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    respecting him ; then it will folioW , tbat God did riot design that all men should be happy either ih the present or in the future state ; riot in the present , for experience and

    fact prove the contrary ; not in the future , for the scriptures affirm , and your correspondent will riot deny it , that all men will not be happy in that state . From whence then can we conclude that

    ail men will be happy at a more remote period , in a state still more future , a state of which we Have no knowledge from reason , and about which revelation is perfectl y silent ? •* . Of God above , or man below , What can we reason but from what we ' - know ? ' *

    iEon in the plural we are told means ages , and for ever and ever means ages of ages ; here then we have first ages , and then succeeding ages , to an indefinite number growing out of them , which will carry us forward to a period almost infinitely remote For the termination of the punishment of the wicked , which , according to Dr . Estlin , will consist

    an exclusion from the kingdom of Christ , and in inconceivable mental anguish / ' throughout all these successive ages 5 for , he says , they will not be restored till the kingdom of Christ comes to a period , —whose kingdom , the scrip *

    ture says , is an everlasting kingdom , and he shall reign for ever and ever . Most tremendous idea ! Must not every benevolent mind then wish , and have not the wicked themselves reason to wish , that the doctrine of universal restoration may not be true ? And what

    must we Miink of a Being designing the happiness of all men , and who , possessing infinite wisdom

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    and alrfiighty power , is able at "dfl times , and at any time , ( if tlie happiness of rational beings depend on the exercise of his wisdom and

    the exertion of his power ) to accomplish his design ; not only defers the accomplishment of it throughout the whole of the present state of probation , of which almost 6000 years have already

    elapsed , but will still defer the accomplishment of it , and subject the very persons whom he designs to be happy to inconceivable misery , throughout incalculable ages in the future state ? Is * such

    a Being the loving , the benevolent parent of all mankind ? Would such be the conduct of any earths ly parent respecting his children " f I submit , Sir , these obsefva ? J

    tions on the questions of your fcbi ^ respondent ' s unlearned friend ahft on his answers to those questifitisi to his consideration . ' And ani , Sir , Yours , &c . JOHN MARSOM .

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    Dr . Estlin , in Reply to , Mt \ M ar- } som 9 on Future Punishment . SoutherndownfJuly 20 , ; 1814 ., Sir ,

    The pedantic appearance of my former letter will , I fear , be disi liked by some of your readers . I confess it does not altogether suit my own taste , but 1 do not see how it could have been avoided ,

    unless I had suffered the very erroneous account which ycrur correspondent has given of the meaning of certain words of gteat weight in the controversy before

    us , to pass unreftited . When the common acceptation of words is not admitted , what cdn $ & done but to appeal to the pararnotitft authority of lex iedgrap hers ? Those

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    4 ? 8 Dr . Esflin > in Replp id Mr . mutsom ^ Futifre Punishmen t .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1814, page 478, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2443/page/30/