fhew whose they are, and whom they serve Jude, ver. 13. That doctrine, be it what it will in itself, ferves a noble purpose, which discovers the grofs ignorance, and hidden impiety and Athiesm of men's hearts. Let them not be mockers, left their bands be made ftrong; for if they are wife, they fhall be wife for themfelves; but if they scorn, they alone fhall bear it, Ifa. xxviii. 22. Prov. ix. 12. Those who maintain, that God is the only father, worthy of the name, who ever did, or ever fhall, punish his rebellious children, and that to all eternity, and even children that never rebelled, millions of unoffending infants, without the leaft eye to their good, would do well to confider his own words: "If I be a father, where is my honour;" Mal. i. 6. "But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not facrifice," Matt. ix. 13. This is addreffed to Scribes and Pharafees to this day. Let us all be cautious how we ascribe to God what would kindle our refentment, if applied to ourselves, left he one day convince us, to our confufion, that he is not the father we have fo often represented him to be. This confideration weighs not a little with me against the common doctrine, which fadly fullies God's paternal character, in fpite of all the fpecious reafoning employed to defend it. The patrons of the common fyftem must also prove, -- That the Son of God was manifefted to deftroy the works of the devil only in part, that fyftem maintaining that the great mafs of them fhall continue and increase for ever; and also prove that millions of plants shall be spared, contrary to Chrift's word, which his heavenly Father never planted, and remain firmly rooted for ever. "For this purpose the Son of God was manifefted, that he might deftroy the works of the devil," I John iii. 8. Because it is. not faid all the works of the devil, advantage is taken of the expreffion, and the accomplishment of it confined to the elect. But though the term all had been ufed, thofe who take this advantage could eafily get over it, as they do in many plain fcriptures. The wicked one has many works befides those which he effects in the elect; yet are they all neceffarily included in the expreffion. Would the Holy Spirit fo exprefs himself, that his propofition cannot be true unless you expound it by a quibble? Though his works fhall all be deftroyed in the elect; yet that does not justify us in confining the purpose of our Lord's manifeftation to them, while fcriptures lead us to carry it much farther." Every plant which my heavenly Father bath not planted fhall be rooted up," Matt. xv. 13. Here the language is full and expreffive. The only plant in the univerfe which God has not planted is fin, and mifery is its fruit, which muft perish when the plant itself is rooted up. The language of our Lord admits not of a fingle exception; and confequently we have no right to make any. But the common doctrine comes in with her exceptions, and these not few; for fhe tells us that unknown millions of plants fhall exift deeply rooted, and bear the bitter fruit of deathless mifery to all eternity. She tells us also, that the works of the devil, fo far from being deftroyed, fhall endure for evermore, those destroyed in the elect only excepted. But Chrift works not by halves, and give him time to accomplish his work in his own way. The language of John plainly admits, if it does not neceffarily imply, the deftruction of the whole. Here there is a pal pable contradiction; but fhall we afcribe it to the volume of truth, as not according with itself, or to the fyftems of men?-It must be likewife proved, That though the creating, preserving, and redeeming root of mankind, in whom they all live, move, and have their being, be holy; yet unknown millions of the branches fhall remain polluted to all eternity, and as fuch becom the endless unwafted prey of hell-fire. "For if the firft fruit be holy, the lump is alfo holy and if the root is holy, fo are the branches," Rom. xi. 16. The force of this argument is not in the leaft diminished, by its primary application to the Jews. The firft fruit and the root, in the following inftance, refpects the patriarch Abraham; and the lump and the branches, the great body of the Jewish nation, even the branches that were broken off because of unbelief. We are here taught, that the holiness of the first-fruit, and of the root, will fecure the holiness of the mafs and of the branches in due time Our Lord introduces Abraham as calling Dives, even in the ftate of mifery, Son; whence he is taught and encouraged to call the patriarch in return, Father Abraham. We fee what use our Lord made of this relation, and what privilege he attached to it: “And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loofed from this bond on the Sabbath-day," Luke xiii. 16. There is a Sabbath or glorious reft, during which the Lord Jefus fhall fet thofe fons and daughters of Abraham at liberty, who remain till then the captives of fin, Satan, and death; for he will fubdue them all to himself, and loofe the prifoners. Our bleffed Lord has a reafon for putting fuch language in the mouth of Abraham and of Dives. However long Satan may bind many of Abraham's fons and daughters, yet the Lord Jefus can loose them; for he is faid to loose the prisoners without excepting any. The common doctrine leaves all the fons and daughters of Abraham, that die in unbelief, eternally bound, and in the custody of Satan; but our Lord in effect fays, Ought they not to be loofed, being the children of Abraham, whom Satan has bound, lo, these many ages, from this bondage, on the grand jubilee or festival of the universe. We thus fee the connection between Abraham and Chrift, that to be related to the former as a