seat.

sal of them, when he fills the throne and is seated in the judgment But when Christ shall set upon the throne of judgment, the books will be opened and every man will be judged according to the things written in the books. They will be judged according to the things done in the body; and of course, every mouth will be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God. We are, said the guilty brethren of Joseph, we are verily guilty of our brother's blood. Joseph heard this confession, but he did not at that moment undeceive them, he did not say, "your brother is not dead; I am your brother." No, he left them for a time to their own reflections, that they might be fully sensible of the magnitude of his goodness, when he withdrew the veil, which, through the whole transaction, he was deterinined in his own way and time to withdraw.

Yes, all who are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they who hear shall live. Yes, the prince of this world is judged, and the angels who kept not their first estate are reserved unto the judgment of the great day. The saints, the chosen few, the elect, shall be in the judgment seat, judging the world. Know ye not that we shall judge angels, said an Apostle.

The dead in Christ shall rise first. There are, among the children of men, but two characters: such who, according to the direction of the spirit, put on the Lord Jesus, and having lived by faith in him, finished their course with joy, and laying down in peace, rise to the resurrection of salvation; having judged themselves, they shall not be judged according to the word of the Redeemer, "judge yourselves, and you shall not be judged." These are the first fruits, the dead in Christ, who shall first rise.

The second description includes those who have not believed, because they have not known. They never conceived that Jesus died for their sins, and rose again for their justification ;-they lay down with a damning consciousness of sin, and of course they must rise to the resurrection of damnation. Damnation, so the translators will have it; they are extremely fond of this phrase; yet they know there is no such phrase in the New-Testament; but they think it sounds well, more terriffic. Sir, you know the word thus rendered, should be condemnation; they shall rise to the resurrection of condemnation; and, while continuing in ignorance and unbelief, they shall imagine the Lamb is possessed of wrath, and VOL. II.

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under this apprehension we repeat, they will call upon the mountains to fall upon them.

But, as I before observed, another book will be opened, the book of life; and the face of the covering will be taken from all people, and the veil from all nations, and every eye shall see, and every tongue confess; and every creature in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and in the sea, yea, all of them shall ascribe, Blessing, and glory, and honour, to him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever. And there shall be no more sorrow, nor crying, nor pain; all old things shall pass away, and all things shall become new. Then, indeed, shall the accuser of the brethren be cast out into his proper element, darkness; then shall the tables be turned upon the adversary, and like Haman, he must himself submit to the death he intended for Mordecai.

In the last scene in the Revelations, we find an invitation to all the fowls of heaven to repair to the supper of the great God. Revelations xix. 17, 18:

"And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;

"That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great."

Our Saviour informed his disciples, that the fowls of the air which catched the seed sown by the way-side, were devils. The prince of devils is the prince and power of the air, and the last vial was poured on, or in the air. These fowls summoned to the last supper must eat the flesh of kings, &c. &c. &c. This is that flesh, the works of which are manifest, and which cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven, because nothing that defileth can enter there. But this figure corresponds with the figure so generally misunderstood. The goat to whom the sins of the people were, after the atonement and expiation, transferred. This goat, with all the abominations of Israel, was sent to a land not inhabited, and there lost to be found no more at all; their sins and their iniquities thou wilt remember no more. Thou hast cast all our sins as a stone

into the depth of the sea.

The Jewish rabbies observe that there never was known an instance of one of these goats having been heard of after, the ceremony of the tranfer, and the conducting it by the hands of a fit person into the wilderness.

But for our suffering Saviour, after he had borne our sins in his own body on the tree, he was not sent away alive; he died indeed— but he was not lost in death, neither was he, during his absence from the flesh, sent into a place not inhabited; he went and preached to the spirits who were in prison, who were disobedient in the days of Noah.

This blessed, this immaculate offering for sin, was found again by many who were witnesses of his resurrection from the dead. Indeed I am inexpressibly shocked, to find the scape-goat considered as a figure of the world's Saviour.

Thus, my loved, my esteemed friend, have I given you, agreeably to your request, in a plain, familiar manner, my sentiments of the passages you have cited.

You are now in possession of my hope, and of my reasons for that hope. But my reasons are not based upon human authority. 'I have not produced traditionary testimonies, nor dared to offer my own ipsi dixit; I have only mentioned a few of the many explanatory passages, which were leisure mine and patience yours I might produce. May the peace of God abide with you.-Farewell.

