:

*

vent them from sinning, therefore he must permit them to Sin; and hence infer and affirm, that God permits every Sin he doth not prevent. But it is much easier to assert such things than to make good these assertions by sacred authority. Permission is a grant of privilege. "Paul thou art permitted to speak for thyself."-ACTS xxvi, 1. Did God grant Adam the privilege to Sin; did he say, Adam thou art permitted to Sin? If so, Sin could not be an offence; to talk about the Fermission of Sin, is not only talking. unscripturally, but ridiculously. We might as well talk about lawful crime, or righteous wickedness, as to talk about the Divine permission of Sin. Divine permission is divine authority, so far as that permission extends hence divine permission was granted to Adam, to eat of every tree of the garden of Eden, excepting "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat." (This was permission.) ،، But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."-GEN. ii, 16, 17. Here was no permission, but a prohibition, and a most solemn forbiddance. Now had our first parents done no more than what they had authority, by the Divine permission to do, they had not sinned. But they exceeded the bounds of the Divine permission, and not only did that which they had no permission to do, but they did that which God had forbidden, and solemnly forewarned them not to do. Hence this their act of disobedience was Sin. "Sin is the transgression of the law."

one.

*To Permit, to allow, give leave, or suffer.-BAILEY's Dict. Permission, s. allowance, grant of liberty.-WALKER'S Dict.

Does then the Sin consist in the creature doing what God permitted him to do; or does it consist in him doing that which he was forbid to do? "Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I said unto thee, thou shalt not eat?" What says the guilty man? "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." Here was sin, he did that which he had no divine permission to do; he did that which he was forbidden to do; and so does the murderer, so does the adulterer, so does the thief, so does every sinner, in every sin that he commits. "Sin is the transgression of the law;" and the sentence of the law is, "the soul that sinneth, it shall die." The Lord does not condemn his creatures for doing what he permits them to do, but for doing what he forbids them to do. God says, "Thou shalt not steal." "Thou shalt do no murder." "Thou shalt not commit adultery." "Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery; and come and stand before me, and say, we are delivered to do all these things?"-JER. vii, 9, 10. Will ye say, we are permitted to do all these things? Will ye say, God decreed and immutably forefixed that we should do all these things? "The time when, the place where, and the manner how, from eternity." Can ye produce sacred document for what ye affirm; or, do ye affirm it because some great

master in Israel hath asserted it? and so the little ones must, of course, copy after him and establish it. To say that God permits every sin that is committed, is but proofless assertion. The farthest that we can go upon authority as to this point, is to say, that

God does not prevent the sin that is committed; not that he suffers or permits it to be done.

There is a two-fold point of view wherein God does not suffer Sin.

First-by his revealed word and command in forbidding it as DEU. xviii, 14.

Secondly-by his preventing it, which is either by his over-ruling providence, restraining grace, or preventing power, as GEN. xx, 6.

A word or two upon these particulars. First, then, whatsoever God forbids to be done, that he does not suffer to be done; notwithstanding it be done in ten thousand instances every day. For instance, God did not suffer Israel of old to learn, or to practice, the abominations of the heathen. He did not suffer them to worship idols, or to burn their children in sacrifice unto them. He did not suffer them to practice witchcraft, to use divination, enchantments, or to consult familiar spirits. As it is written, "Thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of these nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God. For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners; but as for thee,

the Lord thy God has not suffered thee so to do.DEU. xviii, 10—14.

of

Thus we see, God did not suffer Israel to do any these abominations, and yet there is not an abomination specified in the above quotation but what Israel actually committed. As it is written, "They served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, ye shall not do this thing. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divinations, and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord."-2 KINGS, xvii, 9, 12, 17.—xxi, 3, 7.—1 KINGS, xi, 5, 8.—xiv, 23, 24.

Thus, then, we see that Sin is committed notwithstanding God does not suffer it. And hence, such as preach up the divine permission of sin, and affirm that sin cannot be committed but by the divine per. mission; they preach up, and affirm a lie in the name Lord. But

Secondly, God does not suffer sin, when by his over-ruling providence, his restraining grace, or his repressing power, he prevents, or keeps back the creature from committing the act; as in the case of Abimilech, when he took Abraham's wife, God, by repressing power, suffered him not to sin. As it is written, "I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her."GEN. XX, 6.

Now though the Lord may thus prevent ten thousand times more sin than what he does not prevent, yet, we have no divine autnority to affirm, that God permits every sin that he does not prevent. For sin

M

"Sin is

is the doing of what God forbids to be done, or the not doing what he commands to be done. the transgression of the Law." So that whatsoever God forbids, that he does not suffer to be done; though he does not prevent the act. "As for thee, I have not suffered thee so to do."

Yet the abettors of this high doctrine make no distinction betwixt God not preventing, and God not suffering sin; but they take it for granted that whatsoever God does not prevent, that he suffers to be done; and hence, insist that it is his Will, his Decree, his Eternal Purpose, his Wise and Holy Ordination that it should be so done: and thus whatsoever is done in time, they consider it but as a development of what was decreed in eternity. And hence they boldly affirm, that nothing can possibly be done, but what the Almighty suffers, wills, and determines to be done. But let them remember that God says to Israel, "I have not suffered thee so to do." it, as we have before proved. Are we God's word or man's word for doctrine ?

Yet they did then to take

The decreeing of Sin and the fall, is a doctrine built upon man's word; upon man's assertions and man's pervertions of God's truth; and it is based principally upon God's not preventing it; for upon this "not preventing," they boldly assert his decreeing the fall. Hence the learned Dr. EDWARDS in his defence of this high doctrine, writes as follows:

not.

He might have hindred the fall, but he would The reason was, because he had decreed their fall, for this is an unquestionable maxim, that he could have prevented the being of Sin, if he had