ity his poverty would admit of; regaled me with sour crout and some new laid eggs, the only provisions he had, and clean straw with a kind of rug for my bed, he having no other for himself and his wife. The good woman expressed as much satisfaction and good nature in her countenance, as her husband, and said many kind things in the Swiss language, which her husband interpreted to me in the Italian; for that language he well understood, and spoke so as to be understood, having learned it, as he told me, in his youth, while servant in a public house on the borders of Italy, where both languages are spoken. I never passed a more comfortable night; and no sooner did I begin to stir in the morning, than the good man and his wife came both to know how I had rested; and, wishing they had been able to accommodate me better, obliged me to breakfast on two eggs, which providence, they said, had supplied them with for that purpose. I then took leave of the wife, who, with her eyes lifted up to heaven, seemed most sincerely to wish me good journey. As for the husband, he would by all means attend me to the high road leading to Bern; which road, he said, was but two miles distant from that place. But he insisted on my first going back with him, to see the way I had come the night before; the only way, he said, I could have possibly come from the neighbouring canton of Lucern. I saw it, and shuddered at the danger I had escaped; for I found that I had walked and led my horse a good way along a very narrow path on the brink of a dreadful precipice. The man made so many pious and pertinent remarks on the occasion, as both charmed and surprised me. I no less admired his disinterestedness than his piety; for, upon our parting, after he had attended me till I was out of all danger of losing my way, I could by no means prevail upon him to accept of any reward for his trouble. He had the satisfaction, he said, of having relieved me in the greatest distress, which was in itself a sufficient reward, and he cared for no other.

I reached Bern that night, and proposed staying some time there; but, being informed by the principal minister of the place, to whom I discovered myself, that boats went frequently down the Rhine, at that time of the year, with goods and passengers from Basil to Holland, and advised by him to avail myself of that opportunity, I set out accordingly the next day, and crossing the popish canton of Soleurre in the night, but very carefully avoiding the town of that name, I got early the next morning to Basil. There I met with a most friendly reception from one of the ministers of the place, having been warmly recommended to him by a letter I brought with me from his brother at Bern. As a boat was to sail in two days, he entertained me very elegantly, during that time, at his house; and I em

barked the third day, leaving my horse to my host, in return for This kindness.

The company in the boat consisted of a few traders, of a great many vagabonds, the very refuse of the_neighbouring nations, and some criminals flying from justice. But I was not long with them; for, the boat striking against a rock not far from Strasburgh, I resolved not to wait till it was refitted, (as it was not my design to go to Holland) but to pursue my journey partly in the common diligence or stage-coach, and partly on post horses, through France into Flanders.

Having got safe into French Flanders, I there repaired to the college of the Scotch Jesuits at Douay, and, discovering myself to the rector, I acquainted him with the cause of my sudden departure from Italy, and begged him to give immediate notice of my arrival, as well as the motives of my flight, to Michael Angelo Tamburini, General of the order, and my very particular friend.

The rector wrote as I had desired him, to the General; and the General, taking no notice of my flight, in his answer (for he could not disapprove it, and did not think it safe to approve it) ordered me to continue where I was till further orders. I arrived at Douay early in May; and continued there till the latter end of June, or the beginning of July, when the rector received a second letter from the General, acquainting him, that he had been commanded by the congregation of the Inquisition, to order me, wherever I was, back to Italy; to promise me, in their name, full pardon and forgiveness, if I obeyed; but, if I did not obey, to treat me as an apostate. He added, that the same order had been transmitted, soon after my flight, to the nuncios at the different Roman Catholic courts; and he, therefore, advised me to consult my own safety without further delay.

Upon the receipt of the General's kind letter, the rector was of opinion that I should repair by all means, and without loss of time, to England, not only as the safest asylum I could fly to, in my present situation, but as a place where I should soon recover my native language, and be usefully employed, as soon as I recovered it, either there or in Scotland. I readily closed with the rector's opinion, being very uneasy in my mind, as my old doubts, in point of religion, daily gained ground, and new ones arose upon my reading (which was my only employment) the books of controversy I found in the library of the college. The place being thus agreed on, and it being at the same time, setiled between the rector and me, that I should set out the very next morning, I solemnly promised, at his request and desire, to take no kind of notice, after my arrival in England, of his having been any ways privy to my flight, or of the General's letter to him. This promise I have faithfully and honourably observ

ed; and should have thought myself guilty of the blackest ingratitude if I had not observed it, being sensible that, had it been known at Rome, that either the rector or General had been accessary to my flight, the Inquisition would have resented it severely in both For, though a Jesuit in France, in Flanders, or in Germany, is out of the reach of the Inquisition, the General is not; and the high tribunal not only have it in their power to punish the General himself, who resides constantly at Rome, but may oblige him to inflict what punishment they please on any of the order noxious to them.