LETTER XXXV.

To the same.

October 23.

In all all the round of my numerous correspondents, I know none more worthy of my attention, or whose letters afford me more satisfaction than yourself, and the communications I receive from you. Your obliging favour of June 15th was put into my hand last evening, immediately after my return from a journey of many hundred mile I left home on the fourth of May. My tour has

been delightful, and would have been more abundantly so, if you could have partook my pleasures. You would have witnessed the works of nature, and the works of nature's God, in a most strik ing point of view.

As you feel pleasure in a correspondence from which you cannot receive much profit, your friendship is thus more clearly manifested; and I regret the letter to which you advert never came to hand. Indeed, the uncertainty attendant upon this mode of conveying letters, is no small source of uneasiness. You are quite right; I was, indeed, apprehensive I should lose your love, in consequence of declaring my sentiments respecting the love of God; and you do me justice in acknowledging that I have evinced the sincerity of my own affection. Sir, I do indeed love you with very sincere and warm regard; but I will freely own, that while I acknowledge all the ardours of affection, I am sometimes checked and rendered unhappy by experience, by the experience of a life of observation.

I have lost many friends by letting them know that I had found him, that Jesus, of whom Moses and the prophets spake; and you will consequently yield me credit when I assure you, that the confirmation of your continued regard since the receipt of my letters, gives me inexpressible satisfaction.

Assuredly, our divine Master was greater than the greatest of our fellow-servants; and it is much to the honour of the Apostle Paul, that he determined to know nothing but Christ crucified, and that he wished to be followed no further than he followed his Master.

We should indeed do an incalculable injury to the sacred writings if we judged of them partially; by thus judging, no doubt, there is hardly any thing which might not be proved by the word of God. "All religions," said a late noble irreligious writer, "are sought for in the Bible, and those who seek them, find them there." Yet this sarcasm should not prevent serious inquiry, serious investigation. Search the scriptures, said our best guide, they testify of me. deed, indeed they do; and all of them in their divine connexion seem to say, as the Baptist said unto the Jews, Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.

In this one grand view, the scriptures of the Old and New-Testament are without a jar; they completely harmonize. Jesus is the Saviour of the world, by taking away the sin of the world. The salvation of the works of God, and the destruc on the works of

the devil, is declared by every writer in the Bible, from Moses to the book of Revelations. And it is hence that I cannot choose, but adopt the sentiment which embraces the final restitution of all men. I have for the revelation of my God the highest veneration. I regard the scriptures of the Old and New-Testament as the only infallible guide; and when the sacred volume is silent, I dare not speak; and indeed, so strong is my attachment to, and deference for these heaven-inspired and time-honoured oracles, that where they are silent, I hardly dare think. But if at any time a thought arises in my mind, not consistent with the joint suffrages of the sacred writers, I reject it as an evil thought. I am, however, free to own, that if I could see one part of divine revelation contradicting another, it would weaken the authority of the whole. But, taking it for granted that the all-wise, the all-gracious God, purposed to give us a revelation of himself, I receive his words as he spake them, being well assured God could not assert one thing and intend another. Indeed, were the scriptures thus circumstanced, they could not be esteemed a revelation. Hence I dare not alter any part of the sacred writings; and I am bound to receive the scriptures in their fullest latitude; they cannot mean more than the nature and will of God imply; and if they be not true as they stand, I have no reason to consider one part of revelation, as more authentic than another. I do not, I cannot see any part of revelation that limits the efficacy of Christ's death, to any particular number or description of people in the human family. I lay down my life for my sheep, is tantamount to dying for the sins of the whole world, tasting death for every man, for the scriptures speak of all mankind as sheep going astray.

I never knew any part of our Saviour's testimony so little attended to, as the seventeenth of John. Nothing can appear more clear than this chapter. Do but take your Bible and read to the end of the chapter. In the first petition offered up in this chapter, the Redeemer prays not for the world, but for the receivers and and appointed promulgators of the word, that bringeth unto all men salvation. But, secondly, He prays not for those only, but for all those who should believe on him through their word, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me, and that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me; and thirdly, Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. Here are three prayers; the first, for the ministers of the gospel; the second, for all that should have