branch, lest he should season others. If charity cast out the salt, she has only the name, but loses the savour; and how is her family to be seasoned with it, when you say it is neither fit for your land nor for your dunghill?

Old Thomas Brown, a weaver at Gainsborough, in Lincolnshire, sat among a society of universal lovers twenty years in chains of guilt, with his ears charmed by the class-leader, who had long entertained them with this vain repetition, Come, my dears, let's up and be doing;' which was singing a lovely song to a heavy heart. But God at last, pitying his long captivity, applied this passage to him, with power and comfort; "I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not, I will lead them in paths that they have not known; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight; these things will I do unto them, and not forsake them."

The poor man, tasting the sweetness of this promise, went to the class-meeting, and shewed the class-leader the promise, and told him the joy it came with. The class-leader, who was almost perfect in his own eyes (Pope-like), snatched the Bible out of his hands, and sternly asked him if he was going to turn Antinomian; and told him to work out his own salvation with fear and trembling, when God had worked in him both to will and to do. A few days after, this class-leader went to him again, and, finding him reading the Bible, took it away; which much distressed the poor soul; who

at last came to hear me, and God delivered him; and ever since he has been rejected of all that perfect society of universal lovers, because he by the Spirit is made perfect, even as his heavenly Father is perfect, Matt. v. 48.

If Universal Charity holds universal redemption, and says Christ died for all, why not for them who are born again of the Holy Ghost, as well as for Cain and Esau? And, if the Bible has no such doctrine as reprobation, nor the earth any such inhabitants, what will become of Tom Brown? Universal Charity has cast him out, excommunicated, and reprobated him. It looks as if this sort of charity had destroyed God's prerogative of choosing and refusing, only to establish her own sovereignty. But how a building of hay, straw, and stubble is to stand, established on the ruins of God's sovereign prerogative, I know not. If God's honour is trampled in the dust, Universal Charity has little room to expect he will exalt hers. "Them that honour me I will honour; and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed," 1 Sam. ii. 30.

So the arm of the Lord there spoken of, to lead sinners into paths they have not known, is rejected; and free-will and human ability is established, Surely this is making the law of God of little effect, and the gospel of none, by this old way of tithing rue, anise, and cummin, but neglecting mercy and faith, which ought to have been done, Matt. xxiii, 23. To forsake and hate a man, because the mercy of God has lifted him up, is a strange way

of shewing charity. However, it is the way that Saul shewed his love to David. The Lord sent an evil spirit upon Saul, but stood by his servant David; therefore David must fly the court, or receive the javelin. Saul became David's adversary continually, because God was his friend. If a pure affection for the best of men, for the sake of Christ's image on them, be the characteristic of a real saint, what shall we say of these?

However, Saul was not without charity; he exalted Doeg the Edomite for cutting off seventy of God's priests; and raised him from his former service of deer-keeping, to that of being lord of his household. This place was the price of blood,

1 Sam. xxi. 7; and 1 Sam. xxii. 18. Universal charity shews her pity farther in Saul. There came up the Ziphites, and said to Saul," Doth not David [the Calvinist] hide himself with us? Now therefore, O king, come down, according to all the desire of thy soul to come down, and [though he has done nothing amiss, yet] our part shall be to deliver him up into the king's hand." This moved the bowels of universal charity in Saul; and he said, "Blessed be ye of the Lord, for ye have compassion on me." Ye blessed traitors, and Doeg the murderer, are my best friends!

But, as for David, he is one of the elect, the Spirit of God is in him, the anointing on him, mercy is sure to him, and the oath of God secures him; therefore I hate him. Yet the sovereign Lord God of Israel is with, and has chosen him; and

by his faith he is more righteous than I. And God has given him the kingdom by a covenant of salt, or grace, and has chosen him before me and all my house. Therefore this sovereign Lord, and his chosen vessel, are the worst tormentors I have. And he will go for refuge elsewhere: "Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit." For, though he made God and Samuel his enemies, for rejecting the word of truth, yet he will have a friend somewhere, if it be the devil himself; and, as he was altogether for outside things, he will have Samuel's mantle, if he cannot have him. me up Samuel," 1 Sam. xxviii. 7, 11.

'Bring

Formerly Saul had, in his zeal for God, cut off the wizards out of the land; but, when he saw the sovereignty of his Maker in his choice of David, he goes to one of that number, even with a prayer in his mouth; “Divine unto me by the familiar Spirit;" but found, as Haman did by Zeresh his wife, that he was to fall before this Israelite indeed, as Haman did before Mordecai; that is, drop into his own pit, by his own counsel. However, as he had been a friend to Satan's family, and a lover of Doeg and the traiterous Ziphites, Satan's dear daughter begins to comfort him; "Now therefore I pray thee, hearken thou also unto the voice of thy handmaid, and let me set a morsel of bread before thee, and eat." But he, in mock modesty, refused; however, she persuaded him. O how wretched is the state of a carnal professor when God is become his enemy!

Saul was a man very fond of his own righteousness being established before men. He requested Samuel to honour him before Israel, though God had rejected him; his royal self was so delicate, that he could feed on nothing but human applause; he could not make a meal of Christ revealed in every sacrifice which he saw offered; but, though he could not sup on the fatted calf in the scripture, yet he could eat one dressed by the witch of Endor, 1 Sam. xxviii. 25. Universal Charity was partial in nature then as well as now; if it hates poor old Tom Brown, yet it loves hypocrites. This appears in Saul; he will pursue the life of David through all the thousands of Judah; but, if he finds the witch of Endor, he swears by the Lord God of hosts not to put her to death, though God says, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," Exod. xxii. 18. This pitiful principle had shewed its pity before in the salvation of Agag, 1 Sam. xv. 19. But Samuel, that zealous advocate for God, being void of charity, hewed him to pieces before the Lord, or in his presence, as a thing that pleased him, because his sword had made women childless, 1 Sam. xv. 33.

I once laid hold of some hymns written by a perfect man, or one that talks at that rate, who is a great champion for charity, or universal love; and, in that piece of poetry, all gospel ministers, who declare the whole counsel of God, are styled children of the devil in these words: