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holiness: he has foretold events which were dependant on the moral conduct of particular persons, and were accomplished either by their virtuous or vicious actions; he has often foretold the conduct of nations and of successive generations, which could not be foreknown, if the volitions of men had not been foreseen. The cruelty of the Egyptians in oppressing Israel, and the calamities with which, as the punishment of their sins, they were visited, were stated long before they had taken place. Unless God foreknows the future acts of man's will, and his conduct as a moral agent, all the things which are foretold both in the Old and New Testament, concerning the gradual progress and universal extent of the kingdom of the Messiah, must have been predicted and promised while God was in ignorance whether any of those things would come to pass or not. The whole scheme of prophecy takes for granted that God has a perfect knowledge of all the actions of free agents; that he knows what are to be their volitions many hundred years afterwards, and what is the conduct which is to result from them. The Jews, in condemning and crucifying our Lord, certainly acted without any physical restraint, they acted from choice; and yet it is expressly declared that they acted according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. In this purpose Jesus is said to have been slain from the foundation of the world. All things are represented as sustainedin being in consequence of this purpose; and the spiritual and immortal interests of men are said to be peculiarly its object. 'We know that all things work together for good to them that

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love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son," that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Thus the works of creation, and providence, and redemption, are but parts of one great plan, devised by infinite wisdom, designed to attain infinite good, and conducted according to the counsel of the will of God.

CHAPTER XVI.

OBJECTIONS TO THIS DOCTRINE ANSWERED.

I ATTEMPTED to prove the doctrine that all beings and events exist in entire accordance with the divine will

and purpose. To this doctrine, which has often been handled rashly and injudiciously, numerous and weighty objections have been made. It will now be my business faithfully to state those objections, and fully to answer them. They resolve themselves into the following; that the doctrine of the fore-ordination of all things supposes what is beneath the dignity of God; that it is incompatible with free agency;-that it makes God the author of sin;-that it precludes human prudence and exertion;- that it renders prayer useless and unnecessary;-that it is the stoical doctrine of fate;-and that it is hurtful to morality.

SECTION I.-The Doctrine in Question unsuitable to the Character of God.

It is affirmed that the doctrine of the divine purpose concerning all things cannot be true, because it supposes what is beneath the care and the dignity of God. It is a sufficient answer to this objection, that it is founded on the supposition that God is mutable and dependent, that he feels, as we do, difficulty in attending to a multiplicity of concerns, and that such an attention would be unsuited to that dignified repose in which it is imagined the happiness of deity consists. Whoever would urge this objection, must have formed his notions of the perfections and character of God from the atheistical conjectures of heathen philosophers, and not from the statements of revelation. These statements have been made by God, who alone possesses a certain and intuitive knowledge of his own nature and character, and who, therefore, is alone capable of making it known. "To whom,” he asks, "will ye liken we, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like? For I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." From the perfections which God necessarily possesses, and from the supremacy and universality of his government, we know that every being and event that shall ever have existed, cannot but be the object of his notice, and be under his direction and

control. Can He feel embarrassed with the magnitude and variety of the concerns of his vast empire, whose dwelling-place is eternity, and before whom the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance? If it be in him we live and move and have our being, must not our entrance into existence, together with the minutest events in our history, be all well known to him, and be all in accordance with his purpose? How minute and various are the concerns of one individual through a given period, or during an endless existence; but these are as much the object of the divine care and superintendence, as if there were only one individual in existence.

He who made, and who upholds all things, must know the properties and the actions of the various substances which he formed and upholds; and instead of being derogatory to his glory to have them under his constant direction, it would imply an imperfection could the case stand otherwise. "He tell

eth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite." Whatever knowledge is in the divine mind now, must always have existed in it; for to him there can be nothing new, and in him there can be no succession of thought. We cannot, therefore, deny that all things take place according to the purpose which God formed from eternity, without denying his present knowledge, care, and superintendence. We must either admit that whatever he knows now he knew from eternity, that whatever he directs now he designed to direct from eternity,

and that whatever object he is accomplishing now he intended from eternity to accomplish, or deny the immutability, independence, omnipotence, and perfection of God.

SECTION II.-Inconsistent with the Moral Agency and Accountableness of Man.

It is objected to the doctrine, that all things exist according to the eternal purpose of God, that it is incompatible with the free agency and accountableness of man. How, it is said, can man be accountable for his conduct, when this was the object of the counsel of God? And the objection would be well founded, if the purpose of God laid such a restraint on man as to prevent him from acting according to his own free choice and will. But this cannot be admitted: the designs of God are accomplished, while angels and men, the spirits of light and of darkness, act agreeably to the unrestrained bias of their own will.

What are the qualifications requisite to render any being a free agent, and accountable for his conduct? A moral agent must possess a moral sense of good and evil; a capacity of being influenced in his conduct by moral inducements, exhibited to the view of his understanding, and a power of acting agreeably to his own choice. These essential qualities of moral agency exist in the ever-blessed God in the highest degree. They exist also, though in a far inferior degree, in every being that is formed after his likeness. So early and universal is the conviction in man

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