"the end, when he fhall have delivered up "the kingdom to God, even the Father;--"then shall the Son alfo himself be subject " unto him that put all things under him, "that God may be all in all."

There can be no doubt, but that the punishment of the wicked will be very awful; but if God be a juft and righteous governor, it must be in proportion to the fins, by the commiffion of which it is incurred; and there is no proportion between finite and infinite. Befides, in the fcriptures, the divine being appeals to mankind, whether his ways be not equal, that is, juft and reafonable, Ezekiel xviii. 25. And Abraham takes it for granted, that "the judge of all "the earth must do that which is right." Gen. xviii. 25. that is, what is agreeable to our ideas of justice and equity. It is, morcover, exprefly faid, Pf. ciii. 9. that "God keepeth not his anger for ever," that "in judgment he remembereth mercy," and that "he is not extreme to mark iniquity." Thefe expreffions feem to be intended to give us an idea of the divine character, and

the

the general maxims of his conduct; and muft, therefore, refpect his government in a future world, as well as this. Alfo, whenever the divine juftice and mercy are compared, the latter is always represented as of greater extent than the former. Thus he is faid, Ex. xx. 5. "to vifit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the

fourth generation, but to fhew mercy to thousands of them that love him.”

It is remarkable, that the punishment of the wicked is always defcribed in general terms only, expreffive of great and uncertain fufferings; whereas, if the doctrine of the proper eternity of hell torments had been ftrictly true, we might have expected, that it would be faid, in fo many words, that it Should have no end, and that the greatest ftrefs fhould always have been laid upon this most important circumftance, as being most interesting and alarming to all mankind.

Our Saviour, indeed, fays, Mark ix. 44. that "their worm dieth not, and the fire

is not quenched;" but this is manifeftly a figurative expreffion; and, befides, the words are taken from Ifaiah 1xvi. 24. where they are applied to the burning of dead bodies. All the meaning may be, that the fire fhall not be quenched till it has confumed that which fhall be committed to it, fo as to have answered its deftined end; that is, till those wicked perfons who are doomed to those flames be destroyed, or till their vices be thoroughly corrected.

Christ also says of Judas Iscariot, Matt. xxvi. 24. that "it had been good for him, "if he had not been born." But this, again, is a figurative expreffion, used to denote extreme mifery and diftrefs in general, efpecially fuch as is apt to make men wish, from anguish of mind and impatience, that they had never been born; which was the cafe with Job, though at the time that he ufed fuch expreffions as these, Job iii. it is probable that his fufferings had been greatly overbalanced by his happiness.

VOL. II.

Cc

It

It muft likewife be allowed to be an ar gument of confiderable weight against the proper eternity of hell torments, that the number of those who believe and obey the gofpel, and of the virtuous and good in general, who alone are entitled to the happiness of heaven, is fometimes represented as fmall, in comparison with that of the difobedient and wicked; as when our Saviour fays, Matt. vii. 13. "Enter ye in at the ftrait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to deftruc66 tion, and many there be who go in there"at because ftrait is the gate, and narrow

is the way which leadeth unto life, and

"few there be that find it *." Now there feems to be no way of reconciling this with the notion of divine goodness, but upon the fuppofition that the wicked will either finally perish, like plants or fruits which never come to their maturity, or that just and severe punishment will be a means of

It is proper to obferve, however, that, in the opinion of fome, this paffage, and others of a fimilar turn, do not relate to the final state of mankind in general; but to the ftate of things at the time when the words were delivered, and to the outward profeffion of christianity only

correcting

correcting and improving them. For God, having a perfect fore-knowledge of all that would actually happen, cannot be supposed to have made a voluntary choice of a fyftem, the final iffue of which he knew would be the everlasting and inexpreffible misery of the greater part of his creatures.

It must be allowed, however, that the fcriptures represent the punishments of the wicked in a future world, to be exceedingly dreadful, fo that we have reafon to be alarmed to the utmost extent of our faculties. Even this may stagger fome; but it will not appear inconfiftent with the usual government of God, if it be confidered, to how much anguish and diftrefs many fingle acts of fin and folly often expofe us in this life; and, therefore, it is very poffible, that all the vices of this prefent state may expofe us to inexpreffibly greater fufferings in the life to come.

For fome obfervations on the moral effect of the doctrines of the proper eternity, or non-eternity of future punishments, I must