Free Thoughts in Captivity (to Zion)Honourable and highly honoured, venerable and virtuous Mother,I Wish electing love, sovereign mercy, promised peace, and the abundance of light, life; and comfort; ever to remain with thee and thy highly favoured fraternity. Some time ago an anonymous pamphlet was sent to me by one of our stewards of the household, affirmed to be written by a Mr. Skinner; with an earnest request that I would publish an answer to the same; upon perusal of which I thought it required one, because the whole contents are levelled against our palaces, walls, towers, and bulwarks. The language of every free thought concerning Zion is, raze it, raze it, even to the foundation. The whole piece contains notions diametrically opposite to the doctrinal articles which he must have sworn to and subscribed, if ever he was licensed; nor has he spoken as the oracles of God; nor do I believe that the contents of this pamphlet are consonant with the confession of faith that he delivered at his ordination; if they are, I am bold to affirm, that the presbytery did not bring his thoughts to the touchstone, nor sufficiently prove the free-thinker, but laid hands too suddenly on him. The person that can swear and subscribe to doctrines which he doth not believe; confess truth with his lips, and hug a lie in his heart; abjure the doctrines of popery with an oath, and then publish a defence of the same; declare that he believes in his conscience the doctrines of the protestant church, and then preach and write the sentiments of the popish, must be hardened to a dreadful degree, and past feeling; and if ever he was licensed, which as an obedient subject he ought to be, then he is the man. If a man takes no heed to himself, nor to his own conscience, he will take none to his doctrine; therefore there is little likelihood of his saving himself, or them that hear him; dissimulation is more worthy the pillory than the pulpit. The author of this piece gives us to understand by his title, that he is a free-thinker, such as Paul was before he was called by grace; and he has acted with tongue and pen, as Paul did with his authority from the chief priest; who thought he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus, which he also did, Acts xxvi. 9. And our author thinks he ought to speak and write many things contrary to the doctrines and household of Jesus, which he also hath done. God, who best knows the heart of man, has declared that the wickedness of man is great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart is only evil continually, Gen. vi. 5. The scriptures intimate that every natural man, or free-thinker, will endeavour to debase his Maker to a level with himself, arraign his conduct at the bar of his reason; the mystery of his sovereign will must comport with the freedom of his, and the thoughts of God must run in the channel of his thoughts: "Thou thoughtest," says God, "that I was altogether such an one as thyself; but I will reprove thee, and set them [thy sins] in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver." Between the sovereign will of God, and the free-will of man, there is an infinite discomparison; and as infinite a distance between the good thoughts of God toward his elect, Jer. xxix. 11; and the thoughts of free-thinkers concerning themselves; "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord; for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Hence the free-thinker, who so often censures and condemns his Maker's counsel and conduct, is called an unrighteous man, and is commanded to forsake his thoughts before he presumes to approach his Maker; Let the wicked man forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, before he return unto the Lord, Isaiah lv. 7: but as this forsaking our free thoughts cannot be performed by free-will, or human power, the gospel furnishes Christ's ministers with weapons which are always attended with a divine power, where any good execution is done, and then this scouting party of free thoughts are taken prisoners, reduced to gospel obedience, and under a divine control they are taught to march in a narrower path, without breaking rank or order: "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ," 2 Cor. x. 4, 5. Under this divine power, free thoughts lose their presumptuous liberty, and the tamed sinner becoming tractable will be ashamed, and complain of his thoughts and of their wretched freedom; and, instead of exposing them so freely, will expose his hatred of them; "I hate vain thoughts, but thy law do I love." Thus the free-thinker's intoxication submits to gospel sobriety: "For I say to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly." Our author styles himself a friend to all mankind. By the particle, all, I suppose he means not the heirs of promise, but the children of the flesh, which are not the children of God, Rom. ix. 8; for I am sure he is no friend to Zion, nor to the testimony that God has given of her; there is not one of that chosen family, not one of that royal household, if taught of God and made free by the spirit of truth, but what would be sensibly injured and disgusted at such free thoughts as these, which are levelled at the sovereignty of God, the counsel of his will, his eternal purpose in Christ, the foundation of Zion, and her eternal establishment. Take heed that ye offend not one of these little ones which believe in me, Mark ix. 42. Mr. Skinner is for enlarging the bonds of the covenant; the sounding of his bowels reaches to all the offspring of old Adam; the mercy of God, and the death of Christ must follow wherever his free thoughts lead the van; for he supposes that God is just such an one as himself; the Bible is to speak the imaginations of his heart; the thoughts are his own, the voice of God is only to articulate them. He has nothing to offer in behalf of God's elect; no encouragement for the children of promise; it is the cause of old Adam, and of the children of the flesh, that he has undertaken to plead; and no doubt but the Edomites and Ishmaelites will greatly rejoice to see so nervous a logician step forth as their advocate in the great day, when God appears a swift witness against the workers of iniquity. He has taken care to shun the severe spirit of Paul. He has no notion of leaving the curse where God has fixed it; he would rather bless Moab than Israel; " If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha;" nor does he approve of the apostle's narrowness of spirit, who would endure all things for the elect sake only, that they might obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory, 2 Tim. ii. 10. He informs us that he is an advocate for free inquiry into matters of religion; and we may justly reply, that he does not inquire wisely concerning this matter. For as the Bible reveals a blessing and a curse, and mentions children of God and children of the flesh, heirs of promise and heirs of wrath; while the cunning hunter and the plain dealer, the man of the field and the man of the tent, are struggling together for the birth-right and the blessing, the best way is, not to inquire of free thoughts concerning the mystery of election, but to do as Rebecca did, go and inquire of the Lord; and if the answer be, Two nations are within thy womb; the one, a chosen generation, an holy nation, 1 Peter ii. 9; and the other, a people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever, Mal. 4; if two manner of people are to be separated from her bowels, one being children of the flesh and the other children of the promise; if the elder in old Adam is to serve the younger in the second Adam; if Jacob is beloved, and Esau hated, Gen. xxv. 23; Mal. i. 2, 3: then the blessing is to be applied to the proper heir, according to the mind and will of God, not according to our free thoughts. Isaac was going to err in this point, but God stopped him. Upon mount Zion God has commanded the blessing; not on mount Seir, which is Esau; nor upon mount Sinai, which is Hagar and Ishmael. The inheritance is entailed on Abraham's chosen family, on Isaac's blessed race, and on the Israel of God. This is the nation that God owns for his, the nation that he has blessed: "The counsel of the Lord standeth fast for ever, and the thoughts of his heart to all generations: Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." For a free-thinker to pretend to entail God's blessing where God has denied it, is no less than daring arrogance; "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his [free] thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help." He is an abomination that justifies the wicked; and he is no better than an abomination who declares that the heirs of promise whom God hath blessed may fall away, and be cursed at last. Balaam, who lost both his life and his soul by attempting to curse them whom God had blessed, never went so far, though the devil helped him; there is no enchantment against Jacob, there is the beloved father; no divination against Israel, there is the elected seed; who can curse Jacob, or defy Israel? "I have received commandment to bless," though we know his free thoughts run in another channel, for he intended to curse; but he is obliged to own God "hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob," our everlasting father; "neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel," who stand complete in him. I would advise our author to act as Salaam did, listen to the voice of God, and consult free thoughts no more about the matter, seeing it cannot be altered: "And when Balaam saw that it pleased God to bless Israel, he went not as at other times to seek for enchantments;" he laid the devil's vain help by, and spoke the truth plainly: "He couched, he lay down as a lion, and as a great lion; who shall stir him up? Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee." Our author takes the whole Bible as the only code of Christian laws; by which he would give us to understand that he belongs to mount Sinai, the bond-woman in the figure, which is in bond, age with all her children; and it is clear that the old veil is still upon his heart in reading this code of laws. Had he been a child of light, or an heir of promise, he would have found something in the Bible besides a code of laws; it is a strange will and testament that has got nothing but commands in it. However, the Bible is his code of laws; and we know that whatsoever that code said], it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped from boasting, and the whole world become guilty before God instead of innocent. He is willing that men should enjoy their religious sentiments, however they may differ from his, though he has spent all the free thoughts of his quiver against their sentiments; and he is 'persuaded that right of private judgment, and liberty of conscience, are inseparably connected with a day of retribution, when every one shall give account of himself to God.' Whether this right pleaded for be human or divine we are not informed; but as divinity is the subject, the right ought to have a divine grant from God; spiritual rights and privileges being included among the good and perfect gifts that come from the Father of light. No man by nature has any hereditary right; nor is any man upon earth empowered to grant any right to spiritual things. Private judgment in spiritual matters, as well as public judgment, ought to be according to truth. For want of light to discern; for want of a right granted from God; for want of knowing the scriptures, and the power of God, wrong judgment proceedeth, Hab. i. 4. 'A day of retribution.' A day of repaying what is due to God; a day of giving up accounts to God for every free thought, word, and action; for the doctrines he subscribed to; for the confession he made at his ordination; and for every false doctrine he has advanced; and all this under a code of Christian laws, according to a scheme of free thoughts; God be merciful to such poor blind souls, who darken counsel by words without knowledge, and utter things they understand not. If vindictive Justice makes a demand of Mr. Skinner by law, the retribution, repayment, or recompense, will be scanty enough, God knows. "Will ye render me a recompense? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompense upon your own head." Should this be the case, our author had need to seek for a surety, and adapt the ancient petition, "Enter not into judgment with thy servant," O Lord, "for in thy sight," neither by a code of laws, nor by the free thoughts of man, "shall no man living be justified," Psalm cxliii. 2. But this right of private judgment, and liberty of conscience, so closely connected with a day of retribution, seems not to be a right granted from above, but from beneath; for it follows, 'And it is the felicity of Britons, that they enjoy liberty, not only of private judgment, but of exposing their sentiments to the world.' This liberty was enjoyed by Simon Magus, Arius, and Pelagius, as well as Mr. Skinner, though they were not Britons, and they had the felicity of dragging thousands into the snare of the devil as well as themselves; they sent many proselytes to their wicked works beforehand to judgment, and they left their damnable heresies to entangle others that shall go after them, by which means their felicity will be increased; or, to speak in the language of Milton, they will be supreme in misery. If a man's liberty and sentiments be from God, he has a divine right to expose them to others; but if a man hates instruction, if he casts God's word behind him, if he hates to be reformed, whatever liberty or felicity he may boast of as a Briton, God has forbidden him to declare his statutes, or take his covenant in his mouth, Psalm 1. 16, 17. 