supposed errors, I will read your notes, and the moment they work a change, you shall know it. †

You are under a great mistake if you suppose (as throughout your correspondence you appear to do) that I believe that sinners will obtain happiness until they are brought to repentance. I am well assured that this is utterly impossible; but it is said that God will have all men to repent and to come to the knowledge of the truth; and he knows how to accomplish all his purposes, and to reconcile all things to his blessed rule and government. If good men hate sin, surely they do not hate it more than God hates it: the only way of putting an end to sin is by substituting universal righteousness; and the only way of abolishing death is by quickening all things and creating all things new, which are all express promises. These may be easily reconciled with the execution of all the threatenings of scripture, if the duration of punishment be limited; but if it be eternal, the most glorious displays of divine grace, in many plain texts, some of which I have already quoted from memory, must ever be regarded as contradictory and ab

surd. **

My view of the scheme of Divine Providence is this-that God has created all things for his own good pleasure; that he has no pleasure in pain and misery, regarded as an end, although he has seen fit to employ them as means for the accomplishment of a good end-an end worthy of his attributes, namely, that of convincing every sinner of the evil and folly of sin, and of bringing him to submit to the government of his Son. I do not consider the impenitent as standing in a different relation to God from those who in this life believe and obey the gospel. Christ died for all; 11 all things are given to him, in order

Can I raise the dead?

+ When God awakens you.

You do not prove repentance. § Applicable to a time-state. He affords the means.

God knows what all means here. ¶ God knows what this means.

** Until God gives us sight.

++ He must submit in one way or another.

Who are willing to be saved.

that he may lose nothing, but raise it up at the last day. Those who now believe suffer chastisement, and, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God; and those who die in their sins will come out of great tribulation. I cannot believe that God created any man for the purpose of making him eternally miserable;+ (if I did I could not confide in him ;) and if this was not his design, what is to hinder him from performing all his pleasure? The truth is, that every individual is a letter in the divine alphabet, and that the infinite number || of combinations of which the crea tures are capable, will afford work for eternity. When every individual ici!! shall be rendered conformable to the Divine will, ¶ and God shall be all in all, then, and not till then, will the joy of heaven be complete: for then each individual will feel as if every one else acted in obedience to his own will, because every one, and he among the rest, will have no other will than that of the great directing Power.** This view of heaven serves to explain the anxiety of the angels of God for the recovery of sinful men.tt They cannot get up the grand chorus till death and hell shall be swallowed up in victory. I am astonished how a man of your sense and good taste can rest contented §§ with a scheme which robs God of his glory, {||| Christ of his purchased property, and the first-born of the services of the rest of the human race. If, however, you

Nothing that was comprehended in the gift will be lost.

it will be. Time will shew: we shall see how

Therefore he offers him grace and mercy if he will have it.

§ If we will repent and turn to God, his pleasure will be performed in us.

Better to look to ourselves more.

In one way to one, and in another way to another. Let us first be awakened and converted, and then we shall know more about these matters. Every thing will be as it should be.

** Then nothing that the blessed will see will cause pain.

In a time-state.

# We want more light to understand this.

§§ I must take things as God makes me feel them.

God cannot lose his glory.

On the "Friendly Correspondence between an Unitarian and a Calvinist," SIR,

WHEN

HEN I placed at your disposal the letters which you have inserted in your Repository, under the designation of "A Friendly Correspondence between an Unitarian and a Calvinist," I informed you that I did so without the concurrence of either party.

Had they been written by other persons, it is extremely probable that I should not have taken so great a liberty with them, but, as I was convinced that nothing short of a miracle would induce the Calvinist to approach a work which is surrounded, I have no doubt, in his imagination, with as many terrors as protected that of Mer

This is what I call a great error. The grand circumstance is conviction by the Holy Ghost. None can conceive what that is who has not felt it. If you knew what it was, and the sealing evidences of the Spirit, I am sure you would be glad to give your supposed discoveries in exchange for them. I do not wish to have your views, and if I had I would not promulgate them. The most godly and happy people connect with their godliness and happiness a contemplation of the threatenings and designations of the impenitent in their fullest latitude, that they may appreciate more and more the evil of their sinful state. Let people say what they will, this is held by us to be prac tical charity as respects all. You will never persuade a genuine Calvinist, under Divine searching, to part with these convictions. I compare the language held on your side with their experiences in all ages. Let us pray for the deepest convictions. You carefully avoid noticing

them. Such evasions will not do always. + Who has not? To do so let us look at sin fully. Let us strive to obtain full conviction of sin that we may have fulness of joy, peace and holiness, which we cannot have without it. You skip these things.

lin; and felt, therefore, that I had it in my power to save him the humiliation of witnessing the weakness of his arguments, the obscurity of his views, and the excesses of his timidity, exposed to the public eye, I allowed my desire to benefit that part of the community which has the good sense to prefer your invaluable publication to other religious periodical ones, to get the better of the feelings which opposed themselves to such an inclination.

