the imagination, but to communicate the grace of faith. And, therefore, though we cannot comprebend God as to his incommunicable nature, we may apprebend him in what He himself is pleased to communicate. A whole may be incommunicable, while a portion may be easily taken: And God, as to the infinitude of his being, and consequently as to the precise mode of the existence of that infinitude, cannot properly and strictly be conceived; but still his people are said to be, and are, partakers of his divine nature. Our eye cannot absorb all the rays of the sun; and yet it may receive such an illumination from those rays, as may suffice to satisfy us in the reality of its existence, as well as in the kind of it. For this end, however, the sun must first have shone; or we should have remained perfectly ignorant of the matter. And we must have had senses fitted for its impressions; or we could not have known the nature of those impressions more than a plant or a stone. Nor should we have been less ignorant of the divine being; if He in mercy, had not revealed himself to us, and prepared us for that revelation. His revelation alone in this respect removes our mystic darkness; which is sufficiently proved in the example of the most acute and learned of all the heathen world, who formed such wretched opinions of the Causa Causarum, or first cause, as demonstrate how closely human reason borders upon stupidity in heavenly things.

Now, this revelation being granted, it is the office of reason to follow, not to run beyond it: And a man cannot be conceived to act more rationally, than when, sensible of his natural incapacity, he implicitly submits to the declarations of HIM, who is all wisdom beyond the possibility of error, all truth beyond the reach of deceit, and all goodness beyond the attachment of evil.† If TRUTH itself lay * Vid. MACROB. in Somn. Scip. I. i. c. 14. Cic. de nat. Deor. LACTANT. de fals. Rel. 1. i.

† A late noble and masterly writer, speaking of "the pure and essential doctrines plainly and evidently delivered in the gospel," has observed, that "these being made known to us by a revelation supported by proofs that our reason ought to admit, and not being such things as it can certainly know to be false, must be received by it as objects of faith, though they are such as it could not have discovered by any natural means, and such as are difficult to be conceived, or satisfactorily explained by its limited powers.--Indeed, not even in heaven itself, not in the highest state of perfection to which a finite being can ever attain, will all the counsels of Providence, all the height and the depth of the infinite wisdom of God, be ever disclosed or undersood. Faith even then will be necessary; and there will be mysteries which cannot be penetrated by the most exalted archangel, and truths which cannot be known by him otherwise than from revelation, or believed upon any other ground

down a principle; it is necessarily a true principle, an axiom, a demonsration. If we cannot conceive it, the truth will still be the same, and cannot change its nature; and the question then only is, whether it shall be admitted or rejected, because we have too short an understanding to comprehend it? And if we reject all that we cannot comprehend; we must begin to deny, that we ourselves exist, because we do not understand the proxima causa, or even the mode of our own existence. Reason i self, then, brings us back to a more sure guide, and says aloud, THAT WE CANNOT ERR IN OF THE GOD OF TRUTH,

BELIEVING THE DECLARATIONS

AND THAT IT IS THE HIGHEST WISDOM OF MAN TO RECEIVE THEM.

Here reason and revelation unite to bless the mind, by leading it from those wild mazes of ignorance and delusion, in which pride, infidelity, and sin, have conspired man's destruction, and where he could only roam without certainty, without hope, and without peace at the last.

One of the fathers hath well observed, "That ignorance of God is the death of the soul:" And we all by nature are ignorant of God; because our souls, since the fall, are all dead in trespasses and sins. To recover us from this ignorance, is one great object of the divine revelation: And, to be sensible of this ignorance, is the first step to be made in departing from it. The next is, to follow our divine Leader, as the blest above follow the Lamb, whithersoever be goeth. HE (we may be assured) can neither err himself, nor lead his disciples astray.*

We have now some ground to proceed upon, and no longer need, like the bewildered heathens, to grope in the darkness, if haply we might feel after God and find bim; for we have the most convincing testimony, from the highest and most infallible evidence, that He IS, that he exists in a MANNER peculiar to himself, and that this PECULIARITY hath a description, as far as we are able to com

of assent, than a submissive confidence in the divine wisdom. What then, shall man presume that his weak and narrow understanding is sufficient to guide him into all truth, without any need of revelation or truth? Shall he complain, that the ways of God are not like his ways, and past finding out? True philosophy, as well as true Christianity, would teach us a wiser and modester part. It would teach us to be content within those bounds which God has assigned to us, 2 Cor. x. 5. casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the kingdom of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."

conversion of St. Paul.

vit.

Lord LYTTLETON'S Obs. on the

* Coeli mysterium doceat me Deus ipse, non homo qui seipsum i ̧nɔraAMER. Epist. 31.

But

prehend it, or, at least, as far as it is necessary for us to know. Of course, we are not to seek for descriptions of the Deity out of the limits of this testimony, beyond which we are sure only of finding nothing certain, but most entirely within those boundaries, where we can hear nothing but the truth. If even Pythagoras could say, "Without light nothing is to be uttered concerning God :" Where then shall we find this light, but in his Word? Till this postulatum be admitted, a man has nothing but his own chimerical fancy to support him, which will not only differ from the ten thousand different o. pinions of ten thousand different men, but also quarrel with itself times without number in the course of his life. when this ground and pillar of the truth is once erected in the heart, the man does not measure it by his own whims and conceptions taken from other things; but he makes this the standard and rule whereby to measure them. And after some experience of the justness of this measure in its exercise upon natural and moral subjects, in which it never was yet detected, by all human wit and malice, of one mistake; he has an increasing encouragement to trust it, by the grace and light of the Holy Spirit its Author, in the determination of those purely spiritual topics, to which no rule, taken from or existing in material objects, can possibly be applied.

