viour charged the objects of mercy to hold their peace the more they spread it abroad. If the one talent had been the grace of the Spirit, he could not have hid it, he must have spoken as the Spirit gave him utterance; for he would have found the word of God, as Jeremiah did, a fire shut up in his bones; the Spirit of God is a springing well, and out of the belly of such flow rivers of living water; they cannot be pent up, they must speak if they die for it. The one talent was a lamp without oil, and surely this cannot be grace; the law is a lamp, and that seems to be all that Mr. Skinner has got at present, God grant he may not find it so to his cost at last. The one talent is what Peter calls a well without water; Jude calls it a cloud without rain. God's witnesses are called a cloud; and there is a cloud of false witnesses who have not the waters of life, nor the witnessing Spirit in them. These are instruments without life giving sound; that is, they are preachers that were never quickened by the Spirit of God. Solomon calls it a false gift, from whence Jude took it; "As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him; for he refresheth the soul of his masters. Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift, is like clouds and wind without rain."

Judas had a talent, he had a gift for preaching; hence, saith Peter, "He was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry," Acts i. 17; which was the worst part, a gift to preach and no

more, for Jesus called him a devil before he sent him out with the rest to preach the kingdom of God; and surely, if he had been a partaker of grace, the Lord would not have called him a devil, unless it can be proved that devils have grace. I believe Judas was the man that the Saviour struck

at in the parable of the talents as he often did, "Ye are clean, but not all." Judas the traitor being there, therefore said he, "Ye are not all clean." "I have chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil." "Verily I say unto you, one of you shall betray me;" "But wo be to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed." "Take the talent from him, and give it to him that has ten talents," that has many gifts and graces; which was to fulfil the prediction, "Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein; and his bishoprick let another take;" and they chose Matthias. But, if I am not mistaken, his talent was given to Paul, who had an abundance of grace and truth, and used his ministerial talent well.

The elect are sons by predestination, pre-adoption, and regeneration; they have grace in Christ, and out of his fulness they receive it at the set time appointed; and if God gives a preaching talent to one of his elect to make him a minister, it is called giving twopence to the host, Luke x. 35; one penny more than a private Christian, who receives a penny a day; such are sons of God, and sons of Christ, as well as servants to his Church;

and what these receive is not to be taken away; but if he gives a gift to a legal servant, who is not a son, it may be taken away. The parable of the talents is taken from Ezek. xlvi. 16, 17. "Thus saith the Lord God: If the prince give a gift to any of his sons, the inheritance thereof shall be his sons', it shall be their possession by inheritance. But if he give a gift of his inheritance to one of his servants, then it shall be his to the year of liberty; after, it shall return to the prince; but his inheritance shall be his sons for them." Hence we are called heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; and the inheritance is not to be taken away. Our author proceeds:

If Christ did not die for the non-elect, their 'existence is a necessary curse to them. It is un'deniable that mankind are brought into existence ' without their consent; and it is equally certain

that existence is a curse to them that perish.' This is the man that produceth the old cause of Cain, and brings forth his strong reasons against the King of Jacob, Isa. xli. 21; and appeals to the world for the equity of his plea. "Wo to the rebellious children.' "Wo unto him that striveth with his Maker," ch. xlv. 9. "Wo unto him that saith to his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?" The Judge of all the earth will find little difficulty in vindicating his proceedings both as a Creator and a Judge in the great day; the wicked will be condemned out of their own mouths. Mr. Skinner

has left an all-sufficient and an everlasting verdict against his own soul, should the Judge of quick and dead take the advantage that he has offered. He insists upon it that the damned might have been in heaven if they had done as they might; and that man has power to obey the gospel; that he can perform what God requires; and yet owns that his experience teaches him that he feels the workings of sin, which is discovered by the light that he says is of God. If sin work in him, where is his power? where is the task that he might have performed? and where is his meetness for heaven?

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Our author's talent amounts to this, God commands nothing impossible; he with his talent can perform it; there is not a soul in hell but what if ♦ he had done as he might have done, had been a glorified saint in heaven.' Upon the old covenant he stands; for his own ability and conditions with his Maker he pleads; and upon those legal terms will God deal with such men? He looks to the work of a servant, but to the heart of a son; but this our author is ignorant of; he stands and triumphs at present upon his old bottom; and if God should push him down from this pinnacle, he would plead as the servant with his one talent did, "thou reapest where thou hast not sown, and gatherest where thou hast not strewed." But this was rebellion; out of his own mouth he was judged; for if his master was so austere a man, he ought to have been the more careful about the

improvement of the stock, especially as he had power to perform whatsoever his Lord commanded; but notwithstanding all his logic he was cast into outer darkness, and that justly; for if natural men have so much light and power, they ought to do what they are commanded; for he that knows his Lord's will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes.

As for the elect they have not this light and power that free-thinkers are possessed of, they dare not urge their plea against God, nor send out their free thoughts with an appeal to the world in behalf of Cain's cause. They dare not plead for their mother if she is not God's wife, nor he her husband, Hos. ii. 2. If God puts her away by the old covenant, it is no more than what the bond-children desired, and Moses, because of the hardness of their hearts, granted unto them. God adopts the desire of Israel concerning divorce, and uses their own request; "For your transgressions your mother put away," Isa. 1. 1.

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To be short: Upon the old covenant the bondwoman and her children stand; and the law says, He that doth these things shall live in them: for this covenant they plead; for the commands, and their own strength to perform the conditions thereof, they contend; and if they perform, as our author affirms they can, then he declares, they may be all glorified saints in heaven. The conditional promise is before them, let them look to it; if they will enter into life, let them keep the command