effect than yours, which leaves man in doubt with respect to futute' rewards and punishment. It does not follow, that the laws of this country are bad, because they do not prevent the depredations which are daily committed upon society, so neither will it follow that Christianity is bad because some men do not feel its influence.

J. B.

QUALIFICATIONS

ESSENTIAL TO

A COMMENTATOR UPON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

A Book of so much importance as the Bible, which contains a revelation from the most high God of every thing interesting and important to human creatures, ought to be read with the greatest reverence, and handled with the greatest caution; but to sit down as a commentator upon this sacred book, and to profess one's self a public expositor of it, as it is one of the most arduous, so it is one of the most solemn undertakings. Great are the abilities, and many are the qualifications necessary for this purpose. No man should presume upon it, without a perfect critical knowledge of the languages in which the Scriptures are written, without a competent understanding of the history and antiquities, the genius and polity of the Jewish people; without an acquaintance with the connected profane history, the manners and customs of ancient times.

"It is also absolutely necessary, that a commentator should understand the whole analogy of faith, as well as be a compleat master of all the controversies, ancient and modern, with the tenets of the several sects and heresies, without a competent skill in which, he can never be able to elucidate those texts, which are applied in those several opinions.

"Besides these qualifications, there is one, which all writers upon the subject have spoken of as indispensably requisite, that is, a pious and devout frame of mind: a spirit like that with which the Scriptures are written; without this, accompained with a holy, sedate, contemplative life, all the wisest and best of Christians have agreed, that no man is qualified to expound the oracles of God.-Serious application, continued labour, long experience, much study, and solid judgment, united with the qualifications above-mentioned, might lead us to hope for valuable fruits in a commentator.

"These are some of the things requisite, and which, indeed, must be found in every man, who desires his attempts upon the Bible to succeed. How great then must be the indignation of every sensible man, and how sincere the concern of every true Christian, to see this most venerable of all books, hackneyed through the hands of booksellers, and retailed daily, not for the great ends of piety, virtue, and knowledge, but with the most mercenary and selfish views.→→Some

thereare, with grief be it spoken, who dare to introduce into the world the oracles of truth with a lie in their mouths, with feigned names and false titles: others, who think it enough, if, from the former labours of able and worthy men, they plunder without conscience, and without gratitude, patch up their sheet, gain their scanty guinea, and dine! While others, with unblushing hypocrisy, pretend a zeal for the Lord, and a concern for the salvation of precious souls; when it is notoriously known, that they are only the tools of booksellers, and draw the hireling pen, as the instruments of scheming tradesmen! While, without breach of charity, it may be said of all, that they are eminently deficient in those leading qualifications which are necessary to constitute a commentator on the holy Scriptures.-Thus much is necessary to be said, by any well wisher to Christianity, in order to undeceive the ignorant but well-meaning; to put a check, if possible, to this scandalous traffic; to thow a proper contempt upon the low and mercenary dealers in it, injurious as it is to the cause of true religion and virtue.-While at the same time I would be as forward as any man, and exhort all within my sphere so to be, in promoting the labours of any man of known abilities, known learning, experience, and piety! but I will never encourage those who handle the word of God for hire, and steal honey from the hives of others to supply their own deficiencies."

P. A.

PRETENDERS TO PROPHECY.

A Pretence to prophecy has often been made of late years, sometimes by designing wicked men, and at other times by enthusiastic well meaning persons. I need not refer to what has lately taken place in our own country, because this is well known to every one: but I will transcribe, from the Annual Register for 1761, an account of the saine nature, which perhaps is not so generally known.

"Two men arrived at Cologn in Germany; they said they came from Damascus. The Jesuits of Cologn conversed with them in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Chaldaic. They answered them in all these different, languages. They said they were come by the order of heaven to turn men to repentance. They gave out they were seven hundred years old. They were put in irons, in order to be carried to Rome. They declared they were glad of that opportunity of proving the truth of their mission by breaking their irons to pieces." However in this they failed. The sum of their prophecies is as follows.

t

"The French Envoy at Cologn received orders to examine them strictly." What became of them afterwards I could never learn. I will only observe, in the words of an eminent writer, that " Scripture prophecy is intended to excite our attention to the providence of God; to confirm our faith in his truth; and to increase our hope in his promises; but it was not intended to make prophets of us."

OMICRON..

REMARKS

ON CANDIDUS.

SOPHRONIUS requests leave of the Editor to return his respectfuĮ acknowledgments to Candidus for the explanation with which that gentleman has favoured him and the other readers of the Universalist's Miscellany. It will be but civility that Sophronius in return should afford as much satisfaction as possible to the enquiries of Candidus at the conclusion of his note.

