Let. XX. death were not to be prayed for, because bound over to the age of judgment, to be punished; for the fame reafon prayers ought not to be offered up for those who are referved in hidden chains under darkness, to the judginent of the great day, whether wicked men or devils. Some types and figures in feripture, which, read in its own light, have as exprefs and fixed a language and meaning as any part of it, lead us, in connection with the above plain texts and reafons, to anticipate the recovery of fallen angels, as a glorious event to be yet accomplished under Meffiah's admininiftration, and neceflary to the completion of his work.-Pharaoh was a type of the grand apoftate, tho' that type carries us no farther than the deftrection of the devil and his confederate fpirits, in the lake of the fecond death, of which the red fea was an emblem. In allufion to this, Pharaoh is called the Dragon, and Leviathan, whofe head was broken in the great waters. As that obftinate, proud prince, by being overwhelmed, with his forces in the red fea, as the juft punish. ment of both for refifting the will of God, and perfecuting and pursuing his people, loft his dominion over these forces, and also over his other fubjects; so Satan when fhut up in Tophet, fhall there, in procefs of time, lofe his power and ufurped headship over his fellow-fpirits, and wicked men. The king of Egypt's troops and cavalry, by whofe aid he oppreffed the feed of Abraham, and hoped to recover them to bondage, I view as the figure of Satan's confede fate legions. If all this be not admitted, then this type, like mott others upon the received fyftem, is mutilated. In Ifa. xxiv. 21, 22. the host of the high ones,' or the fallen angels, whom the Lord will punish, are reprefented as shut up in the prifon or dungeon along with the wicked kings of the earth, and as also vifited, or found wanting, as the original imports, after many days. 7 But in the haughty monarch of Babylon, we have a more full type of the wicked one, in his original glory, his crimes, debafement, and recovery to his former fplendour. In Ifa. xiv. 12. we find that prince defignated Lucifer, a name alfo given to that fallen chief of the infernal hosts; and in the 17th verft a ftriking trait in that fallen fpirit's character, is afcribed to that proud tyrant, his not opening the house of his prifoners, or, as on margir, his not letting his pri foners loofe homeward. 'When feven times paffed over that monarch in his de bafement, correfponding to the feven grand periods, or ages of Meffiah's reign, during which Satan fhail be punished, his reafon and ftate returned to him, he glorified the God of heaven, and made a noble confeffion of his faith before many witneffee, in which you find this remarkable article,-7 hofe that walk in pride be is able to abafe, Dan. iv. 37. The perufal of Mr Winchefter's valuable Lectures on Prophecy, firft led my mind to the above view of this fubject, where it is treated of at large. 7 In the viiith Pfalm, man's original dominion over the inferior creatures is defcribed, as extending to all sheep and oxen; the beafts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fifh of the fea, and whatsoever paffeth thro' the paths of the feas. This dominion Adam loft; but in Chrift it is reftored, and thro' him to all the heirs of promife. As poffeffed and exercifed by him, it must be underfood to extend to all the works of creation, all which God is faid to have put under his feet. The above fpecific terms, understood in this latitude, muft be taken in their metaphorical, as well as in their natural fenfe; whence may be feen what the fowl of the air, and the fish of the fea muft ultimately intend, even all the fallen angels, and the wicked and unregenetate part of mankind. Without admitting thefe, we muft exclude many of God's works from Meffiah's dominions, and fo contradict the facred text. The application of the paffage in the plaim, in Heb. xi. 8. plainly includes all these, and leads to expect their subjection to Chrift, in a fenfe in which they are not yet put under him, even by their own free and voluntary act. Thus we fee to what extent, and for what purpofe, God loved the world,-Chrift is the propitiation for the fins of the world, and taketh them away; and the Spirit is promifed to convince the world of fin, the great and common fin of not believing God's record concerning bis Son, alfo of righteoufnefs, and of a judgment to come, and which fhall be continued till these purposes are anfwered, in all their intended extent. In the parable of the fower, Mat. xiii. 4,-19. our Lord teaches us to view the fowls of heaven, or the birds of the air, as the fymbolic figure of the fallen angels, and hereby gives a key io the right understanding of feveral other paffages of fcripture. In the fymbolic veffel which Peter faw in vifion defcending from the opened heaven, like a great fheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth, there were not only all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beafts, and creeping things, or reptiles, all figurative of the idolatrous. nations, and of all wicked men; but alío fowls of the air, by which we are taught to understand the fallen angels, Acts x. 11, 12. Here we have a beautiful reprefentation, not only of that Providence, which extends to every creature, but chiefly of the mediation of Chrift, which keeps the creation as in a large veffel, and knits all to heaven, as their original and end. The veffel was received up again into heaven, with all its contents, after the voice had thrice pronounced these clean, and