I.

Ho, every one that thirsteth [for life and happiness] come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy wine and milk, with out money and without price. Incline* your ear, hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an ever. lasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David, &c. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found; and call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, &c, and return unto the Lord, for he will abundantly pardon, Isa. lv, 1-7. Wisdom standeth in the top of high places: she crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, &c, Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men, &c. Hear, for I will speak excellent things, &c. Receive my instruction, rather than choice gold, &c. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I ara meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls; for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light, Prov. viii, 2, &c; Matt. xi, 29, 30.

All the people [of bloody devoted Jerusalem] ran together unto them [Peter and John:] and when Peter saw it, he answered, Ye [all the people] are the children of the cove. Bant, which God made, saying to Abraham, "And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed." Unto you [all the people] first [as being Jews] God, &c, sent lus Son Jesus to bless you [all the people] by turning away every one of you from his iniquities, Acts iii, 9, 11, 12, 25, 26.

II.

Thus spake the Lord of hosts, &c. But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his Spirit, &c. Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts, Zech. vii, 8, 13.

I also will choose their delusions, &c, because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear; but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not, Isa. Ixvi, 4.

The Jews were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul; contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God [the Gospel of Christ] should first have been spoken to you: but, seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles: for so hath the Lord commanded, Acts xiii, 45, 46. [Query. How could it be necessary" that the Gospel should first be spoken to those Jews," if God had eternally fixed, that there should be no Gospel,-no Saviour, for them?] Zelotes represents the "sure mercies of David," and "the everlasting covenant," as absolutely unconditional. But I appeal to Candidus: does not this passage mention four requisites on our part? Inclining our ear: hearing: seek. ing the Lord: and forsaking our wicked way? And do not we accordingly find, Acts xiii, 34, that many of those to whom St. Paul offered those "sure mercies," mussed them by "contradicting," instead of "inclining their ear?"

I.

To whom [the Gentiles] I send thee to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God; that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them who are sanctified by faith that is in me, Acts xxvi, 17, 18.

Behold, Now is the accepted time! behold, Now is the day of salvation, 2 Cor. vi, 2. Wherefore, beloved, account that the long suffering of the Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also hath written to you [in the next passage,] 2 Pet. iii, 9, 15. Despisest thou the riches of God's goodness, and forbearance, and long suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance, and of consequence to eternal salvation? Rom. ii, 4.

Them that perish because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusions, &c, that they all might be damned, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure în -unrighteousness, 2 Thess. ii, 10, &c.

O Jerusalem, &c, how often would I have gathered together thy children [among whom were the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees] as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not? Luke xiii, 34. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will bring upon this city, &c, all the evil that I have pronounced against it; be. cause they have hardened their necks that they might not hear my words, Jer. xix, 15. The Lord is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation, &c, when your fathers saw my works. Forty years long I was grieved with that generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their hearts, &c.— To whom I sware in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest, Psa. xlv, 7, &c.

This is one of the "clouds of Scripture witnesses," which we produce in favour of redeeming free grace and electing free will. To some people this cloud appears so big with evidence, and so luminous, that they think Honestus and Zelotes, with all the admirers of Socinus and Calvin can never raise dust enough to involve it in darkness, at least before those who have not yet permitted prejudice to put out both their eyes It is worth notice, that Honestus has not one Scripture to prove tha any man can be saved without the Redeemer's atonement. On the contrary, we read that there is salvation "in no other;" that there i "no other name," or person, "whereby we must be saved;" and tha "no man cometh to the Father but by him-the light of the world, an the light of men." And it is remarkable, that although the peculia gospel of Zelotes is founded upon the doctrine of a partial atonemen there is not in all the Bible one passage that represents "the world" a being made up of the elect only; not one text which asserts that Chri made an atonement for one part of the world exclusively of the other no, nor one word which, being candidly understood according to the co

