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thefe appear very formidable to a mere English reader, who has not yet fearche the fcriptures for himfelf; but like every work of man, which our tranflatic in fuch cafes,' or the gloffes put upon it, wholly is, the more they are examine in the light of truth itself, the lefs formidable will they appear. Among oth arguments equally unfounded, this is one upon which he lays principal Atiefs, a bafis for the whole: "There cannot be one circumftauce urged why Go fhould reward his faints with everlafting happiness, which will not equally pro that he ought to punifh finners with eternal mifery." Here I muft beg leave differ; for many arguments can be urged for the former, that can find no pla if applied to the latter. Pray, what motive, worthy of a wife father, could i duce God, to cut off the being or happiness of children that perfectly love ar ferve him? But is it no motive, worthy of fuch a Father, so to adjust the sev rity of paternal difcipline, as to bring his rebellious fubjects to a due fenfe their criminal conduct, and to act worthy of the relation which he fuftains t them as a common parent, that he may at length, as fuch, bless them, accordin to his original defign in giving them exiftence? In the prefent ftate of thing we fee him daily doing this; and whatever he has done, he may alfo confiftent! do, whenever it pleafeth him. But no inftance of the other has occurred, c ever will occur, under the divine administration.

Let us apply the above reasoning to an earthly parent, and hear how it woul found. No argument can be urged why he fhould continue to love and lead thofe of his children that are loving and obedient, fo long as he and they exift together, but will equally prove that he ought to punish the reft with relentless indignation to the very day of their death. Would this be acting in character, efpecially when a different conduct might fubdue their rebellious spi rita into love and obedience? Let us not impute any fuch thing to God, in any part of his administration.

But were not even the faints once rebellious, as well as others, when the great and good Father of all made them to differ? May he not then do the same to other wicked rebellious children, when it feemeth good in his fight? Let not the eye of any be evil, because he is good; nor let us prefume to limit the thrice Holy One of Ifrael, where he hath not limited himself. What pleaseth him fhould pleafe us alfo. Let not faints forget, as they are too apt to de, that they alfo were once rebels in common with others, even thofe whom they would not number with the dogs of their flock; and that the very merey which took hold of them in that fituation, may apprehend others in any fuppofeable cafe; for Christ is able to fave to the uttermoft, even to the very clofe of the laft age of his reign, and his will is equal to his ability; what many admit in theory, but deny in works. If we who are fo evil know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more fhall our heavenly Father give his holy spirit to them that afk it? He can bring the moft obftinate and rebellious of his children to afk his holy fpirit with contrite hearts; and hence his oath declares, that every 'knee fhall yet bow to him, not only at the laft judgment, thro' constraint, Rom. xiv. 11. but alfo with cordiality at the reftitution of all things, Phil. ii. 10. Rev. v. 13. The prophet tells us, in the paffage from which the apoftles quote, or which they have evidently had in view, all that are incenfed against him

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be rendered, "What fhall I do that I may inherit worldly life? The original term might always be rendered age; tho applied to periods of time of very different and unknown duration, yet it no where in itself carries with it the idea of endless duration. It is an established rule among grammarians, that no quality can exceed in fignification the word from which it is derived, as white cannot mean more than whiteness, hard, than hardness, &c. But in the face of this obvious rule, our translators have taken the liberty to extend the meaning of the quality beyond what the root will bear. Hence our ever lafting and eternal, mean no more than, of or belonging to the age, which is coeval, or of like duration with the age-age-lafting.

Such as contend for the eternity of future punishment, lay confiderable firefs on the word employed in the Old Teftament to express its duration. That word is gnolam, or, as fome read it, olam. The term which answers to it in the Septuagint, and in the New Teftament, is aion; and, from the common use of both in fcripture, they appear to be of the fame import. So fays Parkhurft, in his Lexicon on the New Teftament, "aion in the LXX. generally anfwers to the Hebrew gnolam, which denotes time hidden from man, whether indefinite, or finite, whether paft or future." The compofition of the word denotes what exifts without interruption, or breaking off, during its continuance, which is never afferted or fuppofed to be properly eternal. Hence he tells us,." It denotea duration, or continuance of time, but with great variety" yet it is fo far uniform in its import, as applied to creatures, that tho' it denotes a duration bidden or unknown to us, till the event declare it, yet not a duration without bounds or limits. The fame learned author tells us, that the term in the plural feems, in Heb. xi. 3, to denote the various revolutions and grand occurrences which have happened to this created fyftem, including also the system or world itself; com. pare Heb. i. 2. It would be more conformable to the ftrict and uniform import of the term aion, to say, that its plural in the above two paffages, denotes the ages, periods, or divifions of time, under our Lord's administration, in which fuch and fuch wo ks were to be performed. The wife arrangement or ordering of thefe ages, and the execution of the work annexed to each, was wholly entrusted to Chrift, as the apoftle informas us.

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I find the following paffages felected to my hand, in which the Hebrew an lam, fuppofed to denote proper eternity, is varioufly rendered in our ver fion, yet so as to convey no fuch meaning, even in our own language, except in two inftances. Of old, Gen. vi. 4. 1 Sam. xxvii. 8. Jer. xxviii. 8. Lam. iii. 6. Amos ix. 11. Mic. vii. 14.. Mal. iii. 1. Ifa. lxiii. 8. &·li. 9. ———— Old, Job xxii. 15. Prov. xxiii. 10. Jer. vi, 16.- -Old time, Josh. xxiv. 2. Jer. ii. 20. Ezek. xxvi. 20.—Ancient times, gnolamim, Pfal. Ixxvii. 5.—Ancient, Prov. xxii. 28. Ifa. xliv. 7. Jer. v. 15. Ezek. xxxvi. 2.—World, Pfal. lxxiii. 12. Eccl. iii. 11. Ifa. jxiv. 4. Long, Pfal. cxliii. 3 — Long time, Ifa. xlii. 14.—At any time, Lev, xxv. 32. Continuance, Ifa. Ixiv. 5. Everlasting, Gen. xvii. 18. chap. xlviii. 3, 4. & xlix. 26. chap. xvii. 13. Exod. xl. 15. Lev. xvi. 34. Num. xxvi. 12, 13. Lafting, Deut. xxxii. 15-Ever, Exod. xxvii. 21. Pfal. xxix. 9. Lev. vii. 34.xvi, 29, 31. Num. x 8. Pfal. xxix. 10-Perpetua

Exod. xxix. 9. Lev. iii. 17. Num xix. 21-Hid, hidden, Lev. v. 2, 3, 4. Num. V. 13. 1 Kings x. 3-Secret, Pfal. xc. 8. Eccl. xii· 14--------Eternal, Ifa. lx. 15 Alway, Job vii. 16

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Thefe inftances are furely fufficient to fhew, that the Hebrew term, gnolam, and its correfpondent in Greek, aion, do not neceffarily convey the idea of endlefs duration. No reafon can perhaps be affigned why the word may not be understood in a limited fenfe, wherever it conveys the idea of duration; for tho' it be applied to God, Father, Son, and Spirit, it is not to denote the eternity of his existence, but to point out fome property of his administration or agency.

When original languages borrow words from those that are ftill more ancient, the fenfe which they annex to them may lead to their primary acceptation. It isevident that the Romans borrowed their adverb olim from the Hebrew noun gnolam, or olan; for they agree both in found and meaning. Let me adduce. two inftances of the ufe of it from their claffics. It occurs in the following lines of Horace :

"Nec quod avus tibi maternus fuit atque paternus,

"Olim qui magnis legionibus imperitarint," & Sat. vi.

"And tho' you have ancestors, by the father's and mother's fide, who have commanded, in times past, mighty armies," &c.

An inftance occurs also in Virgil, tho' I cannot recollect the place, where it has refpect to future time.

"Meminiffe hæc olim juvabit.”

"The recollection of these things will yield pleasure hereafter."

How the fame word fhould come to denote the past and the future, may be thus accounted for. When a period, once future, is elapsed, it may ftill retain its former name, which may thus be used to denote a portion of time, either paft or to come. The fame thing holds, with regard to the use of the Hebrew and Greek terms.

