you, that means of grace can be of no use to him, till GOD fhall be pleased to open his heart. Should he be reminded, that the Gospel condition upon which he must expect to receive is, that he fhould afk; and that having the use of his legs, he is as able to walk to church as to any other place: his anfwer is, that he does not feel the will to do it; and that God will make his people willing in the day of his power." Pf. cx. 3. In this confidence he lives an heathenifh life, without GOD in the world, waiting for that compulfive act of Divine power, by which he is to be brought into a state of falvation.

Feeling at fome future period of his life, perhaps, fome more than common impreffion made upon him by religious fubjects, a fecond imagination takes poffeffion of his mind. Confidering this impreffion as the immediate operation of that Divine power, which he has been waiting to experience, he now perfuades himself that he is in the number of God's elect people, and that confequently his falvation is fecure. Upon his being reminded, that he that thinketh he standeth, must take heed left he fall," his anfwer is, he cannot fall; for GoD will keep his elect from falling; He who has begun the work in them, will

complete it; fo that the man who is once in a state of falvation, must be always in it. When the cafe of DAVID, the man of God's own heart, is stated to him; or the text quoted, where that chofen veffel ST. PAUL expreffes an apprehenfion, left" after all his preaching to others, he himself fhould be a caftaway," he has a reply fuited to the occafion; that upon the fuppofition that the elect may commit grievous fins, his comfort is, that their falvation cannot be endangered, because no act of man can render void the Divine purpose in his favour.

Thus then, under the impreffion of the first of thefe imaginations, the man neglects the use of the means of grace, upon the idea that his heart has not been opened by GoD to receive benefit from them; and because he has no power of himself to help himself, he cannot be perfuaded to make use of that power which God has given him. Under the impreffion of the second, the means of grace are oft times confidered by him to be of no confequence, from the conviction that his falvation is effectually secured.

I do not fay that this doctrine is carried to the fame extent by every profeffor of it. GOD forbid it fhould. For there are degrees of folly, as there are degrees of wisdom; and no extraordinary cafe can

conftitute a proper ftandard for general application. But there is one inftance to be produced, which authorises my placing it in the light in which it is here placed, with the view of guarding my reader against it. One of my parishioners, who took his divinity, as many others perhaps may do, from fome old puritancal writers of the last century, rather than from the Bible, maintained, I am forry to think, the above doctrine in its fullest extent. He has been heard to say, that should he kill a man to-day, he should certainly go to heaven to-morrow. His falvation, therefore, being, according to his own notion, perfectly fecured, religious ordinances, as means of grace, to him were useless. He acted, therefore, but in confiftence with his doctrine, when, inftead of frequenting a place of public worship on Sundays, he was generally occupied in attending his farm. But on this head we fhall only fay with SOUTH, that "what is nonsense upon a principle of reafon, will never be fenfe upon a principle of religion."

An additional anecdote, which furnishes a moft ftriking proof of the ill effect of this dangerous doctrine in another way, fhall be mentioned; because it has fallen within my own knowledge.

Upon collecting through my parifh, fome time fince, for the relief of the emigrant French priests, I found an almost general difinclination among the diffenters from the church to contribute. At length one, more open than the reft, furnished the following reafon for it; by telling me, that "CHRIST never died for those priests; and therefore he had no feeling for them, or concern about them." Another, who had learnt his Christianity in the fame school, upon my application to him on the fame occafion, immediately exclaimed, "What, Sir, to a Roman? give to a Roman! one that lives in fuch errors: if I had ten thousand guineas, I would not bestow a fingle mite upon him!"

Read, now, the story of the good Samaritan; and judge how far fuch a narrow-minded religion, which engroffes all GOD's favours to its own profeffors, and regards the rest of mankind as objects in a condition beneath that of the beasts that perish, agrees with the enlarged and charitable fpirit of the Gofpel. When the difciples of our SAVIOUR Would have called down fire from Heaven to destroy their enemies, our SAVIOUR rebuked them, by telling them, that "they knew not what spirit they were of." What would this SAVIOUR fay to thofe pro

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feffors of his religion, who could fuffer a fellowcreature to starvé at their doors, because he lived in error?

In a word, let this doctrine of election and abfolute decrees, as it is often understood, and the effects produced by it upon the lives of fome of its profeffors, be compared with the revealed purpose of CHRIST's coming into the world, and the spirit of his religion; and let this be done fairly, without prejudice, and with an eye only to the truth, and it is impoffible that any Christian can longer be led captive by fuch a delufion.

The rule laid down, though not strictly followed, by ST. AUGUSTINE," that the more obfcure parts of fcripture fhould be interpreted by those that are plain," is the only rule that will enable us to form a rational and confiftent judgment upon the doctrines of revelation.

That CHRIST came to redeem man in his general character from the confequences of the fall, and to purchase for him thofe means of renewed grace, which required only to be properly employed to become effectual to his falvation, conftituted the effence of that glad tidings, which the birth of a SAVIOUR was intended to convey to a loft world.