God to be happy, while they hate and oppose him, with all their hearts. God is happy in executing his decrees; and sinners must be unhappy in hating and opposing them, without effect. The apostle puts the solemn question to the sinner, "Who art thou, O man, that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say unto him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus ?" and decreed to make me thus? God can fully answer this question of the sinner, but it can give him no satisfaction. God may tell him, that he made him thus, and decreed to make him thus, because his infinite wisdom and goodness required him to do it. But will this give any peace or satisfaction to the sinner? This will only increase his enmity and wretched

ness.

5. If God's original and eternal and immutable plan of creation be the wisest and best.possible; then those, who dislike and oppose the doctrine of decrees, can find no relief, by denying the Bible. Many have freely and openly said, that if they believed the doctrine of divine decrees were contained in the Bible, they would renounce it. But what could such persons gain by renouncing the Bible? They could gain no relief in respect to the doctrine of decrees. This doctrine is plainly written, in capitals, in the Book of Nature; and they must deny the God of Nature, before they can consistently deny the wise and benevolent plan of creation, immutably fixed by the God of Nature. But there is reason to think, that some, and perhaps not a few, have been driven to deism by the doctrine of decrees, which they plainly saw is contained in the Bible. But there is not a single spot be

tween christianity and atheism, upon which any man can firmly fix his foot. Those who deny the doctrine of decrees, and boast that they are rational christians, or rational deists, discover the blindness of their hearts, more than the acuteness of their understanding. And we hazard nothing, by appealing to their consciences, whether they have not lost more comfort and hope, than they have gained, by renouncing the decrees and the word of God. What if they have got clear of the threatenings of the Gospel? By getting clear of its threatenings, they have equally got clear of its promises; and when they have got clear of its promises, what other promises have they found, or can they find, on which they can safely rest? They have thrown themselves out of all light and all hope, and involved themselves in impenetrable darkness. What Nature, or Nature's God will do for them, they know not. They are certainly unhappy in this state, and if there be another state, they may be unspeakably more unhappy there. All who renounce the decrees of God and the word of God are without God, without Christ, and without all hope, but the forlorn hope. And nothing but awful stupidity keeps them from instant despair, and that stupidity may forsake them at any moment.

6. If God's original and eternal plan of creation is the wisest and best possible plan; then all his friends have always reason to rejoice in his supreme and universal government. For he governs all

creatures and all events according to the eternal and immutable counsel of his own will. He reigns as much at one time as another, and as well at one time as another. He is as wise and good

in disappointing the desires and designs of men, as in granting their desires and succeeding their designs. He is as wise and good in taking away, as in bestowing favours. He is as wise and good in sending public judgments, as in bestowing public blessings. His friends, therefore, have always cause to rejoice that the Lord God omnipotent reigneth; for in him there is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. God justly enjoins it upon his people to rejoice constantly under his wise and holy government.

The command is, "Rejoice in the Lord alway." And this duty David discharged with peculiar delight. He says, "I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee. My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long. I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise unto my God while I have my being. My meditation of him shall be sweet. Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. O sing unto the Lord, bless his name; show forth his salvation from day to day."

The prophet Habbakkuk resolved to rejoice in the darkest times and amidst the greatest calamities. "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither fruit shall be in the vine'; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Such a source of peace and consolation the friends

of God perpetually enjoy under the perfectly wise and holy governmect of God. They can always look through all secondary causes, and discern the unerring wisdom and perfect goodness of God in all the dispensations of providence and grace, which causes them to rejoice in tribulation, as well as in prosperity. But,

7. If sinners do not rejoice, that God governs all things, according to his original, wise, and perfect plan in the creation of the world; then they are totally depraved and essentially different from saints. It appears, that saints do really rejoice in God's perfectly wise and benevolent plan of creation and government; but it still more clearly appears, that sinners do not rejoice in it. The world is much fuller of the complaints, than of the praises of God. The great mass of mankind who are sinners, have always been murmuring and complaining under the wise and holy government of God. The unsanctified Israelites did nothing but murmur and repine, while they were miraculously protected, fed, and clothed in the wilderness. The Jews in Babylon boldly charged God with injustice and severity in his treatment of them, according to his wise and holy and immutable purposes. The heathens have been so much disaffected, with the government of the true God, that they have forsaken him, and chosen to be under the government of poor, weak, and malignant deities. Sinners in the land of christian light, where the ways and designs of providence are clearly recorded and unfolded, complain as much as Jews or heathens ever complained, of the eternal and immutable decrees of heaven, and the execution of them. That, which is the ground

are, doubtless, obscure passages; and some knowledge of the customs and geography of the eastern world, is very important to help our conceptions; but it is commonly easy to discover the general design of the sacred writers.

The remarks which I am about to make, will relate mainly to the language of prophetical writings and descriptions. I wish at the same time to correct mistaken views, and give correct views in regard to the figurative language employed in this kind of writing, of which there is so much in the Bible.

I remark,

1. That every passage has a meaning. This thought needs to be impressed, rather than proved. Readers of the Bible are too apt to pass over a passage without considering that it means any thing. If some obscurity rests upon it, on account of its reference to a custom, or the geography of the country, the meaning is entirely lost to them. But if we cannot explain the particular meaning, we may discover the general one, which is what is most important to know.

Some apprehend that the meaning of a whole passage or description is destroyed, if you tell them that only some general idea was meant to be conveyed; and that we cannot deduce any important meaning from each particular part. I do not intend by this first remark to sanction such an opinion. On the contrary, I am aware that in the parables especially, there is danger of mistaking by supposing every particular circumstance to have its corresponding truth.

I remark,

2. That there is usually a particular and a general meaning in

the figurative and descriptive language of the Bible. I call that the particular meaning, which is the literal, as opposed to the real meaning; or which is the underthought, in opposition to the main

the letter, in opposition to the spirit. My meaning will be best illustrated by examples. "Who pas

Psalm lxxxiv. 6.

sing through the valley of Baca, make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools." The valley of Baca a dry valley." Blessed is the man who passing through a dry valley maketh it a well, or to abound in wells and pools of water. This I call the particular or literal meaning. The general meaning is that that man is blessed, whom no obstacles deter from doing duty. He passes through a dry valley cheerfully, as though it abounded in water, that he may "appear in Zion before God."

Isaiah, iv. 1. "In that day seven women shall lay hold on one man, saying, we will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel, only let us be called by thy name." The literal meaning is obvious. The general idea intended to be conveyed is that men would be very few, on account of the great desolations and destructive wars, that were to come upon the land.

Isaiah, lxv. 25. "The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock." This cannot be literally true even in the Millenium, as I apprehend. Neither can we suppose it probable that wolves and lions will lose their savage nature. But it will be true that men will lose their savage nature. They will live in perfect peace. "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain saith the Lord."

Passages without end might be adduced, but these are sufficient to explain what I mean by particular, as opposed to general meaning.

It is important in reading such passages that we should take up the main thoughts; catch the spirit of the instruction, and not lose ourselves in the mazes of particulars. The mineralogist, who passes through a beautiful country examining only the stones and soils-or the botanist, whose only aim is to cull the plants and flowers-receives less pleasure than the painter and the lover of nature, who take in the whole landscape at one view, and receive into their souls the combined effect of all its beauties in one finished picture. The particulars of a description are the dress, the words-not the substance. The main thought is what we are most to notice; for that only is the mind of the Spirit."

3. Particulars are often introduced merely to fill out the picture, or complete the description. I will explain my meaning. Whatever is the source of the figure, the language is adapted to the nature and circumstances of the thing, from which the figure is taken. And particulars are introduced in regard to the thing, which do not specially illustrate the subject. They are introduced merely to make the picture a consistent one, or to beautify and impress the thought. I will illustrate my ideas by examples.

Jer. viii. 13. "There shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade." Desolation is described by a figure taken from the vine and the fig tree. There shall neither be fruit nor leaf on them. They shall be entirely barren.

The same thing is represented in the 16th and 17th verses, by the "snorting" and "neighing" of war horses, and the "biting" of serpents. I do not suppose that it was meant to be asserted that either of these things should be literally fulfilled, though it is possible they were. The object was to represent, in this symbolical manner, coming calamities.

or ta

Exek. xix. 8. "The nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him; he was taken in their pit." In the former verses, Israel is represented under the similitude of a lion, “devouring men," and "catching prey.' Consistently with this metaphor, his captivity is described by being entangled in a "net," ken in a "pit," because lions were thus taken. In the following verse, the same thing, viz. the captivity of Israel, is represented under the similitude of a vine, (ver. 12,) "plucked up," and "cast down to the ground," "her fruit dried up by the east wind," "her strong rods broken and withered."

Joel, iii. 8. "I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans." I do not suppose that Judah ever literally sold her enemies; but she triumphed over them. This is all that is meant.

Matt. xxiv. 27. “As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be." i. e. sudden. Yet some, from this passage, have expected Christ to come from the east.

In all cases like these, the subject must determine the meaning intended to be conveyed, by the figures used, and how much of a representation is literal, and how