denounced, so that the Godhead might be just in justifying, sanctifying, and grace filling, and finally immortalizing and glorifying in heaven all the human election, with the elect angels, and leaving the rest of human non-elect under laws with the nonelect engels, under chains and restraints, through time, to the day of judgment, to be cast into the lake of of fire, for everlasting punishment. Mark ye, my readers, that the human election without a ransom, although God's relations, must have sunk under the divine wrath and curse into the lowest hell! Psalm lxxxvi. 13; Gal. iii. 13. (To be concluded in our next.) there is a passing minute in which he finds himself very joyous, and very comfortable. It is granted, that in the mere professor, religion hath no other place of residence than the affections; of consequence, his pleasure is occasional, much of his joy depends upon the oratory of his teacher. When he pipes well, then he can dance well; but, when sermon heat is over and gone, and the passions are abated in their fervour, then, poor things, their hearts are as cold, and their minds are as carnal as ever. Take these characters, and place them in the front of temptation; then farewell affection and religion, they decamp, and walk no more with Jesus and his disciples. Mat. xiii. 21; John vi. 66; Mat. xxiii. 33, 40, 56. But is there no difference to be found in the professor and believer, even in this? Religion in the believer is not simply an affection; it is a nature, it is a root, the seat of which is not the affections, but the mind; "the spirit of the mind," the supremest power of the soul, which, when exercised upon the word of the gospel, gives immediate pleasure and joy. A spiritual act will, it must, produce a spiritual effect. It is not a passing, but "perfect peace, that they possess, whose mind is stayed, and whose understandings are exercised upon the word of the Lord." Where there is stability of judgment there must be elevation of the affection. The believer must give up his judgment, and be beside himself, before he can be destitute of divine enjoyment. The testimonies of the Spirit, which he hath taken possession of, they are his heritage for ever, and the rejoicing of his heart. Eph. iv. 23; Isaiah xxvi, 3; Psalm cxix. 111. Though the doctrine of human depravity admits of unquestionable evidence, yet the existence of it is more manifest in some characters than in others; and in no one des cription of people, are its features so prominent, and manifest, as in those who turn the doctrine of grace into lasciviousness, or licentiousness; who deny the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ; who hold the truth in unrighteousness; who do evil, that good may come by evil; who abound in sin, that grace may superabound over sin. Jude iv.; Rom. i. 18, and iii., 5, 6, 7, 8. I know that it is not pleasing to every man to have his likeness taken. The man that carries unpleasant features would rather excuse the painter such a business. However, in the cause of God and truth, no objections can be admitted. Such characters ought to be so delineated that their features may be "seen and read of all men." "These are of their father, the devil; for the No lusts of their father they do." characters out of hell can give us such a just idea of the image and likeness of the devil. They are enemies in disguise. Judas like, they salute and kiss Christ. Look upon them in the house of God, and they seem to be good characters, patronizers of the cause; but by looking behind them, or by observing the conduct of them, you will see a band coming to destroy Jesus Christ, a company of lusts and of sins coming against the Lord's anointed, to bind him, to spit upon him, to crucify, and to put him to an open shame (Heb. vi. 6.) They represent Christ as the greatest cheat and impostor in the world; they justify the sentiment of his crucifiers, who conceived him to be a deceiver; and of their conduct too, in preferring a notorious character to the spotless Lamb of God. Such may read their destiny in the sacred word, "Their damnation is both sure and just" (Rom. iii. 8.) Behold then, ye despisers, and wonder and perish, for to you the word of damnation is sent (Acts xiii. 41.) Woe unto you, ye are clouds without water, empty and one void of spirituality, carried about of How exceeding partial are such in How truly gross the conceptions of such, of the image of Christ, to which the househeld of faith are predestinated to be conformed (Rom. viii. 29.) We are, saith Paul, his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, to good works, which he hath before ordained that we should walk in them (Eph. ii. 10.) Those that are created in Christ, they are shapen in holiness, and in purity they are conceived. The agent, the mould, and the work, bears but one image, it is emphatic holiness, or it is the image of Christ. Eph, iv. 24. Though the strong man of depravity, once kept, and swayed the affections; yet a stronger than it coming, a principle that is invincible, depravity yields. The old man is put off when the new man is put on (Eph. iv. 22, 24.) As is the man in principle, so is he in practice (Judges viii. 21.) If the tree be good, the fruit must be good (Mat. vii. 18.) If these men, or devils in human form, were of God, they would do the works of God (John viii. 39 44.) But, as they are of their father, the devil, so they carry his image, and do his will: One woe is past, and behold there cometh two woes more." Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that putteth bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. Therefore, as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust, because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel Rev. ix. 12; Isaiah v. 18, 20, 24. nature (1 John ii. 22, and v. 7.) It is good to be always zealously affected in a good thing; but there is a zeal which is not according to knowledge; and however some of the Jews in the apostle's days, and some of the Gentiles in our days denied, or do deny, the Sonship of Christ, under a pretended zeal for the honour of God, that the Father might have no competitor in his glory, or that the Father's glory might not be depreciated thereby; yet, saith John, it is altogether a mistake, and so far from honouring and pleasing the Father, by denying of the Son, you made it self-evident, by so doing, that you have no portion or lot in him, "For whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father." And, therefore, you are liars, saith the divine, and assuredly will have your part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, unless God give you repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, as it is in Jesus (1 John ii. 23: Rev. xxi. 8; 2 Timothy ii. 25; Eph. iv. 21.) "He that despised Moses' law, died without mercy, under two or tree witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, depreciating his character as God over all, blessed for ever, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, who deny his authority as the sent of God, and the efficacy of his atonement in the sight of God, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace, by opposing and contradicting his testimony concerning the Lord of Glory. They will find it to be a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, who is the avenger of all such (Heb. x. 28, 29, 30, 31.) Thus the apostles, they cut this work short in righteousness. But there is another description of people, whom John the divine, and very probable he might be so called, on account of his manifest attachment to the divinity of Jesus Christ, I say a people whom this truly affectionate man called liars; and about whom he speaks, as the only liars in the world; there was none that told such a manifest lie as they did. What did these men do? or what did they say? Why they denied the record that God had given of his Son: "Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?" He is an anti-christ, an adversary, There is an opinion that has made that denieth the Father and the Son some stir of late, and carrried with in the equality of their essence and it some influence, especially among the people called Arminians, which I cannot make any wonderment about, as it is quite congenial with their views of redemption. The sentiment is, if I am rightly informed, universal restitution, that all the human species will be saved. Some saved from going down into, and others saved out of the pit of hell. Had not Jehovah revealed in the oracles of truth, that gross darkness had covered the people, I should have been utterly at a loss to have accounted for such a strange notion as this. And, I think I can speak confidendly, that there are not any who imbibe it, but they have prior to it thought, that God was altogether like unto themselves; but, saith God, "I will reprove thee, and set thy slander in order before thine eyes" (Psalm i. 21.) "To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word; it is because they have no light in them" (Isaiah viii, 20.) If the opinion of universal restitution be set in order before the alone standard of truth, I am very much mistaken if it be not accounted reprobate, and, as such, rejected of the Lord. Jer, vi. 30. However diversified the devices of Satan are, yet they are all directed to one end, the object of which is, the depreciating the divine character. And I must confess, that I know of no one sentiment, or a fable so cunningly devised, to undermine the character of Jehovah, as the moral governor of the world, as this. The perfections of Jehovah are his glory, to rob him of which must be imputed iniquity; and can that be accounted less than robbery by him, and an insult offered to him, when men assert that all his attributes are absorbed and swallowed up in love. Salvation consists, or lies, in the union of mercy and truth. Mercy it triumphs with, but not over justice in the sinners' salvation. The justice of Jehovah will shine forth equally illustrious in the act of damnation, as in salvation for ever. The judgment of God is and must be according to truth, whether it respects justification or condemnation; and both are with him irrevocable acts. Rom. ii. 2; Job xxiii. 