QUESTION XVI. a87 17. where the prophet Jeremy is cited; A voice was heard in Rama, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted, because theywere not. Thus saith the Lord, refrain thy voice from weeping, and thy eyes front tears : Thy work shall be rewarded, suith the Lord, and -they shall come again from the land of the eneety; and there is hope in thy end, saith -the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border. Though this prophecy might. have 'some sort of accomplishment at the captivity of the children of Benjamin the son of Rachel by Nebuchadnezzar, and the resto- ration of their posterity by Cyrus, yet it seems more literally, plainly and expressly to be fulfilled by the slaughter of the infants in Bethlehem near Rama, as St. Matthew explains it, and by their return from the land of the last enemy; death, and their standing in their own border, that is, in the heavenly Canaan, where their parents considered in prophecy as true Israelites, have obtained the promised inheritance : And thus the mother's travail, in bearing the children, as well as her work of faith and prayer for her children, shall be rewarded by beholding them return from the land of death, their common enemy, and placed together with themselves in the heavenly ,paradise, which is their border or portion. It is therefore only-the children of wicked parents concern- ingwhom'I suppose the wisdom, justice and mercy of God will join to destroy them entirely by death, or to resume the forfeited' life of' soul and body. It seems evident to me, that though there- are some hints and reasonable hopes of the happy resurrection of the offspring of good men to be der,ived from scripture, yet all .' other children in this world are also brought down to death for the sin of Adam by the word of God, and they are left in death : But neither reason or scripture, so far as I can find, provides any happiness or unhappiness, any reward or punishment for them in a world to,coine ; and howcan we go further than reason or scripture will lead us? And if I may freely speak my own sentiments here, I would say, since neither reason nor scripture, certainly and plainly teach us any thing concerning the souls of the infants of wicked med after death ; and if I must not leave them in a state of non- existence, I would much rather chuse to suppose them at the death of the body entered into a new and personal state of trial, than 1 would condemn them to a wretched resurrection and eternal misery for nothing else,. but because they were horn of Adam, the original transgressor. This is only a'comparative thought by the way. But to pursue and support my present scheme of their annihilation at death, I must answer twoor three objectionsfollowing.. IX. Against this hypothesis it will be perhaps objected, first, of what use can it be for the great God to bring, so many sb2
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