creatures; no work, even of God, bears more indubitably and conspicuously the marks of his all-perfect and ineffable wisdom.

The perfections of the Most High make it manifest that if he institute a work of redemption for men, he will leave them nevertheless to give such exemplifications of their alienation, and of the malignity and debasement that naturally result from apostasy from him, and such proofs of their incorrigibleness, as shall show in the most decisive manner that they are truly fallen and lost; and enable the universe to see the true character of their redemption as a work of infinite power and immeasurable grace. That is clearly indispensable in order that their salvation may be rightly understood. If there were no exhibition by them of their aversion, unbelief, debasement, love of evil, and hopeless vassalage to it, there could be no just appreciation of the deliverance that is wrought for them. If there is no clear sight and sense of their ruin, there can be no adequate realization of the necessity of such a method of redemption as is provided for them. If no visible manifestation is made by them of their enmity, no adequate view can be reached of the necessity of their being new created. If no indications are seen of the greatness of their guilt, no suitable impressions can be felt of the riches of the grace that forgives them. The forbearance, the pity, the love, the wisdom, that mark the work of salvation, the wonderfulness of Christ's condescension, the necessity and significance of his sufferings, the grandeur of his power and grace in restoring the lost from the ruin of sin to the spotlessness and blessedness of the unfallen, would be in a great measure concealed, and unrealized; and God be misconceived and defeated of the glory that would otherwise result from his mercy.

It is intuitively certain, therefore, that God will, as an essential condition of the ends he seeks in the redemption of men, leave them to act out their alienation, and exemplify its depth and hopelessness on such a scale as to present the most indubitable and resistless proof to the universe that they are utterly fallen and lost, and that such measures as he has taken are necessary in order to their deliverance and restoration to holiness and bliss.

The purpose of exercising an administration, and through

a long tract of ages, under which man should be left to act out his evil heart, and demonstrate his desert of the penalty which is denounced on sinners by the law, and his need of a redemption by infinite power and grace through an atoning Saviour, is accordingly revealed in the Bible. In the first announcement to the first pair after their fall, it was foreshown that a fearful contest was to be permitted between good and evil; and soon after, that the Spirit should not always strive with men; but leaving them to the sway of their evil affections, should allow them to act out their wickedness in all the hideous and awful forms it naturally assumes, and show God's righteousness in condemning them, and the glory of his grace in forgiving and saving those whom he redeems. Soon after the deluge he made known his design to abandon the nations that had apostatized to idols, to their false worships, and confine the revelation of his will and the gifts of his grace to a single people and all the great prophecies of the Old and New Testament foreshow that the race at large were for a long series of generations to continue in revolt, and show in the most awful forms their utter indisposition to receive the salvation from sin and its curse which he offers them.

And this revelation, wrought into the whole structure of the Bible, is a proof that it is from God. No unassisted human eye could have seen the necessity of such an administration; apart from the revelation itself, it could not have been thought probable that such a procedure, extending through so many ages, involving the apostasy of the chosen people Israel to idolatry, and the rejection by the Christian church of the salvation by the Redeemer, and substitution in his place of false sacrifices and false intercessors. Men, instead of discerning the reasons of that great measure of his government, have been perplexed and confounded by it; and attempted to account for it by aims that are inconsistent with Divine wisdom and goodness. The conception can have emanated only from God. It bears the stamp of his infinite intelligence, and his care to verify and vindicate his truth and righteousness in his sway over men. Its presence, as a great and all-pervading doctrine in the Scriptures, is therefore a convincing evidence that they are from him. The revelation of it can no more

have proceeded from any other than him, than the administration itself in which that revelation is fulfilled.

On the other hand, the fact that God has verified and is verifying that prediction in his providence, is an equal proof that the prediction and the word in which it is embodied is from him. As he is the executor of the prophecy, he is indubitably its author. To suppose he is not, is to suppose that he is but the agent of another and superior being; and that is to suppose that he is not the Supreme, the Self-existent, and the Creator and ruler of men; which is to contradict his deity, and thence subvert the supposition that he is the God of providence. Every act, therefore, by which he permits men thus to sin, is a proof that he is the author of the revelation in which that permission is foreshown. The sum of the demonstration, accordingly, that the Bible is from him, is as vast as the acts of his sway are great and numberless by which he accomplishes that prediction.

