perfect and just weight, a perfect and juft meafure fhalt thou have;" full weight or meafure, not less than the standard.--Juftice is drawn with a pair of equal fcales, to ascertain the exact weight, value, or worth of what the weighs. Job ufeth this metaphor, chap. xxxi. 6. "Let me be weighed in an even balance;" Heb. pro in balances of juftice. Hence, then, the declaration of God's being well pleased with his beloved fon for his righteousness fake, means, on account of his being righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works, the divine approbation or judgment upon him, for a light of the (Heb. plur.) peoples. In this view John's gospel fets him forth as the light of the world, chap. ix. 5. Chap. i. 4. "In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Hence the lawyer, (Mat. xxii. 35.) in order to expofe our Lord's ignorance of the divine law, (trying or proving him) faid, “ Mafter, (or teacher) which is the great commandment in the law?" The defign and import of the queftion, by our Lord's answer, appears to amount to this, What is the greatest weight in the balances of justice, which must be preponderated by fuch duties as will pafs the criterion of the divine approbation?-Chrift's reply, therefore, in fubftance, is to this effect---These fcales have two weights which must be fufpended, i. e, levelled, by fuch principles, and fuch works, as God would declare himfelf well pleafed with. Chap. xxii. 37. Jefus faith unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy foul, and with all thy mind. Ver. 38. This is the first and great commandment, i. e. the firft and great weight. Ver. 39. And the fecond is like unto it; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyfelf. Ver. 40. On thefe two commandments (or weights) hang, or are fufpended all the law and the prophets. Now the Revelations informs us, (chap. xix. 10) that the testimony of Jefus is the spirit of prophecy, i. e. the prophets teftify who is the on y character which preponderates in the balances of divine juftice. Peter fays likewife, that the spirit of Christ in them teftified before hand the fufferings of Chrift, and the glory that fhould follow. 1 Pet. i. 11. and in Acts, x. 43. he fays, To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name, whosoever believeth in him, shall receive remiffion of fins. Our Lord therefore exposes the lawyer's ignorance of the divine law, in his not being acquainted with the two diftinct parts thereof, called in the Scriptures, (Exod. xxxii. 15.) The two tables of the teftimony. Chap. xxxi. 18 &c. They are called the tables of the teftimony, because they teftify of Chrift. In this point of view they are ordained to life. Rom. vii. 10. But Paul,

before

before he understood this grand defign of God in giving a law which was holy, juft, and good, in the ufe he made of it, found it to be unto death. But when he was taught by that spirit which took of the things of Chrift, and fhewed them unto him, then he was enabled to cry out with rapture, Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. He that spared not his own fon, but freely gave him up for us all, how shall be not with him freely give us all things. To have the fpirit of Chrift, and to be in him, to walk as he walked, to be born from above, to bę born again, not of corruptible feed, (as Nicodemus once dreamed) but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever; which is, in other words, to have fellowfhip with the Father and with his fon Jefus Chrift. We have fellowship with the Father when our confciences are brought to reft where his good pleasure refts; and we have fellowship with the fon when we partake of that joy which he is anointed with above his fellows. Well might the apoftle, under the full enjoyment of this truth, cry out, God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jefus Chrift cleanleth us from all fin. Here we can easily account for that wonderful harmony which reigned for fome time among the primitive Chriftians, when they walked in the fear of the Lord, and in the comforts of the Holy Spirit, and were edified and multiplied; when they were of one heart and of one foul; when they were what all the elect will be when Chrift's prayer will be perfectly anfwered in the whole of them being one as the Father and fon are one: then there will be an end altogether put to that fenfelefs jargon which has been time out of mind carried on upon the word atone, which every one must understand who knows what the meaning of the prepofition at and the adjective one, when compounded, convey; and let those who do not, only confider the following paffages, and they will be no longer ignorant of this most important fubject---1 Tim. ii. 5." One God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Chrift Jefus, who gave himself a ransom for all," &c.--John, xvii. 21. Chrift prays, that the fame one-nefs which fubfifts betwixt the Father and himself might effectually take place among his apoftles, (by the inftrumentality of his word, which he calls being fanctified by the truth) and from his apoftles to the whole of the elect, and from the elect, or church of the first-born, to the world at large. When this perfect onenefs takes place, then, and not till then, will the doctrine of the atonement be univerfally understood. Eph. i. 10. Gather G 2

together

"Now we

together in one all things in Chrift. Chap. ii. 14. Made nigh by the blood of Chrift, for he is our peace, who hath made both one, (i. e. Jews and gentiles) and that he might reconcile both unto God, in one body, by the cross. Thus mankind, confidered as feparate from Chrift, are under the curfe of the divine law, the wrath of God abiding on them: its language refpecting them is, "Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie, to be laid in the balance; they are altogether lighter than vanity." Pfalm lxii. 9. "Surely every man walketh in a vain fhew," &c. Pfalm xxxix. 6. know, that what things foever the law faith, it faith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law there fhall no flesh be justified in his fight, for by the law is the knowledge of fin." Rom. iii. 19. v. 20. vii. 13. &c. In this point of view the letter killeth-- it is the ministration of death; and any attempt to obey its requirements, feparate from union with Chrift, is going about to esta. blifh our own righteousness, or juftification, not fubmitting ourselves to the righteousness or juftification of God, not con-fidering that Chrift is the end, scope, meaning, and fulfilment of the law, to every one that believeth. See Rom. x. Confidered in him, all the threatenings, as well as all the rewards or promises, are yea and in him amen. 2 Cor. i. 20, As the bitter cup could not pafs from him without his drinking it, fo the cup of falvation, or free pardon, is given unto us by that spirit who taketh of the things of Chrift and fheweth them unto us. May I have the happiness of seeing this fubject better attended to by fuch as have been more deeply inftructed by the schoolmafter which I first recommended your correfpondent to, and then I fhall have my reward.