'By exposing my sentiments, error is detected, and truth established, in defence of which these pages are made public.' By error our author means the doctrines of the gospel, which, if he be licensed, he swore to maintain; and by truth he means his own thoughts, or mischievous devices that he has uttered against the counsel of God; we know there are many devices in this man's heart, nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand, Prov. xix. 21. Our author has no 'sinister ends to serve,' though he writes against the word of God in behalf of the world; 'no party to please; no system that must be supported, because it has long been established by men.' The doctrinal articles of the church of England were not established by men; they were drawn from the word of God, which was established in the secret purpose of God in Christ Jesus from all eternity. The system that our author's free thoughts are offered in defence of, has been long established by man; he is writing against the secret purpose of God, against his absolute choice of his people, and against discriminating grace. And has not this system been long established by man? These were the things that provoked Cain; "God had respect to Abel and to his offering, but to Cain and his offering he had not respect." Cain saw this; and God, who knew his heart, and knew that he was for a free-will establishment, dealt with him accordingly, that is, conditionally, as he has dealt with all his followers ever since: "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? but if not, sin lies at thy door;" and Cain is as sure to do well as the Ethiopian is to change his skin, or the leopard his spots. God left him to his own free-will, and in his own religion; in defence of which, and in rage against the grace of God, he slew his brother. There are but two classes of men in the world, heirs of promise, and heirs of wrath; no more than two foundations, the rock and the sand; the one is mount Zion, which God has founded, the other is Sinai in the figure, the children of the flesh, whose foundation is in the dust, Job iv. 19; whose basis is free agency. This religion was founded by Cain; in the behalf of which human establishment Mr. Skinner's free thoughts are made public. This human establishment has never wanted its advocates; in every age there have been some zealous defenders of it; Ishmael, Esau, false prophets, Judas, false apostles, Pelagius, Van Hermin, and John Child in the puritanic age, stepped forth and published a legion of free thoughts, the same in substance as our author's, but more nervous a great deal. He wrote against the doctrines of grace, and the preachers of them, until the band of God touched him, then he sunk into black despair, where he lay bellowing and cursing his book of free thoughts, till like Judas he hanged himself, The history and writings of John Child are well known in the world. One would have thought. such a visible stroke from God would have been sufficient to have awed every free-thinker in the world; "Every morning doth God bring his judgments to light, he faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame." Our author wishes that his thoughts may be blessed to his readers, and Christ is to have the praise. Will a man speak wickedly for God? will he talk deceitfully for him? Job xiii. 7. Will he contradict his Maker, oppose the word of his grace,. and attempt to secure a tribute of praise by encouraging rebellion? Surely God gets no praise from lying lips, nor from a deceitful tongue, Psal. lii. 3, 4. I shall dismiss the title and the preface, and consider our author's thoughts, and set the revealed thoughts of God against them; and as he has jumbled five or six doctrines together, I shall pick them out, one by one, and quote as little of his work as possible, lest I swell my own too big. The first doctrine that is to be levelled by free thoughts is the doctrine of election, which is stated in the following manner: First, 'That God, before the foundation of the world, chose from among mankind a certain number of persons by name; and that this number is so determined, that it can be neither augmented nor diminished. For these persons, and for these only, Christ died; and of consequence they must be saved; they are therefore termed the elect.' These are the errors that he is going to detect; this is part of the system that he supposes has been long established by man, whereas these are the doctrines that God has established, these are truths that shall be settled in heaven. First, Their choice: "According as he [God] hath chosen us in him [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame before him in love." Secondly, These are chosen from among mankind, "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them, I speak not of you all; I know whom I have chosen," John xiii. 18. "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." Here is a world that loves his own; here is a number chosen out of the world; a number that are not of the world, and this number the world hates, because they are chosen: "Because I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." Thirdly, These are chosen by name: "And he that remaineth in Jerusalem shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem." " Rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven." "The general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven," Heb. xii. "I entreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow labourers whose names are in the book of life." These names are written in heaven, in the book of life, and their record is on high, Job xvi. 19. This number cannot be augmented. "And all that dwell upon earth shall worship him [the beast], whose names are not written in the book of life, of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire," Rev. xx. 15. "And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." This number cannot be diminished. "It is not the will of your Father that one of these little ones should perish." "I give unto them [my sheep], eternal life; anti they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hands. My Father is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." They are saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation; they shall not. be ashamed nor confounded world without end, Isaiah xlv. 17. They shall be delivered every one that is found written in the book, Dan. xii. They shall return to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their head, Isaiah xxxv. 10. "Whom he [God] did foreknow he also did predestinate; and whom he did predestinate them he also called; and whom he called them he also justified; and whom he justified them he also glorified." Whom God predestinated he glorified: it is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth? God is for us; who can be against us; who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect; who shall separate us from the love of Christ? This number can neither be augmented nor diminished. "I know, that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever; nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it; and God doeth it [not that men should dispute the point of sovereignty with him, but] that men should fear before him." The elect number of God's family is determined, there is no room left for augmentation or "He is the Rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are judgment: A God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he." In the business of election there is no work that free will or free thoughts, head or tail, branch or rush, may do, Isaiah xix. 15. Reprobation comes next among this troop of free thoughts: 'The rest of mankind were passed by, or left in the ruins of fallen nature; and as Christ did not die for them, they must perish; these consequently are called reprobate,' Page 2. This is brought in again in page 64: 'On this supposition, can the sentiments vindicated do any injury to mankind at large? Whom can they hurt? not the elect, they are secure; not the reprobate, for they are secure also; for on the principles opposed, the elect must be saved, do what they will; and the reprobates must be lost, do what they can.' "If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God." That God has chosen in Christ Jesus a certain number by name is already proved; and a choice implies some left, or not included in the choice; these are chosen from the rest of mankind; they are chosen of God; "And except the Lord had shortened those days [of affliction], no flesh should be saved; but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days," Mark xiii. 20. They are chosen in Christ, they are chosen from among them that perish, they shall never perish; they are chosen out of the world, and the world hates God's choice of them, and them on account of the choice. This chosen number is but few when compared to the rest they were chosen from. It will be hard to prove that one half of the human race ever heard the gospel call; and those that really have are a large number when compared to the elect; "Many be called, but few chosen." This chosen number are couched in the promise made to Christ; "A seed shall serve him, it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation." This promised generation is well known to God, and to him only, until he makes it known to the seed whom by grace he enables to make their calling and election sure. Who shall declare this generation; Isa. liii. 8. Why Mr. Skinner has; he declares it to be all the offspring of Adam; but the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; and so far from all Adam's offspring being included, all Abraham's seed are not included; neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called; "That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed," Rom. ix. 7, 8; which Peter applies to the elect; "But ye are a chosen generation;" to whom in Christ the promise of life was made "My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever." These chosen ones are called the faithful seed of Abraham, God's friend; heirs of promise, called in Isaac not in Ishmael: "Now we brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of the promise." They are called the Israel of God, the seed of the spiritual Jacob, whom God hath chosen, Isa. xli. 8; on which account God styles himself the God of Abraham, whom he called alone and blessed; the God of Isaac, in whom the seed was to be called; and the God of Jacob, the father of every subject of mercy, or son of peace: "Peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God." This God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, doth not call himself the God of Terah, the God of Ishmael, nor the God of Esau; he is not the God of the dead; not a covenant God to those who were not ordained to eternal life, but the God of those to whom be gave life in Christ Jesus before the world was; not the God of the dead in law, called the bond-woman and her children she is desolate, she is not the married wife; she is Ruhamah, not my wife, saith the Lord, Hosea ii. 1, 2; nor is he the God of the dead in sin, who stand in the first Adam, for in Adam all die; these are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, Rom. ix. 8. The ministry is a savour of death unto death to these; God works a work that they shall in no wise believe, Acts xiii. 41; he is therefore not the God of the dead, but he is the God of the living; namely, of all that he predestinated to the adoption of sons; all that he ordained to eternal life; to these, and to none else, he gives gospel faith; "And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed." Thus Jehovah is not the God of the dead but of the living; the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God of Abraham, who is the father of us all, who considered not his own body dead though an hundred years old; he is the God of Sarah the free woman, the mother of us all, whose children we are, at whose deadness Abraham staggered not, but by faith surmounted the deadness of Sarah's womb, on which account the elect are commanded to look to Abraham their father, instead of Adam, and to Sarah that bare them, instead of Eve. And when God styles himself the God of Isaac, Ishmael is excluded; and when he styles himself the God of Jacob, all his seed are not included: "They are not all Israel which are of Israel; neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children; but in Isaac shall thy seed be called," Those that are predestinated to the adoption of sons; those that God gave life to in Christ Jesus before the world was, are the heirs of promise, and the promised seed, and no other. Abraham was typical of Christ, as the everlasting father of the faithful; and Isaac typical of Christ, as the promised seed; "He saith not of seeds as of many, but to thy seed which is Christ," and Jacob was typical of Jesus, as that prince that had power with God and man: "Thou art my servant, O Jacob, in whom I will be glorified." Abraham's seed were those that were ordained to eternal life; these believe as Abraham did; Isaac's seed are the heirs of promise, and Jacob's seed is the spiritual Israel of God, consisting both of Jews and Gentiles; on which account God saith, "Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel whom I have chosen: thus saith the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, and Jeshurun whom I have chosen. One shall say, I am the Lord's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel." Thus God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the elect are called the children of Abraham, the house of Isaac, and the seed of Jacob, or Israel of God. The elect are never styled the children of Adam, for the promise was made to Christ in their behalf before Adam fell; on which account it is said, the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God. The elect are a seed given to the second Adam, called the children of the promise, which are counted for the seed; nor are they called the children of Cain, who was of that wicked one, to which father the Saviour pointed many of the Jews who laid claim to Abraham, "If ye were the children of Abraham ye would do his works; ye are of your father the devil;" nor are they called the children of Hagar, for the bond-children which are in the flesh are palmed upon her; nor are they called the children of Ishmael, he was born after the flesh, and persecuted him that was by promise, and so it is now; nor are they called the children of Esau, whom God hated, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright; his offspring are to be called the borders of wickedness, against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever. Before universal love, universal grace, and universal redemption can be proved, it will be necessary to point out the promises that were made to the old Adam, to Cain, to Hagar, to Ishmael, and to Esau. Paul says, to Abraham and to his seed were the promises made; he saith not of seeds as of many, but to thy seed which is Christ, to whom a generation is to be accounted; and the children of the promise are counted for the seed. The whole book of God entails the promise and the blessing on Christ and his chosen, called children of the promise; from which promise old Adam as the head and his children after the flesh are excluded; unless Mr. Skinner can produce it from a new bible, of his own making. I own the doctrine of reprobation is a most tremendous and awful subject; but I am as sure that it is a truth as I am that there is a God in heaven. The first moment that God shone with a divine ray on my soul, that moment the human race were divided into two classes - the one under the law, the other under grace; the commands and the promises were arranged over the head of each class, as is related in my 'Kingdom of Heaven taken by Prayer;' and when Mr. Skinner can give some account of a work of grace upon his own soul, and of his ever being taught of God, I shall give more attention to him. Free thoughts upon the Letter of divine revelation is not sufficient; a divine power is wanted; the kingdom is not in word but in power; the free-thinker doth therefore err, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. The Lord created all things, and for his pleasure they are and were created, Rev. iv. 11; and his pleasure will be done: "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:'' "I form the light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil; I the Lord do all these things." "The Lord hath made all things for himself, yea even the wicked for the day of evil." God's chosen sheep shall be sought out of all places whither they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day, Ezek. xxxiv. 