father, secures the bleffing of the latter as a Saviour, which bleffing is come upon us Gentiles. Thus it was promifed, that he should be a father of many nations, even all the nations that were to be bleffed in him, and in Meffrah bis feed. Thus he is become the father or the root of the Gentiles also, whofe holiness is thereby fecured. And can it be denied that Chrift is the creating and preferving root of all men? Did he not allo give his life a ranfom fo all, and tafte death for every man? whence he is become their redeeming root. Seeing then he, as the root, is holy, the branches fhall in due time be made holy alfo. As he and the elect are holy, and both called first-fruits, the lump or mafs is or fhall be holy alfo, even the fecond-fruits, or the whole harveft. How then fhall the mafs and the branches remain polluted for ever, contrary to the apoftle'a plain argument?-It must also be proved, That the whole creation, as diftinguifhed from the fons of God, or the church of the first-born, fhall never be delivered from vanity and the bondage of corrup tion, into any, even the least fhare in the glorious liberty of God's children; 1 and that Chrift will never reconcile all things to the Father, whether they be things on earth or things in heaven, whatever the Scriptures may fay on the fabject. The creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God," Rom. viii. 21. or the creation, even the whole creation, as in the next verse, these children excepted. The apoftle places the period of this deliverance after the faints are glorified together with Chrift, ver. 17. when his glory fhall be revealed in them, ver. 18. after the manifeftation of the fons of God; and they are made fharers of their glorious liberty, ver. 19, 21. and fubfequent to the refurrection of the body, ver. 23. A little attention to thefe circumftanees will fhew that the fenfe commonly attached to the reftitution of all things, the fame thing that Paul has here in his eye, is inadmiffible, and that the era of that reftitution must be placed after the period when Chrift fhall appear with his faints in his glory, or when they fhall begin to reign with him for ever and ever, or for the age of ages. The glorious liberty which God's children fhall then enjoy, muft include complete deliverance from fin and mifery, and the full poffeffion of holiness and happiness, of which the inferior creatures, to which fome would reftrict the deliverance, are incapable. As the language of the Holy Spirit on the preceding point is plain, fo is it alfo with regard to the extent of reconciliation. "For it pleased the Father that in him fhould all fulness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of his crofs, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I fay, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven," Col. i. 19, 20. It is well known, that to reconcile fignifies to restore to favour, or to make those friends who before were at variance. To this three things are necessary, that the injury or wrong done the party cffended be repaired, that interceffion be made for the offender, and that he be brought to love the party offended, and to a difpofition to offend no more. As among men, the party offending is generally wort to reconcile, fo is it alfo in the cafe before us; for God is now in Chrift reconciling the world to himfelf, having previously fhewed his love by fending him to make propitiation, not for the fins of the elect only, but alfo for the fins of the whole world, as the Scriptures plainly affert. Our Lord was and is fully qualified to accomplish reconciliation in its full extent. Hath it pleafed the Father to reconcile all things unto himself, whether things in earth or in heaven, or from enemies to make them friends? and how fay many that the far greater part of them shall remain enemies, or at variance with God, and he with them as long as he exifts? Ye who profefs to fear giving God the lie, by believing the restoration, because a few equivocal phrafes in Scripture ftand in the way of it, are you not afraid to contradict him in this, and many other plain paffages of his word? If you offend in thefe, by oppofing and cavilling at their obvious meaning, what will your zeal, with regard to other texts, avail?-Befides, it must alfo be proved, That the Father will never gather together in one, all things in Chrift, or rebead all things in him, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; and hat thefe all things can intend no more than the elect, who are fo few, or fo all a remnant, that, according to fome of the advocates of the common doc Having made known unto us trine, they are not above one in ten thousand. the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself; that in the difpenfation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Chrift, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him," Eph. i. 9, 10. Sin has disjointed, difperfed, and scattered the whole creation, the angels that retain their firft eftate excepted. But they are to be gathered together in Chrift, as defeated foldiers are rallied under their general, or the scattered dry bones in the valley of vifion, into a state of union with the head, Ezek. xxxvii. Paul explains, in the above chapter, Eph. i. 22. the putting all things under Chrift's feet by his being made head over them: "And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church." The nature and extent of this headship is generally overlocked, or grossly misunderstood. Elfewhere be fays, "But I would have you know that the head of every man is Chrit; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Chrift is God," 1 Cor. xi. 3. What right have the patrons of the common doctrine to limit this, in their ufual