than they can prove by sacred authority; and by so doing they belie the Lord, degrade his attributes, and impute unto him the foulest indignity. Yet men boldly assert that the creatures destruction was decreed in the unfrustrable purpose of Jehovah; but where is their sacred authority? Which of the prophets or apostles ever preached that Sin is the ordination of God? I defy all the men in the world to produce a single thus saith the Lord to prove the point. There is not a passage between the backs of the bible to prove that God decreed the existence and entrance of Sin. It is a proofless doctrine; yet men preach it, and contend for it, and that under the specious name of the divine sovereignty! And they have so artfully blended, and interwoven it therein, that it is difficult to distinguish the truth of God from the word of the craftsman. Even the word predestination (in giving the sense thereof) they have stuffed it full of the leaven of this doctrine. Hence says MR. T-R.

"And what is predestination, but the eternal will, and immutable purpose of God respecting all things? -God's eternal, immutable will, purpose and designs, respecting the whole of created things and events, is what we understand by predestination, in its utmost extent of the term. Predestination, then, and the eternal immutable will of God, respecting all things, are perfectly synonimous."--Let. viii. p. 52.

REPLY. Here let it be observed, that Mr. T-r, produces no proof for this his extensive bearing of predestination, nor will the whole volume of inspiration afford him one. His given sense of the word is but founded upon his own assertions; the scripture

attaches no such extent to predestination as what he talks of. The word teaches most plainly, that some things and events (and only some) are predestinated, not all; "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son."

-Ro. viii. 29. But as to all, and the whole of created things and events, being predestinated, is a stretch beyond scriptural authority, and has no foundation in the sacred pages. Predestination no more extends to the whole of created things, than new covenant blessings extend to the whole of created things. Wherever predestination is mentioned in the word, it is in exclusive reference to the election of grace; and such as cram, all carnal things and events into predestination, they degrade the doctrine, and give the children's bread to dogs. Predestinated things are sacred things; belonging exclusively to the family of God, and the kingdom of Christ. They are as distinctly separate from the beggarly elements of the world. as the golden vessels of the temple are separate from the polutions of the dunghill.

But why is this "All, and the whole of created things and events," so strenuously insisted upon as being predestinated? It is in order (as before hinted) to give a scriptural appearance to the doctrine of God ordaining Sin, to make it appear as that Sin was predestinated. This is the cockatrice that is hatching in the shell. Hence, if we turn to letter 13 we may see it begin to put forth its head, as in the following lauguage. "Let us consider the Sin of onr first parents as one of those events."-T-R, p. 88. And again "It is evident that moral evil has the greatest share

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in the events of our globe."-T-R, Let. 15. p. 113. So that by insisting, that "All, and the whole of created things and events are predestinated." He is thereby insisting (under cover) that all Sin is predestinated; and this is "the snake in the grass," throughout his subject. Hence in letter xv. p. 112 he writes as follows.

"Sin did not slip in unperceived among created beings; no! He whose single thought at once comprehended eternity's unbounded round ordained its being, and fixed its limits with the utmost precision; nor shall a single thought more or less than is fixed in his all wise plan, be ever found among rational beings." "Sin or moral evil is no accidental thing, but a wise and holy ordination of God, &c."

REPLY.-Now I candidly acknowledge my decided dissent from such doctrine, and my reasons for such dissent are as follows:

FIRST. The doctrine couched in the above language, appears to me, to militate against every perfection of Jehovah as revealed in the scriptures; but especially his attribute Holiness, which is ever supported by the inspired penmen, and by his saints in all ages; witness the following language:

The Lord is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him."-Ps. xcii, 15.

"Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law ?"-Ps. xciv. 20, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom."HEB, i, 8,

"The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works."-Ps. cxlv, 17. (Hence the ad

dress of the Son, "O righteous Father-Holy Father. ---MAT, V, 48.)

"I will publish the name of the Lord: ascribe ye greatness to our God, He is the rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he,"-Deu. xxxii. 3. 4.

"Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy."-REV. xv. 3. 4:

Now with such declarations of sacred truth before me, I cannot subscribe to the traditions of men declaring that Sin is the ordination of God.

SECOND.--The judgments of God against Sin, forms. another sacred barrier in my way of receiving and embracing the above doctrine. I read in the scriptures that, "God overthroweth the wicked for their wickedness.-PROV. xxi, 12. That,

"God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow,making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly."-2 PET. ii, 4, 6. I read that he

"Turneth a fruitful land into barreuness, for the wickedness of those that dwell therein," -Ps. cvii, 34.

Andthat he did not spare the land of Israel, nor his favoured city Jerusalem, nor the house that was called by his naine, as it is written:

"Thus saith the Lord: for three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the law of the Lord, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked; but I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem."-AMOs, ii, 4, 5.I read that

"The face of the Lord is against all them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth." Ps. xxxiv, 16. And that,

"The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness."-ROM. i, 18.

Now with these plain declarations before me, of the naked judgments of God against Sin, shall I dare to say that Sin is ordained of God, and that it exists as a consequent of the divine will? I dare not say it. Such a declaration appears to me little less than blasphemy.

THIRD. The scripture exhortations are another barrier in my way of believing that God decreed the existence of Sin, such as the following:

"I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abomniable thing that I hate.-JER. xliv, 4.

"Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire,