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all shall be felt and returned by all,---whether the Divine Law which has this ineffable requirement, shall ever be fulfilled? The popular theology which talks so much of the necessity of a full satisfaction of the Law, teaches a very different fulfilment of the Law of God, indeed, from that which we shall find in the Scriptures. Acknowledging the Divine Law to require of mankind a universal homage to their Maker, and universal love among themselves, yet this requirement, it teaches, can never be fulfilled. And why? Because, forsooth, the Law must be satisfied. Why, then, the Law will be fulfilled, of course, if it is ever satisfied,---how is this? Why, the penalty for the transgression of God's Law is Endless Misery, says 'orthodoxy,' the Law has been broken, the penalty incurred, and the Law must have satisfaction. Now, we would answer this by asking a few plain questions : Can the Law of the Lord, which, as you confess, demands the universal obedience and love of Mankind, ever be satisfied or fulfilled in the endless perpetuation of myriads in disobedience, hate, and suffering? Is that Law a 'Perfect' one which demands of the same creatures, their love and confidence toward God with all their strength, and at the same time, their everlasting enmity and wretchedness? Can that Law be mighty in the 'converting of the soul' if the penalty of its transgression is such as to destroy its own purposes, and to build up, magnify, and eternalize the very calamities it was designed to remedy? Does not your doctrine imply that Revenge, Endless woe, and not Love, is the Fulfilling of the Law? And does it not also contradict that oft-repeated teaching of the sacred word that By the DEEDS OF THE LAW, no flesh can be justified in His sight?'---Rom. iii. 20; Gal. ii. 16; iii. 11. And, why, if the Law demands those two opposite ways of being satisfied, shall it not rather prefer to have the satisfaction it requires, from its universal obedience, and not from its eternal frustration? And if it be so imperative that the Law must be satisfied, and in the awful rather than the blessed way, why shall not the penalty be universally inflicted, seeing that it is universally incurred? If it be said that the Saviour suffered the infinite misery which was due to all the

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redeemed, then we ask whether the Divine Law be a‘Just,' a 'Pure,' a 'True,' a 'Holy,' a 'Good' one, as the Scriptures say, if it could be reconciled and satisfied with the sufferings of an Innocent being, in substitution for the Guilty? And to speak of the Divine Law at all as demanding Satisfaction,' that is, useless, malicious, vengeful redress, is it not the same as to attribute to that Law a host of human imperfections, and to compare the merciful Deity to bloodthirsty, implacable, capricious Neros and Borgias? Besides, the saying that endless torments is the threatened penalty which God has affixed to the transgression of His Law, is entirely assumed. There is not a word of Scripture for it. Did He pronounce such a penalty at the solemn charge He gave to the First Parents, not to taste the fruit of the tree of knowledge? or even after their sinning? Was the doom of everlasting wo spoken by the mouth of the Lord as the recompense of disobedience amid the thunderings of Sinai, when the tables of the eternal, Moral Law were solemnly committed to the Lawgiver of the nations? Surely it would have been uttered then, were it ever to be. Conjoined with any of the numerous repetitions of the commandments, or of parts of them which are written in the books of the Prophets, of the Wise Man, or of the Psalmist, is the infliction of immortal agonies ever to be found? the Son of Man came down from heaven to declare the counsels and the purposes of his Father, did He lift up his earnest voice and proclaim, 'Such and such things are Commanded in My Father's Law, and such which, I show unto you, are forbidden; Choose ye, O sons of Earth and Immortality, which ye will perform! For ye are free, indeed, and trust ye not that the Lord will pity or help though millions of you foolishly plunge yourselves in the bottomless abyss of perdition he hath prepared for you! Behold, I offer you everlasting glory and holiness, as the reward of constant obedience to the Law which I declare unto you, (though I forewarn you that the ways of wisdom in this world are not ways of pleasantness and peace, but of constant mortification, and sorrow of heart, and frequently of especial afflictions and calami

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ties.) But verily I say unto you, that except ye observe and keep all the statutes and all the Commandments of the Law of the Lord your God, to do them, ye shall surely be revivified and awakened in the world to come, to unspeakable, deathless, hopeless misery, in a region where ye shall be deprived of your power of obedience, world without end! Be not deceived; the way of the transgressor is easy, and the happiest here, but---Endless Perdition to the Wicked! Behold I shew unto you the Reward and the Penalty! Everlasting Life to the Good! Everlasting Death to the Evil! Are there to be found in all the discourses of our Saviour, any such teaching as this? Nay, you will not pretend it. Or did any of the Apostles, in their various statements of the Divine Law, or in any of their writings upon the subject, ever intimate that the unmerciful penalty of eternal woe had been affixed to its violation, or any other penalty which is inconsistent with its ultimate universal obedience? We shall soon be convinced, on the contrary, we think, that the sacred writers have confidently believed in the final complete Fulfilment of the Law of God.

