of the Deity is, and must be, marked in the law, which he has given for the government of his rational creation : and, if we suppose that law to be a perfect transcript of his mind and will ; if we suppose it to extend to every action, word, and thought, and to require, that in the habit of our minds we shall retain all that purity in which we were originally created, and preserve to our latest hour God's perfect image upon our souls ; if it admit not of the slightest pos- sible deviation or defect, no, not even through igno- rance or inadvertence ; if it promise nothing to us but after a spotless adherence to its utmost demands from first to last ; it will, of course, be seen that he is indeed a holy Being, that cannot look upon iniquity without the utmost abhorrence. But, if we suppose his law to require any thing less than this, and to admit of any thing short of absolute perfec- tion, we must, of necessity, conceive of him as less abhorrent of sin, in proportion to the degree in which he lowers his own demands, and in which he leaves us at liberty to depart from this high standard, the standard which he proposed to man in Paradise, and which he still ordains for the angels that are around his throne.
In like manner, if we suppose that the sanctions with which he enforces his law are strong and awful ; if we suppose that they involve nothing less than the everlasting happiness or misery of every child of man ; if we suppose that one single defect, of what- ever kind, forfeits all title to happiness, and involves the soul in irremediable guilt and misery ; if we suppose that these sanctions can never be set aside, never mitigated, never cease to operate through all eternity ; we shall, of necessity, have a high idea of God's justice, which will never relax the smallest atom of its demands, either in reference to the obe- dience of man, or the execution of the threatenings denounced against him. But, if we have an idea that God will overlook some slighter imperfections, or punish them only for a time, and that too in a way which may be found supportable by feeble man ; we,