M. Well, Sir, I assert that he prayed for all the world in the very chapter to which you advert, John xvii.

C. Why! will you dare to say so?

M. Yes, Sir, and what is more, if you will but attend to the sequel, you will not dare to contradict it. After our Saviour had prayed for such whom God had given him out of the world, and who therefore were not of the world, that they might be kept faithful, as witnesses for him, he next prayed for all those, who should believe on him through their word, that they might be one with him, as the Father and he were one, and in the conclusion, he prayed, that all that the Father had given him might be with him, where he was, that they may behold his glory. Now, Sir, the question is, who did the Father give him? The same sacred book which records these three prayers, furnishes, to this very important question, an unequivocal answer. He gave him, the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. In this very chapter, Jesus saith," all thine are mine," and the Father had before declared, all souls to be his. Now, Sir, if all souls belong to the Father, and the Son says, all thine are mine; all that the Father hath, he hath given unto me, and then prays, " Father I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, may be with me, where I am, that they may behold my glory." How dare any body say, that our great High Priest did not make intercession for every human soul?

C. Why then does he say, these shall go away into everlasting fire. Who were these, were they not men?

M. You have already affirmed they were not.

C. I, Sir! I affirm they were not?

M. Yes, you, Sir; for you asserted Jesus was always heard when he prayed: that those for whom he prayed could not be lost, and we have seen that he has prayed for the whole world.

C. Who are those upon the left hand? are they men or evil spirits ?

M. The Apostle informs us, Jude vi. they were the angels, who kept not their first estate, who are reserved in chains under darkness, to the judgment of the great day, and on that great day they are brought forth to judgment:

C. O! dreadful.

M. Sir, I have but rehearsed the words of my God. If angels be not judged on that day, what, I pray, becomes of the declaration,

which assures us that they shall? "Know ye not," saith the Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians vi. 3."know ye not, that we shall judge angels?" The angels are reserved to the general judgment, but if they be not those who are found on the left hand of the Redeemer, where shall we search for them? If they be not then judged, at what period are they to be judged? You do not reply! I will then add, all human sinners are sheep going astray; sheep are figurative of human sinners, and goats of angelic sinners. And, as the Shepherd divides the one from the other, in order to preserve the sheep from the injury they must suffer, by contact with such mischievous animals so Jesus, when the appointed time shall arrive, will separate the fallen spirits of the angelic order, from the fallen spirits who have tabernacled in clay, and have been deceived by those fiends of darkness, sending the one to that fire, which was prepared for them, and receiving the other to the kingdom prepared for them. It will not therefore be, as the house you designed for yourself, and afterwards changing your mind, relinquished it to a tenant. No, Sir, the gifts and callings of God are without repentance.

C. Fine doings, indeed! The devils on the left hand! The Lord to say to the devils, I was hungry, and ye gave me no meat !!

M. Sir, you seem to be very angry at the thought of the devils' being sentenced to punishment; while you can with great composure think of the eternal damnation of your fellow creatures.

C. The Devil to be spoken to in that manner, I was hungry and ye gave me no meat !!

M. Can you prove that the Devil did give him meat? Have you not heard of individuals being instigated by the Devil? Did not the Devil enter into Judas? Paul asserts, Ephesians, chapter ii. 2. that the Ephesian christians in time past, walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Again, 6. 12. "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." In the margin of some bibles, this spiritual wickedness is rendered evil spirits. When I was daily with you in the temple, said our Saviour, you stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness. Now, said the Redeemer, is the judgment of this world : now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

Observe, at

160

the judgment of this world, the prince of this world is cast out. But when Jesus is lifted up, all men will be drawn unto him. Can a testimony be more plain? The Redeemer, while sojourning upon this globe, repeatedly removed the evil spirits from the human tenements, which they audaciously presumed to occupy; these devils recognized him, and cried out," art thou come to torment us before our time?" What was the conduct of the individual possessed by these devils? No man could bind him, no, not with chains, for as often as he had been bound in times past, with fetters and chains, the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces; no man could tame him, he leaped every barrier; no human effort could restrain his unlicensed wanderings; night and day he was found cutting himself with stones, pacing the mountains, or dwelling among the tombs; nay, he was driven by the destroyer of peace and innocence, naked into the wilderness. But Jesus commands, and the unclean spirit came out of the man. What is the consequence? He is clothed, clothed in the robe of the Redeemer's righteousness; no need of chains and fetters to bind him now; he will enter without constraint the paths of rectitude. No longer doth he wander on the mountains of error; he is calm, tractable, happy; he is in his right mind, in one word, he is sitting at the feet of Jesus. Is not this a specimen of what our God will do with the whole human race, and will not that be a blessed era, when every individual shall be brought, like the man among the tombs, to sit at the feet of Jesus?

