A mysterious relationship united us equally to the first and to the second Adam, and so close was the union, that we are members of the body of the Redeemer, who, in process of time, assumed our flesh, and wrought out for us everlasting righteousness. Christ Jesus being to all intents and purposes, the Head of every man, the iniquities of the many wandering members were laid upon him, and so did they overwhelm and encompass him about; that the sword of justice was drawn against him, and he who was the fellow of divinity was sorely smitten, wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities; that by his stripes we might be healed, and, when crying out, "it is finished," he made an end of sin, we then, in our federal head, and immaculate representative, recovered our lost estate, and our restoration is even more splendid, more luminous, than our primeval purity, for we were then made subject to vanity, subjected however in hope, but the purchase of a Redeemer's blood can never be lost.

I HAVE been asked, "are the tares to be punished?" I answer no-Our Lord says the tares are to be burned. Again they taunt> ingly question, "what kind of punishment can be inflicted upon evil dispositions, without any person or agent, susceptible of suffering?" Can mere ideas, empty visions, be identified at a judgment seat? How insulting such questions. The objector proceeds to interrogate. Is not God the Father of wheat? Is he not the Father or Creator of the devil? Or, if God be not the Creator of the devil, did the devil create himself?

May I not with propriety answer, God is the Father of the good seed of the wheat, but not of the devil. Of the angels who kept not their first estate, God was undoubtedly the Creator. But of the enmity betwixt God and the creature, which constitutes the character devil, it does not appear to me God was the CreatorWheat cannot produce tares. I know not how the angels became devils: this is a subject upon which revelation being silent, I do not possess the means of information. "The proper study of mankind is man." But I think, in the nature of things, there can be but one OMNIPOTENT BEING; and, if this be allowed, the devil cannot be omnipotent, nor equal with God.

I do not consider sin, in the abstract, as subjected either to pain, pr sorrow; an idea so absurd has no place in divine revelation,

Persons hearing me attempt an elucidation of the parable of the wheat and tares, must recollect I have declared, that at the end of the world, God would take out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and cast them into a furnace of fire. The iniquity was what gave offence; he, with whom it originated, was the devil, who, because he did that deed, was accursed. When our transgressions were judicially punished with a rod, they were found in him, on whose back the ploughers made long and bloody furrows; and, when human nature shall be physically cleansed, the punishment will follow the offence, and fall upon the head of the deceiver.

The fallen spirits are sometimes spoken of in the singular, and sometimes in the plural character. When the devil, possessing the man among the tombs, was asked his name, he answered, legion; and as every human being is more or less under the influence of an evil spirit, they sustain the same character. Ye are of your father, the devil. But when these evil spirits are separated, when all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, are taken out of the kingdom, the restitution of all things must follow. The things which are Cæsar's will be rendered to Cæsar, and the things which belong to God will be rendered to God.

It is unbecoming for two persons, professing themselves disciples of the meek and lowly Jesus, to engage in wordy war. Bitterness and rage are wholly inconsistent with the christian character; and it is my present determination, by which I trust my God will enable me to abide, never in future to respond to any individual, who apparently acts under the influence of a spirit of wrath and prejudice. But if an inquirer, directed by the mild principles of christianity, and evidently operated upon by candour and humanity, shall request a reason for the hope that is in me, I shall always be ready, with meekness and fear, to render such an answer as my God may enable me to give.

I Do, indeed, believe, what I every where assert, that we, of necessity, continue in our own apprehension, and the distressing effects of that apprehension, in a state of condemnation, until we believe in Jesus Christ, who taketh away the sin of the world. This is what I mean, and this is what my heart thinketh. I am charged with asserting that those who believe not are already jus

tified. If I distinguish between the finished salvation, wrought out by Jesus Christ, and the apprehension of this salvation, in the minds of the redeemed, what do I more than what the immediate apostles of our Lord have done before me? Nay, I firmly believe, that all who believe not are condemned already.

I have been charged with affirming, that when Jesus Christ died, the whole human race suffered for their sins in their own individual persons, and reconciled themselves unto their Maker!!! I find it difficult to believe it possibly can be supposed there is a person in the world, who embraces such a principle. For myself, I do not believe I ever had a person, until I came into this abominable world; neither do I believe, that if all the world were to suffer for their sins, in their own persons, it would reconcile them unto God. I believe that Jesus suffered the just for the unjust, to bring them to God.