The rector went that very night out of town; and in his absence, but not without his privity, I took one of the horses of the college, early next morning, as if I were going for change of air, being somewhat indisposed, to pass a few days at Lisle; but, steering a different course, I reached Aire that night, and Calais the next day. I was there in no danger of being stopped and seized at the prosecution of the Inquisition, a tribunal no less abhorred in France than in England But, being informed by the General, that the nuncios at the different courts had been ordered, soon after my flight, to cause me to be apprehended in the Roman Catholic countries through which I might pass, as an apostate or deserter from the order, I was under no small apprehension of being discovered and apprehended as such, even at Calais. No sooner, therefore, did 1 alight at the inn, than I went down to the quay; and there, as I was very little acquainted with the sea, and thought the passage much shorter than it is, I endeavoured to engage some fishermen to carry me, that very night, in one of their small vessels over to England. This alarmed the guards of the harbour; and i should have been certainly apprehended, as a person guilty or suspected of some great crime, fleeing from justice, had not Lord Baltimore, whom I had the good luck to meet in the inn, informed me of my danger, and pitying my condition, attended me that moment, with all his company, to the port, and conveyed me immediately on board his yacht. There I lay that night, leaving every thing I had, but the clothes on my back, in the inn; and the next day, his Lordship set me ashore at Dover, from whence I came in the common stage to London.

THE DOCTRINE OF FUTURE PUNISHMENTS CONSIDERED.

To the Editors of the Methodist Magazine.

DEAR BRETHREN,

As you had the kindness to admit into one of your Numbers, Thoughts on 1 Pet. iiich. 19v.' in which were noticed some of the clogs and difficulties' attendant on the Hell redemp

tion scheme: I take the liberty of presenting you, for publication, some strictures on the certainty and eternity of future punishment. In doing this, I think it of great importance that the subject to be discussed, should be stated fairly, which I think is the case in the following question.

Will the finally impenitent and incorrigible sinner be punished forever in another life? Against the affirmative of this question, the advocate of "Universal Restoration" so called, protests; and to support it, I shall offer some arguments from the present state of the world-from the nature and attributes of God-from the Scriptures-and from the nature of man.

1. Arguments drawn from the present state of the world. In the above question, it is taken as a conceded point, that there is such a thing as sin;-that there is a difference between good and evil, virtue and vice. This difference is a first principle in morals, and all reasoning must be grounded on first principles. Reid's Works, Vol. 4. p. 182. If a man is not capable of perceiving this difference in his cool moments, when he reflects seriously, he is not capable of being convinced by reasoning. To reason with such a man would be a waste of time, and could not possibly be productive of any good what

ever.

It is deemed proper, before I proceed any farther, to state, that the Universalists, as they call themselves, are divided in their opinions respecting punishment; one class denying it altogether, the other maintaining that it will be only for a limited period. Each, affecting to reason from the Goodness and Justice of God, and affirming, it would be contrary to the former attribute, to render any of his creatures miserable; and to the latter, to punish a soul with everlasting misery for the sins which had been committed by it in time. And wherefore? because, say they, his goodness obliges him to prevent misery;-and se condly, because there is no proportion between the punishment and the crime.

To shew the fallacy of this reasoning, we may suppose an intelligent being existing before the creation of this world, and having a knowledge of the purpose of the Divine mind to create man with the powers with which he was invested at his creation, placed under the law that was given Adam in paradise, objecting against the threat with which that law was guarded: suppose, I say, such a being to reason upon the introduction of sin and misery, as a consequence of the transgression of that law, after the manner of the advocates of Universal Restoration, and what would he say? A God of goodness and love will never suffer his work to be marred; will never suffer such a noble creature as man, whom he is about to form holy and happy, for the purpose of serving and glorifying his Creator, to be misera VOL. III.

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ble. It is contrary to every idea of goodness that can be formed of a Being, who cannot possibly delight in the misery of any of his creatures, to suppose that he will allow it; and moreover it would be a direlicton of his power, which is in accordance with his goodness, to permit it. The thing is utterly irreconciliable with every attribute of the Deity, and cannot be admitted even in thought.

Besides, if the doctrine were credible, or admissible with reference to the first creature that may be formed, it is certainly contrary to every idea of Justice, to involve a second and a third being in the consequences of the transgression of the first; and so much the more, as the beings thus involved will propagate their species, surpassing the power of calculation, and every being thus produced will partake of the misery introduced into the world by the transgression of the first. Shocking! shocking! unjust! unjust!

It is well known, who did reason with the Woman, in the above manner in the garden; and we cannot be at a loss to know who reason in the same way against the certainty and eternity of hell torments now.

It is far from my design to undertake to account for the introduction of natural and moral evil into the world; or to reconcile their existence with the perfections of the Deity. Many have undertaken to do this; and others have not been unwilling to acknowledge their ignorance. That their existence is compatible with the goodness and justice of the Deity, none, I presume, will have the temerity, to deny. My design is to apply the above reasoning, à priori, to the doctrine of endless pun ishment, and to shew thereby the absurdity of arguing, as many do, against the plainest matter of fact, and the clearest declarations of scripture, from premises with which their limited capacities cannot be perfectly acquainted. The opponents of the doctrine of punishment tell us it would be in, compatible with the goodness of God that any of his creatures should be miserable: but where is their proof? Do they think their bare assertion will overthrow facts? or their word make the threatening of God of no effect? Have they any ground to reason as they do, when every man in the world, or that has ever been in the world, is a melancholy proof of the falsehood of their assertion, and inconclusiveness of their reasoning.

Although, as said before, I do not undertake to account for the existence of sin, or shew how its existence is compatible with the perfections and attributes of God; yet from the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross for our redemption, we learn, not only the greatness of the sacrifice that was offered to atone, but the infinite demerit of sin, that rendered such a sacrifice necessary. That this sacrifice that was offered was, rio dutev tov poxoyern,