system affords them, are the very men that the community lack confidence in.

But it is a matter of comparative indifference with the speaker, personally, whether the Rev. Abel C. Thomas see fit to grapple with his reasons or not. We would love to have him do it for his own sake, and for his people's sake.

No excuse which he can offer, for not doing so, will satisfy this community, or satisfy some of his own friends.

PART IV.

Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls, and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord.

And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.

Ezekiel, xxxiii. 30, 31.

SEVENTY-FIRST REASON.

WE reject the doctrine of Universalism, in view of the history of the inhabitants of the old world. If Universalism be true, all the antediluvians are now in heaven. If Universalism be true, they all went to heaven so soon as an incensed God had ingulfed them in the mighty deluge of waters. Is this reasonable? Can it be reconciled with the justice of God's dealings with them while they were on the earth? Can it be reconciled with any of the principles of the divine administration? They

were cut off from the earth for their sins. They were cut off from a land of probation, because God saw that their recovery, by the preaching of righteous Noah, or by any other means, was absolutely impossible. They were cut off for a reason, and in a way, that shows that they did not repent, and that their punishment was not of a corrective, or reforming character. Notwithstanding the one hundred and twenty years' warning, our Saviour informs us that they did not repent, but continued in their rebellion, till the very moment in which they were destroyed from the earth. "For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” If God could not endure their moral character any longer on the earth, how could he endure them in heaven? If their moral character was such as to call forth the vindictive justice of God in a world of probation-and as there was no change in their moral character, will not the vindictive justice of God continue to visit them in a world of retribution? The end of the antediluvians is a great stumbling block to the Universalists, and hence they seldom set forth the heavenly state of these, their ancient brethren.

SEVENTY-SECOND REASON.

We reject the doctrine of Universalism, in view of the history of the Sodomites. If Universalism be true, the Sodomites are now in heaven. If Universalism be true, they all went to heaven wrapped in the winding-sheet of fire! But how is it possible for any man to believe that God could treat those vile, filthy, lascivious beings, dying such, differently in any other world from what he did in this? God could not endure their moral character, and for that reason he destroyed them. Was there any change in their moral character, from the time the fire began to descend, till they were consumed, and their guilty souls ushered into the other world? Can fire purify the heart? Can scorching flames subdue the will, and rectify a man's motives? To the fact that the Sodomites did not repent, we have the testimony also of the Saviour: "And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes." Showing, evidently, that the inhabitants of Sodom did not repent. If they died, therefore, in an impenitent state, and if in view of these heaven-provoking crimes, God destroyed them by a storm of fire, how preposterous the sentiment, that God received them all to the realms of purity and bliss! The Universalists seldom preach about

the heavenly state of these their ancient brethren, the Sodomites, for this simple reason-they know it would be too palpable a farce. With regard to the present and future condition of the inhabitants of the cities of the plain, we have not only the testimony of Jesus Christ, but also of Jude. "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Jude was no restorationist, to say the least.

SEVENTY-THIRD REASON.

We reject Universalism, in view of the history of Ananias and Sapphira. "But Peter said, Ananias, why hath satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? While it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thy heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up the ghost." In like manner also perished his guilty wife. Yet Universalists maintain that they both went immediately to heaven, with a lie to the Holy Ghost upon their tongues! One moment lying to God on the earth, and the next moment praising him in heaven! Struck