ereignty, conscience derives all its power. And hence too all ages have confessed the divine laws above human, as far as heaven is above earth.

Beholding God as the Sovereign who directs and controls all things, the pious heart of man and of seraph rests with a sweet security under the shadow of his wings. What harm can be fall him who has the friendship of that God whose will directs alike the revolutions of worlds, and the motions of each grain of sand upon the sea shore? Let the storms of adversity rise and howl; God rides in the tempest and directs the storm. Let deep call unto deep, until all their waves shall threaten to roll over the righteous man; the ways of God are in the deep, and his path in the mighty waters. On the contrary; what' a horrible disquiet does the supremacy of an offended God engender in the bosom of the wicked? In the thunder he hears his sovereign voice; in each flash of lightning he perceives the kingly glance of that eye that is like a flame of fire; and in each danger that approaches him he discovers an armed executioner of Him who rules among the armies of heaven, and does his whole pleasure among the inhabitants of earth.

Viewing the Lord as a Sovereign of matchless perfection, the pure spirit delights to commune with him in worship. In this light only he is the Hearer of prayers; and with what confidence and joy should all flesh approach Him. He is the bright object of all praise; and with thrilling emotions of admiration and awe the righteous burn their golden censers before him. Rob him of this sovereignty, and you deprive him of so much worship---that richest jewel of the soul, and golden property of God. Ascribe any part of this sovereignty to his creatures; and strait as an arrow to the mark you inevitably, though it may be insensibly, run into the practice of creature-adoration. From this very source crept into the church, by imperceptible degrees the accursed practice of worshipping saints, angels and men.

O Zion, guard the Sovereignty of your Lord as you would guard the apple of the eye: for in doing so you defend his honor assert his glory and keep pure the very fountain head of all religion! You will thus give his laws the preeminence over all other laws; you will be able to convey that peace which passeth all understanding into the bosoms of the good: and you will preserve the worship of his temple from the touch of polluted hands, and as bright, warm, and pure as a spark from heaven!

III. Another use of predestination is to make the free grace of God the exclusive source of man's salvation.

Grace, means favor; and free grace, denotes unmerited and sovereign favor. The bare idea of purchased or merited grace is ridiculous. For, whatever is "of grace is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace." If any thing be received by us as the reward of works of the law, it is foreign to the very idea of grace.

We have already seen that God is the great First Cause of all things since he planned and purposed whatever comes to pass, in the counsels of eternity. The scheme of redemption is a part of the great plan of the universe: and all the different features of this scheme, and all its means and ends, originated in the decrees.

Since the moral perfections of God moulded the entire plan of the decrees according to their own character, of course they presided over the construction of the whole scheme of salvation. At the very fountain head of this scheme (which is election) sits divine mercy: and free grace is but another name for divine mercy; in order to contradistinguish it from human merit, in effecting man's salvation. And therefore let it be remembered, that the very name of grace renders God's mercy and man's pretensions utterly incompatible with each other; so that whoever ascribes the origin of human salvation to man, denies it to the mercy, or free grace, of God. For, "if it be of works (says the scriptures) it is no more of grace; otherwise work is no more work."

The doctrine of election includes every step of man's salvation from his effectual calling until his glorification. For what do we mean by election? God's eternal purpose to choose, to call, to sanctify (or conform to the image of his Son) and justify, and to bring into a state of glorification, a certain number of the fallen sons of Adam, purely of his own sovereign grace and mercy; since his justice so far from awarding them any merit, strips them of every thing even to life itself, on account of their crimes.

Thus it is that the doctrine of predestination ascribes every step of our salvation exclusively to the sovereign grace of God. And hence the bitter opposition which this doctrine has ever encountered and must continue to meet with until the end of time. The advocates of human ability know too well that it prostrates all their proud pretensions into the dust, and, in making God the Great First cause of each event that transpires, it exhibits him as the great First Cause of every step of man's salvation, and leaves the holiest saints mere instruments to work out his purposes,mere clay in the hands of the Potter. And therefore the great battle of God's glory against man's vanity,

and God's free grace against man's pretensions, will, to the end of the world, be fought around the doctrine of predestination.

Whoever then denies predestination denies the exclusive agency of free grace in our salvation. For the doctrine of the decrees is the true solution of the great question of the origin of all things. And in denying that God is the great First Cause of our salvation, all the doctrines of free grace fall to the ground.

Whoever teaches this doctrine teaches all the doctrines of free grace at the same time; for they are all comprised in it. With the beloved John he teaches, that in God's eternal decrees "the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.” With Peter and John he teaches, that the saints are "elect according to the foreknowledge of God," and that their names were "written in the book of life from the foundation of the world." With Paul he teaches, that the great doctrine of effectual calling has its origin in the decrees, since the Lord "calleth things that are not as though they were." Thus, in this single subject, all the doctrines of the atonement are inculcated. How important then that the decrees be not only believed, but frequently preached! Whosoever preaches up them takes his stand under the banners of free grace, and advances the true doctrines of the

cross.

