shall I venture to complete this horrid proposition? or even to will with equal indifference good or evil. And is this then the infinite liberty of our Creator? would it in your estimation be an amiable, and glorious perfection, equally to will the happiness or misery of his creatures; indiscriminitely to love, or hate them; and to decide indifferently for good or evil? and is it possible that prejudice can so far blind many whose minds are in other respects intelligent, and upright? But alas! such is its baneful influence! The necessity of defending a doctrine which they venerate, however horrid, because they believe it revealed in the word of God; this necessity leads men to hold a language the sense of which is revolting; contrary to the natural dictates of their hearts; and which they have in a thousand instances contradicted, when they only meant to express the simple and natural ideas, of the adorable goodness of the Lord.

laws, which he requires us to obey, because he wills our utmost perfection. Agreeable to this he declares, that his will is our sanctification. He commands us to tend towards perfection, to be pure, as he is pure; holy as he is holy; perfect, as he is perfect; merciful, as he is merciful; in a word, to be imitators of him as dear children.

From this disposition in the Deity, to advance the moral perfection of his creatures, must result his hatred to moral evil; sin, is that will in us, which is in opposition to the law, and contrary to the love of God, and our neighbour; it is the imperfection, the depravity, the wickedness of our wills. As surely then as God by his holiness desires the perfection of our wills, so surely must he condemn and detest in us the impurity of vice; he hates it, with a perfect hatred, he has it in abomination, he is its implacable enemy, and he will pursue and combat it, as long as we are infected by it. He declares that nothing But let us turn from this dreadful phantom, unclean shall enter into his holy city; that raised by ignorance and prejudice, and consi- without holiness no one shall see the Lord; der the liberty of the Divine will, as the de- that he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquiterminations of design, and choice, from mo- ty; and that there is no peace to the wicked. tives worthy of him; and which his infinite Such is the nature of Divine holiness as it wisdom can never be at a loss to suggest. relates to us. The psalmist had the same Thence his infinite goodness must remain un-idea, when he said "thou Lord lovest rightalterably, and immutably the same throughout endless ages. His essence is goodness and love, he cannot act contrary to his nature, or deny himself.

Let us reject with horror all such erroneous opinions of Divine liberty, as destroy every idea of his goodness; and let us resolve it into that absolute prerogative, which God alone can possess, of executing every purpose of his will without constraint from external, or internal causes. This is perfect, and infinite liberty; a liberty, which far from opposing goodness, will ensure its eternal exercise.

The holiness of God, far from being averse to his goodness, is itself a capital branch resulting from it.

The word holiness is made use of in scripture, to express the moral perfection of an intelligent nature; and all will allow that excellence to consist in the perfection of the will. Thus is the Supreme Being called thrice holy, because his will is sovereignly good and perfect. Now this perfect holiness of God,evidently results from his perfect good ness already established. I shall not therefore go over these proofs again, but conclude that if holiness consists in the perfection of the will, the Supreme Being must be most holy, because he is infinitely good.

Such is the holiness of God with respect to himself: view it in relation to his creatures; it consists in a disposition invariably to will their moral perfection, or in other words, to desire the greatest perfections of our wills. In conformity to this, he commands us to love him with all our hearts, who is supremely perfect; and to love our neighbour as ourselves; to the end that our wills may partake of that perfection, which resides invariably in his. This is the summary of all the divine

eousness, and hatest iniquity. Thence the frequent exhortations in scripture to hate and fly from evil, to love and to do good. Thus far all mankind are agreed, and no one will deny this to be a just idea of the holiness of the Deity.

But here begins the distinction. Those who oppose holiness to goodness, by their definition make it so formidable an obstacle, that, infinite as that goodness is, it becomes checked and conquered. For under pretext that the holiness of God consists in an infinite hatred of sin, they draw this horrid conclusion, that he hates the obstinate and wicked offender, with an infinite and implacable hatred; such a hatred as will by its effects consign them over to infinite and eternal misery.

How injurious to the holiness of the Almighty Being is an idea, so contrary to goodness, which converts holiness into cruelty.

But if the object is painful, it is happy to reflect with what ease it may be removed, to give place to that more just and comforting idea, that the infinite and implacable hatred of God to sin, proceeds from his infinite love of the sinner. Thus, he is infinitely holy, because infinitely good; and thus is his holiness a branch of his divine and infinite goodness.

