children of wrath. God help man for he is naturally condemned. Let us compare our thoughts, our actions, our propensities, our wisdom with the omniscientcy of Holyness and his offspring Adam, as was before sin, when he gave names to all living flesh, such as no man could improve or find a better. We must acknowledge the fall of man and his lost condition: such a confession is justification being the truth. This is the purpose that the son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Such is a proper and justifiable word that Iolyness gave to ungodly men. Will not the heathens rise up in judgment against this generation? Was not Pharoah a man though a proud devil in resisting God as he did? saying, "What is the Lord that I should obey his voice?" but afterwards said, "I have sinned." Pharoah did not charge his sin to no other agent than himself. Is it not written that David's own heart smote him when he numbered the people (nothing new under the sun,) and watered his couch with his tears. Judas was a man though the Lord called him a devil, he charged no other agent but himself, saying "I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. Paul also states "I am the chief of sinners, I was mad against the saints." Who could be the chief of sinners but the devil. Nero was a man, though St. Paul calls him a lion, and that he fought with beasts at Ephesus. Herod was a man, though the Lord calls him a fox, as "Go thou and tell that fox, &c." St. John in his Revelations, calls him a great red dragon. Peter was a man though the Lord calls him satan; at another time he denies Christ and wept bitterly. Was not the wife of Job a devil to tempt her husband to curse God and die? They all blame their sins upon themselves and not upon invisible agents. There is no part in scripture that any man can, without blasphemy against the holy Majesty of heaven, prove the existence of any invisible tempting power.

Chap. i. Gen. epis. James v. 13. "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man, but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren!"

If God had made, or caused to be made, or allowed, any power to tempt man, he would be responsible for sin, and this passage wrong and

cruel, having demanded of man to put their trust in him. When we read of satan or devil taking the son of God upon a high mountain or temple, showing and offering to give what was already his. Such a demon spirit would have been a worse fool than we were wont to give him credit for, as he assuredly must know that the saviour well knew what was his own; what would he have done with him if he had gained the victory would he be condemned to hell also? It was vain to tempt! The truth is that the devil here represented, is one of those who Christ himself designates as, "ye are the children of your father, the devil, &c.," who would have taken him by force to make him their king, thereby setting him as the head of every evil. Is it to be supposed that all the kingdoms and cities of the earth could be seen from that mountain or any other? Decidedly not; but all those could who were alone acknowledged, until after the sacrifice was made. The Gentiles and their kingdoms brought together as one common household of God: the lost found, the fallen tabernacle rebuilded, &c.

There is nothing there for a person to imagine that it was a demon exhibiting the saviour of man about; on the contrary he was a man— a jew in authority. The satan as illustrated in the time of Job, were not jews, but Gentiles: men, not sons of God. The distinction is great for we read upon two occasions, that when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, (or high priests most likely,) that satan came also among them: this is no proof that he is an invisible demon. What could such a supposed phantom require? was it to pray or offer sacrifice? This is not flying from holy water. To understand this sat tisfactory, all markind, except jews, the chosen people of God and son of God, are called children of men, &c., previous to redemption. So that the sons of God gathered themselves together in solemn assemblies in the middle temple; there was also an inner temple, where they were not permitted to enter, their generation was not pure enough for that, nor even the high priest, as they were only permitted to enter once a year, and then with great ceremony and sprinkling of blood. The outer court of the temple where cattle might be bought and slaughtered, was the only place allowed for strangers or the children of men to approach, which was considered as without the temple, all this was typtical of the coming redemption. To find a man, the seed of the serpent penetrating into the middle temple were the sons of God or seeds of the woman

were assembled together is audacious, and no doubt surprised the high priest, who most likely was the person who spoke to him by the aid of the holy spirit, as, from whence cometh thou; it was not likely the Deity would converse with him direct, or put the question, and it is quite certain he would not hold conversatiou with a demon when sacred worship was interrupted by his prayer. The Satan here represented were two men, the one a Sabean, the other a Chaldean, both seeds of the serpant, their works proved it. In all this, from the commencement of the world to the end, the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil,-for this purpose was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil which he did do, during his reign, of one thousand years of the present area. We must not suppose it was needful to have been on the earth that time. After the expiration, satan was loosed a short time; it may be the second thousand, now drawing on, making six thousand, from the commencement. The first two thousand he appears to Abraham, and gave the promise of his coming, which he fulfilled in the next two thousand, and he may fulfil his second promise as soon as the present two thousand expires.— One thousand of the two, is the thousand years that he reigned over the earth and destroyed the works of the devil. No sooner is that protection withdrawn, leaving man the liberty to be just or unjust, as Revelations xxii. 10:

"And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. He that is unjust let him be unjust still, and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still, and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still, and he that is holy, let him be holy still, and behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be."

