tinent to our general fubject to obferve in this place, that, upon the principles of grace, as they ftand revealed in the fcriptures, the fcheme, which fome have propofed, respecting God's MORAL government of the world, feems to be rather incongruous and untenable.Neither the phrafe, nor the fentiment, as ftated by them, appears to be fcriptural. The idea is evidently raifed, NOT upon the present state of mankind as fallen and depraved, but upon the fuppofed or implied capacity of man as a frec agent, ftanding now as in his original ftate, and determining himself, by himfelf, either to good or evil. This, if the Bible be true, is a bafis fundamentally wrong; and though it may fquare with the opinions of heathen philofophers, both ancient and modern, and with perfons who form their fpeculations upon fimilar hypotheses; it appears by no means accordant with God's revealed method of falvation, or the concurrent teftimony,

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in all ages, of his witneffes and people. That God, as a fovereign, rules, controuls, fuperintends, and finally determines upon, all men and all things throughout his creation, is a truth manifest and indifputable. But, that the Moft High now prefides over this prefent evil world, as in its original formation, when it came good out of his hands, and that he treats with men, as creatures free to ftand or free to fall as before; all this is repugnant to truth, to fact, and to experience, and particularly to that conftitution, or covenant, or kingdom, of grace, into which finners are brought, as into the ark of old, and by means of which they can only be faved from that deftruction, which ere long will overwhelm the earth. We are told, and we feel, that this is a fallen, evil, helpless, and miferable world, and therefore is not and cannot be as God made it, in any moral fenfe; it is a world, now in a state of rebellion against its Creator; a world,

lying in open and avowed wickedness, or the wicked one; a world, naturally and continually full of enmity against God and against the most folemn truths re-; vealed by him; a world, in fhort, immerfed in fin, averfe to true holiness, already under legal condemnation for its atrocities, and referved only, till the covenant of grace fhall be completed on the one hand, and the measure of iniquity be filled up on the other. Now, if we reprefent fuch a world as this to be capable of perfectly moral duty, or, in, other words, of obeying the law of its first, creation, and thereby entitled, in any degree, to a reward or approbation of the Supreme Governor of the univerfe, according to the fuppofed plan of moral government; can we be otherwife than greatly mistaken? Do we not, in that cafe, virtually fet afide the gofpel, and pervert the principle of its inftitution ? The declared purpose of this is, to fhow mercy and to grant pardon, according to

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the counfel of God, to poor condemned criminals, fhut up in prifon, and under the bondage of Satan, called the prince of the power of the air and the god of: this world, without ftrength in them-, felves, and even without will, to do one valid act towards their release. Doth not the strong one armed keep his goods: in peace, though wrongfully obtained, till the one, who is stronger than he, fhalls come upon him and recover his own?) Is not this the divine representation of man's prefent ftate? And is it noti amply confirmed by evident proofs and experience? And is there any escape from this calamitous fituation, but by the powerful grace of God according to : the plan he has made known, and through the redemption of Chrift as the means of accomplishing it? Surely not. Therefore, he that believeth not, is condemned already, as a rebel, a traitor, an enemy to God and his law; and, con-, tinuing in unbelief, remains only for L 4

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final decifion or execution, through the juftice of that law, to which fome people have had the prefumption to appeal for the rectitude of their lives. On the other hand, he that believeth is justified from all things, from which he could not be juftified by the law; he is refcued from its fentence by the ransom of his Purifier or Redeemer, and now comes to the heavenly throne under quite a new conftitution, not of nature fuch as ftood before the fall, but of divine and unfailing grace, in which, through adoption, God is become his Father, Chrift his Brother dear and precious, and the Holy Spirit his affured Comforter, Sanctifier, and Guide. How different is this method of falvation, this kingdom of Chrift, of light, and of heaven, this fold and field inclofed, this covenant of the divine Perfons (all of them terms expreffive of distinction and separation), in Jehovah, as laid down by God himfelf in his word; how widely different from that