resulted to the world of the ungodly, or to the inhabitants of the polluted cities that were condemned with so terrible an overthrow. But when we remember that they were sinners whom, after longcontinued and faithful warning, the providence of God was compelled to abandon as being utterly incorrigible; and when we are further reminded, that in deciding on the mode of their destruction, one special purpose of the Judge of all the earth was to exhibit an admonitory and warning"ensample to them that afterwards should live ungodly:" we cannot but adore, amidst the justice and judgment displayed in their de struction, the goodness which was careful so to order the circumstances of their fate, as to render it in the most eminent degree available to the instruction and benefit of all succeeding generations. If in these cases mercy does not, in regard to the sufferers themselves, triumph against judgment, yet in their aspect on the human race in general, mercy holds equal sway with judgment; and, amidst the ravages of the flood, and the roaring of the flame, we take up the song of praise which David teaches us to sing, and at which we have sometimes started as involving an apparent contradiction, Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy; for thou renderest unto every man according to his work." And thus probably in other cases, though suffering may fail to "yield" to the sufferers themselves "the peaceable fruit of righteousness," yet lessons of righteousness are thereby very frequently inculcated on others; whilst, from the afflictions and evils with which those lessons are connected, they acquire an emphasis which goes to render their effect more deep and permanent than otherwise it would have been. Such, at least, is expressly stated to be the general result in those cases in which the divine judgments comprehend, in their afflictive or destroying sweep, large portions of mankind. "For when thy judgments are abroad in the earth," says the Prophet, "the inhabitants thereof will learn righteousness." And what is thus true upon a large and general scale, may be expected to prove equally true in the more retired and contracted scenes of providential operation.

3. A third characteristic of divine Providence is its mysteriousness. Ldo not say that there is any mystery as to the general object which that Providence regards. We have already" seen the end of the Lord, that he is pitiful and of great mercy." But of the course which he pursues to the attainment of that end, it may frequently be said, that "his path is in the whirlwind, and his way in the great deep, and his footsteps are not known." And surely a Providence which is divine, must necessarily, in the detail of many of its plans and operations, appear to be mysterious to creatures so short-sighted and fallible as we are. In the same manner that to us belongs not the power to "weigh the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance," or to " I take up the isles as a very little thing," such power pertaining to him only who is "the Creator of all things," and "by whom all things consist:" so neither have we "wisdom and knowledge," such as may enable us to scan, throughout

the infinite complexness and diversity of its universal and unceasing operation, a Providence that governs with a wisdom and power no way inferior to those by which the worlds were originally made. It is certainly right, because perfectly consistent with just notions of the God whom we adore, that we should acknowledge the existence of mysteries in Providence; but why should we profess to wonder at such mysteries, while there remain so many mysteries in nature? Our modern philosophers presume and, we are willing to admit, upon sufficient groundsthat they have now clearly ascertained some of the most important of those principles and laws by which the various phenomena of nature are originated and sustained. Yet, after all, they are but a few scanty spots in her extensive empire which the light of science has irradiated; and still her vast domain presents a wide expanse of unexplored mysteries, to exercise the curiosity and skill, and to confound the pride, of the philosophers of after-ages. And so, in the department of divine Providence, though we are clearly taught-and with a certainty superior to that which science boasts of-the general principles on which that Providence conducts its operations, still we cannot follow out those principles, through all that labyrinth of conflicting and (to us) perplexing circumstances, through which they urge their silent yet irresistible career, "till judgment is brought forth to victory." I have said that the general principles of the divine administration of the world are clearly made known. But I remember the saying of a great man, now no more, that "things pertaining to God may be mysterious, in proportion as they are revealed" and I cannot but feel the application of that paradoxical yet just position to the point which is before us. Were God a finite being, like ourselves, the revelation of the principles on which he acts, however vast and comprehensive in their range and application those principles might be, would not, perhaps, be such as we should be unable adequately to conceive. The human mind is gifted with a surprising faculty of reducing to epitome, if needful, and of comprehending, in that form, whatever finite objects are presented to its notice. It is thus we are enabled to imagine, and to carry in our minds, a kind of pigmy representation of many objects whose real magnitude is too stupendous for actual comprehension; as when, for instance, we form to ourselves an idea of this terraqueous globe; and much more, when we conceive of the whole planetary system to which that globe pertains, and of the universe of worlds by which it is surrounded. But principles which know no limit, in themselves or in their application, save that which is imposed by the will, or by the necessity, of a divine and incomprehensible nature, must necessarily, in whatever degree they are revealed to us, remain mysterious because of their infinity; and the more nearly we are enabled to contemplate those principles, the more overpowering-I had almost said, the more bewildering-will be the effect of their united splendour, both on our mental and spiritual vision. Even in regard to those * Watson's Remarks on the Eternal Sonship.

