In conclusion,-after the ample, and I hope satisfactory, manner in which the topics proposed for consideration have been discussed, little or nothing remains to be added. I have shewn that, as, on the one hand, it was impossible for Adam to forfeit more than he possessed-so, on the other, the forfeiture incurred by him extended to all that he possessed. I have shewn, that this forfeiture of his was no unforeseen or accidental matter; but was introductory to, and the means of developing, the ulterior designs of the Supreme Being: or, in other words, that the forfeiture of this present life by Adam, opened up the way for God's bestowing immortality and eternal life through Jesus; and that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, was both the pledge and the medium of this blessing being bestowed. I have also shewn, on the one hand, that the ordinary doctrine of the everlasting punishment of unbelieving and wicked men in a future state of existence, is a mere chimera or fiction of the human mind; deriving its origin from mistaken views of scripture, and from ignorance of the nature and consequences of sin: and yet, on the other hand, that the wicked, or Adam's posterity as such, are everlastingly punished, by their being everlastingly excluded from Christ's kingdom, and by the compleat and everlasting destruction of all that as Adam's descendants they possess. To sum up the whole in a few sentences:-my design in this essay has been, by combating and refuting a few closely connected errors, to shew that, although God applies, and consistently with his revealed

character can apply, no remedy to the original transgression of man; nay, allows it to take full effect in the destruction of human nature;-He nevertheless renders that transgression, and its results, the means of accomplishing His purposes, in the development of His character and the communication of His nature. There is no restoration or recovery of what Adam forfeited, announced in scripture; for what he forfeited, he forfeited for ever: but the substance of the divine declaration is, that through Christ Jesus, as the second man, the Lord from Heaven, all things are made new. This is the record, not that God gives back to us pure natural or Adamic life, but that God hath given to us, originally possessed of natural life, eternal life; and that THIS life is, not in or through Adam, but in or through his Son.* In the course of the preceding remarks I have shewn particularly, that sin, being merely one of the means, agents, or instruments, which God · employs for effectuating His purposes, necessarily comes to an end, or is annihilated, along with this present world, as soon as these purposes have been accomplished. How much more pleasing and glorious, as well as scriptural, is this view of things, than that which represents sin as having an eternal and necessary existence; and which thus, besides denying the efficacy of the atonement, represents that which God hates, as being either one with Him, or His everlasting rival!

1 John v. 11. See also 1 Peter i. 23.

May the great Head of the Church, in whose name, and for the advancement of whose glory, this work was undertaken, condescend to make it the vehicle of exciting in some, attention to His own most blessed word; and, not of rendering them sceptical in regard to revealed truth, but of emancipating them from antichristian and anti-scriptural errors and prejudices, by which even the followers of Jesus, either from neglect or an undue deference to the opinions of others, have for a long course of ages been enslaved.

APPENDIX.

The reader of the preceding work may be anxious to know the opinions of critics respecting the former edition. With a view to the gratification of this feeling, the following selections have been made.

I. From the Gospel Magazine.

"The conception of the above work before us, denotes a mind of no ordinary capacity, and evinces that the writer is anxious to render his powers and attainments useful and beneficial to mankind. These are reasons which should powerfully sway the breast of a reader to exercise the utmost candour, and even lenity, in forming his judgment. And, if the rigid dictates of that duty which we owe the public, compel us to pronounce a sentence unfavourable, we would not depreciate from the integrity of the writer, in supposing that his motives were not sincere."-June, 1828.

II. From the Monthly Repository and Review.

Another pamphlet was reviewed along with the Three Questions. After having remarked concerning both: "we have here an example from both the Established Churches of this island, of the tendency of educated and active minds to throw off the trammels of established authority, and to search for truth fearlessly and in the use of the proper means. We are happy that in both these pamphlets the appeal is made to scripture rather than to any articles, professedly drawn up from them by mere human authority. What, after diligent and faithful investigation, may be esteemed to be the truth inculcated by the sacred writers? That is the Question." I say, after these remarks on the two pamphlets in common, and a very interesting criticism on the former of them, the writer thus speaks of the former edition of the preceding work: