a deliverance in a moral sense; that is, a deliverance into the glorious liberty of the children of God. And what kind of liberty is this? Is it liberty to sin?-to commit all manner of abominations? No! The children of God, in a spiritual and moral sense, have not, neither do they wish for such liberty.Hence a deliverance from the bondage of corruption, in a moral sense, is a deliverance from sin. It is a deliverance from vanity-from folly, ignorance, envy, hatred, injustice, cruelty, bigotry, falsehood, superstition, pride covetousness, and all the corruptions that infest the human heart. This is what the creature shall be delivered from. And what other deliverance (i. e. in a moral sense) does he stand in need of? A deliverance in this sense would be a deliverance from the lowest hell! (Psalm lxxxvi. 13.)

Christian liberty is the liberty of serving God in sincerity of loving him with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength; and of loving our neighbours as ourselves of doing good to all men as we have opportunity, and recommending it more especially to the household of the faithful-of doing unto others as we should wish and reasonably expect them to do unto us, under a change of circumstances-of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, mitigating the circumstances of widows and orphans in their afflictions, and of living lives unspotted from the world. This is pure and undefiled religion, in the exercise of full gospel liberty; (James i. 27;) and the gospel (viz. the good tidings of great joy which shall be unto all people) gives no other liberty but this. And this is the liberty into which the creature, (Ts totum genus humanum,) the whole race of mankind, SHALL BE DELIVERED.

Here, again, I am obliged to throw out a number of pages, in which I attempted to show by what means this deliverance will be carried into effect;

and yet, after all, I shall extend the work beyond my proposed limits.

I have only room to say, in general terms, that, as the diseases of the body are mere privations of health, so the disorders of the mind are all merely negative, a lack or want of their contrary virtues; the same as darkness is nothing more than the absence or want of light. Hence ignorance, folly, injustice, hatred, cruelty, &c. are only the want of knowledge, wisdom, justice, love, mercy, &c. and, therefore, these are the sovereign remedies for the mind. Yea, all the remedies for the moral maladies and vices of the human heart, are to be sought for in their contrary virtues. These are the remedies which were manifested in Jesus; and therefore he is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption: (Cor. i. 30 :) i. e. he becomes so by his example; and in the observance of which, we find a deliverance from sin.

I might here speak of the glorious consequences of this deliverance; which can be nothing short of the final emancipation of all rational beings from the bondage of sin and death, into the life, light, and liberty, of the children of God; but, for reasons before given, I must hasten to a close.

The doctrine herein inculcated rests on the divine and infinite prescience of JEHOVAH; the immutability of his counsel, and the perfection of his nature and designs-all concentering in infinite and eternal goodness.

By this system, we are enabled to behold a God, infinitely good, as well as great, whom we can worship without distraction. According to this system, there is no such thing as a secret will in opposition to that which is revealed-no need of racking one's imagination, to distinguish between permissive and decretal events-no events too small to come under the divine prescience; and none foreknown which

were not designed to be-no imperfection or defect in the great whole; nor in the several parts, except when viewed in their separate capacity, so that their relation and connexion are not fully discovered. All is harmony in God, its several parts have their proper place, and all is perfect. No evil but what shall be eradicated; no vice but what shall be overcome by virtue; no hatred but what shall be removed by love; no death but what shall be swallowed up in victory; and no devil but what shall be destroyed by Christ! (Heb. ii. 14.) When these things are accomplished, then, GOD, who is LOVE, shall be all in all. (1 Cor. xv. 28.)

197

LECTURE VIII.

To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. ISAIAH, viii. 20,

FROM the foregoing lectures, it will have been perceived, that the nature of God is LOVE, and that all his attributes partake of this heavenly and divine principle; that he stands in the same moral relation to all rational beings, and that his purposes are immutable that man was made originally subject to vanity, without any choice or consent of his own, as he could not have been consulted about it; that his sin consisted in his forsaking his state of innocence, and pursuing the path of disobedience-that sin is a violation of that moral and divine law which God hath implanted in the understanding; which law is the knowledge man has of moral good; and the transgression of which bringeth death-that man, in present constitution and organization, is naturally mortal; yet, as death in Adam seemed to be occasioned by sin, so, in others, sin is often the occasion of natural death; yet death, whether in a natural or moral sense, is finally, and fully, the wages of sin— that salvation consisteth, 1st, in a salvation from sin; and of course from consequent guilt and condemnation; and, 2d, in a deliverance from death, by the resurrection of man to a state of immortalitythat these glorious truths have been made manifest in and through Jesus Christ, a man approved of God by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did by

his

him-that as God raised Jesus from the dead, and hath given him power over all flesh, so it is equally true and clear that he will raise up us also by Jesus; i. e. even the self-same creature which was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who subjected it; and, pursuant to a glorious hope, shall deliver us, and all mankind, totum genus humanum, from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

These things having been proved, and amply supported by the law and the testimony, there could not now remain even the shadow of a doubt upon the mind, were it not for the unreasonable prejudices, the unfounded dogmas, and vain traditions of men.

That these dogmas are founded in error, is what now remains to be proved. To do which however, I shall pursue a different method (as I have done heretofore) from what has generally been adopted; and therefore shall have occasion to consider but a few of the various passages of scripture on which a contrary doctrine has been predicated, and by which, for a long period, it has been defended. For, to consider the whole of these would exceed our limits; and at the same time might not be so convincing a proof, as testimony more positive, and more direct.

I choose, therefore, in this lecture, to strike at the very foundation, or main pillars, on which the cruel and unmerciful doctrine of endless misery is supposed to rest; and if these can be removed, the whole superstructure must fall to the ground.*

* This lecture is the substance of two discourses which were delivered at Langdon, N. H. July 22d, 1805, and were immediately printed, and remain to this day unanswered. The substance of those discourses was again published, in a differ ent form, in the state of New York, in 1816, And at each publication the learned clergy have been respectfully called upon to show wherein these statements are incorrect. They have not seen fit to do it; and, it is believed, for this good reason, because they know the statements are true.