Page:Records of the Life of the Rev. John Murray.djvu/200

190 a pew. I informed the audience, that I did indeed labour under great difficulty. The person, to whom I was about to reply, was an old gentleman, and a clergyman, both of which characters were indubitably entitled to respect. Yet truth was, in my opinion, abundantly superior to every other consideration; it was beyond all price; a gem, with which its possessor should never part. I should therefore take leave to say, Mr. C was very right, and very wrong. Right in condemning damnable doctrines; wrong in charging me with preaching those doctrines. Mr. C, I said, reminded me of Nero, who, to be revenged upon the Christians, caught the city of Rome on fire, and charged the Christians with that atrocious deed. Mr. C had dressed me in bear's skins, and then set the dogs at me. He affirms, that I preach damnable doctrines! Suffer me to ask, What are damnable doctrines? Peter says, There shall arise false teachers among you, as there were false prophets among the people, who shall privily bring in damnable doctrines, even denying the Lord, who bought them. I appeal to this audience. Did I ever deny the Lord, who bought you? On the contrary, have I not borne constant testimony to this purchase? Did you ever hear me say, It made no difference, whether a man lived a good, or a bad life; was a believer, or an unbeliever? Surely, it is highly inconsistent to rank me with the Deist, who utterly disowns the Redeemer, when I am arraigned at this bar for believing there is no God out of Christ, and that he, who is God, our Saviour, is all, and in all. Mr. Relly is three thousand miles from this metropolis, Mr. C has neither seen nor heard him. Blasphemy, of which Mr. C accuses him, is no where to be found in his writings. These writings, give me leave to say, will live, and be held in admiration, when ten thousand such characters as Mr. C's and mine, will be consigned to oblivion. Thus I went on. Mr. C again advanced to the pulpit; reiterated what he had before asserted, without regarding a syllable which I had uttered, until at length he interrogated: "Does God love all the people in the world as well as Peter and Paul?" Suffer me, sir, first to ask you one question, which, if you will answer, then I will reply to yours. Did God love Peter, and Paul, as well before they believed as afterwards? "God loved Peter, and Paul, from the foundation of the world." Again, and again, I repeated my question, but could not obtain a direct answer. The people from the galleries called out, "Why do you not say yes, or no?"—but he refused thus to commit himself, and of course I dropped the inquiry. Again he returned to the charge. "Does God love all the people in the world, as well