SECT. feel the effects of the divine difpleasure. 11. Accordingly we find in the sequel of their history, that whenever they lapsed into idolatry, a fevere punishment never failed to be the confequence of it; witness the Babylonian captivity; witnefs alfo, for a great though different crime, their prefent difperfion. And who shall presume on this account to blafpheme God, and to represent him as a being delighting in cruelty and bloodshed? As well might we term the stroke of the law tyranny and oppreffion, as the extirpation of the Canaanites an act of barbarity. Shall man inflict punishment upon man for theft or murder; and shall not the Almighty be allowed to interfere in the works of his own creation?

But why flay the children? They could have been guilty of no crime.

I answer, Did not the children likewife perish in the deftruction of Sodom? And whenever the life of a malefactor is taken away, are not his innocent children and relatives punished alfo, by partaking of the infamy of their parent or brother f? In

f The confequences are ftill more ferious, in case of an attainder for high-treafon.

་

V.

this life, the bands of relationship and af- CHAP. finity are fo interwoven, that even a single one cannot be violently torn away, without affecting thofe, which are in immediate contact: but, in the kingdom of heaven, it is probables, that all this ap

I only venture to say probable, left I should appear to be guilty of prefumption; for in reality we are very much in the dark respecting this matter. The ultimate fate of Heathen nations is one of thofe hidden counfels of God, which he has not thought proper to reveal to us. Certain it is, that they who believe in, the doctrine of original fin, cannot impeach the juftice of God, even upon the fuppofition of his condemning Gentile infants; fince all are by nature children of wrath, and, as our Church expreffes it in her ninth article," deferve God's wrath and damnation."

I cannot forbear citing upon this occafion the fentiments of the Hon. Robert Boyle refpecting Scriptural difficulties: In heaven "probably, we fhall fatisfactorily understand "thofe deep and obfcure myfteries of religion, which the "profoundest clerks, that love not to flatter themselves, ac

knowledge, they are unable to comprehend; being, after "all the toil and industry of their anxious inquiries, re"duced to fit down with the Apoftle's & Bags, an admi"ration of that depth, whose bottom they cannot fathom. "There we shall understand thofe obfcure paffages of that "divine Book uncapable of flattery, the Scripture, which, "for all that bold critics and learned expofitors have attempted to illuftrate it, does ftill continue obfcure. There, "difcerning how exquifitely the feveral parts of Scripture 66 are fitted to the feveral times, perfons, and occurrences, "wherein their all-foreseeing Author intended most to use "them, we shall difcern not only a reconcileableness, but a "friendship, and perfect harmony betwixt thofe texts, that

SECT. parent injuftice will be removed, and that II. thofe, who suffer guiltlessly here from the

"here seem most at variance; and fhall discover not only
"the fenfe of the obfcurer paffages, but the requifitenefs of
"their having been written fo obfcurely. That strange and
"peculiar, as well as otherwife cryptical method and style
"of Scripture, which often cofts us fo much study to find it
rational, we shall there difcover to be admirable, and wor-
"thy of its omnifcient Author. There, I hope, we shall
"have clearly expounded to us thofe riddles of Providence,
"which have, but too often, tempted even good men to
"queftion God's conduct in the government of the world.—
"The fhortness of our tranfitory lives no permitting us to
"continue long enough spectators here, to see above a scene
or two at most of that great play acted by mankind
"the stage of the world, 'tis no wonder, we are apt to har-
"bour finifter thoughts of the contriver of a plot, whofe
"neither beginning nor end we are acquainted with which
"is no lefs injurious, than it were to cenfure the lofty tra-
gedian Seneca, or some other matchless artist, having per-
"ufed but a piece of fome tragedy, whereof the latter part
never arrived at our view. But, when once God's whole

"

"

upon

plot (if I may so speak), and conduct in the admini"stration of the world, fhall come to be disclosed; all those "revolutions, and occurrences of empires, ftates, families, "and particular perfons, which men are here fo prone to " quarrel with, will there appear so just, so requifite, and so "feasonable, that thofe very things, which here tempted us "to deny God, fhall there engage us to praise him; and we "fhall not fo properly be fatisfied with his providence, as "ravifhed-Yes, all that unwelcome darkness, that here "furrounded our purblind underftandings, will vanish at "the dawning of that bright, and (as St. Peter's expreffion. "may be interpreted) eternal day, wherein the refolution of "all thofe difficulties, which here exercifed, and perhaps dif

"treffed,

criminality of others, will receive a propor- CHAP. tionable recompenfe in the world to come.

"

V.

2.

Objection

part of the

2. A fecond objection has been made -against the Mofaical difpenfation, on ac- made against the count of the numerous rites and ceremo- ceremonial nies of the Law. These have been repre- Law, as fented as ufelefs and trifling; anfwering anfwered. trifling; and no one good end, and totally unworthy of divine wifdom.

The Jews were a carnal and grofs people, unequal to any refined and abstract ideas. Owing to this temper, they were

"treffed, our faith, shall be granted us to reward it. And I "muft. profefs (as unfafhionable as fuch a profeflion may "feem in a gentleman not yet two and twenty) that I find "the ftudy of thofe excellent themes, God's word, and his "providence, fo difficult, and yet fo pleafing and inviting, "that could heaven afford me no greater bleffing than a "clear account of the abftrufe myfteries of divinity and pro"vidence, I fhould value the having my understanding gra"tified and enriched with truths of fo noble and precious

a nature, enough to court heaven at the rate of renouncing "for it all thofe unmanly fenfualities and trifling vanities, "for which inconfiderate mortals are wont to forfeit the in*❝terest, their Saviour fo dearly bought them in it." BOYLE'S Seraphic Love, p. 154-159.

What a fingular contraft is there between the humility of this truly great man, and the ludicrous felf-conceit of modern deiftical pretenders to philosophy!

perpe

330

II.

SECT. perpetually degenerating into a worship of sensible objects, while they forsook their own religion, which described God as incorporeal, and to be comprehended by the intellect alone. Thus we find, that their ceremonial law, though cenfured for being deficient in purity, was yet even too pure for their dull and grovelling faculties. Hence the Deity, graciously confidering their infirmity, was pleased to remedy it, by lowering the perfection of divine truth to the standard of Jewish abilities. The Law was a kind of preparation for good things to come. Its fupporting hands, the rites and ceremonies of the temple, were ftretched forth to fuftain the yet feeble limbs of childhood; but, when that which is perfect came, then that which is imperfect was to be done away. As, in the investigation of mathematical truth, the human mind requires the fupport of certain figures; fo the ancient Ifraelites, seeing as in a glafs darkly, were unable to admit divine truth, except through the medium of a regular fyftem of typical obfervances. God himself explains the diftinction between clean and unclean beafts, as allufive to the temporary feparation between the Jews