"into the mind concerning those authors, "as if they had not exact cognizance of "the things which they describe.—It is "altogether incredible, that God, whose

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goodness and providence are immense, “hath suffered those writings, wherein he "hath proposed his will, and the way to "eternal life, and which, through the "succession of so many ages, have by all "the godly been received and approved, "as such, to be any ways corrupted." This was the opinion of the disciples of Socinus. The modern Unitarians however go far beyond this, and will allow no interpretation which does not accord with their notions of reason. One of them (Priestley) ventured to accuse the sacred writers of having written on matters "to "which they had not given much atten❝tion, and concerning which they had "not the means of exact information "." Another (Steinbart) affirms, that "Moses, "according to the childish conceptions of

71.

s Letters to Dr. Price.

t See Erskine's Sketches of Church History, p. 67

"the Jews in his days, paints God as agi"tated by violent affections; partial to "one people, and hating all other na"tions." A third of the same communion (Semler) presumes to say, that "Peter

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speaks according to the conception of "Jews, and the Prophets may have deli"vered the offspring of their own brains." Such is the reverence of those who profess to hold that the Scriptures are the only repository of God's will; and such the conclusions which spring from their presumption, that they may reject, whenever they think proper, any of the particular doctrines contained therein. Their arbitrary version of the Scriptures is one of its consequences; but the poison, which that offers, carries to all who will examine it with accuracy, its own antidote; and by God's providence there have not been wanting those, who were both willing and able to guard their fellow Christians against that device of the unbeliever. May the Lord in his mercy still stretch his arm over us, and preserve the incorruptness of his word in our hands; and also a dutiful and

reverend care in us, to hold fast that form of sound words which we have learned of him, till he shall come to take account how we have occupied that most precious talent committed to our charge.

SERMON VII.

ON THE ETERNITY OF PUNISHMENT.

MATTH. XXV. 46.

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

IN our proposed examination of those ar

ticles which the Unitarian advocate has set forth as the confession of faith of his party, in opposition to the Church of England, we.come lastly to this particular, that

they reject the horrible doctrine," as he calls it," of the future eternal torments of "the wicked; but believe, that their pu"nishment will be remedial, as a purgation "of crimes and evil habits; after which "they will be restored to virtue and hap"piness." Against this their belief two things are to be urged. The first, that it is unfounded in Scripture, and repugnant to

Scripture. The second, that it is inconsistent with the nature of God's avowed designs in regard to man, because its natural tendency is to produce an evil course of living.

Now the passages in holy Writ which apply to this matter are so clear, that they appear to be incapable of misconstruction; for they distinctly teach, that the pains of the damned shall be not only inconceivable, but also eternal. Such, in the first place, is my present text, which announces, in our blessed Saviour's own words, that "the wicked shall go into everlasting pu"nishment: but the righteous into life eter"nal." The trifling variation of expression in regard to the reward and punishment which we read in the English, does not exist in the Greek. Both are described as precisely of the same duration. The word used in the original, in both parts of the sentence, has not only the same signification, as is the case in our version, but it is precisely the same word; so that no

2 Και απελεύσονται ούτοι εις κολασιν αιώνιον· οἱ δε δικαιοι εις ζωην αιωνιον.