self, wears an hair cloth next his skin, walks barefooted over the sharpest gravel, and devises many ingenious modes of punishing himself to appease the Deity, as he conceives his vindictive disposition to be, in some measure, gratified and appeased with the misery which he has voluntarily inflicted upon his own body. The Clergy are perpetually complaining that their parishioners do not love God; but is it not evidently their own fault? Why do they not give the Deity his real character, and exhibit him as he really is, the tender, compassionate parent of the whole human race? and prove it incontestibly by preaching to them now and then, from such texts as the following, viz. "If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments. If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments. Then will I visit their transgressions with a rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips."* "Then they cried unto the Lord in their trou ble, and he saved them out of their distresses, * Ps. lxxxix. 30, 31, 32, 33, 44, c2 he brought them out of darkness, and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder. O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men, for he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder."* "For I will not contend forever, neither will I be always wroth, for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made. For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him. I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners."† If people were taught in this way, that God loved them, and would still continue to make use of the most effectual means to secure their eternal felicity, they wouldin time begin to love him, although he might smite them severely, when they considered it as the chastisement of a tender Father, inflicted for their reformation. But when people are once fairly convinced that God is possessed of infinite wisdom and almighty power, and could, with the greatest facility, ren Ps. cvii. 10, 13, 14, 15, 16. † Isaiah lvii. 16, 17, 18. der every individual human being virtuous and happy, but are told, that he is so devoid of compassion as to abandon numbers of the souls which he has made, to the permanent dominion of the devil, which he could have saved, but would not, it is evident they could not love him while they conceived it to be most probable that they were of the reprobated number; and unless we love God, we cannot be happy either in this life nor in that which is to come. Love refines the affections, and meliorates the disposition; but fear and dread without love, never added one member to the catalogue of real and genuine saints. It is a passion that cannot be created by fear, but invariably is diminished, if not entirely destroyed by it. It is neither subject to external commands, nor to the most tremendous threats; nor even to the operations of our own will. Love is the fulfilling of the law, and without it the precepts of either the law or the gospel can never be fulfilled: then why has so much pains been taken, and still persisted in, to banish the love of God from the hearts of his creatures, and to implant fear and dread in its place? What the Clergy have termed preaching the terrors of the law, to drive sinners to Christ for mercy, has plunged millions into a state of desperation, and has sent many frantic souls prematurely into the world of spirits, exclaiming horribly against the supposed cruelty and partiality of that merciful God who created them, and all mankind, on purpose to confer on them various blessings here, and endless felicity hereafter. "He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us, God is love, and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God and God in him. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."* Every attribute of the Deity is infinite; it is therefore evident, that he cannot be infinitely benevolent, loving, and kind, and also infinitely vindictive, implacable, and cruel. But let us now bring this horrid doctrine of eternal, vindictive punishment to our theologic standard, by which its enormity will appear. A God of infinite wisdom and power could convince, convert, and save all the souls which he has made, and also could, with the greatest facility, banish sin 'and misery out of the creation; * 1 John iv. 8, 16, 17, 18, but it is asserted that he never will do either. Does he then prefer the eternal punishment of any of the souls which he has made, and the perpetual duration of sin and misery to the virtue and eternal felicity of his creatures; and the total extinction of sin and misery, and evil of every kind and degree? For it is certain, that no combination of created beings can prevent his free choice. We are therefore warranted both by scripture and reason to conclude, that God will finally establish the universal reign of virtue and happiness, in preference to that of vice and misery. Having endeavoured to ascertain what are properly denominated works of the devil, which the Son of God was manifested to destroy, we next proceed to inquire to what extent they are to be destroyed, so as to comport with the gracious designs of our heavenly Father. : Our text informs us that the Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the devil, without making an exception for the preservation of any part or portion of them. We therefore conclude, that the Father intended the destruction to be a complete annihilation and eradication of all his works, every vestige of depravity in the souls of every human being, and |