ed judgment-seat means your judgment-seat in a future state of existence. Could you have produced this, Pilate, Herod, Gallio, and Sosthenes would never have been named.

On p. 128, 129, you thus write: "Mr. B. applies this passage of course to the destruction of Jerusalem. But, according to history, Paul was dead before that period; how then could he be rewarded at that time, seeing there is no intermediate existence on Mr. B's plan? This difficulty he felt, and attempted to remove by telling us that Paul was rewarded after death. But how was he rewarded? How? Why, by leaving a great name behind him! Paul, the apostles, and the primitive Christians,' says Mr. B. shall be had in everlasting remembrance; p. 296. This, then, is the 'great reward,' the incorruptible crown,' which Jesus promised to the faithful! He will grant them the bubble honor, if they will wait patiently till they are dead, so that they cannot receive it! The great and glorious reward which the gospel holds out to the true and faithful follower of Christ, is fame,

--a fancied life in others' breath,

A thing beyond us, e'en before our death.'

"It is to be regretted that men of sense and judgment will have recourse to such pitiful shifts to save a sinking system.'

I pass over entirely the sarcasm and ridicule which appears in these remarks, for these things do not happen to be argument with me. On this quotation I remark 1st. I examined the Scripture usage of the term crown and I will thank you or any man to show that my statements are unscriptural. Until this is at least attempted your sarcasm and ridicule are premature. 2d. But do you indeed call the approbation of God and Jesus Christ "the bubble honor?" Yes Sir, for the "righteous to be had in everlasting re

*

membrance" is only the "bubble honor" by your own statements in the above quotation. But granting it were true, it is certainly as good as any thing you give us in its place. But 3d. Is it like an honorable man, to represent that this "bubble honor" is my reward, my heaven after the resurrection of the dead? You certainly know that this is false. My heaven after the resurrection is a life of incorruption and glory, 1 Cor. 15. This life, this heaven, Paul or others could do no more to procure, than the infant who drops from the womb into the grave. It is the grace given us in Christ Jesus, and will be bestowed on all in the resurrection at the last day. 4th. What you call my "bubble honor," was that which all the faithful followers of Christ obtained, who having endured to the end, were waiting for their Lord's coming, mentioned in Matt. chaps. 24, 25. But 5th. What is your heaven? It is just the reverse of your hell-pleasant mental reflections, as I showed in my Essays, p. 343-346. People go to your hell because they did not labor. All who go to your heaven it seems get there for doing their duty. No, not quite so much as this, for you send some there, who after a life of iniquity, by a few hours penitence and pain on the cross, entitle themselves to immediate pleasant reflections in heaven. 6th. But to give point to your sarcasm and ridicule you say "Christ will grant them the bubble honor, if they will wait patiently till they are dead, so that they cannot receive it." But it is shown in my Essays, and hinted at above, that my bubble honor was conferred on all the faithful followers of Jesus whether they were dead or alive.Nor have you so much as attempted to refute what I have said. But the above sarcasm comes with an ill grace from you, for if your view of verse 10 is correct, persons must not only wait patiently until they are dead, but until your day of judgment at the

end of the world, to be either punished or rewarded. This will appear presently. What I would observe here is, that if your reasoning in the above quotation is admitted correct, God must work a continued miracle to fulfil either his promises or his threatenings, or the course of human events must be stopped. For example, Christ said-" he that endureth to the end shall be saved." But his promise was never fulfilled to such faithful disciples as died before the destruction of Jerusalem. Again he said, "that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth." But some of the wicked Jews died, and escaped this threatening. But Sir, this objection of yours, sarcastically stated, was fully answered in my Essays, p. 290–296. Answer what I have said there, then indulge your sarcasm. Virtue, wisdom, prudence, righteousness and other things which were stated as a crown of glory to their possessors, it seems are only the "bubble honor." But to use your own words-"it is to be regretted that men of sense and judgment will have recourse to such pitiful shifts to save a sinking system."

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I have thus briefly remarked on all you have said on this passage. But there are two or three remarks I have yet to make which show you have a mistaken view of it. 1st. You have contended, that verse 10. teaches a universal judgment. Admit this true, and what follows? It follows-that all, Paul not excepted, are to be punished at it. Every one is to receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." not all, Paul not excepted, done many bad things in the body? Allowing, Sir, that Paul and others did many good things in the body, still they must be punished for the bad things done, as well as receive a reward for their good things. Paul then, on your own view of the text, could not go to heaven to be

Have

with Christ at death, unless you send him there be fore he was punished for the bad things he did in his body. It will not answer for you to say he was punished for these in this world. No Sir; for it is at your day of judgment the bad deeds done in the body are to be punished, and the good deeds rewarded. I have just as good a right to say he was rewarded for his good deeds here, as you have to say he was punished for his bad deeds here.

You have all along been contending, that men are to receive for both these at a day of judgment at the end of this world. And does not this fairly show, that they are to be both rewarded and punished at the same time? And how do you as a fair reasoner prove that the punishment is to be limited, yet the reward is eternal? Is it not as likely that people may be rewarded out of heaven as punished out of hell?

2d. Whatever is here declared, shall be "received" for either good or bad deeds done, it is to be in the body. The passage read without the supplements shows this. But you say this is to be received after people leave the body. In fact you place both the reward and the punishment at an immense distance from the time the deeds were done. If I suspend men's conscious existence between death and the resurrection you suspend their punishment and reward for the same length of time. And might they not all this time be just as well without any conscious existence as existing in a state of neither reward nor punishment?

3d. The connexion between the 10th and 11th verses shows you are mistaken in your views of this whole passage. In the 11th verse Paul says, “knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men." What terror of the Lord, Sir? Surely from the connexion, appearing at your judgment day to be punished, according to your view of it. But if you will only

consult Dr. Clarke, he will tell you-" this, I think is too harsh a translation of eidotes oun ton phobon tou kuriou, which should be rendered-knowing therefore the fear of the Lord." After refuting the common opinion of this passage he adds, "men who vindicate. their constant declamations on hell and perdition, by quoting this text, know little of its meaning; and, what is worse, seem to know but little of the nature of man, and perhaps less of the spirit of the gospel of Christ." See his whole exposition.

LETTER VII.

SIR,

THE seventh division of your book is termed

"Scripture proof of a future retribution."

first proof text is,

Your

John 5: 28, 29. "Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." You begin by observing-"this passage not only teaches a retribution, but a retribution which is to take place at a particular specified time," and allow it is specified by the phrase "erhatai hora," the hour is coming, p. 132. Yet on p. 139, you say, "the phrase the hour is coming' means nothing more than this-the time is future." But Sir," the time is future” is no "particular specified time" at all, but future time without any particular specification. How you make out that the time is future" designates a "particular