blood of the lamb." Now if endless condemnation is admitted, how is it possible to reconcile these Scriptures? There is (in my judginent at least) the same irreconcilable contradiction in the vth and xith chapters of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans: for let any one tell me, what advantage those individuals of the Jewish nation, who, so many ages since, perished in their sin and unbelief, can derive from the convertion of their descendants in the latter day-or how it can be said, they shall be grafted in again; and so all Israel shall be saved, if a never ending punishment is to be the portion of all those who did not in their life time attain that renovation of their nature, which is essentially necessary to make us "meet to be partakers of the inheritance with the saints in light?" But if on the other hand we believe what St. Peter, in his first Epistle (chap. iii. 19 and 20) expressly tells us, of Christ's preaching to the spirits of the old world, then in prison, and of the gospel being preached to them that are dead*, we can very easily conceive, not only how these, and many other passages of Scripture, (which have furnished such abundant matter for controversy between the advocates for particular and universal redemption) can be reconciled; but how beautifully they harmonize with almighty love, wisdom, mercy, justice, and power; those glorious attributes of that divine Being, who, as he is the cominon Father of all, is also " loving to every man, and his mercy overall his workst." I cannot dismiss this head, without making an observation which strikes very forcibly upon my mind. Many divines lay down as an undeniable axiom, that God does all things for his own glory: and therefore all the elect (without any regard to the ties of affinity or love) must rejoice to see the wicked turned into hell, without hope or remedy! I never could believe this-my heart revolts at the idea. That we shall know each other, in the state immediately after death, I firmly believe. Our Lord's narrative of Dives and Lazarus puts it beyond all doubt. And therefore I cannot conceive, how the glory of God can in any degree be promoted by an event, which must either introduce grief and sorrow into the mansions of bliss, or banish out of the hearts of those who are supposed to be renewed in the divine image those sentiments of pity and affection, which dwelt in the breast of Dives, from whence this great multitude came out. Besides, if the ele are made kings and priests to God, who are their subjects? and from whence do they derive their congregations? 1 Pet. iv. 6. † Among the many texts of Scripture which (in my judgment) are absurd and inexplicable, if the doctrine of endless punishment is adhered to, is that of Rev. xxii. 2. where the leaves of the tree of life in the New Jerusalein, are said to be for the healing of the nations; but if all the inhabitants of that city are already healed, and those without be totally and everlastingly excluded, what benefit can accrue from them, either to the one or the other? though (according to the doctrine of the present day) a spirit irrecoverably lost to all goodness and felicity!-A position (in my judgment) absurd and shocking to the last degree-and utterly contrary to that gospel, which is " Glory to God in the highest. and on earth peace, goodwill towards men." Seventhly, whosoever considers, that the revelation made to our firstparents after their fall, was not a revelation of distress and terror, but a display of that method by which the Supreme Father of all, chose to deliver them and their posterity, from the fatal effects of that dreadful curse their diobedience had entailed upon them all--and that display summed up in a promise, as absolute and unconditional, as it was unsought for and unmerited by them-a promise, which God, who cannot lie, has bound himself to fulfil-whoever likewise considers the tenor of that promise, "the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head; thou shalt bruise his head, and he shall bruise thy heel," will evidently see, that although the consequences of sin to the human race is" a bruised heel”—tribulation and anguish-yet it cannot extend to the destruction of the whole body; is not such a punishinent as totally destroys the sinner: and therefore (in my opinion): utterly irreconcilable with a doctrine which delivers over the far greater part of the human race to the dreadful and endless dominion of that very serpent, whose power and authority was to be crushed by the seed of the woman! To conclude, as the " redemption which is in Christ Jesus" does not preclude the supreme Governor and Father of the universe from inflicting a sore and lasting punishment on any of his rebellious creatures, if we view this redemption as finally available for their salvation, it reconciles the divine attributes, harmonizes the Scriptures, and opens to our view an ample field of " wonder, love, and praise ;" and is (in my judgment) the most glorious display of almighty love and wisdom it is possible for the heart of man to conceive. For notwithstanding the objection, that the doctrine of limited punishment, has a tendency to take off the restraint which the fear of endless misery lays upon mankind, I am much mistaken if the real belief of the latter doctrine, is not confined to a very scanty number of the human race; and I cannot help thinking, that a very great part of what is called the Christian world, though they do not chuse, to avow their differing in sentiment with the reigning doctrine, do yet secretly retain various and doubtful opinions in their minds concerning it.