the promise of their Lord, in the comfort of the Holy Ghost ;" and the general description of " the kingdom of God" is "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost "."

Such, then, being the spiritual character of the Gospel, and such its promises and joys; and it being a part of the system, that these joys should be often coexistent with tribulations and persecutions, or should be even caused by them; it seems to follow, that the administration of Providence also would undergo a corresponding change. True it is, our heavenly Father chastened his children for their profit even under the elder dispensations, but it would be more frequently true under the Gospel, that "whom the Lord loveth he chastenethk." The character of a probationary state, having future reward and punishment in prospect, would be more constantly sustained. The present rewards of godliness might be indeed, so large is the bounty of God, even greater in amount, more exalted, and more constant, than when the hope of future glory was more obscure; but then, these present rewards being more spiritual also, the favour and the dis

Acts ix. 31.

h Rom. xiv. 17. xv. 13. cf. John xiv. 16. xv. 11. xvi. 20-24. Phil. ii. 1. 2 Thess. ii. 16, 17. 2 Cor. i. 4, 5.

' Deut. viii. 5. Job v. 17. Psalm xciv. 12. Prov. iii. 11, 12.

Heb. xii. 10.

pleasure of God would be much less distinctly marked than formerly by outward temporal prosperity or adversity.

III. If the principal circumstances of agreement and difference between the systems of Providence under the Gospel and under the earlier dispensations have been correctly estimated, we may easily ascertain at once the value, and the proper application to the purposes of Christians, of the sacred records of the Old Testament as histories of Divine Providence.

1. For, in the first place, as to their correct application; wheresoever the Historical books of the Old Testament assert or imply the great doctrine that this life is a state of probation and trial, having reference to a future state of retribution, their application to ourselves is immediate and unqualified. Whatever passages or examples they contain to this effect are even more applicable to us than to the Patriarch or the Israelite, in so far as the Christian system introduces less of present temporal retribution.

As to the mode of trial again, the natural constitution of things being precisely the same, whatsoever events or feelings fall within this department of Divine Providence during the Mosaic or the

Patriarchal ages, are equally applicable to our own. The blessing of the meek, for example, that they should" inherit the earth," is not peculiar to the Gospel; but in respect of that "abundance of peace in which the meek should delight themselves," the blessing would hold good under any dispensation': and even with respect to external prosperity, like that of Joseph in the text, it may be true in part that "the Lord was with him, and made all that he did to prosper in his hands," not by special interpositions, but under that general system of Providence which He has established as the Author of the constitution and course of nature.

But when we turn from the natural consequences of good or ill conduct to extraordinary rewards, or judgments, or other interpositions of Providence, greater caution is required. They may, no doubt, and probably do occur, in our own as in former ages; but we do not know them to occur; and we have reason to believe, that, with respect to the external recompenses of good or ill conduct they occur much less frequently than in the periods treated of in these sacred records. And several important consequences flow from these principles.

For we must not, for instance, assert of any calamity, that it is a judgment upon the unhappy sufferers; not even when we know upon other

Cf. Matt. v. 3. Ps. xxxvii. 11. 1 Pet. iii. 10, &c.

grounds that they deserved punishment; and much less when their guilt is only an inference from their sufferings. Nor again, because the sacred records are replete with accounts of providential interpositions, must we therefore affirm of any particular occurrences that they are providential1; as if at least these were known to be so, or as if other events were not providential. With the exception of such events as free agents, under the Divine permission, themselves produce, all occurrences are providential, and come from God. Nor, again, are we at liberty to cite the extraordinary events, which are the principal subjects of the sacred histories, as examples of the existing administration of Providence. The partial change which has been described in the systems of Providence forbids their being so considered. The greater is the number of recorded instances of divine judgments, the less probability there is that similar judgments will be inflicted upon the guilty now; because the guilty have now so many more warnings, so many earnests of judgment to come. And the instances recorded of external rewards, in like manner, will not be pledges of similar rewards to be bestowed upon the godly in this life; but rather demonstrations of the faithfulness of God, and earnests of future and everlasting rewards.

See Abp. Whately on Romish Errors, chap. i. §. 9. 1.

But the history of the Providence which watched over the Israelites, less than any other portion of these records admits of direct application to Christians. This part of the system of Providence was beyond question extraordinary. No one disputes the fact; strangely as Christians often forget its evident consequence, applying to themselves without reserve, under the ordinary administration of Providence, either the facts of the history, or the promises and exhortations in the Psalms and the Prophets built upon these facts, and appropriate only to a system confessedly extraordinary". And

In In Sermons on the cholera, was it not common to speak of the judgments under the Law, (for example, upon Corah and his company, upon the people in the matter of Peor, &c.) as examples or instances of providential events, which might therefore be expected now? But the difference is this. The offences thus punished were most strictly examples of human conduct; they occur now, and are now exactly as much, or rather by reason of our greater advantages much more, the objects of the Divine displeasure. They are therefore lessons to us, and warnings to "they were written for our admonition;" (1 Cor. x. 11.) they are calls to repentance, as our Saviour taught in the case of the sufferers at Siloam; but they do not teach us that the same judgments are to be expected now; and if we so employ them, we contravene the acknowledged fact, that the providence over Israel was extraordinary.

us;

On the other hand it deserves attention, that the Old Scriptures contain many records of actual judgments inflicted upon