forbidden the apoftle to call them common or unclear, "What God hath cleanfed, that call not thou common Here the doctrine of univerfal refhoration is plainly inculcated, the denial of it prohibited; and that devils are included, I venture to affirm, our Loid being interpreter and judge. If God thrice called the contents of this mystical vessel clean, the fowls in it not excepted, and forbade Peter to call them common or unclean; we may see who they are that contradict their Maker, and prefume to call that common or unclean, which his voice, in this inftance, repeatedly pronounced clean, even thofe who deny the restoration, or maintain that God will never cleanse, fallen angels, and reprobate men. It was for the like of this conduct that our Saviour called Peter, Satan, and told him that he was an offence unto him, Mat. xvi. 23. and they would do well to confider how far they merit the fame character and rebuke who deny him the honour of any of his works, thro' their narrow, mónopolizing views of his grace and kingdom. In the account which we have of the material creation, we may fee, as in a glafs, a fymbolical reprefentation of what fhall take place hereafter in the reftoration, or that fpiritual creation, which fhall make all things new. That the great abyfs of waters, before the undigefted mafs of matter acquired its defined form, was a type of the lake or abyfs of the fecond death, there is good reafon to believe. In that abyfs, the Holy Spirit, who moved on the face of the great deep, gave the fishy tribes their being, form and life. Our Lord teaches us to view them alfo as a figure of apoftate men, Mat. xiii, 47, 48. and in Ezekiel xlvii. 9. we fee how the fish that are caft away dead at the close of one difpenfation, fhall become alive under the difpenfation of the fulness of times. It was from the waters, or the great abyfe, that the Creator produced the fowl to fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven-that he created every winged fowl after his kind, Gen. i. 20, 21. As the fowls or birds of various forte fly in the air, or open firmament of heaven, the prefent region of evil spirits; fo when the fame region fhall be purified by the fire of the conflagration, and form. ed by the mighty power of God into new heavens, in which fhall dwell righteoufnefs, or righteous beings, the figure fhall be realized, these fallen fpirits fhall afcend to their destined region, or habitation, having been created anew by the all-forming breath of the Almighty. In producing this wonderful change, the gospel of the grace of God will have its own effect. When our Lord compares the gospel, in its progrefs, to a tree fprung from a grain of muftard feed, he reprefents the birds of the air as coming and lodging in its branches, Mat. xiii. 31, 32. Paul puts this queftion to the church at Corinth, "Do ye not know that the faints fhall judge the world? Know ye not that we fhall judge angels ?" 1 Cor. vi. 2, 3. The Pfalmift points out how they are to perform this judg ment, Pfal. cxlix. 6, 7, 8, 9. The fharp two-edged fword of the Spirit, the word of truth, is to be the chief instrument in executing this judgment; and it must be after all the faints, or the church of the first-born is completed, that this judgment will take place; for this honour have all his faints. It appears to me that they will be employed, not only in the recovery of loft men, denoted by the world, but also in judging, or reclaiming and restoring the fallen angels, as Paul intimates to have been a thing well known in his day. From the office of the judges ip ancient Ifrael, we may learn what we are to understand by judging, as applied to Chrift and his faints. In Nebuchadnezzar's prophetic dream, he faw himself under the figure of a great tree, under which the beats of the field had fhadow, and in the bows of which the fowls of heaven dwelt. This pourtrays to me the authority Satan has acquired over wicked men, denoted by the beafts of the field, and fellow-ape.ftate fpirits, fignified by the fowls of the heaven, Dan. iv. 12. By the command of an angel, or divine perfon, the tree is hewn down, and the beats are ordered, or permitted to get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches, ver. 14. This fpeaks to me, in very plain language, the release of wicked men, and fallen angels from the region of mifery, in which the fentence of the Holy One fhall be executed on the head of the infernal confederacy. Many, if not all his as. fociate fpirits may be releafed before himself, as among thofe there are different degrees of guilt, as well as among men ; for we read of one of them taking with him seven spirits more wicked than himself. The devil, the beaft, and the falfe prophet, collectively, but, in an efpecial manner, individually, " fhall be tormented day and night for ever and ever, or nigh to the clofe of the ages of ages, which fhall be finished before eternity, with respect to creatures, fhall commence, Rev. xx. 10. As his kingdom was made fure to the Babylonish monarch after he was brought to know or acknowledge, in confequence of his long and fevere degradation and chaftifement, that the Moft High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomfoever he will; and as he was established in his kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto him, even where he had formerly abused his extenfive power; fo in all this we may read a prophetic defcription of the reftoration of Satan, of the glorions majelty with which he fhall be invefted, as the head of all his fellow-apoftate fpirits, and that in the very region, now renewed