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of glory, or glorification, exclusively of others, he certainly mentions none.

Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.' Ezek. xxxiii. 11. How can the Lord God be glorified in what affords him no pleasure? Has he no pleasure in his glory? Or is this glory, in reality, so minute, as to escape the eye of him who searcheth all things' ?

Fourthly. Since it has now been proved, that God is not glorified by the faithless confessions of sinners, and that he is not glorified in their death; we leave it to our opponents, not to weave new cobwebs, but to demonstrate from the Scriptures, that any of the confessions which have come under our consideration, if not confessions of the truth, can redound to the glory of God. Forasmuch, also, as the whole human race, were created for the glory of God; we likewise demand of our adversaries, to prove, in the same unexceptionable mode, in what manner the damned can contribute to the glory of God, by any thing short of their salvation.

Our First Argument, The Oath of JEHOVAH, which he has sworn by himself, and which shall not return void, is at length brought to a close. It may therefore conduce to the reader's convenience, to give a short summary of what has now, we trust, been fully established, by arguments, various, independent, and incontrovertible.

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The whole passage at the head of this argument constitutes one prophecy. . . . . From the general subjection and confession, foretold in this prophecy, no person is excluded; because this is

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evinced by strict analogy of reasoning-it is proved, also, by the analogy of the whole New Testament-and finally, it is testified by the apostle Paul's own comment, on the universality of that identical subjection, which he himself had announced in that prediction..... All who are incensed against him shall be ashamed,' in perfect harmony with a state of salvation. . . . . This subjection is in every instance a state of saving obedience..... The confession must also, in every instance, be a saving confession of the truth, declared in faith; because it is authorized by the God of truth, who tempts no man to sin or falsehood; because, likewise, God is not glorified by a faithless and sinful confession ; and lastly, because God is not glorified in the torments of hell.

ARGUMENT II.

THE LOVE OF JEHOVAH.

God is love. 1 John iv. 8.

I. The Love of God embraces all Mankind.

I. THIS is proved by the express declarations of the Oracles of Truth.

God is love. If the greater part of the human race, (as many suppose,) are objects of divine abhorrence, surely it would have been much more consistent for the evangelist, the beloved disciple, whose perpetual theme is the divine benevolence, to have said, God is hatred.' To those, however, who insist that God abhors the wicked, though he is love itself, and therefore a Fountain of love; we repeat a question proposed by St. James. Doth a fountain, he inquires, send forth sweet water and bitter? Can the fig-tree, my brethren, bear olive berries, either a vine figs? so can no fountain yield both salt water and fresh. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.' James iii. 10-12.

The Lord is gracious and full of compassion ; slow to anger and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works.' Psalm cxlv. 8. 9.

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I make peace and create evil.' Isa. xlv. 7. God is the author of evil, but not of sin. He creates partial evil, not from the love of evil, but from the love of universal good. Man creates evil from the love of evil: this constitutes sin.

Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore, turn and live. Say unto them, 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 : turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?' Ezek. viii. 23. 32. xxx. 11. The God of truth, certainly here affirms, in the most solemn, repeated, absolute manner, that he has no pleasure at all in the death of the wicked: and therefore he entreats them, in the most compassionate language, to turn from their ways and live. The only possible evasion is this: that God, though he denies it, has a real pleasure in the death of the wicked, and secretly wills their eternal destruction; and that, by these declarations, and this oath of the Most High, to the contrary, we are informed, simply, that he has no pleasure in withholding from the wicked, the outward, nominal, though ineffectual means of salvation. But what individual of the house of Israel, was so grossly ignorant, as not to know, that God had not withheld from him such means of salvation? Could it be necessary, to confirm such tidings, so repeated, and by the oath of the Most High God? Had not the Jews been repeatedly assured, by Moses, and by the prophets, that God had set before them good and evil, life and death? Be

sides-let man beware of charging his Maker with falsehood. God is not a man, that he Wo unto him that contendeth with

should lie'.

his maker,'

We have known, and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love.' • He that believeth not God, has made him a liar.'

For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestations of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God.' Rom.viii1.9-21. By the creature must here be intended.at least a part of the human race; if not, the brute or inanimate creation will be delivered into the glorious liberty of the children of God-which is too absurd to merit confutation. The text evidently assigns the creature's involuntary subjection to vanity, or to guilt and misery, as a sufficient reason for its having the earnest expectation. Since, therefore, this involuntary subjection, is a sufficient reason for the earnest expectation of the manifestation of the sons of God; it follows, that this expectation includes another expectation, of deliverance from that vanity. And since the apostle, consequently, in fact, represents the creature's involuntary subjection to guilt and misery, as an adequate reason for its expectation of deliverance; this involuntary subjection must be a sufficient reason for the creature's emancipation. But this argument applies equally to all mankind. All, therefore, will be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

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