upon him wrath without mixture-I have also made my daughter an anathema, and have come out against her in great fury and with fiery indignation-they are cursed children?' If this be the language of parental tenderness then we admit that the punishments spoken of in scripture are nothing but a fatherly discipline.

But while such language is used in regard to the manner in which God treats one class of men, the Scriptures hold an entirely different language with respect to another class. Thus } Heb. 13: 5,9. Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh to you as unto children, my son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him : For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and Scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not. But if ye be without chastisement whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. And again in the Psalms, Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest out of thy law. These passages plainly show, that a salutary discipline is restricted to a certain class of persons, and not applied as the sole punishment of the wicked.

In concluding this part of our subject, let us advert, for one moment, to a plausible argument often urged to show that all punishment is intended for the good of the sufferer. It is of ten asked, would any kind parent doom his child to a severe punishment, without aiming thereby to reclaim him? To this I reply, it is sometimes necessary for kind parents to cast off a child utterly and finally, for the good of the family, and the maintenance of social order:

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It has often been told, as a high encomium upon the character of a ruler in the Roman Republic, that when a company of young men had formed a conspiracy against the liberties of their country, and two of the sons of this ruler were found among the conspirators, the father first asked his children several questions; and when the people were expecting him to interpose his authority and save their lives, as he might have done, the feelings of the patriot, controlled the affections of the father, and he gave them up, at once, to the sentence of the law, and to death. Just so God is represented, as struggling between compassion and justice, and as proceeding with reluctance to the execution of ultimate and remediless judgement.

The amount of what we have said, to show that the salvation of all men cannot be proved from maintaining the doctrine of a disciplinary punishment, may be summed up in a few words.

I. In the first place, it implies the following absurdities and contradictions to admitted truths.

1. That the curse of the divine law is not a real curse, but a blessing, and the best thing which God can give to one in the sinner's circumstances.

2. That there is, on this ground, no distinguished mercy in the salvation of sinners; because they have a right to it on the ground of law, and cannot be deprived of it without manifest injustice.

3. It contradicts all idea of forgiveness, because the sinner needs no forgiveness after the claims of justice are satisfied.

4. It implies, that if Christ delivers from the

curse of the law, then he delivers from the means of repentance; because, by the supposition, all that the law denounces against the sinner is chastisement sufficient to lead him to repentance.

II. There is yet another class of considerations, which plainly and directly show, that justice is not satisfied with a mere discipline intended for the good of the sufferer.

1. The terms, in which the penalty of the law is announced, are inconsistent with such an idea. Wrath without mixture-curse of the law---and fiery indignation cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be understood, by a plain common sense English scholar, to mean fatherly correction.

2. Such terms never are used among men, to signify the chastisement which parents inflict upon their children, for their good.

3. God often speaks of chastising that class which are by way of distinction denominated his children. They are told that their afflictions shall work out for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory--and that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. But who ever thought of damnation's working out an eternal weight of glory? This view was completed by a brief reply to the same argument when raised from the consideration that God is represented as a father. From all which we arrive at this conclusion; that on whatever other ground the doctrine of Universal Salvation may be sustained, it certainly cannot be from considering justice as requiring nothing but an wholesome discipline.

We are now prepared to give a clear and

satisfactory definition of justice. The word justice is used in three different senses. Commutative justice has reference to commercial transactions, and respects exchange and restitution of property. In this sense a man is just who pays his debts, and is fair and honorable in all his dealings. General or public justice, respects what are called the rights of the community, and is the same with general benevolence. The word is used in this sense where the apostle represents that the propitiation of Christ has exerted such an influence that God can be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus; i. e. he can pardon the believer, without injuring his government. Distributive justice is the equal distribution of rewards and punishments; and it respects the personal rights and demerits of the individual rewarded or punished. It is in this view of justice, that we come now to inquire, whether it can be proved from the justice of God, that all men will be saved.

For a clear understanding of this subject, let it be observed, that transgression deserves punishment chiefly because it relaxes the power of the laws, and opens the way for a general prevalence of crime. Thus, the murderer deserves to be punished, not because a real injury has been sustained by his victim or his friends; for there are cases in which the murdered individual suffers no real disadvantage by being put to to death; and in which there are no friends to be afflicted. But the murderer deserves just as much punishment. The law has been broken, and unless the transgressor be made an example of, that one unnoticed breach of the law which protects our lives, may sharpen the knives, and nerve the arms, and raise the daring of a

thousand assassins to similar deeds. It is for such a reason that the transgressor of the divine law deserves punishment. This view of justice is commonly admitted by those who have written in favor of Universal Salvation; but they deny that the sins of men deserve eternal punishment. I shall answer their arguments on this point very briefly, as I design to devote an entire lecture to the consideration of the justice of God, in future and eternal punishment.

1. It is said that there is not sufficient difference between the most imperfect character of the righteous, and the best character of the wicked, to make it reasonable to doom one to eternal punishment, and not the other.

This argument is destitute of force, if both deserve eternal punishment, and one is forgiven, and the other falls under the sentence of the law. The argument, as you see, is a mere begging of the question, as it takes for granted the very thing in dispute, viz. that the sinner does not deserve eternal punishment.

2. Again it is argued, that life is too short for any man to contract guilt enough to deserve an eternal punishmeut.

My answer to this is, that length of time has no necessary connection with the enormity or the smallness of the sinner's guilt. A man can commit a crime which shall lead to an imprisonment for a life of fifty years, in the same time in which he could commit one that should cause him to be fined one dollar; and he can commit a crime that shall render him deserving of capital punishment, in the same length of time. The atrocity of a crime depends upon the importance of the law, and the sacredness of the authority, which is violated; and not at all on the length