that time, be crying out for the domination and government of equal laws ?
I say then, that, as the law of God was made equally for all, and all may receive equal benefit from it, all ought to regard it as the fruit of love ; and to honour it in their hearts, as " holy, and just, and good."
It is possible that because, in the present state of the world, far more are lost than saved, some may object that God has loved the few at the expense of the many. But though this is the case at present, there will, at no distant period, be mul- titudes far more numerous than all that have already existed ; and " they will all be righteous," from the least to the greatest of them. If Israel, in the space of about two hundred years, multiplied from seventy-six to two millions, when so many efforts were made to destroy them ; how shall they not multiply during the millennium, when the command " Increase and multiply," shall meet with no impediments ; and when life will be so prolonged, that a " person dying an hundred years old will appear" to have been cut off under "a judicial curse?" Carry on this annual augmentation, not for ten or twenty years, but for a thousand years ; and you will clearly see, that the numbers who have lived previous to that day will bear no proportion to those who shall then come upon the earth ; and, consequently, that the number of those who will perish will bear no proportion to that of those who shall be ultimately saved. But, if the objection were true as to the comparative numbers of those who shall be saved, and of those who shall perish, I would still say, that this would not at all invalidate the declaration in my text. The law is equally good, even though every transgressor of it should perish ; and the loss of every soul must be ascribed, not to any want of love in God, but to the wicked obstinacy of man, who will not avail himself of the salvation which God has offered him. Before there existed a creature in the universe, God was love : and after he had created both angels and men, he still con- tinued love : and love he will be, when he shall judge the world : and one of the most painful considerations, which will corrode the minds of those in hell, will be, that it is love that condemns them, love that punishes them, and love that consigns them to the fate they have deserved ; yea, that love to the whole universe demands their ruin. For supposing only that God should from this moment promise impunity to the transgressors of his law, where is there one who would not find a speedy relaxation in his efforts to obey it, and a consequent diminution of his happiness? But sinners cannot be so received. If God could admit to his bosom the violators of his law, the enemies of his Son, and the contemners of his grace, heaven itself would cease to be a place of happiness;
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