that is unjust, let him be unjust still." Rev. xxii. 11. The same reason, for aught that scripture teaches, that makes it proper that they should suffer punishment six thousand years, will make it proper, after all Winchester's dreams, that they should suffer seven thousand; and the same reason that they should suffer seven, will still exist, that they should suffer seventy times seven thousand. If it be just they should suffer ten thousand years, it will be just they should suffer ten millions. Yes, without another sacrifice, and that we have no reason to expect, they must suffer for ever. The chaff must be burnt with fire unquenchable, and how should you call that their corsuptions? Can these be eternally burnt, and they to whom these adhere, be unsinged? Can you punish a man's sins, and not punish himself without a substi tute? Can you burn corruption, and not burn the thing or man corrupted? Oh, no! It is all a delusive dream, and if delusive, dangerous. Man is so averse to believe in the gospel plan, that so long as you make any other way of salvation possible, you encourage the obdurate sinner in staying at a distance from the blood of Christ, which alone cleanseth from all sin.

V. At the judgement some shall be sentenced to everlasting punishment, as certainly as some to life eternál. Dan. xii. 2. Matth. xxv. 46. John v. 24, 29 "Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in their graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth; they that have done good, un to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. Rev. xx. 13, 14, 15. "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead whic! were in them and they were judged every man according to their works, and death and hell shall be cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death; and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." Without appealing to criticism upon this passage, we would ask com

:

mon sense and christian candor, is this text and con text designed to teach the termination or continuance of punishment at the day of judgement? That death and hell shall be cast in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, cannot mean that hell shall be cast into hell; but that those were before, as to their bodies, in a state of death, and their souls in a separate, invisible, and suffering condition, shall in connection with their raised bodies, be cast into a place of torment, aptly described by a lake burning with fire and brimstone.

VI. This judgement shall be final. We have already proved that after this there is no gospel, and that this punishment will not in a finite time give infinite satisfaction, why then should the sentence not be final ? Grief for pain is not gospel repentance; if it were, there would be no need of its long continuance. Before this, if there be any interpreter, one among a thousand to shew to man his uprightness, then he is gracious unto him and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit, for I have found a ransom or atonement; but, after this, there is no such thing found or to be found. Then this sentence shall seize upon all the wicked; upon all who know not God nor obey the gospel of his Son. Job xxxvi. 17, 18. "But thou hast fulfilled the judgement of the wicked; judgement and justice shall take hold on thee. Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee." Rev. xxii. 14, 15. "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.” JAMES MILLIGAN.

REPLY TO THE FOREGOING ARGUMENTS.

Mr. Milligan, in the foregoing arguments, has divided his piece into six sections. These I propose to

notice in their order.

1. This section he begins with the following sentence: "Either there is no justice in Divine Providence, or there is a future state of retribution." Tho

I have no disposition to dispute a future state of retribution, I think that to say, without it there is no justice, is saying a great deal. He founds his declaration upon the prosperity of the wicked and the troubles of the righteous. But admitting this to be the case, in some instances, are we able to say it is always so ? Is there no punishment for the wicked here? Is this the place of nothing but continued troubles for the righteous? Solomon says, "Behold the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth; much more the wicked and the sinner." Prov. xi, 31. According to the argument of our opponent, the righteous are altogether miserable in this life, and the wicked wholly prosperous and happy. This must be a mistake. Were there no future state of existence, it is better. to be righteous than to be wicked. The happiness of the wicked is very imaginary and deceptive. There ís, therefore, some justice in the providence of God, on the hypothesis, there is no future retribution. But I am willing to acknowledge that without future retribution, there does not appear to be an equal distribution of rewards and punishments; there does not appear to be a perfect display of retributive justice.

Our opposer observes, The Lord "will turn the wicked into hell, and all the nations that forget God." This, he thinks, is perfectly consistent with Psalm lxxxvi. "All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee." The consistency of this, on his own plan, we learn from the following: "All nations that forget God shall be turned into hell, and that all nations that the Lord the Redeemer, has made by his law and grace, should come and worship before him, and glorify his saving and merciful name,

So all the nations that forget God, and are turned into Hell, are not made "by his law and grace." The conclusion is, God made some nations by his law and grace, and all that he has so made, will come and worship before him; and he has made some nations without law and grace such forget him, and he turns them into hell. This is perfect consistency! If Godhas made a being without law and grace, that such being should never remember him is perfectly consistent. But that such a being should be eternally damned, for not attaining to law and grace, principles that have no relation to his existence, is a sort of consistency, that I never could see consistent.

Mr. M. says, alluding to the above, "This does not say that all nations shall be damned, and all saved, which would be a contradiction." Truly, this would be a contradiction, if damnation mean endless misery; but this remains to be proved. I see no contradiction in a man's being damned at one time, and saved at another. The Psalmist says, "All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship; and St. Paul says, *God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." If God has made any of these without any regard to law and grace, it remains another point for Mr. M. to prove. Without proving it, his whole argument on this head fails.

Alluding to those, the smoke of whose "torment ascendeth up for ever and ever," Mr. M. says, "If' scholars find limits to that expression, they must tell us what words are used in scripture to express that which has no end." Perhaps Mr. M. is a scholar → himself, and is fully persuaded that for ever and ever, as well as everlasting and eternal, frequently mean less than an endless duration.

The celebrated Doct. Scott and others think the third angel, mentioned in Rev. xiv. 9, who prenounced the dreadful woé, contained in the tenth and eleventh verses of the same chapter, was Luther and his coadjutors. If the Doctor and others were correct in this application, we have no objection to the idea

of endless duration, in the phrase for ever and ever, because this is known to be the doctrine of Luther and his coadjutors. They preached, "The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation," &c. But does it follow, of necessary consequence, that this angel preached the truth? Does God ever exereise wrath without a mixture of mercy? The true prophets of the Lord no where assert the idea. Jeremiah says, "Tho the Lord cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men," Lam. iii. 32, 33.

Respecting the signification and scriptural use of the words, everlasting and eternal, the reader is referred to the Chr. Repository, Vol. I. page 143. The subject to which an ambiguous word is applied, when understood, determines its meaning. We do not undertake to prove the endless continuance of life, from the force of these words; but from the endless life of our great high priest, Jesus Christ

he, "I live, ye shall live also."

In the second paragraph of this section, Mr. M. has introduced a number of suppositions, which no Universalist writer ever fully adopted, and drawn his own conclusions. As they have no particular bearing on the merits of the controversy, I shall pass them without further notice.

II. "Now," says Mr. M. "if then, salvation was universal, there would be nothing easier than to tell it." We answer, no doubt this is one reason the Bible is so full of it. "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."-Gen. xxii. 18. Some say this blessing is conditional. Hear then St. Paul: "For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, saying, surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. For men verily swear by the greater; and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Whercin God, willing more abua