He is just to all men and the saviour of all men. (See 1st Tim. 4, 10.) If a man has sinned, justice requires that he be punished, but no more than is necessary to accomplish the purpose for which the law is given, viz. to suppress sin and promote holiness; and thus to secure the greatest good of all concerned. And mercy requires the very same. Who will object? Who will dare so to define justice and mercy that they cannot harmonize in the Divine mind and character? Would any place the Deity upon a divided throne; so that the black fires of unsatisfied revenge, and the waters of capricious mercy shall wage eternal war, and rack his troubled soul with sterms of contending passions? And then ask intelligent men to worship him? What christian would put up Satan upon one side, as a friend of justice, pleading like some State's Attorney, for this notion of justice, the endless damnation of all-and Jesus upon the other side, like a fced lawyer, pleading for the prostration of justice, and the claims of opposing mercy? And who will suppose, in this perplexing case, the Judge, at last, gives a part to justice and Satan; and the rest to mercy and Jesus, to satisfy in part the claims of both? Yet this notion, preposterous and absurd as it is, has been the prevailing theory of christendom for ages! To support it, ponderous volumes have been written; art and genius have been exhausted; and herculean efforts have been made in its defence. Yet it cannot be true; and it confuses all conceptions of justice, and results in nothing practical or useful; but perplexes honest inquirers and promotes skepticism.

6. God is just—nothing more and nothing less. We expect to be punished as much as we deserve, because it is just, and should be so. We would avoid sin because it will justly bring misery. Those who think their neighbors' sins justly deserve endless punishment, should reflect that they may be partial judges. And these, who think their own merits justly deserve endless hap

piness, doubtless charge more for them cy are worth. Rewards and punishments relate actions, and must be exactly graduated by their degrees of merit and demerit, in order to be just. But such favors as God is disposed to confer on men, unconnected with their actions and independent of them, are just, not as a reward, but as a just gift. Our present existence is a gift not a reward. So will be our final endless being. An immortal and happy existence may be a just gift, but cannot be a reward. A reward is just reciprocity or remuneration. But a free gift is benevolence; and is just when the rights of none are violated by it. A father has a just right to give his son a farm, after he has rewarded him according to his actions, if in so doing he does injustice to none else. Some say, if Heaven is to be a just gift, that is, something for man after he has received just rewards and punishments, we shall have nothing to thank God for! As if the dark and ungrateful soul could never feel thankful for any thing which was right for any thing but a violation of justice-a deliverance from punishment, which in moral right he ought to suffer! I think this high and sublime principle of moral justice, which characterizes the Deity, is most worthy of thanks. I think the heavenly hosts would never praise God for doing injustice-I can only feel thankful for justice (rightly understood;) and I must despise injustice, because it is always wrong. So I think, the incorruptible inhabitants of heaven, can never admire that partial clemency, which saves them, when they ought in justice to be damned. How preposterous to make the eternal Father of the universe unjust-and his saints unjust, so that they cannot be grateful for -aught but injustice! And all unjust except Satan! If these popular notions of stice were correct, I should not wonder that Satan reb led against the Divine goyernment. For if he admire justice, (as it is thought he did) and found it disregarded in the monarchy of Heaven,

I should not expect him to yield a filial obedience. Hence his own great bard has made him to say, "he had rather reign in hell, than serve in Heaven."

*I here offer a Note from Dr. Clark's Com. to show how careless the Doctor sometimes was, when he forgot his own creed, and wished to trouble the dark waters of Calvinism. On the text 1st John, 3, 8, he says, "God is love. An infinite fountain of benevolence and beneficence to every human being. He hates nothing he has made. He cannot hate because he is love. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good; and sends his rain on the just and the unjust. He has made no human being for perdition; nor ever rendered it impossible by any necessitating decree, for any fallen soul to find mercy. He has given the fullest proof of his love to the whole human race, by the incarnation of his son, who tasted death for every man. How can a decree of absolute, unconditional reprobation of the greater part or any part of the human race, stand in the presence of such a text as this? It has been well observed, that although God is holy, just, righteous, &c., he is never called holiness, justice, &c., in the abstract, as he is here called LOVE. This seems to be the essence of the Divine nature; and all other attributes to be only modifications of this."

Now according to the Doctor's own creed, the millions who happen to die unconverted, must be consigned to endless torments in hell. Well, according to the above Note, God will do this without hating them at all, by his justice, which is only a modification of love! An "infinite fountain of benevolence" will punish men in this way! We must think the Doctor inadvertently let out the truth above, forgetting his own creed, in his honest zeal.

CHAPTER II.

FOR WHAT PURPOSE DID JESUS CHRIST COME INTO THE WORLD?

FROM what has been said in the foregoing chapters, it will appear that moral justice requires every individual to receive according to his deserts. And that it will in no case dispense with what it does require. And forsooth, if any one doctrine is more clearly taught in the holy scriptures, than another, it is this, that "GOD WILL BY NO MEANS CLEAR THE GUILTY," but that he "WILL RENDER TO EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS." From this conclusion, the following questions arise, which we propose to answer in the light of the Bible and reason. 1. For what purpose came Jesus into the world? 2. What was the use of his death? 3. What is the object of repentance and reformation? And 4, What is meant by forgiveness of sins?

1. For what purpose then came the Saviour into the world? We must conclude God was just, and therefore, did not send him into the world to do injustice. And that Jesus was just, and therefore did not come to do any thing that was unjust. But on the contrary, as God was just, he sent his son, who revered justice, to do justice; that is, to do that which would result in the greatest perfection and happiness of all concerned. He said he "came not to destroy the law but to fulfil it." Now what does the law require? Answer: The obedience of all moral beings. If Jesus lived in perfect obedience, it would only fulfil the law so far as he was personally concerned. This would be only what the law

required him to do.. But in order to fulfil the whole law, that, "not one jot or tittle of it should fail," he must cause all men to become obedient. The whole law will never be fulfiled, until every subject obeys it. Hence, it is not intimated in the Bible, that he came to save any body from just punishment; but to save mankind from their sins. The angel said, "And thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins." -Matt. i. 21. Again, it is said, that, "He was manifested to take away our sins." "To destroy the works of the devil." "Behold the lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world." "The Father loveth the son and hath given all things into his hand."-John iii. 35. "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from Heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day."-John, vi. 37-40. The general implication of the Bible upon this subject, is, that Christ, from his regard to moral purity, and his love to our race, has undertaken to redeem us from the love of sin, and cleanse us from all impurity. He is not to force into submission against our will; for that would be only outward submission, and of no use. But he is to work at the will itself. Our perverse will is the very thing that needs to be subdued. Let him but subdue our evil passions and corrupt dispositions, and then our will will be right. To talk of Christ's saving us from our sins, whenever we will to be thus saved, is to say, he will save us from them, whenever we save ourselves from them. This is to change a bad will, after that will has already become a good one. A physician says he will cure me, if I will first get well! If Christ waits till the sinner's will is right, before he saves him from sin, he will then be already saved from sin, which is a bad will; and would need no assistance to accomplish what

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