12. "I am found of them that sought me not." Others shall seek him and shall not find him, and where he is they cannot come, John vii. 34. "Thy people also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified," Isa. lx. 21. "Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in." To the nation that God makes righteous, the gates shall be open, but to none else; others shall strive, but in vain. "Strive to enter in at the strait gate, for many I say unto you will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." All that shall enjoy the land which is very far off for ever, are branches of the Lord's planting, Mr. Skinner is for a second plantation; but their stock shall not take root; for "Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up." To the heirs of promise it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to others it is not given. To the elect, who are called babes, and therefore very incapable of receiving them, these things are revealed; and from the wise and prudent, the best capable of instruction, these things are hid; and so it seemeth good in our heavenly Father's sight, though it seems evil in the eyes of Mr. Skinner. "The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. I will build thee, saith the Lord, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel." To the elect God imputes an everlasting righteousness, Dan. ix. 24; Psal. cxix. 142; and for these righteous ones he has laid an everlasting foundation, Prov. x. 25. Our answer, therefore, to every messenger is, that "The Lord hath founded Zion." Our sovereign Lord is a sanctuary to some, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to others; "And many shall stumble and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken," Isa. viii. 14, 15. "Many shall be purified and made white, and tried: but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand." This is speaking as the oracles of God. The Lord hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? Isa. xiv. 27. Some are predestinated, called, justified, and glorified. The elect obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory, 2 Tim. ii. 10. These he predestinated according to his purpose; predestinated to the adoption of sons, Ephes. 5; and to glory. All men are not included in this decree; all the human race are not elected; there is a world that is left out of this choice; "I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." The rest are left to the freedom of their own will, of which they boast; on the basis of free agency they stand; for this bottom they contend; under the law they are, and to the law they cleave, and they have a right so to do; for the law to them will never be dead, therefore they have no right to marry another, Rom. vii. 3. These bond children hate election, and the elect; they hate an unconditional promise, and the heirs of it; they hate sovereign grace, and the subjects of it. "He that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit; even so it is now: nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bond woman and her son, for he shall not be heir with the son of the free woman." So then the elect are not of the bond woman, but of the free. Cain began the controversy; and as he could not control the will of his Maker, nor gain the point of his brother by the force of argument, he ended it with the fist of wickedness, and the children of the flesh have carried on his cause against the heirs of promise ever since; in behalf of which our present author has thrown his free thoughts into the treasury, that the rising generation may produce their cause, and bring forth his strong reasons, if the King of Jacob should give them a challenge. Cain was of that wicked one; and we are of God, says John; and there are children of God, and children of the devil to this day, notwithstanding all the pains that men and devils have taken to make these two staves called beauty and bands become one staff in the hand of God, Zech. xi. 7-9. Some have preached a decree of their own, and have brought in a second sort of elect persons, who have chosen God, without his previous choice of them. These have augmented the determinate number of God's elect, just as the devil is said to augment a congregation by a number of hypocrites: "The good seed are the children of the kingdom, but tares are the children of the wicked one: the enemy that sowed them is the devil." But after all this labour and toil, there are some chosen, and some rejected: "Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them;" they will not pass for current coin; their superscription will not do. God shall despise their image. But the chosen part shall be purified as silver is purified, and be tried as gold is tried; "They shall call on my name, and I will hear them; and I will say, It is my people, and they shall say, The Lord is my God," Zech. xiii. 9 These shall pass for current coin; their superscription is good; and God knows their image; "For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son." Who can give a saving knowledge of Christ to them to whom it is not given? Who can reveal these things to the wise and prudent, from whom God has hid them? Who can apply Christ to those that are to seek him and not find him? Who can open the door to those that shall strive to enter in and shall not be able? Men's free thoughts are not the keys of the kingdom of heaven: they can be of no force against the Lord of life and death, with whom are the keys of the house of David, as well as the keys of death and of hell, Rev. i. 18; who "doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, what doest thou?" Notwithstanding the awfulness of this tremendous subject of reprobation, which has made many a chosen vessel to tremble, and which free-thinkers are so dreadfully disgusted at, there is no set of men under heaven that paddle so much in it, and treat it so irreverently, lightly, and contemptuously as they; which, beside scripture testimony, gives me reason to believe that there certainly is such a doctrine as reprobation, and that there is such a people as reprobates, or else our opponents would never discharge such legions of strong reasons, forcible arguments, and free thoughts against the same. If there be no such strong hold as reprobation to besiege, no such people to defend, why this perpetual calling to arms? Why these warm attacks, and repeated discharges? Men of their wisdom and sense would never so fight as men that beat the air. I am persuaded better things of them; that they have a conviction that there is such a doctrine, and such a people, though they thus speak. Our author brings in the holiness, wisdom, power, justice, and mercy of God, but takes heed to evade his sovereignty, which I think is wisely done; these attributes of God he styles the first principles which are to be admitted as the standard of all Christian doctrine; then he touches upon the death of Christ, and flies to the universal benevolence of God, whose name is love, and whose tender mercies are over all his works. "God so loved the world," saith our author, "that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life," John iii. I shall endeavour to rescue these things from this labyrinth of free thoughts, and set them in their own proper light; in doing which I shall consider,
God loveth his people with an everlasting love. All that find grace in God's sight are thus loved: "Thus saith the Lord, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness, even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee." All that are thus loved, are given to Christ Jesus: "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." The objects of this love are drawn to Christ; "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him; and I will raise him up at the last day," John vi. 44. Not one soul, thus loved of God, given to Christ in the decree of election, and by loving kindness drawn to him, shall ever be lost. "I came not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." "give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand; my Father which gave them me is greater than all: and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." These are the elect, who are loved with an everlasting love, to whom God hath given everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, which comforts their hearts, and establishes them in every good word and work, 2 Thess. ii. 16, 17. This love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. This is that charity which never faileth; that charity that abideth for ever; even when faith shall end in open vision, and hope in eternal enjoyment. Thus are the elect loved with an everlasting love; these find grace in God's sight, are given and drawn to Christ, ordained to salvation, and to the resurrection of eternal life by the will of God; secured from the free thoughts of men, and the gates of hell, by the everlasting arms of God the Father and God the Son, confirmed by the promise of everlasting life, by the witness and seal of the Holy Ghost, and by the inviolable oaths of God, who has sworn to Christ our covenant head, and to the elect, who are the chosen generation, or covenant seed: "I have made a covenant with my chosen; I have sworn unto David my servant," Psal. lxxxix. 3; which is Christ. "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie unto David, his seed shall endure for ever." Next, the Lord swears to the chosen seed: "For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart front thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord, that hath mercy on thee." Is this promise and oath made to all the race of Adam? No; "The children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed;" and to these, and these only, is the oath and promise made: "Surely, in blessing I will bless thee" there is the promise. "And because God could swear by no greater, he sware by himself. Wherein God willing more abundantly to shew to the heirs of promise the immutability of his council, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast." If all the forts of carnal reason in the world were to be opened at one time, assisted with all the floating batteries of free thoughts, and they should continue one perpetual and unremitted storm, even till the archangel's trumpet proclaim the God of armies coming, Zion's foundation, and her chief corner stone, would stand as unshaken as the everlasting hills, the bases of heaven, or the throne of God. Not one lively stone of mercy's building could ever be removed or displaced: The Highest himself hath established her, she shall not be moved, Psal. xlvi. 5. "Mercy shall be built up for ever." "..once more, I shake not the earth only, but also heaven; which signifieth removing of those things that are shaken [free thoughts among the rest], that those things which cannot be shaken may remain: but we have received a kingdom that cannot be moved, Heb. xii.26 - 28 It hath been proved that the heirs of promise are loved with an everlasting love; and that the children of the flesh are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed; that the elect are such as God fore knew; they are the sheep, which the Saviour knows: "I know my sheep, and am known of mine." The others are the children of the flesh, which are not the children of God; are called strangers: he provides for these, and displays his care over them; they are the work of his hands. "He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment." These persons are not foreknown in God's decree; strangers they are called; strangers they will remain; and such they will be esteemed at the great day: "Depart from me, I know you not." "Depart from me, I never knew you." These are not the promised seed of Christ; For they shall all know the Lord, from the least of them to the greatest of them. All Christ's children shall be taught of the Lord. The rest are strangers; he loveth them in executing judgment for them, and giving them food and raiment, and no further. I come now to consider the mercy of God. "The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works." But these works are distinguished from the saints in the next verse; "All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall, bless thee." This goodness and tender mercy that is over all God's works, is extended both to man and beast. God saves them from many dangers. The Lord it is that preserveth both man and beast, Psal. xxxvi. 