been persuaded, by the truth of revelation, that his light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh out for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while he looks not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, looks forward beyond this vale of tears, and beholds with pleasing anticipations that inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for all the faithful. At the consummation of all things, when the mystery of God shall be finished, and the clouds of darkness which obscure his providence shall be removed, his justice and equity, holiness and purity, will shine forth as clear as the morning light.

-And see!

'Tis come, the glorious morn! the second birth
Of heaven and earth! awakening nature hears
The new creating word, and starts to life

In every height'ned form, from pain and death
Forever free. The great eternal scheme,
Involving all, and in a perfect whole
Uniting, as the prospect wider spreads,
To reason's eye cleared up apace.

Ye vainly wise! Ye blind presumptuous! now
Confounded in the dust, adore that power

And Wisdom often arraigned; see now the cause,
Why unassuming worth in secret lived

And died neglected: why the good man's share
In life was gall and bitterness of soul:
Why the lone widow and her orphans pined
In starving solitude; while luxury,
In palaces, lay straining her low thought,
And moderation fair, wore the red marks
Of superstition's scourge, that embosomed foe
Imbittered all our bliss. Ye good distressed!
Ye noble few! who here unbending stand
Beneath life's pressure, yet bear up a while,
And what your bounded view, which only saw
A little part, deemed evil, is no more:

The storms of wintry time will quickly pass,
And one unbounded spring encircle all.

Such are the answers which are given to the objections urged against the doctrine of Divine Providence; and although they may not be sufficient to dissipate every doubt, and solve every query, that may arise in a reflecting mind, yet I trust they will prove sufficient to repress that spirit of murmuring which too often arises even in the breast of a good man, and disposes him to consider the ways of God unequal. The subject is regarded by all as great and difficult; perhaps, in all its relations and connexions, too capacious for the grasp of the human intellect. To use the sublime language of the Psalmist, clouds and darkness are round about him; but of this also we may rest assured, that righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne.

DISCOURSE X.

On the Uses of the Doctrine of Divine Providence.

"The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice."-Psalm xcvii, 1.

HAVING replied, in a former discourse, to the objections which, in ancient or modern times, have been urged against the doctrine of Divine Providence, we shall now proceed to illustrate its practical uses.

I. This doctrine is not to be used for the purpose of either justifying or palliating sin. The Sacred Oracles assert that God impels sinners to the commission of sin, that he hardens their hearts, and that he blinds their understandings. Although the sacred writers use this strong, forcible, and cogent language, yet we are not to consider God as in the smallest degree the author of sin; for it is not the human heart in a state of innocence and purity, that is induced by him to act deceitfully and wickedly; but after it has conceived sin, and become inflated with latent wickedness, and is about to discover itself by some visible act, he, in his character, as the sovereign disposer of all things, inclines and directs it in this or that way, or towards this or that object. Hence, says the Psalmist, He shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, Jehovah our God shall cut them off: that is, by the infliction of punishment. Neither does God make that will rebellious and evil which was before good; but the will being already in a state of perversion, he inclines it in such a manner, that out of its own wickedness, it either produces good for others, or punishment for itself; though unknowingly or unintentionally; and, indeed, with the intent of producing a very different result. A man's heart, says Solomon, deviseth his way, but Jehovah directeth his steps. When the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, in doubt whether he should go to war against the Ammonites or against the Jews, God so ordered the divination as to determine him on going against Jerusalem; but it deos not follow that because he instigated this evil agent to do war against Jerusalem, that he was in the least degree the author of his sins; for the mind of this prince was resolutely bent upon war when instigated by God, and all he did was to direct that warlike spirit, which already existed against the Jews rather than against the Ammonites. Had not God have given any direction to the divination, he would have certainly gone to war against either the Jews or the Ammonites; that is, the spirit of war, which was in his heart would have burst forth in some direction. We will illustrate our meaning by the introduction of another example. God saw that the heart of David was so elated and puffed up with pride, by

the great increase of his power, that even without any external impulse, he was on the point of giving some remarkable token of it; he, therefore, excited in him the desire of numbering the people: he did not inspire him with the passion of vain glory, but induced him to display in this manner, rather than in any other, that latent arrogance of his heart, which was ready to burst forth in some visible act. God, therefore, was the author of the act itself, but David alone was responsible for its pride and wickedness. By such means, God proves the inmost intentions of men, and gives them a thorough insight into the latent wickedness of their hearts, that they may be induced, by these means, to forsake their sins; and if not, that they may become notorious and inexcusable in the sight of all.