The perfections of God make it certain, that if he institute a work of redemption for men, he will make it a condition of their pardon and admission to his favor, that they renounce their hostility to him, confess and deplore their sins, and accept the salvation he offers to them. Such a course is essential to his own rectitude, and the maintenance of his authority. To forgive sinners while continuing unchanged in their alienation; to pardon them without any contrition for their offences, and without any acknowledg ment of their guilt; to bestow on them the blessings of salvation without their specifically accepting them in their true character, would be to relinquish and condemn his law and justify and reward sin; and therefore is impossible. Repentance, reforination, and the acceptance of salvation in its true nature as a gracious gift, will, it is intuitively certain, be conditions of pardon and justification.

And these are conditions of the salvation that is revealed in the Scriptures: repentance, a conversion to obedience, and reliance on Christ for pardon and justification, are exacted as prerequisites to forgiveness and admission to the divine favor. None are to share in those blessings who continue unaltered in their love of sin; none who are contented to remain in its bondage; nor are any except those

who directly and distinctly look to Christ for atonement and justification, and embrace salvation through him as an absolute gift, conferred against their deserts. And this is a convincing proof that that doctrine of the Scriptures is a revelation from God. For man would never have devised it. Without inspiration, he would, as has been shown by his procedure in every age, from self-ignorance and ignorance of God, have made some act of the sinner, such as repentance, self-denial, prayer, worship-a meritorious ground of justification; and claimed it as a right, rather than accepted it as a gift, bestowed on the ground of the Redeemer's obedience and death. That disposition of the fallen to make their imagined righteousness the medium of their justification, is so natural, and prevalent, that there has never been a human heart from which it was exterminated, except by the all-enlightening and new-creating power of the Holy Spirit. That it is the doctrine of the Scriptures is an indubitable proof, therefore, that they are a revelation from God. They must have come from him, whose power alone it is that conquers the natural self-righteousness and self-delusion of the human mind, and brings it intelligently and joyously to accept a salvation by grace, through the blood of the Redeemer.

The perfections of God and the ends he is pursuing in the work of redemption, render it manifest that he will exercise such an administration over those to whom his mercy is made known, that they who accept it will be led to give proofs in their lives of their reconciliation to him, and meetness for pardon and acceptance; and they who reject it will be left to manifest their unaltered alienation in such a manner as to show that they are justly excluded from its blessings. Otherwise the rectitude of his procedure would not be apparent. The reality and greatness of the change wrought in those brought to repentance and faith could not be discerned, and their elevation to immortal life seen to be compatible with God's righteousness aud glory. Nor would it appear with adequate clearness that those who are excluded from life are properly denied the salvation which they reject. How, if not subjected to any decisive test of their dispositions towards Christ, could it be distinctly discerned by the universe that the awards assigned

to them are conformable to their character, and God be seen, acknowledged, and adored according to the power, wisdom, and grace with which he redeems those whom he saves; and the truth and justice with which he condemns those who perish? In order to a just appreciation of his work, it plainly is essential that its nature should be understood; and in order to that, a knowledge is necessary of the reception or rejection which salvation meets from those to whom he distributes the awards of life and death.

And a revelation is made in the Scriptures of a purpose to put those to whom the gospel is made known to such a test of their dispositions towards it. "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." Every one who professes subjection to Christ is placed in conditions that thoroughly try his sincerity. He is smitten like Job with calamities, sorrows, and sufferings; or like David, exposed to dangers, pursued by enemies, and overwhelmed by avenging judgments. The witnesses of Christ, especially, have been tried in the fires of persecution, and thousands and millions of them have yielded up their lives for his sake, and given the most indubitable and sublime proofs of their new creation after his image, and meetness for his kingdom. On the other hand, it is foreshown that those who do not receive the truth in the love of it are to be abandoned to the delusions which they cherish, so that it may be seen from their acts that the condemnation they receive is just.

The revelation of this purpose is, accordingly, a proof that the Scriptures are from God. Men could never have conceived that he would institute such an administration over those to whom salvation is proffered. Independently of the revelation, they would have supposed that the prophets and apostles who proclaimed the news of redemption, being armed with miraculous power in attestation of their mission, would have commanded the veneration and favor of those whom they addressed; and that God would protect those whom he had chosen unto salvation, from enemies, and signalize them with marks of his favor. That through a long series of ages-under every dispensation till Christ's second coming his renovated people would be subjected to every species of calamity, trampled down by oppressors,