Minister. Do you recollect that our LORD uses words nearly similar to some of these, to his own disciples ?

Friend. No, indeed; I do not remember any such like expressions used to them: Can you shew them to me?

Minister. If I do, will you acknowledge the force of the objection to be removed?

Friend. Certainly, I must.

Minister. Then read St. John xiii. 33. "Little child. ren, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me, and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say unto you."

Friend. I am surprised that I should never have observed this before-Let me read the passage-Oh! but stop it is explained in the 36th verse: "Simon Peter said unto him, LORD, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards." But nothing of the kind is intimated respecting the Jews.

Minister. Not in that text, I confess; but in many others it is more than intimated, that they shall come to know and love him, yea and to behold him as their friend. I think it is intimated in those words which our Saviour used, in the close of his threatenings to Jerusalem: "Behold your house is left unto you desolate; and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, until the time come when ye shall ṣay, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,' St. Matth. xxiii.38, 39. St. Luke xiii. 35. It is more than intimated in these words-"And so all Israel shall be saved. For God hath concluded them all in un belief, that he might have mercy upon all," Rom. xi. 26, 32. "In JEHOVAH shall all the seed of Israel be" justified, and shall glory," Isai. xlv. 25. "I will call them my people, who were not my people; and her beloved, that was not beloved. 'And It shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them,”“

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ye are not my people, there shall they be called The children of the living God." Rom. ix. 25, 26. "Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel; I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them." Ezek. xxxix, 25, 28. "And I will multiply men upon you, (the nountains of Israel) all the house of Israel, even all of it," xxxvi. 10. "Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am JEHOVAH, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land; then shall ye know that 1, JEHOVAH, have spoken it, and performed it, saith JEHOVAH," xxxvii. 12. 13, 14.

Friend. But this returning from captivity, can only respect such as are alive at that period, when the Lord shall set his hand the second time to recover the remnant of his people from Assyria, &c.

Minister. That is more than any one can prove : as the expression is sometimes used evidently for the Restoration of such whose bodies are destroyed beyond dispute; as in the case of Sodom and her daughters, who were taken away, by fire and brimstone from Heaven, whose captivity GoD promises to return, together with the captivity of Samaria, and her daughters, at the same time that he will bring again the captivity of Jerusalem, and her daughters in the midst of them. See Ezek. xvi. 44, 63; especially ▼. 53, 55, 61.

Friend. But Mr. Poole's Continuators, as well as many other eminent divines, tell us, that these which you take to be promises, are only dreadful threatenings; and their meaning is this:-I never will bring again the captivity of Samaria, and her daughters; nor the captivity of Sodem and her daughters; neith

er will I ever bring again the captivity of thy captives, in the midst of them; when Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former estate, (which is impossible) and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate (which shall never be) then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate; but that time shall never come,

Minister. I know, such is their interpretation, which proves nothing more than the weakness of their cause; for in all this, they expressly contradict GoD, who, from the 60th verse to the end of the chapter, promises blessings to Jerusalem in the most absolute manner: That he will remember the covenant made with her in the days of her youth, and will establish unto her an everlasting covenant; that she shall receive her sisters, Samaria and Sodom (called her elder and her younger sister ;) and he promises to give them to her for daughters; not by the first covenant, indeed, but by the new and everlasting covenant, which he will make in those days; then shall the covenant be firmly established with her; she shall know JEHOVAH ; shall remember, and be confounded; and never shall open her mouth in pride any more, because of her former sin and shame, when God shall be pacified toward her, for all that she hath done.

How many promises has God made to Jerusalem, in the prophecies, of not only bringing her captivity, & returning her to her former estate; but even causing greater blessings than ever to come to her, and of doing better to her than in her beginning, making her an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations, &c.

It is therefore very surprising, that men professing to believe the Bible, should dare be so bold as deny these premises, and declare, that God will never bring Jerusalem to her former estate! They might, indeed, safely say, that the promises have not yet been fulfilled; but it is too bold to assert, That therefore they will never be accomplished. Were there no other text to prove the Restoration of the Jews who died

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in their sins, & indeed of the whole fallen race of Adam, should I Judge this sufficient ;- All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me; and him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will, which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I shonld lose nothing; but should raise it up again at the last day," St John vi. 37, 38, 39.Here we find that Christ, our Lord, declares not only that all that the Father giveth him shall coine to him; but also, that they shall come in such a manner as in no wise to be cast out; and that such is the Father's will, that nothing of all which he hath given to the Son should be lost or missing, at that great day when he shall deliver up the kingdom to the Father, who did put all things under him; and as this is the will. of that God who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will; and as Christ has undertaken the accomplishment of this will of the Father, it concludes absolutely and forcibly against the doctrine of endless misery and annihilation

Friend. It certainly does, with respect to all those whom the Father giveth, or hath given to the Son; but to none else.

Minister. That is all that I contend for; I ground the Universal Restoration of all things, upon these two premises, which I call the major and the minor. 1. That all things are given to the Son, without exception: 2. That all that are given him, shali come to him, in such a manner as not to be cast out; and that none shall be missing, lost, or wholly destroyed, but shall be forthcoming, in that great day when Christ shall give up the kingdom to the Father.

Friend. But can you prove your major? I am sensible that the minor has been the great foundation upon which particular redemption, &c. has been supported: but if the major can be proved, it will set the strongest weapons of those who hold partial decrees,

&c. directly against them, and will give another turn to the argument.

Minister. I can prove the major by the same posi tive expressions as the minor, and by more passages of Scripture; and you shall judge for yourself, whether I quote them fairly, and whether they can' be invalidated by any arguments which will not, at the same time, invalidate the minor. I will set down the several texts at large, as they are of great importance.

St. Matth. xi. 27. "All things are delivered unto me of my Father; and no man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." The very same words are mentioned by St. Luke: See chap. x. 22.

But the most striking passages of this kind are found in the gosspel of St. John, iii. 35, and xiii. 3. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hands, Jesus knowing that the Father had given att things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God, &c "

God hath moreover said to his Son, “Ask of me, & I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession," Psal. ii 8

Thus, all things are given to Christ without exception. The major and minor being both proved from Scripture, we may venture to draw this conclu

sion :

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If all things are given into the hands of Christ, by the Father; and all that the Father giveth, or hath given, shall come to Christ, in such a manner as not to be cast out; then shall all men be rẻstored.

Here the whole Christian world may unite, without either party being obliged to give up their favorite tenets; and while some strongly contend, and prove from Scripture, that all things are delivered in