respect to the ends and purposes of Providence, supposing a just measure of his works were to be taken from thence, yet it is a measure of which we are not masters. As this reasoning must necessarily hold in the works of nature, so is it equally strong when applied to the works of grace. It is indeed a surprising and wonderful event, the coming of the Son of God into this world, being made man, and born of a pure virgin, living and dying as a man to redeem sinners. But what is there that shocks your faith in this? You think perhaps the means too great and too considerable to be made use of for the sake of the end proposed, which might have been obtained at a cheaper rate. But when you say or think this, do you pretend to know by what other way all the purposes of God in sending his Son into the world might have been answered? If you do not, possibly this was the only way to answer all the ends and intentions of Providence in this great work; and if it was, the means used were necessary, and therefore, without doubt, proper: and supposing them proper, you will not surely be surprised that God should design, and his blessed Son undertake to perform, what was proper to execute the wise ends of Providence. It was indeed a very great thing for a man to be born of a virgin: but in what sense was it great? only as being unusual, and contrary to the established course, in our eyes: with respect to God, I see no reason to call it so. Were God to form a new race under this new law of nature, that all should be born of virgins, I conceive there would be nothing in it more wonderful than in the present established course of nature. It is more wonderful still to think of the Son of God living on earth in the form and fashion of a man; and if we speak in relation to our own abilities of searching into this mysterious work, it is and it ever must continue to be a wonder: but with respect to God, have you any reason to think this wonderful and mysterious, or a thing difficult to be performed? God has united our spirits, our souls, to these bodies: a wonderful and a mysterious thing it is to us: but can you imagine there is any thing in the works of God, that is wonderful, mysterious, or difficult in the execution to him? If not, how weakly do we amuse ourselves, when we set ourselves with great wisdom to weigh the works of God in our scales, and to judge which are great and difficult in the performance! But this is not the only mistake men are liable to, when they set themselves up for judges in this matter. That the redemption and salvation of men is the end of Christ's coming into the world, is certain, and is revealed in the gospel; but whoever shall say God had no other purpose in view than this only, will judge hastily, and, I doubt, rashly. What relates to us immediately in this great dispensation, God has been pleased to reveal to us distinctly; but he has no where told us that we are the only persons concerned: that others probably are, may be collected from many intimations in Scripture. Our blessed Redeemer has all power given him in heaven' as well as in earth principalities and powers,' the invisible powers, are made subject to him:' and they cannot be thought to be unconcerned in that work, for the sake of which their King was exalted, and every knee' made 'to bow' to him. How they are concerned, we know not: but this we know, that we are but a small part of the natural world. That there are many intelligent beings besides ourselves we know; that they may be numberless we have reason to believe; that God is the common Governor of all, is out of question; that all his dispensations in the moral government of the world regard the whole, and will finally appear in the eyes of every rational creature to be just and equal, we have great reason to conclude; and that God will be justified in his sayings, and clear when he is judged.' If this be so, the great work of our redemption, however immediately it relates to us, must be supposed adapted to answer the general ends and purposes of God's government in the universal moral world. And this plainly shows that we cannot judge of the propriety of the means made use of for redeeming the world by considering only the relation they have to men; for probably they relate to others, and to other purposes, and are, on the whole, in every respect proper and fit: but the propriety cannot be discerned by us, nor will it till we come into a clearer light, and see the whole scheme of Providence together. You see then, on the whole, that the objections against God's government in the natural and moral world, founded on the disproportion between the means made use of and the ends proposed, are really the effects of short-sightedness, and of that great propensity which men have to judge, though they want proper materials to form a judgment on. But let us consider whether the observations which have Igiven rise to these perverse reasonings, will not, if duly attended to, open a way to far other and far juster conclusions. That men are weak and wretched, and not worthy of the care of Providence over them, we know by sad experience; and have reason enough, in this view, to fall into the Psalmist's reflexion, Lord, what is man, that thou regardest him?' 'But still most certain it is, that God does regard man: all nature bears witness to the truth of this; for he is served by the works of nature and though the works of nature may serve a hundred purposes more, yet it cannot be doubted but that they were made to serve man, though not him alone. This must appear on the strictest inquiry; for considering this solar system, of which we are a part, we have no reason to think but that it bears as great proportion to the whole as any other system in this system our earth is one considerable part: and this part was manifestly prepared for man, who has dominion over it. So that the human race is no inconsiderable part of the creation in this way of reckoning: and it is reasonable to say, that the world was made, if not for him only, yet as much and as truly for him as for others. Being then possessed of this fact, that, weak and infirm as we are, God has abundantly provided for us in this life; and that, considered as part of the natural world, we have a very full proportion of good things allotted to us; what conclusion does it lead us to, if we consider ourselves as part of the rational and moral world? Is it reasonable to imagine that God has taken so much care of us in his natural government of the world, and that he will neglect us in the moral part of it? that he regards us as animals, but has no regard to us as rational agents? Can any man think seriously of God, as a reasonable, just, and upright Being, and suppose this to be the case? Now, these considerations lay a foundation for a just expectation from the goodness of God of his assistance in our case, where it is most wanted; that is, for his assistance to us as rational and moral beings, as capable of being happy or miserable by virtue or by vice. There is a similitude and proportion in all the works of God: and it is reasonable to infer, from the visible regard showed to us in one respect, the regard had for us in all; especially in the principal and most concerning relation in which we stand towards him; that is as rational agents. And this leads us directly to suppose that God will provide for our well-being as moral and religious creatures, with a care, at least, equal to that shown for us in our natural capacity in this world. Join now to this presumption what the gospel has expressly revealed to us, and see whether the whole is not of a piece, and consistent. The gospel tells us that God has sent his Son to redeem us: you wonder he should take so much trouble for such creatures: but is it not as becoming his goodness to redeem us, as it was to make us? You will say perhaps, we are since that become sinners. True; and yet, ever since that, he has preserved us, and afforded us the blessings of this life and is it not of a piece to open to us the hopes of a better? Mistake not my meaning: I do not mean to infer from what God does for us in this world, that he is bound in justice to do as much for us in respect to another. I know of nothing that he is bound in justice to do for us. But surely it is safest reasoning on the ways of Providence from the manifest works of Providence: and by seeing how God has dealt with the children of men as part and as inhabitants of this natural world, it is reasonable to conclude in what manner he will treat them as part of the moral world. And if we consider what we see and know of the works of nature, and of the good we enjoy from them, and compare them with the greater works of grace, as manifested in the gospel of Christ Jesus, we may easily discern the consistency and harmony of God's dealings in both cases; and see too, at the same time, that the methods of Providence by which we hope to be saved, and which we have from revelation, are liable to no other objections than the methods of Providence by which we live, SHERL. VOL. I. K |