"faction for all the fins of the whole world, both "original and actual." If I take these words as I am enjoined, in the literal and grammatical fenfe, I muft believe, that CHRIST engaged to fatisfy offended juftice, for every fin which I have commit. ted, or fhall commit, throughout my whole life. My paft fins at that time had no more existence, than my future fins have at this hour; but both were equally laid upon my LORD.

Having undertaken this greatest of all works, I must believe that he fully accomplished it; and actually fatisfied for all my tranfgreffions, of every kind and every date.-A poffibility, or mere chance of being redeemed, can never be reckoned a perfect redemption; neither would our SAVIOUR have paid down a positive price for a precarious conditional good; much lefs would he have paid an immense, an infinite price, upon a bare uncertainty, whether it should take an effect, or ever obtain its defired end. I believe, therefore, that the fatisfac tion is made for me; that GOD has received the all-fufficient atonement in behalf of all my provocations; and that there is no more ground of condemnation for me, a vile finner, than there is room for the profecution of an infolvent, all whofe debts are defrayed, even to the very laft mite.

The number of the faved, expreffed in those words -the fins of the whole world. This I acknowledge to be the language of fcripture; and I promife myfelf you will bear with me, while I offer my thoughts concerning the occafion and the import of fuch lan

guage.

In the antediluvian and patriarchal ages, the LORD JEHOVAH confined his favour to a few particular families.-When he formed his Ifrael into a common-wealth, he chose them to himself, and feparated them from all other nations. To them he gave his oracles, his ordinances, and his

covenants; yea, he honoured and indulged them with his divine prefence: In this the Ifraelites gloried; they appropriated this privilege to themselves, and held other people at a distance, looking upon them as ftrangers, and without GOD in the world; hence that chosen seed spares not to fay, "We are "thine; thou never bareft rule over them; they "were not called by thy name."-At the commencement of the MESSIAH'S kingdom, the LORD purposed to change the fcene, and vary the difpenfation, by admitting both Jews and Gentiles, to an intereft in the great falvation; as they were equally chargeable with fin, and equally liable to the curfe, they should now ftand upon a level, be equally harers in that divine SAVIOUR, who fubmits to be made fin, and to be made a curfe for both alike. This the HOLY GHOST exprefly and repeatedly promised, He' (that is, the REDEEMER which is to come) fhall fpeak peace unto the Heathen: his dominion fhall be from fea even to fea, and from the river even to the end of the ' earth.'

Notwithstanding fuch prophecies, and such promifes, our LORD himself, when he entered upon his miniftry, acted a difcriminating part, and kept up the partition-wall; in purfuance of that declaration, I am not fent, but unto the loft sheep of the houfe of Ifrael." When he fent forth his dif ciples to preach and to teach, he gave them alfo a command to fhew the fame partial regard; Go ye not into the way of the Gentiles.' This conduct of our LORD, both under the Old Teftament and the New, confirmed the Jews in their felf-flattering notion, that they were, and ever fhould be, a favourite nation, and a peculiar people. The Gentiles, on the other hand, were no lefs difcouraged; apprehending, that as they were, fo they ever fhould be, aliens from the commonwealth of Ifrael.' But

in order to convince the Jews of their mistake, in claiming the bleffing of Abraham to themselves, and in order to affure the poor discarded Gentiles, that they fhould be fellow heirs and of the fame body; our LORD, in his laft charge to his apostles, alters the ftyle of his commission, and enlarges the sphere of their feveral departments. It is now no longer, Go not into the way of the Gentiles;' but quite the reverse, Go teach all nations,' all the world, yea, and every creature; Whofoever believeth,' whether Jew or Gentile, fhall be faved.'

