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Abraham, in whom, and in his feed Meffiah, and for their fake, God has mised, even with an oath, to blefs all the nations, kindreds, and families of the earth.

But let none conclude from the above, that the fufferings of a future ftate will be tolerable, either in degree or continuance; for they fhall not be lefs dreadful in duration than in their nature; the term day not restricting them in this refpect, but only importing that, like that portion of time, the period of fuffering and mifery fhall have an end. The original word which our Lord employs, Math. xxv. 46. xoxxots, punishment, denotes the terrible nature of future mifery, yet withal ita benign defign and tendency, Parkhurft derives it from a Hebrew verb, kola. which means to check, to refrain, to correct, in allufion to the checking of the luxuriant growth of vines, and other trees, by pruning, which operation is performed by a fteel inftrument. Grotius and other eminent writers agree in this fenfe of the word, as fanctioned by Greek authors, whence it might be rendered, correction, chaftifement. But the idea of endless punish. ment, and that of correction are irreconcileable, and fubverfive of each other; for a never ending correction is a contradiction in terms, whence the word eternal, as used above by our Lord, muft fignify a severe chastisement for a long unknown period. The fufferings of that period bearing no analogy to thofe of the prefent ftate, in their intenfenefs and duration, and indeed in nothing, except in their falutary end or defign, which proceeds from God's paternal love, the original language of the New Teftament employs two different words to exprefs them. The term used to denote our fufferings in the prefent life, xaida, fignifies fuch difcipline or correction as is adapted to the age of a child, and may be inflicted with a rod. "Whom the Lord loveth he chafteneth, and fcourgeth every fon whom he receiveth," or corrects him with the rod, The fame word alfo denotes inftruction, and the verb derived from it, to chaflife, to teach, to inftruɛ, according to that faying, The rod and the word give wisdom. If this be the end our heavenly Father has in correcting on earth, he must change, else the fame must be the defign also of future punishment. Solomon tells us, that the preparations, or, as the margin reads it, difpofings of the heart in man, by which it believeth unto righteousness, and the answer of the tongue, by which confeffion ie made unto falvation, is from the Lord, Prov. xvi. 1. A fpecimen of the wonderful and various ways by which the Lord effecteth this, may be seen in Manaffeh, Nebuchadnezzar, Saul of Tarfus, and Mary Magdalane. But I must break off. Wishing you God's fpeed in every laudable effort to promote his caufe and kingdom, I remain,

Dear Sir,

Cordially yours, &d.

LETTER XVII.

Then faid they, Come and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall

not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wife, nor the word from the prophet: come and let us fmite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words. Give heed to me, O Lord, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me. Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my foul. Remember that I food before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.-The bread of God is he who cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. I will give my flesh for the life of the world. He that eateth of this bread fhall live for ever. Many therefore of his difciples, when they heard this, faid, This is an hard faying, who can bear it? When Jefus knew in himself that his difciples murmured at it, be faid unto them Doth this offend you ?-Jer. xix. John vi.

DEAR SIR,

OUR Lord teftifies of himfelf, "I am the light of the world." Is he ap pointed by his Father to be the official light and Saviour of the world? and hath he given his flesh for the life of the world, that by a facrifice for fin he might deftroy it in the flesh? and is he the bread of God that giveth life unto the world? and fhall the world not with ftanding remain always dark, dead, famished, and in a state of deftruction? To say it will, and that none shall partake of thefe bleffings to all eternity but the elect, is as reasonable as to affert, that the fun enlightens only a fmall part of the earth, that bread nourishes the life only of a few men, and that Christ will quicken only a very few of those for whom he gave his life a ranfom, and died that they might live.

Jehovah fays of the feed of Abraham, " Ifrael was holinefs to the Lord, and the firft-fruits of his increafe," Jer. ii. 3. By increase here we are to nnderftand the Gentiles, or the reft of mankind, who were in due time to accede to the church of God. We are accordingly told, that of the increafe of Meffiah's king. dom there fhall be no end, that fresh acceffions fhall be made to it till all the purpofes of its appointment be fully anfwered. A late verfion of the Bible renders. the above clause, "Ifrael was separated from the idolatrous nations, as holy to the Eternal, as the firft-fruits of mankind," which doubtless expreffes the fenfe of the original. The Jews were all along a typical people, and in God's deal ings with them, we may behold, as in a glafs, an outline of his dealings with the whole human race. In their bondage in Egypt, and deliverance from it, we fee in figure the inthralled ftate of the firft-born, prior to their converfion, and God's gracious interpofition in their behalf, in turning them from darkness to light, and from the power and kingdom of Satan, to that of the Son of his love. In their after captivity in Babylon, and return to their own land, we have a ftriking picture of the state of degenerate churches, under the Lord's chaftisement, and of the healing of their backflidings. But in the prefent long difperfion of the fecd of Ifrael, I conceive, we have a figure of the forlorn ftate of the unbelieving

corn.

