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promised to the fathers, which God performed in remembrance of his holy covenant, confirmed by the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, Luke i. 72, 73. This mercy is eternally secured to Christ and his seed by covenant. "I will make him, my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore; and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven."

What is a web of free thoughts, spun out of human brains, polluted both in the warp and in the woof, confusedly jumbled together, in craftiness and hypocrisy, when compared to such a covenant as this? Such webs may serve to entangle a few silly flies, which will stick in every stinking pot of the apothecary's ointment, Eccl. x. 1; rather than fly to the balm in Gilead, or to the great Physician there. But it never can destroy the elect of God; they cannot be deceived. Christ's seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. God has promised to the elect every necessary blessing, even the hearing ear. "In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness." Then the dead in sin, like others, shall both hear and live. "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." These are the blessed of the Lord; "Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and

your ears, for they hear." To these, and to these only, God speaks in new covenant terms. "Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good [namely, strong meat]; and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David."

To the chosen seed in Christ Jesus, God speaketh on this wise, "And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me." The covenant blessing promised to these souls in whom God puts his fear, is the sure and everlasting mercies of David, secured by eovenant to Christ and his seed. "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children." This covenant and covenant mercy shall never fail nor decay.

God has said,

for ever,
ever, Psal.

that mercy shall be built up lxxxix. 2. It is secured by the eternal veracity of God, and must be accomplished. "For ever,

O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven."

Let the free-thinker muster his thoughts, and utter his mischievous device; let the eloquent logician produce his cause, and bring forth his strong reasons, Isa. xli. 21; let the bowels of universal charity sound like an harp for Moab, Isa. xvi. 11, and contend for the conversion of the world; let

the whole select band of mumping prophetesses enforce their candour, and bring their repeated appeals to a candid public; we speak as the oracles of God. "Whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire." "And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?" Job xxiv. 25. Yea, we dare appeal to a candid public of free agents in behalf of our assertions; "for. their rock is not as our Rock, our enemies themselves being judges." Their candour is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gommorrah. "Their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps," Deut. xxxii. 31-33.

Is this Mr. Skinner, who told a friend, that he would dispute the point of universal redemption with the whole fraternity of Calvinists? Poor man, he seems never to have been favoured with one glimpse even of the frame of God's covenant. Surely God never sent the halt and the blind to turn people from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.

I am inclined to think, that the least stripling in Sion's family, if taught by the Spirit of God, is sufficient in the strength of the Lord to go against any man that defies the armies of the living God.

I come, in the third place, to consider the text that is entangled in this web of free thoughts.

As the scriptures never confine the death of 'Christ to a few, but frequently assert that he 'died for all mankind; among many others let the 'following specimen suffice: "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life," John iii. 16.' This text, according to the author's free thoughts, is to suffice his readers, without inquiring any further for themselves. This might suffice Esau, who was contented with a mess of pottage; or it might suffice Hagar, the bond-woman, and her son, who went off satisfied with a bottle of water at her back. But Abraham left all that he had to Isaac, and we, as Isaac was, are heirs of promise; and it is well known that Isaac loved savory meat, and so do his children; nothing else would suffice Isaac; the salt of the covenant of his God must not be lacking, Lev. ii. 13, when he pronounces the covenant blessing of heaven upon the succeeding heirs of promise.

Our author, has not quoted this text wisely. The first part, "God so loved the world," is intended to fix, according to free thoughts, the mercy of God and the death of Christ on all the human race; but how he will establish his false doctrine, of final apostacy from grace and redemp tion, by this text, I know not. The last clause should have been left out of his free-thought system, as that is altogether against his future doctrine of apostacy. "Whosoever believeth in him shall not

perish, but have everlasting life;" then the believer is safe, he is not to perish, he is to have everlasting life.

"God so loved the world;" by which world the Gentiles are meant: "Take no thought what ye shall eat or drink, for after all these things do the Gentiles seek;" which is afterwards explained thus; "For all these things do the nations of the world seek after," Luke xii. 30. The phrase is mentioned to throw down the middle wall of partition; the persons intended by the world are the chosen sheep of Christ among the Gentiles, which he explains thus: "And other sheep I have which are not of this fold [not of the Jewish, but of the Gentile fold], them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd." The whole human race are not intended by the world, for the world is not redeemed, but the sheep are redeemed from among them; "No man could learn that song, but the hundred and forty and four thousand which were redeemed from the earth; these were redeemed from among men." The world that these sheep are redeemed from are not to see Christ, but the sheep redeemed shall see him, and live too; "Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me; because I live ye shall live also." "I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world;" these, and only these, can ever receive the Holy Ghost. "And I will pray the Father

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