cafes to interfere with their freedom, they have formed a fimilar eftimate of the divine power. They fuppofe that God, like themselves, is merely a fpectator of human conduct, and that the voluntary actions of the creature are as little at the difpofal of the Creator as at their own. Hence they reject the magnificent conception which the Scriptures give of Jehovah, as creating at once the light and the darknefs, and fo forming a glorious fyftem in which the good and the evil are alike fubfervient to his defign, and exhibitive of his glory. The objections of thefe perfons against the doctrine of efficacious grace, must be founded on fimilar views. Becaufe they cannot execute their plans without the affiftance of their equals, they naturally believe that God requires the co-operation of man, when he intends to renew him after his own image; that he is as liable to be fruftrated in forming a church, as they are in regulating a kingdom; and that he, as well as themselves, muft wait with patience, until the finner having long refifted his efforts, chooses to give the neceffary affiftance. And thus they form their notions of the divine power.

In delineating the juftice of God, they have alfo an eye to their own character. Some, for example, deny that he would act justly in eternally punishing the wicked. The reafon is ob-vious It is indeed a very trifling fault to defpise them, and it deferves a very flight punishment to tranfgrefs their commands;. of course, it cannot be fo very great an evil as fome fuppofe, to contemn God, and the violation of his law cannot furely deserve eternal mifery. Others indeed reject these reasonings, but they as evidently make their own, the standard of the di-.

vine conduct. What reafon, for inftance, can be affigned why the rigor of the divine law fhould, as fome divines fuppofe, have been mitigated, and the commandment which is holy and juft and good, have been in part fet afide? Whoever examines this opinion will find it to be perfectly unfounded. Those theologians therefore, who have embraced the doctrine of the remedial law, must have reasoned in this manner, My "commands I know are frequently too rigorous, "they are given fome time from the impulse of "paffion, and therefore are often unreasonable,

hence I am fometimes obliged to revoke "them, or at least allow them to be tranfgreffed "with impunity. I may fuppofe then, that the "law requiring unfinning obedience, was iffued "without a fufficient attention to the frailty and "imperfection of man, and therefore in justice "(and God is infinitely juft) fomething of its "rigor must be abated. God indeed has de"nounced a curse against every one who continueth "not in all things which are written in the book of "the law to do them.-True-But I fometimes "make threats merely for the fake of terrify“ing, nay I fhould even act with cruelty were "I to put them all into execution." And fo reafon these divines.

From fimilar principles must many have derived their notions of the divine Holinefs. They find in themselves but a moderate refpect for God-they are confcious that they have not a fuprème veneration for his commands, that they can look upon fin without any violent indignation, nay that they have even a complacency and fellow-feeling for finners. Can we then be furprised that they hold up to our view a God of e fimilar character, a God content with homage

lef's

lefs than fupreme, a God winking at little fins, and looking with affectionate fondness upon wellmeaning, good-hearted SINNERS! Some are but little affected with any thing which does not either immediately or remotely disturb their own tranquillity; they therefore place the highest value upon the qualities which promote harmouy of social life, and abhor those only which interrupt its repofe. God who is "like themfelves, "or how can he be good," muft of course love and hate on the fame grounds. He muft love the virtuous father who makes his family happy, and the honest tradefman who pays his bills regularly, and he will eafily forgive them, if thro' excefs of bufinefs or pleasure they fhould forget himfelf.

"Devoutly thus JEHOVAH they depofe,

"The pure! the just! and set up in his stead "A deity that's perfectly well-bred.

Others of the devouter fort, being of a different character from thofe, of course despise their God, and draw one like themselves. And how do they exhibit him? They represent him as pleafed with the felfish ftrivings of unregenerate finners, liftening with pleasure to their hypocritical prayers, and co-operating with their impious attempts to efcape the punishment of their fins!-Because, forfooth, fuch things please themselves, and furnish a ground for glorying over others.

Let us now attend to the opinions which religionists entertain of divine MERCY. These furnifh convincing proofs, that they have derived their idea of God from a view of their own character, as it certainly is utterly repugnant to that which we find in the Scriptures. The various parties of religion, fuch at leaft as are ad

ment.

mired and applauded by the world, evince to the believer's eye, their ignorance of the peculiar nature of divine mercy.-One party denies that men are depraved, and draws its argument from the bleffings which they receive from the hands of a gracious providence. For Jehovah, be sure, resembles fuch virtuous men as themselves, and they know not how to bestow favors upon an enemy. We can fee alfo the reason why the fame religionifts reject the doctrine of the atoneThey admire themselves as the very exemplars of goodnefs, and virtue and morality; they are at the fame time confcious that their benevolence never leads them to relieve the wretch who is not recommended by fome amiable qualifications. How then can they admire that ftupendous mercy which prompted HIM who was higher than the higheft, to fubmit to ignominy and death, for the vileft of the vile !-Again, what are we to fuppofe the true grounds of oppofition to the freenefs of divine grace? The abfurdity of the doctrine? What abfurdity in fuppofing God to bestow his favors as he pleases? Its dangerous tendency? Can there be a danger of reprefenting too gracious a deity? or will he be lefs loved, because he is the more amiable? or will we be lefs grateful, the more we conceive ourfelves his debtors?-No, we are mistaken, if we fuppofe that fuperior wifdom or fanctity are the caufes why men reject this doctrine. It is rejected, becaufe it exhibits a view of fuch benignity as finners cannot find in themfelves. It difplays a God not like man, either unrelentingly perfecuting his foes, or treating them with cold indifference; but pouring down bleffings more exuberant than the moft zealous friend could defire-not forgiving small offences and

remitting

remitting petty debts; but with a magnificence of mercy conferring favors upon the most malignant, and instead of exacting debts, beftowing riches. Nor are these the only perfons who worship an imperfect God which they have created in their own image. Some who speak in the highest raptures of fovereign mercy, will frequently be found to have contracted it within the narrow limits of human goodness.. When we fee fuch laboring to prove that faith is fomething more than mere belief, denying that God juftifies the ungodly, and refufing confolation to the finner, until he has changed the bias of his heart and begun to love God; we may fufpect that these alfo conceive JEHOVAH to be one of like paffions with themselves that as they are too arrogant to pardon any one who continues their enemy, but ftand aloof, until he flatters their pride by feeking for reconciliation; fo they conclude that God also cannot condefcend to treat an obftinate foe with affection, and thus melt his heart to love by prevenient goodness.

Thus may we fee how the different religionifts, in depicting their different Gods, have been merely delineating their own portraits. Instead of endeavouring to exalt their own nature, by forming it to the refemblance of the divine, they have debafed the character of JEHOVAH by reprefenting it as like their own.

"O curvæ in terris animæ & celeftium inanes, "Quid juvat hoc, templis noftros immittere mores, "Et bona diis ex hac fcelerata ducere pulpa ?"

Chriftians however act a wifer part, they liften to HIM, their prophet, who alone knows the Father, and from his inftructions have formed their conceptions of the true God. Whilft every fpecies