We the infirmity of the creature. He acts like God: his works correspond to his infinite excellence. judge of them like men; that is, like creatures of very narrow capacities. How should these things bear any proportion to each other? In an infinite object, must there not be a thousand things which our minds cannot comprehend? What appears obscure and intricate to us, may be clear and plain to more exalted intelligences, possessing ideas, conceptions, and principles, different from ours. Angels, perhaps, experience no embarrassment or difficulty, in many things which we find incomprehensible or perplexing. Weak mortals as we are, do we not know that we are only endued with a diminutive portion of knowledge and reason, which is as little qualified for a just estimate of all that God does and all that he ought to do, as the palm of our hand is to measure the heavens ? Besides, while we continue in this world we are very far from having attained all the perfection, of which our understandings are capable. One day we shall clearly discern many things which at present are altogether obscure. Whence do we now derive the principles which serve as the foundations of our reasoning? I mean in things which are not subjects of revelation. We derive them from the senses, from experience, from the ideas formed by education, and from certain relations to surrounding objects, produced by our inclinations or interests. These principles and rules are very defective and uncertain when we apply them to God: and they are all strangely corrupted by our prejudices, our passions, and the depravity of our hearts. We resemble people who have naturally very short sight, or weak and diseased с eyes; and who also dwell in the midst of marshes constantly covered with fogs, or are confined in a dungeon where nothing can be seen, except through some chinks or crevices in its walls. Would such persons be capable of forming a correct judgment concerning every thing that passes at a distance? "Here we know" but "in part."* Here then God will always be to us a God that hideth himself." Respecting providence and religion, we shall raise many useless questions as soon as we forsake the scripture. We shall dispute with warmth about our ignorance and errors. We shall agitate ourselves amidst the fogs which surround us. We shall grope our way with the uncertainty of persons that are blind. "Secret things belong unto the Lord our "God: but those things which are revealed, belong "to us and to our children."† As long as God hides himself, let us reverence his silence and the obscurity in which he dwells; and wait for the time when he will reveal himself infinitely more. first reflection we ought to make, therefore, is, that if the conduct of God often appears incomprehensible, it must necessarily be so, because it is naturally impossible that we should be able to comprehend all his proceedings; both on account of the infinite excellence of his mode of operation, and by reason of the weakness of our mind, finite in its nature, limited by the condition of the present life, and beclouded by our passions. The In the second place, 1 remark, that God acts in a manner obscure and secret to us, because he chooses to follow certain laws of order which he has + Deut. xxix 29. I Cor. xiii. 9. established for himself, and not to interrupt the wise rules he has laid down from the beginning, for the government of the creatures and the preservation of the present world. When we wish that no obscurity or delays were left in the divine providence, what is it that we want? It is that God would almost incessantly work new miracles; as if he could not provide for all cases without extraordinary remedies, and new exertions were perpetually necessary for the development of events. Is it not far more worthy of the wisdom of God, that having in the beginning determined to act by the instrumentality of the creatures, and in a manner proportioned to their condition and capacities, he preserves his original plan; employs miracles but seldom; and by a gradual and imper ceptible direction of second causes conducts things towards the end he has designed. He does this, indeed, in a way somewhat circuitous, occasioned by the necessary union of so many instruments: he does it, however, with unfailing wisdom, power, and certainty; preserving the world, the human race, and the church, amidst all the apparent confusions which are so perplexing to us. No; God cannot manifestly display his agency as we would desire, without the frequent exhibition of great miracles: but it becomes neither the majesty nor the wisdom of God, to interrupt without necessity the ordinary course of nature, and to prostitute his miracles by employing them on any other occasions than those of the highest importance: nor would it consist with his designs towards men, on whom he intends not to force a conviction by irresistibility of external evidence. In the third place, we observe, that as the obscu rities and delays of providence are necessary, to avoid changing the order of the universe, and to comport with second causes; they are also rendered necessary, by the designs of divine wisdom for the general good of mankind. What advantages result from the windings of a serpentine river? It laves more banks, waters more lands, and fertilizes more meadows; in its meanders it collects the rills on every side, and affords to more places all the conveniences of navigation. The impatient voyager who complains of the length of its course, never thinks of the many cities and inhabitants, who, situated on the borders of this river, derive benefit from that which is tedious to him. The man who complains that God hides himself and retards his promises, overlooks the beneficial consequences of these delays of providence which often promote the good of the human race. "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, (as "some men count slackness;) but is long-suffering "to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but "that all should come to repentance.' While the providence of God is sketching out his great designs, and proceeding slowly to the accomplishment of his general promises; it executes, in the course of its arch, numberless particular designs of immense advantage. He assembles the number of the elect, conducts every one of them gradually forwards to perfection, completes the church, and displays his mercy and patience towards all mankind. In the fourth place, let us remark, that the mysteries and delays of providence are effects of his wisdom toward the faithful; intending to make them "walk * II Pet. iii. 9. by faith, not by sight;"* and proposing to exercise their virtues, and excite their desires after another life. If God never concealed himself in his dispensations, it would require no great effort of faith or sacrifice of reason, to will what he wills, to believe what he declares, and to repose unlimited confidence in him: piety would lose its value. But what constitutes the glory of faith, is, that it believes what it cannot see, and elevates itself above sense and reason. Then we are believers indeed, when we approve the wisdom and justice of God, even in occurrences which oppose our desires and stagger our conceptions; and when we depend on his word and expect his aid, even at times when he seems to be evidently frustrating our hopes. Besides, the perplexities and mortifications experienced in contemplating the divine conduct, often serve to keep us submissive and reverent, to humble our too aspiring reason, and to teach us the shallowness of our understanding, the feebleness of our strength, our entire dependence upon God, and our need of seeking him. In the last place, the mysterious procedures of providence serve, in most cases, to signalize the subsequent deliverances of the church, in a manner more wonderful and unexpected, more glorious to God, more advantageous to his children, and more confounding to his enemies. Whatever be, in other respects, the mysteries in which God is pleased to conceal himself, yet he is always eventually the Saviour of his people. This is the truth which is to form our second part, and which is attended with less difficulty than the first. "Verily thou art 11 Cor. v. 7. |