comparison of those who shall be found sinners against the clear and express publication of the gospel, at the great judgment day; Mat. xi. 20-24.

The testimony of St. Paul; Acts xvii. 30. seems also to support the same opinion, where he tells us, that God winked at those times, at this ignorance, wherein the heathen and idolatrous nations lived before the manifestation of the gospel. The word Degi doth not mean that he let them go without punishment, for, Rom. ii. 9, 12. Tribulation and anguish will fall upon every soul that doth evil, whether Jew or Gentile. Those who have sinned without law, shall perish without law: But God took but little notice of them with an eye of punishing justice, in comparison of those who shall hear of those solemn calls to repentance which are now given to men by the gospel of Christ, and the preaching of the judgment of the world by him. Thus every sinner's punishment in the other world, shall stand in an exact proportion to the aggravation of the sins they have committed, considered together with the different degrees of light and knowledge they have received. Divine justice will measure out to every one their righteous proportions, with perfect

exactess.

QUEST. XVI. What will be the State and Condition of that large Part of Mankind who die in Infancy, under any of the Dispensations of the Covenant of Grace?

Answer. It is a very large part of mankind, indeed, that dies in the infant state, before they arrive at any capacity to know God or their duty, virtue or vice, and therefore they cannot be charged with actual sin, or rewarded for actual obedience. If we may judge by the yearly bills of mortality*, we find more than a third part of the race of man dying before they arrive at two years old, and about half before five: A dreadful devastation of nature! A wide spectacle of ruin, diffused over all nations and ages, by the sin of their common father!

It is true, we cannot tell at what age of life, or at what degrees of growing reason, the great God will appoint children to stand upon their own foot, and will deal with them as rational

* Perhaps it will be said, that the bills of mortality in or near London, are no sufficient rule to judge of the deaths of mankind in general, because multitudes of young creatures die there for want of air and conveniences of life. But let it be remembered also, that in the savage nations of Asia, Africa and America, there are more of those young creatures die for want of due care, and for want also of the methods of human skill to relieve the diseases of children, and by this means some of the savage countries are almost depopulated, and the nations destroyed, as travellers inform us. So that take all mankind together, and I am ready to think the bills of mortality, in and near London, may pretty nearly yield us a just calculation as to this matter.

creatures, as intelligent and free agents, according to their own personal actions and behaviour. Some perhaps shall sooner be adjudged capable and sufficient to act for themselves, and shall be dealt with according to their own moral conduct, and some much later; and both according to their degrees of capacity to know, to chuse, and to refuse good or evil. But this season is known only to God himself, and the Judge of all the earth will do right; Gen. xviii. 25.

In the mean time, while they are deemed infants, and have no personal sin or obedience of their own, but only lie under the sentence of death for the sin of Adam, so far as it is imputed to them, let us not send any of their little souls into a separate state of torment, as soon as death has seized their bodies, without an express divine warrant: Nor let us raise up their bodies again from the dead, and then doom them, soul and body, to intense anguish and everlasting fire and sorrow, merely for Adam's sin, unless we can find some very evident sentence of this kind passed upon them in the word of God. The equity and the compassion of a God, so far as we can judge of it by the light of reason, would not inflict so severe and eternal a punishment on these little creatures, who are personally innocent or free from actual sin: And unless we can find some divine revelation that pronounces it with great strength and evidence, let us not so far contradict the gentler dictates of nature and reason, as to assert this opinion for truth, nor impose it on our own belief, nor on the belief of others. Let us try then, whether we cannot find out some milder punishment for their share of the guilt of Adam, in the bible. May we not humbly suppose, that a most wise, most righteous, and most merciful God, will deal with them according to the following principles, derived partly from the scriptures, and partly from the reason of things?

Principle I. As the children of men had all been born innocent and happy, and had worn out their infant state in innocence and happiness, if Adam their father and surety had stood firm in his obedience; so by his fall and disobedience to God, we have already proved that they are all involved with him in so much of his guilt and misery, as that they come into the world with natures corrupted and vitiated, both with the principles of sin and seeds of death : This we have shewn before: And they are exposed hereby to death, that is, to the common and everlasting forfeiture of all those blessings, and all that life and existence, both of soul and body, which God had freely given them: See tion XI. section III. of eternal death. And as for the execuquestion of this general sentence, we find it so far executed on children, that they suffer the pains and agonies of mortality, and at last bodily death; though they have not sinned, that is, per

sonally and actually, after the similitude of Adam's transgression, as in Rom. v. 14. and there the scripture leaves them, that is, in death and the grave.

11. It has been granted, that the actual and personal sin of Adam, might provoke his Maker so far, as to continue his soul in its natural immortality after his bodily life was forfeited and finished; and this is because he was a personal and actual sinner: And God may see it divinely proper, that he should suffer long anguish of conscience, tribulation and wrath after death, according to the aggravation of his personal crime, that is, upon supposition that he accepted not the covenant of grace: Yet it does not follow, that the great God will punish the mere imputed guilt of his infant posterity in so severe a manner; or that he will continue their souls in being, whose whole life and being is forfeited by Adam's sin, and that he will give them their being and life again, and fix them in an immortal state, merely to make them suffer long anguish and endless misery for the sin of Adam. Nor is this severity any where taught us in the word of God; and I am well assured, that our reasonings from the goodness and equity of God will incline us to judge more favourably of his sentence upon infants, and will lead us to the milder and softer side of the question, as I intimated before,

III. There is one very good reason to suppose that the great God will resume the forfeited life and existence of the souls of children as well as of their bodies, and will not continue their immortal spirits to suffer tormenting punishment for ever; because having no personal sin, they can have no anguish of conscience, nor inward vexation: They cannot suffer any self reproaches for sin, for they have committed none: Nor can this be conveyed to them by any imputed guilt of Adam, though it is a very great part of the punishment of souls for actual sin, as being the natural effect of personal transgression and guilt. If therefore they are punished for Adam's sin in another world, it must probably be by actual pains and torments inflicted on them by God himself, since the most natural effects of sin, that is, guilt and anguish of conscience, cannot reach them: And is it agreeable to the nature and mercy of a God to inflict such positive and endless pains or torments with his own hand, on such little creatures, who are free from all personal iniquity, and have no other crime but that they were born of Adam?

