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ON THE 
 
 BENEVOLENCE AND RECTITUDE 
 
 SUPREME BEING. 
 
 BY 
 
 ASA SHINN. 
 
 God is Love. 
 
 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and 
 declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no 
 
 DARKNESS AT ALL,. John. 
 
 BALTIMORE: 
 
 BOOK COMMITTEE OF THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 JAMES KAY, JUN. & BROTHER. 
 1840. 
 
Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1840, by Asa Shinn, 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States in and for the 
 Western District of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Printed and Bound by 
 JAMES KAY, J UN. & BROTHER, 
 Philadelphia. 
 (2) 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The following pages were written with conscientious 
 solicitude to avoid error, and to advance such truth as 
 will have the surest tendency to promote the present 
 and eternal happiness of mankind ; from a settled con- 
 viction that it is the interest of all men to understand 
 and to believe the truth, and that if we voluntarily ad- 
 here to any modification of error, we do it to our own 
 hurt, and to the injury of our fellow-creatures. 
 
 The reader's candid attention is respectfully re- 
 quested ; and he is solicited to pursue the following in- 
 vestigation, in the order in which it is exhibited. It is 
 hoped he will read the book through regularly, as the 
 best and perhaps the only way in which he can do jus- 
 tice to the truth, to the author, or to himself. If in his 
 progress he shall meet with sentiments and conclusions 
 which may be calculated to disturb preconceived opin- 
 ions, let him be composed, and patiently read on : per- 
 haps in a subsequent part of the work he will find these 
 matters explained or qualified, or peradventure sustained 
 with an amount of evidence which will carry his own 
 
 (3) 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 best judgment along with it. Truth will injure no man ; 
 and sound evidence will never support error upon this 
 or any other subject of intelligent inquiry. 
 
 If the reader, after surveying the whole ground, 
 should still have doubts concerning the correctness of 
 any leading sentiment, let him give the book a second 
 reading, with a view to ascertain . where the author 
 missed his way, and by what illusive appearances of 
 proof he unhappily imposed upon his own understand- 
 ing. After this matter shall have been ascertained, it 
 may be well for the reader to exercise a sufficient de- 
 gree of mental effort to answer the question satisfacto- 
 rily to himself, — By what methods are the arguments 
 of this book to be set aside, or explained away, on sup- 
 position that these arguments are really on the side of 
 error 1 
 
 The time has passed away, for evidence to be nulli- 
 fied by an appeal to authority, or inquiry silenced, by 
 sounding the alarm of novelty and heterodoxy. If our 
 creeds cannot bear examination, their correctness ought 
 to be suspected ; and so far as they rest on a perma- 
 nent foundation, a vigorous and candid scrutiny will 
 only make it manifest that they cannot be shaken, 
 because they are founded upon a rock. 
 
 This is peculiarly an age of benevolent enterprise. 
 The benevolence of the Supreme Being, which is the 
 theme of the present treatise, is the foundation of them 
 all ; and on this they depend for all their salutary effi- 
 ciency. Were the Almighty of an opposite character, 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 ail benevolent efforts would either be direct hostility 
 against him, or would be unconnected with any of his 
 governing purposes. But if he be essentially benevo- 
 lent, then all associations of this description may confi- 
 dently look up to him for his all-sufficient protection. 
 
 In case any one of the philanthropic societies of the 
 present day should be charged with being only half 
 benevolent; — with being actuated by contradictory prin- 
 ciples, and aiming at the production of absolute misery, 
 as one of its ultimate objects ; — would not its members 
 view this charge as a very great reproach 1 To guard 
 the character of the Supreme Being from such a 
 reproach, is the design of the following pages. If the 
 reader should hesitate concerning any sentiment here 
 advanced, let him weigh the subject well, and examine 
 whether it be possible on any other ground to sustain 
 the proposition, that Almighty God is really a good 
 Being. To suppose that the Divine Mind carries an 
 infinite contradiction within itself, is an absurdity as 
 untenable as Atheism ; and any tenet which necessa- 
 rily involves this consequence, even though its antiquity 
 be equal to that of Manicheism, is as certainly false, as 
 it is indubitable that God himself is true. A perfectly 
 good being is always consistent with himself; his object 
 is benevolent, not in some things merely, but in all 
 things ; and his invariable disposition is as far removed 
 from all favouritism, on the one hand, as it is from a 
 relentless tyranny, on the other. This is the true key 
 to the whole of the following investigation ; and the 
 1* 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 leader is respectfully requested to carry it along with 
 him, as a needful test, with which to measure all the 
 doctrines that will be submitted to his deliberate and 
 candid inspection. 
 
 The author believes that the salvation of human 
 souls is accomplished through the instrumentality of 
 truth, impressed by clear evidence upon the judgment, 
 and not by a mere appeal to the passions of the heart. 
 A man must have right thoughts of God, before he can 
 exercise right affections towards him. The feelings 
 ought indeed to be excited ; but this excitement must 
 result from the impressive views and convictions of the 
 understanding, or it will be like the morning cloud, and 
 the early dew. The word of God tells us that we are 
 " chosen to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit, 
 and belief of the truth ;" and that the reason why men 
 are lost, is that " they receive not the love of the truth, 
 that they might be saved." (2Thess.ii. 10— 13.) There- 
 fore the evidence of truth must be presented in all its 
 clearness and force in order for men to believe it, and 
 with its native attractions in order for them to love it ; 
 and if they be influenced both to believe and to love the 
 truth, God says they will thereby be saved. Hence the 
 reader will be assured, that the following argumenta- 
 tive investigation has been pursued, not with a view to 
 indulge in metaphysical speculations, but from an im- 
 pressive conviction that the author could not pursue any 
 other method that would be more effectual, in pro- 
 moting the happiness and salvation of mankind. If 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 men will not think, they cannot be saved ; and the more 
 they employ their mental energies, in following sound 
 evidence in all the extent of its application, the more 
 thoroughly will truth get hold of their intellectual and 
 moral faculties, and the more permanently will it seat 
 itself in the affections of their hearts. 
 
 Hence our obligation is sacred, to use our best endea- 
 vours to find the truth, and to diffuse it through society 
 as extensively as we can ; and all efforts to hinder man- 
 kind from availing themselves of every aid to distin- 
 guish truth from error, are as antichristian as they are 
 unreasonable. Protestants ought not, in the midst of 
 their remonstrances against Popery, to imitate the Ro- 
 man Catholic Church, in her attempts, both by autho- 
 rity and management, to impede the progress of truth 
 and knowledge amongst the people. If the several 
 Protestant sects make their creed the standard to which 
 the Bible must yield, by subjecting the latter to a strictly 
 sectarian course of expounding, wherein do they differ 
 from Papists 1 If they have a right to pursue this 
 course, Roman Catholics have exactly the same right ; 
 and of course were justifiable in using their utmost 
 power and policy to prevent the Reformation. 
 
 We are told in ecclesiastical history that Heretics 
 had greatly troubled the church for several hundred 
 years. And pray, when were the Heretics subdued, 
 and when was pure orthodox truth rendered undisturbed 
 and triumphant ? Was it at the time of the Crusades, 
 or not until after the establishment of the Inquisition ? 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 What ecclesiastical historian can give us information on 
 this point ? 
 
 All Protestant denominations have practically said 
 that the church of Rome is herself a Heretic; and 
 hence they have cast off her authority, and have unani- 
 mously protested against her various errors and cor- 
 ruptions. They ought not, therefore, to assume the 
 same infallible position which they so strenuously deny 
 to the Mother Church ; nor should they resort to similar 
 measures, to hinder reason and revelation from having 
 the fair and unobstructed attention of mankind. It is 
 obvious as the light of heaven, that there is no way for 
 Protestants to avoid these practical contradictions, but 
 to discontinue sectarian intrigue, and to leave the 
 souls of all men free to regulate their faith by an atten- 
 tive and candid examination of evidence ; that they 
 may not be tempted to yield a passive and unmanly 
 submission to the dictates of human authority. 
 
 On these grounds the liberty may be allowed, for the 
 author to entreat all Protestant Christians not to use 
 unfair efforts to hinder the following arguments from 
 finding their way through society ; but on the contrary, 
 let candid Christians lend their friendly assistance to 
 call off the public attention from novels and vain amuse- 
 ments, to the study of that Divine Character, which is 
 the perfection of all beauty, the standard of all excel- 
 lence, and the source of all felicity. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 Introduction Page 11 
 
 PART FIRST.— PRELIMINARY. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 The nature of Good and Evil 17 
 
 SECTION II. 
 The true Character of Deity stated. — Importance of knowing its 
 
 bearing upon the Christian Revelation 21 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 The several ways in which God manifests his Character 37 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 None of God's instructions fail to produce their effect, except by 
 
 our inattention and neglect 50 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 An Answer to an Objection of a late author 60 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 The greatness of God must be taken into view, in the illustration 
 of his goodness 67 
 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF GOD'S BENEVOLENT CHARACTER. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Proofs derived from the self-sufficiency of God 85 
 
 SECTION II. 
 The constitution of Nature 94 
 
 SECTION III. 
 Nature and tendency of the Divine Law 106 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 The Gospel 110 
 
 SECTION V. 
 Direct testimony of the Scriptures 115 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 Religious Experience 119 
 
 PART THIRD. 
 
 NO PROVIDENTIAL ACTS OP OUR CREATOR, AND NO PROVISIONS OF HIS MORAL 
 GOVERNMENT, WHEN CORRECTLY UNDERSTOOD, AFFORD THE LEAST EVI- 
 DENCE OF DUPLICITY IN HIS CHARACTER. 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Varieties of capacity, and original circumstances of our existence, 
 
 afford no such evidence 125 
 
 SECTION II. 
 Responsibility 131 
 
 (9) 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 Hazardous circumstances. — Temptation 140 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 The Fall and consequent Misery of Man 150 
 
 SECTION V. 
 Subsequent treatment of the fallen race 164 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 The wrath of God — its principle and nature 169 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 Supposed partiality of God towards nations 175 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 Imaginary decrees of God in reference to individuals 194 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 Causes of future punishment 207 
 
 SECTION X. 
 Ultimate ends of future punishment 216 
 
 SECTION XI. 
 Severity of future punishment. — Its eternity 230 
 
 PART FOURTH. 
 
 OBLIGATIONS ON MANKIND RESULTING FROM THE DIVINE CHARACTER. 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Consideration 257 
 
 SECTION II. 
 The fear of God. — Repentance 266 
 
 SECTION III. 
 Confidence in God 274 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Injurious tendency of such views of the Divine Government as are 
 inconsistent with this confidence in God 279 
 
 SECTION V. 
 The love of God. — Its obligation universal and unchangeable .... 298 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 Rejoicing in the Lord. — Complacency in his entire Character and 
 Government 311 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 Objections considered 324 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 Objections considered 341 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 A condensed view of the operations of Moral Government 363 
 
 SECTION X. 
 Importance of a true knowledge of God, in its influence on future 
 generations 376 
 
 Conclusion 389 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Serious and thoughtful minds have often laboured 
 with perplexity, and have been more or less afflicted 
 with doubt, in regard to the perfect goodness of the 
 Supreme Being. They find that the proofs of this great 
 truth are strong and impressive ; but perceive them to 
 be connected at the same time, with certain obscurities 
 which they cannot comprehend; and they find their 
 minds embarrassed by apparent difficulties in nature, 
 and more still, perhaps, by gloomy views exhibited in 
 existing systems of theology. Hence they feel that any 
 thing calculated to relieve their conceptions on this 
 point, would be an advantage to them of no common 
 interest and value. 
 
 The essential character of God is a subject of pri- 
 mary importance to the whole intelligent universe. On 
 this depends the reformation of the sinner, the perse- 
 verance of the saint, the consolation of the afflicted and 
 dying, and the perpetual tranquillity of all the hosts of 
 heaven. A sinner may be terrified by mere apprehen- 
 sions of punishment ; but a true and sentimental repent- 
 
 (ii) 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ance will never take place in his mind, nor a genuine 
 reformation in his life, till he shall have some tolerably 
 correct views concerning the excellency of the Divine 
 nature. The goodness of God must lead him to repent- 
 ance. For it is opposition to a good Being, and to a 
 good law, which has rendered his own character a bad 
 one. This evil of his heart and life, the penitent ho- 
 nestly acknowledges ; which implies a full admission in 
 his intelligence, that the Being against w r hom he has 
 been standing in opposition, is as excellent as he him- 
 self is vile. Without such a conviction, there can be 
 no sentimental repentance ; and if repentance be not 
 sentimental, how can it be sincere ? 
 
 The same will hold, in regard to confidence in God. 
 How can a sinner receive the record which God gave 
 of his Son, but on the ground that God is a being of 
 perfect veracity, whose record is ahvays true ? How 
 can he cordially embrace the plan of Redemption, with- 
 out being convinced that love was the source of it? 
 How can he trust in Christ, without believing that he is 
 trust-worthy ? or how follow him in the way, without 
 being persuaded that he is a perfectly good conductor, 
 who will not deceive him, or lead him into misery 1 It 
 is equally evident, that the same confidence in the cha- 
 racter of God must continue with a man through life ; 
 for on this confidence depends all virtue and happiness; 
 and the more clear and steady a person's views are, 
 concerning the absolute rectitude and excellency of the 
 Divine Being, the more permanent will be his principles 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 of moral action. Hence, the supreme importance of 
 this subject is easily perceived. 
 
 Much talent has been employed, to prove that there 
 is a God. This is indeed very necessary ; but it sus- 
 tains only one half of the truth ; and without the other 
 half, this would produce no effect, except perhaps to fill 
 the world with terror and consternation. It is in vain 
 to prove that there is a Supreme Being, unless it be 
 proved equally that he is a Good Being. He may be 
 supreme in power, in understanding, and in many other 
 attributes ; but this is the great question — is he supreme 
 in Benevolence 1 If this be not true, atheism itself 
 would be a refuge to every thinking mind; for an 
 Almighty Being of an evil disposition, were such a 
 thing possible, would destroy the value of every other 
 truth, and would cast the whole universe into a gloomy 
 prospect, infinitely worse than that of universal annihi- 
 lation. 
 
 He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and 
 that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. 
 The first embraces his existence, and the second his 
 essential character. This great and fundamental truth 
 is the basis of all virtue and felicity. It is the brilliant 
 Sun which illuminates created minds, attracts and puri- 
 fies our moral powers, melts our affections, gives sub- 
 limity and grandeur to nature, promotes the harmony 
 of society, and trains up millions of souls for the bless- 
 edness of immortality. 
 
 But the atheist says there is no God. Then there is 
 2 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 no Author or Owner of the world — no Almighty Father 
 and Friend of the human race. The universe is a blank, ' 
 and existence a calamity ! By Chance we came into 
 life, and by the same Chance we may continue to live 
 and suffer to all eternity ! In vain does the unbeliever 
 soothe his soul with the prospect of an eternal sleep ; 
 for by what argument can he prove that we will not 
 live by chance in eternity, as certainly as we have lived 
 by chance in time ? And whether our future state will 
 chance to be a heaven or a hell, no atheist is able to in- 
 form us. If it be a heaven, no thanks to any intelligent 
 author ; and if a hell, no hope from any parental guar- 
 dian or friend, to save us from its horrors. On this 
 dreadful uncertainty, what considerate man would not 
 lament that he ever opened his eyes upon the light, or 
 ever breathed the vitality of the atmosphere ? 
 
 It is not the present design to pursue in detail the 
 proofs of a Divine Intelligent Existence. This has been 
 done with great ability, by Dr. Paley in the last centu- 
 ry, and by lord Brougham and Dr. Chalmers in the pre- 
 sent ; and the works of those authors are well worth 
 an attentive and candid examination. The second 
 branch of the subject, that God is a rewarder of them 
 that diligently seek him, or that he is essentially a bene- 
 volent Being, though incidentally introduced and proved 
 by many authors, yet may perhaps be susceptible of a 
 further illustration. Its illustration is attempted in the 
 following pages ; and the subject is exhibited in such a 
 light as will, it is hoped, be satisfactory to inquiring and 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 anxious minds, by tending to relieve them from some 
 of their deepest mental perplexities. 
 
 A subject so universally and superlatively interesting 
 as this, ought to be examined in all its import and con- 
 sequences; and its bearings should be traced in the 
 whole extent of their application to the Divine govern- 
 ment through time and through eternity. To rest in a 
 general and vague acknowledgment that God is good, 
 without surveying the proofs and results of his good- 
 ness, is like a mere profession that we are in favour of 
 truth, while we refuse to follow it in its connections and 
 dependences, in order as far as possible to distinguish 
 it from error. To acknowledge that God is good, and 
 at the same time to hold fast to such doctrines as essen- 
 tially contradict his goodness, is to refuse him that 
 homage of the mind and heart, which is due to Him 
 from every intelligent being. 
 
 The conclusion appears plain, therefore, that both 
 interest and moral obligation call upon us to examine 
 this subject with all candour, and with a persevering 
 exercise of our utmost mental energies ; in order there- 
 by to secure our own well-being, to improve the morals 
 and happiness of society, and to advance the honour 
 and glory of our Creator. 
 
PART FIRST 
 
 PRELIMINARY. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 The nature of Good and Evil. 
 
 These words are applied both to matter and to 
 mind ; but they can only be applied to the former, on 
 account of its connection with the latter. If there were 
 no minds in existence, matter would be good for no- 
 thing ; because matter has no life and feeling in itself, 
 and the words good and evil can have no meaning, ex- 
 cepting so far as they relate to beings alive, and who 
 are consequently capable of happiness or misery. 
 Hence it appears that good is that which produces 
 happiness, and evil is that which produces misery. 
 Whether we speak of solids or liquids, agents or instru- 
 ments, food or drink, medicines or poisons, we call that 
 good which tends to promote our well-being, and that 
 evil which leads us into any kind or degree of essential 
 happiness. 
 
 But what do we mean when we speak of a good or 
 an evil mind ? We mean a mind that is disposed to 
 
 2* A* (17) 
 
18 GOOD AND EVIL EXAMINED. 
 
 communicate happiness or misery. A good disposition 
 comprehends the affections, and implies that the indi- 
 vidual is delighted in doing good ; or that he himself is 
 happy, in the act of making others so. Goodness in a 
 mind, therefore, consists in those principles or mental 
 properties, which furnish enjoyment, both to the indi- 
 vidual himself, and to others who come under the influ- 
 ence of his voluntary actions. A good man, out of the 
 good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is 
 good. 
 
 Now when we inquire concerning God, whether he 
 is a good Being or not, how is it possible to arrive at 
 any conclusion, unless we take the word good in the 
 same sense in which we apply it to other minds ? His 
 attributes, it may be said, are a great mystery ; and 
 though he is infinitely good, yet the word goodness 
 when predicated of him, signifies something else than 
 when applied to his creatures. Then can any creature 
 conceive what else its import is ? We may talk about 
 an infinite unknown something ; but to us it must be a 
 nonentity, till we are able to form some conception of 
 its nature ; and if it have no resemblance to any thing 
 found in the human spirit, how can it afford any aid to 
 our conceptions, concerning the inquiry whether our 
 Maker be a good Being or not ? We do not ask whe- 
 ther he be an infinite something which we do not under- 
 stand ; but whether he possess that moral excellence 
 which we do understand. Our Saviour says " God is 
 a spirit." Now it is obvious that so far only as we un- 
 
GOOD AND EVIL EXAMINED. 19 
 
 <derstand what the word spirit means, can we receive 
 instruction from this proposition. The Apostle John 
 says " God is love ;" but if w r e know not what the word 
 love means, we are as ignorant of God as we were he- 
 fore we received this information. The same may be 
 said of justice, mercy, and veracity : when our Creator 
 claims these principles? as belonging to himself, he 
 speaks of what he knows we understand, or may un- 
 derstand, by consulting the consciousness of our own 
 minds. 
 
 Such principles as these, or their opposites, constitute 
 that which we mean by the Word character. Good in- 
 tentions, or good principles'of action, constitute a good 
 character ; the contrary, a bad one ; and he who has 
 no principles of action, has no character at all. Can 
 this last be said of our Creator '( 
 
 It may be thought, perhaps, that the Almighty is so 
 great a sovereign, as to be above all character, and per- 
 fectly independent of principle ; that he has a right to 
 regulate his actions by any motive, and that any moral 
 system which he might form would be made right and 
 good, by his act of forming it in his mind. As well 
 might we say, he never formed a plan of operations in 
 consequence of his perceiving it to be a wise plan, but 
 that his act of forming and pursuing it made it a wise 
 one, whatever it might be ! That when he says any 
 thing, he does not say it because it is true, but because 
 his saying it will make it true, and would have so made 
 its contrary! When God created the world in the 
 
SO GOOD AND EVIL EXAMINED.. 
 
 manner he did, it was because " God saw that it was 
 good;" but according to the above supposition, he 
 might have done the reverse of what he has done, both 
 in his natural and moral productions, and yet the whole 
 would have been very good ! Whether the attributing 
 of such sovereignty as this to our Creator would not 
 degrade instead of exalting him, let all intelligent spirits 
 judge. Shall a sovereign majesty be too great to be 
 good, or claim a right to trample all right beneath his 
 feet? In regard to the actions of such a sovereign, 
 benevolence, justice, and truth could have no opposites; 
 and hence it would follow, that the greatest and best 
 of all characters, is that which knows no distinction 
 between right and wrong ! It would involve the egre- 
 gious contradiction, that a being can have a right to do 
 wrong, or to change the one into the other. If these 
 positions are too absurd to be admitted, we appear to 
 be fairly entitled to the conclusion, that God really has 
 a character, consisting of essential attributes, or princi- 
 ples of action ; and that it w r ould be impossible for him 
 to act upon opposite principles, without forming for 
 himself an opposite character, and consequently a bad 
 one. 
 
 The reader must bear with these metaphysical dis- 
 tinctions ; for they are manifestly essential to the honour 
 of our Creator, and to produce in us that love and vene- 
 ration which are so becoming in creatures, and so justly 
 due to His eternal majesty. 
 
 Vague conceptions concerning this important subject, 
 
IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING GOD. 21 
 
 will be unspeakably injurious; and it is the wisdom and 
 duty of intelligent creatures to use their best endeavours 
 to form clear and definite views of the Divine Charac- 
 ter, on which depend all mental and moral improve- 
 ment, as well as all satisfying and permanent enjoy- 
 ment through earth and heaven. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 The true Character of Deity .stated. — Importance of 
 knowing its bearing upon the Christian Revelation. 
 
 Every moral character must be either good or bad, 
 without mixture, or must be a compound, partly good 
 and partly evil. It is presumed that this is a complete 
 enumeration ; for no other alternative appears possible. 
 
 Now we must believe that God is perfectly good, or 
 entirely evil, or that he is a compound of opposite quali- 
 ties. The first is the professed belief of most Chris- 
 tians ; the second has probably never had an advocate ; 
 but the third, that in God there is a combination of good 
 and evil, was openly taught by an ancient sect ; and it 
 seems to be implied in the doctrines of no inconsidera- 
 ble number of creeds, both ancient and modern. If it be 
 true, one manifest consequence of it appears to be, that 
 there is an eternal conflict in the Divine Mind, and that 
 the happiness of God is impaired, in proportion as the 
 
22 IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING GOD. 
 
 evil part of his character operates against the good. 
 This we know to be the result of good and evil, as 
 they conflict with each other in ourselves ; and what 
 reason can we have to believe our Creator is free from 
 misery, but because he is free from the internal causes 
 of it? 
 
 Grant then that God is perfectly good, without any 
 imperfection whatever, and it will follow, that there is 
 no duplicity, variation, or contradiction in the Divine 
 Mind. Can that which is purely and unchangeably 
 good, ever contradict itself? We speak of justice, 
 faithfulness, truth and veracity, as belonging to our 
 Creator. Are not all these attributes parts of a good 
 character? Is not justice a good thing? Then how 
 can it contradict any thing else that is good ? Surely 
 justice stands opposed to nothing but to that which is 
 unjust; it eterv ally supports everything that is right, 
 and only opposes wrong; consequently, if there is no 
 wrong in God, there is nothing in him which justice 
 ever opposes, or hinders from having its full operation. 
 God is in one mind, and there is no attribute in him 
 which in any moment of eternal duration can cause 
 him to be " double-minded." Let this position be sus- 
 tained by authority. 
 
 Dr. Dwight says, " The benevolence of God is his 
 whole moral character. This divine disposition is the 
 boundless energy of the infinite Mind ; the intense and 
 immeasurable love of doing good, unceasingly, and 
 endlessly, producing that happiness, in which it delights. 
 
IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING GOD. 23 
 
 We commonly speak of the moral character of God, 
 as compounded of many separate attributes ; of good- 
 ness, bounty, mercy, truth, justice, faithfulness, and pa- 
 tience. The exercises of benevolence are so numerous, 
 and so diversified, as to need, if we would consider 
 them clearly, and usefully, to be arranged in different 
 classes, denoted by different names, and separately con- 
 templated by our minds. Still, it is also useful to re- 
 member what the Scriptures have taught us in the text, 
 that the whole character of God is love ; an intense and 
 eternal flame of micompounded good-will" Dwight's 
 Theology. Vol. I. p. 188, 189. 
 
 Now a Being whose " whole character is love," can 
 have no vestige of malice ; and " uncompounded good- 
 will" necessarily excludes every kind and degree of 
 ill-will, under all circumstances whatsoever. Then 
 there is no more hatred or ill-will in the attribute of 
 justice, than there is in benevolence. Of course, unless 
 we are disposed to maintain that the Divine character 
 is a compound of good and evil principles, we must 
 conclude that his disposition is a perfect unity of un- 
 compounded love, always consistent with itself, and 
 perfectly harmonious in all its energies and modifica- 
 tions. 
 
 We are sorry to find so respectable an author as Dr. 
 Chalmers apparently aiming to involve this important 
 conclusion in some doubt and uncertainty. In his 
 " Evidence and Authority of the Christian Revelation," 
 he says, " Were a verbal communication to come to us 
 
24 IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING GOD. 
 
 from a person at a distance, there are two ways in 
 which we might try to satisfy ourselves, that this was 
 a true communication, and that there was no imposition 
 in the affair. We might either sit in examination upon 
 the substance of the message ; and then from what we 
 knew of the person from whom it professed to come, 
 judge whether it was probable that such a message 
 would be sent by him ; or we may sit in examination 
 upon the credibility of the messengers. 
 
 " It is evident, that in carrying on the first examina- 
 tion, we might be subject to very great uncertainty. 
 The professed author of the communication in question 
 may live at such a distance from us, that we may never 
 have it in our power to verify his message by any per- 
 sonal conversation with him. We may be so far igno- 
 rant of his character and designs, as to be unqualified 
 to judge of the kind of communication that should pro- 
 ceed from him. 
 
 " Now, this consideration applies in all its parts to a 
 message from God. We may sit in judgment upon the 
 subject of the message ; or we may sit in judgment 
 upon the credibility of its bearers. The substance of 
 the message is neither more nor less, than that particu- 
 lar scheme of the divine economy which is revealed to 
 us in the New Testament ; and the point of inquiry is, 
 whether this scheme be consistent with that knowledge 
 of God and his attributes which we are previously in 
 possession of. 
 
 " It appears to many, that no effectual argument can 
 
IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING GOD. 25 
 
 be founded upon this consideration, because they do not 
 -count themselves enough aco^iainted with the designs or 
 character of the Being from whom the message pro- 
 fesses to have come. (p. 10, 11, 12.) We are not com- 
 petent to judge of the conduct of the Almighty in given 
 circumstances. It is not for man to assume what is 
 right, or proper, or natural for the Almighty to do. (p. 
 159.) Our whole attention is directed to the validity 
 of the record ; and the moment that this validity is es- 
 tablished, we hold it incumbent upon us to submit our 
 minds to the entire and unmodified impression of the 
 testimony contained in it. (p. 160.) We hold the total 
 insufficiency of natural religion to pronounce upon the 
 intrinsic merits of any revelation. We profess our- 
 selves to be too little acquainted with the character 
 of God ; and that in this little corner of his works, we 
 see not far enough to offer any decision on the merits 
 of a Government, which embraces worlds, and reaches 
 eternity." (p. 155, 156.) 
 
 In addition to the above statements, Dr. Chalmers 
 says again, " We look upon the mind of an Atheist, as 
 in a better state of preparation for the proofs of Chris- 
 tianity than the mind of a Deist. He [the Atheist] has 
 no God of nature to confront with that real though in- 
 visible power which lay at the bottom of those aston- 
 ishing miracles, on which history has stamped her most 
 authentic characters. Though the power which pre- 
 sided there should be an arbitrary, an unjust, or a 
 malignant being, all this may startle a Deist, but it will 
 
 3 B 
 
26 IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING GOD. 
 
 not prevent a consistent Atheist from acquiescing in any 
 legitimate inference, to which the miracles of the Gos- 
 pel, viewed in the simple light of historical facts, may- 
 chance to carry him. (p. 168, 171.) If there be nothing 
 then, in the ordinary phenomena of nature, to infer a 
 God, do these extraordinary phenomena supply him 
 with no argument ? Does a voice from heaven make 
 no impression upon him? (p. 172.) Instead of learning 
 the designs and character of the Almighty from his 
 own mouth, we sit in judgment upon them ; and make 
 our conjecture of what they should be, take the prece- 
 dency of his revelation of what they are." (p. 180.) 
 
 The learned author frequently returns to this theme 
 in the course of his work on the evidence and authority 
 of the Christian Revelation, and manifests considerable 
 solicitude to make the impression, that we cannot argue 
 from the character of the Christian Revelation, that it 
 came from God, because we know not what the char- 
 acter of God is ; and therefore cannot know w r hat kind 
 of a revelation should come from him. On this subject 
 the following remarks may not be out of place. 
 
 1. If we are so unacquainted with the character of 
 God, that we are not to ' sit in judgment' on any com- 
 munication that professes to come from him, then we 
 have no authority to argue from the character of the 
 religion established by Mahomet, that it did not come 
 from God. Nay, had his system been so- much worse 
 than it is, as to teach that God is « arbitrary, unjust and 
 malignant,' we should still be bound to receive and sub- 
 
IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING GOD. HI 
 
 mit to it, provided the testimony of its i messengers' 
 were credible, in testifying to miraculous facts in its 
 support. Would not this be surrendering ourselves to 
 an arbitrary, unjust and malignant government 1 Could 
 any revelation impose a moral obligation on any being 
 to be subject to such a government ? If it would, then 
 revealed religion can sanctify tyranny, and transform 
 wrong into right, and right into wrong. 
 
 2. However credible the messengers may be, they 
 can only testify that they saw certain miracles, and that 
 the performer of the miracles taught them certain doc- 
 trines ; but this will not prove the doctrines to be true ; 
 for if we know nothing of the character of him who 
 reveals them, what evidence can we have that he is not 
 a deceiver, who intends to impose falsehoods upon us ? 
 We say the marks of honesty are so manifest in the 
 conduct of the bearers of the message, that we cannot 
 doubt their veracity. And has the Author of the mes- 
 sage given no marks of honesty upon his conduct, by 
 which we can have equal evidence of his veracity? 
 If he has not, then he may have deceived the apostles, 
 and through them, deceived all mankind : if he has 
 given such marks, then it is not true that he has left us 
 in entire ignorance of his character. We know our 
 Creator is trust-worthy, not merely because he says it, 
 but because he has proved it, by action, as every other 
 being proves the reality of his character. 
 
 3. Suppose mankind had been compelled by evidence 
 which they could not resist, to believe in a revelation 
 
28 IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING GOD. 
 
 informing them that their Maker is essentially an evil 
 and malignant being, would such a revelation be a 
 blessing to the world ? Would it promote the happi- 
 ness, or the misery, of the human race 1 Even if it 
 were intended to envelope the whole intelligent crea- 
 tion in gloom, as the prelude to universal despair, phi- 
 losophy, it seems, will nevertheless require us to receive 
 it with " the hardihood of unfeeling intelligence." 
 
 4. If a revelation had been given encouraging every 
 vice and prohibiting every virtue, under the severest 
 penalties, it is supposed we ought to receive and to act 
 upon it, provided only that its historical documents 
 were credible. If we knew nothing concerning our 
 Creator, we could not determine whether he would 
 not be as likely to give this kind of a revelation as 
 any other. Do we look with horror upon such a sup- 
 position ? It is exactly because of the strong evidence 
 which our Maker has established in nature, and in 
 our moral faculties, of the purity and benevolence of 
 his disposition. 
 
 5. Though it be granted, that we cannot compre- 
 hend all the operations of " a government which em- 
 braces worlds, and reaches eternity," yet this arises 
 from the vast extent of the system, and not from our 
 ignorance of the ' character and designs' of our Cre- 
 ator. This character is perfect loveliness, and his de- 
 sign is to prevent evil and to promote good to all eter- 
 nity, so far as it is possible for the one to be prevented, 
 and the other promoted. To deny this, is to say that 
 
IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING GOD. 29 
 
 Ood does not intend to do what he enjoins on all his 
 children, — that is, to do all the good he can. We may- 
 be astonished at the vastness and seeming mystery of 
 his plan of operating ; but that his design, is to do the 
 greatest possible good, is a conclusion which follows 
 from the perfection of moral character, as evidently as 
 light flows from the sun. 
 
 But these arguments must be sustained by authority. 
 The first we shall produce is that of Dr. Chalmers him- 
 self. On page 183 of the work before mentioned, 
 speaking of the earliest Christians, he says, " There 
 was nothing in their antecedent theology which they 
 could have any respect for : nothing w~hich they could 
 confront,^ or bring into competition with the doctrines 
 of the New Testament. In those days, the truth as it 
 is in Jesus came to the mind of its disciples, recom- 
 mended by its novelty, by its grandeur, by the power 
 and recency of its evidences, and above all by its vast 
 and evident superiority over the fooleries of a degrading 
 Paganism. It does not occur to us, that men in these 
 circumstances would ever think of sitting in judgment 
 over the mysteries of that sublime faith which had 
 charmed them into an abandonment of their earlier re- 
 ligion. It rather strikes us, that they would receive 
 them passively ; and that the restless tendency of the 
 human mind to speculation, would for a time find ample 
 enjoyment in the rich and splendid discoveries, which 
 broke like a flood of light upon the world." 
 
 Now we may be permitted to ask, — did not those 
 
30 IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING GOD. 
 
 early disciples so far ' sit in judgment' as to decide that 
 their ' sublime faith' was more worthy of God than ' the 
 fooleries of a degrading Paganism 1 ' Had they been 
 entirely ignorant of the divine character when ' that 
 sublime faith' was first revealed to them, it would have 
 been utterly impossible for them to know which was 
 more likely to come from God, Paganism or Chris- 
 tianity. If they were convinced of the truth and di- 
 vinity of the Christian revelation, on account of ' the 
 rich and splendid discoveries which broke like a flood 
 of light upon the world,' it was because they were well 
 enough acquainted with God, to know that ' rich and 
 splendid, things' would come from him, rather than such 
 as would be ' foolish and degrading.' They knew that 
 * a flood of light' would proceed from him, and not the 
 darkness of a mind that is 'arbitrary, unjust and ma- 
 lignant.' 
 
 Our second authority is Dr. Dwight : he says, (Vol. I. 
 p. 212,) "Distrust is an entire separation of an intelli- 
 gent being from his Maker. We cannot possibly co- 
 incide voluntarily with the designs of a being, unless 
 we confide in his truth and benevolence, and of course 
 in the rectitude of those designs. No virtuous obedi- 
 ence can be yielded to laws, of whose rectitude we 
 are not satisfied ; no complacency exercised towards a 
 character, in which we do not confide; no gratitude 
 rendered for benefits, conferred by a suspected bene- 
 factor ; no reliance placed on promises, made by a be- 
 ing of doubted veracity ; and no praise-worthy efforts 
 
LMPORTANCE OF KNOWING GOD. 31 
 
 made to promote designs, regarded as suspicious and 
 unworthy. Without confidence, the soul is separated 
 of course, from its Creator. How, then, can God be 
 pleased with this character, or accept him in whom it 
 exists?' 1 
 
 From this quotation it follows that unless creatures, 
 when a revelation is given them from God, know 
 enough of his character to be convinced of his, " truth 
 and benevolence," and the " rectitude of his designs," 
 they cannot possibly so " confide " in him as to receive 
 the revelation from his hands ; and that there could be 
 no "obedience" to such a revelation, nor any "com- 
 placency" or "gratitude" for the bestowment of it, but 
 upon a conviction of the goodness and rectitude of • 
 Him from whom the revelation comes. 
 
 The evidence of divine goodness is indeed greatly 
 enlarged by the discoveries of revelation ; but a previ- 
 ous knowledge of this subject, in some degree, is neces- 
 sary to furnish created minds with the capacity to re- 
 ceive a revelation from God, and to appreciate its evi- 
 dences ; as much so as first principles are necessary as 
 a foundation for all conclusive reasoning in every other 
 branch of human knowledge. 
 
 The great mind of Dr. Chalmers w T as hampered in 
 its mental progress, by a preconceived system of theol- 
 ogy, which produced unfair reasoning, and sometimes 
 brought darkness and error into his conclusions. After 
 exhibiting a variety of luminous arguments in proof of 
 the existence and skill of a Supreme Being, he furnishes 
 
32 IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING GOD. 
 
 nothing for his readers but this melancholy conclusion : 
 " In the workmanship of nature we behold an infinity 
 of special adaptations to special objects, each of which 
 bespeaks a sovereign mind that plans and purposes — 
 yet there may the deepest obscurity hang over the ques- 
 tion, what is the plan or purpose of this workmanship 
 on the whole 1 What is true of an individual, is true 
 of a species or of a universe. Throughout, and in its 
 separate parts, it may be pregnant with the notices of 
 a Divinity — yet in reference both to its creation and its 
 government, to the principle in which it originated and 
 the consummation in which it issues, there may be an 
 overhanging mystery — and man, all clear and confident 
 on the question that God is, may abide notwithstanding 
 in deepest ignorance of His purposes and His ways." 
 Natural Theology, Vol. I. p. 278. 
 
 This seems to imply, that although wonderful wisdom 
 has been employed in framing a universe, and in fash- 
 ioning the body and soul of man, yet it is altogether 
 uncertain whether the ultimate end of the system will 
 accomplish a wise and benevolent purpose or not. It 
 cannot be successfully denied, that the ultimate end of 
 a wise plan, contains equal wisdom with any of the 
 foregoing parts ; for it was for the sake of the end, that 
 the parts were contrived at all. To suppose Almighty 
 God to employ so much exact intelligence in the forma- 
 tion of man, as to constrain every thinking man to 
 wonder at himself, and yet to consider it doubtful 
 whether a wise and good end were intended, " on the 
 
IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING GOD. 33 
 
 whole," appears to me to be unspeakably reproachful 
 to our Creator. If a human agent should be at great 
 pains, and should employ vast mechanical skill, in finish- 
 ing a complicated machine, that was intended for no- 
 thing, and could accomplish nothing, his skill in the 
 contrivance would only prove the greatness of his folly, 
 in employing his faculties for no valuable end. A Being 
 who is truly wise, carries forward the whole of his 
 wisdom into the ultimatum of his operations ; and the 
 same is true of a Being who is really benevolent. The 
 supposition that a benevolent disposition will prepare a 
 creature for happiness, and furnish the necessary means, 
 without intending the creature's happiness as the ulti- 
 mate end of the contrivance, is a very manifest contra- 
 diction; and could never be seriously entertained by 
 the human mind, if as much attention were devoted to 
 the perfection and immutability of moral principles, as 
 their importance deserves. 
 
 " There may," says Dr. Chalmers, " the deepest ob- 
 scurity hang over the question, what is the plan or pur- 
 pose of this workmanship on the whole?" This may 
 be true, if we mean only that the circumstances and 
 the details are unknown to us ; but the general " pur- 
 pose," or end aimed at by the Author, will undoubtedly 
 be the same which presided over the construction of 
 the means. Why else were the means contrived at all? 
 Over this question there hangs no " obscurity;" for 
 every proof we have of our Creator's wisdom and 
 kindness in the contrivance, is a proof equally strong 
 
34 IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING GOD. 
 
 of his wisdom and kindness in the object of that con- 
 trivance ; otherwise we charge him with employing 
 great acuteness and skill for nothing, or for the accom- 
 plishing of an end which will be worse than nothing : 
 the former supposition contains a complete definition of 
 folly, and the latter of malevolence. The employment 
 of a high degree of skill, in the accomplishment of a 
 frivolous end, is greater folly than an employment of 
 little skill for such a purpose ; and a system of means 
 which has the appearance of benevolence, when a con- 
 trary end is intended by its Author, seems manifestly 
 to imply the deceitfulness of an evil and malignant dis- 
 position. 
 
 I conclude, therefore, that if we have no evidence of 
 the wisdom and goodness of God's ultimate purposes 
 towards his intelligent creation, we have no evidence 
 c f his wisdom and goodness in any of the arrange- 
 ments and contrivances of nature. The presumptuous 
 criminality of mankind evidently requires a correspond- 
 ing course of measures, on the part of the Supreme 
 Ruler ; and the seeming severity of those measures is 
 accounted for by the malignant energy of the evil 
 which they are intended to counteract and to subdue. 
 It is unjust and unreasonable to entertain suspicions 
 against the Almighty, on account of his treatment of 
 'our fallen race ; for the malicious ungodliness of the 
 world is utterly inexcusable, and deserves the righteous 
 indignation of heaven, and the just vengeance of hea- 
 ven's insulted Sovereign. 
 
IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING GOD. 35 
 
 " When looking to an individual man," says Dr* 
 Chalmers, " we cannot but recognize the conceptions 
 of an architect, in the teeth, and the eyes, and the 
 hands, and all the parts of manifest subserviency which 
 belong to him — yet remain unable to solve the enigma 
 of his being, or to fathom the general conception of 
 the Divinity in thus ushering a creature to existence, 
 that he may live in restless vanity, and die in despair.'' 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 As to man's living " in restless vanity," this provi- 
 dential arrangement is manifestly intended as a salutary 
 check upon the corruption of the human soul. It is a 
 course of parental chastisement for man's stupid obsti- 
 nacy, in refusing to give truth and conscience a hear- 
 ing, and in spending his life in successive acts of irra- 
 tional and diabolical wickedness. Those who repent 
 of their sins, and submit to the holy and just demands 
 of their Creator, far from " dying in despair," prove the 
 truth of God's word, that " the righteous hath hope in 
 his death," and realize, in substance, the views and 
 feelings of the dying apostle : " I have fought a good 
 fight, I have kept the faith ; henceforth there is laid up 
 for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the 
 righteous Judge, shall give me at that day ; and not to 
 me only, but to all them also that love his appearing." 
 (2 Tim. iv. 7, 8.) 
 
 It may be fairly presumed, that no son or daughter 
 of Adam ever " died in despair," except by the weight 
 of unrepented guilt, or from the influence of some de- 
 
36 IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING GOD. 
 
 lusive doctrine, which distorted the character of the 
 Supreme Being. When " the wicked is driven away 
 in his wickedness/' in consequence of his having de- 
 spised Divine goodness to the last, shall his despair em- 
 barrass our attempts " to fathom the general concep- 
 tions of the Divinity," in regard to the ultimate pur- 
 poses of its moral government 1 
 
 If we believed the Almighty to be the author of the 
 despairing man's heedless inconsideration ; — the con- 
 triver and producer of his crimes and his misery ; — 
 this would truly conduct us to " an overhanging mys- 
 tery ;" but false theology would be the cause of it, and 
 not any legitimate evidence of the Divinity, derived 
 either from nature or from revelation. 
 
 The wickedness of mankind on this globe is not the 
 result of necessity, but is a voluntary and unneces- 
 sitated course of irrational stupidity, hard-hearted ma- 
 levolence, and insulting effrontery to God and to all 
 upright society. The excuses of sinners are founded 
 in error and falsehood ; and this falsehood has been 
 spread through the world, to the soothing of many a 
 guilty conscience, by erroneous methods of teaching 
 the Christian religion. 
 
 The darkness is all contained in man's free and un- 
 necessitated abominations; and it is utterly unjust to 
 assume that the deep foundation of all this evil was laid 
 in the predestinated counsels of heaven ; or in other 
 words, that sin and its consequences are produced and 
 perpetuated by the decree and irresistible agency of 
 
SEVERAL WAYS OF KNOWING GOD. 49 
 
 ficient evidence, or demand our obedience, without 
 making it our greatest interest to obey. The sin of un- 
 belief consists in its uncandid disregard of evidence ; 
 and the turpitude of rebellion is measured by the 
 amount of its hostility to pure goodness and righteous- 
 ness. It is too often assumed, that as the Almighty is 
 a great Being, he demands of us to take his word, and 
 to obey his mandates, upon the sole authority of his 
 sovereign greatness. This supposes that right has its 
 origin in power, and that truth is to he known, and an 
 obligation of credence imposed, by the ipse dixit of ab- 
 solute majesty. This secret assumption has been fondly 
 adopted, as a basis for the doctrine of eternal election 
 and reprobation ; and it has carried darkness and con- 
 fusion through the systems of theology for more than 
 three hundred years. If Arminians admit the principle, 
 consistency will require them to adopt all its legitimate 
 results ; if they reject it, they will find themselves con- 
 ducted to the conclusion, that our Creator never de- 
 manded faith in, and obedience to, any revelation given 
 from him to his creatures, without having previously 
 given them sufficient evidence of the veracity and rec- 
 titude of his eternal character. He proved to them the 
 reality of his goodness and righteousness, by a course 
 of benevolent action, before he made any revealed in- 
 junction or demand upon them, either to credit his tes- 
 timony, or to submit to his authority. 
 5 c 
 
SECTION IV. 
 
 None of GooVs instructions fail to produce their effect, 
 except by our inattention and neglect. 
 
 In all the Divine communications, man is treated and 
 dealt with as a voluntary agent. Truth is not conveyed 
 irresistibly, excepting such first principles as are neces- 
 sary to put the understanding and the will into action. 
 After this, the soul is left free, either to hear or to turn 
 away from its Maker's instructions. The fall attention 
 of the mind ought in candour to be given to the teach- 
 ings of God, through whatever medium they may ap- 
 proach us. But alas ! Adam's fallen and wicked race 
 " turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven." 
 They scorn the wisdom of the eternal, and choose to 
 walk in their own counsel. 
 
 If " the heavens declare the glory of God," if a reve- 
 lation was originally given, and delivered by tradition 
 to the first generations of mankind, and if the Holy 
 Spirit was also striving with them, how did it happen 
 that they wandered into such base idolatry and wicked- 
 ness 1 It was because " They did not like to retain God 
 in their knowledge : — when they knew God, they glo- 
 rified him not as God, neither were thankful ; but be- 
 came vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart 
 was darkened." Can any modern theologian give a 
 
 (50) 
 
EFFICIENCY OF GOD'S INSTRUCTIONS. 51 
 
 more reasonable and satisfactory account of the matter 
 than this 1 
 
 Shall we say the wandering of the Heathens proves 
 the inadequacy of the means used for their instruction 
 and salvation ? Then will not the same conclusion hold 
 in regard to the Jews, who wandered so far from Mo- 
 ses and the prophets, that when they made a proselyte 
 he was made " a child of hell," instead of being con- 
 verted and reformed ? And besides, what heathen na- 
 tion ever became more abandoned than was the church, 
 at the time of the crusades, the image worship, and the 
 Inquisition ? Did heathens ever do worse 1 Were 
 they ever sunk into deeper ignorance, or deeper vice 1 
 Never. Then if their ignorance and degradation fur- 
 nished a demonstration that the" light which heaven 
 afforded them was inadequate, the corruption of the 
 church equally proved that the Bible was insufficient. 
 We need not wonder that the Bible does not lead those 
 into virtue and happiness who never " search the Scrip- 
 tures;" nor that spiritual influence does not convert 
 those who " do always resist the Holy Ghost, as their 
 fathers did ;" and as little cause have we to be surprised 
 that the works of nature do not convey a saving know- 
 ledge of God to those who regard not the work of the 
 Lord, and do not consider the operation of his hands. 
 
 God had reserved unto himself seven thousand men 
 in Israel, even during the gloomy and idolatrous days 
 of Ahab, that loved and obeyed him ; and there has 
 probably never been a period of the world in which 
 
52 EFFICIENCY OF GOD'S INSTRUCTIONS. 
 
 any nation was so far gone, either during the reign of 
 Pagan idolatry or through the dark ages of the church, 
 that no individuals among them acknowledged God, 
 and followed the guidance of his Holy Spirit. Some 
 appear to think it impossible that there should be any 
 truly virtuous men amongst the heathens, because, as 
 they suppose, God has not given them a sufficiency of 
 light to lead a single soul of them in the way of salva- 
 tion. But is it at all probable, that God would keep 
 millions of mankind on the stage of human action, 
 from age to age, who are not in a state of moral pro- 
 bation and responsibility 1 If so, for what purpose do 
 they exist ? Will any one say those creatures can be 
 in a state of trial, who have not light enough to show 
 them the right and the wrong, or to enable them to 
 avoid the one and to pursue the other 1 If it be said 
 the heathens have light enough to leave them without 
 excuse, but not to save them, what can be the import 
 of such a proposition 1 If they have not light enough 
 to save them, they are not guilty of the crime of re- 
 jecting salvation. Then for what are they culpable 1 
 For not living so virtuously as the light of nature 
 taught them to live ? They had power to live thus vir- 
 tuously, or they had not ; if they had not, to what pur- 
 pose was the light given, and how did it leave them 
 without excuse ? if they had, then of course they might 
 be saved, by doing all that was required in order to 
 their salvation. Shall we go to the heathens, and tell 
 them that all their fathers will be punished in a lake of 
 
EFFICIENCY OF GOD'S INSTRUCTIONS. 53 
 
 everlasting fire, for not following the directions of a 
 Saviour of whom they never heard ? Will these sad 
 tidings dispose them to give a ready hearing to the les- 
 sons of the Christian religion ? , 
 
 Such a doctrine as this we cannot receive ; and it 
 may now be proper to sustain the opposite views, by 
 the authority of two distinguished theological writers. 
 The first is the Rev. Richard Watson, who says, " The 
 case of Heathen Nations has sometimes been referred 
 to by Calvinists, as presenting equal difficulties to those 
 urged against their scheme of election and reprobation. 
 But the cases are not at all parallel, nor can they be 
 made so, unless it could be proved that Heathens, as 
 such, are inevitably excluded from the kingdom of hea- 
 ven ; which is not, as some of them seem to suppose, a 
 conceded point. "Those, indeed, if there be any such, 
 who, believing in the universal redemption of mankind, 
 should allow this, would be most inconsistent with them- 
 selves, and give up many of those principles on which 
 they successfully contend against the doctrine of abso- 
 lute reprobation. The dispensation of religion under 
 which all those nations are to whom the gospel has 
 never been sent, continues to be the patriarchal dispen- 
 sation. That men were saved under that in former 
 times, we know. We indeed know that some virtuous 
 Heathens have been found in all ages ; and some earnest 
 and anxious inquirers after truth, dissatisfied with the 
 notions prevalent in their own countries respectively; and 
 what these few were, the rest might have been likewise. 
 5* 
 
54 EFFICIENCY OF GOD'S INSTRUCTIONS. 
 
 If all knowledge of right and wrong, and all gracious 
 influences of the Holy Spirit, have passed away from the 
 Heathen, through the fault of their ancestors, and with- 
 out the present race having been parties to this wilful 
 abandonment of truth, then they would appear no longer 
 to be accountable creatures, being neither under law 
 nor under grace ; but, as we find it a doctrine of Scrip- 
 ture that all men are responsible to God, and that the 
 'whole world' will be judged at the last day, we are 
 bound to admit the accountability of all, and with that, 
 the remains of law and the existence of a merciful gov- 
 ernment towards the Heathen on the part of God." 
 (Institutes, pp. 541,542.) 
 
 Our next authority is Dr. Dwight. He says, "A child 
 enters the world in China; and unites, as a thing of 
 course, with his sottish countrymen in the stupid wor- 
 ship of the idol Fo. Another prostrates himself before 
 the Lama, in consequence of having received his being 
 in Thibet, and of seeing the Lama worshipped by all 
 around him. A third, who begins his existence in Tur- 
 key, is carried early to the mosque ; and habituated to 
 repeat the prayers, and sentences, of the Koran, as the 
 means of eternal life. The Hindoo grows into a reli- 
 gious veneration for the cow; and perhaps never doubts, 
 that, if he adds to this a solemn devotion to Juggernaut, 
 the Gooroos, and the Dewtahs, and performs carefully 
 his ablutions in the Ganges, he shall wash away all his 
 sins, and obtain, by the favour of Brahma, a seat among 
 the blessed." The Doctor proceeds further with the 
 
EFFICIENCY OF GOD'S INSTRUCTIONS. 55 
 
 enumeration, and says at the close, " I wish it to be dis- 
 tinctly understood, and carefully remembered, that in 
 the moral conduct of all these individuals no physical 
 necessity operates. Every one of them is absolutely a 
 free agent ; as free as any created agent can be. What- 
 ever he does, is the result of choice, absolutely uncon- 
 strained. Let me add, that not one of them is placed 
 in a situation, in which, if he learns, and performs his 
 duty to the utmost of his ability, he will fail of being 
 finally accepted." (Theology, pp. 267, 268.) 
 
 Now did not Dr. Dwight intend to be understood, that 
 no Heathen ever lived who had not within his reach the 
 means of eternal salvation? Did he not mean to say, 
 that a Heathen is as free an agent as a Christian, and 
 that no demand is made for his agency to act, when it 
 has nothing to act upon ? If the Gentile will be "finally 
 accepted," in consequence of learning and performing 
 his duty, according to the means and ability which he 
 possesses, then he is truly in a state of probation, and 
 " the Judge of all the earth will do right." Let this " be 
 distinctly understood, and carefully remembered," that 
 no unworthy thoughts of God may be entertained by 
 any human soul. 
 
 Will it be said, that Heathens have not the privilege 
 of other redeemed sinners, to be "accepted" upon the 
 gospel plan, and that Dr. Dwight only meant that if they 
 would present a spotless obedience to God, on the orig- 
 inal ground of the law of innocence, they should be 
 " finally accepted V If so, his doctrine evidently was, 
 
56 EFFICIENCY OF GOD'S INSTRUCTIONS. 
 
 that "every one of them 'is absolutely a free agent; as 
 free [to keep the law of innocence] as any created agent 
 can be." [And, consequently, possessing an equal agency 
 to do it, with Adam before the fall] If the Heathens 
 could be "finally accepted" in this way, they would be 
 saved without a Saviour, and without any act of clem- 
 ency, or justifying mercy, on the part of God. Dr. 
 Dwight did not believe this doctrine; and unless we 
 allow him to have meant that all men have salvation 
 within their reach, upon the evangelical plan of redemp- 
 tion, do we not appear to charge him with a solemn 
 shuffling? — with seriously and impressively inviting his 
 readers to have it " distinctly understood, and carefully 
 remembered" — that " every one of them [the Heathens] 
 might be ' finally accepted,' provided they would obey 
 the law of innocence, as Adam was required to do in 
 Paradise! This would imply — "Let it be carefully 
 remembered," that the doctrine of inevitable reproba- 
 tion is here artfully concealed under the appearance of 
 sentimental liberality. The worthy author whom we 
 have quoted, had too much candour and dignity of 
 Christian principle, to be capable of such duplicity as 
 this ; and we are glad to have his authority in support 
 of a doctrine so worthy of God, as that no Mahometan, 
 Jew, or Pagan, will ever be condemned in the future 
 world, but for rejecting a salvation which he had it in 
 his power to accept. 
 
 But if Heathens may be saved, notwithstanding they 
 live and die without any knowledge of the Lord Jesus 
 
EFFICIENCY OF GOD'S INSTRUCTIONS. 57 
 
 Christ, are they not saved without a Saviour 1 Not at 
 all : the whole of their salvation comes through the me- 
 diation of Jesus Christ, and in eternity they shall under- 
 stand the greatness of their obligation. Many of us 
 believe that all who die in infancy are saved ; but it does 
 not therefore follow that they are saved without a Sa- 
 viour, because they know him not until after their de- 
 parture to the eternal world ; and equally futile is such 
 a conclusion in regard to Heathens. 
 
 We conclude, upon the whole, that the Bible is not 
 honoured, but degraded, by being set up as an antago- 
 nist against the light of nature. The latter is sometimes 
 hastily regarded as furnishing a kind of carnal know- 
 ledge, which has no spirituality in it; but will God 
 separate his Spirit from his works, any more than from 
 his word 1 " The Spirit of God moved upon" nature 
 when it was brought into order ; and he is equally able 
 to move upon the human soul in conjunction with the 
 light v/hich his own works convey. He is not the au- 
 thor of a carnal knowledge, nor of a carnal creation ; 
 nor will any one pretend that the works of nature are 
 the productions of some other God. 
 
 The Psalmist says, " I meditate on all thy works ; 1 
 muse on the work of thy hands. I consider the heavens, 
 the work of thy fingers ; the moon and the stars, which 
 thou hast ordained." (Psalm cxliii. 5 and viii. 3.) Elihu 
 says, "God thundereth marvellously with his voice; 
 great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend, 
 For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth ; like- 
 
58 EFFICIENCY OF GOD'S INSTRUCTIONS. 
 
 wise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his 
 strength. — Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and 
 consider the wondrous works of God." (Job xxxvii. 5, 6 
 — 14.) Solomon also says, " Consider the work of 
 God : for who can make that straight, which he hath 
 made crooked?" (Eccl. vii. 13.) The Almighty says, 
 " To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal ? 
 saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and 
 behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out 
 their host by number : he caileth them all by names, by 
 the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power ; 
 not one faileth." And to his rebellious people he saith, 
 " Wo unto them that rise up early in the morning, that 
 they may follow strong drink ; that continue until night, 
 till wine inflame them ! — But they regard not the work 
 of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands." 
 (Isa. xl. 26 and v. 11, 12.) The inhabitants of heaven, 
 as we are informed in the fourth chapter of the Apoca- 
 lypse, shout with exultation and joy, " Thou art worthy, 
 O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power : for 
 thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they 
 are and were created." Thus we learn that good men 
 through earth and heaven have been in the habit of 
 kindling their devotion at the stars ; while the wicked 
 and abandoned were involved in their vicious courses, 
 because they would not regard the work of the Lord, 
 nor consider the operation of his hands. And shall we 
 say, after all this, that the voice of God in his creation 
 is a defective voice, calculated to produce only a philo- 
 
EFFICIENCY OF GOD'S INSTRUCTIONS. 59 
 
 sophical and carnal religion ? It is obviously the duty 
 of every Christian, while he carefully follows the light 
 of the Holy Spirit, to study the works of God with the 
 same devotional reverence which he is to exercise in 
 reading the Holy Scriptures. These, heaven benign in 
 vital union binds ; and what God hath joined together, 
 let not man put asunder. 
 
 Too much attention to the works of nature, with a 
 view to form a religious system from that source exclu- 
 sively, is apt to give rise to a vain philosophy, and to 
 terminate in infidelity ; an adherence to the Bible, to 
 the disparagement of the Creation, produces an autho- 
 ritative bigotry, and a disposition to demand the sur- 
 render of man's rational faculties ; while a pretence 
 of being led by the Holy Spirit in every thing, in a way 
 of infallible inspiration, is commonly observed to gene- 
 rate a spirit of enthusiasm, which undervalues alike 
 both reason and revelation. Therefore the course of 
 true wisdom and piety, is to use the good gifts of our 
 Heavenly Father in harmony, and consistently to avail 
 ourselves of their joint operation, in conducting us in 
 the way of everlasting happiness. 
 
SECTION V. 
 
 An Answer to an Objection of a late author. 
 
 A late author (Rev. Mr. Nelson) has published a 
 valuable book entitled " The Cause and Cure of Infi- 
 delity," in which he urges the common argument in 
 favour of the Bible, that Reason is insufficient, and has 
 led the world astray. " Those ancient Greeks," he 
 says, " had great statesmen, orators, and poets. Suc- 
 ceeding ages have gazed at them : they believe that to 
 stand that only son, that promising boy, on the altar, 
 and whip him until his entrails could be seen through 
 the quivering flesh, would please Diana. Are you ad- 
 miring the wealth, or the polish of the Carthaginians 1 
 They believe sincerely, (so sincerely that they would 
 perform it,) that it would please God if one or two 
 hundred of their children at a time were cast into that 
 red-hot metallic statue. Just such things were believed 
 by Romans, Medes, Elamites, and all people where that 
 singular old book did not circulate. Reader, if you be* 
 lieve that reason did always teach to avoid these cruel 
 enormities where the Bible was found, but never did 
 happen to instruct better where that page was not, then 
 we have no farther argument with you at the present." 
 (p. 101.) 
 
 Here it is supposed that where the Bible is not, " rea- 
 son teaches" and " instructs" mankind, and always 
 
 (60) 
 
AN OBJECTION ANSWERED. 61 
 
 leads them wrong ; and that there is no way for them 
 to find the truth, but to forsake reason and follow the 
 Bible. For if they lead to essentially opposite results, 
 they can never co-operate. How does a man follow 
 the teachings of reason, but by a candid exercise of 
 his thinking faculties, in judging according to the evi- 
 dence presented to his understanding ? When " the 
 heavens declare the glory of God," does not a man 
 follow reason, by giving a candid attention to the de- 
 claration 1 It is God that furnishes the instruction, and 
 for us to devote a candid attention to it, is to follow our 
 reason, unless it can be made appear that to regard the 
 work of the Lord, and to consider the operation of his 
 hand, is an unreasonable exercise of our faculties. Will 
 such an attention to the voice of God in nature, always, 
 and of necessity, lead the minds of men into delusion 1 
 It is presumed there are few who will venture to affirm 
 this. It may be said, perhaps, that men go astray be- 
 cause they are not attentive and candid in surveying 
 God's visible creation. Then they do not follow the 
 teachings of reason, but the dictates of prejudice and 
 passion ; for it is presumed no one will undertake to 
 show that when a man is inattentive and uncandid, he 
 thereby evinces a reasonable exercise of his under- 
 standing. 
 
 Again: when men attentively and candidly search 
 
 the Scriptures, to ascertain what are the instructions 
 
 of God in his word, are they not then following their 
 
 reason, as much as they are when in the same way 
 
 6 
 
62 AN OBJECTION ANSWERED. 
 
 they meditate upon all his works ? Mr. Nelson's whole 
 book is intended to furnish arguments with which to 
 convince men that they should believe the Bible. Does 
 he not wish them to give these arguments a fair exami- 
 nation ? But this would be to follow reason, unless it 
 be said that such an attention to argument is an unrea- 
 sonable thing. Hence it is obvious, that when men 
 consider the evidence and import of the Bible, they fol- 
 low reason as their guide, as much as they do in pro- 
 perly studying the visible works of God. In neither 
 case is reason the source of evidence or instruction, but 
 only the recipient ; and in both cases the same God is 
 the teacher, who will never contradict himself, or teach 
 delusion through one medium of communication any 
 more than through the other. 
 
 Reason, it may be said, is too weak to learn any thing 
 of God in the works of creation. But it is the same 
 weak reason that is called upon to receive truth from' 
 the Bible. The latter, it is admitted, furnishes more in- 
 struction than the former: but is reason too weak to 
 learn a small lesson, and at the same time strong enough 
 to master a greater one 1 The only reply that can be 
 given to this, is, that the instructions of God in nature 
 are not so intelligible as in revelation. They are suffi- 
 ciently intelligible to lead the attentive and candid mind 
 into the truth ; otherwise it will follow, either that in the 
 works of creation God did not design to communicate 
 truth to man concerning himself, or that he could not 
 make himself understood by those whose mental facul- 
 
AN OBJECTION ANSWERED. 63 
 
 ties were formed by him for the purpose of receiving 
 his instructions. 
 
 But all theory, we shall be told, must surrender to 
 facts. " Romans, Medes, Elamites, and all people where 
 that singular old book did not circulate, believe sincerely 
 that it would please God if one or two hundred of their 
 children at a time, were cast into that red-hot metallic 
 statue." 
 
 Without stopping at present to demand proof that 
 " all people where that singular old book did not circu- 
 late," actually embraced these delusive enormities, we 
 would be glad to have an answer to the following ques- 
 tions : First, did the voice of God in nature ever teach 
 people that it would please him " if one or two hundred 
 of their children at a time were cast into that red-hot 
 metallic statue V Secondly, if it did not, were any peo- 
 ple ever led into such a barbarous delusion by attentively 
 and candidly surveying the works of nature, to the best 
 of their ability ? Thirdly, would it not be reasonable 
 for people every where so to attend to the instructions 
 of God in his works, as to avoid such evil practices ? 
 If it would, it then appears that men have been led into 
 such practices, not by following their reason, but by 
 departing from its dictates. As they did not like to re- 
 tain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a 
 reprobate mind. (Rom. i. 28.) 
 
 If such facts prove the inadequacy of human reason, 
 or the deficiency of the instructions of God in nature, 
 similar facts will equally prove the deficiency of the 
 
64 AN OBJECTION ANSWERED. 
 
 Bible. When heretics were burnt by scores and hun- 
 dreds at the stake, the rulers of the church called it 
 " an act of faith," and said they did God service, and 
 were led into this barbarous conduct by the instructions 
 of the Bible. This is as easily proved, as it is that any 
 heathen under heaven was ever led into the practice of 
 like barbarities by an attentive and candid examination 
 of the teachings of God in nature : — that is, by follow- 
 ing his reason. Men are led into those enormities by 
 following the dictates of pride, passion, superstition and 
 malignity, whether they live in Christian or in Heathen 
 lands. 
 
 But, to come to Protestant Christendom : have not 
 men been telling us for more than two hundred years, 
 that the Bible has taught them to believe that God from 
 all eternity elected a few of mankind to salvation, and 
 reprobated all the rest to damnation, in such a way as 
 to make the number of each absolutely definite, and 
 their fate eternally unalterable ? Do they not profess 
 to have been taught by the Bible, that there are elect 
 and reprobate angels, and elect and reprobate infants 1 
 Now if men believe there are infants in hell not a span 
 long, who were ordained to endless misery from ever- 
 lasting, what character of God is conceived by any 
 Heathen, which is more directly calculated than is this 
 doctrine, to support the inference " That it would please 
 God if one or two hundred of their children at a time 
 were cast into that red-hot metallic statue?" The 
 thing which we contend for is, that neither the Bible 
 
AN OBJECTION ANSWERED. 65 
 
 nor the Creation exhibits such a gloomy character of 
 God ; and therefore that neither of them gives coun- 
 tenance to the conclusion, that barbarous practices will 
 be pleasing in his sight. Such practices are appealed 
 to as facts which show the weakness of human reason ; 
 but they only evince the stupidity of wilful ignorance, 
 and the inexcusable indulgence of human passion and 
 malignity. 
 