FRAGMENT OF A LETTER FROM A MINISTER TO HIS SON,

'I

AGAINST THE UNIVERSAL DOCTRINE.

WILL now confider Mr. Winchefter's fentiments concerning the Reftitution of all Things, which includes the falvation of devils and damned fpirits. This is not a new fentiment: Stackhouse, in his Body of Divinity, published almoft a century ago, fays, "I fuppofe that the torments of hell will be so exceedingly fevere, that the devils themselves will be

forced

forced to repent," or words to that effect. Those men take that for granted which ought to be proved, viz. that punishment will give man a new nature, and make him love God who hates him in his heart! For this bold fentiment, they have neither Scripture, reason, nor example on their fide :---they must also affume another abfurd notion, viz. that the damned in hell ceafe to fin, and fo ceafe to deferve punishment; but a departed spirit is as capable of finning, and as active in fin, as it would be in the body; and as it will be ever finning, it will deferve to be ever fuffering: they muft caft away the doctrine of atonement, as neceflary to the remiffion of fin; for he that is perpetually finning cannot attone for the prefent offence by his paft fufferings---juftice cannot punish till after the crime is committed.

But the doctrine of a future ftate depends on divine revelation, and, confequently, the ftate of intelligent beings beyond the grave. No mode of argument can therefore be admitted on this fubject, to overturn the clear revelation which God has given us in his word: when, therefore, our Lord reprefents that there is no paffage between hell and heaven, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, he contradicts the sentiment of those men. When it is faid, "As the tree falls fo it lies, and as death leaves us, fo judgment will find us---Their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched---They fhall go into everlasting punishment---He that is filthy, let him be filthy' ftill" with many other fimilar paffages, what fhall we fay? What! because the Reftitution of all Things is mentioned once, muft we conclude that all things refer to and include the damned in hell? Strange idea! when this general term in Scripture is generally used in referring to particular objects, even the people of God---or in reference to a particular period of time, fuch as the general spread of the gospel, &c. &c.

I acknowledge that the original word tranflated everlasting, fignifies ages; and for ever and ever, for ages and ages, and therefore of vague fignification; but the fentiment of the eternity of hell torments muft depend on the eternal existence of the finner, and his ever continuing to fin: he muft continue to fin, except his nature and difpofition be changed; for he has no difpofition to love God, and nothing but divine grace can give him a difpofition to love God; for this is a change of nature that cannot be effected but by the power of a divine agency; and punishment will do nothing towards producing this change. Caft a man into a prifon for having hated and injured you, and fee whether that will make him love and

ferve you. It is a notion grounded in ignorance and oppofition to the word of God."

I

USES OF ELECTION.

To the Editor of the UNIVERSALIST'S MISCELLANY.

DEAR SIR,

HOPE the statement which I have given of the Scripture doctrine of Election, and its connection with the Univerial Restoration, will be admitted by the ferious and impartial reader to be of great practical utility.

Election, as maintained by many of its advocates, has, I fear, been a ftumbling-block to finners. Some have prefumed that, if included in the chofen number, their falvation must be fecure, let them act as they will; and that, if not of that number, they have fuppofed, not all they can do, not all the means they can make use of, can ever change an irreversible decree, which has excluded them from falvation, or prevent their inevitable damnation. I will do ferious and pious Calvinifts the juftice to fay, they have frequently laboured to guard their doctrine from fuch a conftruction; but the thing has been, and still muft be, in many inftances, impoffible, as their statement thereof feems evidently to lead to fuch a conclufion. Its baneful influ ence has been counteracted where its adherents have been influenced by real piety, but no where else; and fuch counteraction is to be afcribed, folely to the difpofitions of individuals being better than their ideas. I trust the representation given in my letters compleatly fets afide the baneful conclufion to which Calvinian election is liable; for it goes directly to fhew, that the elect cannot be made happy any further than they are obedient to God and useful to men; and that the non-elect are not excluded from falvation, or from the enjoyment of any blefling neceflary to their happinefs, by their non-election; but that, on the contrary, the door of falvation is kept open before them, and all the means of happiness afforded them, through the medium of the elect; that nothing can keep them from being faved and made completely happy, but their wilful rejection of the gofpel, and continued rebellion against God. Does it not hence appear, that our views of election have greatly the advantage over Calvinian election in point of practical tendency?

Calvinian election has frequently operated as a difcouragement to finners, when truly awakened and led to fee their loft,

helpless,