C. Still the absurdity of the idea remains; the Devils do not feed the hungry, visit the sick and imprisoned, &c. &c. &c.

M. Surely you have not attended: again therefore I ask, have you not heard of individuals stimulated by the Devil? and can you not conceive of evil spirits, so powerfully operating upon the hearts of the children of disobedience, as to prevent their feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, sheltering the stranger, clothing the naked, or visiting the sick and the imprisoned sufferer? Why, I would ask, is it more absurd to consider the fallen spirits of the angelic order, as producing these melancholy effects in the conduct of individuals, over whom they were influential; and being thus, upon this solemn occasion, addressed, why, I say, is this more absurd, than to suppose the God of all created beings, the Judge of the universe speaking of himself, as receiving, or not receiving, in the character of various individuals, food, drink, raiment and visi s

of consolation. "Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you have done it, or done it not unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it, or done it not unto me."

C. I never shall embrace these sentiments; God preserve me from such damnable doctrine; and I hope too, that you, Sir, will in due time be made to see your error.

Thus ended our conversation.

me.

I have passed a pleasant hour with a captain Murray he was delighted when he found the same letters composed our name, that we were both born in England and in the same shire; in consequence of which, he appeared flattered by every attention paid to What is it that makes people in general experience a kind of attachment to individuals bearing their name? Is not this affection implanted by the God of nature, the God of grace? Was it not strongly operative upon the God Man, when, as the greatest favour the Divine nature could confer upon the human nature, it is said, thy seed and thy name shall endure before me for ever? Yes indeed, and in truth, it is of infinite consequence to us, that Jesus Christ is our name sake; that as the flock of God's people are men, the Son of God should be the man of God's right hand. There are many particulars in the works of God, overlooked by unreflecting man, which, if attended to, would serve to illustrate that grand subject, which will be the joy of every sinner's heart, and his consolation forever: but whether this attraction occasioned by similarity of names, may be considered in the number, I leave you to determine.

I have perused and reperused that part of your letter, to which you are so solicitous to see an answer; I mean respecting the absurd ideas which the world entertain of the Deity. The foundation of my sentiments, which appears to me to be so well laid, as to be strictly speaking immoveable, is that God is unchangeable; that he never loves at one time what he hates at another time; that he is the irreconcilable foe of sin, and the never varying friend of the sinner. This, with one voice, my opponents declare false; positively asserting, that God loves many individuals now whom he hated; and this, if I comprehend your meaning, you yourself suppose may possibly happen, even without a change in the immutable object of our adoration!

Thus you argue: "If when I attain immaculate perfection, I am more pleasing in the sight of the supreme Being, than when VOL. I.

21

deformed by crimes of the blackest die, is God therefore changed?" I answer, yes, if he loves you more than he did before, or has a greater aversion to your crimes. But if he always viewed your person in that book, where all the members were written, as the dew of his youth, in the womb of the morning, beholding you there dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto himself by Jesus Christ, and if in the fulness of time, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; then the world as the object of the Father's love, must be always immaculate; and that change which produces you perfect, should it happen here, or hereafter, will not prove that God is changed respecting his love, or that he is more pleased with you now than formerly; on the contrary, it was the fervency of his love and delight in you, that caused the change in you. Nor is he changed with respect to time; for, from eternity, the divine Being saw how much of the wrath of man would be necessary to praise him, and the remainder he ever did, and ever will restrain.

God loved Saul when a persecutor, as well as Paul when an apostle; and he delighted in him as much in Christ Jesus, while he continued tabernacled in the flesh, as now that he has become a denizen of heaven.

It was not God who was changed on the way to Damascus, but the everlasting, unchangeable love of Jehovah, just at that precise moment, changed Saul the persecutor of the brethren, into Paul a messenger of reconciliation and peace; and thus, to this able minister, this journey became the due time.

Supposing then, to use your own beautiful similitude, I possess a valuable piece of cloth, but it is black and gloomy; I have an aversion to black, but suddenly the hue which I abhor, is, as has frequently been done, entirely discharged, and a surface unspotted and dazzlingly white again strikes my enraptured view; I am now gratified and charmed, but you continue, what then, I am not changed; I still dislike the one colour, and admire the other. I answer, you are not changed, if you have as much pleasure in the cloth and its brightened hue, as you ever had, and no more; but if, when the cloth was enveloped in gloom, you hated the cloth as well as the die, and when it shone in pure white, you loved the cloth as well as the colour, then indeed, you were as much changed as the cloth; and when the artist performed the operation on the one direct