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original powers, because, after all, they were finite; and, therefore, must have new views, and so were liable to wrong determinations. God, who was perfectly acquainted with the nature of himself, and of all created beings, plainly saw that himself alone was, by nature, absolutely immutable, and that all created intelligences must, after all their noble endowments and exalted stations, be absolutely dependent on him, not only for the continuation of their beings and original powers, but also for their preservation from sin and apostacy. As it is written, "There is none good but one, that is God." Mark x. 18.

2. However, innocent, holy beings, who as yet never felt the least inclination to swerve from God, but, on the contrary, were entirely wrapt up in him, could not easily perceive how it should be possible for them to turn away from the Deity, and become apostate. Yea, such a thing would naturally appear to be impossible, as they felt no inclination that way, nor had in view any thing which seemed to be of the nature of a temptation to it. Nor was it possible they should feel an inclination to sin, while innocent; for the least motion of their hearts towards sin would constitute them sinners in the eyes of perfect purity. Nor was it possible they should feel any force in any temptation to sin, unless the temptation excited in them some inclination that way; for if they felt no inclination that way, then the temptation would appear to have no weight in it. If it weighed nothing with them, it would appear to have no weight in itself. So that, as long as they remained innocent, they could neither feel any inclination to sin, nor perceive any force in any temptation. Wherefore, it must be very unnatural to an innocent, holy being, to apprehend any danger of his ever turning from God. Nor could he easily be brought to know the mutability of his nature, or ever to imagine it could be in his heart to sin against God, unless left to find out the truth by his own sad expe rience.

Let any man attend to the constitution of his own mind, and he will soon perceive how unnatural it is to think ourselves in danger of a crime to which we never felt the least

inclination, nor ever once thought of any thing in nature that could be a temptation; yea, to which, whenever we think of it, we feel the greatest aversion: as, what dutiful child ever thought himself in danger of murdering his father, whom he greatly loves and honours? And if a divinely-inspired propeht should tell him that he, one day, should be guilty of such a shocking crime, he could hardly believe it. This naturally brings to mind the story of Hazael, (in 2 Kings, viii. 11. 13.) who, when the prophet told him how he should burn the strong holds of Israel, slay their young men with the sword, and dash their children, and rip up their women with child, having never felt any inclination to such barbarities toward them, and not foreseeing any temptation he should ever have to commit such things, so shocking to human nature, readily answered, Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing! So, when our blessed Saviour told Peter that he should deny him that very night, he was far from thinking it was in his heart to do so, Nor could the prediction of Christ induce him to believe that it would come to pass. Yea, it did not seem to him there was really any danger of it, as he had no inclination that way; yea, felt the greatest aversion to it; and it did not seem that any thing could tempt him to it; no, not even death itself; for he felt he had rather die than to do it. Mark xiv. 29. "Although all should be offended, yet will not I." Ver. 31. "If I should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any wise." And this was the voice of them all, though Christ had expressly told them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night; and even confirmed his prediction by an ancient prophecy, "For it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.” Ver. 27. Much less would innocent, holy beings, who had never heard that any one intelligence had ever fallen, or ever discerned any thing in the state of their minds within, or in the situa tion of things without, that had the least tendency that way, but every thing to the contrary: I say, much less would such beings be apt to suspect any danger of their forsaking the fountain of all good, and turning enemies to the God that made them. Nay, rather, I imagine, they would be apt to

look upon it as a thing, in its own nature, near or quite impossible. Therefore,

3. If God, in a sense of their mutability, out of his own mere goodness and sovereign grace, to prevent their apostacy, and the infinitely dreadful consequences which, in a government so perfectly holy as his, sin must expose them to, all which lay open to his view: I say, if God had become. surety for all intelligences; if the only immutable. Being had, in such circumstances, undertaken, by his ever-watchful eye, and the constant influences of his spirit, to have rendered all intelligences immutably good; although the kindness done them, in God's account, had been full infinitely great, yet not so in their's; for they would not have been in a capacity to have discerned the kindness scarce at all; much less to have been so thoroughly sensible of their absolute dependance on God, and infinite obligations to him, as now, according to the present plan, the saved will for ever be.

Had all intelligences been preserved in their original rectitude, and so never felt in themselves the least inclination to sin, but always perfectly to the contrary, they would have been apt to have thought it impossible that any holy being should ever depart from God; and so would not have been apt to have attributed their immutability to God, their preserver, but rather to their own inherent goodness; and so their absolute dependance on God, the only immutable Being, and their infinite obligations to him, for interposing to prevent their apostacy, would not have been seen. Nor could

OBJ. "The Disciples were guilty of self-confidence, and were to blame. Surely holy beings have no blameable self-confidence."

