people from a candid examination of it. However, it very frequently happens, that the efforts which are designed to prevent people from looking into these things excite their curiosity and incite them more to the examination than if nothing was said or done. If it were a crime for the rulers of the Jews to associate with the Saviour and attend on his instruction; if excommunication awaited those who should profess Christ openly, there was the night season, when the enemies of the Redeemer were either locked up in sleep, or perhaps in superstitious conclave, scoffing at the benign doctrine of grace and concerting more severe measures to prevent its spread, when a Necodemus, could go, unnoticed to Jesus and obtain a knowledge of salvation. If the wisdom of this world be crafty enough to employ gentle, soothing, and persuasive measures to quiet the people in that old cruel system of partiality and endless misery, it is only like joging the cradle to quiet the child, while its cries increase with its want of nourishment.

This doctrine of universal salvation, which we propose to prove in this discourse, seems to be favoured by the dictates of sound reason, and fully supported by the evidences derived from the nature of the manifest economy of universal providence.

If we could do ourselves the justice to lay aside all the prejudices of our mistaught minds and open our eyes to the light of reason, and our ears to the voice of enlightened understanding, we should soon find our minds engaged in the sweet contemplations of the impartial goodness of the Supreme ruler.

The same creative power gave existence to all men, all are blessed by the same munificent providence, the sun that makes and rules the day, the moon that rules the night discover no partiality in dispensing their favours. Do not the rains fall,

and the dews descend as common blessings on mankind? Is not the vital air, is not the fullness of the waters the undivided inheritance of mankind? Is there an element, is there a vegetable, is there a fruit which nature reserves from the general store house of him, who opens his hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing?

Let us contemplate the unity of our common nature, the dependence of one on another, and that eternal indissoluble law by which we are united. Notwithstanding there is an infinite variety among mankind, there is no distinction of moral nature; nor is there a genio in the whole family of man that the philopher can prove to be useless and of no advantage to others. Those who are considered to be the most useful members of community frequently owe their means to be so, to them, who being placed in the low walks of life, are scarcely known in society. What would kings be without subjects? what would rulers be destitute of people? Are not servants as profitable in their stations, as their masters are in theirs? and are not the rich and the poor blessings to each other? The sacred connections of husband and wife, of parents and children, of brethren and sisters, if duly contemplated, furnish a most delightful prospect of the dependences of our common nature. In fact it seems that mankind forms one compact indssoluble body which may be represented by the human frame, which can lose none of its members without being rendered maimed and incomplete.

It is true the partial system has driven men of deserning minds to make calculations, that the eternal separation of those, who are in this life united by the tenderest ties of our nature, and the indiscribable misery of children will occasion an increase of the parent's happiness, and the endless

misery of parents will greatly increase the felicity of children in the eternal world. But it must be acknowledged that such arguments are equally as hostile to every good quality of man, as the system which they are designed to defend is to reason and revelation. We say, that men of descerning minds have been driven to argue thus, for they can discern, that unless this be the case, what they call heaven will be a place of the keenest mental torment, that can be conceived of. Losing sight of nature and of nature's God, and adhearing to their partial creed, many contend, that at what they call the great day, parents will rejoice to see their offspring turned away into the burning lake, while other instances will occur, in which children will sing praises to God in the highest at seeing their parents, the inheriters of unspeakable misery.

If we can suppress our indignation against such unhallowed cruelty, so as to take a deliberate view of a faint simile, we may suppose that the sweet slumbers of a numerous family are suddenly interrupted by the midnight cry of fire. They are roused from sleep amid the smoke and flames of their own dwelling; the father and several of the eldest children but just make their escape from the devouring element, and leave the wife and mother with a number of the children to perish in the flames. Now observe, the doctrine which stands opposed to the salvation of all men, and which can support itself at no less expense then to inhance the felicities of heaven by the miseries of hell, supposes that the happiness of the husband and father, on finding hinself safe from the fire, is to be increased by his seeing the companion of his bosom, the mother of his children, and her little ones in the flames, and by hearing their lamentable cries; and these children who made their escape are to possess hearts to re

joice to see the mother that watched over their infancy and childhood, and their brothers and sisters perishing in the most excruciating anguish.

To wound your feelings with such a simile as this, on any ordinary subject would surely require an apology, but in respect to the subject under consideration our simile is as dim as the faint glimmer of a dying taper compaired with the concenterated blaze of a thousand suns. The flames that destroyed the unhappy victims were merciful to terminate their sufferings in a moment, that nothing but the remembrance of the sad catastrophe might remain, but the flames of hell and its "lively bright horrors" are supposed to exist eternally, to gladden kindred hearts, and to brighten the joys of relative spirits forever and ever!

To the eye of candid reason, it seems perfectly clear, that to make an eternal separation of the human family, and to place one part in a state of everlasting misery, would render the whole miserable, let the line of separation be drawn in one place or another. If the division be made according to the doctrine of partial election, without any regard to the conduct of men, the husband may be chosen, and the wife a reprobate, in another case the wife may be chosen, and the husband a reprobate: And this dividing line will separate parents from their children, and children from each other, and it is as plain as any thing can be that if one company is appointed to a state of misery the other must be.

You that are parents, you who are brothers and sisters are called on to judge of this question. Suppose your nearest and dearest connections, as children and brethren were prisoners in an enemy's land, and you were certified by letters from them, that they were treated in the most cruel manner,

their lodging the cold damp ground, their food scant and unwholesome, and that there were no hopes of their ever being released, could you be happy! Without the least commiseration could you repose on your beds of down, and feast yourselves at your sumptuous tables? All this you know to be impossible.

Or suppose this final separation is to be made with due reference to the works of men in this world, this alters not the case, for we cannot be happy while our connections suffer even for their faults.

If we draw a reasonable conclusion from the manifest goodness of God to all men, in his temporal providence, and if we assist this conclusion by the considerations already suggested of the unity and dependence of our nature, we must decide in favour of the proposition for which we contend; for it is most unreasonable indeed to suppose, that the system of the Redeemer's grace, which derives its origin from the same source, from whence came every principle of our existence and every favor of divine providence, is less benevolent in its designs or less efficacious in its means.

We may now notice some of the evidences, which support the doctrine of universal grace, found in the divine testimony. We say some of the evidences, because it would require much time, and superior abilities to those employed on this occasion to bring the whole of this sort of evidence into view. Indeed we must be very limited on this part of our subject that we may avoid using too many of the passages already recited in these lectures for the same purpose, and that the hearer's patience be not too much burdened.

The text under consideration may first be noticed. In this passage Jesus promises to draw all