As to the Unitarian, I presumed too confidently upon the leniency which has ever marked his conduct, to cal culate upon more than a gentle reprimand for exhibiting his talents in the undress in which they are here exhibited; and though, as I merited, I received that reprimand, my respect for the party pronouncing it was increased by finding that it was not so much the undress in which he appears at present that influenced him, as an impression that his best dress but ill qualified him to appear at any time before the public.I trust, however, that the judicious opinion expressed by your American friend to the contrary, as well as by many others, will induce him to alter that opinion, and his other laborious avocations will perto persist in favouring us, as often as mit, with the excellent papers which he has hitherto done in this and other contemporary publications, under the respected signature of Philadelphus.

SIR,

W. W.

November 11, 1824.

I CRAVE leave to make a few re

marks on the concluding part of

the " Friendly Correspondence," (p. 605,) not by way of intrusion, but only to throw my mite into the common stock, and which I shall condense as much as possible.

"As respects your doctrine, I see and feel increasing danger." So says the Jesuit and the Confessor; but the Protestant only smiles. There is, immediately follows is good,—“ Detherefore, no argument here. What ceitfulness of the human heart"—or, according to the prophet, "Deceitful abore all things and desperately wiched" that is, more or less, according to circumstances; and the degrees of sin, or of holiness in the human cha

racter: this is, as the old divines say, "not a doctrine, but a use."

"A testimony for its proper season." (1 Tim. ii. 6.) Our translation by no means gives the true sense of this important passage. The Apostle enjoins that supplications and thanksgivings should be made for all men, because they are the creatures of God, "who will have," (λɛ,) i. e. desires that "all should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth." Now, taking this in the lowest possible sense, it must signify the impartiality and sincerity of the Deity in his offers of salvation, and consequently overthrows at once the doctrine of unconditional reprobation. But it implies, as it should seem, much more. The Scriptures plainly distinguish between the declarative and the secret and ultimate will of God: the former is contradicted and opposed by imperfect beings; the latter is stable and irrevocable. If, therefore, he originally intended the virtue and happiness of all men; and for what other purpose could they have been created? that end must finally be accomplished. Then follows (vers. 4, 5) a sublime and beautiful epitome of the gospel: first, the great and sole object of worship, "For there is one God; then his Delegate, Messenger and Representative on earth, the " One Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus." Next, the glorious effects of his meritorious undertaking, terminating in his devoting himself as "a ransom for all," which can mean nothing less than a great and signal deliverance; and this, absolutely "for all." What then, is there to be no future punishment? Yes, certainly; for the doctrine of future punishment stands upon the same foundation as that of reward. Nevertheless, the "ransom" is "for all"! If you further ask, how or when is this to be accomplished? the answer immediately follows; it will be accomplished, testified or proved, (napos dios, the words are plural and peculiarly emphatic,)" in the proper seasons.” "Seasons" not confined to the present short and passing scene; but issuing in the depths of eternity, in the great "house" of the Universal Parent, where are "many mansions," both of punishment and of reward. Indeed, N. seems here to vacillate, and cautions us against bring

ing forward our notions prematurely; but this comes with an ill grace from the Calvinists, who not only bring forward their own notions on this head, but insist upon them as the truths of God. We must be allowed, therefore, "also to shew our opinion." However, it is generally right to avoid such discussions in mixed company, as par lour controversies scarcely ever turn to much account.

No. 1. "The duration of future punishment and of future blessedness set forth in the same terms." True; but there is this distinction, as we conceive, that there is all the reason in the world in one case, and none that can be regarded as solid in the other.

