your Mifcellany, this becomes the lefs neceflary. I cannot but feel furprifed that any fhould think it conclufive against the doctrine of universal reftoration, which it leaves, in my opinion, untouched. It contains a number of just remarks on the too common deceits of the human heart, in matters of religion. The author does not feem to me to understand the doctrine of the Univerfalifts, which he profefles to refute. If that doctrine be fcriptural, which he does not difprove, the power and wisdom of God furnish a fufficient answer to his questions as to time and manner, which may with equal force be urged against other parts of the divine procedure.

to prove;

Much of his reafoning goes for nought, as applied to the friends of the Reftoration, who maintain, as well as himself, the certainty and severity of future punishment. It is uncandid to infinuate, as is often done, that they deny this. Though "the highest good of the wriverfe requires the avenging of all unrighteousness and ungodlinefs," does it therefore require, that that vengeance fhould never have a period? This he has not attempted and would find it a hard task if he did. The most valuable ends may be anfwered by limited fufferings, all of which would be excluded if protracted without end. Is it effential to the. Divine administration that it fhould cease to be paternal with regard to the far greater part of God's intelligent offspring, and remain, as long as he exifts, vindictive? Are we not told, that he is the Father of mercies, in whom compaffions flow;and that he is full of compaffion? Nothing, therefore, can proceed from him that is foreign to mercy. Nay more, his every act must be the refult of mercy; for as is the fountain, fo are its ftreams. Who can conceive the extent of the Divine fulnefs? And if God be full of compaffion, how can he fend forth fuch oppofite ftreams as the fweet waters of endless blifs, and the bitter waters of boundlefs and never-ending woe? But let future punishment reft on the bafis of paternal love, where we would expect the chastisements of a wife father to reft, and be admitted to be corrective throughout, and not vindictive, and we at once fee the uniformity of God's adminiftration, and the confiftency of his character. Though "the effential perfections of his nature require that fin fhould be feverely punished," yet we know that there is no perfection of his nature that hinders him to pardon it, for the fake of Jefus his anointed: And for no other mode of forgivenefs do we contend. How delightful to fing, without having recourfe to a quibble, to qualify and reftrict the fenfe,

"He died to bear the guilt of men ;

That fin might be forgiven.

He lives to bless them, and defend

And plead their cause in heaven."

Though God's regard to the happinefs of individuals leads us to concinde that he will punith fin, yet this very regard leads us alfo to hope, that he will not punith it eternally; as the happinefs of individuals can never be more complete than when it is confitent with the happiness of the whole. It is alfo granted, that God's conduct towards the fallen angels manifefts his determination to punifh fin; but neither will this prove the perpetual duration of that punishment. The fame may be faid of the sufferings of the Mediator, and of the appointment of the day of judgment.

It is more easily afferted than proved, that the "only reftitution of all things of which any of the prophets have spoken, is that which will be completed at the fecond coming of Chrift." It is granted, that "that is the very time of the commencement of the main punishment of the wicked, and not of their restoration to happiness:" But there is nothing in Scripture to hinder, but much to encourage, our expecting fuch an event afterward; for God can, according to his word and promife, make all things new and beautiful in their own order and time.

But the argument on which he feems to lay chief stress is, that the fame term is employed, Math. xxv. 46. to denote the duration of the happiness of the righteous, and of the mifery of the wicked. "It is extremely improbable," he justly remarks, "that the fame term should mean infinitely more in the last clause than it did in the preceding. See Rom. v. 15, 18, 19, 20; alfo 1. Corinth. xv. 22, where, if his own rule be applied, he muft difcard fome of the leading doctrines of his own fyftem; and many others urge the fame argument from Math. xxv. 26. who are guilty of the fame inconfiftency, over the belly of the Doctor's rule. "Inattention to this rule has introduced much hurtful controverfy in the church. It is against the neglect of it that we often find caufe to object. In the fame latitude the term can be taken in both clauses, and yet the restoration rests on a folid basis. As the wicked fhall then go away to the age-lafting punifhment, which is proved to be the literal meaning of the term, fo the righteous to the age-lafting life, in the New Jerufalem ftate, the substance of the jubilee, which thall terminate our Lord's mediatory reign, when he fhall have dilivered up the kingdom to the Father, but not the bliss of his people, which fhall be properly eternal, in the higheft heavens. But the Doctor, and those who are like-minded, are the last who fhould urge fuch an objection, because their own peculiar tenets entirely depend on that very mode of interpreting Scripture, which varies the fenfe of the fame term in the fame fentence or verse, as appears from their glofs on the paffages referred to above. Is not this mode as faulty when employed to fupport the Doctor's tenets, as those of his oponents? But the latter reject its aid, as making too free with the word of God.

