being decayed at bottom, as at Diableret. But the moft general way is, by the foundation of one part of the mountain being hollowed by waters, and, thus wanting a fupport, breaking from the other. Thus it generally has been found in the great chafms in the Alps; and thus it almoft always is known in those difruptions of hills, which are known by the name of land-flips. Thefe are nothing more than the fliding down of an higher piece of ground, difrooted from its fituation by fubterraneous inundations, and fettling itself upon the plain below. There is not an appearance in all nature that fo much astonished our ancestors, as thefe land-flips. In fact, to behold a large upland, with its houses, its corn, and cattle, at once loosened from its place, and floating, as it were, upon the fubjacent water; to behold it quitting its ancient fituation, and travelling forward like a fhip in queft of new adventures; this is certainly one of the moft extraordinary appearances that can be imagined; and to a people ignorant of the powers of nature, might well be confidered as a prodigy. Accordingly, we find all our old historians mentioning it as an omen of approaching calamities. In the prefent age, however, as nature is better known, fuch an appearance has excited no ominous apprehenfions; but has given rife to fome ridiculous law-fuits about whose the property fhould be; whether the land which has thus flipt, fhould belong to the original poffeffor, or to him upon whofe grounds it has encroached and fettled. Circumftance of this nature happened a few years fince to a vineyard near Damafcus in Syria, which defcended upon another vineyard which lay below it; each of the proprietors made their ciaim, and the Cadi, or Turkifh Judge, determined with great equity, that the vineyard which had moved its fituation fhould be equally divided betwixt them.

In the lands of Hatberg in Ireland, there flood a declivity, gradually afcending for near half a mile. In the year 1713, on the tenth of March, the inhabitants perceived a crack on its fide, fomewhat like a furrow made with a plough, which they imputed to the effects of lightning, as there had been thunder the day before. However, on the evening of the fame day, they were furprised to hear an hideous confufed noife iffuing all round from the fide of the hill, and their curiofity being raised, they reforted to the place. There, to their amazement, they found the earth, for near five acres, all in gentle motion, and fliding down the hill upon the plain below. This motion continued the remaining part of the day, and the whole night; nor did the noife ceafe during the whole time; proceeding,

probably,

probably, from the attrition of the ground beneath. The day following, however, this ftrange journey down the hill ceafed intirely; and above an acre of the meadow below, was covered with what before compofed a part of the declivity. See Phil. Tranf. vol. iv. p. 250. Thefe flips, when the fide of mountain seems to defcend, happen but very feldom. There are fome of another kind, much more common; and as they are always fudden, much more dangerous. These are snowflips, well known and greatly dreaded

tainous countries. It often happens, the travellers in moun

when fnow has long

been accumulating on the tops and on the fides of mountains, it is fuddenly borne down the precipice, either by means of tempefts, or by its own melting At first, when loofened, the quantity in motion is but fmall; but it gathers as it con-" tinues to roll; and, by the time it has reached the habitable parts of the mountain, it is generally grown of enormous bulk. Wherever it rolls, it levels all things in its way, or buries them in unavoidable deftruction. Instead of rolling, it fometimes is found to flide along from the top; yet even this it is generally as fatal as before. Nevertheless, there was an inftance fome years ago of a family in Switzerland, that lived near a month, in a cottage, beneath. one of thefe fnow-flips. And although they were the whole time in utter darkness, and under a bed of fnow fome hundred feet deep, yet they were providentially taken out alive; the weight of the fnow being fupported by a beam that kept up the roof; and nourishment being fupplied them by the milk of a goat, and fome eggs from a hen, that were buried with them under the fame ruin. But it is not parts, alone, that have thus been found to fubfide; whole mountains have been found totally to disappear. Pliny, lib. ii. cap. 93. tells us, that in his own time, the lofty moun tain of Cybotus, together with the city of Eurites, were swal lowed up. The fame fate, he fays, attended Phlagium, one of the highest mountains in Ethiopia, which in one night funk down and was never feen again. In more modern times, very noted mountain in the Malucca iflands, known by the name of the Peak, and remarkable for being feen at a very great diftance at fea, was totally fwallowed up, and nothing but à lake left in its place. Thus, while ftorms and tempefts are levelled againft mountains above, earthquakes and waters are undermining them below. All our hiftories talk of their de ftruction, and very few new ones, except vaft heaps of cinders from vulcanoes, are produced. If mountains, therefore, were of fuch great utility as fome philofophers make them to man-` kind,

Hh2

kind, it would be a very melancholy confideration that fuch benefits were daily diminishing. But the truth is, the vallies are fertilized by that earth which is wafted from their fides, and the plains become richer, in proportion as the mountains decay.

SIR,

Y

(To be continued.)

LETTERS FROM MR. ANDREW FULLER.

LETTER TI.

To the Editor of the UNIVERSALIST'S MISCELLANY.

