ness of woman, as that of our fields, is a gift of God.(3.) That children grow in the womb, and come to the birth, according to the peculiar energy of those laws, which God, as the God of Nature, has made for the propagation of animals in general, and of man in particular,-And, (4.) That as there is a time to be born, namely, in general nine months after conception; so there is a time to die, which, in the present state of the world, is seventy or eighty years after our nativity, if no peculiar event or circumstance hastens nor retards our birth and our death.

That this is the genuine meaning of the scriptures produced by Mr. T-, I prove by the following argu

ments :

1. God could never Calvinistically appoint the birth of all children, without Calvinistically appointing their conception, and every mean conducive thereto : Whence it undeniably follows, that (if Calvinism is true) he absolutely appointed, yea, necessitated all the adulteries and whoredoms, with all the criminal intrigues aud sinful lusts of the flesh, which are inseparably connected with the birth of base-boru children. Now this doctrine makes God the grand author of all those crimes, and represents him as the most inconsistent of all law-givers; since, by his moral decrees he forbids, and by his Calvinian decrees he enjoins, whoredom and adultery, in order to fabricate the link of the birth of every bastard child.

2. The experience of thousands of virgins shews, that, by keeping themselves single, they may prevent the birth of a multitude of children; and their parents may do it too, for St. Paul says, 'He that standeth steadfast in his heart, having no [moral] necessity [from his daughter's constitution, or his own low circumstances] but hath power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart, that he will keep his virgin, doth well.'

3. If women have conceived; by their carelessness or cruelty they frequently may so oppose one law of nature to another, as to reverse the decree of nature

concerning the maturity of the fruit of the womb: Nor can Mr. T. avoid the force of this conclusion otherwise than by saying, that God necessitates such cruel mothers to destroy their unborn children, to fulfil the absolute decree which condemus their unhappy embryos never to come to birth.

When Mr. T. has tried to prove that God has Calvinistically appointed the birth of all children, he tries to demonstrate, that the manner, moment, and circumstances of every body's death are so absolutely fixed, that no man can possibly live longer or shorter than he does. These are some of his arguments :

Page 110. "The time drew near that Israel MUST die, Gen. xlvii. 20."-Yes, he must die by necessity of consequence: For he was quite worn out; his age, which is mentioned in the preceding verse, being 147 years. We never dream, that old decrepit men are immortal. Again :

Page 111, 113. "Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth ?-In whose hand is the soul of every living thing.-Man's days are determined; the number of his months is with thee: Thou hast appointed his bounds, which he cannot pass.-All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come. (Job vii. 1 ; xiv. 5-14.)-Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his term of life? (Matt. vi. 27.)" -None of these scriptures proves, that the free will of Deity alone has absolutely fabricated the link of every man's death. They only indicate (1.) That God has fixed general bounds to the life of vegetables and animals: For, as the aloe vegetates an hundred years, so wheat vegetates scarce twelve months: And as men in general lived seven or eight hundred years, before the flood: So now the days of our life are three score years and ten; and if, by reason of strength, they are four score years, yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow, so soon passeth it away, and we are gone.' (Psal. xc. 10.)-(2.) That as no man lived a thousand years, before the flood: So no man lives two hundred years now. And (3.) That when we are

about to die by necessity of consequence, &c., we cannot, without an extraordinary interposition of Providence, suspend the effect of this general decree,' Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.' But to infer from such passages, that we cannot in general shorten our days by not taking a proper care of ourselves, or by running headlong into danger, is acting over again the part of the old deceiver, who said, 'Cast thyself down, [from the pinnacle of the temple,] for it is written,' &c. From such Turkish philosophy, and murderous conclusions, God deliver weak, unwary readers!

Two arguments will, I hope, abundantly prove the falsity of this doctrine: The FIRST is, God does not so fabricate the link of our death, but we may, in general, prolong our days by choosing wisdom, and shorten them by choosing folly. Is not the truth of this proposition immoveably founded upon such scriptures as these?,

If thou seekest her [wisdom] as silver-then shalt thou understand every good path:-Length of days is in her hand,' while untimely death is in the haud of fool-hardiness. (Prov. ii. 4, 9; iii. 16.) Keep my commaudments, for length of days, and long life, aud peace shall they add unto thee. (Prov. iii. 1, 2.)— Honour thy father and mother, that thou mayest live long on the earth. (Eph. vi. 3.) If thou wilt walk in my ways, then will I lengthen thy days. (1 Kings iii. 14.)—Their feet run to evil:-They lay wait for their own blood, and lurk privily for their own lives. So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain: Which taketh away the life of the owners thereof. (Prov. i. 16, &c.)-A sound heart is [in many cases] the life of the flesh: But envy, the rottenness of the bones.' (Prov. xiv. 30.) Hence so many persons shorten their days by obstinate grief; for the sorrow of the world worketh death.' What numbers of men put an untimely end to their lives by intemperance, murder, and robbery, and make good that awful saying of David!, Bloody and deceitful men shall not live ont half their days.' (Psalm lv. 23.)-What multitudes

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verify this doctrine of the wise man!, 'The fear of the Lord prolongeth days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.' (Prov. x. 27.)-Does not the Psalmist pray?, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days.' (Psalm cii. 24.)-Does he not say?, ‹ As a snail which melteth, so let the wicked pass away like the untimely fruit of a woman.'-And was not this the case of the disobedient Israelites in the wilderness, who committed the sin unto bodily death?' Is not this evident from 1 Cor. x. ?, Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them also committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand,' &c. —Nay, was not this the case of many of the Corinthians themselves? For this cause [because he that receiveth the Lord's Supper unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself,] many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep,' [i. e., die.] (1 Cor. xi. 30.)

My SECOND argument is taken from Reason. If God has absolutely appointed the untimely death of all, who shorten their own days, or the days of others, by intemperance, filthy diseases, adultery, murder, robbery, treason, &c., &c., he has also absolutely appointed all the crimes, by which their days are shortened; and has contrived all the wars and massacres, by which this earth is become a field of blood. I have heard of some Indians, who worship an horned grinning idol, with a huge mouth split from ear to ear. But the preaching a God, who has planned and necessitated all the crimes that ever turned the world into an Aceldama, and a common sewer of debauchery, is an honour that the Manichees and the Orthodox, so called, may claim to themselves.

Should Mr. T. answer, that although "the Free Will of the Deity alone may fabricate" adultery, murder, and every intermediate link of the chain of Necessity; and that, although the generation and death of a child conceived in adultery, and cut off by murder, is divinely and unchangeably fixed;" yet God is not at all the author of the adultery and murder; I desire to know how we can cut the Gordian knot, and divide

between adultery and the generation or conception of a child born in adultery; and between the murder of such a child, and its untimely death caused by the cruelty of its unnatural mother.

From the whole, if I am not mistaken, we may safely conclude:-(1.) That the birth and death of all mankind take place, according to some providential laws.—(2.) That God, in a peculiar manner, interposes in the execution or suspension of these laws, with respect to the birth of some men: Witness the birth of Isaac, Samuel, John the Baptist, &c.—(3.) That he does the same with respect to the untimely death of some, and the wonderful preservation of others; as appears by the awful destruction of Ananias, Sapphira, Herod, and by the miraculous preservation of Moses, in the Nile-of Daniel in the den of lions-of Jonah in the whale's belly-and of Peter in the prison.-(4.) That if neither the first, nor the last link of the chain of human life is, in general, fabricated by the absolute will of God, it is unreasonable to suppose, that "the free will of Deity alone fabricates the intermediate links."-(5.) That to carry the doctrine of Providence 80 far as to make God absolutely appoint the birth and death of all mankind, with all their circumstances, is to exculpate adulterers aud murderers, and to charge God with being the principal contriver, and grand abettor, of all the atrocious crimes, and of all the filthy, bloody circumstances, which have accompanied the birth and death of countless myriads of men :-And therefore, (6.) That the doctrine of the Absolute Necessity of all events, which is commonly called Absolute Predestination, is to be exploded as unscriptural, irrational, immoral, and big with the most impious consequences. However, Mr. T. seems ready to conclude, that the death of every mau is absolutely predestinated, because the fall of a sparrow' is not beneath the notice of our Heavenly Father: And that he thinks so, appears from his producing the following texts in defence of absolute Necessity : P. 81-87. "Are not two sparrows sold for a far