most striking dissimilarity between the figure in detail, and the instruction conveyed: so great an incongruity indeed that the meaning of the whole passage is considerably obscured. In the parables of the lost sheep and lost piece of silver,11 which were spoken in answer to the murmurs of the scribes and Pharisees, it is plain enough from the context and occasion that these proud and wicked bigots were meant to be represented by the sheep that never strayed, and the pieces of silver which were never lost, although none had strayed farther than they, and none were more properly lost. Here, however, it is probable that our Lord designed to take them on their own ground, admitting them to be truly as righteous as they thought themselves, and then to show them, even on this supposition, the propriety of seeking and restoring the publicans and sinners, who were regarded on all hands as wanderers lost in transgression. Similar remarks may be made of the parable of the prodigal son, which immediately succeeds.

To conclude: all the minor discrepancies between the narrative and the subject signified, will occasion less difficulty to the reader, if he carefully attend to the fact, that the chief reason why parables are useful, is, that they do not so immediately present to notice the thing itself which is aimed at, but first prove, with reference to some other case, the general principle intended to be applied to the persons concerned. As the thing narrated is distinct from the thing signified, some particulars may be required to make the narrative perfect, which are unnecessary in the signification. The existence of this distinction will be no great hindrance to the discovery of the meaning, if we are only aware of it, and seek to arrive at the signification not so much from particular parts of the narrative, as from the whole taken with its context. See Storr's Dissertation, &c. § xv-xix.

ART. VIII.

God's Inheritance in the Wicked.

WE hope the title given to this essay will produce no surprise nor other sensation which may either prevent it from being read, or so prejudice the reader against it, as to embarrass an impartial judgment.

The commonly received opinions and the views generally entertained by christian doctors and their adherents, are by no means favorable to the doctrine maintained in these pages. By them it is thought, that so far from having any interest in that part of his moral creation who are in Scripture denominated wicked, the Creator views them with abhorrence, and that their entire destruction, so far from infringing his rights, is absolutely required by his justice. It is true that these doctors teach, in a mysterious way, that for some end not fully comprehended by man, the divine Being has discovered what is called a plan of grace, by which divine justice, which required the endless destruction of sinful man, may be so far compromised as to consent to some conditions on which some of the wicked may be spared from its tremendous demands. But this must not be allowed to stand on the principle that God has any interest or inheritance in the wicked; for if this were allowed, it would lay a foundation on which might be built a reasonable hope that none of the wicked would be cast off forever. Such a hope is thought to be one of the most offensive items in the black catalogue of specifications which divine justice holds against the transgressors of the human family.

But the ground assumed by us, and which we profess to assume by divine approbation, and in defence of the rights of God, is that man, being created by God, and wholly supported by his ample and abundant goodness, is wholly his. If man has transgressed the commands of his Maker, this, we contend, does not alter the case as to his being the property of the Creator.

In order to make good the claim we have here set up, we shall endeavor to show that the true meaning of Scripture not only establishes the fact, but furnishes ample illustrations of the same. A few passages from the Psalms and from

Isaiah will be sufficient to establish our claim. Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance when it was weary.' 'Remember thy congregation which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed.' He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheep-folds; from following the ewes great with young, he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.' For the Lord will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.' 'Remember me, O Lord, with the favor that thou bearest unto thy people; O visit me with thy salvation; that I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may glory with thine inheritance. We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.' 'Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.'1 'In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land; whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.' O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.'2

The most of the above passages, we allow, embrace, not the whole sinful family of man, consisting of all the nations of the earth, but the house of Israel only; but as this particular nation was, to say the least, as wicked as any other, if God in his word testifies that they were his inheritance, it not only proves that he has an inheritance in the wicked, but affords good data on which to extend the divine right over all other sinners. In one of the foregoing passages, Egypt and Assyria are united with Israel as God's people, the work of his hands, and his inheritance. In the passage quoted from the 2d Psalm, the heathen and the uttermost parts of the earth are distinctly mentioned as a gift which God said he should give to his ever blessed Son.

It may be of no inconsiderable service to the interest of the case in which we are engaged, to set forth both the nature of the divine possession which God holds in the wicked,

1 Ps. lxviii. 9; lxxiv. 2; lxxvii. 70, 71; xciii. 14; cvi. 4-6; ii. 8. 2 Isa. xix. 24, 25; Ixiii. 17.

and the tenure by which it is holden. As God is the Creator of man he is the sole proprietor. 'I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back; bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him. Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears. Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled; who among them can declare this, and show us former things? Let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified; or let them hear and say, It is a truth. Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am He: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.' 'I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.' 'Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers? 3 By the light of these passages, the testimony of which is corroborated by many which we may not here quote, we see that because God has created all men, he claims them as his own, and that as he is our Creator, and the Creator of all, we have all one father in him; and moreover that he justly claims all whom he has created as his children, as his sons and his daughters. Because God has created the heavens and the earth, he claims them as his own, and our doctors are not disposed to dispute his right to them; but when we urge in favor of his right in the wicked, whom he not only created, but created in his own image, constituting them all his children, they are loth to yield to this claim, any further than to allow that the Creator has a right to punish them unmercifully and forever. But we contend not only that the Creator has a clear right to the wicked, and an interest in them, as he has to the visible creation, the heavens and the earth, but that he holds in them a relation to himself, as their father; as an earthly parent possesses an interest in a child, a right, a claim which the child cannot dissolve, nor the parent transfer. And we moreover maintain that it ill becomes

Isa. xliii. 6-10; xlv. 12; Malachi ii. 10.

doctors, who profess Christianity, either to deny to the wicked their sonship in God, or to God the rights of a father in the wicked; for Jesus, whose disciples they profess to be, has fully and explicitly established these infinitely important relations and interests, in that form of prayer which he gave to his disciples. In this form he directed them to pray thus: Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.'4 Here Jesus teaches sinners that God is their Father, and that they are his sinful children, and stand in need of his forgiveness. He also teaches sinners that they have an interest in their heavenly Father's love, and that by the strength of that interest his favor may be asked. They had just the same right to ask of their Father in heaven the forgiveness of their sins, as they had to ask of him their daily bread. This right must be founded in the relation which subsists between God and his sinful children; and this relation must give to him an interest in them, which exactly corresponds with their interest in him. Our children have an interest in us, founded on the relation in which they stand to us, and we to them; and the interest we have in them corresponds with the interest which they have in us.

Possibly the reader may ask whether wickedness may not dissolve this relation, on which we contend so much depends? We answer, as the duty which children owe to their parents, is claimed on the strength and nature of the relation which subsists between them, so disobedience is weighed and measured solely by the same standard. It is therefore impossible that disobedience should dissolve the very law which constitutes it disobedience. Indeed, if this law were dissolved, there would be no disobedience.

On this moral relation which subsists between man and his Creator, are founded all the favors which the former receives from the latter, and all the duties and moral obligations which we owe to our Father which is in heaven. This moral relation constitutes also the law which justifies obedience, and which weighs, measures and condemns disobedience. And were it possible for this relation to be dissolved, as there would

4 Luke xi. 2-4.