No, I do not embrace the Anti-Protestant doctrine of purgatory. There are but two sorts of purgation of which I have any idea. The one is described, Hebrews, i. 3. “Who, (Christ) being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." And the second is pointed out in the 9th ch. and 14th verses of the same epistle. "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works, to serve the living God."

Is there who can object to either of these purgatories?

It is Mr. Murray's divinity, said one, that we are not justified, either by faith or works. Pity I cannot be permitted to render my own creed. Were I thus privileged, I should say my divinity is, that we are justified by faith with works. No man can lay other foundation than that which is laid, which is Christ: upon, this foundation, we must all build; and if we build gold, silver and precious stones, such building will certainly stand, will survive even those convulsions which dissolve the frame of nature. But should we build wood, hay and stubble, such building will be destroyed: yet, blessed be God, the builders will be saved, although it be so as by fire.

Am I a promoter of libertinism!!! The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, before whom I stand, knows I lie not, when I say, I abhor the character of a libertine, as much as I do the insinuation, which is designed to brand my reputation. But the envenomed shafts of calumny are not aimed at me only; they are calculated to murder the fair fame of those respectable characters, of whose unmerited sufferings, I am a sympathizing spectator, and to whose rectitude, a love of truth, a detestation of falsehood, and a well earned affection, impel me to bear witness. Well, well, it will always be an eternal truth that God is sufficient for us.

I HAVE no doctrine, but the doctrine taught by God the Saviour. I reject every doctrine, which the mouth of the Lord hath not spoken. The apostolic churches were formed by professors of the doctrine of universal redemption. Jesus Christ, and his apostles, preached and defended this doctrine. All the writers of Revelation were strong in the faithful belief of the doctrine of Universal Salvation; so saith the Apostle Peter, when speaking of the world's Redeemer. "The heavens must receive him, until the restitution of all things, which God hath spoken of by the mouth of all his holy prophets, ever since the world began." How much is contained in this single testimony of the Apostle. Yes, indeed, God blessed Abraham, and said, in thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed.

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, believed God, and were therefore Universalists. And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word. But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. Numbers, xiv. 20, 21. "Moses believed God, and was therefore a Universalist.

All the ends of the world shall remember, and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindred of the nations shall worship before thee, for the kingdom is the Lord's. All they that go down to the dust shall bow before him. Psalm xxii. 27, 28, 29. "Let the people praise thee, O God, let all the people praise thee."

"All nations shall call him blessed, and let the whole earth be filled with his glory, amen, and amen." Psalm lxxii. 8, 17, 19. "All nations whom thou hast made, shalt come and worship before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify thy name." Psalm lxxxvi. 9. "My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever." Psalm, cxlv. 21.

Thus it appears that the royal Prophet was a strong Universalist.

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Isaiah xi. 9. And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people, a feast of fat things. And he will destroy, in this mountain, the face of the covering cast over all people; the veil that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death in victory. And the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people will he take from off all the earth, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

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All this, no doubt, Isaiah fully believed. Isaiah, therefore, was a Universalist.

Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel, and to the house of Judah. Jeremiah, xxiii. 14. "How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder, and broken! How is Babylon become a desolation among the nations."

Jeremiah, in full assurance that God would perform what he promised, was unquestionably a Universalist.

"When thy sister Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return tö their former estate, Then thou and thy daughters shall return to thy former estate." Ezekiel, xvi, 55.

Sodom and her daughters were those who suffered the vengeance of eternal fire. But the Prophet Ezekiel, being a Universalist, was persuaded they would not be eternally suffering the vengeance of eternal fire:

"Pharaoh shall see them, and be comforted over all his multitude; even Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword, saith the Lord." Ezekiel, xxxii. 31.

"Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. Then the heathen that are left round about you, shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places." Ezekiel, xxxvi. 25, 36. Thus we see Ezekiel, in declaring the salvation of Jew and Heathen, was a Universalist.

66 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sin, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting

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