Though he formed this great, complicated, and comprehensive design with perfect ease; yet it required the highest possible effort of his all-knowing, all-wise, and all-benevolent mind. It requires considerable mental exertion in a man of large property, to form a wise and correct plan of his own conduct, and of the conduct of all whom he employs in his service. It requires still greater mental exertion in a general of a numerous army, to form a wise and complicated plan of his own conduct, and of the various operations and movements of all under his command. But it required an infinitely greater exertion of the Deity to determine in his own mind, how many worlds he would make; how many creatures he would form; and how he would dispose of them all through every period of their existence. Having made these astonishing mental exertions in adjusting the whole plan of creation, he began to labor with his own hand. By his omnipotent hand, he brought heaven and earth, angels and men, out of nothing into being; and by the same hand, he constantly upholds and governs all his creatures, and all his works. He controls all the views, designs, and conduct of angels and men, and employs them all as laborers in his vineyard, and as instruments in his hand of executing his original and eternal purposes. Thus God,- speaking after the manner of man, - has been laboring, in devising the plan of creation, in performing the work of creation, and in superintending both the natural and moral world, from the beginning to this day; and he will continue his constant and laborious operations till the end of time.

518. LANGUAGE.

Unintelligible language is a lantern without a light.

Ed. Language is capable of more senses than we are of sensations; and yet it can be employed to convey thoughts to honest, unprejudiced minds, with astonishing accuracy and precision.

Ib. It has been a question, whether the language of signs, or the most copious written language, is capable of the most various impression of thought, and excitement of the feelings. But written languages have been carried to such perfection, they probably possess the greater power of manifold impression.

LARGENESS OF HEART, LAUGHTER, LAW OF GOD.

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Em. Every true believer has an important interest in everything that has existed and that ever will exist. And so far as he understands and loves the Gospel, his heart is growing more and more extensive, as his real interests appear to increase. It is the direct tendency of the Gospel to enlarge his heart, until it extends to the utmost bounds of creation, and feels interested in every created and uncreated object. The heart of the least Christian is as large and boundless as eternity. His love is eternal love; his hope is an eternal hope; his inheritance is an eternal inheritance; and his joy is an eternal joy.

520. LAUGHTER, LIGHTNESS.

The horse-laugh indicates brutality of character.

Goldsmith. And the loud laugh, that speaks the vacant mind. A light and trifling mind never accomplishes anything great or good. On the contrary, it makes an empty purse, an empty reputation, and a miserable end.

Levity of manners and conversation favors almost every vice, and repulses every virtue.

Lk. 6:25. Wo unto you that laugh now; for ye shall mourn. [See 530, 579.]

521. LAW OF GOD.

Em. The law of God is clothed with infinite authority, and carries with it the weight of all the Divine perfections.

lb. The law of God is a transcript of his own moral character, and requires men to exercise the same pure, holy love, which he does. This our Saviour taught. "Love your enemies. If ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." The law of God is perfect, in all respects, because it requires that kind of love, in which all moral perfection consists, and in exact proportion to the powers and faculties of every person, who is capable of understanding the law. It requires every one to love God, at all times, with all his heart, mind, and strength. This is requiring neither too much nor too little. Ib. The penalty of the Divine law, which is as perfect as its precept, is death. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." "The

wages of sin is death." The transgression of a perfectly holy and just law is sin; and every sin deserves punishment; and this desert of punishment can never be taken away.

Ib. It is the perfection of the Divine law, that gives it all its weight and energy, and makes it a proper instrument of converting the souls of men. Through the medium of his perfect law, God causes sinners to feel the weight of all his great and glorious perfections, which is sufficient to make the stoutest hearts stoop.

The reason or necessity of the Divine law remaining, the law remains.

Spring. The only standard to which all human conduct ought to be conformed, and conformity to which is rectitude, is the law of the great Supreme. If there be a God, he must rule; his will must be law. He has no superior, no antecedent; and there is no being of equal claims and rectitude. He only has a right to give law, and he only has a right to give it in conformity to the eternal rule of his own perfect nature.

