483 / 674
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,
and
Jesus 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
by
ánniliil
*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
tlfe
heavenly
world,
in
the day
of such a
divine and
glorious
release
of
,these prisoners.
.
But
1
feel
myself under a necessity
of
confessing,
that I
am
utterly
un-
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 way
how
these difficulties
may
be
removed, and
how
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
indeed
of
the
great God, and
"
his,
thoughts,
are
above our
thoughts
and
our ways,
as
the
heavens
are above:the
earth,"
.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,
that
this awful scene of the terrors
of the
Almighty
and, 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