*

the earth would do right. I entertain no doubt of the perfect rectitude of the divine moral governBut I fhall never believe, that the

ment of men.

infant, and the finner, who dies an hundred years old, will lie in hell an equal term. This cannot be,

under the divine government.

It will be of no avail, to fay, that the quantity of mifery will be proportioned to the quantity of guilt; but that, in all cafes, future mifery will be equally durable. The abfurdity of this obfervation is too glaring, ever to be admitted by any unbiaffed mind. I certainly fhould not efteem it the leaft favor, to have the quantity of my future mifery perfectly optional with myself, if it must be eternal.

Eternity abforbs every other confideration; and he must be ftupid, and infenfible, to a prodigy, who can derive the leaft confolation from the reflection, that he thall endure a lefs quantity of never ending mifery, than others.

We have the promise of God himself that the punifhment of fome of the greatest offenders that have ever lived on earth fhall ceafe: and this gives us encouragement to hope that the punishment of all men will eventually ceafe. Ezek. xvi. 48-63.

As I live, faith the Lord God, Sodom thy fifter hath not done, the nor her daughters, as thou haft done, thou and thy daughters. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy fifter Sodom. Pride, fullnefs of bread, and abundance of idlenefs was in her, and in her daughters, neither did the ftrengthen the

hand

hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty and committed abomination before me; therefore I took them away as I faw good. Neither hath Samaria committed half thy fins; but thou haft multiplied thine abominations more than they, and haft juftified thy fifters in all thine abominations which thou haft done. Thou also, which haft judged thy fifters, bear thine own fhame for thy fins, that thou haft committed more abominations than they: they are more righteous than thou: yea, be thou confounded also, and bear thy fhame, in that thou haft juftified thy fifters. When I fball bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them. thine own fhame, and in all that thou haft done, fort unto them. When thy fifters, Sodom and ber daughters, fhall return to their former eftate; and Samaria and her daughters fhall return to their former eftate; then thou and thy daughters hall return to their former eftate. For thy fifter Sodom was not mentioned by thy mouth in the day of thy pride. Before thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of thy reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philiftines, which defpife thee round about. Thou haft borne thy lewdness and thy abominations, faith the Lord.

That thou mayeft bear mayeft be confounded in that thou art a com

For

For thus faith the Lord God, I will even deal with thee as thou haft done, which haft defpifed the oath in breaking the covenant. Nevertheless, I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of tby youth, and I will eftablish unto thee an everlafting covenant. Then thou shalt remember thy ways and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy fifters, thine elder and thy younger and I will give them unto thee for daughters; but not by thy covenant. And I will eftablish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. That thou mayeft remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of thy fhame, when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou baft done, faith the Lord God.”

In order to understand this paffage of scripture, we must know where the scene of those great events predicted in it is to be laid; whether in this world or in the next, before or after the general refurrection and judgment. And I think it is plain, from feveral notes in the passage itself, that the great scene of the restoration of Sodom, Samaria, and Jerufalem, is to be carried forward into a future ftate. Of the Sodomites it is faid, "they were haughty and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I faw good." Those very persons, whom God took away for their wickedness, by fire and brimstone rained out of heaven, or the atmosphere, upon them, fhall return to their firft eftate. This cannot be without a resurrection; consequently Sodom will not return to her firft eftate till after the refurrection.

And Samaria, and Jerufalem Ball not return to their firft eftate, before Sodom fball return to her firft eftate. V. 55, of the forecited chap. of Ezek, "When thy fifters, Sodom and her daughters, fhall return to their former eftate; and Samaria and her daughters fhall return to their former eftate; then tkou and thy daugbters fhall return to their former eftate." Thus we fee it to be abfolutely neceffary, in the very nature of. the things to be done, to carry forward, and lay the fcene of the return of Sodom, Samaria, and Jerufalem, in the refurrection world. Further as to Ifrael, it is exprefsly faid that they fhall be reftored to a virtuous temper, before their return to their former eftate. V. 63, before cited. "That thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy fhame, when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou haft done, faith the Lord God."

The reader now plainly fees it to be demonftrat ed from scripture, that there will be repentance, restoration to a virtuous temper, and return to the divine favor, after the refurrection and general judgment. And if fome of the greatest finners that have ever been in the world, the Sodomites, the Samaritans, and rebellious Ifraelites, fhall be reftored to a virtuous temper and to the divine favor; why not all mankind ?

The reader now fees, in the cleareft light, that no paffage of fcripture, which fpeaks of future mifery, declares it to be great, and of long continuance, is

any

any objection against the final restoration of all men to virtue and happiness. No one will doubt the return of Sodom, Samaria, and Jerufalem, means a return to the divine favor, when it is confidered that it is exprefsly faid, that God shall be pacified towards Ifrael, as in the last verse of the forecited xvi. chap. of Ezekiel.

We will now go on with the further confideration of Mr. S.'s fcripture proof of eternal misery.

"Several of Chrift's par

purpose to place this fub

The fubject, the reader

He says, fec. 5. p. 23. ables feem to be spoken on ject beyond all doubt.". will obferve, is the abfolute eternity of future misery. He first recites the parable of the tares; and then makes this observation, "To prevent all poffibility that the parable fhould be explained away, or mif understood, our Saviour explained it in the following words. It will be fufficient for us, if we cite only our Saviour's expofition of the parable of the tares. He that foweth the good feed is the fon of man; the field is the world: the good feed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that fowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As, therefore, the tares are gathered and burnt in the fire; fo fhall it be in the end of the world. The Son of man fhall fend forth his angels, and they fhall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and fhall caft them into a furnace of fire; there fhall be