Difficulties of the Popular View.
DR. DWIGHT, in his Theology; chap. 147, speaking of eternal misery for the wicked, and the manner in which we should treat upon it, remarks: "The subject is immeasurably awful, and beyond all others affecting. Few persons can behold it in near vision with a steady eye. The very preacher who teaches the doctrine to others, cannot but know, unless certainly assured of his own salvation, that he may, at that very time, be alleging arguments, which are to affect himself, and evince his own final destruction, as well as that of others. If his heart is not made of stone; he cannot contemplate the subject, as it respects his fellow-men without overwhelming amazement." "At the same time," he adds, "the subject is unquestionably perplexing as well as distressing. There are, I know, persons who speak concerning it with an air of cool self-complacency, as being in their view, easy of investigation, and free from embarrassment. I am inclined, perhaps uncharitably, to give them little credit for candor, clearness of intellect, or soundness of character, and greatly doubt whether the doctrine has been investigated by them, either to such an extent, or with such a spirit as might furnish them with just views of its nature."