PROPOSITION THIRTIETH.

The Lord has the same solicitude for the Happiness and Salvation of His Offspring, and the same Power over All Hearts, in the Future Life as in the Present.

PROOFS.

'Neither DEATH, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, (Diabalos is not excepted,) shall be able To SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'---Rom. viii. 38.

'Can a woman forget her suckling child, that she should not have compassion upon the son of her womb? Yea, she MAY forget, YET I WILL NOT FORGET THEE.'--Isa. xlix. 15. in If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change (death) come. Thou shalt Call, and I will answer Thee. THOU WILT HAVE A DESIRE TO THE WORK OF THY HANDS.'---Job xiv. 14, 15. 'His Mercy endureth forever.'---Ps. cxxxvi. 'His Truth,' and 'His Faithfulness,' 'endureth to All generations.'--Ps. cxvii. 2; lxxxix. 1.

'The Lord is not willing that any should Perish, but that All should come to Repentance.'---1 Pet. iii. 9. And He is THE SAME yesterday, to-day, and FOREVER.'---Heb. xiii. 8. The Lord is very Pitiful, and of Tender Mercy,'---Jas. v. 11, 'FULL of Compassion, Gracious, Long-Suffering,' &c. Ps. lxxxvi. 15. And He is a God that 'CHANGETH NOT.'

'He maketh His sun to shine on the evil and the good,' 'He is slow to anger,' 'rejoiceth more over the single stray sheep which he sought and found, than over all that went not astray,' watcheth even the sparrow's fall which is sold for a farthing, much more taking care of man, His last and most perfect work. But He is moreover, 'without variableness, neither the SHADOW of turning.'---Jas. i. 17.

"The defect in most minds, which leads to doubt and unbelief in regard to a final reign of universal holiness and peace, is in being too hasty, too limited, in estimating the time which God has allotted Himself for the accomplishment of His will and His purposes. Jehovah has at His command the entire duration of Eternity, for the completion of His designs. Yet from this absolutely limitless duration, it is singularly supposed, He confines himself to about threescore years and ten, (which is but a moment in com parison with eternity,) to work out all those purposes towards each man, which fix his everlasting destiny. It is imagined that He selects this brief, introductory period of human existence, when man is in the greatest imperfection, when he is involved in ignorance and blindness, subject to the passions and infirmities of the body, and surrounded by alluring temptations,---to accomplish all He intends to do, towards bringing His offspring in conformity to the requirements of His government. If, during these brief years, and amid all these imperfections, God succeeds in working out His Will upon the children of men,---if He succeeds in renovating a soul, and to make it fit, in this life, for the abodes of blessedness above, it is well. But if His efforts are not successful,--if that soul is not made meet for the society of angels, when this fleeting space of time has elapsed---then God abandons the work, and ceases all exertion to reform and elevate it, and allows it to fall into utter and endless ruin. His power, wisdom, resources, and love in behalf of that fallen child, are all exhausted, Sin, Misery, and Death are triumphant---a human soul, the offspring of God, the redeemed of Christ, is endlessly miserable, and hell shouts, Victory! Not only is it supposed, that, at the close of man's short life on earth, the Creator desists from all farther attempts to reform His creatures, but that He immediately changes His whole policy toward them, and places them where it is made impossible to repent---where they shall not even have the poor privilege of becoming better, however much they might desire to do so. Death is supposed to cut 'short all the efforts of God, and Christ, and Angels for the

elevation of mankind, and the character of every human being, exactly as it then is, becomes stereotyped for eternity! "Singular infatuation! unaccountable presumption! that would fain crowd all the works and triumphs of the Infinite Wisdom and Love into the narrow circle of seventy years! that would dream of exhausting the vast energies and resour ces of Omnipotence, in the speck of time allotted to man below! That the Scriptures give no countenance to these limitations of time and means, which men fasten upon the Salvation of God, must be well known to every reader of the holy word. The Bible declares it to be His Will that All Men should be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth, and moreover, that He worketh all things after the counsel of His own Will. That His will to bring all men to salvation and truth, is but very partially accomplished in the present world, is evident to the senses of every man. But should this fact be considered as invalidating the plain declarations of the Scriptures---or bring into discredit the integrity of God, involved as it is in His pledged word---or as an evidence that His will is frustrated in this important matter? It should not, and it will not, in the mind of the enlightened believer in God. It only enlarges his comprehension of the sphere of Deity's operations, and brings him unavoidably into the belief, that whatever portion of God's Will is not accomplished in this life, will be completed in the world to come. Not that His will has been frustrated here, and must be remedied hereafter---for the Scriptures do not say that God wills all men to be saved in this life,---but that, in the great cycle of the Creator's providence, the time for the perfect accomplishment of His will is not to be expected in this brief period of human life below, but should be looked for 'in the dispensation of the fulness of times.' * "What consistent reason can be assigned why a will so holy and lovely as that which designs the extinction of all sin and evil, and the sanctification and happiness of the entire family of man, should not be carried on to an entire fulfilment in the life to come? Are the souls of sin. ners more precious here than they will be hereafter? Is it any more desirable that the wicked should repent and turn