Men may try whatever experiments they please, and frame the most plausible theories of salvation: but nothing except the doctrines of sovereign grace will convert hardened sinners, or nourish pious souls when hungering and thirsting after righteousness.

IV. The doctrine of predestination is one of those five doctrines in believing which is the largest safety.

We refer to the five disputed points between Calvinists and Arminians. These are predestination, election, total depravity of unregenerated man, exclusive agency of God in effectua! calling, and the perseverance of the saints. If these doctrines be false, a belief in them cannot interfere with our salvation. If they be true, a denial of them appears utterly incompatible with our salvation.

1. Suppose these doctrines false: it is perfectly safe to believe them. If predestination and election be both false, it natters not: still believe in the use of means. If man's total depravity be a mere fiction, then, my use of the means will be efficacious. It effectual calling by the power of God have no foundation, I can effectually call myself by using the proper means. And whether the perseverance of the saints be true or not, I still hold myself bound to go on to perfection by all the means in my power.

2. But if these doctrines be true, and I do not believe them, then it would seem that I must be lost. 1 go out with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against me with twenty thousand---I attempt to do for myself what the highest angel in heaven cannot do for me. I never pray, Lord increase my faith; because I believe that I can do that for myself. If my whole nature be covered with a spiritual leprosy I cannot carry my disease to Jesus and say, Lord if thou wilt, thou canst, make me clean; for I think that I can do that for myself. In short, like Sysiphus of old, I may employ my whole life time in rolling up the scheme of human ability to the top of Mount Zion; and when at the very point of imagined success, find it recoil and rush to the ground again farther than ever from the summit.

In the whole of this contest between the power of God and the power of man, does it not appear childish to be so uncommonly sensitive about the loss of human ability, where that loss meets with an ample recompense in divine assistance? If we have access to the POWER, does it matter where it lies; whether in man or God? Can there be any hazard in believing that God will assist us when our own powers are exhausted? It seems to be assumed as a thing not to be disputed, that, if we prove man to be helpless and God to be powerful, we prove God to be the enemy of man, and not his friend. But does not the very idea of the divine aid imply the divine friendship, and friendship too so much the greater that our helplessness renders this aid necessary to salvation? Calvinism does not teach men to be sjuggards---it does not say to them, let your salvation alone; God will do all while you do nothing. Still less does it teach them that God will force them to believe and repent; but it warns them that they must try to do so just as if they had all power, and then look to God for the strength requisite to make the trial effectual---that the act of faith, repentance &c. must be theirs; and the power that makes it what it is, must be God's. When the invalid of Bethesda who was confined to his bed 38 years took up his bed and walked at the command of Christ, the act of walking was altogether his---it was the pure exertion of his faith in the power of Christ acting upon his own free-will---but the power which enabled him to walk belonged to the Lord. But if this man had not had faith in the power of Christ; and, what is worse, could he have been cheated into the belief that he had the power of resuscitation within himself, instead of obeying the command of the Lord, he would have turned his back upon him as an imposter, and consequently his false belief would have made his bed his grave.

Thus, if these five great doctrines were false, they still would contain their own great antidote (the use of means,) and the belief of them would prove harmless. But if they be true, then wo to the man who rejects them: for it is impossible to supply their place. Predestination stands at the very head of them and involves them all: and, indeed, it is owing more to its intimate connection with the rest of these kindred doctrines, than to anything objectionable in itself, that it encounters such fierce and unrelenting opposition.

Yet we would not be understood here as pronouncing sentence against the piety of all Arminians. On the contrary, we fondly indulge the hope that the majority in evangelical Arminian churches are pious---Israelites indeed in whom there is no guile. It matters not what is a man's simple belief: it is the belief on which he practises, that is of vital importance: and there is a happy contradiction between the profession and the practice of many Arminian denominations. Their practice is Calvinistic: not, indeed, purely so; but a mixture of Calvinism and Arminianism. They pray to God for that faith which they say they have all power to engender already within themselves. They will pray zealously to God for the conversion of a man, while much mere machinery is used for his conversion, resulting from the notion that he has ample power to convert, himself, especially if aided by a little artificial help. They will give all the glory of their salvation to God, and, at the same time, claim much credit for it themselves. Now, it is not our design to reproach them for this inconsistency; but only to account for our belief, that notwithstanding the fatal opinions which they profess; the majority of them may be God's chosen ones.

We have not asserted the superior safety of a belief in predestination and the kindred doctrines, in a boasting spirit. Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. Our object is to put down the declaration made by some that this is a gloomy doctrine, and to let every candid and intelligent man see that no doctrine is so encouraging to holiness. Because it teaches that there is a hell, and that God has determined to punish incorrigible sinners on just principles, and that he knew from eternity who they would be, they mistake the gloom of these awful subjects for something peculiar to the doctrine itself. Does not the Bible also teach that there is a hell, and that these same inveterate sinners shall inhabit it? It is a gloomy book, then? True. But to whom is it gloomy? To hardened and God-hating sinners: and to such, as long as they continue so, we hope that our religion will never be a bed of roses---to such, "our God