to heaven for finners of every defcription without the trou ble of repentance * !"

If however we again attempt to recriminate, our oppo-. nents will not eafily exculpate themselves from the charge, that they greatly undermine and weaken this main barrier against the general overflowings of wickedness and immorality. With their extenuated views of the effects of the fall, of the rigour of the law, and of the malignity of fin', they do not readily conceive that the worft of men can deferve to fuffer "the bitter pains of eternal death." It is a doctrine not very reconcileable with their notions of the object of God in our creation, and their resolution of all the Divine Attributes into thofe of pure Mercy and Benevolence. And, from the little use they make of it themselves, and the severity with which they treat the ordinary scripture use of it by others, there certainly remains a doubt whether or not they really believe the doctrine. For, whatever may be faid to the contrary, and however ungrateful the fubject may be, if the doctrine is really believed; nay, if it be only thought probable, or even poffible, fo far is its extreme awfulness from furnishing a reason. for generally concealing it, that this confideration is the very strongest reafon why impenitent finners fhould hear it honeftly proclaimed. But, to fay the leaft, these Divines labour to mitigate the apparent feverity of this threatened punishment, and to make as little as poffible of the awful representations of scripture refpe&ting it.

66 ne-.

"The difcourfes of Jefus," Mr. Polwhele fays,. ver diftract the foul by accumulating images of horror, and

(k) See above, p. 169.

(1) See above Ch. 4.

p. 129, &c. (m) See Dr. Paley's Mor. and Polit. Philof. Ch. on the Benevolence

of God.

minutely painting the scenes of everlasting torment a.” Nay, the notion that "Religion impofes the command to believe this, and to do that, under pain of eternal perdition," Mr. P. confiders as an obvious cause of infidelity 2.

Mr. Gilpin represents the doctrine refpecting" the eternity of future punishments," as wholly "uncertain ;" and would by all means banish the difcuffion of it from the pulpit.

(n) Third Letter, &c. p. 39, Note. This then we are to suppose, is the abfurd conduct of Dr. Hawker. Mr. P. however has not shown, in what part of this Divine's writings there is a greater accumulation of alarming images and declarations, than what is found in our Lord's difcourfes, which are recorded Matthew v. 17-30. vii. 13-23; xviii. 6–9; xxiii. 13~-36; xxiv. 1—51; xxv. 1—46; Mark ix.42—49; Luke vi. 24-26; xviii. 24–25. Does our Lord in feveral of thefe fcriptures only make some sparing and "obfcure allufions" to the "everlafting punishment" of the wicked? (z) Letter; p. 82.

(y) See above, p.137.-A writer in the Antijacobin Review has been peculiarly unfortunate in regard to this fubject and to Mr. Gilpin. Indignant at another Critic for infinuating, that fome ministers do not properly inftru& their flocks" in evangelical truth," this writer undertakes to produce" two inftances which entirely defeat" the infinuation: and having repeated the titles of Mr. G.'s Sermons, the matter is thought decided incontrovertibly, and brother Reviewer is ftyled an " uncharitable Reviler." Defirous however of improving the victory, our writer proceeds, "They (the clergy) do not fquare the fcripture to their own fuperficial philofophy, like Monthly Reviewers, when they deem everlasting punishment unjust. They fee the mercy and the juftice of God difplayed in that most awful truth, in a manner the most confiftent, and the most favourable to falvation.... To believe punishment to be not eternal, is to return to the old notion of purgatory.... The eternity of future sufferings is a doctrine which man cannot argue down, while he is a true believer."-This furely is producing Mr. Gilpin's divinity as a decifive anfwer to the charge of want of orthodoxy, and at the same moment strongly reprobating his notions! But after all, there is no fafety in trusting to the mere titles of things. See the Antijacobin Review for April 1801, p. 428-433.

