all the means, power,
and opportunity to turn and live; and this fact is nearly always alluded
to in relation to the finally impenitent and lost. Thus says our Saviour,
with tears of commiseration and pity: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often
would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left
unto you desolate." Now the tears of the Redeemer thus wept over lost
souls, and this eloquent vindication of his own and his Father's goodness
and compassion, would be a perfect mockery, if salvation had never been
placed within their reach, or if their obedience, their real spiritual
obedience and submission, might have been secured. But as it is, there is
not even the shadow of a ground for suspecting the sincerity of the
Redeemer, or his being in earnest in the great work of saving souls.

Again the impenitent are addressed in the following awful language: "Turn
ye at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit upon you, I will make
known my words unto you. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have
stretched out my hand and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all
my counsel and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your
calamity: I will mock when your fear cometh." Thus the proceeding of the
Almighty, in the final rejection of the impenitent, is placed on the
ground, that they had obstinately resisted the means employed for their
salvation. This seems to remove every shade of difficulty. But how dark
and enigmatical, nay, how self-contradictory, would all such language
appear, if they might have been very easily rendered holy and happy! Thus,
by bearing in mind that a necessary holiness is a contradiction, an absurd
and impossible conceit, the goodness of God is vindicated in regard to the
lost, and his sincerity is evinced in the offer of salvation to all.

Section III.

The views of Luther and Calvin respecting the sincerity of God in his
endeavours to save those who will finally perish.

On any other principle, we must forever struggle in vain to accomplish so
desirable and so glorious an object. If we proceed on the assumption that
holiness may be very easily caused by an omnipotent, extraneous agency, we
shall never be able to vindicate the sincerity of the Almighty, in the
many solemn declarations put forth by him that he desires the salvation of
all men. The only sound