given up to destruction. They were those who, Ephes. i. 5. "Were predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of his will." They were those who were made accepted in the beloved; who, in every age walked in the steps of that faith of their father Abraham, which he had, being yet uncircumcised. This was the character of a part of the natural posterity only, "more or fewer" at different times," as God in his sovereignty determined." The residue were children without faith. They entered not in because of unbelief. They rejected the covenant of their God; and generally went off into open idolatry in some form or other. "Being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, they submitted not themselves to the righteousness of God." They stumbled at this stumbling stone. While the election, i. e. the election of Israel, obtained, they were blinded. Hence, the solemn declaration of Moses just before his decease. Deut. xxxi. 16, and onward. "And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and this people shall rise up and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be amongst them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant, which I have made with them.* Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day; and I will forsake them, and hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, Are not all these evils come upon us because the Lord our God is not among us? Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel; put it into their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel. For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers that floweth with milk and honey, and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxed fat,

Though the promise of the covenant in strictness, or as to its effect, extended to the election only; yet the covenant as has been hinted, and as will be more fully explained directly, was made or eftablished, as to its outward administration, with the whole body.

then will they turn unto other Gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant. And it shall come to pass when many evils and troubles are be fallen them, that this song shall testify against them, as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed; for I know their imagination which they go about even now, before I have brought them into the land which I sware." This is a This is a predictive view of the reprobate part of Israel.

Agreeable to this is the direction of God to the prophet Isaiah. Isai, vi. 9. 10. "Go and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert and be healed,"

John, the Baptist, urged strenuously this distinction, between the elect, and the nonelect parts of the de scendants of Abraham. Matt. iii. 7. "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said to them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come; Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance, and think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father; for God is able even of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees; therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." This declaration had evidently a special, primary respect to nominal Israel, for it was addressed to those who belonged to them.

Our Savior insisted much on the same distinction. He says, "Many are called, but few chosen-Ye cannot believe because ye are not of my sheep as I said" unto you-And they shall come from the east and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of God; but the children of the kingdom,' (the disobedient part of the visible seed) shall be cast

out into utter darkness; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." And in his prayer, John xvii. he says. "I pray for them; I pray not for the world, (those among the Jews who died in their sins) but for them which thou hast given me ; for they are thine, and all thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. Holy Father keep through thine own name, those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are."

The distinction runs through all Paul's writings; several passages of which, to the point, have been already quoted; which, to avoid repetition as much as possible, we shall forbear to mention here. The 9, 10 and 11th chapters of his Epistle to the Romans, are especially full to this point.

St. Peter brings it into view with great clearness in the 2d chapter of his first Epistle. It is to be noted that this Epistle is addressed to the strangers (i. e. believing Jews) dispersed through Pontus, Galatia, Capadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are characterized, as "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the father, through sanctification of the spirit unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." To them, he says, Unto you therefore which believe, he is precious; but unto them which be disobedient; the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence; even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient, where unto also they were appointed. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should shew forth the praises of him, who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.”

Finally, this distinction is presented in the sealing of a definite number out of every tribe of Israel, mentioned in the 7th chapter of the Apocalypse. "And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God; and he cried aloud to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth, and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in

their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed, and there were sealed an hundred, and forty and four thousand, of all the tribes of the children of Israel.”

Facts exactly coincide with these doctrinal representations of the scripture. Abraham had other children, besides Ishmael and Isaac. He had six sons by a woman, whom he married after Sarah's death. But they were not counted for the seed, respected in the promise., Gen. xxv. 5. "Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac, as the heir; but unto the sons of the Concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son while he yet lived, eastward unto the east Country." Jacob had an elevation to the prejudice of Esau, as to his primogeniture. He was established the heir, and counted for the seed, with whom the covenant was to take effect, before he was born. Gen. xxv. 23. The whole his tory of Jacob exhibits him in this light, as an object of special covenant favor, in distinction from Esau, The Israelites and Edomites, as bodies, were as dis tinguishable, as are now the Church and the world. Some of Israel fell in the wilderness; and others entered into the promised land. In the time of Rehoboam the largest branch was cut off from the stock. The ten tribes separated from the tribe of Judah, and went off into idolatry, in which they have continued to the present day. The seed was from that time perpetuated peculiarly in the tribe of Judah. "In Judah God was known. He refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim: But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved; and he built his sanctuary like high places, like the earth which he hath established forever." Psalm 1xxvili. 67-69. When Elijah complained of the apostacy of the people as universal, God assured him, that," he had reserved to himself seven thousand men, that had not bowed the knee to the image of Baal."

When the Messiah appeared, he sat, in exact fulfilment of the prediction delivered by Malachi, "as a re

finer and purifier of silver. He was a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppressed the hireling in his wages, the widow and fatherless, and that turned aside the stranger from his right, and that feared not God." According to the prophetic denunciation of John, he gathered the wheat into his garner, and burnt up the chaff with unquenchable fire. To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them who believed on his name." To the residue he says, Mat. xxiii. 34. "Behold I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes, and some of them ye shall kill, and crucify; and some of them ye shall scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city; that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation." By generation here is evidently intended, according to the distinction urged; not all numerically who lived in that day; but all of a class; those who were blinded. In the days of the Apostles, some stood by faith, while others were broken off for unbelief. And in eternity, we find, as a representation of the issue, Dives in hell, and Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, both of them natural descendant from Abraham.

From the position that the term seed was designed to comprehend all the individuals numerically, what consequences, directly opposed to all this scripture evidence, and to millions of facts, will follow? It will follow, that no soul could ever be cut off from his people.

It will follow, that all the seed numerically have had the faith of Abraham, and are saved. It will follow, that divine sovereignty does not discriminate between one part of Abraham's natural offspring and another, where it is expressly insisted on, all over the scriptures; it will follow, that no wrath can be expressed towards any part of the nominal seed; and yet it