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think or feel as though there was no room for them to hope for salvation-as though it was impossible that they should attain to the character of such as have done good, in opposition to such as have done evil, even if they should now begin to do good and persevere in well doing the remainder of their life; because their evil deeds would so vastly outweigh and outnumber their good works. Such discouraging thoughts would be well founded, if the scripture doctrine was either, that those only, who have always done good without ever doing evil, would rise to life; or, that the resurrection of life was confined to those, who have done more good than evil upon the whole. But this is not the meaning of the scriptures. The resurrection of damnation awaits those only, who have always done evil without turning from it and beginning to do good; whilst, thro' the riches of divine grace and the ample sufficiency of Christ's atonement and righteousness, every one who, before the close of his present life and state of trial, finds an heart to forsake his evil way and unrighteous thoughts, and to return to God through Jesus Christ, and becomes truly obedient to his revealed will, has all his sins so blotted out, that they will not be brought into judgment to his condemnation in the world to come; and his having done good, though only for a short time and in a low degree, will mark the character, which shall come forth to the resurrection of life. In this respect, therefore, the aged sinner has the same encouragement as the young, to cease to do evil, and

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learn to do well; and in case he doeth so, the same ground to expect the resurrection of life. It should however be remembered, that from the time that any one, whether old or young, turns to God and begins in the scriptural sense to do well, he must patiently continue in well doing to the end of life. For it is he that endureth to the end that

shall be saved. If any think they once began to do good, and shall therefore rise to life, but afterwards turn back to the ways of sin and live in them, there is reason to think they were deceived-that they never did even begin to do good in the sight of God. For where God begins a good work in men, he will perfrom it until the day of Christ. And those whom he hath begotten again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, are kept by the power | of God through faith unto salvation. Again,

Though the aged sinner, thro' the sovereign grace of God, may possibly become posessed of the character which will be raised to life, yet it should be further remarked,

2. That the truths we have been considering, clearly show it to be a matter of unspeakable importance to all who have hitherto lived in sin, the younger as well as the older, to repent and turn to God without delay, and to enter immediately on a course of such well doing as the gospel requires. These plain scripture truths clearly prove, that all impenitent, christless sinners, the middle aged and the young as well as the aged, are now of that character, and belong to that class of mankind, that Christ says shall come forth to

the resurrection of damnation. | Some, if I have not mistaken

And is this a character to be voluntarily retained-a condition to be rested in, when no one knows what a day may bring forth? or whether his trial will not be finally closed before another morning? Besides,

their meaning, have supposed that, by falling on this stone and being broken, we are to understand, such apprehensions and knowledge of Christ, and such influence from him, as to become broken-hearted for sin,

repeatedly heard the words alluded to in prayer, in the form of a petition to this effect, viz. that we may fall on this stone and be broken, that it may not fall on us, and grind us to powder. According to this construction of the text, being broken signifies not an injurious, but a beneficial effect. But to me, this sense of the words seems rather unnatural.

Do the sins and evil deeds of and broken off from it, so as men deserve the resurrection of to repent and return to God damnation and expose and sub-through Jesus Christ. I have ject them to it? How great, how immense then, is the evil of sin? How great the folly and zmadness of continuing to indulge and practise it? and how infinite the obligation to abandon it in every shape and form, to forsake and renounce every evil way and work? If with such truths before their eyes, any should discover so great an attachment to the ways of sin, and such an aversion to the well-do-man should tell me, that his son ing which God requires, that had fallen on a stone and was they will go on in the evil ways broken, it seems to me, it would of their hearts, and venture the be most natural to understand consequences upon a presump-him as intending to inform me, tion that they shall repent and turn at some future day, would there not be great reason to fear, that they will hereafter experience a resurrection directly the reverse of that which is to life?

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that his son was badly hurt by his fall on a stone-that he received by it, not a benefit, but, a wound. However, not to rely wholly on my own judgment of the proper import and force of the expressions, I will thank you, Sir, for a plain explanation of the text.

R. I apprehend no great difficulty in ascertaining the meaning of the words; especially, if we look at a few other passages, which treat of the same things. That by this stone, Christ himself is intended, there is no room to doubt. For Peter, speaking of Christ, to the Jews, said, "This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other." Acts iv. 10,

wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? &c. And they were offended in him-and he did not many works there, because of their unbelief." Hence, to me, it appears clear, that by falling on this stone, is meant, being so stumbled, offended, or confounded, by something in the person, character, condition, doctrine, or work of Christ, as

him as the true Messiah, the anointed, the Son of God, the only and all-sufficient Saviour of sinners.

11, 12. The church of God, in which he dwells by his Spirit, is represented under the emblem or figure of a house or temple; and Christ, the foundation of the church, is accordingly represented by the principal foundation stone of the building, on which it rests and by which it is supported. Compare Isai. xxviii. 16; with 1 Cor. iii. 9, 10, 11; and Eph. ii. 20, 21, 22; and 1 Pet. ii. 4, 5, 6.—And these following pas-not to believe, own and receive sages may help us to understand what is meant by falling on this stone. Isai. viii. 14, 15. "And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence, to both the houses of Israel. And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken." Rom. ix. 31, 32, 33. There the apostle, giving a reason why Israel, who followed after the law of righteousness, had not attained to it, said, "Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law for they stumbled that stumbling stone; as it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling stone, and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed." Pet. ii. 7, 8. "Unto you, therefore, which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient." Matt. xiii. 55-58. "And when he was come into his own country he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this

They who are thus stumbled and offended at Christ, are likened to a person who, in walking or running, strikes against a stone, and falls down upon it. Thus the unbelieving Jews, when Christ was on earth, fell upon this stone. So likewise did those, after Christ's ascension, to whom Christ crucified was a stumbling block-who stumbled at the word, at the gospel preached by the apostles, being disobedient: or to whom the preaching of the cross was foolishness. So likewise do the Deists, and all others, in every age, who are so stumbled at any thing in the scripture accountof Christ, or of the way of salvation through him, as not to own, believe in and receive him in his true character.

Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: that is, as a man, who falls upon a stone, is bruised and wounded, and sometimes has his flesh and his bones broken, to the great hazard of his life; so, whoever is stumbled and offended in Christ, thereby receives a dangerous

spiritual wound, to the great hazard of his soul.

But as men's falling on a stone, does not always prove the means of their death-as they sometimes recover from the wounds thereby received; so, men's being so offended in Christ, as to disown and reject him for a time, does not in all cases issue in their utter and everlasting ruin there is a possibility of their being recovered from the dangerous wounds, which they thereby give to their souls; and some, who have thus fallen, have afterwards been converted and healed. Witness the case of Paul, and of numbers of the Jews, who, for a time, were offended in Christ, but afterwards believed and found salvation in him.

Q. Do you think that in the terms used by Christ, in the latter part of the text we have been considering, there was an allusion to any ancient prediction ?

R. Perhaps there was. For the words naturally bring to mind the vision, recorded by Daniel, of a stone cut out without hands, which smote the image, which Nebuchadnezzar saw, upon his feet, and brake them to pieces whereupon, the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, were broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away.

Q. What an affecting view, do the solemn truths stated in this conference, exhibit, of the dan gerous and alarming condition of all those, who have hitherto been so stumbled or offended in Christ, on any account whatev

recieve him, and build upon him, as the alone foundation of all well grounded hopes of sal vation !

But on whomsoever this stone shall fall, it will grind him to powder. That is, as a huge stone, falling upon a man, crush-er, as not cordially to own and es him to atoms, and instantly puts an end to his life, beyond the possibility of escape or restoration; so he on whomsoever Christ falls, by his almighty power, to take vengeance on him, for his persevering and final rejection of him, will be completely ruined for ever: his destruc-jection against Christ and the tion will be remediless, terrible, gospel, and to receive him, "and total, and final. This stone will become cordially obedient to thus fall on all those who are him, without delay. finally disobedient to the gospel. 2 Thess. i. 7, 8, 9.

R. Dangerous and threatening indeed, is the condition of all such; and infinitely doth it concern them, to give up every ob

The Catholic Doctrine of a Trinity, &c.

(Continued from p. 339.)

† 1 Cor. viii. 6. To us there is but ONE GOD, THE

FATHER.

If we compare this with that expression of St. Thomas, John xx. 28, MY LORD, and MY GOD, we have the following argument:

To us there is but one GOD, the FATHER.

But TO US JESUS CHRIST IS GOD: therefore, The Gospel has either preached two Gods to us, one distinct from the other or that one God the Father is here the name of a nature, under which Christ himself, as God, is also comprehended. And the same may be proved of it in several other places.

XXXIV.

+ Matt. xxiii. 9. Call no man your Father upon earth, for ONE IS YOUR FATHER which is in heaven. Ibid. v, 10. Neither be ye called masters, for ONE is YOUR MASTER, even CHRIST. John iii. 13. which is in heaven.

Dr. Clarke has a particular Section*, wherein he pretends to have set down the Passages that ascribe the highest Titles, Perfections, and Powers, to the second Person of the Trinity. Yet he has wholly omitted the latter of these verses; though by a rule of his own making, it allows to Christ an higher title than any other in the whole Scripture. It is this same Author, who has laid so great a stress upon the word as, one, which he has insisted upon it can signify nothing else, but one Person; and the criticism is thought to be of such use and importance to his Scheme, that his book begins with it; and in the course of his work it is repeated three times, nearly in the same words. But the Passage now before us, if he had produced it, would have turned his own weapon against himself. For the word, is here an attribute of Christ; and if we argue from it in this place, as he has done in the other, it must prove, that one person only is our Master, and that this person is Christ: which excludes the Persons of the Father and the Spirit from the honor of that title; and so reduces that learned author's reasoning to a manifest absurdity.

We are to conclude then, that as the Phrase, one Master, cannot be meant to exclude the Father; so neither does that otherone is good (supposing that were the sense of the Greek) or, one is your Father, exclude the person of Christ. And if the reason of the thing teaches us that it cannot, so the Scripture assures us in fact that it does not: the title of Father, being also ascribed to the second person of the Trinity. For Christ, the Alpha and Omega, says of himself. He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be HIS GOD, and he shall be MY SON}. Isaiah calls him The Everlasting FATHER. And again it is written They are the CHILDREN of GOD, being the children of the RESURRECTION: But, says Christ the RESURRECTIONS: therefore he is God, and hath us for his Children. If this be the case, the word Father cannot always be a name that distinguishes God from another person of God; but is often to be understood as a term of relation between God and Man: or as a modern Divine of our Church has well expressed it A word not intended for God the Father only, the First • Chap. ii. §. 3. † Rev. xxi. 7. ix. 6. Luke xx. 36. § John xi. 25, Z z

VOL. VI. No. 10.

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