ever, are like the juice of a thriving tree, which pervades the whole, from the deepest root to the moft diftant bough. Of this nature is the univerfal doctrine, which, if true at all, God has spoken of it by the mouth of all his holy prophets fince the world began ; which difcovers its importance and universal con cern. If the faith of Chriftians grows exceedingly, their charity towards each other will abound, 2 Thef. i. 3.; fo that where there is little charity, we may of course infer there is little faith. Controverfy, conducted with charity, is never unfriendly to truth. When Jude exhorts Chriftians to contend earnestly for the faith, he does not fay as now, or as at any future period, retained and professed by the faints; but the faith once delivered to the faints, that is, in the holy scriptures; plainly intimating the fubfequent corruptions of it. He that would contend for this, muft lay his account to fuffer for this branch of well doing. God creates light, as comprehending, truth, purity, and happiness; but is not the author of darkness to the fame extent, having no farther concern in the darkness of ignorance and fin, than by punishing it with the darkness of forrow, as a mean of delivering from their fway; an act worthy of himself as the Father of lights, who is at once 66 a juft God and a Saviour," tho' many make his justice an eternal bar to his acting the part of a Saviour or a Reftorer to by far the greater part of his intelligent creatures. "I form the light and create darkness I make peace and create evil: I the Lord do all these things," lfa. xlv. 7. The prophet, after declaring Jehovah to be a just God and a Saviour, adds, Look unto me, and be ye faved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I have fworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear." The connection here plainly news, that the bowing of every knee to God, and the fwearing of every tongue, is connected with falvation. There is a plain allufion to rebels fubmitting to their lawful Prince, bowing the knee, imploring his pardon, and, this granted, in humble homage swearing allegiance to him as fuch; which includes the remiffion of all former acts of rebellion and treafon. What follows perfectly agrees with this, “Even to him shall men come; and all that are incenfed against him shall be ashamed," Ifa. xlv. Men here may denote the whole race; and all that are, have, or may be incenfed againft the Lord, and have fhewed it by treafon and rebellion, ball be ashamed, which may denote a gracious fhame, we fee the glorious iffae. Will not the oath of Jehovah be realized?" I have fworn by myself, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue fhall fwear." This cannot be fully accom plifhed while a fingle rebel exifts in the universe. In Scripture, the people of God are compared to wheat. The chaff cleaves to the wheat till it attain its maturity, and is threfhed; and if it be not fully ripe, it will require a fharp threshing inftrument with teeth, to feparate it from the straw and the chaff. Chrift employs his fan, which includes his word and rod, to feparate the chaff from his wheat, and the feperation will not be total and complete till death. Chaff denotes error and iniquity, both in root and ftem, which are more or lefs infeparable from man in the prefent ftate; and too much L Let. VIII. of these cleave to the very best. The means by which they are deftroyed are often compared to fire, in allufion to the ancient practice of burning the chaff on the threshing floor. To this correfponds John the Baptift's defcription of our Lord's official work; "He fhall baptize you with the Holy Ghoft, and with fire whofe fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner: but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire," Mat. iii. 12. The meaning of unquenchable fire here is obvious, a fire that fhal not be extinguifhed till it has confumed the heap of chaff meant to be burnt up by it. Did John intend to reprefent this fire as burning without end, and the chaff as always preyed upon by it, but never confumed, he could not have fixed on a fimilitude lefs proper for his purpose. But he tells us, that our Lord will burn up the chaff with the fire he employs; to which the common doctrine re. plies-no, for the chaff will remain burning to all eternity, but shall never, never be burnt up. Is chaff fit to refift the continued operation of a great furnace of fire? The fire cannot continue to operate on that which is already burnt up, as the chaff is faid to be, and a fire may be faid to be unquenchable, that continues to burn till it has confumed all its fuel. Above, wicked men are compared to barren trees, unto the root of which the axe of divine juftice is said to be laid, every one of which, not bringing forth good fruit, is hewn down, and caft into the fire, ver. 10. But though these trees fhould be destroyed by that fire, yet out of their afhes can God raife immortal trees of righteousness, in which he shall be glorified. From the connection we are taught, that our Lord will baptize fome with the Holy Ghoft and with fire, even a fire that shall not be quenched, till it has confumed all their chaff; fo that we have no right to feparate the agency of the Spirit from the operation of fuch a fire. Some are baptized to Chrift in the cloud, by dew and rain, as of old, and fome alfo by paffing through the pillar of fire; and indeed we never should separate these two, in one form or other. Those whose chaff is burnt up here, by the refiner's fire in the word, shall not come into condemnation hereafter; but fuch as carry their chaff with them into another world, muft pafs through another kind of furnace, that of unquenchable fire, the operation of which skall burn up the chaff. What God has called into being falls not under the defiguation of chaff; but is the precious wheat that shall be gathered into the garner. He is the Father of our fpirits, and the framer of our bodies, and he knows how to fan and purge them, fo as to fave them from perishing irrecoverably with the chaff.-The above views of burning up the chaff, ftruck the mind forcibly one morning in family-prayer, and their confiftence with truth is fubmitted to your judgment; for the inference from them appeared just. I recollect, that in the extracts from Dr Ryland's fermon, which I happen not to have just now by me, he charges the friends of the Univerfal doctrine with making the future mifery of many more aggravated than it would other. wife be. The fame reproach attaches to the whole word of God, wherever it is, or may be known; for it proves the favour of death unto death to thofe who reject it. The great queftion to be determined is, Is that doctrine of God, or is it not? If it be of him, he will fee to its effects on thofe that abuse it, but will thank none for making these a reafon for concealing it, as if they were wifer, or more tender of the ends of holiness than himself. Every truth of Gad will produce good fruit when believed, and the Universal doctrine is best known, by its genuine effects on the heart, when properly understood, and duly embraced. If I understand it aright, it proposes more powerful motives to faith and holinefs here, and lays a more effectual restraint upon our worst paffions, than the doctrine of eternal damnation can pretend to. Is it nothing to the abettors of that doctrine, that the view they give of the Father of mercies, as executing eternal vengeance upon his creatures, and, according to fome, even upon millions of infants, caft into hell fire, from the womb, the knee, and the breast, has contributed more to make Deifts, than perhaps all the other errors that have been grafted upon Chriftianity? If they are found lying for God, denying him the honour which he claims as a Father; and afcribing to him what he abhors, the blood of fuch will he require at their hand, befides the punishment they deferve for grofsly flandering his own character. These things deferve their attention, and indeed, the attention of all. Many feem more anxious to ascertain and defend what God may do in juftice with his guilty creatures, than what he has faid he will actually do, as if our whole concern lay with the former. Thus the latter is often overlooked, and a train of fpecious reasoning founded on the former, and conclufions drawn from it, as if these were an infallible key to the knowledge of what God will in fact accomplish. This is a very fallacious mode of arguing, with regard to the divine procedure, however common, and, indeed, conclufive in the opinion of fome. When it has been hinted, that it is agreeable to the character of a merciful Father to punish, or correct his children for their profit, it has been archly replied, That wicked men are nor God's children, but the children of the devil. This was thought to be fufficient proof, that no mercy can be extended to them. But then the fame reafon militates against God's faving any of the human race; for all that do the works of the devil, as all impenitent finners do, have him for their father, our Lord being judge. "Ye are of your father, the devil, and his works ye will do."-But he is not the father of any, either in foul or body, as they are creatures, but only as they are finners; and the Lord knows how to deftroy the works and acquired image of Satan, and yet fave that which was originally formed after his own image. Though the leading traces of God's moral image are by fin effaced from the human foul, yet man is the natural image of Jefu Chrift, the God that made and uphold all things. What God does every day, in perfect confiftency with his character and word, converting children of the wicked one, into filial members of his own family, he may do when, where, and upon whom he pleaseth ; and who has a right to limit the excrcife of his mercy? A very great diverfity of character is obfervable among mankind, fome being very monfters of iniquity, and others poffeffing many amiable qualities, which adorn human nature, and benefit fociety; though they themselves cannot be counted pious and holy, in the fcripture fenfè. The common doctrine dooms them all to one and the fame punishment in a future ftate, fo far as it refpects the duration of their imprisonment; making this eternal in both cafes. Clofe Let. VIII. and endless confinement is of itself a great punishment. Every good gift cometh from God; and confequently thefe moral virtues, which adorn many perfons that cannot be called religious. Will not the Judge of all the earth do right? But the above abettors of the common doctrine deny him this right, by shutting him пр under the neceffity of never opening the house of his prisoners beyond the grave, to relieve, to all eternity, fo much as any one clafs or individual. Let who can reconcile this with what is declared of him, That he looseth the prisoners-that he defpifes not his prifoners-that he brings them out of the pit in which there is no water-that he looks down from heaven, and hears their groaning, and delivers the children of death, and the like. Did Chrift teach his disciples to pray in terms that shall never be realized ? "Our Father in heaven, let thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." This petition will not be fully answered, till God creates the new earth, in which shall dwell righteousness; but answered, it shall be; for every prayer infpired or dictated by the great Prophet of the church, is equivalent to a prediction. Much more is included in the petition, Thy kingdom come," than we can yet un derstand. The received system, as held and explained by many, dooms all that die in infancy, a few favoured ones excepted, to never-ceafing imprisonment and misery, merely for a fin which was committed thousands of years before the far greater part of them existed, and in the commission of which their will had no concern, any more than in rejecting the remedy provided against the effects of the first apoftacy in general. Is not God the father of all fuch? and where then is his honour in that character from those who maintain fuch a view of his administration, in oppofition to the voice of nature, the difpenfations of his providence, and the discoveries of his love, grace and mercy, in the gospel, which are over all his works, and confequently over infants? How long fhall men father on their Maker the fpurious brood of their own contracted bowels, and vain reasonings, and, under the pretext of doing him honour, make him a far worfe father than themfelves?" This their way is their folly; yet their pofterity approve their fayings," Pfal. xlix. 13. * Many are exceedingly offended at the very fuppofition, that God will not confign to endlefs mifery all that die in infancy, a very few excepted, tho' they can produce no authority from fcripture