text, cuts off either man, woman, or child from the benefit of Christ's redemption; at least so long as the day of grace and initial salvation lasteth. Nay, the very reverse is directly or indirectly asserted: for our Lord threatened his very apostles with a hell, "where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched," if they did not "pluck out the offending eye." St. Peter speaks of those who "bring swift destruction upon themselves by denying the Lord that bought them." And St. Paul mentions "destruction of a brother for whom Christ died;" yea, and the "much sorer punishment of him who had trodden under foot the Son of God, had counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, [and consequently redeemed,] an unholy thing, and had done despite to the Spirit of grace," by which Spirit he and other apostates "were once enlightened, and had tasted the heavenly gift-the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come," Heb. x, 29; vi, 4. Hence it appears, that of all the unscriptural doctrines which prejudiced divines have imposed upon the simple, none is more directly contrary to Scripture than the doctrine of Christ's particular atonement.An Arian can produce, "My Father is greater than I;" and a Papist, "This is my body," in support of their error; but a Calvinist cannot produce one word that excludes even Cain and Judas from the temporary interest in Christ's atonement, whereby they had "the day of mitial salvation," which they once enjoyed and abused.

The tide of Scripture evidence in favour of general redemption is so strong, that at times it carries away both St. Augustine and Calvin, notwithstanding their particular resistance. The former says, Ægrotat humanum genus, non morbis corporis, sed peccatis. Jacet toto orbe terrarum ab oriente usque ad occidentem grandis ægrotus. Ad sanandum grandem ægrotum descendit omnipotens Medicus. (AUG. De Verbis Domini, Sermon 59.) "MANKIND is sick, not with bodily diseases, but with sins. The HUGE PATIENT lies ALL THE WORLD Over, stretched from east to west. To heal the huge patient, the omnipotent Physician descends from heaven." As for Calvin, in a happy moment, he does not scruple to say: Se TOTI MUNDO propitium ostendit, cum sine excephione omnes ad Christi fidem vocat, quæ nihil aliud est quam ingressus in vitam. (CAL. in Job, iii, 15, 16.) "God shows himself propitious to ALL THE WORLD, when he, without exception, invites ALL MEN to believe in Christ; faith being the entrance into life." Agreeable to this, when he comments upon these words of St. Paul, "There is one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ," he says with great truth: Cum itaque COMMUNE mortis suæ beneficium OMNIBUS esse velit, injuriam illi faciunt, qui opinione sua quempiam arcent a spe salutis. (CALV. in 1 Tim. ii, 5.) "Since therefore Christ is willing that the benefit of his death should be COMMON TO ALL MEN; they do him an injury, who, by their opinion, debar any one from the hope of salvation." If, Calvin himself being judge, "they do Christ an injury, who by their opinion debar ANY ONE from the hope of salvation," how great, how multiplied an injury does Zelotes do to the Redeemer, by his opinion of particular redemption; an opinion this, which effectually debars all the unredeemed from the least well grounded hope of ever escaping the dam. nation of hell, be their endeavours after salvation ever so strong and ever so many.

As I set my seal with fuller confidence to the doctrine of our Lord's Divine carriage upon the cross, when I hear the centurion who headed his executioners cry out, "Truly this was the Son of God:" so I em. brace the doctrine of general redemption with a fuller persuasion of its truth, when I hear Calvin himself say, "Forasmuch as the upshot of a happy life consists in the knowledge of God, lest the door of happiness should be shut against any man, God has not only implanted in the minds of men, that which we call THE SEED OF RELIGION; but he has likewise so manifested himself in all the fabric of the world, and presents himself daily to them in so plain a manner, that they cannot open their eyes, but they must needs discover him." His own words are: Quia ultimus beatæ vitæ finis in Dei cognitione positus est, ne cui præclusus esset ad felicitatem aditus, non solum hominum mentibus indidit illud, quod dicimus RELIGIONIS SEMEN; sed ita se patefecit in toto mundi opificio, ac se quotidie palam offert, ut aperire oculos nequeant quin eum aspicere cogantur. (Inst. lib. i, cap. 5, sec. 1.) Happy would it have been for us, if Calvin the Calvinist had been of one mind with Calvin the reformer. Had this been the case, he would never have encouraged those who are called by his name to despise "THE SEED OF RELIGION which God has implanted in the minds of men, lest the door of happiness should be shut against any one." Nor would he inconsistently have taught his admirers to do Christ, and desponding souls, that very "injury," against which he justly bears his testimony in one of the preceding quotations.

