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submit to carnal reason; reason must give way to divine revelation: "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble." But Onesimus proceeds and says,

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'Your seeing a thing, becoming possessed of it, does not destroy the faculty of sight in you; 'no; that remains.'

Answer: The faith and hope of Onesimus are now both turned into sight; and he labours to prove that seeing and possessing do not destroy the faculty of sight; which we grant it does not. But the word of God declares that sight is opposed to walking by faith; "We walk by faith not by sight;" so that sight must destroy walking by faith. And sight cannot stand with things in possession; for that which is seen is not hope. Onesimus is very warm against the un-Christ'like, unapostolic practice of chopping the scrip'tures into scraps, called texts.'

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Answer: this is so far from being unlike Christ, that he set the example. When he began his ministry he took one text, and no more; he then closed the book, and preached from it, Luke iv. 18. And he sent forth all the apostles with one text, and no more: "These twelve Jesus sent fortn, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any of the cities of the Samaritans enter ye not. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at nand" Matt. x. 5-7. Christ gave this one text

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to all the apostles, after his own example; and gave them no more. Paul was sent forth after the Lord's own example also, with one text and no more; "Delivering thee from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power, of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me," Acts xxvi. 18. God gave Isaiah his text, Isa. vi. 9, 10. Three times the Lord spoke to Jeremiah, and gave him one text at a time, and no more, Jeremiah i. 9, 10, 11, 13. Habakkuk waited long till the vision spake to him, and the contents were one text and no more: "Behold his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith," Hab. ii. 4. Balaam also who received the word at the Lord's mouth, received one text at a time, and no more; "And the Lord put a word into Balaam's mouth, and said, Return unto Balak, and thus shalt thou speak,' Num. xxiii. 5. Again, Again, "And the Lord met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, go again unto Balak, and say thus," Num. xxiii. 16. Yea more: all the apostles received but one text from the Lord at his last departure from them, Matt. xxviii. 19, 20; Mark xvi. 16. And the apostles kept close to the matter of their texts. In the first chapter of John the godhead of Christ is the subject; in Paul's epistle to the Romans God's better covenant with Abraham is insisted

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on, and opposed to the law; in the epistle to the Hebrews, the first chapters are upon the priesthood of Christ, and in the eleventh chapter faith is set forth; and in the fifteenth of the first of the Corinthians the resurrection of the dead is handled. And God has, thousands and ten thousands of times, set his broad seal to different passages of scripture faithfully handled; and this will weigh more with a saint than all the whims of Onesimus. His method is walking in craftiness, and handling the word of God deceitfully; for by his plan you may make the Bible say any thing; for instance, one text says, And Judas went and hanged himself, Matt. xxvii. 5; and another scripture says, "Go and do thou likewise," Luke x. 37. In this way Onesimus supports his eternal hope, for he represents souls crying, praying, and groaning, in hope, even in purgatory; when another part of the same text tells us that they entered into rest, and that white robes were given to every one of them; which is expressive of their eternal victory, and of their endless nuptials with the Son of God.

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Taking a text Onesimus calls chopping the 'scriptures.'

To which I answer: "There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword; but the tongue of the wise is health," Prov. xii. 18; because life and death are in the power of the tongue, Prov. xviii. 21; that is, when God gives a mouth and wisdom, and even the very phrase. "Rightly di

viding the word of truth," 2 Tim. ii. 15, signifies no less than to cut it, and to give to each a portion of meat in due season. Let Onesimus learn to distinguish between Solomon's sword, and that simple tool called a chopping knife. The former is called the tongue of the wise, used by the Lord to wound and heal; the latter is used by farmers' dames in making sausage meat. This vain jangling, and these vile perversions, are much worse than taking a text; and is a work peculiar to evil men and seducers, who shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

1. My conclusion upon this subject is, that no one inspired penman ever ascribed, attributed, assigned, applied, or described, or attempted to describe, the hope of the Lord, who now reigns in glory; no, nor have they ascribed hope to the elect angels, nor to glorified souls in heaven. Onesimus is the only intruder into these mysteries; no one prophet, apostle, or teacher, sent of God, has, or ever will, hold with him in these things.

2. Nor is there one passage in the book of God that once mentions Christ as king of glory reigning in hope, or that once mentions the hope of holy angels, or the hope of glorified souls in heaven; so that it is not the spirit of truth that guides him, but the spirit of error, not the words of God, but the lies of Satan. Nor are his assertions spoken in faith, but in bold presumption. Nor is there one holy man, that has spoken as moved by the Holy Ghost, that ever has traced

the faith and hope of believers, or the exercises of these graces, beyond the death of the saint; and, "Shall any teach God knowledge?" Job xxi. 22; or shall this blind bat be wiser than divine revelation? He hath rejected the word of the Lord, and what wisdom is there in him? Jer. viii. 9.

4. Every passage that he has quoted to support his lying fancies is perverted; and every text that he has chopped, mangled, and distorted, to countenance his tenets, are wrested, falsely stated, and vilely applied. And, so far is this Onesimus from being capable of describing the hope of the King of glory in heaven, that

5. I defy him publicly, he and all the chaff that he has collected, put them all together, to tell me what the grace of hope is; how it rises, what it springs from, and what that experience is which worketh hope; what it bottoms on; the glorious appearance of the object that hope closes with, and its exercises on the object of hope; its admittance within the vail, when through Christ the believer's faith and hope, as Peter says, might be in God, 1 Peter i. 21; the entertainment of hope there, and believers' joyous sensations upon the vessel of mercy coming to this glorious anchorage; I say, I defy them all to do it.

6. Nor can he take one text, or single out one glorious truth of the everlasting gospel, and describe it, or handle it as it ought to be handled. If he can, let him set about it, and call in all the

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