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danger of perdition, and that what God has said concerning them is to fail? By no means!' he replies, It is not true that the word of God has taken none effect, for all are not of course the objects of God's peculiar love who are descended from Abraham or from Israel. God, in the family of Abraham, chose Isaac to be the sole progenitor of the favored people, and rejected Ishmael from that honor altogether; and this was not merely because Ishmael was the son of Hagar, for in the family of Isaac he preferred Jacob to Esau, without regard to the actual merit or demerit of either, but for reasons in his own mind alone. Just so at this time they are not all Israel which are of Israel, there is among that privileged and honored" people only a remnant, who inherit the spiritual promises.' Then he meets the objector again, What shall we say? Is the objection started that if this is so, then God is unrightcous? Is it said that if God selects out of Israel certain individuals to be the objects of his more peculiar regard, he treats the rest with injustice or unkindness? We deny the inference. For according to the Scriptures of the Old Testament, all the differences which exist among men are to be traced ultimately, not to any natural difference among those who are all alike by native disposition sinners, but to the mercy of God which makes one man to differ from another; and what is right on the large scale is equally right in the present instance. This is what God said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. And to take a different illustration, God said to Pharaoh, For this same purpose have I raised thee up-[exalted you to the eminence on which you stand] that I might shew my power in thee. Therefore, to repeat the proposition in another form, he hath mercy on whom he will, and from whom he

will he withholds his mercy.' And then the apostle goes on to vindicate what he has said, against the objec tion, Why doth he yet find fault, for who hath resisted his will?”

This view of the course of thought in the chapter before us, we do not bring forward as being unquestionably right in opposition to what Mr. Spicer has said. We only state it as that which obviously seems to be the line of the Apostle's argument, and as a view of the matter which plain readers of plain understanding will not be very ready to give up without some substantial proof that some other view is the right one. We submit it to our author whether his work is not capable of some improvement on this point.

But if we dwell longer on the scope of the Apostle's argument, we may become tedious to some of our readers. And especially if we should go into an inquiry respecting the meaning of that fatal stumbling-block in the way of Arminian interpreters, "Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy,"-we might find ourselves unawares drawn into a discussion of what is the true doctrine of election. That subject we set aside for the present, hoping to take it up on some other occasion. Nevertheless, we must be allowed to suggest to our author one or two questions about his doctrine of national election.

Mr. Spicer's doctrine then, as we understand it, is this: "Some nations have been elected to enjoy peculiar privileges, and from such privileges others have been reprobated." "When God chooses and rejects in this manner, it may be called unconditional election and reprobation.” In other words, the difference between one nation and another, as it regards the means of salvation, is owing to the purpose of a Sovereign God, who "in bestowing his favors on nations is not regulated by the deserts of those nations, but bestows them upon whom, when, and where he pleaseth.”

For example, the fact that the people of the United States enjoy the light of the gospel, is simply because God has elected them to this privilege; and the fact that the miserable tribes of the West have not the gospel, is because God has reprobated them from the enjoyment of such means of salvation. According to our author then, it is God's will-it is the Divine purpose, that has hidden the light of salvation from those tribes. God has not elected them to Christian privileges; by a sovereign purpose, they are unconditionally reprobated. Now the question very naturally comes up, If these things are so, what is the use and what is the ground of missions to the heathen? It might be said to the Missionary Society of the Methodist Church; (supposing them to adopt this doctrine,) You confess that God has unconditionally reprobated the Missisaugas and Potawatamies from the privileges of the gospel; why then

send them missionaries and thus resist the purpose of God? If it is God's purpose that they shall have the gospel, will they not have it, whether you send it to them or not? And if it is God's purpose that they shall not have the gospel, must they not be destitute of the gospel do what you can?

Another question about this national election and reprobation. How much better is it with regard to objections against the divine character than the election of individuals? Does not God know that when men are left in the darkness of heathenism, they will assuredly become just what Paul, speaking by the Spirit, has described in the first chapter of Romans; and, by thus sinning against the light of nature and of conscience, will become vessels of wrath fitted for destruction? If God has ordained the difference between the Turks

and the Americans in regard to privileges, has he not also ordained that difference in regard to character and eternal destiny, which he knew would be in so many thousands of

instances the certain result? In what light then does this "explanation of Scripture" present the character of God?

