and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings."-JER. iv, 4.

"Be ye not mockers lest your bands be made strong." -Is. xxviii, 22.

"Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls."JER. vi, 16.

Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever and go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt."-JER. xxv, 5, 6.

Gospel exhortations also speak as follows:

"Abbor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good."-Ro. xii, 9.

"Now I pray to God that ye do no evil."-2 COR. xiii, 7.

"Awake to righteousness and sin not."-1 COR. xv, 34.

I write unto you that ye sin not."-1 JOHN ii, 1. "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up."-JAMES, iv, 7-10.

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Does the tenor of the above exhortations preach and hold forth that Sin is a wise and holy ordination of God? They appear to me to preach a doctrine directly contrary thereto.

FOURTH.-The doctrine of Sin being the ordination of God, appears to clash also against the spirit of Repentance.

Suppose that a poor sensible sinner enters his closet, and bows before the searcher of hearts in deep contrition, saying, "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mighest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; aud in sin did my mother conceive me."-Ps. li, 4, 5.

Now could the penitent feelingly say with the same breath, that "Sin is a wise and holy ordination of God ?” Could he address the judge of all the earth, and say, thon Lord decreed, fixed, and ordained in thine eternal immutable purpose, that I should thus sin against thee, and that I should do this evil in thy sight? Would the confession of sin, and the confession of faith harmonize The doctrine appears to me to cut the throat of repentance; to me it seems impossible for the grace of repentance and the faith of such doctrine to exist, and be in exercise together.

Would any one suppose that the Publican who went up into the Temple to pray, was under the influence of such a doctrine, when standing a great way off, and durst not so much as lift his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, "God be merciful to me a sinner? LUKE, Xviii, 13. No! the faith which influenced his

heart and brought him near to God, would have repni sed such a principle, as it would have repulsed blasphemy.

FIFTH.-The doctrine forms a stumbling-block to prayer. Let a sinful soul enter his closet, to pray to the Lord to subdue his iniquities, and keep him back from presumptions sins; the doctrine tells him.

"We neither can do more good than we do, nor less evil than we do; because God from eternity hath precisely decreed, that both the good and the evil be so done." PISCATOR.

"We mentain, not only that God is the sole rule and guide of all events; but that he actually decreed their existence,-The time when :—The manner how :—And the place where, from eternity." TUCKER, L 3, p 17.

"God did from all eternity, decree the commission of all the Sins in the world, because his secret will, is bis real will. ”—Edwards on REPROBATION. p 95.

Now what encouragement is there in such a doctrine for prayer? If this doctrine be true, ( says the praying saint,) God has unalterably fixed the number and colour of my Sins, as the number and colour of the hairs of my head, and I might as well pray for him to change the growth and colour of the one, as to prevent or alter the act of the other. If Sin be verily decreed, and every act and motion thereof unalterably fixed in the divine appointment; The time when: the manner how: and the place where, from eternity, I might as well pray for God to change the order of day and night, as to pray to be delivered from a single sin. To pray to be kept from Sin, in that case, is to pray to God to violate his decree.

Thus the doctrine of God decreeing all sin, forms a stumbling-block in the way of praying against sin. Such a doctrine, "shuts up the kingdom of heaven,

against men;" that is to say, against praying men; it imprisons the praying soul, it binds him in fetters, and locks his hands and his feet fast in the stocks.

The advocates for this doctrine tell us, that,

"All things, with their times, modes, circumstances, &c., were all fixed from eternity, and were those which would infallibly, without the least variation, have being." -TUCKER, Let. ii, p 15.

According to this doctrine, God has unalterably fixed the motions of Sin, as he has fixed the motions of the stars, and it might with equal propriety, be said of Sins, as of stars; " 'Behold, who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number:--by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth." Is. xl. 26. Nor is this pushing the point beyoud what their own arguments hold forth; witness the following.

"It is known that astronomers can tell events that will happen twenty, a hundred, or a thousand years to come: such as the motions of the heavenly bodies; the eclipses of the sun and moon, &c., and I doubt not but that all other events, whether past, present, or to come, might be as fully traced, were their causes as fully known." TUCKER, Let. i. p. 8.

"It is evident that moral evil has the greatest share in the events of our globe."-ibid Let. xv. Р 113.

If this doctrine be correct, it is as absurd to pray against the motion of any Sin, as against the motion of any star; yet the scripture speaks of creatures "Striving against Sin;" but what idiot would strive against the motion of the stars ? "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after

Christ."-COL. ii. 8. Where does the scripture teach, that all moral evil is infallibly decreed of God? Keep it to the law and the testimony, and you will keep free from such a doctrine.-The scripture lays no such stumbling block in the way of prayer; but gives every encouragement to the praying soul, both by word, promise, and example in the experience of the saints.

SIXTH.-The doctrine appears to me, to be a solemn damper or extinguisher, to the vital flame of all the sacred songs, praises, and adorations of the saints, both in heaven and on earth. Suppose we introduce the language of this doctrine, into some of the songs of saints, and see if it will chord with sacred music. Will it chord with David's song? "Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name.-Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; (that he decreed thee to cimmit.) Who healeth all thy deceases: (which according to his immutable purpose thou art the subject of.) Who redeemeth thy life from destruction." (into which he ordained thee to fall.)-Ps. ciii. 1. 4. Does these interpolations make music, or do they spoil the song?

"All we like sheep have

Let us try it in another. gone astray." (As thou O most holy decreed we should.) "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our Sins in his own blood." (And that ordained we should Sin, in order that he might be exalted in washing us.)

However such strains may appear to others, to me

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