SECTION V.

Scriptural views of human Accountability and of future Judgment confirm our hopes.

Intention of appealing to this topic. That men are accountable according to advantages and dispositions to improve them ;-this reasonable; -confirmed by the Scriptures; — infants therefore not accountable. Various representations of the general judgment ;— none of them refer to infants ;—who are nevertheless capable of the rewards of the righteous.

IT has been formerly contended, that as infants confessedly are not moral agents, so neither can they be properly considered the subjects of moral government. By a rapid glance at the representations given in the Scriptures, of human accountability, and of the future judgment, it is chiefly intended to confirm that sentiment.

The rule of accountability, and therefore of judgment, is the moral law, or that rule of action which is immediately founded on the constituted relations of any created being, and directly subserves the ultimate purposes of his existence. The violation of this is sin, and exposes to righteous retribution; because it not only contemns the authority of the Supreme Lawgiver, but in its tendency, defeats the very ends of existence. But sin consists very much,

if not wholly, in the disposition of the agent ; and the malignity of that disposition is evidently great, not only according to the amount of actual transgression, but according to the amount of moral advantages for obedience. Not to insist on other points, it may be sufficient to advert to the last, just suggested, that there is an increase or diminution of accountability, according to the increase or diminution of advantages for obedience, in other words, for aiming at the glory of God in our personal happiness.

We perhaps have no reason from the Sacred Volume for supposing, that any persons, destitute of evangelical instruction, will be saved; "for as many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law." But on the other hand, those persons only, or as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law." Those, therefore, who are destitute of revelation, are not accountable for the violation of laws, known only by means of revelation. Hence, though they may perish for their offences, committed against the light and advantages they have, their condition will be more tolerable, than that of persons who perish by neglecting the overtures of the Gospelt. Those who despised Moses' law incur a severer doom than the heathen; but "of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye,

*Rom. ii. 12.

+ Matt. xi. 21-25.

shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace*."

Thus, it appears to be not only a dictate of reason, but the testimony of revelation, that individuals are held accountable, according to their opportunities of learning and fulfilling their obligations. How then can infants be at all accountable, who have no opportunities, nor even a natural capacity, of learning what their obligations as human beings are? If therefore, they be treated as accountable, it will be an anomalous procedure in the government of God; and if they perish, must perish without trial, and because the God of all grace takes pleasure in their destruction. The only alternative of condemnation, appears to be, salvation through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Again, the Sacred Scriptures bring forward the day of final retribution, with interesting copiousness and impressive variety. Sometimes, we observe them earnestly warning sinners of its certain approach; at others, minutely describing their characters who are liable to a tremendous sentence; and at other times, graphically depicting the sublime and awful

* Heb. x. 28, 29.

proceedings of judgment. But no where do they advert, in this connection, to the case of that equal portion of the human race, who never became moral agents in a state of probation; and they uniformly maintain that those who are condemned, are condemned according to their works, receiving only an equitable doom, merited by their own crimes. Such is the doctrine of revelation, both in the Old and the New Testaments*. On this ground, admonitions are addressed to perhaps all conceivable varieties of character, who are liable to condemnation to abusers of divine mercy t; to profane persons; to those who neglect Christ, and the offices of holiness §, and to formal or hypocritical professors of religion. These, and others, will suffer the wrath which "is revealed from heaven, against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men;" but no where are individuals admonished, or in any way apprized of their liability to eternal judgment for their relation to Adam, or for the crimes of their immediate progenitors.

The descriptive epithets, "small and great," applied to persons whom John saw arraigned in

* Gen. xviii. 23.

Psalm xcvi. 13. Eccl. xii. 14, and xi. 9. Rom. iii. 5, 6. Jude 14, 15. Acts xvii. 31. 2 Cor. v. 10, 11.

Matt. xii. 36.

+ Rom. ii. 3-5.

↑ Matt. xiii. 40-43.

§ John xii. 48. Matt. x. 14, 15, and Matt. xxv.

|| Luke ix. 25-29.

judgment, are with good reason interpreted, not of corporal stature, but of rank and order in so

cial life. And even were the literal import of the terms to be considered preferable, no condemnatory sentence on those who are personally innocent can be implied; for it is explicitly stated, that the persons arraigned, were judged from the things written in the books, according to their works*.” Far, therefore, from there appearing in the Holy Scriptures any traces of a design to condemn infants, there have not been discovered any reference to them in all the varied announcements of the great day; and further still, the mode of proceeding in judgment, is altogether inapplicable to the condition of those who, while in the present world, remain incapable of moral agency.

But while scriptural accounts of the future judgment thus warrant a conclusion, that infants will be exempted from condemnation, we are not left to suppose, that for the same reasons they will be excluded from salvation. Though condemnation will be according to personal merits, acquittal will not. Even in the proceedings of that great day, there will be an illustrious display of sovereign benevolence. Such as possess the eternal inheritance will receive it not as a remuneration for their deserts, but as their birthright, and in virtue of their relation to Jesus Christt.

*Rev. xx. 12.

+ 1 Pet. i. 2, 3.