Christ hath done; we injure believers; we tell God that he lies to his face."

Mer. If it was not following too much the coarse, vulgar style of your beloved author; I should be apt to tell you to the face, that you lie in supposing that all but antinomians abuse the scriptures, and most blasphemously, by making it a point, to insist upon that, which is spiritual, and practical; in connexion with that, which is evangelical, as I trust we all do, and shall do; "striving together for the hope of the gospel."

Sav. Ah! but all strivings are at end with us, One of them told me the other day, "the efficacy of Christ's death is, to kill all activity of graces in his members, that he might act all, in all."

John. Another of them said worse than that to me the other day; "I see no need to make such a great stir about graces, and looking to hearts; but give me Christ I seek not for graces, but for Christ: I seek not for promises but for Christ; I seek not for sanctification, but for Christ; tell not me of meditation, and duties, But tell me of Christ !!!"

Loveg. This is separating Christ, and holiness with a vengeance; if this is not making Christ the minister of sin, I know not what is. But all this is perfectly consistent, with another daring expression of theirs; "sin can do a believer no harm."

Mal. No more it can.-For our great Doctor has declared it, that " they need not be afraid of their sins; they that have God for their God, there is no sin that ever they commit, can possibly do them any hurt: therefore as their sins cannot hurt them, so there is no cause of fear in their sins committed, there is not one sin, nor all the sins together, of any believer, can possibly do that believer any hurt."

Loveg. Did the Apostle think so, when he wrote the 7th. of the Romans? where he complains of sin, as the greatest plague, and cried, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death!"

Mal. Our Doctor says, "give me leave to tell you, that the Apostle in this chapter, as I conceive, doth personate a scrupulous spirit, and doth not speak out his own present case.

Loveg. In the name of wonder, and of common sense, why not? What can be the reason for such gross, and palpable perversions of scripture, without some design, extremely dangerous, and destructive to the souls of men?

Mal. Sir, I am ready to vindicate the truth stil! Christ alone exalted, is the great subject our Doctor aimed at. I will therefore read you a few lines further on this subject, before 1 conclude.-" Now sin is condemned to the believer,* it can do no hurt at all to him. Yea, sins are but scare-crows, and bug-bears to fright ignorant children: but men of insight, and understanding, see they are counterfeit things; they are to know for a certainty, they are but a made thing" there is no fear from the sins of believers All the fearfulness of sin, Christ himself hath drank it-Sin is dead, and there is no more terror in it, than is in a dead lion:" and so further, "the sins of the times, cannot hurt God's people, though they had a hand in them." And now gentlemen, you shall have my last quotation. "Are you sinful in respect of the prevalency of corruption, let it not come into your mind, that you are worse than others; yea, so often as men fear affliction from sin committed, so often do they slander the grace of God." These Sir, are my general sentiments; but as yet, I am not quite settled, in all that I have advanced.

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Mer. No wonder at that, for there are others, older than yourself, who are " ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."

Loveg. In all my life time, I never heard before,

* Because Christ became actually, and personally the sinner; not merely the sacrifice on the sinners behalf, while the sinner actually, and personally stands as the Savior upon this hinge or pivot, the whole machinery of antinomiar ism, seems to turn.

