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his own mind.

Nor can we help observing his regard to society, by the uniform testimony which his providence bears against the sins which disturb it, While he, for the greater part, reserves the punishment of those who sin immediately against himself to a future world, he generally interposes in this life, and visits with the marks of his displeasure, such as attempt to overturn the order and happiness of the community. Many have been as guilty in the sight of God, as Korah, or Adonijah, or Zimri, or Ahitophel, or Absolam, and who notwithstanding came to a good old age; but these were conspirators, or the abettors of conspiracy, and therefore came to a violent end. On the other hand, God often owns with richer temporal blessings those who contribute by their talents, or their labours, or their sufferings, to the safety, the happiness, and the prosperity of human society. These, and many other instances of a providence interposing for the good of mankind collectively, should surely lead us to admire the benevolence of God, whose tender mercies are seen in every relation, and in all the circumstances of life.

But his goodness is further manifest in providence by conferring on us so many religious advantages. These are not the less illustrative of the divine goodness that they are partial in their distribution. In our case they are numerous, diversified, and long continued; commencing with our being entrusted to religious parents who made it their business affectionately to teach us the way of salvation; and prolonged in a faithful ministry of the Gospel by which God has been entreating us to be reconciled to himself. We

have that volume which has been given by inspiration of God, which exhibits an exhaustless treasury of mercy for a fallen and a guilty world, which extends the promise of everlasting life to the penitent and believing, and which irradiates with its light the darkness through which it conducts us to glory. We have uninterrupted access to the throne of grace, and the promise of divine influence to give warmth to our devotions, and efficacy to our prayers; and in such invaluable privileges must we not see the goodness of Him who is long suffering to us ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance? May not He justly say of us, who makes our spiritual and eternal happiness the object of his care, "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?"

CHAPTER X.

ON THE DIVINE GOODNESS.

I FORMERLY noticed, that unless we admit the moral corruption and the blame-worthiness of man, and that the present state is a state of imperfection preparatory to a higher dispensation, we cannot prove that God is infinitely good. But with this admission we have traced the infinitude of his benevolence through his works of creation, of providence, and of redemption, and have seen especially in the Cross of Christ a most

wonderful manifestation of his benignity and love. In the atoning sacrifice of his own Son, he has provided a remedy for the evil of sin, by which all who repent and who believe the Gospel, are made free from its condemnation, and are made meet for a state where they are freed for ever from its effects.

We fully admit that man, at present, is so far from being in the best possible or conceivable state, that his nature is corrupt and his state sinful, and that he is exposed to temptation and suffering. Yet we know that this was not the condition in which he was originally placed; for he was created after the image of God, in knowledge, in righteousness, and in true holiness. That he might have been preserved in this holy and happy state, without any such absolute restraint as would have destroyed his free will, we believe to have been quite possible. We know it to be possible, from the example of the man Christ Jesus, who, after he took human nature upon him with all its infirmities, remained holy, and harmless, and undefiled. And we know it to be possible, from the representation given us of the unchanging happiness of the glorified inheritors of heaven. Why man was placed in a situation in which he was liable to sin and to error, and in which it was known to the Creator he would yield to this liability, and fall, is a question much deeper than our faculties can fathom. The incomprehensibility of this fact, however, should not be allowed to operate as any derogation from the divine perfections of justice and goodness, the proofs of which are derived from so many other sources; and especially as the Scriptures reveal to us the rich provision which God has made for

removing the sin and the suffering of man, and how graciously he has designed the state of trial and of imperfection as a state of moral discipline, of progressive improvement, and of preparation for everlasting happiness. For the purpose of removing the guilt of man, God has provided an atoning sacrifice, and has laid his help upon One who is mighty; for purifying his nature, he communicates the gift of the Holy Spirit; and to enable him to exercise those affections and habits, the possession of which is necessary to fit him for the enjoyment of heaven, he converts the sorrow and affliction that have proceeded from the Fall into means of moral trial.

The benevolence of God thus overrules evil for promoting good; and renders all the ills of human life,disease, and sorrow, and death, as well as the inconveniences to which the inequalities of rank and of fortune are supposed to give rise, subservient to the improvement of man. It is evidently the design of God that in his present state of imperfection his faculties should be developed, and his character formed under the direction of heavenly influence; and it is abundantly proved from the universal experience of mankind, that the inequalities of rank and of fortune which necessarily arise out of the circumstances in which he is placed are the most favourable for attaining these ends. When we consider the various purposes answered by the present permission of evil, the manifesting of the righteousness of the divine government in its retributions, and the moral trial and discipline which it forms, we shall not wonder either at its extent, or at what we are accustomed to regard as

its unequal distribution. This inequality is more in appearance than in reality; and it may confidently be maintained, that whatever may be the outward condition, the providence of God allots to each nearly the same sum of happiness. There is not in this world a complete scheme of retribution, because this world is a state of trial, and is only introductory to another; but with an enlarged view of the dispensations of God, we shall be satisfied that there is a much closer retribution, even in this life, than we are generally apt to suppose.

The best often suffer much here, because the best possess the renovated character of holiness but in part, and may be surpassed in those accomplishments to which Providence has affixed a present reward, by the very worst of mankind. Does it not happen, for example, that a man of christian integrity may be negligent in the management of his affairs; while another, totally void of probity, may be active and industrious in conducting his concerns? Now, in the ordinary course of things will not the man of integrity be involved in embarrassment, while the person who is void of it will escape this calamity? Do we observe persons without virtue and without character raised to situations which we would assign to different men? Let us recollect that the men to whom we would assign such situations, not infrequently, want the abilities and the activity most necessary for those who occupy them; while there are others destitute of morality, but possessing the kind of talent required, and who secure to themselves, therefore, the advantages annexed to its exercise and use. "The in

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