ve preserved the world in holiness, without impairing the
free-agency of man, as easily as he keeps the angels from falling, are
very much mistaken. This assertion is frequently made; but, as we
conceive, without authority either from reason or revelation. It is said
by a learned divine, "That God has actually preserved some of the angels
from falling; and that he has promised to preserve, and will, therefore,
certainly preserve the spirits of just men made perfect; and that this has
been, and will be, done without infringing at all on their moral agency.
Of course, he could just as easily have preserved Adam from falling,
without infringing on his moral agency."(149) This argument is pronounced
by its author to be conclusive and "unanswerable." But if God preserves
one portion of his creatures from falling, by the manner in which he has
dealt with those who have fallen, it does not follow that he could just as
easily have kept each and every portion of them from a defection. If a
ruler should prevent a part of his subjects from rebellion, by the way in
which he has dealt with those who have rebelled, does it follow that he
might just as easily have secured obedience in the rebels? It clearly does
not; and hence there is a radical defect in the argument of these learned
divines and the school to which they belong. Let them show that all things
in heaven are not secured in their eternal allegiance to God by the work
of Christ, and then they may safely conclude, that man might have been as
certainly and infallibly secured against a defection as angels and just
men made perfect. If God binds the spiritual universe to himself, by the
display of his unbounded mercy to a fallen race, it does not follow that
he could, by the same means, have preserved that race itself, and every
other order of beings, from a defection. For, on this supposition, there
would have been no fallen race to call forth his infinite compassion, and
send its binding influences over angels and the spirits of just men made
perfect.

According to the sublime idea of revelation, it is the transcendent glory
of the cross that it exerts moral influences, which have bound the whole
intelligent creation together in one harmonious society with God, its
sovereign and all-glorious head. For aught we know, the stability of the
spiritual universe could not possibly have been secured in any other way;
and hence, if there had been no fall, and no redemption, the grand