the breath of the Lord, or Spirit of the Lord's breathing on the flain, in the valley of vifion, that they came to live, Ezek. xxxvii. 9, 10. If we allow the breath of the Lord to mean his Spirit, which it is often employed to denote, then it would appear, that his gracious operation or influences fhall not be always excluded even from the dread abode of the second death. As at the beginning, when the earth was not separated from the intermixed waters, the Spirit of the Lord moved on the face of the great deep, imparting life and energy, and reducing all to light, order, harmony, and beauty; fo when the earth fhail be brought to a fimilar ftate by the general conflagration, the fame Spirit fhall move on the dread burning lake, and produce, we would hope, fimilar effects. He shall there too, breathe on the flain, and cause them to live. Is not this imported in the living waters, in Ezekiel's vifion, going into the dead fea, healing its waters, and their progress, caufing every moving thing to live. Is it not remarkable, that the fame procefs which prepares the punishment of the wicked, is the emblem of conveying the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit: "He breathed on them, and faith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghoft?" John The ufe of fuch phrafes in fcripture, is not a fortuitous thing; for the language of the fcripture is uniform, and calculated to lead us in the right pa h. The deftruction of the man of fin fhall be accomplished by the fame mean, the breath or spirit of God's mouth, which shall be attended with the brightneta of his coming; "And then fhall that wicked be revealed whom the Lord fhall confume with the fpirit of his mouth, and fhall deftroy with the brightness of his coming," 2 Theff. ii. 8. XX. 22. The water of life, and the breath of the living God go together, and thefe are never represented as vifiting any region from which all hope of mercy is entirely excluded. We have reason to believe, that the fire which the breath of the Lord kindles, is not intended to deftroy his own works, but those of the devil. Man, as a creature, is God's workmanship; but fio is the work of Sa tan, and that corrupt plant deftroyed, mifery, its fruit, muft perifh with it. The Lord knows how to fpare what pertains to himself, while he takes vengeance on the inventions of his guilty offspring, and deftroys what belongs to his adverfary. Much is imported in that expreffion, "The kindnefs and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared," Tit. iii. 4. the fame as toward the whole human race; for we may, with as much propriety, limit it to one man as to a few. When men have worldly property legally bequeathed to them, do they need as much reafoning to convince them of the validity of their claim, as experience fhews to be neceffary, to reach conviction of the truth of the final restoration ? Why should they be at fuch pains to limit the virtue and fruits of our Lord's fufferings and death, when there is enough in thefe for all? It is univerfalty granted, that these are of infinite efficacy, and confequently fufficient, not only 10 fave the elect, or all that believe in the prefent ftate, but also to recover the reft of mankind finally to holiness and happiness, did God fo determine. Bet is it not highly unbecoming, in profeffed children, to reprefent their hea venly Father as determining to limit the bleffed effects of his Son's mediation, S Inconceivably within the bounds which their own infinite fulness requires? What good reafon can be affigned, why the Father fhould fo much confine what tends greatly to his own glory, the Redeemer's honour, and also the ho. nour and happiness of his intelligent creation; that we must be at fuch pains to explain away every paffage of feripture that gives an enlarged view of his merciful designs? Is there not joy in heaven, joy in the presence of the angels of God, over the repentance even of one finner? and why ftrain every nerve to plead a cause that would rob bleffed angels and faints, nay more, God himself, Father, Son, and Spirit, of fuch an acceffion of joy as muft arife from the recovery of all the loft prodigals, whofe folly and guilt drive them to the land of Nod, or the dark joyless territory of the ftranger beyond the grave? "Pleasure and praise run thro' God's hoft, To fee a finner turn; Then Satan hath a captive loft, And Christ a fubject born!" Become allied to the skies, And Jefus' reign adorn. Praying grace, mercy, and peace may be with you, and with all the Ifrael of God, yea, with all men, according to his purpose. I remain, Dear Sir, Cordially yours, &c. LETTER XII. Behold, thou shalt be dumb, because thou believeft not my words, which fhall be fulfilled in their feafen. For with God nothing shall be impoffible.-Sirg, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth; for the Lord will have mercy upon his af flicted. Thus faith the Lord, I will give thee to establish the earth, to caufe to inherit the defolate heritages.-Thou fendeft forth thy Spirit, they are cre ated; and thou reneweft the face of the earth.-The wicked fhall be no more. The beaft of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls; because I giv waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the defert, to give drink to my people, my chofen. This prople, have I formed for myself, they shall fhew forth my praife. All flefh fhall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour, and thy Redeem er, the mighty one of Jacob-Luke i. 20, 37. Ifa. xlix. 13, 8. Pial. civ. 30, 35. Ifa. xliii. 