principles and modes of the divine administration which are most obvious and apparent, it may be said that "clouds and darkness are round about" the throne" from which Jehovah rules in "righteousness and judgment; "-only the cloud by which he is environed, like that which overshadowed the disciples on the mount of transfiguration, is a "cloud of light," and

"Dark with excessive bright his skirts appear."

And then, besides the physical reason, to which I have referred, why the providence of God should in many of its dispensations be mysterious, there is a moral reason,—a reason arising out of that beneficence, by which the operations of that providence are shaped to their intended issue. For, were those operations free from mystery, then would our faith want those trials which constitute its most important and profitable exercise; and, in wanting those trials, it would want, at the same time, the arena on which it wins its brightest victories, and becomes entitled to its richest and most glorious reward. Think, for example, of the difference which it might have made to Abraham, if, in his path to the attainment and confirmation of the promise in regard to his son Isaac, there had been no adverse hope against which he might continue to "believe in hope," and no apparent impossibilities in the midst of which he might still be "strong in faith, giving glory to God." Where then had been that glorious and heart-rejoicing view of "the day of Christ" which broke upon his spirit, like the morning, through the thick darkness of that moment of sorrow, when, in obedience to a strange command, his hand was lifted up to slay the lad? And where, in that case, would have been the illustrious distinction, and the peculiar reward, which the mysterious darkness of many circumstances of his earthly probation afforded him the opportunity of winning, and which are now eternally secured to him as the "father of the faithful" and "the friend of God?" Or where would have been the more than double blessedness which marked the latter end of Job," but for the dark and enigmatical tempest of affliction and adversity which burst on his "beginning?"

4. There remains to be noticed yet one other characteristic of the providence of God, and that is, its entire subservience to the purposes of his redeeming grace. Indeed, it is altogether of that grace that there exists at all a providence of such a character as that which I have been describing; in other words, had there been no redeeming grace, then no such providence could have existed. In thus speaking, I do not forget, nor am I intending to retract, the assertion already made, that the fact of a divine Providence, even in the absence of express and positive revelation on that subject, might be inferred from the character of the divine perfections. But that, in a world which is to so awful an extent in actual rebellion against God, his providence, instead of exhibiting justice and judgment as its predominant characteristics, should every where present an aspect of benevolence, is a circumstance which cannot be at all accounted for by any process of reasoning on the divine perfec

tions in the abstract. No; it is then only accounted for on principles justly claiming to be considered "rational," when it is set forth as the result of the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ." On the part of persons who maintain a contrary opinion, we sometimes hear the question," How can the death of Christ, as an atoning sacrifice, be made to seem consistent either with perfect justice, or with perfect goodness?" But we may retort that question with another, which they will find it much more difficult to answer. Suppose our fallen world to have been left without redemption, and that no means had been devised, in the counsels of the divine grace and wisdom, for the recovery of its guilty population to "the favour and the peace of God," where then would have been the consistency, nay, where the possibility, of a Providence so condescending and beneficent as that which now appears? Or where would have been the actual benefit, to man, of a Providence to correct and modify the course of outward things, if he had still been doomed, for want of a Redeemer, to bear for ever the burden of a guilt for which there was no expiation? Exclude the doctrine of redemption by the blood of Christ, and we shall then see nothing in the scheme of a Providence whose main characteristic is beneficence, that can at all be reconciled either with the divine holiness, or the divine justice. But let us take that doctrine along with us, and we then discover an apt and harmonious reason for such a Providence, by which its utmost beneficence is justified. Yes, when we see the Lamb in the midst of the throne" on which the God of providence is scated, and when we hear the voice of that besprinkled blood which ever speaks before that throne, then, and not till then, we cease to wonder at the benignant and gracious character of all those dispensations which proceed therefrom. In short, it is with the doctrine of a divine Providence, as with all other scriptural doctrines: then only is it seen in its true character and bearing, when viewed in the glory of that light which beams from Calvary.

And, as that characteristic of the providence of God which renders it especially dear and valuable to us, originates in, or operates at least as the result of, the "grace" which "came by Jesus Christ;" so, as already stated, it is ever in subservience to the purposes of the same grace that its operations are conducted. It is thus in those extensive operations which involve the character and fate of nations and empires. The writer who brings to the composition of their history no light but that which human reason and philosophy supply, in studying their rise, and progress, and decay, sees nothing but the natural operation of certain causes, acting as it were mechanically, and almost of necessity, upon the men and circumstances of the various periods which his history is designed to comprehend. But the Scriptures teach us to contemplate all these changes as being under the supreme direction of a Providence, infinitely exalted above human motives and all other secondary causes, and to regard them all as movements in preparation for the universal reign of the Messiah. And thus in history, when rightly understood,

as well as in scriptural prophecy, there will be heard a voice saying, at every important change and revolution of national affairs, "I will overturn, overturn, overturn,—until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him." It were vain for us to indulge in speculation as to the objects which Jehovah might contemplate, on the supposition of man's having continued in his original uprightness. We have the fact of his departure from that character into a state of guilty estrangement and hostility. And taking the world in its present circumstances, and seeing that "God so loved that world," fallen as it is, "that he gave his only begotten Son "for its redemption, we may be assured that, in regard to a world thus wondrously redeemed, there can be no object dearer to the heart of God than that the same earth which has already been the scene of his mediatorial sufferings, should now become the theatre of his mediatorial power and glory, and that his Son should "see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied" in the reception of "the Heathen for his inheritance," and of " the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession."

As the providence of God thus stands, and ever must stand, connected with the purposes of his redeeming grace, so it is in those cases where the grace of God specially prevails, that this providence specially exerts its powerful and benignant operation; or, as stated in the text, it is "on the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him," that the Lord "shows himself strong," and for their sakes more especially his "eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth." In other words, he is eminently the God of providence to those who bow before him, and rejoice in him, as the God of comforting and sanctifying grace. Doubtless this was one of the great truths designed to be set forth by those numerous providential interpositions, which shed so illustrious a light upon the early history of the Israelitish people. On this express condition, that they should "have no other gods before him," and that they should "keep his statutes and his judgments diligently to do them," Jehovahı engaged on his part to "show himself strong" on their behalf, in such a manner as should render them the astonishment and envy of surrounding nations. Standing, as they did, in their collective capacity, as a type of the true church of God in all succeeding ages, it was because that to them, in that character, pertained" the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants," that to them also pertained an interest, not less peculiar and distinguishing, in the care of that Providence which runs to and fro throughout the whole earth." The plagues inflicted on the Egyptians,-the wonderful division of the Red Sea, and of the river Jordan, the manna from heaven, the water from the rock, and, above all, the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night,"-all go to testify, not merely what Jehovah can do for the direction and safety of any people of whom he undertakes the guidance, but what he will do, as occasion may require, on behalf of all "whose heart is perfect towards him." And, on the other hand, the judgments VOL. XIV. Third Series. NOVEMBER, 1835.

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