wish to avoid mortification, they stay away! The Elder inquires how many of my ministering brethren render me assistance? I answer, there is little need of aid from any quarter, when a controversialist of ordinary capacity has the TRUTH to defend. As to the Brother* writing at my side, to whom the Elder has alluded, I would state that so far from rendering me assistance, his every moment is occupied in taking down the discussion, pro and con, for his own use and benefit.

Before noticing farther the last speech of my friend, I will introduce my Ninth Argument. It is based on

THE JUSTICE OF GOD.

PROPOSITION.-1. God is infinitely Just. 2. His Justice will remedy all moral evil-rectify whatever is wrong in man-and restore harmony in the moral Universe. 3. Justice between the Creator and the creature, requires and will secure, the everlasting good of all mankind.

PROOF.-1. God is infinitely Just.-"Just and right is he."(Deut. xxxii. 4.) "A Just God and a Savior.”—(Isa. xlv. 21.) Just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints.”—(Rev. xv. 3.) "Shall mortal man be more just than God ?"-(Job. iv. 17.) Justice is a fundamental principle in the government which Deity exercises over man." Justice and Judgment are the habitation of thy throne."—(Ps. lxxxix. 14.) All men are the subjects of God's Justice. So long as their existence continues, they will be amenable to its demands. It is infinitely perfect, and its claims must all be fulfilled.

2. His justice will remedy all moral evil-rectify whatever is wrong in man-and restore harmony in the moral universe. What is the nature of Justice? It is simply RIGHT. What is the claim -the requirement of Justice? It claims that whatever wrong is enacted in the universe, shall be remedied. What is the office of Justice? It is to see that every violation of the infinite principle of RIGHT, shall be amended and healed, and that all the effects of evil shall be destroyed!

I am aware this view of Justice, its nature and office, is widely different from that entertained by my friend opposite, and the socalled Evangelical world. But if there is any one point on which they err more than another, it is in their views of God's justice. As they represent it, its entire nature is simply to demand suffering, pain and agony! Its whole office is to inflict stripes, anguish, and wretchedness! It desires nothing more-it does nothing more. When an erring child of mortality, blinded by passion, or deceived by temptation, inflicts injury on his fellow being, or the community by the infraction of some wholesome law, Justice, (according to the prevailing theory,) turns and inflicts injury on him—and that settles the account! Justice as thus held, has no interest in the welfare of the guilty-no desire to reform-to bring back to

Rov. C. S. Brown, of Virgil, N. Y.

virtue and righteousness. Oh no! all it wants is to torment him --to crush him beneath its IRON HEEL!! When the sinner strikes a blow, Justice strikes a blow back! When the sinner interferes with, or interrupts, the enjoyments of others, Justice desstroys his enjoyments! When the sinner spills the blood of others, Justice spills his blood! When the sinner takes the life of a fellow being, Justice takes his life!!! This is the sole work and office of Justice, as it stands in the system of modern Evangelism. The mistake our friends make in all this, is that they have incorporated REVENGE into their system, and call it Justice! This is rather an important error, one would think! It is Revenge that returns injury for injury, evil for evil, blow for blow, blood for blood! If this is not revenge-if it is not retaliation-then what is it? That this is not God's Justice, is evident from the fact, that Jesus forbids returning evil for evil, an eye for an eye, etc.

The prevalent view of Justice, ascribes to it an influence in the Councils of Heaven, altogether too weighty, and a mode of procedure abhorrent in the highest degree. Partialist Theology limits and shrivels God's Love, and Goodness, and Mercy, to the smallest possible dimensions-much smaller even than man's-or at least. forbids their exercise in his dealings with his creatures, to any thing like the degree they naturally prompt in imperfect man's better nature. At the same time it magnifies his Justice to an infinite superiority over all his other attributes. It virtually represents Justice as a grim, dark-visaged Giant, towering above all other attributes-standing directly before the Throne of the Eternal-its murky shadow like a vast cloud, stretching across the celestial fields of blessedness, and falling upon and veiling in gloom even the countenance of Heaven's Infinite Majesty-armed with a glittering sword, so huge as to reach to the utmost bounds of space, and while flashing with the lightnings of infinite vengeance, and dripping with floods of crimson gore, it cuts down with furious energy, high and low, great and small, who excite its ire! Its voice of seven thunders reverberates through Heaven, and drowns every word which Love or Mercy would utter in behalf of the guilty, in vociferous demands for blood! BLOOD!! BLOOD!!! So blind is its fury, and so voracious its appetite, that it is as well satisfied with the blood of the innocent as of the guilty! Yea, so insatiable is its desire for blood, that under the plea of sparing humanity, it slakes its thirst from the veins of the innocent and compassionate Son of God! And yet in wicked violation of its dreadful compact, it turns, and plunges into torment, countless millions of God's creatures, and battens upon their misery forever and ever!! While thus rioting in human agony, and PERPETUATING eternally sin and blasphemy, the very things it affects to punish and remove, it tramples on all the other attributes, and compels them to remain almost inactive! With its own claims DOUBLY satisfied, it objects that any other attribute

shall have its demands fulfilled except in the most limited degree!! Nay, it presumptuously and daringly throws itself across the broad highway on which Jehovah would go forth to great and gracious deeds in behalf of humanity, and FETTERS even Omnipotence.

Would God execute wise and benevolent plans to secure the final happiness of his earthly offspring? Justice interposes, and prevents a consummation so desirable!! Would he be Good, infinitely, impartially, endlessly Good towards all men? He cannot-he must not! Justice stands in the way, and will not consent! Would the blessed Father of Spirits have mercy on his frail, erring, sinful creatures? Even this poor privilege is denied him? Justice forbids it, and with loud vociferations, insists that innumerable multitudes whom Mercy would gather in its affectionate embrace, shall be plunged into unmitigated and endless agony!! Thus it prevents the accomplishment of works the most desirable that men or angels can imagine, and introduces and endlessly perpetuates a state of sin and misery, in direct conflict with every holy and gracious attribute of Jehovah!! Oh God! pardon, we beseech thee, the unhallowed views of thy glorious attributes which have so long prevailed among men! We pray thee to remember, it is in blindness and ignorance, that thy creatures have dared to cover the glories of thy character in robes so dark and bloody!

Universalists solemnly PROTEST against such representations of God's Justice. We utterly detest and repudiate them! We believe them to be libelous in the highest degree, in respect to one of the most holy and lovely of the Creator's attributes. So far from God's Justice seeking or requiring to inflict permanent evil on any created being, its whole desire, aim, and office, is to promote the welfare and secure the endless happiness of every member of the human race. Justice is the great corrective, healing, and restoring power in the Divine Government. It is, as it were, the vast BALANCE-WHEEL of the Moral Universe, which controls, equalizes and perfects the operations of the complex machinery of God's Providence. It causes all things to move on harmoniously and surely, to a perfect and glorious consummation of the interest and happiness of all created intelligences.

As I have already remarked, Justice is simply Right. Its claim is that all wrong, all evil, shall be remedied. Its office is to see that wrong is righted, and evil remedied!! The prosperity and happiness of the Universe depends on the prevalence of the principles of Righteousness and Goodness. When one man injures another, in person, property, or reputation, or does an act which 1s destructive to the welfare of the community, he violates the principles of Righteousness and Goodness, and enacts an evil and a sin. Now it is the province of Justice to correct this evil, and restore the moral harmony which it interrupted. This it immediately proceeds to do. Not by inflicting like injury, for a like

purpose, on the guilty-not by adopting the sordid principle of Retaliation, and rendering blow for blow and stripe for stripe. This would make nothing right-it would not retrieve the injury, nor restore the moral harmony interrupted. It would make every thing worse! But it adopts a wise and enlightened course of correction and instruction, whereby the sinner is melted to contrition, made deeply to deplore his wickedness, and most willing and anxious to RESTORE four-fold, if need be, for whatever injury he has inflicted on his neighbor or on society. When this is done -when the sinner is brought to heartfelt repentance, and made to hate his crimes, and hate ALL WRONG-and when he has done all in his power to remove the evil he had caused, and repay all who have suffered injury from him-then the scales of Justice are balanced-moral harmony is restored-the injurer and injured are reconciled, Righteousness and Goodness are re-established, and a soul is SAVED from the dominion of sin and darkness! Whatever injury is inflicted on others, which the injurer has no power to REMEDY, however willing and anxious to do so, God has reserved to himself the privilege to repay and restore from the infinite fulness of his own resources as a wise and kind Father will draw from his own means to aid his repentant son, who strives to atone for some wrong deed he has committed.

The processes by which Justice accomplishes this most desirable and glorious work, are of varied descriptions. It is not confined to one particular path; but all good, salutary, enlightening influences are at its command. Conscience is a powerful auxiliary. Its stings, its reproof, its upbraidings, produce mighty effects on the guilty. Where Conscience is seared, weak or undeveloped, Justice inflicts outward stripes and pains. Not in anger, not in hatred, but in LoOVE! to induce reflection, and mature thought in the sinner in regard to his evil ways. And when he is brought to reflection, this awakens and strengthens Conscience, and enables it to accomplish its renovating work on the heart. Justice at the same time, through a thousand sources, throws light and instruction on the sinner's mind, in regard to the nature of transgression, and its evil effects and the beauty and excellency of Righteousness.

This work is not often, if ever, entirely accomplished in this life, in regard to any human being. The present world is but a brief introduction to that endless existence which is hereafter. There all Jehovah's plans are fully consummated, to the high admiration of every intelligent being! The field of Justice extends to the future world. It there accomplishes whatever is necessary to complete its work. There its claims on all men, will be eventually fulfilled, by each soul being brought to repentance of sinthe injurer and the injured reconciled, in every case of wrong ever transacted-and all brought into reconciliation with God and obedience to his government. What other claims than that these

results shall be attained, can Justice have? What other work can come within its sphere? To say that it demands an endless perpetuation of misery, which would be but a perpetuation of sin, would be contending that it demands its own claims to be forever unfulfilled-its own work uncompleted-its entire purposes endlessly frustrated! This is a self-contradiction. Justice will prosecute its great designs with infinite energy, until its aims are fully completed until all wrong is righted-all evil remedied-all sin annihilated-and a state of Moral Harmony, grand, sublime, beautiful, blissful, shall be ushered in to know no end forever!! The evidence of all this, is found in the fact-simple, yet all-important in its nature-that Justice is a PERFECT Attribute of a PERFECT God. Hence all its operations, its influences, and its results, must be characterized by its own perfection!! And moreover, the scriptures fully corroborate this view of the successful operation of Justice, which is one of the most important principles in the Divine Law, in the declaration of the PsalmistThe Law of the Lord is PERFECT, CONVERTING the soul." -(Ps. xix. 7.) The Law-Government-Justice-of the Lord, being PERFECT, results in the CONVERSION of all souls over whom it is exercised!!

3. Justice between the Creator and the creature, requires and will secure, the everlasting good of all mankind. Justice not only recognizes God's claims on man, but it also acknowledges that man has claims on God. It throws its protecting shield around humanity, and defends the race from all unnecessary evil, as a consequence of their existence. We may believe the Creator sanctions every claim which man can have upon his goodness, his protection and care.—“Just and true are thy ways, thou king of saints."-(Rev. xv. 3.) When unoffending beings are entirely in the power of a higher personage, who can dispose of them as he chooses, Justice demands they shall not be placed in any condition where he who decides their destiny clearly sees irremediable wretchedness, through any contingency whatever would overtake them. A father who should without any compulsion-without any thing moving him thereto, but his own will and pleasure-place his child on the brink of a precipice, when he clearly foresaw that notwithstanding all his commandments, forewarnings, exhortations and entreaties, he would blindly precipitate himself therefrom, and be dashed to atoms--would be considered devoid of the first dictates of common sense, or of even the lowest promptings of humanity! It would be in vain for him to plead that he did not compel the child to fall from the precipice-that he allowed him to act his own pleasure-that he forewarned him what would be the consequences of approaching the verge-that he entreated him by every thing dear and sacred, to forbear, and not place himself in so perilous an attitude! All this would not rid him of the solemn charge of having destroyed his own child; because