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to discover, that Satan, the prince of darkness, must necessarily have his place in these schemes, in opposition, diametrical opposition, to the fountain of light, joy, and peace.

My eyes and ears, my mind and heart, were now widely opened with knowledge, to the awful view of eternity, which thus lay stretched before me, in perspective infinite of endless happiness and misery. The more I considered, the more I plainly felt and saw, that the great bulk, if not the whole of mankind, were on the brink of a perdition so deep, so inconceivably dreadful, that the mere reflection upon it seemed almost to petrify me. I saw, that if a stone would fall to the earth, so surely must the world, and all its vain pomp, descend into eternal perdition *.

I saw plainly, that after man once moved from the point of equilibrium, towards voluntary evil, he was in the course of divine truth

* That is to say, it appeared to me that the law of physical central gravitation, here alluded to, was nothing more or less than a strict type of the law of spiritual truth and just retribution; by which the soul that unreservedly obeyed the law of selfish, or central gratification, without regard to love, would be condignly punished by that very law! For love, as opposed to selfishness, is as the centrifugal to the centripetal power; and the latter, without the former, is a type of the next to omnipotent prison of the grave of hell.

already lost, as much, as if he had even reached the source of it; because he could not do this, without having previously and wilfully overcome the power and attractions of right reason and conscience, and of God; and being once thus in motion in this spirit, the same mathematical law of true retribution must carry him on, willing or not willing, in the same crooked path of error, with accelerated force and velocity, according to the spaces of evil he moved through in approaching to the centre of that principle, like a descending projectile. It was therefore clear, that if man once moved ever so little, even a hair's breadth, towards voluntary evil, he became utterly unable from that moment to help, or stop himself, or prevent himself from being drawn for ever towards the tremendous source of evil, which he had once wilfully inclined to and cordially obeyed.

Such being the case, I could see no remedy, no possible way of salvation, except in the grace and power of God. But how could these in justice be either expected, asked, or given? Every thing necessary, every thing possible, to enable man to stand, except such an absolute force as should destroy his equilibrium, or freedom of choice, and consequently his responsibility, was given to him in the first instance, and nothing more could be given, if we admit the necessity of a trial, or option.

Therefore, the justice and the goodness of God were fully established. But He was universally perfect, infinitely just, as well as gracious, and every attribute must be honoured. Who then was to satisfy his infinite justice and holiness, as well as his outarged goodness, thus wilfully and ungratefully insulted by rebellious man?

The story of the creation, and FALL of man, as recorded in the Scriptures, was now no longer ridiculed by me, as unjust, absurd, and even blasphemous; for I had actually, though without suspecting what I was about, or where I was going, fully demonstrated it (to myself) to be the very matter of fact; and not only fact, but perfectly holy, just, and good in God*. Because it was manifest that God, the principle and fountain of all good, being in himself perfectly good, could not have made man otherwise than good, and wholly free from evil, his antipathy; and it was equally evident that He had fully enabled man to remain so, if he chose, by gifting him with right reason and true sentiments. Hence it followed, that man's admission of evil was a choice! It was both premeditated and voluntary; for it must have discovered itself to be such, at its first approach

That is to say, the grace of God's Holy Spirit demonstrated all this to me; but I thank God, I neither was, nor am, so brutish and blind in spirit, as to suppose that I made the discovery by my own mere wisdom.

feelingly to the heart and conscience, by the violent shock which it must at first have given to his just and lovely sentiments; and it must have been subsequently demonstrated to be so, in the balance of right reason; and therefore, the whole man, the heart and the head, the woman and the man, having once committed such an horrible act of rebellion against God, with the eyes of the understanding open; he had thereby, by his own free will and deed, delivered himself up, soul and body, to the lawful sovereignty and dominion of evil, nd th

principle and god of it; and he had by the same act equally renounced and thrown off his allegiance to the God of Truth, and consequently, in perfect justice, forfeited his protection, and incurred his high displeasure and wrath.

When this leading and important point was established in my mind as an infallible truth, I naturally was led to consider the nature and possibility, or probability, of the Christian scheme of redemption through JESUS CHRIST! that grand vital and fundamental truth, which I had abused, despised, disbelieved, and blasphemed, almost all my life. Many weighty objections and obstacles to my reception of this saving truth, were already removed; for I had proved already to my heart and understanding (that is, the grace of God had done it), though, quite unexpectedly on

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my part, all the previous and leading truths of revelation; such as the personal existence of the devil, the fall of man, and the probable eternity of his perdition; and I had also discovered, through the same agency, that God alone could redeem the lost race. Lastly, but first in importance, all the above valuable discoveries had been made to me, by the means of the dreadful torments of my merciful chastisements, which had driven out the evil spirit of pride which was the spirit of blindness, and insensibility to divine truth, or the scales of Leviathan, as it is figuratively called in the Book of Job.

But the difficulty lay here: how were infinite justice and holiness to be satisfied, without ruin to the sinner; eternal ruin? Since man had lost the power and the will, from the premises; since God alone could do this, how was He to do it? Could God freely pardon, nothing else being supposed, and re-establish man in his original situation? Would not man fall again and again? Could God improve upon his work by experience and repetition, like man? Impossible! I saw that there was a certain inviolable order in the nature of truth; and that if it could be broken through with impunity, the throne of God Himself would be overturned, and He would cease to be the Almighty!

Supposing then the Deity to have a Son,

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