and made fit for their bleffed habitation, in which they formerly had the feat of their empire, or the new heavens which God fhall create, and in which righteoufnefs fhall dwell. Thus in our heavenly Father's houfe there fhall be many manfions, all filled with their respective inhabitants; yet their feperate habitations fhall not prevent or interrupt their friendly intercourse. In all this I have endeavoured to follow the word of God as my only guide, and tho' fuch a view of the final iffue of his administration be not commonly admitted; yet let us remember, that his thoughts are not as our thoughts, and that his ways are high as heaven above thofe of the children of men. It efcaped me in its proper place to obviate an objection, often urged, with apparent triumph, against the restoration of fallen angels. It is objected that our Lord took not on him the nature of angels, and therefore that the lapfed part of these intelligences cannot be benefited by his mediation. The text of fcripture, on which this objection is founded, may as well be urged, as one juftly obferves, to prove that the benefits of his mediation fhall be confined to the Jews, the natural feed of Abraham, to the entire exclufion of the Gentiles. But the facred text itfelf entirely removes the ground of this objection, which runs in the original, and reads on the margin, "For verily he taketh not hold of angels, but of the feed of Abraham he taketh hold," Heb. ii. 16. In the prefent difpenfation of the gofpel, he does not lay hold of angels for their falvation, they being referved, by the determined purpose of God, for the judgment to be inflicted at the great day; but he lays hold on those who approve themselves the true feed of Abraham, by believing the promise of eternal life, infured thro' faith in the Meffiah, Gal. iii. 6, 7. and thus become the first fruits of God's creatures, Ifa. i. 18. Our Lord fo far partook of the nature and office of angels, long before he ap peared in the flesh, as to justify his being called by their common name; which marks his relation to their order or clafs of beings. Thus have I given you a few hints on this important branch of the reftora. tion, the greater part of which has occurred in perusing the fcripture. I have followed no private interpretation in what I have adduced in proof from the word of truth, but have ufed that key of knowledge which that word itfelf affords, bringing the opinions of men to that teft. May the Lord himself difcover whether the view given of his administration in the received fyftem, or that which is attempted to be defended in thefe letters, is most honourable to the divine character, which is love itfelf, moft harmonizing to the holy fcriptures, brings meft honour to the mediation of the Son of God, and is most friendly to the honour and happiness of his intelligent offspring!-Some of the profeffed friends of truth may think thefe letters unworthy of an answer, or even a parufal; and the writer regrets that they are not more worthy of the subject, and of the acceptance of the Public; yet truth is always worthy of defence, and will be thought fo by all that love it, abftracted from every fuch confideration, With all their imperfections, however, the author hopes, that among the friends of truth, fome will be found who will deem them worthy of a perufal; and fo far as the cause of genuine Chriftianity is pleaded in them, may they yield such matter of rejoicing and praife. If any thing occur in them of a contrary tendency, the writer will be glad to fee it corrected, having nothing more at heart than the triumph of truth. Permit me to conclude this correfpondence, by a quotation from the excellent Preface of Mr Leicefter to his two valuable fermons on the Final Restoration."Those who take pains to inform mankind, and to illuftrate the difficulties and obfcarities of the facred volume, (in the meaning of which all are deeply inter efted, and in which nothing can be useless) deserve at leaft the thanks of the public. And if they fhould fail of giving full fatisfaction, yet we ought to esteem them for their good intentions. In fo intricate a path, where the most enlightened may err, no wonder if the dull and the ignorant life their way."-Praying the love of our heavenly Father, the grace of our divine Redeemer,—and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, may be with us, and with all men, I remain, Dear Sir, in our common Lord and Saviour, &c. P. S. The famous Milton puts à train of reafoning in Adam's mouth, after his fall, respecting his threatened punishment, part of which applies, in my opinion, not unaptly to the fubject of the restoration. "For tho the Lord of all be infinite, Is his wrath alfo be it, man is not fo. Wrath without end on man? Can he make deathlefs death? that were to make Strange contradiction, which to God himself Impoffible is held. Will he draw out, For anger's fake, finite to infinite In punish'd man, to fatisfy his rigour Satisfy'd never? that were to extend His fentence beyond duft and notare's law.-Book x. 1. 794. Here the poet gives us his own fentiments, and tho' he had intended to plead the caufe of the reftoration, he could hardly have done it in more appropriate terms. He elsewhere calls our Lord, the deftined reflorer of mankind; and he certainly well knew the fenfe annexed to that term, as diftinct from Saviour, which applies only to a part of mankind; for upon the common fyftem he canLot, with any propriety, be called either the Saviour or reftorer of mankind, Ged intending that, mankind fhould neither be faved nor reflored by him.-Tho' Dr |