 We are told, however, that Heathens are "sincere" 
 in their belief, that God is pleased with such cruel prac- 
 tices. And were not both the priests and people in 
 Christendom " sincere" in their belief that God was 
 pleased when he saw heretics burnt at the stake ? Was 
 not Saul of Tarsus sincere when he breathed out 
 threatenings and slaughter against the disciples?. He 
 says " I verily thought that I ought to do many things 
 contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth." But does 
 it therefore follow, that he was taught to be a perse- 
 cutor by the Scriptures of the Old Testament ? As 
 little does it follow, that Heathens are taught to burn 
 their children in the fire, by the voice of God- in na- 
 ture, because they may be sincere in their delusions. 
 
 Are we left to infer, that all Heathens, however sin- 
 cere some of them may be, are indiscriminately sent 
 into hell 1 What ! do they regularly follow their rea- 
 son, and are they led into delusion by the best possible 
 use of their faculties, and then eternally punished be- 
 cause they had not other faculties, or did not possess 
 higher means of information ! Saul of Tarsus obtained 
 6* c* 
 
66 AN OBJECTION ANSWERED. 
 
 mercy, because he did it ignorantly in unbelief. Why 
 may not sincere Heathens obtain mercy upon the same 
 footing '( Saul had no new Bible given to put him into 
 a state of probation. But God, it may be said, used 
 special means to enlighten his mind, because he saw 
 that he was sincere. And cannot the same God use 
 special means to enlighten Heathens, so far as may be 
 necessary to their salvation, whenever he sees them 
 truly and perseveringly sincere? If he can but will 
 not, it is because free wrath, or a reprobating disposi- 
 tion, is an essential part of his character ; and if he would 
 but cannot save the Heathens while there are no Bibles 
 among them, it follows that he is dependent on the 
 agency of our missionaries, for his ability to save the 
 souls of sincere people. 
 
 Good men are greatly mistaken, when they suppose 
 infidelity will be refuted by our undervaluing the works 
 of God. It is the same human reason that operates, 
 whether it be used in examining the works or the writ- 
 ten word of God ; and if reason be set aside, to what 
 purpose is a Bible given ? As well might a revelation 
 be given to the irrational animals, as to creatures whose 
 reason necessarily leads them astray. When God com- 
 municates his truth to us, whether in nature or revela- 
 tion, our belief of his testimony is a reasonable faith, 
 and obedience to his precepts is our reasonable service. 
 
 For what is the variety of convincing evidence 
 brought forward by Mr. Nelson, but to show us that 
 reason is sufficient to prove that the Bible is true? 
 
GREATNESS OF GOD. 67 
 
 Then why should we inconsistently weaken the force 
 of reason, by attempting to show its imbecility, its un- 
 certainty, its darkness, and its leading thousands and 
 millions into inevitable delusion ? If it be thus weak, 
 imbecile, uncertain, dark and delusive, how can it be 
 depended on to prove the truth of Christianity ? If rea- 
 son be a false guide, let us no longer appeal to its dic- 
 tates for the refutation of infidelity. 
 
 That our understanding is weak, and liable to run 
 into delusions, is as true when we use it in searching 
 the scriptures, as when we attend to the voice of God 
 in nature ; and a due sense of this weakness, and a cor- 
 responding modesty in our conclusions, is essential to 
 the right exercise of our reason, whether it be applied 
 to the works of our Creator, or to his written revelation. 
 We shall enter more fully into the argument, in regard 
 to Heathen salvation, in a subsequent part of this trea- 
 tise. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 The greatness of God must be taken into view, in the 
 illustration of his goodness. 
 
 The design of introducing God's greatness, in the 
 investigation of his goodness, is to excite the modest 
 consideration, that the vastness of his plans, and the 
 extent of his superintendency, may require a course of 
 
68 GREATNESS OF GOD, 
 
 measures which, though perfectly wise and just, may 
 not appear so to limited creatures in one corner of his 
 Creation, who cannot take an adea x uate survey of the 
 whole ; therefore particular events which seem to us 
 unwise or cruel, in a system so extensive, ought to have 
 no weight against the amount of positive evidence we 
 have of our Creator's rectitude and benevolence. In 
 this view, therefore, the subject of the present section 
 will be seen to be no improper digression from the 
 theme before us. 
 
 In viewing the vast and infinite Majesty of the God- 
 head, our attention is first called to his eternity and im- 
 mensity. It is said the heaven, and heaven of heavens, 
 cannot contain him ; and he calls himself The high and 
 lofty One that inhabitcth eternity. Here we approach a 
 vast ocean ; for eternity is a great deep which is un- 
 fathomable by our powers of conception. 
 
 " The schoolmen," says Dr. Reid, " made eternity to 
 be a nunc stans, that is, a moment of time that stands 
 still. This was to put a spoke into the wheel of time, 
 and might give satisfaction to those who are to be satis- 
 fied by words without meaning. But I can as easily 
 believe a circle to be a square, as time to stand still." 
 (Essay on Duration.) 
 
 Men in modern ages also, from the difficulty of com- 
 prehending an eternal progression, have adopted the 
 " nunc stans" of the schoolmen, and have attempted to 
 illustrate the matter by speaking of God's still eternity. 
 They say infinite duration is an eternal now, in which 
 
GREATNESS OF GOD. 69 
 
 there is no succession ; that it is a single immoveable 
 point ; — that is, " a moment of time that stands still." 
 And yet this unsuccessive moment is so long, that it 
 comprehends the entire duration of the world, from the 
 first day of Adam's life, down to the general conflagra- 
 tion! 
 
 " On this subject of the eternal duration of the Di- 
 vine Being," says the Rev. Richard Watson, " many 
 have held a metaphysical refinement. The eternal ex- 
 istence of God, it is said, is not to be considered as 
 successive ; with him eternity is nunc stans, a perma- 
 nent now, incapable of the relations of past, present, 
 and future. Such, certainly, is not the view given us 
 in the Scriptures. Filling duration with his eternity, is 
 a phrase without any meaning : for how can any man 
 conceive a permanent instant, which co-exists with a 
 perpetually flowing duration ? One might as well ap- 
 prehend a mathematical point co-extended with a line, 
 a surface, and all dimensions. We can conceive no 
 otherwise of duration, than continuance of being ; — of 
 this every man's consciousness will assure him, that we 
 can form no idea of duration except in this successive 
 manner. But we are told, that the eternity of God is 
 a fixed eternal now, from which all ideas of succession, 
 of past and future, are to be excluded ; and we are 
 called upon to conceive of eternal duration, to the ex- 
 clusion of the idea of that floiv under which we con- 
 ceive of time. Duration, as applied to God, is no more 
 than an extension of the idea as applied to ourselves ; 
 
70 GREATNESS OF GOD. 
 
 and to exhort us to conceive of it as something essen- 
 tially different, is to require us to conceive what is in- 
 conceivable. It is to demand of us to think without 
 ideas." (Institutes, p. 181.) 
 
 Mr. Watson continues the argument at some length, 
 and concludes : " Minutes and moments may be arti- 
 ficial, adopted to aid our conceptions ; but conceptions 
 of what ? Not of any thing standing still, but of some- 
 thing going on. If the duration of the Divine Being 
 admits not of past, present, and future, one of these 
 two consequences must follow, — that no such attribute 
 as that of eternity belongs to Him, — or that there is no 
 power in the human mind to conceive of it. In either 
 case the Scriptures are greatly impugned ; for " He 
 who was, and is, and is to come," is a revelation of the 
 eternity of God, which is then in no sense true." (p. 182.) 
 
 To say eternity is a " nunc stans" without advance- 
 ment, is like saying immensity is a point, without exten- 
 sion. It is true of time, as it is of space, that the whole 
 cannot be measured ; and yet the parts every where 
 are equally and alike subject to measurement. As the 
 parts of space beyond the bounds of the universe, 
 though, they have not been measured, are yet in their 
 own nature as susceptible of it as the parts within its 
 bounds ; so the parts of duration, at any point before 
 the world was made, were in their own nature as sus- 
 ceptible of measurement, as time present or future. 
 
 It is true of space, that it necessarily and eternally 
 stands still, and it is impossible for it to move ; it is ex- 
 
GREATNESS OF GOD. 71 
 
 actly as true of time, that it necessarily advances, and 
 it is impossible for it to stand still. As well might we 
 be called upon to believe in moveable space, as in unsuc- 
 cessive duration. As well might it be affirmed, that 
 immensity has no extension, as that eternity is without 
 advancement, or is something different from a continu- 
 ance of time. It is true that the progress of time with- 
 out beginning, is inconceivable; but for it to have a 
 beginning is not only inconceivable, but impossible. 
 The following is an exact parallel : For space to ex- 
 tend without boundaries, is inconceivable ; for it to have 
 boundaries, is impossible. It only remains, then, for us 
 to choose whether we will receive that for a truth, which 
 is inconceivable ; or that which is impossible. To say 
 God created successive duration, is like saying he cre- 
 ated measurable expansion : which implies, that in his 
 eternity there was no time, and in his immensity there 
 was no space ! 
 
 If successive duration belong not to the Almighty, if 
 with him there be no future, how can he have the hap- 
 piness of anticipation and prospect? If past, present, 
 and to come, belong not to his duration, it will follow, 
 that for him to foretell what he will do, and actually to 
 perform it, are the same thing, and done at the same 
 time n It will follow, that his act in creating the world, 
 was not prior to his act in drowning it by the waters 
 of the Deluge ; and that with him the creation of the 
 world is not a. past event, and the day of judgment is 
 not future. If any man can admit all these conclusions, 
 
72 GREATNESS OF GOD. 
 
 he must surely be as metaphysical as the schoolmen 
 were, when with a " nunc stans" they attempted to put 
 a spoke into the wheel of time. 
 
 Another attribute constituting the greatness of the 
 Deity, is his Almighty Power. By this we mean his 
 ability to do any thing which it is possible for agency 
 to do. The bounds of possibility are known only to 
 himself; but to some extent we are able distinctly to 
 conceive them. It is not possible, for example, that 
 power should put an end to duration, or limit the infinity 
 of space. It is not possible for power to remove matter 
 from one point of space to another, without taking it 
 through the intermediate parts, either in a straight line, 
 or by some circuit. It is not possible for power to 
 transform virtue into vice, or truth into falsehood ; or in 
 other words, to destroy the distinction between right 
 and wrong. But in most instances the bounds of possi- 
 bility are known only by our Maker ; and we are liable 
 to suppose many things to be in their nature possible, 
 which he knows to be impossible, and the contrary. 
 
 To say God has Almighty Power, is to say, in other 
 words, that he is an Almighty Agent. He who does 
 any thing without agency, does it by necessity, which 
 is not power, but the want of it. Whenever an agent 
 acts, he could, at the same time, have omitted the ac- 
 tion; and therefore He who possesses the greatest 
 power, enjoys the most perfect liberty of any being in 
 existence. Hence it follows, that God is immutable 
 because he chooses to be so : and those who believe he 
 
GREATNESS OF GOD. 73 
 
 is immutable of necessity, or because he cannot help it, 
 manifestly suppose him to have no power at all. When 
 God created the world, he could have omitted it, other- 
 wise the world was created by necessity, and not by 
 power. Is not the latter conclusion atheism ? The rea- 
 son why God cannot do wrong, is precisely that he will 
 not ; and his happiness and glory consist, not merely in 
 doing right, but in doing it freely. What happiness or 
 glory would arise from doing right by necessity 1 A 
 clock, or a watch, or a steam-boat, does right in this 
 way, and in no other. An apprehension may be enter- 
 tained, however, that if God be thus/ree, our happiness 
 is not secure under his government ; but let us reflect, 
 whether we are not more safe under the protection of 
 an Almighty Agency, directed by infinite wisdom and 
 benevolence, than we would be under the operation of 
 necessity, which cannot be modified in its course by 
 either wisdom or goodness. To what purpose would a 
 being who is destitute of agency possess wisdom ? And 
 what would it avail for him to have a benevolent inten- 
 tion, when his whole course must be fixed and inevita- 
 ble, independently of such intention ? There is, in short, 
 no other alternative but to believe either that God is a 
 perfectly Free Agent,, or to embrace a system of athe- 
 ism. An intelligent being without agency, that is, with- 
 out power, however good in his disposition, and how- 
 ever clear in his intelligence, could do nothing ; and his 
 understanding could serve no other purpose than to gaze 
 at the course of necessity, as a man bound down with 
 7 d 
 
74 GREATNESS OF GOD. 
 
 a chain might look up and watch the course of the wind 
 and the clouds. 
 
 The energy of Divine power fills us with amazement; 
 and yet the full extent of it can only be known by the 
 Almighty himself. " He stretcheth out the north over 
 the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. 
 He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds ; and the 
 cloud is not rent under them. He compassed the wa- 
 ters with bounds, until the day and night come to an 
 end. The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished 
 at his reproof. He divideth the sea with his power, 
 and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud. 
 Lo, these are parts of his ways ; but how little a portion 
 is heard of him !" (Job xxvi. 7.) " Who hath measured 
 the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out 
 heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of 
 the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in 
 scales, and the hills in a balance ? Behold, he taketh 
 up the isles as a very little thing. Hast thou not heard, 
 that the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the 
 earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no 
 searching of his understanding. He giveth power to 
 the faint ; and to them that have no might he increaseth 
 strength." (Isa. xl. 12—28.) 
 
 The intelligence of the Supreme Being is equally 
 wonderful. He not only understands the hidden quali- 
 ties of all material substances ; but surveys, at once, and 
 without any confusion or perplexity, the secret thoughts 
 of all human and angelic minds, throughout the whole 
 
GREATNESS OF GOD. 75 
 
 extent of the universe ! " There is no darkness nor 
 shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may 
 hide themselves." (Job xxxiv. 22.) A Mind capable 
 of such a vast survey, may well be said to be wonderful 
 in counsel; and our little finite spirits are as effectually 
 overwhelmed in the contemplation of such an Intelli- 
 gence, as we are in attempting to grasp Eternity or 
 Immensity. 
 
 It is delightful, however, to understand, that in the 
 operation of all those mighty attributes, infinite goodness 
 is at the centre. Love reigns supreme, uncontrolled, 
 immutable, immense, and eternal. Eternity affords the 
 time for its action, and immensity the theatre; wisdom 
 forms the plan of benevolence, power carries it into 
 effect, truth displays it, and justice defends it. In all 
 this there is a harmony more perfect and complete, than 
 is even exhibited in the serene and untroubled move- 
 ments of the stars and suns and planets of the material 
 heavens ; and as soon will Jupiter fall into the Sun, or 
 the Moon be dashed against the Earth, as justice will 
 contradict mercy, or counteract any other perfection of 
 the universal Ruler. The greatness of God should make 
 us modest in our conclusions, and not so immodest as to 
 believe He is too great a sovereign to be righteous and 
 benevolent in all his actions. 
 
 " Moral government," says Dr. Dwight, " is a go- 
 vernment of laws ; whose nature, and actions, are the 
 great inducements to obedience, and the great means 
 
76 GREATNESS OF GOD. 
 
 of order, peace, and happiness, to subjects ; and of 
 honour and reverence to the Ruler. 
 
 " To the existence of such a government it is abso- 
 lutely necessary, that the character of the Ruler should 
 be such, as that it can, and ought to, be approved by 
 wise and good subjects ; and of course a character, in 
 which they can safely, and rationally, confide. But it 
 is impossible, that a ruler, unpossessed of Truth, should 
 be approved at all. Falsehood is a vice, involving every 
 other kind of turpitude. A liar is pre-eminently odious 
 and contemptible in the view of mankind ; and the 
 finished depravity of the worst of all beings is exhibited 
 to us by God himself in the memorable declaration, 
 He was a liar from the beginning, and the father of it. 
 A God of falsehood would be a monster, whose de- 
 pravity no mind, less than infinite, could comprehend ; 
 and who would of necessity be regarded with absolute 
 detestation and horror." (Vol. I. p. 209.) 
 
 Now can any man tell us how Dr. D wight could say 
 all this, on supposition that God, as a sovereign, can 
 make, and alter, the principles of virtue at will, so that 
 if He should determine or decree that a character of 
 falsehood should be established as virtuous, and the 
 character of truth and sincerity as vicious, their na- 
 tures, respectively, would be changed \ According to 
 the above quotation, a God who should allow himself to 
 be influenced by bad principles of action, " would be a 
 monster of depravity," without a parallel, and " would 
 
GREATNESS OF GOD. 77 
 
 of necessity be regarded with absolute detestation and 
 horror." 
 
 For the Divine government to produce either virtue 
 or happiness, " it is absolutely necessary," the Doctor 
 tells us, " that the character of the Ruler should be 
 such, as that it can be approved by wise and good sub- 
 jects ; and of course a character, in which they can 
 safely, and rationally, confide." But how can they 
 " confide" in it, and do this " rationally," if they believe 
 there are attributes in that character which contradict 
 each other 1 Must not that be vice which contradicts 
 virtue ? Is there any thing, except something bad, 
 which contradicts goodness ? If not, then there is no 
 manner of inconsistency between justice and mercy, 
 unless one or the other of them is a bad thing, and con- 
 sequently a species of " depravity." There is nothing 
 of this nature in the holy Mind of the Almighty; and 
 therefore there is no imperfection, and no conflict, in his 
 providence, in his law, or in its administration. 
 
 Yet a government so extensive in its influence and 
 operation, sustaining the interests of distant worlds, and 
 embracing the circumstances and diversified capacities 
 of all orders of intelligent beings, may be, in many of 
 its details, entirely beyond our comprehension. Even 
 the ruler of an earthly empire may sometimes be 
 thought to be a fool or a tyrant, on account of certain 
 official acts which he knows to be essential to the com- 
 mon welfare, but which others, not standing where he 
 does, and seeing only a small part » of the system, view 
 
78 GREATNESS OF GOD. 
 
 as unnecessary or unjust. What matter of surprise 
 should it be, then, if such events should appear in the 
 vast administration of that Being who balances the 
 planets, and who " holds the waters in the hollow of 
 his hand 1 " " Canst thou by searching find out God ? 
 Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ? It 
 is high as heaven ; what canst thou do ? deeper than 
 hell ; what canst thou know 1 " (Job, xi. 7.) 
 
 " Perfect and unerring wisdom," says Sherlock, " has 
 no superior wisdom to take an account, or to judge of 
 its actions ; nothing can judge of wisdom, but wisdom ; 
 and an inferior cannot comprehend a superior wisdom ; 
 especially when there is such a vast disproportion as 
 there is between a finite and an infinite understanding ; 
 which must of necessity in a thousand instances make 
 the judgments of God unsearchable, and his ways past 
 finding out : it neither becomes the infinite wisdom of 
 God in all cases to give an account of his actions, nor 
 the modesty of creatures to demand it." (p. 86.) The 
 same judicious author says again, " Would not any wise 
 man rather choose to be governed by such a perfect 
 and excellent wisdom, as can never mistake, though it 
 vastly exceeds his understanding, than to be governed 
 by a being no wiser, or not much wiser than himself, 
 all whose counsels he can fathom, and see to the end 
 of ? It is great pride, and as contemptible folly, to think 
 that God should not be able to do things above our un- 
 derstanding, and to do them very wisely too, though we 
 do not understand them. It is certain that there are ten 
 
GREATNESS OF GOD. 79 
 
 thousand things both in the Works of nature and Provi- 
 dence, which no man fully understands, and yet which 
 bear the marks and signatures of a most Divine and 
 admirable art and wisdom. Which is most reasonable, 
 to attribute such works to the infinite wisdom of God ; 
 or to deny that they had any wise Cause, because we 
 cannot find them out, though we can discern such wis- 
 dom in them, as no human art or wisdom can imitate." 
 (p. 103.) Once more : " No being can know how to 
 govern a world, who does not know how to make it ; 
 and any other must be a very unfit judge of the wisdom 
 of Providence ; for he can never know when the world 
 is well and wisely governed, because he does not know 
 what belongs to the government of the world. The 
 wise government of all creatures must be proportioned 
 to their natures ; and therefore without understanding 
 the philosophy of nature, the springs of motion, the 
 mutual dependence of causes and effects, what end 
 things are made for, and what uses they serve, we can 
 never know what is fit to be done, nor what can be 
 done, or by what means it is to be done, and then can 
 never tell when any thing is done as it should be." (p. 
 106.) 
 
 Mr. Sherlock further illustrates the argument, by the 
 history of Job : " The story of Job's afflictions strikes 
 terror and astonishment into all that hear them : Job 
 himself knew not what account to give of his suffer- 
 ing ; and we should have been as much puzzled with it 
 to this day, had we not been acquainted with the rea- 
 
80 GREATNESS OF GOD. 
 
 son of his suffering, and with that long and great pros- 
 perity wherewith God rewarded his faith and patience ; 
 and now no man thinks the sufferings of Job any diffi- 
 culty in Providence, much less any objection against it. 
 Thus it is with reference to other men ; when we see 
 only a scene or two of their lives, we meet with such 
 prosperous or adverse events, as we cannot account 
 for ; but could we see from the beginning to the end, in 
 most cases the Divine Providence would justify itself. 
 
 " But then the hidden and mysterious designs of Pro- 
 vidence relating to Churches and Kingdoms, which 
 comprehend so many great and wonderful revolutions ; 
 — these, and such like events, must needs be very ob- 
 scure and unknown to us, who know not what God 
 aims at in all this, nor what designs He is carrying on. 
 When our accounts of what is past are so imperfect 
 and uncertain, and our knowledge of what is to come 
 much more imperfect ; when we know so little of our 
 own age, of our own country, of our own neighbour- 
 hood, it is as impossible to understand the reasons of 
 Providence, as it is to understand the wise contrivances 
 and design of a Comedy, by reading one Act, or, it 
 may be, but one Scene of that Act." (p. 131, &c.) 
 
 From these arguments and illustrations, the reader 
 may perceive how objections against the goodness of 
 God may be solved by a just view of his greatness ; 
 and how unreasonable it must be to yield to any de- 
 gree of scepticism, on account of our incapacity to 
 understand the design of certain events occurring under 
 
GREATNESS OF GOD. 81 
 
 the Divine administration, which to our limited view 
 may appear obscure and unaccountable; but which, 
 • when seen in their essential connection with the whole 
 moral universe, may shine forth as the sunbeams of 
 infinite wisdom, rectitude, and benevolence. 
 
 Three of the general scenes of Providence which are 
 most mysterious, and which may serve to illustrate our 
 present subject, are the following : 
 
 1. Some time after the earth was replenished by the 
 descendants of Noah, God " suffered all nations to walk 
 in their own ways," until a degrading idolatry was 
 spread over the earth, accompanied with a genera] cor- 
 ruption and barbarity, which threatened the destruction 
 of all virtue, peace, and purity. Prostitution was made 
 a part of their religion; and many little children were 
 burnt in the fire, as so many meritorious offerings to 
 the gods ! 
 
 2. After the gospel was spread over the Roman em- 
 pire, its ministers and professors became so corrupt, 
 that they introduced the dark ages, in which the light 
 of heaven appeared almost to have been withdrawn 
 from the earth for several hundred years. Dens of 
 wickedness, called monasteries and nunneries, were 
 established through the nations of Europe; — supersti- 
 tion generated corruption, and one bloody scene of 
 murder followed another, until the silent horrors of the 
 Inquisition were fully established, which held all Christ- 
 endom in the stillness of death, and made kings bow 
 submissively to the sovereign and malignant despotism 
 
82 GREATNESS OF GOD. 
 
 of him who was called "the Vicar of Christ upon 
 earth." 
 
 3. Some two or three hundred years ago, the several ' 
 nations of Europe combined their energies to seize upon 
 the defenceless Africans, in order to carry them into 
 hopeless bondage ; and they soon established a horrid 
 system of traffic in human beings, which has been the 
 means of hurrying millions to a premature death, either 
 in their passage across the ocean, or by the rigours of 
 oppression which they endured, after arriving at the 
 respective places of their melancholy destination. This 
 bloody tragedy is yet in progress ; and in its consum- 
 mation it will probably have produced as much misery 
 as resulted either from the barbarism of Pagan idolatry, 
 or from the cold and unfeeling malevolence of the In- 
 quisition. 
 
 Now the matter of inquiry which puzzles our under- 
 standing, is this: — Why should that holy Being, who 
 has all power in heaven and in earth, suffer such shock- 
 ing scenes of wickedness and misery to prevail in our 
 world, for hundreds of years together 1 
 
 The only satisfactory answer to this question is, that 
 the infinite mind of the Almighty does not view these 
 matters by themselves, as we do, but in their connection 
 with the vast compass of the intelligent and moral uni- 
 verse, and with the succeeding developements of a 
 futurity that shall have no end. The intelligent inhab- 
 itants of other worlds may be looking on, and learning 
 from these facts the essential nature and the destructive 
 
GREATNESS OF GOD. S3 
 
 sesults of moral evil. Our own world also, in its future 
 generations, may receive effectual admonition by this 
 course of experience, which it would not receive in any 
 other way. It would now be a very difficult matter to 
 establish Pagan idolatry either among the Jews, or 
 among the nations of Christendom. The lessons of ex- 
 perience which mankind have had upon this subject, 
 will prevent a repetition of those abominations. When 
 the Romish power shall have been overthrown, there is 
 no probability that an Inquisition will again be esta- 
 blished to the end of time ; because the horrors of the 
 Inquisition which was established during the dark ages, 
 will be effectually remembered, and this remembrance 
 will restrain the passions of posterity. Human nature 
 is still the same ; and, were it not for the admonitions 
 furnished by the past history of the world, would be 
 ready enough to play the same game over again. The 
 course of Providence in dividing Protestant Christen- 
 dom into separate balancing denominations, is a part 
 of the same wise and benevolent scheme of our hea- 
 venly Father. There is not a sect among us, perhaps, 
 that would not be as bad as the Papists have ever been, 
 w r ere it not for the lessons of experience, and the checks 
 furnished by the power and influence of rival denomi- 
 nations. 
 
 And as to slavery and the slave trade, Providence 
 suffers these things to go on, and to arrive at their 
 zenith, that a thoughtless world may learn by painful 
 experience, that any part of mankind, by tyrannically 
 
84 GREATNESS OF GOD. 
 
 inflicting misery upon another part, are thereby sapping 
 the foundations of their own best interests, both for time 
 and for eternity. 
 
 God said to Abraham, " The iniquity of the Amorites 
 is not yet full." He suffers wicked nations to progress 
 in crime, till their iniquity is full, in order that the whole 
 universe may see what a diabolical thing sin is, when 
 permitted to exhibit the whole extent of its deformity. 
 For this reason the Supreme Ruler permits the Devil 
 to show himself, and to expose to the public gaze of the 
 creation, the dark and horrid malignity there is in his 
 own mind, and in those servants of his, who are his 
 greatest proficients in the several systems of iniquity. 
 All this is suffered, not that sin may be patronized and 
 encouraged ; but, on the contrary, that it may be con- 
 demned to eternal infamy, and that intelligent creatures 
 may be effectually set upon their guard against its poi- 
 sonous influence and destructive ravages. 
 
PART SECOND. 
 
 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF COD'S BENEVOLENT 
 CHARACTER. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 Proofs derived from the self-sufficiency of God. 
 
 The Divine character which we purpose to sustain, 
 is given by Dr. Dwight in the following words : " God, 
 when he intended to disclose his perfections to the uni- 
 verse, intended to exhibit them, chiefly, by an endless 
 course of action, in which wisdom, greatness, and 
 goodness, should be supremely, and most clearly, dis- 
 covered. The highest blessedness, he has told us, and 
 therefore the greatest glory, is found in communicating 
 good, and not in gaining it ; in giving, and not receiv- 
 ing. To this decision reason necessarily subjoins her 
 own amen. The great design of God in all things is, 
 therefore, to do good, boundlessly, and for ever ; and in 
 this conduct to disclose himself, as the boundless and 
 eternal good." (Theology. Vol. I. p. 85.) 
 
 8 (8S) 
 
86 THE SELF-SUFFICIENCY OF GOD. 
 
 Mr. Watson gives a quotation from Calvin, which 
 appears to assume entirely opposite ground. Mr. Cal- 
 vin's words are, " How exceedingly presumptuous it is, 
 to inquire into the causes of the Divine will; w T hich is, 
 in fact, and is justly entitled to be, the cause of every 
 thing that exists. For if it has any cause, then there 
 must be something antecedent on which it depends, 
 which it is impious to suppose. For the will of God is 
 the highest rule of justice ; so that what he wills must 
 be just, because he w 7 ills it." A part of Mr. Watson's 
 reply is as follows : " He pretends that to assign any 
 cause to the Divine will is to suppose something ante- 
 cedent to, something above God, and, therefore, ' im- 
 pious ;' as if we might not suppose something in God 
 to be the rule of his will, not only without any impiety, 
 but with truth and piety ; as, for instance, his perfect 
 wisdom, holiness, justice, and goodness : or, in other 
 words, to believe the exercise of his will to flow from 
 the perfection of his whole nature ; a much more 
 honourable and Scriptural view of the will of God than 
 that which subjects it to no rule, even in the nature of • 
 God himself. This will is our rule, because we know 
 that it is the will of a perfect being ; but when Calvin 
 represents mere will as constituting God's own rule of 
 justice, he shuts out knowledge, discrimination of the 
 nature of things, and holiness ; which is saying some- 
 thing very different to that great truth, that God cannot 
 will any thing but what is perfectly just. It is to say 
 that blind will, will which has no respect to any thing 
 
THE SELF-SUFFICIENCY OF GOD. 87 
 
 but itself, is God's highest rule of justice ; a position 
 which, if presented abstractedly, many of the most 
 ultra Calvinists would spurn." (Institutes, p. 511.) 
 
 Indeed, a will that has " no respect to any thing but 
 itself" is supposed to make its own veracity and benevo- 
 lence, as well as its justice. If " what God wills must 
 be just, because he wills it," as Calvin says, then what 
 he wills must be benevolent, because he wills it : conse- 
 quently, it would be perfectly benevolent for all crea- 
 tures to commence their existence in eternal punish- 
 ment, provided only that the Divine will should choose 
 to make it benevolent. To say that nonentity is better 
 than existence, would be a truth, provided the Divine 
 will should choose to make it a truth ; or that to render 
 evil' for good would be justice, provided the same will 
 should determine it to be justice ! In short, if our 
 Maker's character is essentially good, were it opposite 
 to what it is, it would be essentially evil; otherwise we 
 say good and evil are not necessarily opposite to each 
 other : whence it would follow, that the character of 
 the devil may have in it no opposition to that of the 
 Deity ! 
 
 Having thus stated our position, in regard to the ab- 
 solute rectitude, or, which is the same thing, the infinite 
 and uncompounded benevolence of the Almighty, we 
 proceed to examine the grounds on which this great 
 truth is to be established. Dr. Dwight says, " The im- 
 portance of the question, Whether God is a Benevolent 
 Being, is no less than infinite. Every thing, therefore, 
 
88 THE SELF-SUFFICIENCY OF GOD. 
 
 which seriously affects it, must be of high moment to 
 every intelligent creature." (Theology. Vol. I. p. 166.) 
 Dr. Dwight's views on this part of the subject are so 
 excellent, that I shall be excused in giving them at con- 
 siderable length. 
 
 " It is hardly necessary for me to observe," he says, 
 "that the question, concerning the amount of the evi- 
 dence, which reason gives concerning this doctrine, has 
 long been, and is still disputed. It is well known, that 
 divines and other Christians, as well as other men, differ 
 in their opinions about it ; and that the proofs of the di- 
 vine benevolence from Reason are regarded by many 
 persons as insufficient. I have myself entertained, here- 
 tofore, opinions on this subject different from those 
 which I now entertain. As I have not seen it discussed 
 in such a manner as satisfied my own wishes, I shall 
 now consider it with more particularitv, than might 
 otherwise be necessary. 
 
 "The Self-existence, Eternity, Immutability, Omni- 
 presence, Omniscience, and Omnipotence, of God have, 
 I flatter myself, been clearly proved by arguments de- 
 rived from Reason. From these attributes it has, I 
 trust, been unanswerably evinced, that God is absolutely 
 independent; that all things, which can be done, or 
 enjoyed, are in his power and possession ; and that he 
 can neither need, nor receive any thing. From these 
 considerations it is evident in the 
 
 " 1st place, That God can have no possible motive to 
 he malevolent. It will not be pretended, that the nature 
 
THE SELF-SUFFICIENCY OF GOD. 89 
 
 of things can furnish any such motive. That to be ma- 
 levolent is a more desirable character or state of being, 
 than to be benevolent, cannot be asserted, nor believed. 
 Nor can any motive to this character be presented to 
 God, from without himself ox from other beings. As all 
 other beings, together with every thing pertaining to 
 them, are, and cannot but be, just what he pleases ; it is 
 certain that he can gain nothing to himself by the exer- 
 cise of malevolence. Finite beings may discern good 
 in the hands of others, which they may covet, and at 
 the same time be hindered from possessing, unless by 
 the indulgence of fraud, injustice, or unkindness ; or by 
 attacking, and injuring, such, as prevent from gaining 
 the beloved object. Those who possess it, they may 
 envy, or hate. Those who hinder them from gaining 
 it, they may regard with resentment or anger. But it 
 is plain, that these considerations can have no more 
 application to God, than the circumstances which give 
 them birth. All good is actually in his possession : there 
 is, therefore, nothing left for him to desire. All beings 
 and events are exactly such, as he chooses either to 
 produce, or to permit ; and such as he chose, antece- 
 dently to their existence. He can, therefore, have no- 
 thing to fear, or to malign. As he gave all, which is 
 possessed by other beings, he can evidently neither 
 gain, nor receive any thing. If he be malevolent, then, 
 he must sustain this character without a motive. 
 
 " 2dly. An Omniscient Being cannot but see, that it 
 is more glorious to himself, and more beneficial to his 
 8* d* 
 
90 THE SELF-SUFFICIENCY OF GOD. 
 
 creatures, to sustain, and to exhibit a benevolent charac- 
 ter, than its contrary : or, in other words, in every respect 
 more desirable. 
 
 " The glory of the Creator and the good of his crea- 
 tures, involve every thing that is desirable. That this 
 truth must be seen by an Omniscient Being, in a man- 
 ner infinitely superior to that in which we see it, hardly 
 needs to be asserted. 
 
 " The desirableness of this conduct 5 arising from the 
 glory of the Creator and the good of his creatures, seems 
 to present, when we consider it as extending through 
 Eternity, an infinite motive to the Creator, to cherish a 
 benevolent character, and to manifest it in all his con- 
 duct To the power of this motive there is at the same 
 time no motive opposed. On the contrary, we know, 
 and the Creator, in a manner infinitely more perfectly, 
 knows, that the existence and exercise of a malevolent 
 character would be infinitely dishonourable to himself, 
 and in the progress of Eternity infinitely injurious to his 
 creatures. Each of these considerations presents to the 
 Creator an infinite motive to exercise benevolence on the 
 one hand, and not to exercise malevolence on the other. 
 If, then, he has in fact exercised malevolence, he has 
 done it without any motive, and against the influence of 
 both these : each of them infinite in importance. 
 
 " 3dly. The only conduct which a Creator can receive 
 with 'pleasure from his creatures, must plainly be attach- 
 ment, reverence, and the voluntary obedience which they 
 produce. 
 
THE SELF-SUFFICIENCY OF GOD. 91 
 
 " Whether the Creator be benevolent, or malevolent, 
 it is impossible that he should not choose to be loved, 
 reverenced, and obeyed. But the real Creator has so 
 formed his works, and so constituted his providence, 
 that the minds of men, irresistibly, and of absolute ne- 
 cessity, esteem a benevolent being more than one of the 
 opposite character. I do not mean, here, that this is 
 the dictate of the heart ; but I mean, that it is the una- 
 voidable dictate of the intellect ; of the conscience and 
 understanding. The intellect is so formed by the Cre- 
 ator, that it is impossible for it to think otherwise. Any 
 person, who will make the attempt, will find it beyond 
 his power to approve of malevolence at all. If, there- 
 fore, the Creator be malevolent, he has so formed his 
 intelligent creatures in this world, that they cannot pos- 
 sibly esteem his character. In other words, he has 
 made them incapable, by a natural necessity, of render- 
 ing to Him that regard, which in itself, or in its conse- 
 quences, is the only possible conduct, on the part of his 
 intelligent creatures, which a Creator can have pro- 
 posed, when He gave them existence." (Dwight's The- 
 ology. Vol. I. p. 167, &c.) 
 
 From these luminous arguments it plainly appears* 
 that as the Supreme Being could gain nothing by the 
 exercise of malevolence, so he must have known that 
 he would inevitably lose all. 
 
 First, he would lose all his glory. A sense of mean- 
 ness is inseparable from a base character. Not only 
 would he be destitute of the love and veneration of his 
 
92 THE SELF-SUFFICIENCY OF GOD. 
 
 creatures, but also of all self-respect ; for all true glory 
 consists in those attributes, or traits of character, which 
 constitute moral worthiness. This matter God himself 
 has decided. (Exodus, xxxiii. 18, 19. — xxxiv. 6,7.) 
 Now as such a character as this constitutes all true 
 worth, so the contrary is base and unworthy ; as the 
 former is associated with a conscious dignity, so the 
 latter produces a sense of shame, and the malignant 
 mind cannot help feeling that it deserves universal con- 
 tempt. 
 
 Secondly, he would lose all his happiness. All expe- 
 rience proves that malevolence not only inflicts misery 
 on others, but is itself a source of misery, in the mind 
 over which it predominates. Every tyrant in existence 
 is compelled to feel, that the more he diffuses misery 
 abroad, the more he increases the weight of it in his 
 own soul. What shadow of evidence can we find in 
 earth or heaven, that there is a possibility for such a 
 disposition to operate in any mind, without producing 
 similar results ? As Benevolence is an eternal fountain 
 of enjoyment, so, on the other hand, Malevolence is the 
 dark and dreadful source of all misery. 
 
 Thirdly, he ivould lose all his ivisdom. Our Maker 
 has decided, that all moral evil is folly, and that no man 
 can live and die devoid of the exercises of bepevolence, 
 without being a fool. (Luke xii. 20.) Will any one say, 
 that with respect to God, there is no distinction between 
 wisdom and folly, and that with Him, one course of ac- 
 tion would be as wise as another 1 If so, He never 
 
THE SELF-SUFFICIENCY OF GOD. 93 
 
 pursues one course because it is wise, or avoids another 
 because it is unwise ; seeing with Him all actions are 
 alike, and there needs no intelligent discrimination ! On 
 this supposition He has no occasion for any thing else 
 than a " blind mill," as Mr. Watson speaks, and a blind 
 understanding also. The truth is, our Maker alw r ays 
 keeps in the right way, not because all ways are alike 
 to Him, but because being above all liability to mistake, 
 He knows the good way from the bad, and chooses the 
 former because it is the good way. To say of any be- 
 ing that he can be infinitely wise, and at the same time 
 infinitely malevolent, is a direct contradiction ; because 
 malevolence leads to certain misery, and therefore is 
 folly. 
 
 Lastly, he would lose all his labour, from the begin- 
 ning of the creation to eternity, The creation of a ma- 
 levolent being must reflect his own image ; and there- 
 fore it would exhibit nothing sublime, grand, or beauti- 
 ful. To what purpose would a creation exist, to be 
 only the instrument of inflicting misery on all crea- 
 tures, except to cause them to maintain eternal con- 
 tempt for their Creator 1 Such a creation would be 
 useless, and worse than useless ; and with w T hat a holy 
 and infinite indignation must the God of nature look 
 upon the supposition, that he can be capable of such a 
 procedure ! 
 
 The argument, in short, is this : good principle, car- 
 ried out into a uniform course of good action, is the 
 source of felicity, in the Supreme Being as well as in 
 
94 THE CONSTITUTION OF NATURE. 
 
 every other ; this is known to Him, without any possi- 
 bility of mistake ; therefore it is impossible for any mo- 
 tive or temptation to enter into his mind, to depart from 
 rectitude, either in principle or in action ; because it 
 would be to depart from essential happiness, into all the 
 modifications of mental and conscious misery. To say 
 a Being who infinitely loves right, can at the same time 
 have a disposition to influence others to do wrong, is a 
 plain contradiction ; and hence it follows, from the com- 
 bination of rational and Scriptural evidence, that God 
 cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 The constitution of Nature. 
 
 From what has been before proved, we consider our- 
 selves entitled to view the Creation and the Bible in 
 conjunction, supporting the same identical system of 
 Divine truth ; and that, far from standing in opposition, 
 they mutually confirm and illustrate each other. The 
 Bible is a luminous commentary upon the visible uni- 
 verse ; and we deem it as perfectly ridiculous to set the 
 one in opposition to the other, as to suppose there is 
 something in God which causes him to take delight in 
 contradicting himself. 
 
 That the works of nature directly prove the good- 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF NATURE. 95 
 
 ness of God, will appear from the following authorities 
 and arguments : 
 
 The Rev. Richard Watson says, " That huge globe 
 of fire in the heavens which we call the sun, and on the 
 light and influence of which the fertility of our world, 
 and the life and pleasure of all animals depend, knows 
 nothing of its serviceableness to these purposes, nor of 
 the wise laws according to which its beams are dis- 
 pensed ; nor what place or motions were requisite for 
 these beneficial purposes. Yet its beams are darted 
 constantly in infinite numbers, every one according to 
 those well-chosen laws, and its proper place and motion 
 are maintained. Must not then its place be appointed, 
 its motion regulated, and beams darted, by Almighty 
 Wisdom and Goodness ? 
 
 " This earth is in itself a dead motionless mass, and 
 void of all counsel ; yet proper parts of it are con- 
 tinually raised through small pipes which compose the 
 bodies of plants and trees, and are made to contribute 
 to their growth, to open and shine in blossoms and 
 leaves, and to swell and harden into fruit. Could blind 
 thoughtless particles thus continually keep on their way, 
 through numberless windings, without once blundering, 
 if they were not guided by an unerring hand 1 Can the 
 most perfect human skill from earth and water form 
 one grain, much more a variety of beautiful and relish- 
 ing fruits 1 Must not the directing Mind, who does all 
 this constantly, be most wise, mighty and benevolent ? 
 Must not the Being who thus continually exerts his 
 
9b THE CONSTITUTION OF NATURE. 
 
 skill and energy around us, for our benefit, be confessed 
 to be always present, and concerned for our welfare 1" 
 (Institutes, p. 187.) Thus clearly, according to Mr. 
 Watson, does nature evince the benevolence of its Di- 
 vine Author. 
 
 A second authority is Dr. Dwight. Speaking of God, 
 he says, " He saw, that it was becoming his character 
 to unfold his perfections, and to communicate his good- 
 ness, to an endless and innumerable race of beings. 
 From an infinite height, he took a survey of the im- 
 measurable vast of possible beings ; and in an expan- 
 sion without limits, but desolate and wild, where nothing 
 was, called into existence with a word, the countless 
 multitude of worlds, with all their various furniture. 
 With his own hand He lighted up at once innumerable 
 suns, and rolled around them innumerable worlds. All 
 these He so dispersed, and arranged, as that all re- 
 ceived light, and warmth, and life, and comfort ; and 
 all, at the. same time, He stored, and adorned, with a 
 rich and unceasing variety of beauty and magnificence, 
 and with the most suitable means of virtue and happi- 
 ness." (Theology, p. 132.) Again: 
 
 " By his immutability, God is qualified to perform, 
 and to pursue, one great plan of creation and provi- 
 dence ; one harmonious scheme of boundless good ; 
 and to carry on a perfect system, in a perfect manner, 
 without variableness or shadow of turning. An immu- 
 table God, only, can be expected to do that, which is 
 supremely right and desirable : to make every part of 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF NATURE. 97 
 
 his great work exactly what it ought to be ; and to con- 
 stitute of all the parts a perfect whole. In this immense 
 
 WOrk, ONE CHARACTER IS EVERY WHERE DISPLAYED ; One 
 
 God ; one Ruler ; one Sun of Righteousness ; enlighten- 
 ing, warming, and quickening, the innumerable beings 
 of which it is composed. Diversities, indeed, endless 
 diversities, of his agency, exist throughout the different 
 parts of the work ; but they are mere changes of the 
 same light ; the varying colours and splendours of the 
 same glorious Sun." (Theology, p. 134.) 
 
 Quotations might be multiplied, all containing the 
 same substantial statements, that the visible creation 
 speaks an impressive language, that God is a perfectly 
 good Being, without any contradiction ; and that his 
 immutable goodness is " displayed" throughout the 
 whole universe. 
 
 But without continuing to gaze on the vast splendours 
 of central suns and surrounding worlds, let us weigh 
 the evidence presented by the consciousness of the mind. 
 What did Adam find his condition to be, before his 
 Maker's workmanship was injured by sin? The very 
 act of healthful breathing, he found to be an exercise 
 of happiness. His eyes, his ears, and other senses, he 
 found to be wonderful mediums of enjoyment, while 
 the beauties of external nature, and the harmony of 
 sounds, delightfully corresponded with the structure of 
 his newly created faculties. His mental energies, exer- 
 cised in thinking, and treasuring up knowledge from the 
 great volume of nature, constituted a more sublime 
 9 e 
 
98 ' THE CONSTITUTION OF NATURE. 
 
 felicity still ; and above all, the exercise of esteem, reve- 
 rence, confidence, and love,' towards the great Author 
 of all things. Add to this, that God made a helpmate 
 for him, whereby was laid the foundation of social hap- 
 piness. A garden, of God's own right-hand planting, 
 was prepared for them, in which, warmed by the gen- 
 tle beams of the sun, and fanned by the mild air of 
 Paradise, they had every variety of fruit, calculated to 
 afford enjoyment, and to nourish their constitution. 
 How is it possible to take even a slight glance at a 
 scene like this, without perceiving indubitable proofs of 
 Divine benevolence, and of nothing else ? In regard to 
 the subsequent ravages of sin, and the consequent inter- 
 ruption of original happiness, these matters are to come 
 under review in a following part of this discussion. 
 
 It is incumbent on us first to examine how happiness 
 was provided for in our original constitution, and in the 
 constitution of external nature ; a brief specification of 
 which may be exhibited as follows : 
 
 First, intelligence, with the capacity to advance in 
 knowledge, is a very great source of enjoyment, as all 
 men know by experience, so far as they have properly 
 exercised their mental faculties. The means of know- 
 ledge are all around us, and are constantly open to our 
 inspection ; and it appears evident, from the vast com- 
 pass of the universe, that provision is made for the en- 
 largement of this felicity without end : — all nature regu- 
 larly conducting us to an increasing knowledge of the 
 beauty and glory of the Eternal Mind. 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF NATURE. 99 
 
 Secondly, our agency, or freedom of will, is another 
 gift bestowed on ns by infinite goodness. This power 
 is essential to three great purposes: 1. to furnish each 
 individual with the happiness of spontaneous action; 
 2. to give each the capacity to contribute to the good 
 of society ; and 3. to render both men and angels amia- 
 ble in the sight of their Maker, as his cheerful, free, and 
 voluntary servants and children. Without the gift of 
 moral agency, all these great and valuable ends would 
 have been prevented; and both men and angels would 
 have been placed on a level with brute creatures in the 
 scale of existence. 
 
 Thirdly, our conscience, or moral discernment, is the 
 result of pure goodness on the part of Him who formed 
 our intellectual constitution. Without this, the distinc- 
 tion between right and wrong, the beauty of moral prin- 
 ciples, and the glory of rectitude, would be to us un- 
 known. We should have no capacity for either the 
 sweet and heart-cheering consciousness of integrity 
 within ourselves, or the sublime pleasure of appreciating 
 the character of virtue in others. The testimony of a 
 good conscience, and all the rejoicing which results 
 from that testimony, would be unpossessed and un- 
 known by man. Fellowship with God, and admiration 
 of the holy grandeur of his character, would be entirely 
 prevented ; and consequently, we should be for ever de- 
 prived of the very highest kind of mental enjoyment. 
 
 Fourthly, our social capacity, including all the be- 
 nevolent affections, is a wonderful proof of our heavenly 
 
100 THE CONSTITUTION OF NATURE. 
 
 Father's good-will to his intelligent creation. The hap- 
 piness of loving and being loved, of exercising mutual 
 confidence, and interchanging friendly sentiments and 
 affections, is a happiness proved by constant experience ; 
 and none are destitute of it, excepting so far as their 
 dispositions have become corrupted by the sentiments 
 and feelings of malevolence. 
 
 Fifthly, another proof of heavenly kindness, is our 
 being endowed with mental taste; that is, our having 
 the capacity of pleasure from the contemplation of beau- 
 ty, novelty, and grandeur; while the whole creation 
 abounds with objects beautiful, new, and grand. It 
 would probably require ten thousand years for us to 
 explore the beauties of one world; and how many 
 times ten thousand worlds our great Creator has in his 
 possession, containing new beauties, still more sublime 
 and grand than those contained in the world which is 
 now inhabited by man, we know not, but perad venture 
 we shall know hereafter. 
 
 If we add to all this, the senses and appetites of the 
 body, whereby we are brought into immediate contact 
 with the external world, and endowed with so many 
 inlets of enjoyment to the mind, we are constrained to 
 wonder at the divine skill of the Almighty, and to adore 
 Him for the riches of his heavenly bounty; and we 
 have cause to regard with pity the ignorance which 
 overlooks these provisions of divine goodness, and with 
 contempt and indignation, the malignity which despises 
 them. 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF NATURE. 101 
 
 Now it will be readily admitted, that it was right for 
 our Creator to endow us with these faculties, and that 
 it is right for his creatures to exercise their given pow- 
 ers, and to have the enjoyment which their proper use 
 is calculated to furnish ; whence it follows, that wrong 
 conduct, being the opposite of right, is that conduct 
 which tends to derange and pervert our original consti- 
 tution. As the due exercise of our capacities and pow- 
 ers naturally produces happiness, so the perversion of 
 them will inevitably eventuate in misery. 
 
 That sin, in its own nature, produces misery, and 
 that this is the precise measure of its turpitude, is a 
 truth of immense importance ; and the contemplation 
 of it is necessary, to clear our views of the divine 
 government, to remove out of our way innumerable 
 obscurities and contradictions, and to aid us in forming 
 an harmonious and consistent system of theology. It 
 must therefore be sustained by authorities. 
 
 Dr. Dwight says, " It appears to me evident, that the 
 adoption of truth, or falsehood, by the Creator, must be 
 followed by exactly the same effects, which they pro- 
 duce in us. In the former case, he must regard him- 
 self with entire complacency or self-approbation ; in the 
 latter, with an irresistible consciousness of turpitude 
 and unworthiness. An unlimited sense of excellence 
 on the one hand, accompanied of course with unlimited 
 happiness ; on the other, a boundless sense of turpitude, 
 accompanied, for aught that I can see, with boundless 
 shame and wretchedness." (Theology, Vol. I. p. 206.) 
 9* 
 
102 THE CONSTITUTION OF NATURE. 
 
 Dr. Dwight says, again, " In the Scriptures we are 
 taught, in the clearest manner, that sin is an universal 
 opposition to God, and an universal hostility to his be- 
 nevolent designs ; and that it is universally mischievous 
 to the well-being of the sinner himself, and of his fel- 
 low-creatures. Thus we learn, that it is a direct war 
 upon the Creator, and his creatures ; a malignant con- 
 tention against all that is good, and the voluntary source 
 of all that is evil." (Theology, Vol. I. p. 182.) Again: 
 " That disposition in his creatures, which is opposite to 
 his own, is in itself odious, in proportion as his is amia- 
 ble ; and voluntarily endeavours to oppose, and to frus- 
 trate his purposes ; that is, to diminish, or destroy, the 
 boundless good which he has begun to accomplish. In 
 this view, the rebellion of sinners assumes a most odious 
 and dreadful aspect ; and is here seen to be a direct 
 hostility against the benevolent character and designs 
 of God, and against the well-being of his intelligent 
 creation." (Vol. I. p. 191.) 
 
 Thus it plainly appears, that the great evil of sin con- 
 sists solely in the malignant hostility of the sinner against 
 God's plan of happiness, and in its being the source of 
 misery. Will not any man find it a puzzling matter to 
 inform us in what else the evil of sin consists 1 
 
 The same great author exclaims, " What a dreadful 
 instrument would Omnipotence be in the hands of an 
 unjust being ! What evils must not all creatures fear ! 
 How instantaneously would all hope vanish, all safety 
 cease, all good perish ! The universe would become a 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF NATURE. 103 
 
 desert, a dungeon, an immense region of mourning, 
 lamentation, and ico." (p. 199.) And would the author- 
 ity of such a being deserve to be regarded ? Would 
 there be any evil in opposing it 1 If not, the sole rea- 
 son why it is a great evil to act in opposition to the au- 
 thority of God, is that his authority is constantly regu- 
 lated by justice and benevolence; that is, constantly 
 defending and promoting happiness. 
 
 The Rev. Richard Watson says, " It is certain that 
 virtuous affections and actions have been enjoined upon 
 all rational creatures under the 'general name of righte- 
 ousness, and that their contraries have been prohibited. 
 It is a matter also of constant experience and observa- 
 tion, that the good of society is promoted by the one, 
 and injured by the other; and also that every individual 
 derives, by the very constitution of his nature, benefit 
 and happiness from rectitude ; injury and misery from 
 vice. This constitution of human nature is therefore 
 an indication, that the Maker and Ruler of men formed 
 them with the intent that they should avoid vice, and 
 practise virtue ; and that the former is the object of his 
 aversion, the latter of his regard. On this principle all 
 the laws which Almighty God has enacted for the gov- 
 ernment of mankind, have been constructed." (Insti- 
 tutes, p. 221.) That is, actions have been prohibited 
 solely because they produce misery ; and others are 
 enjoined, because they are necessary to happiness. 
 Again : " The creation of beings capable of choice, 
 seems necessarily to have involved the possibility of 
 
104 THE CONSTITUTION OF NATURE. 
 
 volitions and acts contrary to the will of the Creator, 
 and consequently, it involved a liability to misery. To 
 prevent this, both justice and benevolence were con- 
 cerned. Opposition to the will of God, which will is 
 the natural law of a creature, must be the source of 
 misery to the offender, and that independent of direct 
 punishment. This is manifest. Some end was proposed 
 in creation, or it could not have been a work of wisdom ; 
 the felicity of the creature must have been proposed as 
 an end, or creation could not have been a display of 
 goodness. The end proposed in the forming of intelli- 
 gent creatures could only be answered by their con- 
 tinual compliance with the will of God. This implied 
 both the power and the exercise of holiness, and with 
 (hat the felicity of the creature was necessarily con- 
 nected. It was adapted to a certain end, and in attain- 
 ing that its happiness was secured. To be disobedient 
 was to set itself in opposition to God, and was, there- 
 fore, to frustrate his benevolent intentions as to its hap- 
 piness, and to become miserable from its very hostility 
 to God, and the disorder arising from the misapplication 
 of the powers with which it had been endowed. To 
 prevent all these evils, and to secure the purposes for 
 which creative power was exerted, were the ends, 
 therefore, of that administration which arose out of the 
 existence of moral agents." (Institutes, p. 367.) 
 
 From these authorities, to which others might be 
 added, we appear to be fairly entitled to the following 
 conclusions : First, that Almighty God, in his original 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF NATURE. 105 
 
 creation, established a complete plan of universal hap- 
 piness. Secondly, that all his subsequent conduct, in 
 giving law to his intelligent creatures, was to maintain 
 this plan, and to prohibit every action that would tend 
 to injure it, or to oppose its operation. Thirdly, that 
 sin, in its own nature, destroys happiness, and tends to 
 universal misery ; and that this is the sole ground of its 
 criminality. If any man believes in some other ground 
 of the guilt of sin, it might be well for him to cast some 
 light upon the subject, by giving an intelligible explana- 
 tion of his views. 
 
 Now if it be true, that all happiness is to be enjoyed 
 within the boundaries of right ; and if God gave moral 
 faculties to man, that he might discern these bounda- 
 ries, and feel his obligation to regard them ; then it fol- 
 lows, as above observed, that the gift of conscience is a 
 proof, among many others, of the pure goodness of our 
 Creator. His enforcing obligation upon this moral dis- 
 cernment, by the exercise of ruling power, and even by 
 the whole penal energies of his administration, far from 
 proving any deficiency in benevolence, will be a perfect 
 illustration of it, as I trust will be seen in the course of 
 our subsequent inquiries and investigations. 
 
SECTION III. 
 
 Nature and Tendency of the Divine Law. 
 
 The proposition which we assume, is that God gave 
 law to his intelligent creatures, because he knew that 
 one kind of conduct, in its own nature, would produce 
 misery, while the opposite would tend to maintain the 
 happiness which had been provided for in the original 
 constitution of the universe. If all kinds of action were 
 alike indifferent to happiness, no law would be neces- 
 sary; and neither wisdom, justice, nor benevolence, 
 could have any influence in its enactment. If all ac- 
 tions were alike, as to their influence upon happiness, 
 an abridgment of liberty, by law, would not only be 
 unnecessary, but unkind. For why limit the exercise 
 of agency, in any manner or degree, if there be no ne- 
 cessity for it ? If all kinds of conduct in creatures had 
 been originally indifferent to these essential purposes, it 
 would follow, not only that the law was given for the 
 mere display of authority, but that it was the very thing 
 which made an inroad into that universal enjoyment, 
 which, without it, would have remained for ever unin- 
 terrupted. But if, on the contrary, opposite kinds of 
 conduct would, in the nature of things, have produced 
 opposite results, then it required all the wisdom and 
 goodness of God, so to form the law, that obedience 
 
 (106) 
 
TENDENCY OF THE DIVINE LAW. 107 
 
 would invariably maintain the common welfare. On 
 this ground it is easy to perceive that the law of God 
 furnishes a distinct and impressive argument, in support 
 of the great truth which it is the present purpose to 
 illustrate and to defend. 
 
 Law is a rule of action prescribed and enforced by 
 authority. The Being who gave felicity to creatures, 
 and who knows with infallible certainty on what its 
 perpetuity depends, has a right to enjoin that line of 
 conduct which is essential to its continuance ; and to 
 prohibit the contrary. 
 
 The great principle of his law, we are assured, is 
 love. This is an affection which, as consciousness tes- 
 tifies, is a source of enjoyment in the centre of the 
 mind itself, and which disposes the mind to communi- 
 cate happiness to others. The same Authority which 
 enjoins love, prohibits malice. Wherefore 1 Exactly 
 because the former is the source of all happiness, and 
 the latter the source of all misery. For this reason, 
 and this alone, the former is right, and the latter is 
 wrong ; and on this ground the one is commanded, and 
 the other is forbidden. Wherefore, the law is holy, and 
 the commandment holy, and just and good. Then to 
 alter it, and make it the reverse of what it is, would be 
 to make it an unholy, an unjust, and a bad law. Would 
 it be possible for any being in existence to enact and 
 enforce such a law, without being a tyrant 1 
 
 But where is this holy, and just and good law of God 
 to be found? In the Bible. Its principles were en- 
 
108 TENDENCY OF THE DIVINE LAW. 
 
 graven on tables of stone ; and the writings of the pro- 
 phets and apostles are a luminous commentary upon 
 those principles. The Divine Master himself explained 
 it ; and assured us that on two great moral axioms, the 
 whole of its details were suspended. Thou shalt love 
 the Lord thy God with all thy heart ; and thou shalt 
 love thy neighbour as thyself ? Why 1 Because thy 
 God is the Fountain of all happiness, and thy neighbour 
 is an equal recipient of it with thyself. Therefore the 
 love of universal happiness, constitutes the essence of 
 the Divine government. God demands the entire love 
 of the heart, because He is infinitely worthy of it, and 
 because the exercise of it is essential to the well-being 
 of every creature. If there were any vestige of injus- 
 tice, cruelty, or partiality in God, then this law would 
 require us to love injustice, cruelty, and partiality, with 
 all our heart. If so, would not the law itself have a 
 corrupting tendency upon our faculties, and lay the 
 foundation of eternal misery ? 
 
 In regard to the second branch of the law, it is thus 
 commented en by the apostle : " Love worketh no ill to 
 his neighbour ; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." 
 This plainly implies, that the sum total of the prohi- 
 bitory part of the law, in relation to our neighbour, is 
 that we shall do no ill to him ; that is, do no action that 
 will interrupt his happiness. If we follow out the law 
 in all its details, and scrutinize its particular precepts, 
 we shall find that this is the principle of the whole, 
 from which there is no deviation. Such a law clearly 
 
TENDENCY OF THE DIVINE LAW. 109 
 
 shows the character of the Almighty to be most lovely ; 
 and the Book through which it runs is thereby proved, 
 to every candid mind, to be of Divine original. 
 
 From the beginning to the end of that holy Book, all 
 cruelty, injustice, unmercifulness and deceitfulness, are 
 prohibited in the most solemn manner; we are com- 
 manded to be merciful, even as our Father in heaven is 
 merciful; to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk hum- 
 bly with our God ; to do good to our fellow-creatures 
 to the uttermost of our power, and to avoid every thing 
 that would injure them, or interrupt their tranquillity. 
 Now to suppose God. thus carefully to promote these 
 dispositions and practices among his creatures, and at 
 the same time to suppose Him to exercise the opposite 
 himself, is an insult to common sense, and implies a di- 
 rect charge of hypocrisy and tyranny against " the 
 high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity." 
 
 From what has been said, it follows, that authority in 
 God is that which commands us to be happy, and which 
 forbids every thing that would lead to misery : conse- 
 quently, divine sovereignty is nothing more nor less than 
 the authority of infinite benevolence, requiring the main- 
 tenance of that plan of universal happiness which it 
 had previously established. We have therefore the 
 same reason to love God for the exercise of his autho- 
 rity, that we have to love Him for giving us life, and 
 preparing for us the happiness of life eternal. 
 10 
 
SECTION IV. 
 The Gospel. 
 
 It is so far from being the nature of benevolence to 
 love sin, that the more pure and ardent it is, the greater 
 and more intense will be its abhorrence of that which 
 is evil. Nevertheless, it exercises good-will to the sin- 
 ner, and delights to pursue every just measure to accom- 
 plish his reformation, and thereby to deliver him from 
 his misery. 
 
 In regard to the difficulties connected with the intro- 
 duction of moral evil, they are to be considered after- 
 wards. We are now to view God's treatment of sin- 
 ners, as a distinct proof of his essential kindness of 
 character. He loved us, when he established the foun- 
 dation of felicity in our original constitution ; he loved 
 us, when he gave a holy law to guard and perpetuate 
 that happiness ; but more than all this, " God so loved 
 the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that who- 
 soever belie veth on him should not perish, but have 
 everlasting life. Herein is love, not that we loved God, 
 but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the Saviour 
 of the world." 
 
 This wonderful process demonstrated how much God 
 was in earnest to bring us back to happiness ; how he 
 could condescend, how much he could endure, to bless 
 and to save us. To say the process was unnecessary — 
 
 (110) 
 
THE GOSPEL. Ill 
 
 that it was a mere empty show of kindness, that meant 
 nothing, and accomplished nothing — alas ! this is to in- 
 sult the infinite tenderness of love. It is to charge 
 Heaven with crocodile tears, and with hypocritical 
 agonies ! 
 
 In Jesus Christ the amiable character of God was 
 made visible. He tabernacled among us, and we beheld 
 his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Fa- 
 ther, full of grace and truth. He was as a lamb, with- 
 out blemish, and without spot. He said, I am meek and 
 lowly in heart — kind, condescending, and gracious, — 
 and whosoever hath seen me, hath seen the Father. 
 That is, were the Father to become visible in any other 
 way, so that you could behold the disposition of his 
 mind displayed, he would appear exactly as you see me, 
 with the same holy mildness, and the same unwavering 
 opposition to all sin. This condescending method where- 
 by the Deity brought himself near to us, that we might 
 converse with God, and he with us, as a man converses 
 face to face with his friend, is an advantage of unspeak- 
 able value. And what an eternal honour it is, and will 
 be, to the human race, that God and man are united in 
 such a wonderful manner ! 
 
 What an unspeakable advantage it is to mankind, to 
 have such a Teacher, such a faithful and true witness, 
 who came to confirm the promises made unto the 
 fathers ; and also such a model for our imitation ! The 
 great Author of our being came down in human form, 
 
112 THE GOSPEL. 
 
 not only to teach us what is right and good, but also to 
 show us how to perform it. 
 
 The distinguishing proof of goodness, however, in 
 this economy, consisted in this — that " he gave himself 
 for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity : — he 
 died, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to 
 God." Through this sacrificial offering of himself, he 
 procured forgiveness for guilty man, in a way which 
 secured the honour of God in the exercise of clemen- 
 cy, by magnifying his law, and sustaining the interests 
 of universal society. 
 
 The peculiar displays of divine goodness in this re- 
 deeming plan may be summed up in the following man- 
 ner : 
 
 1. Life and immortality are brought to light through 
 the gospel Full assurance is given, that we shall live 
 for ever ; and that through Jesus Christ the works of the 
 devil shall be destroyed. Ample provision is made for 
 the renovation of the soul, for the resurrection of the 
 body from the dead, and for our establishment in the 
 perfection and glory of an endless life. 
 
 2. Repentance and remission of sins is granted to 
 Jews and Gentiles. The chief of sinners are not ex- 
 cluded from this gracious provision. Sins that were 
 red like crimson, and fearfully augmented in number, 
 and which exposed the sinner to the awful miseries of 
 perdition, are freely and fully forgiven, on condition of 
 repentance, faith in Christ, and submission to his divine 
 government. To bestow eternal happiness upon holy 
 
THE GOSPEL. 113 
 
 angels who never offended, is pure benevolence : then 
 what must it be to pardon the guilty, and to elevate to 
 the enjoyments of heavenly blessedness those who de- 
 served the damnation of hell ? 
 
 3. The gift of the Holy Spirit. This is a heavenly 
 energy from God, whereby the lusts of the flesh are 
 counteracted, our polluted nature is sanctified, and our 
 spirits made " strong in the Lord, and in the power of 
 his might." This brings an assurance of the Divine 
 favour ; for " the Spirit of God doth bear witness with 
 our spirits, that we are the children of God." 
 