20, 21.—xlix. 26. DEAR SIR, IN perufing the facred volume, who can help being often ftruck with wonder at God's conduct towards his rebellious creatures; and feeing the force of thefe words, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, faith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, fo are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts?" Ifa. Iv. 8, 9. We hear the Lord fumming up a heavy charge against the rebellious Jewish na ferve with thy fins, But in the very next tion in these remarkable words, "Thou haft made me to thou haft wearied me with thine iniquities,” Ifa. xliii. 24. verfe we find him addreffing the fame people, "I, even I, out thy tranfgreffions for mine own fake, and will not remember thy fins!"Verily this is not the manner of man, O Lord. am he that blotteth David, when confeffing his fins, urges his petition for pardon by an argument which, to man, would operate the contrary way: "O Lord, pardon mize iniquity; for it is great," Pfal. xxv. 11, Many fuch things occur in the facred records, but muft we conceal them, because some may abuse them to the purposes of licentiousness? In order to fecure honour to God, according to our notions of honour, muft we rob him of the glory of exercising mercy, while mifery exifts among his offspring, and of making things new while their old flate of fin and mifery remains? Is it not worthy of God, the Father of all, to say, in his own good time to his miserable creatures, O my rebellious offspring, ye have deftroyed yourselves, but in me is your help to be found? What has his people now to object to this; or what right have they to object to any part of his procedure? If he should yet prove fo good to the miserable, and has given reafon in his word to expect this, fhould their eye be evil and envious, because he is good? What if they them. felves fhould come to be of the number that need such a deliverance, and among the last who fhall fhare its benefit for it is alas! too evident, that thousands who exclaim against the final restoration, have not the faith of the gofpel, but in works deny it. Few, indeed, of the present generation of profeffors discover the fcripture marks of God's elect. And do not many, who, we would charitably hope, are building on the true foundation, mix with their work much wood, hay, and ftubble, materials that cannot abide the fire? Paul plainly supposes that a man's work may be burned, whence he shall fuffer lofs, a word connected with damnation, but he himself be saved, or reftored, as the verb also imports; yet so as by fire, 1 Cor. iii. 15. What was said of the wicked Jews may also apply to profeffed Chriftians, and the doctrine of the restoration teaches to what extent : "Because I have purged thee, and thou waft not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthinefs any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee,” Ezek. xxiv. 13. How ferious this to profeffors who build hopes upon fuppofed attainments, while the old leaven of malice and hypocrify is not purged away! Eternity, like infinity, exceeds all human conception; for let us ftretch our thoughts to the utmoft, and exhauft all the powers of numbers in calculating, this fo far from comprehending eternity, reaches only a portion of it. Eternity annexed even to a mere trifle raises it into importance. But there is not the least occafion for adding unceafing duration to the punishment threatened against wic ked men, in the word of truth, if they repent not, in order to make it truly terrible, and an object of folemn dread to every intelligent being. It is furprising any fhould think fo, who have accefs to confult the fcriptures, and would be terrified at a fhock of the earth that lafted but a few feconds. Those who talk as if unlimited mifery were neceffary to make it answer any valuable moral purpofe, offer an infult to their Maker, and difcover little knowledge of human nature, and of the properties of that fear or reverence which the Lord requires, and which avails to true holiness. Inftead of calling the period of taking vengeance, a day, and that of exercising mercy, a year, as is done in fcripture ; upon the common fyftem, it fhould be reversed; for that makes the time of exercifing mercy lefs than a day or an hour, compared to that eternity during which vengeance is to be inflicted. The Spirit, however, conforms his language to his fubject. The Jews gave Paul a patient audience fill he mentioned his being fent far hence unto the Gentiles, which made them exclaim, "Away with such a fellow from the earth'; for it is not fit that he should live," Acts xxii. 21, 22, We have ftill our myftical Jews, that cannot bear to hear of the gofpel being sent to the Gentiles, or the poor lolt nations that are in the country where peftilence, famine, and death rage. We are told "the Lord will have mercy upon his afflicted;" and to thofe who think the afflicted with the great tribulation of the fecond death have no intereft in this promife, may he not reply," Is my hand fhortened at all, that it cannot redeem," or bring back by power from that prison?" or have I no power to deliver" thence? Ifa. xlix. 13. chap. 1. 