-This I am not ashamed to acknowledge was my case for years after it pleased God to call me to the knowledge of himself; and as I never could swallow the ipse dixit of any man (however great, learned, or popular) when his divine and adorable providence, threw in my way Mr. Clarke's tract, entitled "The Gospel of the Daily Service of the Temple" it (if I may be allowed the simile) like the influence of the sun on the vegetable creation, opened and expanded many latent ideas in my mind; and his clear manifestation of the beautiful analogy and coincidence of the times and seasons, the types and shadows of the Jewish ceremonial law, with their antitypes and substance, as fulfilling and to be fulfilled in the gospel dispensation, exhibited to me such a noble view of the redemption, so far beyond the narrow and contracted ideas of most writers on this subject; that I cannot help embracing what appears to me, as a completion of the wish of an eminent writer, whose person I loved, and whose name I revere; and shall therefore avail myself of his sentiments, in conclusion to this rude and imperfect sketch*. "Ishould be glad to see any account of God's dealings with man, which might rectify all our errors with convincing evidence, and scatter our darkness like a rising sun. But in the mean time let us bear with one another, remembering it is the prerogative of the great God only, to pierce through all his own infinite schemes with an unerring eye, to surround them with an all-comprehensive view, to grasp them all in one single survey, and to spread a reconciling light over all their immense varieties. Man must yet grapple with difficulties in this dusky twilight, but God, in his time, will irradiate the earth more plentifully with his light and truth. Then darkness and contentions will fly away for ever. Amen." APPENDIX. WHOSOEVER considers the foregoing observation of Mr. John' Wesley (from the conclusion of whose tract entitled "Predestination calmly considered," I have taken the whole sentence) will evidently see, that he was not entirely satisfied; but that there was something in the controversy which he could not thoroughly unravel; and therefore he adds "God in his time will irradiate the earth more plentifully with his light and truth." The Christian church did not emerge all at once out of that deplorable state of darkness in which it lay for near a thousand years; and if we consider that the redemption is called by that highly illuminated servant of God, St. Paul," the mystery hid from ages and generations, and a mystery that the angels themselves desire to look into-yet shall be fully manifested in the fulness of time-why should we suffer either the prejudice of education, or any other wrong bias, to hinder the reception of divine light when it shines on our minds? The present deranged and disordered state of the creation, both in a natural and moral wiew, as plainly evinces the Necessity, as the word, promise, and attributes of that almighty Being, who originally forined it, does the Certainty, of a renovation—“ Behold I make all things "The son of God was manifested to destroy the works of new". The bulk of these observations we finished in November, 1784, long before I saw any of Mr. Winchester's writings. Whoever wish to see the remaining objections to this doctrine fully answered, I beg to refer them to his Dialogues on the subject. the Devil." In my opinion, therefore, if there were no more than these two Scriptures to be produced, to support this doctrine, they would be sufficient to overthrow every argument that can be brought against the complete renovation of the moral, as well as of the natural world. We certainly know that "the heavens and the earth that now exist are reserved unto fire, to the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men" and if this globe shall rise like a phoenix out of the ashes of this perdition: if God by his almighty power, shall reproduce, "From the conflagrant mass, purg'd and refin❜d, What reason can be assigned; what Scripture can be produced, to shew that the perdition of those ungodly men, shall last longer than the lake of fire and brimstone into which they shall be cast*?