6. God is kind to the unthankful and to the evil, Luke vi. 35. "He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Thus far is the goodness of God extended to the non-elect; but to the small number of God's elect, his goodness is spoken of on this wise, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." But to those excluded from that number he speaketh thus, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight." I shall now consider the mercy of God more fully. It hath been observed, that God's tender mercies are over all his works. And this is sometimes displayed in a conspicuous manner, as it was to Saul, by making him king, and delivering Israel by his hands. But this is only a temporal mercy, and is conditional, and may therefore be taken away in case of non-performance, because it is not secured by a covenant of grace. Children of wrath may have this. The Lord took hold of the hand of Lot, and of his wife, and of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to them, and bid them escape for their life, and not look back, nor tarry in all the plain. The conduct of Lot's two daughters is well known; and we are commanded by way of caution to remember Lot's wife, who was an unbeliever. God gave the house of Israel a king in his anger, and took him away in his wrath. God calls the gift of the kingdom to Saul a mercy, which afterwards he recalled from him. But the mercy of God to his elect is spiritual and eternal, and eternally secured by a covenant of grace, made with David and his seed, which is Christ, and is sure to all the elect seed which were chosen in him.. "'And when thou [David] shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee," which is Christ, the fruit of David's loins according to the flesh, Acts ii. 30, "He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever." So said Christ, "Upon this rock will I build my church." "And I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. My mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thine house, [which is the household of David, upon which the Spirit of grace and supplication is poured,] and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever," 2 Sam. vii.. 12-16. "God hath fulfilled the promise made to our fathers, in that he hath raised Jesus from the dead;" as it is also written in the second Psalm, "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee; and as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David," Acts xiii. 33, 34. This mercy is not temporal nor conditional; it is one of the spiritual blessings given us in Christ Jesus. It is the mercy promised to the fathers, which God performed in remembrance of his holy covenant, confirmed by the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, Luke i. 72, 73. This mercy is eternally secured to Christ and his seed by covenant. "I will make him, my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore; and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven." What is a web of free thoughts, spun out of human brains, polluted both in the warp and in the woof, confusedly jumbled together, in craftiness and hypocrisy, when compared to such a covenant as this? Such webs may serve to entangle a few silly flies, which will stick in every stinking pot of the apothecary's ointment, Ecc. x. 1; rather than fly to the balm in Gilead, or to the great Physician there. But it never can destroy the elect of God; they cannot be deceived. Christ's seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. God has promised to the elect every necessary blessing, even the hearing ear. "In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness." Then the dead in sin, like others, shall both hear and live. "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." These are the blessed of the Lord; "Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear." To these, and to these only, God speaks in new covenant terms. "Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good [namely, strong meat]; and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." To the chosen seed in Christ Jesus, God speaketh on this wise, "And I will make an ever- lasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me." The covenant blessing promised to these souls in whom God puts his fear, is the sure and everlasting mercies of David, secured by covenant to Christ and his seed "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children." This covenant and covenant mercy shall never fail nor decay. God has said, that mercy shall be built up for ever, Psal. lxxxix. 2. It is secured by the eternal veracity of God, and must be accomplished. "For ever, Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." Let the free-thinker muster his thoughts, and utter his mischievous device; let the eloquent logician produce his cause, and bring forth his strong reasons, Isa. xli. 21; let the bowels of universal charity sound like an harp for Moab, Isa. xvi. and contend for the conversion of the world; let the whole select band of mumping prophetesses enforce their candour, and bring their repeated appeals to a candid public; we speak as the oracles of God. "Whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire." "And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?" Job xxiv. 25. Yea, we dare appeal to a candid public of free agents in behalf of our assertions; "for their rock is not as our Rock, our enemies themselves being judges." Their candour is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah. "Their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps," Dent. xxxii. 31-35. Is this Mr. Skinner, who told a friend, that he would dispute the point of universal redemption with the whole fraternity of Calvinists? Poor man, he seems never to have been favoured with one glimpse even of the frame of God's covenant. Surely God never sent the halt and the blind to turn people from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. I am inclined to think, that the least stripling in Sion's family, if taught by the Spirit of God, is sufficient in the strength of the Lord to go against any man that defies the armies of the living God. I come, in the third place, to consider the text that is entangled in this web of free thoughts. 'As the scriptures never confine the death of Christ to a few, but frequently assert that he ' died for all mankind; among many others let the following specimen suffice: " God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 'have everlasting life," John iii. 16.' This text, according to the author's free thoughts, is to suffice his readers, without inquiring any further for themselves. This might suffice Esau, who was contented with a mess of pottage; or it might suffice Hagar, the bond-woman, and her son, who went off satisfied with a bottle of water at her back. But Abraham left all that he had to Isaac, and we, as Isaac was, are heirs of promise; and it is well known that Isaac loved savoury meat, and so do his children; nothing else would suffice Isaac; the salt of the covenant of his God must not be lacking, Lev. ii. 13, when he pronounces the covenant blessing of heaven upon the succeeding heirs of promise. Our author has not quoted this text wisely. The first part, "God so loved the world," is intended to fix, according to free thoughts, the mercy of God and the death of Christ on all the human race; but how he will establish his false doctrine, of final apostasy from grace and redemption, by this text, I know not. The last clause should have been left out of his free-thought system, as that is altogether against his future doctrine of apostasy. "Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life;" then the believer is safe, he is not to perish, he is to have everlasting life. "God so loved the world;" by which world the Gentiles are meant: "Take no thought what ye shall eat or drink, for after all these things do the Gentiles seek;" which is afterwards explained thus; "For all these things do the nations of the world seek after," Luke xii. 30. The phrase is mentioned to throw down the middle wall of partition; the persons intended by the world are the chosen sheep of Christ among the Gentiles, which he explains thus "And other sheep I have which are not of this fold [not of the Jewish, but of the Gentile fold], them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd." The whole human race are not intended by the world, for the world is not redeemed, but the sheep are redeemed from among them; "No man could learn that song, but the hundred and forty and four thousand which were redeemed from the earth; these were redeemed from among men." The world that these sheep are redeemed from are, not to see Christ, but the sheep redeemed shall see him, and live too; "Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me; because I live ye shall live also." "I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world;" these, and only these, can ever receive the Holy Ghost. "And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." But why cannot the world receive, know, and see the Spirit of God as well as the elect? Because the Spirit never comes to them; they are not the seed to whom he is promised. The promise, as hath been observed, runs thus: "A seed shall serve him, and it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation." "Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." These are called the seed that the Lord hath blessed, Isaiah lxi. 9; the holy seed, Isa. vi. 13. As the children of the promise are counted for the seed, it will not be amiss to examine what the promises are that this seed are heirs to, and how the promises are fulfilled to these heirs. Christ hath a promise, and so hath the seed; "When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days; he shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." "I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather them from the west." "I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring." Here is the Spirit of God, and the blessing of God, promised as the portion of this seed. "As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord, My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever," Isa. lix. 21. We have considered Christ the everlasting Father of this seed, and the promises made to him; we have also considered the seed, and the promises made to them in Christ their head; from which seed, or heirs of promise, the children of the flesh are excluded. These are not the children of God, -whether they descend from Shem or Japheth, from Abraham or Nahor; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called; they shall be heirs of promise as Isaac was. And, for my part, I have no doubt but the promised blessing, the word of promise, and the Spirit of promise, will be applied by Christ, the testator and executor of the testament, to the proper heirs, according to the will of God; for the Saviour came not to do his own will, but the will of him that sent him, John vi. 38. This seed is called the blessed of the Lord; and he sent his Son to bless them, Acts iii. 26. This seed is to receive the words that God put into the Saviour's mouth; and so they did: "Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee; for I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I am came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me." Now let us see what seed this is, whether the whole world be intended or not. "I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world; thine they were, and thou gayest them me, and they have kept thy word," John. xvii. 6. This seed is a number given to Christ out of the world; these receive the word; and they are to receive the Spirit that was upon Christ also, which is never to depart from him nor his seed, according to the will and promise of God; which will, Christ the testator is to confirm and execute. if the world were included in the promise, they would have the Spirit sent unto them: but they are finally excluded. "The Father shall give you another Comforter; even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." Thus the blessing of God, the promise of God, and the Spirit of God, are promised to this seed, exclusive of all others. Let us see how these things are applied to this chosen seed, called heirs of promise; and whether free-thinkers are intrusted with the division and application of these promised blessings. Paul tells us the blessing is to believers: "Know ye, therefore, that they which are of faith, the same are children of Abraham: so then, they which be of faith, are blessed with faithful Abraham." The blessing we find is promised to the believer. The next inquiry is, how we come by faith? The answer is, God hath concluded all men in unbelief. Some inform us, that it is the duty of every man to believe; they must also prove that it is the duty of every man to beget himself to a lively hope with the word of truth; that it is the duty of every man to quicken his own soul, though God declares none can do it; that it his duty to produce a spiritual birth in himself, though man be born again, not of the will of man, nor of the flesh, nor of blood; and that it is the duty of every man to transform himself; for God says, that such as he forms shall show forth his praise: and that it is the duty of every man to create himself anew in Christ Jesus, without the aid of him that sits upon the throne and says, "I create all things new." This is a system that has lately appeared in the world, and agrees in substance with our present system of free thoughts. And surely the man that can do these things is a freethinker indeed, a free agent with a witness: he is his own father, his own maker, the father of his own spirit, the life of his own soul, and the God of his own existence. These men may well say, "We are lords," Jer. ii. 3 1; "Who is lord over us?" Psal. xii. 4. All these things must be done before faith can be produced; faith is the active hand of the new creature: "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." I should like to hear how this motley monster, partly carnal, and partly spiritual, as it has been lately exhibited to the world, I mean a living faith, produced by human power - I should like, I say, to hear such a believer describe the glorious object that he believes in, which the world never saw, and the hidden mystery that he builds his faith on, which none of the princes of this world ever knew: for I am inclined to think, that his description of the Saviour, and of the mystery of the gospel, would be of the same nature as his faith, that is, earthly, sensual, and devilish. And for my part, I should think that if a carnal man, destitute of the grace of God, could be prevailed on by the force of human reason, to give a fleshly assent to the gospel of Christ, according to the command of the same, that he would deceive himself, unless the Spirit of God applied it to him, and endanger his own soul, by his carnal application. No man can call Jesus his Lord but by the Holy