Ib. These ten commandments are indeed a wonderful code. Do they not embody rules of conscience, the great principles of union among men, and constitute the vital basis of social organization? So comprehensive a summary of the indispensable principles of a social state, and so wonderful a summary of moral duty, never could have been of human invention. This great moral code deserves to stand at the head of all the Mosaic institutions, and, through the people to whom it was originally proclaimed, to address its claims to all the nations of men.

Ed. The Decalogue, as illustrated by Christ, Paul, and others, is a most sublime summary of essential law. It is the parentlaw. This transcript of the heart of God, requires disinterested love, in its modifications of benevolence, moral rectitude, and universal righteousness; and forbids all selfishness, in its modifications of malevolence, injustice, and unrighteousness. The authority of this law, arising from the supremacy of God, from his right of property in his creatures, and from their dependence upon him, is infinitely above all other authority. Its power to bind the conscience, arising from the perfection, spirituality

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and extent of its precepts, is as great as possible. Its restraining power over sin, arising from its penalty, corresponds with its authority and the moral perfection of its precepts. As a rule of duty for the intelligent creation, and guard of civil and domestic order and happiness, nothing better can be conceived. It respects every human relation and obligation. This law possesses a most efficacious moral power, which, under God, is able to make men wise unto salvation. We have no adequate idea of the ultimate honor that will be paid to this instrument of light, and order, of sanctification and happiness, when the honor bestowed upon the laws, the Magna Chartas, and constitutions of human device, will all be forgotten. It is the medium by which God has revealed and is revealing his heart, to his rational offspring. The supreme delight and admiration manifested, by saints upon earth, towards this law, will increase in proportion to their intellectual and moral progress, forever. To deny or oppose its precepts, its penalty, its moral power, perfection, and honors, indicates superlative ignorance, blindness, and moral turpitude. [See 615.]

522. LAWS CONTRARY TO GOD.

C. Robbins. When those in power enact laws, and require obedience in violation of the Constitution, and of the laws of God, in such a case obedience would be rebellion against Heaven, and implicit treason against the State.

The safety of the nation, is the supreme law. Ed. Of those nations, who have the least safety, and find the earliest oblivion. 523. LAW, JURISPRUDENCE.

Hooker. Of law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world. All things in heaven and earth do her homage; the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempt from her power. Both angels and men, and creatures of what condition soever, though each in a different sort and name, yet all, with one uniform consent, admire her as the mother of their peace and joy.

Solon. Laws are like cobwebs, where the small flies are caught, but the great ones break through.

Ames. No man can be a sound lawyer, who is not well read in the laws of Moses,

Milman. The Hebrew lawgiver has exercised a more extensive and permanent influence over the destinies of mankind, than any other individual in the annals of the world.

Man is under physical and moral laws, which were wisely established by his Creator, and sanctioned by fearful penalties. 524. LAW OF PARADISE.

Em. As the Supreme Being, God had an unquestionable right to give law to Adam, whom he formed a rational creature and a proper subject of moral government. And if he intended to give law to Adam, he could not have done it in more appropriate and definite words than those in Gen. 2: 17. These words were addressed to Adam personally; they contained a precise prohibition, which was sanctioned by a precise penalty. Adam was the very person prohibited; the thing prohibited was his eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; and the penalty annexed was death: "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." This was a proper law, in distinction from any covenant, or constitution. A law is essentially different from a covenant. When our civil rulers make a law for the people, they do not at the same time, and by the same act, make a covenant with them. And it is equally true, that when God made a law for Adam, he did not at the same time, and by the same act, make a covenant with him. It does not appear that God ever made any covenant with Adam but the covenant of grace, after his fall. He certainly made no other covenant with him in Paradise. A covenant is a mutual stipulation or agreement between two or more parties, upon certain conditions. But it does not appear that God stipulated with Adam, and Adam with God, respecting the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam did not promise to refrain from eating of that tree; nor did God promise to reward him, if he should refrain from it. There was no form of a contract between God and Adam, which was absolutely necessary to constitute a covenant. But there was the simple and precise form of a proper law: Thou shalt not eat; and if thou eatest,