LETTER V.

What wisdom, infinite, vouchsafes to teach,
Shalt thou, frail mortal, hesitate to preach:
'Call imperfection what thou fancy'st such;
Say here he gives too little, there too much;
Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,
Rejudge his justice, be the god of God.'

You tell me, Sir, that whatever may be your views of the doctrine of particular redemption, you are decidedly against the exhibition of it in the pulpit, and for this reason, among others, because it has a natural tendency to embarrass the preacher in addressing his audience. For such a remark I see no legitimate conclusion. Men are not called upon to decide whether redemption be particular or general: they are called to believe that they are sinners against God, and justly exposed to the curse denounced by the law against them as transgressors.

There are undoubtedly seasons when the doctrines of election, of particular redemption, and other truths connected with them may, and ought to be maintained; for without a right knowledge of these, it may be said with the learned Zanchius, when speaking of predestination, We cannot form just and becoming ideas of God. Thus, unless he certainly foreknows, and foreknew from everlasting, all things that shall come to pass; his understanding would not be infinite: and a Deity of limited understanding is no Deity at all. Again we cannot suppose him to have foreknown any thing, which he had not previously decreed; without setting up a series of causes, extra Deum, and making the Deity dependent, for a great part of the knowledge he has, upon the will and works of his creatures, and upon a combination of circumstances exterior to himself. Therefore, his determinate plan, counsel, and purpose, (i. e. his own predestination of causes and effects) is the only basis of his foreknowledge: which foreknowledge could neither be certain, nor independent, but as founded on his own antecedent decree. 2. He alone is entitled to the name of

True God, who governs all things, and without whose will (either efficient or permissive) nothing is or can be done: and such is the God of the scriptures: against whose will, not a sparrow can die, nor a hair fall from our heads, Matt. x."

All-important however as are the doctrines of election and redemption, the exhibition of these truths is far from being the primary or the constant duty of a minister of Christ. In the pulpit, he has, more or less, always to do with men who are hostile to the moral government of God; who are daily living in actual rebellion against him; but who, notwithstanding, are neither aware of their situation nor their danger. It will therefore be his principal endeavour to convince them of their daring presumption and their guilt of their being righteously exposed to the curse threatened in the law, and that dying in such a state, they will inevitably perish.

Surely the preacher's belief of the doctrine of election and particular redemption, can be no obstacle to his bearing a faithful testimony to these awful and alarming facts-to his pro

claiming, in the language of scripture, That, not merely the shameless profligate, but that all the world is become guilty before God--that there is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God-they are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one- -there is no fear of God before their eyes:' and that, for men to expect to be saved by conformity to a law which they must be conscious they are daily violating, is preposterous- -It should also be remembered and inculcated, that the law to which all are amenable, is spiritual; that it takes cognizance of the thought, as well as of the act; and as much requires purity of heart as rectitude of conduct that it never can remit its claim to perfect and perpetual obedience; and that dying under its curse, they must feel the weight of its sentence for ever.

To convince the sinner of the reality of these solemn and effecting truths, is one of the most arduous duties connected with the gospel ministry. Men are not willing to believe that the

law of God is so strict as to mark deviations from which no one is perfectly exempt; nor yet that they are so completely destitute of moral worth, as to possess nothing which may in part, at least, deserve the forgiveness of heaven. Hence the necessity of reiterated, and indeed of unremitted endeavours to awaken them to a serious consideration of their sin and their danger; of pressing on their attention the alarming and peremptory monition of our Lord: 'Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel

not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again."

When men in an unconverted state begin to think about the salvation of the soul, it is always imagined that something must be done by themselves to merit the favour of God; and until they are convinced of this fatal delusion, and completely divorced from all attachment to the works of the law as a ground of hope, they will never see their case to be desperate, nor ever feelingly adopt the language of him who