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sations to ages past it appears, as man was ignorant of the spiritual, or internal manifestations of God; their iniquity was usually checked or chastised by external calamities, such as the sword, famine, pestilence or captivity. And in chapter xi, Isaiah speaketh of the return of the captivity of Israel, and from verse 11 to the end of the chapter, he mentions the reconciled state they would then enjoy, the victory which they would then obtain, and the highway which should then be made for the remnant of them to return, the same as their fathers came out of Egypt. Then, in chap, xii, 1, he says, "And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord I will praise thee, though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away and thou comfortest me."

And there are many who know by experience, that when they were laboring under a sensibility of the hateful and dangerous nature of their sins, that God seemed to be engaged against them, which filled their souls with awful fear and terror. But by and by, as soon as they believed that, through Jesus, God already had mercy on them, and had given them eternal life; how soon the scene was changed! God then appeared more sweet and excellent than they could express, shining in the face of Jesus, and what is more wonderful still, those same persons are heartily united with God against sin, is a measure of that same ardour, which, while they were in unbelief was such a terror to them.. And at the same time their souls are as calm and innocent as the harmless dove, and as far from those tempers which we call anger and wrath, as love is frors hatred.

I think, therefore, it is plainly evinced, that those tempers of mind which we call anger and wrath, and which are such in men, are not quali-ties of God: but that the meaning of holy men, by those words which are rendered anger and wrath, &c. in the English version, was ardour, or,,

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an unchanging determination to destroy sin and iniquity, and to punish the transgressor with

that view.

And if this view of the subject is correct, as I hope and believe it is, we may see that the object of God in his manifestations that are called anger and wrath, is a benevolent object. Forasmuch, as his motive is to punish the sinner to make him sick of sin, and to reform him from that which is his misery and his death, and to bring him to that state of obedience in which he finds life, and pleasure forevermore.

I have not taken it for granted that God's motive in punishing sinners is to reform them, although I believe it; for I know that many dispute it. I shall therefore quote a few passages of Scripture to prove it; and close with a few words.

Lev. xxvi, 15 on to 44, "And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judg ments, so that ye will not do all my commandments. Falso will do this unto you. I will even appoint over you terror, consumption and the burning ague," &c. "And I will set my face against you," &c. "And if ye will not yet for all this, hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your skis and I will break the pride of your Power, and I will make your Heaven as iron, and your earth as brass, and your strength shall be spent in vain4 and if ye, walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto.. We, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins- I will also send wild, beasts among you which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your ways shall be desolate.

And if ye will not be reformed by me, by these things, but will walk contrary unto me, then will I: also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times more for your sins, and will bring a sword upon you which shall which shall avenge the quarrel

of my covenant, &c.," And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly."

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Now, let any person read this 26 chapter of Le-. viticus, and then say if the motive of God in punishing man is not his reformation; again, see Job Xxxiv, 31, 32, "Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne, I will not offend, I see not, teach thou me; if I have done iniquity, I will do no more." PSALM CXVIII, 18, "The Lord hath chastened me sore; but he hath not given me over to death." ISAIAH LVH, 16, 17, 18, "For I will not contend forever, neither will I be always wroth,.. for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls I have made; for the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart, I have seen his ways and will heal him, I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners." Lam, Hi, 31, 32, 33,. "For the Lord will not cast off forever; but though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies, for he doth not afflict willingly; nor grieve the children of men." Hence, it is obvious that the motive of our Creator, in chastising, or punishing men for their sins, is their reformation. And of course I see no substantial evidence against the ideas which I before advanced.

So I shall conclude this first part of my Apology in the following manner: Believing that God has more love and goodness than I can think of,. I cannot see but that his motive in bringing intelligent creatures. into a state of endless pleasure or pain, must be, that they might all of them finally enjoy endless pleasure.

Believing that he is equally extensive in wisdom, I cannot see but that he was capable o£. planning his system accordingly..

Believing him to be boundless in knowledge, I cannot see but that all events were always plain to his view. And believing that he is Almighty, I cannot see but that he is able to defeat every device that would otherwise prevent the accomplishment of his purpose.

So that in reasoning from his adorable attri butes, I am obliged to believe, that his counsel will stand, and his pleasure be done; in that, all intelligent creatures, in heavenly gratitude, raised to such a degree as shall put forth sweet songs, and long sounds of the most hearty thanksgiving and adoration to God and the Lamb, who shall have raised them from dark corners, and dismal pits of earth and hell, and reconciled them to God through the blood of the Lamb to enjoy the happy nature of God, world without end.

Let no person, therefore, any more blame me, as many have done, for hoping and believing that the times of restitution of all things will come, until some one can bring to view at least, as forcible evidence from the nature of God against the idea,, as I have in its favor.

PART II.

IN further apologizing for my present belief that the doctrine of endless misery is false, let us take a view of the state of man from Adam to Moses, and from Moses to the coming of Messiah, and the state of thousands since.

It is evident, although there was a lineage from Adam to Noah who preserved the knowledge of God, that the rest were soon after the days of Adam swallowed up in gross ignorance and wickedness; which we know from the following sketches of Sacred History. Gen. VI, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, "And God saw that the wickedness of man great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart," &c. "The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence, and God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt; for air flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth."

Their ignorance may be seen by the following: Gen. XI, 3, on to 9, "And they said one to another, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, go to, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top unto Heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord said, behold the people one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down and there confound their language that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence,

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