TR .f,ACE.) I must confess here, if it were possible for the great and blessed God any other way to vindicate his own eternal and unchangeable hatred of sin, the inflexible justice ot+his government, the, wisdom of his severe threatenings, and the veracity of his predictions, if it were also possible for him, without this terrible exeL°t;tits'i; to vindicate the veracity, sin- cerity and wisdoryßf.the prophets and apostles, andJesus Christ, his Son, the greatest and'thiefest of his divine messehgérs ; aiid then if the blessed God should at any,tinie, in.aconsiateaesi4vith his.glorious and incompre. hensible perfections, release those wretched creatures from their acute pains and long imprisonment in hell, ett4r with a design of the utter de- structiç(n, of their beings byánniliil*tion; or torn them info some;uÚknown world, upon a new knot of trial, I think I ought chearfully and joyfully to accept this appointfrient àf Gerd; for thëgoöd of millions of my fellow- Creaturesy and add myjoys and praises to all the songs and triumphs of tlfeheavenly world, in the day of such a divine and glorious release of ,these prisoners. . But 1 feel myself under a necessity ofconfessing, that I am utterlyun- able to solve,theseajfficulties according to the discoveries of the New Testament, which.must be my constant ruiç of faith, and hope, and ex- pectation, with regard to myself and others. '1 have read the strongest and bet 'writers on; the other side, yet'after'all my studies, I' have not been able to find,any wayhow these difficulties may be removed, andhow the divine perfections, and the conduct. of God in his word,. mad be. fairly 'vindicated, without the establishment of this doctrihe, as awful and for- Mmidable as it is. Theways indeedofthe great God, and " his, thoughts, are above our thoughts andour ways, as the heavens are above:theearth," .Is. lv. 8, g. ,yet rest and acquiesce where our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father's chief' minister, both of his wrath arid his love[ has left ine in the divine revelátiorïs of scripture and I am constrained therefore to leave these unhappy creatures ,under the «chains of everlasting darkness," .into which they have cast themselves by their wilful iniquities, till the blessed Goa shall see fit to release them. This would be indeed such a new, such an astonishing and universal jubilee, both for devils.and wicked men, as must till heaven, earth and hell, with hallelujahs and -joy: In the mean time it is my ardent wish, thatthis awful scene of the terrors of the Almightyand, his everlasting anger, which the word of the great God denhunces, may awaken some souls timely to bethink themselves of the' dreadful danger intd which they 'are running, before these terrors seize them of death, and begin to be. çxecuted upon them without release and without hope. M""r. ........ .. la ,s
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