every man, every man ought to pray in fincerity and faith for his own falvation.-The Jews, believing that the favour of God was confined to themselves, could not bear that the gospel should be preached to the Gentiles. On the other hand, when the Gentiles faw the enormity of their lives, and confidered that hitherto the Jews had been dealt with as a peculiar people, and that the Jews called them dogs, &c. it is not furprifing that they fhould doubt of their being admitted to the privileges of the Chriftian Religion, in common with the Jews. The Apoftle afferts, that Chrift gave Himself a ransom for all, and infers from it, that the Jews ought to pray for the Gentiles, without wrath againft them, and that the Gentiles ought to pray for Salvation without doubting the wil lingness of God to give it. But what has all this to do with the doctrine of Universal Reftoration? Having fhewn that the Chriftian's duty affords no fupport to the restoration contended for by our opponents, I will now proceed to fhew that their doctrine' has a pernicious influence upon the Chriftian's duty, in fome important particulars. I. On our Love to God. This will be in proportion to the quantum of mifery from which we believe we are faved. Our Lord has laid it down as an incontro-, vertible truth that, "To whom little is forgiven, the "fame loveth little." Of course a man, who is faved from fins which he believes deferved only limited pu nishment, will not love God fo much as a man, who is faved from fins which he believes deferved endless punishment. 2. On our Obedience. "This is" (the effect of) "the love of God that we keep his commandments.” But we have feen above, that the Reftoration-fcheme will not infpire us with fo ftrong an affection for God' as the belief of having merited endless mifery; it will not therefore infpire us with that zeal in the practice of piety and virtue. 2 3. On 3. On our Zeal for the falvation of finners. This will be regulated by our views of their future condi tion. No man will be fo anxious to preferve his friend from the bite of a fly, as from the fting of a *fcorpion. I once heard a Univerfalift minifter tell his congregation, that one ufe of his doctrine to the faints was, it tended to relieve the mind of that extreme anxiety, which is occafioned by the thought of our friends being loft for ever. He informed us that when he believed the doctrine of endless punishment, his mind was fo affected with it that, through excefs of grief, his body was worn nearly to a skeleton; but he affured us that the Reftoration-fcheme had afforded him confiderable relief, and indeed few of his hearers, I believe, felt themfelves difpofed to difpute it, fince he then looked as fat and jolly as a King's Beef-Eater. This ufe of the doctrine, and of courfe the doctrine itfelf, appears to have been unknown to God's ancient faints. Inftead of lofing all concern about the falvation of finners, they fighed and mourned over them day and night. Pfa. cxix. 136. Jer. ix. 1. Ezek. ix. 4. The influence of the Reftoration-fyftem on hardened finners, has been confidered under Sect. IX. On the whole, fince it cannot be fhewn that the belief of this doctrine is calculated to improve a fingle virtue, and fince it has been proved to have a pernicious influence, in many refpećts, on both faints and finners, it may be prefumed that it is deftitute of Divine authority. SECTION THE SECTION XV. On the INTERMEDIATE State. HE Univerfalifts are agreed that 1 Pet. iii. 18, 19, relates to Chrift's preaching to fpirits in the intermediate ftate; but they differ as to the time when He made them this gracious vifit. Mr. Winchester thinks that "the foul of Chrift, in its difembodied ftate,” went and preached to the fpirits in prifon.* Mr. Weaver, who wrote fince Mr. Winchefter, fays, that "Jefus Chrift, after his refurrection, went and "preached to the fpirits in prifon."+ The reafon of this change is fufficiently obvious to thofe who have ftudied this controverfy. Chrift's local defcent into hell cannot be proved from this paffage on any other fuppofition, than that the Apoftle is here relat◄ ing events in the order of time in which they happened for if this be not infifted upon, the time of our Lord's preaching must be collected from circumftances; and we find from Gen. vi, that the Spirit of God ftrove with them, or by Noah preached to them, while the Ark was preparing. To cut off the force of this reply, it has been afferted, that the Apostle regarded the order of time in relating the events. Now in this order, 1. He was "put to death in the flefh." 