It cannot escape an attentive reader of the Doctor's fermon, that he does not fo much as attempt to find the leading doctrine he meant to inculcate in the paffage of Scripture chofen for that purpose, as fpoken by God himfelf. A preacher fhould at leaft endeavour to make it appear, that the text on which he has fixed, as the basis of his discourse, contains the leading truths he would deduce from it; for, let it be ever fo ingenious, if it be not the offspring of the text, or go far beyond what that authorifes, we are tempted to think there is no paffage in the bible to fupport the doctrine grafted upon it, or that the writer himself knew not of any, elfe he would prefer it. Upon the whole, fo far as the fermon refpects the univerfal doctrine, the leading thing, it would feem, the author had in view,, it appears to me an entire mifconception or mifrepresentation of the fubject, whatever merit it may poffefs in other refpects. But it will pafs very well with fuperficial thinkers, whofe creed is already completed, and who are determined, at all hazards, to defend it.

God fpeaks in his word as to children, and is it reasonable to suppose that he ufes fuch a mode of expreflion as needs all the addrefs of the fchoolman to adjuft and reduce into proper form? Would he countenance,

by his own example, perjury or mental refervation in his creatures, even upon the most folemn occafions, which must be the cafe, if his own oath is not to be understood in the plain meaning of the terms in which it is expreffed? The following declarations of Scripture, when my attention. was directed to them, appeared quite fubvertive of the common doctrine, or irreconcilable to each other in their plain and obvious meaning. It is repeatedly afferted, and fometimes even with the folemnity of an oath, that all nations, kindreds, and families of the earth fhall be bleffed in Abraham, and in his feed, Meffiah; that all kings fhall fall down before him; that all nations fhall ferve him, and call him bleffed "O God, thou shalt inherit all nations—All nations whom thou haft made fhall come and worfhip before thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name," Pfal. lxxxii. 8. lxxxvi. 9. "The wicked fhall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God, Pfal. ix. 17. "Thefe fhall go away into everlafting punishment." Understanding thefe different portions of Scripture according to the plain meaning of the language, and they are fet at irreconcilable variance, fhall we make free with the oath of God, and fay, that he means only a very few nations, &c. when he uses the univerfal term all? This is the common glofs; but ah, what a reflection does it caft on the Divine character! We have no right to call the truth of God's threatening in queftion; for the wicked, and all the nations that forget him, shall be turned into hell, and these are not few. Are there any nations whom God has not made? for all that he has made fhall come and worship before him, and glorify his name. But how this fall come to pafs, if all the nations that are, and shall be turned into hell, remain throughout all duration there, exceeds my comprehenfion; and yet the promise and oath of God cannot be broken, nor must they be perverted or explained away! But the univerfal doctrine folves this difficulty, and the frequent import of the phrafes for ever and everlasting fully justifies that solution. Let confcience then fay, who honour God most, they who make him equivocate in his very oath, or mean a quite different thing from what he speaks, or those that understand his word in uniform confiftency with itself, and fhew the perfect harmony that fubfifts between the Divine character and administration, and runs throughout the whole.

This declaration made to Abraham, "In thee fhall all nations be bleffed," was deemed preaching the gospel by Paul, Gal. iii. 8. but this character is now denied to it, unless in the qualified and very limited fenfe in which fome are pleased to take it; for the man who would preach that all nations fhall be bleffed in Meffiah, even all the nations whom God has made, or who owe their existence to him, may lay his account to be reputed a grofs heretic. When shall the efficacy of that promise cease, “I will cleanfe their blood that I have not cleanfed; for the Lord dwelleth in Zion;" or, as the margin renders it, "even the Lord that dwelleth in Zion," Joel iii. 21. That all nations fhall be bleffed in Christ, and yet whole nations be miferable without end, is a mystery, or rather flat contradiction, which would fhock every one, were it not for the prejudice of education that can render any abfurdity venerable.

The following paffage, in one of Mr Newton's letters, lately attracted my attention: "There is a period approaching, when all that is now rough and crooked fhall be made plain and streight. The Lord has promifed it, and therefore all his works are reprefented as expecting and

waiting for it. This fhall be at the manifeftation of the fons of God. The curfe fhall be fully removed from the creation; the Lord fhall create all things new, and again pronounce all things good; the creature's expectation fhall be answered; it shall be restored to its honour and ufe. Under what circumstances, and, to what particular purpofes, this change will take place, we know not; but a change worthy of divine wifdom, though beyond the limits of our weak apprehenfions, we are warranted from Scripture to expect. It is afferted in this paffage, to which we may probably add 2 Pet. iii. 13. Rev. xxi. I.

"The hour is coming when the myfterious plan of divine providence fhall be unfolded, vindicated, and completed; when it fhall appear that the Lord Jefus Chrift is head and restorer of the creation; and how fully in every fenfe he has repaired the ruin brought into the world by fin, and deftroyed the works of the devil. As a theatre whereon to difplay the wonders of his providence and grace, the earth was renewed after the flood, and still continues; but not in its original ftate-there are marks of the evil of fin, and of God's displeasure against it, wherever we turn our eyes. When the fons of God fhall be manifefted, then shall the creature also be delivered from the bondage of corruption. But if the fecret voice of the whole creation defires the confummation of all things, furely they who have the light of God's word and fpirit will look forward, and long for that glorious day."

Let this extract be candidly examined, and fee if it does not contain all that is contended for. I indeed find Mr Newton, in one of his fermons, attempting to refute the restoration, as extended to intelligent beings; but this fays no more than that men are not always confiftent with themselves, and that the force of truth upon their minds fometimes carries them beyond the narrow limits of their own fyftem. It is evident the Apoftle did not mean to confine the term creature and creation, which are the fame in the original, to the inanimate and irrational parts of the creation; for he himself teaches us to view it as equivalent to the whole creation, or every creature, ver. 22. and that as excluding none but the fons of God, the firft fruits and church of the first born, they being the pledge and earnest of the recovery of the reft of mankind, in due time, to their rightful Lord, at the period of the manifestation of the fons of God, when the reft" alfo fhall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." Does not this evidently imply deliverance from moral and penal evil, and the poffeffion of the oppofite bleffings, things of which neither inanimate nature, nor the irrational tribes, are capable.

I find the following conceffion in a work of the late Dr M'Knight, Edinburgh, when arguing for the perpetuity of future mifery: " At the fame time I must be fo candid as to acknowledge, that the ufe of the terms eternal, everlasting, forever, in other paffages of fcripture, fhews that they who understand thefe words in a limited fenfe, when applied to future punishment, put no forced interpretation on them. Allowing that eternal punithments are really meant in the threatenings of the gofpel,

Newton's Cardiphenia, let. 29, entitled, Thoughts on Rom. viii. 19, 20, 21.

no man can deny that God has it ftill in his power to mitigate and molify his threatenings to what degree his infinite wifdom fees fit. +"

The argument on which he lays chief weight is, God's oath refpecting the rebellious Ifraelites; but that oath does not in the least affect the truth of universal restoration, as expounded by its moft judicious defenders. Though he grants that the ufe of the terms forever, eternal, everlasting, as applied to future mifery, do not prove it to be of unceasing duration, yet he thinks that "it is by far the fafeft part to believe, that eternal punishments are threatened in the gospel against impenitent finners." But it is certainly fafeft to believe the fcriptures in the fenfe God intends, and to fearch them for that purpose, than in that fenfe which may be attached to them by human wisdom.

If I recollect well, fome of the Doctor's fubfequent writings discover his fentiments plainly in favour of the reftoration; and few of its opponents can come up to him for true learning, and chafte fcripture-criticifm. His view of the phrafe everlasting deftruction, 2 Theff. i. 9. is as repugnant to the common doctrine as that of the Univerfalifts. But though he had for his colleagues and co-presbyters fome of the most famed for orthodoxy in the Church of Scotland, yet have I never heard that he received any trouble for his fentiments, or that his writings have been branded fince his death. Candour and moderation are the native fruit of cool and difpafionate enquiry; while bigotry, uncharitable cenfures, and perfecution, refult from a party spirit, and partial views of the merits of a cause. "He that walks uprightly walks furely."

In the following letters fimplicity is ftudied. Though the subject furnishes abundant fcope for the erudition of the learned, yet is there much of it level to the capacity of the illiterate, when clearly propofed, and very much adapted to popular inftruction. It is not easy, in prefent circumstances, to write on the fubject with Christian meeknefs and moderation, however much it is calculated to beget univerfal benevolence. There is fome unripe corn, indeed, that needs, as the prophet speaks, a fharp threshing inftrument, with teeth, to separate the grain from the straw and

the chaff.

Though my name has appeared prematurely in your Mifcellany, which has occafioned fome uneafinefs, yet you have now leave to make fuch ufe of it, and of this publication, as you may think most conducive to the facred intereft of truth. The nature and bounds of this performance could not. admit of much research, it being only a fhort outline of what was written for my own inftruction, and the inspection of a friend; but fuch as it is I commit it to God, whofe caufe I wish to plead and defend; and in it contribute my mite to the revival of a glorious doctrine, which has been too long buried under the rubbish of a fyftematic divinity. I am not without hope, that this doctrine, fo obnoxious to those who underfland it not, may yet be the mean, through the divine bleffing, of cementing the divifions of Zion, counteracting the fpread of infidelity, and fanning the expiring embers of Chriftian love into an ardent flame.. That fuch may be its blefed fruits, let us abound more and more in the prayer of faith to God, and in the labours and kind offices of brotherly love to men; thus fhall we put to filence the ignorance of foolish men,

Truth of the Gofpele, p. 138.