God, however, is concerned in the production of evil only in one of these two ways; either he permits its existence by throwing no impediments in the way of natural causes and free agents, or he causes evil by the infliction of judgments, which is called the evil of punishment. Hence, in conformity with the language of mankind, he is spoken of as instigating, when he does not prohibit evil: My people would not harken to my voice, and Israel would none of me: and so I give them up to their own heart's lust, and they walked in their own counsels. Hence, it is said in Romans, Wherefore God gave them up to uncleanness; that is, he left them to be actuated by their own lusts, to walk in them; for, literally speaking, God does not instigate, or give up, whom he leaves a sinner entirely to himself; that is, to his own desires and counsels, and to the suggestions of his ever active and spiritual enemy. In the same sense, the church is said to give up to Satan the contumacious member whom it interdicts from its communion. With regard to the case of David numbering the people, a single word will be sufficient. For it is not God, but Satan, who is said to have instigated him. A similar explanation applies to this passage: Behold, I will raise up evil against thee, out of thine own house; that is, the evil of punishment-and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor; that is, I will permit thy son to go in unto them according to the counsel of Ahithophel; for this is the meaning of the word give, as has already been shown. In both the instances above adduced, God had determined to punish openly the secret adultery of David; he saw Absalom's propensity to every kind of wickedness; he saw the mischievous counsels of Ahithophel, and did nothing more than to influence their minds, which were already in a state of preparation for any atrocity, or for the perpetration of any crime, when opportunity should offer; according to the passage quoted above, A man's heart deviseth. his way, but Jehovah directeth his steps. For, to offer an occasion of sinning, is only to manifest the wickedness of the sinner, not to create it.

As to the other position, that God eventually converts every evil deed into an instrument of good, contrary to the expectation of sin

ners, and overcomes evil with good, it is sufficiently illustrated in the example of Joseph's sale,by his brethren. They committed, in the sale of Joseph, an evil deed, but God converted it into an instrument of good. Thus, also; in the crucifixion of Christ, the sole aim of Pilate was to preserve the favor of Cæsar; that of the Jews, to satisfy their own hatred and revenge; but God, whose hand and counsel had determined before everything that was to be done, made use of their cruelty and violence as instruments for effecting the general redemption of mankind. Through their fall, salvation is come unto the Gentiles. There must be also heresies

among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. The things which happened unto me, have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel.

As God's instigating the sinner does not make him the author of sin, so neither does his hardening the heart or blinding the understanding involve that consequence; inasmuch as he does not produce these effects by infusing an evil disposition, but, on the contrary, by employing such kind and just methods as ought to soften the hearts of sinners instead of hardening them. God produces this effect: First, by his long-suffering. Despiseth thou the riches of his long-suffering....but after thy hardened and impenitent heart treasureth up wrath? Secondly, by urging his own good and reasonable demands in opposition to the obstinacy of the wicked, as an anvil is said to be hardened under the hammer. Thus Pharaoh became more furious and obdurate, in proportion as he resisted the commands of God. Thou shalt speak all that I command thee and I will harden Pharaoh's heart. Make the heart of this people fat; that is, by the repeated inculcations of the divine commands. The word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. Thirdly, by correction and punishment. When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die. Thou hast striken them, but they have not quivered; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than a rock. The hardening of the heart, therefore, is usually the last punishment inflicted on inveterate wickedness and unbelief in this life. God often hardens, in a remarkable manner, the powerful and rebellious princes of this earth, in order that, through their insolence and haughtiness, his glory may be magnified among the nations. Hence, he said to Pharaoh, For this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee. This act of hardening the heart is not so exclusively the work of God, but that the wicked themselves, fully co-operate in it, though with any other view than the accomplishment of the divine purpose. Hence, Pharaoh is said to harden his own heart: When he saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders had ceas

ed, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants. He stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto Jehovah. Harden not your hearts. They made their hearts as an adamantine stone, lest they should hear the law and the words which Jehovah of host hath sent.

By the same course of reasoning it also appears evident, that God cannot be charged with participation in sin when he blends the understanding of the sinner. It shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of Jehovah thy God....Jehovah shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart; that is, by withdrawing the light of his grace, by confounding or stupifying the faculties of the mind, or by simply permitting Satan to work these effects in the hearts of sinners. Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowlecge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. For this cause God shall send them strong delusions.

Finally, God is said to deceive man, not in the sense of seducing them to sin, but of beguiling them to their own punishment, or even to the production of some good. If the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I Jehovah, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch my hand upon him, and I will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity....that the house of Israel shall go no more astray from me. God first deceived the already corrupt, wicked, and covetous prophet, by disposing his mind to prophesy things acceptable to the people, and then deservedly cut off both the people who inquired of him, and the prophet of whom they inquired, to deter others from sinning in the same manner; because, on the one hand, a bad intention had been displayed on the part of the inquirers, and, on the other, a false answer had been returned, which God had not commanded.

From the foregoing remarks we conclude, that however mysterious and complicated the providence of God may be, it cannot be justly charged with sin. God is not the author of moral evil : He cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Nothing is more common than to entertain mistaken views of Divine Providence. Even believers themselves are not always sufficiently observant of its various operations, until they are led to investigate the subject more deeply, and become more intimately conversant with the word of God. As for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Until I went into the sanctuary of God: then understood I their end. Many shall be purified and made white, and tried, but the wicked