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in ruin in order to redeem them from ruin; or that he took away their righteousness and life in order to be exalted in the restoring them again. A physician would gain but little credit in restoring to health where he was known to be the wilful cause of the disease. Fallen man, possessed of the least spark of honour, would spurn the idea of being exalted upon such a principle; and shall we make this principle the basis of the unsullied perfections of Jehovah, who is "glorious in holiness ?" "Shall mortal man be more just than God; shall man be more pure than his maker?" Talk of manifesting the divine holiness, righteousness, truth, faithfulness, grace, mercy, justice, wrath, &c," upon such a principle; why it saps the glory of the whole, and stamps the foulest indignity upon every attribute of Jehovah. Talk of exalting the honour of God and the work of Christ upon such a principle, it pours the most degrading reflection upon both. "The works of the Lord are great -honourable and glorious."-Ps. cxi, 3. "His work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity. Just and right is he. They have corrupted themselves."-DEU. xxxii, 4, 5. "Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked;" not from God. Jesus Christ, the good physician, is not exalted for restoring that which he took away; but for restoring that which he took not away. As it is written,-"Then I restored that which I took not away."-Ps. lxix. 4. Suppose a man plunges into the deep, and at the risk of his life snatches a fellow mortal from a watery grave, the act is good in the eyes of men. If he does this for an enemy, the deliverer is still more exalted in public esteem. But if it was known, that this hero had been

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the wilful cause of these creatures coming into the pit of destruction, and that he had brought them into it for the

express purpose of being exalted in their deliverance. Under such circumstances how would the deliverer appear in the eyes of the public? would they applaud him? No; his being the cause of the evil would more than swallow up the merit of the deliverance, and the deliverer instead of being exalted as good and gracious, would at once sink into public contempt. Shall we then say, that Jehovah is the cause of Sin? the cause of his creatures ruin and destruction ? and, that he ruins in order to be exalted in restoring? and, that he destroys for the express purpose of being glorified by redeeming? Such a basis for the display of the perfections of God, is a rotten, unscriptural and God-dishonouring basis, How could the divine justice be displayed in the condemnation of the creature for actions, upon the principle that these actions were the effect and consequent of God himself? In that case the creature acts from necessity;. and a necessitous act cannot be Sin. So that if justice condemns him for such an act, it must thereby forfeit its very name and nature, and become unjust seeing it condemns the creature for Sin, when the creature is not the cause of Sin, when Sin is neither the effect or consequent of the creature, but of the Creator. So that for the divine justice to be exalted upon such a basis appears to me impossible,

And as to Mercy, how can Mercy be displayed in the salvation of a sinner, upon the principle that Sin enters and exists as a consequent of the divine will? It is impossible for Mercy to shine upon such a basis. As

the creature in that case is not the cause of Sin, but the creator, who dooms the creature to Sin by inevitable decree. So that instead of the creature's life and 1ighteousness being justly forfeited and lost by his own act of disobedience and volunteer transgression, agreeable to the word; this traditionary doctrine sets it forth as taken from him by sovereign and absolute decree, and that, in order for the divine mercy to be displayed in the restoring it. But mercy cannot breath in such an element; mercy cannot live under such circumstances; the act of taking away the creature's righteousness, by the ordaining his Sin, forms a bottomless bog that would swallow up the existence of mercy in the restoration. It may be argued, "he restored it more abundantly." I would answer, so did the Israelite who took away his neighbours sheep; he restored it fourfold. Yet I never

learned that such restoration was deemed in Israel as an act of goodness and mercy, but as a legal reparation for injury. Had there been no taking away, such a restoration, in case of loss and poverty, would have reflected honour upon the benefactor; but the taking away destroys the merit of the restoration, and not only strips off all glory from the action, but clothes it with disgrace.

And so it would in the act of Redemption, if God was the cause of Sin. Thus, we see, the doctrine of God decreeing Sin, places the perfections and attributes of Jehovah, upon a basis, the principles of which are detestable in the eyes of all men.

The scripture no where teaches that God willed the existence, and decreed the entrance of Sin; nor can Ab

all the men in the world produce a passage from the sacred volume to prove the point. The word teaches most plainly, that the creature is his own corrupter, and his own murderer. As it is written, "They have corrupted themselves."-DEU. xxxii. 5. "By man came death." He was the cause of his own death, the cause of his own destruction. "O Israel thou hast destroyed thyself: but in me is thine help."-Ho. viii. 9 "Ye have sold yourselves for naught; and ye shall be redeemed without money."-Is. lii. 3. Here the selling and destroying is evidently attributed to the creature, as his own act; but the help, the redeeming, is clearly set forth as God's own act of goodness and mercy.-Ps. cxi. 9. So that though ruin and destruction is of the creature, salvation and redemption is of God; "Not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy."

Sin and its connected miseries are of the creature; salvation and its connected blessings are of God. Hear what the word says to the creature as to Sin and its connected miseries, "Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou has forsaken the Lord thy God, when he led thee by the way?-Thy own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy back-slidings shall reprove thee: know therefore, and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts."-JER. ii, 17. 19. But bear what the word says as to salvation and its connected blessings; "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God."-EPH. ii. 8

Thus we see, that Sin, with its connected miseries, is of the creatures own procuring; while grace and salvation is what God has provided for his elect."He sent redemption unto his people."-Ps. cxi. 9. Hence there is evidently a solemn distinction betwixt what God has provided for the creature, and what the creature has provided for itself. "O Israel thon hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.” And this help is what the gospel holds forth to helpless sinners; namely, Christ Jesus, the hope and help of Israel; "The bread of God which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world."-JOHN, vi, 33. "I am come (saith Jesus) that they might have life." "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever and the bread that I will give him is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”— JOHN, vi. 51. This is a gift. "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life by Jesus Christ."-Ro. vi. 23. "By grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God." We read that "Jesus Christ, hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light by the gospel." -2 Tim. i. 10. But we have no scriptural authority to say, that God hath brought sin and mortality to light by the decree. "Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee: this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth uuto thine heart."-Jer. iv, 18.

When men affirm that God is the first cause of Sin, and that he ordained its existence; they affirm more

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