13. As to the term everlasting bearing a certain latitude of time in some parts of the word of God, speaks nothing decisive to the point of restitution, unless it can be proved that restitution be the point to which the word is directed. The ground upon which I stand, as an opponent, is the impregnable basis of equity and truth. The apostle of the Gentiles hath chosen the spot for me: "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." Heb. x. 14. The word sanctify, or sanctification, in its primary meaning, is to set apart; hence we read of the utensils in the tabernacle, and of Christ being sanctified; they were set apart for a holy use and service. And this act of sanctification, as spoken by Paul, is attributed to the Father, and it is said to be in Christ. The children of God, they are set apart for the glory of God in Jesus Christ, the God-man Mediator; and, when they are by the Spirit regenerated, and enlightened, to see sanctification in the true meaning of it, they are sanctified through it. "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth." those that are thus sanctified, they are perfected; for by one offering he hath perfected for ever, them that are sanctified." Num. vii., 1; John x. 36; Jude 1; 1 Cor. i. 2. And Perfect, or perfection, is relative, and pre-supposeth a rule or standard of perfection. The law of the Lord is said to be perfect, as it is the alone rule of perfection. Actions, right or wrong; persons, perfect or imperfect, are determined so to be, as they come up to, or are short of the law of the Lord. And, in order to perfection in law, there must be the righteousness of the law, and this righteousness of the law, doth of necessity meet, and centre in the person and offering of Jesus Christ; for by his one offering, they are perfected for ever, who are sanctified. Psalm xix. 7. Sin is represented in the word of the Lord, as an infinite evil (Job xxii. 5.) Now, as sin is an infinite evil, then of necessity to the removal of it, there must be an infinite good. If an infinite offence be atoned, the offering atoning must be infinite too. This position or principle, I judge to be every way consonant with sound reason and pnre religion; and I am clear, that the man that is the subject of these, will throw in no caveat, or bill against it. In the writings of the Old Testament, we have the remove of sin typified and predicted; and in the New Testament we see all fulfilled, and completed in the person of the God-man Mediator, who was the Lamb, of God's providing, before the foundation of the world, to take away sin, by the sacrifice of himself, Lev. xvi. 21: Dan. ix. 24: John i. 29; 1 Peter i. 20. What the law demanded as a compensation for an infinite offence, that did the infinite person of Jesus give, when he made his soul an offering for sin; and of consequence, they are perfected for ever, or are sharers in an infinite good, who are sanctified in him, and through him, for nothing short of an infinite good, can be a perfect or an everlasting good. Thus then, we behold Jesus, God-man, as "the end of the law; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in them, who are sanctified in him," and represented by him; for in him they are complete, comely, without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing. There is no condemnation to them; as such, there cannot be any damnation for them. Rom. x. 4, and viii. 4: Col. ii. 10; Ezek. xvi. 14; Eph. v. 27: Rom. viii. 1; 1 Thes. v. 9. Now, I ask this sober question, seeing that these things are so, that in Jesus Christ, God-man, the Lawgiver, is well pleased, fully satisfied, and that those that are in him are everlastingly perfected; can the law impute sin to the innocent? Can justice punish the guiltless? Wherein does the equity of the law, or of the Lawgiver appear, in sending those to hell whom he hath declared to be perfect? Hell is a place of justice, and punishment is an act of justice; and none are furned in thither for punishment but the wicked: "That be far from the Lord to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked; and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from the Lord." Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Pm. ix. 17; Gen. xviii. 25. As those that are sanctified, are for ever perfected, then it is impossible that they can have any concern in the doctrine of restitution from hell. And, as for the "rest," those that are not sanctified, and set apart for glory everlasting, in the everlasting Mediator, upon what ground, or under what consideration they can be restored from hell, I cannot at the present avouch. In a word. If redemption be universal, if the price be paid for all, then all are delivered from going down into the pit of hell; but all are not delivered from going down into the pit of hell, as such redemption cannot be universal. Pm. ix. 17. If there be a restitution from the pit of hell, the creature is capable of making a compensation, of satisfying infinity. The creature is not capable of an infinite satisfactino, as such the creature's punishment must be eternal. Pm. xlix. 8. It will be found an awful fact, that those who have no other representative in law, than the first Adam, will, in consequence of transgression, suffer the vengeance of eternal |