The work of God perfect. (Contin. from Vol. II. p. 465.)

NUMBER IH.

the difpenfation of his grace, proceeds on this rule to the intent that none may glory in bis prefence, and that the tranfcendant glory which God will beftow on creatures the

HAVING in my fecond nun moft worthless, guilty and forlorn

ber attempted to trace the evidence of this great truth, That none is good but one, God, in the work of creation-in God's difpenfation towards the angels in his general plan of mercy towards fallen man and in one particular branch of this plan, the events of his common providence: I proceed to trace the evidence of the fame truth,

2. In the objects of divine mercy. These were finning men and not finning angels. Had the latter and not the former been the objects of divine mercy, the imperfect views of creatures might fuggeft the doubt whether God, in choofing them, might not have had refpect to their fuperior greatnefs and excellence in their firft formation. But he that calleth things that are not as though they were, faw fit, in the choice he made, to fhow otherwife. Man was not chofen because his fin was venial, or because he was lefs guilty than the finning angels; he deferved condemnation as much as they. His election of God was an act of fovereign goodness; ftill there are goodreafons for all God's acts; he does not will and act because he will; but he wills and acts as he does, rather than otherwife, because it is fit. It would be prefumption to decide with confidence on all the reafons of the divine conduct in any cafe; but in the cafe before us, it is apparent, that God has ordained, according to a known maxim of his kingdom, That the first fall be laft, and the laft firft; and it feems reafonable to fuppofe, that God in

who are redeemed from amongst men, might appear to be all of God. Thus as the old creation must have appeared more glorious and divine when contrafted with the chaos out of which it was formed; fo the new creation, the end and perfection of all God's works, will appear more glorious and divine when contrafted with the fhapeless and vile materials out of which it was formed, and will be more to the glory and praise of all his perfections. Again,

Though the election of grace is confined to men, yet it is a most folemn truth, that it does not embrace all men, some will be left to their own chofen way, and under the dominion of that carnal mind which is enmity against God, will choose the way to death. The difference in temper, character and ftate between them and the faved, is wholly of God, who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. The faved are born of the Spirit, regeneration then is the work of the Spirit, known unto God are all his works from the foundation of the world; and if known then decreed. Where God has decreedto work, he has decreed to fave, and where he has decreed not to work, he has decreed not to fave. The heart of enmity cannot enjoy God or heaven; on the contrary, it is the forerunner and certain fource of endless woe. No man can change his own heart, or act upon higher principles than he has. He cannot by an act of the will

are; that no flesh fhould glory in his prefence." Once more,

control his affections, to make" of the world, and things that that appear beautiful, which he "are despised hath God chofen : { hates; or, to make that appear "Yea, and things which are not, deformed, which he loves. The" to bring to nought things that reason of loving or hating partic-" ular objects must be fought for in the nature of the foul itself, and not in the exercises of the will. All men therefore lie at mercy; By grace are ye faved through faith, and that, not of your"felves it is the gift of God." There is indubitable evidence then that eternal life to finners of the human race, is the free gift of God; it is infinite mercy. The faved have not whereof to glory, neither before God, nor man. Again,

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The miferable and forlorn cir cumftances of the people or nations which God hath fucceffively chofen to be his peculiar people, at the time of manifefting to them his fpecial favor, evince the fame truth. God first chose the people of Ifrael to be a special, peculiar people unto himself, above all people that were upon the face of the earth. And he tells them that he did not fet his love upon them, nor choose them, because they were more in number than any people; for they were the fewest of all people. But because he loved them, and because he would keep the oath, which he had fworn unto their fathers. Their miferable ftate, when God caft an eye of pity on them, is affectingly defcribed by the prophet Ezekiel, under the figure of an expofed infant, in these words. "Thus faith the Lord God unto

A great proportion of thofe whom God has chofen, from age to age, as the objects of mercy, have been from what are esteemed the lower ranks of fociety. Thus our Saviour in the days of his flesh, while he paffed by the court of Herod, and the palace of the high-priest, and thofe, generally, who were of the Jewish Sanhedrim, or of the fcribes, pharifees and doctors of the law, chose the fociety of perfons in obfcure life," conforted with publicans and finners, and conferred his choiceft bleffings, more commonly, on the poor, the maimed, the halt and the blind. "He was anointed to preach good tidings, unto the "meek, to bind up the broken "hearted, to proclaim liberty to "the captives, and the opening "the prifon to them that are "bound." God's purpofe feems to have been in this to ftain the pride of all human glory; and St. Paul is exprefs, "That God "hath chofen the foolish things" thou waft born. And when I "of the world to confound the "paffed by thee, and faw thee "wife; and weak things of the "polluted in thine own blood, "world to confound the things "I faid unto thee, when thou "that are mighty; and base things" waft in thy blood, live; yea, I