ANS. They have not. The Disciples might have known better. They had heard of the angels' fall, of Adam's fall, and of the falls of Noah, Lot, David, and other most eminent men; and had had abundant experience of the wickedness and deceitfulness of their own hearts, all which, together with Christ's express prediction, rendered them to blame. Yet it will not follow, that an innocent, holy being, just come into existence, full of love to God, having never heard of the fall of any, nor ever thought of any temptation to sin, is to blame, because it seems to him impossible, that ever he should turn enemy to the God that made him, or once go contrary to his will. "How can I do it?" would he be ready to "In all nature there is nothing to tempt me. But every thing to the contrary." And the more he loved God, the more impossible would it seem, that he should ever revolt.

say.

they have had any proper sense of the self-moving goodness and sovereign grace of God, exercised towards them in this affair. In a word, God would not have been exalted so highly, nor would these intelligences have looked on themselves so infinitely beneath him : so dependant ; so much obliged; nor would divine sovereign grace have stood in such a clear and striking point of light, as was really desirable. The truth would have lain, in a measure, concealed, beyond the reach of finite capacities, there being in nature no means provided, whereby they could have come to the clear and full knowledge of it. Therefore,

4. They were not fit to be confirmed; nor would it have been to the honour of God to have confirmed them, as things stood. They were not prepared to feel that they stood in need of this super-creation-grace, (if I may so call it,) not as yet knowing, nor, for aught appears, so much as suspecting, that they were in any danger. They stood firm within themselves, nor was there any thing in universal nature to draw them aside from God, as it seemed to them. And had God then interposed, it must have been to them an insensible interposition; of which they felt no need, and for which they were unprepared to be thankful.

If God had constantly preserved them from the first stirrings of an inclination to apostacy, as they had never heard of such a thing in all the system, or felt any tendency of heart that way, his interposition must have been undiscerned by them; nor could they have come to the knowledge of it, unless by immediate revelation from God; which, as the case stood, they were unprepared to understand, or attend to, as not feeling any need of it. A revelation, in such a situation, would not have produced the desired effects. Nothing could teach them like experience. And, indeed, this is evidently the case so universally, that it is even become a proverb, that experience is the best school-master; so that it seems plain that intelligences, as they were at first created, were not in proper circumstances to be confirmed: nor could God have confirmed them, with that honour to himself that was desirable and fit. For, if God, the only immutable Being, of his own infinite goodness and sovereign grace, should show such a kindness to of his creatures, any it was fit and desirable that they

should be thoroughly sensible of the greatness and freeness of his grace. The kindness done to a mutable, peccable creature, in such a case, as to the matter of it, must be of infinite worth; it being a confirmation in everlasting happiness. And as the kindness in confirming a peccable creature must be infinitely great, so the grace must be absolutely free. God had done so much for all intelligences in their first creation, that he was under no obligations to do any more. He was absolutely at liberty. He looked upon it in this light. And had he, to what he had originally done for them as their Creator, superadded confirming grace, i.e. undertaken, as their guardian, to have been their constant keeper, and engaged his own immutability to have rendered them immutably good, the favour had been quite over and above what was due from the Creator to his creature; and so had been, in a peculiar sense, free. Now, for a favour, infinitely great, and so absolutely free, to be conferred in such a manner as that the greatness and freeness of it should never have been seen by intelligences, was neither for the honour of God, nor for the best good of his creatures. And,

6. It was but paying proper honour to the Deity, for God, as moral governor of the world, to take state to himself, and, in the sight of all created intelligences, to seat himself upon his throne, and proclaim his own infinite supremacy, and clothe himself with his proper authority, and let all know their infinite obligations to love, and honour, and obey him, on pain of his everlasting displeasure, and their everlasting banishment from his glorious presence. To have concerned himself only for his creatures' good, unsolicitous for the rights of the Godhead, in the very beginning of his reign, and when the first foundations of his everlasting kingdom were laying, had been to counteract his own nature and his chief maxims of government. And, indeed, as he is the GREAT BEING, and in a sense, the only being, all the creation being nothing compared with him, yea, less than nothing and vanity; so it was fit all intelligences should early be taught to view him in that light. And what method could be better suited to this end, than to let all the intelligent system know that their everlasting welfare was suspended on the condition

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