LXIII.

TO THE REV. THOMAS LANGDON.

My dear Friend,

Leicester, Jan. 11, 1820.

As Mr. Ryland is passing through Leeds, I take the liberty of troubling you with a few lines, just to let you know how I and my family are, and to express my undiminished affection and attachment to one of my oldest and best friends. I look back with renewed pleasure on the scenes through which we have passed; and deeply regret that Providence has placed us at such a distance from each other, that our opportunities of intercourse are so few. I hope the period will arrive, when we shall spend an eternity together, and look back with mingled wonder and gratitude on all the way the Lord God has led us. What a scene will that present, when the mysterious drama shall come to a close, and all the objects of this dark and sublunary state shall be contemplated in the light of eternity!

"O, could we make our doubts remove,

Those gloomy doubts that rise;

And see the Canaan that we love

With unbeclouded eyes!"

I am very sorry to hear that you have been so much afflicted with your asthmatic complaint. It is high time you retired from your school, and procured a house nearer your meeting. I am persuaded your long evening walks are extremely

prejudicial. Do, my dear friend, be prevailed upon to give up your evening lectures. It is what you owe to your family, to be as attentive as possible to your health. "Do thyself no harm," is an apostolic injunction.

I was much affected to hear of the death of dear Mr. Robert Spear. It must have been peculiarly distressing to the amiable youth I saw at your house. He was a most excellent man, and has, no doubt, had an abundant entrance into the joy of his Lord. May we be followers of those who thus inherit the promises. My health is, through mercy, very good. Mrs. Hall is at present very much indisposed by a bad cold and oppression of the lungs; but, through blistering and bleeding, is, through mercy, better. Let me indulge the hope, that, next summer, you and Mrs. Langdon will visit me at Leicester. Be assured that the company of no friend would give me more pleasure.

Please to remember me affectionately to Mrs. Langdon, to your family, and to all inquiring friends, as if named.

I am,

Your affectionate Friend and Brother,

ROBERT HALL.

LXIV.

TO A GENTLEMAN AT TRINITY COLLEGE,
CAMBRIDGE.

Dear Sir,

Leicester, April 30, 1821.

I am considerably at a loss how to answer your letter. I sincerely sympathize with you in the perplexity you experience on a very high and awful subject. For my own part, I acquiesce in the usual and popular interpretation of the passages which treat on the future doom of the finally impenitent. My reasons, in brief, are as follows:I assume it as a maxim, that we are utterly incompetent to determine, à priori, what is the amount of guilt incurred by such as reject the overtures of the gospel, any further than God has been pleased to make it the subject of express revelation; that the terms that the terms expressive of the duration of future misery are as forcible as the Greek language supplies; that the same term is applied to the duration of misery as to the duration of happiness, or even the eternity of God himself (Matt. xxv. 46; Rev. xix. 3); that the exclusion of the impenitent from happiness is asserted in the most positive terms-" they shall not see life," &c. &c., that "their worm dieth not, and their fire is not extinguished;" that positive terms may be understood in different degrees of latitude, but this is impossible respecting negative terms, since a negation admits of no degrees.

If the eternal misery of a certain number can be rendered conducive to a greater amount of good, in relation to the universe at large, than any other plan of action, then the attribute of goodness requires it: for I take it for granted, that the Supreme Being will adopt that scheme, whatever it be, which will produce the greatest quantity of happiness on the whole. But our faculties are too limited, and our knowledge of the laws of the moral world, and of the relation which one part of the universe bears to another, too imperfect, to enable us to say that this is impossible. For aught we know, therefore, the existence of eternal misery may not only consist with, but be the necessary effect of supreme goodness. At all events, it is a subject of pure revelation, on the interpretation [of which] every one must be left to form his own judgement. If the milder interpretation can be sustained by a preponderating evidence, I shall most sincerely rejoice; but I have yet seen nothing to satisfy me that this is the case.

I would only add, that, in my humble opinion, the doctrine of the eternal duration of future misery, metaphysically considered, is not an essential article of faith, nor is the belief of it ever proposed as a term of salvation; that if we really flee from the wrath to come, by truly repenting of our sins, and laying hold of the mercy of God through Christ, by a lively faith, our salvation is perfectly secure, whichever hypothesis we embrace

on this most mysterious subject. The evidence accompanying the popular interpretation is by no means to be compared to that which establishes our common christianity; and, therefore, the fate of the christian religion is not to be considered as implicated in the belief, or disbelief, of the popular doctrine.

Earnestly wishing you may be relieved from all painful solicitude on the question, and be guided by the Spirit of God into the paths of truth and holiness, I remain,

Your obedient humble Servant,

LXV.

ROBERT HALL.

TO RICHARD FOSTER, JUN. ESQ.

Dear Sir,

Leicester, July 21, 1821.

I thank you for your kind favour, (which I should have acknowledged sooner, but was not at home,) including a draught for 777., and odd.

With respect to my sermon on the Trinity, I entered into no metaphysical disquisition whatever, I merely confined myself to the adducing passages which go to prove a plurality of persons in the blessed Godhead: such as the plural name of God in the Hebrew, the use of plural pronouns, the injection of plurals in the name of God coupled with singular verbs, the use of the terms, Makers, Creators, &c. I adduced Isaiah, saying, "The Lord hath sent me and his Spirit," &c. From the New Testament, I mentioned the