My hearers, with Christian professors we may get along with the Bible. They who believe in election and reprobation, and they also who hold to the Arminian scheme, all go to the Bible, and say that the Scriptures teach their doctrines respectively. How shall we meet them on this ground? I answer, -we must examine those Scriptural testimonies which treat on the subject of man's salvation, and the dispensation of the gospel; and we must be careful to keep two questions in our minds. The first is, Do the Scriptures which treat of man's salvation, speak in limited, or in unlimited language? That is, does the language referred to embrace all mankind, or does it embrace only a part? The second question is, Do the Scriptures which treat of man's salvation, speak in uncertain and conditional terms, or do they speak in certain and unconditional language? These two points prepare us to meet our adversaries on both hands. For if those Scriptures which treat of man's salvation, speak in general and universal terms, then, of course, the partial doctrine of election and reprobation is refuted. Study the Bible, you will not find in it what our opposers have in their creed. Their creed says, that "God from all eternity elected some to everlasting life, and passed by and ordained the rest to dishonour and wrath." This doctrine is of human invention, and is found in a human creed. And if the doctors of divinity who wrote that creed, had possessed the modesty of Christians, they would have paused before they wrote the sentence above quoted. They should have inquired, whether they could put that sentiment in Bible language. The thought never struck their minds. If it had-and if they had

and

paused a moment to find said Bible language, you never would have found that doctrine in their creed! They say God elected some. Compare this statement with the promise of God to Abraham. "In blessing, I will bless thee, and in multiplying, I will multiply thee; and in thee, and in thy seed, shall ALL NATIONS be blessed.” The Lord does not say, in thy seed shall SOME of the human family be blessed; but he says, "in thy seed shall ALL nations be blessed,"-yea, "ALL the families and kindreds of the earth." St. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians, calls the preaching of God to Abraham, the gospel. Then the simple truth of the gospel is, that in Christ, the seed of Abraham, all the nations, families and kindreds of the earth shall be blessed. Take this one promise; look at it carefully; examine all its relations in the whole Bible; and then ask yourselves, whether there is a single word wanting to make the doctrine universal; or whether there is a single word therein that is calculated, in any degree, to contract or narrow it. Have we not a perfect right to call upon those who believe in the doctrine of election and reprobation, to inform us upon the subject, how it has happened, that if it was the predetermination of God, from all eternity, that millions should suffer misery forever, that he should have made such a promise of universal blessedness to Abraham? Those who believe in election and reprobation do not preach in this way. You have heard them preach, and did you ever hear them take up this subject, and dwell upon it, and insist upon it, and endeavour to enforce it upon their hearers, that God preached the gospel to Abraham in the manner before noticed? You never did. Do you

know why they never preach in that manner? The honest answer is, they do not believe what God preached to Abraham. If they did, they would preach it also.

Let us look a little farther. Our adversaries on the other hand, are willing to grant, that the gospel is universal in its promises-but they contend that said promises are conditional-depending on human agency for their fulfilment. Is this true? "In thy seed shall all nations be blessed." Is there any thing like human agency intimated in this promise? Is there any thing like human agency set up as the basis of this heavenly blessing? There is not. If endless punishment be true, God must have eternally known, that the terms of the gospel would not be complied with by the whole of the human race; and he must have known that some men would so use their agency as to render themselves forever wretched. In this view of the subject, the Almighty could not with propriety have said to Abraham, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." He could not properly have made this promise, if he intended that man's eternal destiny should rest on the use or abuse of human agency; for at the time he made the promise, he must have known what human agency would do, and what it would not do. It is impossible to reconcile the idea referred to with the express promises of God.

We will inquire still further.

uses these remarkable words.

The Prophet Isaiah “And it shall come

to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house, shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and

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all nations shall flow unto it." Now he prophecied about what should happen in an after day; and by this prophecy the same sentiment is taught as in the words, "all nations shall be blessed." By what authority could the Prophet Isaiah assert positively, without any conditions or ifs, and say in the name of God himself, that all nations should flow to the house of the Lord? How much do you suppose he rested on human agency in this case? Shall we use the familiarity with the Prophet, just to ask him how he knew what he said? He gives the answer in the 25th chapter. "And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees; of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it." How much human agency is there here? Look at it carefully, my friends, and remember that this is but a specimen of the current language of the gospel in the Old and New Testaments.

But the hearer will say, "Then you exclude human agency altogether, and make man a mere machine." We shall not pause in this place, to enter into the subtilties of metaphysics—but are there not some blessings that we receive from God, which are not procured by human agency? We certainly enjoy some such blessings. The blessing of existence, for instance. God has given it to us. Did this existence depend on our moral agency? Certainly not.

It is the free gift of God. Contemplate yourself, with all your faculties and powers, mental and physical. Did human agency procure them? Look at the creation around you. Behold the sun, the moon, and the stars, the earth, and the rivers, and the vital air,-did human agency procure them? No. The God of mercy and favour blessed you with them all. And the moment you were born into the world, you were born heirs of these blessings, and none of them were dependant upon human agency. I do not mean that we have no power to do something for our peace and comfort. But is there any more moral philosophy, or Christianity, in supposing that the future world depends on us, than in supposing that this world does? Where do the Scriptures say, that immortality, and glory, and eternal life, are any thing beside the free gifts of God? The great Father of our spirits, who has accompanied the gift of this existence with every thing necessary for our comfort, will unquestionably provide the future state of existence with every thing necessary to make it a blessing. Are you afraid to trust your heavenly Father and divine Benefactor? I hope not. David expressly says, "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee." He did not suppose that this universal in-gathering of our heavenly Father's children is suspended on the fickle caprices of human agency-but he rests the glorious consummation on the effectual working of divine power and love.

Time would fail me, and your patience would be exhausted, were I to take notice of the range of this subject, as it is explained and illustrated in the