 4. Adoption into the Divine family. " Behold, what 
 manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that 
 we should be called the sons of God ! Truly, our fel- 
 lowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus 
 Christ." How wonderful, that the holy God should take 
 to his bosom, in the most intimate fellowship, those who 
 had made themselves children of the devil by wicked 
 works ! The plan of redemption was intended to open 
 the way for Him honourably to do so ; and therefore 
 redemption was a proof of love and kindness unutter- 
 able. 
 
 5. The privilege of becoming joint heirs ivith Christ. 
 Who is Christ I He is the Son of God, and the heir 
 of all things. For sinners to be regenerated and made 
 joint heirs with Him, is an honour and a privilege which 
 no language can express ; for it implies the full posses- 
 sion of God, and of all God's creation, so far as we 
 shall have capacity to enjoy. This must be an aston- 
 
 10* £* 
 
114 THE GOSPEL. 
 
 ishment to all heaven for ever and ever ; and the ground 
 of the astonishment is precisely the length and breadth, 
 and depth and height of the love of Christ, which passeth 
 knoivledge. When redeemed millions shall thus he filled 
 with all the fulness of God, they will inquire with inef- 
 fable amazement, Why is it thus with us ? and the only 
 answer they will find through the depths of eternal 
 duration will be — there is none good but one, that 
 is god. They find themselves thus honoured, and thus 
 filled with all possible felicity, because unfathomable 
 goodness would have it so. The same kind hand of 
 mercy is reached forth to all the fallen race ; for " there 
 is no respect of persons with God." He is " not willing 
 that any should perish, but that all should come to re- 
 pentance." The only reason, therefore, why any are 
 excluded from salvation, is that they " despise the riches 
 of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering ; 
 not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth them to 
 repentance ; but after their hardness and impenitent 
 heart, treasure up unto themselves wrath against the 
 day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment 
 of God." 
 
 The conclusion is therefore most satisfactory and in- 
 dubitable, that such an immense provision for our glory 
 and felicity, made by such a wonderful process as the 
 incarnation, labours, sufferings, death, and resurrection 
 of the Son of God, is a perfect demonstration of a be- 
 nevolence that is both infinite and eternal. The gospel 
 brings the truth of this into the empire of sin and 
 
TESTIMONY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 115 
 
 misery ; and evinces, that the floods of ungodliness and 
 crime cannot drown the Divine love, nor in any degree 
 diminish the Almighty's kindness and good-will for all 
 creatures that are capable of virtue and happiness. It 
 takes our "feet out of a horrible pit, and out of the 
 miry clay, and sets them upon a rock." It " establishes 
 our goings, and puts a new song in our mouth, even 
 praises unto our God ;" a song this, which will never 
 grow old, but which will have new notes added to its 
 beauty, harmony and glory, while immortality endures. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 Direct Testimony of the Scriptures. 
 
 The first thing revealed in the Bible, is that the reve- 
 lation which it contains comes from the Creator of the 
 world. In the beginning God created the heaven and 
 the earth. 
 
 And what kind of a work does the Bible say our 
 Creator has performed ? It says " God called the dry 
 land Earth ; and the gathering together of the waters 
 called he Seas : and God saw that it was good. And 
 God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it 
 was very good." All that God made, all the universe 
 of matter and of mind, was originally very good : — that 
 is, was in its own nature calculated to produce happi- 
 
116 TESTIMONY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 
 
 ness, and nothing else; for it is presumed none will 
 affirm, that any thing which naturally produces misery, 
 is very good. In the last book in the Bible it is said — 
 For thy pleasure they are, and were created. Whence 
 it follows, that God intended all his works should con- 
 tribute to happiness ; and he made them very good, be- 
 cause it is his pleasure that others with himself should 
 have all possible means of felicity. 
 
 Moses said, / beseech thee, shew me thy glory. By 
 this he meant, give me a clear view of thy character. 
 God answered, " I will make all my goodness pass be- 
 fore thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord 
 before thee." What was this ? " The Lord, the Lord 
 God, merciful and gracious, long suffering and abun- 
 dant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, 
 forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that 
 will by no means clear the guilty." (Exod. xxxiii. 18 — 
 xxxiv. 6, 7.) Again : " Thus saith the Lord, Let not 
 the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty 
 man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in 
 his riches : but let him that glorieth, glory in this, that 
 he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord 
 which exercise loving kindness, judgment and righteous- 
 ness, in the earth : for in these things I delight, saith the 
 Lord." That is, I delight in exercising them myself, 
 and in seeing them exercised by all others. Is not this 
 an unmixed character of perfect goodness? 
 
 Without quoting the hundreds of passages which de- 
 clare directly that God is a good Being, let us attend to 
 
TESTIMONY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 117 
 
 our Saviour's own account of the matter. " A certain 
 ruler asked him, saying, Good master, what shall I do 
 to inherit eternal life 1 And Jesus said unto him, Why 
 callest thou me good 1 none is good, save one, that is 
 God." The ruler addressed him as a man only, and in 
 that character he refused to be called good ; because, 
 though in a comparative sense there are good men, yet 
 in comparison of God none other deserves to be called 
 good ; so full and perfect is His goodness, above that 
 of all created beings. " O righteous Father," said Jesus, 
 " the world hath not known thee : but I have known 
 thee." (John, xvii. 25.) " No man hath seen God at 
 any time ; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom 
 of the Father, he hath declared him." "And we be- 
 held his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the 
 Father, full of grace and truth." (John, i. 14.) All true 
 glory, then, is contained in the fulness of grace and 
 truth. And in what way does the apostle John say the 
 only begotten Son declared the Father unto us ? After 
 attending to the public and private instructions of his 
 Master for years, he tell us what is the sum total of the 
 matter: " This then is the message which we have heard 
 of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in 
 him is no darkness at all." (1 John, i. 5.) By the word 
 light he means a pure character of benevolence, accord- 
 ing to his repeated declaration afterwards, that God is 
 love. 
 
 The word holiness, as applied to God, means the per- 
 fection of all moral excellence. He commonly called 
 
118 TESTIMONY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 
 
 himself The Holy One of Israel, and is expressly said to 
 be glorious in holiness. Now as he showed to Moses 
 that his glory consisted in being abundant in goodness 
 and truth ; and as he is glorious in holiness, it follows, 
 that the word holiness signifies the abundance of good- 
 ness and truth. Accordingly, the unceasing song of 
 heaven is, " Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, 
 which was, and is, and is to come — Thou art worthy 
 to receive glory, and honour, and power ; for thou hast 
 created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and 
 were created." (Rev. iv. 8 — 11.) 
 
 Now is it possible for language to express any thing 
 more clearly than these inspired writers have stated the 
 soul-inspiring truth, that God is a Being of an unmixed 
 character of perfect goodness? Unless we believe, 
 therefore, that the Bible contradicts itself, it is not pos- 
 sible that any other passages in the same book, con- 
 cerning wrath or vengeance, or any thing else, can 
 have a meaning opposite to the views above given. 
 Human language is equivocal ; but except it be so ex- 
 plained as to leave nothing equivocal in the character 
 of Him who made us, we shall find ourselves at sea, 
 without a chart or a compass. 
 
SECTION VI 
 
 Religious Experience. 
 
 If God not only requires us to do good, but actually 
 transforms us, by the renewing of our minds, does not 
 this abundantly exhibit the reality of his own holy and 
 gracious disposition 1 
 
 True Christians have " the love of God shed abroad 
 in their hearts," and have become " partakers of the 
 Divine nature," by being " created anew in Christ 
 Jesus ;" and they are reinstated in the image of God, 
 which consists in righteousness and true holiness. Will 
 they not, therefore, with one mind and one mouth (or 
 testimony) * glorify God, by bearing witness that his 
 Spirit inspires them with universal love 1 Their good- 
 will embraces the whole family of man ; while they feel 
 themselves constrained to " lay aside all malice, and all 
 guile, and envies, and hypocrisies, and all evil speak- 
 ings" Will it be said that God gives them a charac- 
 ter different from his own, in that very process which 
 is intended to restore them to his own image ? If not, 
 then religious experience, as it comes from God, proves" 
 that he himself is entirely free from all malice, and all 
 guile : — without partiality and without hypocrisy. 
 
 The deeper and more intimate the communion is, 
 which a Christian enjoys with his Maker, the more 
 clear and full is the impression on his consciousness, 
 
 (119) 
 
120 RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 
 
 that God is the source of light, and love, and purity, and 
 happiness. As well might any one attempt to persuade 
 him that he sees darkness in the sun at noonday, as to 
 try to make him believe there is any thing else than 
 boundless good-will in the mind of the Deity. 
 
 One of the disciples said, " Lord, how is it that thou 
 wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world ? 
 Jesus answered, If any man love me, my Father will 
 love him ; and we will come and make our abode with 
 him." This is an internal manifestation to the con- 
 sciousness of the soul, that God exercises parental good- 
 will to us, and enables us to make returns of senti- 
 mental gratitude and devotion. The reality of this in- 
 ternal manifestation, as it is sometimes given, a man can 
 no more doubt, than he can doubt the presence and 
 operation of the solar rays. 
 
 But this spiritual light, it may be said, however clear 
 to the person in whom it resides, affords no evidence 
 whatever to others. This is not exactly correct. So 
 far as persons are renewed in the spirit of their minds, 
 and give evidence of it by a corresponding holiness of 
 life and conversation, so far their regenerated charac- 
 ters afford proof to others, that they have been with 
 Jesus. Hence he says, " Let your light so shine before 
 men, that they may see your good works, and glorify 
 your Father who is in heaven." How will men glorify 
 Him ? By acknowledging and embracing the glory of 
 his character, as it is thus manifested by its transform- 
 ing influence on the minds and hearts of true Chris- 
 
RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 121 
 
 tians. As these are made good men by the influences 
 of God, and are changed into the same image from 
 glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord, how 
 plain and convincing a proof is this to all spectators, 
 that the Fountain must be glorious, from which such 
 streams as these proceed ! 
 
 It will avail nothing to say that this is all enthusiasm ; 
 for so far as the men in question prove by their actions, 
 that they are men of strict veracity and integrity, and 
 that on all other subjects they " speak forth the words 
 of truth and soberness," so far their character exhibits 
 intelligible and rational evidence, such as ought to con- 
 vince all candid minds, that they are not enthusiasts. 
 Their testimony of God is every way worthy of Him ; 
 for when they say God has done these great things for 
 them, the uprightness of their lives proves the sincerity 
 of their declaration, and their utter aversion to all 
 falsehood and delusion ; therefore let all who see their 
 good works yield to the truth, and glorify their Father 
 which is in heaven. 
 
 If too many professors live beneath their privilege, 
 neither having the evidence within themselves, nor ex- 
 hibiting the fruits of it to others, this is no proof that 
 the light itself is not clear ; but that these men " love 
 darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil." 
 An atheist sees no evidence of God in the heavens ; not 
 because there is none, but because the clouds of pride 
 and prejudice within him exclude the evidence from his 
 mental discernment. In like manner a formal Christian 
 11 f 
 
122 RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 
 
 walketh in darkness, when he might have " the light of 
 the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus 
 Christ;" but he "will not come to the light, lest his 
 deeds should be reproved." 
 
 True Christians not only prove the Divine goodness 
 by the uprightness of their lives, but also by their com- 
 posure and confidence in a dying hour. Thousands of 
 them have exhibited clear signs of exultation in their 
 last moments ; and none were ever known to express 
 regret and apprehension at that period, except for not 
 having walked with God as they ought to have done. 
 Is not this a clear experimental proof that God favours 
 the virtuous, and gives them delightful assurances of 
 his paternal complacency? None but a good Being 
 would thus favour the good ; and therefore the expiring 
 tranquillity of the devoted followers of God is a closing 
 demonstration of the essential excellency of oar God. 
 
 The religion which is established in the soul by the 
 influence of God, is full of mercy and good fruits, with- 
 out partiality, and without hypocrisy. The more the 
 soul becomes like its Creator in disposition, the more it 
 abhors every species of deceit, sectarian bigotry, injus- 
 tice and cruelty. It feels a holy and inexpressible 
 hatred of sin, and at the same time a glowing love and 
 compassion for the sinner. The regenerated man finds 
 his love for universal happiness to be the centre of all 
 his desires, purposes and actions ; and it is because sin- 
 ners destroy much good, and because their punishment 
 will be necessary to protect the good which they would 
 
RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 123 
 
 otherwise destroy, that he becomes reconciled to their 
 punishment. There is in him no sentiment of revenge 
 or retaliation ; and no feeling of malevolence to be gra- 
 tified at another's wo. He is conscious of no bitterness 
 or resentment towards any oi'der of sinners in the uni- 
 verse ; but on the contrary, is filled with every senti- 
 ment and feeling which would cause him to rejoice with 
 joy unspeakable, to see all created beings " love the 
 Lord their God with all their heart," and enjoy a " ful- 
 ness of pleasure at his right hand for evermore." 
 
 The plain conclusion is, therefore, that as these men 
 are filled with such sentiments by the operation of God, 
 and as this influence is intended to make them partakers 
 of his own moral image, He of course is himself with- 
 out any duplicity or contradiction, and with an infi- 
 nite fulness and perfection, of the same invariable dis- 
 position. A soul filled with the love of God, has there- 
 by an internal evidence of the moral perfection of the 
 Supreme Being, which is like the brilliant demonstra- 
 tions of unclouded sunshine; and to all eternity will 
 this blaze of truth and love shine forth, and fill the hea- 
 venly regions with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 
 
 That a good man, as he approaches heaven in dispo- 
 sition and in prospect, has a corresponding enlargement 
 of view, and permanency of glowing consciousness, 
 that God is an uncompounded fountain of loveliness, is 
 proved by Christian experience throughout the world. 
 But the proof must be specified by particular instances. 
 Let one suffice to close the present section. The Rev. 
 
124 RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 
 
 John Fletcher, who was one of the most devoted and 
 amiable men of God that ever lived upon earth, preached 
 a sermon after being taken with his death sickness. 
 " Mercy," we are informed, " was the subject of his 
 discourse ; and while he expatiated on this glorious at- 
 tribute of the Deity, its unsearchable extent, its eternal 
 duration, and its astonishing effects, he appeared to be 
 carried above all the fears and feelings of mortality." 
 Mrs. Fletcher says, " On Wednesday, he told me he 
 had received such a manifestation of the full meaning 
 of those words, God is love, as he could never be able 
 to express. It fills my heart, said he, every moment : 
 — God is love ! Shout ! shout aloud ! I want a gust of 
 praise to go to the ends of the earth !" 
 
 Mrs. Fletcher tells us that " He always took a pecu- 
 liar pleasure in repeating or hearing those words : 
 
 ' Jesus' blood through earth and skies, 
 Mercy, free, boundless mercy, cries !' 
 
 Whenever I repeated them to him, he would answer, 
 
 1 Boundless ! boundless ! boundless !' He now added, 
 
 though not without much difficulty, 
 
 1 Mercy's full power I soon shall prove, 
 Loved with an everlasting love!'"* 
 
 We conclude, therefore, that religious experience illus- 
 trates and confirms all other kinds of evidence, in proof 
 of th$ essential and unmixed benevolence of the Deity ; 
 and that it increases in brightness and glory, as the 
 saints of God draw near to the sublime realities of im- 
 mortality. 
 
 * Benson's Life of Fletcher, p. 367, &c. 
 
PART THIRD 
 
 NO PROVIDENTIAL ACTS OF OUR CREATOR, AND 
 NO PROVISIONS OF HIS MORAL GOVERNMENT, 
 WHEN CORRECTLY UNDERSTOOD, AFFORD THE 
 LEAST EVIDENCE OF DUPLICITY IN HIS CHA- 
 RACTER. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Varieties of capacity, and original circumstances of our 
 existence, afford no such evidence. 
 
 That man was not made a greater, wiser or stronger 
 creature than he was, is no objection to Divine good- 
 ness, unless it can be proved that the best plan possible 
 would have been to create one order of creatures only, 
 endowed with equal capacities. But there may arise a 
 vastly greater amount of happiness from a gradation 
 of orders, of various capacities, than from the plan of 
 entire equality ; and this variety may be for ever ne- 
 cessary for the improvement and welfare of all. Who 
 but God can have a complete knowledge concerning 
 the possibilities of being ? " Who hath directed the 
 Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught 
 
 1 1 * (125)- 
 
126 VARIETIES OF CAPACITY. 
 
 him ? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed 
 him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught 
 him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of under- 
 standing? Behold, the nations are as a drop of a 
 bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the 
 balance : behold, he taketh isles as a very little thing." 
 (Isa. xl. 13.) 
 
 Now if it be the best plan to have various orders of 
 creatures, of different grades and powers, the contrary 
 of which it is impossible to prove, man must come in 
 somewhere ; and who will presume that the Almighty 
 has put him in the wrong place ? If there is want of 
 goodness in not placing us above Angels, what a great 
 deficiency of it must there have been, in placing so 
 many animals below us ! " Shall the thing formed, say 
 to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus V* 
 If he placed all creatures in a state of happiness, the 
 life of every one w r as a distinct proof of his goodness. 
 
 It may be objected, however, that there was a want 
 of goodness in forming us with a capacity of pain, or a 
 liability to fall into misery. But so far as we under- 
 stand our own nature, we know that the same faculty 
 which, when rightly directed, gives enjoyment, will, 
 when perverted or oppressed, be the means of unhappi- 
 ness. This is true of our senses, of our appetites, of our 
 mental and moral faculties. What greater source of 
 enjoyment than a good conscience ? And what misery 
 on earth more pungent, than that which arises from the 
 same moral power when injured and oppressed with 
 
VARIETIES OF CAPACITY. 1^7 
 
 guilt? The eye, which is the medium of happiness in 
 a mild and pleasant light, is the channel of affliction 
 when oppressed with too strong a blaze. The ear, 
 which is delighted with the harmony of sounds, is hurt 
 with the grating harshness of jargon and discord. The 
 same stomach w r hich affords enjoyment by the influence 
 of nourishing food, is the organ of pain when oppressed 
 with materials that are unwholesome and poisonous. 
 So it is through all nature : and when we leave nature 
 and experience, in our attempts to ascertain the possi- 
 bilities of being, we are at once in a wide sea, without 
 a bottom or a shore. Who but God can know what 
 capacities are possible, and among those that are possi- 
 ble, which would furnish the greatest amount of happi- 
 ness 1 Nor will it avail any thing to say our capacity 
 for pain was too great; for this, so far as we know, 
 could not be made less, without at the same time, and 
 in the same proportion, diminishing our capacity for 
 pleasure. The more capacious the faculties are which 
 a creature has, the greater of course must be the misery 
 of their perversion and disorder. 
 
 It may be said, again, that goodness should keep 
 away the means of misery : though poison may afflict 
 the stomach, and discord offend the ear, yet if there be 
 no poisons and no discords in nature — if there be no 
 storms of cold, nor oppressive degrees of heat — in short, 
 if there be nothing around us to give pain to our facul- 
 ties, and every thing to furnish enjoyment, the mere 
 capacity to suffer would do us ho harm. What should 
 
128 VARIETIES OF CAPACITY. 
 
 hinder perfect Benevolence from causing this to be our 
 situation? Supposing it were even so — still it would 
 be possible for us to destroy our own happiness : for 
 first, in regard to our appetites, all experience proves 
 that our well-being depends upon the quantity as well 
 as the quality of the materials used ; therefore though 
 the qualities of all substances in nature were invariably 
 salutary, yet an improper quantity might be productive 
 of misery. Secondly, in regard to mental and moral 
 happiness, the means of it are within ourselves, and do 
 not depend on the qualities of surrounding nature. If 
 the mind itself should exchange love for malice, it would 
 barter happiness for misery. Thirdly, in regard to so- 
 cial enjoyments, though a man's body might be fanned 
 with all the mildness of the air of Paradise, though all 
 the material qualities of nature were exactly suited to 
 his constitution, yet the conduct of his fellow-creatures 
 might be very afflicting; because the capacity for social 
 pleasure, when crossed and oppressed, becomes the me- 
 dium of social pain. The same mental sensibility which 
 is delighted with the manifestation of friendly affections, 
 is hurt by the expressions of scorn and hostility. 
 
 It may be said, moreover, that all causes of misery 
 might have been prevented, by the denial of agency: 
 though certain kinds of conduct would be productive 
 of misery, yet if we were all hound to the right, our 
 happiness would then be safe. Say rather, that a large 
 amount of our happiness would thereby be prevented ; 
 for our consciousness clearly testifies, that mental en- 
 
VARIETIES OF CAPACITY. 129 
 
 joyment depends very much upon the free exercise of 
 our voluntary powers. Why else is liberty held so dear, 
 all the world over ? Is it not a plain contradiction to 
 say a man is at liberty, at the same time that his will is 
 bound to one certain course of action? And besides, 
 for aught we know, freedom of will is essential to intel- 
 ligent existence; so that the existence of a creature 
 with mental endowments, and destitute of all agency, 
 is as impossible as for matter to exist without occupy- 
 ing space. 
 
 The objector is willing, however, to have his liberty, 
 provided all authority be removed out of the way, that 
 he may be left to pursue any plan of conduct he pleases. 
 And suppose even this were granted, who could tell the 
 amount of misery his voluntary actions would produce 
 for himself and others, in the course of future duration I 
 " It is matter of constant experience and observation," 
 says Mr. Watson, " that every individual derives, by the 
 very constitution of his nature, benefit and happiness 
 from rectitude ; injury and misery from vice." (pp. 221, 
 367.) " In the Scriptures we are taught, in the clearest 
 manner," says Dr. Dwight, " that sin is an universal 
 opposition to God, and an universal hostility to his bene- 
 volent designs ; and that it is universally mischievous 
 to the well-being of the sinner himself, and of his fel- 
 low-creatures." (Vol. I. p. 182.) Hence it follows, that 
 if the sinner were unrestrained by authority, his evil 
 conduct would nevertheless be productive of an im- 
 mense amount of misery to himself and others. 
 
130 VARIETIES OF CAPACITY. 
 
 But the objection may be pressed still further. It 
 may be inquired, Why did not God make us of such a 
 constitution, and place us in such circumstances, that 
 all kinds of conduct would be alike productive of hap- 
 piness ? We might as well ask, why God did not create 
 a kind of matter that could exist without occupying 
 any part of space ; for this would be no more impos- 
 sible, than to change evil into good. 
 
 It was the opinion of Dr. Dwight, that it would be 
 impossible for God himself to be happy, independently 
 of moral rectitude. " It appears to me evident," says 
 he, " that the adoption of truth, or falsehood, by the 
 Creator, must be followed by exactly the same effects, 
 which they produce in us. An unlimited sense of ex- 
 cellence on the one hand, accompanied of course with 
 unlimited happiness ; on the other, a boundless sense of 
 l " > L ude, accompanied, for aught that I can see, with 
 boundless shame and wretchedness." (Vol. I. p. 206.) 
 
 Indeed, the above objection supposes God has power 
 to change virtue into vice, and vice into virtue : that He 
 can transform truth into falsehood, and falsehood into 
 truth ; — misery into happiness, and happiness into mis- 
 ery. In other words, that he can reconcile contradic- 
 tions and accomplish impossibilities. 
 
 It remains, that there is nothing in our constitution, 
 as God originally formed it, that is any impeachment 
 of Divine Benevolence. 
 
SECTION II. 
 
 Responsibility. 
 
 Man having a conscience, or moral discernment, is 
 held accountable for his conduct. He has as invincible 
 a conviction of the distinction between right and wrong, 
 as of that between existence and non-existence. With- 
 out this power, he would be deprived of all the felicity 
 arising from moral approbation ; — all the enjoyment re- 
 sulting from a consciousness of dignity and worth of 
 character in himself, and from the approbation and con- 
 fidence of others. 
 
 Dr. Dwight says, " Rectitude, the sum of personal 
 worth, consists in rendering voluntarily, that which 
 others have a right to claim. But on the scheme of the 
 atheist, no claim can be founded, and none exists. 
 There is, therefore, nothing due: of course, no duty 
 can be performed, and no rectitude experienced. Hence 
 that high, unceasing, and refined enjoyment, which at- 
 tends the sense of rectitude, can never be found by the 
 atheist. Without confidence, no society, no friendship, 
 no union, no connexion, between intelligent beings can 
 exist. The world, dispossessed of it, would become 
 an image of hell ; and distrust, jealousy, wrath, re- 
 venge, murder, war, and devastation, overspread the 
 earth." (p. 107.) 
 
 (131) 
 
1 32 RESPONSI BILIT Y. 
 
 From this view of the matter, we discover the im- 
 portance of our moral powers, and bow clearly they 
 evince the goodness of our Creator. But why does 
 God hold us accountable for the exercise of these pow- 
 ers ? Why does he exercise authority over us 1 Is this, 
 too, a demonstration of benevolence 1 Certainly : for 
 all social enjoyment depends upon it. After God has 
 formed a plan of general happiness, and fitted our na- 
 tures to its salutary influence, it is perfectly gracious in 
 Him, to interpose his authority for its protection, by 
 forbidding that conduct which would introduce a state 
 of social misery. Those who reply against God on this 
 account, cannot sustain their objection, except on the 
 supposition that the only thing which would constitute 
 the Almighty a perfectly good Being, would be for Him 
 to allow his creatures the privilege of doing wrong. For 
 their doing wrong is all that his authority forbids. He 
 prohibits a certain course of action because it is wrong, 
 and not in order thereby to make it wrong: for what 
 form of language can more directly charge God with 
 being the author of evil, than to say a course of action 
 was not evil till he made it so ? To forbid an action 
 that in itself is good, is commonly called tyranny ; and 
 to forbid or enjoin that which is indifferent, is that kind 
 of conduct in a luler which is said to be capricious; 
 there can be no regard either to goodness, or justice, or 
 wisdom, in the enacting of such a law; therefore no 
 such law was ever enjoined on man by his Creator. 
 
 But why is an action wrong? Exactly because it 
 
RESPONSIBILITY. 133 
 
 produces misery, by opposing and infringing God's plan 
 of universal happiness. God requires that all creatures 
 act according to this plan, that misery may be ex- 
 cluded, and happiness be universal and eternal. " As 
 doing good," says Dr. Dwight, " is the entire employ- 
 ment of every rational being, whose heart, and labours, 
 are thus conformed to the pleasure of his Maker, the 
 good actually done, cannot fail, in the progress of the 
 system, of becoming immensely great. Where the joint 
 labours of any society are directed solely to the purpose 
 of producing happiness, these labours, if wisely directed, 
 must of course furnish happiness, proportioned to their 
 extent, energy, and duration. Happiness is the end of 
 the whole system. Such is the end, which God pro- 
 posed in the creation of man; such its nature; and 
 such its propriety. How plainly is it the best and most 
 glorious end, w 7 hich can be aimed at by man, or accom- 
 plished by his Creator !" (Theology, p. 388, 389.) 
 
 The same great author says again, " The law of God 
 is good, as well as just; profitable to those who obey, 
 as well as honourable to him who is obeyed. Obedi- 
 ence to this law constitutes the only real w T orth of ra- 
 tional beings ; and is the sum of all those affections, and 
 their consequences, which form the internal happiness 
 of man ; the most essential and valuable part of his hap- 
 piness. From this character, and from this alone, spring 
 the peace and self-approbation, the internal harmony 
 and delight, which are the proper < prize of virtue ;' the 
 independent and eternal possession of every good mind. 
 12 
 
134 RESPONSIBILITY. 
 
 The love, which is the fulfilling of the law, is a vital and 
 immortal principle of doing good to all men, bom friends 
 and enemies, at all times, and in every manner. Nor is 
 there any real and voluntary beneficence, beside what 
 springs from this principle. Rational beings, wholly 
 under its influence, would form a perfect state of hap- 
 piness in any world ; and such beings, freed from all 
 restraints, would, if destitute of it, create consummate 
 misery. He, then, who refuses obedience to the law, is 
 guilty of gross injustice to God, relinquishes all personal 
 excellence, peace, happiness, and worth ; and, renounc- 
 ing all voluntary usefulness on the one hand, prepares 
 himself, on the other, to be a nuisance to the universe" 
 (p. 460, 451.) 
 
 Hence arises the guilt of transgression : it interrupts 
 the plan of happiness, and " creates consummate mise- 
 ry ; ? ' therefore there is ill-desert in the perpetrator ; that 
 is, he deserves blame and punishment, in proportion to 
 the turpitude of his evil conduct. But by what mea- 
 sure, it may be inquired, are the degrees of guilt to be 
 ascertained ? The obvious answer appears to be, that 
 an action deserves blame and punishment in proportion 
 to the amount of happiness which it destroys, and the 
 amount of misery which it produces ; modified, how- 
 ever, by the knowledge and intention of the agent. These 
 matters are precisely known by the Supreme Being 
 only, and, therefore, he alone is qualified to judge the 
 world in righteousness. 
 
 But on what ground, and to what extent, is it neces- 
 
RESPONSIBILITY. 135 
 
 sary to punish creatures for their evil conduct ? It is 
 necessary, in order to counteract the evil, and to pre- 
 vent or to limit its general deleterious consequences, so 
 far as the punishment of the culprit may contribute to 
 these results. The necessity of punishment, and the 
 justice of it, are the same. No man can successfully 
 controvert this position, unless he can prove that justice 
 requires the infliction of unnecessary punishments ; and 
 surely, in so far as it does this, it must be an unncessa- 
 ry Attribute. Are there any Attributes of the Deity of 
 this description? 
 
 What is justice, but that modification of goodness 
 which requires that the flow of happiness shall not be 
 interrupted by a violation of the plan on which it is 
 founded 1 Justice is the authoritative action of good- 
 ness, and nothing more ; at least, if any thing else be 
 contained in it, we have never yet seen the explanation 
 and the proof. If justice could require unnecessary 
 punishment, it might require unnecessary obedience, and 
 would run into all the claims of the capricious ruler and 
 the tyrant. 
 
 Dr. D wight says, " That the omniscience of God can- 
 not but discern all the differences of good, and distin- 
 guish, with complete accuracy, and in all cases, the 
 greater from the less, will be admitted of course. That 
 perfect benevolence must choose this plan in preference 
 to any other, is equally evident. Indeed, I conceive of 
 no possibility, that benevolence can, in any being, pre- 
 fer a smaller degree of what he thinks good to a greater. 
 
136 RESPONSIBILITY. 
 
 Much less can this be attributable to God. As he knows 
 perfectly what is really good ; so on this only must his 
 desire, or delight, be fixed ; and with the more intense- 
 ness in proportion to the greatness of the degree, in 
 which it does or may exist. The present system, or 
 the system actually adopted by God, is therefore, to say 
 the least, the best and most perfect system of good." 
 (pp. 189, 190.) 
 
 Now w T ill any man say that " the best and most per- 
 fect system of good" is that which contains within itself 
 a vast amount of unnecessary punishment ? This can- 
 not be ; for if that part of the punishment be removed 
 which is unnecessary, the system will be better ; other- 
 wise it would follow, that misery, in itself, and for its 
 own sake, is a perfect " good." 
 
 Dr. Dwight says again, " As God is benevolent, it is 
 impossible that he should not be just. The benevolence 
 of God, is itself complete proof of the justice of God. 
 A Being, willing, as a benevolent one necessarily is, to 
 do more good to others than justice demands, cannot be 
 willing to do less ; the only manner in which he could 
 possibly be unjust." (pp. 196, 197.) Hence it follows, 
 that justice is an essential modification and operation 
 of benevolence ; and therefore unless it be the nature 
 of the latter to delight in seeing misery exist unneces- 
 sarily, no such thing as unnecessary punishment ever 
 had or ever will have place, under the administration 
 of the Almighty. 
 
 The Rev. Richard Watson, speaking of God, says, 
 
RESPONSIBILITY. 137 
 
 " His goodness is limited by moral not by physical rea- 
 sons ; but still, considering the globe as the residence of 
 a fallen and perverse race, that glorious attribute is 
 heightened in its lustre by this circumstance ; it arrays 
 itself before us in all its affecting attributes of mercy, 
 pity, long-suffering, mitigation and remission. It is good- 
 ness poured forth in the richest liberality, where moral 
 order permits its unrestrained flow ; and it is never 
 withheld but ivhere the general benefit demands it.' Penal 
 acts never go beyond the rigid necessity of the case ; 
 acts of mercy rise infinitely above all desert." (Insti- 
 tutes, p. 216.) This needs no comment; and the pre- 
 sent authorities may be closed with a quotation from 
 Mr. Sherlock. Speaking of the General Deluge, he 
 says, " Had God destroyed the whole race of men, and 
 created a new man, to inhabit the new world, this would 
 have argued some defect in the first creation : for there 
 can be no pretence for destroying man, to make him 
 again, but a design to make him better ; to correct that 
 in a second, which experience had discovered to be 
 faulty in the first. But though the wisdom of govern- 
 ment will admit of various trials and experiments, the 
 wisdom of creation will not. The government of free 
 agents must be accommodated to their natures and dis- 
 positions, not only to what God made them, but to what 
 they make themselves ; and therefore the methods of 
 government must change, as men change themselves : 
 but the natures of all things are made only by God ; 
 and if there be any fault in them, it is chargeable upon 
 12* F* 
 
138 RESPONSIBILITY. 
 
 the Divine Wisdom ; and to make man, and destroy 
 him, and make him again, would argue a great fault 
 somewhere." (Divine Providence.) 
 
 From the above quotations it appears, that man 
 was made as good as God could make him ; that God's 
 general plan of creation embraced the best possible sys- 
 tem of good ; that in his moral administration, no favour 
 is withheld from any one, but where the general benefit 
 demands it ; and that penal acts never go beyond the 
 rigid necessity of the case. If so, what can any man 
 ask more 1 Will he ask to be free from responsibility 
 altogether? Then it is plain he must either be destitute 
 of life, or he must be a beast And does it show w r ant 
 of benevolence in God, that he has brought creatures 
 into existence with higher capacities of enjoyment than 
 those possessed by irrational animals ? 
 
 But why, it may be inquired, should we be subjected 
 to such a serious responsibility '\ The obvious answer 
 is, that accountability must be proportioned to the value 
 of the interests committed to our trust. He who had 
 only one talent committed to him, w T as required to im- 
 prove one only ; but he w T ho had five, was accordingly 
 accountable for five. Now let it be considered, that 
 man has immortal faculties to guard, and to improve. 
 A system of social happiness, extending to the whole 
 intelligent universe, and eternal in its duration, is com- 
 mitted to the keeping of every man, in proportion to 
 the extent of his ability ; and his individual conduct 
 will have an influence for good or for evil, which, if not 
 
RESPONSIBILITY. 139 
 
 counteracted by the Divine administration, would, so 
 far as we can see, extend through the whole system, 
 and be eternal in its duration. Hence our responsibility 
 must be great ; and we are constrained to own, that in 
 strict propriety of speech, there is no such thing as a 
 Utile sin. But if God should make the plan of happi- 
 ness less perfect and less valuable than it is, would He 
 not thereby diminish his benevolence, to relieve us from 
 so serious a responsibility 1 Must the mental and moral 
 faculties of men and angels be taken from them, and 
 the whole creation consist of irrational animals only ? 
 Alas ! what must be the turpitude of a man who would 
 rather be a beast, than to be under the necessity of giv- 
 ing an account of his conduct ! A beast he cannot be : 
 he must either aspire to the character and the society 
 of angels, or he will inevitably sink to that of devils. 
 All the above objections to the plan of Divine goodness 
 appear to amount to this, that man wishes to have the 
 privilege of being wicked, and desires that the Almighty 
 w T ould provide for him an eternal heaven of sin. If we 
 may judge of the consequences of sin, as we witness 
 them in the present world, what a hell of misery this 
 would necessarily be ! Vain man would be wise ; and 
 he often thinks he is very wise ; but it will be made 
 manifest at a future day, that all his cavils against the 
 just and gracious conduct of his Maker originate either 
 in his ignorance and inattention, or in his deep corrup- 
 tion and malignity. 
 
SECTION III. 
 Hazardous circumstances. — Temptation. 
 
 It must be admitted, that perfect goodness will guard 
 creatures from danger, as effectually as they can be 
 guarded ; because an amount of goodness which ne- 
 glects to do this, is not as great as it might be, and 
 therefore is not perfect. 
 
 It has sometimes been considered a matter of sur- 
 prise, that Angels should fall, when they had no tempter; 
 but this, it is presumed, has resulted from a mistaken 
 view of the nature of temptation. A certain writer 
 has represented its process to be, first, a simple evil 
 thought; secondly, a strong imagination; thirdly, de- 
 light ; and lastly, consent. This thought may arise in a 
 person's mind, without being suggested by another; and 
 the whole process may follow by his own individual 
 agency. An error is present to his contemplation, and 
 if this error be credited, its influence will be the same, 
 whether originally conceived by the individual, or pre- 
 sented by the agency of another. 
 
 What the first sin of fallen angels was, we know not; 
 but we have strong intimations that it was peculiarly a 
 sin of pride. They might have entertained an ambi- 
 tious opinion, that their own good, and the good of the 
 universe, would be promoted by their assuming a higher 
 
 (140) 
 
HAZARDOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. 141 
 
 station. This at once supposed that God had not placed 
 them right; and that their own wisdom and energy 
 were adequate to improve the general system. A re- 
 fusal on their part to keep their first estate, and a volun- 
 tary determination to leave their own habitation, and to 
 pursue enterprises in another department, may have 
 threatened to disorganize the whole plan of happiness, 
 and to diffuse misery and ruin throughout the creation. 
 Supposing this to have been the true state of the mat- 
 ter, what could the Almighty do to prevent the evil ? 
 Could he do more than to warn his erring creatures, by 
 telling them the whole truth of the case, so far as they 
 were capable of receiving it, and enforcing obedience 
 by the whole w T eight of his own Divine authority ? Will 
 it be said he should have annihilated his erring crea- 
 tures, or put an absolute restraint upon their agency, 
 because he saw they were going to do wrong 1 But 
 who can prove that such an act of administration would 
 not have led to a greater evil 1 . Confidence in the Su- 
 preme Ruler is essential to universal happiness ; and it 
 is absurd to suppose that the Creator must do wrong, 
 to prevent his creatures from doing so. What can a 
 good ruler do, previous to transgression, more than to 
 instruct, command, persuade, warn and threaten? After 
 rebellion has actually taken place, he can justly proceed 
 further, and may not only bind or imprison the offender, 
 but punish him as his crimes deserve, for the defence 
 of the public happiness ; but to inflict punishment in 
 order to prevent transgression, before it is committed, 
 
142 HAZARDOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 is a practice unknown to all righteous jurisprudence. 
 It is easy to say, that our Maker might take away the 
 agency of his creatures, when he sees they are going 
 wrong ; but to take away their agency, would be to 
 bind them, and this would be to punish them previous 
 to transgression ; for it is difficult to conceive how a 
 much greater punishment could be inflicted on a man 
 or an angel, than entirely to take away his agency. 
 And whether indeed it would be possible, for agency 
 to be entirely taken away, without the destruction of 
 our mental existence, is a matter which may well pro- 
 duce doubt and hesitation. 
 
 Now it appears to be evident that creatures, however 
 innocent and pure, who exercise their minds without 
 any constraint, may originate pride, unbelief, dissatis- 
 faction with their condition, and other mental evils, 
 from the voluntary exercise of their own thoughts ; and 
 hence they may resolve upon courses of action that are 
 wrong. The great difficulty of accounting for the ori- 
 gin of moral evil has arisen chiefly from the doctrine 
 which has been so firmly settled in the minds of thou- 
 sands, that all events are brought about by the eternal 
 and immutable decree of God ; that creatures are not 
 free agents, but always act as something necessarily 
 operates upon the will, like the force of water when it 
 produces the motion of a mill-wheel. On this supposi- 
 tion, the origin of evil is indeed a great mystery : for it 
 supposes that evil must be put into the -mind, to impel 
 the will, before a creature can be capable of doing any 
 
HAZARDOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. 143 
 
 thing amiss. Then who first put that evil into the cre- 
 ated mind, but the Creator himself? So long as we 
 keep this hypothesis at the bottom of our inquiries, in 
 vain may we try to clear up the mystery ; for the fur- 
 ther we advance, the greater and thicker will the diffi- 
 culties surround us ; and, if I mistake not, we shall find 
 no stopping place on this side of perfect atheism ! 
 
 But admit that intelligent creatures are really agents, 
 a truth which is proved by the clear testimony of 
 consciousness, and then the mystery of original sin 
 amounts only to this — that a free agent acted wrong 
 when he ought to have acted right, by imbibing the 
 vain delusion, that he would thereby, in some way or 
 other, better his condition. 
 
 We find it to be true, in regard to men, and for aught 
 we know T it is equally true of angels, that they are liable 
 to be enticed into evil by their appetites and senses. 
 The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and 
 desirable to make one wise ; and she took thereof, and 
 did eat. The desires of the mind, for knowledge, esteem 
 and power, may be viewed as internal appetites ; those 
 connected with the body, as external. The interna], it 
 cannot be doubted, belong to angels as well as men ; 
 and may have a like tendency to lead them into evil. 
 Here an objector may at once exclaim, Why did God 
 make us with such a constitution, and thus implant the 
 causes of temptation in the very centre of our existence? 
 Let him reflect a few minutes upon another question : 
 How would it be possible for us to enjoy the good gifts 
 
144 HAZARDOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 of heavpn without appetites ? Could we enjoy food, or 
 water, or any thing else, if we had no appetite for one 
 thing or another 1 Could a man have any enjoyment 
 in knowledge, or in the esteem of others, if he had no 
 desire, or mental appetite, for these things. 
 
 " In any supposable world," says Dr. Dwight, " plea- 
 sure may of course attend transgression ; because good 
 may and must exist, (if good exist at all) which cannot 
 be lawfully enjoyed. The good, which lawfully belongs 
 only to others, may be seen, coveted, and seized ; and 
 thus for the time enjoyed. Finite beings may, there- 
 fore, be induced by the present prospect of this pleasure 
 to transgress; or in other words, to sin. It has net 
 hitherto been shown, I presume it cannot be shown, that 
 God is by his perfections obliged to prevent the exist- 
 ence of Moral Evil, originated in this manner, nor of 
 natural evil, as its proper punishment. Should it be 
 said, that the perfections of God cannot fail to operate 
 in such a manner, as to produce the greatest good ; I 
 acknowledge it. Still it cannot be proved, nor be ren- 
 dered in any degree probable, that the greatest possible 
 good will not be found in a system, into which evil has 
 admission." (Theology, pp. 116, 117.) 
 
 A system which would make the entrance of moral 
 evil impossible, would of course exclude all the happi- 
 ness of free agency ; and, so far as I can see, all the 
 happiness of intelligence. Animal appetite might exist 
 in such a system, and animal instinct; but how finite 
 
HAZARDOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. 145 
 
 intelligent agents could exist, without the power to do 
 wrong, is incomprehensible. 
 
 " From our natural and original need of being im- 
 proved by discipline," says Bishop Butler, " it comes to 
 pass that creatures, made upright, fall ; and that those 
 who preserve their uprightness, raise themselves to a 
 more secure state of virtue. It seems distinctly con- 
 ceivable from the very nature of particular affections 
 or propensions. For, suppose creatures intended for 
 such a particular state of life, for which such propen- 
 sions were necessary ; suppose them endued with such 
 propensions, together with moral understanding, as well 
 including a practical sense of virtue as a speculative 
 perception of it ; and that all these several principles, 
 both natural and moral, forming an inward constitution 
 of mind, were in the most exact proportion possible, 
 i. e. in a proportion the most exactly adapted to their 
 intended state of life; such creatures would be made 
 upright, or finitely perfect. Now, particular propen- 
 sions, from their very nature, must be felt, the objects 
 of them being present, though they cannot be gratified 
 at all, or not with the allowance of the moral principle. 
 But if they can be gratified without its allowance, or 
 by contradicting it, then they must be conceived to have 
 some tendency, in how low a degree soever, yet some 
 tendency, to induce persons to such forbidden gratifica- 
 tion. The least voluntary indulgence in forbidden cir- 
 cumstances, though but in thought, will increase this 
 wrong tendency, and may increase it further, till, pecu- 
 13 g 
 
146 HAZARDOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 liar conjunctures perhaps conspiring, it becomes effect ; 
 and danger of deviating from right, ends in actual de- 
 viation from it. Now, it is impossible to say, how much 
 even the first full overt act of irregularity might disor- 
 der the inward constitution, unsettle the adjustments, 
 and alter the proportions which formed it, and in which 
 the uprightness of its make consisted. But repetition 
 of irregularities would produce habits: and thus the 
 constitution would be spoiled, and creatures, made up- 
 right, become corrupt and depraved in their settled 
 character. But, on the contrary, these creatures might 
 have improved and raised themselves to a higher and 
 more secure state of virtue, by the contrary behaviour, 
 by steadily following the moral principle. For, by thus 
 preserving their integrity for sonte time, their danger 
 would lessen, since propensions, by being inured to sub- 
 mit, would do it more easily and of course ; and their 
 security against this lessening danger would increase, 
 since the moral principle would gain additional strength 
 by exercise ; both which things are implied in the notion 
 of virtuous habits. Thus, virtuous self-government is 
 not only right in itself, but also improves the inward 
 constitution or character." (Analogy, pp. 141, 142.) 
 
 All persons, indeed, who have fairly tried the experi- 
 ment, know that virtuous acts acquire the advantage of 
 habit; the more the principles of moral goodness are 
 contemplated by the mind, and adhered to by the will, 
 the more firmly do they become seated and fixed in the 
 conscience and affections ; and the greater and more 
 
HAZARDOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. 147 
 
 sublime is the enjoyment which they furnish. In this 
 way, it is probable, all the inhabitants of heaven have 
 become confirmed in goodness, after having passed 
 through a suitable state of instruction and discipline. 
 We must sustain the views above given, by another 
 authority. 
 
 " Some men's great quarrel is," says Mr. Sherlock, 
 " that God made such a creature as could sin, and be 
 miserable ; that is, that God created Angels and Men ; 
 that he endowed them with reason and understanding, 
 and a liberty of choice; for such creatures as can 
 choose, may choose wrong. What is it then they find 
 fault with in God's making Angels and Men 1 Is not 
 the idea of a reasonable Being, and a free Agent, 
 the idea of an excellent and a happy Creature ? Are 
 there any greater perfections than knowledge, and wis- 
 dom, and understanding, and liberty of choice ? Is 
 there any happiness like the happiness of a reasonable 
 nature 1 Nay, is there any thing that deserves the 
 name of happiness besides this 1 Will you call sense- 
 less Matter, nay, will you call Beasts happy 1 And is 
 the only idea of a happy nature in the world, a reason- 
 able objection against creating Goodness V s (On Divine 
 Providence, p. 273.) 
 
 The same author says, again, " To make a reasona- 
 ble creature without liberty of choice, is a contradic- 
 tion : for what does reason serve for, but to direct our 
 choice \ And indeed all the pleasures of virtue, which 
 are the greatest pleasures of human nature, result from 
 
148 HAZARDOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 this liberty, that we choose well when we might have 
 chosen ill ; and if it becomes a God to make a happy 
 nature, it becomes him to make a reasonable and free 
 Agent, though many such creatures may make them- 
 selves miserable." (p. 275.) 
 
 In regard to Adam's peculiar state of trial in Para- 
 dise, the sneers of infidelity are ridiculous. It was a 
 plan of infinite wisdom and goodness to set the agency 
 of this new-made creature into action, in a way per- 
 fectly corresponding with his nature, and suited to his 
 infant existence. The tree of the knowledge of good 
 and evil was planted in the midst of the garden, by the 
 hand of parental kindness ; not, indeed, to furnish food 
 for their sustenance, like the other trees of the garden ; 
 but as a monument of Divine authority, and a perpetual 
 remembrancer of Adam's subjection, and responsibility 
 to the great Author of his life and happiness. This was 
 intended to produce a wholesome moral influence on 
 the mind, which was a matter of higher importance 
 than merely supplying the wants of the body. The 
 tree in the midst- of the garden was a standing monitor, 
 visibly calling to remembrance Adam's benign Creator 
 and Benefactor. The majesty of God was stamped 
 upon it, as the sacred property of heaven, and man was 
 forbidden to take it at the peril of his life. By eating 
 this fruit he set his Creator at defiance, cast off his 
 authority, and renounced his moral government. In 
 this act there was unbelief, distrust of God, self-suffi- 
 ciency, and a hostile declaration of independence ; and 
 
HAZARDOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. 149 
 
 hence the foundation was laid for perpetual war against 
 God, and consequently against the system of universal 
 happiness. 
 
 Had our first parents maintained their ground, their 
 victory over the devil would have had results, in all 
 probability, of great moral importance to the universe. 
 Their Maker placed them within the reach of tempta- 
 tion, not that they should sin, but that they should stem 
 the torrent, and " overcome evil with good." 
 
 " God never tempted any man." Why then does he 
 place men in circumstances where he knows they must 
 and will be tempted 1 He does so that they may exer- 
 cise their agency in resisting evil, in order to its subju- 
 gation. Who was ever placed in circumstances of 
 greater temptation than the Lord Jesus Christ? Did 
 the Father place him there in order that he might be 
 led into sin 1 Just the contrary : he placed him there 
 to resist and overcome the power of evil, and to " de- 
 stroy the works of the devil." The mild but magnani- 
 mous Redeemer faced the evil with heavenly resolution, 
 and his " fury it upheld him, even to the death of the 
 cross." This whole process was the steady course of 
 love resisting malice, or virtuous energy " overcoming 
 evil with good " — the only way in which it ever can be 
 overcome. This great Captain of our salvation calls 
 all his servants to fight under the same banner, and 
 with the same weapons. He knows they will have 
 powerful temptations: yet he himself does not tempt 
 them to sin ; but on the contrary encourages and siim- 
 13* 
 
150 THE FALL OF MAN. 
 
 ulates them to resist it, if necessary, even unto blood ; 
 that under his divine protection and guidance they may 
 fight the good fight of faith, conquer hell, and lay hold 
 on eternal life. Evil is abroad in the universe, and it 
 must be overcome by the action of virtuous love ; hence 
 virtuous beings, while conflicting with evil, must face 
 the storm of temptation ; and so far as the armies of 
 the living God maintain their steady course of virtuous 
 energy, so far the powers of evil are weakened and 
 driven back. Captives are taken from the enemy, by 
 the armoury of heaven ; and the hosts of hell are pro- 
 portionably diminished and intimidated. Hence we see, 
 that the action of God, and that of the devil, are pre- 
 cisely opposite : God only tempts men to resist and con- 
 quer sin, while the devil tempts them to surrender them- 
 selves to its influence, and to become its abject slaves. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 The Fall and consequent Misery of Man. 
 
 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the 
 world, and death by sin; so death hath passed upon 
 all men, for that all have sinned. (Rom. v. 12.) 
 
 " This doctrine, it must be acknowledged," says Dr. 
 Dwight, " is connected with many things very mysteri- 
 
THE FALL OF MAN. 151 
 
 ous, and very perplexing. These, adding embarrass- 
 ment to reluctance, have, in many instances, persuaded 
 men to refuse the doctrine, in spite of the testimony of 
 experience and Revelation. For myself," he continues, 
 " I readily confess, that if I saw any mode of avoiding 
 the evidence by which it is established I would cer- 
 tainly reject it also." (p. 435.) 
 
 That man is a sinful creature by nature, appears to 
 be established by as incontestable facts, as that a wolf 
 is naturally voracious, or that a roaring lion walketh 
 about, seeking whom he may devour. The strong bent 
 of the mind to wickedness does not indeed show itself 
 in infancy ; neither does the savage fierceness of a tiger 
 exhibit itself when the animal is quite young ; but it is 
 as true that Adam's children naturally grow up into the 
 love of sin, as it is that beasts of prey grow up into an 
 increasing thirst for blood. For any man to deny this 
 position, appears to be about as bold and reckless a de- 
 fiance of common sense, and common observation, as 
 it would be to deny that mankind are naturally subject 
 to bodily disease and death. 
 
 From this deplorable condition of fallen humanity, 
 the inference is clear, that there is a malignant poison 
 in sin, calculated to astonish the whole creation. Sin 
 diffuses a deleterious influence, not only through the 
 faculties of the individual sinner, and through surround- 
 ing society, but down to the latest generations of pos- 
 terity ! Dr. Dwight may well call this a mystery ; and 
 it is truly and emphatically The mystery of iniquity. 
 
152 THE FALL OF MAN. 
 
 Moral evil sends its soul- withering venom through all 
 the departments of created existence ; it defiles the foun- 
 tain, and corrupts all the descending streams of huma- 
 nity; and then it lifts its brazen front to heaven, and 
 assumes the attitude of defiance against the throne and 
 majesty of God ! 
 
 But why is it that Divines, for hundreds of years, 
 have found this doctrine to be so " very perplexing V 
 Exactly because they have not admitted that the misery 
 produced is really and essentially in the nature of sin ; 
 but that it is to be resolved into the predestination, or 
 vengeance, or imputation of our Creator. The subject 
 must indeed be perplexing, sufficiently so to lead us into 
 atheism, while we suppose sin was no very great evil 
 till the Almighty was pleased to make it a great evil. 
 This is the gordian knot, which has tied down and ham- 
 pered the human understanding, and has had the chief 
 influence for centuries in confusing our conceptions of 
 religious doctrine. But let the truth be understood cor- 
 rectly, and it will be seen that in sin itself lies all the 
 evil, and all the destructiveness ; and that God is light, 
 and in him is no darkness at all. 
 
 The increased violence of appetite, the rage of evil 
 propensity, and consequent hazard of the soul, have 
 been produced partly by the original transgression, and 
 partly by the voluntary conduct of every sinner, which 
 increases the depravity of his nature. God is so far 
 from being the Author of these things, that he does 
 every thing to restrain the wicked, and to guard them 
 
THE FALL OF MAN. 153 
 
 from evil, that wisdom and goodness can do. Sinners 
 regularly nourish and strengthen the evil tendencies of 
 their nature, from childhood to manhood, and then turn 
 about and blame God for putting into their constitution 
 causes of temptation which they cannot overcome ! 
 
 And besides, what natural appetite or propensity is 
 there, which can be urged in palliation of such crimes 
 as profane cursing, swearing, and blaspheming the name 
 of God ? We sometimes hear boys of ten or twelve 
 years old insulting heaven in this manner, as though 
 they were firmly settled in the resolution, so soon as 
 they learn there is a Supreme Being, to let the universe 
 know that He shall be the object of their eternal con- 
 tempt. From such beginnings of juvenile wickedness, 
 a terrible harvest overspreads the globe ; which, emp- 
 tying its inhabitants, sends forth vast and mournful 
 accessions to the world of wo. 
 
 Such facts as these prove indubitably, that the wick- 
 edness of mankind arises, not merely from the violence 
 of fleshly temptation, but from a deep and inexcusable 
 hatred of God and of all goodness. They treat their 
 Maker with scorn and derision ; and seem at a loss for 
 language, with which to show their contempt for his 
 authority ! While " the wicked" thus " contemn God," 
 they also hate and torment one another. What is the 
 general history of all ages and all countries, but a his- 
 tory of ambition, deceit, rage, malignity and devasta- 
 tion 1 It is difficult to conceive how any combination 
 of demons could manifest a much greater amount of 
 
154 THE FALL OF MAN. 
 
 dark hypocrisy and intrigue, of tyranny, tumult, and 
 blood-thirsty malevolence, than we find exhibited and 
 detailed almost through the entire history of Adam's 
 apostate race. 
 
 Now it may be asked, how is it conceivable that a 
 good God should be the author of such a bad world as 
 this ? Why does he not prevent all this wickedness ? 
 He might prevent it, to be sure,' by either drowning all 
 mankind, or by burning up the world with fire. Or he 
 might build penitentiaries all around the globe, and 
 confine all sinners, each in his own appointed cell ; but 
 even this would not destroy the wickedness of their 
 souls ; and thousands and millions of them would pro- 
 bably continue to curse him to his face, as they did 
 before. 
 
 The apostle says, the reason why God does not hurry 
 the world to judgment, is that he is " long-suffering 
 toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that 
 all should come to repentance." He may, at the same 
 time, be teaching a lesson to a vastly extensive Uni- 
 verse ; and may be instructing mankind also, and pre- 
 paring the way to effect a universal reformation in the y 
 race of Adam, during future ages, without doing vio- 
 lence to any person's agency. By degrees, and after a 
 long course of painful experience, the stupid creatures 
 may perad venture be prevailed on to consider, and to 
 surrender to the mild reign of Eternal Love. It is 
 great folly and presumption to cast reflections either on 
 the wisdom or goodness of God on account of his suf- 
 
THE FALL OF MAN. 155 
 
 fering evil to rage as it does in this part of the crea- 
 tion : for He has immensity under his superintendency, 
 and has an eternity, in which to accomplish his infinite 
 designs. 
 
 But it may be objected, that our state of trial in this 
 world, surrounded as we are by so much evil example, 
 and having within ourselves a depraved nature, renders 
 it morally impossible to be virtuous ; especially as we 
 come into life ignorant of ourselves and of every thing 
 about us ; therefore our present state of probation for 
 eternity is inconsistent with perfect benevolence. This 
 objection may be answered in the three ways following- 
 First, the plea of ignorance is set up with a very ill 
 grace by mankind ; for one of the most astonishing 
 events in nature, and one of the most general and inex- 
 cusable crimes, is a heedless and obstinate course of 
 inconsideration. The Gospel may invite, the Law may 
 thunder, Providence may smite them — Heaven, Earth 
 and Hell may be in motion to arouse mankind into 
 thoughtfulness ; and still, they will not consider. They 
 then have the effrontery to say the Almighty is deficient 
 in goodness, because he leaves them in a state of igno- 
 rance ! And with the next breath, perhaps, they change 
 their ground, and pretend that they are too wise to 
 receive instruction, even from God himself ! 
 
 Secondly, there would be weight in the above objec- 
 tion, if our great Sovereign should make a stern demand 
 of abstract righteousness, and deal with every one upon 
 the absolute principles of inexorable law ; but the whole 
 
156 THE FALL OF MAN. 
 
 force of it is broken by the consideration, that the gates 
 of mercy are standing open night and day, and that 
 through the plan of redemption God bears long with us, 
 and grants us the privilege, if we will repent, of receiv- 
 ing a free and full pardon. 
 
 Thirdly, the deep trials, conflicts, and hazards of our 
 present condition, may be seen by our Maker to be ne- 
 cessary to our ultimate and final establishment in eter- 
 nal happiness ; and the lessons which we learn in this 
 stormy wilderness, it is likely, will be advantageously 
 remembered by us, for ever and ever. 
 
 " Upright creatures," says Bishop Butler, " may want 
 to be improved; depraved creatures want to be renewed. 
 Education and discipline, which may be in all degrees 
 and sorts of gentleness and severity, are expedient for 
 those ; but must be absolutely necessary for these. For 
 these, discipline, of the severer sort too, and in the higher 
 degrees of it, must be necessary, in order to wear out 
 vicious habits; to recover their primitive strength of 
 self-government, which indulgence must have weaken- 
 ed ; to repair, as well as raise into habit, the moral prin- 
 ciple, in order to their arriving at a secure state of vir- 
 tuous happiness. 
 
 " Now, whoever will consider the thing may clearly 
 see, that the present world is peculiarly fit to be a state 
 of discipline for this purpose, to such as will set them- 
 selves to mend and improve. For, the various tempta- 
 tions with which we are surrounded ; our experience 
 of the deceits of wickedness ; having been in many in- 
 
THE FALL OF MAN. 157 
 
 stances led wrong ourselves ; the great viciousness of 
 the world ; the infinite disorders consequent upon it ; our 
 being made acquainted with pain and sorrow, either 
 from our own feeling of it, or from the sight of it in 
 others : these things, though some of them may indeed 
 produce wrong effects upon our minds, yet, ivhen duly 
 reflected upon, have all of them a direct tendency to 
 bring us to a settled moderation and reasonableness of 
 temper; the contrary both to thoughtless levity, and 
 also to that unrestrained self-will, and violent bent to 
 follow present inclination, which may be observed in 
 undisciplined minds. In short, that kind and degree of 
 experience which the present state affords us, hath a 
 tendency to give a practical sense of things very differ- 
 ent from a mere speculative knowledge, that we are 
 liable to vice, and capable of misery. And who knows, 
 whether the security of creatures in the highest and 
 most settled state of perfection, may not, in part, arise 
 from their having had such a sense of things as this, 
 formed, and habitually fixed within them, in some state 
 of probation ? The snares and temptations of vice, are 
 what render the present world peculiarly fit to be a state 
 of discipline to those who w 7 ill preserve their integrity ; 
 because they render being upon our guard, resolution, 
 and the denial of our passions, necessary in order to 
 that end. And the exercise of such self-government, 
 in the practice of virtue, has, from the make of our na- 
 ture, a peculiar tendency to form habits of virtue, and 
 14 
 
158 THE FALL OF MAN. 
 
 a more intense exercise of the virtuous principle." (An- 
 alogy of Religion, pp. 144, 145.) 
 
 Let not such thoughts as these be called vain specu- 
 lations; for nothing can be justly viewed in that light 
 which has a tendency to remove or refute objections 
 against the goodness of our Creator. We are apt to 
 think he deals hardly with us ; but did we understand, 
 as He does, how necessary this discipline is to our 
 secure establishment in eternal happiness, in what a dif- 
 ferent light would his dispensation appear ! 
 
 Such views are abundantly sustained by the clear 
 testimony of revelation. When our Father chastens 
 us, it is for our profit, that we may be partakers of his 
 holiness. When our faith is tried, even as by fire, this 
 is done that it may be found unto praise, and honour, 
 and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Blessed is 
 the man that endureth temptation ; for when he is tried, 
 he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath 
 promised to them that love him. Tribulation worketh 
 patience, &c. And our light affliction, which is but for 
 a moment, ivorkethfor us afar more exceeding and eter- 
 nal weight of glory. 
 
 We conclude, therefore, that Infinite Wisdom saw it 
 was better to suffer the world to be peopled by fallen 
 Adam, under a system of redeeming grace, than to cut 
 him off, and people the world by another created pair; 
 therefore the wise Creator resolved upon this course, 
 notwithstanding the immense abounding of sin which he 
 foresaw would follow, that he might give a great lesson 
 
THE FALL OF MAN. 159 
 
 to the whole Universe, and overrule and counteract the 
 evil, for the production and security of a vast amount 
 of glory and everlasting happiness. 
 
 The most perplexing part of this subject, is the depth 
 and violence of that corruption of nature which we have 
 derived from the fall of Adam. But this matter has 
 been distorted and obscured by being connected with 
 false doctrines. 
 
 First, it has been represented that this evil disease 
 has been brought upon Adam's posterity by the appoint- 
 ment of the Creator himself; that original corruption, 
 or the strong bias to evil in man, is a spiritual death, 
 judicially inflicted on all Adam's posterity for the first 
 offence. 
 
 Secondly, that Adam's guilt has been transferred to 
 his children, by imputation, whereby they are rendered 
 culpable, and are exposed to eternal punishment for his 
 sin. 
 
 Or thirdly, that the original corruption of their nature 
 renders them guilty, and exposes them to eternal punish- 
 ment. If this depravity is itself spiritual death, judi- 
 cially inflicted on them, then it seems the infliction of 
 one penalty makes them guilty, and exposes them to 
 another penalty ! Hence it has been supposed, 
 
 Fourthly, that if a Saviour had not appeared, the 
 whole race of mankind, from the days of Adam to the 
 general conflagration, would have gone regularly into 
 an eternal hell, without the possibility of any soul es- 
 caping. Now to common sense this would be the same 
 
160 THE FALL OF MAN. 
 
 thing as for all mankind to have been born in hell, or 
 placed there at the first moment of their existence. No 
 marvel if this view of the subject should be "perplex- 
 ing;" for it would destroy every attribute of the Su- 
 preme Being, and would be infinitely more reproachful 
 to him, than it would for him to have blown out the sun 
 and all the stars of heaven, before Adam was spoken 
 into life. » 
 
 Had no Saviour been provided, it may be presumed 
 that the guilty pair would have been called immediately 
 to judgment, and punished according to their works. 
 As a Saviour was provided, Adam and Eve were 
 placed in a gracious state of probation, and all their 
 children are born into the same state. Those of them 
 who die in infancy gain more in the second Adam than 
 they lost in the first ; the effects of the fall are removed 
 from their souls, and a future resurrection secured for 
 their bodies ; " for as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall 
 all be made alive." — And " where sin abounded, grace 
 did much more abound." The mystery of temporal 
 death passing upon infants, is no greater than its pass- 
 ing upon the whole animal creation; and both these 
 mysteries may have a connection with the scheme of 
 redemption, and with its ultimate results, which will re- 
 move every cloud, when those " little ones shall always 
 behold the face of our Father who is in heaven." 
 
 We are puzzled with our Creator's dispensations, be- 
 cause we do not see to the end of them ; and there is 
 no necessity that we should be such volunteers in mys- 
 
THE FALL OF MAN. 161 
 
 tery, as to connect with them doctrines of our Own in- 
 vention, which have no other basis than our imagina- 
 tion, the authority of our sect, or the venerated creed 
 of our fathers. 
 
 Another false doctrine which augments the difficulty 
 of original corruption, is the supposition that this de- 
 pravity is so violent as to compel men to live and die 
 actual sinners, and thus to make their perdition unavoid- 
 able. 
 
 The force of evil propensity is indeed deep and dread- 
 ful. It is " foolishness bound up in the heart ;" a con- 
 straining energy or " law in the members ;" a thirsting 
 appetite for evil ; a raging fever in the soul ; occasion- 
 ing an imbecility like a man's feet sinking in the mire. 
 But let it be remembered, that provision is made in the 
 mediatorial system for the energy of a counteracting 
 principle. " The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the 
 Spirit against the flesh ; and these are contrary the one 
 to the other." This balances the probationary state of 
 man, and doubtless fits it in the best manner possible, 
 for the regeneration and recovery of a fallen soul. 
 
 It is true that all Adam's children, who live to matu- 
 rity, become, more or less, actual sinners; the surround- 
 ing objects of sense operating upon corrupt propensi- 
 ty, in their state of ignorance, seems to produce a kind 
 of constraining force upon their faculties, whereby they 
 are influenced to go astray. Yet this necessity is not 
 absolute ; and in after life they persevere in crime, not 
 only with a very free will, but with an amount of obsti- 
 14* g* 
 
1G2 THE FALL OF MAN. 
 
 nacy, that excites the just indignation of heaven. The 
 strength of motives and influences which they resist, is 
 wonderful ; and they often persevere in this course of 
 resistance for thirty, forty, or fifty years. Now to say 
 a man's agency is in such a condition that he cannot 
 do right, at the same time that he avoids doing right 
 only by resistance, appears to me to be as plain a con- 
 tradiction as can be formed in human language. 
 