This is the condition in which the world is left to man. Satan is loosed for a little season, commencing from the end of his reign. He gave man a new commandment called the royal law, that we should love one another-the Jew and Gentile as neighbours. How is this carried out? If we consult the Chronology, it tells us immediately after the thousand years had expired (Norman Conquest), powder, cannons, &c., was invented, quite in unison with the 9th chap. Rev.―Thus arose the demon oppression with his thousand heads, delugeing the land with

cruelty and starvation upon his fellow man for whom Christ died. May God open our eyes to perceive this abominable desolation, that they are the fruits of our own vile and selfish propensities—living wit nesses of the fallen state of our original progenitors, regardless of our actions, belief, and confession, we ignorantly deny and blaspheme the Holy attributes of God, which should cause us to pause and reflect. Are we all going to heaven? Are we doing this to obtain passporttitle there by shooting down our fellow man like beasts of prey-what use was the agony of God when we bind men with heavy burdens, grievous to be borne, both in his physical powers; and necessaries of life, and ask God to bless us in the act? Let every man do as he wishes to do, and receive according as his work shall be. "O generation of vipers, how can ye being evil speak good things? Fill ye up the measures of your fathers, ye serpants, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell.”"-In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil.

PREDESTINATION.

"Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect. It is God that justifieth, Who is he that condemneth.-Rom. viii. 33–34.

Whoever thinketh that God has made some to be saved and some to be damned, committeth a fatal error. It is God that justifieth. It is God who saveth. It is man who condemneth himself. Predestination is not certain fatality. It is an evil brought into nature, but not an evil created by God that man was made subject unto. Original sin made mankind by nature children of wrath. Let man strain every nerve to fulfil righteousness. Nature condemneth without the assistance of God that justifieth, without him no one would be born to be saved-all would perish. God is no respector of persons. St. Paul states if Christ died for all, then were all dead; then man cannot be born to be lost, if he died for all. How is it that he died. to save those yet unborn. It is the fatality of nature to sin that is certain. God made man according to his pleasure, we know it was not his pleasure for man to sin, than nature was changed by original sin, and cannot be temptation to sin, by no n.cans. Secing then as nature

is changed, and man condemned, who is he that condemneth? not God surely, it is him that justifieth. The law and ordinances was given that every man might be convinced of sin, without it man could not be convinced of his fallen state, his naturality prevented conviction. Original sin brought forth sorrow and death, sin and crime multiplied with giant strength, but God did not predestinate it, or man would be dutiful unto his maker. Cain killed his brother Abel because he was more righteous than himself, that is a proof of his being the devil's sonthe first seed of the serpent, and not predestination, although it brought forth predestination upon the one race of people until holiness could suffer death by the hands of man to equalize righteous blood, who trusted in him, and was slain through being accepted, that is, the righteousness of holiness, the murder of Abel predestinated the Son of God to die; of whom it was justly written, The Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world.' Predestination became a necessity, there was no possibility of redemption, for nothing short of the death of Him who accepted Abel could sufficiently atone, and that could not be, until God could descend into flesh. A fatality overspread the murderous and vagabond race, until God could make an atonement for original sin, this took a long time for sin and crime multiplied, races became united, destroyed, and separated, the Spirit of God strove with man, that it grieved Him at his heart that he had made man, for every thought and imagination of his heart was only evil continually.

Who is he that condemneth? Who will charge God with making heaven and earth in such beautiful forms-the whole canopy of heaven clothed with stars and planets, alluminated with sun and moon, with matchless light his glory and bounty overspread the earth, and man upon it to take charge of the structure, with all living creation submissive to his will and power,-with laws of generatnre to bring forth objects of love in his own image and likeness, as he himself were in that of his creators, even to an inventive talent operating upon the same material for his pleasure in measured accordance with his maker's creative powers, as was the Creator, so was man, the perfect model, and commanded to multiply and replenish the earth. Was all this done for man, and for his own pleasure, and secretly predestinating him to sorrow and misery in this world, and eternal torment in that to come. Is there any man living that would call into existence any instrument