The opinion I am about to combat, that God hates the wicked, is as universal, as it is pernicious, and revolting. We are naturally inclined to the belief in which we are edu cated, and one of the first ideas the infant mind receives is that of the eternal sufferings which divine vengeance will inflict on the wicked. When our understandings, though naturally just and consistent, have once admitted this proposition as an indisputable truth, it is natural that we should see in t Supreme Being an infinite hatred to

two different meanings annexed to them; by one of these meanings, which must always re late to objects and never to things, to love, or to hate any one, signifies sincerely to desire or to will their happiness, or misery. In this sense it is not necessary in order to our being be loved, that we should be in a state of actual perfection; but alone, that we should be capable of a progress towards it; for then our na tures are at least amiable. In this sense it is that the Supreme Being loves the whole race of men without any exception, or difference. He desires eternally and invariably their greatest good, and in this sense hateth nothing

sinner, because it is a hatred forever implacable. We next proceed to search for the reason on which this implacable hatred is founded, and conclude it must arise from the infinite holiness of our Maker. And no sooner do we admit this strange proposition than it leads us imperceptibly to associate the most opposite and most incompatible ideas, and thus we reason: It is true that God is infinitely good, but it is not less true, that he is infinitely holy, and thence arises that hatred and detestation of sinners which will end in his inflicting eternal torments upon them. Thus does the introduction of one error corrupt and pervert the most sub-that he hath made, because he can never will, lime truths, and place the adorable perfections of the Deity in opposition with each other, by asserting that a Being supremely good, will nevertheless deal with his offending creatures, as if he were infinitely cruel. Behold the deplorable effects of prejudice! but above all But the terms love and hate, have yet another see whither it leads: how deep calleth unto sense applied to them, which relates indiffer deep, and how one error draws after it a multi-ently to persons and things, and in this sense tude of others. Our reason no sooner deviates from the right way, by the admission of a false principle, then every step it takes leads farther from the knowledge of the truth.

the final and eternal misery of any creature. But if the reader is not convinced of this, let him turn to the preceding chapter, where I have demonstrated the infinity of Divine goodness.

to love any one, is to take pleasure in him as in an object that is amiable and agreeable, in whose society and intercourse we take delight. To hate also in this sense, is to be displeased But farther. Those who make the holi- with the object, to regard it as odions, and to ness of God to consist in his hatred of the feel in its society nothing but aversion and sinner, have another method of establishing disgust. In this sense also it may justly be their theory. They produce from scripture said of the Supreme Being, that he loves the many passages in proof of it; thus the Psalm-righteous, and hates the wicked. He beholds ist says, "Thou hatest all the workers of iniquity, the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man;" and Jehovah speaking by the mouth of Moses declares, if the Israelites are disobedient his soul would abhor them. And again by the prophet Jeremiah, "My heritage crieth out against me, therefore have I hated it."

As these quotations are taken from scripture, they will afford us a very useful and interesting discussion, on what the divine oracles relate, respecting the sentiments of God towards sinners: and this will greatly contribute to confirm what I have already advanced on the subject of infinite holiness, and farther serve as an illustrious example of that great truth contained in my preliminary discourse, that God in his word addresses himself to our rea

son.

Since scripture declares, that God hates the wicked, there must be a sense in which it can be asserted with truth, but that sense must also perfectly agree with his infinite love for them, or the Divine word would be in contradiction with itself, and with reason, and thereby lose the evidence of its authenticity, as the word of God. I shall therefore proceed to shew with all imaginable evidence, and to prove from scripture, that there is one sense in which he may be said to hate sinners, though there is another in which it is true that he loves them infinitely, or even, that it is true in one sense, that God has an infinite hatred to the wicked, because in another sense he loves infinitely.

ripture, as well as in the use of fami-
guage, the terms love and hate, have

in the upright, that attachment to virtue, that sincere and universal conformity of their wills to his, which is so pleasing in his sight; and in consequence of this virtue, this sincerity, this submission, he loves them with compla cence and delight. On the contrary he beholds in their vicious courses, their constant, and obstinate opposition to his will, their propensity to moral disorder, and that resistance to his government which is so odious in his sight, and hates them with a hatred of condemna. tion and aversion. Thus he delights in conferring the tokens of his favour and approba tion on the one; while the other will experi ence the effects of his displeasure in his ti gour, and severity. "For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry; but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth."