for fo wild a notion! What views can they have of God as a father-the Father of mercies, who is great in mercy, and whofe tender mercies are over all his works? To suppose he will act the part of a father to fuch, kindles their indignation as much, as if an attempt was made to overturn the whole Chriftian fyftem; and yet this blind paffion is characterized laudable zeal for truth. A fon among men honoureth his father; but if God be a father, the father of all, and has not yet forfeited his character, where is his honour from fuch men? Mal. i. 6. By the common doctrine, all mankind are under a fentence of endlefs damnation from the womb, fo that actual fins can only enhance their mifery. What are called the Supralapfarian and the Sublapfarian fchenies, amount to the fame thing in this refpect. For the comfort of parents, who lament the death of their dear offspring, and for the vindication of God's paternal character from the flanders of bigots, who make liablenefs to eternal damnation, and the actual endurance of it, the neceffary confequence of original fin, the Author makes free to tranfcribe a paragraph from his miffionary fermon, published in 1797. In the prefent ftate of things, the death of fo great a proportion of the human race in infancy, ought to be viewed as an act both of wildom and goodness in God, who does nothing without the beft of reafons, and has not given exiftence to any being in vain. They are taken from many evils to come, and from the worst of evils, the fatal influence of corrupt examples, fo prevalent every where, and too often set them by the very beings who, under God, gave them Is it the will of God our Saviour that all men should be saved, or restored, and come to the knowledge of the truth, and does he affign this as a reason why we should pray for all men, and that too without doubting, or with an affurance of being heard, and fhall his will never be accomplished? 1 Tim. ii. 4. Seeing the same term is used in the original, that our Lord ufes in John xvii. 24. "Father, I will that they also whom thou haft given me, be with me where I am.” If his will can fail of fecuring the event willed in the one cafe, why not in the other? and so those that were given to him by his Father, be never with him in heaven? While we with juftice deny the latter, let us not maintain, that only a few of the human race fhall reap benefit from the mediation of Chrift in the world to come that with regard to the far greater part of them, it had been existence and birth. Not only the feed of the ungodly, who are frequently facrificed more effectually to the wicked one, than children were of old to Moloch, are taken away, by an early death, from many evils to come; but even the children of pious parents, who often fee them, with continued pain and forrow, go aftray when spared; whence the bitter lamentations of David over the untimely death of his unnatural fon Abfalom. And not only are they taken away from future evils, but we would indulge the pleasing hope, till the word of God forbid it, that they are removed to the poffeffion of a happiness which the world cannot give: for if the momentary pains of about a hundred and twenty thousand perfons, that could not difcern between their right hand and their left, yea, the prefervation of brute animals, weighed with God as a reafon for fparing vaft multitudes of adult finners, when their crimes had procured a dread denunciation of speedy deftruction; can we for a moment admit, that the eternal mifery of any proportion of infants, or indeed of any intelligent beings, can be a matter of indifference to the benign Author of all existence, who regards his creatures, without exception, with a parents eye? Jonah iv. II. What valuable purpose can such a sacrifice serve, under his wife and just adminiftration? or what perfection of his nature requires it to be made? "If the bowels of the divine mercy yearn over old tranfgreffors, who have voluntarily offended their Maker times paft number, and importunately folicit their acceptance; can we suppose them fhut and fealed against those who never offended him, nor once defpifed or rejected the remedy provided? Such a conduct be far from him. The Judge of all the earth will do right. The infinite merits of the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, will be more effectual to fave, we have reason to hope, than the first fin of the first Adam can be to condemn. This admitted, the oppofers of the doctrine of original fin will be deprived of their maft cogent pleas againft it. The early removal of fuch little ones, of whom the kingdom of heaven is faid to be made up, while others have their days lengthened out, and are perhaps left to perifh in their fins, affords fufficient scope to the divine fovereignty, tho' we extend not its operation to the state beyond the grave, to the everlasting mifery of unoffending millions of our race. Thefe adult finners, who can prefume on the divine mercy for themselves, and yet exclude from its benefit many of God's intelligent offspring, who never offended him, have reafon to fear, that with what judgment they judge they fhall be judged; and with what measure they met it fhall be measured to them again; for if fuch things, upon their own principles, may be done in the green tree, what fhall be done in the dry? "The afflictions and death of children are intended for the benefit of others, and often for the correction of parents, for not training them up for the Lord, or fuffering them to occupy that place in their cares and affections, which ought to be facred to himself, and the concerns of their fouls and eternity, or for fome other wife ends. When thefe ends are otherwise answered, this fevere discipline, there is reafon to hope, will be happily fuperceded." p. 40, 41. The fearch of the fcriptures, when the fermon of which this is a paragraph was compofed, paved the way for fecing the Univerfal doctrine in the light of divine truth, the detached beams of which began even then to fhine, though their tendency and iffue were not for fome years after perceived. The reader will indulge the infertion here of an epitaph, which has appeared u fome of our periodical works. Bold infidelity turn pale! Beneath this ftone four infants afhes lie Say, are they loft or faved If death's by fin, they finn'd, because they're here; › Revere the Bible's facred page, the knot's unty'd; |