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631
THE'ETETt3ZAL
DUR:ATTON
O
rDiSC.
XITr..
their
first rebellion,
Jude,
verse
6.
;
and
this
is
done
by
the
wisdom
and mercy
of God
to affright
men
from
sin-
ning, while
we
behold
how those fallen 'spirits
are ex-
posed, and
set
forth
as
terrible
examples for
our warn-
ing.
And
why
may
not
the everlasting
punishment of
sinners
among the children
of
men
be
made
a standing
monument
of
God's justice, to
deter
many other worlds
from offending
him
?
Other
worlds,
I
say;
of
unknown
`creatures, which
perhaps
may
inhabit
the
planetary
globes rolling round the
same sun as
our
earth
does,
and
their
state of
trial perhaps
is
not yet
begun,
or
it
may
be
half run
out,
and
yet
shall not
be
finished.for
some
thousands
of
years
?
Or, perhaps, there are other
worlds
of
spirits, and
invisible incorporeal,
intelligent
creatures
in
a 'state
of
trial,
may
persevere
in
glorious innocence and
complete
happiness,
to
the
eternal
praise
of
their Maker's good-
ness,
and
may
yet
be
kept
in
their constant
duty and
obe-
dience,
by
having
always
in
their
view
the eternal punish-
ment
of
wicked
men.
See
this
subject treated of
at
large
in
a
book called,
"
The
Strength and Weakness
of
Human
Reason?
The
counsels
of God
are
far
above
our reach, and
his
dominions and governments are
unknown
to
us.
What
if
the
great God
will
have
creatures
in
some
of
his
ter-
ritories,
who
in
themselves
are
weak
and ready to
fall,
and may
be
deterred
from
sin
and apostacy
by
such
stand-
ing
manifestations
of
his
hatred
of it,,
and
his
righteous
vengeance against
it
?.
And
since
others have been monu-
ments
of
warning
to
us,
what
if
he
please
to
-make
this
World
of
ours, when
he has
taken
the
few
righteous out
of
it
to
heaven
;
I
say,
what
if
he
please to make the rest an
everlasting
spectacle
of
his
justice
and
holiness to
a hun-
dred or
a
thousand
other
worlds; which may be
utterly
unknown to
us
?
And
he may,
for this end,
reveal his
transactions
with
mankind
to
those
worlds,
though he
has
not
revealed much
of
their
affairs to
us.
.
T
If
I were to
mention any
other
objection worthy
of
notice,
I
know
of none but
this,
viz.
"
some
learned
men suppose
it
to have been
the opinion
of
the primi-
tive fathers,"
that
souls
departing
from this world were
sent into Hades,
or
the state
of
the
dead, where
the
righteous rested,
in
a
state
of
peace
and hope
till the
re
-.
4
e