—or that the infinite power of that almighty Being shall be so circumscribed as to leave the work of redemption and renovation (if we may so speak) unfinished, by permitting that monster, sin, to remain, and be only in part destroyed, when the whole material creation is delivered" from the bondage of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the children of God?" The whole of this controversy may be reduced into a very narrow compass Rev. xiv. 11. Rev. xi. 15. "The smoke of their torment ascendeth to "ages of ages"—or, if you rather chuse so to express it," for ever and ever," “The saints shall reign with Christ for ever and ever." "Christ shall reign for ever and ever." Rev. xxii. 5. All these "for evers" (say the advocates for the doctrine of never ending misery) are of parallel duration. It is very remarkable that, among all the writers on this subject, (at least that I have seen) not one of them has taken notice of the space of time that must elapse from the commencement of the conflagration of the world to its total dissolution and renovation: yet, if we may judge from those volcanic fires of Etna, Vesuvius, &c. which have subsisted so many ages, it must require a period of many thousand years, to reduce such a body of matter as this globe into "a sea of glass, like unto chrystal." Be that as it may, we have a more sure word of prophecy. If the times and seasons of the Jewish dispensation were figures and pledges of greater periods of time, (as I entirely coincide in opinion with many great and eminent men that they were) we now stand, as Mr. Richard Clarke says, towards the conclusion of the sixth day; the sabbatical year of the millenium, of the thousand years reign of Christ on earth with those who shall be partakers of the first resurrection, approaches near; and as (viewed in this light) the whole portion of time, from the creation of the world to the conclusion of the millenium, is but a seventh part of those periods that extend to the year of jubilee, there seems to be a space of more than forty thousand years allotted for the duration of thelake o fire," and, conseqnently, for the punishment of some of those unhappy beings who fall under the power of the second death? May God, of his infinite grace and mercy, put his fear and love into our hearts, and write our names in the book of life, that we may never experience any portion of that punishment, which shall thus endure to the ages of the ages." Amen. 66 I But it clearly appears, from that astonishing Scripture, 1 Cor. xv. 2228, (see the whole passage, page 50—51) that the "for ever and ever" of the reign of our Lord, will have an end-and consequently, the reign of the saints, and the torments of the wicked, will end also. Whoever deny this, let them give us from the other Scriptures, an explanation of that wonderful passage of Holy Writ, consistent with the doctrine of endless misery and torment. If this cannot be done and I think we may safely defy any man living to do it-it follows that the end of the mediatorial kingdom` is clearly the end of this dispensation, and the vast intermediate space is the duration of the Scriptural eternity, and of every thing that depends upon it. And as the Scriptures carry us no farther than this point, every thing beyond it is inveloped among those secrets of the Divine Theocracy which God has not vouchsafed to reveal to mankind. Only of this we may be certain-neither sin, sorrow, pain, or misery, will be found in that state, where GOD IS ALL IN ALL. ATONEMENT AND PARDON. MR. EDITOR, See Vol. iv. P. 34. Observe in the primitive church (1 Tim. iii. 9) no one could be admitted even into the deacon's office, unless he was 66 ' holding the mystery of the faith in a (xabapa) purged conscience." And in Heb. ix. 13. I find an explanation of this mystery, as follows" For if the blood of bulls, &c. sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works, to serve the living God." And the same apostle, speaking of the happy state of mind that all true Christians were possessed of, says, Rom. v. 11. "We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." Therefore, from these considerations, I am led to conclude, that a genuine knowledge of the atonement and the enjoyment of the pardon of sin, are to be looked upon as inseparable. Now, if this is a true statement of the connection betwixt atonement and the pardon of sin, what can your correspondent S. B. inean by asking, "How the Sacred Scriptures hold them forth, as not to clash with or contradict each other?" He complains that he has waited a long time, and no person comes forward to answer his question. As to the length of time he has waited, he ought to consider that 'the apostle Paul is taking notice of some who have waited much longer for a solution of the very same subject, 2 Tim. iii. 7. Should therefore esteem it a favour, whilst he is waiting for satisfaction respecting this doctrine, to clear up the following problem, viz. |