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• till further ( Practice of the JMoye of Gbd , IJbolcIL Chap . 8 ) : fie ., says : — * * Love is the tiniversal m ^ ans or our Salvation , which mingles -with every thing , and without which nothing is Salutary . " This is to assert that love 19 the universal remedy for all the . diseases of the soul ; it is the liquid gold
that the alchymist sought m vain to cure bodily infirmities . Christ , our Redeemer , when he came into the world , drew it , from heaven to heal all those of a spiritual nature : before his coming , the prophets , who were the
preachers under the ancient law , denounced threats and terrors ; but when Jesus appeared , the tone of preaching changed , passing as we may say from the warlike Phrygian to the soft Ionian measure , wooing with the most affectionate sweetness of the lyre , those
Who Were before intimidated by the martial sound of the trumpet . The € rospel no where resounds with the formidable titles of God strong and terrible , God of vengeance , Lord of hosts , or God of armies , which in the Old Testament made the nations
tremble ; on the contrary , in our Sa-Viour ' s discourses , he very frequently balls God our Father . He is mentioned fifteen times in a sermon that fc contained in the 5 th , 6 th and 7 th chapters of St . Matthew , and always under this denomination , either simply your Father , or with the addition yoor heavenly Father , so that he calls on vis to fulfil our duties not as servants
through fear , but as sons through love . St . Paul as well as Jesus represents t 5 od as the beneficent , the universal Father of mankind . He generally begins his E p istles , which are really ao many missionary sermons , with this talutation full of benevolence and
kindness— " Gratia vobis , et pax a Z ) eo Patre nostro et Domino Jesu Christo ; * nor does he omit this kind introduction even to the Galatians , who deserved the severest rebukes for their declared propensity to apostatize from Christianity to Judaism , which they had before abandoned .
' Thus spake St . Paul because Christ had thus spoken . Christ was the promulgator of the law of grace and SJt . Paul a learned interpreter of that Jaw ; he who most deeply penetrated its spirit , as opposed to the spirit of the actent law . In what does thu difr
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fefence consist ? One is a law Q |\ . yitutie , the . other a law of liber ( r . 1 ^ ^ he first God treated men as ^ seryants , in the latter he regards then * as children : in one he rules than by motives of fear , in the other by motive of love . Ttiis is precisely wriat th *
Apostle writes to the Romans ( chap . 8 . ) intimating that those who embraced the Gospel should no longer be subject to the timid spirit of bondage , but should be governed b y sentiments of love suitable to the children of adoption . ( " Non ' eiiim accepislis spiritum scrvkulis
iterum tn timore 9 scd acceptstis spiritum adoplionis JUiorurn > , in qua clamamiis ablw Pater . " ) Having now strongly inculcated the propriety of leading men to virtue by motives of love rather than those of fear , an opinion founded on the most venerable authority ; it is easy to
enforce it by considerations of the greater utility of this method , motives to obedience derived from love being more agreeable to the goodness of God , and more conformable to the nature of rational creatures . The submission of a servant which springs from fear , is a very different homage from the willing
tribute of affection : the servant obeys reluctantly , the son with delight ; one follows nis inclinations , the other struggles against difficulty ; one is allured by the beauty of the object , tho other cannot advance a single step without subduing himself j one finds a road i £ not entirely smooth , at Iea $ t with but few inequalities , the other in every passion , encounters a fres | i
impediment . You must clearly perceive by what I have said of fear , as opposed to ] ov& I mean servile dread-, for filial fear is not only compatible with love , but may be regarded as a disposition conducive to it . The dependence of a slave on his master differs widely from the dependence of a child on his father : the slave dreads the scourge , the child only fears to give offence . The Lord is terrible to the slave , but the father is venerable to the child ; the slave sufteri chastisement as an act of vengeance , nii
the child receives it as intended for eood : the slave regards it as the ettec of stern dominion , the child a * means J employed for his improvement 11 virtue . ¦ t ^ I think I have sufficiently p roved ^ what has been ffiid , that-ft & * wr
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008 Sornf Observations . 6 n tie > Sexmon $ fqf Missionaries .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1816, page 638, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2458/page/10/
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