Mr. Skinner adds, This passage therefore can only mean, that they were appointed to stumble in consequence of their unbelief.' And how came these free-thinkers to stumble? Because they knew not the Lord of life. But how came they so ignorant? God had hid these things from the wise and prudent. How comes Mr. Skinner to oppose the sovereignty of God, and the doctrine of election? Because the Lord as yet has not given him the faith of God's elect. How came the free-thinking Jews not to believe? "You believe not," saith Christ, "because you are not of my sheep." How came they not to hear God's word? Because they were not of his choosing: "He that is of God, heareth God's word: ye therefore hear it not, because ye are not of God." How comes it that peace came not to all men? Because all men are not sons of peace. How comes it to pass that all those who hear the gospel do not receive the Spirit? Because all are not predestinated to the adoption of sons.. They that are sons by predestination and pre-adoption, receive him: "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." How is it, that all these freeagents, possessed of such power, do not come to Christ? Because they are not all given to Christ: "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and none shall pluck them out of my hands." Mr. Skinner, with all his abilities, is not come to Christ yet; and I defy him to describe what

coming to Christ, laying hold of Christ, and uniting with Christ, is. Every free thought that he has penned, serves only to proclaim him a stranger to Jesus. Free-agency, human power, fleshly boasting, pride, rebellion, and free-thinking, could no more exist in the presence of Christ, than Beelzebub the devil could stand in the regions of eternal felicity. He would find, as Daniel did, if the angel of the covenant was to approach him, that all his comeliness would turn into corruption, and he would retain no strength to do what the law requires. Or, like Job, he would cry out, "I have [only] heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Mr. Skinner must give up free-thinking, and contention for the world too, before he makes any pretensions to Christ, or else every chosen vessel will be suspecting him to be an impostor: for we all know, that a man must not only abhor the world, hate and forsake his own thoughts, but "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." This is the experience of them that come to Christ: but Christ has taught Mr. Skinner nothing of this. He has power to perform what God requires, and be a glorified saint in heaven if he will.

God does not demand impossibilities of him: therefore he cannot be said to be lost, nor to be a debtor that has nothing

to pay with. And so far from hating father and mother, he is contending for the redemption of all the world, and styles himself 'A friend to all mankind.' And we know the friendship of the world is enmity with God; "Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God." The world loves his own, and by Mr. Skinner's own account, he is of the world; he is a friend to the world; and no doubt but the world will love him, and the world will hear his preaching. "They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them: we are of God; he that knoweth God, heareth us: he that is not of God, heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error."

As Mr. Skinner has contradicted his confession of faith, and denied the articles that he is bound to subscribe and swears to maintain, we must not wonder if he should offer a few thoughts in behalf of Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright, and swore to the bargain. We know, birds of a feather will flock together.

'God chooses and prefers Jacob's posterity to 'Esau's, in making them his visible church, presenting them with laws, moral, ceremonial, and 'political. God's purpose before they were born, has no reference to the eternal state of any of ' them.' Here it may be observed, that God's hatred of Esau, his eternal purpose concerning election in the choice of Jacob, and rejecting him ;

his profanity in the sale of his birth-right; his finding no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears; and being rejected of God when he would have inherited the blessing, has no reference to the eternal state of any of them; it has reference only to his posterity in a comparative sense. To which I answer: What God says concerning the Edomites, has reference to their eternal state, if the plain sense of words stand for any thing. When God is said to reject a person, that person is excluded from God's purpose of grace; he is not an object of God's choice; he is left out from God's decree; he is a reprobate: “Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them.” “And the Lord said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel?” “I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath,” Hosea xiii. 11. “When he [Esau] would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place of Tepentance, though he sought it carefully with If he was rejected from the blessing, he must inherit the curse; if he found no place of repentance, it has reference to his eternal state fixed in hell; “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." What God says concerning Esau's rejected posterity, has reference to their eternal state, as well as his. "Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his he

tears."

ritage waste, for the dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished; but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the Lord of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them the border of wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever," Mal. i. 2, 4. "Thus saith the Lord concerning Edom, I have made thee small among the heathen; thou art greatly despised: the pride of thine heart hath deceived thee: though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord. But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance; and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them, and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the Lord hath spoken it." The everlasting indignation of God, his calling Edom stubble, fuel for fire, and burning them all up, till none remaineth, has no reference to the eternal state of any of them, according to this freethinker. O, what a vile perverting of scripture is here! Thus the wrath of God against sinners is obscured; rebels are hardened in their sins, and the convincing force of scripture is darkened, and God's meaning explained away, by this blasphemous free-agent, who contradicts his Maker, gives truth the lie, and wrests it, if grace prevent