Ghost: no man can call God his Father but by the Spirit of adoption, which is the manifestation of the poor sinner's predestination to the adoption of sons, and therefore enables the soul to cry Abba, Father. To call Christ Lord, or God Father, without the Holy Ghost, is no less than presumption; such cannot be upright before God, nor innocent from the great transgression, Psalm xix. 13. The Jews told the Saviour that they had one Father, even God: but he reproved their presumption, and told them they were of their father the devil. I know the gospel is truth: but if all the children of the flesh, or of the bond-woman, in the world were to lay claim to the blessings of it, without they were applied by the Holy Ghost; or to claim Christ as theirs, without that faith that is of the operation of God, they would be no less than presumptuous liars; "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." The elect, and only they, are lions' whelps, the predestinated offspring of the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Others may call themselves Jews, but Christ says he knows their blasphemy in so saying, and declares he will make them of the synagogue of Satan. "Every man at his best estate is altogether vanity." And all his thoughts, whether free or limited, are vanity also, Psa. xciv. 11. Then it is vain to place any confidence either in carnal self, or in free thoughts, for both are vain; and God has said, "Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity, for vanity shall be his recompense." If he trusts in himself, self must be his reward; and what can man reap from the flesh but corruption? If I was to see the whole human race driven by the force of human reason, or by enforcing the legal commands of God, to lay a fleshly claim either on Christ or his gospel, without the Spirit of revelation, supplication, and adoption, I should think it my duty, as a minister of Christ, to dispute such presumptuous Antinominians out of all their false claims. I know fools will rage and be confident. Their excellency may reach unto heaven, and their head touch the clouds, yet such shall perish like their own dung, their confidence shall be rooted out of their tabernacle, and they shall be brought to the king of terrors, Job xx. 6, 7. Job xviii. 14. Man, fallen, consequential man, notwithstanding all births produced by the will of man, the will of the flesh, or of blood, is but a fleshly conception, and a fleshly birth at best; and the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." Real believers are born of God, they are predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son; these shall bear the image of the heavenly Adam, when the others bear only the image of the earthly. By this image they shall all be known in the great day. Neither the self-begetter nor the free-thinker will ever be able to palm one child of the flesh upon the everlasting Father: "Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up." But I must return to my subject. The predestinated heirs of God, who are entitled to the blessing of Abraham, to the promise of Isaac, and to the promised Spirit of God, must undoubtedly receive the same according to the will of God, and according to the testament of Christ. The particular distribution of the Spirit is of God; and the Spirit of God reveals and applies the blessings, who is omniscient, and therefore cannot err. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him might not perish, but have everlasting life;" which eternal life, God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began, Tit. i. This promised life the elect were ordained to; on which account the Holy Ghost works faith in their hearts, which is the gift of God. "As many as were ordained to eternal life believed," and none else, Acts xiii. 48. The promise of life, the grace of faith, and the Spirit of God, come altogether to God's elect. "Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God; for our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance." Here we have the blessing, which is life, promised to Abraham, promised likewise to Zion; for there God commanded the blessing, even life for evermore. "As many as were ordained to eternal life believed." Here we have the word that was promised, the word came unto you in power; we have here the promised Spirit also, it came in the Holy Ghost; here we have the gift of faith likewise, it came with much assurance. Thus, God so loved the world, the Gentiles as well as the Jews, who were to be fellow-heirs of the same promise, Eph. iii. 6; that he gave his only begotten Son, who hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, and hath made both one, Eph. ii. 14; that whosoever believeth on him, as all that were ordained to eternal life have done, and shall do, might not perish, according to this system of free thoughts, but have everlasting life, in spite of men or devils. Our author's intent, in this pamphlet, is to prove that Christ died for all men. In order to overthrow this arrant lie, and make this speech nothing worth, it will be necessary to consider what the elect are redeemed from, and the absolute promises made to them in Christ.
If the elect are redeemed from under the law, and the curse of it; from all iniquity; from among men; from death, and from hell, with an eternal redemption; it follows, not one of these can be cursed, damned, eternally die, or go into the pit; and if Christ died for all mankind, all mankind are thus redeemed by Christ. But that all are not redeemed from the curse of the law is clear, for many will be sent from the judgment-seat under that sentence, Go ye cursed. Nor are all mankind redeemed from death; for the children of the flesh are the children of old Adam; these are not the children of God, Rom. ix. 8. In Adam all die, 1 Cor. xv. 22. All are not ransomed from the pit; some are in hell already, Ezek. xxxi. 16, 17. And the gate that leads to destruction has many that go in thereat, while there are but few that find the strait gate that leads to life. The truth of the matter is, Christ laid down his life for his sheep, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of his hands, John x. 28. But of some he says, "Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you." These are goats, and they will appear so, and I be set at the left hand of the Judge in the great day. The promise made to the elect, which are the sheep for whom Christ laid down his life, is, that they shall never perish: "The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." By the Holy Ghost they are sealed to the day of redemption; that is, to the day of redemption for the body, when body and soul shall enjoy full and complete redemption. Hence the Holy Spirit of promise, by which the elect are sealed, is called the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, Eph. 14; until the redemption of the purchased church, which God will possess to all eternity, be completed, and they completely glorified, and settled in the heavenly possession, which is the glorious kingdom that the saints of the Most High shall possess for ever, even for ever and ever, Dan. vii. Thus the redeemed shall never perish; they shall return with songs, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away; they are sealed to the day of redemption, and have got an earnest of the purchased possession in their hearts; they shall possess the kingdom for ever and ever. These were chosen in Christ before the world was, and had life given them in Christ before Adam was formed; they were predestinated to the adoption of sons; and because they are sons, by predestination and pre-adoption, God sends forth the Spirit of his Son into their hearts, crying, Abba, Father, Gal. iv. 6. They are called sheep before they are called by grace, and sons of peace, before ever they hear any thing about peace: " Into whatsoever house ye enter, say, Peace be to this house; and if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it; but if not, it shall turn to you again." To these predestinated heirs of promise were the promises made in Christ; to these God has sworn that he never will be wroth with them, nor forsake them: and when God can be perjured by free thoughts, and made a liar, then shall the elect fall from grace, but not till then. "Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things [his promise and oath], in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast." When our author has done his best, he will find, that those who were chosen in Christ, and given to Christ, were redeemed, and no more. Those that were left out of this choice are in old Adam. They are called the children of the flesh; Adam is their father, and Hagar is their mother, in the allegory; for the seed was not to be called in Ishmael, but in Isaac, who was a child of promise in every sense. Cain and Abel; Shem and Canaan; Ishmael and Isaac; Esau and Jacob; the son that promised to go into the vineyard, and went not, and the other that said that he would not, but went; the elder son displeased at sovereign grace, and the younger, called the prodigal, that was saved by it; are all set forth, to shew the difference between the elect and non-elect; the children of the flesh and the children of the Spirit; the heirs of wrath and the heirs of promise; the children of God and the children of the devil, 1 John iii. 10. And how our author will bring these two families together, I know not. The elect are in no danger of perishing, because they have got better security than our author's free thought; they have the absolute decree of God, the promise of God, and the oath of God, besides the covenant of grace, the atonement of Christ, and the seal of God's Spirit. This is their security, and all these things must become a blank before one elect soul can perish. Our author goes on to prove universal redemption by the following scriptures. "I exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth; for the Mediator gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time," 1 Tim. ii. 1 - 6. The Spirit of supplication never put up one petition in this world for the eternal salvation of all men. Nor did Christ ever pray for all men. "I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gayest me out of the world. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me out of it," John xvii. 6, 9. It is true, Christ prayed for some of his murderers "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Yet it is clear, those that he then prayed for were some of them that his Father gave him out of the world, upon whose consciences Peter charged the blood of Christ. "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." These Were pricked in their hearts, received the word, and were added to the church; while the children of the bond-woman stood mocking the heirs of promise, as Ishmael their father did before them, saying, "These men are full of new wine," Acts ii. 13. The apostle's exhortation, that prayers may be made for all men, is with this restriction, for kings, and all that are in authority, that the saints may lead a quiet and peaceable life, 1 Tim. ii. 2; that is, that God might put a stop to the persecution of these Kings and governors, as all hearts are in his hands, and incline them to minister justice unto evil doers, and defend them that do well; that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in godliness and honesty; or that God might convert them, if it were his will; as some kings and queens have been, and are yet to be, nursing fathers and mothers to the church, who are to come to the light and to the brightness of Zion's rising. Christ gave himself a ransom for all, signifies no more than a ransom for some of all nations, agreeable to the promise made to Abraham, "In thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Some of all ranks, some of all sorts of sinners, agreeable to the oracles of God; some out of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, Rev. v. 9. It may have reference to the time coming, when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ; which there is little sign of at present. The word, all, does not mean the whole human. race, ransomed from the curse of the law, the wrath of God, and damnation of hell; this cannot be proved, until it can be proved that the gate that leads to destruction is locked up; which never will be while so many free-willers, free-thinkers, and universal liars, get into pulpits. Before the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of God and of his Christ, the mouths of them that speak lies must be stopped, Psalm lxiii.; and the everlasting gospel must be preached to every nation under heaven, Rev. xiv. 6. When this day appears, free-thinkers shall be discovered by the light of the Lord, and free-agency consumed by the breath of his lips; for it cannot be supposed that the free thoughts of carnal men can be called the everlasting gospel, or that life and immortality should be brought to light by them. If the words, all, and every man, mean the whole human race, our author would make a strange hand of the Bible by his thoughts on the following texts: "They be all adulterers," Jer. ix. 2; "and great grace was upon them all," Acts iv. 33; "that they all might be damned," 2 Thess. ii. 12; "that all should come to repentance," 2 Peter iii. 9; "they went out, that they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us," 1 John ii. 19; "if one died for all, then were all dead," 2 Cor. 14; "for all seek their own, not the things that are Christ's," Phil. ii. 21; "every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm," Isa. ix. 20; "then shall every man have praise of God," 1 Cor. iv. 5; therefore "every man's heart shall melt," Isa. xiii. 7; "every man in the chambers of his imagery," Ezek. viii. 12; "God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith," Rom. xii. 3; "every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts," Prov. xix. 6; "every man was determined to send relief to the brethren," Acts xi. 29; "the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal," 1 Cor. xii. 7; which Spirit "the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him." "I testify to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law." God shall justify the circumcision through faith. "For every man shall bear his own burden." "We preach, that we may present every man perfect in Jesus Christ," Col. i. 28. "Ye shall be slain all of you; as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence." Free Thoughts will make a strange jumble of these universal expressions; but if he draws God's line between the children of God and the children of the devil, they will appear very consistent; they are all right to them that have understanding, there is nothing froward or perverse in them. Our author goes on. 