may be united in love, and joy, and harmony, as

we are.

"I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou haft fent me, and haft loved them as thou has loved me."

I pray that the fame fpirit, and temper that are in us may be in them, who believe through the inftrumentality of my immediate difciples; that they all may be made perfect in unity; and I pray also that the world may be convinced of my divine miffion, and that thou haft loved my disciples and other believers, as thou haft loved me.

"Father, I will that they alfo whom thou haft given me, be with me where I am, that they may, behold my glory, which thou haft given me ; for thou lovedft me before the foundation of the world."

Father, it is my defire that all, whom thou haft given me, may finally dwell with me, that they may behold, and share in my glory; the glory which thou haft given me as mediator; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world was laid,

"O righteous Father, the world hath not kaown thee; but I have known thee, and these have known that thou haft fent me."

Righteous Father of creation, the world, in general, hath not known thee, but thefe, my difciples, have been convinced of my divine miffion, and have known thee, in a degree, as I have known thee.

"And

"And I have declared unto them thy name; and will declare it; that the love, wherewith thou haft loved me, may be in them, and I in them."

I have made known to my difciples thy glorious name, thy love to them and to the world; and I will continue, fo long as I fhall be with them, to make known thy name to them; that thy love may dwell with them, and my fpirit remain with them, when I fhall, in perfon, be gone from them.

It is my earnest defire that the reader would carefully read and confider the foregoing chapter; and, if he can find the leaft iota in it againft extending the falvation of the Gofpel to the world, or to all flesh, to all mankind; he can certainly do more than I can. The principal contents of the chapter are these.

Chrift first prays for his immediate disciples. Then for all that should believe in him through their preaching of the Gospel. And then he prays for the world; that the world might believe and know that God had fent him.

He tells his Father, concerning his difciples, that they had known that he had fent him. The very thing which he prays that the world might know.

The reader is defired carefully to consider the 2d. verfe. The text is thus, "As thou haft given him power over all flesh, that he 'fhould give eternal life to as many as thou haft given him." Now, my kind reader, let us diveft ourselves of prejudice and fyftem, and endeavor to feel ourselves free to examine thefe expreffions of our Saviour, and to receive that

meaning

meaning which appears to be moft eafy and natural. 'God gave his Son power over all flesh. What was this power, and why was it given ? "that he might give eternal life to as many as thou haft given him."^ The power, then, means the power to give eternal life. To whom? to all flefh, I fay. But the expreffion is, to as many as God had given him. Good; and God had given him all flesh. In the limited fenfe, it would be thus, God hath given his Son power over all flesh, that he might give eternal life to a part of them. Or thus, as all flesh means all mankind, it would be, God hath given his Son power over all mankind, that he might give eternal life to a part of mankind. Does this feem eafy and natural? Try the other interpretation. God hath given his Son power over all mankind, that he fhould give eternal life to them all. I freely fubmit it to the candid and unbiaffed reader, to determine which of these fenfes is the most eafy and natural.

Now let us examine Mr. S.'s treatment of this chapter and of the public.

Firft, he recites nine verfes out of twenty-fix.

He then says, p. 19. "the whole prayer Speaks the fame fentiments, as thefe verfes which are felected; and had Chrift ftudied the most exprefs way of contradicting the univerfalifts, he could not have done it more effectually." What! would it not have been a more effectual way of contradicting the Univerfalifts, if he had faid, in the 2d. verse, "Thou haft given him power over a part of all flesh, that he

might give eternal life to them? And, if our Saviour had not prayed for the world at all, would it not have been lefs favorable to the Univerfalifts, than it now is, fince he has exprefsly, and repeatedly prayed that the world may believe and know that the Father hath fent him? To believe and know this, is to be. lieve and know the very fame thing, which, he tells his Father, that his immediate difciples believed and knew. Yea, it is to believe and know the self same thing, which Jefus himself, in this fame chapter, exprefsly fays is eternal life. V.3. "And this is life cternal, that they might know Jefus Chrift whom thou baft fent." To believe that God hath sent Jefus Chrift into the world, is the very propofition which Jefus Chrift himself wished that men might believe, John xi. 42.

"And I knew that thou heareft me always, but because of the people which stand by I faid it, that they may believe that thou baft fent me." John xiii. 19. "Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he." John xvi. 30. "Now are we fure that thou knoweft all things, and needeft not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou cameft forth from God." Thus we find demonftrated from Scripture, that, in the xvii, chap. of John, our Saviour repeatedly prayed that the world might believe that very facred truth which his immediate difciples believed, and which he himself wifhed the people, who heard him preach and faw his miracles, might believe.

Mr.

Mr. S. recapitulates the evidence, as he supposes, there is in this prayer, of our Saviour against the falvation of all men, and makes his conclufions from it, in the following terms.

P. 20. "From this representation of our Saviour, it appears, that in the covenant of redemption which determined the number of those to be faved; fome were given to Christ as his fpiritual seed, and none of them fhall be loft; and fome were not given to him in this sense, and are called the world. He does not even intercede for the world, for they hate him and his people. They are never to be one in a fpiritual fenfe with his Father and him nor to be in the fame place with Chrift, nor fee the glory which the Father hath given him; and of course they must be left to fuffer the wages of fin, and be feparated from the holy prefence of God."

There are fome things which Mr. S. hath affirmed in this paffage, that are truly furprising. I wifh the reader carefully to attend to the affertions which Mr. S. hath made. He affirms that, from this chapter it appears, that fome were given to Chrift as his spirit ual feed, and that none of them fhall be loft; and fome were not given to him in this fenfe, and are called the world; that he does not even intercede for the world, for they hate him and his people. Now let us enquire who they were that were given to Chrift, according to the account of this chapter; and in what fenfe they were given to him.

They were those to whom Chrift had perfonally manifefted