 The sinner, far from striving to overcome the evil 
 lusts of his heart, has spent years in carefully nourish- 
 ing them, and in fighting against every thing that would 
 give them any disturbance. Though he originally de- 
 rived them from nature, or from Adam, yet he has now 
 made them his own, and has vastly increased their 
 strength. Hence it is said, "A man is tempted when 
 he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." These 
 lusts he has made his own, by assiduously nourishing, 
 feeding, and guarding them against all the attacks of 
 truth, justice, and heaven. The pride of a man's heart, 
 for example, — how carefully has it been cherished, and 
 guarded, and strengthened, by repelling and hating 
 every thing of a humiliating tendency ! 
 
 When men employ their lives in this manner, as 
 thousands are known to do, it is perfectly absurd and 
 false to say they are forced into sin and perdition, by 
 the unconquerable violence of their internal corrup- 
 tions. If they would exercise as strong and persever- 
 ing an agency in resisting these lusts, as they exercise 
 
THE FALL OF MAN. 163 
 
 in resisting truth, and the Holy Spirit, who will venture 
 to say that grace would not give them the victory 1 
 
 It is on the ground of our having made internal cor- 
 ruptions our own, in the manner above stated, that we 
 are required to repent of these deep and inveterate roots 
 of sin. Not that we are to repent for what Adam did, 
 or for having been born his descendants, or for having 
 been begotten in his image and likeness ; but for having 
 made original corruption our own, by cherishing it in 
 our will, loving it in our hearts, and causing it to con- 
 ceive, and to bring forth sin and death. (Jam. i. 15.) 
 The centre of true repentance is here ; and if all sin- 
 ners in the world would thus renounce the spirit of 
 rebellion, which they might do, they would, through 
 the atonement of the Saviour, every one be saved : for 
 God is not willing that any should perish, but that all 
 should come to repentance. 
 
 The agency of sinners in persevering in crime and 
 impenitence, is a most raging, resolute, and insulting 
 agency : they contemn God, and proudly set him at 
 defiance. They freely and voluntarily choose to be 
 malevolent. They glory in their shame ; and delight 
 to spurn truth and goodness from them, with sovereign 
 contempt and scorn. The apologies urged in their 
 excuse, therefore, from the fall of Adam, and from their 
 supposed moral inability to do any better, are false and 
 groundless ; and will be found to be so, when " God 
 shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret 
 thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." 
 
164 TREATMENT OF THE FALLEN RACE. 
 
 Original sin has been involved in mystery, to give 
 plausibility to the favourite doctrine of eternal election 
 and reprobation. All Adam's children are represented 
 as being born guilty, and as deserving eternal damna- 
 tion, as soon as they come into life ; therefore the con- 
 clusion is fondly urged upon the human understanding, 
 that as they all deserve perdition, free grace (i. e. sove- 
 reign partiality) may elect some, and pass by all the 
 others, without doing them any injury. There are 
 those, indeed, who disclaim this system, and yet are 
 fond of the doctrine of infant guilt ; but it is because 
 they hold to certain other views of the Divine charac- 
 ter and government, with which the doctrine of eternal 
 reprobation is necessarily connected. We shall have 
 occasion, in the sequel, to show that this position is 
 manifest and indisputable. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 Subsequent treatment of the fallen race. 
 
 The first act of the Divine Being after the trans- 
 gression in Paradise, was to declare war against the 
 serpent ; and in that declaration, intimations were given 
 of intended mercy for man. — The seed of the woman 
 shall bruise the serpenfs head. 
 
 " And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast eaten 
 of the tree, of which I said, thou shalt not. eat of it, 
 
TREATMENT OF THE FALLEN RACE. 165 
 
 cursed is the ground for thy sake." Had the Divine 
 purpose been to execute judgment without mercy, the 
 curse would doubtless have fallen immediately upon the 
 man, as the previous curse did upon the serpent; but as 
 it passed over him and fell upon the ground, a state of 
 trial and discipline was at once established. The guilty 
 pair were driven from their native abode, into a state 
 of banishment, where, as Mr. Fletcher observes, all 
 things around them bore the stamp of desolation for 
 their sake. They were subjected to labour, sorrow, pain, 
 and death. Of this severity, complaints have been 
 uttered, or entertained, through all generations of man- 
 kind. The pure goodness of the Deity has been doubted ; 
 and wrathful or unrighteous dispositions have been im- 
 puted to him. He is suspected of delighting in ven- 
 geance ; and hence he has made the life of man a scene 
 of almost insufferable wo. But that these insinuations 
 are groundless and unjust, will appear from the follow- 
 ing considerations. 
 
 First, the good actually enjoyed under the present 
 arrangements of Providence, vastly overbalance the 
 amount of evil suffered. We commonly have five 
 hundred days of health, for one day of sickness ; and 
 any man who will exhibit a correct history of his life, 
 will furnish abundant evidence, that when his enjoy- 
 ments are justly estimated, they greatly outweigh all 
 the afflictions and sorrows which the providential hand 
 of his Maker has laid upon him. 
 
 Secondly, a large amount of the sufferings of man- 
 
186 TREATMENT OF THE FALLEN RACE. 
 
 kind in the present world, is the immediate result of 
 their own wickedness. Shall they continually deceive, 
 defraud, oppress and murder one another, and all the 
 while complain of Heaven, on account of the sorrows 
 that are endured under the sun ? Let any family take 
 an impartial account of its domestic miseries, and see 
 if nine-tenths of the amount will not be found to arise 
 from the pride, caprice, obstinacy, peevishness, tyranny 
 or absurdity of husbands, wives, children, servants, bro- 
 thers, and sisters. Shall members of the same house* 
 hold thus torment one another, and then blame God for 
 their calamities and vexations 1 And even the sorrows 
 of an individual, what are they, for the most part, but 
 mental pangs arising from the corruption and folly of 
 his own soul? 
 
 Let it be considered also, in the third place, that the 
 afflictions which Providence sends upon us, would not 
 be so frequent nor so heavy as they are, were it not 
 that we render them necessary, by our own inexcusable 
 frowardness and obstinacy. The wicked are thereby 
 restrained, sometimes brought to consideration and 
 repentance ; and the people of God are guarded, cor- 
 rected, and urged forward in the way of everlasting 
 happiness. 
 
 "If we believe the history of the creation," says 
 Sherlock, " the Divine goodness displayed itself in a 
 most beautiful and glorious scene ; the new-made world, 
 and the new-created man, were perfect and happy. 
 This was the world which God made ; such a happy 
 
TREATMENT OF THE FALLEN RACE. 1G7 
 
 world as it became perfect goodness to make: and 
 hence we learn what the goodness of God is, and what 
 it would always do; for when the Divine goodness 
 made the world, he made it what he would have it 
 to be. 
 
 " But man did not continue what God had made him: 
 he sinned, and by sin brought death and misery into the 
 world. And therefore, though we do not now see such 
 a happy state of things, we must not hence conclude, 
 that the world is not governed by perfect goodness; but 
 that a perfect state of ease and happiness in this world, 
 does neither become the providence of God, nor is good 
 for sinners. But though God be always the same, as 
 good now as he was when he at first made the world, 
 and as he will be when he shall reward all good men 
 in the resurrection of the just, yet the degenerate state 
 of mankind requires such a mixture of good and evil, 
 as we now see, and feel, and complain of in this world." 
 (Divine Providence, p. 249.) 
 
 The same author says, again, " To put man into a 
 state of probation and trial, to recover that immortality 
 he had lost, was an act of great goodness : and what- 
 ever severe methods are used to reform sinners, is as 
 great an expression of goodness, as it is to force and to 
 compel them to be happy ; as it is to cut off a hand or 
 a leg, to preserve life. And if we will but allow this 
 world to be a state of trial and discipline for another 
 world, and wisely consider, not what simple and abso- 
 lute goodness, but what the goodness of discipline re- 
 
168 TREATMENT OF THE FALLEN RACE. 
 
 quires, it will give us an easy answer to all the objec- 
 tions against the goodness of Providence. Good men 
 themselves, were they as happy in this world as they 
 could wish, would not be very fond of another world, 
 nor learn those mortifying and self-denying virtues, 
 which are necessary to prepare them for a spiritual 
 life : and bad men would grow more in love with this 
 world, and sin on without check and control. The 
 miseries and afflictions of this life wean good men from 
 the world, and lay great restraints upon bad men ; which 
 justifies both the wisdom and goodness of God, in those 
 many miseries which mankind suffer." (p. 252.) 
 
 In short, if there are great calamities and heart-rend- 
 ing judgments abounding over the earth, it is because 
 the obstinate bent of man's will to moral evil is very 
 great, and his actual wickedness enormous ; and all the 
 restraining chastisements of Providence are found to 
 be barely sufficient to keep the world from utter ruin 
 and depopulation. For such an abandoned race, there- 
 fore, to complain of the severities of Heaven, is as ridi- 
 culous as it is presumptuous and inexcusable. All men 
 who are acquainted with themselves, and who are dis- 
 posed to acknowledge the truth, will not hesitate to 
 own, upon a retrospect of their whole lives, that how- 
 ever great their sufferings may have been, they were 
 much less than their iniquities justly deserved ; and 
 every honest man will be constrained to say, Goodness 
 and mercy have followed me all the days of my life. 
 
SECTION VI. 
 The Wrath of God — Its Principle and Nature. 
 
 In the holy Scriptures our Creator sometimes speaks 
 of his wrath, vengeance, indignation, and fury ; but it is 
 very evident from his manner of speaking, that he is 
 never in a passion. On the contrary, he speaks with 
 the same mild and unruffled dignity, when speaking of 
 his wrath and vengeance, as he does when exhibiting 
 his benevolence and mercy. 
 
 Take an instance ; " So will I break down the wall 
 that ye have daubed with untempered mortar, and it 
 shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof: 
 and ye shall know that I am the Lord. Thus will I 
 accomplish my wrath upon the w T all, and upon them 
 that hav£ daubed it with untempered mortar — to wit, 
 the prophets of Israel which see visions of peace for 
 her, and there is no peace, saith the Lord God." (Ezek. 
 xiii. 14.) Again : " Stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast 
 drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury — 
 therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but 
 not with wine : thus saith thy Lord, and thy God that 
 pleadeth the cause of his people, behold, I have taken 
 out of thy hand the dregs of the cup of my fury ; thou 
 shalt no more drink it again." (Isa. li. 17 — 21.) Once 
 more : " Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be 
 strong, fear not : behold your God will come with ven- 
 15- h < 169 ) 
 
170 THE WRATH OF GOD. 
 
 geance, even God with a recompense ; he will come 
 and save you." (Isa. xxxv. 4.) 
 
 These are specimens of the serene and sentimental 
 manner in which the great Sovereign of the universe 
 speaks of his wrath, fury, and vengeance ; and the atten- 
 tive reader will perceive this remarkable peculiarity 
 throughout the whole of the Old and New Testament. 
 
 Now the question before us is this : does the wrath or 
 vengeance of the Lord proceed from the same source 
 with his mercy and kindness, or from a different source. 
 Is wrath, in a holy Being, any thing else than the en- 
 ergy of love ? Or is it something opposite to love 1 There 
 are two kinds of wrath, that are to be carefully distin- 
 guished ; the one is the action of justice, which flows 
 from love ; the other, the operation of injustice, which 
 proceeds from malevolence. The devil is represented 
 as a very wrathful being, and we are told he was a mur- 
 derer from the beginning. It will doubtless be granted 
 by all Christians, that there is no such wrath as this in 
 the Almighty. Nay, it must be admitted, that if the 
 Divine character be opposite to the character of the 
 devil, which none will deny, the wrath of God proceeds 
 from an opposite principle ; therefore as the devil's wrath 
 proceeds from malevolence, the Divine wrath results 
 from the principle stated above. Some appear to think 
 that a perfectly benevolent Being can have in his nature 
 no such thing as wrath ; while others conclude, " A God 
 all mercy, is a God unjust." These seemingly opposite 
 opinions, however, will probably be found to be nothing 
 
THE WRATH OF GOD. 171 
 
 more than a dispute about words. To say an unjust 
 being is at the same time all mercy, is a paradox that 
 cannot bear examination. 
 
 Benevolence furnishes the means of universal happi- 
 ness ? and justice prescribes boundaries to guard the 
 established system, which none are permitted to pass 
 over. Now is there any opposition between the prin- 
 ciple which furnishes the happiness, and the one which 
 defends it 1 Do they not both flow from the same gra- 
 cious disposition 1 
 
 As God knew that the well-being of his creatures 
 depended upon maintaining a regular system of moral 
 conduct, he interposed his authority to prescribe and 
 enforce the necessary rules of voluntary action ; and 
 this was the operation of justice. Had this not been 
 exercised, the system of happiness would have been 
 neglected, and left without protection ; therefore the 
 want of justice would have been a very great deficien- 
 cy in goodness. How then can the conclusion be sus- 
 tained, that "A God all mercy, is a God unjust ?" Would 
 it be all mercy, to leave the felicity of the whole uni- 
 verse without protection ? . 
 
 The view entertained by those who would exclude 
 justice from the Divine character, appears to be, that 
 God should furnish the means of enjoyment without any 
 deficiency, and then let all his creatures do as they 
 please : let them deface and mar his whole plan with 
 impunity ; and when he sees them perverting his fair 
 creation, and turning it into a scene of confusion and 
 
172 THE WRATH OF GOD. 
 
 desolation, he must do nothing to restrain them ! This 
 would be like sowing good seed in a field, and then 
 leaving it without an enclosure, to be trodden under 
 foot, because the owner is too merciful to take care of 
 it! When an enemy comes to destroy the growing 
 produce, and thus to blast the harvest, he must not be 
 arrested and bound hand and foot, — nothing must be 
 done to interrupt or restrain him; every thing must 
 be allowed to go to ruin ; and after all is destroyed, the 
 owner's whole possessions turned into a wilderness, and 
 his children and servants brought to beggary and starv- 
 ation, he may sit down and console himself, by reflect- 
 ing on the demonstration thus given, that his character 
 is all mercy ! 
 
 If there be no justice exercised, on the part of our 
 Creator, it is obvious that he can have no moral go- 
 vernment ; for what is government, but the action of 
 authority prescribing and enforcing rules of moral con- 
 duct ? The kind of mercy which sinners want God to 
 exercise, is such as must possess no authority, have no 
 law, and hold them to no responsibility. That is, they 
 desire God to be so merciful as to patronise all ungod- 
 liness, and to furnish transgressors with an eternal hea- 
 ven of sin ! This is the secret which lies at the found- 
 ation of all objections to the Divine government. 
 
 Justice and judgment are, and ought to be, the found- 
 ation of the Almighty's throne ; whence it is evident, 
 that the wrath of God is always a just wrath, which 
 originates in a regard to the common welfare. It may 
 
THE WRATH OF GOD. 173 
 
 be pretended, perhaps, that all wrath is unjust ; but this 
 contradicts the human conscience, which testifies that 
 guilt deserves punishment. It is also refuted by the 
 civil governments of all nations, which, however they 
 differ in form, all agree in this, that they inflict punish- 
 ment upon transgressors. Hence we see the conviction 
 to be universal, that there is such a thing as just ivratk ; 
 and on this basis the conclusion rests, that the wrath of 
 God is no more contrary to his love, than the justice is 
 from which it emanates. 
 
 But this wrath, it may be said, is too severe. It is 
 not more severe than just, and that is, not more so than 
 is necessary ; otherwise it would follow that justice is 
 unnecessary ; a conclusion this, which none will con- 
 tend for, except they wish, on the one hand, to witness 
 the reign of tyranny, or, on the other, to return to the 
 secret above mentioned, that sin does no harm, and 
 therefore should be left free from all restraint and pun- 
 ishment. 
 
 The wrath of God is not animosity towards sinners ; 
 for he delights to pardon them, whenever it can be done 
 without giving up his kingdom, and sacrificing the wel- 
 fare of his unoffending subjects. The redemption of 
 the world by our Lord Jesus Christ was intended to 
 open the way for the pardon of sin to be extended as 
 far as it is possible for mercy to extend it. That is, so 
 far as will not impair the moral system on which the 
 common welfare depends ; and beyond this, the grant 
 of pardon would be unmerciful. Divine wrath, when 
 15* 
 
174 THE WRATH OF GOD. 
 
 put into a flame, is kindled at the fountain of love. It 
 punishes the sinner, in order either mercifully to reform 
 him, or kindly to protect the general happiness. Even 
 in the wonderful sufferings of redeeming love, wrath 
 and mercy operated in perfect harmony. 
 
 Here the whole Deity is known, 
 
 Nor dares a creature guess, 
 Which of the glories brightest shone, 
 
 The justice or the grace. 
 
 Hence it is said that " He who was clothed with a 
 vesture dipped in blood," and whose " name is called 
 the Word of God," " treadeth the wine-press of the 
 fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." (Rev. xix. 13.) 
 And mark the astonishing combination of wrath and 
 mercy, in the account given of him, and of his redeem- 
 ing operations, in the Old Testament : " Who is this that 
 cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah ? 
 — I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Where- 
 fore art ,thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments 
 like him that treadeth in the wine-fat ? I have trodden 
 the wine-press alone ; and of the people there was none 
 with me : for I will tread them in mine anger, and 
 trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be 
 sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my 
 raiment. For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and 
 the year of my redeemed is come. Therefore mine own 
 arm brought salvation unto me, and my fury, it upheld 
 me. I will tread down the people in mine anger, and 
 make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down 
 
SUPPOSED PARTIALITY OF GOD. 175 
 
 their strength to the earth. I will mention the loving 
 kindness of the Lord, and his great goodness towards 
 the house of Israel," &c. (Isa. lxiii. 1.) These strong 
 expressions exhibit the harmony of justice and benevo- 
 lence, and show that the work of redemption was 
 accompanied by their combined operation. The same 
 principles, the same harmony, the same energy, run 
 through the whole of the Divine administration, from 
 the beginning of the creation to eternity. There is no 
 contradiction or variation of principle in the Supreme 
 Being ; but the action of his government operates upon 
 individuals, according to the diversity of their charac- 
 ters. Our Creator is not a double-minded Being : He is 
 of one mind, and who can turn him? His disposition is 
 that of immutable love for the whole creation ; and in 
 all things He acts from an invariable regard to the pub- 
 lic happiness. 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 Supposed Partiality of God towards Nations. 
 
 We are informed that God is "the Father of the 
 spirits of all flesh ;" that " all souls are his ;" that " there 
 is no respect of persons with God ;" and that " the wis- 
 dom from above is without partiality and without hy- 
 pocrisy." Whence we conclude, that there can be no 
 motive in the Divine Mind for caprice or favouritism. 
 
176 SUPPOSED PARTIALITY OF GOD. 
 
 Indeed, we have only to inquire whether this disposition 
 be a constituent part of a good or of an evil character, 
 to ascertain whether it have place in the mind of our 
 Creator. If partiality be an evil disposition, there is 
 none of it in God ; and if it be a good one, why should 
 any man be unwilling to be an object of its influence, 
 or to be one of its reprobates ? and why is it prohibited 
 by the wisdom that is from above ? 
 
 But it may be supposed that God is partial in his treat- 
 ment of nations : the Jews, for example, were his pecu- 
 liar people, while many other nations were cast off into 
 darkness and heathenism. How does God himself an- 
 swer this objection ? As follows : " At what instant 1 
 shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a king- 
 dom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it: 
 if that nation against whom I have pronounced, turn 
 from their evil way, I will repent of the evil that I 
 thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall 
 speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, 
 to build and to plant it ; if it do evil in my sight, that it 
 obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good 
 wherewith I said I would benefit them." (Jer. xviii. 7.) 
 " Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth, I 
 perceive that God is no respecter of persons : but in 
 every nation, he that feareth him and worketh right- 
 eousness, is accepted with him." (Acts x. 34.) 
 
 God said to Abraham, " I will bless thee, and thou 
 shalt be a blessing." So it was with Abraham's pos- 
 terity : they were not chosen to be God's peculiar peo- 
 
SUPPOSED PARTIALITY OF GOD. 177 
 
 pie for their own sake alone, but to be a blessing to 
 surrounding nations, that the name of God might be 
 declared throughout all the earth, and that all nations 
 and kindreds of the earth might be blessed in Abraham's 
 seed. When the Jews rebelled, they were accordingly 
 punished, not only that they might be reclaimed, but 
 also that other nations might be instructed and admon- 
 ished. 
 
 " When the nations round about w T ere witnesses of 
 God's judgments against Israel," says Sherlock, " when 
 they forsook the Lord their God, and of their happy and 
 prosperous state while they kept his covenant ; it was a 
 convincing proof of the power and justice of the God 
 of Israel ; especially when they should see the ten tribes 
 utterly rooted out for their idolatry, and Judah carried 
 captive into Babylon, and the city and temple of Jeru- 
 salem destroyed, and the land laid waste and desolate 
 without inhabitants ; the justice and power of God, in 
 driving them out of their land, would then be as much 
 taken notice of, as his wonderful providence in deliver- 
 ing them out of Egypt. And this was so publicly known, 
 that when any such evils befel Israel, the nations round 
 about were able to give the reason of it ; because they 
 forsook the Lord God of their fathers. So that the very 
 oppression and captivity of Israel, published the supreme 
 power and glory of the God of Israel." The same au- 
 thor says again, " These captivities and dispersions of 
 Israel, especially the long captivity of Judah in Baby- 
 lon, served other ends besides the punishment and the 
 
178 SUPPOSED PARTIALITY OF GOD. 
 
 cure of their idolatry ; for into what country soever they 
 were carried captive, they carried the knowledge of 
 the God of Israel along with them." (p. 365.) 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, acknowledged 
 to Daniel, " Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of 
 gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, 
 since thou couldst reveal this secret." And upon the 
 deliverance of the three Hebrews, the same monarch 
 passed a decree, " That every people, nation and lan- 
 guage, which speak any thing amiss against the God 
 of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in 
 pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill ; be- 
 cause there is no other God, that can deliver after this 
 sort." (Dan. ii. 47— hi. 28.) 
 
 When Daniel and his associates were exalted to great 
 authority in the kingdom, who can doubt that they used 
 their utmost influence to diffuse a knowledge of the true 
 God among the people, which knowledge, as our Sa- 
 viour informs us, is life eternal? King Darius also 
 made a decree, " That in every dominion of his king- 
 dom, men fear and tremble before the God of Daniel." 
 And suppose thousands of them did so, we have a right 
 to conclude that they were saved; for if the apostle 
 Peter had an orthodox view of the gospel, whosoever in 
 that or any other nation feareth God and worketh right- 
 eousness, is accepted with him. 
 
 It is delightful to have the authority of such an au- 
 thor as Sherlock in opposition to the gloomy doctrine 
 of Gentile reprobation. " The Jews, and their God, and 
 
SUPPOSED PARTIALITY OF GOD. 179 
 
 their religion," he says, " became known over all the 
 Roman Empire. And though the knowledge of the 
 God of Israel did not reform Nations, yet we have rea- 
 son to believe, that it made a great many private con- 
 verts, who secretly forsook the idolatries of their coun- 
 tries, and worshipped the only true God ; and some few 
 examples of this kind, which we know, may satisfy us 
 that there were many more. 
 
 " On the famous day of Pentecost, there were at Jeru- 
 salem great numbers, not only of Jews, but of Prose- 
 lytes out of every nation, " Parthians, and Medes, and 
 Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Ju- 
 dea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and 
 Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya, about 
 Cyrene, and strangers of Rome ; Jews and proselytes, 
 Cretes and Arabians." From whence we learn, that 
 the dispersion of the Jews into all nations, made great 
 numbers of Proselytes, who renounced all the Heathen 
 Idolatries, and worshipped no other God but the God 
 of Israel. "When St. Paul preached at Thessalonica, 
 there consorted with Paul and Silas of the devout Greeks 
 a great multitude. The very name of Greeks proves 
 them to be Gentiles; and that they were devout or 
 worshipping Greeks, proves that they were the wor- 
 shippers of the God of Israel. And almost in every 
 place where St. Paul preached the gospel, we find great 
 numbers of these worshipping Gentiles" (Divine Pro- 
 vidence, pp. 372, 373.) 
 
 This judicious author adds the following; — "We 
 
180 SUPPOSED PARTIALITY OF GOD. 
 
 must confess that we know so little of the other world, 
 that it is impossible for us to give a particular reason 
 of every passage of Providence, which relates to the 
 next world. It is one very great difficulty, that since 
 all men have immortal souls, and must be happy or 
 miserable for ever, God should for so many ages suffer 
 the whole world, excepting the Jews, to live in igno- 
 rance, and in Pagan idolatry and superstition. But 
 then the whole difficulty is no more than this, that we 
 know not what the condition of such men is in the other 
 world, who lived in invincible ignorance of the true God 
 and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, in this. This we con- 
 fess we do not know, but believe so well of God, that 
 we are verily persuaded, could we see what their state 
 is in the other world, we should see no reason to quar- 
 rel with the justness or goodness of God upon their ac- 
 count. Men must be very much inclined to quarrel 
 with God, who will raise objections from what they 
 confess they know nothing of: and yet I cannot guess, 
 how they should know any thing of the state of ignorant 
 Heathens in the next world, since the Scripture says 
 nothing of it ; and yet this can be known only by reve- 
 lation, for we cannot look into the other world. 
 
 " The plain truth of the case is this : some men con- 
 fidently affirm, that ignorant Heathens shall suffer the 
 same condemnation which Christ has threatened against 
 wilful infidels, and wicked Christians ; and this, I con- 
 fess, is a great difficulty, but it is a difficulty of their 
 own making ; and I should think it much more safe for 
 
SUPPOSED PARTIALITY OF GOD. 181 
 
 ourselves, and much more honourable for God, to con- 
 fess our ignorance of such matters, as we have no pos- 
 sible way to know, than to pretend to know what we 
 cannot know, and from thence to raise such objections 
 as we cannot answer. We know so little in particular 
 about the other world, that it is impossible we should 
 be able either to satisfy ourselves or others in such mat- 
 ters." (Divine Providence, pp. 139, 140.) 
 
 In regard to the supposed partiality of God, in select- 
 ing the Jews to be his peculiar people, the charge is 
 fully obviated, not only by the clear Scripture evidence 
 that God had an impartial regard to the happiness of 
 all mankind in that dispensation, but also by his severe 
 treatment of the Jews themselves, when they became a 
 nation of infidels. " The obstinate Infidelity of the 
 Jews," says Mr. Sherlock, " who blasphemed the name, 
 and persecuted the disciples of Christ, did in some de- 
 gree hinder the progress of the Gospel among the Gen- 
 tiles ; but the destruction of Jerusalem, and the miracu- 
 lous preservation of the Christians, was so visible a 
 testimony to Christianity, that the Gospel had a freer 
 passage, and prevailed mightily in the world. 
 
 " And the dispersion of the Jews into all countries, 
 as before it spread the knowledge of the one true God, 
 so now it made them unwilling witnesses to Christianity, 
 as being the visible triumph of the crucified Jesus. 
 
 -" In a word, when all mankind were Idolaters, God 
 chose the posterity of Abraham, to prepare men to 
 receive the gospel, which would in time extirpate all 
 16 
 
182 SUPPOSED PARTIALITY OF GOD. 
 
 Pagan idolatries. When Christ was come, and the 
 gospel preached to the world, God rejected that nation 
 for their infidelity, and by that means gave a freer pas- 
 sage to the gospel among the Gentiles ; and St. Paul 
 intimates, that the time will come, when the sincere 
 faith, and exemplary piety of the Christian Church shall 
 contribute as much to the conversion of the Jews, as 
 they formerly did to the conversion of the Gentiles; 
 for this seems to be the sum of the apostle's reasoning, 
 with which I shall conclude this argument. For as ye 
 in times past have not believed God, yet now have 
 obtained mercy through their unbelief; even so have 
 these also not believed, that through your mercy, they 
 also may obtain mercy ; for God hath concluded them 
 all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. O 
 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and know- 
 ledge of God ! how unsearchable are his judgments, 
 and his ways past finding out ! (Rom. xi. 30.)" (Divine 
 Providence, pp. 379, 380. 
 
 That all men of every nation have the privilege of 
 obtaining future happiness, will appear from the follow- 
 ing considerations. 
 
 1. They all sustain the same relation to God. He is 
 " the Father of the spirits of all flesh," and " hath made 
 of one blood all the nations of men, that they might 
 feel after him, and find him ; for he is not far from 
 every one of us." What earthly father would have 
 such an antipathy toward some of his children, as to 
 place them in circumstances, from their birth, in which 
 
SUPPOSED PARTIALITY OF GOD. 183 
 
 it would not be in their power to obtain happiness? 
 " If ye being evil, know how to give good gifts unto 
 your children, how much more shall your Father which 
 is in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him !" 
 To say God is indifferent to the happiness of a large 
 proportion of ' his offspring,' because they are called 
 Jews, Mahometans or Pagans, is grossly to misrepre- 
 sent his character. 
 
 2. They all sustain the same relation to Christ. He 
 is called the second Adam, because in his character of 
 Redeemer he stands at the head of the whole human 
 family, as entirely as the first Adam did. He gave 
 himself a ransom for all ; tasted death for every man ; 
 and became the propitiation for the sins of the whole 
 world. Now is it not infinitely unworthy of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, to suppose him to stand at the head of the 
 human family, as the world's Redeemer, and at the 
 same time to place millions of mankind in circumstances 
 from their birth, in which it is impossible for them to 
 derive any benefit from his atonement 1 To call it a 
 benefit, for them to have temporal blessings which are 
 to convey them to inevitable perdition, is a mere bur- 
 lesque and an insult to common rationality. 
 
 3. From their relation to the Divine government as 
 responsible agents. Jesus Christ says, ' all nations' shall 
 stand before him in judgment. Then they are all ac- 
 countable. And shall we say of God, that he holds 
 millions of his creatures accountable, under circum- 
 stances which render it impossible for any one of them 
 
184 SUPPOSED PARTIALITY OF GOD. 
 
 to give a good account 1 If there be no possible course 
 for Heathens to take that will not eventuate in their 
 destruction, does it not follow that they are damned for 
 being Heathens, and that the Almighty holds them 
 accountable for the circumstances of their birth 1 
 
 4. From their state of probation. If Pagans and Ma- 
 hometans are really in a state of trial for eternity, then 
 it is possible for them so to act their part as to receive 
 the crown of life ; otherwise we shall define a state of 
 probation to be a state in which the souls of men are 
 necessarily jilted for 'perdition. A state in which they 
 are called upon either to improve a talent which they 
 have not, or are furnished with a talent which cannot 
 be improved. Their probation was allowed them, it 
 should seem, not to give them a chance for their life, 
 but only to fit and qualify them for the place of future 
 punishment ! 
 
 5. From their capacity for truth and virtue. " What 
 does the Lord thy God require of thee, but to do justly, 
 to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God 1" 
 (Micah, vi. 8.) Js it not possible for Heathens to em- 
 brace so much truth, as will lead them to this line of 
 conduct? May not a Pagan or a Mahometan be as 
 sincere in his inquiries as a Christian ? May he not be 
 as candid in the pursuit of truth, as earnest in his desires 
 after God, and as submissive to what he understands to 
 be his Maker's will and authority ? If so, he can have, 
 in his degree, the very same virtues which qualify the 
 soul of the Christian for eternal life. And the supposi- 
 
SUPPOSED PARTIALITY OF GOD. 185 
 
 tion that God will send men of this character to hell, 
 because they had the disadvantage of being born in 
 heathen lands, implies a gross and shameful misrepre- 
 sentation of his character. 
 
 6. From their immortality. Immortal creatures have 
 a capacity for eternal happiness or misery : and to say 
 their Maker has placed thousands and millions of them 
 in circumstances where future happiness is unattainable, 
 and future misery inevitable, is to suppose either that he 
 is indifferent to the well-being of their souls, or that he 
 really takes pleasure in their future punishment. It is 
 to suppose these creatures were brought into existence 
 for the purpose of being made miserable for ever ; as 
 much so as if they had been ordained to this misery 
 from all eternity. 
 
 It is objected, however, that all Pagans are guilty of 
 idolatry, which God says is the abominable thing which 
 his soul hateth. That all Pagans are idolaters, is taken 
 for granted without proof. Many of them believe in 
 one supreme God ; and in approaching him through the 
 medium of images, they may aim as sincerely to obtain 
 his favour, as pious Roman Catholics have done, through 
 the succeeding ages of Christendom. Heathens never 
 heard of the ten commandments ; and they have been 
 taught from their birth, that it is right and proper to 
 approach God through the medium of visible repre- 
 sentations ; therefore no man can prove that those of 
 them who are sincere and fervent in their desires to 
 please their Creator, are exposed to eternal misery for 
 16* H * 
 
ISO SUPPOSED PARTIALITY OF GOD. 
 
 an error which they have been taught to receive as a 
 truth from their infancy, and which, upon the approach 
 of gospel light, they would readily and for ever re- 
 nounce. 
 
 An argument much dwelt upon in modern times, is 
 that an admission of the possibility of Heathen salvation 
 will damp the fervour of missionary zeal : for why con- 
 tribute our money, and send our missionaries to carry 
 the gospel to the Heathens, if they can be saved without 
 it? This argument is occasionally used even by Me- 
 thodists ; and some of them, there is cause to apprehend, 
 are disposed to give up their original testimony, and to 
 abandon the doctrines of their Wesley and Fletcher, for 
 the sake of exciting and supporting missionary zeal. 
 But the whole plausibility of this reasoning rests upon 
 false assumptions. 
 
 First, it supposes that the design of preaching the 
 gospel, is to place men in a state of probation. Persons 
 in a state of trial for eternity have power so to acquit 
 themselves as to be accepted and approved of their 
 Maker, or they have not ; if they have not, it is a sham 
 trial, and they are held to their accountability by des- 
 potic power ; if they have, then Heathens may become 
 the subjects of future happiness, or otherwise they are 
 not in a state of probation. If the latter be their true 
 condition, then our missionaries go to them with the 
 high prerogative of essentially altering their moral rela- 
 tion to Almighty God, and of exercising towards them 
 
SUPPOSED PARTIALITY OF GOD. 187 
 
 that benevolence which, it should seem, their Maker 
 had withheld from them for so many generations. 
 
 Secondly, it supposes that the design of carrying the 
 gospel to the Heathens, is to deliver them from a state 
 of absolute reprobation. Millions of them, indeed the 
 whole population, it is supposed, have through a succes- 
 sion of centuries gone unavoidably to perdition. There 
 was no period of their lives, from birth until death, in 
 which it was in their power to escape hell. They might 
 as justly have been ordained to hell from everlasting ; 
 for this would make no conceivable alteration either in 
 its bearing upon their destiny, or upon the character of 
 their Creator. Methodists may be assured that they 
 will find no alternative, but either to embrace the whole 
 system of free wrath, or to relinquish the hypothesis of 
 Heathen reprobation. 
 
 Thirdly, it supposes that when men have an amount 
 of religious knowledge which puts them in the lowest 
 degree of salvation, the gospel leaves them there ; — that 
 it is no part of its design, or an unimportant one, to lead 
 them on to higher knowledge, and to higher attainments, 
 that they " may receive a full reward." For suppose 
 Heathens, by obeying the light they have, may attain 
 to a low degree of salvation, if the blaze of gospel truth 
 would lead them on from grace to grace, and from 
 glory to glory, whereby they would attain immensely 
 greater heights of happiness in heaven, will not this be 
 sufficient to excite the full glow of missionary zeal I If 
 not, then there can be no room for the exercise of such 
 
188 SUPPOSED PARTIALITY OF GOD. 
 
 zeal in Christendom, in order to build up believers in 
 their most holy faith. Christians may all continue in a 
 1 low state of religion to the end of life, provided only 
 that they have enough barely to escape hell. For if 
 they can be saved with their present attainments, what 
 need of missionary zeal to call them into any higher 
 degrees of " glory and virtue," any more than to fur- 
 nish these advantages to Heathens ? 
 
 Fourthly, the argument assumes, that it is no design 
 of the Gospel, or an unimportant one, to warn, exhort, 
 and "persuade men''' to be saved: for if there is no 
 need of ministerial zeal, in preaching the gospel to the 
 Heathens, because they already have salvation within 
 their reach, then it is equally unnecessary to continue 
 instant in season, and out of season, in preaching the 
 gospel to our own countrymen ; because they already 
 have salvation within their reach. They have their 
 Bibles, and possess religious knowledge enough to place 
 them in a state of probation : they may be saved if 
 they will : therefore let our gospel zeal die away ; for 
 there is no necessity for it. This argument is as con- 
 clusive in its application to all Christendom, as it is in 
 its application to the Heathen world. 
 
 Fifthly, it seems to assume, that all missionary zeal 
 to carry the gospel to the Heathen world, is so pure, 
 and so important, that hardly any sacrifices are too 
 great for us to make, in order to sustain it. If, how- 
 ever, we are called upon sentimentally to devote mil- 
 lions of our fellow-creatures to unavoidable destruction, 
 
SUPPOSED PARTIALITY OF GOD. 189 
 
 and thereby to give up all the holy attributes of our 
 Creator, this is too great a sacrifice to be made in sup- 
 port of missionary zeal ; and it may be doubted whe- 
 ther a zeal derived from such a source is altogether so 
 pure, as many seem desirous to have us to take for 
 granted. 
 
 Why are the Heathens of our own country so deplor- 
 ably overlooked and neglected ? 
 
 Mr. Jay says, "In vain has the Redeemer of the 
 world given the command to preach the gospel to every 
 creature ; his professed disciples in the slave states have 
 issued a counter order ; and as we have already seen, 
 have by their laws, incapacitated 2,000,000 of their fel- 
 low-men from complying with the injunction, "search 
 the Scriptures." Not only are the slaves debarred from 
 reading the wonderful things of God — they are practi- 
 cally prevented with a few exceptions from even hear- 
 ing of them. There are in the bosom of our country 
 two millions of human beings, who, in consequence of 
 our laws, are in a state of heathenism. In 1831, the 
 Rev. Charles C. Jones preached a sermon before two 
 associations of planters in Georgia. This sermon is 
 before us, and we quote from it. 
 
 " Generally speaking they (the slaves) appear to us 
 to be without God and without hope in the world, a 
 nation of heathens in our very midst. — We cannot 
 cry out against the Papists for withholding the scrip- 
 tures from the common people, and keeping them in 
 ignorance of the way of life ; for we withhold the Bible 
 
190 SUPPOSED PARTIALITY OF GOD. 
 
 from our servants, and keep them in ignorance of it, 
 while we will not use the means to have it read and 
 explained to them." 
 
 On the 5th of December 1833, a committee of the 
 Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, to whom was 
 referred the subject of the religious instruction of the 
 coloured population, made a report which has been pub- 
 lished, and in w T hich this language is used. 
 
 " Who would credit it, that in these years of revival 
 and benevolent effort, in this Christian republic, there 
 are over two millions of human beings in the condition 
 of heathen, and in some respects in a worse condition. 
 From long continued and close observation, we believe 
 that their moral and religious condition is such that 
 they may justly be considered the heathen of this 
 Christian country, and will bear comparison with hea- 
 then in any country in the world. The negroes are 
 destitute of the gospel, and ever will he under the pre- 
 sent state of things" 
 
 In a late number of the Charleston (S. C.) Observer, 
 a correspondent remarked : " Let us establish missiona- 
 ries among our own negroes, who, in view of religious 
 knowledge, are as debasingly ignorant as any one on 
 the coast of Africa ; for I hazard the assertion, that 
 through the bounds of our Synod, there are at least one 
 hundred thousand slaves, speaking the same language 
 as ourselves, who never heard of the plan of salvation 
 by a Redeemer." (Jay's Inquiry, pp. 136, &c.) 
 
 Now shall all our Christian sympathies be frozen up — 
 
SUPPOSED PARTIALITY OF GOD. 191 
 
 shall the churches of our land remain in profound 
 silence, in regard to the perishing condition of the two 
 millions of heathens in our own country, while we em- 
 ploy benevolent missionary agents to solicit contribu- 
 tions to send the gospel to the heathens of the other 
 hemisphere 1 Our missionary zeal must be purified 
 from such glaring inconsistency, before we can reason- 
 ably expect to make a very extensive and favourable 
 impression upon the minds of either Jews or Gentiles. 
 
 But what is most astonishing, we are called upon to 
 believe that the two millions of heathens in our country, 
 by being kept from a knowledge of the gospel by Re- 
 publican Christians, are thereby consigned to inevitable 
 reprobation, and to the miseries of an endless hell. A 
 writer in the Anti-slavery Magazine, calls slavery " A 
 legalized system of oppression, which consigns millions 
 of God's children to insufferable wrongs and unutter- 
 able misery in this world, and to agony and despair in 
 the future." (Anti-slavery Magazine, vol. II. No. 1. p. 
 52.) Hence it would appear, that because these poor 
 creatures are compelled to endure " insufferable wrongs 
 and unutterable misery in this world," their Maker 
 therefore takes the matter up after they are dead, and 
 keeps them in "agony and despair" to all eternity! 
 This seems to imply, that however great may be the 
 despotism and tyranny of mankind, the Almighty Lord 
 of nature resolves to keep himself at the head of the 
 list, as the greatest tyrant of all. 
 
 We contend, that those neglected negroes either have 
 
192 SUPPOSED PARTIALITY OF GOD. 
 
 it in their power to obtain their Maker's final favour, 
 or otherwise they are not in a state of probation at all ; 
 and consequently are not exposed to " agony and de- 
 spair" in a future state. 
 
 Our last though not least objection to the hypothesis 
 before us, is that it assumes for Protestant clergymen 
 one of the worst and most presumptuous claims of 
 popery. Roman Catholics tell us, that "there is no 
 salvation out of the church," and that the grace of sal- 
 vation can only be conve} 7 ed from the church through 
 the hands of her ministry : Heretics and Heathens must 
 all be damned, except they receive salvation through 
 this channel exclusively. Now Protestants, who hold 
 the doctrine which we here oppose, evidently set up the 
 same identical claim : they say that Heathens cannot 
 be saved, except they receive salvation through the 
 hand of our missionaries, and missionary societies. 
 
 If these people cannot be instructed unto salvation in 
 any other way, than through our instrumentality, it 
 must be either because God has no power to save them 
 in any other way, or because he has no right to do it, 
 or because he has no will to do it. It will peradventure 
 be urged, that though God possesses both the power 
 and the right to save the Heathens through other medi- 
 ums of illumination, yet it is not his will ; for he has 
 engaged or pledged himself not to save them except 
 through our ministrations ; which is the identical claim 
 of the Romish priesthood, that God has pledged himself 
 to them, that salvation shall not flow either to Heretics 
 
SUPPOSED PARTIALITY OF GOD. 193 
 
 or Heathens, except through the medium of their sanc- 
 tified authority. 
 
 But why should the great Sovereign of the world thus 
 restrict himself, and give the power of salvation out -of 
 his own hands 1 May he not do what he will with his 
 own 1 Shall our eye be evil because he is good \ Not 
 only the power of salvation, but the power of judgment 
 also, according to this hypothesis, appears to be given 
 out of his hands ; for if our missionaries have the pre- 
 rogative of putting men into a state of probation, the 
 Almighty would seem to be dependent on them for his 
 authority to judge the Heathen world in righteousness. 
 
 Such, and more, are the consequences resulting from 
 the favourite hypothesis of modern times, that the whole 
 Heathen world have been kept in life for centuries, for 
 the simple purpose of being indiscriminately consigned 
 to the miseries of an endless hell. 
 
 Alas, for poor sectarian, bigoted man ! if he had the 
 prerogative to wield the thunders of eternity, what mil- 
 lions would by wholesale be hurried quickly into una- 
 voidable and eternal ruin ! What a spectacle, to see 
 Jews damn all Gentiles — Gentiles damn all Jews — 
 Roman Catholics damn all Protestants — and Protest- 
 ants damn all Roman Catholics ! Let heaven and earth 
 be glad, and shout for joy, that " The Lord is Judge 
 himself." Let the redeemed millions of heaven say 
 Alleluia, and let them repeat the triumphant exclama- 
 tion, Alleluia, that the Lord God omnipotent reigneth ! 
 17 i 
 
194 IMAGINARY DECREES OF GOD. 
 
 and that he has not committed the eternal destiny of any 
 creature to the sovereign decision of human selfishness 
 and sectarian bigotry. 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 Imaginary Decrees of God in reference to Individuals. 
 
 That Almighty God has formed decrees, is too mani- 
 fest to be reasonably doubted. The plan of Creation 
 may be called a system of decrees ; the plan of Re- 
 demption, another ; the plan of Providence, a third ; 
 and the plan of moral government, a fourth. Every 
 'precept of God may be called a decree ; and so may 
 every promise, and every threatening. 
 
 But has he formed particular decrees, in regard to 
 mankind 1 Without question he has. He has decreed, 
 for example, that every man shall be governed as a free 
 agent ; that it shall be accepted according to that a 
 man hath, and not according to that he hath not ; that 
 every one of us shall give an account of himself to 
 God ; and that the world shall be judged in righteous- 
 ness. 
 
 But the supposition that God has decreed the eternal 
 happiness of some men, and the eternal misery of others, 
 without regard to their actions, or by predestinating 
 those actions, appears to be an entire misrepresentation 
 of his whole character. 
 
 
IMAGINARY DECREES OF GOD. 195 
 
 What sincerity is there in our Maker's revealed will, 
 if he has a secret will which renders the former only an 
 appearance of justly governing and judging moral 
 agents, without doing so in reality 1 The whole Bible 
 has the appearance of an address to free agents ; being 
 filled up with invitations, commands, promises, threat- 
 enings, persuasions, arguments and expostulations. Do 
 not all these modes of address look like an appeal to us 
 as creatures whose character and destiny are to be 
 fixed by our own unconstrained volitions 1 And is not 
 all this a mere deception, if our character and destiny 
 have been previously fixed by an unconditional and im- 
 mutable decree ? It is not necessary to detain the read- 
 er, by showing the inconsistency of this notion of decrees 
 with each particular attribute of God ; because it is evi- 
 dent that a being destitute of sincerity, can possess no 
 good attribute whatever. The two prominent traits of 
 the devil's character are said to be deceit and malevo- 
 lence : he is a liar, and he is a murderer. 
 
 Now if the Almighty predetermined that certain an- 
 gels and men should be miserable in hell for ever, either 
 by purposing to send them there without regard to their 
 works, or by predestinating their actions, how would 
 this differ from his placing them in hell at the first mo- 
 ment of their existence ? Would not such a procedure 
 evince malevolence of disposition 1 And is not malevo- ( 
 lence the spirit of a murderer? To what purpose would 
 creatures, thus destined, have a probation given them, 
 except to make a show of just dealing and a righteous 
 
196 IMAGINARY DECREES OF GOD. 
 
 administration, when the reality was wanting ? If such 
 questions alarm us, let us draw back with horror from 
 imputations upon our Maker which would despoil him 
 of all his loveliness, and deprive mankind of all religious 
 hope and consolation. 
 
 By what arguments is this notion of eternal decrees 
 sustained ? The principal arguments which have come 
 under our notice are the following : 
 
 First, It is supposed that the good pleasure of the di- 
 vine will requires that all things should be thus decreed. 
 And would it be a pleasant prospect to our Creator — a 
 pleasure to his will, — to see millions of his own creatures 
 in hopeless and endless misery, as the result of an abso- 
 lute decree of his own, which either punished them 
 without regard to their works, or predestinated a course 
 of actions which should fit them for this misery 1 The 
 Lord our God appeals to his own life, that he has no 
 pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but that he has 
 pleasure in seeing the wicked man turn from his evil 
 way that he may live. 
 
 Secondly, it is supposed that the divine sovereignty 
 requires such a procedure; inasmuch as God has a right 
 to do what he will with his own. But would it be right 
 for him to place all men and angels in hell at their first 
 existence, and punish them without intermission and with- 
 out end, because they are his own ? If this be the sove- 
 reignty of a good Being, by what marks and charac- 
 teristics will it be distinguished from the sovereignty of 
 a Tyrant ? It is evident, if the argument be conclusive 
 
IMAGINARY DECREES OF GOD. 197 
 
 in regard to any one creature of God, it will equally 
 conclude against them all ; for they are all alike his 
 own, and of course could all alike be punished in virtue 
 of the same sovereignty. 
 
 Thirdly, it has been supposed that divine justice re- 
 quires that there should be reprobates ; for if all crea- 
 tures were free, they might all do right, and there would 
 be no hell ; and if there be no hell, justice will have no 
 place in which to display itself. And pray, is there not 
 as much justice in heaven, as there is in hell ? Is jus- 
 tice such a corrupt and evil principle, that there is no 
 room for it in heaven? Let us suppose for a moment, 
 that an unjust being should wish to make a display of 
 his injustice, how would it be possible for him to do it 
 more effectually than by ordaining sin, that he might 
 thereby have a plausible pretence for placing creatures 
 in extreme torment, in order to keep them there without 
 intermission and without end ? If this would be a per- 
 fect display both of justice and injustice, how is the one 
 to be distinguished from the other 1 
 
 Fourthly, it has been supposed that the eternal de- 
 crees above mentioned, are required by the ivisdom of 
 God ; inasmuch as it is folly in any being to operate 
 without a plan. 
 
 Now in regard to the operations of a superintending 
 mind, two kinds of plan are to be distinctly considered: 
 one is the plan of controlling and regulating a system 
 of machinery ; the other is the plan of governing a king- 
 dom or community of moral agents. To the machinery, 
 17* 
 
198 IMAGINARY DECREES OF GOD. 
 
 force is applied in various directions, according to the 
 design of the superintendent ; to the subjects of a moral 
 government commands, promises, and threatenings, are 
 given ; because the wise design of the Ruler is to govern 
 them by motives, and not by mechanical impulse. Shall 
 it be said of the ruler of a kingdom or commonwealth, 
 that he acts without a plan, because he does not decree 
 and make inevitable every particular action of those 
 under his administration 1 According to this view, there 
 is no such thing as a wise government upon earth : they 
 are all founded in folly, for want of effectual decrees 
 that shall fix an unbroken chain of destiny for all the 
 actions of each individual. 
 
 Query. Does it not require more wisdom to govern 
 a society of free agents, than to govern a complicated 
 machine, such as a water-mill, a cotton factory, or a 
 steam-boat 1 And has not God wisdom enough to form 
 a plan of governing free agents, without despoiling them 
 of their liberty, by such a system of decrees ? Alas ! 
 this notion of predestination evidently supposes there is 
 such a want of wisdom in the Almighty, that he cannot 
 form a plan of governing the intelligent universe, with- 
 out first binding them all, that he may take the whole 
 action entirely into his own hands. 
 
 It is urged, fifthly, that the decrees of God under 
 consideration, are required by his fore-knowledge. 
 
 Now in order to form correct views of this matter, 
 we must carefully avoid confounding things which in 
 their own nature are essentially different. What is a 
 
IMAGINARY DECREES OF GOD. 199 
 
 decree? It is a voluntary purpose of the will. What is 
 knowledge ? It is the discernment of the understanding. 
 Whether we speak of fore ? or after, or present know- 
 ledge, its nature is the same : a mere mental survey, 
 taking cognizance of truth and fact, in regard to exist- 
 ence, qualities, relations, and operations. Past know- 
 ledge we call remembrance ; present knowledge, percep- 
 tion or discernment; and a knowledge of the future, 
 foreknowledge or prescience. The different .parts of 
 time, past, present, and future, make no change what- 
 ever in the nature of knowledge ; and a prescience of 
 future events has no other kind of connection with the 
 events themselves, than remembrance has with past 
 events. 
 
 The proposition, that the decrees of God are involved 
 in his foreknowledge, must mean one of these three 
 things : either 1. that God decrees future events, in order 
 to know them; or 2. that he decrees them, because he 
 knows them ; or 3. that his knowledge itself brings them 
 to pass of necessity. 
 
 In regard to the first, that God decrees future events 
 in order to know them, it supposes that His knowledge, 
 like our own, is acquired by voluntary application : his 
 will must be exerted, in forming decrees of what is to 
 be done, before he can have a knowledge of any thing ! 
 Then does it not follow, that without a due exercise of 
 his voluntary powers, in forming a train of absolute 
 purposes and decrees, he must have remained in eternal 
 ignorance of every thing 1 If God can know nothing, 
 
200 IMAGINARY DECREES OF GOD. 
 
 but in virtue of first arranging it by his decree, it is evi- 
 dent that the decree itself must be formed in the dark, 
 without any intelligence to discern a reason why one 
 kind of a decree should be resolved upon, rather than 
 another. 
 
 We are conscious that we can foreknow, with a high 
 degree of probability, what our fellow-men will do, when 
 at the same time we do not form any decree, nor exert 
 any power whatever to influence their actions. Then 
 cannot our Creator foreknow with certainty the uncon- 
 strained actions of his creatures 1 This is unquestiona- 
 bly more honourable to the Divine understanding, than 
 to suppose God can foreknow nothing without resolving 
 to bring it to pass himself. 
 
 As to the second supposition, that God decrees all 
 things because he fore-knows them ; — we may simply 
 ask, if he already knows they will come to pass, why 
 need he decree them, in order to their accomplishment ? 
 He may fore-know what other agents will do under 
 given circumstances, and may decree to vary the cir- 
 cumstances, in order to prevent their doing what they 
 otherwise would do ; but when he fore-sees what they 
 will do, and does not intend to prevent it, a decree to 
 bring it to pass by his own power, would appear to be 
 a perfect superfluity, to say the least of it. As to the 
 saying which we sometimes hear, that God decrees to 
 permit certain events, we have no objection to it ; be- 
 cause it means nothing more nor less than this, that He 
 purposes not to hinder them by superior power. 
 
IMAGINARY DECREES OF GOD. 201 
 
 That God fore-knows with certainty what men w r ill 
 do under given circumstances, which yet they do not 
 perform, in consequence of a change of those circum- 
 stances, is evident from 1 Sam. xxiii. 10, &c. " Then 
 said David, O Lord God of Israel, thy servant hath cer- 
 tainly heard that- Saul seeketh to come to Keilah, to 
 destroy the city for my sake. Will the men of Keilah 
 deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come dow r n, 
 as thy servant hath heard ? And the Lord said, He will 
 come down. Then said David, Will the men of Keilah 
 deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul 1 And 
 the Lord said, They will deliver thee up. Then David 
 and his men arose and departed out of Keilah. And 
 it was told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah ; 
 and he forbare to go forth." Who can doubt the abso- 
 lute certainty of the Divine fore-knowledge, that Saul 
 would have gone to Keilah and that its inhabitants 
 would have delivered up David, had he continued in 
 their city? Yet by a change of the circumstances, 
 Saul did not come down, and the men of Keilah did 
 not deliver David into his hands. David appears not 
 to have had any suspicion that the fore-knowledge of 
 God had any influence upon the actions of free agents ; 
 otherwise he would have folded his hands in despair, 
 and have made no attempt to make his escape, because 
 of his conviction that the expressed fore-knowledge of 
 God had fixed his destiny inevitably. 
 
 This divine attribute of God, whereby he foresees 
 what his creatures will do under given circumstances, 
 
202 IMAGINARY DECREES OF GOD. 
 
 with complete power in his own hands to vary the cir- 
 cumstances, and thereby to vary their conduct, without 
 interrupting their agency, is doubtless of immense im- 
 portance in his universal and eternal administration. 
 This view of the matter may illustrate Pro v. xxi. 1. 
 " The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the 
 rivers of water ; he turneth it whithersoever he will." 
 Also Psalm cxlvi. 9. " The way of the wicked he turn- 
 eth upside down." 
 
 We will now examine the third supposition, that fore- 
 knowledge itself brings all events to pass of necessity. 
 Let the matter be stated fairly. It is supposed to be 
 admitted on all hands, that the knowledge of God is not. 
 acquired by the exercise of his will ; but that it is so 
 perfect in his infinite understanding, as to be incapable 
 of cither increase or diminution. That from the per- 
 fection of his mind he discerns, or knows, all things past, 
 present, and to come, without the possibility of mistake 
 or of being ignorant of any thing. And is there some- 
 thing in the nature of this knowledge, which binds all 
 events in a fixed and absolute necessity? If so, all 
 agency is at an end ; and God, fore-knowing his own 
 future actions with as much certainty as he knows the 
 future actions of any other being, is for ever bound in 
 the same fatal chains of necessity, and possesses not the 
 attribute of power, in the smallest conceivable degree. 
 If so, he never made the world, only as necessity com- 
 pelled his action. He is not the giver of life to us, if 
 the above hypothesis be true ; for our life arose out of 
 
IMAGINARY DECREES OF GOD. 203 
 
 necessity, and he could not hinder us from living. On 
 this supposition he cannot be regarded as a benefactor; 
 for it was never in his power to withhold any benefit 
 which we have received. We cannot trust to him for 
 protection, or for any good thing in future ; because 
 both God and man must be dependent on necessity alone 
 for every enjoyment, and for every prospect. On this 
 supposition, God can do no more for us, than we can 
 do for him : for his infinite knowledge, of which he can- 
 not dispossess himself, fixes him and the whole universe 
 with him in a fatal and absolute destiny, which can 
 never be broken. It is needless to pursue the matter 
 any further ; for it is perfectly obvious that the hypo- 
 thesis from which these consequences follow, would 
 eclipse the glory of the universe, and would land us in 
 a system not one tittle better than atheism. 
 
 And what proof have we, that fore-knowledge, the 
 mere exercise of a mind in mental discernment, has 
 any possible influence upon the actions of a free agent ? 
 Suppose I now see a man sowing seed in his field ; — 
 and suppose I have the capacity to foresee, with equal 
 certainty, that he will employ himself in the same busi- 
 ness to-morrow ; — will my fore knoidedge have any other 
 influence upon his actions of to-morrow, than my pre- 
 sent knoidedge has upon his actions of to-day ? Will he 
 not be as perfectly free as he would be, if I and every 
 other being in existence were entirely ignorant of the 
 manner in which he would employ himself? If I fore- 
 see that a man will walk to-morrow, this does not make 
 
204 IMAGINARY DECREES OF GOD. 
 
 his action necessary; and my certainty of the event 
 depends upon the goodness of my eyes, which are so 
 good, that I can see a free action as readily as a neces- 
 sary one. In like manner, the certainty of our Maker's 
 foresight of an action depends upon the perfection of 
 his intelligence, which is so perfect, that he can foresee 
 a free action as readily as a necessary one. But if you 
 foresee it as certain, continues the objector, then it could 
 not be otherwise. As well might he say, if I now cer- 
 tainly see a man walking, it is not in his power to stand 
 still. It is indeed impossible for me to see it, and not to 
 see it, at the same time ; and equally impossible for a 
 man to xcalk, and not to walk, at the same time ; but in- 
 fallible foresight is founded, not upon the fact that a 
 man cannot change his course of action, but upon a 
 perfect discernment that he will not. The foresight of 
 our Maker is certain that a man will act freely ; that 
 the wicked man can, but will not, omit his wicked ac- 
 tions. Our Creator knows that if it were possible for 
 Him to look away from the world, and not to foresee 
 the future actions of men for the space of one year, 
 men would not act any more freely and voluntarily 
 during that year, than they do at the present time. 
 
 The inquiring mind wishes to pursue this subject a 
 little further. Though the fore-knowledge of God may 
 have no immediate influence upon the actions of crea- 
 tures, yet may we not suppose it will have an immedi- 
 ate influence upon his own actions, with regard to 
 them 1 It cannot be doubted, that his perfect foresight 
 
IMAGINARY DECREES OF GOD. 205 
 
 of the actions of free agents, and how they would act 
 under certain trains of circumstances, regulates his 
 voluntary administration, in controlling, checking, re- 
 straining, and sometimes entirely preventing the actions 
 which men would otherwise perform : not, however, by 
 taking away their agency, but by varying the circum- 
 stances by which they may be surrounded. 
 
 But if God foresaw all the wickedness and misery of 
 mankind, why did he not prevent it, by cutting off the 
 first guilty pair, that the earth might not be peopled 
 with such a corrupt and abandoned race of beings? 
 Doubtless because, from his vast survey through im- 
 mensity and eternity, he foresaw that far more good 
 than evil would ultimately result from this course of 
 providence. His fore-knowledge is with himself alone, 
 and enables him to counteract evil, and to form the 
 most efficient plans for promoting virtue and happiness. 
 
 For the sake of illustration, let us suppose the father 
 of a family to live on an island by himself, and that his 
 children live on a distant continent, over whose actions 
 he has no manner of control : let us suppose this father 
 to be endowed with a perfect and infallible foreknow- 
 ledge of all the actions his children will perform to the 
 end of life : is it not obvious that his knowledge could 
 have no more influence upon their liberty, than the most 
 entire ignorance would have ? Their actions would be 
 equally free, whether known or unknown, and equally 
 certain also. The prescience of the father would ena- 
 18 
 
206 IMAGINARY DECREES OF GOD. 
 
 ble him to know the certainty of his children's actions, 
 but would not make them any more certain than they 
 would be, if he were ignorant of the whole matter. 
 Whatever a man will do, he certainly will do ; for to 
 deny this is to say he will do it, and will not do it, at the 
 same time ; and the certainty of it is the same, whether 
 foreknown by any being, or unforeknown. 
 
 Now in what respect does the Divine fore-knowledge 
 differ from the case supposed 1 It differs in this only, 
 that God has fore-knowledge of what creatures would 
 do under certain circumstances, and what they will do 
 upon a change of those circumstances ; and has power 
 to control them in any manner he pleases. Hence all 
 the influence this knowledge can have is upon his own 
 Mind ; and it will doubtless influence Him so to arrange 
 his providence and government, as will operate in the 
 best manner possible, to promote holiness and happiness, 
 and consequently to diminish sin and misery, throughout 
 his whole empire. 
 
 Fore-knowledge has therefore no manner of influence 
 either on the necessity or certainty of future events. 
 There must be a volition of will, or an actual exertion 
 of power, on the part of the Almighty, to make the 
 future actions of men or angels certain ; and when he 
 omits the exercise of such power, their future actions 
 are made certain by their own agency, and by no other 
 cause whatever. While God knows what future ac- 
 tions are certain, he knows equally that he himself does 
 
CAUSES OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 207 
 
 nothing to make them certain, except that he leaves his 
 creatures to the freedom of their own will. 
 
 If we consider the Divine prospects of futurity — the 
 vast results which God sees will be produced by his 
 providence and grace before the end of the world, to- 
 gether with their consequences through immensity and 
 eternity — we shall have cause to acknowledge that our 
 gloomy objections arise from our own ignorance, and 
 not from any deficiency in either the wisdom or benevo- 
 lence of our Heavenly Father's dispensations. Clouds 
 and darkness are round about him, whereby our vision 
 is greatly circumscribed ; but He sits above the clouds, 
 and above the darkness, and foresees vast developements 
 of wisdom, and glory, and goodness, which have never 
 entered into our hearts to conceive. 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 Causes of future 'punishment. 
 
 To say that God will punish creatures in a future 
 state for no reason, or for any other than good and suf- 
 ficient reasons, is to misrepresent' his character. 
 
 Some appear to think it is enough for us to know 
 that he says he will do it ; and that it is presumptuous 
 for us to inquire into the reasons of the Divine conduct. 
 But if so, how is it possible for us to know whether God 
 deserves our love and confidence or not ? And if we 
 
208 CAUSES OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 cannot know this, how can we love him, or trust him, 
 or reverence, adore, and worship him 1 We might be 
 frightened to obey him, from the dread of future pun- 
 ishment ; but there would be no principle in this obedi- 
 ence ; nor would it be accompanied with any rational 
 attachment either to the law or to the lawgiver. The 
 mere apprehension of future wrath may excite the 
 attention of the mind, and rouse the stupid sinner to 
 consideration; but he must be brought to have such 
 views of God as will produce reverence and love, be- 
 fore he can be accepted of God, or be qualified for the 
 kingdom of heaven. 
 
 The uniform testimony of the Bible is that God will 
 punish men for having done ivrong, when they ought to 
 have done right. " Say ye to the righteous, that it 
 shall be well with him ; wo unto the wicked ! it shall 
 be ill with him." (Isa. iii. 10.) " The Lord knoweth the 
 upright, and their inheritance shall be for ever. But 
 the wicked shall perish, and into smoke shall they con- 
 sume away." (Ps. xxxvii. 18.) " The righteous shall 
 nourish like the palm-tree ; — to show that the Lord is 
 upright, and there is no unrighteousness in him." (Ps. 
 xcii. 12, 15.) "The Lord loveth the righteous; but 
 the way of the wicked he turneth upside down." (Ps. 
 cxlvi. 8, 9.) " Then shall ye discern between the 
 righteous and the wicked ; between him that serveth 
 God, and him that serveth him not." (Mai. iii. 18.) 
 " The Son of man shall gather out of his kingdom all 
 things that offend, and them which do iniquity ; — Then 
 
CAUSES OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 209 
 
 shall the righteous shine forth as the sun, in the king- 
 dom of their Father." (Matt. xiii. 41. 43.) " All that 
 are in the graves shall come forth ; they that have done 
 good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they that have 
 done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." (John, 
 v. 28, 29.) " For we must all appear before the judg- 
 ment-seat of Christ ; that every one may receive accord- 
 ing to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." 
 (2 Cor. v. 10.) 
 
 It would be easy to multiply quotations of the above 
 description, by scores and by hundreds. And what do 
 they prove ? They prove it to be the constant and une- 
 quivocal testimony of God, throughout the whole of his 
 revelation, that he will deal with men in a future state, 
 not according to their name, or colour, or nation, or 
 party, or creed; but according to the reality of their 
 
 GOOD OR EVIL CHARACTER. 
 
 From this general statement, we may deduce the 
 three following conclusions : 
 
 First, that men will not be condemned in a future 
 state for any other ignorance than that which disregards 
 the work of the Lord, and will not consider the opera- 
 tion of his hand. 
 
 If men deserve hell for ignorance that does not result 
 from any delinquency of principle, or neglect of right 
 conduct, all infants, idiots, and even beasts, birds and 
 fishes, would equally deserve the same fate. 
 
 A passage of the prophet Hosea has been often quoted, 
 to prove that men are to be punished in a future state 
 18* i* 
 
210 CAUSES OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 for mere ignorance : My people are destroyed for lack 
 of knowledge. (Hosea, iv. 6.) It seems to be supposed 
 that the Lord was here speaking of a mere want of 
 instruction ; whereas the chapter commences thus : 
 " The Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of 
 the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor know- 
 ledge of God, in the land. By swearing, and lying, and 
 killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they 
 break out, and blood toucheth blood." Did they lack 
 knowledge, merely because their teachers neglected to 
 instruct them 1 So far from it, that the prophet says 
 (verse 4.) ' yet let no man strive, nor reprove another : 
 for this people are they that strive with the priest. There- 
 fore shalt thou fall, and the prophet also shall fall with 
 thee, and I will destroy thy mother.' It then follows, 
 ' My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge ;' but 
 what was the cause of this lack ? In the very same 
 verse we are told what it was : " Because thou hast 
 rejected knowledge, I will reject thee: seeing thou 
 hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget 
 thy children. As they were increased, so they sinned 
 against me; therefore will I change their glory into 
 shame. And there shall be like people, like priest : and 
 I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their 
 doings : because they have left off to take heed to the 
 Lord" Two other reasons are immediately given, why 
 they lacked knowledge : the first is, (verse 11.) "Whore- 
 dom, and wine, and new wine, take away the heart." 
 The second is, " My people ask counsel at their stocks, 
 
CAUSES OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 211 
 
 and their staff declareth unto them : for the spirit of 
 whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone 
 from under their God. Therefore the people that doth 
 not understand shall fall." (Verse 14.) 
 
 These are the reasons why people are condemned 
 for their ignorance ; to which we may add the follow- 
 ing : " The ox knoweth his owner — but Israel doth not 
 know, my people doth not consider." (Isa. i. 2.) "Wo 
 unto them — they ^regard not the work of the Lord, 
 neither consider the operation of his hands." (Isa. v. 
 12.) " How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simpli- 
 city, and the scorners delight in their scorning, and 
 fools hate knowledge !" (Prov. i. 22.) " Because I 
 have called, and ye refused ; but ye have set at 
 nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I 
 also will laugh at your calamity ; — for that they hated 
 knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord." 
 (Verse 24 — 29.) " They say unto God, Depart from 
 us ; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways." 
 (Job xxi. 14.) " Even as they did not like to retain 
 God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a repro- 
 bate mind." (Rom. i. 28.) 
 
 Secondly, the only kind of error, heresy, or unbelief 
 for which men will be condemned in a future state, is 
 " an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living 
 God." 
 
 How much truth is a man required to believe, in order 
 to his salvation 1 So much exactly as he is able to find y 
 by an humble and candid attention to his Maker's in- 
 
212 CAUSES OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 structions. On what authority is a man required to 
 believe? On the authority of God alone. For any 
 error or mistake into which a man may fall from other 
 causes than inattention or want of candour, he is incul- 
 pable ; and to say God will punish any one eternally for 
 involuntary errors, is to bring an impeachment against 
 the perfection of his whole character. It supposes he 
 will condemn a man for not being as infallible as him- 
 self; and why not as well condemn every one that 
 refuses or neglects to be as omnipresent or as almighty 
 as God himself is 1 
 
 But when God gives a revelation to his creatures, 
 does he not justly require their faith in the whole of it ? 
 He justly requires them to believe that the whole of it 
 is true ; and this is the faith of every honest Christian : 
 he believes the revelation of his God contains truth and 
 nothing else ; and he embraces all the particulars in 
 detail, so far as a persevering and candid attention ena- 
 bles him to apprehend them. It is the duty of every 
 man to exercise his mental faculties in this way ; and 
 to say any one who does so is exposed to future wrath 
 for his errors, is manifestly to suppose him chargeable 
 with guilt for a right exercise of his mental faculties, 
 or otherwise for not exercising faculties which he never 
 had. 
 
 But it may be said that his guilt results from his 
 neglect to come to an infallible tribunal, to be informed 
 what is truth. And can any man or any tribunal be 
 found on earth, that is more infallible than God ? If 
 
 
CAUSES OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 213 
 
 God, who is infallible, has told us what is truth, can any 
 human tribunal tell it in better language ? If we have 
 mistaken His meaning, will we not be as likely to mis- 
 take theirs also 1 or can they strengthen our faculties 
 and enlighten the eyes of our understanding, better than 
 the Almighty can do it ? If they are to think and be- 
 lieve for us, will it not follow that they must stand in 
 our place, and be justified or condemned for us in the 
 day of judgment 1 
 
 These men are remarkable for urging the obligation 
 to believe all the truths of revelation, and each one of 
 them in particular. And why 1 For the very interest- 
 ing reason, that they may have the privilege of telling 
 us every particular item that we are to believe. They 
 pretend that God has given them this prerogative, be- 
 cause there was no other way to keep us sound in the 
 faith. Now if we leave God's infallible instructions, to 
 yield ourselves to theirs, it must be for one or more of 
 these reasons : either 1. that they know better than God; 
 or 2. that they can speak more intelligibly than he ; or 
 
 3. that they can assist our understandings better ; or 
 
 4. that they have more authority in these matters, than 
 the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 They will admit, however, that all truth comes from 
 God ; but they contend that he has appointed that it 
 shall all come through their hands, and through no other 
 channel whatsoever. But why should God restrict him- 
 self in this manner ? Why should he not hold the reins 
 in his own hands, and reserve to himself the privilege 
 
214 CAUSES OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 of doing what he will with his own? Is thine eye evil 
 because he is good 1 
 
 What is the kind of unbelief for which men will be 
 condemned, according to the Scriptures? It is the fol- 
 lowing. " How can ye believe, which receive honour 
 one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from 
 God only ?" (John v. 44.) " Ye are of your father the 
 devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was 
 a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the 
 truth, because there is no truth in him. And because I 
 tell you the truth, ye believe me not." (John viii. 44.) 
 " If I had not done among them the works which none 
 other man did, they had not had sin : but now have they 
 both seen and hated both me and my Father." (John 
 xv. 24.) " Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish : 
 for I work a work in your day, a work which ye shall 
 in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you." 
 (Acts xiii. 41.) " Because they receive not the love 
 of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this 
 cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they all 
 might be damned who believed not the truth, but had 
 pleasure in unrighteousness." (2 Thes. ii. 10.) " Take 
 heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart 
 
 OF UNBELIEF, IN DEPARTING FROM THE LIVING GoD." (Heb. 
 
 iii. 12.) 
 
 Thirdly, men will not be punished in a future state 
 for any other kind or number of sins, than such as are 
 settled into a character of malignant hostility against 
 God, and which the sinner carries with him into eter- 
 
CAUSES OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 215 
 
 nity. If the wicked man will turn from his evil way, 
 " Our God will abundantly pardon," even though his 
 sins " have been as scarlet, or red like crimson." It is 
 a faithful saying, that Christ Jesus came into the world 
 to save the chief of sinners; and thousands, such as 
 king David and Saul of Tarsus, will never be punished 
 in the future world for any of their transgressions. Let 
 it be particularly noted and borne in mind, therefore, 
 that no man will be damned merely for having been a 
 sinner ; but for obstinately finishing his life in a state of 
 confirmed enmity against God, and consequently against 
 society, and against all social happiness. None are sent 
 to hell but those who are fit for nothing else, and whose 
 character and society would be worse than a nuisance 
 in any other region of the universe. 
 
 In short, there are no other causes of future punish- 
 ment, than such as constitute an essentially wicked cha- 
 racter. Ignorance that is wilful, error imbibed from a 
 corrupt prejudice against the truth, and disobedience 
 that is obstinate, impenitent and unyielding — these are 
 the causes of Divine wrath, and not any opinion that is 
 honestly entertained, merely because it may be branded 
 as heresy by the sanctimonious decrees of ecclesiastical 
 power ; nor any want of conformity to rites and cere- 
 monies, and other sectarian observances, which are too 
 often fondly added to the essential demands of gospel 
 morality. 
 
 The apostle Paul says a heretic is one that is sub- 
 verted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself. (Tit. 
 
216 ULTIMATE ENDS OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 iii. 10, 11.) That is, a man who uncandidly does vio- 
 lence to truth, and is convicted in his own conscience 
 that he is guilty of a dishonest exercise of his mental 
 faculties. In the dark regions of infallibility, it is not 
 improbable that truth has been branded with the charge 
 of heresy, oftener than error ; but in a future state all 
 will be made clear, because God is judge himself, and 
 will not surrender the right of judgment, or the destiny 
 of the souls that he has made, to the decision of eccle- 
 siastical tribunals. 
 
 SECTION X. 
 
 Ultimate ends of future punishment 
 
 When it is said men will be punished for their evil 
 deeds, another question follows : namely, why must men 
 be punished for doing wrong ? A process so fearfully 
 solemn, is doubtless based upon very weighty and suffi- 
 cient reasons. If it be said, we ought not to inquire 
 into the reasons of future punishment, then it will follow, 
 that ice ought to be ignorant of that which has a direct 
 relation to the character of God, and which involves 
 the essential interests of his whole intelligent creation. 
 It supposes that our Maker's judicial actions cannot 
 bear examination, and that his glory can be sustained 
 and vindicated in no other way than by keeping the 
 principles of his government in the dark. It may be 
 
ULTIMATE ENDS OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 217 
 
 thought, perhaps, that we ought so to revere his Divine 
 Majesty, as to admit that he has perfect authority to 
 punish his creatures for any secret reasons he may 
 adopt, or for no reason whatever, except the pleasure 
 of his own will ; but this seems to imply an obligation 
 on our part, to acknowledge that he is too great to be 
 good, and his authority too high to be just and right. 
 Is there any Majesty above Goodness ? Is there any 
 authority above justice ? We confidently appeal to the 
 whole Bible, that the uniform demand of God upon 
 mankind, is to believe that he is just, and not that he is 
 above justice — that he is good, and not that his majesty 
 soars above goodness. 
 
 It is not to be doubted that the Almighty may have 
 reasons for many acts of his providence that are far 
 beyond our comprehension ; but so far as he has given 
 us the means of knowledge, it is our duty to use them, 
 in order to acquire as adequate views of his divine 
 government as we can; and the fear of being wise 
 above what is written, should not influence us to neg- 
 lect to examine carefully the import of what is written, 
 by comparing spiritual things with spiritual, and draw- 
 ing conclusions from premises furnished in the book of 
 Divine revelation. 
 
 Axiom. 
 
 " Say unto them, as I live, saith the Lord God, I 
 have no pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but that 
 the wicked turn from his way and live." (Ezek. 
 xxxiii. 11.) 
 
 19 K 
 
218 ULTIMATE ENDS OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 Hence we conclude, that to afford pleasure to the 
 mind of the Almighty, is not an ultimate end of future 
 punishment. 
 
 Nor is it to afford pleasure to the minds of his children 
 in heaven; for they being partakers of the divine nature, 
 have consequently no more pleasure in the death of the 
 wicked, than God himself has. 
 
 Whence it follows, that, on some ground or other, 
 the punishment of the wicked is morally necessary, and 
 if this necessity for the measure did not exist, such pun- 
 ishment would not be inflicted upon them. 
 
 For any intelligent mind to be gratified, or to have 
 pleasure, in seeing another in misery, or inflicting it on 
 him, when there is no necessity for it, is what we call 
 cruelty, tyranny, despotism. It is probably the very 
 worst trait there is in the character of the devil. 
 
 For any person to have pleasure in the misery of 
 another, because the other has injured him, when there 
 is no other necessity for punishment, than merely to 
 afford pleasure to the mind of the injured person, is the 
 spirit of revenge or retaliation. This disposition is not 
 in God, nor in any one of his children on earth or in 
 heaven. 
 
 God himself " delighteth in mercy." He is " abund- 
 ant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgres- 
 sion and sin." " As the heaven is high above the earth, 
 so great is his mercy towards them that fear him." The 
 Son of God, when suffering under the most enormous 
 wrongs that were ever perpetrated under heaven, said. 
 
ULTIMATE ENDS OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 219 
 
 " Father forgive them, for they know not what they 
 do ;" and to all his disciples he had previously said, 
 " Be ye merciful, even as your Father which is in hea- 
 ven is merciful." The disposition of revenge, therefore, 
 has no place in heaven, nor in the minds of those who 
 are on their way to heaven. 
 
 The end of punishment must consequently be one or 
 more of the following reasons, or all of them together : 
 either 1. to guard and protect happiness; or 2. to dimin- 
 ish misery ; or 3. to prevent a greater evil, or to keep 
 misery from being augmented. 
 
 Its tendency to guard happiness is two-fold : first, to 
 put it out of the power of evil beings to disturb the 
 felicity of the upright ; and secondly, to influence the 
 latter to avoid such courses as would involve themselves 
 in misery. 
 
 All experience shows that wicked beings seek their 
 gratification in doing mischief; that is, in pursuing a 
 course of action which will destroy the happiness of 
 others. When they are arrested by the hand of justice, 
 and deprived of their liberty, this is to take away their 
 power of doing harm, in order to protect the happiness 
 of those whose rights and enjoyments they would other- 
 wise violate and destroy. Are not divine penalties in- 
 flicted for the same purpose 1 
 
 The apostle John, in describing a monster of wicked- 
 ness, says, " I saw the woman drunken with the blood 
 of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus : 
 and in her was found the blood of prophets, and of 
 
220 ULTIMATE ENDS OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth." (Rev. 
 xvii. 6 — xviii. 24.) In verse 20th it is said, "Rejoice 
 over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and pro- 
 phets; for God hath avenged you on her." Accord- 
 ingly, as we are informed in the next chapter, " After 
 these things I heard a great voice of much people in 
 heaven, saying, Alleluia ; salvation, and glory, and ho- 
 nour, and power, unto the Lord our God ; for true and 
 righteous are his judgments : for he hath judged the 
 great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her for- 
 nication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at 
 her hand. And a voice came out of the throne, saying, 
 Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear 
 him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the 
 voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many 
 waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, 
 Alleluia ; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." 
 
 Here all heaven appears in exultation, because the 
 high administration of Almighty God is able to protect 
 them from those malignant beings, whose ravages, if 
 unrestrained, would seriously interrupt if not utterly 
 destroy the happiness of all created intelligences. 
 
 To suppose holy angels and saints triumphing in this 
 manner, on account of the pleasure it gave them to see 
 their fellow-creatures in torment, would be, if I mistake 
 not, to reproach and to slander all heaven. Their joy 
 arose, not from the misery of others, but from the pros- 
 pect of their own security ; and could their felicity be 
 equally secure in a way that would not bring misery to 
 
ULTIMATE ENDS OF FUTURE PUNISHxMENT. 221 
 
 others, this would unquestionably be an enlargement of 
 their joy. 
 
 When wicked men are taken out of the world by 
 death, " they have no more that they can do," among 
 the inhabitants of the earth ; and when the power of 
 God excludes them from heaven, and from all other 
 society than their own, the gratification which they 
 had, and would still have, in doing mischief, is at an 
 end ; their heaven is gone ; and their thoughts being 
 turned in upon themselves, are left to feel the enormous 
 weight of their own evil character. 
 
 The influence which the spectacle of future punish- 
 ment may have, as a warning to surrounding worlds, 
 to guard them against rebellion, and against consequent 
 misery, may also be a matter of immense importance 
 in an empire so extensive as that of The high and lofty 
 One that inhabiteth eternity. Hell appears to have been 
 prepared and intended as the great Penitentiary of the 
 Universe. Judicial punishments, under every righteous 
 government, upon earth, are intended to protect socie- 
 ty ; and shall we dispense with all such analogies, in 
 our conclusions respecting the Divine administration, 
 and insist that our Maker inflicts penalties on his crea- 
 tures for no end at all, or for such ends as he keeps a 
 profound secret from the whole intelligent creation? 
 Such an assumption contradicts all analogy, is incon- 
 sistent with reason, and is unsupported by divine revela- 
 tion. 
 
 How far the divine penalties will operate, through the 
 19* 
 
222 ULTIMATE ENDS OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 depths of eternity, to diminish existing misery, or to 
 prevent its augmentation, we are not competent to de- 
 termine. Dr. D wight says, "At the final Judgment, the 
 whole state of mankind will be settled agreeably to the 
 most consummate benevolence. In this great transac- 
 tion, and in its consequences, the mystery of the present 
 world loill be finished ; the dispensations of God, both 
 to the righteous and the wicked, exhibited as perfectly 
 in accordance with infinite benevolence ; and the diffi- 
 culties, which to the eye of reason attend them here, 
 explained in such a manner, as to stop every mouth, and 
 remove every objection." (Theology, Vol. I. p. 185.) 
 
 Thus the "infinite benevolence" of God is represented 
 as operating in his dispensations, " both to the righteous 
 and the wicked." But is not this a new doctrine ? It 
 is as old as the apostle John : for if, as he affirms, God 
 is love, what can be the action of such a Being, other 
 than such as shall proceed from the principle mentioned 
 by Dr. Dwight? If indeed God were half love and 
 half hatred, we must adopt a different conclusion ; but 
 if perfect love always acts consistently with itself, then 
 its every action must of consequence be the action of 
 benevolence. 
 
 But does not this suppose that God will exercise be- 
 nevolence towards the damned ? He is certainly dis- 
 posed to favour them as much as he can without injury 
 to others. Will any man have the assurance to say, 
 that the Divine action towards them will proceed from 
 the principle of malignity? We are aware of the 
 
ULTIMATE ENDS OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 223 
 
 answer, that future punishment will be the act of Divine 
 justice. True ; for justice is one essential part of 
 God's eternal character of love. Justice secures to 
 every one that which is right; and consequently, it 
 secures to every criminal an exemption from all degrees 
 of punishment that would be wrong. If God will carry 
 on an administration of justice over hell, it is because 
 hell is under his government, as well as heaven ; and 
 consequently its destinies are regulated by the same 
 principles. Is he just in one part of his dominions, and 
 unjust in another 1 Has he good-will towards a part of 
 his creatures, and ill-will towards another part 1 
 
 Heavenly happiness, indeed, is a bounty ; but it is 
 bestowed on those for whom it is prepared, because 
 such a gratuity is right : — that is, just. Why are not 
 the same favours bestowed upon the inhabitants of hell? 
 Not because their Maker has any ill-will towards them ; 
 but because, from their moral relation to God and to 
 society, such a procedure would not be right: — that 
 is, would not be just. 
 
 The plain argument which deserves our serious atten- 
 tion is this : The inhabitants of hell are under the go- 
 vernment of God; the government of God is a just 
 government; therefore every thing will be done for 
 them that justice can do. Or should we vary the 
 phraseology, and say the Divine government is benevo- 
 lent ; therefore every thing will be done for them that 
 benevolence can do, the conclusion would be the same i 
 for benevolence never did or can do any thing that 
 
224 ULTIMATE ENDS OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 would not be just; and justice never did or can do any 
 thing that would be inconsistent with benevolence. 
 
 Will not the holy angels rejoice over the condemna- 
 tion of the wicked, because they deserve the punishment 
 which they endure? They undoubtedly will. Why 
 then do Lhey rejoice that thousands and millions of the 
 human race have escaped that punishment, who also 
 deserved it? Because these consented to the plan 
 through which the hand of mercy could save them, 
 consistently with justice ; whereas those in hell refused 
 to be thus saved; their punishment is therefore de- 
 manded by the rights and the common welfare of 
 society ; hence justice and benevolence perfectly har- 
 monize in their condemnation. 
 
 It appears to have been assumed as an axiom, that 
 an ultimate end with the Almighty, perhaps the only 
 one, in punishing the reprobate, is " his own glory." 
 What is glory, but the dignity and loveliness of an 
 honourable character? Would God be honoured in the 
 estimation of his creatures, for punishing vast multi- 
 tudes of them for no reason, or for reasons kept a pro- 
 found secret with himself? Let the universe clearly 
 understand, that he inflicts punishment only to protect 
 happiness, and to prevent the increase and the spread 
 of misery, and it will be easy to perceive that he hereby 
 manifests his own glory ; but to suppose him honoured 
 by inflicting punishments without regard to such ends, 
 appears to involve the inevitable conclusion, that a good 
 ruler and a tyrant have precisely the same kind of 
 
ULTIMATE ENDS OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 225 
 
 glory ; whereas the one is the glory of goodness, and 
 the other, the glory of sovereign despotism. Query — 
 which most evinces the glory of a sovereign, to claim 
 the authority to do right — or the power to do wrong — or 
 the prerogative of acting independently of right and 
 ivrong ? 
 
 We say God can do no wrong ; but this saying, ac- 
 cording to scripture and reason, means precisely that 
 from the perfection of his nature he always will do 
 right. The claim of having authority to do wTong, or 
 of being above right, comprehends the emphatical defi- 
 nition of a tyrant. To suppose our Maker to put in 
 such a claim, " for his own glory," is to do violence to 
 reason, to conscience, and to divine ■ revelation ; and 
 may well remind us of the sublime language of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ : " O righteous Father, the world 
 hath not known thee." It is a delightful consideration, 
 that the inhabitants of heaven are better informed. 
 They know that to impute to the great and righteous 
 Sovereign of nature a kind of " glory" that has so long 
 been exemplified in " the rulers of the darkness of this 
 world," would be greatly to degrade his eternal Majes- 
 ty. Those triumphant sons of God unceasingly rejoice 
 in the mild and splendid glory of a Being who is glori- 
 ous in holiness ; — glorious in goodness, truth and justice; 
 — glorious in exercising judgment, righteousness, and 
 loving kindness through earth and heaven ; " for in these 
 things I delight, saith the Lord." (Jer. ix. 24.) 
 
 It may be objected, perhaps, that Dr. Dwight did not 
 
226 ULTIMATE ENDS OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 mean to be understood, that God would exercise bene- 
 volence in his administration over hell ; or if he did, his 
 authority ought to have no weight. Let his authority 
 be sustained, then, by that of Dr. Adam Clarke. " The 
 will of God," he says, " is ever influenced by his good- 
 ness ; therefore he can never make a bad or improper 
 choice, nor determine any thing that is not good in 
 itself, and good or proper to all those who may be the 
 objects of its operation. As God's nature is good, so his 
 will or desire must be good, — good in itself, and good to 
 all those whom it affects : hence he must be good in all 
 his actions, and good to all his creatures, in all his de- 
 terminations and providential dispensations towards 
 them" (Sermon on the Being and Attributes of God.) 
 
 Now when Dr. Clarke says every action of God is 
 cood in itself, and good to all those who may be the 
 oujects of its operation, he evidently means that it is 
 good in principle, aifd in its universal tendency. When 
 God punishes evil beings, it is to maintain the good 
 which they would otherwise destroy. The principle 
 of this procedure is opposition to evil; and that which 
 opposes evil, is good — that which opposes unrighteousness, 
 is right. All just punishment tends to discourage evil; 
 and therefore it is good in its universal tendency ; other- 
 wise we say good and evil are not in tendency opposed 
 to each other. 
 
 All penalties inflicted by the Supreme Being are the 
 punishments of justice, which is the principle that pro- 
 tects and maintains universal right: but to maintain 
 
ULTIMATE ENDS OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 227 
 
 universal right is to maintain the system of universal 
 happiness, otherwise we say right does not support hap- 
 piness; consequently, justice is an essential operation 
 of benevolence, and must therefore be a good thing, both 
 in principle and in tendency. 
 
 But does that punishment which is inflicted by the 
 attribute of justice, tend to discourage evil in the beings 
 who are the subjects of the punishment 1 It certainly 
 tends to produce in them a conviction of the evil of 
 which they have been guilty ; for if it be a penalty of 
 justice, the precise ground of it is the evil of their cha- 
 racter ; and every stroke of the rod speaks in powerful 
 language, that it is solely because they are bad beings, 
 that a good Being thus deals with them. Is not this the 
 exact truth of their situation 1 And is God unwilling 
 that they should know and believe the truth ? Is he not 
 willing that they should acknowledge the justice of his 
 conduct towards them 1 or does he really wish them to 
 slander his character with the charge of eternal tyranny, 
 contrary to all truth and justice, in order that this false- 
 hood may keep them in a state of unceasing rage and 
 malignity against him 1 Certainly this cannot be. If 
 the wicked in hell blaspheme God on account of his 
 penalties, the whole of their rage against him is against 
 justice, and truth, and love. The whole effort and con- 
 flict of their wicked agency, is in defence of injustice, 
 falsehood, and malevolence ; that is, to vindicate them- 
 selves, and to cast the whole blame of their condemna- 
 tion and misery upon God. This disposition constitutes 
 
228 ULTIMATE ENDS OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 the very essence of their wickedness ; and if God pun- 
 ishes them because of this disposition, the whole opera- 
 tion says undeniably, that it is not his will that they 
 should be wicked ; for if it were his will, he would not 
 punish them for it. His penalties speak to the centre 
 of their souls, that their character is utterly wrong, and 
 that God is right, in the whole of his proceedings against 
 them. Is not this calculated to convince them of the 
 depth and inexcusable nature of the evil that is within 
 them ? and has not that which convinces men of evil, a 
 tendency to discourage and weaken the evil, and con- 
 sequently to promote the opposite good ? Is it not a 
 good principle in any agent, to weaken the power of 
 evil as much as he can, and to cause his whole course 
 of action to have a tendency to encourage righteousness 
 and goodness in all minds that are capable of distin- 
 guishing right from wrong ? No man, it is presumed, 
 will venture to answer these questions in the negative ; 
 and if the affirmative be true, the clear consequence is, 
 that the best Being in existence is more disposed than 
 any other, to cause all his operations to have a tendency 
 to discourage and weaken the power of evil, and to 
 promote every thing that is right and good, without 
 limitation or restriction. 
 
 A hasty alarm will probably here be taken, lest if we 
 follow on in this course of reasoning, it will lead us into 
 conclusions which will encourage men in sin, and mili- 
 tate against the interests of virtue and religion ; but as 
 good produces only good, and evil only evil, I hold that 
 
 
ULTIMATE ENDS OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 229 
 
 no truth, correctly understood, will ever have a bad 
 influence upon any human soul ; and it is hoped if the 
 reader will have patience to proceed to the end of this 
 volume, he will find all the objections met and obviated, 
 which he is beginning to anticipate ; and that it is not a 
 true but a false view of the divine character, which has 
 an injurious tendency upon the morals of mankind. 
 
 It is truth which invariably supports virtue and holi- 
 ness ; and error is as far from being salutary, on one 
 side of the line of correctness, as on the other. To 
 represent future punishment to be less than the reality, 
 and to represent it to be more than the reality, are both 
 alike a departure from the truth ; and consequently, being 
 both errors, they will have none other than the influence 
 of error, upon the hearts and actions of mankind. A 
 falsehood, on the side of vengeance, may be as injurious 
 in its practical influence, as on the side of lenity; and 
 for theological writers to assume, that in regard to the 
 magnitude of penal sufferings there is no possibility of 
 running into an extreme, or that every error, on this 
 side of the question, will of course be salutary in its 
 moral operation, is gratuitously to take for granted that 
 which has no countenance whatever from Divine Reve- 
 lation, and which involves the egregious absurdity, that 
 error, when advanced in support of hell-torments, has 
 a better effect upon the souls of men than truth and 
 righteousness. 
 20 
 
SECTION XI. 
 Severity of Future Punishment — Its Eternity. 
 
 If it be true, as Dr. Dwight says, that "At the final 
 Judgment the dispensations of God, both to the righte- 
 ous and the wicked, will be exhibited as perfectly ac- 
 cordant with infinite benevolence" — does it not follow, 
 that it will be an advantage to all creatures to be under 
 the government of their Creator? Suppose any of 
 them were under the control and operation of infinite 
 malevolence— -would not that be worse for them ? Or 
 shall we conclude that love is as much disposed to pro- 
 duce misery, as malice itself can be ? 
 
 We rejoice to admit, however, that infinite malevo- 
 lence is impossible; because it is impossible for a being 
 to exist, with the power to exercise it. But in case the 
 Divine Being should abandon sinners and do nothing 
 with them, further than to separate them from his do- 
 minions, and leave them to the eternal anarchy of their 
 own malignant dispositions — w T ould such an eternity, or 
 would it not, be worse for them, than to be under the 
 control of their Creator's government 1 
 
 It may perhaps be said that such a question is more 
 curious than useful. We need feel no reluctance in ad- 
 mitting, that it is improper for us to pry into the secrets 
 of eternity, further than we are authorized by divine 
 
 (230) 
 
SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 231 
 
 revelation ; but so far as that will illuminate our foot- 
 steps, so far we may, without hazard, advance. 
 
 The state of future punishment has often been repre- 
 sented as an indiscriminate crowding; of all the con- 
 
 'o 
 
 demned together in one common fire ; — that after ages 
 of burning torture, they are hurried away and frozen 
 fast in dreadful regions of ice ; — that after groaning for 
 ages in that frozen climate, they are hurried back again 
 into fire ; — that their eyes, ears, and nostrils are used as 
 mediums of the greatest possible misery ; and, finally, 
 that each individual in hell suffers an amount of agony 
 that would be sufficient in a very short time to kill all 
 the inhabitants of the earth, by the mere force of the 
 pain endured. Such, and more, are the representations 
 which have been given of this subject, as the writer has 
 heard and seen, from the pulpit and the press. The de- 
 sign of them, commonly, is to deter men from sin, that 
 they may not go to hell. It must indeed be acknow- 
 ledged, that the unaccountable stupidity and obstinacy 
 of mankind in sin, appear to call for warnings of the 
 most arousing tendency ; but these matters may be car- 
 ried to an extreme, so as to produce results entirely op- 
 posite to those which were intended. Do w T e deplore 
 the progress of Universalism ? It would then be well 
 to reflect upon the strong probability that hundreds of 
 Universalists have been made, and hundreds of Deists 
 also, by such horrible representations of future punish- 
 ment, as caused them to receive the impression that the 
 Christian religion represents the God of nature as an 
 
232 SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 Almighty tyrant Will the souls of these men escape 
 hell, and be brought to heaven, by being driven into in- 
 fidelity ? If not, let our concern for the salvation of 
 sinners lead us to consider, whether such representa- 
 tion of future punishment as can be clearly sustained 
 by justice and benevolence will not have a more salu- 
 tary influence upon mankind, than such as would seem 
 to shroud the divine government in the darkness of an 
 infinite tyranny. 
 
 On this subject especially, we should search the Scrip- 
 tures with great care ; and should not be too hasty in 
 drawing conclusions from certain parts, containing 
 highly figurative language, without comparing spiritual 
 things with spiritual, and so explaining those figures, as 
 will correspond with the great principles so abund- 
 antly established in the Bible, as the basis of our Crea- 
 tor's judicial procedure. 
 
 That God will make use of fire, as an instrument of 
 punishment in the future world, as well as in the present 
 world, we have no authority to dispute ; but we have a 
 right to reject any representation of the matter that 
 would contradict the principles which God has exhibited 
 as the rules of his administration : — namely, that he will 
 judge the world in righteousness; — that he will treat 
 everyone according to his works; — that it shall be 
 more tolerable for some, than for others, in the day 
 of judgment; — and that some shall be beaten with few 
 stripes, while others shall be beaten with many. How 
 is it possible for common sense to apprehend these dis- 
 
SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 233 
 
 tinctions among a crowd of wretches rolling promiscu- 
 ously together in one common fire ] 
 
 The threatenings which relate to a future world may 
 be composed of figurative language, as w T ell as those 
 which were used concerning " The day of the Lord's 
 vengeance, for the controversy of Zion. And the streams 
 thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof 
 into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burn- 
 ing pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day ; the 
 smoke thereof shall go up for ever : from generation to 
 generation it shall lie waste ; none shall pass through it 
 for ever and ever : the cormorant and the bittern shall 
 possess it ; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it." 
 (Isa. xxxiv. 8, &c.) Again : " For, behold, the Lord 
 will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirl- 
 wind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with 
 flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the 
 Lord plead with all flesh : and the slain of the Lord 
 shall be many. And they shall go forth, and look upon 
 the carcases of the men that have transgressed against 
 me ; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire 
 be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all 
 flesh." (Isa. lxvi. 15, 16—24.) 
 
 Our Saviour uses similar language, when speaking 
 of future punishment : " Where their worm dieth not, 
 and the fire is not quenched." The word icorm, here, 
 is commonly referred to the conscience, and the word 
 fire taken literally ; but by what rule of interpretation 
 is one figurative word in the same sentence taken lite- 
 20* k* 
 
234 SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 rally, and the other figuratively? If one is material 
 fire, why is not the other a material worm, so fastened 
 to the rlesh of the culprit, that it dieth not ? The apos- 
 tle James says, " The tongue is a fire, a world of ini- 
 quity : it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the 
 course of nature ; and it is set on fire of hell" (James 
 iii. 6.) So that hell-fire, we see, is not confined to ma- 
 terial substances, but may signify the raging force arid 
 malignity of evil passions. 
 
 We will notice a few other figurative passages. 
 " Therefore shall the Lord send among his fat ones 
 leanness ; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning 
 like the burning of a fire. And the light of Israel shall 
 be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame : and it 
 shall burn and devour his thorns and his briars in one 
 day." (Isa. x. 16, 17.) " Therefore thus saith the Lord 
 God, behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured 
 out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon 
 the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground ; 
 and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched" (Jer. vii. 
 20.) " For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall 
 burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth 
 with her increase, and set on fire the foundation of the 
 mountains" (Deut. xxxii. 22.) "I will cause thee to 
 serve thine enemies in a land which thou knowest not : 
 for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall 
 burn for ever" (Jer. xvii. 4.) " These shall hate the 
 whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and 
 shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire" (Rev. xvii. 16.) 
 
SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 235 
 
 The place of future punishment is called a lake of 
 fire, a bottomless pit, and a furnace of -fire. That these 
 are warnings of a very awful punishment, cannot be 
 doubted ; and it is because the odious abominations of 
 mankind make such warnings and such punishments 
 necessary ; but that representations of this kind are 
 given figuratively, may appear from the following pas- 
 sages. " As for those that compass me about, let the 
 mischief of their own lips cover them. Let burning 
 coals fall upon them : let them be cast into the fire ; into 
 deep pits, that they rise not up again." (Psalm cxl. 9, 
 10.) " He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out 
 of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock." (Psalm 
 xl. 2.) " Tophet is ordained of old ; yea, for the king 
 it is prepared : he hath made it deep and large ; the pile 
 thereof is fire and much wood : the breath of the Lord, 
 like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it." (Isa. xxx. 
 33.) " The Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth 
 out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto 
 him a people." (Deut. iv. 20.) " Behold, I have refined 
 thee, but not with silver ; I have chosen thee in the fur- 
 nace of affliction." (Isa. xlviii. 10.) "Then shall the 
 Assyrian fall with the sword, and he shall pass over to 
 his strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid 
 of the ensign, saith the Lord, whose fire is in Zionr, 
 and his furnace in Jerusalem." (Isa. xxxi. 9.) " And 
 the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from hea- 
 ven unto the earth : and to him was given the key of 
 the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit ; 
 
236 SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of 
 a great furnace ; and the sun and the air were dark- 
 ened by reason of the smoke of the pit." (Rev. ix. 1, 2.) 
 
 Such figurative representations are very striking, and 
 doubtless refer to matters of great weight and solem- 
 nity ; but when men found a doctrine upon them, to 
 reach through eternity, they wo*uld do well to be care- 
 ful lest they forget their own precautions, and become 
 toise above that which is written. 
 
 When we consider the enormity of human wicked- 
 ness — that thousands fill up a long life in establishing 
 and augmenting in themselves a horrible spirit of malig- 
 nity against all that is called God, or that is worshipped 
 — against all holiness and heavenly happiness — it can- 
 not be doubted, that they will find it " a fearful thing to 
 fall into the hands of the living God." It will be indig- 
 nation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every 
 soul of man that doeth evil. (Rom. ii. 8, 9.) This 
 wrath will operate, in producing anguish, in propor- 
 tion to the fuel of malignity found in each individual 
 soul. 
 
 In regard to the eternity of future punishment, a can- 
 did examination of the Scriptures will fairly and fully 
 conduct us to the conclusion, that the separation which 
 is to take place between the righteous and the wicked, 
 in the day of judgment, is intended to be an eternal 
 separation. The enjoyments of the kingdom of God, 
 and the privilege of being sons of God, and joint heirs 
 with Christ, are promised to none except to those who 
 
SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 237 
 
 embrace the gracious overture during their probationary- 
 existence on earth. 
 
 But that the state of the damned will remain uniform, 
 without any modifications of their condition, through 
 the depths of eternal duration, is a matter that no man 
 is able to prove. The reasons for the severity of their 
 punishment, are found in the moral state of their own 
 minds ; if this should become modified in individuals 
 during the progress of eternity, so that there would be 
 less fuel for Divine wrath to operate upon, we may 
 suppose there would be a corresponding abatement of 
 their sufferings. The fire shall never be quenched ; but 
 the force of its action will be varied according to the 
 state of the subject on which it operates. And why 
 shall this fire never be quenched? Because no hostile 
 power wijl ever be able to quench it, either by changing 
 the holy character of God, or by controlling the righte- 
 ous action of his administration. The eternal fire of 
 his anger and fury is against the spirit of -a corrupt ma- 
 lignity ; and to quench this fire would be to change the 
 glory and loveliness of the Eternal Mind. For let it 
 be remembered, that our God is a consuming fire. 
 (Heb. xii.) 
 
 It may be thought, perhaps, that the Divine penalties 
 are so arranged and established, that their own opera- 
 tion will necessarily keep up the amount of malignity 
 that is in each one of the damned, in order to perpetu- 
 ate their condition, and to prevent any diminution of 
 their torment. Can any man prove this from the Bible ? 
 
238 SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 If this be true, Dr. Dwight must have been utterly mis- 
 taken, when he said " The whole state of mankind will 
 be settled agreeably to the most consummate benevo- 
 lence ;" for this essentially implies an invariable regard 
 to happiness; whereas the above hypothesis supposes 
 the Supreme Being to have such an absolute regard to 
 misery, that he fixes sin in the souls of his creatures by 
 omnipotent power, lest they should surrender, and not 
 continue to be suitable subjects of the amount of misery 
 which he delights to inflict upon them. This would 
 plainly charge him with producing and perpetuating 
 misery for its own sake, which charge is only applica- 
 ble to a being of unmixed revenge and malignity. 
 
 The opinion has been too hastily taken for granted, 
 and too generally entertained, that we must necessarily 
 impute this kind of character to our Creator, or other- 
 wise adopt the system of Universalis??!. Let any man 
 fairly prove this to be the inevitable dilemma which we 
 are under, and he will convert me to Universalism ; for 
 certainly I would sooner believe that all mankind will 
 be eternally happy, than I would believe our Creator is 
 the most malevolent being in existence. The former 
 may be called a heresy ; the latter would be the highest 
 grade of blasphemy; therefore it w r ould constitute by 
 far the greater crime and heresy of the two. It is in- 
 cumbent on us to inquire, therefore, if there be not some 
 medium between these extremes. 
 
 In regard to the modern system of Universalism, 
 which teaches that all punishment is confined to the 
 
SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 239 
 
 present life, it obviously saps the foundation of respon- 
 sibility, denies a future Judgment, nullifies the warnings 
 of the Bible, and opens wide the door for accumulating 
 ungodliness and crime. It is difficult to conceive, there- 
 fore, how it can be regarded in any other light than as 
 a covert scheme of infidelity. 
 
 The system of those called Restorationists, as ex- 
 plained by Mr. Winchester and others, is somewhat dif- 
 ferent. This admits that God will judge the world in 
 righteousness, and will reward every man according to 
 his works ; and hence it appears in a great measure to 
 do justice to the truth of Divine revelation. Its chief 
 objectionable feature consists in gratuitously adding to 
 the revelation of God the following unsupported assump- 
 tion : — that at some period in eternity all the wicked 
 portion of mankind, and perhaps all devils, will be re- 
 stored to the glories and felicities of the kingdom of hea- 
 ven. 
 
 The advocates of this doctrine do not say, however, 
 that any wicked creatures will be saved in their wick- 
 edness ; but that they will be restored to holiness, and 
 thereby be qualified for a restoration to heavenly hap- 
 piness. They believe, if I have a correct understand- 
 ing of their views, that this universal reformation will 
 be accomplished upon the Calvinistic plan of saving 
 grace; namely, by an irresistible operation of God, 
 that shall suspend or control created agency. For if 
 they suppose agency still to be left free, how can they 
 know what courses will be taken by all wicked men 
 
240 SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 and devils in a future state? If we judge of the future, by 
 past and present facts, as they come under our observa- 
 tion, the repentance of ail sinners, hereafter, does not 
 appear very probable ; for thousands of them in this 
 world prove by their words and actions, living and 
 dying, that they have a deep abhorrence of the Al- 
 mighty; an utter aversion to all virtue and holiness; 
 and an obstinate permanency of resolution, to take de- 
 light in malevolence. 
 
 This permanency of resolution is not produced in 
 them by another, but is all their own. They are so far 
 from being forced into it, that they obstinately resist 
 and repel every thing that would persuade them into an 
 opposite course. The motives which are calculated to 
 change the purpose of their will are highly calculated 
 to be influential ; but sinners turn away their attention 
 from them with decided hostility, and will not admit 
 them into the contemplation of their minds. Now this 
 fixed enmity of heart against God, carries within it a 
 malignant hostility to virtue, and of course to all that 
 happiness which is based on moral goodness as its 
 foundation. Whether sinners will not be found disposed 
 voluntarily to carry on this inexcusable war for ever, 
 is a matter which, it is presumed, no man in this world 
 is able definitely to determine. And even if all should 
 repent and reform, how can Restorationists prove that 
 the Almighty would, in consequence of it, be morally 
 bound to elevate them to the glories of the kingdom of 
 heaven ? After forfeiting their eligibility to that king- 
 
 
SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 241 
 
 dom, by a course of unprincipled wickedness, the spirit 
 of which they obstinately carried with them into eter- 
 nity, will any future repentance of theirs entitle them to 
 have it restored to them 1 Certainly not. 
 
 It will be replied, however, that although they can 
 never do any thing which will give them a claim to 
 such a privilege, yet God has not forfeited his right of 
 benevolence ; therefore if it be his will to extend such a 
 favour to penitent sinners in a future state, he has a 
 right to do so. This must be granted; but that which 
 we affirm is that he has not pledged himself by promise, 
 to grant such a favour to any of Adam's race, except 
 to such as accept the overture upon the gospel plan, 
 during their probationary existence on earth : therefore 
 to conclude that he will do it, is a gratuitous assump- 
 tion, for which we have no authority whatever from the 
 Bible. 
 
 The advocates of this system, and their zealous an- 
 tagonists, appear to have euibraced opposite extremes, 
 by the same mental process. They both appear to take 
 for granted, that they have a complete knowledge of 
 all that will take place under the government of God to 
 all eternity ! In their view, no " secret things belong to 
 the Lord our God ;" but he has " revealed to us and 
 to our children," all that he knows himself, in regard 
 to the developements of infinite duration ! The restora- 
 tionist tells us that all wicked men and devils will be 
 restored, and be made joint heirs with Christ, in the 
 kingdom of heaven. His opponent avers, with equal 
 21 l 
 
242 SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 confidence, that all wicked men and devils will continue 
 in a state of infinite punishment, and that there will be 
 no variation in their condition, or in their misery, except 
 by way of increase, while God himself exists. Is it not 
 possible that both these men may be mistaken ? Is there 
 no medium between such immense extremes? That 
 there is a vast medium between them, is a matter which 
 is perfectly indisputable ; for it is proved by the con- 
 sciousness of every living man. Ever since we were 
 born, we have found our condition to be a mixture of 
 happiness and misery, in various degrees ; and who is 
 the man that has become so wise, as to know with cer- 
 tainty, that such a mixture, and such variety of degrees, 
 can have no place in a future state ? 
 
 For aught we know to the contrary, our great Crea- 
 tor may now have more than twice ten thousand worlds 
 of moral agents under his superintendency. Some of 
 these may have a larger proportion of misery, and others 
 a larger proportion of happiness, than we have in this 
 world, according to their moral relation to the universe; 
 and we have no evidence of there being any world, 
 excepting only the kingdom of heaven, in which happi- 
 ness is unmixed and perfect. In what various ways 
 the inhabitants of other worlds may be eligible to a 
 translation into that glorious kingdom, God knows, and 
 we know not. Some of them, peradventure, may never 
 be eligible to such a privilege ; and yet may have that 
 kind of mixture of good and evil which we experience, 
 and which may be in such degrees as will render the 
 
SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 243 
 
 condition of some of them more tolerable, and that of 
 others less tolerable, than we find our condition to be in 
 the present life. 
 
 Now we may confidently inquire, both of Restora- 
 tionists and of their opponents, whether they will under- 
 take to prove, that God has no right to regulate his 
 administration over the vjhole universe, according to all 
 possible degrees of happiness and misery, — having 
 always a strict regard to the moral condition of all his 
 subjects? If they admit that he has the right to do 
 this, we would inquire, secondly, whether they will 
 undertake to prove, that he has revealed it, as his fixed 
 and eternal will, that the various degrees of happiness 
 and misery shall not be taken into the account, in his 
 ultimate administration ? 
 
 Let it be carefully observed, that we do not presume 
 to determine how many worlds there are in existence, 
 or what is their moral condition. These " secret things 
 belong to the Lord our God ;" and not " to us or to our 
 children." We have no evidence that any world, except 
 our own, has fallen from moral rectitude ; nor have we 
 any evidence of the contrary. What state of discipline 
 may be necessary for the establishment of the upright 
 in eternal virtue and happiness, or what state of punish- 
 ment may be necessary for the recovery of the fallen, 
 we know not ; but we know that a mixture of happi- 
 ness and misery for fallen creatures, in various degrees, 
 is possible ; for it is demonstrated by our own experi- 
 ence; and for aught any man can prove to the con- 
 
244 SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 trary, this mixture may be diversified throughout the 
 universe, with a view to a final and unmixed state of 
 felicity in the kingdom of heaven, for all who will duly 
 improve their respective 'states of probation. The 
 redemption accomplished by the Son of God in our 
 world, may be equally efficacious in every world where 
 it shall be needed. We could not know, till informed 
 by our Creator, that such a process was necessary in 
 our own world ; and if God should tell us, it is equally 
 effectual for the salvation of other worlds, we would 
 have exactly the same ground to believe it, that we have 
 to believe that we ourselves are the redeemed creatures 
 of God. I grant he has not told us so ; nor has he" any 
 where said, on the other hand, that the influence of 
 redemption must necessarily be confined to the surface 
 of the globe on which we dwell. One of the most 
 fruitful sources of delusion, is man's vain imagination 
 that he is wise enough to know every thing, while the 
 humiliating truth is, that he knows almost nothing. He 
 supposes his intelligence can embrace all the realities 
 of immensity and eternity, at the same time that he is 
 confined to a spot of ground on one little globe, and 
 can scarcely penetrate beneath its surface. He can 
 stretch forward his anticipation through an infinite futu- 
 rity, and can imagine that he understands the final con- 
 summation of the Almighty's vast plan of eternal go- 
 vernment ! He forms a picture in his mind, of a little 
 heaven, and a very large hell, the one filled with infinite 
 happiness, and the other with infinite misery ; and takes 
 
SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 245 
 
 for granted that his comprehension of the whole matter 
 is finished, adequate, and complete ! 
 
 It may be said however, in reply, that we know what 
 belongs to a future state, because God has informed us 
 concerning the whole matter. Does the Bible say that 
 God has informed us of all things that are known to 
 himself, concerning the developements of futurity 1 Just 
 the contrary: it says there are secret things which 
 belong to the Lord our God, and things which have been 
 hid in God from the beginning of the world. 
 
 In regard to the future misery of the wicked, the Bi- 
 ble teaches expressly that the degrees of it shall corre- 
 spond with the amount of turpitude in the guilty indi- 
 viduals. Now every moral reason which can be given 
 for this judicial procedure, will be exactly the same 
 reason for varying the treatment towards every subject 
 of punishment, as his moral character shall vary. If 
 one shall voluntarily augment the amount of his guilt, 
 his punishment will be increased accordingly; if an- 
 other shall surrender, and " consent unto the law that it 
 is good," there may be reasons in the system of perfect 
 rectitude, for mitigating his condition ; and yet no rea- 
 sons whatever, for elevating him to the felicities and 
 glories of the kingdom of heaven. The modifications 
 of future punishment here supposed, can be denied on 
 no other ground, than either that God has no right to 
 make it any thing less than infinite, or that it is not his 
 will to do it. The first dethrones him from his sovereign 
 21* 
 
246 SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 majesty , and the second impeaches his eternal charac- 
 ter of love. * 
 
 The doctrine of the Restorationist supposes that the 
 will of reprobates in a future world, being overruled 
 by omnipotent power, must necessarily come out of a 
 state of vice into a state of virtue ; while the antagonist 
 system supposes their agency will be overruled by om- 
 nipotent power in a contrary direction, and be immuta- 
 bly bound in necessary sin, as the means of invariable 
 and unmitigated punishment. These dogmas appear to 
 me to be alike false and unscriptural ; while the latter 
 is immensely more reproachful to the Supreme Being, 
 than the former. If it be consistent for any part of 
 mankind to be saved upon this plan of irresistible power, 
 I see not why all might not be saved in the same way ; 
 but the supposition that any shall be punished, or that 
 their punishment shall be perpetuated, upon such a prin- 
 ciple of free-wrath, is an hypothesis which, if I mistake 
 not, will become darker and darker, the more tho- 
 roughly its hidden secrets shall be explored. 
 
 On the Bible axiom, that God is love, Dr. Dwight's 
 conclusion follows as light flows from the sun, that the 
 ultimate arrangement of the Divine administration, will 
 be " according to the most consummate benevolence ;" 
 consequently, his treatment of the wicked will be per- 
 fectly just and right; and will have no severity in it 
 that is inconsistent with absolute goodness. Hence it 
 follows, that it is the duty of all the inhabitants of hell 
 to acknowledge the justice and goodness of God in 
 
SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 247 
 
 their punishment ; otherwise we say they are under no 
 obligation to acknowledge the truth, nor to give that 
 honour to their Maker's character which is his due. 
 But if it be their duty thus to acknowledge the truth, 
 and if their Creator puts it out of their power to do it, 
 does it not appear to follow, that he hinders them from 
 doing right, and from giving due honour to himself, for 
 the mere pleasure of perpetuating the full cup of their 
 misery 1 
 
 It may be supposed, however, that they have so de- 
 stroyed their own faculties, or established in themselves 
 such habits of evil, as to render it eternally impossible, 
 under any circumstances, for them to do otherwise than 
 to deny the truth, and to hate God with unrelenting and 
 undiminished hostility. Can any man prove this from 
 the Bible 1 If not, why should we be wise above that 
 which is written ? 
 
 That habits of evil may become deplorably confirm- 
 ed, is indeed a serious reality ; but whether it be possi- 
 ble for a living soul to become devoid of agency, is a 
 matter on which we may very justly doubt, till we light 
 upon some sort of evidence to conduct us to a definite 
 conclusion. 
 
 It may be one end of the Divine penalties, to restrain 
 sinners from going so deep in criminality as they other- 
 wise would go. Punishment restrains the faculties from 
 vice, and hinders men from being as wicked as they 
 otherwise would be, as all prisons and penitentiaries on 
 earth will prove. Now the whole representation of 
 
248 SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 Scripture concerning future punishment, is that it is 
 established on the plan of a penitentiary, or imprison- 
 ment, and is not to be an execution. The life of the 
 offender is not taken ; but he is bound in chains, and 
 punished in a state of imprisonment. Is it not true, that 
 the inmates of a penitentiary are under the government 
 of the state? Is it not true, that a just and good go- 
 vernment will not inflict cruel and unnecessary punish- 
 ments upon any of them '( And is it not equally true, 
 that the government of Almighty God is as just and 
 benevolent as those governments are, which have been 
 formed by mankind ? 
 
 Let it be distinctly observed, that I do not press this 
 analogy any further than to these two couclusions : — 
 1. That God will not inflict cruel and unnecessary pun- 
 ishments on any individual ; and 2. that his penalties are 
 intended to restrain the sinner from greater depths of 
 wickedness, and consequently, from running into greater 
 depths of misery. To say the sinner's punishment will 
 be eternal, is only to say in other w 7 ords, that he is im- 
 prisoned for life ; and how much misery will be pre- 
 vented, in his own individual soul, by restraining him 
 from deeper criminality, and peradventure by subduing, 
 in some measure, and in some period of his existence, 
 his wicked spirit, who but the great Omniscient himself 
 can tell 1 
 
 The three great axioms of Christian theology are 
 these : First, that the God of infinite wisdom, power 
 
SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 249 
 
 and love, has formed the best possible plan of holiness 
 and happiness. 
 
 Secondly, that upon this plan he operates in the best 
 possible manner, to accomplish the good originally in- 
 tended. 
 
 Thirdly, that his impartial mind has no respect to 
 persons, but that towards all individuals, and in all peri- 
 ods of time and eternity, he invariably and immutably 
 uses the best and most efficient means to promote holi- 
 ness and happiness, and to prevent and diminish sin and 
 misery. 
 
 From these principles it follows, that the fire 'prepared 
 for the devil and his angels, was exactly what it ought 
 to be ; and that if their Maker had rewarded them for 
 their wickedness, and thereby encouraged them in it, 
 or if he had left them unrestrained, to run into eternal 
 anarchy, such a procedure would have been as unmer- 
 ciful, as it would have been unjust. Also that his treat- 
 ment of the sinners of Adam's race, both in time and 
 in eternity, is so perfectly correct, that the principle of 
 his government could not be altered, without being alter- 
 ed for the worse. 
 
 The eternity of future punishment we are bound to 
 believe, upon the indisputable authority of the Bible; 
 but the notion of its continuing for ever invariable, or 
 endlessly increasing, is an assumption without evidence, 
 immensely reproachful to the Supreme Being. The 
 prophet Daniel says, " Some shall arise to everlasting 
 shame and contempt" Now if corporeal sufferings 
 
250 SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 should at some period, and in some instances, be dimin- 
 ished or removed, and if all mental sufferings should be 
 removed also, except a sense of degradation and con- 
 tempt, it would still be eternal punishment : — An eternal 
 exclusion from the honour and glory and felicity of 
 " the saints in light, who are equal to angels, and who 
 shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their father" for 
 ever and ever. 
 
 We are aware, that the alarm of heresy will be taken, 
 at the least deviation from the supposed uniformity and 
 infinity of hell torments. It is thought essential to the 
 sound and orthodox view of this subject, to believe that 
 all who are condemned in a future state, are entirely 
 abandoned to absolute misery ; that no degree of regard 
 will be had to their welfare, throughout eternal ages ; 
 r;;d that any concern for them, other than to perpetuate 
 their misery, is not to be supposed to exist in the Divine 
 Mind, and cannot be entertained by any man, without 
 inexcusable heterodoxy. 
 
 But why should all regard to the welfare of the mil- 
 lions of those wretched creatures be abandoned for ever? 
 Has the Deity no right to entertain any other disposi- 
 tion towards them, than that of a fixed purpose to per- 
 petuate and augment their misery? If he has a right 
 to entertain other sentiments towards them, then it 
 would not be icrong for him to aim ultimately at their 
 well-being, so far as it could be promoted without injury 
 to others. If it would not be wrong for God to do so, 
 then it is not a heresy for us to believe he may, at some 
 
SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 251 
 
 time or other, modify their condition, with a view to an 
 abatement of their misery, so far as will consist with 
 the common welfare. Would such a procedure be un- 
 worthy of our Creator ? Would it tarnish his glory ? 
 Would it grieve and offend his holy angels ? If at any 
 future period of eternity, a benefit could be extended to 
 some of God's creatures, without injury to any, has not 
 God authority to extend to them that benefit'? If he 
 has, who will be offended to see him exercise it ? If 
 he has not, in what way has his authority been forfeited? 
 
 To extend a benefit to some, without injury to any, 
 would not be unjust, nor would it be unmerciful : then 
 if neither justice nor mercy would be infringed, what 
 attribute of God would hinder him from exercising such 
 an administration? 
 
 It may be replied, perhaps, that w T e have no right to 
 inquire after any other reason why God makes hell tor- 
 ments invariable and infinite, than that such is his will. 
 But this is begging the question. The only way by 
 which we can ascertain the will of any agent, is to 
 draw our conclusion from his known attributes. If 
 these be of the benevolent kind, so will be his will; if 
 of the malevolent character, of course we may expect 
 his will to correspond with his moral principles. We 
 are supposing it may possibly be the will of God, at 
 some future period, to modify the condition of the moral 
 universe in a manner of which we have no definite con- 
 ception ; and if in doing it he should be disposed to 
 
252 SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 diminish the amount of existing misery, what moral 
 attribute will stand in the way ? 
 
 It will doubtless be urged, that Divine truth stands in 
 the way ; inasmuch as God would thereby fail to accom- 
 plish his threatenings. But this is again begging the 
 question. We do not concede the point, that the Bible 
 gives any authority whatever to believe that God will 
 make future punishment either invariable, augmenting, 
 or infinite. Those who hold the affirmative must not 
 take their position for granted, but must show from the 
 clear testimony of revelation, if they are able, that God 
 has threatened these things. It is granted he has threat- 
 ened eternal punishment; but that invariability, accu- 
 mulation and infinity are necessarily included in this, is 
 a silent assumption which is unsupported by proof, and 
 which ought not to be taken for granted without exa- 
 mination. 
 
 The only effectual way to disarm the various orders 
 of Universalists, is to maintain that God's eternal admi- 
 nistration will be carried on according to the perfection 
 of moral principle ; that the action of his government 
 will be impartial in its application ; that its design will 
 be to discourage sin, and to encourage right conduct in 
 all created minds ; that there is nothing unjust or un- 
 merciful in the disposition of the Divine Ruler; and 
 that the whole tendency of his penal arrangements will 
 be to operate against sin, and consequently against 
 misery for ever and ever. 
 
 Here the Universalist will reply, that such a course 
 
SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 253 
 
 of action, on the part of God, will certainly bring all 
 sin and misery to an end. How does this consequence 
 follow 1 Why it follows, he will tell us, from our Ma- 
 ker's Almighty power. But if sin could be brought to 
 an end by a mere exertion of power, what occasion 
 was there for all the apparatus of moral government 1 
 What need is there for commandments, exhortations, 
 promises, threatenings, or penalties ? If this Calvinistic 
 hypothesis were tenable, we might well inquire why all 
 mankind are not saved from sin and misery, without 
 any of them going to hell 1 The same answer which 
 the Universalist would give to this question, will be an 
 answer equally applicable to his own assumption, when 
 he removes the Calvinistic notion of irresistible grace 
 to a future state of existence. How does he know that 
 sinners will not be found voluntarily resisting truth and 
 righteousness to all eternity? And even if the most 
 hardened reprobates should surrender, after maliciously 
 fighting against God for millions of centuries, it cannot 
 be proved that good principle would then require that 
 they be rewarded with the honours and felicities of the 
 kingdom of heaven. Such an act of government, for 
 aught that any man can prove to the contrary, might 
 be directly calculated to promote sin and misery, instead 
 of preventing them. 
 
 This may be the precise truth of the case, and yet it 
 may be none the less true, that good principle will 
 require that the condition of subdued rebels be miti- 
 gated, according to their moral habits, and according 
 22 
 
254 SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 to the circumstances of their surrender to the demands 
 of righteousness. 
 
 In regard to the query that may arise in the reader's 
 mind — what would the Creator do with such subdued 
 and yielding sinners ? it may be answered by another 
 question : — is it a more easy matter with Him to man- 
 age his creatures while they remain wicked, than it is 
 to know what to do with them when they forsake their 
 wickedness 1 Is he under the necessity to keep them 
 wicked by his own power, or decree, for fear he should 
 not know what to do with them, if they repent and 
 reform? As the Almighty has power to create ten 
 thousand worlds, so he certainly has an undoubted right 
 to do it ; — and also to people those worlds according to 
 the wise and just provisions of his universal govern- 
 ment. The particulars we are ignorant of, but the 
 great truth we know, and in it should rest with entire 
 composure, that the judge of all the earth will do right. 
 And that is, to treat his creatures, in the case we are 
 considering, in a w T ay best calculated to promote their 
 own welfare, without injury to that of others. Those 
 who deny this, if any such there be, must suppose that it 
 is not right for creatures to be treated in the way best cal- 
 culated to promote their own welfare, without injury to 
 the welfare of others ; or else, that in a future state our 
 Creator will not do right, and of course, that in some 
 way, a total change will have taken place in his moral 
 character. 
 
SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 255 
 
 Alas ! the fear of falling into the heresy of Univer- 
 salistn has caused the christian world to look away 
 from this subject, while their neglect to examine it, and 
 to remove from the doctrine of eternal punishment the 
 tremendous concomitants above specified, has vastly 
 promoted and diffused the system of Universalism, of 
 which they have been so much in dread. Several other 
 questions, relating to this matter, will meet us in the 
 subsequent parts of this discussion ; and it is hoped the 
 reader will consider them with that fair and candid 
 attention, which their importance so seriously demands. 
 Let him not hastily conclude, that he is about to be led 
 away from the orthodox faith, into some dangerous sys- 
 tem of error and heterodoxy ; for God requires the fair 
 exercise of his mental faculties, in searching after the 
 truth; — in doing which, he should take his stand on 
 these two incontrovertible axioms : first, that truth will 
 never contradict itself; and secondly, that truth will 
 never have a bad influence upon the morals and happi- 
 ness of mankind. 
 
 The author feels an unspeakable solicitude to be can- 
 did and conscientious in this course of investigation, 
 that he may not impose either upon his own mind, or 
 upon the mind of his reader, by any species of sophistry 
 or false evidence whatever. The subject cannot be 
 either explained or defended, without following it in its 
 connexions and dependencies ; therefore let the reader, 
 in order both to understand the subject, and to appreci- 
 
256 SEVERITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 ate its evidences, patiently and deliberately go on to the 
 end of the volume. By so doing he will find, if I mis- 
 take not, that one part of the subject is illustrated and 
 strengthened by another; and that when the various 
 parts are brought together and viewed in their con- 
 nexions, their evidence will be found to accumulate, 
 and to become entirely satisfactory and convincing. 
 
PART FOURTH. 
 
 OBLIGATIONS ON MANKIND RESULTING FROM 
 THE DIVINE CHARACTER. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Consideration. 
 
 The design of our Creator in making himself known 
 to his intelligent creatures, is to impress his own cha- 
 racter on them, that they may be beautified with his 
 likeness, and may partake of his essential felicity. This 
 is not to be done by any mechanical action, but by that 
 mental and moral influence of spirit upon spirit, which 
 results from their mutual and voluntary concurrence. 
 The first thing required, on our part, is attention. The 
 voice of God through nature, through his written word, 
 or by a spiritual influence, will be alike unavailing, if 
 we will not consider the subject of his communication. 
 All the beneficial effects which his goodness designs in 
 our favour, must secondarily depend upon the free exer- 
 cise of our voluntary powers ; and truth cannot occupy 
 the understanding, and influence the soul, unless it be 
 admitted through the medium of a fixed and habitual 
 attention. 
 
 22* L * < 257 ) 
 
258 CONSIDERATION. 
 
 And what truth ever approached the human mind 
 which is better calculated to fix its attention than the 
 one before us — that a supreme Being exists ivhose power 
 is almighty, and whose immutable character is love ? If 
 created minds should study to all eternity to ascertain 
 what precise circumstances of existence they would 
 choose, how would it be possible for them ever to con- 
 ceive any thing better, than to live under the protection 
 of Almighty power, invariably directed by infallible wis- 
 dom, and by unchanging good-will for the whole crea- 
 tion ? A prospect like this is in its nature calculated to 
 fill all mental being with the most sublime enjoyment, 
 and with sentiments of wonder, love, and praise. Yet, 
 amazing to tell ! few subjects of human thought are 
 more habitually overlooked and neglected by man's 
 heedless and infatuated spirit ! ' Israel doth not knoiv, 
 my people doth not consider. 1 
 
 How is this strange phenomenon to be accounted for 1 
 It cannot be doubted that the subject of God's glorious 
 character is the most worthy of consideration of any 
 that can be held up to the view of the human under- 
 standing. It is equally evident that every one of us 
 has a deeper interest in this subject than in any other ; 
 and also, that it has the highest claims, and imposes the 
 greatest possible obligation upon all created spirits. 
 Then why is it that mankind will not consider this mat- 
 ter of such overwhelming importance ? Alas ! there 
 must be an unspeakable depth of folly and of crime, in 
 
CONSIDERATION. 259 
 
 this astonishing and inexcusable disposition of the hu- 
 man heart. 
 
 Did I say inexcusable ? But they all with one con- 
 sent begin to make excuse. One must go to his farm, 
 and another to his merchandise. One is too busy, an- 
 other too merry, and another too indolent to devote any 
 consideration to the character and claims of Him who 
 brought them into life ! They practically and con- 
 temptuously say by their actions, that every thing be- 
 longing to God's authority and kingdom is utterly 
 beneath their attention ! Is it because they will not 
 believe he is a Being of a perfectly good character? 
 And why will they not believe ? Because they will not 
 consider. Do they take for granted, as a matter of 
 intuitive certainty, that the claims of God upon them 
 are severe and unjust, as being calculated to destroy 
 their mirth, their amusements, their pleasures, their repu- 
 tation and their worldly interests 1 But it is obviously 
 deducible from the character of infinite perfection, as 
 well as established by the Divine testimony, that it is 
 from a benevolent regard to our own felicity that God 
 withholds any kind or degree of pleasure from mankind. 
 He prohibits such pleasures only as would render us 
 foolish and criminal, and would destroy the permanent 
 happiness of our existence. If men would duly exer- 
 cise their minds in thinking, the rays of truth would 
 show them the correct state of the case ; and the delu- 
 sive snare would be broken. Sinful pleasures and 
 amusements would be seen to be vain and destructive ; 
 
260 CONSIDERATION. 
 
 while God would appear as the essential Fountain of 
 living waters. 
 
 It is consideration which gives strength to argument, 
 and energy to motive; therefore on it depends, chiefly, 
 the ultimate character and destiny of every man. I do 
 not mean that in the abstract it adds any thing to the 
 force of arguments and motives ; but that their inherent 
 strength is brought to bear upon the mind and heart, in 
 proportion as they are weighed in the balance of impar- 
 tial consideration. 
 
 A doctrine has sometimes been hastily entertained, 
 which would perfectly excuse the inconsiderate sinner, 
 in all his heedless inattention to the communications and 
 claims of his Creator : namely, that neither belief nor 
 action is in our power ; but that every man necessarily 
 believes according to the strongest evidence, and acts 
 in the direction of the strongest motive. But the strength 
 both of arguments and motives, is modified in its influ- 
 ence on the mind, by the amount of consideration de- 
 voted to it. A good argument or motive gathers 
 strength in proportion as the mind attentively surveys 
 it ; and a defective one loses its force, by precisely the 
 same process. 
 
 Ought not every man's judgment to follow the best 
 arguments, and his will to follow the strongest motives ? 
 If we answer in the affirmative, it follows that every 
 one is able to do so ; otherwise we say men ought to do 
 that which they cannot do. If on the other hand we 
 say men ought not to follow the strongest arguments 
 
CONSIDERATION. 261 
 
 and motives, then they ought not to be wise and virtu- 
 ous. This conclusion cannot be denied, unless it can 
 be made to appear that the strongest reasons and mo- 
 tives do not lead to wisdom and virtue ; and if this can 
 be made to appear, it will follow, either that God does 
 not enjoin on mankind to be wise and virtuous, or that 
 he has failed to give them sufficient reasons to influence 
 them practically to regard his injunctions. 
 
 Is it wise for a man always to follow the strongest 
 reasons and motives ? If it is, and if it be true that 
 every one must do so, and cannot do otherwise, then of 
 course every man in the world is a wise man by neces- 
 sity, and such a being as a fool has never existed upon 
 the earth. The same will equally apply to virtue and 
 piety ; and, in short, if this metaphysical and mechanical 
 force of evidence and motives be admitted, the distinc- 
 tion between wisdom and folly, right and wrong, must 
 be given up. 
 
 But why need we puzzle ourselves with these ab- 
 stract speculations ? We have the knowledge of con- 
 sciousness, which is that of perfect certainty, that we 
 are free, both in the formation of our opinions, and in 
 the performance of our actions. We can consider a 
 subject, or totally neglect it, whether it be a matter of 
 faith or of practice ; and on that consideration depends 
 the strength or the weakness, both of the evidence and 
 the motive by which we are influenced. This freedom, 
 it is true, is not absolute : it is limited in various ways ; 
 
262 CONSIDERATION. 
 
 but still it is sufficient to lay the foundation for our 
 responsibility, and " to justify the ways of God to man." 
 
 In the holy Scriptures men are charged with being 
 stiff-necked, obstinate, hard-hearted and rebellious ; 
 always resisting the Holy Ghost, and turning away 
 their ears from the truth. Now all this implies resist- 
 ing motives, in order to prevent their irffluence on the 
 mind. And when a man insists the influence of a mo- 
 tive, is it because he is compelled to do it by an oppo- 
 site motive which is irresistible ? Then why need he 
 resist the weaker motive, seeing the stronger one will 
 draw him in the course of destiny without any effort 
 on his part to aid its operation ? 
 
 This resistance of good motives, which the Bible 
 represents as an enormous crime, consists chiefly in an 
 obstinate incorisi deration ; for it is only by a candid 
 attention to the truth, that the force of the motives pre- 
 sented by it can be felt and appreciated ; and of course 
 a neglect of this attention, will cause the motive to be 
 unperceived. The sinner bars his mind against the 
 truth, by levity, scorn, company, amusements, and 
 diversified scenes of dissipation, on purpose to prevent 
 reflection ; and he does this that the weight of religious 
 motives may not get hold of his understanding, disturb 
 his conscience, and interrupt him in the indulgence of 
 his vicious passions. This is the main-spring of infi- 
 delity and irreligion ; it is the fruitful source of all kinds 
 of wickedness; it is the principal cause of the misery 
 and perdition of mankind. — They will not consider. 
 
CONSIDERATION. 263 
 
 It is also the chief cause of the prevailing error which, 
 misrepresents the character of God, and of his adminis- 
 tration. It is thought necessary for hell to be exhibited 
 before the mind, as a state of misery, as great as Al- 
 mighty power can make it ; because it is supposed that 
 nothing short of this will have a restraining influence 
 upon sinners. But if men would be considerate, they 
 would perceive that there are stronger motives to obey 
 God, arising from a just view of his righteous charac- 
 ter, than can possibly result from all the fire and brim- 
 stone, storm and tempest, that ever entered into the 
 human imagination. They would see that the former 
 source furnishes stronger motives than the latter, even 
 to operate upon their fears, provided we speak of an 
 intelligent fear, and not the fright and terror of a mere 
 animal. What can more effectually excite the fears 
 of a rational being, than the anticipation that his pun- 
 ishment will be required by a benevolence which is un- 
 mixed with any malignant sentiment towards any crea- 
 ture in existence 1 This supposes that sin involves a 
 dreadful necessity for his punishment. How alarming 
 the thoughts, that all heaven will agree to his condem- 
 nation, because the well-being of heaven requires it! 
 All virtuous beings are compelled to take a determined 
 though reluctant stand against him ! Then where shall 
 the sinner look for hope or consolation ? If heavenly 
 love is constrained to cast him off, can the malice of 
 hell do any thing for his benefit 1 
 
 The fears of a terrified imagination, picturing hell as 
 
264 CONSIDERATION. 
 
 a very frightful place, may indeed make a strong im- 
 pression upon the feelings of the heart ; but they cannot 
 enter so deeply into the intelligence of the mind, nor 
 produce so permanent an influence upon the will, as the 
 impressive anticipations derived from a rational and 
 correct view of the justice and perfection of moral go- 
 vernment. 
 
 Some appear to suppose, on the contrary, that it is 
 dangerous to exhibit to mankind any other views of 
 future misery, than such as will fill the mind and imagi- 
 nation with the utmost horror possible. Nothing must 
 be said or intimated, which will imply any thing else 
 than that sinners, when sent to hell, will suffer the ut- 
 most agonies of fire; — that their senses, external and 
 internal, all the capacities of their physical and mental 
 being, will be filled as full of torment as they can hold ; 
 — and that their agency will be judicially held in a state 
 of invariable corruption, in order that their misery may 
 be perpetuated, and may continue increasing for ever 
 and ever. Now after a minister has finished a sermon 
 of this kind, let him sit down and consider, whether it 
 would be within the bounds of possibility for an almighty 
 Moloch to do any thing more than he says will be done 
 by the God of love ? and whether it will not follow from 
 such doctrine, that an infinite tyranny is necessary to 
 the welfare of God's creation ? Must such views as 
 these be constantly urged upon mankind, because no 
 other conceptions of God and futurity will restrain them 
 from sin? Then what a ridiculous and mysterious race 
 
CONSIDERATION. 265 
 
 of creatures we are ! It seems to imply that men's 
 hatred of God's character and kingdom, is such, that 
 they will resolve to sin on till they die, provided only 
 that their future punishment be not extended to the 
 utmost bounds of possibility. And will any other con- 
 ception cause saints also to apostatize, because of their 
 deep desire to get away from God 1 Will nothing short 
 of the anticipation of infinite misery be sufficient to keep 
 them to their allegiance? Would the inhabitants of 
 heaven also go away, if it were not for a like anticipa- 
 tion ? Alas ! an affirmative answer to these questions 
 would presumptuously assume, that the service which 
 God requires of his children is so oppressive, that no- 
 thing short of despotic power will keep any of them to 
 their duty ; or, in other words, that God has to be a 
 tyrant in his penalties, because he is a tyrant in the 
 obedience which he requires of his creatures. 
 
 It is readily admitted that the utmost care should be 
 observed, not to give encouragement to sin ; but the 
 way to avoid this, is to point out the deep malignity of 
 sin, both in principle and in tendency. Its odious de- 
 formity, and poisonous influence upon happiness are such, 
 that pure benevolence is constrained to treat sinners 
 with a severity that is inconceivably dreadful, as the 
 only possible way of preventing a greater evil. Should 
 sinners be unrestrained in their abominations, not only 
 would they diffuse misery through the creation, but 
 would in the issue bring a greater amount of it upon 
 themselves, than they are made to feel by the operation 
 23 m 
 
266 THE FEAR OF GOD.— REPENTANCE. 
 
 of the Divine penalties. This doctrine, while it fur- 
 nishes the greatest discouragement to sin that can be 
 conceived, at the same time encourages the sinner to 
 turn to God, as to the bosom of infinite love ; but to 
 tell mankind, on the other hand, that sin in itself would 
 not be productive of any great misery, were it not for 
 an Almighty act of arbitrary vengeance, would not be 
 calculated to discourage sin ; but to demolish the found- 
 ation of virtue and holiness, by representing the Su- 
 preme Being as full of malevolence, and as having no- 
 thing in his character that can be regarded as an intel- 
 ligent basis of hope, confidence, or complacency. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 The Fear of God. — Repentance. 
 
 Fear is one of the prominent springs of action in 
 human nature ; and it always implies an apprehension 
 of some calamity, or of some kind of unhappiness, 
 which we desire to avoid. 
 
 When it apprehends danger of any kind from the 
 action of a voluntary agent, it is excited by our view 
 of his character and designs, and modifies our conduct 
 accordingly. If we apprehend that we are in danger 
 of falling under any afflictive action of a malignant 
 being, fear excites us to inquire for a way of escape ; 
 
THE FEAR OF GOD.— REPENTANCE. 267 
 
 we naturally run from him, and if we can be concealed 
 where he cannot find us, we gladly avail ourselves of 
 such an asylum. If we cannot hide ourselves, or run 
 away and escape his pursuit, the next inquiry is, are we 
 able to resist and to conquer him 1 If so, we at once 
 assume the attitude of determined opposition. But if 
 this be regarded as a hopeless enterprise, the third in- 
 quiry is, can we do any thing to appease his anger, or 
 to change the purpose of his mind ? Fear will influ- 
 ence us to flatter him, to deceive him, and to take every 
 advantage of his passions ; but never to trust, or to love 
 him. 
 
 Does our Creator require of any of his creatures to 
 exercise towards him this kind of fear I Never. And 
 why not? Precisely because our Creator is not a ma- 
 lignant being. But how, it may be inquired, can a per- 
 fectly good being, be regarded as an object of fear? 
 Because a good being loves and supports goodness 
 only : the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, and con- 
 sequently hateth iniquity. To say that a perfectly good 
 being loves and patronises evil, is a contradiction ; for 
 a righteous principle in any mind, is an invariable reso- 
 lution to maintain right, and of course to oppose every 
 thing that is wrong ; because the former is the source 
 of all happiness, and the latter is the source of all mise- 
 ry. Almighty goodness is clothed with supreme author- 
 ity, to demand good conduct of all that are under 
 his dominion; and to punish evil-doers to the utmost 
 
268 THE FEAR OF GOD.— REPENTANCE. 
 
 extent that may be necessary to protect the common 
 welfare, and to maintain universal right. 
 
 Now the fear of such a Being, is a fear arising from 
 a just view of the essential goodness of his character ; 
 this influences us to forsake wrong, which is the only 
 thing that goodness punishes, and to pursue and prac- 
 tise right, which it always sanctions and rewards. 
 Hence we perceive, that this fear, far from causing us 
 to run away from God, draws us unto him, and influ- 
 ences us to conform to his righteous law, as the only 
 way of happiness and safety. We fear the energy of 
 his holy character, which always strikes at a distance ; 
 we come into the centre of it, where we are safe ; and 
 there remains nothing to excite uneasy apprehensions. 
 
 This fear of God, arising as it does from a just view 
 of his perfect character, includes in it all the reverence 
 that is due to such a character. The more clear our 
 conceptions are of the glory and loveliness of the Eter- 
 nal Mind, the more cause have we to love and admire 
 it ; and at the same time, the greater is our fear of its 
 displeasure. 
 
 "Abash'd the devil stood, and felt how awful 
 Goodness is." — Milton. 
 
 The reader need not be told how often the fear of the 
 Lord is enjoined in the Old and New Testament ; but a 
 few specimens may be given to show that the kind of 
 fear required, is that which draws the soul to God, as 
 above described. " Only fear the Lord, and serve him 
 
THE FEAR OF GOD.— REPENTANCE. 269 
 
 in truth, with all your heart." " O that there were such 
 an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep my 
 commandments always." " Fear God and keep his com- 
 mandments, for this is the whole duty of man." " The 
 fear of the Lord is to depart from evil" " Serve God 
 acceptably, with reverence and godly fear." " Perfect- 
 ing holiness in the fear of God." 
 
 Now we say it is obligatory on mankind to exercise 
 this fear, and that the obligation results from the per- 
 fection and glory of our Creator. We are bound to 
 fear and reverence the authority of goodness ; for good- 
 ness, and nothing else, possesses authority. We may 
 fear and dread a tyrant ; but there is no virtue in this 
 fear, nor does it result from a regard to just authority ; 
 for in a tyrant there is none. We may dread his power, 
 his cunning, and his malevolence ; but a fear of these 
 things, w 7 here there is no goodness, only excites in us 
 hatred and contempt ; and influences us to flee as far 
 as we can from the abhorred object, or else to approach 
 only to deceive, to flatter, or to fight him. A tyrant, 
 we say, has no authority : and therefore his character 
 cannot impose on us any manner of obligation. Au- 
 thority signifies the right to govern, which is the right 
 of goodness alone ; and the pretended right of conquest, 
 is an old claim of despotism, derived from the ridicu- 
 lous assumption that right has its origin in power. If a 
 just authority can be separated from goodness, then of 
 course the devil is a proper ruler, and ought to be feared 
 and reverenced as such. 
 23* 
 
270 THE FEAR OF GOD.— REPENTANCE. 
 
 Both power and intelligence are lovely and glorious, 
 when operating as the agents and ministers of Benevo- 
 lence, from the influence of which they derive all their 
 beauty and all their value ; but when perverted from 
 their proper ends, by being associated with malignity, 
 they lose all their authority ; and we feel no other sen- 
 timent towards the tyrant, than a desire to defeat his 
 wisdom, and to despoil him of his power. 
 
 We are told that there was an unjust judge, who 
 feared not God nor regarded man ; whence we infer, 
 that where there is no reverential awe of a righteous 
 governing power, there will be no regard to the welfare 
 of society. The apostle Paul, in giving the darkest 
 portrait to be found any where on record, closes it by 
 saying, There is no fear of God before their eyes. (See 
 Rom. chap. iii. verses 30 — 18.) Now if the fear of 
 God restrains men from such vices, and leads to the 
 opposite virtues, as the Scriptures every where testify, 
 this fear is undeniably excited by the authoritative influ- 
 ence of a perfect character; and consequently, so far 
 as the imagination clothes the Almighty with false attri- 
 butes, so far the fear of such a being is corrupt in prin- 
 ciple, and deficient in moral tendency. 
 
 It is on this ground alone, that a soul destitute of the 
 fear of God, is in a criminal condition ; for a refusal to 
 fear an evil or malignant beinsr is no crime. We are 
 not commanded to fear the devil ; but on the contrary, 
 to resist, and fight, and conquer him, with the whole 
 armour of God. And throughout the universe, wherever 
 
THE FEAR OF GOD.— REPENTANCE. 271 
 
 a tyrant is found, it is a virtue to resist him, and to 
 overcome him if we can. Not, however, with carnal 
 weapons ; but with those which are " mighty through 
 God, to the pulling down of strong holds." All despots 
 dread the power of truth and love, more than they dread 
 any other weapon that can be brought to bear against 
 them ; and by the energy of these principles does our 
 Maker operate throughout the moral universe. 
 
 It is the reverential fear of this holy Being that brings 
 the sinner to repentance. To repent for having rebelled 
 against a tyrant, is to repent for having done right ; for 
 tyranny is essentially abominable, and is the foundation 
 of all kinds of misery. 
 
 " Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and 
 forbearance, and long-suffering ; not knowing that the 
 goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance ? but after 
 thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto 
 thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation 
 of the righteous judgment of God." (Rom. ii. 4.) To 
 repent is to acknowledge that we have done icrong ; 
 and of course, that the law which God enjoined upon 
 us was right ; that we have been bad creatures in op- 
 posing God, and consequently that He whom we opposed 
 is good. The more impressive our views are of his 
 eternal excellency, the deeper is the conviction of our 
 own vileness and depravity. Hence it is clear as day, 
 that the goodness of God is the only thing that ever did 
 or ever will lead any sinner to true repentance. How 
 vain is the imagination, then, that it is necessary to 
 
272 THE FEAR OF GOD.— REPENTANCE. 
 
 clothe the Almighty with the attributes of a tyrant, m 
 order to restrain men from sin, and to keep them from 
 being impenitent ! It is a daring and an inexcusable hos- 
 tility to infinite kindness, which renders the character 
 of the sinner so truly contemptible and odious. With 
 a fool-hardy obstinacy and self-importance, he contemns 
 God, instead of fearing him. He despises goodness; 
 and what could the devil do more ? The sinner spends 
 his breath in cursing and bitterness, instead of prayer ; 
 he hates God, because God is lovely ; he tramples upon 
 the rights and the happiness of his fellow men, and 
 hardens his heart in impenitency. Hence he treasures 
 up wrath unto himself; and all beings who have any 
 truth and goodness in them, will agree that he ought to 
 be damned. The righteous judgment of God against 
 him will be amiable and lovely in the sight of all hea- 
 ven ; and no where but in the dark anarchy and despot- 
 ism of hell, will any cavil or objection be made against 
 it. The excuses and apologies of sinners will be seen 
 to be all founded upon falsehood, and that they persisted 
 in their mad hostility, because God would not patronise 
 and sustain them in maliciously violating the rights of 
 universal society. 
 
 We should be careful not to represent God as the 
 author of evil, or as delighting in vengeance ; because it 
 is plain that in proportion as the blame is cast upon 
 God, it is taken off from the sinner; which of course 
 will tend to excuse and harden him in his impenitence. 
 Let the sinner be convinced that God is perfectly just 
 
THE FEAR OF GOD.— REPENTANCE. 273 
 
 and amiable in his dispositions, purposes, and actions, 
 from everlasting to everlasting; and this goodness of 
 God, if any thing, will lead him to a true and honest, 
 and effectual repentance. 
 
 It is not the will of God that his creatures should fear 
 him with a tormenting fear; for he desires that they 
 should love him perfectly ; and the apostle John says, 
 Perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. 
 A soul filled with this love hath no dread of future pun- 
 ishment, and no torment arising from that dread. Yet 
 the fear of God abides within him, in higher perfection 
 than it ever did before. But how 7 can this be reconciled 
 with our definition of fear, that it always implies an 
 apprehension of some calamity, or of some kind of un- 
 happiness, which we desire to avoid 1 The answ T er is, 
 that to the mind of a perfect lover of God, the appre- 
 hension of displeasing him, or in any way grieving his 
 Holy Spirit, is regarded as a calamity and an unhappi- 
 ness, more influential upon him, than the fear of future 
 punishment itself is upon the returning penitent, in the 
 incipient stages of his reformation. 
 
SECTION III. 
 
 Confidence in God. 
 
 A perfect character entitles its possessor to the full 
 confidence of others, which cannot be withheld or re- 
 fused without an act of the highest injustice. Where 
 there is no confidence in God, there can be no gratitude, 
 no obedience, no hope, no happiness, and no heaven. 
 Hence the demand for our faith is obviously at the 
 foundation of every other claim that our Maker can 
 have upon us. If God be not trustworthy, he deserves 
 not our love, and has no right to our respect or our 
 obedience. If we have a right to disbelieve, we have 
 an equal right to refuse and rebel, and to fight against 
 God. Unbelief, therefore, is the original sin, and the 
 parent crime, which nourishes and strengthens every 
 other vice of the human heart. Its first-born is pride ; 
 which is the belief of a falsehood concerning our own 
 worth, virtue, wisdom or ability. This takes its rise 
 from a disbelief in the glory of the Divine character, 
 which glory we proudly transfer to ourselves. 
 
 The faith required in the gospel does three things : 
 first, it does justice to the evidence of truth, which sus- 
 tains and proves the character of God ; secondly, it 
 honours God for having such a character ; and thirdly, 
 it confides or trusts in God, to support all our essential 
 interests in time and in eternity. 
 
 (274) 
 
CONFIDENCE IN GOD. 275 
 
 Nothing but a perfect character can inspire such 
 confidence, or be worthy of it ; a Being possessing this 
 is worthy of it, and has a just right to claim it, from 
 all to whom his excellency is made known. 
 
 " God, we are to remember," says Dr. Dwight, " is 
 the last appeal, resort, and hope, of Intelligent beings. 
 By whomsoever else the soul is deceived, or disappoint- 
 ed, it rests on him with perfect reliance ; because it 
 considers his truth as the great mountains, and his faith- 
 fulness as enduring for ever. If no confidence could 
 be placed in him, none could be placed elsewhere. 
 Every thought, purpose, interest, consolation, and hope, 
 would be afloat on the waves of a boundless and 
 perpetually disturbed ocean, where rest and safety 
 could never be found. All beings would distrust all ; 
 and the universe, filled as it is with inhabitants, would 
 become a solitude. Suspicion and jealousy would make 
 all beings strangers, and enemies to each other. Sus- 
 pense would fill every mind, and hang over every en- 
 joyment. The Mind, stretching its view through eter- 
 nity and immensity, would discern no pole-star, by 
 which it might steer its course ; no haven, whither it 
 might betake itself for safety and repose. The truth 
 of God hushes this stormy and restless ocean to peace. 
 All his creatures know, or may know, that his purposes, 
 declarations, and promises, are eternal and immutable ; 
 and that, therefore, he cannot deceive their confidence, 
 nor disappoint their reasonable hopes ; that he is the 
 Rock, on which is founded the great building of the uni- 
 
270 CONFIDENCE IN GOD. 
 
 verse : the foundation and the building both eternal. 
 Were these facts reversed, he could present no motives 
 to voluntary obedience ; nor act as the Moral Governor 
 of rational beings." (p. 210.) 
 
 Now from this view of the subject, it is easy to see 
 that unbelief, destroying as it does all confidence in the 
 mind of the unbeliever, and disposing him to do all he 
 can to shake the confidence of others, strikes directly 
 at the centre of all virtue, and all happiness. 
 
 " The Truth, or Veracity of God," says Dr. Dwight, 
 again, " is especially that part of his moral character, 
 on which the faith or confidence, which is termed Evan- 
 gelical, ultimately rests. On this attribute all his decla- 
 rations, promises, and covenants, entirely depend for 
 their truth and certainty ; and therefore all the confi- 
 dence, which creatures can place in his character, de- 
 signs, or conduct. 
 
 " But unless we believed him sincere in promising, 
 we could not believe that he would bestow them. Be- 
 tween confidence in the truth of God, and distrust of 
 his truth, there is no alternative. It is metaphysically, 
 as well as Scripturally, true, that he, ivho believeth not 
 God, hath made him a liar. Let me then ask whether 
 this distrust of God, this attribution to him of so odious 
 and contemptible a character, this last insult, can possi- 
 bly be pleasing to God 1 Yet this is a fair description 
 of all unbelief; or, as it ought rather to be termed, dis- 
 belief, or distrust. As, then, there is no medium between 
 this character and confidence, or faith ; it is, I think* 
 
CONFIDENCE IN GOD. 277 
 
 past all doubt, that faith is indispensably necessary to 
 acceptance with God." (pp. 211, 212.) 
 
 This conclusion may well be considered "past all 
 doubt;" for how can God accept a character, that con- 
 tains within itself a principle which hath made Him a 
 liar, and which tends to destroy the trust and affection 
 o^ his whole Intelligent creation 1 
 
 Why do we confide in the power of God? Because 
 it is the agency of infinite love. Why do we trust in 
 his wisdom? Because it is ever employed to devise 
 ways • and means of promoting universal happiness. 
 Why do we expect the fulfilment of his promises ? Be- 
 cause of the unchangeable sincerity of him whose ve- 
 racity is pledged. These perfections, as concentrated 
 in the Divine Mind, must for ever be the object of 
 supreme confidence in the rectitude of God's actions 
 towards all other beings, as well as towards ourselves ; 
 for a perfect character must apply to all alike, and treat 
 them according to the truth and reality of their moral 
 condition. 
 
 If a mysterious being should confer favours upon an 
 individual, or upon a limited number of individuals, for 
 no reason that we know of, except some unaccountable 
 pleasure of his own will, such favours would be no proofs 
 of character, and could be no permanent foundation for 
 either faith or love. If the favours were not bestowed 
 upon principle, there is no rational ground to anticipate 
 their perpetuity ; and if they were thus bestowed, the 
 same principle would operate with perfect consistency 
 24 
 
278 CONFIDENCE IN GOD. 
 
 towards all beings, according to the reality of their 
 moral state, and their relation to universal society. 
 Favours received from the influence of a capricious 
 partiality, can never inspire perfect confidence, and can 
 never deserve it. A pure love of rectitude, which is 
 necessarily universal in its application, constitutes the 
 essence of a holy character ; and this alone sustains the 
 unceasing happiness of heaven. Could saints and an- 
 gels around the throne of God believe that there are 
 beings in existence, who are dealt with upon different 
 and opposite principles, from those which regulate their 
 own destiny, how soon would their confidence waver, 
 and their prospects settle down under a portentous and 
 lowering cloud ! In vain may promises be reiterated, 
 in regard to their own continued welfare ; for the entire 
 value of promises is derived from the veracity, good- 
 ness, and rectitude of the Promiser ; and these principles 
 will apply with impartiality to all beings that are sus- 
 ceptible of their influence. Will sincerity and veracity 
 ever cause a person to speak truth to some individuals, 
 and falsehood to others 1 As little will the love of jus- 
 tice influence any being to act justly towards some 
 persons, and unjustly towards others. As little will the 
 principle of benevolence influence any being to act 
 kindly towards some persons, and cruelly towards 
 others. Consistency and impartiality are essential to a 
 good character, without which an intelligent trust in 
 God can have no permanent foundation. 
 
 Of course, the confidence both of saints and angels. 
 
DOCTRINES INCONSISTENT WITH CONFIDENCE. 279 
 
 to be rational, unwavering, and satisfying to the mind, 
 must embrace the entire government of the Deity, in its 
 application to the whole accountable universe. Every 
 doctrine, therefore, which would show a want of prin- 
 ciple in the Divine administration over hell, would sap 
 the foundation on which the felicity of heaven is based. 
 This matter will come more particularly under review 
 in the following section. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 Injurious Tendency of such Views of the Divine Govern- 
 ment as are inconsistent with this Confidence in God. 
 
 It is commonly taken for granted with great com- 
 posure, that so long as a man is a firm believer in the 
 doctrine of eternal punishment, no matter how absolute 
 and tremendous he may represent that punishment to 
 be, there is no danger of his doctrine producing a bad 
 effect upon mankind. The whole of the danger, it is 
 supposed, is on the other side ; while it is gratuitously 
 assumed, that the more awful the representation is, con- 
 cerning the future misery of the wicked, the more will 
 sin be discouraged, and the more will all holiness be 
 supported, enlarged, and established. 
 
 Hence the matter has often been unhesitatingly ex- 
 hibited, first, that the punishment of all the condemned 
 in a future state will be eternal ; secondly, that it will 
 
280 DOCTRINES INCONSISTENT WITH CONFIDENCE. 
 
 be without intermission ; thirdly, that it will continue 
 constantly increasing; and lastly, that it will be as 
 excruciating and agonizing as it can be made by the 
 energy of Almighty Power. In one word; that it will 
 be infinite. It is supposed that the more full and hor- 
 rifying the anguish is represented to be, the more pure 
 is the doctrine, and the more efficient and sanctifying 
 will be its influence upon the souls of the people. That 
 this is the precise view entertained by thousands, and 
 which has been impressed on their minds by certain 
 systems of theology, will appear by examining the prin- 
 cipal arguments by which the extent of future punish- 
 ment has been commonly supported. These arguments, 
 which we have heard and seen, from the pulpit and the 
 press, are the following: 
 
 First, that punishment must be eternal, otherwise God 
 will not do all that he can to discourage sin. This 
 argument assumes that the only way for God to do his 
 uttermost against sin, is to punish sinners as much as he 
 can. Of course, he will punish them for ever, because 
 he has power to do it ; and it equally follows, that he 
 will make the anguish fill their entire capacity, and will 
 cause it to increase to all eternity as much as he is 
 able ; otherwise, according to the argument, he will fail 
 to give as full a discouragement to sin as he can. 
 
 ►Secondly, we are told that sin is an infinite evil, and 
 therefore deserves infinite punishment. Now infinite 
 punishment is the utmost that can be inflicted by the 
 energy of Omnipotence. Any thing short of this would 
 
DOCTRINES INCONSISTENT WITH CONFIDENCE. 281 
 
 be less than infinite. Of course, if the irresistible 
 agency of God can cause it to increase, he will aug- 
 ment its intensity as much as he is able, through all the 
 periods of an unending futurity ! 
 
 Thirdly, it has been often represented, that the Bible 
 doctrine concerning different degrees of punishment in 
 a future state, signifies only that there will be different 
 degrees of capacity to suffer, and each will be as full 
 of misery as it can hold, like vessels of different sizes 
 cast into a lake of water. On this supposition, if all 
 are to be punished according to their works, it follows 
 that sin modifies the capacities of creatures ; and that 
 every additional sin increases the sinner's capacity to 
 suffer. Consequently, if they continue to sin to all eter- 
 nity, their capacity will be for ever increasing, and will 
 constantly be kept full of misery. 
 
 Fourthly, we have heard the argument advanced, 
 that as all sin is ingratitude to infinite love, it is not 
 possible for the sinner to suffer more than he deserves. 
 Now as every sin is of this character, each sinner de- 
 serves the full cup of misery which the argument 
 assumes and rests upon as its basis ; of course the 
 Scripture doctrine concerning different degrees of pun- 
 ishment, can have no intelligible signification. 
 
 On the same ground the consequence will follow, 
 that a day of Judgment would be useless ; for this im- 
 plies an apportionment of punishment according to the 
 varieties of culpability ; but as there are no degrees in 
 24* m* 
 
282 DOCTRINES INCONSISTENT WITH CONFIDENCE. 
 
 infinity, there can be no variation in the penalty ; and 
 therefore no need of a judicial process. 
 
 It equally follows from the same hypothesis, that 
 tyranny or injustice towards the damned would be im- 
 possible ; for if no punishment can be greater than they 
 deserve, of course were it possible for malevolence to 
 be clothed with Almighty power, its energy could not 
 exceed the turpitude of any one condemned sinner in 
 perdition. 
 
 In regard to the distinction which we have observed 
 in books of divinity, that the punishment which is infi- 
 nite in duration, is finite in degree, it has no tendency 
 to clear up the mystery ; for besides involving the plain 
 contradiction, that a thing can be finite and infinite at 
 the same time, it is inconsistent with all the arguments 
 by which the doctrine is commonly supported. If our 
 Maker, to give the highest discouragement to sin, must 
 punish sinners as much as he can, his stroke must be 
 infinite in degree as well as in duration. If the capa- 
 city of each is as full of torment as it can hold, it is 
 not possible for infinite power to make it hold more. If 
 the punishment cannot be greater than the sinner de- 
 serves, for his ingratitude to infinite love, then he de- 
 serves all that can be comprehended within the bounds 
 of possibility. It is plain, therefore, that the doctrine 
 which is sustained by such arguments, is that of infinite 
 punishment in the most absolute sense. If the penalty 
 be really finite, it may of course be modified and varied, 
 according to all the variations of voluntary guilt. 
 
DOCTRINES INCONSISTENT WITH CONFIDENCE. 283 
 
 Hence the reader may understand distinctly, that the 
 doctrine which stands as the antagonist of the views 
 which I advocate, however it may conceal itself, is pre- 
 cisely that of infinite punishment, in the full and abso- 
 lute sense of the term. If this be given up, and the 
 doctrine of finite punishment be acknowledged as the 
 truth of God, then the position cannot be successfully 
 controverted, that all varieties of culpability will meet 
 with a corresponding course of treatment. This sup- 
 poses the whole matter to be superintended by princi- 
 ple, on the part of the great Ruler of created agents ; 
 and it is perfectly obvious that a benevolent Ruler will 
 never inflict punishment for its own sake, but for the 
 sake of promoting good, and counteracting evil; conse- 
 quently, every possible reason that can influence a 
 righteous Sovereign to apportion his penalties accord- 
 ing to the degrees of guilt, at the time when sinners are 
 first consigned to punishment, will equally influence him 
 to vary his administration, according as the degrees of 
 voluntary guilt shall vary through the endless progress 
 of future duration. If we abandon this ground, the 
 government of principle is given up ; and infinite mise- 
 ry is held forth as an ultimate end of the Divine govern- 
 ment. Now I seriously ask how any human under- 
 standing can distinguish this from the most permanent 
 and heartless tyranny? I ask how any soul that be- 
 lieves it can look into eternity without a horror of mind 
 which implies utter distrust of the Almighty, and a pain- 
 ful sympathy for his fellow-creatures, who are supposed 
 
284 DOCTRINES INCONSISTENT WITH CONFIDENCE. 
 
 to be consigned to a state of existence, which could not 
 be made worse by any force and energy of infinite ma- 
 lignity 1 To suppose such a distorted and dark view 
 of the Supreme Being will either discourage sin or 
 operate against the spread of Universalism, appears to 
 me to be as baseless and untenable an hypothesis as 
 ever entered into the imagination of mankind. It silent- 
 ly and presumptuously assumes, that Manicheism, or a 
 compound of partiality and tyranny in the Supreme 
 Being, is indispensably necessary, both to avoid the 
 heresy of Universalism, and to restrain the human 
 family from sin ! According to this assumption, an 
 Almighty Tyrant would be the greatest friend of holi- 
 ness, and the most efficient opposer of sin, of any Being 
 that could possibly exist ! 
 
 In short, the arguments and illustrations above speci- 
 fied, go to one conclusion : namely, that all mankind 
 who miss of heaven, will be made for ever as miserable 
 as it is possible for Almighty God to make them. 
 
 That such a doctrine is calculated to have an inju- 
 rious influence upon the souls of men, and to promote 
 sin, and not holiness, will appear, if I mistake not, from 
 the following considerations : 
 
 1. Its immediate tendency is to promote the spread of 
 Universalism. For let the teachers of that system be 
 able to show the people that the view above stated is 
 really that which is called the orthodox doctrine, and 
 according to the well-known tendencies of human na- 
 ture, they can so exhibit the frightful picture, as will not 
 
DOCTRINES INCONSISTENT WITH CONFIDENCE. 285 
 
 fail to hurry thousands entirely over to their favourite 
 hypothesis, that there are no penalties whatever inflicted 
 in a future state. Our antagonists are thus permit- 
 ted to occupy a fortress which is invulnerable; for 
 they have a magazine of arguments which have never 
 been answered, and which never can be answered, 
 while Universalists can hold up their own doctrine in 
 bold contrast with the shocking and indefensible views 
 of futurity above described. 
 
 2. The doctrine tends to the increase and justification 
 of infidelity. The first thought that occurs to the mind, 
 upon surveying the above hypothesis, is that it repre- 
 sents God as a Being whose immutable disposition is to 
 delight in the agonies of his creation. Hence the next 
 conclusion is, that if the Bible teaches such a doctrine, 
 and is indeed a revelation from him, such a revelation 
 must be regarded as a real calamity to mankind. But 
 as there is no analogy in nature to countenance such a 
 horrible view of our Creator, the deist concludes that 
 the Bible is not a revelation from him. 
 
 3. It tends to support and perpetuate the worst and 
 most barbarous systems of divinity that were ever in- 
 vented. For how is it possible to take any other view 
 of the subject under consideration, than that, if it be 
 true, there is something in the nature of God which 
 causes him to take pleasure in seeing anguish and tor- 
 ment abound through a vast extent of his empire ? And 
 if this be an essential part of his disposition, how natural 
 is the conclusion, that for the pleasure of his own will, 
 
286 DOCTRINES INCONSISTENT WITH CONFIDENCE. 
 
 he ordained creatures to this misery from all eternity ? 
 Nor would it be a very far-fetched inference, that with 
 such a disposition, the misery and anguish of little in- 
 fants in hell might be surveyed by him with a peculiar 
 relish and delight. O indulgent and righteous Father ! 
 who can restrain his tears at the thought that there is a 
 necessity to repel such shocking suppositions from being 
 applied to thy gracious and paternal Mind ! 
 
 4. It produces and perpetuates in the minds of sinners, 
 an obstinate inattention to futurity. The doctrine which 
 they so frequently hear concerning hell, fills their ima- 
 gination with the one glaring idea, that Almighty God 
 intends to make use of the most effectual means in 
 nature, and to exert the utmost energies of his irresisti- 
 ble power, to make all the damned as miserable as pos- 
 sible without intermission and without end. Hence a 
 sullen determination becomes fixed in their minds, that 
 they will not seriously think upon the subject. They 
 secretly say within themselves — from such a Being very 
 little is to be hoped ; and we are determined that he 
 shall not control our fears. Hence a kind of mad 
 resolution settles down in their hearts, that they will 
 turn their attention to other matters, and dismiss the 
 subject of judgment and eternity from their minds, with 
 very little consideration. The doctrine under review 
 naturally tends to produce this effect ; and therefore 
 instead of saving sinners, there is reason to apprehend 
 that it has contributed to the perdition of thousands. 
 
 To produce conviction in a man's mind, we must get 
 
DOCTRINES INCONSISTENT WITH CONFIDENCE. 287 
 
 hold of his attention, his understanding and his con- 
 science. In order to this, it must be proved and made 
 manifest to him, that there is a dreadful evil in sin, 
 which makes it indispensably necessary for pure good- 
 ness to punish the sinner; that our gracious Creator 
 really delights in universal happiness ; that he has no 
 malevolence towards any being in existence, and never 
 will have ; but that evil beings must be arrested by the 
 hand of justice, and bound under the righteous penalty 
 of the Divine law, or their malignant agency would 
 diffuse misery throughout the universe. Such views 
 are calculated to call up the attention of the mind to 
 the destructive nature of sin, on the one hand, and to 
 the amiable character of our Creator, on the other ; 
 and hence to lead to a genuine repentance and reforma- 
 tion. But such glowing images of hell and vengeance, 
 as would seem to represent the highest malignity to be 
 in the law of God, instead of being in the law of sin, 
 cannot be expected to have a truly reforming operation 
 upon mankind. 
 
 5. The doctrine involves many serious christians in a 
 large amount of mental embarrassment, whereby they 
 are weighed down with heavy weights, and hindered in 
 the way of life. Whether they are to regard their 
 Creator as a good or a bad Being, or as a contradictory 
 compound of both, they are afflictively at a loss to de- 
 termine. Their children they look upon with tears. 
 For what father would not rather wish that his chil- 
 dren had never been born, than that he should have 
 
288 DOCTRINES INCONSISTENT WITH CONFIDENCE. 
 
 incessantly to mourn over the strong probability that a 
 majority of them, after a few short years of vexation 
 here, will be consigned to a state of interminable an- 
 guish, where their Creator will have no other thought 
 or concern about them, than to exert his omnipotence 
 to increase their misery ! 
 
 6. The doctrine tends to iveaken confidence in God, 
 and to promote general unbelief, and therefore to promote 
 sin, as the consequence of unbelief No sophistication 
 can set aside the indubitable truth, that the very essence 
 of that faith which has a sanctifying influence on the 
 human soul, is confidence in the character of God. True 
 faith embraces the Lord Jesus Christ as the gift of the 
 Father's love ; and is that by which the soul is drawn 
 into God, and is enabled to overcome the world. There 
 is no distrust or suspicion in this exercise of the mind, 
 which cordially embraces God in his parental good- 
 ness; but let the above-mentioned gloomy orthodoxy 
 come over the imagination, and its whole tendency will 
 be of a directly opposite character. 
 
 Let this view of the matter be sustained by the au- 
 thority of two distinguished writers. The first is Dr. 
 Dwight, who says, " We cannot obey God, except from 
 confidence in his character, as a perfectly Wise, Just, 
 and Good Teacher and Lawgiver, who has instructed 
 us in our true interest ; a Lav/giver who has prescribed 
 wise, just, and benevolent precepts, to regulate our duty. 
 Unless we consider his precepts concerning all things to 
 be right, we can never voluntarily obey them. Confi- 
 
DOCTRINES INCONSISTENT WITH CONFIDENCE. 289 
 
 dence, therefore, in the character of God, is the true, 
 and only possible source of that spontaneous obedience, 
 which is acceptable to Him, virtuous in us, and indis- 
 pensable to all our real good." (Dwight's Theology, 
 Vol. IV. p. 35.) 
 
 Now if, without this confidence in the Divine charac- 
 ter, " we cannot obey God," if this is the " only possible 
 source of that spontaneous obedience, which is acceptable 
 to Him, virtuous in us, and indispensable to all our real 
 good," it clearly follows that sin is never discouraged, 
 and virtuous obedience never produced, by any other 
 apprehension of future punishment, than that which is 
 associated with " confidence in the character of God," 
 and with a firm persuasion that " his precepts concern- 
 ing all things are right." Consequently, we must have 
 the full and abiding impression, that his law is as per- 
 fectly right and equitable in its penalties, as in the obe- 
 dience which it requires. " It is impossible," says Dr. 
 D wight, " that beings should exercise any of those affec- 
 tions, with which alone they can glorify their Creator, 
 or cordially obey him, so long as they distrust his Moral 
 Character. Equally impossible is it, that they should 
 possess the enjoyment which alone can fill the wishes, 
 or is suited to the nature, of an immortal mind." (Vol. 
 IV. p. 37.) Hence it is plain, that to fill the minds of 
 men with views of future punishment which compel 
 them to distrust the Moral Character of God, cannot 
 make them either virtuous or happy, in time or in eter- 
 nity. 
 
 25 N 
 
290 DOCTRINES INCONSISTENT WITH CONFIDENCE. 
 
 Our next authority is that of Mr. Wesley. He says, 
 " Although there are many that are destroyed by pre- 
 sumptidh, there are still more that perish by despair. I 
 mean, by want of hope ; by thinking it impossible that 
 they should escape destruction. They are fully con- 
 vinced they cannot save themselves, and believe God 
 will not save them." (Wesley's Works, Vol. VII. p. 44.) 
 
 Now those who so fondly shroud a coming eternity 
 with infinite misery, appear to think there is no danger 
 of souls being lost " by despair ;" but that our only so- 
 licitude should be to guard them against presumption. 
 
 What is despair, but w r ant of confidence in God? 
 " They are fully convinced they cannot save themselves, 
 and believe God will not save them." And why not? 
 Because they have been taught to view him as a Being 
 who takes pleasure in seeing a large amount of misery 
 abound in his creation. 
 
 Are there any Arminians, who cause souls to be lost 
 " by despair V 9 I fear this question must be answered 
 in the affirmative : for although they do not, with the 
 Calvinist, fill a past eternity with darkness which ob- 
 scures the glory of the Supreme Being, yet many of 
 them fill a future eternity with a similar obscurity. The 
 one says, from all eternity God had no other sentiment 
 towards a vast majority of mankind, than an intention 
 to fill them with infinite misery ; the other says, that to 
 all eternity God ivill have no other sentiment towards a 
 vast majority of mankind, than that of a fixed purpose 
 to fill them with infinite misery. If the Creator now 
 
DOCTRINES INCONSISTENT WITH CONFIDENCE. 291 
 
 hates any of his creatures, and has no regard to their 
 well-being, but on the contrary, has an immutable dis- 
 position to make them as miserable as possible, the pre- 
 sumption is very strong, that an unchangeable Being, 
 as God is, always had the same disposition towards 
 them. How naturally will such a view destroy all con- 
 fidence in God, and fill the inquiring mind with " de- 
 spair ! " 
 
 " Unless we consider his precepts concerning all 
 things to be right, we can never voluntarily obey them." 
 And must not his law be right in its penalties, as well 
 as in its requirements ? If the law demands infinite 
 penalties, why not as well demand infinite obedience 1 
 If there is no possibility for the penalty to be too great, 
 then there is no possibility for the demand of obedience 
 to be too great, even though it should be for men to cut 
 themselves with knives and lancets, in imitation of the 
 ancient worshippers of Baal. It appears to be supposed, 
 that when sinners are once in hull, Justice has no limits; 
 but it is an obvious dictate of conscience and of com- 
 mon sense, that Justice can no more inflict unnecessary 
 punishment in eternity, than it can demand unnecessary 
 obedience in time. 
 
 7. The last objection we adduce against such a dis- 
 mal view of futurity, is that it tends to encourage and 
 increase the tyranny of mankind, and thereby to impede 
 the progress of virtue and true religion. It is proved by 
 the experience of all ages, that mankind are disposed 
 to imitate the character of the Being whom they wor- 
 
292 DOCTRINES INCONSISTENT WITH CONFIDENCE. 
 
 ship ; and it is well known that those who have been 
 most ready to devote all heathens to unavoidable de- 
 struction, and to consign all heretics to the same fate, 
 have been peculiarly fond of exhibiting the worst kind 
 of future punishment that it is possible for the human 
 mind to imagine. 
 
 Mosheim, when treating of the tenth century, says, 
 " The fears of purgatory were now carried to the 
 greatest height, and exceeded by far the terrifying ap- 
 prehensions of infernal torments ; for they hoped to 
 avoid the latter easily, by dying enriched with the 
 prayers of the clergy, or covered with the merits and 
 mediation of the saints ; while from the pains of purga- 
 tory, there was no exemption. The clergy therefore 
 finding these superstitious terrors admirably adapted to 
 increase their authority, and to promote their interests, 
 used every method to augment them, and by the most 
 pathetic discourses, accompanied by monstrous fables 
 and fictitious miracles, they laboured to establish the 
 doctrine of purgatory and also to make it appear that 
 they had a mighty influence in that formidable region." 
 
 This quotation from Mosheim may serve to illustrate 
 two points which deserve our serious attention : first, it 
 shows the policy of tyrants in painting future punish- 
 ment in the most frightful colours, with a view to build 
 up a temporal dominion, and to exercise an uncontrolled 
 despotism over their fellow-men. Secondly, we hence 
 learn that such gloomy and dark views of a future state, 
 as the papal priesthood exhibited, only produce " super- 
 
DOCTRINES INCONSISTENT WITH CONFIDENCE. 293 
 
 stitious terrors," without any salutary influence to bring 
 the sinful soul to true repentance. They may influence 
 men to surrender, as the slaves of ecclesiastical power, 
 but will not lead them to be " the Lord's free men.'' 1 
 The Romish clergy wanted a tremendous purgatory 
 by which to govern the faithful within their own bor- 
 ders ; and a hell of infinite misery with which to inti- 
 midate Heathens and Heretics, and to frighten them 
 into the bosom of the church. 
 
 We have said that there are no analogies in nature, 
 to give the least countenance to such awful views of 
 futurity as those above exhibited ; and neither are there 
 any such analogies in providence. We shall probably 
 be referred to earthquakes and volcanoes ; to storms 
 and inundations ; to poisons, stings and death ; — as also 
 to war, famine and pestilence. If God be so severe 
 against sinners in this world, it may be said, how much 
 more severe will he be in that which is to come ! 
 
 The better we become acquainted with the nature 
 and tendency of the punishments inflicted on mankind 
 in the present world, the more clear and satisfactory 
 does the evidence appear, that these judgments of God 
 are directed and regulated by his benevolence. In his 
 severest threatenings against nations, as recorded in the 
 Old Testament, he commonly closes by saying, " They 
 shall know that I am the Lord." And is i* not a bless- 
 ing for any people to know that he is the Lord ? " This 
 is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true 
 God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." 
 25* 
 
294 DOCTRINES INCONSISTENT WITH CONFIDENCE. 
 
 When God inflicted a succession of signal punish- 
 ments upon Egypt, it was for the three-fold purpose of 
 delivering Israel from slavery, demolishing the gods of 
 Egypt, and that his " name might be declared through- 
 out all the earth." The Babylonish captivity was 
 intended both to diffuse a knowledge of the true God 
 among the Heathens, and to subdue the spirit of idola- 
 try in the people of Israel. Dr. Channing, in his letter 
 to the Hon. Henry Clay, says " Religious men in this 
 community are peculiarly bound to read the future his- 
 tory of their country, not in the flattering promises of 
 politicians, but in the warnings of conscience and in 
 the declarations of God's word. They know and 
 should make it known, that nations cannot consolidate 
 free institutions and secure a lasting prosperity by crime. 
 They know that retribution awaits communities as well 
 as individuals ; and they should tremble amidst their 
 hopes, when, with this solemn truth on their minds, they 
 look round on their country. Let them consider the 
 clearness with which God's will is now made known, 
 and the signal blessings of his providence poured out 
 on his people ; and then let them consider our ingrati- 
 tude for his boundless gifts, our abuse of his beneficence 
 to sensual and selfish gratification, our unmeasured, un- 
 righteous love of gain, our unprincipled party-spirit, and 
 our faithless and cruel wrongs towards the Indian race; 
 and can they help fearing, that the cup of wrath is filling 
 for this people ?" Again, he says, " The invasion of 
 Texas by our citizens, is a mournful comment on our 
 
DOCTRINES INCONSISTENT WITH CONFIDENCE. 295 
 
 national morality. Whether without some fiery trial, 
 some signal prostration of our prosperity, we can rise 
 to the force and self-denial of free men, is a question 
 not easily solved." And again : " I trust, indeed, that 
 Providence will beat back and humble our cupidity and 
 ambition. But one guilty success is often suffered to be 
 crowned, as men call it, with greater ; in order that a 
 more awful retribution may at length vindicate the jus- 
 tice of God, and the rights of the oppressed." 
 
 These quotations are given to show that in the view 
 of this elegant writer, public Judgments of God are de- 
 signed as "a fiery trial" to cause people "to rise to 
 the force and self-denial of free men;" to "beat back 
 and humble cupidity and ambition ;" and to " vindicate 
 the justice of God, and the rights of the oppressed." 
 Now if these and such like ends are to be accomplished 
 by the tremendous punishments which are felt when the 
 Lord ariseth to shake terribly the earth, it is plain that 
 goodness is at the helm, and directs the vessel through 
 the whole process of the storm. 
 
 If we apply such analogies of nature and providence 
 to the punishments of a future state, they will indeed 
 conduct us to conclusions every way worthy of the 
 Being whom we adore. It will be seen that the same 
 God presides over the destinies of eternity, who has 
 been operating in time; and that too, without any 
 change of principle or of purpose. It will be seen that, 
 as becomes the grandeur and glory of his kingdom, He 
 will through eternity so conduct his administration, as 
 
296 DOCTRINES INCONSISTENT WITH CONFIDENCE. 
 
 will be calculated to make the best moral impression on 
 all created minds, with a view to promote the common 
 welfare. 
 
 But how different is this from the view too common- 
 ly taken of a future state ! How low and unworthy of 
 the Di vine Mind is the supposition, that the winding up, 
 the ultimatum of all the wisdom and counsels of eter- 
 nity, will be the establishment of a comparatively small 
 heaven, where the inhabitants will be filled with some 
 kind of a mystical happiness, like vessels are filled with 
 water in a lake ; and a very large hell, whose groaning 
 millions will be filled with excruciating and augmenting 
 agony, without intermission and without end ! Is this 
 all that a Being of infinite goodness, wisdom and power, 
 is able to do to all eternity? Has he not wisdom enough 
 to form plans which will be more extensively beneficial 
 than this 1 If he has the ability, and not the will to do 
 it, must it not be either that the abounding of sin and 
 misery is a pleasure to his mind, or that in his judgment 
 evil is better than good, and misery better than happi- 
 ness ? If we believe, on the contrary, that our Maker 
 delights to see his creatures happy, rather than misera- 
 ble, then, to be consistent, we must maintain that his 
 invariable disposition is to destroy evil; that when he 
 inflicts punishment, it is to subdue vice and immorality, 
 and of course to operate against that which is the first 
 cause of all the misery there is in the creation. As he 
 is " without variableness or shadow of turning," his 
 Judgments are regulated by the same principles in a 
 
DOCTRINES INCONSISTENT WITH CONFIDENCE. 297 
 
 future state, that influence his providential acts in the 
 present; and these governing principles will continue 
 the same for ever. 
 
 The Bible clearly gives us the following essential 
 principles, and it does not contradict itself: — 1. That 
 God is love. 2. That with him is no variableness, 
 
 NEITHER SHADOW OF TURNING. 3. That THERE IS NO RE- 
 SPECT OF PERSONS WITH GoD. 4. That HE HATETH NO- 
 THING THAT HE HATH MADE. 5. That HE IS LOVING TO 
 EVERY MAN, AND HIS TENDER MERCY IS OVEP.. ALL HIS 
 WORKS. 6. That JUDGMENT IS HIS STRANGE WORK, and 
 that HE DOTH NOT AFFLICT WILLINGLY, NOR GRIEVE THE 
 CHILDREN OF MEN. 7. That HE DELIGHTETH IN KERCY, 
 
 and has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. 8. 
 
 That HE WILL JUDGE THE WORLD IN RIGHTEOUSNESS, and 
 RENDER UNTO EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS. That 
 
 some shall find their condition more tolerable than 
 others, and that there are some who shall be beaten 
 
 WITH FEW STRIPES. 
 
 Such is the orthodoxy of Divine revelation ; and it 
 gives no authority to draw opposite conclusions, from 
 figurative representations of future punishment ; seeing 
 the same figures are employed in its sacred pages in 
 describing the various judgments of God in this world ; 
 as the reader will find by turning to the fifth section, 
 third part, of the present volume. 
 
SECTION V. 
 
 The Love of God. — Its Obligation universal and un- 
 changeable. 
 
 Love is good-will, or a sincere desire that the beloved 
 object may be happy. It is gratitude for favours re- 
 ceived, with a disposition to make all possible returns 
 to the donor. It is complacency, or delight in the cha- 
 racter, and pleasure in the society, of the one beloved. 
 Towards a sovereign it is allegiance, which implies 
 reverence for his authority, affection for his will, and 
 obedience to his commandments. Towards God it 
 should arise and increase to the utmost extent of devo- 
 tion, worship, and adoration. Thou shalt love the Lord 
 thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all 
 thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first 
 and great commandment. 
 
 Now it must be admitted, that God has a perfect 
 right to demand this love from the whole intelligent 
 creation. This perfect right must be founded on what 
 he is in himself, and what he is to them ; that is, on the 
 principles of his character, and on their invariable 
 manifestations. Hence it appears, that there is nothing 
 unlovely in his disposition or in any of his actions ; 
 otherwise it would follow that he commands his crea- 
 
 (298) 
 
THE LOVE OF GOD. 299 
 
 tures to love that which is not lovely. This first and 
 great commandment of God carries in itself a full de- 
 monstration, that God is light, and in him is no dark- 
 ness at all. 
 
 In vain may it be pretended, that he has a right to 
 make this demand on the ground of mere sovereignty ; 
 for any claim upon others to love an unlovely character, 
 is the demand of a tyrant alone. God, we say, is an 
 infinitely great and grand Being. True ; because he is 
 infinitely good : for there is no other greatness and 
 grandeur in an evil being, than that which deserves 
 universal contempt. Tyranny and malevolence are 
 essentially little and mean ; and it is as impossible to 
 make them great, as to make them lovely. God, we 
 say, is our Creator ; and therefore he has a right to our 
 utmost love. True ; because the act of creation was 
 an act of infinite good-will, and laid the foundation for 
 all subsequent happiness. But were it possible for an 
 evil and malignant being to create living creatures, in 
 order to deprive them of all happiness, and to make 
 them miserable for ever, they would have no cause to 
 love him ; but on the contrary would have a right in 
 perfect justice, to abhor his character to all eternity. 
 
 A good character can be proved and known only by 
 its manifestations ; and to say there can be any contra- 
 diction between the disposition and actions of a per- 
 fectly good being, is itself a contradiction : for it is to 
 say, that either the disposition or the action is good and 
 not good, at the same time. 
 
300 THE LOVE OF GOD. 
 
 Whence it follows, that the benevolence of God, as 
 manifested by all his actions, is entitled to the supreme 
 love of the whole intelligent creation. 
 
 Has our Creator ever done any thing, and will he 
 ever do any thing, to forfeit his claim to universal love? 
 Never. All devils and condemned sinners in perdition 
 are under the same obligation to Jove God now, that 
 they ever were. This cannot be successfully denied, 
 unless it can be proved that his treatment of them has 
 been a departure from his original character. If the 
 Divine conduct towards them is and has been perfectly 
 right, then if we say their obligation to love him is di- 
 minished, it follows, that a person may lose his claim 
 upon our love because of his doing right. 
 
 Their obligation being the same, if we say God is not 
 willing that they should love him, our conclusion is that 
 a good Being is not willing that others should love good- 
 ness ; — that a just Being is unwilling for others to dis- 
 charge a moral obligation; — and that a holy Being is 
 unwilling that others should love holiness ! The essen- 
 tial foundation of such orthodoxy is that God always 
 had a double character, composed of contrary princi- 
 ples. If it be admitted by all, that with Him is no vari- 
 ableness, neither shadow of turning, those who believe 
 he now acts against the inhabitants of hell with hatred 
 and ill-will, are believers in the doctrine, whether they* 
 are aware of it or not, that he hated and reprobated 
 them from all eternity. The view of future punishment 
 which is entertained by thousands of Arminians, and 
 
THE LOVE OF GOD. 301 
 
 the Calvinistic doctrine of eternal reprobation, are twin 
 sisters, that can never be put asunder. 
 
 If our Maker punishes the inhabitants of hell for their 
 hatred and injustice, and if he at the same time is exer- 
 cising hatred and injustice against them, then he pun- 
 ishes them for being like himself. Whereas the very- 
 cause for his punishing them, is that they are unlike and 
 opposite to himself Let us view the two characters in 
 contrast. 
 
 Character of God, and of 
 Heaven. 
 
 1. Love. 
 
 2. Sincerity. 
 
 3. Benevolence. 
 
 4. Impartiality. 
 
 5. Justice. 
 
 6. Compassion. 
 
 Character of the Devil, and 
 of Hell. 
 
 1. Malice. 
 
 2. Deceit. 
 
 3. Tyranny. 
 
 4. Partiality. 
 
 5. Injustice. 
 
 6. Cruelty. 
 
 Now will any one suppose that God assumes and 
 exercises the characteristics of the lower region, with 
 which to oppose and punish its inhabitants '( Does he 
 not himself teach us, that evil is to be overcome with 
 good 1 The Divine weapons are truth and justice : truth 
 shows to those enemies of God the reality of their de- 
 serving all that they receive from their Sovereign and 
 Judge ; and justice makes them feel the penalty which 
 truth pronounces upon them. Does not the combined 
 operation of truth and justice tend to convince them that 
 they are wrong, and that God is right 1 Why then are 
 28 
 
302 THE LOVE OF GOD. 
 
 they not convinced? Because they use the weapons 
 of hell, with which to fight against God. They use 
 deceit and partiality, with which to turn away truth 
 from their understandings ; they use injustice and false- 
 hood, with which to set aside the rectitude of the Divine 
 conduct towards them ; and if they do not diffuse the 
 effects of their malice and tyranny through all heaven, 
 it is only because they have not the power. 
 
 Now if these creatures are compelled to hate God, 
 who is it that compels them ? If the operation of his 
 truth and justice upon them excites their resentment, it 
 is plainly because they hate truth and justice. Is it their 
 Maker's will that they should do so 1 If it be, it is of 
 course his will that they should love the opposite princi- 
 ples of evil. Is it their Creator's will, that they should 
 hate his own character ? If not, then he does not punish 
 them in order to make them hate him ; nor is there any 
 thing in his administration which gives them the least 
 excuse for doing it, or that takes away a tittle of their 
 obligation to love him with all their heart, and with all 
 their soul, and with all their mind, and with all their 
 strength. 
 
 It may be said, however, that they have lost all ability 
 to love God, and have not power in the least degree to 
 cease from their hatred against him. Has the Bible 
 any where given this information to any man ? If not, 
 from what source has any one become wise above that 
 which is written ? 
 
 They are under no other necessity to hate God, than 
 
THE LOVE OF GOD. 303 
 
 the fixed habit of their own will ; that is, their settled 
 determination that they will hate him. Now what can 
 God do that is more directly calculated to alter this set- 
 tled determination of their will, than to show them by 
 his truth, that his conduct towards them is right, and to 
 make them feel by the operation of his justice, that the 
 habit of their will is utterly wrong 1 If this shall fail to 
 convince them, is it not plainly because they determine 
 not to be convinced 1 To say God is not willing they 
 should be convinced, is but to say, in other words, that 
 he employs his truth and justice, on purpose that these 
 attributes may not have their native effects, but may 
 assume the tendency of opposite principles. It is to say, 
 that when he employs good principles to oppose evil, it 
 is neither the design nor the tendency of this operation 
 to overcome evil with good, but on the contrary, to per- 
 petuate and to increase the evil! As well might w r e 
 turn the tables, and say that the design of an evil being, 
 and the tendency of his evil actions, is to perpetuate and 
 to increase every thing that is right and good. 
 
 But will not such reasoning result in the conclusion, 
 that at some future period in the great depths of eter- 
 nity, the malice of hell may be subdued, and both devils 
 and wicked men may cease being at enmity against 
 God ? And even if all this should come to pass, who 
 would feel the mighty calamity ? Would it be a matter 
 of regret to the mind of the Almighty, that nobody was 
 found any longer to hate him ? Among all the traits 
 of a good mind, no one was ever found which loves to 
 
304 THE LOVE OF GOD. 
 
 be hated. Nor is there any disposition in the inhabitants 
 of heaven to be grieved or offended to witness an abate- 
 ment in the vice and misery which have been so long 
 abounding in the creation. 
 
 It may be said, perhaps, that the great Sovereign will 
 for ever compel the damned to continue wicked, and 
 this will be a part of their punishment. Such a posi- 
 tion evidently supposes that the penalty inflicted on 
 transgression is a forcible perpetuation of the crime 
 that is punished ! whence it would appear to follow, 
 that the sin and the penalty being the same, must origin- 
 ate from the same attributes. This leads us back again 
 to the conclusion, that the Creator reprobated these sin- 
 ners from all eternity ; for if he now establishes sin by 
 his decree, he was originally of the same disposition, 
 seeing with him there is no variableness, neither shadoio 
 of turning. 
 
 It may be urged, also, that even if sinners in a future 
 state should surrender to truth and justice, they will 
 nevertheless deserve to be punished eternally for the 
 evil which they have already done. This may be true ; 
 and yet it may be no less true that they will not deserve 
 as great punishment as they would if they should eter- 
 nally persist in their rebellion. Justice itself might re- 
 quire an abatement of their misery; and even if mercy 
 should do something in favour of subdued rebels, the 
 person who should object to such an exercise of clem- 
 ency, would be near of kin to His Holiness in St. Pe- 
 ter's Chair. It may be for ever necessary to keep those 
 
THE LOVE OF GOD. 305 
 
 outcasts at a distance from the throne of God, and yet 
 a gracious regard may be had to their welfare, so far 
 as shall consist with the interests of universal society. 
 The degrees of punishment may vary, and the modes 
 of treatment be diversified in ten thousand forms, with- 
 out necessarily supposing that those creatures must be 
 exalted to the highest degrees of felicity and glory en- 
 joyed any where in the creation of God. Though it be 
 improper to elevate them to the highest heavens, among 
 the first-born sons of light, it does not therefore follow 
 that all regard to their well-being must be for ever 
 abandoned. 
 
 Mr. Wesley, in addressing the reprobates, on the sup- 
 position of eternal predestination, says, " There is no 
 help for you in God. Your God ! No. He is not yours : 
 he never was ; he never will be. He that made you, 
 he that called you into being, has no pity upon you ! 
 He made you for this very end, to damn you ; to cast 
 you headlong into a lake of fire burning with brimstone! 
 This was prepared for you, or ever the world began ! 
 And for this you are now reserved in chains of dark- 
 ness, till the decree brings forth ; till, according to his 
 eternal, unchangeable, irresistible will, 
 
 You groan, you howl, you writhe in waves of fire, 
 And pour forth blasphemies at his desire ! 
 
 O God, how long shall this doctrine stand ?" (Wesley's 
 Works, Vol. X. p. 145.) 
 
 Again in his letter to the Rev. Mr. Hervey, he says, 
 26 * n * 
 
306 THE LOVE OF GOD. 
 
 " But what becomes of all other people ? They must 
 inevitably perish for ever. The die was cast or ever 
 they were in being. The doctrine to pass them by, has 
 
 Consigned their unborn souls to hell, 
 
 And damn'd them from their mother's womb!' 
 
 I could sooner be a Turk, a Deist, yea, an Atheist, 
 than I could believe this. It is less absurd to deny the 
 very being of a God, than to make him an Almighty 
 Tyrant." (Wesley's Works, Vol. X. p. 201.) 
 
 The ground on which Mr. Wesley believed that the 
 system of predestination made God " an Almighty Ty- 
 rant," was its representing him as having a disposition 
 to delight in the torment of his creatures ; from which 
 disposition, he is supposed to have predestinated their 
 sins, as the necessary means of their eternal misery \ 
 But if it be said that God now has a disposition to de- 
 light in the undiminished anguish of all that are in hell, 
 and hence fixes them under a necessity of sinning, by 
 his own decree, for the sake of perpetuating their 
 misery, will not this make him an Almighty Tyrant, as 
 much as the predestinating system of the Rev. Mr. Her- 
 vey? The one doctrine is, that he had an original dis- 
 position to make sinners, in order to make them misera- 
 ble ; the other, that he has now a disposition to keep 
 them sinners, in order to keep them miserable. If he 
 has such a character now, he always had it ; for I must 
 still repeat, ivith him is no variableness, neither shadow 
 of turning. 
 
THE LOVE OF GOD. 307 
 
 The state of final reprobation exhibited by the two 
 systems, is precisely the same : — an eternal necessity of 
 sinning, and of enduring invariable or augmenting 
 misery. One avers that the decree was fixed from all 
 eternity ; the other, that it was fixed at the time when 
 the sinner departed out of this world. They both alike 
 represent the Almighty as having no regard whatever to 
 the ivell-being of these miserable creatures. 
 
 It may be said, indeed, that on the Anti-predestina- 
 rian scheme, sinners deserve this dreadful reprobation ; 
 because during their life-time they sinned freely, with- 
 out being compelled to do so by the influence of any 
 decree whatever. But it is difficult to conceive where 
 the proof will be found, that they deserve to be fixed 
 under a decree that will compel them to continue sin- 
 ning to all eternity, as an essential part of the penalty 
 of the law. If such sins deserve punishment in a future 
 state, they equally deserve it in the present state ; but 
 if so, the Calvinist is justified in his conclusion, that 
 though the reprobate in this life sins under the influence 
 of an absolute decree, he nevertheless deserves eternal 
 punishment for his crimes. 
 
 That voluntary, obstinate, and unnecessitated sinners, 
 deserve a very dreadful punishment, and even an eter- 
 nal punishment, is not disputed. But this is not the 
 question. It is, whether they deserve to be punished 
 w r ith a decree that shall fix on them the eternal neces- 
 sity of sinning ? and whether there be any ill desert in 
 sins brought about in this manner ? If not, the question 
 
308 THE LOVE OF GOD. 
 
 is, whether sinners in eternity who may some time or 
 other " consent unto the law that it is good." and ac- 
 knowledge the justice of God towards them, will deserve 
 as much punishment, as they would, if they should vol- 
 untarily, and without necessity, persevere in their ma- 
 lignant hostility. 
 
 Such inquiries may be called vain speculations ; but 
 surely it is not a vain thing to labour to make it appear 
 that God our Creator is really deserving our confidence 
 and love. It is worse than vain for men to enjoin silence, 
 or to turn away their ears from the truth, in order to 
 support and keep in countenance such awful misrepre- 
 sentations of the Divine Being as those just mentioned ; 
 and not Mr. Wesley alone, but any rational man what- 
 ever, " could sooner be a Turk, a Deist, yea, an Athe- 
 ist," than to embrace a scheme of doctrine which re- 
 presents the Father of the spirits of all flesh as " an Al- 
 mighty Tyrant." If this is worse than Atheism, as Mr. 
 Wesley believed it to be, it is consequently worse than 
 any other doctrine or heresy that ever was invented in 
 any age or nation ; and it is no less our duty to abandon 
 the concomitants of this doctrine, than it is to reject the 
 hypothesis itself with which they are necessarily con- 
 nected. 
 
 The world has been taught that the enmity of sinners 
 against God can never cease, because an incurable cor- 
 ruption of will is fixed in them, as a penalty of the Di- 
 vine law. This penalty is said to be threefold : — death 
 temporal, spiritual, and eternal; the whole of which 
 
THE LOVE OF GOD. 309 
 
 was incurred by Adam in Paradise, and by all his pos- 
 terity in him. " For them he was to stand his proba- 
 tion, or for them to fall, and entail the penalty of the 
 violated law. As a part of the threatened penalty, they 
 are shapen in iniquity, and conceived in sin." See a 
 late work entitled "Difficulties of Arminian Method- 
 ism," pp. 74, 75. This " iniquity" and " sin" in which 
 they were conceived, it appears, causes them to deserve 
 the second death, and will make that death eternal, by 
 keeping the soul under the bond of necessary corruption. 
 
 Now from this doctrine it follows: 1. That the pen- 
 alty of God's law, is sin. 2. That it is unavoidable sin 
 — having been put into the souls of Adam's children 
 before they were born. 3. That a person suffering one 
 penalty of law, thereby deserves another penalty. If 
 spiritual death is a crime, which is one part, why is not 
 temporal death also a crime, it being another part of the 
 penalty ? It would seem, that sin is an essential part 
 of the whole judicial process — that Adam's children are 
 first guilty of sin in being born in his likeness ; secondly, 
 in dying a temporal death ; and thirdly, their suffering 
 eternal death, the last part of the penalty, is their final 
 and finishing crime. If one portion of the threefold 
 curse is sin, the others must be of a similar character; 
 and of course, the sin and the penalty being of the same 
 nature, must have proceeded from the same kind of 
 fountain. 
 
 Such is the foundation on which the conclusion rests, 
 that all sinners in perdition must necessarily continue at 
 
310 THE LOVE OF GOD. 
 
 enmity against God for ever. Their unchangeable cor- 
 ruption is fixed and settled in them, as a penalty of 
 God's law ! Persons who believe this, ought to reflect 
 a little on the following dilemma : those in a state of 
 future punishment are still under moral obligation to 
 love and obey God, or they are not ; if they are not, it 
 must be because their Creator has done something to 
 forfeit his right to their love and obedience ; if they are, 
 then it follows, upon the hypothesis before us, that God 
 by his action, through the penalty of his law, hindevs 
 them from discharging a moral obligation. And because 
 he does this, therefore he determines that their punish- 
 ment shall be eternal ! This doctrine of necessary sin, 
 as a penalty of law, is an essential part of the system 
 which was baptized and confirmed by the Synod of 
 Dort ; with that system it must stand or fall ; and with 
 it must stand or fall the long- cherished doctrine of infi- 
 nite punishment. 
 
SECTION VI. 
 
 Rejoicing in the Lord. — Complacency in his entire 
 Character and Government. 
 
 Our Saviour says, " Let not your hearts be troubled: 
 ye believe in God, believe also in me." (John xiv. 1.) 
 This supposes there is a sufficiency in God, as manifest- 
 ed to the world in Jesus Christ, when his character is 
 credited, to remove all trouble from the human heart. 
 Again, we are commanded to rejoice evermore, and in 
 every thing to give thanks ; which plainly implies, that 
 all that God is, affords cause for perpetual rejoicing, and 
 all that he does, is a ground for eternal gratitude ; be- 
 cause it is all right, and gracious, and beneficial. For 
 it is certain that he does not require us to give thanks 
 for any thing that is not good, or to rejoice in that which 
 is evil. The apostle exultingly exclaims, " Rejoice in - 
 the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice." (Phil, 
 iv. 4.) 
 
 The conclusion therefore is, that the character of the 
 Supreme Being constitutes a perfect foundation for un- 
 ceasing and eternal joy ; and that there is nothing in 
 him, or in his dispensations, of a contrary nature or 
 tendency. Hence the whole intelligent universe is under 
 moral obligation, to rejoice in the character of the Cre- 
 ator, and in all the divine operations proceeding from 
 that character. 
 
 (311) 
 
312 REJOICING IN THE LORD. 
 
 Why are we glad that God is Almighty ? Because 
 He is Almighty Goodness. Why are we delighted that 
 His understanding is Infinite ? Because it is the under- 
 standing of Infinite Love. Why are we pleased when 
 we hear that God is Unchangeable ? Because it brings 
 to our view a Benevolence which will never vary. And 
 why do we rejoice that he is Just ? Because we hence 
 learn, that the Energy of Love will never cease to 
 maintain and defend every thing that is right, and to 
 oppose every thing that is wrong. 
 
 Let us look into this subject, that we may correctly 
 understand the happiness of heaven. If saints and 
 angels should rejoice merely because they themselves 
 are happy, without regard to the principle on which 
 their happiness rests, and without any concern for the 
 well-being of others, would not this be a selfish enjoy- 
 ment ? So far from being disinterested benevolence, it 
 w r ould not have the character of social love; but on the 
 contrary would be embodied selfishness, or sectarian 
 partiality. Its language would be, We, the Faithful, 
 are saved : no matter how many Heathens and Here- 
 tics are damned. 
 
 Nothing can inspire intelligent confidence but good 
 principle ; and this is the same when condemning the 
 wicked, that it is in justifying the righteous. If the 
 saints are saved in such a way that they know not why, 
 by some unaccountable preference in the Divine Mind 
 from all eternity, their confidence in the perpetuity of 
 their own bliss, must rest on a divine process which is 
 
REJOICING IN THE LORD. 313 
 
 enveloped in impenetrable obscurity. How is it possi- 
 ble for mystery and darkness to afford equal satisfaction 
 and assurance to intelligent minds, with the clear light 
 of a righteous and benevolent systerruof moral govern- 
 ment? 
 
 The Divine penalties are fitted in the most perfect 
 manner to beat back the powers of evil, to hold them 
 in check, and thereby to prevent their malignant ra- 
 vages; and these penalties apply to each particular 
 offender, in exact proportion to the amount of his tur- 
 pitude and hostility. Any change in the essential action 
 of such a government' would be wrong, and would 
 jeopardise the common w r elfare. 
 
 Hence the saints and angels of immortality rejoice in 
 the Lord's vengeance ; because they see it is the action 
 of a holy principle, avenging the rights of innocence, 
 and defending the happiness of virtue, throughout the 
 whole universe. 
 
 But if holy spirits in heaven have no such views as 
 these — if they know only that the damned are incon- 
 ceivably miserable, and will remain so without inter- 
 mission, merely because such is the Sovereign will — 
 then in being called upon to "rejoice in the Lord 
 always," they would be required to rejoice simply in 
 obscurities and mysteries. What a reluctant and forced 
 kind of enjoyment this must be ! They must be resigned 
 to a will which they do not understand, and rejoice in 
 a process that puzzles all the faculties of their mental 
 being ! It seems, in short, that all their happiness, and 
 27 o 
 
314 REJOICING IN THE LORD. 
 
 confidence, and hope, and complacency, must be based 
 upon profound mysteries of darkness, and not upon 
 those of light and love. Sympathy with the sufferings 
 of L:hers is removed from the minds of evil beings, in 
 these two ways : either by a malignity which rejoices 
 in the misery of their fellow-creatures, or by a selfish- 
 ness which makes them indifferent to it. Will this be 
 the disposition of heaven 1 Is it the only way in which 
 a painful sympathy can be removed from the minds of 
 its inhabitants? 
 
 Inquietude is removed from virtuous minds, when 
 they see their fellow-creatures in misery, by a clear 
 conviction that the punishment is not cruel or unneces- 
 sary. Suppose a man is arrested and convicted, who 
 has spent a quarter of a century in perpetrating a suc- 
 cession of robberies and murders : to put him to death 
 by hanging would not excite any painful sympathy ; 
 because he would deserve it, and the public welfare 
 would require it ; but if coals of fire should be applied 
 to his feet, and be removed and applied again and again, 
 on purpose to, keep him in lingering torment as long as 
 life could be kept in him under such a process, this 
 would be a painful sight to every virtuous spectator ; 
 because it would be cruel and unnecessary. Or when 
 a criminal is consigned to the Penitentiary, no sympa- 
 thy is excited by seeing him deprived of liberty, taken 
 away from his wife and children, fastened with chains, 
 or secured under bolts and bars ; for this is all neces- 
 sary to bind down the evil, and to protect the rights of 
 
REJOICING IN THE LORD. 315 
 
 unoffending citizens ; but if prisoners in the Penitentiary- 
 were made to undergo all the modes of torture invented 
 in the Romish Inquisition, none but malignant beings 
 could rejoice in a government that would inflict penal- 
 ties of this sort, or any of a like cruel character. 
 
 Secondly, there must be a conviction equally clear, 
 that punishment in all instances is duly proportioned to 
 the amount of guilt. When this is done, as God says 
 it shall be done under his government, it plainly pro- 
 ceeds upon the principle that punishment in no case 
 shall be unnecessarily severe; for if no regard were 
 had to this matter, what need would there be for any 
 such apportionment 1 
 
 We may observe, thirdly, that' in so far as a sinner 
 yields and '* consents unto the law that it is good," in 
 that proportion the moral causes for his punishment are 
 removed ; if therefore nothing should ever be done for 
 the relief of such, it must be either because their Maker 
 could not relieve them, or because he toould not : and in 
 either case, it would seem to be rather a difficult matter 
 for the heavenly hosts to rejoice in the Lord always, on 
 account of his want of ability, or want of will, to dimi- 
 nish the miseries of subdued and penitent sinners. 
 
 It is often said with great assurance, that there is no 
 repentance in hell ; and it seems to be taken for gr:- ited 
 that this unqualified maxim is sufficiently authoritative, 
 to silence all further inquiry. We have no evidence, 
 indeed, that in a future state repentance is ever granted 
 as a gospel privilege, whereby condemned sinners may 
 
316 REJOICING IN THE LORD. 
 
 be brought into the Christian covenant, and made sons 
 of God, and joint heirs with Christ ; but if any man shall 
 affirm that all repentance is there forbidden, we may 
 justly require something more than his ipse dixit, before 
 we yield our assent to such a singular proposition. This 
 is a favourite hypothesis, which, far from having any 
 foundation to rest upon, presumptuously assumes that 
 God will punish his creatures for being wicked, and at 
 the same time be unwilling that they should repent of 
 their wickedness ! It is either true that those sinners 
 ought to repent, or that they ought not; if they ought to 
 repent, then to say our Maker forbids or hinders it, is 
 to say he is unwilling his creatures should discharge 
 their duty ; but if they ought not to repent, it follows 
 that, some how or other, their obligation to do it is can- 
 celled, and it is consequently right for them eternally to 
 continue in a state of impenitency. 
 
 If it be admitted, that God is willing for all sinners to 
 repent, it must be equally admitted that he is willing for 
 them to be sincere in their repentance ; for the notion 
 of a deceitful repentance, is an absurdity and a contra- 
 diction, and will involve the consequence, that the Al- 
 mighty Creator really desires, either that his creatures 
 should maintain a spirit of undeviating "hostility against 
 him, or that all their efforts to cease from their rebellion, 
 should be mere efforts of hypocrisy. 
 
 If these consequences be rejected, as they will by 
 every ingenuous mind, we must of course admit, that 
 in case any sinners in a future state should sincerely 
 
REJOICING IN THE LORD. 317 
 
 repent, the moral state of their minds being vastly dif- 
 ferent from that of those who continue in a course of 
 unyielding malignity against the character and govern- 
 ment of God, the sentiments of the heavenly hosts to- 
 wards the former, will give rise to a feeling of sympa- 
 thy, which would necessarily interrupt their happiness, 
 unless the Divine administration should be seen to make 
 a corresponding difference in the condition of those sub- 
 dued and yielding sinners. To see creatures mourning 
 over their corruption, abhorring themselves for their 
 criminality, and longing to return to their allegiance, at 
 the same time bound down by inexorable vengeance 
 under a fatal necessity of an eternal and undiminished, 
 endurance of^pain, would amaze and puzzle the intelli- 
 gence of heaven, and make it morally impossible for 
 either saints or angels to rejoice in the character and 
 government of the Supreme Being. 
 
 That we ought to be modest in our reasonings and 
 conclusions, when speaking of the actions and dispensa- 
 tions of the great Maker and Judge of mankind, is 
 fully admitted : and the sacredness of our obligation to 
 guard against presumptuous imaginations, is appreciated 
 and solemnly felt by the writer ; but it ought to be con- 
 sidered, that presumptuous conclusions on the side of 
 vengeance are equally untenable, with those on the other 
 hand, and are far more insulting and reproachful to the 
 great Ruler of the world. 
 
 It is not supposed that it would be essential to the 
 perfect tranquillity of heaven, for its inhabitants to have 
 27* 
 
318 . REJOICING IN THE LORD. 
 
 a full knowledge of all the events that will ever occur 
 under the Divine government ; but a clear conviction 
 of these three things, will probably be essential to unin- 
 terrupted confidence and peace : First, that God is able 
 to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or 
 think. Secondly, that He is immutably disposed to em- 
 ploy his wisdom, power, goodness, truth and justice, to 
 extend holiness and happiness as far as created agents 
 will consent for them to be extended; or in other words, 
 to make every creature holy and happy that is willing 
 to be made so. And thirdly, that there is no attribute 
 in his nature which will influence him ever to lay a 
 restraint upon the will of any creature, w 7 ith the view 
 of impelling that creature finally to choose wrong, or 
 of hindering it from ultimately choosing right. 
 
 Let these principles shine without a. cloud through 
 the heavenly regions, and all will be quietness and peace. 
 But if the contrary of these, or of any one of them, be 
 justly and truly predicated of the Almighty, I see not 
 how the hosts of heaven can help doubting the rectitude 
 of their Creator, and fearing that there is uncertainty 
 and hazard in their own condition. 
 
 An essential characteristic of charity, is that it " re- 
 joiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ;" con- 
 sequently, if there were any thing inequitable in an 
 action of the divine government, it would be impossible 
 for the charity of heaven to rejoice in it. A holy dispo- 
 sition is essentially a benevolent one; its mental delight 
 must therefore arise from a source which is opposite to 
 
REJOICING IN THE LORD. 319 
 
 that of the wicked man, whose disposition being malev- 
 olent, is gratified in seeing others in a state of misery. 
 Of course, the benevolence of heavenly spirits cannot 
 rejoice in any action of the divine government which 
 produces misery, on any other ground than a clear 
 conviction that it is purely intended to restrain evil, to 
 diminish and to subdue it, and invariably to operate in 
 favour of goodness and happiness. The heavenly hosts 
 must clearly perceive this, in order to their tranquillity; 
 for how can they rejoice in the truth, as the word of 
 God says chanty does, without having it made mani- 
 fest to their understandings, that truth is always saluta- 
 ry in its influence ? 
 
 If we suppose them to rejoice in the Lord always, be- 
 cause the Lord always employs his almighty power to 
 fill the millions of the damned with the uttermost force 
 of absolute misery, this will represent them as being 
 animated with the disposition which shouted around the 
 funeral pile of dying heretics, as they groaned and ex- 
 pired in the flames. It will represent them as having a 
 joy that results from the great deep of moral evil in 
 their own souls, and which triumphs in the reign of a 
 Sovereign who is believed by them to be essentially of 
 the same character. As such a conclusion is too ab- 
 surd to be admitted, the only remaining alternative 
 appears to be, that they will rejoice in the Lord always, 
 because he will always employ his power, wisdom, 
 goodness, truth, and justice, in doing to all eternity the 
 
320 REJOICING IN THE LORD. 
 
 very best that can be done for the welfare of his whole 
 intelligent creation. 
 
 This conclusion may appear too bold for me to haz- 
 ard, without sustaining it by authority, as well as by argu- 
 ment. I invite attention, then, to Dr. Dwight's sermon, 
 entitled " Utility the foundation of Virtue," in the third 
 volume of his Theology, p. 160, where he says, " The 
 whole tendency of virtue is to promote happiness ; and 
 this is its only ultimate tendency. It prefers, of course, 
 the greater happiness to the less, and the greatest, al- 
 ways, to that which can exist in a subordinate degree. 
 It diffuses happiness every where, and to every being 
 capable of receiving it, so far as this diffusion is in its 
 
 . power. In this respect it knows no distinction of family, 
 country, or world. To do good, is its happiness, as 
 well as its tendency. It will, therefore, never be inat- 
 tentive ; never discouraged, never disposed to relax its 
 efforts:' 
 
 This is the account which he gives of the essential 
 nature of virtue. But its essential nature operates in 
 
 , the Divine Mind, in unchangeable and infinite perfection. 
 Therefore the Divine Mind " prefers the greatest hap- 
 piness, always, to that which can exist in a subordinate 
 degree, — and diffuses happiness to every being capable 
 of receiving it, so far as this diffusion is in its power" 
 Consequent!}^ there is no disposition in Deity to take 
 away any creature's capacity for happiness, or to bind 
 it down under chains of eternal sin, as the necessary 
 means of eternal misery. 
 
REJOICING IN THE LORD. 321 
 
 But the character of God, for which I am contend- 
 ing, it may be said, implies that He will allow sinners 
 to have a state of probation, in a future world. They 
 may never, I reply, have a state of probation in which 
 they will be made eligible to that kingdom where " the 
 children of the resurrection are equal to angels;" and yet 
 may peradventure be made eligible to a condition some- 
 what more tolerable than that of unintermitting and 
 infinite agony. 
 
 But I must not venture even upon a hint of this kind, 
 without also entrenching myself behind the ramparts 
 of authority. The Rev. Richard Watson, on the internal 
 evidence of Christianity, in which his object is to show 
 that reason supports the doctrines of the Bible, says, 
 
 to those who in the present life have been incorrigible, 
 are to be limited in number, or, should they successively 
 fail, are to be repeated for ever. If this cannot be main- 
 tained, is there sufficient reason to conclude, that all to 
 whom trial after trial is supposed to be afforded in new 
 and varied circumstances, in order to multiply the pro- 
 babilities, so to speak, of their final recovery from re- 
 bellion, will be at length reclaimed 1 Before this can 
 be answered, it must be recollected, that a state of suf- 
 fering which would compel obedience, if we should 
 suppose mere suffering capable of producing this effect, 
 or an exertion of influence upon the understanding and 
 will which shall necessitate a definite choice, is neither 
 
322 REJOICING IN THE LORD. 
 
 of them to be assumed as entering into the circumstances 
 of any new state of trial. Every such future trial, to 
 be probationary at all, must substantially be like the 
 present, though its circumstances may vary. We have 
 no right in this argument to imagine to ourselves a 
 future condition where the influence of every circum- 
 stance will be to render vice most difficult to commit, 
 and virtue most difficult to avoid ; for this would not be 
 a state of trial: and if in this present life, men have 
 obstinately resisted all admonitions from heaven, it is 
 most reasonable to conclude, that a part of them at least 
 would abuse successive trials, and frustrate their inten- 
 tion. What then is to become of them 1 If probation 
 be appointed, it implies accountability, and that judicial 
 decision, in the case of the incorrigible, punishment. 
 Whenever then the trial, or the series of trials, termi- 
 nates as to these immortal beings, the subsequent pun- 
 ishment, of whatever kind it be, must be eternal The 
 eternal duration of future punishments, as to the obsti- 
 nately wicked, must follow; and its accordance with 
 the principles just mentioned, is its rational evidence. 
 (Theological Institutes, pp. 109, 110.) 
 
 Here it is plainly supposed by the Rev. Mr. Watson, 
 that a " series of trials" may be granted to mankind in 
 a future world ; and that the punishment of none but 
 those who " would abuse successive trials," and who 
 would continue "obstinately wicked," will be eternal. 
 He plainly tells us, that it is only in " accordance with 
 the principles just mentioned," that the Scripture doc- 
 
REJOICING IN THE LORD. 323 
 
 trine of eternal punishment can be supported by " ra- 
 tional evidence." — It being a clear principle of reason, 
 that if God can enlarge happiness, and diminish misery, 
 by " future successive trials," he has a right to do so, 
 and is not lacking in a sufficiently benevolent disposi- 
 tion. 
 
 It might be reasonably supposed, indeed, if this life 
 were the only probation for happiness that any sinners 
 are to have to eternity, that they would be placed nearer 
 upon an equality, both as to the advantages of their pro- 
 bation, and the time of its continuance, than they are 
 in the present world. In the time of a flood, an earth- 
 quake, the discharge of a volcano, or a hurricane at 
 sea, many little sinners of eight, ten, or twelve years 
 of age, are hurried into eternity without a moment's 
 warning. Shall their juvenile probation of three or 
 four years, stand against that of an old hardened rebel 
 of four score 1 Because the boy of ten years old has 
 suddenly died in his sins, is there some dire necessity in 
 nature and in fate, that his probation for happiness must 
 be cut off to all eternity 1 Has the Almighty no right 
 to give him another trial, in any period of infinite dura- 
 tion ? or has he no power to do it ? If he has the right, 
 and the power, and the privilege, and the will to do it, 
 who will presume to put his negative upon our Creator's 
 high and supreme dominion 1 
 
 I am not authorised, however, to enter into the de- 
 tails of eternity ; or to adopt any definite and particular 
 conclusions in regard to the successive events of futuri- 
 
324 OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 
 
 ty. It is enough for us to know, that God is the great- 
 est, and wisest, and most benevolent Being, that ever 
 did or can exist : and that his ways will be found to be 
 as much above our ways, and his thoughts above our 
 thoughts, as the heavens are above the earth. 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 Objections considered. 
 
 Obj. 1. " The doctrine of future punishment is found- 
 ed on the authority of the Bible ; therefore all modifi- 
 cations of the subject, by subtle reasonings, are unwar- 
 rantable, and are but so many forms of infidelity." 
 
 Tn replying to this objection we must admit, first, that 
 the threatenings contained in the Bible, are indeed very 
 alarming ; and secondly, that we are bound to submit 
 to this authority in full, and not in part only. But we 
 are to "search the Scriptures, comparing spiritual things 
 with spiritual," and to draw our conclusions according- 
 ly ; which is a direct process of reasoning. To affirm 
 that the Scriptures teach any thing which is contrary 
 to reason, is but to say, in other words, that the Bible 
 is an unreasonable book; and that men must do vio- 
 lence to their rational faculties, in order to be Chris- 
 tians. 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 325 
 
 It is a first principle of reason, that both sides of a 
 direct contradiction cannot be true ; the Bible does not 
 require of us to surrender this principle ; it therefore 
 allows us to reject any doctrine which would make our 
 Creator contradict himself. 
 
 Figurative language is not to be so taken, as to con- 
 tradict clearly revealed doctrines ; it is a clear doctrine 
 of revelation that God is love, and that he hateth no- 
 thing that he hath made ; therefore any views of future 
 punishment which suppose him to act upon the princi- 
 ple of malevolence, are evidently delusive. Any doc- 
 trine which necessarily supposes him to have pleasure 
 in the death of the wicked, and to be unwilling for any 
 of his creatures to do right, is as unscriptural as it is 
 unreasonable. It is a clear doctrine of revelation, that 
 God icill judge the world in righteousness, and that there 
 shall be exactly the same degrees in punishment, that 
 there are in moral turpitude ; therefore any tenet which 
 is irreconcilable with this doctrine, has no foundation 
 in the holy Scriptures. Mr. Saurin, speaking of degrees 
 of punishment, says, " I have often observed with aston- 
 ishment the little use, that Christians in general make 
 of this article, since the doctrine itself is taught in 
 Scripture in the clearest manner. When we speak of 
 future punishment, we call it all hell indifferently, and 
 without distinction. We conceive of all the wicked as 
 precipitated into the same gulph, loaded with the same 
 chains, devoured by the same worm. We do not seem 
 to think, there will be as much difference in their state 
 28 
 
326 OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 
 
 as there had been in their natural capacities, their exte- 
 rior means of obtaining knowledge, and their various 
 aids to assist them in the pursuit of it. To how many 
 difficulties have men submitted by not attending to this 
 doctrine of degrees of punishment ! — Above all, the 
 doctrine of degrees of punishment elucidates that of 
 the eternity of them. Take this principle, which Scrip- 
 ture establishes in the clearest manner ; press home all 
 its consequences ; extend it as far as it can be carried ; 
 give scope even to your imagination, till the punish- 
 ments which such and such persons sutler in hell are 
 reduced to a degree, that may serve to solve the diffi- 
 culty of the doctrine of their eternity." (Saurin's Ser- 
 mon on Hell.) v 
 
 This great man owned, as every intelligent, and can- 
 did man will own, that the doctrine of the eternity of 
 future punishment has a "difficulty" attending it, which 
 makes us feel the necessity of some clear principle with 
 which to " solve" it. The doctrine of degrees of pun- 
 ishment is one principle of this kind. The benevolent 
 rectitude of the divine government, which never hin- 
 ders creatures from repenting and doing right, and 
 which never punishes them unnecessarily, is another. 
 
 Particular passages of Scripture, indeed, taken un- 
 connected with the general theme of the Bible, would 
 seem to support all that is contended for in regard to 
 the infinity of future punishment ; but the doctrine of 
 eternal reprobation can be proved in the same way, and 
 with the same success. Esau was hated, and Jacob 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 327 
 
 loved, before they were born. The Lord hardened 
 Pharaoh's heart, and raised him up for the purpose of 
 showing forth his power in his destruction. Therefore 
 hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom 
 he will he hardeneth. These and several other extracts, 
 taken by themselves, with no regard to the connection 
 in which they stand, or to the theme on which the in- 
 spired writers were discoursing, or to the first princi- 
 ples of revealed religion, will as fully prove the doctrine 
 of absolute reprobation, as any passages in the Bible 
 will prove the infinity of eternal punishment. Indeed, 
 the patrons of the former doctrine are commonly the 
 firmest advocates of the latter ; and in this they are 
 consistent ; for the two systems run into one, and main- 
 tain the unity of the divine character: namely, that from 
 eternity to eternity God has no other regard to a vast 
 proportion of his creatures, than to employ his almighty 
 energy in filling them with infinite misery. If this be 
 his disposition through a future eternity, it is no difficult 
 matter to believe he was the same through a past 
 eternity ; and if I mistake not, the same mode of argu- 
 ment that would lead to the one conclusion, will equally 
 support the other also. 
 
 Obj. 2. " Heaven and hell are an even contrast : as 
 the one is eternal happiness, so the other is eternal 
 misery ; as the one is infinite, so is the other ; if one 
 may end, or be limited, modified or diminished, so may 
 the other also: therefore all attempts to disprove the 
 
328 OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 
 
 infinity of hell torments, are treason against heavenly 
 happiness." 
 
 Ans. This objection supposes that happiness is found- 
 ed on misery, and depends upon it for its perpetuity, and 
 for all its modifications. If this be true, it will follow, 
 that had sin never been introduced by angels or men, 
 the Almighty would have been compelled to make a 
 portion of them miserable, in order to make the others 
 happy. If sin only could introduce misery, and if misery 
 was necessary to happiness, then sin was essential to 
 happiness, by producing misery as its only foundation. 
 The truth of the matter is far otherwise. All that sin 
 ever did, or could do, was to destroy happiness and to 
 produce misery. All that God has done in relation to 
 the matter, and all that he ever will do, is to use the 
 best means to restrain sinners, to reform them, or to 
 punish them when they refuse to be reformed, so far as 
 shall be necessary to hinder them from destroying the 
 good which they otherwise would destroy. 
 
 That hell will not be as full of misery as heaven is of 
 happiness, may be proved by the two following plain 
 and clear arguments : 
 
 First, the Bible says God delighteth in mercy, and that 
 judgment is his strange work ; consequently, he is im- 
 mutably more disposed to communicate happiness than 
 to inflict punishment, the former being much more plea- 
 sant than the latter to every benevolent mind. 
 
 Secondly, heavenly happiness is the gift of free grace. 
 "Benevolence is more than justice, injustice is less;" 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 329 
 
 therefore it is right to bestow more happiness on the 
 inhabitants of heaven than they deserve ; but to inflict 
 more punishment on the inhabitants of hell than they 
 deserve, would be wrong. Penal sufferings may be 
 made less than the culprit deserves, by an act of mercy, 
 provided no injury be thereby done to others ; but they 
 cannot be made greater, without a plain violation of the 
 clear principles of justice and equity. 
 
 Obj. 3. " Men are influenced to modify and lower 
 down the common view of future punishment by a secret 
 love of sin. They indulge some secret vice which they 
 are unwilling to relinquish ; and hence their desire to 
 establish moderate anticipations of future misery, in their 
 own defence." 
 
 • Ans. That there is a great propensity in our nature 
 to invent excuses for our sins, and to remove restraints 
 from our indulgencies, must be admitted ; but the above 
 objection is based upon a false assumption. It assumes 
 that a good man, who has no longer any love of sin, 
 will have no concern about future misery, however tre- 
 mendous it may be supposed to be, because of his own 
 individual security from the danger ; which supposes a 
 holy Christian to be one of the most selfish beings in ex- 
 istence. Will he have no concern for the honour and 
 glory of his Creator's character ? Will he have no con- 
 cern about his neighbours, his parents, his brothers and 
 sisters, and his wife and children, provided his own dear 
 self shall be secure from the danger 1 Should a Chris- 
 tian find evidence to support a strong probable conclu- 
 28* o* 
 
330 OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 
 
 sion, that there will be a less amount of misery through 
 a coming eternity than he had apprehended, will he be 
 grieved at the discovery, and feel unwilling to give such 
 evidence a. candid consideration? To answer in the 
 affirmative, is manifestly to suppose that benevolence is 
 not an essential attribute of the Christian character. 
 
 Besides : there are more ways of gratifying a selfish 
 principle, than removing restraints from our sensuality. 
 Sectarian partiality and the desire for ecclesiastical do- 
 minion, are equally selfish, and equally strong ; and if I 
 mistake not, these last have generated the desire to fill 
 the world with frightful images of a tremendous hell, 
 more than all other causes put together. This is the 
 precise reason why the different degrees of punishment 
 in a future state, and all other considerations of this 
 sort, have been so commonly left out of sight. Mr. 
 Saurin need not to " have often observed with astonish- 
 ment the little use, that Christians in general make of 
 this article, since the doctrine itself is taught in Scrip- 
 ture in the clearest manner." This fact is easily ac- 
 counted for, and the mystery easily solved, by the gene- 
 ral desire to hold forth a most terrifying image of hell, 
 with which to lengthen the cords, and strengthen the 
 stakes, of sectarian influence and ecclesiastical power. 
 Take from them this engine, or weaken its influence 
 over vulgar minds, and they will become as eloquent 
 against heresy, as was Demetrius the silversmith in the 
 days of the apostle Paul. 
 
 Obj. 4. " Attempts to modify future punishments, or 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 331 
 
 to conceive any kind of limits to them, is to question 
 the sovereignty of God ; which is a high presumption in 
 any man, and a direct insult to Divine Majesty." 
 
 Ans. Sovereignty is supreme governing authority. 
 God has sovereign authority to rule the universe, ac- 
 cording to the perfect principles of his wisdom, good- 
 ness and justice. This government of wisdom, good- 
 ness and justice, I have been contending for through- 
 out ; therefore I have been uniformly maintaining the 
 Divine Sovereignty. 
 
 Again : the claim of authority to govern in opposition 
 to the principles of wisdom, goodness and justice, con- 
 stitutes the sovereignty of a tyrant ; but God is not a 
 tyrant ; therefore I have said nothing against the sove- 
 reignty of God. 
 
 Obj. 5. " To lower down, in any way, the tremendous 
 penalty of the law, is to depreciate the work of redemp- 
 tion, and consequently, to degrade the Divine Saviour 
 of the world. If we are exposed to none other than a 
 little hell, we need only a little Redeemer" 
 
 Ans. Without entering into legal questions on this 
 subject, I will simply state, what few if any will ven- 
 ture to deny, that a full and perfect redemption procures 
 for sinners as much favour and mercy, as can consist 
 with the common welfare of the creation. To say it 
 should procure more than this, would represent it as pro- 
 moting injustice, by inflicting injury upon the creation; 
 and to say it should procure less, would be manifestly 
 depreciating the efficacy and value of redemption, and 
 
332 OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 
 
 consequently, degrading the Redeemer. Has the Lord 
 Jesus Christ procured as much favour for sinners, as I 
 have supposed? If he has, what Redeemer could do 
 more ? If he has not, then it appears to follow, that we 
 needed a greater Redeemer than he, one that could do 
 more for the promotion of happiness, than he has been 
 able to do. If the objector shall affirm that the Saviour 
 did not do as much for sinners as I have stated, he falls 
 directly upon the point of his own objection, by sup- 
 posing the Lord Jesus Christ to be too little a Redeemer 
 to do all that was necessary to be done for the intelli- 
 gent universe. Is it not desirable to have as much 
 favour and mercy extended to sinners as will accord 
 with the common welfare ? A negative answer will 
 involve the consequence, that happiness is not so desi- 
 rable as misery. Will a man say we degrade the Re- 
 deemer, by believing that he did all that could be done, 
 for the general happiness ? And that he exalts the Re- 
 deemer, by affirming that he did less for the general 
 happiness, than might have been done? Such logic 
 needs an extraordinary kind of an expounder, to make 
 it in any degree intelligible. 
 
 Some appear to think the greatness of the atonement 
 consisted, not in what it actually has done, and will do, 
 in delivering sinners from their sin and misery; but in 
 what it is capable of doing. It has merit enough, we 
 are told, to do wonders ; but this merit was not intended 
 to be applied, except to a very limited extent. But wc 
 must be permitted to ask, would the God and Father 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 333 
 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ devise a plan whereby his 
 well-beloved Son should endure excruciating agonies, 
 to procure a large fund of merit that was never to be 
 applied, and of course never to be of any use 1 The 
 prophet Isaiah was taught, that " He shall see of the 
 travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." I imagine 
 nothing less would satisfy the benevolent Redeemer, 
 than to see as much done in behalf of sinners, as can 
 consist with the common welfare of the creation. 
 
 If " Redemption was creation more sublime," as Dr. 
 Young says, we may well suppose its influence extends 
 over the w T hole creation ; and that too, for the purpose 
 of procuring as much grace and mercy for sinners, as 
 can be made to consist with the common welfare. Does 
 any theologian wish it to be more limited than this, in 
 order that redemption, by accomplishing less, may exalt 
 and magnify the Redeemer more ? If so, I must confess 
 my utter inability to comprehend the nature and mys- 
 tery of his system. 
 
 Obj. 6. " All doctrines of future punishment, except 
 that which teaches its infinity, tend to lower our appre- 
 hensions of the great evil and turpitude of sin ; and con- 
 sequently to promote sin, and to operate against true 
 repentance and reformation." 
 
 Ans. Sin is truly an enormous evil, and the doctrine 
 which I advocate is that alone which proves it to be 
 such. First, it is so great an evil, that it produces misery 
 and that only. Were it necessary, directly or indirectly, 
 
334 OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 
 
 to the support of happiness, it would not be so great an 
 evil as it is on the ground for which I contend. 
 
 Secondly, it is a great and an unmixed evil, because it 
 is entirely unnecessary to the display of the Divine 
 glory, or to any other useful or honourable purpose. 
 Had it been decreed or predestinated by our Creator, 
 it would hence appear that there is something valuable 
 in it, and that it is not so great an evil as I suppose it 
 to be. 
 
 Thirdly, it is a great evil, because that, in principle, 
 it is opposed to the whole character of God. The in- 
 ternal characteristics of sin are deceit, selfishness, ma- 
 levolence, cruelty. All these are totally contrary to what 
 God is ; and of course sin is a greater evil than it would 
 be, if it had any likeness to him. 
 
 Fourthly, it is a great evil, because it is at war with 
 God : it is enmity against him. Now the more perfectly 
 good, and true, and just, and merciful, we conceive our 
 Heavenly Father to be, the greater is the evil which 
 wars against him. Were he a compound of contrary 
 attributes, sin against him would be only half so great 
 ah evil as it now is. Being at enmity with the God of 
 love, it is at war with the fountain of all happiness, which 
 implies malignity against the well-being of universal 
 society. 
 
 Fifthly, sin is an enormous evil, because it is an ob- 
 stinate and persevering rebellion against a forbearance, 
 pity, and compassion, which is reluctant to punish the 
 sinner — against that bleeding Jove which pleads for his 
 soul — and against that righteous Father, who in his 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 335 
 
 sovereign administration never will exercise any kind 
 or deo-ree of rigour, beyond the strict necessitv of the 
 case. Were he a different kind of ruler, more unrelent- 
 ing and severe, sin against him would not be so great 
 an evil as it is. 
 
 Finally, sin is an enormous evil, because it is com- 
 mitted against the authority of God, and because he does 
 not will its continuance. If he did not will its continu- 
 ance in time, but does will its continuance in eternity, 
 is it because the dreadful evil has changed its character, 
 and become partly a good thing 1 Does he not hate it 
 as much now as he ever did ? If he does, we may justly 
 conclude that he operates as constantly as ever against 
 its diffusion and its perpetuity. 
 
 Obj. 7. " All such subtle reasonings about future pun- 
 ishment are vain speculations; and it would be much 
 more becoming to employ our time in examining how 
 we may escape hell, than how our arguments may seem 
 to diminish its horrors." 
 
 Ans. This wmole investigation tends to show us how 
 we may escape hell, which evidently is by exercising 
 confidence in the character of God, and by constantly 
 imbibing and imitating that character. If, by neglect- 
 ing such inquiries and reflections, we suffer our minds 
 to settle down in confused and false views of our 
 Maker's disposition, these consequences will follow: 
 First, our confidence in him will be wavering and un- 
 settled ; secondly, suspicions against him will arise in 
 our minds, and we shall mentally impeach his charac- 
 ter ; thirdly, by viewing him as being only in part excel- 
 
336 OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 
 
 lent, we shall imitate him only in part; or fourthly, by 
 following him fully, while we believe him to be partial, 
 rigorous and implacable, we shall, cultivate these dis- 
 positions in ourselves, in imitation of him. 
 
 Now in one or more of these ways, incorrect views 
 of the character of God will have a corrupting and per- 
 nicious influence upon the human spirit. Is this the 
 way to prepare for future happiness ? Most certainly 
 it is not. How then can those be justly called vain 
 speculations, which are directly calculated to guard us 
 against such injurious influences, and to cause us to 
 imbibe others which will draw us into the love of God, 
 and into holy longings of heart to be partakers of his 
 Divine nature 1 I view the doctrine which is advocated 
 in these pages as being the most interesting and practi- 
 cal that was ever contemplated by the mind of man. 
 On it depends all faith, all hope, all reverence, all love, 
 and all obedience. And these weighty considerations 
 ought not to be disregarded under pretence that the 
 simple fear of hell is to accomplish every thing. 
 
 Obj. 8. " We must take man as he is, and not as he 
 may be represented by theoretical speculators ; and let 
 philosophers and metaphysicians say what they can,_it 
 is a fact that the race of Adam will not be restrained 
 from sin, except by the most powerful counteracting 
 influences : deep diseases require strong remedies ; and 
 no matter by what mode of reasoning we weaken the 
 terrors of the law, the consequence will be, an increase 
 of vice and immorality." 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 337 
 
 Ans. That human nature, in its fallen state, has in it 
 an immense amount of absurdity, cannot indeed be 
 denied. We are compelled into the humiliating con- 
 clusion, that fallen man is emphatically a fool ; but the 
 present objection supposes he must be saved as a fool ; 
 whereas the Bible tells us he is to be saved by becoming 
 wise unto salvation. 
 
 The process must be begun, however, while man is 
 in his foolish state ; and how can this be done, except 
 by the simple force of fear ? This simple force, it is 
 true, may often make the first impression, which, being 
 followed by other impressive considerations, will even- 
 tuate in full salvation ; but those subsequent influences 
 being essential to the ultimate result, the motive of fear 
 must not be made so strong as to undermine the truths 
 on which all other motives depend ; for if so, the final 
 accomplishment of the object will be prevented. The 
 sinner will be alarmed and terrified, but what will this 
 avail, if he should not be saved ? And cannot the sin- 
 ner's mind be sufficiently alarmed, without such a repre- 
 sentation as will leave no distinction between goodness 
 and malignity? 
 
 Mr. Saurin says, " If, instead of a punishment endur- 
 ing for ever, hell were only the suffering of a thousand 
 years' torments, were the sufferer during these thousand 
 years only placed in the condition of a man excruciated 
 with the gout or the stone ; must not a man give up all 
 claim to common sense, before he could, even on these 
 suppositions, abandon himself to sin ? Are not all the 
 29 p 
 
338 OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 
 
 charms employed by the devil to allure us to sin absorbed 
 in the idea of a thousand years' pain, to which, for 
 argument's sake, we have supposed eternal punishment 
 reduced? How pitiable is a man in dying agonies, who 
 has nothing to oppose against the terrors of death but 
 this opinion ! Perhaps hell may be less in degree, and 
 shorter in duration than the scriptures represent !" (Sau- 
 rin's sermon on hell.) 
 
 How plain is it, according to Mr. Saurin's illustra- 
 tions, that the doctrine of eternal punishment itself is 
 not essential to the true motive of fear, on any human 
 mind, except the mind of a simpleton who is compelled 
 to " give up all claim to common sense !" This he 
 must do, as Mr. Saurin thought, " before he could aban- 
 don himself to sin," under the prospect of " only the 
 sufferings of a thousand years." Then if we could 
 prevail on mankind to exercise " common sense," the 
 duration of future punishment might itself be limited, 
 without any danger to the morals of society ; and of 
 course its intensity need not be extravagantly magnified, 
 for the mere purpose of filling a weak imagination with 
 terror and dismay. 
 
 The conclusion is, in short, that the only ground on 
 which the great necessity of perpetuating the doctrine 
 of infinite punishment can be sustained, is that mankind 
 through life can only be governed as irrational beings, 
 who " must give up all claim to common sense." It 
 seems, too, that they will continue to be the same silly 
 creatures to all eternity ; for it is represented that it 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 339 
 
 will be necessary to continue the same hell of undimin- 
 ished misery for ever, to keep the inhabitants of heaven 
 themselves from apostatizing, and running away from 
 the great Shepherd and Bishop of their souls ! If such 
 dogmas as these be not " vain speculations," and worse 
 than vain, I have mistaken the nature of moral princi- 
 ples, and of the necessary qualifications to become good 
 subjects of our Creator's heavenly government. 
 
 Human nature is a great deep ; and is very acute in 
 turning away the force of motives, however influential 
 they may appear to be. The objection before us gra- . 
 tuitously assumes that when men are firm believers in 
 the doctrine of infinite punishment, this faith will of 
 course restrain them from sin ; but facts have too abun- 
 dantly contradicted this theory, to allow it to have any 
 weight with reflecting minds. Men who heartily be- 
 lieve this doctrine, and especially those who are fond 
 of it, commonly take for granted with great assurance, 
 that they themselves will certainly be of the number 
 who will be saved from this tremendous punishment. 
 Hence it has little or no influence upon their fears, but 
 excites and gratifies other and very different passions 
 of the heart. The pleasure they will have in viewing 
 the immense contrast between their future condition and 
 that of outcast reprobates in hell ; the satisfaction of 
 seeing their enemies and antagonists, and especially 
 heretics, receive a full cup of torment for their opposi- 
 tion to them and to the creed of their party ; — these 
 and such like anticipations may possibly find admittance, 
 
340 OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 
 
 sometimes, in " that hideous sight, a naked human 
 heart." How it is possible for the soul of man to have 
 a fondness for such a doctrine, (which is proved by a 
 great eagerness in its defence) except by some such 
 secret influences, is perfectly incomprehensible. 
 
 The grounds on which men can presume upon their 
 own security from a future hell, without being restrained 
 from sin, are various. They may either persuade them- 
 selves that they have been elected to inadmissible sal- 
 vation from everlasting; or that they belong to so pure 
 a church, that it is not to be supposed that any of its 
 members will be finally cast off; or that God being the 
 protector of orthodoxy, will never condemn any that 
 are so sound in the faith as they are ; or that, finally, 
 their strict attendance upon gospel ordinances and 
 church ceremonies will be a certain passport to future 
 blessedness and salvation. In these several ways have 
 men amused themselves with anticipations of endless 
 felicity ; and the favourite article of their creed, con- 
 cerning the inconceivable misery of reprobates, has had 
 little or no restraining influence upon their internal cha- 
 racter, or upon their external actions. 
 
 It is fully admitted, however, that the terror of the 
 Lord ought to be exhibited to mankind, in as strong 
 colours as the Scriptures will justify; it is admitted 
 also, that an exhibition of this righteous vengeance has 
 often had the chief influence in awakening the slumber- 
 ing souls of sinners ; but the matter here contended for, 
 is that after sinners are awakened, the character of the 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 341 
 
 Supreme Being must be carefully explained to them, or 
 they will stop short of becoming his obedient children 
 and voluntary servants. When they learn that the 
 whole administration of their Maker is, and ever will 
 be, regulated by the pure principles of holiness and 
 goodness, they will understand, that nothing else than a 
 persevering conformity to these principles can secure 
 to them the blessing and complacency of such a Divine 
 Ruler. But when men are constrained through simple 
 fear, to flee from a kind of future punishment that is 
 unaccountable, and not regulated by any known attri- 
 bute of moral character, they will naturally embrace a 
 plan of salvation that is equally unaccountable, and 
 w 7 hich elevates persons to heavenly happiness in some 
 way that is separate from, or independent of, all intelli- 
 gible rules and principles of a sentimental administra- 
 tion. 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 Objections considered. 
 
 Obj. 1. " Let any man survey the death-bed of the 
 wicked, and then doubt, if he can, the infinity of hell 
 torments. If the horrors of Voltaire, Paine, Altamont, 
 and others, were such on this side hell, that their pre- 
 sence was hardly to be endured by their friends, what 
 must hell itself be V 9 
 29* 
 
342 OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 
 
 Ans. That hell is dreadful beyond expression, and 
 especially to sinners who have spent a long life in dif- 
 fusing the poison of sin through society, and sapping the 
 moral foundation of nations, is an awful reality, proved 
 by all kinds of evidence that can be brought to bear 
 upon the subject. But it is an easy thing for the imagi- 
 nation to leap into conclusions that have nothing to do 
 with the premises. Because Voltaire, whose malignity 
 through a long life appeared to be directed immediately 
 at the character, and life, and divinity of the Son of 
 God, was filled with intolerable anguish on a dying bed, 
 does it therefore follow that all sinners in a future state 
 will, through all the faculties of soul and body, be filled 
 with torment to the uttermost bounds of possibility? 
 Does it therefore follow, that their misery will continue 
 invariable or increasing, through an endless futurity ? 
 As to Voltaire himself, and Paine, and Judas, and any 
 other reprobate that ever died in his sins, no man can 
 know with certainty what will be the details of their 
 eternal history. Suppose, after suffering tribulation and 
 anguish through as many millions of ages as there are 
 grains of sand on the sea shore, the soul of the most 
 hardened atheist should be so subdued, that there might 
 be some abatement of his misery without any injury to 
 the moral universe, can any man prove that God has 
 no right, or no power, or no will, to have any regard to 
 the well-being of that creature 1 Thoughtless thousands 
 will perhaps be ready to exclaim, if we suppose incon- 
 ceivable anguish may be extended through as many 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 343 
 
 millions of ages as there are grains of sand upon the 
 sea shore, we might as well extend it through eternity 
 at once. But if we should multiply these millions of 
 ages by the number of drops of water in the ocean, and 
 multiply that sum by the number of leaves and blades 
 of grass that have existed since the creation of the 
 world, what would all this be, to a duration that can 
 never end? We are only supposing, that through this 
 amazing futurity something may be done to diminish 
 the agony of the miserable damned, rather than to ima- 
 gine they will suffer a perpetuity and an increase of 
 horror while eternity endures. And, gracious heaven? 
 has ecclesiastical power decided that a supposition of 
 this kind cannot be entertained without dreadful heresy? 
 What a singular transformation must scholastic theology 
 produce in the sensibilities of the heart, that it should 
 cause human creatures to struggle in defence of this 
 tremendous doctrine, as a man would labour for the life 
 of his first-born ! 
 
 Obj. 2. " A secret ground of all these efforts to di- 
 minish the horror of hell torments, is the infidel disposi- 
 tion that refuses to believe in mysteries." 
 
 Ans. A refusal to believe mysteries is impossible. To 
 believe in God, is a mystery ; to believe there is no God, 
 is a greater mystery still. Is the atheist therefore an 
 orthodox divine, merely because he consents to believe 
 mysteries? Certain men called Free-thinkers have 
 imagined, or professed, that they have escaped from all 
 mysteries, and that they now believe such things only 
 
344 OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 
 
 as they can clearly comprehend ; but it is because they 
 are almost no-thinkers, that they have arrived at such 
 a stupid and false conclusion. Dr. Young, when speak- 
 ing of God and his works, said wkh great propriety, 
 
 . " The more of wonderful 
 Is heard of Him, the more we should assent. 
 Could we conceive Him, God he could not be ; 
 Or He not God, or we could not be men. 
 A God alone can comprehend a God ; 
 Man's distance how immense ! On such a theme, 
 Know this, Lorenzo ! (seem it ne'er so strange) 
 Nothing can satisfy, but what confounds ; 
 Nothing, but what astonishes, is true." 
 
 But let not the indubitable truth be overlooked, that 
 the necessity we are under to believe mysteries, involves 
 no necessity, and no obligation, to believe contradictions. 
 To say bitter waters can flow from a sweet fountain, or 
 that malevolent action can proceed from a Being of pure 
 love, is not barely a mystery, but an absurdity, and an 
 insult to God and the human understanding. 
 
 How long has tne moral world been kept in darkness 
 and perplexity, by having all manner of delusions and 
 contradictions covered over with the veil of mystery! 
 We have been required to believe, and to silence every 
 hope of the contrary, that the God of love, by an abso- 
 lute decree, reprobated from everlasting a large propor- 
 tion of the human family, and decreed to fix them in 
 eternal misery, for his oxen glory ! We are required to 
 believe at the same time, that though God decreed their 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 345 
 
 every action, yet he is not the author of sin ; that the 
 reprobates are to take the whole blame upon them- 
 selves, and to own that they deserve this punishment 
 for being the subjects of the Almighty's divine and irre- 
 sistible predestination ; and that if any of them shall pre- 
 sume to doubt it, this will but serve to make their perdi- 
 tion the more dreadful, because of its being a heresy, 
 and a refusal to believe mysteries ! 
 
 Now what is the main ground-work of this gloomy 
 and irrational system of doctrine ? It is, that the Crea- 
 tor, from eternity, had no other sentiment towards re- 
 probates, than a disposition to make them for ever mise- 
 rable. 
 
 The doctrine under review is founded upon the same 
 identical assumption, with this difference only, that it 
 removes the scene to a future eternity. It supposes that 
 God has not, and never will have, any regard to the 
 well-being of those in hell ; but on the contrary, has an 
 immutable disposition to do nothing else than to per- 
 petuate the full cup of their everlasting sorrow. 
 
 If the veil of mystery can justify this hypothesis, it 
 will be found broad enough to cover the whole system 
 of free wrath and eternal reprobation. 
 
 Obj. 3. " The idea of reforming the damned, and 
 mitigating their pain, represents all future punishment 
 as being nothing else than a universal purgatory." 
 
 Ans. The doctrine of purgatory, when taken in con- 
 nexion with the design of its invention, truly deserves 
 the abhorrence of all Christendom ; which is, that pol- 
 
346 OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 
 
 luted souls shall be cast into a certain fire in a future 
 state, that by some chemical operation will gradually 
 purify them, and fit them for the kingdom of heaven, 
 into which they shall be received; after the removal of 
 all corruption from their souls, by this purifying pro- 
 cess. The duration of this punishment, it is said, may 
 be shortened by the prayers of the clergy, provided the 
 friends and relatives of the deceased will pay them mo- 
 ney enough to compensate them for these prayers. 
 Now the design of this invention evidently was, to 
 enrich the clergy, and to establish and perpetuate eccle- 
 siastical dominion. Their invention of a hell of abso- 
 lute and boundless misery was a part of the same cle- 
 rical policy. By this latter doctrine they hoped to 
 frighten heathens and heretics into the bosom of the 
 church, out of whose pale there is no salvation ; by the 
 former, they could control them after being brought 
 into the church; and thus a fair prospect presented 
 itself, of gradually subduing the whole world under 
 their despotic sway, and securing for themselves a tem- 
 poral dominion, affording every kind of gratification to 
 the corrupt propensities of the human heart. Surely 
 this was the master-piece, and the most potent engine 
 that ever was devised by the profoundest policy of hell. 
 All anticipations of future punishment were so shaped 
 and moulded, as to build up an earthly kingdom, in 
 which the love of power, of case, of wealth, of venera- 
 tion, and of pleasure, should be gratified to the full ! 
 Did those men really believe in the truth of man's 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 347 
 
 responsibility for eternity 1 No ; a secret infidelity was 
 evidently at the bottom of the whole contrivance. 
 
 The doctrine advanced in these pages has no resem- 
 blance whatever to this system. The views which are 
 here exhibited, alike discard the purgatory and the hell 
 which were so fondly diffused through the nations, dur- 
 ing the dark ages of Christendom. It is here contended, 
 on the one hand, that punishment has no mechanical or 
 chemical tendency to purify the soul ; and on the other, 
 that Divine penalties are never inflicted with the design 
 to rivet sin in the soul, and to perpetuate its malignity. 
 
 That punishment is inflicted to convince the sinner of 
 his criminality, and to discourage the continued per- 
 petration of his crimes, is acknowledged to be the doc- 
 trine of these pages; but if this doctrine involve the 
 notion of a purgatory, the objector will find himself 
 driven into the same heresy ; for he believes that in the 
 present world God inflicts judgments on the wicked to 
 convince them of the evil of their ways, and to discour- 
 age them in the practice of sin. According to the 
 objection before us, when God said to Adam, " cursed 
 is the ground for thy sake ; thorns and thistles shall it 
 bring forth unto thee," &c. he then and there established 
 a universal purgatory over the earth, which he has 
 maintained to the present hour. But if this kind of 
 administration in the present world is not a purgatory, 
 then the allegation is equally futile, when applied to a 
 similar kind of process, in any period of future dura- 
 tion. 
 
348 OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 
 
 The objection assumes a worse doctrine than the one 
 which it opposes : namely, that God will hereafter bind 
 down all reprobates, and fix in their souls a fatal neces- 
 sity of remaining full of sin, in order that they may 
 remain full of misery ; which representation of the 
 matter is far more reproachful to heaven, and injurious 
 to earth, than the popish doctrine of purgatory itself. 
 Therefore if intelligent creatures were reduced to the 
 unavoidable alternative of adopting one or the other of 
 these opinions, all the dictates of their rationality and 
 common sense would influence them to adopt the latter, 
 in preference to the former. But they are under no 
 necessity of choosing either ; for the truth of God con- 
 cerning a future state appears evidently to stand at an 
 equal distance from both of those theological delusions. 
 
 Obj. 4. " Universal salvation is true, or it is not ; if 
 it is, honesty requires that it be openly advanced ; if it 
 is not, then eternal punishment ought to be proclaimed 
 without any equivocation : To what purpose is all this 
 laboured argument to conduct the reader to an indefi- 
 nite conclusion — that we know not what God will do 
 with the wicked in a future state ? Is it not a singular 
 way of distinguishing truth from falsehood, to tell the 
 world that we know not what the truth is V 
 
 Ans. God is really a good Being, or he is not ; if he 
 is, it ought to be consistently maintained ; if he is not, 
 honesty requires that we unequivocally announce it as 
 an article of our creed, that malevolence will be his 
 invariable principle of action towards the reprobated 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 349 
 
 part of his creation. Our arguments in the present trea- 
 tise, conduct the reader to these definite conclusions — 
 that " the Lord is good ;" that " the Judge of all the 
 earth will do right;" — that he will treat the wicked 
 " according to their works ;" that " God cannot be 
 tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man;" and 
 that " Surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the 
 Almighty pervert judgment." (Job xxxiv. 12.) How 
 much better is it to have these great truths definitely 
 established, than to leave them all unsettled, and to sap 
 the foundation on which they rest, for the sake of main- 
 taining that God will perpetuate sin by his immutable 
 decree, as the necessary ground of endless misery ! 
 
 Our views are perfectly definite, in regard to our 
 Creator's principles of action, and in regard to his un- 
 changeable disposition to carry out those principles, 
 without variableness or shadow of turning. It is much 
 more desirable to have these essential truths perma- 
 nently established, than it is to leave them on the floating 
 waves of uncertainty, for the sake of assuming that we 
 know the exact results of the Divine government on all 
 the free agents that will exist through future duration. 
 
 If the agency of the wicked will be perpetuated for 
 ever, we cannot certainly know what variations will 
 take place in their character and condition, because we 
 know not how they will ultimately exercise their re- 
 sponsible powers. The present objection would apply 
 with all its force to God's treatment of nations in the 
 present world: for although we know definitely that 
 30 
 
350 OBJECTIONS COiNSIDERED. 
 
 God will treat them according to their works, yet what 
 that treatment will be we know not, because we are 
 necessarily ignorant of the manner in which they will 
 conduct themselves. We are willing to confess that 
 " we know not what the truth is," in regard to the ac- 
 tual results of the Almighty's administration in a future 
 world. Our minds should cheerfully consent to be igno- 
 rant of these secret things which belong to the Lord our 
 God, so long as we can rejoice in the brilliancy of the 
 great truth revealed to us and to our children, that God 
 is light, and in him is no darkness at all. To abandon 
 this glorious Sun and Shield, for the purpose of support- 
 ing the man-made orthodoxy of invariable punishment, 
 is a sacrifice too great for any human soul to make, 
 that can realize the immense importance of rightly 
 knowing the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he 
 hath sent. 
 
 Let opponents prove, if they are able, that condemned 
 sinners are eternally destitute of all degrees of agency. 
 If they cannot prove this, then it is evident, whatever 
 they may pretend, that they " know not what the truth 
 is" concerning this matter. 
 
 Agency appears evidently to be an essential constitu- 
 ent of a mental being ; and if I mistake not, it can as 
 soon be proved that the damned are deprived of all 
 intelligence, as that they are destitute of every degree 
 of agency. 
 
 We may justly require of the advocates of invaria- 
 ble or accumulating misery, to prove, if they are able, 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 351 
 
 that it is possible for a man or an angel to lose his 
 agency, without at the same time losing his intelligence, 
 and becoming absolutely insane. If they admit that 
 the inhabitants of hell are still agents, we call upon 
 them to prove, if they are able, that their agency is 
 eternally forced into one invariable course of action. 
 If they cannot prove this, how do they know what will 
 be the precise course of action which will be pursued 
 by the millions of fallen spirits in a future state ? And 
 if they do not know this, how can they be certain that 
 they foresee the exact mode of treatment that all fallen 
 creatures will receive from that Almighty Sovereign, 
 whose indubitable right it is to reign? Is God bound 
 to explain to us all the secrets of his empire, and to 
 make known all that he knows himself concerning the 
 arrangements of his government throughout all future 
 ages 1 If not, why should presumptuous man be unwill- 
 ing to own, that peradventure he " knows not what the 
 truth is," in regard to many of the unexplored scenes 
 of a boundless and infinite hereafter. 
 
 Obj. 5. " The spotless holiness of God, or, which is 
 the same thing, his infinite hatred of sin, will influence 
 him to punish sin to the uttermost ; and human corrup- 
 tion is the sole ground of man's objections to this seve- 
 rity. Were we holy as God is holy, we should say 
 amen to the whole force and energy of his sacred ven- 
 geance." 
 
 Aks. Holiness is the unmixed and unsullied perfection 
 of all moral attributes. God is love ; therefore love is 
 
352 OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 
 
 holiness ; and God's hatred of sin is precisely his infi- 
 nite abhorrence of all malice and cruelty. These con- 
 stitute the essential character of sin ; and God abhors 
 them, because they are the opposite of every principle 
 and sentiment of his own lovely and eternal Mind. 
 His unchangeable hatred of these characteristics of sin, 
 is itself the ground of an indubitable demonstration, that 
 He will never imbibe them, or carry them into any part 
 of his own course of judicial action. 
 
 Infinite hatred of sin implies that its principle, and its 
 results, are equally and for ever abhorred. The essence 
 of sin is malice, or a disposition to produce and perpe- 
 tuate misery, as an ultimate end. Now if God abhors 
 this principle, it is because of his aversion to its ten- 
 dency and its results ; that is, because of his infinite 
 unwillingness that misery should be produced or perpe- 
 tuated for its own sake, as an ultimate end of voluntary 
 action. To say God's holiness causes him to hate this 
 vile spirit, and yet that His holiness will influence him 
 to perpetuate absolute misery as an ultimate end of his 
 own action, is as direct a contradiction as human lan- 
 guage can supply. The native and final result of sin is 
 misery, and nothing else ; the action of holiness is oppo- 
 site to that of sin ; therefore the tendency of the latter 
 is to produce happiness; and it never inflicts punish- 
 ment, but in order to counteract sin, and consequently 
 to operate against ultimate and final misery. To say 
 the action of sin, and that of holiness, both alike termi- 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 353 
 
 nate in simple and permanent misery, is to say they are 
 essentially the same in their nature and tendency. 
 
 Why does God hate sin, but because of his aversion 
 to the fruit of this bitter tree, which is misery and that 
 only? His hatred of moral evil arises from his love to him- 
 self, and to his whole intelligent creation, against whose 
 happiness it wages a malevolent and an eternal war. 
 
 A holy Being delights in holiness ; and of course, is 
 disposed to promote holiness as effectually and univer- 
 sally as it can be promoted : consequently, the Holy One 
 of Israel never will do any thing to prevent the spread 
 of holiness in any region of the universe, vtfhere moral 
 agents are willing it should prevail. He will never do 
 any thing to hinder any of his creatures from repenting 
 of their sin, and becoming holy ; for this is what the 
 devil has been doing ever since sin entered into the 
 world. To affirm that our Creator w r ill pursue this 
 course in a future state, is to suppose the most holy 
 Being, and the most unholy one, will manifest them- 
 selves alike, both in purpose and in operation. 
 
 God's aversion to sin is not an infinite hatred of sin- 
 ners; otherwise no sinner had ever been forgiven. To 
 say he abhors their wicked character, and that he is at 
 the same time unwilling for them to turn from their 
 wickedness, is another gratuitous and manifest contra- 
 diction, on which the system of inexorable vengeance 
 hangs. 
 
 Hence it is clear, that holiness in God's children does 
 30* p* 
 
354 OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 
 
 not cause them to hate sinners, in any other sense, than 
 having an abhorrence of their evil character. They 
 love their persons, as fellow-creatures; and therefore 
 they do all they can to prevail on them to forsake their 
 sin, and to seek after holiness. Is not their Heavenly 
 Father of the same disposition? Will he not ever re- 
 main the same 1 If a change shall take place in his 
 mind hereafter, it will seem necessary that a change 
 should also take place in the minds of his people ; that 
 in a future state they may hate sinners, and no longer 
 have a desire that holiness should be extended through 
 intelligent society. Has any man ever learned this kind 
 of orthodoxy from the Bible 1 If any people imagine 
 that true holiness causes them to love the doctrine of 
 infinite sin and misery, as brought about by the judicial 
 vengeance of the Almighty, they are very much mis- 
 taken ; and they need a rebuke from Jesus, such as the 
 disciples received, when they requested that they might 
 have power to call down fire from heaven upon the 
 Samaritans : — Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are 
 of. A fondness for this system of wrath arises from a 
 source very different from that of holiness ; and it would 
 be well for men, not only to inquire into the foundation 
 of their opinions, but also to scrutinize the cause of their 
 attachment to those views of future misery, which are 
 so reproachful to God, and so revolting to the feelings 
 of justice and humanity. 
 
 Obj. 6. "All modified and moderated views of future 
 punishment arise from a denial of total depravity : they 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 355 
 
 suppose that sinners in hell can cure themselves, and 
 can come out of the dreadful mire of iniquity ; whereas 
 their nature is so corrupt, even in this world, that they 
 can do nothing towards their recovery, and can only 
 be regenerated by a power equal to that which created 
 the world : consequently, when God gives them up, as 
 he will give up all reprobates in perdition, nothing will 
 remain but for the deep disease of sin to abide in them, 
 and to increase in violence for ever." 
 
 Ans. It is no matter of surprise that total depravity 
 has long been a very favourite point of orthodoxy, for 
 it is an essential link in the chain which supports the 
 doctrine of eternal election and reprobation. I almost 
 winder that original corruption has not been called 
 infinite depravity ; for this is what the doctrine implies, 
 as a necessary counterpart to infinite guilt, and infinite 
 punishment. 
 
 Let us, however, inquire into the subject. If by the 
 word total, we are to understand merely that all the 
 faculties of the soul, without exception, have been defiled 
 by the influence of sin, it may be safely admitted; but 
 if we are called upon to believe that all the faculties 
 are as full of corruption as they can hold, we cannot 
 admit this, without renouncing the Bible, and embracing 
 the whole system of Calvinian predestination. 
 