FIRST ENQUIRY OF CANDIDUS.

"Is it impossible for the invisible God visibly to manifest himself?"

ANSWER.

Most assuredly so. No man hath seen God at any time, or CAN see him. If God could visibly manifest himself, there would be an end of this attribute of invisibility.

SECOND ENQUIRY.

"Doth not all the fulness of the Godhead dwell bodily in Christ?"

ANSWER.

Certainly nor, in the sense in which Candidus must mean the expressions should be taken. For, first, God is a spirit, and therefore can dwell bodily in nothing. And, secondly, If it be meant that the whole of God dwells in the body of Christ, that is impossible. The whole of God can no more dwell in the temple of Jesus Christ's body, than it could in the temple of Solomon,

THIRD ENQUIRY.

"Is not Christ the image of the invisible God?"

ANSWER.

Yes; and so was Adam. Gen. i. 27. "So God created man in his OWN IMAGE, in the IMAGE QF GOD created he him."

FOURTH ENQUIRY.

"Doth it not (the fulness of the Godhead) dwell there (in the body of Christ) that it may be manifested, or rendered visible to creatures ?" (s. e. of the human race.) "

ANSWER.

By no means. God himself cannot work impossibilities; and certainly no other being can work them if he cannot. Therefore, if, for the sake of argument, it should be granted that the whole of God could dwell bodily in Jesus Christ, Candidus would not be much nearer to attaining his object. Still God would be invisible, and being also unchangeable, Jesus Christ could not make him visible to creatures, such as men are.

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FIFTH ENQUIRY.

Though Christ is not now visible to our bodily eyes, can it be denied that the gospel renders him visible to the eyes of our understanding?"

ANSWER.

Sophronius will answer this question by asking Candidus another; and that is, Whether being visible, and being visible to the eyes of the understanding, be not those two very things which Candidus had confounded, and which Sophronius endeavoured to distinguish; and whether God is rendered at all visible to us in the PERSON of Christ? which, in this question, (as truth will out) Candidus admits cannot be seen? and (let it be added) will not be seen, till the day of judgment, if Sophronius rightly understand the Scriptures.

Candidus, in the first paragraph, has this expression-" fully manifest in the person of Christ." The words of his last question imply that Candidus is of the same opinion as Sophronius, that the person of Christ is not now manifest at all; and therefore it would be strange to talk of God's being visible or fully manifest in a person whom we cannot see. Nor can Sophronius admit that the "designs of God" are fully manifest" in any sense of the words, either in Christ's herson, or his gospel, meaning thereby the New Testament.

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SOPHRONIUS

ON

SIN AND PUNISHMENT.

SIR,

AM an advocate for the non-eternity of hell torments, and as I have I hinted in my note to Candidus, a constant reader of your valuable Miscellany.

I have been much gratified by several instances of your impartiality and candour, as well as the ability you discover in the general conduct of ye publication. I am particularly pleased with the handsome treatment you have ever given to the opponents of the doctrine for which you contend, and especially in the Isat instance which has occurred, in permitting a gentleman, who seems possessed, both of natural and acquired abilities, to say every thing he thought proper in his own way against the main object of your labours, without any interruption on your part.

I wish all success to your endeavours to enlighten the darkness of such a mind as Mr. Andrew Fuller seems to possess, and I would, with your permission, contribute my mite towards the production of so desirable

an event.

I have remarked a slight inaccuracy into which the hurry of composition has betrayed you, at the top of p. 333, in the last volume" Whoever read of eternals, everlastings, and eternities? or of this eternity, and that eternity?"

Now in the DXCth Spectator Mr. Addison thus writes

"Philosophy, and indeed common sense, naturally throws eternity under two divisions, which we call in English, that eternity which is past, and that eternity which is to come. The learned terms of æternitas a parte ante and æternitas a parte host, may be more amusing to the reader, but can have no other idea affixed to thein than what is conveyed to us by those words, an eternity that is past and an eternity that is to come. Each of these eternities is bounded at the one extreme, or, in other words, the former has an end, and the latter a beginning." The perspicuity of the argument that follows will depend, in some measure, upon the reader's bearing in mind the above quotation.

God is perfectly just: his punishment, therefore, of any being cannot exceed the demerit of any guilty person, either in duration or

intenseness.

The duration of that punishment would necessarily be too long in which a guilty person should suffer during the æterntias a parte post, unless he can be proved to have had the æternites a parte ante in which to have contracted his guilt. This is impossible-God is just, and therefore eternal punishment is impossible in the sense in which it is set forth by Mr. Fuller.