'God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance; for which purpose he commands all men every where to repent; and since he does not require impossibilities, and then punish for non-performance, every man might repent, and consequently be saved; for Christ by the grace of God tasted death for every man.' This is the doctrine of free-willers, these are free-agents and free-thinkers: these are them that justify themselves before men; these are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight; these are of those who asked the Saviour "Are we blind also?" these are the sons to whom the Lord said, "Go work to-day in my vineyard; who answered, I go, Sir, but went not." This is the nation that is pure in their own eyes, but was never washed from their filthiness. These are the men that say, We are lords, we will come no more unto God, Jer. ii. 31; "our lips are our own, who is Lord over us?" And such, with respect to Christ, are unanimous in their declaration; for as a sovereign, and as the Christ of God, they will not have him to reign over them, Luke xix. 14. To such pure, self-sufficient, confidential, and consequential men as these, who call themselves lords, contend for human power, and freedom of will, who think God is just such a one as themselves, who can produce their own cause, and bring forth their strong reasons against the King of Jacob, he deals with in a conditional way, according to the abilities they boast of. If they are, as they say, lords, or Jehovahs, nothing can be impossible to them; hence God sets them a task agreeable to their boasted omnipotence, "Cease to do evil, learn to do well;" there is the command. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil;" this is the lot of them that trust in falsehood. Men that say, we are lords, who pretend to deity, God sets them a task equal to that divine power they boast of: "Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways. Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby you have transgressed, and make you a new heart and a new spirit; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" These men are commanded to believe also; which is no hard task, if they be lords according to their own declaration. Mr. Skinner tells us, that God does not require impossibilities; according to his assertions he has power to cease to do evil, to learn to do well, to turn himself to God, to repent, to create a new heart, and a new spirit, and to believe in Jesus; if he can do this, make a new heart and a new spirit, I say he is God; and if he had done this for me, I would have fallen down and worshipped him; for I know the preparation of man's heart and the answer of the tongue is from Jehovah, Prov. xvi. 1; and if Mr. Skinner can make a new heart and a new spirit, he is God. However, the elect that are partakers of the Holy Ghost, they say the way of man is not in himself; it is not in him that walketh to direct his steps; turn thou me and I shall be turned; that repentance is God's grant; "Unto the Gentiles hath God granted repentance unto life;" that it is Christ's gift, who is exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance unto Israel and forgiveness of sins; that a new heart and a new spirit are God's gift and God's work; that faith is the gift of God; that to believe in Jesus Christ is a work that requires an exceeding great and mighty power; that ye may know "what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power." And our author, who supposes that he has ability to do whatsoever God commands, appears to me to be an entire stranger to a new heart, a new spirit, real repentance, a turn to God, and to the faith of God's elect, to this day; if he were not, he could not have sworn and subscribed to doctrines that his soul hates. What can be expected from a man that can publish his own perjury, swear and lie to the Holy Ghost contrary to his thoughts, and then send the wicked thoughts of his heart into the world to contradict his confession, oath, and handwriting? Our author goes on. 'The command to preach the gospel to every creature supposes that Christ died for all, or there can be no gospel for all; and if so, it impeaches the sincerity of Christ in commanding it to be preached to all, and the ministers preach an untruth to the reprobate.' I answer, the gospel is to be preached to every creature, with this promise, that he that believeth shall be saved; and they that were ordained to eternal life believed, and ever will believe, and none else; and if the preachers do preach an untruth in declaring the gospel to the reprobate, it is in obedience to their Lord's will, who by his servants invited many to the supper, though they were not worthy, and commanded them to say, Peace be to this house, though peace was to return to them again if the son of peace was not there. Our author adds, 'Who can justify his [that is, the Saviour's] conduct, who sends a minister to preach a gospel, so called, to myriads of men for whom it was never intended, and then punishes them most severely for having heard it? that is, for having done their duty.' If men, like our author, can perform what God requires, as he declares God does not require impossibilities, that is, he requires nothing but what man, fallen man, can perform; for he says, there is not a damned soul in hell but what if he had done well, as he might have done, had been a glorified saint in heaven,' p. 36. then an ineffectual call is quite enough; for I think, when men talk at this rate, and call themselves lords, it is sufficient to send them an invitation, and so expose their free-agency to contempt for choosing their farms, yokes of oxen, and wives, before the gospel feast. If men can perform what God requires, a command or an invitation is sufficient; God does nothing in vain; and if men, with power to perform, refuse the invitation, and slight the banquet and the Lord of the household, I think it is an act of unparalleled kindness in the Master to send his servants into the streets and lanes of the city, to compel those that cannot help themselves. The Lord tells us when we make a feast not to call the rich, but the poor; and he does the same; he orders his servants to bring in the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind, Luke xiv. 21. The promise of God is not to be made of none effect by free, thinkers nor by work-mongers. What reasonable man, who might be a glorified saint in heaven if he would, who has power to perform what God requires, and yet rejects the feast and damns his soul; I say, what ground has he to be offended with the Saviour for his free grace and mercy in sending a compulsion to his own elect, who are altogether helpless? Surely the Saviour is more justifiable in helping cripples that cannot help themselves, than he would be in lending his aid to men who are lords, who can make a new heart and a new spirit for themselves. The Saviour is called the hope of Israel, and a Help that is mighty to save; but he will not lend his help to them that need it not. Uzzah was struck dead for lending unwarrantable help, 2 Sam. vi. 6. But the Saviour will not do so. He came to fulfil the promise. " I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment." He makes the proud helpers stoop under him, Job ix. 13. The man that can deck himself with majesty and excellency, is to be saved by his own arm. Job xl. 10-14. The Saviour eyes the blessing, and keeps under it. Blessed is he that respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies, Psal. xl. 4. God rewardeth the simple, and none else, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer, Psal. xxxi. 23; who can make his own heart, and create his own spirit; who stands in no need of help. This our author affirms; for he says, Every man has power sufficient, if used, at one period or other of his life, to believe or obey the gospel.' It will be hard to prove, that every man has heard the gospel, or that one part in ten have ever heard it; and they that have heard it, and perished under it, are more in number than those that were saved by it. Many be called, but few chosen. As for the heathens, I have no doubt but God will judge them with equity. They being without the law, are a law to themselves. For they have all acted as our author used to declare he had; that is, they have done those things that they ought not to have done, and left undone those things that they ought to have done; and there is no more health in them than there is in Mr. Skinner. Our author tells us, The Saviour's yoke is easy, and his burden is light.' It really is so to the saints. Christ's yoke is a living faith; and that which makes the burden light is the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy- Ghost, which is easy enough to a man that can make a new heart and a new spirit. For if a man can make a spirit, he can easily produce faith and love; for they are only the fruits of it. God does not, he says, demand impossibilities; therefore he takes it for granted, that when God says, The man is become like one of us, that he means, that every man is a God. What an inconsistent being is this free-thinker, who stands fast in himself, and talks of the Saviour's easy yoke and light burden, when he never felt either. The next thing he handles is universal light. But he never quotes this text, " Behold darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people," Isa. lx. 2. But he goes on. It is not asserted nor supposed that man naturally possesses this power,' though he declares, there is not a soul in hell but might have been a glorified saint in heaven.' Then he contradicts himself, and saith, But, on the contrary, that man is spiritually blind and dead.' If so, his light and free thoughts are little worth. For who can see that is blind? and who can think that is dead? But notwithstanding man's being blind and dead, he says, that experience proves that every man has some knowledge of sin; he feels the reproofs of conscience. Now these must proceed from human nature, Satan, or Deity. But they cannot spring from a soul totally blind and dead;' though before he said they were so. Nor do they spring from Satan, for he blinds the mind of unbelievers.' To all which I answer, the eye of God upon the Egyptian host, that looked through the cloud, troubled the host, and destroyed them, was the eye of offended justice. And those that lift up their eyes in hell, being in torments, will see the same. This is divine light, but no more salvation annexed to it than there is to our author's free thoughts, which are nothing but a confusion of darkness. The accusers of the adulterous woman were convicted by the light of their own conscience, which is a ray from the law. And this will be seen, and felt too, even in hell. He will have light for reflection, though none to salvation. God, as a reconciled Father in covenant, can only be known by his own ray in the gospel, by which he brings life and immortality to ,light. " God who caused the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ." The scriptures inform us, that Satan is transformed into an angel of light; therefore, it is no marvel if his ministers be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, 2 Cor. xi. 14, 15. If the devil can do this, he may enlighten some in our days, for aught I know. The Jewish Rabbies said, " Are we blind also?" whom the Saviour answers, " If ye were blind, ye should not have sin; but since you say, We see, therefore your sin remaineth." He tells them, they were of their father the devil, and cautions others to take heed, lest the light that be in you be darkness. If it be, how great is that darkness? Matth. vi. 23. Thus some see whose sin remains; others have light that is nothing but darkness; others see in the rays of justice; others boast of the light of nature, or natural conscience; and others lift up their eyes in hell. The Saviour doth enlighten every man that cometh into the world. He planted the eye and ear both; he created the seeing as well as the hearing. The light of reason, before man fell, was the candle of the Lord; but it is so dim now that it can only lead a sinner to erect an altar to an unknown God. But to the elect Christ brings life and immortality to light: he is the saints' everlasting light, their God, and their glory, and their sun shall no more go clown, Isa. lx. 19, 20. And if our author was thus enlightened by Christ, he would repent of these his free thoughts in dust and ashes, and curse the day, as John Child did, that ever he sent them into the world, to darken. counsel by words without knowledge. Our author goes on to illustrate his argument by the parable of the talents, that the servant that hid it was pronounced wicked because he was slothful. It is sometimes objected, this was 'not grace; and by the same authority it may be asserted that the five talents were not grace.' To which I answer, if the one talent was grace, the man would not have been condemned for sloth; for God worketh in his people both to will and to do of his own good pleasure. Christ declares to his elect, that without him they can do nothing; and the church owns God hath wrought all her works in her. If the one talent had been grace, it could not have been hid; for if such hold their peace the very stones would cry out. The more the Saviour charged the objects of mercy to hold their peace the more they spread it abroad. If the one talent had been the grace of the Spirit, he could not have hid it, he must have spoken as the Spirit gave him utterance; for he would have found the word of God, as Jeremiah did, a fire shut up in his bones; the Spirit of God is a springing well, and out of the belly of such flow rivers of living water; they cannot be pent up; they must speak if they die for it. The one talent was a lamp without oil, and surely this cannot be grace; the law is a lamp, and that seems to be all that Mr. Skinner has got at present, God grant he may not find it so to his cost at last. The one talent is what Peter calls a well without water; Jude calls it a cloud without rain. ' God's witnesses are called a cloud; and there is a cloud of false witnesses who have not the waters of life, nor the witnessing Spirit in them. These are instruments without life giving sound; that is, they are preachers that were never quickened by the Spirit of God. Solomon calls it a false gift, from whence Jude took it; "As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him; for he refresheth the soul of his masters. Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift, is like clouds and wind without rain." Judas had a talent, be had a gift for preaching; hence, saith Peter, " He was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry," Acts i. 17; which was the worst part, a gift to preach and no more, for Jesus called him a devil before he sent him out with the rest to preach the kingdom of God; and surely, if he had been a partaker of grace, the Lord would not have called him a devil, unless it can be proved that devils have grace. I believe Judas was the man that the Saviour struck at in the parable of the talents as he often did, " Ye are clean, but not all," Judas the traitor being there, therefore said he, " Ye are not all clean." " I have chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil." " Verily I say unto you, one of you shall betray me;" " But wo be to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed." Take the talent from him, and give it to him that has ten talents," that has many gifts and graces; which was to fulfil the prediction, " Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein; and his bishoprick let another take;" and they chose Matthias. But, if I am not mistaken, his talent was given to Paul, who had an abundance of grace and truth, and used his ministerial talent well. The elect are sons by predestination, pre-adoption, and regeneration; they have grace in Christ, and out of his fullness they receive it at the set time appointed; and if God gives a preaching talent to one of his elect to make him a minister, it is called giving twopence to the host, Luke x. 35; one penny more than a private Christian, who receives a penny a day; such are sons of God, and sons of Christ, as well as servants to his Church;339 'If Christ did not die for the non-elect, their existence is a necessary curse to them. It is undeniable that mankind are brought into existence without their consent; and it is equally certain that existence is a curse to them that perish.' This is the man that produceth the old cause of Cain, and brings forth his strong reasons against the King of Jacob, Isa. xli. 1; and appeals to the world for the equity of his plea. " Wo to the rebellious children." " Wo unto him that striveth with his Maker," Isa. xlv. 9. " Wo unto him that saith to his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?" The Judge of all the earth will find little difficulty in vindicating his proceedings both as a Creator and a Judge in the great day; the wicked will he condemned out of their own mouths. Mr. Skinner has left an all-sufficient and an everlasting verdict against his own soul, should the Judge of quick and dead take the advantage that he has offered. He insists upon it that the damned might have been in heaven if they had done as they might; and that man has power to obey the gospel; that he can perform what God requires; and yet owns that his experience teaches him that he feels the workings of sin, which is discovered by the light that he says is of God. If sin work in him, where is his power? where is the task that he might have performed? and where is his meetness for heaven? Our author's talent amounts to this, God commands nothing impossible; he with his talent can perform it; there is not a soul in hell but what if he had done as he might have done, had been a glorified saint in heaven.' Upon the old covenant he stands; for his own ability and conditions with his Maker he pleads; and upon those legal terms will God deal with such men? He looks to the work of a servant, but to the heart of a son; but this our author is ignorant of; he stands and triumphs at present upon his old bottom; and if God should push him down from this pinnacle, he would plead as the servant with his one talent did, " thou reapest where thou hast not sown, and gatherest where thou hast not strewed." But this was rebellion; out of his own mouth he was judged; for if his master was so austere a man, be ought to have been the more careful about the341 As for the elect they have not this light and power that free-thinkers are possessed of, they dare not urge their plea against God, nor send out their free thoughts with an appeal to the world in behalf of Cain's cause. They dare not plead for their mother if she is not God's wife, nor he her husband, Hos. ii. 2. If God puts her away by the old covenant, it is no more than what the bond-children desired, and Moses, because of the hardness of their hearts, granted unto them. God adopts the desire of Israel concerning divorce, and uses their own request; " For your transgressions is your mother put away," Isa. I. 1. To be short: Upon the old covenant the bondwoman and her children stand; and the law says, He that doth these things shall live in them: for this covenant they plead; for the commands, and their own strength to perform the conditions thereof, they contend; and if they perform, as our author affirms they can, then he declares, they may be all glorified saints in heaven. The conditional promise is before them, let them look to it: if they will enter into life, let them keep the commandments; but if they offend in one point, they are guilty of all. This old way is so strait that not one, except Christ, ever entered by it. But our author has power to perform what the Lord commands, therefore he bids fair for the prize. He will find three difficulties attending this way; the one is, the accusations of Moses against every transgressor; another is, the flaming sword of justice, that keeps the way of the tree of life; and the third is, the city gates, that will open to none that hold a lie in their hands, as Mr. Skinner holds many: " Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation, which keepeth the truth, may enter in." The elect, who make Christ all in all, find the sword sheathed in the Saviour. Moses has nothing to say against faith: and he that has Christ formed in his heart, keeps the truth, and shall enter the gates. But we go on. 'The general resurrection is a consequence of the resurrection of Christ; " For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." To which I answer, The elect were chosen in Christ before the world was, consequently before they were formed in Adam: these are preserved in Christ Jesus, and called; they are justified in him; both Christ and they, the elect head and elect members, were both included in God's decree from everlasting. Hence it is said, " For both he that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified, are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren," Heb. 11. These were joined to the Lord in the eternal decree, and are united in the everlasting covenant, and are of one spirit with the Lord by regeneration: " 11e that is joined to the Lord is one spirit:" and what God hath joined together let not Mr. Skinner put asunder. These put on Christ, walk in Christ, and die in the Lord, and shall be glorified together; they are called a seed that shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation; this is the generation that seeks the face of Jacob; an holy nation, a righteous nation, that keeps the truth, and shall enter the gates of heaven: these are all written in the book, and shall every one be delivered. There is a generation of Adam, that are in him, not in Christ; that are under the law, not under grace; children of the bond-woman, not of the free; servants, not sons; children of the flesh, not children of the promise: these are in the earthly head, and are earthly; others are in the heavenly head, and are heavenly: " The children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." In Adam all die; for they are under the law, which is the ministration of death those that are in Christ shall be made alive; nor can they die any more; for they are equal to the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection, Like xx. 36. These are the heirs of the promise of life, which God, that cannot lie, gave them in Christ Jesus, before the world was. Our author is going to prove universal salvation from Peter, 'False teachers who privily bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord, that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction, 2 Pet. ii. To which I answer, The scriptures often speak of men, as men speak of themselves. The Pharisees justified themselves before men; and Christ calls them righteous: " I came not to call the righteous." There is in our day a class of people who call themselves perfect, and God calls them a nation that are pure in their own eyes, though never washed from their filthiness, Prov. xxx. 12. Those that followed the Saviour for the loaves and the fishes, were called his disciples, but when Christ preached eternal election to them, and enforced eating his flesh, and drinking his blood, they were offended; then these disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Judas is called an apostle, because he was chosen to bear the bag, though he was a devil. Some call themselves lords, as has been proved; and as Mr. Skinner thinks he is, by the power he boasts of, able to perform what God requires, God has set him such a task as none but God can do, to make a new heart and a new spirit; which, if he be a Lord, or a Jehovah, God knows he can do it. In the apostles' days it was common to say, " We are not our own, we are bought with a price;" Christ hath bought us with his own blood; we are redeemed with the precious blood of the Lamb of God. The false apostles adopted the language of the true ones; We are bought with a price; as Balaam imitated the prophets of God, saying, "I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God." It is not very likely that these men should be redeemed from all evil, when they had nothing to prove it by, but the damnable heresies that they brought in; a damnable heresy is but a damnable reason of hope at best. However, they called themselves the purchase of Christ; and then God made it manifest that they were not of his family, by their going out from them, which, if they had been, they would no doubt have continued, says God. However, they went out, after all their boast of redemption; and, in their own language, Peter tells us, .they denied the Lord that bought them, and brought upon themselves destruction, which the redeemed never can: Zion is redeemed with judgment, which was executed upon her. Surety; and it shall never be executed upon her: her converts are redeemed with righteousness; and God is faithful and just to her, to forgive her her sins on the Surety's account, and to cleanse her from all unrighteousness, agreeable to the promise, " I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed:" " The ransomed of the Lord shall return:" the redeemed shall walk in the heavenly Jerusalem: Christ laid down his life for his sheep, they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of his hands; neither free thoughts nor free will, the snares of death, nor the gates of hell shall ever prevail against them. To talk of souls being redeemed from death, hell, and sin, by the blood of Christ, and ending in swift destruction, is a doctrine that none but a devil dictated, and none but a free-thinker would ever publish. Our author himself contradicts this in the 65th page, where he promises that Christ shall have all the praise for his present and eternal salvation.' If he who is but a free-thinker is saved with an eternal salvation, how come the redeemed of the Lord to end in swift destruction? But for my part I would as soon believe that the pope of Rome is intrusted with the keys of death and of hell, as I would believe that ever Mr. Skinner had the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of, sins; for how can a surety pardon those that can pay their own way? Truth has said, that when they had nothing to pay with, he frankly forgave them all. But our author is going to bring forth another mystery, contrary to his own salvation, for that he says is present and eternal. For though Christ is the author of initial salvation to all men, he is the author of eternal salvation only to them that obey him.' Our author has taken care to jostle himself out of initial salvation; his own salvation is present and eternal,' though he leads others in the bog where he would not venture himself. But what is initial salvation? A salvation not complete; a salvation not perfect; an introductory salvation; a salvation introduced by free thoughts; a salvation not completed by him that trod the wine-press alone, and finished it upon the cross; a salvation not perfect, till the co-working family of free-thinkers have performed their part? Or does he mean it is a salvation that stands mumping at the gates of free will, to be received or rejected just as the free-thinker pleaseth? and that it is an eternal salvation only to him that puts forth his omnipotent power to complete the same, and bring it in? Surely this salvation has nothing to do with God's elect: the heirs of promise, the seed of Israel, " shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation; ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded, world without end." The elect shall obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory, 2 Tim. ii. 10. The elect are not appointed unto wrath, but to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ, 1 Thess. v. 9. The heirs of promise are appointed unto this: " But we are bound to give thanks always to God, for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth." If the elect are ordained and appointed to it, they shall therefore obey the gospel; the grace of God shall enable them, " by whom we have received grace for obedience to the faith, among all nations for his name," Rom. i. 5. The elect of God are not left to refuse or clause as they please; God deals not with them as with the bond-woman and her children; " As soon as they hear of me they shall obey me," says the Saviour. " Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power," says the Father. " Bring them in; compel them to come in," says the Saviour. " These I must bring," says the shepherd; " There shall be one fold and one shepherd; all that the Father giveth me shall come to me." " I will put my fear within them, they shall not depart from me." The salvation that Christ wrought out, and is the author of; is an eternal salvation, and the elect shall obtain it with eternal glory, and none else; the others, like our author, can save themselves from this untoward generation; they can do what God requires; an initial salvation is all they want; but the poor helpless elect of God are better provided for. Our author goes on. 