In obfervations fubjoined to a late version of the New Teftament, I find the following calculation: "The word aion, age, as a fubftantive, occurs 128 times in the Greek Teftament. In our common tranflation it is rendered 72 times ever, twice eternal, 36 times world, 7 times never, 3 times evermore, twice worlds, twice ages, once course, once world without end, and twice it is paffec over without any word affixed as a translation of it.” By this management, the fingular and plural are confounded, and no diftinction is made between the adjective and the substantive; two things always neceffary to be attended to in a tranflation.

The word aionios, derived from it, occurs as an adjective 71 times. The common translation has rendered it once ever, 42 times eternal, 3 times world, 25 times everlasting; in Rom. xvi. 25. former ages —An attentive reader of the New Teftament will obferve, that there are different ages there mentioned, as in Col. i. 26. former ages; Mat. xii. 32. the prefent age, the age to come, Mark x. 30. the age to come, the future age; Eph. ii. 7. ages to come; Mat. xxviii. 20. the end of the world, the clofe of the age; 1 Cor. x. 11. the ends of. the ages; all which clearly prove that none of thefe ages can mean eternity, and

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that to graft the words everlasting, eternal, upon a term of fuch limited import, is to make the ftream infinitely more copious than the fountain.

Let any one then fay, if fuch various renderings of a term or phrafe, fo fixed and uniform in its meaning, can be called, with any propriety, the language of the Divine Spirit? Is not fuch liberty of interpretation an adding to God's word? and does he not threaten to reprove those who are guilty of this, and so find them liars?"The lip of truth fhall be eftablished for ever," Prov. xii. 19. Can it then be difpleafing to God, or give just ground of offence to men, to attempt, by means of Chrift's own fan, to feparate fuch human chaff from the clean wheat of the word? It did not fuit the views of the tranflators, it would appear, to give a juft and literal verfion of fuch terms and phrafes; nor does it fuit the views. of the expounders of fcripture in general, left a favourite doctrine fhould be overthrown. Much intereft has fomehow been' felt, in keeping those who are deemed the vulgar, in certain cafes, in the dark; 1 that by the pious figment of eternal mifery, (in which light fome view it who

fill preach it,) they may be kept in awe, who are fuppofed to be proof againit nobler motives: as if this could be more effectual to reform mankind than the fimple declaration. of fcriptare truth.

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Almost innumerable texts might be produced from the Septuagint, and from the New Teftament, to prove that the term aim, and its derivative aionios, which are fuppofed to import endlefs duration, when applied to future mifery, really fignify nothing more than an age, difpenfation, or continued period, whether longer or fhorter in duration. The felection of fuch texts in abundance has been made by others, to which the learned can easily have recourfe; and as for others, they would not thank us for the trouble of tranfcribing them.a

Nor is it of any moment in this argument, that the term is applied to God himfelf; for we can no more infer from thence his proper eternity, than we can argue the endless duration of the Levitical priefhood and ritu, and of the land of Canaan as the poffeffion of Abraham's feed, and of the prefent earth and mountains, &c. from the annexing of the phrafes everlasting, for ever, &c. to them. The fcriptures nowhere offer proof of the being of God, which granted, his eternity follows of course, and cannot depend upon the meaning of any word. When the phrafe is, therefore, applied to God, it is unneceffary to restrict it to its usual import; because to him effentially and neceffarily belongs duration without end. But when it can be proved that eternity, or never-ending dura-" tion, flows as neceffarily and effentially from the exiftence of future mifery, as from the being of God, we will admit that the phrafe may be taken in the fame latitude without any injury or impropriety, but not till then. Were not God eternal, he could not be God; but furely he is, under no neceffity to continue future mifery without end, paffing his own pleasure; whence to argue for the abfolute eternity of future mifery, because the word that denotes its duration is applied to God, is neither candid nor conclufive.

The original phrafes in both Teftaments, rendered for ever in our verfion, literally translated it, to, or for the age. This phrase for ever, is often redupli ted with us, for ever and ever, or, frictly rendered, to, or for the age of ages. ins original phrafe is ftill farther increafed in its import, or reduplicated a fe

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