Now, I am one of these holy missionaries, (continues he,) and I assure you, that whosoever of you shall do as I shall direct, shall, when he dies, go into that glorious paradise, where Christ is; and that I may know who have a mind to be thus happy, lo I have here a book given me by the Pope, by order of Christ himself, that I may mark down in it the names of all those that desire his favour, which I must from time to time send an account of to the Pope, that he may send it to Christ in heaven. And I assure you, that all those who refuse to have their names thus recorded, shall be destroyed at last in a most terrible manner. Come, therefore, and let me have all your names; but know, that every one that expects this favour, must give me his offering in money, according to his ability, that the sincerity of his heart may be known." ་་་་་་་་་་ REMARKS ON THE PROPOSAL TO (To the Editors.) GENTLEMEN,-I am much pleased to see that you have at length thought a new Dissenters' Burial Ground for London and its neighbourhood, a subject fit for notice in your valuable miscellany. I did not doubt, that after the public exposure of the limited tenure of the ground at Tottenham Court Chapel, the sympathies of the general body of the Dissenters would be aroused to the necessity of making more permanent provision for the safe and undisturbed deposit of the remains of their families and friends. Surely we shall no longer be satisfied to leave the disposing of these burial grounds, where we have deposited the remains of those we held most dear, to the hazard of unfeeling and sordid self-interest, to be used for the most common purposes of a crowded *R. Fleming's Christology, vol. ii. p.18-21. N. S. No. 36. city, and to witness the consequent breaking up of the quiet homes of our departed friends, and the exposure of their bones to the rude view and ruthless indignities of a vulgar unfeeling labouring class of men. No; let not such a want of decent care and regard for the quiet and secure repose of our departed worthies and friends, be again ever laid to our charge. Your intelligent correspondent B. J. P., has gratified me much in the detail he has given of the General Burying Ground at Manchester. It shows with how little difficulty some such plan might be adopted here; and I should suppose, it would only need that a few respectable members of our body should be announced, as willing to undertake the superintendence of the scheme, for multitudes of subscriptions to be in readiness to carry the object into immediate effect. The bodies whom I had suggested in the Evangelical Magazine, as most suitable for conducting such a scheme with general advantage, and to whose direction and profit, I imagined it would be most desirable to devote its pecuniary affairs, are seriously objected to by your correspondent. Be it so; I have had my object accomplished, in the subject being mooted for general consideration: only let it become a matter of comment and discussion among those who cannot but feel an interest in it, and I am satisfied it will have due caution exercised in its details. My hope is, it will be so settled and established, that the ground, once opened for the purpose, shall never be diverted from the object, nor a shadow of insecurity remain for the sacred uninterrupted quiet of the corpses that may be interred therein. Its being enrolled in the High Court of Chancery, under due limitations and provisions, is, I understand, the most, if not the only secure mode. Our 40 laws have provided for such a I am, Gentlemen, ON PERNICIOUS PRINCIPLES. PART III.-(concluded.) Universal Restoration. ON the admission of the doctrine that the sufferings of the wicked in the future life will be temporary, and inflicted with a view to the restoration and eventual happiness of their subjects, it cannot but appear a strange, yea, an inexplicable circumstance, that the language of the sacred word should never express or imply this, in any way, direct or indirect; but should uniformly proceed upon the strongest expression of the very opposite state of things. Surprising indeed it would be, upon this supposition, that He whose soul was ever full of the tenderest sympathies for human woes, who so generously mourned over the hardness of heart of his inveterate persecutors, who so pro fusely wept at the prospect of the temporal miseries of his abandoned countrymen, - that He, the compassionate Jesus, should speak so frequently and so piously of the future condition of the finally impenitent, and yet should never give the most distant hint of this gracious discipline and anticipated recovery; but should, on the contrary, invariably represent that condition as one of entire rejection, of irretrievable ruin, of hopeless despair. Will it be said that the Founder of Christianity. was, in this respect, under the influence of the mistaken opinions and popular errors of his age and his country? It is answered, that if such a mode of neutralizing the most earnest and solemn declarations of Jesus Christ be resorted to, there is an end to all confidence in any part of his testimony-it will be impossible to draw the line between what we are bound to receive and what we are at liberty to reject, and the divine commission of our Lord is rendered absolutely of none effect. Or is it surmised, that the absolute declarations of the eternal perdition of those who die in their sins were given upou the principle of a prudent and