It is only stating a simple truism, that awv and its derivations are used in a variety of senses in the Sacred Writings, which must be understood according to the subject to which they are applied. Eternity is applied to the Deity in a peculiar and absolute sense; to angels and “the just made perfect" it is the eternity a parte post, or in a future sense; to the Mosaic economy, now superseded by the gospel; to slavery, terminated by emancipation; to the world, as "abiding for ever," which is hereafter to "be burnt up!" The Prophet Habakkuk includes a partial and an absolute eternity in one verse; "The everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow; his ways are everlasting." Many passages might also be quoted from ancient and modern authors in a similar view. The argument, therefore, is of no force, unless it can be shewn that there are equal reasons in the one case as in the other. It is plain that the Deity may reward his faithful servants as much beyond their deserts as he pleases. They shall "live for ever," because they are not now in a state of trial, but of recompence and of progressive virtue; and our Saviour hath declared this by such a variety of expressions, as admit of no other possible sense. So true it is, that

words are but imperfect signs of things," and that "men may understand a thousand languages without being the wiser, unless they attend to the things to which they relate.”*

* Baker's Reflections on Learning.

No. 2. This is entirely begging the question. If the idea of "interminable wrath" only tends to promote melancholy in the saint, and despair in the sinner; and not to convince or to persuade, it is not probable that the Deity ever intended it should be received. Old authors, which may hereafter be quoted, have contended that the high scheme is the readiest way to make men Deists, if not Atheists.

No. 3. "Feeling the evil of sin." This is certainly a private and personal concern; as to which no man has any right to judge his neighbour. I suppose the writer would scarcely recommend auricular confession! "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." This, duly considered, is an effectual guard against the abuse of the doctrines of grace; but suppose men will abuse them? Shall we there fore not contend that God is good; that "Mercy is his darling attribute, and judgment his strange work" ?

No. 4. "Genuine Calvinists offer the gospel freely to all," &c. True: and for a very good reason; because if they did not, such is the force of truth, that they would have no hearers; at least nineteen out of twenty would quit their seats, though the majority might notionally adopt the scheme, and, as thousands do, mistake acquiescence for belief. Therefore, they dare not, I repeat it, they dare not preach undisguised Calvinism, or the doctrine of unconditional Reprobation. They tell the people that we cannot search the book of the Divine Decrees; that offers of grace are made in the most general terms, and that in the use of means we may reasonably hope for the Divine blessing. Now, all this is very good as far as it goes, but nothing at all to the question in hand; for to what purpose is it, that I cannot search the book of the Divine Decrees, if a decree be actually gone out against me? If through long habits of sin I am almost ready to make " shipwreck of faith, and of a good conscience," and feel not as yet any of those constraining impulses of the Divine Spirit, which I am told are necessary to form the "new creature;" if I am already marked out as one of the myriads, determined by my Maker first to sin, and afterwards to suffer for ever, for the satisfaction of his justice and the eternal manifestation of

his glory, I must submit to my fate! It is true the alternative is possible, but why should I pretend to forestall Providence? He will do it, no doubt, if he thinks fit, in his own time! In short, these good men are perpetually contradicting themselves; and it should seem that all schemes, which have necessity for their basis, tend naturally to produce in their advocates a species of mental aberration in different degrees, which renders them impenetrable to the plainest reasonings; so that nothing is gained by contention in this case, as the parties proceed commonly upon different grounds.

No. 5. It is difficult to understand what is meant by "overrating the evil of suffering," if eternal suffering be here spoken of. This surely cannot be overrated: what would the pious writer require more?

No. 6. Tophet, or the Valley of Hinnom, in Jerusalem, is alluded to by our Saviour as an awful symbol of future punishment; as crowns, thrones and sceptres are of the heavenly felicity; and opening the books, marshalling the different characters, and conferences between the several parties, are of the universal judgment. These are plainly accommodations to the human understanding. On the supposition of the eternity of punishment, I. asks, "How could I be happy in contemplating it?" How, indeed! N. replies: The Deity will enjoin his favourites not to disapprove the sufferings of these victims, but to look on the sufferers "with abhorrence.” Now, such a state of mind, from whatever cause, is one of the most painful which we can possibly experience, perhaps only lower than despair; it unfits us while it lasts from tasting any of the enjoyments or performing any of the duties of life, and is near akin to furious anger and deep-rooted malignity-it sometimes changes civilized man into a savage, and would transform the countenance of an angel into that of a fiend. David indeed says, "I hate sinners with perfect hatred;" but it is probable, notwith

* If we may be allowed a pun upon a serious subject, preachers of this class are under the necessity of proceeding in their public services upon the principles of liberty.