part of mankind beyond the grave, both in point of mifery and duration. If fo, then the future acceffion of the Jews to the church of God, will be a pledge and earneft of the restoration of the loft part of mankind, when the times of the re ftitution of all things fhall come. Tho' all are not the true Ifrael, or of the church of the first born, that are of Ifrael; yet we find gracious promises that include all Ifrael, even in the literal fenfe. In their calamity God addreffes them, "O my threshing, and the corn of my floor," Ifa. xxi. 10. which plainly fays, that their captivity, tho' long and grievous, was intended merely to feperate them, as wheat, from what might be compared to ftraw, chaff, and the refuse of But if the above address is viewed as made to the Chaldeans, which commentators admit, then the reafon holds more forcibly. The overthrow of Babylon was a figure and earnest of the total and terrible deftruction of the antichristian fyftem; yet even that dreadful vifitation of Providence shall treat the wicked subjects of it, as the corn of God's floor, which he threshes and fans, as the great Hufbandman, for the most beneficent purposes. Hell is God's largest and most terrible threshing floor; and hence the term tribulation, by which we render the word employed by the elder to denote the fufferings there inflicted, is taken from a term tribulus, that denotes a threshing inftrument. Every human being, fo far as he is the workmanship of God, who is the father of our fpirits, and the framer of our bodies, is wheat; and the Lord well knows how to fever the chaff, &c. from his own wheat. To effect this feperation is the leading ob ject of Chrift's appointment, as the Judge of quick and dead; and the glory of his Father is deeply concerned in the fublime and extenfive work. It will also bring to himself an eternal revenue of glory.

In the 14th, 15th, and 23d chapters of Jeremiah's prophecies, as alfo in many other parts of his writings, we have an affecting picture of the guilt of ancient Ifracl, as alfo of the Lord's fevere judgments, which that guilt procured. But tho' the Lord forbade the prophet to pray for them, and threatened to give them up to deftruction without mercy, yet his own Spirit powerfully interceded in Jeremíah in their behalf, and did not plead in vain. "Then faid the Lord unto me, Pray not for this people for their good," Jer. xiv. 11. But we hear him downwards praying, "We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have finned against thee. Do not abhor us, for thy name's fake; do not difgrace the throne of thy glory; remember, break not thy covenant with us," ver. 20, 21. We fee whereon he founded his hope, in praying for mercy in behalf of a guilty rebellious people, even upon the covenant made with the Patriarchs, which included not only their feed, but also all mankind, of whom the Jews were the firft-fruits.

The Jews are called in an especial manner Meffiah's people, his own to whom he came; "He shall save his people from their fins." On the cross he prayed for all that had an active hand in his death, "Father forgive them;" yea, in them, for all in every age that should be incenfed against him, and affent, in cffect, to that infernal deed. He had long before received the Jews as the firftfruits of the nations, and on the day of Pentecoft fome thousands of them belie

ved on him, as the firt fruits of the answer of that prayer, and as a pledge and earneft of the whole at length. Therefore, tho' alas! too many, both of Jews and Gentiles, now reject him, and live and die ignorant of him, muft we, on that account, conclude, that he will never recover them, either among the firft. fruits, or the full harveft,

When the Lord Jefus fhall have finished the grand work given him to do, by gathering together not only all the firft-fruits, from among Jews and Gentiles, but alfo the full harvest, of which thefe are a certain pledge, in what a complete and glorious fenfe will the following lines of the pious poet Mr Cowper, which he addreffes to Meffiah, be realized!

"Come then, and added to thy many crowns,

Receive yet one as radiant as the rest,

Due to thy last and most effectual work,

Thy word fulfill'd, the conqueft of a world."

