to a word by the persons in general by whom the language either is now, or formerly was spoken, and especially in the particular connexion in which such notion is affixed.

2dly. The meaning of a word or phrase used by any writer, is the meaning affixed to it by those for whom he immediately wrote. For there is a kind of natural compact between those who write and those who read, by which they are mutually bound to use words in a certain sense; he, therefore, who uses such words in a different signification, in a manner violates that compact, and is in danger of leading men into error, contrary to the design of God, "who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."

3dly. The words of an author must not be so explained as to make them inconsistent with his known character, his known sentiments, his known situation, and the known circumstances under which he wrote.

4thly. We must not give to words or phrases an interpretation which clashes with any doctrine clearly revealed in scripture. The sense of words and phrases ought, therefore, to be ascertained from those texts in which it is clear and undoubted, from the connexion, or from the nature of the subject to which they are applied.

These and other rules of a like nature are applied by your people to the interpretation of the Sacred Writings. Neither they nor you will allow a person to found an important doctrine upon a single text broken off from the context, and construed without a due regard to the general tenor of scripture. Thus, when I maintain on the authority of 1 Tim. ii. 4, that "God will have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth," you search the Bible and produce me texts which declare that only those who believe shall be saved; and thence you conIclude that since it is certain that many, not to say the great majority of men, die in unbelief, they cannot be saved; and, consequently, that the text above quoted must be so interpreted as to accord with the doctrine of everlasting damnation; and that the "will of God" there spoken of, signifies a disposition of mind subject

to be changed by circumstances, and not a fixed and determined purpose formed upon a deliberate review of all the circumstances that can arise. I am not now arguing the point in dispute between us, but only insisting upon the right to avail myself of the very rules which you and your people apply to the interpretation of the sacred text.

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The words of our Saviour, as recorded by Mark iii. 28, are, Verily I say unto you, all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith they blaspheme: but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation." Matt. xii. 31, records the sentence thus: "Wherefore, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." Luke reports a similar declaration, xii. 10:" And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven."

Declarations like these are, indeed, of an awful import, and it behoves us to be careful that we do not trifle with them; they are, moreover, corroborated by a solemn passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews, vi., which speaks of the impossibility of renewing to repentance those who apostatize after having been once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come. But even you must be under the necessity of supplying some additional words to those of our Saviour, in order to reconcile their meaning with that of other passages of scripture; for, as the sentence is given by Mark, Jesus Christ is made to say positively that all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, with the sole exception of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. Now I am pretty sure that you will not admit

this to have been the mind of Christ. If you do, you exclude from salvation none but blasphemers of the above class. You will undoubtedly insert, as understood, the words, upon repentance," or words of the like import; because we are expressly told that it is he only who repenteth and forsaketh his sin, that shall find mercy. To say that all men repent except they are guilty in some shape or other of the unpardonable sin, is to contradict those passages wherein our Lord declares that some sinners who were cut off in the midst of their sins, such as those of the cities which were destroyed by fire from heaven, were more excusable, and should experience a more tolerable doom than awaited the inhabitants of Jerusalem, of Capernaum, and those of other places who rejected the gospel.

9th October.

Seeing then that your people, in order to understand this saying of our Lord, are obliged to compare them with other passages of scripture, you cannot, without gross inconsistency, deny me the same latitude of judgment.

I have already referred you to passages wherein it is plainly declared that Christ died for all men; that he is the propitiation for the sins of the world; that he gave himself a ransom for all, a testimony for the proper time; that as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive; that where sin abounded grace did superabound; that mercy shall rejoice over judgment; that God will not be always wrath, lest the Spirit should fail before him and the souls which he has made; that he has no pleasure in the death of a sinner; that he will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth; that his ways are equal, and that we ought to see, to understand, and to acknowledge the equity of all his dealings, past, present and to come, in order that thus knowing his name we may put our trust in him, and love him with all our hearts and minds, and sing praises to him with the understanding; that, thus knowing the mind of the Lord and his declared will to save all men, we are bound to pray for the final salvation of all men, not with the interposition of qualifying

particles, your ifs and buts, but without wrath, and without doubting, a thing quite impossible to any man who believes that God will punish some men to all eternity. In further confirmation of the revealed design of God to have mercy upon all men, we are told, in the dispensation of the fulness of times he will gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him; that Christ is the head of every man; and that as we have all borne the image of the earthy we shall also bear the image of the heavenly, inasmuch as having made peace by the blood of his cross he will reconcile all things to himself; and having been lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto him; that the whole creation shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God; that the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and he will dwell among them, and wipe away the tears from all faces, and that there shall be no more pain, nor sighing, nor any more death, but all things shall be created anew, and every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and in the sea, shall unite in ascribing blessing and honour, and glory and power, unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb.