OU complain, more than once, of my not understanding the fubject against which I write; and here, for ought I fee, I must fall under. I confefs I do not, nor can I understand what it is that you believe. Having heard and feen fo much of your profeffing to hold the doctrine of univerfal falvation, univerfal reftitution, and that "all men will be finally benifitted by the death of Chrift," I really thought you had meant fo; and would not have imagined that with these pretenfions you would have avowed the notion of annihilation. Hence it was that it was in my third question, though I did not as you allege, proceed upon the fuppofition of your denying all future punishment, yet I acknowledge I did proceed upon the fuppofition that you hold with no other future punishment than what fhould terminate in everlafting life. And who could have thought otherwife? After all the information you have fince given me, I am ftill fo ignorant as not to understand how all men are to be finally saved, and yet a part of them annihilated. Neither can I comprehend how there can come a time with finners when he that made them will not have mercy upon them, on the fuppofition that all punishment, of all degrees and duration, is itself an exercise of mercy. (P. 10.)

Neither can I comprehend how you reconcile many things in your scheme with the Holy Scriptures. I have been used to understand the terms death and perish, being opposed to everlasting life, (John, iii. 16. x. 28.) as expreffive, not of the lofs of being, but of well-being. But with you they fignify armihilation (p. 42). The defign of God, it feems, in giving his fon to fuffer for us, was not to fave us from fuffering, but merely from becoming extinct, and to perpetuate our exiftence. And the death which those who keep his fayings fhall

never taste, (John, viii. 52.) mean the fame thing; they fhall exift for ever, a bleffing which your scheme makes equally ap plicable to many who do not keep his fayings, as to those who do. And where do you find the above terms used to convey the idea of annihilation on any other fubject? and from whence, was this notion learned?

,

When we are told that God will not contend for ever, neither will he be always wroth for the spirit should fait before him, and the fouls which he hath made; (Ifai. lvii. 16.) I fuppofe it had been meant only of them who in the context are faid to put their trust in the Lord; and that in the prefent life, feeing it was promifed them that they fhould poffefs the land, and inherit his holy mountain, of them who were of a contrite and humble fpirit; and not of the wicked, who are likened to the troubled fea, for whom there is no peace: but you confider all these pro mifes as belonging to the fame people as the threatening in ch. xxvii. 16. He that made them will not have mercy upon them, and he that formed them will fhew them no favour

I obferve when fuch terms as for ever seem to favour your caufe, they are to be taken in their utmoft latitude of means ing. If it had been faid of the Divine Being, He will contend for ever, you would have introduced your fing-fong of dionas and aionons, as fometimes meaning only a limited duration; but feeing it is faid he will not contend for ever, here the word must be understood of duration without end. You must exé cuse me, however, if I for once avail myfelf of your critical labours, and remind you that for ever in this paffage refers merely to the prefent life, as the context plainly fhews.

I never imagined, till I faw it in the writings of Univerfal ifts, that finishing tranfgreffion and making an end of fin, Dan: ix. 24. had any reference to what was to be done after the refurrection and the laft judgment; and especially fince what is there predicted was to be accomplished within feventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years from the time of the prophecy

I have been used to think that the mediation of Chrift was not on behalf of fallen angels, whose nature he took hot on him, of whofe falvation the Scriptures are filent, and whole own ideas are, that they have nothing to do with thein,' Mate viii. 29. But according to your reafonings, they all must be either faved or annihilated; yea, they must have at least the offer of falvation, otherwife their prefent and future fufferings would not be in mercy, which you confider as belonging to all punishment whatever. * moit y13m

It

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It had been ufual with me to think that the triumph of mercy, in the day of retribution, as defcribed in Jamès, ii. 13. Pfalm lxii. 12. refpected another defcription of people than those who were to receive judgment without mercy, namely, thofe that fhould so speak and fo do as they that should be judged by the perfect law of liberty: but you have found out a faeme, it feems, in which thefe oppofites are united in the fame perfons; and in which the ungodly, while receiving judgment without mercy, have no judgment but what is in mercy (P. 10), Is it furprifing, Sir, that a man of plain and ordinary capacity fhould be at a lofs to understand fuch things as these?

It would not have occurred to me that an argument could have been drawn from the threatenings of God to Ifrael in the prefent life, (Lev. xxvi.) to what fhall be done to the ungodly world in the life to come: yet fo it is (p. 43.); and the ground on which the analogy is justified, is the immutability of the Divine character. But whatever the immutable character of God requires to be done, must be done alike in all ages, and to all people: whereas, what was there threatened to Ifrael was not done at the fame time to other nations, nor has it been done fince to any nation beside them. Amos iii. 2. Acts xxvii. 30. There is nothing in it analogous to his dealings with mankind, unless it be the general idea of his "making use of natural evil to correct moral evil." This being known to be the cafe on earth, you "cannot but think it must be the defign of future punishment." Such is the whole of your argument, which you re commend to my "ferious confideration!" But how if, on the other hand, I should say, though natural evil be used on earth to correct moral evil, in fociety at large, yet it is not always fent for the purpose of correcting the parties themselves. We have no proof that the men of Sodom were deftroyed by fire, or Pharaoh drowned in the fea, for their good: therefore, I cannot but think there is a fimilar defign in future punish

I always fuppofed that the fenfe in which God is faid to be the faviour of all men, especially of them that believe (p. 44), was that in which the apoftle there put his trust in him, namely, as the God of providence, whofe care is extended to all his creatures, but especially over believers.

I have read of the difpenfation of the fulness of times; but the idea never occurred to me that thefe times were to be underflood of ages beyond the last judgment. I have no doubt but the gathering together in one all things in Chrift, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth," will be accomplished,

and