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Whether the testimony of the Prophet in one of those beautiful chapters concerning the glory and triumph of the mission of the Messiah, that The Lord will Magnify His Law, and make it Honorable,' i. e. to be Honored,---Isa. xli. 21,whether the eye of inspiration was here directed to the riod when 'the vail of the covering that is cast over All People shall be removed, and tears shall be wiped from off All Faces,' when 'All shall know the Lord from the least unto the greatest,' when 'All People shall be turned to the Lord to serve Him with one consent,' we shall not attempt to discuss. We would rather rest the decision of the question we are considering upon one, plain, unambiguous declaration of the Divine Teacher. What language could be more conclusive, candid reader, than this? Verily, I say unto you, [said Jesus,] till Heaven and Earth pass, [or, Heaven and Earth can sooner pass,] ONE JOT OR TITTLE SHALL IN NO WISE PASS FROM THE LAW, [the eternal Moral Law,—'the Commandments,' verse 19,] TILL ALL BE FULFILLED.'-Mat.

v. 18. St. Luke records the same speech of our Lord, in the following language: 'It is EASIER for Heaven and Earth to pass, THAN FOR ONE TITTLE OF THE Law to fail.' -xvi. 17. Here we might rest, and safely permit the subject to stand, settled, we think, and immutable, as the Rock of Ages, upon the strong ramparts by which it is sustained in the scriptures we have already exhibited. Why then should we point to our former arguments, concerning the Disposition, the Purpose, the Will, the Promise and the very Oath of God for the Salvation of the Universe, in confirmation of the sublime truth to which we have here arrived? For the mind that would obstinately set itself against the force of evidences so clear and strong, would not scruple to discredit the very Oath of Jehovah, and yet to disbelieve "though one should rise from the dead!' Would it be of any avail to point such an one, who should persist in believing in the eternal reign of evil and disobedience to the Law of God, to those mighty words of the Lord of Power and Truth, I will Put MY LAW in the inward parts, and Write it in the Hearts' [of those who were not My People,] that ALL shall know Me, from the Least to the Greatest? With those who doubt that the Divine Spirit is the Sovereign of the human soul, it is of no consequence to urge upon them this great, recorded Purpose of the Almighty to stamp the impress of His own Spirit upon ours, to print His holy Law upon the hearts, and engrave it upon the minds, of All His People, blotting out the deep-dyed crimson stains of their iniquities forevermore.-Heb. viii. 10--16. But we shall here leave this part of our subject, to answer this 'free agency' objection which here arises, by itself, and shall thereby, we think, deduce an additional measure of strength to the irrefragible position at which we are planted.

The Ransom'd of the Lord shall come to Zion's holy hill, And songs of praise and shouts of joy the heav'nly courts shall fill; And Every Knee shall bow to God, and Every Tongue confess, That God, the Lord, their Helper is, their strength and righteousness." Mrs. J. H. SCOTT.

OBJECTION.

The Commandments of the Lord, in consequence of the inviolable liberty of our choice of evil or good, happiness or misery, are never accompanied with the means of enforcing their obedience, no more than human commands are, and therefore only appeal to us as exhortations or entreaties to holiness and life eternal.

ANSWER.

'I said not unto the seed of Jacob, [saith the word of the Lord,] SEEK YE ME, IN VAIN! I, the Lord speak Righteousness! I declare things that are RIGHT!'-Isa. xlv. 9. The Only Wise makes no unreasonable, or useless, or vain Commands; none which He might foresee shall not be obeyed, or which He were not able to carry out, and none which were not absolutely necessary to be enforced to the accomplishment of His Purposes. Consequently, ‘All His Commandments are SURE!' And His Commandment, therefore, upon All Men, to turn unto Him and live, will surely 'stand fast forever and ever, and be DONE, in truth and uprightness. For He does not Command the weak children of humanity to Seek Him IN VAIN.

'I will Give them One Heart, and I will Put a New Spirit within You; and I will Take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will Give them a heart of flesh; That they may walk in My Statutes, and Keep My Ordinances, and DO them.'-Ezek. xi. 19, 20.

'Because thy rage and thy tumult is come up into Mine ears, therefore I will put My hook in their nose, and My bridle in thy lips, AND I WILL TURN THEE BACK BY THE WAY BY WHICH THOU CAMEST.'-2 Kings, xix. 28.

'I will Put My fear [filial reverence] in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me.'-Jer. xxxii, 40.

'From the place of His habitation, He looketh upon All the Inhabitants of the Earth, and [gradually, invisibly, mysteriously,] fashioneth their hearts ALIKE.'—Ps. xxiii. 14, 15, 'O, Lord God of our Fathers, art not Thou God in Heav

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