reason to upbraid the Creator? Can we, consistently with any Principles of Religion, upbraid him for giving us Existence, upon these Terms? Suppose now this State of Probation over. We are disposed of in another, of exact distributive Justice; where our natural Condition will be as good, as our moral Temper and Habits deserve; or, all things consider'd, perhaps, will admit of: that is, they will be exactly adapted, and suited to each other. Where then will be the Reason to upbraid the Creator? If we are miserable, still All is right. And there will be no more reason to upbraid God in that State of Retribution, than there was before, in the State of Probation. It would be a miserable Universe, if this righteous Disposition of things did not finally prevail. I will close this Article in the words of a fine Reasoner, which will have more weight than any of my own.

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"To produce a Being into a State of clear Happiness, in any degree, can be no injury to it; or into "a State of mixt Happiness, provided the Happiness certainly over-balances the contrary, and the unhappy "or suffering Part be not greater than what that Being would choose in order to obtain the Happiness, or rather than lose it. Nor, again, can any wrong "be done by producing a Being subject to more "Misery than Happiness, if that Being hath it in "his own power to avoid the Misery, or so much of "it, as may leave the remainder of Misery not greater, "than what he would rather sustain than miss the

Proportion of Happiness. 1The only Case then,

1 Hence may appear the Difference between the Doctrine of the Eternity of future Punishments, and the Doctrine of absolute Reprobation: Two very different things, tho' Mr. W. p. 2. and Dr. Burnet, p. 308. are pleased to rank them together.

"by which wrong can be done in the Production of any Being, is, when it is necessarily and irremediably "to be miserable, without any Recompense, or Balance "of that Misery: And this indeed is a Case so "grievous, so utterly irreconcilable to all Reason, "that the Heart of a reasoning and considering Man can scarce bear the Thought of it. So much every one must understand of the nature of Reason "and Justice, as to allow these things for Truths in"contestable." Religion of Nature delineated, p. 200. 5th Edit.

I pass on to a second Observation, intimated more than once already, viz. That the Degrees of this future Punishment will be infinitely various, and exactly in proportion to the Guilt and Demerit of those who suffer them.1 It is plainly declar'd in Scripture, that it will be more tolerable for some than for others, in the Day

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1 "There is such a Difference acknowledged in the State of "the Blessed, where all are happy according to their several Capacities, and so it is in Hell, where all are miserable if "compared with the Condition of the Blessed, but in different Degrees; and as in this Life some are so unfortunate that it 66 were better for them not to be at all, than to continue always "in the State in which they are; so in Hell there may be some "whose Condition is preferable to not being; tho' for Judas "and such Sinners it had been better they had never been."

Archbishop King, Sermon on the Fall of Man, at the End of the 2d Vol. of The Origin of Evil.

It is better, perhaps, not to determine any thing about the Point here mention'd by the Archbishop. All that are condemn'd to Hell, suffer, of course, the Loss of Heaven, and all that is included in the Pana Damni. If they deserve to suffer no more, they will suffer no more. And every Degree of positive Punishment superadded, will be no more than what is just and necessary. So that no one's Existence will be worse than Non-existence, wrongfully, or without Reason.

of Judgment; and that some will receive a greater Damnation. And indeed this Doctrine of the Degrees, and different Measures, of Punishment, is implied in the very Notion of a just and righteous Judgment. I need not therefore undertake formally to prove this Point. "It is certain, says Mr. Whiston, and agreed "to by all, that some Sinners deserve much greater "Punishment than others; and that God will render "to every one according to his Works: That some will "be beaten with many, and others with few Stripes, in "the future World.” (P. 108.) This Principle, thus agreed to by all, our Adversaries endeavour to make their advantage of: (tho' they seem to forget it, upon some other occasions; when, in their rhetorical Declamations upon this Subject, they seem to represent all the Sufferers alike, in the same exquisite, and extreme Degree of Torment.) It most naturally implies, Mr. W. tells us, that the Punishment of some of the wicked shall be much longer than of others.1