We trust that our author's good sense will persuade him to omit in future editions the last paragraph on page 19th, and the first on page 20th. The sophistry of that reasoning is too obvious to produce any effect; and he must be aware that in arguments of that sort, the ars celare artem is of great importance. We have only room for a single specimen, which we select because it seems as if the author had himself been imposed upon by some misrepresentation which it has been his hap to meet with.

I would ask whether the eternal decree of election does not infallibly secure the salvation of all the ELECT? If it does not, why is it said their number cannot be" diminished?" But if the eternal decree of election does infallibly secure the salvation of the elect, and yet although elected, they are not in Christ, what necessity is there of a union to Christ afterwards, if their salvation is already secured without it? p. 20.

Mr. S. will be happy to learn that he is under a mistake here. No-. body, within our knowledge, believes that the "eternal decree of election

infallibly secures the salvation" of a single human being, except by securing first his repentance and faith, and thus his vital union with Christ. The "necessity of a union to Christ," in the case of the elect, is therefore this, that according to the "decree of election" "their salvation" cannot be secured without it.

One more quotation we are bound to make, lest we leave on the mind of our readers an unfair impression of what Mr. Spicer really believes.

It is owing to the grace of God that and become penitent. By grace he is a sinner is brought to see his danger enabled to seek the Lord and believe in the Saviour. It is grace that gives him pardon and changes his heart, that enables him to do all the good that he

does, bears with his infirmities, and finally admits him to an inheritance among the sanctified. So that every good man on earth, as well as every saint in heaven, may exclaim with the Apostle, "By the grace of God I am what I am." p. 22.

Does any one ask, What does this mean? We ask in reply, What can it mean? If it means any thing, it seems to mean that the cause of the salvation of one man rather than another, must be found ultimately in the mercy of God. The grace which saves one does not save all. We should be pleased indeed to have the language a little more distinct and explicit; but we do believe that our author, and every pious member of the community to which he belongs, acknowledges in his heart and in his prayers, though perhaps he never confesses explicitly in terms, that it is God's mercy which makes one man to differ from another. We are happy to see our author at the conclusion of his work, notwithstanding all his antipathies against election, and the Connecticut Confession, standing on this ground. This is a great truth, a faithful saying; and we hope that his preaching will never overlook it. God's mercy finds all men alike guilty and wretched; some it strives with for a time, and hinders from running at once into the excess of misery; others it effec

tually brings to repentance and faith and endless life. And the difference is not because the latter are of themselves or originally worthier or better than the former, but because God's mercy makes them better, and in a sense worthy of eternal life. We hope our author's preaching never will militate against this truth. He need not tell how God operates to make his mercy effectual; for on this point no man knows any thing except that the Holy Spirit operates by the instrumentality of the truth and according to the nature of the mind. The fact, however, we hope he will not fail to urge. If he will tell his hearers that it is God's mercy which makes them to differ from the Indians or the Hottentots; he need not tell them how. If he will tell them, that God's mercy makes them to differ from the wretch who expiates his crimes on the scaffold; he need not tell them how. If he will make the penitent and believing among his people to understand, that it is God's mercy which makes them to differ from the sinner whose heart is hardening, and whose unforgiven guilt is accumulating amid all the privileges of a Christian land; he need not undertake to tell them how. If he will preach this great fact clearly and distinctly, few will complain of him for not preaching the doctrine of election.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We regret that the interesting paper of J. S. C. came too late for our present volume.

We regret also that we had no room left for the information communicated to us by a respected correspondent concerning the Seminary at Gettysburg. We rejoice in the very flattering prospects of that Seminary. An institution which is the object of so much Christian sympathy and liberality cannot fail to be a blessing both to the denomination of Christians who are its founders and to our country at large.

INDEX.

