any confiderable effects. fprings of human action, would move but heavily.

the determinations of reafon would but very rarely produce Defire, hope, fear, &c. are the great without which our other powers That this is the cafe, daily experience fufficiently teftifies; and arguments against experience are only to be answered by fresh appeals to it.

"If it fhould be asked, Whether man would not be more perfect, had he no occafion for his paffions; and were reafon fufficient at all times not only to direct and determine his choice, but to fecure a proper execution ?'-The queftion is idle and impertinent at least, if not impious. God has made us with affections as well as with understanding; and 'tis our business to make a right ufe of his gifts, not to quarrel with them, i. e. with him for giving them, But more directly I answer, We might perhaps be more perfect beings were we actuated as well as informed by pure reafon; but we should not be more perfect men. Reafon without affection is the perfection of angels, or rather indeed of God only. The perfection of man (as of every other being) confifts in the due difpofition and regular exercife of all thofe faculties which are properly natural to him; not in the inactivity, and much lefs in the extirpation of any.

"The refult then is this: man is a being of a mixt nature; and in order to gain his attention to, and fecure his concurrence with, any propofal of importance, application must be made to each part of him. Now, whatever be determined concerning the precife and proper object of reason, it must be allowed that bappiness is the object of the affections. Though therefore we may convince the understanding by illuftrating the rectitude of any undertaking; yet, by a profpect of fome advantage, we muft excite the affections. And both muft be done at least, generally speaking, if we would fucceed in our exhortations, and engage the man.

"What is here obferved holds true upon the most abfracted confideration of the nature of man; even fuppofing each of his powers to maintain its proper province, and the 'just balance to be preferved between them. Happiness (we fee) is as neceflary to engage the affections as reafon is to conduct them. And accordingly (I may obferve before a Christian audience) this was the method in which God himSelf thought fit to apply to our common parent for obedience even in paradife. Of every tree of the garden thou mayeft freely ect; but of the tree of knowlege of good and evil thou shalt not eat

of it. Here is man's duty, declared to him. But did his Maker leave it thus to his understanding and reason`without any enforcement? Quite otherwife. How then did Infinite Wifdom think fit to enforce it? Why, not by infifting only, or (as far as appears) at all, upon the fitnefs of the injunction itself, or even upon the reasonableness of Adam's acting agreeably to the relation he stood in to his great Creator and Benefactor. These confiderations, how proper foever, were not such as his obedience even then was to be wholly entrufted with; his affections were to be applied to, and particularly his fears to be awakened and accordingly we find the forementioned declaration of his duty feconded with this folemn denunciation, In the day thou eateft thereof thou shalt furely die.

"However, if we take a view of man's nature as we now find it, (a view against which no exception can be taken, either by the avowed unbeliever on one hand, or the allegorical interpreter on the other) our argument will receive ftill farther enforcement. The neceffity of rewards will rife in proportion to the vifible degeneracy of our nature. Be virtue never fo reasonable, never fo amiable, yet if our understandings are obfcured and our wills perverted; if our reafoning faculties are weak and inattentive, and our paffions at once irregular and strong; all its charms will be loft upon us. Some additional motives are in this state of things manifeftly neceffary, not only to give a proper activity and direction to our difengaged affections, but to counteract the perverse tendency of our depraved ones; to awaken our attention, to affift our reason, and (as it were) to bribe our wills into a right, but otherwise unpleafing, choice.

"How exalted foever our notions of human nature may be, yet if we will be content to take this nature as it fubfifts in individuals, we shall find that virtue, notwithstanding its congruity to reafon, is by no means generally agreeable to inclination. Indifpofition at least, if not averfion to goodness, is what the fober part of mankind have in all ages complained of; and what the best of men have ever experienced, at least, at their first entrance on the paths of virtue. And whatever may be thought of that moral-fenfe, which has of late been contended for; 'tis certain, men have other fenfes befides that, and those generally far more importunate for their respective gratifications. Whoever seriously reflects on what paffes within him, will not want the authority of revelation to convince him, that there is a law in our members, warring again?

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the law of our mind. And 'tis well if by all the promises, or even all the threats of the Gofpel, we can prevent its bringing men into captivity to the law of fin. But farther:

"'Tis not to be diffembled, that one great part of mankind will generally be found engaged in an intereft oppofite to that of virtue. And how fhall we go about to recommend it to perfons of this character? From its native charms? From its fitness or its reasonableness? Alas! fuch recommendations will naturally be looked upon as idle tales by these persons. They will turn a deaf ear to all we can fay on this argument; or, if out of curiofity they vouchfafe us the hearing, they will. probably entertain us with fcorn and mockery, as bablers or enthufiafts. The most serious of them will tell us, We all along beg the question: they like the way are in, and are far from envying us thofe rcfined gratifications we so much boaft of. In truth, felf-love is the most prevailing, if not the only univerfal, principle of human action. Where this can be wrought upon in our recommendations of virtue, fome good may be done. But our exhortations will have no hold on the generality of perfons, unless we can outbid their prefent fchemes, and convince them that Godlinefs either is, with regard to the fuccefs of thefe, or with regard to fome more important intereft hereafter will be, great gain.

