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THE MYSTERY OF GOD FINISHED.

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THE

MYSTERY OF GOD FINISHED;

OR, THE TIMES OF

THE RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS.

"Thus he showed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumb-line, with a plumb-
line in his hand. And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumb-line. Then
said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumb-line in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by
them any more."-Amos vii. 7-8,

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GLASGOW:

PRINTED BY BELL AND BAIN, ST. ENOCH SQUARE

CHAPTER XX.

IN the matter of regeneration or reprobation, a man makes his own choice, and God judges and rewards him accordingly. A certain portion of every man's life is always past before he makes his selection; and as a moral transaction between God and His creatures, the equity and justice of God's dealings towards men are also manifested in this stage of human existence. A man's birth into the world as a living soul in the form of a helpless infant, is an event over which he can exercise no controul, and regarding which he has no responsibility. His parents may be of royal descent, or his progenitors may have been for many generations a race of slaves: his parents may be noble and wealthy, or they may be despised and poor: his parents may have been famed for their giant powers of intellect, or they may have been despicable as intellectual dwarfs. In any case he is free from dishonour; and in like manner he can lay no claim to personal distinction, because of the adventitious circumstances of his birth or parentage. Let it be observed, that these remarks apply to the child as a moral and accountable being, and not to the earthly inheritance of which he is by his birth the heir. If a nation enact a law, bestowing the crown of the kingdom, with all its immunities and privileges, upon an

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