Although Zelotes has a peculiar veneration for Austin and Calvin, yet when they speak of redemption as the oracles of God, he begs leave to dissent from them both.

To maintain, therefore, even against them, his favourite doctrine of absolute election and preterition, he advances some objections, three or four of which deserve our attention, not so much indeed on account of their weight, as on account of the great stress which he lays upon them.

OBJECTION FIRST. "You assert," says he, "that the doctrine of general redemption is Scriptural, and that no man is absolutely reprobated: but I can produce a text strong enough to convince you of your error. If the majority of mankind were not unconditionally reprobated, our Lord would at least have prayed for them: but this he expressly refused to do in these words, "I pray for them [my disciples:] I pray not for the world," John xvii, 9. Here the world is evidently excluded from all interest in our Lord's praying breath; and how much more from all interest in his atoning blood?"

ANSWER. I have already touched upon this objection, (Third Check, vol. first.) To what I have said there, I now add the following fuller reply:-Our Lord never excluded "the world" from all share in his intercession. When he said, "I pray for them, I pray not for the world;" it is just as if he had said, "The blessing which I now ask for my believing disciples, I do not ask for the world;' not because have absolutely reprobated the world, but because the world is not i a capacity of receiving this peculiar blessing." Therefore, to tak occasion from that expression to traduce Christ as a reprobating re specter of persons, is as ungenerous as to affirm that the master of

grammar school is a partial, capricious man, who pays no attention to the greatest part of his scholars, because, when he made critical remarks upon Homer, he once said, "My lecture is for the Greek class, and not the Latin."

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That this is the easy, natural sense of our Lord's words, will appear by the following observations. (1.) Does he not just after (verse 11) mention the favour which he did not ask for the world? "Holy Father, keep, through thy name, those whom thou hast given me, [by the decree of faith,] that they may be one as we are." (2.) Would it not have been absurd in Christ to pray the Father to keep "a world” of unbelievers, and to make them one? (3.) Though our Lord prayed at first for his disciples alone, did he not, before he concluded his prayer, (verse 2,) pray for future believers? And then giving the utmost latitude to his charitable wishes, did he not pray (verse 21) "that the world might believe”—and (verse 23) "that the world might know that God had sent him?" (4.) Was not this praying that the world might be made partakers of the very blessing which his disciples then enjoyed: witness these words, (ver. 24, 25,) "O righteous Father, the world has not known thee: but I have known thee, and these [believers] have known that thou hast sent me?" (5.) "The world hateth me," said our Lord. Now if he "never prayed for the world," how could he be said to have loved and prayed for his enemies? How badly will Ze-lotes be off, if he stands only in the imputed righteousness of a man, who would never pray for the bulk of his enemies or neighbours? But this is not all; for (6.) If our Lord "never prayed for the world," he acted the part of those wicked Pharisees who "laid upon other people's shoulders heavy burthens which they took care not to touch with one of their fingers;" for he said to his followers, "Pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you," [that is, pray for the world,] Matt. v, 44. But if we believe Zelotes, "he said and did not:" like some implacable preachers who recommend a forgiving temper, he gave good precepts and set a bad example.

I ask Candidus' pardon for detaining him so long about so frivolous an argument; but as it is that which Zelotes most frequently produces m favour of particular redemption, and the absolute reprobation of the world, I thought it my duty to expose his well meant mistake, and to wipe off the blot which his opinion (not he) fixes upon our Lord's character;-an opinion this, which represents Christ's prayer, "Father, forgive them," to be all of a piece with Judas' kiss. For, if Christ praved with his lips, that his worldly murderers might be forgiven, while in his heart he absolutely excluded them from all interest in his intercession, and in the blood, by which alone they could be forgiven; might he not as well have said, My praying lips salute, but my reprobating heart betrays you: hail reprobates and be damned?

OBJECTION SECOND. "All your carnal reasonings and logical subtlenes can never overthrow the plain word of God. The Scriptures cannot be broken, and they expressly mention particular redemption. Rev. v, 8, 9, we read that four-and-twenty elders having harps, sung a new song, saying, &c, Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.' Again, Rev. XIV, 1, &c, we read of one hundred and forty-four thousand harpers