Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

made a moral agent, capable of
moral exercises, through the
agency of the Deity upon his
heart: these were all benevo-
lent, disinterested, or holy; and
in this consisted the image of
God, in which he was created.
It was a moral image.
heart was love.

OTHERS.

produce his own volitions, than his own existence." "It is in vain to attempt to account for the first sin of the first man, by the instrumentality of second causes." "It is extremely difficult to conceive, how he should be led into sin, without the immediate interposition of Syst. Part. 1. ch. 5. 'the DEITY.' "* Emmons' Ser. 12.

His

* Dr. Hopkins asserts in like manner, that holiness and sin are a part of the creation of God. The principal part of ch. IV. Part I. of his System, is devoted to the support of this doctrine. "Who does not now see that God may determine, order and cause moral evil to take place, and in this sense, create it, consistent with his infinite holiness and goodness, if this be necessary for the greatest good of the whole, both moral and natural yea, that God could not be infinitely wise and good, if, on this supposition, he did not order and cause it to take place?" Vol. I. p. 186.

[ocr errors]

Those persons, who are so unguarded in expression, as to say, that God is the author of sin, or creator of moral evil, would do well to remember an anecdote, which has found its way to this side of the Atlantic It conveys in a parabolical manner very severe reproof.

An elderly gentleman, it is said, was seated at the door of his country mansion, near the Land's End, when he saw a ghastly, grim, black personage crossing his manor. "Stop, stop, you black monster, and give an ac, count of yourself. How came you here?"

I am leaving the country, let me pass unmolested.

"Whither do you betake yourself? Tell me, or you cannot pass.” I am going to New-England; let me go, and I will never return. "But stay, sir, are you not his Majesty's subject? Why, then, do quit the kingdom?"

you

I am dissatisfied with my residence here; for if any evil is done in either of the three kingdoms, it is charged to my account; but in New-England men charge all their sin upon their Maker. Having thus spoken, he pulled off his cap, and girded high around him his sable robę. The long ears and cloven foot made the inquisitive lord of the manor shrink back with horror. Away fled the Devil to the sea coast. What form he assumed, when he engaged his passage, and while on his voyage, is not related; but it is thought that he entered New-England in the form of a lean, bald-headed, philosophical Arminian, who obtained a country parish, became very studious, and published heresy under the specious title of Calvinism,

[blocks in formation]

As the decrees of God are universal, extending to all beings, actions, and events, so the Providence of God is universal, and extends as much to a sparrow, as the government of the world.

OTHERS.

According to WITSIUS, the decrees of God are sovereign, eternal and immutable; and divine providence is co-extensive with the divine counsels. "We deny that any decree of God depends on a condition: if the

Inst. B. 1. ch. 16 and 18. thing decreed be suspended on

a condition, the condition itself is at the same time decreed." "If any decree of God could be changed, it would be because God either would not or could not effect the thing decreed, or B. 1. ch. 16. sec. 8, 9. because his latter thoughts were

Those things, which, in respect to man are said to happen, do not take place by fortune or chance.

"They who give any thing to fortune, do bury the providence of God, by whose secret counsel all successes are governed. Things without life, although each of them have their natural property planted in them, yet do not put forth their force, but so far as they are directed by the present hand of God; which is proved by the sun;" which regularly rises, but stood still for the space of two days, and whose shadow went back on the dial by the divine command.

B. 1. ch. 16. sec. 2,

3.

wiser or better than his first: all which are injurious to God. You will answer; God indeed, wills what he has decreed to be done, but on condition the creature also wills it, whose liberty. he would no wise infringe. I answer, is God so destitute either of power, or of wisdom, that he cannot so concur with the liberty of second causes, which he himself gave and formed, as to do what he wills, without prejudice to, and consistently with their liberty?"

[ocr errors]

Economy of Covenants, B. 3. ch. 4. sec. 25.

"God the great Creator of all

CHAPTER V.

OF PROVIDENCE.

HOPKINS,

AND

OTHERS.

"Divine providence consists "Divine Providence consists in preserving, directing and in God's agency." "Providence governing, all creatures and is in its nature always the same, things which are made; or in let the events produced be what taking the most wise and effect- they may. It is always the diual care of them, so as to make vine agency." them answer the end for which they are created."