2. What Dr Horne remarks on Pfal. ciii. 17, 18. may, in perfect confiftency with scripture, be applied to the human race : "Let not man despair, whofe nature, with all its infirmities, the Son of God hath taken upon him. The flower which faded in Adam, blooms anew in Chrift, never to fade again. The mercy of Jehovah, in his Meffiah, is everlafting; and of that everlafting mercy poor frail man is the object. It extendeth to all the generations of the faithful fervants of God;" and we may add, to the unfaithful too, elfe how do impenitent finners become faithful? It is as much the work of mercy to make them fo, as to keep them so, and to extend to them, in their respective generations when made fo. "Death fhall not deprive them of its benefits, nor fhall the grave," no, not any grave, "hide them from the efficacious influence of its all-enlivening beams, which fhall pierce even into those regions of desolation.” The book of Pfalms is full of the univerfal doctrine, and nothing but the operation of the pruning-knife of modern divinity, and its effects on the human mind, could prevent their being feen. In the 103d. Pfalm, ver. 19. we are told that Jehovah's kingdom ruleth over all. We fee in the last verfe why his kingdom ruleth over all: "Blefs the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion." Some, in their wisdom, make the exercise of his univerfal autho rity to produce nothing in fome places of his dominion but imprecations and blafphemies; but David had not learned this part of modern divinity; for he had his education only in the old school. Will any fay that hell makes no part of Meffiah's dominion, when he is the Judge that dooms wicked men and angels to that prison, keeps the key of it, and a watchful eye over the ftate of the prifoner? If it makes no part of his dominion, then his kingdom or reign does not rule over it, and confequently cannot extend or rule over all. The word of God is harmony and truth. His tender mercies are said to be over all his works, and confequently all his works are exhorted to blefs him, yea, and they shall in Ine time verily bless him; for God never exhorts to that for which he never wilt ve juk occafion. We are told that all his works fhall praise or bless him, and for that purpose join in one harmonious fong; and what has guilty man to object, who himself is a conftant penfioner on the Divine mercy? Guilty creatures never blefs God till they are first bleffed of him. I intended to have difmiffed this part of the subject before this time, and to have proceeded to answer fome objections; but there is scarce a time I open my Bible, without feeing what appears to me to be additional evidence of the reftoration, which has led me to protract the subject. Tho' I adverted before to fome things in the 49th of Isaiah; yet, turning my attention to it the other day, much fresh light occurred from it on the subject, which I must now wave. The 66th Psalm begins with a call to the whole earth to keep a jubilee to the Lord, and to celebrate his glory, and in the following one the delightful fubject is con. tinued. I cannot confine the things there recorded, either to the elect, or to the millennium, or indeed to any period antecedent to the day of judgment. In the 102d. Pfalm too, things occur, which cannot, in my opinion, be explained upon the common fyftem, without doing them manifeft violence. To fome of these to which I have already adverted. At the clofe of the 104th Pfalm, we find the church praying, "Let the finners be confumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more." It should be rendered in the future, as fuch forms of prayer or imprication often ought, and are in different verfions. God confu...es finners by his word, and by his judgments, both of which are made fubfervient to the deftru&tion of the works of the devil. The latter claufe here plainly fhews the fenfe, he will prove fuch a confuming fire to them, that the wicked fhall be no more. In the Hebrew it is the ungodly, the fame term as in Pfal. i. L. "Bleffed is the man that walketh not in the counfel of the ungodly." The term rendered no more is that which occurs often connected with gnolam, a hidden period, le gnolam vegned, which is tranflated for ever and ever, literally, to the age and beyond it. It denotes, according to Parkhurft, being beyond, further, or befides fomewhat elfe. It is tranflated in our version, yet, ftill, moreover, again, yet again, any more, a long while, also, any other, any else, until, to, untcɔ even, whilst, during the time that. This is one of the words upon which much of the ftrefs of eternal mifery is laid, and these different fenfes are transcribed from the above author's Lexicon on the Hebrew Bible, where the learned can fee the texts referred to. Is a word fo varioufly rendered capable of being the basis of such a fabric? If ungodly men fhall not be any more, or beyond a certain period, or something else referred to, as I find it rendered in two famed Latin versions just now before me; what right have we to say, in oppofition to the plain declaration of fcripture, that ungodly men, as fuch fhall exift for ever? The God of the elect is also their God, and why fhould he not be allowed to be a confuming fire to the one as well as to the other? Are real Chriftians called kings and priests-made so by Jefus to his and their God? The Pfalmift defcribes part of their royal authority over the nations, the people, their kings and nobles, upon whom they are to execute the judgment. written, and adds, "This honour have all the faints," Pfal. cxlix. 9. The fame may be faid of their priefly office, which is common to them all. Of Zacharia, it is faid," According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord, and the whole multitude of |