After the exposition here given of the two different senses applied to the terms love and hate, it will appear very possible, that the same individual may be an object of love in the first sense, and of hatred in the second. As a wise and good parent laments over the irregularities of a disobedient son, yet loves him tenderly, inasmuch as he ardently desires his happiness; but the more tenderly he loves him in this sense, the more will he hate and detest the odious state in which his disorder and vice has placed him. Thus it is with our heavenly Father. He loves the transgressor, inasmuch as he sincerely desires his greatest happiness; but he hates him in that horrid state where his sins have placed him.

1

As the second meaning of the term hate 18 equally applicable to persons or things; the hatred of God for sinners is exactly similar to his hatred of sin, and thus the author of the book of Wisdom declares, that "the ungodly and his ungodliness, are both alike hateful unto God;" for the expression hate being here equally applied to the sinner and the sin, cannot be understood in the first sense, which can only relate to persons, and never to things. Besides, could the same author if he had meant by hatred, the desire of misery to the object, have declared in those beautiful words already quoted, and which I repeat with so much pleasure, that "the Lord loveth all the ings that are, and abhorreth nothing which he hath made, for never would he have made any thing, if he had hated it."

It is therefore in the second sense, that the word hate is to be understood, in the three passages above cited. But to make it appear yet more evident, let us examine more closely the declaration of the psalmist, where we shall see this second sense clearly pointed out, by the verse preceding that, in which the batred of God for the wicked is expressed. For thou art not a God, that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee: the foolish shall not stand in thy sight; thou hatest all the workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak lies: the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful

man."

| go farther, and prove from scripture also, that the Supreme Father of mankind wills the eternal happiness of the wicked, and thus, in the first sense, applied to the term love, loves them infinitely.

Let us first consider those merciful declarations which relate to the salvation of all men, consequently of that of the sinner. If God wills that all men should be saved, it mani festly includes the sinner; and is not this to love them infinitely? and St. Peter assures us that "he is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.' But above all let us attend to the voice of God himself, who declares with a solemn oath, "as I live saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his ways and live." How sublime and affecting, how infinitely precious and valuable are these truly divine words, of the Father of Mercies! In them I find every thing that is necessary for me to know respecting my Maker, and myself; I behold in them the perfect resemblance of the living God, and read the anticipated history of a sinful world. It is the Creator, the Eternal Father of men, he who created their souls, who makes the declaration, and ratifies it with his oath, "as I live saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked," &c. He desires not their death, but wills their life and happiness! and what stronger language could he have employed to assure us, that he did not hate, but that he loved the sin ner? He declares it with the solemnity of an oath, "and because he could sware by no greater he swares by himself."

good.

With respect to one of those passages, where the hatred of God is declared against the rebellious Israelites, I request my reader to peruse the twenty-sixth chapter of Leviticus whence it is taken, from the fourteenth | But let us also remark the way in which he verse to the end; as it is singularly expressive desires the life of the wicked; it is by their of the ways of God towards sinners, and in it conversion, they must turn to him and live. will be found those two sublime and eternal He wills their happiness, but as that is imtruths, expressed in the most lively and possible while they remain sinners, he will striking manner: the first, that God is the have them cease to be such, and become peni. implacable enemy of sin, and that he pursues tent, and obedient children. Evident proof and combats it to the utmost in the sinner; which this, that the love of God to the sinner is equal is declared most forcibly from the fourteenth to his hatred of sin, and that his detestation of to the thirty-eighth verse. The second, not sin, arises from his love to the sinner. Ör less evident in the seven following verses is, in other words that he is holy, because he is that when the severities of the Almighty have produced their effect, by conquering the obstinacy, and resistance of the wicked; when sinners repent, and confess their iniquity, "that their hearts are humbled, and that they accept of the punishment of their iniquity; then the Lord remembers them, will not cast them away, neither abhors them to destroy them utterly, and to break his covenant with them, but will for their sakes remember the Covenant of their ancestors;" that is, receive them into favour, and return to bless them. The hatred therefore of God for the sinner is such as corrects and brings them back to himself, sometimes and if need be by the most terrible, but at the same time the most salutary chastisements.

It is no small thing no doubt to have proved, that what scripture says of the hatred of God for sinners, relates only to the displeasure which their state of rebellion excites: but I will

But strong as these promises are, the Be ing who is love, foreseeing how incapable finite goodness would be of comprehending that which is infinite and passes knowledge, has given to our experience the most sensible manifestation of his love, the most transcendent display of his mercy, in the gift of his only and well beloved Son. Certainly if mankind had continued just and holy, this work of redemption had not been necessary: it is therefore in favour of sinners, and of sinners alone, that this effort of love, this miracle of mercy was wrought, as our Saviour expressly declares; "they that are whole need not a physician but they that are sick; I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. I came to seek, and to save that which was lost." And St. Paul confirms this in a very remarkable manner, as if comb ing the error I am seeking to destroy.

