them acting on the persuasion for which we contend since we find, that, as fathers or friends, as citizens or magistrates, they, every day, give testimony of their belief in the contingency and freedom of human actions, we may take the evidence of their conduct, where we know them to be in earnest, against that reasoning, which is, in truth, no more than the play of intellect, or the ardour of controversy.

These, however, are only speculative objectors. But there is a far different class of persons, who abuse this doctrine, to the purposes of their own licentious dispositions. The error of these men, is not in the understanding, but in the heart; and, whatever hypothesis we were to frame, respecting the divine knowledge, they would endeavour, in like manner, to abuse it. Remove from such persons the fear of punishment, and you will strip the laws of God of their only effectual sanction: and this salutary apprehension will be removed, in proportion as the Divine Knowledge is supposed more precarious. When the Spirit of God would represent to us a wretch, most fatally conversant in the enchantments of self-delusion, most successful in smoothing the current of an ungodly life, he sets before us the transgressor as saying in his heart, "Tush, God hath forgotten; he hideth away his face, and he will not see it: "-now, if such persons were to be consulted, when would they allow the universal Judge to have intelligence of their proceedings? And, were we to accommodate their

wishes in the framing of an article, at what time after the commission of any individual sin, should we suppose the information to reach the court of Heaven?

It may be said, that a present knowledge would suffice for every purpose. It will not suffice, for the truth of scripture; it will not suffice, for the majesty of God; neither would it, upon the principles of these men, suffice, for the contingency of human actions. Actions are not the capricious beings of a moment, conceived, matured, and terminated, without any definite or perceptible duration. In most cases of transgression, they are, either in themselves, or in their known causes, deliberate and preconcerted, They are the result of imaginations, long cherished; of circumstances, long foreseen; and of habits, long formed: they are actions, in short, from which men will not deliver themselves; and nothing external can deliver them, except a miracle of that grace, which they hold in scorn. It is true, that men have always within them a freedom of choice: but let us candidly examine ourselves, and say, how often we exercise that freedom, in opposition to all disposing influences. Unless, then, we maintain that God is altogether such a one as ourselves, unless we allow him no advantage over us, in quickness, either of act or thought, -unless we deny that attribute, of his searching the heart, which his word so often, and so strenuously, claims,—we must grant, that even the hypothesis of present know

pre

ledge would involve in it such a foresight of human conduct, as would leave the question of predestination as debateable as ever.

Do we

We have just been addressing God, as one to whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid.' We have been confessing, that the most intimate purposes of our souls, purposes which we dare not acknowledge even to ourselves, are revealed to his all-searching scrutiny that he knows, with what minds and dispositions we are now assembled in this temple: whether, 'with meek heart, and due reverence,' we turn to Him, and to the things of eternity; or whether, while our bodies are here, the soul is abroad after the vanities of the world. find, in reflections such as these, any temptation to transgress; any argument for impenitence; any pretext for the assertion, that we are necessary agents? How, then, can we suppose, that our iniquity is mitigated in his sight, because it has been, from everlasting, an abomination before him? Does not this consideration rather multiply the guilt of every offence, in the proportion of eternity to an instant ? Whether any particular transgression is written against us, in the records of Eternal Wisdom, we can know, only by committing that transgression: and, is the fruit of this fatal tree of knowledge so goodly in our eyes, that, for its sake, we should encounter the wrath of God, which is revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousnes The wisdom of this world is

sufficient to instruct us, that, even in calamities of inevitable reality, not to know, is, frequently, not to suffer. How much more, in the case before us? where, if we know not the evil, it does not exist; where ignorance, is innocence; and innocence, happiness?

In that ignorance may we all continue! It were, perhaps, desirable to prosecute this matter somewhat further; but time allows me only to recapitulate, thus briefly :- That, as we cannot separate the will of God, from his judgment, we must grant his election to be co-eternal with his knowledge: that, according to the word of God, and the natural sentiments of man, his prescience is consistent with our freedom: and that, of those who pervert this doctrine, one party does not believe its own consequences; and the other, would not be reclaimed by any hypothesis, that could be formed on the subject.

On the whole, then, I would say, Ye have Moses, and the Prophets; ye have Christ, and the Apostles; hear ye them and if ye hear not them, neither would you repent, though one were to rise from the dead, and though you were admitted into the secret council-chamber of the Almighty.

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DISCOURSE X.*

PSALM XXXIX. 6.

Behold, thou hast made my days as it were a span long: mine age is even as nothing, in respect of thee; and verily every man living, is altogether vanity.

IT is one of the most benevolent arrangements of Providence, that, the same social dispositions, which, in their general operation, connect us so strongly with the present world, should, occasionally, with an efficacy not to be resisted, carry forward our thoughts, to the contemplation of the world which is to come. The instinct which attracts us to our kind, is not, in its sphere of action, circumscribed by the limits of that earth which we inhabit. We are led, in spirit, beyond the grave; conscious, that it has not severed those ties, of nature, and of destination, which bound us to those who have gone before. This impulse is discernible, through the whole history of the species. Wherever the human form has been discovered, there, also, has been found a popular belief, not only in a future state of existence, but, also, in some mysterious connection between the visible

*Funeral Sermon for the Rev. John Barrett, D. D. ViceProvost. Preached in the chapel of Trinity College, Dublin, November 18. 1821.