*

to God here, than it will be hereafter? * If it manifests great goodness and mercy in God and in Christ to be inter ested in the sinner's welfare here, will not the same Good ness and Mercy inspire a similar interest in the life to come? Can time or place change principles, or alter the purposes of infinite love and compassion? Is not Jehovah immutable and unchangeable in His perfections? If God is Love to day, wil! He not be Love to-morrow and forever? If His love leads Him to shower constant blessings upon all man kind in this life, will it not be as prolific, as impartial, and as incessant in the dispensations of its benignity throughout eternity?"*

"GOD IS LOVE."

"If but these words that Book contain'd
On which our every hope is built,

"Twould be enough, though we had drain'd
The very dregs of grief and guilt.

LOVE will not harm,- LOVE will not PAUSE,
In doing good to aught that's dear,

Till Nature doth reverse her laws,

And thwart high Heaven in its career."

JULIA H. SCOTT.

PROPOSITION THIRTY-FIRST.

The Work of Salvation shall Continue to Go on as long as there is an Unreconciled Subject of Christ's Kingdom remaining, and as long as Sin shall Exist.

'He that is our God is the God of Salvation.'

PROOFS.

'This Man, because he continueth ever, hath an un changeable Priesthood. Wherefore he is able to Save them to the Uttermost who come unto God by him, ['he will draw All Men unto him,' 'All are given unto me, and shall come to me.] Seeing, he Ever Liveth to Make Intercession for them.'---Heb. vii. 25. 'And if ANY MAN Sin, he hath an Ad vocate,' &c.--1 John ii. 1, 2.

*Austin of the Attributes, p. 210--213. This is one of the most eath mable of all the numerous publications of our Denomination.

'The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a Priest FOREVER, after the order of Melchisedek.'---Ps. cx. 4, Heb. vii. 21.

"The Lord is Good; His Mercy is Everlasting; and His Faithfulness endureth to All Generations.'---Ps. c. 5.

'The heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth. shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner. But MY SALVATION SHALL BE FOREVER, and My Righteousness shall not be Abolished.'--Isa. li. 6. 'His Righteousness endureth Forever.'---Ps. exi. 3.

"The Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Dead, and of ETERNAL JUDGMENT.'---Heb. vi. 2. He will SAVE US.'---Isa. xxxiii. 22.

The Lord is our JUDGE,
All Nations shall come

and Worship before Thee, for Thy JUDGMENTS are made manifest.'---Rev. xv. 4.

'I have said, MERCY SHALL BE BUILT UP FOREVER; My Faithfulness shalt thou establish in the Heavens.'---Ps. lxxxiv. 2. Thy Faithfulness is unto All Generations.'--Ps. cxix. 90.

'The moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but My Righteousness shall be FOREVER, My Salvation from Generation to Generation.' ---Isa. li. S.

'The mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but My Kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the Covenant of My Peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath Mercy on thee.'--Isa. liv. 10. He sent Redemption unto His People; He commanded His Covenant FOREVER.'---Ps.

cxi. 9.

Unto us a Son is given, and the Government shall be upon his shoulder; of the Increase of his Government and Peace, THERE SHALL BE NO END.'---Isa. ix. 6, 7.

'And the gates of it, [Zion,] shall not be shut at all by day, and there shall be no night there.'---Rev. xxi. 25, 'Whosoever will, let him take the Water of Life FREELY.'--xxii. 17.

"Through the ten thousand times ten thousand grades
Of blessedness, above the world's and Man's

Ability to feel or to conceive,