thy younger; and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant.

And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD."

"This is life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Amen, Alleluia.

In my next, some attention will be paid to the remaining texts from the Old Testament, when, if possible, I shall bring them to a close. In the mean time, you will do yourself and your friend a favour, by examining, as with a lighted candle, every text that has yet been investigated. The examination has been cursory; my leisure hours are too few for a more minute criticism, at present. I rather aim to what your citations do not, than what they do mean. Under existing circumstances, this is all you can require. Should I succeed in this, a great point will be gained -you will be prepared, and I trust disposed, to read and hear, and think for yourself, free from the shackles that have long bound the world, called christian, in the most degrading, the most abject servitude.

Yours in friendship,

JULIUS.

44+

LETTER 3.

DEAR SIR--The passage cited from Ezekiel 18: 4, now claims our undivided attention. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." To sin is to miss. To transgress is to go across. As sin, therefore, is the transgression of the law, it is the violation of a command, which, in the present instance, is the command of God. The penalty annexed to this transgression, the consequence resulting from it, is death. Here is

no contingency mentioned, by which the threatening may be avoided, nor the least intimation of any person or thing, as a substitute, by means of which the threatening can be averted. It SHALL die. If this denunciation proceed from a faithful Creator, it must be fulfilled. In view of these brief premises, let us examine, and, if possible, understand the citation already noticed.

In Gen. 2: 17, we read, "in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt SURELY DIE.". A plain question now presents itself--Was the threatening fulfilled?→ If not, it is certainly a work of supererogation to holdup in terror a penalty which was never inflicted; for, if it failed in the first instance, by what authority shall we determine that it has not, and will not, in every instance? Nor does an appeal to the New-Testament furnish any clue by which we may in any way escape that death, which is the consequence of sin. Here we learn that God is no respecter of persons-that every one shall be rewarded according to his works, and that the wages of sin is death. Indeed, the very case for which you quoted the passage, supposes it peremptory. What then is its import? Is it, as theologians inform us, a death temporal, spiritual, and eternal ? All have sinned-the threat is peremptory-the issue, on these premises-eternal death. From which, however, as it wants scripture authority, we may yet hope to escape.

Do not think, my dear Sir, that I am desirous of avoiding a direct answer to the question. It may be necessary to remove some stumbling blocks which are in the path of truth, by considering the negative side of the subject. If insuperable obstacles to the common understanding of the phrase can be thus removed, the mind will then be in a situation to learn the truth with more composure, and to judge with a greater degree of partiality.

Let us now recur to the different senses in which the terms die, died, death, and dead, are used in the sacred writings, by which method, and a careful attention to the context, we shall probably be able to arrive at a thorough understanding of the subject.

1. The first, and most common understanding of these terms, is the dissolution of the union between body and spirit; the cessation of animal being, or extinction of life. Of this we need nothing in proof from the scripture. It is an every day concern, about which the most superficial reader cannot go amiss.

2. Death in sin, from which the scriptures give us instances of a revival, or resurrection in this world. By this death may be understood a departure from moral righteousness. Of this the scriptures give us abundant examples, some of which will be quoted. "Let the DEAD bury their dead."-Mat. 8:22. No man in his senses can suppose that by the term dead in the first instance, the naturally dead can be intended. "The hour is coming, and Now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live."-John 5: 25. That the spiritually dead are here meant is too evident to need an argument. "He that believeth in me, though he were DEAD, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die;" [or shall by no means die to the age. Imp. version.] "And you, being DEAD IN YOUR SINS, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all tresspasses."---Col. 2: 13. Here is a case in point. The Colossians, to whom the apostle was writing, had been dead in sins, and were brought to life by the preaching of the gospel, the voice by which those who heard should live, see John 5: 25. See also Col. 3: 3. "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the breth

ren. He that loveth not his brother, abideth in death."---1 John 3: 14. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." You must see the insuperable difficulty of saving a single soul on your own hypothesis, and in this instance, at least, must admit, that in this sweeping clause, the wages of sin is not eternal death, or that it has passed upon all men. "For when we were in the flesh [or under the law,] the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death."---Rom. 7: 5. From this death in sin, however, they were delivered. How? "For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and death."---Rom. 8: 2. "For to be carnally minded is DEATH; but to be spiritually minded is LIFE and peace."---5: 6. "But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.---79. It seems then, that the apostle was not an exception to the rule, for he says not only "I am carnal, sold under sin," but also that sin deceived, and finally slew him. He was then morally dead. Nevertheless he had a hope full of immortality; nay, the power of language was insufficient to express the confidence which he cherished, of a blissful immortality, notwithstanding his death in sin. It is most evidently of this death in sin that he speaks, 1 Cor. 15: 21, 22. "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." That moral death, and a moral or spiritual resurrection are here intended, is evident from 5: 56---7. "The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." James informs us, that "he who converteth a sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death."

The above examples must be sufficient to illustrate my ideas of moral declension, or spiritual death, and to satisfy every reflecting man, that a death in sin does not imply a hopeless and never-ending separation between the soul and its Maker. He who is the Father of the spirits of all flesh, has provided the means of recovery from the greatest moral pollution. Whether he will so use these means as to accomplish this purpose, will be seen in the sequel.

3. Death to sin. By this I understand a change of heart from sin to holiness. "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord."---Rom. 6:

11.

Having, as you perceive, dwelt particularly on moral or spiritual death, my purpose is to show that the text is to be so understood. For this purpose I shall examine its context, and other corresponding passages of the same writer, and others under the old dispensation. The chapter commences by the inquiry, What mean ye that ye use this proverb-The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge? After stating on the asseveration of the Almighty, that they shall disuse this proverb, it is added, by way of confirmation, "Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son, is mine; the soul that sinneth it shall die." So far from intimating that the consequences of sin are carried into another state of being, the context affirms the contrary fact. The proverb which the Jews were forbidden to use, asserts that "the children's teeth are set on edge that they were, in the present tense, suffering for the sins of their fathers. Opposed to this is the word of the Lord, that each shall suffer for his own sin.

That a recovery from the state of moral death is as clearly the doctrine of the Old as of the New-Testa