U 2

Others deny that this punishment of eternal death, was implied in the fentence denounced againft Adam. Mr. Ludlam fays, this" is no where clearly afserted in fcripture, though it is by certain divines P." Dr. Paley fuppofes, "there may be very little to chuje" between the conditions of fome who are admitted into heaven, and of fome who are caft into hell 9. Dr. Hey favours the fame fentiment."Being faved and being damned," he says, "admit of various degrees of happiness or mifery, without limit:” And, that no "great degree is neceffarily implied in the word' everlasting;"" but that "every fine, however small is an everlasting punishment." This furely is making heaven and hell more nearly refemble each other, than the ordinary representations of them in fcripture would fuggest.. When the Judge feated on his throne, fhall have divided allnations into two claffes, and fhall fay to one of them, "Come ye bleffed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;" and unto the other, "Depart ye curfed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels;" one would not fuppofe, that only so trifling a difference of condition may be implied; that to" go into life everlasting," and "into everlasting fire," may be a ftate fo nearly fimilar!

3

Of the fame nature are the obfervations of Dr. H., that the "expreffion" used in our 9th Article, " God's wrath and damnation,' is more terrible in the found than in the fenfe:" that" damnation is only equivalent to judgment;" that" it does not of itself imply judgment after death, nor any determinate degree of evil;" and " is as applicable to the Socinian Scheme, as to any other;" that " a verdict

(0) Above, p. 135.

Mor. and Pol. 41. p.

66

(p) Six Effays, p. 23,
(r) Vol. iii. p. 106.

(q) See "Yet we may,"

he obferves, eafily fuppofe too small a degree of evil, as well as too large a one, to be implied in the word damned.””—-Ibid.

(s) Mat. xxv. 31, &c.

against any one, in our civil judicatures, is judgment, or damnation, how fmall foever the fine " that "owing to the moderation of our Church, we are not called upon to fubfcribe to the eternity of hell-torments," nor "even to condemn thofe, who prefume to affirm, that all men will be finally faved." "Though," however, he adds, "one were inclined to hope with Dr. Hartley, that all men will be happy ultimately; that is, when punishment has done its proper work in reforming principles and conduct,” in other words, when our ftate of purgatory is ended, "yet to affirm it, muft always be prefumption v."

And muft not all these reservations, palliatives, and limitations of the plain language of fcripture and our church on this fubject, tend exceedingly to leffen the dread of punishment in the minds of wicked men? Can God's awful denunciations against impenitent finners have their proper effect in restraining them from iniquity, if they are not honestly and generally set before them? Is not this, in so many ways suggesting to them, that their punishment may not by any means be fo dreadful, as it is often apprehended? Nay, is it not even leaving them not wholly without a hope that, after all, and however they perfift ́in their wicked courfe to the end of their lives, they may be ultimately happy?

As therefore it has been before proved, that our fyftem exhibits the ftrongest incentives to love, gratitude, and every principle that can influence the better part, and better paffions of men, fo it muft here be confeffed, that as far as the fear of punishment can operate as a guardian of

(t) Vol. iii. p. 154, 155. (v) Vol. ii. p. 390. The condemnation of thofe who affirmed this, Dr. H. fays, "was required in the laft Article of Edward VI. and he thinks reasonably." "he title of the Article, All men fhall not be faved at length,'" he obferves, feems inaccurate; as, I think, the meaning is, It is, not to be affirmed, that all inen fhall be faved finally; or after a definite time.". Ibid. Note.

morals, we also have clearly the advantage. The effect furely must be greater when fuch punishment, in its awful nature and unquestionable certainty, is kept generally in view, than when it is only now and then fhyly and doubtingly hinted at, and when the ordinary fcripture reprefentations of it are fo foftened and palliated.

How void of foundation then, in this view alfo, is the charge we would refute. And how ill does it become the mouths of those who advance it. Whether we attend to the motives to good works, chiefly urged upon those who are confidered as true Chriftians, or to thofe incentives to repentance which more especially regard the wicked, fo worse than deftitute are our opponents of any folid ground for boafting over us.

SECTION III.

A Vindication of CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS; an Appeal to EXPERIENCE, and to the CONCESSIONS of our Opponents, on the Point; and a Conclusion that it is the STRICTNESS of our Morality which gives the Offence.

So much we may even venture to affirm of the doctrines of thofe among us, whofe ftrong fenfe of the evils attending the oppofite errors, has led them to ufe language the leaft defenfible on the fubject, and whofe works our opponents attack with fuch peculiar virulence. We will inftance, without undertaking the defence of all their modes of expreffion, as perfons of this description, and standing in this fituation, the two late well-known Divines, Mr. Romaine and Mr. Hervey.