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What may we not make of the word of God by such a method of dealing? What doctrine may we not prove by such a manner of reasoning? Take, for instance, the 34th and 35th verses of the 10th chapter of Matthew; "Think not that I am come to send peace upon the earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." Now let us, on these passages, adopt your method of reasoning, and I believe you yourself will acknowledge, we should make out rather a terrific mission for our Saviour to our world.

The other passage you quote, I think is equally foreign to your purpose. I, however, with the rest of my Congregational brethren, in New-England, firmly believe, Christ made an infinite atonement, or propitiation for the sins of the whole world. That is, he fulfilled the divine law, restored its honors, magnified and made it honourable.. This law was infinitely holy, and just, and good. The transgression of it was an infinite crime; it of course required an infinite atonement, in order that God might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. God could not, consistent with his perfections, pardon sin, without a propitiation; no finite being could make a propitiation; Christ has done this; faith in him is now the condition of salvation.

This, sir, in my view, is the whole meaning of the second text you quote. These two, by no means, establish your proposition. In fact, they intimate no such idea as you have taken from them, when taken in their true sense; and their true sense is plain, when considered in the connexion in which these texts stand No mention is made there, that it is the design of God to make all men holy. Repentance towards God, and faith in the Lord Jesus is the condition on which eternal life is suspended. "Without faith it is impossible to please God." Listen to some

of the last words of our Saviour to his disciples. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptised, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned." Read, if you please. Christ's description of the last judgment; Matthew, 25th

chapter, from the 31st verse to the end; and then say, does this favour your idea of the universal raising up of the finally impenitent, from their "defectible state" to eternal felicity. These passages, however, are by no means the only ones to which I might refer you. The common language of scripture is the same. You will excuse me then, sir, when I tell you, that I do not see as you have advanced a single inch towards proving your first proposition.

Your second statement I notice merely on account of its novelty. In this, sir, I think you have just claim to originality. That because God has given a law to his rational creatures; and by that law, commanded them to love the Lord their God with all their hearts, God would be unjust if all his rational creatures do not obey that law, is certainly a mode reasoning, of which, till I read your letter, I was totally ignorant. You have, I presume, a copy of your letter; by just referring to it, you will see whether I have misunderstood your argument.

A's to your third argument; I will observe, that I believe that the scriptures clearly prove, that God's designs will certainly be accomplished. When you have established your first statement, your third must be acknowledged true; till then, I think it is worth nothing.

I say nothing of your fourth proposition. Were a man to tell me that the sun was made of sackcloth, I should not think it worth my trouble to bring arguments to convince him of his absurdity.

Yours,

Mr. S. C. LOVEland.

JOSEPH LABEREE.

DEAR SIR,

LETTER III.

TO REV. JOSEPH LABEREE.

Gilsum, November 23, 1815. .

I received your letter, being a reply to one I sent you, some of the last days of October, and embrace the first opportunity that leisure offers to grant you a return. I was sorry to find that my letter had made me the subject of "much surprise;" and my sorrow arose, not from a consciousness of misconstruing the sacred word, but from a sympathy that ever causes to feel for the distresses of others. Viewing me with the word of God in my hands, a professed preacher of that word, and resting my eternal all upon a manifest misconstruction of it, it is no wonder, that you should be filled with surprise. Surprise, in this case, would be but a natural incentive of divine charity, arising from a great concern for the welfare of your friend. But should my eternal all, rested on a manifest misconstruction of scripture for a foundation, land me in the regions of irretrievable misery and woe, you enjoying tranquil peace in celestial abodes, and clothed with divine sensibility; would it not be a matter of greater surprise that you could be calm and tranquil, in viewing such misery, than that I should be so stupid as you now view me to be? If you feel concerned for your friend now, because you consider his future felicity precarious, how do you expect to be at rest, when your awful forebodings are really visited upon him? But it is my wish to correct your mistake, and to show you that I do not rest my eternal all upon a misconstruction of scripture; neither upon a proper construction of scripture; nor upon any other work that I can do; but on the Rock of everlasting ages, the chief corner Stone that is laid in Zion.

With a view to this I proceed to notice your remarks upon my statements.

My first statement I find you disapprove, and likewise the use of the texts, I adduced to substantiate it. The idea that it is "the design of God to raise the whole human family from their defectible state, ultimately, to a state of felicity and true holiness," you think is not true. Then if God have any design at all, in relation to our argument, his design must be that the whole human family should not be raised to felicity and true holiness! Having no design that they should be the partakers of felicity and true holiness, it argues that he designs some at least should be made the subjects of endless misery. If such design may be called good, you will, in this way, understand the Psalmist when he says, "The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works."* But as the term good, by the most approved lexicographers, is explained as having desirable qualities, I conclude no man has a right to pronounce that good, which, on rational principles, he is unwilling to enjoy himself, and which would not be salutary to any living being. Neither is it easy to reconcile the design of endless misery with the exercise of tender mercies over all the Creator's works.

It will be a vain thing in this place to argue that men are moral agents, and that the offer of salvation is free to all, which they may accept if they will; that the atonement has laid a foundation for all, when the design of Deity is against a part of the whole. For you acknowledge in your letter, "that the scriptures clearly prove, that all God's designs will certainly be accomplished."

Relative to the design of God, one of three things, I think must be true; 1st. That it is his design to make all men holy, in a saved state. 2d. It is his design to save a part, and eternally damn the remainder. Or, 3d, He has no design about it. The first of these you disapprove. The second precludes even the possibility of all being saved. It is, therefore, only on the last, that you can argue that salvation is free for all, who will accept. If you say God designs to save all that choose to come and no others, this cannot be considered as a statement by itself; for it makes the design of God, as relating to the salvation of an individual, posterior to his coming; of course there could be no * Ps. cxlv. 9.

DEAR SIR,

LETTER III.

TO REV. JOSEPH LABEREE.

Gilsum, November 23, 1815. .

I received your letter, being a reply to one I sent you, some of the last days of October, and embrace the first opportunity that leisure offers to grant you a return. I was sorry to find that my letter had made me the subject of "much surprise;" and my sorrow arose, not from a consciousness of misconstruing the sacred word, but from a sympathy that ever causes to feel for the distresses of others. Viewing me with the word of God in my hands, a professed preacher of that word, and resting my eternal all upon a manifest misconstruction of it, it is no wonder, that you should be filled with surprise. Surprise, in this case, would be but a natural incentive of divine charity, arising from a great concern for the welfare of your friend. But should my eternal all, rested on a manifest misconstruction of scripture for a foundation, land me in the regions of irretrievable misery and woe, you enjoying tranquil peace in celestial abodes, and clothed with divine sensibility; would it not be a matter of greater surprise that you could be calm and tranquil, in viewing such misery, than that I should be so stupid as you now view me to be? If you feel concerned for your friend now, because you consider his future felicity precarious, how do you expect to be at rest, when your awful forebodings are really visited upon him? But it is my wish to correct your mistake, and to show you that I do not rest my eternal all upon a misconstruction of scripture; neither upon a proper construction of scripture; nor upon any other work that I can do; but on the Rock of everlasting ages, the chief corner Stone, that is laid in Zion.

With a view to this I proceed to notice your remarks upon my statements.

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