ion of Him who formed the univerfe, as a confideration of fufficient importance, and fufficiently clear, to establish the point. So far from foftening his former affertions,however harfh they might feem, that he at once confirms the truth he afferted, and illuftrates the propriety of his language.--In doing of which he 'fuggefts, that the objection, horrid as it is, cannot have the leaft force, or pertinency of application, except it were proved that the Majefty of heaven had not an absolute right to difpenfe his favours just as he pleafes. But this the refolute afferter of Jehovah's honour was not willing to grant. This he could by no means allow, without denying the God that is above. He, therefore, boldly repels the confidence of the proud objector, by a ftrong exclamation, and a mortifying query. Nay, but, Oman! who art THOU that repliest against God? Shall a worm of the earth, an infect, an atom, arraign his conduct who is Lord of the univerfe, and pronounce it unrighteous? Shall impotence and duft fly in the face of Omnipotence? Shall corruption and guilt prefcribe rules of equity, by which the Moft Holy fhall regulate his behaviour toward the rebellious fubjects of his boundlefs empire? Far be it! Wo to him that friveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd frive with the potsherds of the earth; but let not the despicable fragment presume to make war upon Heaven; left divine wrath, like a devouring fire, break out and confume it.

The zealous and cautious difputant, having feverely rebuked the oppofer's folly and arrogance, proceeds to confirm his affertion, and to illuftrate the momentous truth by a familiar instance, and by appealing to the common fenfe of mankind. Shall the thing formed fay to him that formed it; Why

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haft thou made me thus? For example: Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the fame lump to make one veffel to honour, and another to difhonour ? none can deny it. Is this power allowed, by the common confent of mankind, to belong to the meaneft artificer; and fhall it be denied to HIM who is the Former of all things? Such a denial would be a monstrous compound of abfurdity and blafphemy. The apoftle now proceeds to apply his illuftration. What if God, willing to fhow his wrath and to make his power known, having endured with much long-fuffering the veffels of wrath fitted for deAruction, by their own rebellion against him, should, in the end, pour out his vengeance upon them; who fhall dare to pronounce his conduct unrighteous? And, what if the fame fovereign Being, that he might make known the riches of his glory on the veffels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, determined to manifeft infinite love in their complete deliverance from deferved deftruction, who has a right to complain? Shall the eye of any be evil, because their offended Maker is good? Has he not an eternal right to do what he will with his own? Or, is he a debtor to any of his creatures? if fo, they fhall be fully recompenfed.-Shall every petty fovereign, in the kingdoms of this world, be allowed to choose his own favourites; and, in certain cafes, to manifest his clemency to fome delinquents, while he leaves others to fuffer the defert of their crimes, without being fubject to the controul of his meanest subjects in the performance of thofe fovereign acts? and shall HE who rules over all be denied the exercife of his fupreme, royal pre-3 rogative? Abfurd, in fuppofition impoffible, in fact-But though God beftows his favour on

whom

whom he pleafes, yet, as he is an infinitely wife agent, he must always have the higheft reafon for what he does. Divine fovereignty, therefore, muft not be confidered as a blind partiality, or a dictate of mere will without wifdom; but as the exercise of an all-comprehenfive understanding, and of a will that is inflexibly right, ordering all the affairs of Jehovah's vaft empire for the manifestation of his own glorious attributes. To conceive of a fovereign decree, as detached from wisdom and rectitude, is to picture to ourfelves the conduct of a Turkish defpot; not the appointment of Him that governs the world.

The love of God to his offending creatures muft be confidered, in the whole of its exercise, as under the direction of his divine understanding: and as his boundless intelligence comprehends all poffibilities, his love must be confummately wife in all its operations. The fupreme perfection of Jehovah's nature forbids our fuppofing, that he can decree without wisdom, any more than govern without rectitude, or punish without juftice. Hence the apostle, when difcourfing on that profound subject, eternal predeftination, concludes thus; O, the depths!

of what? An arbitrary will, or an abfolute fovereignty, detached from wisdom? far from it. But of the riches, both of the WISDOM and KNOWLEDGE of God!-To refolve thofe eternal decrees, which conftitute the great plan of Providence, into the divine will, detached from divine wifdom; is neither the doctrine of Scripture, nor agreeable to found reafon-is to reprefent the fupreme Lord under the notion of an Eastern tyrant, rather than to give an idea of GOD, ONLY WISE.

If, then, we confider the Almighty as choosing any of the fallen race to life and happiness, we behold him exercising the mercy of a compaffionate Father, to his miferable offspring. But if we confider him as choosing this perfon rather than that, when both were equally wretched; we view him as vefted with the character of a fovereign Lord, and as the fole proprietor of his own favours. If, therefore, the queftion be afked; Why any were chofen to falvation, when all deferved to perifh? The anfwer is; Because our Maker is merciful. But if it be further afked; Why Paul, for inftance, was chofen rather than Judas? The answer is; Because he is Lord of all, and has an indifputable right to do what he will with his own.--But if this answer will not fatisfy the curious enquirer, he is directed by the Spirit of infpiration to ask the potter, what was the reafon of his very different procedure with the fame lump of clay; and why he formed the veffels into which it was wrought, for fuch different and oppofite ufes? The artificer will readily answer, as directed by common fenfe; Not any thing in the clay itself; but my own deliberate and free choice. For it was of the fame kind, and pofleffed the fame qualities, throughout the whole mafs: nor could one part dictate how it would be formed, or for what uses, any more than another." Thus the most ignorant potter, without hefitation, would af fert a kind of fovereignty over his clay. And are not mankind in the hand of God, as clay in the hand of the potter? Or, fhall Jehovah's fovereignty over his offending creatures, be inferior to that of a puny mortal over paffive matter? Reafon and revelation forbid the thought.- In election, therefore, we have a ftriking difplay of divine grace in

its utmost freenefs; and of God's dominion in its highest fovereignty. Of the former, toward the velfels of mercy; of the latter, toward all mankind. That, we behold with admiration and joy; this, we revere in filence: well remembering who it is that fays; BE STILL, AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD. Having fhown, in the preceding paragraphs, that election is an act of fovereign grace; I now proceed to confider the great end which the fupreme Lord intended by it. The ultimate end is his own eternal glory; and, fubordinate to it, the complete happiness of all his people. The glory of the fupreme Being is, as before obferved, the final caufe of all the eternal counfels, and of all divine operations; efpecially of those which refpect the falvation of finners. They were all defigned for THE

PRAISE OF HIS GLORIOUS GRACE.

Too ready we are to imagine, that the purpofe and pleasure of God terminate in the happiness of thofe that are chofen, and in the mifery of thofe rejected; as though the eternal felicity, and the everlasting torment of finful creatures, were the final caufe of the divine decree. But this is a great mistake, and reprefents the doctrine of predeftination in a very false, as well as unfavourable light. For as it would be pregnant with blafphemy to fuppofe, that He who is fupremely bleffed and fupremely good, fhould take delight in the infinite mifery of a rational being, without reference to a