'It appears therefore, that the sufferings of Christ were something by way of satisfaction, rather than the payment of the proper debt; for otherwise pardon of sin, of which there is such ample proof in the gospel, would be, superseded. Let it be considered, that the sufferings of Christ and those of the sinner who is punished for his own sins differ materially; Christ never felt the stings of a guilty conscience, nor the horrors of despair, which undoubtedly will be a capital part of the torments of hell; it is therefore inferred that Christ did not pay the proper debt for any man.' Is not this uttering vain knowledge, and filling the belly with the east wind? Is not this reasoning with unprofitable talk, and with speeches wherewith a man can do no good? We are informed that the sufferings of Christ were something by way of satisfaction rather than the payment of the proper debt.' How these children of the flesh are obliged to obscure the severity and sovereignty of God, and to pare the edge of the law and diminish the sufferings of Christ, in order to make way for free-thoughts and free-will to act. How a God, who is strictly just and an infinite creditor, against whom the sins of men are committed, whose wickedness is- great, and whose iniquities are infinite, Job xxii. 5; how such a creditor could be satisfied, and a debtor in infinite arrears be honourably discharged, without the satisfaction of full payment, is a mystery to me, but which Mr. Skinner unfolds thus: It is something by way of satisfaction rather than a payment of the proper debt.' The surety compounded with the creditor; the infinite demands of law and justice were compromised with the surety; God the creditor did not exact the full payment, nor did the surety pay the total sum: it was something by way of satisfaction, not a proper payment of the debt.' He that strikes hands and becomes surety for debts, must pay if he loses his bed from under him, Prov. xxii. 26, as our surety did when he said, " The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head." " He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it," which the Saviour did in his body, in his soul, in his reputation, and in his mystical members: there was no compounding in this matter; his threefold petition in the garden put up through the weakness of human nature could not remove the cup; he that is imprisoned in hell for his own debt shall not come out thence till he has paid the very last mite, Luke xii. 59; and he that becomes surety shall pay no less; heaven and earth shall pass away before one jot or tittle of the law shall fail of its demands, whether it fall on the debtor or on the surety. " Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy but to fulfil:" but how an imperfect satisfaction can be called a fulfilling I know not; " till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled," Matt. v. 17, 18. No compounding, no compromising here; God spared not his own son, Rom. viii. 32; the Lord laid upon him the iniquities of us all; he was oppressed and he was afflicted; the debt was exacted, and he made restitution, Isa. liii. 6, 7. God spared not his Son, the total sum was exacted and paid. The surety complains and says, " They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head; they that would destroy me being mine enemies, wrongfully are mighty; then I restored that which I took not away." This blasphemous free-thinker tells us that, Christ never felt the stings of a guilty conscience nor the horrors of despair, which are the capital torments of hell.' To which I answer, Christ never died for serpents nor vipers, who cannot escape the damnation of hell; nor did he die for the goats, who shall go into everlasting punishment. Christ never laid down his life for any that are or ever will be damned. " And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, 0 poor of the flock. Three shepherds also I cut off in one month, and my soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me. Then said I, I will not feed you; that that dieth let it die, and that that is to be cut off let it be cut off, and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another." Will any one say that these were redeemed? " So the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that this was the word of the Lord," Zech. xi. 7-11. Christ laid down his life for the sheep which the Father gave him; for these he died; for these he prayed; these as a prophet shall all be taught of him; these as a king he will govern; and to these the Father gives the kingdom, and to none else. Christ died not for the world, he prayed not for the world, he is not the prophet of the world, nor is his kingdom of this world. For the elect and only them he became surety; these shall never perish, though all others will; they have everlasting life, and shall never (lie; Christ and God the Father are stronger than all, and none shall ever pluck them out of their hands, nor shall the gates of destruction or gates of hell ever prevail or unfold to receive one of them. The wicked are a ransom for the righteous, and transgressors for the upright, Prov. xxi. 18; but the elect shall never be a ransom for any, much less a prey for the devil. Despair, which is a capital part of the sufferings of the damned, is no part of the law's demand; it demands perfect obedience, not despair; despair springs from the dreadful arrest of vindictive justice, when the sentence of the law begins to be executed for disobedience; and although the elect, when the commandment comes with its utmost demands, may well despair of paying the sum, yet the surety who is able to answer the demands of an infinite creditor in behalf of his own brethren, so dearly beloved by him, has no ground of despair. He that is able to save to the uttermost, being equal with God, has no ground to despair of ability to answer the demands of an equal, when himself has equal property. An omnipotent surety, equal to the creditor in deity, perfection, and personal property, can never despair; so far from that, the Saviour had a joy set before him, for which he endured the cross and despised the shame. The Saviour needed not feel the stings of a guilty conscience that I know of; it was impossible that any bitter reflection could recoil with guilt on the mind of him that never sinned. The debt exacted of us is perfect obedience to the law; in case of failure the curse is incurred, the sword of justice awakened, the wrath of God revealed, sins detained, and a final separation from God threatened. The surety gave to the law a perfect obedience, he was made a curse for us, the sword of justice was awakened against him, our sins were borne in his own body on the tree, and God departed from him; "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He was made sin for us, who knew no sin; he was numbered with the transgressors, though he never transgressed; he made his grave with the wicked, though he had done no violence; and with the rich in his death, being buried in the sepulchre of a rich man, and being heir of all things when he had overcome the world and redeemed the people; as he declares at his resurrection, " All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." But our author goes on. "The sufferings of Christ were something by way of satisfaction, rather than a payment of the proper debt; for otherwise the pardon of sin would be superseded.' Take notice of this paragraph; the sufferings of Christ were something by way of satisfaction, not a proper payment of the debt; it was a compound, not a proper payment; a compromise between the creditor and the surety; the creditor gave, and the surety took a little, which argues unfaithfulness in the lawgiver, and inability in the law-fulfiller; God did not exact the law's demand, nor did the Saviour pay the proper sum; the just creditor compounded, and the surety paid a part; so that God may demand payment of the redeemed should they get into the business of free-thinking; and the surety may lose his ransomed flock if the creditor should make a second demand on the debtors; and all this, lest the death of Christ should be superseded; lest the death of Christ should be made void, set aside, or made of no force, by superior authority. Who could have thought that an imperfect satisfaction, short of proper payment, could set aside the demands of a creditor, or secure the debtor from a second arrest? If without an imperfect satisfaction, short of payment, a creditor cannot be satisfied, and without which imperfect satisfaction, a surety's discharge may be made void, set aside, or superseded, then it follows that God must be unfaithful to his law, Justice must warp from his infinite and immutable demands, Truth must yield to a dissembled compoundage, and the surety who came to do the will of a just God, as revealed in-the law and the prophets, only compromises the debt; heaven and earth must stand for ever, and many jots and tittles of the law must fail of their demands, and go unfulfilled, before the poor imprisoned debtor can be finally discharged with honour; for without the above-mentioned yielding terms the death of Christ may be superseded, set aside, or made void by superior power. I will suppose that Mr. Skinner when he comes to London calls upon me and offers to lend me fifteen guineas; I take it without a word to the contrary; he informs me that in three months he shall call upon me again and insist upon his own without fail; I understand him, and, in the language of his own doctrine, tell him that he does not demand impossibilities, I can pay him. At the end of three months he calls, and as a just man demands his own without fail. I tell him I cannot pay it; he orders me to get a surety to stand in the gap; I reply, I have not a friend on earth that can or that will do it; he sticks to his demand, sends me to the sponging house, and threatens me with a gaol; after this Mr. Skinner, according to his love to all mankind, pities me among the rest, and sets his free thoughts to work on my behalf, and provides me a surety among his own friends, who undertakes to pay my debt and procure my enlargement, which Mr. Skinner approves of. On the day of accounts the surety pays fifteen green peas instead of fifteen guineas, and insists upon my enlargement according to agreement; Mr. Skinner storms, and insists upon the cash; I William Huntington fly to Mr. Skinner's code of laws, called the Statutes of Free Thoughts, published in the reign of George the Third, entitled Some acts for the ease of sureties and release of debtors; according to which something by way of satisfaction is to be given; and so the peas are given, by way of satisfaction, fifteen for fifteen; that is, fifteen green peas instead of fifteen guineas; for should it be otherwise, my final release could not be procured; something must be given by way of satisfaction, not a payment of the proper debt, lest the surety's undertaking for me should be superseded, made void, or set aside, by superior authority, and I be apprehended again and imprisoned for life. Here is a doctrine! These free thoughts or sentiments are made public to detect and confute error; these are to level and destroy systems established by men. Poor deluded man! If ever Mr. Skinner or any soul living enters the kingdom of God by such a doctrine as this, God's faithfulness and truth must fail for evermore. When God created Adam he impressed his soul with his own image, which was accompanied with a demand of perfect obedience; and in case of failure in the latter, the former was forfeited, being rather lent than given. Man sinned, the image left him, and he died. God holds his power still to command, though man cannot obey; he insists upon receiving his own with usury whenever he comes; he will demand his own image on the soul, and a perfect obedience to his law. Hence he commands the free-thinker to make him a new heart and a new spirit, such as that in which God's image consisted, and to do that which is lawful and right, which is obedience to the law, which our author says, every man may do if he will; and if God cannot be unjust in demanding it, he that becomes surety for the elect must obey the law perfectly, satisfy justice fully, clear truth honourably, and discharge the debtor eternally, to the infinite satisfaction both of law and justice, and present the debtor before God created anew and renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him at first, Col. iii. 10; which is the new man, that after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. In this image, and in a perfect obedience to the law, must every soul appear that enters heaven; the righteousness of the law must be fulfilled in them, and they be led to walk in the Spirit to heaven, if ever they enter there. Without this divine image and perfect obedience not a soul living shall ever escape the clam-nation of hell; but Christ has magnified the law, and paid a full ransom for his own sheep; the second Adam will present them in his own image; he will restore that which he took not away, and by his knowledge shall he justify many; which is all couched in this text, " he is made of God unto us wisdom," as Adam had before he sinned; " righteousness" which Adam stood in before he fell; " sanctification," or holiness, in which Adam's image chiefly consisted; " and redemption" from that death which reigned from Adam to Moses through his disobedience. Could all the human race have produced one righteous man, could they have brought forth one person that could make a new heart, a new spirit, and obey the law as Mr. Skinner can do, even then he dared not strike hands and become surety to God for another; he could only deliver his own soul by his righteousness, or enter into life by the new creation of himself; he could deliver neither son nor daughter, friend nor brother; no man can redeem his brother, nor pay a ransom to God for him. God appointed the surety, and set him up from everlasting, and prepared a body for him, Man had no band in |