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is not quenched. It is the worm of remorse, preying with incessant avidity upon an awakened conscience; it is the fire of tumultuous passions, which cannot be quenched till it has consumed the evil of the heart which has indulged them. Though justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne, thou art terrible, O Lord, in thy chastisements, for terrible is the evil with which thou art at war, and which it is the design of thy benevolent chastisements to eradicate. "Let, then, the wicked man forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him' turn unto the Lord, who will have mercy upon him, and unto our God, who will abun< dantly pardon him."

Part Third.

OF THE OBJECTIONS WHICH ARE URGED AGAINST THE DOCTRINE OF UNIVERSAL RESTORATION, WHETHER DERIVED FROM THOSE PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE, OR FROM THOSE REASONINGS WHICH ARE SUPPOSED TO PROVE THE DOCTRINE OF ENDLESS MISERY, OR FROM THOSE WHICH ARE CONCEIVED TO FAVOR THE DOCTRINE OF LIMITED PUNISHMENT, TERMINATED BY DESTRUCTION.

HAVING considered those arguments in favor of the opinion that purity and happiness will ultimately and universally prevail, which appear to be in a great measure independent of the testimony of Revelation, it would now be proper to examine the evidence which the Scriptures afford in support of it. But as many objections to this doctrine, commonly deemed insuperable, are derived from the language of scripture, it is necessary to consider, in the first place, the validity of the testimony which it thus seems to bear against it; otherwise the evidence which it really affords in its favor, will not have its just weight upon the mind.

The chief objections to the doctrine of Universal Restoration are derived from two sources: from certain passages of scripture, and from certain reasonings which are supposed to prove the doctrine of Endless Misery; and from certain expressions which are conceived to favor the doctrine of Limited Punishment, terminated by Destruction. It will be proper to consider each separately.

CHAPTER I.

OF ENDLESS MISERY.

THE doctrine of Endless Misery teaches, that, with the exception of the first man, God brings the whole human race into existence with an innate propensity to evil: that, to counteract this fatal tendency, in favor of a few individuals termed the elect, he specially interposes,

"The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consisteth in the guilt of Adam's first sin; the want of that righteousness wherein he was created, and the corruption of his nature, whereby he is utterly indisposed, disabled and made opposite unto all that is spiritually good, and wholly inclined to all evil, and that continually."-Assembly's Larger Catechism, Quest. XXV.

"By the decree of God for the manifestation of his glory, some men are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others fore-ordained to everlasting death. Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to his eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of his will, hath chosen in Christ, unto everlasting glory, out of his mere free grace and love, without any foresight of faith or good works, or any other thing in the creature as conditions or causes moving him thereunto, and all to the praise of his glorious grace."-Confession

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irrresistibly influencing them to avoid whatever might endanger their salvation, and to do what is necessary to secure it; that the great majority of his creatures, termed the non-elect, he leaves to the operation of a nature, which must inevitably ensure their ruin; † that for these unhappy beings he does not interpose; that he abandons them to endless and inconceivable misery, § and that from all eternity he appointed

of Faith, chap. iii. "All those whom God hath predestinated untò life, AND THOSE ONLY, he is pleased, in his accepted time, effectually to call."-Ibid. chap. x.

* "They whom God hath effectually called, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved This perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election," &c.-Ibid. chap. xvii.

↑ "Others not elected, although they may be called by the ministry of the word, and may have some common operations of the spirit, yet they never truly come to Christ, and therefore cannot be saved; much less can men not professing the Christian religion be saved in any other way whatsoever, be they never so diligent to frame their lives according to the light of nature, and to the law of that religion they do profess; and to assert and maintain that they may, is very pernicious, and to be detested."-Ibid. chap. x.

+ "These men thus predestinated and fore-ordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed, and the number is so certain and definite that it cannot be either increased or diminished."-Ibid. chap. iii.

§ "The punishment of sin in the world to come, are ever

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