice the translation proposed by your correspondent's friend, the justness of which I dispute as well as the common one, I will offer some remarks on other parts of that paper.

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Your correspondent (p. 234, 235.) states that Shimei was sentence of death" by the statutes of Exod. xxii. 28. and Lev. xix. 12.

Now, not to insist that Shimei's case did not come within the meaning of the statute last recited, it is not plain that he had been tried even upon the former one; and I think a Jew, at that time, would have been as renacious of the due exercise of the laws of his country, as in after times, and would have exclaimed, with equal propriety, "Doth our law judge any man before it hear him?"

Your correspondent says, that to delay punishment " was all that a king of Israel was able to do, the law having fixed the punishment for every crime." How will this agree with what he says in the very next paragraph, that Solomon reprieved Shimei "from the capital part of the punishment." Is not this a manifest contradiction? If all that he was able to do, was to delay the punishment, then he could not change the nature of it, or, if he did, he did more than he was able to do; for according to A.V.'s account Solomon did change the nature of Shimei's punishment, and instead of complying with the dying request of his father, in bringing his hoary head to the grave with blood, he only confined him to the city of Jerusalem.

According to the common translation, on comparing it with David's promise to Shimei of pardon, we are induced to conclude that he repented of the mercy which, in the gladness of his heart, on being restored to the kingdom, he had exercised towards him; and therefore, not willing to break his promise to him himself, he commissions another to do it for him. Now whether there be less turpitude in a man's committing an evil himself, or getting another to do it for him; or whether the engaging of another to kill a man to whom he had promised protection, will absolve him of his promise, is not necessary to argue about. For this reason I conclude that the common translation is not a good one, or that the account which is given of David's swearing to Shimei that he should not DIE, is not correct. But I think the former will appear to be the case.

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Nor do I think that the translation proposed by your correspondent's friend altogether literal, though the sentiment is near to that which I propose; for there is no positive and direct negative which can justify the translation of "but bring NOT his hoary head," &c.

The criticism I would propose is this that the Hebrew prefixed to the word 7 should be read disjunctively, assuming such disjunctive power from the negative used in the beginning of the verse; as is the case in these words, "give me NEITHER poverty nor riches;" and if it were rightly translated, the whole would probably stand thus ra Now, therefore, neither hold him guiltless, (for thou art a wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him) nor his hoar head bring thou down to the grave with blood." The advice, in this sense, is full of wisdom and humanity, and Solomon understood it in this * sense, and no other he observed the medium advised by his father, and considered Shiner as not worthy of death, and not altogether innocent; he therefore, as a test of his obedience, and probably to prevent him from endeavouring to assemble partizans of the house of Saul, of which family he was a member, (2 Sam. xvi. 5.) for the purpose of a revolt,

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