There is scarcely any chriftian who would deny the foreknowledge of God, although he should believe the free will of man. But, fhould he, at the fame time, believe also the doctrine of eternal punishment, it would not be poffible for him to withhold his affent to the following propofition: That the Creator, when he gave existence to human beings, endowed them with a power whereby, he certainly knew, they would make themselves eternally miserable. Indeed the fcriptural account of the final deftination of the human race appears to me fhocking, (as I should think it would to any confiderate man), not only when contemplated as it is fimply in itself, but because it impreffes on the mind fuch an idea of the conduct of Almighty God as goes to the annihilation of his moral attributes.

All those who, holding man to be a free agent, a felf-determined being, think that his fins require punishment to follow them,

and that they ought not in justice to go unpunished, do nevertheless, I prefume, judge. that the punishment ought to be proportionate to the offence.

Others, again, who describe human nature in the fame way, think that, where the power and wisdom of Government are adequate to the purpose, all punishment ought to be fo applied as that, while it operates for an example, it should reform

the offender.

But, as for me, who am thoroughly convinced that, agreeably to the philofophical doctrine of neceffity, every man is what he is, inevitably, in confequence of that fituation and those circumftances which have been affigned him by his Maker,-how can I reflect, without horror, on what has been adduced from the christian scriptures relative to the future and final condition of mankind, if I preferve the leaft veneration

for that which is indeed infinitely venerable-the character of Deity?

Every man (in what way foever he came by them) is poffeffed of the ideas of justice and benevolence. He efteems his fellow man who is juft and benevolent to be a good character; and he cannot help fo doing. And if he could believe in a God who was not just and benevolent, he could not esteem fuch a being to be a good character if he would. If he is upright, he judges of those around him by the apoftolical maxim, "He that doeth righteous"nefs is righteous." And any just idea he can form of his Maker's moral character must be formed in the fame way. Let any perfon, then, fuppofe the fcriptural account of the final deftination of mankind to be fuch as I think I have fhewn it to be. In that cafe he muft either admit the account to be falfe, or he muft own, Lapprehend, that the fcriptural Deity is not a

just

juft and benevolent being. For my part, I am perfuaded that it is the true fcriptural account; but I am, at least, equally perfuaded, for I am well convinced, that it is in itself falfe. This, dear Sir, is my grand objection to christianity, and the principal ground of my scepticifm: I have therefore naturally mentioned it first. My mind, however, is much impreffed by the hiftory of the extermination of the Canaanites: and, moreover, I cannot help thinking, that the very notion of Miracles and Revelation is attended with much difficulty.

I am fenfible that these my two remaining objections, of which I am about to speak, are far from being new: but the queftion is,-Have they ever received a fatisfactory reply? The first of them, I think, certainly has not: especially fince I have had the pleasure of reading the letters addreffed to Thomas Paine by the learned and ingenious Bifhop of Landaff. His Lordship

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Lordship expreffes his aftonishment that so acute a reasoner, as Mr. Paine, fhould attempt to disparage the Bible by bringing forward this exploded and frequently refuted objection of Morgan, Tindal, and Bolingbroke. Nevertheless, he has taken confiderable pains to produce another refutation. In my opinion, however, he has failed: and I will now give you the reafons on which that opinion is founded. But previously I shall make the following extract from his Lordship's first letter. "You profess yourfelf" (fays his Lordfhip)" to be a deift, and to believe that "there is a God, who created the universe, "and established the laws of nature by " which it is fuftained in existence. You

profefs that from the contemplation of "the works of God, you derive a know

ledge of his attributes; and you reject "the Bible, because it afcribes to God things inconfiftent (as you fuppofe) with "the attributes which you have discover