Still the Jews were hardly induced to give the right hand of fellowship to their brethren the Gen-· tiles. For St. Peter cries, with fome indignation;

Not fo, LORD.' Still the Gentiles, hardly perfuaded that they fhould be partakers of the grace, reafoned against themselves; The LORD hath utterly feparated me from his people.' Therefore the LORD, to intercept all the defponding objections of the latter, and to bring down the high difdainful imaginations of the former, declares in a variety of places, that the difference no longer fubfifts, that CHRIST has thrown down the partition wall, and laid all plain, and common, and free.Though the giving of the law pertained to Ifrael only, the LORD JESUS gave himself a ransom for ALL PEOPLE. Though the paschal lamb extended its influence only to the circumcifion, the LAMB of GOD is a 'propitiation for the fins of the whole world,' even though it be not circumcifed. And now GOD would have all men, whether bond or free, Jews or Gentiles, Greeks or Barbarians, to be faved, by coming unto the knowledge of the faith.

This account gives us the true caufe, and points out the intended ufe, of fuch univerfal phrafes. They are calculated to abate the pride of the Jews, to encourage the despised Gentiles; and by exclu

ding none, they give encouragement for all to come, because, though every individual person will not be faved, yet whofoever cometh fhall in no wife be caft out.'-By this interpretation, the phrafe is neither inconfiftent with other texts, neither does our church contradict herself.

Upon the whole, you will please to obferve, that I should never have touched upon this subject, had not your objections, far-fetched and forced as they are, given me a kind of challenge. And now I have touched upon the subject, it is not as a champion for the caufe, but only to fhew the weakness and the inconfiftency of your arguing, how little you avail yourself even on a point, where you think oppofition vain, and your arm irresistible.

"Believers, who are notorious tranfgreffors in "themselves, have a finless obedience in CHRIST;" this paffage you felect as faulty, I prefume, because it is oppofite to your favourite tenet, "perfection in "perfonal holinefs."-By notorious, I mean acknowledged, confeffed, indifputably fuch. If you are not fuch a tranfgreffor, why do you daily confefs yourself "a miferable finner?" Why do you acknowledge that you are tied and bound with the chain "of your fins ;" and declare before all men, that "there is no health in you?" All this Mr. Wesley fpeaks with his lips, and, I would hope, believes in his heart. Yet all this does not amount" to a "notorious tranfgreffor." Pray then, good Sir, inform us, what fort of tranfgreffors is defcribed by all these expressions.

You cry out, "O fyren fong!" The Pfalmift would have taught you a better exclamation. If this is the cafe, let us rejoice with trembling.'-Are we notorious tranfgreffors in ourselves? The consciousness of this is the strongest motive to humility.-Have we a finless obedience in CHRIST? The belief of this is an abundant source of joy. When

you add, "Pleafing found to James Wheatly? Tho"mas Williams! James Reily!" I am quite afhamed of your meanness, and grieved at your uncharitable rafhnefs. How unworthy is fuch a procedure, either of the gentleman, the Chriftian, or the man of fenfe! Unworthy the gentleman, to ftigmatize by name, and to expofe to the most public infamy. Unworthy the Chriftian, whofe charity concealeth, rather than divulgeth and proclaimeth upon the houfe-tops. Unworthy the man of fenfe, who knows that the mifcarriages of a profeffor are no argument against the foundness of a doctrine. If - they were, would not your own principles totter? Nay, how could Chriftianity itself stand?

Elijah failed in his refignation, and even Mofes himself fpake unadvisedly with his lips. "It is "true," fays Mr. Wefley. "But if you could like"wife fix fome blot upon venerable Samuel, and "beloved Daniel, it would prove nothing." I have no defire to fix a blot; but if I find it in the moft accomplished character, this proves the propofition, which Afpafio maintains; "That the very beft "of men fall fhort; that the very best of men will "be found guilty,' if tried by the righteous law:' That the very best of men have nothing more "to plead for acceptance' with the HIGH and "HOLY one, than the criminal, who yefterday "murdered his benefactor, to-morrow is to be ex"ecuted for his crime, and is now flying to the "redemption that is in CHRIST JESUS for the "chief of finners."

"No fcripture teaches that the holiness of Chri"ftians is to be measured by that of any Jew." I fhould be afraid to advance fuch a pofition, after having read that general exhortation, Be ye fol. lowers of them, who through faith and patience inherit the promifes;' and thofe more particular references to the ancient faints, comprised in the