salutary artifice, because the bulk of mankind could not otherwise be restrained from abandoning themselves to the utmost licence in the commission of sin? The obvious answer to this assertion is, that it is most daringly impious, as it supposes that the ever-blessed God has resorted to falsehood, in order to carry on his government of the world; and yet that, after all, his scheme has not answered, for the philosophers of this enlightened age have detected the artifice, and publicly exposed the false representation! It also proceeds on another radically erroneous principle, namely, that religion is the child of mere and mercenary fear; a principle in direct contradiction to the whole spirit of both the law and the Gospel. The dread of hell is, indeed, frequently the occasion of awakening persons to serious reflection; but it must be united with far nobler principles before it leads any to true repentance and conversion. Love to holiness, for its own sake, and devotedness to God, from a cordial sense of his own glorious excellencies, and his riches of mercy in Jesus Christ, are the essential principles of true religion. In the last paper on this subject, the examination of the supposable grounds upon which the expectation of final happiness to the wicked may be conceived to rest was entered upon considered the dictates of nature We and reason, and it was shown, we conceive, by fair and just argument, that they furnish no solid basis on which this expectation can stand, and that, if impartially followed up, they conduct us to the opposite result, and leave us in the deepest darkness, without refuge and without hope. We now proceed to inquire, if the advocates of this doctrine appeal to the JUSTICE of the divine nature and government, as the principle on which they look for the restitution of those who live and die in an ungodly state? This principle we did examine in the first Essay on this subject, and satisfactorily proved, that it is contrary to the positive declarations of the holy Scriptures, the sole and infallible rule of the Christian faith, that it proceeds upon false assumptions; and that it would lead to consequences with respect to the nature of eternal felicity, the most repugnant to all reasonable views of that subject. Those arguments appear quite sufficient to extinguish every hope of restoration upon the principle of justice. Another consideration may be suggested to 651 the reader to be pursued in his own serious reflections. From the very nature of the case, and from it, it is manifest that the primary all that the Scriptures say about and most essential circumstance in the awful state of damnation, is the being given up to the uncontrolled dominion of wicked passions. read of instances, happily not We have sometimes common, of men in this life casting off some of the ordinary restraints from self-interest, decorum, and the influence of public opinion, which providence puts upon criminal propensities:-and in such instances, how terrific and appalling have been the deHave they not been often and velopments of human depravity! fitly called, a hell upon earth? Now let the reader endeavour to realize the thought; -what wicked in hell, as to moral feelmust be the condition of the ings and expressions of feeling, when all restraint is done away, when guilty passions burst forth in all their fury, when malice and and cruelty, and in all their pracrage, envy and deceit, revenge ticable forms of display, are poured out in perpetual torrents of execration and blasphemy? Is there any reason to suppose that this dreadful state of things it in the nature of things to be will subside, or amend itself? Is so? Or is it expected that God will interpose by a miracle to effect it? If not, must not the wickedness of the wicked go on increasing, and their consequent desert of misery go on increasing? Will not new sins beget new plagues, and fresh onsets of impiety break open fresh gushes of agony and despair? ground, therefore, the continuOn this tinuance of misery; and this dire ance of sin must produce a consuccession must go on, multiplying and increasing to endless ages. Sin perpetually repeated will call 402 upon the justice of heaven for the correspondent repetition of punishWe would inquire again, ment. Do those who indulge this expectation derive it from their ideas of the mercy, grace, and goodness of God? the mercy of God passes over with impenitent sinners into the world of misery, and there continues to wait upon them and work in them? Not only is this no where said, but the precise contrary is declared by the authority of the Eternal Jehovah. "The righteous hath hope in his death; but the wicked is driven away in his wickedness. The wicked is reserved to the day of destruction; they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath. The destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed. They shall utterly perish in their own corruption." Are corruption." Their portion is described in terms which express the depth of despair, and exclude every idea of recovery: it is "outer darkness, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth, where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched:" it is "the revelation of the righteous judgment of God:" it is "judgment without mercy:" it is "indignation and wrath, tribulation, and anguish." When the Supreme Judge shall take his "fan into his hand, and thoroughly purge his floor, he will gather the wheat into his garner, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” The righteous shall be received into the blessed kingdom of their Father, but the wicked shall depart, accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." The universal current of the divine oracles flows in this uniform direction; showing us, that our present state of existence is the only period for repentance and conversion, for obtaining the pardon of our sins, and a title and a meetness for the heavenly glory; but that the world to come will be the state, not of trial, but of retribution; not of any meliorating change to those who have resisted the means of such a change He is, indeed, "merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin." But the united testimony of his own word, through all its parts, assures us, that his mercy in the gift and the work of salvation has a definite and exclusive respect to the present state, as the only state of probation and hope. Are we called to adore "the tender mercy of our God?". It is that "the day-spring from on high hath visited us, to give us the knowledge of salvation by the remission of our sins." Do we celebrate the kindness and love to man of God our Saviour?" We find that it is "according to his mercy that he saves us, by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Spirit." Do we admire and praise our God for that he is rich in mercy, and for his great love wherewith he hath loved us?" It is because, when we were dead in sing, he hath quickened us together with Christ, hath saved us by grace, through faith; and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God; and hath created us in Christ Jesus unto good works." Thus the manifestations of divine mercy are always held forth in the oracles of God, as connected with the blessings of salvation in the present state of man's existence, the renewal of the heart to holiness, pardon of sin, and justification through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, and the fruits of regeneration and faith in all purity of life and conduct. But where is it said, that while it was practicable here in this world, but of a fixedness of character and state for ever. Yet a little while is the light with you: walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you. Behold! Now is the accepted time Now is the day of salvation:" but after death is "THE JUDGMENT," the decision of character and state by the unchangeable sentence of God. When the Apostle Paul charges Christians, concerning their friends who had fallen asleep in Jesus, "not to sorrow, as others who have no hope;" it is clearly implied, that those who do not sleep in Jesus, who did not believe on him, and on whom he himself denounced that they shall not see life, but that the wrath of God abideth on them," that they are persons of whom No hope can be entertained. The same truth is declared in that sublimely sweet and majestically awful picture, which is drawn in the closing paragraphs of the inspired volume, setting before us the completion of the church's trials, and all the dispensations of the present world, and opening a prospect into the dispensation of eternity. "The time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still, and he that is filthy let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still, and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold! I come quickly; and my recompense is with me, to give unto every one according as his work shall be." "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." "But WITHOUT are dogs," profane and malicious scorners, "and sorcerers," hypocrites and deceivers of every kind, " and whoremongers," all lewd and lascivious persons, open and secret, both those who commit such cri'nes themselves, and those who lead others to commit them, " and murderers," whether of the bodies or of the souls of men, and, according to our Lord's righteous principle of interpretation, all envious, spiteful, malignant, and revengeful persons, and idolaters," not only those who are outwardly and ostensibly such, but all who set up the idols of their iniquity in their hearts, covetous persons, selfish persons, lovers of sinful pleasures, lovers of all that is in the world, which is contrary to the holy will of God," and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie," every defrauder, defamer, betrayer, violator of truth between man and man, and perverter of truth with respect to the doctrines of revelation. Are not these diversified declarations of God in his holy word sufficient to satisfy the mind of every reader, in the most complete manner, that those who despise the mercy of heaven, as it is held forth by the Gospel in this life, will find the door shut when their presumption may cry," Lord, Lord, open to us?"-If these plain and pointed testimonies, which are not insulated positions, but are interwoven with the whole texture of revealed truth, are not enough to afford full conviction, it may, we greatly fear, be justly said, Neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead!" But if, notwithstanding these decisive declarations of the divine word, it be possible for any still to cling to their vain expectation, it is proper for them to tell us in what way they expect their salvation; whether by Jesus Christ as its author and bestower, or without him and independently of him; whether by virtue of any promise or intimation from God, or con |