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Jerufalem, thy birth and thy "nativity is of the land of Ca"naan: Thy father was an Am"orite, and thy mother a Hittite. "And as for thy nativity in the "day thou waft born, thy navel "was not cut, neither waft thou "washed in water to fupple thee, "thou waft not falted at all, nor "fwaddled at all. No eye pitied "thee, to do any of these unto "thee, to have compaffion upon "thee; but thou was caft out in "the open field to the loathing of "thy perfon; in the day that

"thou waft refufed, faith thy "God. For a fmall moment have "I forfaken thee; but with great "mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face

"with everlasting loving-kindness " will I have mercy on thee, faith "the Lord thy Redeemer.

Ifrael are now, and have been for ages in a defperate state, vifibly rejected of God, but are preferv ed as a monument of wrath, and as a fign and a wonder to all nations; their cafe is fo hopeless, that they are compared to a valley of dry bones; yet at the time appointed they fhall be revived, they fhall become one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Ifrael, and fhall dwell therein forever, and David fhall be their prince, and God's fanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore. Thus God. as St. Paul teftifies, hath concluded Jew and Gentile in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all. Or, that their calling and adoption fucceffively into God's family might be feen to be wholly from God, and an expreffion of mere mercy.

"faid unto thee, when thou "waft in thy blood, live." The ftrength of the tender mercies of God toward them is exhibited to the best advantage by their continued provocations, their perfidy," from thee, for a moment, but and bafe ingratitude, after God had brought them into the moft honorable relation to himself. So, when the Jews were broken off" thou affided, toffed with tempeft from the family and church of "and not comforted! Behold I will God through unbelief, and the "lay thy ftones with fair colors, Gentiles were adopted into it, their" and thy foundations with fapcircumítances were equally wretch-" phires." So the whole house of ed. Sufficient time had elapfed, fince the calling of the Jews, to fhow, that thofe nations, left to themselves, would never return to God; but, on the contrary, while they, at least fome of them, rapidly advanced in philofophy and the arts, would increase in all manner of wickednefs, and in brutish ignorance of the one true God; and that their ftate, without divine aid, was utterly hopelefs. That fuch was their true ftate may be seen in the 1 chap, of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, where their character is described at large. These nations are defcribed in the 54 Chap. of Isaiah under the image of a barren wo man, who had been repudiated in her youth, and had lived in a defolate, afflicted and comfortless ftate, but at laft was received into favor and addreffed with thefe healing and comfortable words: "Sing, O, barren, thou that "didst not bear, break forth in"to finging thou that didst not "travail with child; for more are the children of the defolate, ❝ than the children of the married "wife, faith the Lord. For thy "maker is thy husband, the Lord "of hofts is his name. For the "Lord hath called thee as a wo"man forfaken and grieved in fpir"it, and as a wife of youth, when VOL. III. No. 1.

3d. In the difcipline which divine wifdom has chofen to train up his people for the heavenly inheritance. What is particularly referred to, as pertinent to the argument in hand, is the oppofition which, pursuant to the divine difpofal, has ever been made to the people of God, by the powers of earthand of hell and by the remaining corruptions, or body of fin, within them. This will be confidered, briefly, in refpect to the church of God in general, and in Сс

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fia, in the unreft of Ahafuerus, which produced the fearch of the records, in the fudden reverse which caufed Haman the Jews, enemy to be hanged upon the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai, and in the confequent complete deliv. erance of the Jews from utter deftruction, as well as in caufing the fun to ftand still in Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of Ajalon. It appears in the destruction of Jerufalem by the Romans, after that bloody city had killed the prince of life, and had become the moft dangerous enemy and perfecutor of the Chriftian church

in the elevation of Conftantine to the imperial throne, at a period when perfecution appears to have almost finished its bloody work, in the extirpation of the Chriftian name-in the various events which gradually revealed the man of fin until he had exalted himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, and had become the dragon's most complete reprefentative,in thofe which have hith