Are these words of my invention ? Are they not those of men moved by the Holy Spirit? And shall you presume to prohibit me from listening to them-from meditating upon them, with a view to comprehend their full force and import-from drawing consolation from such exceeding great and glorious manifestations of the unbounded mercy and goodness of our heavenly Father? You may prohibit, but the prohibition comes too late. The passages in question have been recited from memory, where, I trust, they are indelibly fixed. Can you think by your feeble voice to drown the words of God; or to scare me from listening to his gracious declarations? He has made it my bounden duty to think and care for the condition of my fellow-creatures, to love them as myself; and I can no more divest myself of such thoughts, and cares, and anxieties, and deep-seated concern for their fate, and ardent aspirations for their happiness, than I

can cease to breathe the sweet air of heaven or to behold the pleasant light of the sun. Is it indeed come to this, that I must not exercise the faculties which it has pleased God to give me without drawing down the censure of a fellow-worm! Let God be true, and every one who gainsays him be deemed a liar. While you are so liberal of your rebuke to me, take heed lest you be found to harden your heart, and to shut your eyes against plain and repeatedly revealed truths. You have called upon me to reconcile passages of scripture to my creed. I now, in my turn, call upon you to tell me the true meaning of the texts above-referred to.

If I have in any of my communications expressed myself in a style unsuited to the subject, I am sorry for it, and will endeavour to avoid falling into the same error. You must not, however, suppose that when I point out the necessary consequences of the opinions which I am opposing, my reverence for my Maker is weakened by the mention of those consequences; far from it. I turn with unspeakable pleasure from the gloomy portrait which false creeds have paint ed, to those lovely traits which the Scriptures contain. Seeing, then, that we are encompassed with such a bright cloud of witnesses to the goodness and mercy of God, we must not on any account so interpret any passage of scripture as to make that goodness and mercy of none effect; and, therefore, I hesitate not for an instant to say that the words relating to the sin against the Holy Ghost, do not intend that such sinners shall never experience renewing grace, though they will undoubtedly eat the bitter fruit of their doings.

I need not tell you that the word which has been translated world, is age. "Neither in this age nor in the coming age." In one of the Epistles it is said that the ends of the world had come upon the Christians of that day. The passage should have been rendered, "in whom the ends of the ages have met;" that is to say, the Apostle wrote at a time when the Mosaical age or dispensation was about to close, which it did at the destruction of the Temple by the Romans; and a new age or dispensation, that of the Gospel, was about to be

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nor in that which is to come," is, that persons thus attributing miraculous powers to satanical agency either before or after the termination of the Mosaical age, could not, from the very circumstance of their withstanding such a display of the Divine interposition, be converted and be healed; but if the meaning be that those very persons to whom our Lord addressed himself would not obtain forgiveness either in this life or during the continuance of the age which would terminate with the second advent of Christ, it does not follow that they shall not obtain mercy under his mediatorial government. During the period of his reign he will administer rewards and punishments to mankind; all of whom, without a single exception, have been purchased by his blood. He is the second Adam, the Lord from heaven: all things are given to him; but we see not yet all things subjected to him: when, however, every knee shall be made to bow to him, and every tongue to confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father-then we are expressly told that he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father, that God may be all in all. May that blessed period speedily arrive!

The case of these sinners seems to be analogous to that of those servants that did not accept of freedom at the sabbatical year. Such servant was to remain in servitude until the jubilee, when he was to go forth, notwithstanding his former rejection of freedom. The reason given is, because the children of Israel, whether bond or free, were the Lord's servants, and therefore must know a time of liberty,

let them sell themselves away how far soever; and so the land must not be sold for ever-for the land is mine, saith the Lord, and ye are strangers and sojourners with me; yet this servitude to the year of jubilee is called a serving for ever. If God should suffer sin ever to embondage man, how can it be truly said that grace has superabounded over sin? It cannot, must not be: Christ shall not be proved to be weaker than Adam, nor incapable to destroy the works of the devil. He has said, O death, I will be thy destruction, repentance shall be hid from mine eyes; he will destroy him who has the power of death, and swallow up death in victory. Now, how can death be otherwise destroyed than by the prevalence of life?

While I admit with you the evil of sin, as the cause of all the misery which men have suffered or may suffer, I cannot go the length of deifying it as you do, by attributing infinity to it. When you term it an infinite evil, do you mean to affirm that each individual sin is infinite, or that this is only true of sin in the aggregate? Sin cannot be infinite either in extent or in duration because the Almighty has declared, that in certain cases it shall be blotted out-it must, therefore, in these cases, cease to exist where it formerly existed. Neither immensity nor eternity can be ascribed to sin, unless it be committed by an infinite Being; but there is only one infinite Being, that is God. The idea of the infinite evil of sin, come whence it may, is not derived from Scripture. Be the extent of the evil what it may, Christ has undertaken to exterminate it; and I believe, with all my heart, that he will succeed in accomplishing the work which he has thus engaged to perform.