The rule, then, by which we are to be guided, in these high and momentous enquiries, is no other than the MIND, RULE, or LAW of God, speaking and revealing itself, so far as it is right or necessary for us to know, in the holy Scriptures. These were given by his inspiration, and are profitable for doctrine, for reproof, [conviction] for correction [itrave dwois, restoration to rectitude,] for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect [wanting nothing] thoroughly furnished unto all good works. 2 Tim. iii. 16. The prophecy came not in old time, or at any time, by the will of man, for man could have foretold nothing by himself, and bad men especially, in different ages of the world, would never have combined to compose such a system of pure and pious doctrines ; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the HOLY GHOST. 2 Pet. i. 21. We can call for no greater witness in this cause than God himself; and we owe both to it and our own souls too much, to think of calling for less.

GOD hath revealed his nature under the name of JEHO

"If the Scriptures were delivered by men; then either by good men or by bad: If by holy men, then they would speak the truth, and not lie; if by bad men, then they would never have set down such strict rules of doctrine to live by, as must condemn themselves.” See Dr. PRESTON's Sermons on the Divine Essence, &c. Serm. iii.

VAH, by which he declares himself to be the sole independent Essence, the necessary existence, in whom and by whom alone all other beings, corporeal or spiritual, exist and subsist. This title expresses his incommunicable, self-existent, infinite, and everlasting nature. He ever was, ever is, and ever WILL BE. This is all we can comprehend of his essence, when we have added every idea of perfection and giory, which are revealed concerning this essence, and which can fill our minds. He is then beyond all idea THE EVERLASTING SAME.

We

If we were pure creatures, this unchangeable perfection. of the MOST HIGH would be an unfailing source of joy to our souls: But, being imperfect, fallen, and sinful creatures, all this purity of our Creator is directly opposed to us. have now no complacency in it, naturally and cannot have, while we continue in our natural state; for it is repugnant to our lusts and passions, which are all corrupted by sin. God is not only opposite to the sinner; but the sinner feels a diametrical opposition to him, and all that belongs to him. Hence, the world, in all ages, hath been averse to the revealed will of God, and to the true disciples of God, who have spoken of that will and walked in it. That no natural man can savor the things of God, is a proposition, which since the fall ever was true, and which will be true to the end of the world. From this opposition nothing could justly, have been expected by the creature but absolute destruction and misery, a taste of which every man feels within him; had not the benignity of his Creator graciously inclined both to procure the means of deliverance, and to publish these means; and they are happily in force to this day. In the discovery of so much goodness and mercy in himself for his ruined creature; he was pleased to represent himself under a variety of names, either characteristic of his engagemement to save, or explanatory of the nature of his salvation. It was expedient for man's faith and comfort, that this publication should take place; or rather, it was necessary, or God would not have made it.

One unalterable attribute which God hath declared of himself, is his JUSTICE. The soul that sinneth, shall surely die. In the day, that thou eatest thereof, dying, thou shalt die. Without shedding the blood (which is spilling or destroying. the life) there is no remission of sins. How then could this justice be satisfied? Not by the sinner's perdition; for then there could be no exercise of mercy. Not by the sinner's mere pardon; for then God must have been a liar, and have given up that pure justice, which is founded upon his infinite holiness, and is absolutely essential to his nature. The sinner was to be saved; and God's denunciation against sin

was at the same time to be fully accomplished. Here it was, that infinite wisdom alone could not be at a loss: Here, infinite love only could not meet with despair. Life was to be forfeited to procure saivation. But the life of WHOM? What created being could step forth and say, "Take my life for the lives of millions of men; and let my perdition prove an atonement for them!" lf any finite love could have uttered this tender expression; it would have been madness or presumption for any finite being to have offered the change. No boly creature could have been guilty of it; because the root of presumption is ignorance and sin. the angels in heaven, blessed with holiness and wisdom, could not but see, that no finite sufferings could have made an atonement to the infinite justice of their Maker, and that the destruction of one creature could never answer the deserved destruction of millions of creatures,-a destruction to keep equal with the guilt, necessarily without intermission or end. The Scripture now breaks in with light divine, and shews; that HE only, whom all the angels worship, was to perform this astonishing task of suffering; and that he only, who breathed into man his original life, would restore him, by a new and incorruptible birth, to the possession of that forfeited life again. The Scripture marks these two pronouns HE and HE by various names descriptive of their distinction in point of personality or subsistence, as well as of their undertaking or office. From one end of the Bible to the other, it appears to be the office of the one HE to atone for, reconcile, and restore; and of the other, to effectuate, apply, and complete; all that was necessary for the divine giory, and for human salvation. Thus Jehovah was to be reconciled by Jebovab: Thus Febovab became a Saviour, and the only Saviour: And thus Jehovah is the sanctifier of these unholy creatures, who are the objects of his mercy and redemption.

Here, then, we see distinct offices, undertaken and accomplished by distinct persons. We read of one person, who is called the Father, who sent his Son into the world to save sumers; we read the prophecies concerning this Son, and their fulfilment in him and by him for the salvation of sinners; and we read of the Holy Spirit, sent from the Father and the Son to quicken and bless these sinnners to the end. To

* These and many other doctrines of divine revelation, in the delivery of which so many holy men in all ages, unknown to each Oer, have concurred, and concurred to one and the same end; in humano cerebro nasci non potuerunt says the excellent Mornaus) could never have sprung from the head of man, but must have been, as appears even from their internal evidence, communicated from