"Add to all this, that cafes may well be fuppofed, becaufe fuch have frequently in fact happened, wherein a steady adherence to the caufe of virtue fhall not only oblige us to quit fome present advantage, but to fubmit to fome present. inconvenience, and perhaps mifery. Now fome counterbalance fhould be provided against evils of this kind. The abstract beauty and fitnefs of virtue will be very infufficient for this purpofe. Men are not generally Stoicks either in practice or opinion nor is it fit they fhould be fo. Pain and lofs will ftill be counted real evils by the fenfible part of mankind; and to tell a man, in deep diftrefs for his attachment to the interefts of virtue, that he is her own reward, would justly be thought a very unfriendly method of confolation.-In fact, the fitnefs and amiablenefs of virtue will never, while men are men, be proof against those difficulties, to which a conftant adherence to it will fometimes expose them. Nor can any provifion be made against exigencies of this kind, which can rationally be deemed fufficient, unless fome advantages be either given in hand, or enfured in reverfion, to the adherents to virtue, which may be at least an equivalent for the advantages they are obliged to forego, or a recompence for the

evils

evils they are obliged to fuffer, in and for their adherence to it."

The whole of the Sermon is of a piece with the above extract, equally clear and fenfible. Rational arguments, as our judicious Author obferves, when feconded by Gospel-motives, will pierce deep into the foul, and be as nails faftened in a fure place; but without fuch enforcement, they rather gratify the ear than warm the heart, and are feldom found to leave be hind any lafting impreffion. While the generality are entertained with harangues of this kind, the man of curiofity and refinement will probably hear the word with attention, and anon with joy receive it. Pleafed to have his duty fo elegantly defcribed, and his own nature as well as that of virtue, fet in so agreeable a light. But if we look into his life, we shall find the progrefs by no means anfwerable to fuch promifing beginnings. The reafon is, he has no root in himJelf; his refolutions were not grounded in the only lasting principle of his nature: his vanity was foothed indeed, and his curiofity gratified; but his defire of happiness was not wrought upon. No wonder therefore if he dureth only for a while, and in time of temptation falleth away.

R.

Universal Reftitution, a Scripture Doctrine. This proved in feveral Letters wrote on the Nature and Extent of Chrift's Kingdom. Wherein the Scripture Paffages, falfly alledged in Proof of the Eternity of Hell Torments, are truly tranflated and explained. 8vo. 5s. fewedDodfley.

HE doctrine of Univerfal Reftitution is fo very agree

THE able to the natural fentiments of mankind, especially

when we look upon ourselves as fallen creatures, that every human heart must neceffarily, at leaft, wish it to be true. And in order to prove it fo, the Author before us has taken a great deal of pains, and fhewn himself mafter of no small fhare of fagacity and learning. We cannot, however, entirely approve of his method; for he first endeavours to establifh his doctrine upon the principles of natural reafon; and then tells us, that whatever this or that text of Scripture may poffibly mean, it certainly cannot mean any thing contrary to the maxims he has laid down.-In our opinion, a more fatisfactory method would have been, to have fhewn (if he could) the doctrine of Univerfal Reftitution to have been, in fact, the doctrine of Scripture, in general; and that, where

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* Written by one Mr. Stonehous Dr Stonehouse) of Bristot : Todo Character

(nor

of an

a man

particular texts (of which fort there are many) feem to contradict it, they do not do fo in reality. Indeed he does, fometimes, attempt this; and when nothing elfe will do, a new tranflation, with the additional help of a convenient paraphrafe, are found to be of great ufe, towards rendering the argument in hand fomewhat more probable. In points of Revelation, however, the safeft method feems to be, to stick, as near as poffible, to the literal interpretation; and not profess ourfelves wife above what is plainly written.

As the work before us confifts of a long chain of argumentation, drawn out into the form of Letters, a general analyfis of the whole would carry us beyond the limits of a Review. We fhall therefore content ourselves with giving the fubject of each Letter; which will fhew the points intended to be proved; together with fuch extracts as may exhibit a juft fpecimen of the Author's ftyle, and method of argu

mentation.

In Letter I. he endeavours to prove, "That the English words eternal, everlasting, for ever and ever, Sc. are unfcriptural, and exprefs not the true import of the original words.

"The word [aw] means not eternity," he fays, (among other reafons)" becaufe fuch meaning of it is, in many inftances, repugnant to other parts of Scripture; fo 2 Cor. iv. 4. In whom the Gob Te alwvos T8T8 of this con has blinded the minds of them that believe not, &c. Now fuppofing the word aon to mean age and not eternity, Satan may here be aptly exhibited to us in this gnd and horrible defcription of him, the God of this age or æon; but it were blafphemy to call him the God of eternity, befides the abfurdity of styling him the God of this eternity; for the word this, fo ufed, muft imply fome other eternity befides the prefent: and two eternities are an inconsistency in terms.

Letter II. "That the Kingdom of CHRIST, which is called acnian, [awvios] is net eternal."

As a certain evidence of this, he fays, "We have the words of St. Paul, 1 Cor. xv. 24-27. Then cometh the end culen he fall deliver up the Kingdom to God even the Father; when he shall have invalidated all principality, and authority, and power, for he must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be invalidated is death, (or Heb ii. 14. he who has the power of death, that is the devil) for he has subordinated all things under his feet. But when he fays that all