Syst. Vol. 1. p. 243. God upholds all things by a continued creation, and governs the material system by exerting his energy, according to stated rules, or fixed laws. When God acts upon any being in an unusual manner, or so as to counteract or interrupt his fixed laws of nature, that providence is called a miracle. Syst. Vol. 1. p. 244. "In the exercise of this divine providence, some events take place by the more immediate energy and agency of God; and others by the instrumentality and agency of creatures, and by various mediums, and what are called second causes. But in all the events of the latter kind, the divine hand, power and energy, is as really and as much concerned and exerted, and is really as evident, and as much to be

acknowledged, as if no instru

Massachusetts Missionary Magazine: edited by several distinguished divines of that

[blocks in formation]

ceives what he ought to desire and to choose, respecting every creature and every event. And his desire and choice respecting every thing is wisest and best. In proportion to the strength of the divine desires, and the wisdom and rectitude of the divine choice, must be the pleasure of God in gratifying his desires, and his satisfaction in effecting his chosen purposes." "God clearly and fully perceives the end from the beginning. He has sufficient wisdom to form the best purposes, and to devise, and

[blocks in formation]

"Solomon doth easily reconcile the purposes of men with the providence of God. For as he laugheth to scorn their folly, who boldly do undertake anything without the Lord, as though they were not ruled by his hand; so in another place he speaketh in this manner: The heart of man purposeth his way, but the Lord doth direct his steps ;' meaning that we are not hindered by the eternal decrees of God, but that under his will we may both provide for ourselves, and dispose all things belonging to us."

B. 1. ch. 17. sec. 4.

"The doctrine concerning God's providence, doth not establish Stoical destiny, but excludeth heathenish fortune and chance."

OTHERS.

things, doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy Providence, according to his infallible fore-knowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of his own will, to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness and mercy."

Con. C. Scot. ch. 5. sec. 1. Con. P. C. U. S. p. 25. Say. Plat. p. 26. Con. R. D. C. Art. 13. "We believe that all things, both in heaven and in earth, and in all creatures are sustained and governed by the providence of this wise eternall and omnipotent God." "Wherefore we condemn the Epicures who denie the providence of God, and all those, who blasphemously affirme, that God is occupied about the poles of heaven, and that he neither seeth nor regardeth us, nor our affaires."

Latter Con. Helvetia. "Nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken but raaway, ther established." Con. C. Scot. ch. 3. sec. 1. Con. P. C. U. B. 1. ch. 17. sec. 4. S. p. 17. Say. Plat. p. 21.

"The providence of God doth not abolish but establish the means, by leaving the end only certain to itself, to us uncertain."*

* The pious," neither for the time past will murmur against God for their adversities, nor lay upon him the blame of wicked actions, as Aga'memnon in Homer did, saying, I am not the cause, but Jupiter and fate;

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

The providence of God could not extend to moral agents if they were not acted upon; nor regulate moral actions if they were not produced by a positive Syst. Vol. I. p. 244. influence of the Deity.

"All power is in God, and all creatures which act, or move, exist and move, or are moved in and by him."*

Emmons' 9th Ser. et passim. 'Contingent or uncertain events may be conjectured, but cannot be foreknown." Mass. Miss. Magazine.

nor yet, again, as carried away with destinies, will they by despair throw themselves into destruction, as that young man in Plautus, who said, “ Unstable is the chance of things: the Fates drive men at their pleasure: I will get me to some rock, there to make an end of my goods and life together." Neither yet, (as another did) will they pretend the name of God to palliate and cover their own mischievous actions; for so saith Lyconides, in another comedy,' God was the mover: I believe it was the will of the Gods; for if it had not been their will, I know it should not so come to pass." B. I. ch. 17. Sec. 3 of Calvin's Inst.

* The Calvinists consent to the proposition, that all physical motion takes place by the physical power of God. If a stone falls, or rolls on an inclined plain, God moves it. If a thousand wheels revolve in some complicated machines, God moves each one. But thought and volition are improperly compared to mechanical motion. The Calvinists are, therefore, of opinion,

that God does not govern moral actions by a mechanical application of

« AnteriorContinuar »