RELIGIOUS AND MISCELLANE-

OUS COMMUNICATIONS.
ADAPTATION of Christian character to
the Exigencies of the Age, 561
Anecdote of a Spanish Papist, 190
Annual Narratives of the State of Re-
ligion, 405
Apostle Peter, 172
Appeal from Greece, 235

Assembly of Divines at Westmins-
ter, 128
Athanasius, 505

Beauty, 190

Believer to his guardian Angel, 127
Berry-Pomeroy Castle, 346
Bibliaca, 72, 617
Blighted Heart, 189

Bookish Man, 296

Breakwater at Plymouth, 347
Burder, Rev. George, 521

Calvin, 239

Chile, 80

Examination of Prof. Fitch's Theory
of the Nature of Sin, 19
Explanation of Psalm cxxxix, 16; 296
Exposition of 1 Cor. xv. 22-26; 123,401
Exod. ix. 13-16; 72
Matt. xxii. 31, 32; 466
Rom. v. 14; 623

1 Thess. v. 22; 517

Faith, illustrations of, 178
First view of Saratoga, 243

George Burder, 521
Gluttons, 468

Greece, the Appeal from, 235
Gospel the only means of producing
true Liberty, 9

Hannah More, 585

Historical sketch of the Rechabites, 179
History of the Apostle Peter, 172
Holders of Grants for Lotteries, 402
Holy Time, Commencement of, 225,
342,461,633.

Christian character adapted to the Hours in a Library, 189

Age, 561

Cicero, recollections of, 472
Cities, 20, 134

College at Santiago, 80

Colleges, Religious instruction in, 23,
25, 75, 131, 348

Commencement of Holy Time, 225,
342, 461, 633
Congress, Prayer for, 78
Cordilleras, 81

Correction of a Reference, 516
Cowles, Samuel H. 1

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Illustrations of Faith, 178
Importance of an early consecration to
the Missionary Service, 571
Importance of Evangelists,292,393,387
Infant Baptism, 340

Jane Gray Jennings, Memoir of, 449

Knox, the Scotch Reformer, 289

Language of Scripture on Spiritual
Creation, 619

Large Cities, 20, 134
Lay Presbyters, 57
Lotteries, 402

Luxurious Livers, 468

Martyrdom of Sir John Oldcastle, 125
Meaning of the word, na, 345

TT

Meek Believer to his Guardian Angel,
127

Memoir of Enoch Perkins, Esq. 627
Jane Gray Jennings, 449
Samuel H. Cowles, 1

Miser Demar, 189
Moral Painting in Sermons, 457

Narratives of the State of Religion, 405

Nature of Sin, 19

Note to J. L. 64

Thoughts on the Revival under White-
field, 174

Timothy an Evangelist, 113

Organization of the Primitive Church- Titus and Crete, 169

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Traffickers at St. Jago 82
Turkish Empire, 22
Two cousins, 469

University of Santiago, 84
Use of mules, 82

Wane of the Turkish Empire, 22
Westminister Assembly of Divines, 128
Witness of the Spirit, 65
Wrath, 190

THEOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS.
Divine Right of forms of Church Gov-
ernment, 642

Extracts from Andrew Cant, 645
Extract from Warburton, 352

Histories of the Inquisition, 191

Pascal's Thoughts, 28

Proper Subjects of Christian Research,

85

Sinner's Inability, 300

REVIEWS.
Address of the Colonization Society of
Connecticut, 493

Address to Manufacturers and Venders
of Ardent Spirits, 379
American Colonization Society's Re-
ports, 358
Amulet, 44

Appeal to the Temperate in Canada,547
Atlantic Souvenir,

Bacon's Sermon at the Funeral of
Ashmun, 535

Beecher's Election Sermon, 418
-Occasional Sermons, 481

Sketches of South America, 80, 139, Bijou, 44
186

Sketch of the life of John Knox, 289

Sin, 18

Slander 190

Spanish Papist's prayer, 190
Specimens of Tamul Poetry 407
State of the question respecting Satur-
day and Sabbath Evening, 633
Strictures on Antipas touching a Set-
tled Ministry, 514

Suggestion to Peace Societies, 539

Tamul Poetry, 407
Theatre, 190

Bouton's Election Sermon, 418
Burhans' Sermon on Election, 273

Douglass on the Advancement of So-
ciety, 300

Examination of charges against the
American Missionaries at the Sand-
wich Islands, 197
Existence and Agency of Fallen Spir-
its, 650

Family Altar, 377

Foot's Sermon on False Teachers, 545

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