and the children of the devil. The old enmity is discovered by their hatred to the saints, and to the sovereign grace of God; and we shall never be at a loss to find some of either of these seeds while there are so many authors of free thoughts, and so many honourable testimonies for sovereign grace, pregnant with becoming zeal and just indignation against the blasted system of freeagency. It is the controversy of Zion, and it must be carried on, till the Judge of quick and dead bring the year of revenges on, and decide it, by fixing the blessing and the curse; and as a just Judge, send the devil and his children to their own place; and, as the everlasting Father, fix his own family as heirs of God in the enjoyment of the promised inheritance. Mr. Skinner, who is no friend to the elect, but a friend to all mankind, or, in the prophet's language, who hates the good and loves the evil, makes nothing of plucking the fleece from the Lord's sheep; he will flay their skin from off them, Micah iii. 2, 3, but what he will get a plaster for the reprobate. He is coming now with a searcloth for Pharaoh king of Egypt.

The scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up; it is not 'said that God raised him up for damnation.' To which I answer, If he did not raise him up for damnation, he threw him into damnation when he knocked him down: "I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell, with them that descend into the pit.

Thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that be slain by the sword: This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord God." God as the sovereign of the universe told Abraham, that his seed should be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years: And that nation whom they shall serve will I judge: But in the fourth generation, his seed shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. The destruction of the Egyptians and the salvation of Israel was shewed to Abraham in vision, by the smoking furnace and the burning lamp, Gen. xv. 13-17. At the time appointed and predicted, Pharaoh was raised up with many more; God turned their hearts to hate his people, to deal subtilly with his servants, Psal. cv. 25; and whether he raised them up for damnation or not, it is said, "He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath and indignation and trouble, by sending evil angels among them;" and these things are no tokens for good, nor can they be called the things that accompany salvation. Fierce anger, wrath, indignation, trouble, and evil angels, are things that accompany damnation; and so the Egyptians found it, after they had uttered the thoughts of their hearts against the Lord, and displayed their free-agency in their rebellious pursuit. "I will pursue, I will overtake, I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them;" till God

blew with his wind; then free thoughts and freeagency all sunk together.

He tells us,God delighteth in mercy, but judgment is his strange work.'

But this strange giving the repro

work seems to me to consist in bate up to his free-agency, to trust in his bed of carnal security, to spurn at the gospel of Christ, and to ripen for damnation under the sound of it, until his covenant with death and hell, in which he promised himself safety, are broken by the terrors of God, and he falls into both: I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation, and he that believes shall not make haste. Judgment will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, which when uttered are free thoughts, and the waters of wrath, shall overflow the hiding-place of falsehood: Your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement, or confederacy with hell, or the inheritance of it, shall not stand, for your security; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it, into death and hell, notwithstanding your covenant with both. From the time, that the news of this sure foundation, and precious corner stone goeth forth, it shall take you as in a trap: For morning by morning shall it pass over, in the preached sound of it; by day and by night shall free-agents spurn at it, and it shall be a vexation

only to understand the report, or the doctrine reported: For the bed of carnal security, is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it; and the covering, that is not of God's Spirit, is narrower than that he can wrap himself in it. Then what shall be the end of these free-agents? Why, The Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, when the five kings of the Amorites and their hosts fled before Israel, and were going to Bethoron, when the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them, and they died; they were more which died with hail stones, than they whom Israel slew with the sword; meanwhile the sun stood still upon Mount Gibeon, Joshua x. 10-12. This is called God's strange work, because this battle and the sun standing still was done but once. But here the prophet tells us it shall be acted over again; hail shall sweep away the refuges of lies. The Sun of Righteousness shall stand, and shine on the spiritual armies of Zion, while these shall be taken by it, and vexed at the report of it: For the Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work, and bring to pass his act, his strange act; which is making the bands of a mocker strong by the report of Zion's founda-. tion; this is the Lord of Hosts' consumption that is even determined upon the whole earth, Isa. xxviii. 16-22.

The next thing taken in hand is, the sovereignty of the potter over the clay, from the 18th chapter of Jeremiah; the literal meaning of which is mentioned thus: "At what time I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy; if that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; if it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them." To all which I answer, God's language here is to the bond children; it is the language of the law; it is all conditional; there is not a word of divine grace nor eternal salvation in it. The conditions are, to turn from evil, if they will escape evil, and to perform obedience to the law, called obeying God's voice; or else he will repent of the good wherewith he said he would benefit them. But alas! they have all failed of the conditions; and therefore forfeited all right, even to these temporal mercies; "The carnal mind is enmity against God; it is not subject to his law nor can be;" "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God," Mr. Skinner and all; and though the mouth of free-thinkers is not stopped, yet the whole world is become guilty before God; and by the deeds of the law shall no flesh