These three passages, you think invalidate this doctrine; and are three Scripture-obstacles in the way of it. "They seem forever to shut the door of everlasting, happy life, against those who in this life have put it from them; judged themselves unworthy of it, and have died in their sins and unbelief."-Let us pay them due attention, and perhaps they will turn out only apparently, and not in reality, against the Universal Doctrine.

Psalm xlix. 19. would have been thus morc

properly translated : "He shall go to the generation of his fathers: until they are subdued, they shall not see the light." There is nothing in the Hebrew that means never had this been the case, Job xxxiv. 36. must have been rendered in this manner : "Let Job never be tried." Which would have been a strange rendering! But if it be translated, "Let Job be tried, till subdued," (as it should have been) it it is then good sense; agreeable to the context, and scope of the place; and suitable to the He brew word, used in both places..

As to John iii. 36. it is plainly (like this) an cliptical way of speaking; more is implied, and to be understood than is expressed. The elipsis is a figure of speech very frequently used in Scripture; and in this place,the sense and truth of things seem to require it. Many, to whom our Lord then spoke, it is not to be thought always remained as they were, but came afterwards to believe in him his meaning, therefore could not be, to seal them up in final, end less unbelief; or to say, that he who did not

at that time believe on him, should never come to do so; or should never see life or that the wrath of God should forever, and without ceas. ing, abide on him. The word never, is not used either in the original or the translation. It is only said, the unbeliever shall not see life; (that is, so long as he continues unbelieving) but the wrath of God abideth on him; that is, until be be converted, and live; which may, and will be the case in some future period, since every knee is to bow; every tongue to swear fealty, and sing praises to God and the Lamb, in the longrun, or final upshot of things. Our Lord then, seems to speak eliptically, and not fully out.Something is supprest. And this also appears to be his meaning, in chap. vii. 34. Whither I go, ye cannot come; that is, till there is a change and an alteration in you for the better. Chap. xiii. 33. he tells the disciples so, as well as the Pharisees here. But though, it could not be then, yet afterwards it might, as he tells Peter. at ver.36. John viii. 43. Christ says to some unbelieving Jews, Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. They were not naturally deaf, they could hear it with the outward ear; but through one sinful cause or other, they were so disaffected, and prejudiced against him, that they could not bear to hear it. This must be understood,tho it is not exprest; and so in many other cases. and passages of Scripture: which may all be reconciled with the doctrine of Universal Salvation, by virtue of a figure in speech, called elipsis or meiosis.-Jer. xxx. 24. is the key to.

all such Scriptures as these. There, UNTIL is expressed; in these it is implied, and to be understood. See the place, with the preceding

verse.

You next say, You could more easily believe the doctrine, if Mark ix. 43-49. did not stand as an immoveable barrier in the way but this passage carries with it such force and weight, and is at present so much in favor of the endless, ceaseless torments of the wicked, in a future state, that you must see it replied to, and fairly got rid of, before you can think otherwise. Let us then attempt it, and give it a fair discussion.

We find then the same expressions used by the prophet Isaiah, chap. Ixvi. 24. From Ezekxxxviii. 39. and some other prophecies, it clearly and evidently appears, that the Jews, before their conversion and re-establishment in their own land, shall be grievously harassed and troubled. The rest of the nations will have great struggles and contests with them; and multitudes shall fall upon the mountains of Israel: so as to cover them and their precincts with an immense number of dead carcasses.This passage then will be literally fulfilled the bodies of the slain, will be exposed not only to contempt, and the abhorring of all flesh; but to the fire, and the worms; which shall neither die, nor be quenched, so long as there is any thing to be devoured by them. In reference to this, our Lord speaks of the future sufferings and miseries of the wicked: advising them, now in this present time of life, to cut off all oc

casions of sinning against him, under pain of the worm that shall not die,and the fire that shall not be quenched. The threatening is made in the same terms, (whether they are to be under stood metaphorically or literally) and will as surely be executed, if not timely prevented.And awful indeed will be the sufferings that are meant! From the mode of expression, as well as from the nature of things, they cannot be trifling, short, or unimportant: but pungent and severe; lasting, and, to the highest degree, tremendous. But from the words in the original, it does not appear our Lord meant to assert the endless duration of this wretchedness and misery. It is three times said, they shall go into hell-fire; three times, that this fire is not quen-ched. Twice more, that it never shall be quenched. The two first, are faithful sayings, and true, both in the Greek and English; but the last is not found in the original, though it is rendered never by the translators. Neither medepote nor ondepote are found in the Greek. the sense, you will say, is the same, though the expression may be different. The sense of the translators seems to have been the same; but not the sense of Christ, He twice asserts the fire to be unquenchable; and thrice that it shall not be quenched. They officiously have translated the word never, instead of not, which conveys a different idea to the English ear.

But

Our Lord's exact meaning here, seems to be this: While men continue sinning, and do not avoid the occasions thereof; so long will they suffer, and in this proportion; be miserable hereafter,

if they die in their sins. Their worm shall not die, neither shall the fire be quenched, till their rebellious spirit be broken down, and subdued ; and they willingly submit, and yield themselves to the Lord. But it is no where said this shall never be. The contrary is asserted in other places. It should not therefore have been rendered, the fire shall never be quenched, since Christ only said, it shall not; But if never, and not, must be taken in the same sense; it can only be in a lax, and not in a strict one. The fire shall never be quenched, till all the ends of it are answered, and there is no further occasion or use for it. An eliptical way of speaking.

Some have inclined to interpret this awful passge in St. Mark, not of individuals, in a future state, but of persons, in a church-state and capacity, here in this life; and so have understood the fire, and the worm, to be descriptive of the corrupt, declining and worm-eaten state of the Jewish, and all other churches, that have lost their order, discipline and truth, and have, in consequence, been left dead carcasses: eccle... siastical bodies, without spirit and life. The hand, foot, and eye, to signify some diserning, walking, or leading members of a church; who, if they walk disorderly, and give any occasion of stumbling, must be cut off, and cast out, so as never to come into such a body again and this, they think, answers to their worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched. The apostle indeed, has likened Christ's body the church, to the natural body, and drawn arguguments from it, 1 Cor.xii. But when we com