confiftent to fuppofe, that the Almighty would create, without a purpose; and his purpose could not be contrary to his knowledge. The matter then ftands thus, God created millions of beings for endless mifery, which they could not escape; the Devil is defirous of having them miferable, and does all in his power to effect it. Now, reader, judge between thefe two beings. Had this Devil been confulted, by the Almighty, when he laid the plan of man's final defliny, I cannot conceive him capable of inventing one more eligi ble to his infernal difpofition, than this which I am now difputing.

As reafon will not confent to the plan of God, as defcribed in the foregoing fcheme, I will fhow that the fcriptures equally oppofe it. It is granted that Jefus Chrift died for mankind, as the fcriptures declare; but not in the way, in which thoufands have believed. But fuppofing he died inftead of the finner, in the way which I difpute, I ftill wish to prove that he died for the whole of Adam's pofterity, as much as he did for any. If I faiah did not believe that that would be the cafe, I cannot reconcile his words to his opinion, which I find in chap. liii. ver. 5, 6. But he was wounded for our tranfgrefions, he was bruifed for our iniqui.

ties: the chaftifement of our peace was upon him; and with his fripes we are healed. All, we, like fheep, have gone aftray: We have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all." St. Paul must have been of this opinion, when he wrote to Timothy, or his words are not expreffive of his belief. See 1. Tim, ii.

5, 6. For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Chrift Jefus; who gave himself a ransom for all to be fatisfied in due time." 1 Epifle General of John ii. 1, 2. "My little children, thefe things write I unto you, that ye fin not, and if any man fin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jefus Chrift the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our fins, & not for ours only, but alfo for the fins of the whole world." Hebrews ii. 9. "But we fee Jefus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the fuffering of death, now crowned with glory and honor; that he, by the grace of God, fhould tafte death for every man." The above fcriptures, with their connexions and correfponding paffages, as fully prove that Chrift died for all men, as any one thing can be proved from the Bible. Now as there is not, in all the fcripture, a fingle hint to the reverse of these paffages which I have in

troduced, it appears ftrange and unaccountable to me, that any perfon, who profeffes to believe the teftimony of the Bible, fhould ever have entertained the idea, that what these paffages fay, is falfe, and that which is not faid, in contradic. tion to what is true!

Look, ye readers, and fubmit to aftonifhment, at what has been believed in, as divine truth. An Almighty, infinitely wife and good being, creates an innumerable multitutde of rational intelligents; they rebel against him, and raife an infinite diffatisfaction in his mind towards them; this infinite diffatisfaction gets removed toward part of the offenders, by the facrifice of innocence! With the reft, God is still difpleased; yet, he is almighty and infinitely wife, and employs his power and wifdom to make the works of his own hand as miferable as their natures will bear, for being just such creatures as he knew they would be, before he made them. But it is argued, that God's knowing what fort of creatures men would be, did not influence them, in the fmallest degree, to be what they are. Let this argument be granted. But did not God know what would influence men to be what they are? Anfwer, yes. Was it in his power to remove this influential cause ? If it was, why did he not do it, if it was

like to displease him? If it was not in his power to prevent the mifchief, I with to know whether it was in the creature's power to prevent it? If it was not in the power of them to prevent the operation of· things in the way in which they have, and do take place, why is God's anger fo warm against his poor impotent offspring? It feems an unhappy circumstance, for both Creator and creature. The Creator

is not fatisfied with his creatures; his creatures find themfelves introduced into an existence infinitely worse than none. I am born into this world of forrow and trouble; the first vibration of fenfe is want; I endeavor to fupply my wants, and to maintain my existence, which my Maker has bestowed upon me; but as foon as I come to years of understanding, I am told of an infinite debt which ftands againft me, which I owed thousands of years before I was born; and that my Maker is fo angry with me, and has been, ever fince the debt was due, that he has prepared a furnace of endless flames to torment me in, according to the requirements of justice! My father gives me his farm, and puts me in poffeffion of it; I am pleased, and prize it very highly. In confequence of my poffeffion, I paint to myself many pleafing profpects; but, to my mortification, a perfon comes and pre

fents me with a mortgage of my farm, for five times its value, the mortgage running fo as to hold the poffeffor to clear it ; I will leave the reader to say, whether my father was kind, or unkind. Yet, the circumftance into which the Almighty ⚫ has introduced millions of his creatures, is infinitely worse, according to the doctrine which I am examining. It is argued with much affuranee, that God has a just right to do with his creatures as he pleafes, because he has it in his power fo to do; and that he never does any thing, because it is right; but what he does, is right, because he does it.

If the above flatement is juft, moral holinefs confifts in the power of action, and not in the difpofition that defigns the action. If fo, my argument in faver of fin's exifting only in the defign of the actor, and not in the action, is groundless; and we are driven to fay, that unholiness, or fin, is the want of power to perform an action; and holiness confifts in having the power to do it. One man designs to murder another for his money, he makes the attempt, and fails; his in confifted in not having power to execute his defign; but, in the defign, there is no evil. On the other hand, he makes the attempt, and fucceeds; here is no evil at all, becaufe he had power to do it. On this princi