1 To what Mr. W. alleges out of Justin Martyr, I answer, that it is evident from his own Testimonies out of that Father, p. 76, 77. that he asserted the Eternity of future Punishment; which Testimonies however, he has castrated by his arbitrary Interpretation. As to what Justin says in the Place here referred to, it must be observ'd, that he is arguing against that independent Immortality of the Soul, asserted by the Platonists, which implies a beginningless, as well as endless Duration; in which sense, God only hath Immortality. In this sense, he will not allow the Souls of Men to be immortal; not that they will ever perish, for those of the good, he expressly says, shall die no more; and those of the wicked shall be punish'd as long as God wills to continue them in Being, and to punish them. The Meaning of which is, agreeably to the Point he is upon, that their Existence is dependent upon God; who as he at first gave, has it always in his power to take it away. But that he ever will do so, is not said; nor consistent with what Justin teaches, concerning their endless Punishment, elsewhere: See

But why longer? Cannot some be beaten with more Stripes than others, tho' their Existence in that Place of Torment be of equal Duration? May not some Prisoners deserve, and meet with, better Treatment than others, tho' the Time of their Confinement in Prison be the same? Tho' the Scriptures tell us that God will render to every Man according to his Works, and make mention of the many, and of the few Stripes; yet they never say, that some shall be punish'd for a long time, (eis Xpóvov Toλúv;) and others for a short time, (εἰς χρόνον μικρόν, or ̓ εἰς ὀλίγον Kaιpóv.) But the Difference always turns upon the Variety of Degrees, and not at all upon the Inequality of the Duration; the Punishment of all being represented as αἰώνιος, or εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, equally; never once, as πрóσkaipоs temporal, or for a Season. This Difference of Degrees, therefore, is the thing most naturally implied, according to the whole Tenour of Scripture, when any Difference is spoken of1 But this equal Duration, Mr. W. says, p. 108. is contrary to the most obvious Rules of Right and Justice in the World. I, on the other hand, assert, that since there will be so great a Difference in the Degrees of Punishment, each Man's being exactly suited to the Demerit of his Sin, and the Malignity of his Temper, there will be no Injustice in the equal Duration of it: And that the Fudge of all the Earth will still do right, tho' he does not preternaturally annihilate those Creatures, whom he originally created naturally immortal. "For why, I beseech you," says Dr. Clarke,

the Pages above referred to, in Mr. W's Book. See also the Notes in Febb's Edition of the Dialogue with Trypho, p. 19, 21. And for a full Vindication of Justin Martyr, see Mr. Chishull's Charge of Heresy, chap. iii.

1 Compare what is said No. XXXV.

"must it needs be supposed, that God cannot dispose of "all his rational Creatures into States suitable to their "several Natures, and proportionable to their several Capacities and Deserts, without destroying and taking "away their Being?" Letter to Mr. Dodwell, p. 62. And again, p. 67. “But certainly it is a very weak "and poor Argument, to conclude that numberless "Souls must therefore necessarily be annihilated, "merely because we do not know in particular, what "State and Condition it will please God to assign "them." There can be no doubt, but that God can thus dispose of all his Creatures, (incorrigibly wicked Christians, as well as Heathens, and Infants,) in such a manner as is right, and best upon the whole; and yet so, that none of them shall suffer more than the Reason of the thing demands, or their own Iniquities deserve. And provided this be but done, there will be no reasonable Ground of Complaint, because he does not take away their Being.

A third Observation to be made is, that these Punishments are not merely arbitrary, or so to be understood, as if God interposed every moment to inflict them, by Acts of mere Power and Will; but they are the natural and necessary Consequence and Result of things. There is a Man indeed who calls himself, or his Book, the Moral Philosopher, (and one is as much so, as the other,) who denies all this; and tells us that "these Rewards and Punishments must be "such as are not the natural, necessary Consequences "of the Actions themselves, since every one must see "that this would be no Government at all, and that "the Case, in this respect, must be the very same "whether we suppose any Rectoral Justice, or any "Presence or Operation of God in the World or not."