The solemn denunciation pronounced by our Lord against the great transgression has weighed heavily upon the minds of many humble, pious Christians of timid dispositions; and some ministers, even of your sect, have written to prove that it could only be committed by those who witnessed the miracles of Christ, and, perhaps, those of his apostles.

There is one very material point upon which I wish to make myself distinctly understood, namely, as to the ground upon which all men are

to be finally restored to holiness and happiness. You appear to suppose that I expect this grand consumination to be brought about by the direct exercise of the Divine benevolence, independently of the mediation of Jesus Christ. This, however, is far from my thoughts; for I believe that there is no name nor authority under heaven, whereby the salvation of men can be effected, but that of Jesus. I have already said that all things have been committed by the Father into his hand; that rewards and punishments will be administered by him, and so administered as to put down all authority and power that opposes itself to his righteous government; and that this great work will be carried on until every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. We are expressly told, that for this cause Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. It is during his mediatorial kingdom that he will adjudge rewards and punishments, both of which will end at that glorious period when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to the Father, that God may be all in all. Such a notion as this could not have entered our poor contracted minds, unless it had been revealed; but being revealed it appears worthy of God, and a fit issue of that grand scheme of love which was founded on the death of Christ. One of your own people, under lively impressions of the love of God, and of the power of Christianity, has said that he will make its blessings flow, far as the curse is found.

"Wherefore, if men assign a less purchase to Christ's death, when he died for all, as the Scripture affirms, than the justification of life, as the Apostle calls it, Rom. v. 18, they wrong and injure the blood of Christ, and set too low a value upon it. It is not the bringing men upon a new probation and trial, or making them simply saveable through the better use of their free-will than Adam made of it; and the purchasing of means and space and opportunity, as some would have it, that can be deemed, in any righteous judgment, a valuable consideration for Christ's blood; these might have been obtained at a cheaper rate; it is no less than the actual

saving of those persons, every one of them, for whom Christ died, that can compensate so great a price as the blood of Christ."

You will say, why then are men damned? I answer, for not believing and obeying the gospel. Yet as their unbelief cannot make the faith of God of no effect, so their punishment, whatever may be its degree or duration, cannot extinguish the right and claim of Christ's blood for their deliverance; this never loses its virtue nor can be satisfied, but cries till all for whom it was shed be delivered. And it was shed for the worst, the veriest backsliders, else how can such persons be charged with counting the blood of the covenant, whereby they were sanctified, an unholy thing ?Heb. x. 29.

Whatever you may think of the matter, and however you may charge me with presumption, in prying into "the things that are revealed," (and how else could I have guessed at them?) I am not in the slightest degree apprehensive, that the righteous Judge of all the earth will reprove me for entertaining too high an opinion of his loving-kindness and tender mercy, seeing that I am repeatedly called upon by the Psalmist to admire them as they are every where, and in all ages, manifested in God's dealings with and designs towards the children of men, and am expressly told that his tender mercies are over all his works. You cannot expunge that delightful text, nor cut away this rock from under my feet.

If you have reason to be assured that you will have a part in the first resurrection, and, under that conviction, deem it no concern of yours to inquire into the fate of your fellowcreatures, be it so. I repeat, that, being far from confident as to my own election and final preservation, I cannot avoid feeling a deep interest in ascertaining the declared mind and will of the Almighty, in respect to the final disposal of the whole human

When I observed that the discussion originated with you, I did not allude to what passed in conversation, but to the queries contained in your notes. As these required answers, I felt myself bound to assign a reason for the hope that is in me; if I have failed in doing this with meekness and due respect to your feelings, I ask your pardon.

I do hope and trust that in any future communications that may pass between us, (and which, in so far as I am concerned, must henceforth be very brief,) we shall be enabled so to conduct them as not to shift the heat from our hearts to our heads. Loud talking and violent words seldom minister grace to the hearer. I repeat an observation which was made in substance, at an early stage of our correspondence-that whichever of us shall first obtain the joy and peace which accompany true faith, will be able to afford such unequivocal evidence of the possession of these Christian graces, as shall carry conviction with it; and sure I am, that whenever the darkness and heaviness which you have for so many years experienced shall be dissipated and removed, (which I hope and trust they will be,) I shall derive new pleasure from intercourse with you.

Yours affectionately,
[To be continued.]

I.