happiness of the sufferer, or will terminate in the extinction of his conscious being, is a question on which Scripture throws no clear light.'

Can fear

That mind that can

But surely, you

Here then after all this solemn parade about future retribution, he is not certain, in his own mind, whether it will do any good, or not! He certainly does not want it for any good that he thinks will be effected by it. Reader, what does the Dr. want this awful future punishment for? He has assigned no reason at all why he wants it; but we know what he wants it for. Reader, you were casting in your mind that the Dr. wants future punishment to frighten his congregation with, to make them love God and one another; to make them love holiness, and practice christian virtues. Can you believe that he wants it for such purposes? drive us to love God and virtue ? believe it must be in gross darkness. will say, the Dr. certainly intended to fill his hearers. with the most fearful apprehensions. By no means! If the Dr. had frightened one of his hearers, and that frightened hearer had gone to him in trouble about the matter, he would, with all the powers of his mind have exerted himself to remove such distress. What then, you ask, does he want this future punishment for? He wants it for the purpose of opposing those who do not believe it. He did not preach this sermon with a view to convince those, against whose sentiments he directed his argumeuts. They are Universalists; and he knows that Universalists, if convinced at all, must be convinced, not by assertions, without proof, but by arguments directly drawn from the holy scriptures. If it had been his design to convince us, he would have been careful

to state our views in our words; and then he would have endeavored to show us that the very Bible to which we go to prove our doctrine, does in fact disprove it. But in room of any thing like this he has proceeded as unlike it as possible. He knew that his hearers had always been in the habit of hearing his assertions, and he had no doubt but they would believe them as usual. There was no need of any scripture proof, and therefore none was brought.

Some of the reasons which have induced me to disprove the arguments, in the sermon under examination, were mentioned in the commencement, and it may not be amiss to add a few suggestions more on that subject, in concluding. I have been long convinced of the fact, that the doctrine of an unmerciful retribution, in the world to come, for sins committed in this mortal state, gives to our Creator the very worst character that the human mind can conceive. It is atheism, gross atheism, to pretend that such a state of suffering can exist, without allowing that its existence was originally embraced in the vast scheme of the divine purposes. 1 furthermore feel confident that the maintainance of such a sentiment, in human society, is calculated to harden the hearts of men, and of women, and of children; and thereby to imbitter their affections towards each other, to fill them with disgust against God and hatred to their fellow creatures. In support of this view I will refer to a fact generally known, and which the Dr. has justly mentioned on page 221, as follows: Speaking of this future retribution, he says, 'Retribution is not a new doctrine, brought by Christ into the world. Though

darkened and corrupted, it was spread every where beore he came. It carried alarm to rude nations, which nothing on earth could terrify. It mixed with all the false religions of antiquity.' This testimony is true; and if its not being brought into the world by Jesus Christ, and its having been mixed with all the false religions of antiquity, recommend it to the Dr. all I will say is, that I am glad it has no better recommendation. He might have added, that this awful doctrine has always been one of the main pillars of popery, and the soul cause of all the persecutions which have swept many millions of innocent beings from the earth, and fixed a stigma on the christian church that will never be defaced until the doctrine is exploded. I call on the Dr. to trace bloody persecution to any other cause or source than that of unmerciful retribution. If John Calvin had not believed in the doctrine of future retribution, would he have procured the burning of Servetus? If the church of Rome had not believed it, would it have put millions to death for heresy? If our early settlers of New England had not believed it, would they have hung peaceful Quakers? No; none of these persecutions would ever have disgraced human nature if it had not been for this unmerciful doctrine, which is perfectly calculated to harden the human heart, and to fill it with the same kind of wrath which it always supposes exists in God. I have no doubt of the truth of the Dr.'s testimony. It is unquestionably true that the scribes and pharisees, who procured the death of the son of God, were sound believers in this doctrine. I have no reason to doubt that the whole estate of the

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priests and elders, who were the murderers of Jesus believed this doctrine. For had they been persuaded that life and immortality are an inheritance which our Creator has in store for all men, they certainly would not have put to death the Lord of Glory.

Lastly; I have a strong desire to do all I can to fix the attention of my fellow-men, and especially the youth, on the fact, that vice of every sort and kind, is hateful in its nature, that it always brings a full, and an exact retribution with it, and that it ought therefore to be cautiously shunned. This view of the case, I feel confident, is the best possible safe-guard against unlawful indulgences. Would people try any harder to avoid the cholera if they believed that it brought many present enjoyments, but that if we should happen to die with it, we should be sent away into some gloomy place hereafter, where we should be employed in making for ourselves ugly and deformed bodies?

Among other reasons for endeavoring to disprove the doctrine of unmerciful punishment, I assign the gloomy infelicity, and painful anxieties of many, especially among the lovely daughters of our race, which owe their corrosive gnawings to this doctrine. It is not very rare that we find the most amiable minds, the softest hearts, the loveliest tempers, the kindest dispositions all withering beneath this deadly poison. Many are the families, which are this moment deploring the loss to their society of those with whom they have trodden the flowers of a few happy springs, and have plucked the roses of a few joyful summers; but who are now gone to the dwellings of maniacs, or to the more enviable house of the

dead. If I could be the means of preventing a single case of this kind, it would be a very rich reward for the labor it might cost, and a tenfold compensation for all the reproaches which I am sure of receiving therefor.

To conclude: if I have, in this examination, exposed the errors and contradictions with which I have met, in any way to the prejudice of their author, I humbly ask forgiveness; for I do certainly entertain sentiments of unfeigned respect for the author of the sermon, I have examined. And if I have penned a sentiment which is not according to godliness, I pray to be enlightened, so that I may correct the error; and that it may be discerned and rejected by every reader,