such dangerous, and barefaced assertions against the holiness, and purit of divine truth. To suppose that souls may be one of the elect of God, and yet be permitted to live in t Vorst of sins, under the influence of the most atrocious crimes, and die in impenitence, and unbelief; not only gives the lie to the direct testimony of all scripture; but has an immediate tendency to harden the sinner in his sins; while the whimsical idea, that Christ was actually made the sinner; while the sinner takes the Savior's place; not only nullifies every idea of the vicarious sacrifice of him that suffered the just for the unjust; but equally hardens the impenitent, since they are now given to believe, that whatever sins they commit, Christ committed them for them; and that therefore they cannot sin, because Christ virtually sinned for them. But that the holy God should even hate, and abhor, his infinitely, well beloved Son, because he who knew no sin, suffered in the sinner's stead, and was hated of God, as bad as if he had been the Devil himself. This, in my opinion, is most dreadfully profane. No wonder that from such principles, the practical truths of the gospel, should be next subjected to a most profane attack." All diligence to make our calling and election sure," is treated by men of such sentiments, as a most dangerous error, and even robbing Christ of his glory; and no wonder at the conclusion of the whole, that if the infatuated antinomian enthusiast can merely from the fond fancy of his own mind, conceit himself to be one of God's elect he is just as safe, whether he dies a Martyr at the stake, or a criminal at the gallows for the concluding horrible conceit is, "Sin can do a believer no harm;" and whether he sins, or serves God, it is all the same; for God sees no sin in his elect, even while they commit the worst of sins!!!

Mal. Sir, whatever you may think of our doctrines some of our ministers, are very moral, and consistent in their characters.

Loveg. So they should, or suffer the correction of

the law; yet I know that others of them, have been most abominably wicked.

Mal. But Sir, those of them who have it to spare, are very generous to the poor.

Loveg. So they ought.-My poor vicarage, and increasing family, allow me to do but little. What great matter is it, to give away that which I don't want for myself? But in whatever they may give, I dare say, they first remember themselves.

Mal. Sir, I only meant to say, we are no enemies to morality, upon proper principles.

Loveg. No more you should, unless you meant to be candidates for the gallows, or a gaol. But Sir, can any sort of an apology be granted for sentiments like yours. When a man can dare to throw open the floodgates of iniquity, by such loose and wanton expressions; can he excuse himself, that he is not so iniquitous? Is not such external morality as this, within the power even of an atheist to perform, while the thin varnish, renders the evil of such pernicious sentiments less suspected, and consequently more fatal to the less cautious among the thoughtless of mankind?

Mer. It is not to be supposed that the devil would walk abroad without a slipper to cover his cloven foot, that he might be the better able to deceive. When he appears like a chimney-sweeper, at once people are set upon their guard, but when dressed like a miller, he is more apt to prevail. But Sir, another evil comes in with all this. A sad indifference respecting the salvation of the souls of men. Instead of seeking after sinners that are gone far from God, I am told that some of them have actually supposed, that St. Paul was under a sort of carnal, or fleshly love to the souls of men, contrary to the decree of election, when he "yearned over souls in the bowels of Jesus Christ," and while he travailed in birth till Christ was formed within them, and when he prayed them in Christ's stead, to be reconciled to God." Their principal work is to disturb peaceable congregations that they

may draw away disciples after them; and thus to fish in their troubled waters, to the grief and perplexity of many minds.

Loveg. That is a fixed principle with them, that nothing is to be done in addressing the consciences of unawakened sinners.

Mal. Sir, we never call dead men to work as you do, for we are sure the nonelect will never come at our bidding. I wonder that you should be always calling dead sinners to repentance.

Loveg. Because Christ set us the example. He who alone gives the life still tells us he came, "not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." All the prophets did the same, the general strain of their language was, "turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel!" Did not John the Baptist preach entirely to sinners, that he might call them to repentance? and was it not the great work of the Apostles to preach "repentance towards God, who commandeth all men to repent," and to "pray them in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God," while even that wretched sinner, Simon Magus, was directed to pray, if so be the wickedness of his heart might be forgiven him?

Mal. Well, I don't want to argue the point any further, but after all, I think it most consistent to preach as our ministers do, to tell the nonelect plainly and publicly, that they have nothing to say to them, for that their message is only to the elect.

Loveg. Pray Sir, does election rest with you, or with God?

Mal. O surely it rests with God.

Loveg. So we think, and consequently deliver his message as he has directed us. It is an awful stratagem of the Devil, to prompt ministers who are permitted to believe his lie, to leave ruined sinners unaddressed, and unalarmed, when we are so expressly commanded "to cry aloud and spare not, and to lift up the voice like a trumpet," or in Paul's language, "awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead,