OBJECTION. God will not gratify His Pleasure at the expense of His Justice, which demands everlasting torment to the wicked; neither can He, so long as the nature of man is as He has made it, free to go as far beyond His Pleasure as he chooses. But when we make ourselves fit to be saved, then He will have mercy upon us, and fulfils His Pleasure in us. ANSWER. 'God worketh in You, both to Will and TO DO of HIS GOOD PLEASURE.'-Phil. ii. 13. "The God of Peace Make you perfect in every good work, to do His Will, WORKING IN You that which is WELLPLEASING in His sight.'-Heb. xiii. 21. 'The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, and as the rivers of water are turned, He turneth it whithersoever He will.'-Prov. xxi. 1. 'The preparation of the heart in man is from the Lord.'— Prov. xvi. 1. 'The steps of a man are ordered by the Lord.'-Ps. xxxvii. 23. The Divine Omnipotence and Goodness are indeed the only solid grounds of our Hope of eternal happiness, and not anything in or beyond our own power to accomplish short of the mighty efficiency of those attributes. Can we alone, creatures of dust and nought, advance one single step towards the attainment of the heavenly throne? Stand still in thy place, O Man, hold that ceaseless breath, and consider what thou art! Mark the incessancy of thy dependence upon some invisible sustaining Power, beyond the narrow limits of thy puny frame, and let the weighty truth cause thee to sink down beneath an overwhelmning flood of reverence, into the shallow insignificance of thy being! And yet it is thou, who of thyself cannot gratify one small desire, nor preserve for one instant thy existence, who boastest of thy self-invested power, and talkest of foiling the lofty Will and the omnipotent Pleasure of the God that fashioned thee, in whom thou livest and movest ! 'What hast thou which thou didst not also receive?' And has the Most High resigned to thee His Superior power and received thine inferior, thy dependent, instead, that thou shouldst so valiantly prevail, and He so submissively yield? Go to, now; determine thou in thy heart to lift up thy hand against a brother to take his life. Fix well thy purpose, let thy steel be keen and heavy, and ponder the deadly aim. But hark! The God of that man and of you has resolved that the life shall be prolonged, that the deed of violence shall not be done. This is His fixed Pleasure, His absolute, determinate Will, be thou forewarned,-now, thinkest thou to succeed in thy design,under circumstances like these? Is not thy breath and thy pulse in His hand, and could He not on the instant, to prevent the baffling of His Will, transfix ye a lifeless statue to the earth, an everlasting monument of desperate presumption? Yet be assured of this one fact, that thy life is not more entirely in the power of thy God, than thy affections, thy thoughts, and thy doings! "Despite of sin, The world may recognise in all time's scenes, Which by our creature Purposes works out PROPOSITION NINTH. It was the Express OBJECT OF CHRIST'S MISSION, To commence the Work of Universal Regeneration and Destruction of Evil, To accomplish the Divine Will, and Fulfil the Promise of the Ancient Covenant. PROOFS. 'The Son of Man is come, To Save that which was Lost." -Mat. xviii. 11. TO SEEK and to Save that which was Lost.' [Mark the uniform expression, 'WAS LOST,' not shall be, in eternity, as the Endless Misery Doctrine would have it.]—Luke, xix. 10; Ezekiel, xxxiv. 16. 'Not to Destroy men's lives, but to SAVE them.'---Luke ix. 56. 'Not to condemn [damn] the world, but that THE WORLD through him might be Saved.'---John, iii. 17. 'TO SAVE THE WORLD.-John xii- 47. "TO BE THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD.'-1 John iv. 14. To Save His People from [an endless hell?] THEIR SINS.' -Mat. i. 21. 'To give himself for our Sins, and To deliver us from [a Future?] THIS PRESENT Evil World.'---Gal. i. 4. To be a Propitiation, and to declare the righteousness of God for the remission of sins that are past.'-Rom. iv. 26. To make Reconciliation for the Sins of the People.'Heb. ii. 17. 'To Bless You, by turning away Every One of You from his Iniquities.'---Acts iii. 26. 'To save SINNERS, and the very CHIEF of them.'---2 Tim. i. 15. 'To call SINNERS, and not the Righteous, [if, indeed, there are such,] to Repentance, and To heal those who have NEED of a Physician.'-Mat. ix. 12, &c. TO GIVE [not sell, nor offer,] Repentance and Remission of Sins.'---Acts v. 31. "To Destroy Death, [the great moral death which was introduced by Adam, which all have died,] and him that hath the power of Death, that is, THE DEVIL,' [Temptation, the Evil Principle, personified.]---Heb. ii. 14. "TO DESTROY THE WORKS OF THE DEVIL.'---1 John iii. 8. [What are 'the works of the Devil,' the offspring of the farpervading spirit of evil? Sin and temptation, sorrow and pain, ignorance and error.] 'TO PUT AWAY SIN.'-Heb. ix. 26. "TO FINISH TRANSGRESSIONS.'---Dan. ix. 24. "TO MAKE AN END OF SINS.'---Dan. ix. 24. To make Reconciliation for INIQUITY, and To bring in Everlasting Righteousness."---Dan ix. 24. To Reconcile All Things to himself.'---Col. i. 20. 'That he might GIVE Eternal Life to all that the Father had given him,'---viz: 'All Flesh.'---John xvii. 2. 'To do the Will of God.'---John iv. 38, viz: 'TO LOSE NOTHING of All the Father had given him,' ['All Things.'] ---John vi. 38. "To be a Covenant of THE PEOPLE, for a light of the Gentiles, [unbelievers,]---To bring out the Prisoners from the Prison,---To proclaim Deliverance to the Captives.'---Isa. xlii. 7; lxi. 1; Luke iv. 18. 'To Perform the Mercy Promised to our Fathers.'---Luke i. 72. 'To guide our feet into the way of Peace.'---Luke i. 79. Another object of the Redeemer's mission, was, to reveal and be a witness of, the great truths relating to the character and purposes of God. To this end was I born,' said he, 'and for this cause came I into the world, that I might bear witness to the truth.'---John xviii. 37. He did not come to create any new truths. The office of a witness is not to make truth, but to testify to what is already true. Thus, we cannot suppose, for example, that he came to make it true of God that He 'loved the world,' His 'enemies,' and was good, merciful, and kind, 'to the unthankful and the evil,'--or to accomplish anything by which it would be true that God were the Father and Friend of any of His creatures. These were actual, eternal truths before they were revealed, and whether they were revealed or not; if they had not been, the testimony of Christ could not have made them so. But of these divine and glorious truths men were pitifully ignorant, and were 'without hope and without God in the world.' They were almost wholly unlearned even of the existence of a Supreme Spirit, and there was no blessed filial confidence in the goodness and protecting care of a heavenly Parent. Man was the creature of fear and superstition, and was moved to deeds of shocking desperation, in hopes of propitiating the imagined terrors, and of buying the favor, of his gods. But Messias came a witness 'faithful and true,' to exhibit the resplendent truths of the kingdom, 'as they were in the beginning, are now, and ever shall be, world without end.' "He revealed to a wondering world the character of God as the Friend and Father, who fed the fowls of the air, decked the lillies of the field, and watched the falling sparrow, and who would more abundantly take care of the children of men, the noblest works of his hand. He also brought life and immortality to light, and bore his testimony to the resurrection of the dead, and to prove his witnessing true, he descended into the grave, rose from its power, and ascending on high, received gifts for men, 'yea, for the rebellious also.' Thus he 'came to bear witness to the truth,' and because these truths are destined to prevail over all opposition, and save man universally, in prospect and fruition, therefore is he, 'the Saviour of the World.'* "Hail to the Lord's Anointed, He comes with succour speedy, Oe'r every foe victorious, He on his throne shall rest, All blessing and all-blest."--MONTGOMERY. COMPLETION OF THE ARGUMENT. Has God invested the Saviour with Sufficient Power and Means to effect a Triumphant Accomplishment of these Glorious Objects? ANSWER. 'Which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to Finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is NOT ABLE to Finish it, all that behold it begin to mock * Williamson's Exposition of Universalism, p. 17, G |