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filled. "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." But, says the Universalist, blessed are the unmerciful: for they shall obtain mercy. "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." But, says the Universalist, blessed are the impure in heart: for they shall see God. "Blessed are the peace-makers: for they shall be called the children of God." But, says the Universalist, blessed are the strife-makers: for they shall be called the children of God. "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." But, says the Universalist, blessed are they which are persecuted for unrighteousness sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

"But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." But, says the Universalist, whether we forgive men their trespasses or not, God is merciful, and will forgive ours. "Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Impossible, says the Universalist, that there are two ways-two gates -two bridges! And one a narrow one, that leads to life! impossible! And the other a broad one, that leads to hell! impossible! Enter, says he, at the wide gate, and the broad way, for I know it leads to heaven. But do not enter the other gate, for it is a strait gate, and a narrow way, and

only a few find it! God is merciful, and there can be but one way, and that is the broad way of Universal Salvation!

"But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation." But, says the Universalist, he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, hath forgiveness, and is not in danger of eternal damnation. "And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the Holy City, and from the things which are written in this book." But, says the Universalist, I may take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, all those words and passages which teach the doctrine of future and endless punishment, and God shall not take away my part out of the Book of Life, nor out of the Holy City, nor from the things which are written in this book.

What a system of contradiction is Universal Salvation? Is it not a wonder how any man ever came to preach it, or believe in it! How is it possible, that any man can open the Bible, and behold the things which are written there, and then go away and believe in this doctrine? Can a system, which thus contradicts the Bible, be true? I put it to your common sense, as those bound for the grave and for the judgment with me, to say, can you any longer believe in this doctrine, and can you any longer preach it? Will you rest your soul upon a system which thus wars with itself,

and with the human mind? Will you trust your immortal all upon a doctrine which wars with all justice in heaven, on earth, and in hell? Will you be deluded into the belief of a system which makes war upon the Bible, and stamps every page with a lie?

But this system of Universal Salvation is still more dreadful in its tendencies than in its contradictions.

We may fairly infer, that a system which is fraught with such contradictions, is fraught also with some fearful tendencies.

I. It goes to destroy all confidence in the Bible as the word of God.

It arraigns passage against passage. It arraigns chapter against chapter. One passage is made to contradict another. Contradiction appears, according to this system, on every page of the lamp of life.

"This book, this holy book, on every line
Marked with the seal of high divinity—
On every leaf bedewed with drops of love
Divine, and with the eternal heraldry
And signature of God Almighty stampt-
From first to last"-

is by this system torn into fragments, and one-half of its authoritative decisions and revelations despised, and tortured, and rejected. How is it possible, that men, defending or believing in this sys

tem, can entertain any reverence or confidence for the word of God? If the doctrine of future punishment is not taught in the Bible, neither is the doctrine of future happiness. In the same passages, and in the same language, the two doctrines are found. Any criticism or sophistry, therefore, that would remove one of the fundamental doctrines, would go to remove both, and thus the Christian and the Infidel are left without a revelationwithout the stimulus of either fear or hope. If I wished to destroy all confidence in the Bible, I would begin, not by rejecting it altogether, but by casting doubts on one of its cardinal doctrines. I would make the Bible war with itself. I would throw suspicion upon some parts of it. If I wished to destroy the character of a good man, I would not declare him at once a bad man, but I would whisper a suspicion that all was not right. I would pick a flaw in some feature of his character or conduct. We all know what omnipotent effect the whisper of suspicion has upon public confidence. And let a system be projected, which throws suspicion upon the Bible, and the effect will be, to destroy the confidence of men in the word of God. And let all confidence in the word of God be destroyed, and what will become of our morals, our laws, our churches, our country? What would become of the human mind? It would be left without restraint, and like mind in France in 1789, when the laws of God were repealed; it would be like the great waves of the sea, finding no rest, but casting up mire and dirt. It would

rush over the earth like another deluge, sweeping every thing before it, and burying every thing in deep ruin. Take away the Bible, in any of its restraints, from society, and you uncap the volcano of human depravity.

II. Another tendency of this system, is Atheism. Let any man deny one of the doctrines of the Bible, and he will soon become an Atheist. Eternal truth is so connected together, that if a man denies one doctrine of the Bible, he must, of necessity, deny the whole. He may deny that this will be the result, but we can drive him on, from point to point, till he leaps into the bottomless deeps of Atheism. Who was he, who but a little while since, in a distant city, was prosecuted for blasphemy, and who is now a bold Atheist? He was once a Universalist preacher. Upon his honied accents you once descanted in praise. Upon his blasphemous lips you once hung with confidence and rapture. But he was obliged, by his own creed, to proceed on, from step to step, till he took the fatal leap. And there are now those among us, who are following on his dreary way, to the more dreary wilderness of Atheism. They even now deny that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." They even now deny the propitiatory sacrifice of the Son of God. They even now deny that the Saviour was, according to prophecy, "the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." They even now deny the existence of fallen angels. They even now deny future retri

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