2. He was 66 quickened," or raised, " by the "Spirit." 3. "He went and preached unto the "fpirits in prifon." Hence his vifit to hell has been fuppofed to have been made fince His refurrection. It is not pretended, however, that the Sacred Writers always regarded the order of time in relating events, and till proof be given that that was the cafe in this inftance, I proceed to observe, 1. The * Dialogues, p. 66. † Endlefs Mifery Overthrown, p, 29. 1. The Apofile is not here speaking of the human fpirit of Chrift, but of the Divine Spirit.* The fame Spirit that raifed Chrift from the dead, preached to the spirits in prison: "Being put to death in the flesh "but quickened by the Spirit, by which alfo he went "and preached," &c. But the Divine Spirit raised Chrift from the dead. See Rom. viii. 11. Heb. xiii. 20. The pretence, therefore, of Chrift's local descent into hell, derives no fupport from this paffage. 2. Chrift never did, nor ever will defcend locally înto hell. I believe no one fuppofes He went there prior to his death.-He did not go there in His difembodied ftate. For he promifed the penitent thief, "To-day thou shalt be with me in paradife;" and in His laft Addrefs to His Father, He faid, "Into thy hands I commend my fpirit." If His foul went into paradife into the hands of His Father-it did not defcend into hell.—He did not preach to difembodied fpirits between His refurrection and afcenfion. The forty days which intervened between these events, were taken up in giving the disciples more full inftructions refpecting the Chriftian difpenfation. Acts i. 3. I do * Bishop Pearfon remarks upon this text,-"Those words "of St. Peter have no fuch power of probation; except we 66 were certain that the Spirit there spoken of was the foul of "Chrift, and that the time intended for that preaching was "after his death, and before his refurrection. Whereas, if it "were fo interpreted, the difficulties are fo many, that they "ftaggered St. Auguftine, and caufed him at laft to think that thefe words of St. Peter belonged not unto the doctrine of "Chrift's defcending into hell. But, indeed, the Spirit by which "he is faid to preach was not the foul of Chrift, but that Spirit "by which he was quickened; as appeareth by the coherence of "the words, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by "the Spirit, by which alfo he went and preached unto the Spi"rits in prifon. Now that Spirit by which Chrift was quick"ened, is that by which he was raised from the dead, that is, "the power of his divinity as St. Paul expreffeth it, Though he "was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God in refpect of which he preached to those which were lifobenient, in the days of Noah, as we have already fhewn." fon on the Creed, p. 253. 2nd Edit. I do not know of any one who pleads for his descent into hell after His afcenfion to the right-hand of God: He there "ever liveth to make interceffion for ❝ us." 3. The mercy of God towards the antediluvians terminated with their exiftence in this world. They 06 were disobedient, when once the long-fuffering of God waited." But when was this feafon of mercy ? In the days of Noah." How long did it last ? While the Ark was preparing," ver. 20. How abfurd then is it to talk about the gospel being preach ed to a people, after the long-fuffering of God, in relation to them, had ceafed ? 4. Suppose we were to allow that Jefus Chrift spent two or three days in hell in preaching to the antediJuvians, what muft we infer therefrom? That they were converted, when we know that by his Spirit in Noah He preached to them an hundred and twenty years in vain ? And muft we infer that the Gospel is preached to all finners in the intermediate state because it was preached to them? and that all finners will be reftored, altho' we cannot be certain that one of the antediluvians was? It is far from being clear that the phrafe, fpirits in prifon, denotes, disembodied fpirits in hell. When Jefus Chrift preached the gospel to finners on earth, He used fimilar language, He proclaimed "liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound," Ifa. Ixi. 1. Luke iv. 18. The Antediluvians, while in the body, might be termed Spirits in prifon, not only as they were flaves to corruption, but also because they were fhut up in the world, as in a prifos, under the fentence of deftruction, till the day of execution. But the preceding obfervations are not affected either by the adoption, or rejection of this interpretation. Mr. Winchefter fpends fome time in proving that by the dead in Pet. iv. 6, is not "intended those 66 that |