Some cannot bear the thought that living waters fhould be reprefented as entering into the lake of the fecond death; tho' it cannot be denied, that the prophet expressly predicts what imports this in figure. He faw in vifion the living waters that iffued out from under the threshold of the temple, going into the dead fea, or the lake of Sodom, which is allowed to be a figure of hell itself, Ezek. xlvii. But I would remind them of fomething more wonderful than li ving waters flowing into the fiery lake, and there deftroying the fecond death. Hell was prepared of old for the devil and his angels, and the breath of the Almighty is faid, like a ftream of brimftone, to kindle its devouring flames. The breath and Spirit of God are fynonimous terms; and where his Spirit is, there is liberty, and by him he breathies on the flain, and caufes them to live. Is it at all furprising to find God working in a region of his own creation, and there fhewing wonders on the dead, and his faithfulness in deftruction? Pfal. lxxxviii• But that he should enter into a fountain wholly impregnated by the venom of the old ferpent, and which daily fends forth ftreams of polluted waters; that he should deign to work in a cage full of unclean and hateful birds, is certainly more wonderful. Su.h, however, is the heart of every impenitent finner; and when the Chriftian reflects that fuch was his own heart, when God took poffeffion of it, by his grace and Spirit, why should he think it incredible, that the Lord fhould cause living waters to flow into that region, where his own breath had been fo long employed in fanning the flames of the great furnace of fire? Why fhould it be thought incredible that God should raise the dead, and begin a work in their dismal abode, to be had in everlasting remembrance?

JO, II, 12.

In the chaotic ftate of creation, the Holy Spirit moved on the face of the great deep, or abyss, which was a figure of hell, and there produced the fish in the waters, and the fowls out of the waters, which was a fhadow of good things to come, that are to be realized, in my humble opinion, in the new creation. Doth not our Lord daily announce his faving voice in the grave of fpiritual death, the filthieft hell in the univerfe, and there caufe the dead to hear its joy. ful found? The prophet tells us that the kings of the earth will be gathered to.

gether, and fhut up clofe prifoners in a dungeon, but that they fhall be vifited again after many days, Ifa. xxiv. Does not the Pfalmift say, "It is he that giveth falvation unto kings?" Pfal. cxliv. 10. The heathen, or the nations, fhall fear the name of the Lord; and all the kings of the earth thy glory," Pfal. cii. 15. If thofe who have been generally ringleaders in apoftacy from God, and rebellion against him, too often ufurping his titles, and invading his province, fhall, notwithstanding, be vifited after they are many days fhut up in prifon, and have falvation sent to them, yea, fing in the ways of the Lord, when they hear the words of his mouth, even all the kings of the earth, Pfal. cxxxviii. 4, 5. can we exclude their people from the fame privilege? I conceive that kings are mentioned in particular, even all the kings of the earth, to fhew the abfolute certainty of the recovery of the reft of mankind. Upon this extenfive view of our Lord's faving work, the apoftle might well found his prayer for his Chriftian brethren, "And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you," 1 Theff. iii. 12. Did he view matters in the light of the received doctrine, with what confiftency could he pray, that they might abound in fuch love toward all men, as he and his fellow-apoftles had toward them? which doubtlefs included an ardent desire, and lively hope of their falvation. How could he lift up holy hands in fuch a prayer, without doubting, if he believed, as some profess to do, that not one for fome thousands of mankind fhall be faved, or benefited by the death of Chrift? But I venture to say, that neither Paul, nor any of his brethren, believed, or preached, any fuch doctrine; for they do not feem to have fo learned Chrift. Does not the fentence to be paffed on the wicked at the laft day, object fome, exclude all hope or poffibility of their restoration?" Depart from me, ye curfed into everlafting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels," Mat. xxv. 41. A little attention will fuffice to fhew, that there is nothing in this fentence which Can militate against the restoration, when the words that expreis that fentence are properly understood. Seeing the original term, from which the word rendered everlasting is derived, denotes only a period of limited, tho' unknown duration, how can the word derived from it intend endless duration, or be employed to express what fhall never have an end? We have our Lord's authority for affecting that the former means only a limited period, "The harveft (fays he) is the end of the world, the confummation of the age, a plain proof that it cannot intend eternity, as that can have no end, Mat. xiii. 39. In his parting promise to his difciples, the very fame phrafe occurs, "Lo, I am with you alway, evea unto the end of the world," or of the gofpel difpenfation, Mat. xxviii. 20. Anc. ther plain proof that our Lord did not mean to convey the idea of eternity by the word which he ufed, and he certainly knew the meaning of language as well as those who prefume in oppofition to him, to make it import abfolute eternity. Can that which is finite in its import, cur Lord being judge, be the root or parent of a word that denotes infinite duration? Eternity is one, and is not divided by time, as is ufually thought. God himfelf is its only inhabitant; for all crea tures, whether in this world, or in the other, are ftill in time, and will be till our Lord deliver up his kingdom to his Father, when God will be all in all; which