 God said to Moses on the Mount, " Get thee down, 
 for thy people have corrupted themselves ;" and Paul 
 said to Timothy, " Evil men and seducers wax worse 
 and worse." Now if Adam's children are born totally 
 
356 OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 
 
 depraved, — that is, as full of corruption as they can 
 hold, — it is impossible for them afterwards to " corrupt 
 themselves," or to do any thing which will cause their 
 evil nature to become " worse and worse :" for the doc- 
 trine is, that the depravity is so total, that it is impossi- 
 ble for it to increase, or otherwise, that of its own na- 
 ture it will necessarily and unavoidably accumulate, as 
 the child grows up to manhood. In neither case can 
 men corrupt themselves, or Wax worse and worse by 
 their own voluntary actions ; for they are supposed to 
 be as corrupt already, as it is possible for them to be, 
 independently of such actions. 
 
 The secret of the matter is this : — total depravity is 
 fondly believed to be such as to bind the will to evil of 
 necessity, so that men can never exercise an agency 
 that will have any tendency to reformation, till they 
 are regenerated by an irresistible act of Almighty 
 power ; after which act, their agency will be carried as 
 uncontrollably in the way of goodness, as it was before 
 carried in the way of evil. This is the precise mean- 
 ing of total depravity ; and Arminians have been fright- 
 ened into it from the dread of heresy ; and, by adhering 
 to it, they have unwittingly drawn to their embrace the 
 entire system of unconditional reprobation. 
 
 What are the facts, as we learn them from the 
 instructions of our Creator? They are, that man is 
 dependent on the Holy Spirit for all his success in ceas- 
 ing to do evil, and learning to do well ; and yet that the 
 influences of the Holy Spirit may be either complied 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 357 
 
 with, or resisted, by man's voluntary agency. They 
 are, that the Holy Spirit co-operates with Providence, 
 with the Gospel, and with the Law, — all having a com- 
 bined tendency to promote good, and to subdue evil, 
 without taking any man out of a state of just and equi- 
 table responsibility. This is the plain doctrine of Scrip- 
 ture ; and it is confirmed by universal experience. 
 
 From this doctrine, we may fairly draw these three 
 conclusions : First, if Providence, the Gospel, and the 
 Law, are used by the Supreme Being as means of pro- 
 moting good, and subduing evil, the influences of the 
 Holy Spirit are not intended to supersede these means, 
 but to concur with them, in order to their efficiency on 
 the unconstrained faculties and affections of the human 
 soul. 
 
 Secondly, as by the law is the knowledge of sin, and 
 as this law never operates in contradiction of itself, its 
 penalty is intended to give the true knowledge of sin, and 
 consequently to promote good, and to discourage evil, 
 as well as its precepts and prohibitions. 
 
 Thirdly, as God gives efficiency to the means ap- 
 pointed by him to operate against evil, and furnishes an 
 energy by his Holy Spirit to all who are willing to be 
 benefited by those means, he has as much power, and 
 as good a right, to give efficiency to them in any period 
 of future duration, as he has in the present, or has had 
 in the past. If it be said, that though he has the right, 
 yet he will not do it in a future state, it is difficult to 
 conceive why he will not, except it be either because it 
 
358 OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 
 
 would be a dishonour to himself, or an injury to his 
 creation. Would it be an injury to heaven or earth, 
 for the principle and the love of sin to be weakened in 
 hell ? or will any one say, that the endless and accu- 
 mulating rage of moral evil, in a course of enmity 
 against God, is really most honourable to God, and 
 essential to the well-being of his upright universe ? 
 
 The thought is sometimes entertained, perhaps, that 
 God would degrade himself, by having any thing to do 
 with the outcasts of hell ; and that, like the ancient 
 Scribes and Pharisees, he must refrain from having any 
 intercourse with such sinners, lest he should be defiled. 
 But can any man prove that God is any more degraded 
 by the exercise of his grace and mercy, than he is by 
 the exercise of his justice ? Or shall we conclude that 
 justice in hell is the operation of another God'! or at 
 least, that the one God carries on the process, by the 
 exercise of his other character? 
 
 In short, this opinion, sometimes entertained by Ar- 
 minians as well as others, that the inhabitants of hell 
 are too vile to have any share in heaven's clemency, is 
 the offspring of the system of doctrine referred to above. 
 Reprobates are regarded as inconceivably odious 
 beings, because God hated them from all eternity. The 
 Almighty's regards, it is supposed, are to be exclusively 
 confined to his chosen. The damned are infidels, hea- 
 thens, and heretics ; they are too contemptible for any 
 favourable sentiment to be entertained for their well- 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 359 
 
 being, by their Creator, in any period of a progressive 
 and an endless futurity ! 
 
 They have, it is true, made themselves exceedingly 
 vile by their wicked works ; and the ground of it is, that 
 these works proceeded from a hateful spirit of malice 
 in their hearts, which they voluntarily cherished, and 
 adhered to with obstinate perseverance ; but if we 
 say God is unwilling that their malevolent disposition 
 should be subdued, our conclusion seems to be, that he 
 loves to have a vast population of odious beings under 
 his dominion, and therefore decrees that their evil cha- 
 racter shall be for ever perpetuated. 
 
 Obj. 7. " The supposition that agency will be conti- 
 nued in all creatures in a future state, implies that the 
 inhabitants of heaven are still free agents, and of course, 
 that they may fall away and be lost." 
 
 Ans. 1. Suppose God should fix all the inhabitants of 
 heaven in a state of holiness and happiness, by absolute 
 power ; does it therefore follow, that those in hell must 
 be fixed in like manner in a state of sin and misery 1 
 If it does, the clear consequence is, that God is depend- 
 ent on hell for his ability to sustain heaven ; and that 
 without having this basis to rest upon, his omnipotent 
 arm must necessarily fail to perpetuate the happiness 
 of his own children ! 
 
 2. The inhabitants of heaven, as well as those of hell, 
 will undoubtedly continue to be free agents. Why was 
 all the apparatus of moral government, and such a long 
 course of training resolved upon, but because the hap- 
 
360 OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 
 
 piness of creatures must be based upon a moral and not 
 upon a mechanical foundation? If creatures can be 
 fixed in a state of holy enjoyment by absolute power, 
 they might have all been so fixed at their creation, and 
 neither sin nor misery would have ever been known ; 
 and had such a plan been possible, and been the best, 
 it is certain that infinite goodness would have adopted it. 
 
 3. It does not follow that because saints and angels 
 in heaven are free agents, that any of them will fall 
 away from their happy condition. They have the 
 power of God for their protection ; his wisdom for their 
 guide ; his justice for their defence ; and his goodness 
 for the supply of all their wants. They partake of the 
 immutability of God, so far as this attribute can be pos- 
 sessed in the mind of a creature ; and the whole course 
 of their previous training was intended to produce a 
 stability that should be voluntary, and without coercion. 
 
 4. The whole revelation of God, his whole course 
 of Providence and moral government, from the begin- 
 ning of the world to eternity, have a uniform tendency 
 to encourage virtue and to discourage vice ; and con- 
 sequently, to strengthen the foundations of heaven, and 
 in the same proportion to weaken the foundations of 
 hell. To say that such a process is calculated to make 
 hell as permanent as heaven, is as glaring a contradic- 
 tion as can easily be conceived. No : the only ground 
 on which the conclusion rests, that God will make sin 
 and misery as permanent as holiness and happiness, is 
 that he eternally operates with a double character: — 
 
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 361 
 
 that he loves the inhabitants of heaven, and hates those 
 of hell, simply as creatures ; and consequently that he 
 elected the former, and reprobated the latter, from ever- 
 lasting. This is the only system which carries inexo- 
 rable wrath along with it ; and Arminians must embrace 
 the whole system, or otherwise they must relinquish the 
 indefensible doctrine of necessary sin and infinite misery 
 for the wicked. 
 
 Obj. 8. " Our Saviour has given the most alarming 
 account of future torment, of any prophet or apostle 
 whose words are recorded in either the Old or the New 
 Testament; He certainly knew the true state of the 
 invisible world; therefore his authority, is decisive, in 
 regard to the tremendous nature and duration of future 
 
 'O 
 
 Ans. It is no less true, that the Lord Jesus Christ 
 gave the most impressive and endearing account of the 
 gracious and merciful disposition of the Eternal Father, 
 of any person that ever appeared in our world. One 
 part of his teaching has as much authority as another; 
 and he never intended to contradict himself. He tells 
 us that our Heavenly Father is merciful, and that a 
 merciful disposition is that which He especially requires 
 of all his children. 
 
 He informs us, moreover, that a negative and positive 
 cruelty will be the chief ground of a sinner's condemna- 
 tion in a future state. Their negative cruelty consists 
 in an indifference to the miseries of the hungry, the 
 thirsty, the naked, the sick, the stranger and the prisoner. 
 31 Q 
 
862 OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 
 
 (See the 25th chapter of Matthew.) Their positive 
 cruelty consists in devouring widow's houses, in shutting 
 the kingdom of heaven against men, in laying heavy 
 burdens on men's shoulders, and in laying hands on a 
 fellow servant, taking him by the throat, and casting him 
 into prison, because he was poor and miserable, and 
 had nothing to pay. (See Mat. xxiii. 4, and verses 18, 
 27, &c.) 
 
 Now if we say the Lord Jesus presented before us the 
 disposition of cruelty, as the chief cause of the Divine 
 vengeance in a future state, and at the same time held 
 forth God's judicial action as a process of eternal cruelty, 
 do we not represent him as furnishing a statement of 
 the case which will enable all intelligent beings to look 
 up to the Creator and say, Thou that judgest doest the 
 same things ? And what greater cruelty can be con- 
 ceived, than for creatures to be filled as full of torment 
 as their capacity can hold, and be confined in necessary 
 sin and misery without end, by Almighty power 1 
 
 Alas! this doctrine casts its shadow far behind, and 
 eclipses all the sacred and soul-cheering truths of the 
 Christian religion. In vain may we be told of the good 
 providence of God towards Jews or Gentiles : in vain 
 may we behold the mild and beautiful character of 
 the Saviour, as " the brightness of the Father's glory, 
 and the express image of his person :" in vain may we 
 study the justice, the veracity, and the kindness of our 
 Maker's conduct in the present world : — the doctrine 
 under review carries the universe forward to a gloomy 
 
CONDENSED VIEW OF MORAL GOVERNMENT. 363 
 
 consummation, and causes all those stars of encouraging 
 doctrine to set under an unfathomable cloud of mystery 
 and darkness, which seems plainly undistinguishable 
 from an unprincipled and an unfeeling despotism. 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 A condensed View of the operations of Moral Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The reader's attention is respectfully invited to the 
 following arguments, in confirmation of what has been 
 advanced : 
 
 1. Prior to the time when sin entered into the crea- 
 tion, God loved all his creatures, and delighted in their 
 happiness. At that time he formed his plan of govern- 
 ment, and so constructed it, that its action should pro- 
 mote the common welfare, without injustice and with- 
 out partiality. This government was intended to be 
 eternal; for being perfect, it could never be altered, 
 without being altered for the worse. Its design was to 
 discourage all wrong conduct, and to promote holiness 
 and happiness in all created minds ; and its penalties, 
 no less than its rewards, w T ere parts of one undivided 
 system, having no contradiction in itself, intended to 
 operate against evil, and to promote goodness, without 
 restriction or limitation. Consequently, as its Author 
 
364 CONDENSED VIEW OF MORAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 changes not, and could not amend a perfect system, its 
 tendency must ever remain the same. To suppose its 
 penal operation will perpetuate sin and its consequences, 
 in the minds of any beings in existence, is to assume, 
 either that the government was originally partial, and, 
 in regard to some creatures, aimed at the promotion 
 of sin and misery, or that an essential change has since 
 taken place in its constituent principles. 
 
 2. If the Divine government was originally fitted 
 to operate in the promotion of sin and misery, in a 
 part of the intelligent creation, it must have been 
 because its Author intended that these evils should be 
 produced ; and of course, it was an essential part of the 
 Divine plan, before intelligent creatures were brought 
 into being, that a proportion of them should, in the final 
 issue, be involved in endless pain; a conclusion this, 
 which is founded upon the system of eternal reproba- 
 tion, and which must stand or fall with that system. 
 
 S. On supposition that the Divine government was 
 constituted to operate in favour of good, and in opposi- 
 tion to evil, and that too, without variableness or shadow 
 of turning, it follows that the evil that is in hell is not 
 and never will be perpetuated by the action of this go- 
 vernment. The perpetuity of hell is caused by the 
 agency of men and devils, and not by the agency of 
 God, in any other way than as he exercises a good 
 agency in opposing evil; consequently, if creatures 
 would cease from the voluntary maintenance of evil, 
 the government of God, as was originally intended, 
 
CONDENSED VIEW OF MORAL GOVERNMENT. 365 
 
 would naturally operate in the production of universal 
 happiness. 
 
 4. If the undivided purpose of God originally was to 
 discourage all evil, and to promote all good, and if it 
 be now, or will be hereafter, an essential part of his 
 administration to perpetuate sin and misery, it follows 
 that the introduction of moral evil has produced a 
 change both in regard to the governing purposes of his 
 mind, and to the tendency of his course of moral action. 
 The^ ultimate result of this would seem to be, that the 
 progress of evil will gradually absorb the action of 
 goodness, and will draw it into itself as its coadjutor in 
 the final perpetuation of misery. 
 
 5. 'If evil should be triumphant, against the original 
 disposition of the Deity, and without making any change 
 in his disposition, its uncontrollable accumulation, so 
 far as I can see, would naturally tend to p;-oduce grief 
 and lamentation in all upright minds, and even in the 
 mind of the Almighty himself. It would seem calcu- 
 lated to fill all heaven with despair, under the dismal 
 apprehension that there is an energy in moral evil that 
 will finally eventuate in the destruction of all happiness. 
 
 6. The basis on which we avoid, such a melancholy 
 conclusion, is precisely the following: Goodness has 
 Almighty power in its possession ; it has an unchange- 
 able disposition to use this power in a manner best cal- 
 culated to subdue evil, and to establish the contrary ; it 
 has infinitely stronger motives to present to created 
 minds, and thereby to influence created agency, than 
 
 31* 
 
^66 CONDENSED VIEW OF MORAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 evil possibly can have ; therefore goodness will eter- 
 nally have the ascendency, and its native consequences 
 will continually enlarge, while sin and misery will be 
 diminished, or be kept in a state of just and invariable 
 subordination. Moral evil, though it may continue to 
 rage and fight against God, can never come off victo- 
 rious. 
 
 7. If any creatures in a future state will have lost all 
 agency, it must be because the Almighty could not pre- 
 vent it ; for if his government has been operating in the 
 best manner possible to promote good and to prevent 
 evil, and if creatures, notwithstanding its operation, 
 have sustained so great an evil as the loss of their 
 agency, which is the most distinguished faculty of their 
 created nature, no other conclusion remains, than that 
 this calamity has ensued in defiance of the whole energy 
 and influence of the Divine government. Sin has tri- 
 umphed over the essential constitution of mind, and has 
 nullified the original energy of creation ! The only 
 way in which this conclusion can be set aside, is by 
 saying that agency was not really made free, but was 
 so formed at first as necessarily to choose in one direc- 
 tion ; and of course, that it was an essential part of the 
 Creator's plan, that the reprobated part of his creatures 
 should choose wrong, and sink into eternal misery. 
 
 Hence the conclusion seems indisputable, that no 
 creature will ever be confined in a state of necessary 
 evil, by any penal operation of the Divine government, 
 unless it can be proved that said government was ori- 
 
CONDENSED VIEW OF MORAL GOVERNMENT. 367 
 
 ginally formed with a view to this very end. If this 
 can be proved, the entire system of predestination must 
 be adopted ; and the most ultra Calvinists are the only 
 people upon earth who hold to a consistent scheme of 
 theology. 
 
 8. While Arminians will be apt to feel reluctant to 
 embrace the predestinarian system, on account of its 
 sustaining the favourite doctrine of infinite misery for 
 the wicked, Calvinists themselves, upon reflection, will 
 find no real cause to rejoice in the conclusion to which 
 their creed is calculated to conduct the inquiring mind. 
 When they look away from their own supposed indivi- 
 dual security, to the melancholy destiny of a large pro- 
 portion of their fellow creatures, a painful sympathy 
 must sometimes disturb their tranquillity. Multiplied 
 millions of their brethren of the human race are coming 
 on the stage of life, whose unavoidable fatality it is, to 
 spend a few years of restless vanity in this world, as a 
 prelude to unutterable anguish that is destined to be 
 without intermission and without end ! When from this 
 sad contemplation they raise their thoughts to the Great 
 Supreme, all is mystery the most profound and impene- 
 trable. Their confidence in him will sometimes waver, 
 whence will be produced a chilling influence upon their 
 love ; and this cannot fail to convey discomfort to the 
 consciousness of the soul. 
 
 9. When they do enjoy comfort of mind, in the sup- 
 posed security which the system affords themselves, it 
 will be interrupted by the conviction which will force 
 
36S CONDENSED VIEW OF MORAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 itself upon them, that theirs is, and necessarily must be, 
 a perfectly selfish enjoyment. The system which is 
 supposed to make their own eternal happiness secure 
 and certain, makes the eternal misery of a vast propor- 
 tion of mankind equally so ; and it is by no means im- 
 probable that a majority of their own children are on 
 the dark list of inevitable reprobation. The same prin- 
 ciple of government, or rather the same original decree 
 which is destitute of all principle, while it secures their 
 personal felicity, binds their own children in the fatal 
 bond of never-ending misery. What father, possessing 
 even "natural affection," can take pleasure in a plan 
 of partial grace involving consequences so tremendous ? 
 10. The system will peradventure be found, more- 
 over, to leave their own happiness more insecure than 
 might at first view be imagined. In the first place, 
 they are probably not quite certain that they themselves 
 are of the elect number ; and if there should be any 
 doubt of this, what an amount of horror must be in 
 such an uncertainty ! And even supposing their own 
 election should be thought certain, a fair examination 
 of the matter will leave it problematical whether the 
 eternal happiness of the elect themselves is perfectly 
 secure under such a mysterious government. The de- 
 cree of election is supposed to originate in God's eter- 
 nal love for their persons. Now a preference which is 
 unaccountable, and founded on no reason, is merely 
 capricious ; for what is caprice, but an affection, or 
 purpose of mind, which is founded upon no reason, and 
 
CONDENSED VIEW OF MORAL GOVERNMENT. 369 
 
 is regulated by no principle 1 Such an affection, in the 
 nature of things, must be fluctuating ; because there is 
 no principle to make it permanent. If we say the ever- 
 lasting love for the elect existed in the Divine Mind of 
 necessity, and hence his course of action towards them 
 necessarily proceeded, we find ourselves at once landed 
 on the ground of atheistic fatality ; but if the Supreme 
 Being chose to love them by the free exercise of his 
 own will, he had sufficient reasons for this affection, 
 founded on good principle, or otherwise he chose to 
 exercise caprice and partiality. The elect, as crea- 
 tures, were precisely the same as reprobates ; and as 
 fallen creatures, their corruption was the same. Our 
 Calvinist brethren often tell us that the elect resist God 
 as long as they can; and it is evident that reprobates 
 do no more ; therefore it must puzzle a theologian as 
 well as a philosopher, to determine why the former 
 should be preferred to the latter. 
 
 The great Ruler of the world maintains his unchange- 
 able stand upon moral principle : on this ground he de- 
 mands of his creatures to meet him, that he may have 
 sufficient reasons to love, and reward them : if they 
 refuse to do so, he then has sufficient reasons to disap- 
 probate and punish them. But to say his approbation 
 and disapprobation are originally formed without any 
 reason whatever, independently of all regard to a just 
 responsibility, and that his rewards and punishments are 
 dispensed accordingly, is to sap the foundation of his 
 
370 CONDENSED VIEW OF MORAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 moral government, and to eclipse the whole glory of his 
 Divine character. 
 
 It is pretended that we must embrace all these ab- 
 surdities, as the only possible way of avoiding the hereti- 
 cal doctrine of human merit ; but it is presumed there is 
 some way of escape from this heresy, without running 
 into the great deep of unconditional reprobation. 
 
 No possible doings of man can merit the reward of 
 eternal happiness ; and yet men's actions can be such 
 as to furnish a sufficient reason, on the ground of a 
 righteous impartiality, for one creature to be rewarded, 
 and another punished ; otherwise it is indubitable that 
 man is not responsible at all, and that the inhabitants of 
 hell are exactly as free from demerit, as those of hea- 
 ven are destitute of merit. Thus to avoid one imagi- 
 nary heresy, we are invited into a wilderness of absurd- 
 ities, where neither sun nor stars appear, but where 
 all is confusion and disorder, and " darkness that may 
 be felt." 
 
 11. The only way to avoid this course of error and 
 contradiction, is consistently to maintain that the whole 
 government of the Deity is regulated by an unwavering 
 purpose, to maintain and promote holiness, so far as cre- 
 ated beings will consent for it to be promoted, and to make 
 all creatures happy icho are willing to be made so upon 
 this foundation. Arminians must admit this axiom, or 
 otherwise they will necessarily exchange the system of 
 doctrine advocated by Wesley and Fletcher, for that 
 which was established at the Synod of Dort. And if 
 
CONDENSED VIEW OF MORAL GOVERNMENT. 371 
 
 they admit the position above stated, they will find them- 
 selves conducted to one or the other of these two con- 
 clusions : either that our Creator will maintain the same 
 moral process through all future duration, as specified 
 in the axiom, or that an essential change will have taken 
 place in his disposition and measures; and that in a 
 future state he will establish his government upon the 
 precise ground which Calvinists say he resolved upon 
 from all eternity. 
 
 12. The method whereby our Calvinist friends at- 
 tempt to evade the consequences which we fasten upon 
 their scheme of doctrine, is as singular as it is inde- 
 fensible. They say, reprobates sin freely; that they 
 choose the way of death without coercion ; and there- 
 fore they justly deserve the damnation that was ap- 
 pointed for them from everlasting. Mr. Calvin informs 
 us that " Freedom from necessity is naturally inherent 
 in man, so that nothing can deprive him of it." This 
 maxim is held, at the same time, in connection with the 
 following from Augustine, in which Calvinists, ancient 
 and modern, agree: "The will being changed for the 
 worse, I know not by what corrupt and surprising 
 means, is itself the author of the necessity to which it is 
 subject." (See " Difficulties of Arminian Methodism," 
 pages 314 and 324.) Augustine adds, " If we are bound 
 by our own passions, which are under the government 
 of sin, so that we are not at liberty to obey our Father, 
 there is no reason why we should plead this necessity 
 
372 CONDENSED VIEW OF MORAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 in our defence, the criminality of which is within our- 
 selves, and must be imputed to us." (Ibid.) 
 
 These quotations affirm that man has " freedom from 
 necessity" and yet that he " is not at liberty" but that, 
 by some surprising means, he is " subject to necessity" 
 his own will being the author of this subjection. Are 
 not these palpable contradictions 1 Nothing can save 
 them from this charge, but giving different meanings to 
 the word necessity, in the several sentences. I know 
 of two kinds of necessity only : physical and moral. 
 The former is a man's being bound to act as he does, 
 because he cannot do otherwise ; the latter, his being 
 bound to act as he does, because he ought not to do 
 otherwise. As to a figurative or accommodated sense 
 of the word necessity, it has nothing to do with the pre- 
 sent question. The whole controversy turns upon phy- 
 sical or positive necessity. Our Cakinist brethren 
 appear to believe in another kind, which for distinc- 
 tion's sake may be called metaphysical necessity. This 
 consists in some "corrupt and surprising means," where- 
 by the will binds itself, so that " it is not at liberty," but 
 renders us subject to a " necessity within ourselves, that 
 must be imputed to us." The man is still free to act, 
 it seems, but has no power to choose differently from 
 what he does. But if a man has no power to choose, 
 he has no power to act in pursuance of that choice ; 
 otherwise we say he can act without intending to act, 
 which is impossible. If he has no power to choose, he 
 
CONDENSED VIEW OF MORAL GOVERNMENT. 373 
 
 has no power over the action which depends upon that 
 choice. 
 
 It is assumed, we perceive, that when man chooses 
 in a wrong direction, it is because he is " not at liberty" 
 or has no power to choose otherwise, which is nothing 
 more nor less than simply begging the question. It is 
 taking for granted, that when a man chooses to do 
 wrong, it is because he cannot change the purpose of his 
 mind, by reason of some " corrupt and surprising means" 
 in his own will ; and hence we are conducted to the 
 conclusion which is first assumed in the premises, and 
 are furnished with a striking example of what logicians 
 call reasoning in a circle. This favourite maxim, that 
 the will is free, and not free, at the same time, is the 
 great centre point of predestination. On this contra- 
 diction the whole system hangs. Consciousness testi- 
 fies, however, that we have power to reverse our choice, 
 or to alter the purpose of our will ; the Bible confirms 
 this testimony, by abounding with commands, promises, 
 threatenings, and expostulations; therefore conscious- 
 ness and the Bible jointly prove that the doctrine of 
 predestinarian fatality is founded upon the sand. 
 
 If the sinner is " not at liberty," and cannot choose to 
 alter his course, his physical power of action alters not 
 the case ; for the necessity which he is under is as abso- 
 lute as if he were bound in fetters of iron. It is said, 
 indeed, that the corrupt will " is itself the author of the 
 necessity to which it is subject." The position must 
 not be forgotten, however, that it is in consequence of 
 32 
 
374 CONDENSED VIEW OF MORAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 " the will being changed for the worse," that it becomes 
 involved in this metaphysical necessity. Now if the 
 will was " changed for the worse" by the man himself, 
 it must be admitted that he was the " author" of the 
 change ; but the whole theory supposes that prior to the 
 will being altered for the worse, it was under the same 
 necessity of choosing good, as it is since under of choos- 
 ing evil, and had no power to make any change in the 
 course of its volition. A revolution must therefore have 
 been produced by another cause, whereby the creature 
 was corrupted, and rendered " not at liberty to obey 
 our father." Who was the " author" of this melan- 
 choly departure into the fatality of sin ? If we say the 
 Deity, must not he himself have been first changed from 
 good to evil ? If so, who was the " author" of this change 
 in him '? Alas ! for the excuses and apologies of pre- 
 destination ! 
 
 In regard to the doctrine in which Calvinists and Ar- 
 minians appear to agree, that the perpetuity of sin is 
 settled in all the inhabitants of hell, by an uncontrolla- 
 ble and unchangeable fatality, we may observe first, 
 that as there is no proof of this fact from the Bible, nor 
 from reason, nature or philosophy, it is as gratuitous an 
 assumption, as that which fixes the fatal decree of sin 
 in a past eternity. Secondly, if those sinners have de- 
 stroyed their agency by their own action, when was it 
 done 1 There is reason to believe that many have died 
 in their sins at fifteen vears of a^e, while others have 
 repented and been converted at the age of three score. 
 
CONDENSED VIEW OF MORAL GOVERNMENT. 375 
 
 How happens it that the agency of some sinners is so 
 much more easily destroyed for ever, t'han that of 
 others 1 Thirdly, the Rev. Richard Watson, as we 
 have lately seen, would not admit the supposition that 
 mere punishment will convert the soul in a future state ; 
 and what better reason have we, I ask, to suppose that 
 mere punishment will perpetuate sin in a future state 1 
 Fourthly, Mr. Watson said also, " that an amount of 
 influence on the mind, which would compel a definite 
 choice," on the side of virtue, " is not to be assumed in 
 regard to any future trial." Neither is it to be assumed, 
 on the other hand, that any amount of influence will 
 " compel a definite choice," on the side of vice and 
 continued rebellion. Such an assumption, to say the 
 least, would certainly be as groundless as the other. 
 
 In short, the doctrine which fixes this fatal decree in 
 a 'past eternity, and that which fixes it in a future eter- 
 nity, agree to impute a reprobating disposition to our 
 Creator ; and they alike represent him as keeping in 
 existence involuntary beings, or beings destitute of all 
 agency, for no other purpose than to fill their conscious- 
 ness with invariable and endless misery ! That men 
 possessing the feelings of humanity should be prevailed 
 on to believe such a doctrine, is wonderful ; but that 
 any of them should rejoice in it, — as they evidently did 
 when heretics were burnt at the stake, — this indeed is 
 more wonderful still ; and it seems but too well calcu- 
 lated to make a considerate person feel ashamed that 
 he is a man. . 
 
SECTION X. 
 
 Importance of a true Knowledge of God, in its Influence 
 on future Generations. 
 
 The character of Almighty God must be exhibited 
 in all its fullness and glory, and be maintained in its 
 consistency, before the millennium can be introduced. 
 A just and clear representation of Christian theology 
 will open the way for the introduction of that long anti- 
 cipated and delightful period, in the several ways fol- 
 lowing. 
 
 First, it will harmonize the views and feelings of 
 ministers of the gospel, and terminate the bitterness of 
 sectarian controversy. There may still be discussion, 
 for mutual aid and advancement in knowledge; but 
 while men harmonize in judgment concerning the excel- 
 lency of our God, their difference of opinion in other 
 matters will be of inconsiderable importance. The 
 great and protracted controversies of Christendom have 
 been excited by certain doctrines which resulted from 
 false views of the Divine Being, and which never can 
 be kept in countenance, where the sunbeams of His 
 moral glory are shining without a cloud. Let us agree 
 that there is one God, essentially of one character, and 
 it will be easy for us to become one body of Christ- 
 " This is life eternal, that they might know thee the 
 only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. 
 
 (37G) 
 
WELFARE OF POSTERITY. 377 
 
 As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also 
 may be one in us ; that the world may believe that thou 
 hast sent me." (John xvii. 3 — 21.) 
 
 Secondly, it will unite Christians in one supreme 
 object of contemplation, and in a mutual conviction, 
 that there is really but one road to the kingdom of hea- 
 ven. Let men embrace the truth without contradic- 
 tion, and without wavering, that God is indeed an un- 
 compounded fountain of all moral perfection, and how 
 immensely interesting will they find it, to improve their 
 knowledge of this great subject, and to understand the 
 consistent energy of the Divine Mind, in regulating the 
 destinies, and promoting the welfare, of the whole intel- 
 lectual creation ! They will clearly understand that 
 such a Being is truly the God of peace, and the God of 
 all comfort ; and that jars and conflicts among his crea- 
 tures, must ever incur his sovereign disapprobation. 
 The conviction will be irresistible, that as God is holy, 
 without any mixture or deficiency, he must love holi- 
 ness in others, and abhor the contrary; and conse- 
 quently, to become like God, or to be partakers of the 
 Divine nature, is the one and the only way to the king- 
 dom of heaven. When the opinion is practically enter- 
 tained, that God will be pleased with us for despising or 
 persecuting others, this arises from our mentally impu- 
 ting false principles and sentiments of mind to him; 
 and so also does the persuasion which has been so com- 
 mon, that we can secure his favour by a mere attention 
 to external forms and ceremonies. This supposes him 
 32 * q * 
 
378 WELFARE OF POSTERITY. 
 
 to be a formal and ceremonious Deity ; or that there is 
 some kind of mystery in the disposition of his mind, 
 which is pleased with something else than the essential 
 characteristics of moral goodness. But let these delu- 
 sions be removed from the minds of men, as they will 
 be by the brightness of the Almighty's glory, and Chris- 
 tians will be drawn together, — will be perfectly joined 
 together in the same mind and the same judgment, — and 
 the Millennium will soon open to the view of a delighted 
 universe. 
 
 Thirdly, the public attention will be called to the 
 consideration of religious truth, in a manner that has 
 not been witnessed for the last fifteen hundred years. 
 Inconsideration in mankind is a very great crime; and 
 it is sacredly obligatory on religious teachers to avoid 
 whatsoever would promote, or seem to excuse, this de- 
 structive evil. The people have long had such doc^ 
 trines exhibited before them, from the pulpit and the 
 press, concerning God and his dispensations, as have 
 produced in them a habit of viewing the whole subject 
 of divinity as a mystery, which they cannot understand, 
 and which they need not approach. Hence they feel 
 excused in dismissing the whole theme from their atten- 
 tion, and in devoting their mental faculties to other sub- 
 jects of inquiry or amusement. The land is flooded 
 with novels, and the public taste is deplorably vitiated ; 
 one cause of which probably is, that Theology is pre- 
 sented in a form that is repulsive, or is not maintained 
 in that consistency which challenges the assent of the 
 
WELFARE OF POSTEPJTY. 379 
 
 human judgment, or with that attractiveness which is 
 calculated to engage the attention of a contemplative 
 mind. The views too often given, naturally tend to 
 promote general ignorance ; because, from the kinds of 
 doctrine authoritatively exhibited, the people receive 
 the impression, and become habitually settled in it, that 
 there is nothing in theology that is really worth learn- 
 ing. A gloomy sovereignty is held up to their view T , 
 apparently altogether capricious in its selections, and 
 inexorable in its purposes, to fill a future eternity, in 
 reference to a vast majority of the world, with invaria- 
 ble and interminable agony. The sinner says in his 
 heart, it is mystery all, with nothing in it calculated to 
 engage the attention of the mind ; it may be true, or it 
 may not, and I do not intend to give myself much trou- 
 ble to ascertain whether it be or not. This conduct, 
 indeed, may all be resolved into the enmity of the car- 
 nal mind against God ; but let the character of God be 
 fairly represented, and this enmity will be left without 
 excuse ; whereas if religious teachers misrepresent God, 
 and thereby cause him to be reproached and distrusted, 
 their false doctrines are in a great measure the cause 
 of the injury and the insult. Men live without God in 
 the world, not simply because their carnal mind is en- 
 mity against him, but because they have been bewil- 
 dered and misled by false views of his dispensations. 
 
 Fourthly, a consistent and correct knowledge of the 
 Deity will be a prelude to the Millennium, by removing 
 
380 WELFARE OF POSTERITY. 
 
 infidelity out of the way. — That the world may believe 
 that thou hast sent me. 
 
 Deists ought to be rebuked for their unfair and un- 
 candid hostility to the Christian religion ; but while we 
 blame them, let us be ingenuous enough to own, that 
 stumbling blocks have been cast in their way, by the 
 distorted views which have too often been given of reli- 
 gion. After all the complaints which we have heard, 
 concerning the various orders of heretics, it is presumed 
 that the whole of them together have not had half the 
 influence in diffusing infidelity through the world, as has 
 been produced by the old and orthodox church that has 
 travelled down to us through the dark ages ; and many 
 of the Protestant leaders also, from the Synod of Dort 
 until the present hour, have been teaching doctrines as 
 well calculated to fill the world with deists, as any of 
 those which have been promulgated by the Roman 
 Catholic Church, or by any order of heretics that ever 
 existed. 
 
 Fifthly, a just view of the Divine character will set 
 before us an open door of Christian liberality, and thus 
 will facilitate the progress of truth through the earth. 
 We shall learr* that as God has no tyranny in his nature, 
 so he is always displeased with us when we exercise 
 despotic authority over our fellow-men. The better his 
 character is understood, the brighter it will shine ; and 
 of course, there will be no necessity to bind the human 
 soul in ecclesiastical fetters, for fear it should know and 
 understand the truth too well. Why do ecclesiastical 
 
WELFARE OF POSTERITY. 381 
 
 bodies ordain that men shall believe this, and shall not 
 believe the other, but because they suspect their sys- 
 tems cannot sustain themselves by evidence, and there- 
 fore must be sustained by mere authority ? They aver, 
 that these creeds are indispensable, because it is need- 
 ful to tie the minds of men down to the truth ; not con- 
 sidering that the same clerical process will also tie the 
 human mind to systems of error, as effectually as it can 
 bind them to the truth, by its authoritative energy. 
 Indeed, it is error only, that requires these ecclesiastical 
 contrivances. Truth wants them not; and as little 
 does she need the arts of the sectarian, to suppress 
 inquiry, and to keep the light of evidence from being 
 brought before the public mind. 
 
 To " Arminian Methodists" I appeal ; and I beseech 
 them by all the principles of candour and consistency, 
 to consider well, whether they can avoid the entire sys- 
 tem of original and absolute decrees, on any other 
 ground than that which is occupied in the preceding 
 pages. Will they hold fast to this whole system, for the 
 sake of some long-cherished tenet, such as that of 
 infant guilt, or the uniformity of hell torments, with 
 which the Calvirristic system is inseparably connected 1 
 Let all Christendom hope for better things ! 
 
 Error alone can receive support by enjoining it on 
 the human mind to think only as it shall be directed by 
 ecclesiastical authority. Truth delights in the freedom 
 and sunshine of open day. She needs no darkness to 
 conceal her, and no sectarian management to keep her 
 
382 WELFARE OF POSTERITY. 
 
 evidences from being brought before the public atten- 
 tion. Such arts are needed only by that which cannot 
 bear to be seen in a clear light. 
 
 The clergy of the several denominations are supposed 
 to be the guardians of the people's faith. They are set 
 upon the walls of Zion to watch and see when and 
 where heresy is approaching, and to give the note of 
 alarm.* The Church of Rome makes no secret of the 
 
 * The author published a book in 1813, entitled " An Essay on 
 the Plan of Salvation." Not long after its publication, a Remon- 
 strance against some of its doctrines was sent to the General Con- 
 ference in Baltimore, of which the author was a member, by a 
 Local Minister of the same community, whose name was Mark 
 Moore. The Remonstrance was printed, and several copies dis- 
 tributed, I believe, some time before the meeting of the General 
 Conference ; but shortly after the opening of the session, it was 
 formally laid before that body, that they might interpose their 
 authority in the premises. Whether this document can now be 
 had, is not known with certainty. Two statements contained in 
 it, however, are distinctly recollected. The brother who presented 
 the Remonstrance, after pointing out the heresies of the Essay, told 
 the members of the General Conference emphatically, that they 
 were " The guardians of our faith ;" and that if the doctrines of 
 this book should be admitted, we should have none other than " a 
 finite standard, with which to measure the turpitude of transgres- 
 sion." An infinite standard was wanted, it seems, with which to 
 measure various degrees of criminality, as though there could be 
 degrees in infinity ! The General Conference referred the subject 
 to the Baltimore Annual Conference, to which body the author was 
 responsible. A committee was appointed in due form, and the 
 matter thoroughly examined ; but we have not learned that any 
 
WELFARE OF POSTERITY. 383 
 
 matter, but claims the right to control all faith by au- 
 thority, as a prerogative granted to her from high hea- 
 ven ; and the faithful are duly notified by the published 
 sanction of a bishop, or by some other indication of 
 clerical decision, what books they are allowed to read. 
 Other denominations manage the business more secretly. 
 They whisper the matter significantly through the ranks, 
 
 and give their flocks to understand that Mr. is a 
 
 dangerous man, and that such and such books are here- 
 tical publications. The people understand the meaning 
 of the hint, however indirectly given ; and like the ter- 
 rified brood when it hears the note of alarm from the 
 mother's voice, they run under the wings of ecclesias- 
 tical authority for protection. 
 
 Now for my part, I find myself unable to avoid these 
 following conclusions: first, that whatever Protestant 
 denomination is most expert in these sectarian arts, is 
 the one which most resembles the Roman Catholic 
 Church. Secondly, if these practices are innocent and 
 virtuous in one denomination, they are equally so in 
 another ; and of course, Unitarians, Universalists, Deists, 
 and even Atheists, have as good a right to prevent the 
 spread of truth through society by this course of man- 
 agement, as other people have. Thirdly, such a prac- 
 tice is as fully calculated to promote error, as to main- 
 heresy was ever detected, and I continue unto this day, witnessing 
 to small and great, and saying none other thing than that which 
 the prophets and apostles did say was true ; namely, that God is 
 light, and in him is no darkness at all. 
 
384 WELFARE OF POSTERITY. 
 
 tain " the truth upon the earth ;" and therefore it rests 
 upon the assumption, that truth and error are supported 
 in the same way, and depend upon the same means for 
 their defence ; whereas it is undeniable that truth loves 
 the light, and error loves darkness ; truth seeks to be 
 known openly, and error wants concealment; truth 
 flourishes in the sunshine of unobstructed evidence, and 
 error requires that reason and revelation be suppressed 
 by authority, or be kept out of sight by sectarian policy 
 and intrigue. 
 
 The author of the present publication, it may be said, 
 is very desirous to have a hearing from all parties. 
 This is the exact truth of the matter ; and he avows it 
 openly without a blush. If Catholics and Predestinari- 
 ans shall resort to the above-mentioned course of man- 
 agement, to keep the present. discussion from being read 
 and examined, it will be no matter of surprise; but 
 should " Arminian Methodists" do so, from a suspicion 
 that the author has not duly used a sectarian square 
 and compass, to make every sentence and every senti- 
 ment correspond precisely with Old Methodism, he will 
 regret it seriously, and peradventure will pray that " the 
 counsel of Ahithophel may be turned into foolishness." 
 
 If the reader will pardon this digression, we will 
 return to the advantages of a correct knowledge of the 
 Divine character, in its influence upon future genera- 
 tions. 
 
 Sixthly, this knowledge will inspire the minds of men, 
 and fill them with the unobstructed glow of religious 
 
WELFARE OF POSTERITY. 385 
 
 devotion, by clearly evincing that the nature of God 
 has every thing in it that is calculated to attract the 
 religious feelings of the human soul. The mind will 
 not be embarrassed with contradictions, nor enveloped 
 in any dark mysteries to render it doubtful whether 
 good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness, love 
 and hatred, be of the same nature, and precisely similar 
 in their final operations. 
 
 Seventhly, it will endear the Lord Jesus Christ to the 
 believing soul, by exhibiting the consistent benevolence 
 of the whole of his mediatorial labours and purposes. 
 It will be seen that he came, not to appease inexorable 
 vengeance, and to buy souls away from their depen- 
 dence upon heaven's forgiving clemency; but to mag- 
 nify the law and make it honourable ; to glorify the 
 Father's name; to declare his righteousness; and to 
 demonstrate that Christ himself, as man's Redeemer, 
 was the gift of the Father's love to the icorld. (John 
 iii. 16.) 
 
 Eighthly, this true knowledge of God will refute and 
 ultimately eradicate infidelity, by showing that it is 
 utterly without excuse. Its arguments against the 
 Christian religion, which are only applicable to a false 
 theology, w r ill sink and disappear ; and Deists will be 
 compelled to own, that the God who is revealed to man- 
 kind in the Bible, possesses a character so reasonable, 
 so just, and so benevolent, that it must appear to the 
 common intelligence of the world to be worthy of all 
 acceptation; and no man, but an enemy to his species, 
 33 R 
 
386 WELFARE OF POSTERITY. 
 
 can entertain a wish that it might be false. The more 
 clearly this Sun of righteousness shall shine, and dis- 
 perse the clouds of theological delusion, the more will 
 infidelity be confused, and the more speedily will it be 
 compelled to hide its head for shame, and to give up 
 the contest. 
 
 Ninthly, it will expose all kinds of tyranny amongst 
 mankind, by showing that tyranny is the root, and cen- 
 tre, and quintessence, of all forms of sin ; and that every 
 attribute of God stands as unchangeably opposed to it, 
 as light is opposed to darkness, and happiness to misery. 
 It will be clearly perceived in this sunshine, that every 
 species of malignity is a trait of the Devil's character ; 
 and that the very reason why sinners are damned, is 
 that the malevolence of sin is utterly unfit for the be- 
 nignant harmony of heaven. 
 
 Tenthly, this encouraging view of the Supreme Being 
 will enable and stimulate all Christians to " hold fast the 
 confidence, and the rejoicing of the hope, firm unto the 
 end." (Heb. iii. 6.) All will be brought to understand 
 the truth of the matter, that the souls of men are to be 
 purified and saved by confidence and hope, and not by 
 terror and despair. What more does the apostle say to 
 the Hebrews ? " For we are made partakers of Christ, 
 if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto 
 the end." (Heb. iii. 1 4.) This does not mean that we 
 are to hold fast the beginning of our despondency and 
 fear of hell firm unto the end. Again : " We desire 
 that every one of you do show the same diligence, to 
 
WELFARE OF POSTERITY. 387 
 
 the full assurance of hope unto the end." (Heb. vi. 11.) 
 Once more : " Cast not away therefore your confidence, 
 which hath great recompense of reward." (Heb. x. 35.) 
 Hence we see, that men are purified and fitted for the 
 great recompense of reward, by " confidence" by " the 
 rejoicing of the hope" and by " the full assurance of 
 hope." This differs very materially from the supposi- 
 tion, that the great sanctifying and saving instrument- 
 ality, is to be nothing else than the fear of infinite pun- 
 ishment. 
 
 Lastly, this subject will prepare the way for the 
 world's conversion, and will, with a mild but a mighty 
 energy, melt down the hearts of men into the gospel 
 mould. For " This is life eternal, that they might know 
 thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou 
 hast sent." If eternal life comes by knowing God, 
 it certainly must be by knowing him in his true cha- 
 racter, and not by viewing him as a double-minded 
 being, or as taking pleasure in the endless misery of 
 any portion of his intelligent creation. Mankind will 
 be brought to understand, that all sin consists in diver- 
 sified modes of carrying into operation an odious ma- 
 lignity, which has long been excused by a false theology, 
 but which in reality is utterly inexcusable. They will 
 learn that sin is an irrational and detestable enmity 
 against perfect loveliness and righteousness; that its 
 essential nature is to produce misery, both in ourselves 
 and others; that t*his misery will increase, as sin in- 
 creases ; and that all the interests of heaven, and the 
 
388 WELFARE OF POSTERITY. 
 
 gl'ory of eternal goodness, will require that every incor- 
 rigible sinner shall have a damnation proportioned to 
 the vileness of his hostility against God, and against all 
 intelligent society. Thus learning that sin carries an 
 awful hell in its own bosom, and that the sinner must 
 feel another awful hell by that just operation of the Di- 
 vine government which is necessary to prevent the 
 poison from spreading through the universe, thoughtful 
 millions will flee from sin, as being the very devil, and 
 the very hell, that ought to be eternally dreaded and 
 abhorred ; and they will return to the Paternal Bosom 
 of unchanging Benevolence, as the strong Tower, into 
 which they may continually resort. Thus will they ex- 
 perimentally realize the deep meaning of our Saviour's 
 sublime and finishing prayer, which we have twice 
 quoted, and which ought to be repeated and remem- 
 bered every day, and if possible, every hour of our 
 lives, — " This is life eternal, that they might know thee 
 the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast 
 sent." (John xvii. 3.) 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 The reader will observe, that in the foregoing pages 
 no hypothesis is formed, in regard to any precise results 
 of the Divine administration through the great deep of 
 a coming eternity. The prominent axioms of the Bible, 
 in accordance with all the analogies of nature, have 
 conducted us to the delightful conclusion, that a Being 
 presides over the destinies of the universe, whose suffi- 
 ciency, character, and designs, are the most glorious 
 and lovely that it is possible for created or uncreated 
 intelligence to conceive. Men and angels have cause 
 for eternal exultation that the Almighty lives, and can 
 lift up his hand to heaven, and say, Hive for ever. (Deut. 
 xxxii. 40.) All who know and love the truth, will rejoice 
 in the existence, the happiness, the sincerity, the justice, 
 the authority, the wisdom, the power, the goodness, the 
 impartiality, and the immutability of God. 
 
 From such a character the indubitable inference is, 
 that all the punishments judicially inflicted by Him, will 
 be the energy of Love opposing Malice — that is, essen- 
 tial goodness rightfully repelling the malignant efforts 
 of essential evil. The design and tendency of all the 
 Divine penalties are, to prevent evil, to hold it in check, 
 to drive it back, to weaken, diminish and destroy it. 
 This must be admitted by all who are willing to admit, 
 that the actions of God are diametrically opposite to those 
 
 33 # * • , (389) 
 
390 CONCLUSION, 
 
 i 
 
 of the devil. The devices of the latter are invariably 
 intended to promote evil, to remove checks out of its way, 
 to strengthen, enlarge, and perpetuate it. For this very 
 reason God opposes the devil, and calls upon all his 
 children to resist him steadfast in the faith ; and " for this 
 purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might 
 destroy the works of the devil ;" consequently their ac- 
 tions never co-operate; seeing the one is invariably 
 aiming to build up what the other is using his efforts to 
 destroy. 
 
 Hence it is evident, that an intelligent course of ac- 
 tion, on the part of a Being who is opposite in character 
 to the devil, must be opposite in design and tendency. 
 Yet in all this mighty conflict of good and evil, no me- 
 chanical force is applied to the agency of any indi- 
 vidual. How long the devil and his angels will persist 
 in their malicious war against heaven, or how many of 
 the abandoned children of Adam they will have in their 
 train, we know not and presume not to conjecture. A 
 sinner who says in his heart, that he will never forsake 
 his sins so long as he is allowed to anticipate any thing 
 less than infinite misery, might as well say in plain lan- 
 guage, that he must have a tyrant to govern him, be- 
 cause he is not, and will not be, any thing else than an 
 abject slave. A tyrant is already the ruler of his soul ; 
 for as the disposition of the devil is to promote evil, to 
 remove checks out of its way, to push it forward, to 
 strengthen, enlarge, and perpetuate it, his obvious pur- 
 
CONCLUSION. 391 
 
 pose appears to be to keep his slaves in sin and in all its 
 consequences without end and without diminution. 
 
 A man who says in his heart, that nothing else than 
 such an anticipation of the future shall restrain him from 
 sin, says plainly that the government of God is a burden 
 so intolerable, that subjection to it is a calamity than 
 which nothing can be a greater, except only a torment 
 that will fill the uttermost capacity of the soul for ever 
 and ever ! And suppose a man of this sentiment should 
 be frightened to repentance by the fear of such a hell, 
 would he be a fit companion for angels ? Alas ! for reli- 
 gious teachers to make this dreadful picture a substitute 
 for the character of God, as the means whereby to re- 
 form mankind, would be like an attempt to blow out the 
 Sun, in order to enlighten the world by the fires of a 
 volcano. 
 
 It is supposed that all other motives, except this fiery 
 one, will be utterly inefficient ; and that if we present 
 to mankind any thing short of a torment the most abso- 
 lute that can be conceived, we shall sap the foundation 
 of all the morals of society. But it would be no diffi- 
 cult matter to evince that the morals produced by the 
 sole influence of this motive would be a kind of service 
 that God will not accept of any man. For every act 
 of service from this consideration, would be an impeach- 
 ment of all God's essential attributes. Every effort at 
 repentance and reformation would carry this language 
 in its bosom : — the dread of an absolute despotism is 
 the only thing that influences me to give up my sins ; 
 
392 CONCLUSION. 
 
 and if I had any other way to escape absolute misery, 
 there is nothing in God, or in his government and king- 
 dom, for the sake of which I would devote myself to 
 his service. It is easy to see that in this reformation 
 there would be no principle, and no vestige of true 
 repentance ; for it would imply no conviction of crimi- 
 nality, but merely that the individual has the misfortune 
 to be under the power of a Being whose vengeance 
 cannot be resisted. 
 
 It is true, as Dr. Young says, " They that will not 
 fear shall feel the wrath of heaven." But this wrath, 
 as we have before explained, is a holy and just course 
 of action against the raging energy of moral evil ; and 
 a sinner who deprecates this wrath reveres the righte- 
 ousness and loveliness of the character from which it 
 proceeds ; and his dread of losing the favour of such a 
 Ruler is an essential ingredient in all his religious fears. 
 
 Good men are quickly alarmed, lest the motives to 
 restrain vice should be weakened ; and they seem rea- 
 dily to take for granted, that the strongest view of future 
 misery that can be conceived, is necessary to the refor- 
 mation of the world ; but if this be true, we must of 
 course exhibit the uttermost that it would be possible 
 for Almighty malevolence to inflict. Now will good 
 men undertake to sustain the position, that God will 
 really inflict this amount of punishment ? If so, they 
 must plainly teach, that there is no difference between 
 the conduct of our Creator, and that of an Infinite Ty- 
 rant ; and where there is no difference in conduct, there 
 
CONCLUSION. 393 
 
 is obviously no difference in character. Hence the con- 
 clusion would be, that there is no way effectually to dis- 
 courage sin, but to maintain that our Creator is essen- 
 tially an evil and malicious Being. This cannot be 
 true ; therefore such views of futurity as are perfectly 
 consistent with the rectitude and benevolence of God, 
 asd those alone, will be really salutary in their tendency. 
 
 Abraham informed the rich man in hell, that if his 
 five brethren would not hear Moses and the prophets, 
 neither would they be persuaded, though one should 
 arise from the dead. Now if the strongest possible 
 view of this matter be necessary to reform the world, 
 the rich man was right, in supposing that one should go 
 from the dead to give the most impressive representa- 
 tion that could be given. 
 
 But Abraham said, they have Moses and the prophets, 
 let them hear them. Now what did Moses and the 
 prophets teach 1 Did they teach that sin is an infinite 
 evil, and therefore will be punished with an infinite pun- 
 ishment ? Where is it written 1 They merely taught 
 that God is a holy and just and good Being, who will 
 forgive sinners if they repent, and who, if they repent 
 not, will punish them according to the turpitude and 
 malignity of their evil deeds. 
 
 It will puzzle any man to find where Moses and the 
 prophets ever taught the doctrine of infinite misery for 
 the wicked ; and yet Abraham informs us, that if there 
 be not force enough in the writings of Moses and the 
 
394 CONCLUSION. 
 
 prophets, a messenger from the dead would avail no- 
 thing. 
 
 No stronger proof could be given, that it is not simple 
 fear, but a correct view of the Divine glory which 
 Moses and the prophets gave, that will bring sinners to 
 repentance; and the view which they presented was 
 that God's government and character, are perfectly 
 consistent with eternal goodness and righteousness. 
 
 A sinner who says in his heart that no other consi- 
 deration than that above mentioned shall ever restrain 
 him from sin, resolves to hold fast the very disposition 
 which will make it necessary for his punishment to be 
 eternal; for God will never accept of any service 
 offered from this slavish motive ; and if the sinner per- 
 sist to eternity in refusing to be influenced by any other, 
 it will of course be necessary for him to be punished 
 for ever. This motive, therefore, which is thought to 
 be so exclusively efficient in reforming mankind, mani- 
 festly tends to 'prevent their reformation. 
 
 No man who believes the Bible, will deny that the 
 love of God is essential to Christian holiness ; and we are 
 bound to love him in his true character, and not to im- 
 pute false attributes to him ; for this would be to love 
 that which is not God. Now if we love him for punish- 
 ing his creatures, it must be from a conviction of the 
 truth, that he does so from a lovely principle : namely, 
 to promote and defend happiness ; and consequently, he 
 will not augment the punishment, either in degree or 
 duration, beyond the accomplishment of this object. 
 
CONCLUSION. 395 
 
 Many sinners may have been terrified by apprehen- 
 sions of absolute wrath, and may have been thereby 
 brought to a serious consideration of their future des- 
 tiny ; but in all such instances one of two things has 
 followed : either this awful sentiment has given place to 
 more worthy thoughts of God, whereby they found it 
 possible for them to love him ; or they have wandered 
 away from all true religion. Some have run into infi- 
 delity ; others into despair ; some into a mad determi- 
 nation to take a little pleasure in sin while they have 
 the opportunity ; and others, it may be, into the soothing 
 imagination that the great Sovereign has secured them 
 individually from all danger of condemnation by an 
 eternal decree ; and that it is a righteous thing for them 
 to hate heretics and reprobates, and to take pleasure in 
 their endless misery, as their Creator does. If God 
 punishes any beings merely for the sake of punishing 
 them, it must be because he has a hatred against their 
 persons, and of course originally reprobated them ; 
 therefore the doctrine of infinite wrath, of which we 
 are speaking, and that of eternal reprobation, are essen- 
 tially and immutably joined together. 
 
 It may be replied, however, that the change is in the 
 creatures themselves ; and that though God once loved 
 them, yet he now hates them, not as creatures, but 
 merely in regard to their evil character. The answer 
 is easy : if he hates their evil character, it is not his 
 will that they should have such a character ; and there- 
 fore he is not unwilling that they should abandon it. 
 
396 CONCLUSION. 
 
 If he punishes them only because of their bad charac- 
 ter, he will proportion the punishment to the amount of 
 its badness, and will vary it, according as the character 
 shall vary. If on the contrary, he fixes them in a bad 
 character by his own power, in order to perpetuate and 
 augment their misery, it must be because he hates them 
 as creatures, and consequently ho ted them from all 
 eternity. 
 
 We must briefly notice an objection, a little different 
 from those before examined; namely, that any other 
 view of future misery, than that of its infinity, will afford 
 sinners a prospect beyond the grave ; and many will 
 continue in sin to the end of life, who otherwise might 
 have accepted the terms of salvation. 
 
 That foolish men can pervert any thing, even the 
 Scriptures themselves, to their own destruction, is a de- 
 plorable reality for which we have the authority of the 
 apostle Peter ; but the truth is not to be censured for 
 their perdition ; for it is by the influence of some error 
 which they associate with it, that they are led into their 
 inexcusable presumption and apostasy. 
 
 The doctrine which the Bible authorizes us to believe, 
 and to urge upon mankind, is that God will inflict on 
 the wicked eternal punishment, apportioning the inflic- 
 tion in every instance, to the amount of evil which each 
 sinner shall voluntarily maintain and exercise. This 
 will be done in order to bind down the evil for the pro- 
 tection of society, and to prevent, in the issue, a greater 
 amount of misery than will be produced by this penal 
 
CONCLUSION. 397 
 
 operation. The evil of sin is thus exhibited in the most 
 alarming point of view, that is possible to be conceived 
 by the human mind ; for this supposes it to involve the 
 sinner in an immense amount of misery, under the pen- 
 alty of a benevolent law, and that if the penalty should 
 be removed, its consequences would be more dreadful 
 still. 
 
 The force of this penalty, or otherwise a greater 
 amount of misery by its removal, cannot be prevented, 
 except by reforming the sinner, or by changing the na- 
 ture of sin itself, and converting it into a good thing ; 
 which is a matter that Almighty power is not able to 
 accomplish. To say that a man who really believes all 
 this, will be influenced by his faith to persevere in sin, 
 is to exhibit a proposition that has in it the obvious cha- 
 racteristics of a direct contradiction. 
 
 The same doctrine which thus exposes sin to eternal 
 infamy, glorifies God as a Being of uncompounded ex- 
 cellence and perfection ; for it represents his whole pro- 
 cess as being intended to counteract sin, to subdue it, 
 and to prevent or terminate its ravages, so far as this 
 can be accomplished by the energy of his moral law. 
 Through an endless futurity his whole course of action 
 will be as fully directed against the continuance and 
 consequences of sin, as they have been at any time since 
 sin was first introduced into the creation. To believe 
 the contrary, is evidently to suppose that in a future 
 state our Creator will totally alter his measures, with a 
 view to perpetuate the very evils which he had previ- 
 34 
 
308 CONCLUSION. 
 
 ously been labouring to counteract and to destroy. 
 Hence, one of these two conclusions seems unavoidable: 
 either that his character will have essentially changed, 
 or that he w r as of the same disposition and purpose from 
 everlasting ; and consequently decreed to reprobate a 
 large proportion of the human family. It remains, there- 
 fore, for all mankind to choose whether they will em- 
 brace the doctrine of eternal reprobation, or abandon 
 the notion so long taken for granted without examina- 
 tion, that God will bind the wicked in a state of inevita- 
 ble sin, for fear their torment should not be sufficiently 
 infinite and eternal. 
 
 To suppose that a belief in God, as a truly benevo- 
 lent Being, will necessarily encourage men in sin, im- 
 plies, as I have before said, and will again repeat, that 
 mankind must regard the Creator as a tyrant, in order 
 to the reformation of our fallen race. Whence it would 
 follow, that a tyrannical character is calculated to make 
 a better impression upon the moral faculties of the mind, 
 than a character of perfect rectitude and love. This 
 contradicts all reason and revelation ; and therefore the 
 premises are false, from which it results as a necessary 
 consequence. 
 
 Now, beloved reader, having closed the argument, 
 w r e are almost at the end of our present journey. Do 
 you ask me why I have pursued such an eccentric 
 course 1 It was from an honest conviction that I ought 
 to follow truth and evidence wherever thev should lead 
 
CONCLUSION. 399 
 
 me, and that they have fairly conducted me to the con- 
 clusions which you have seen exhibited. I have not 
 suppressed the conviction of my judgment in any one 
 instance, for fear an avowal of it would not be popular ; 
 nor modified a single sentiment, with the intention to 
 make it correspond with the opinions of any man or 
 body of men upon earth. I cannot for my life arrive 
 at any other conclusion, than that all such arts of policy 
 have vain-glory and deceit at the bottom of them. An 
 honest man will ingenuously state what is really his 
 own opinion ; and this " truth in the inward parts" is 
 what the Almighty God requires of every soul under 
 heaven. 
 
 The practice of suppressing the truth, or refusing to 
 follow its evidences, or endeavouring by any modes of 
 ingenious management to prevent others from devoting 
 themselves to an attentive and candid examination of 
 it, with a view to promote the influence and authority 
 of any sect whatever, will peradventure yet be seen to 
 be nothing else than a species of real wickedness, for 
 which bigots of every order ought to humble them- 
 selves under the mighty hand of God. To resort to 
 any such method for the support of any Protestant 
 church, is as perfectly inexcusable, as it is to make use 
 of similar stratagems for the support and advancement 
 of popery ; and so far as any order of people attempt 
 to suppress truth by authority, or to divert the public 
 attention from the examination of evidence by sectarian 
 management, so far they appear to be marching for- 
 
400 CONCLUSION. 
 
 ward in the long-trodden paths of clerical power and 
 cunning, which have so mournfully disgraced the annals 
 of Christendom. To pretend that such a course is ne- 
 cessary to prevent Heresy and Schism, is precisely the 
 old pretension which has been urged for more than 
 twelve hundred years, and which was a principal cause 
 of producing that long and dismal night of delusion and 
 misery, called the Dark Ages, which will be remem- 
 bered with astonishment and indignation to the end of 
 time. Any modern denomination must first prove itself 
 to be more infallible than Roman Catholics, before it 
 can have any thing like a plausible excuse for resorting 
 to a practice so well calculated to involve the Christian 
 world in ignorance, error, superstition and crime, as 
 that of trying to influence men to " turn away their ears 
 from the truth" under pretence that the Church is our 
 infallible mother, and that the support of her unity, her 
 increase, her power and influence, is to be the Alpha 
 and Omega of all our counsels, plans and operations. 
 This is to make Christians the servants of men, and to 
 hinder them from being in reality the servants of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. He is the king of truth ; and 
 " whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are just, 
 whatsoever things are honest" are essential to the sup- 
 port of his kingdom ; and he commands all his disciples 
 to " think on these things." Let Christians of all orders 
 obey this Divine command ; and let them all resolve like 
 men who " have one Master, even Christ," that neither 
 the assumed authority of human creeds, nor the ingeni- 
 
CONCLUSION. 401 
 
 ous policy of sectarians, shall hinder them from using 
 all the means within their reach, that maybe calculated 
 to aid them in thinking on these things with due atten- 
 tion and fairness of mind, as responsible creatures who 
 must give account unto God for the exercise of their 
 mental faculties, as well as for the ordinary actions of 
 life. 
 
 Let us now conclude by stating the principal maxims 
 which we think have been sustained. 
 
 1. That God, when he spoke accountable creatures 
 into life, with a clear foresight of all the developements 
 of eternal duration, knew with infallible certainty, that 
 the act of creation was an act of infinite benevolence. 
 
 2. That from this perfect discernment of all future 
 results, his Divine Mind is and ever will be happy and 
 undisturbed,^in surveying all the events which take place, 
 now and hereafter, under his grand and universal go- 
 vernment. 
 
 3. That our murmurings and perplexities in our pre- 
 sent state of being, in regard to our Maker's dispensa- 
 tions, arise from our ignorance and corruption ; and that 
 it is no less our interest than our duty, to use all the 
 means in our power to have that ignorance and corrup- 
 tion removed and eradicated. 
 
 4. That the saints and angels in heaven will have 
 such a clear knowledge of God's ability and disposition 
 to support happiness as will fill them with perfect com- 
 posure, in view of all the existing facts in immensity, 
 and all their anticipations for eternity. 
 
 34* r* 
 
402 CONCLUSION. 
 
 5. That opposition to God is as inexcusable in a fu- 
 ture state as in the present ; and that the penalty of the 
 law is directed against a malignant agency, which if 
 not thus restrained, would diffuse misery through the 
 universe, and would even wage war against the happi- 
 ness of God himself. 
 
 6. That this righteous energy of God is directed in 
 the best manner possible to sustain universal right, and 
 to overcome evil ivith good. It cannot be proved that 
 our Creator does any thing to compel sinners in hell to 
 continue wicked, unless it can be made appear that 
 right conduct in one Being compels others to do wrong. 
 
 7. That God, by the moral display of his glory through 
 eternal ages, will satisfy all his children of the goodness 
 and perfection of his whole plan of government; and 
 will make it delightfully manifest that He is able to do 
 exceeding abundantly above all that ice ask or think. 
 
 8. Finally, God will not connive at sin, on the one 
 hand, nor exercise tyranny, on the other. 
 
 The only way to avoid presumption or blasphemy, 
 is to believe without wavering, that God is, in the most 
 perfect sense of the expression, a Good Being, whose 
 penalties are intended to cast back upon sinners the 
 misery which they would otherwise diffuse through the 
 creation. To make these penalties less than they are, 
 would be to produce misery by encouraging sin; to 
 make them greater than they are, would be to produce 
 misery by inflicting an amount of it which is not neces- 
 sary to sustain the system on which the common happi- 
 
CONCLUSION. 403 
 
 ness is suspended. God will not do the one or the 
 other; and the character displayed by his just and equal 
 administration, is the only one which has, or can have, 
 a wholesome and saving influence upon intelligent crea- 
 tures, by drawing them from sin to holiness, from misery 
 to happiness, and by establishing them in a state of eter- 
 nal harmony with one another, and with their Benevo- 
 lent Father in heaven. 
 
 Note. — The author had prepared an Appendix, occasioned by a 
 late publication entitled " Difficulties of Arminian Methodism," 
 appealing to numerous authorities to show that the Calvinistic sys- 
 tem had been misrepresented, and that the system of the Armini- 
 ans is involved in greater difficulties than those which they attempt 
 to fasten upon the doctrine of their opponents. It was perceived, 
 however, as the matter was being put in type, that the Appendix 
 would have to be omitted, as it would swell the present volume 
 considerably beyond its intended limits. This, upon reflection, is 
 not regretted ; because it is believed that the matter contained in 
 the Appendix can, at a future time, be modified and enlarged, and 
 be published separately to better advantage. 
 
V