IV. If you should imagine that the mere sense of the loss of God's favour, without any actual inflictions of pain, is all the punishment that children shall suffer in their souls'; tell me how that can be without some positive and actual agency of God in it? For unless God, some way or other, give them a sense what his favour is, and what is the loss of it, how can they have this knowledge? And since they have have not lived in this world

long enough to acquire any ideas of a God, a creature, a law, obedince and transgression, sin and duty, the favour of God, the loss of his favour, punishment, &c. it is hardly to be supposed, that the blessed God will furnish them with these ideas in a future state of immortality, merely and for no other reason but to make then feel their misery in their eternal loss of the divine favour; and that on no other account, but for having been once born into this world in an unhappy relation to Adam, the actual sinner. Those short miseries which end with life, are much more easy to be accounted for upon the foot of divine resentment for Adam's sin than any everlasting pains.

The late learned Doctor Ridgley indeed, in his Discourses of Original Sin, with modesty and ingenuity has represented this sentiment to the world: And I cannot but declare myself so far of his opinion, that the blessed God will not impress on them these ideas of divine things, nor shew the souls of infants in the other world what are those powers and pleasures which they have lost by Adam's sin, on purpose only to torment those little creatures, who never knew what sin was, nor ever sinned against God in their wills, by actual personal disobedience. But whereas Doctor Ridgley supposes the immortal existence of such infant souls in a sort of stupid ignorance or insensibility, which the scripture no where intimates, I think it is much more natural and reasonable to suppose, that God will deprive both body and soul of life which Adam had forfeited for himself and for them, according to the first threatening of death: And since the book of scripture has not revealed it, I cannot find it in the bookof reason, nor can I conceive what end it can attain in divine providence, to continue so many millions of infant souls in an eternal state of stupor: Is it agreeable to the conduct of infinite wisdom, and the government of a God, to maintain such an innumerable multitude of ideots, equal in number to almost all the rest of the human race, in a long endless duration, and to reign over such an immense nation of senseless and thoughtless immortals? I add yet further, it is very hard to understand how a human soul, which I cannot conceive of but as a thinking being, should exist without any ideas at all, and that for eternal ages. Upon the whole therefore, the state of non-existence, to which we here suppose them to be reduced after death, is much more probable, being the least demerit of imputed sin, or an everlasting forfeiture of life, and a sort of endless punishment without pain.

V. Neither have we any intimations from scripture, that all the bodies of infants will be raised again at the great day, in order to come into judgment: And if we will suffer ourselves to think and judge without prejudice, we may find it highly probable, that there are many thousands of infant bodies, which will never

be restored to life, nor their persons be summoned to judgment in the last great day; and that for these two reasons :

I. We have before shewn, that as bodily death was threatened by the law of innocency or covenant of works to Adam, as the head of a numerous race, so this is evidently executed upon all his infant-seed; for death has reigned over them in every age, as the punishment of Adam's sin, being so far imputed to them; as Rom. v. 12-14. But there is no resurrection of the body included in that threatening; nor can we reasonably suppose, that the most gracious God, who has never threatened it, will raise these infant-bodies into an endless life, merely to suffer everlasting anguish and pain in the body, for the imputed sin of their first father, since they have no actual or personal guilt of their own. Mere imputed sin, without actual transgression, is the least and lowest sort of guilt that can be; and therefore it is highly probable, a righteous and merciful God will inflict on them the least and lowest sort of punishment threatened to sin, that is, death in the mildest sense of it, or an universal and eternal destruction of soul and body, which are forfeited by sin.

II. When the resurrection of sinners is mentioned in scripture, it is always that they may be judged expressly according to their works, according to what they have done in the body, whether good or evil; 2 Cor. v. 10. Now infants have done no works of sin or righteousness: They are not moral agents in the infant-state; and it is not said in scriptures, that such shall be brought into judgment. The enquires and decisions of a judg ment-seat are only appointed for actual sinners. See the words of scripture on this subject: John v. 28, 29. The hour is coming, when all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they who have done good to the resurrection of life, and they who have done evil to the resurrection of damnation; Rev. xx. 12, 13. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, that is, the high and low, rich and poor,-and they were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up its dead, and death and hell, or the grave, or the separate state, gave up dead, and they were judged, every man according to their works. Observe here, that the words small and great must signify persons of high and low degree, who can be judged according to their works, but the word small cannot signify infants, because they have no moral works for which they might be judged*.

VI. And indeed, where any future punishments of the

* And to confirm this sense of the words small and great, let it be con. sidered, that in another text of the same writer, these words cannot mean infants and adult, but must signify, poor and rich, or mean and honourable; Rev. xi. 18. because they are both said to fear the name of the Lord, which cannot be ascribed to infants.