muft undergo a future difcipline; but that, ultimately, they will attain to virtue and happiness :-a future state, so represented, would be a defirable thing. But, alas! pu nishment, in fcripture, is always described, not as a benevolent difcipline*, to the generality of mankind, but as the execution of juft vengeance: agreeably to what occurs in the following paffage, taken from Paul's 2d Epiftle to the Theffalonians, chap. i. "It is a righteous thing with God to re"compenfe tribulation to them that trou"ble you, and to you, who are troubled, "reft with us, when the Lord Jefus fhall "be revealed from heaven, with his migh

* I am fufficiently aware that the writer to the Hebrews (chap. xii.) represents the evils of life as anfwering the end of a falutary discipline to fincere and pious chriftians, but not to other men. "Whom "the Lord loveth he chafteneth," fays that writer; who is fuppofed to have been that fame Paul who tells the Corinthians (as above mentioned), "We

are chaftened of the Lord that we fhould not be "condemned with the world."

« ty

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ty angels, in flaming fire, taking ven

geance on them that know not God, and "that obey not the gospel of our Lord

Jefus Chrift: who fhall be punished "with everlasting deftruction from the pre"fence of the Lord and from the glory of " his power."

Nevertheless, it is my fincere opinion, that a purer, a more dignified, or a more amiable religion was never exhibited to the fons of men, than we find in what is called the Lord's prayer, in the parable of the prodigal, and other parts of Christ's discourses: for inftance, his affecting addrefs to his hearers on the fubject of anxiety, which I will transcribe. "I fay unto you, take no thought for your life, what

<< ye

fhall eat, or what ye fhall drink; ner yet for your body, what ye fhall put on. "Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls "of the air: for they fow not, neither do

they reap, nor gather into barns; yet

your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are "not ye much better than they? Which "of you, by taking thought [by his anx

iety], can add one cubit unto his ftature? "And why take ye thought for raiment ? "Confider the lilies of the field, how they

grow they toil not, neither do they fpin and yet, I fay unto you, that even "Solomon, in all his glory, was not ar"rayed like one of these. Wherefore, if "God fo clothe the grafs of the field, "which to-day is, and to-morrow is caft "into the oven, fhall he not much more " clothe you, O ye ye of little faith? There"fore, take no [anxious] thought, fay"ing, What fhall we eat? or what shall "we drink? or, wherewithal shall we be "clothed? for your heavenly Father know"eth that ye have need of all these things. "But feek ye firft the kingdom of God, "and his righteousness, and all these things "fhall be added unto you.”

As

As another inftance, I will transcribe his exhortation to pray." Afk, and "it fhall be given you: feek, and ye fhall "find: knock, and it shall be opened unto

'you: For every one that afketh, re"ceiveth; and he, that seeketh, findeth ; "and, to him that knocketh, it shall be "opened.

"Or what man is there of you, of "whom if his fon ask bread, will he give "him a stone? or, if he ask a fish, will he give him a ferpent?

"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how "much more fhall your heavenly Father I give good things to them that afk " him *?”

The benevolent morality, likewife, in

* See Matthew, chap. vi. and vii.

culcated by Chrift, is truly admirable. A better fpecimen cannot be given than we have in that beautiful and interesting apologue of the man travelling to Jericho, who fell into the hands of robbers*: which I forbear to tranfcribe. I cannot, however, avoid remarking the divine fimplicity of the doctrine which refolves the whole of religion and morality into, thofe grand principles, the love of God, and the love of man.

From what has been adduced, it appears that both the fentiments and the doctrines of fcripture are difcordant in the exA wife man will therefore difcri

treme.

minate.

He will endeavour to "prove "all things, and hold faft that which is good." But, unfortunately, what is most obnoxious appears to me infeparably connected with the doctrine which is acknowledg

See Luke, chap. x.

ed