bold, dogmatic way, to the elect; or to say that his headship over the reft of mankind is only in order to punish and deftroy them? Did he not tafte death for every man, and die, and revive, and rife again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living, or of all mankind? Has the man or husband no headship over the woman, or his wife? We may as well deny this union, and that betwixt the Father and the Son, or maintain that the object of both is the hurt or destruction, and not the good of those concerned, as to deny that there is any union between Christ and every man, or that it has any refpect to their happiness. Paul would have the church to know that Meffiah is not only her head, but also the head of all mankind; yea, of all things, which the Father, has given into his hand, and in his grant fubjected to him, that he may in due time fubdue them all to himself, and deliver them up in that ftate to his Father. For afferting this, we have the best authority; for in the difpenfation of the fulness of times, which is diftinguished from the prefent dispensation of the gospel, God will gather together in one all things in Chrift. How then shall countless millions of the most noble creatures lie fcattered eternally in the burning lake, like the dry bones over the valley of vifion? Though fyftems affert this, yet God is worthy to be believed in oppofition to thefe; for on this point, they and his word cannot be true. It must be proved, he That though God commands us to love our enemies, without exception, and as a proof of our love, cordially to forgive them, to feek and pray for their happiness, and overcome their evil with good, after his own example, exhorting us to be followers, or imitators of him in thefe refpects, as dear children; yet himfelf will never love millions of his enemies, or employ his goodness to over. come their evil, and never feek, in any inftance, their good, but retain and punish their fins with inexorable wrath, duration without end. Would he have his frail, finful creature man to exercise a more fublime measure of goodness than te himself will ever exercife, if the common doctrine be true, and that upon pain of never receiving forgivenefs from himfelf? Is it not faid, with a view to the exercife of this very grace, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect," Mat. v. 48. He is faid, ver. 45. to make his fun to`rife on the evil and on the good, and to send rain on the just and on the un-, juft. He does this, in the moft important fenfe, in the converfion of every finner; when the fun of righteousness rises on his benighted mind, with healing in his wings or rays, and the rain of divine influences is fhed on his polluted heart. Our Father in heaven will thus make his fun yet to fhine on all the evil, and fend his rain on all the unjust; if the efficacy of the antitype, the Sun of righteousness, fhall yet be as extenfively felt as the efficacy of the type, the natural fun, from the heat of which, in its wide circuit, there is nothing hid, Pfa. xlix. 6. Every Chriftian knows from experience, that the more his heart is under the influence of the Holy Spirit in prayer, the more will he feel himself disposed to love all men, and to pray for their happiness here and hereafter. The Spirit knows the deep things of God, and intercedes in the faints, according to the will of God. But if it is the will and unalterable purpose of God to give grace to none but the elect, would the Spirit influence Chriftians to ask grace for all men to their falvation, contrary to the mind and will of the God of falvation? He would teach them to pray for none but the elect. Why are all the elect a royal nation of priests, to offer up fupplications for others, if these are never to be answered? for this honour have all the faints. Hence the prayer of Paul for the church," And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you," 1 Thef. iii. 12. The love of the Apoftle and his brethren, toward those to whom he wrote, was fincere, fervent, and comprehenfive, including nothing lefs than their falvation; and he prays they may abound in a fimilar love toward all men. Is not this a conclufive argument in favour of the final happiness of all men; as the Apoftle would not pray for what he knew was contrary to the divine purpose?—Those who deny the above view of the matter must also prove, all men. That God fhall contend for ever, in, their feufe of that phrafe, as applied to future punishment, and be always wroth, though the spirit should fail before him, and the fouls that he has made; and alfo prove that he does not fo delight in mercy as to prevent his retaining his anger for ever, although he hath faid, "I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth; for the fpirit would fail before me, and the fouls which I have made," Ifa. lvii. 16. The very text here condenins the common expedient of getting rid of the plaineft truths, by confining the fenfe to the elect. The language is general, and equally includes Did God make any fouls but those of the elect? Are the fouls of others made of fuch materials, that though he should contend without end, and be always wroth, their fpirits would not fail before him? Let us not forget, that, as Creator, he is the father of the fpirits of all flesh, and let us nɔt préfume to rob him of the glory due to that name." Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and paffeth by the tranfgreffion of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compaffion upon us; he will fubdue our iniquities; and thou wilt caft all their fins into the depths of the fea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou haft fworn unto our fathers from the days of old," Mic. vi. 18, 19, 20. I cannot |