Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[graphic]

and exhibited to men only so far as is necessary to guide the wayfaring traveller safely on the highway of salvation, through the wilderness of sin and guilt. And hence, all objections against this scheme of salvation, and against the method in which it is carried on, must, from the very nature of the case, be founded in ignorance; must be maintained without any proper ground for forming an opinion; and must therefore imply presumptuous impiety and wicked absurdity. "Secret things belong unto the Lord," by whom alone the issues of any one event are either known, or capable of direction and control.

How thankful, then, should we be, that while the will of God is known perfectly only to himself, and is capable of being made known in any measure only by himself, God has, nevertheless, in infinite condescension and mere revealed his 11

[graphic]

fely

the

all

OD,

[ocr errors]

he

e

[graphic]
[graphic]

of righteousness, and of judgment, and in this way converting, regenerating, and sanctifying the souls of men; and God having also revealed that this scheme of divine mercy is to be carried on through the instrumentality of redeemed men, and the ordinary agencies of human power and influence;these things being revealed and made known, it becomes at once the duty of every man to believe them, and to act in accordance with them. They originate not only faith, but also works. They constitute relations and obligations between us and God, and between us and men. They demand the obedience of faith, and the obedience of practice. They require doing as well as believing. They make service just as reasonable as hearing; sacrifice just as necessary as service; self-denial just as imperative as reverence; and laborious exertion just as plainly obligatory as implicit submission. The revealed knowledge of God and of his will creates, therefore, practical principles as

[graphic]

fold

« AnteriorContinuar »