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moral precepts continued to apply and to have force, and the system of divine dealings with him, henceforth to go into practice, was already provided and established from eternity. All that God has ever done, or ever will do, in governing the world, is eternal, in the divine counsels, and not merely the offspring of those occasions, to which it seems to have a particular respect. If God had from eternity calculated, or designed, to govern mankind, as a race of innocent and holy beings, and adapted the principles and plan of administration to such a supposed state of things; it will follow, that upon the fall of our first parents, and the general lapse of human nature, an entirely new theory of government must have been started, which would give us an example of a very notable change indeed, in the system of divine arrangements.

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stead of supposing any thing like this, we ought, in honour to God, rather to conceive that all the changes, whether moral, physical, or political, that have ever taken place in mankind, have been in conformity to a divine constitution, which is as ancient as eternity. This will be to consider the Deity as an unchanging God, whose purposes will stand, and who will do all his pleasure. But if new provisions, and new regulations have been needed, as often as new events have transpired, the changes, through which the Deity has already passed, are countless.

The world has been continually exhibiting new appearances since it has been the habit

ation of men. Consequently providences, new to creatures, have been perpetually turning up,not as proving any change in the counsels of the most High; but as manifesting the astonishing variety there is in that perfect connected system of things, which is in the mind and will of God from eternity. The system is not violated, nor varied, when from punishing and laying waste a nation God proceeds to forgive and save them; when, after having driven out the Canaanites, to make room for his people, he uses such as remain to scourge and afflict his own heritage. It is not by virtue of any change in the scheme of divine government, that, after God had given Nebuchadnezzar a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honor, he proceeds to abase him, so that he is deposed from his kingly throne, and his glory is taken from him. The whole scene is of use, and is an eternal device in the wise counsels of Heaven, to make the king know, that the most High God ruleth in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.

It argues no change in God, or in the plan of his gov ernment, that the Jews, after being, for many centuries, the only nation within the pale of the visible church, are at length cast out of the vineyard and denied the honour and the privileges of their former interest in God's covenant. Finally, it is no argument against the unchangeableness of God's government, that individuals and nations are sometimes in prosperity and sometimes in adversity, and

that too without any very sensible change in their visible character.

Fourthly. The unchangeableness of God implies, that all his purposes are invariable and eternal. It is natural to ascribe purposes, or determinations, to him, by whose interpositions and influences, events, of whatever kind, are brought to pass. If things happen thus or so, in consequence of the operation of a divine hand, our common sense teaches us, that God meant it should be so. This is agreeable to our notions about common things. Every voluntary and premeditated transaction among men, supposes a previous purpose in the doer of it. A man can never be said to do any thing, in which an outward effect is implied, without first determining to do it. And if effects are dependent on the workings of divine power, we naturally say, that God designed, or purposed, them, before they came into being; and that his power produced them according to a foregoing purpose. If any thing takes place without a previous purpose in the most High, it must be because its dependence is not on his power; but on the power of some other being. But, in the language of scripture, we may say, that "all things are of God." There is nothing, therefore, that can be traced to its origin, in any thing but the purpose of God. The scriptures are as fully

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and direly to this effect as own reason. the following passages: "The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought,

so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand; That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the Lord of hosts

hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?" Again. "Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth? The Lord of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth." Further; "Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord which he hath taken against Edom, and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the inhabitants of Teman." Once more; "Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord that he hath taken against Babylon, and his purposes that he hath purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out; surely he shall make their habitation desolate with them." To these Scriptures may be added the following in the book of Psalms. "The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations." This brief recital will serve to show, that there is no impropriety in the thought, that the providence of God

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consists of a chain of divine purposes, with the execution of them; and that the works of an almighty hand, which come under the notice of creatures, are but the fulfilment of divine determinations, existing from eternity in the perfect and all-comprehending mind of God. But that he should purpose the things he does, before the doing of them, is not peculiar to himself. It is common to all voluntary agents. But the purposes of men are changeable, like themselves. With them, one determination gives place to another totally opposite. Joseph's brethren first determined to make a sacrifice of him by imbruing their own hands in his blood; and afterwards they superseded this resolution, or purpose, by another to sell him into the hands of strangers for a perpetual bond-servant. Judas also, after he had purposed to render his divine master subservient to his covetousness, repented of this determination, and resolved, if possible, to undo what he had done. Since things appear to the eyes of men under such different and contrary aspects, at different times, it is not strange, that their purposes should, often times, be contradictory to each other; that, at one time, they should concert plans, and form resolutions, to be overthrown by others to come after them. This, however, forms a trait in the character of man, which must for ever prove fatal to all his pretensions to such confidence as debars all fear. Where you see a man relinquishing a measure, to-day, which he had,

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