refpect to individual believers, to gether with fome things which relate to their prefervation, fupport and deliverance. The ferpent having feduced our firft parents into rebellion against God, in the fentence which God pronounced against him, he says, "I will put enmity, between thee and the "woman, and between thy feed "and her feed, it fhall bruife thy "head, and thou shalt bruife his " heel." Every period of time fince bears witness to the truth of this prediction. It is unneceffary to mention particulars; to do juftice to this fubject would be the fame as to write a history of the church from the beginning. It is more to the purpofe to obferve, that the oppofition has always been fo great, that nothing could control or fubdue it but the power of God himself. It was the arm of the Lord which faved the church of the old world, and destroyed its enemies, when the earth was filled with violence. It was the arm of the Lord that cut Rahab and wounded the dra-erto preferved the true church dugon. It was the arm of the Lord ring his reign, and in those which that dried up the fea, the waters have, by various fteps, humbled of the great deep, that made the this its laft and greatest enemy; depths of the fea, a way for the as well as in the deftruction of ranfomed to pafs over. But the Sifera and his hoft by the hand of arm of the Lord is not made bare Deborah and Barak-of the Midin view of the nations in miraculous ianites by the hand of Gideonworks only; it is fo, in the con- of the Ethiopians by the hand of currence of ordinary events, which, Afa-of the children of Amunder the divine direction, work mon, Moab, and mount Seir, by together for the prefervation of the the hands of each other-or of church in times of the most immi- the hundred and four-fcore and nent danger; or for its enlarge- five thousand Affyrians by the ment in times of distress. It is hand of the angel of the Lord. vifible in raifing up Cyrus and Artaxarxes, heathen princes, to reftore and build Jerufalem as well as in the deftruction of Pharaoh and his hoft in the red fea. It is feen in the advancement of Efther and Mordecai in the court of Per

Indeed the ftate of things from the beginning has been fuch as divine wifdom faw beft calculated to display, in the fulleft manner, the enmity of the feed of the serpent to the feed of the woman, to lead the people of God to fee that all

courfe his works are infinite, and beyond the comprehenfion of finite minds. None by searching can find out God, none can find out the Almighty unto perfection. Still, enough may be known, as explained by himself, to fit us to bear a part in that society which, as a whole, and in all its parts, will be of perfect beauty. And as no event can take place, but will, rightly understood, directly difcover the heart of God; fo no doubt, the holy inhabitants of Heaven will be eternally employed in searching the works of God with ever-growing delight and improvement. But I proceed to what is directly in view to confider the evidence arifing from the oppofition which good men experience in their Chriftian courfe from Satan and their own remaining corruptions, of the great truth, That there is none good but one that is God.

good is from him, to truft with, is, God is an infinite agent, and of unfhaken confidence in his power and grace, and to render the final victory of the promised feed, in bruifing the ferpent's head, moft complete and glorious. Thefe and fimilar ends God has attained by the existing state of things in every age, in raifing up and putting down fucceffively the Egyptian, Affyrian, Perfian, Grecian, Roman, and other great monarchies of the earth, and in giving them dominion and great authority, while the church and people of God have been for the moft part, as to human support, feeble and defenceless, and subject to that dominion-in the reign of Antichrift, and prefervation of the church, notwithstanding he has been drunken with the blood of the faints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jefus ; and the fame ends will be attained by the prefent state of the nations, particularly of the Jews, and of thofe Gentile nations who have not yet received the Gofpel, and by the great apoftacy which is, at the prefent day, prevailing among those nations, which have long enjoyed and long abufed the gofpel; as well as by that glorious and final deliverance of the church which fhall take place, when the faints fhall poffefs the kingdom. Though the great events referred to in the laft particular relate to the church as a community, and are calculated to form a perfect fociety, yet they do this by forming the character of individuals, which shall compofe that fociety. Their perfection confifts in being filled with the knowledge and love of God and in the full enjoyment of him. Every agent is known by his works; and God, the first, the greatest and the best, is known by his. The difficulty

It is easy with God, by an inftantaneous act, completely to fanctify the foul of the greatest finner, and to fit it for Heaven; and doubtlefs he fometimes does this; but generally, fanctification is, at first, but in part; and is gradually progreffive in those who are its happy fubjects. The being of fin, in the heart of such as are born of God, is viewed by them as it really is in itself, the greatest of all evils; but ftill, it is the occafion of great good to them. It is feen by them more diftinctly, as abominable and hateful when in actual exercife, as it were brandishing its forked tongue, than it could be in recollection only, as having once exifted; fuch a view of it, as is exhibited by a clear perception of God's perfect law, will excite in them fervent prayer for deliverance; it will humble