"that the hatred of God for sinners consists in his willing their infinite misery: It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

How great then must be the love of God to poor wretched, offending creatures! how sincerely must he desire to save them from the dreadful misery of sin, and to raise them to perfection and happiness, since to accomplish it, he sent his own Son, and exposed him to an infamous and cruel death! How can it be possible that after such signal experience of his infinite compassion for sinners, any should be found amongst those who are called by the name of Christ, and who glory in his death as the badge of their religious profession, that among such nevertheless should be found, those who maintain the infinite, and implacable hatred of God to the sinner, and in consequence of it, their final and irrevocable misery? how difficult is it O my God, for thine adorable goodness to penetrate into hearts covered with thick darkness of preju

dice and error !

But if the gift of the Son of God, is an everlasting monument of his love for sinners; it is not less a mark of his infinite, and eternal hatred of sin. How clearly is this exemplified in the work of redemption! how odious, how insupportable in his sight must that sin appear which he cannot behold in us, but which as long as we continue in it, must drive us from his presence, and exclude us from all communion with him; when to deliver us from it, to cleanse, and purify us, he has employed a method so extraordinary, and made to astonishing a sacrifice?

Let us then conclude from scripture, as we have already done from reason, that the Supreme Being has an infinite hatred to sin, founded on his infinite love of the sinner; or that he is infinitely good, and that his holiness far from being in contradiction to his goodness, is a capital and essential branch of

it.

I come next to consider the infinite justice of God, which far from opposing is also a branch, an awful, but nevertheless an important branch, of infinite goodness.

The general definition of divine justice, that it is goodness, directed by wisdom, however true upon the whole, seems to have, in quality of a definition, the defect of being too general, and not determining with precision, in what the particular character of divine justice consists; or the reasons why the goodness of God is sometimes called justice; every act of divine justice is an act of his goodness directed by his wisdom; yet every act of goodness thus directed cannot be called an act of 'justice. As for example, the gift that God made of his Son to a sinful world, cannot with propriety be called an act of justice, though it is the highest instance of goodness and wisdom.

I therefore declare in favour of another rerod definition of divine justice, because it ses with greater precision the ideas

usually attached to the term. That the infinite justice of God, consists in his constant and immutable will, to dispense to every one, that, which best corresponds with his moral state. The justice of one man towards another is the constant and habitual will, of rendering to every one that which is his due; but as this term is wholly improper when speaking of an independent Being, we substitute another, and as a man is called just who gives to every one his due, so is the Divine Being called just, because he dispenses invariably to every one, that, which best agrees with his moral state; and it is easy to comprehend that such justice, is founded on the infinite wisdom, and goodness, of our Maker.

According to this definition, infinite jus tice adapts with the most perfect and minute detail, the respective suitableness of his dealings to our moral state, and consequently to our wants, throughout the whole of our existence.

But in order to our forming any idea of this diversity; the constant, and exact exertion of which, forms the essence of Divine justice, we must consider here, the moral state of men and the different state of their wills; which require a diversity of dispensations, on the part of God.

If mankind constantly adhered to the laws of virtue, and holiness, and thus continued in a state of moral rectitude; this diversity of dispensations would not take place, and there would be no room for the exercise of what is properly called justice. All the dealings of God with respect to man, would then be the dispensations of pure and infinite goodness, without the interference of a single chastisement, and such will be the happy economy under which the just made perfect shall live forever, in the mansions of celestial glory, "when all tears shall be wiped away from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain." Then, will Almighty goodness never more appear arrayed in the terrors of justice; but the smiles of benignity, the manifestations of favour, and blessing, will be continually displayed; and nothing ever reach our souls, but the most grateful and delightful sensations; for every dispensation will be the messenger of happiness.

But how remote are we in our present state from this moral perfection; no sooner do our understandings admit the first rays of that light, which is given us to direct our wills to the Supreme good, but we feel irregular passions to combat, and fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Divine justice therefore, or if you will, divine goodness directed by wis dom; has seen proper to place us here in a mortal state, where, while we enjoy a multitude of blessings, we are at the same time exposed to a diversity of afflictions, which in one way or other accompany us all to the grave. Here we begin to perceive the exercise of that eternal justice which observes so minutely the suitableness of its dispensations, and adapts them so exactly to the necessities

of his creatures. He does not deal with sinful and imperfect man, as with man delivered from sin and arrived at perfection. This kind and good parent wills no doubt, that his creatures should enjoy as much happiness even here, as their state will admit; as much 1s is compatible with the supreme felicity to which he calls them, and therefore places them in a world furnished with an ample store of blessings, and gives them all things richly to enjoy. But lest these very blessings, should by means of their irregular passions, corrupt and enslave them, he has decreed that they should neither be solid, nor lasting, bat that the fashion of the world should pass eway, and has placed them in it as strangers and pilgrims for a little while, that they may use the world, as not abusing it, and aspire to more solid and durable good. Thus does divine justice exercise itself here below, towards a race of sinful and imperfect beings. It places us all in a state of trial, as in a school where we are to acquire the first rudiments of happiness; this situation is universally suitable to all men, without distinction whether of good or bad, and in this sense it is, "that the righteous scarcely are saved, and that we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God."

al his

The precise and determinate idea of infinite justice is then, that invariable will, by which a total difference will be made between the virtuous and the wicked, the former most gloriously rewarded, and the latter severely punished.

If the extreme importance of the subject I am upon, did not require from me, all the precision of which I am capable, I might forbear enlarging on the present idea of divine justice, by quotations from scripture; because in itself sufficiently simple and natural; and as all who are conversant with holy writ, know, that it is there repeatedly expressed. Patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, concur in the same sentiment. Abraham when pleading with the Almighty in favour of the inhabitants of Sodom, in the eighteenth chapter of Genesis, makes this idea of Divine justice the foundation of his argument. And in the eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel, the Supreme Being condescends, in the most explicit and instructive manner, to explain the method of his dealings with his creatures; where we shall find this maxim exemplified, "that the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him."

But why do I cite particular passages in But while mankind succeed each other in proof of the justice of God, when the whole this sublunary school of happiness, some lis- history of the Old Testament contains nothing tening to the voice of conscience, and reason, else? Such is the relation of the universal Contract the habits, and follow the divine deluge, where a race of wicked men were exlaws of virtue and holiness; while others, led tirminated from the earth, but Noah found away by objects of sense and passion, con- grace in the eyes of the Lord. The destruction tract habits of vice and disorder, in opposition of Sodom, from which Lot was preserved. to the divine laws; and thence some are And lastly, the whole history of the Israelites, ged, and others are evil; while in the deal- the alternatives of benedictions, and threatenngs of divine justice towards each, is mani-ings, of prosperity, and adversity, which folfested the perfect rectitude of the Supreme lowed them, according as they were obedient, Governor of the universe, who is righteous in or rebellious to their divine law-giver. The ways. To his holy and perfect laws, New Testament also abounds with promises be has attached the just and immutable and menaces; magnificent promises to the Sanction of rewards and punishments; of righteous, and dreadful threatenings to the glorious and magnificent rewards to the faith- impenitent. I might appeal to the whole ful, and obedient observer of them; and of gospel dispensation, which opens to our view severe and terrible chastisements, to the ob- that future economy that awaits us all, and stinate wiolater of his commands. It is true unveils that awful, but infinitely interesting that these rewards and punishments do not scene of universal judgment, which shall sucake place always in this world; because it ceed the resurrection. St. Paul tells the would interfere with the general good, and Athenians, that in that day God will judge the with that state of probation, which requires world in righteousness, that is as he expresses om divine justice many exceptions adapted it elsewhere, "will render to every man acbit. In a world where the righteous and cording to his deeds; to them who by patient wicked are interspersed, and where good and continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, evil are blended, an exact retribution of either honour, and immortality; eternal life: but Would be impracticable. But those excep- to those who obey unrighteousness, indignaLions, or rather those delays, do not make tion and wrath, tribulation and anguish." void the sanction of those laws which are im- Having hitherto explained and confirmed mutable; for God has himself announced in from scripture, the definition of divine justice the life to come, a great day of retribution, to be the constant and immutable will of the which may well be termed the day of divine Supreme Being, to dispense to every one, that justice. In that day the righteous, that is, which is best adapted to his moral state; the those who have wrought out their salvation, result of all I have said, is, that this infinite having no farther need of trial, shall be sepa- justice of God consists in his invariably rerated from the wicked; while almighty compensing the good, and severely punishing justice executes on the one, and on the other, the wicked. that immutable sanction of rewards and It now remains to shew that such just punishments, due to their respective conduct. far from opposing the goodness of