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any man worthip the beaft and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand." Brill farther evidence that the judgment concerned only the worshippers of the beaft. Veife 12.

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Here is the patience of the faints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of "Jefus." This verfe confines the icene to the state of trial, and of the patience' of the faints. The corruption of the word of God, and of the faith of Jefus, or of the gofpef, had become so great, and the punishment of the beat approaching to an awful crifis; that the faith and patience of the faints' were *feverely tried.' 'But the next verse puts the matter beyond all doubt; and most cleally fhows, that the fcene of this judgment and execution was in this prefent ftate of mankind. Verse 13. "And 1 heard a voice from heaven, laying unto me,' White, bleffed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth: yea, faith th spirit, that they may rest from their aBors; and their works do follow them." On ac"count of the almoft univerfal corruptions of religion, the perfecutions excited by the beaft against the faints, and the awful judgment of God upon the beaft, fpecially bleffed and favored are they who die in the Lord, from henceforth.

- This smoke of their torment, which is faid to af cend up forever and ever, was, or will be, in the prefent ftate, and not in a future one; and fhall be fo great as to give the tormented wretches no reft, Eday nor night,"continually.

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A man who either cannot, or will not, fubmit to the labor of a thorough and critical examination of the holy fcriptures, ought never to write upon them; it is a mere impofition on the public. We have paffed in review many very unftudied expofitions of fcripture. A man who hath poffeffed his mind with the notion of a public or general good, that is in opposition to the good, of individuals: that this general good is the highest glory and bleffedness of God, and of his holy intelligent kingdom: that God loves this generál good with supreme affection: and that his whole fyftem of creation and moral government of men, is perfectly adjusted to the promo. ⚫tion of this general good without regard to the hap

piness of individuals; and addreffes himself to the holy fcriptures, to find fupport for such a wild fcheme; will be very apt to think he finds it fupported there. But instead of applying to the scriptures for the support of preconceived hypothefis, we ought to go to them, free and unbiaffed, to find what doctrines they teach. The plan of creation and moral government was fixed, long before we exifted; and there is no prospect of our being able to make any alterations in it, by the hypothefis which we may form.

Judging and censuring our brother, is a very illiberal employment. But it is really ftrange that any man should think he had found eternal misery in the xiv. chapter of Revelations.

More furprising ftill is it, that a divine fhould

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quote the xx. and xxi. chapters of Revelations, as a clear proof of eteraal mifery. Mr. S. has done this. His words are, p. 76, " The conclufion of this prophecy, furnishes a most explicit teftimony of the eternal punishment of fome men. After the prophet had described, according to the visions prefented to him, both the adverfe, and the profperous or millennial ftate of the church; together with a rebellion against God, which is to happen immedi ately before the general judgment; he proceeds to give an account of that awful and interefting day, which will end the probationary ftate of mankind, and place them all in happiness or mifery eternal.”

"From chapter xx. 10, to chapter xxi. 8, is the paffage Mr. S. refers to for the proof of his ftrange affertions.

It is matter of wonder, that the thought fhould never have entered Mr. S.'s mind, who these rebels were, and whence they came ? the millennium immediately preceeded this rebellion against God. A ftate of the church, in which perfect peace and harmony, holiness and happiness, had reigned over all the earth, for a thousand years, does not promise the instant rise of a daring rebellion against God, composed of an infinitude of enemies to his government, resembling Gog and Magog of old, both for multitude and raging enmity.

That this should ever be the fact, is abfolutely in [ credible and unaccountable, as I have already de

monftrated,

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monftrated. This great abfurdity orignates from a wrong and miflaken place, which Mr. S. and oth ers give to the millennial ftate of the church. They place it before, whereas it is not to be looked for till after, the general judgment.

Why does Mr. S. take for granted, that the day of general judgment will end the probationary state of mankind, and place, them all in happiness or mifery eter. #a!? This affertion, if true, is capable of proof, And Mr. S. knew, or ought to have known, that it was material in ther prefent controversy, and denied by Univerfalifts. He certainly was not at liberty to affume fuch a propofition without proof. St. John not only fpeaks of a firft refurrection, which gives us good reafon to expect a fecond of the fame kind, to happy life; but he tells us alfo that, after this fift refurrection to happy life, the reft of the dead lived not again, a happy life, till the thoufand years were finified. Thefe things confidered, we have abundant reafon to expect a fecond refurrection to happy life, from the fecond death. As we have already confidered this paffage of St. John, we fall Dot repeat what hath been faid.

We must take fome notice of Mr. St's clofing obfervations, after having finished his proof of eternal torment from the New Testament fcriptures. P. 78. "We have confidered the writers of the New Teftament, and the refpective teftimony they give to the doctrine of eternal punishment. The teftimony of Jefus Chrift alone, ought to be eflcemed fufficient;

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for he is the omnifcient God; the government of the world is in his hands; and he is to be the final judge of the ftate of men. The eternal punishment of part of mankind, and exhortations founded upon the danger of coming to that awful end, are often introduced in the difcourfes of Jefus ; and he feemed to confider, a plain warning of these truths, to be a principal part of his business as a teacher of religion. We have alfo examined all the other writers of the New Teftament, and found them explicit in describ. ing the fame scheme of divine government, and the fame end to the probationary state of men, as their divine mafter before them had taught; and their teftimony of a future punishment, is not deduced from obfcure intimations and far fetched confequences from other doctrines; but afferted in the most plain language, and used as an argument to receive and obferve other doctrines; inftead of being obfcurely founded on them. And it does not appear, that Jefus Chrift and his apoftles could have told this truth, in terms more plain, than those which they have used."

The public now has Mr. S.'s New Teftament proof of eternal mifery. It alfo has my examination of that proof. If I fhould contradict all that Mr. S. hath faid above, concerning the teftimony of our Saviour and his apoftles, it would not be a mean of enlightening the public mind, or of bringing it to a clear difcernment of truth. And, as truth is my ob ject, I fhall not undertake that, which is, in itself, dilagreeable,

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