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ly happiness? A man of your good natural sense, and of your inquisitive mind, ought not to satisfy himself with superficial enquiries into such deeply interesting points.

to the scripture idea of heaven-la man, dying with fear and trembling from an apprehension of appearing before a holy God, and then finding his fears wrong, and that all mankind are to be happy after death? How different also his situation from the Christian, who dies in the exercise of a lively faith and a triumphant hope of immortal blessedness, and after death finds his condition much happier than he had even imagined while in life? Does not the bare possibility that the doctrine of universal salvation may be false, require that it should not be embraced without a careful examination? And now, my friend, let me

within a few months, that you was gradually plunging deeper and deeper into what I considered as very dangerous errors. And I cannot view a friend in such a situation without feeling the deepest anxiety for him.. Were you to see me in some eminent danger, would not your

My friend, does not this subject merit your serious attention? The bubble of life will soon break. And when death comes, it will be too late to correct errors. Is it not wise to be on the safe side? You find a part of mankind, and some of them at least not inferior in point of intellectual endowments, believing from the bible, that a part only of the human race is to be saved. You find others profes-repeat my request that you sing to belive that all will be sa- would look into these things. I ved. Now, if the last are cor- have thought from expressions rect in their sentiments, the oth-which I have heard you drop, ers will in the final issue fare as well as they; and if they are sometimes troubled in this life, by their fears concerning futurity, it is a matter of little consequence, as this life is so short compared with eternity. But if the former are right, what will become of those who, thinking all mankind will finally be hap-friendship lead you to endeavor py, give themselves no anxicty respecting a future state, and restrain themselves from vice only from motives of present interest and convenience? Let me intreat you seriously to represent to yourself the situation of a man of the world, departing from life, under a persuasion that he is going into a state of happiness, because he believes all mankind will be saved, and then finding himself in that state of misery, which some believe will be the portion of impenitent sinners? How different his stuation from that of

to relieve me? And can I hear you advance sentiments, which appear to me to endanger the salvation of your immortal soul, and do nothing to save you from that ruin which I fear is coming upon you? If I can, I deserve not to be called your friend. I wish you every temporal blessing; I wish you every reasonable worldly felicity; but I feel much more anxious for your soul, and for your eternal well being. Say not that it is my business to be a preacher; and that it is well for me to write in this strain. It is not in the

another character, and performing the most essential services for his church. In Moses, the Israelites had a deliverer, a lawgiver and a guide; but in Joshua, a general and a conqueror.— When the Amalekites attacked them in the wilderness, Joshua led them to battle and to victory. Having conducted them through Jordan, he commenced his mili

character of a preacher that I place myself, in addressing this letter to you; it is in the character of a friend pleading with another friend to pay attention to his own good. As I firmly believe in the Christian system, and believe it in the sense in which I preach it, you cannot wonder at my anxiety on your behalf. Think me not assuming; pardon my engaged-tary career, by assailing the ness; and believe me to be, with the most ardent wishes for your temporal and eternal felicity, Your sincere friend, as well as affectionate PASTOR.

Explanation of Scriptural Types.

No. XVI.

(Continued from p. 342.)

JOSHUA a type of Christ.

N Moses, delivering the Is

strongly fortified city of Jericho, with the blowing of the ramshorns-trumpets by the priests; at the continued sound of which, the wails fell flat to the ground, and the chosen tribes instantly took possession. He led the valiant men of Israel against the kings of Canaan, making a common cause and combined for their destruction. He made war a long time with the kings of the Amorites, and the inhabitants of the land, until he had conquered, subdued and expelled them from their coasts. The Canaanites being subdued, be divided their land to the chosen

lot of his inheritance. By him they were introduced and settled,

bondage, as the lawgiver, and guide of the peculiar people through the wilderness to Ca-in order and peace, in earthly naan, we have a typical repre- prosperity and glory, in the land sentation of Christ emancipating which the Lord God had prohis church from the dominion of mised to their fathers. Io Satan, the misery of sin, and Joshua and his conquests, and in conducting his chosen people the earthly prosperity and felithrough the dispensation of the city of the Israelites, the chosen law-and saints through the toil- people of God, in the land of some pilgrimage of this world, Canaan, have we not the followto their heavenly and eternal rest. ing evangelical subjects impres When Moses had accomplished sively represented? the ministry of his office, he was succeeded by Joshua, invested with a different office, to perform important services for the people of God; and in Joshua we have Christ assuming

1. In his war with the Amalekites, and the other enemies of the Israelites in the wilderness, have we not exhibited Christ, the Captain of salvation for his peo ple combatting the enemies of

4. As in Joshua, conducting the Israelites to conflicts and victory over the kings of Canaan, and in their peaceful and happy state in the promised inheritance, we have a type of Christ, as the head and leader of his church, conducting it through all its conflicts with its visible enemies, and introducing it to its millenni. al prosperity and eternal felicity: so we have in him a representa

of his church, and conducting it prosperity, peace and happiness through all its conflicts under of the church in its millennial the dispensation of Moses, until condition on earth, and ultimateit made the transition from that ly its glorified state in heaven. economy to its evangelical state? 2. In Joshua, as the captain of Israel, assaulting the walls of Jericho, with the blowing of trumpets, made of the horns of rams by the priests, have we not typically exhibited,in glowing colors, Christ as a man of war, and the captain of the host of the I ord; the church, assailing the strongly fortified and garrisoned port of Satan's dominion in his old heathen empiretion of Christ, as the spiritual by the gospel trumpet, sounded by his apostles and nisisters, and in the falling of the walls of Jericho by the continued sound of ram's horns trumpets, of all martial implements the most simple and inelicient, do we not see the barriers of Satan's kingdom prostrated by the preaching of the gospel, of the very humble and despised doctrine of the cross? "The weap ons,of our warfare," said the apostle," are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strong holds.”

3. In the victory of Joshua and the Israelites over the combined kings, and their extended conquests of the various nations of Canaan until they were subdued, and the land had rest from war, may we not see the continued and extended conquests of Christ and his church, of the combined powers of darkness, and the various parts of Satan's visible empire in the world, until they shall be all vanquished and subdued; as in the possession, order and happy state of the chosen tribes in the promised lands, we may see the order, VOL. I. NO. 11.

guide and leader of his people, in all their spiritual conflicts with their internal, spiritual enemies, and through his skill and agency, out of weakness are they made strong, wax valiant in the spiritual warfare, and put to flight the numerous hosts of their spiritual adversaries; yea, are more than conquerors through him who has loved them, and died for them, and receive the honor and reward of victory, an eternal crown of glory-And when Christ shall have conducted his people to the mansions prepared for them in his Father's house and kingdom, may he not make the appeal to them which Joshua made to Israel, You know in all your hearts, and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing thereof hath failed.

When Joshua had conquered Canaan, and put the Israelites in possession of it, he fell on sleep and was laid unto his fathers.And when Christ shall have subdued all things to himself, and E

ty and all power, he will then deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father, and God shall e all in all. Amen. Even so, Lord Jesus.

put down all rule and all author- | we can neither escape nor resist, falls on us, or when death approaches, the inquiry will appear all-important, and equally so to every man who justly realizes the situation of a creature. In such cases, it will be desirable to come to God as an almighty helper, and a Saviour who hath mercy for the miserable and

[To be continued.]

Better from a Father to a Son in helpless. affliction.

I

MY DEAR SON,

We must come to him, believing that he is, with a firm conviction of his existence, and some just apprehensions of his character. Although there be sufficient evidence, and a gene

NSTANTLY on hearing of your deep and complicated affliction, I attempted to suggest to you reasons for such sub-ral confession of the Being of a mission as alone can support God, there is great reason to the mind under the chastise- | believe men are not so much ments of a holy Providence. In our reply, you say, "I once hought I had faith in God, now I find I had not. How shall I come to him, and how shall I stay myself upon him?" The very words of your question point to a divine direction, which I will endeavor to explain.

"Without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God, must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Certainly the question, How shall we come to God so as to please and be accepted by him, is important, and it is one, which first or last, we shall all make with serious importunity. So long as worldly prosperity shines around us; so long as we can find amusement and employment in worldly things, as you have done; and death, with the thoughts of it, are placed out of view, it is possible the question may take little hold of our minds. But when deep adversity, which, by our own power

agreed in their opinions of his nature and character, as they be in the acknowledgment that some Being exists under this glorious name. We are prone to think the Lord such an one as ourselves. The prejudices arising from an evil heart, are a cause additional to the weakness of human reason, of forming very false as well as inadequate conceptions of the being and character of God. Those inadequate conceptions of God, which arise solely from a weakness of the understanding, we may hope will not be charged on us as sin; but such as are false, through an evil heart of unbelief, and from a disposition to think the Lord such an one as ourselves, are as criminal as the heart from which they flow.-It is these for which men are guilty, and which they should endeavor to remove by all the means of information with which we are graciously favored. If man was a creature of perfect rectitude, he might depend much on the opinions of

dence he is depraved, and the depravity of the heart instantly throws a prejudice over his understanding and powers of judg

his own reason; but there is evi- | fancy according to the dictates and the desires of a corrupted heart, is not going to God. In coming to him so that he will be pleased and accept us, we must conceive him to be such as he hath described himself in his own most perfect word.

ment.

Hence comes that diversity of apprehension concerning the nature and character of God, which we have reason to believe takes place under the general confession that he exists. Every vicious appetite draws the judgment from an impartial opinion. Every sinful inclination and habit of practice becomes a cause of prejudice concerning what God is; concerning his will which is our law; concerning the principles of his government, the view he hath of our character, and the manner he will deal with us in his infinite righteousness. These are causes for darkening the understanding, so powerful, that we can scarce conceive of any thing that hath not been ascribed to the Creator of all things by one or another of his sinful creatures. Hence comes the necessity of that revelation concerning himself which we have graciously received. This revelation is as necessary to teach us what God is, as to inform us in the methods of his grace, through a reconciling mediator. In coming to God, we must not only believe that he exists, but have some just apprehensions what he is; we must search his word for a knowledge of his character and perfections, and the general principles on which he will deal with his creatures. Believing that God is, is believing him such a glorious Being as he really exists. Going to an imaginary character, formed by our own

It is not enough that we conceive he is a Being very far above us, unless our ideas correspond to his own description. It is not enough that we bring our reason to exercise, and come to him as this, under the influence of a depraved heart, thinks he possibly may be; but we must come to him as his name is given, and as his perfections and counsels are described in the unerring oracles of truth.— And what do these say concerning him? They teach us to come to him as a God of infinite holiness. They tell us he charges his angels with folly, and the heavens are not clean in his sight. That he is displeased with all iniquity, and though he may be reconciled to the repenting sinner, who, by divine grace and his own endeavors, may be cleansed from sin, he never can be reconciled either to the nature, princples or practice of sin. They tell us that our hands must be clean, and our hearts pure, humble and obedient to all his will, when we approach to ask his blessing. They tell us that while his justice is, and for ever will be glorious in all his appointments to transgressors, both in his present providence and future judgment; his goodness will also be glorious in pardoning and accepting unto eternal life, such as believe and live according to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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