I have no apprehension, that the doctrine of endless punishment will suffer at all by a thorough discussion. In the course of the disquisition many may be perverted to fatal error; yet the final result will be the more clear elucidation of the truth. However " many may run to

and fro, yet knowledge shall be increased."

Finally, if any man, after a careful perusal of what has been, or may be offered, on both sides of this important question, shall be in doubt on which side the truth lies; it will certainly be most prudent and safe for him to act as he would, if he fully believed endless punishment; it will be most prudent and safe for him to yield a cordial compliance with the gospel, in repentance, faith and obedience. Then he will be safe on either supposition. But if he trust to the flattering doctrine, that all are finally to be saved, and in this presumption shall neglect the gospel, its invitations and requirements; and it shall finally prove, that that doctrine is a mere imagination of men; alas! he is lost; irrecoverably lost : while those who receive the gospel with "the obedience of faith," shall through the blood of atonement, "have right to the tree of life, and shall enter in through the gates into the City."

APPENDIX,

CONTAINING REMARKS ON SEVERAL AUTHORS.

I. REMARKS On Bishop Newton's Dissertation on the Final State and Condition of Men, contained in Vol. vi. of his works, page 325, &c.

N. B. In page 38 this dissertation was referred to, as quoted in the Monthly Review. The reason was, I had not

then seen the Dissertation itself.

The Bishop held, that all the damned will be punished according to their demerits; as may appear by the following passages :— "There will be different degrees of happiness or misery, in proportion to their different conduct and behaviour in this world. As nothing is juster and more equitable in itself, so nothing is clearer and more demonstrable from scripture. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right, in every single instance, as well as in the general account? It is not only agreeable to the first principles of reason, but may also be confirmed by the most express testimonies of revelation."*"Our Saviour threateneth different punishments to the wicked, as he promiseth different rewards to the righteous, greater or less, according to the nature and qualities of their actions."† "It is evident then and undeniable, that every man shall receive his own reward or punishment, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." "It must be then admitted, that God hath threatened everlasting

misery to the wicked, as plainly and positively as he hath promised everlasting happiness to the righteous. He hath fairly set before us life and death, blessing and cursing, eternal happiness as well as everlasting misery, the one to balance the other. Is there any injustice in this? Are not the terms and conditions equal? And if men will choose cursing rather than blessing, and voluntarily incur everlasting misery, when they might as easily attain eternal happiness, whom have they to complain of, or whom can they arraign of unequal proceeding but themselves? (Ezek. xviii. 29.) Are not my ways equal? Are not your ways unequal, saith the Lord? You cannot then complain of injustice, for the rewards and punishments are equal: and it was really necessary, that these rewards and punishments should be everlasting.""*"Would any thing less than everlasting rewards and punishments be sufficient to encourage the good, to deter the bad, and secure obedience to the divine commands? How then can you complain, that God is an arbitrary governor, and annexeth greater penalties to his laws than are necessary.-You cannot then complain, that the sanction of eternal penalties is unreasonable, for you see plainly, that it is no more than is absolutely necessary. But possibly you may think, though it may be necessary in the government of this world for such things to be denounced by God, and believed by man, yet there may not be the like necessity for inflicting them in the world to come: God is not obliged to execute his threatenings, as he is to make good his promises. But why is he not obliged to perform the one as well as the other? His threatenings are never, like those of men, made rashly, never founded in passion or caprice, that it should be better not to execute, than execute

* Page 356. † Page 357.

them. If God will not execute as well as threaten, why doth he threaten at all?-Is it not more suitable to the character of a God of truth, and becoming the simplicity and sincerity of a divine revelation, to declare the truth, and nothing but the truth, and leave it to work upon men as it can, rather than denounce in the most solemn manner, what was never intended, and never shall come to pass, and so endeavour to alarm them with false fears, and to work upon them with false persuasions, which have nothing to answer them?""*-God must be just as well as merciful. He can never exercise one of his attributes so as to clash or interfere with another."†

On these quotations it may be remarked, that the Bishop plainly held, that endless misery is threatened; for he always uses the word everlasting in the endless sense, and believed this to be the scriptural sense of it, when applied to future punishment He also rejected the doctrine of annihilation.§ Now then his opinion was either, that endless misery is unconditionally threatened to all who die impenitent; or that it is threatened to them on condition of their continued impenitence in the future world. If it be threatened unconditionally, it follows, (1) That endless misery is the just punishment of the sins committed in this life. For who will pretend, that God hath made a law, which contains an unjust penalty? This would be equally inconsistent with the divine moral rectitude, as to make a law containing unjust or unreasonable precepts; or to execute the unjust penalty. But if this were the opinion of the Bishop, to be consistent he must have given up the doctrine of universal salvation, to establish which he wrote his Dissertation. For he not only declares in the passages already quoted, that "God must be just as well as merciful, and can *Pages 357, 358. † Page 388. ‡ See page 355, See page 349.