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I thought of that passage, Gen. i. 1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. I propounded to myself a question, thus:-The beginning of what?-The beginning of that unspeakable and glorious Essence I knew it could not be, so that I see it was the beginning of his works, so consequently the beginning of all things that are made here. I stood amazed to think what infinite wisdom must be in God, to have all the whole creation of heaven and earth, and all the whole government and management, from

first

first to last, already settled in his unchangeable will. Eph. i. 11. Acts xv. 18. Prov. iii. 19, 20. Is. xlv. 12. The heavens and their hosts have their courses; the angels their number and their offices; men their number and their acts, their ends; his gifts natural and spiritual; his word, ordinances, and means, all were already settled in his will and knowledge. (The doctrine is this:) That the beginning of time was the beginning of God's working, and the beginning of God's working, was the beginning of God's (a) revealing

(a) The beginning of God's revealing of himself.

God being the creator of all, a period must have been when none existed but God, and consequently only known to himself, having determined in his wisdom to reveal himself; the end could not be obtained, without the formation of beings, capacitated by the possession of reason to enjoy intellectual happiness, arising from the contemplation of the perfection of their Maker. This self-sufficient and original cause of all things," being infinite in his nature, and incomprehensible in all the attributes that inhere in that nature could never be perceived in any degree whatever, (notwithstanding the possession. of reason) but through the intervention of finite means, as mediums of communication between

revealing of his will, settled in himself from all eternity.

Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. Ps. xix. 10. I thus

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him who is absolutely infinite, and those whose capacities (however enlarged) are but finite; hence all that is known, and all that can be known of God, through an endless succession of eternal ages, will fall infinitely short of comprehending him who is absolutely incomprehensible. The wisdom of God being infinite, therefore infallible admits of no second choice; hence I infer, that the means of its appointment as mediums of communication are the best; the best adapted to the capacity of the creature, and the best calculated to display the ineffable glory and excellency of him, who constitutes his creatures happy, by making himself known. Sovereign wisdom has displayed itself in the adaptation of that as the medium of communication, which possesses in itself the greatest proximity to the Divine original. The Lord Jesus Christ is the grand medium of communication, but as God over all blessed for ever, a God equal with his Father, from the incomprehensibility of his nature, he could not be a medium of communication, but as God-man-mediator the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature, Col. i. 15. and through

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comment upon it: Had man been created the first day, (as angels were) he might have seen every evening what was reserved in the will of God the evening before, for day unto day declares it,

him, all, whether angels or men, view the perfections of God. Do angels with adoring wonder view the stupendous works of creation? they were called into existence by the almighty fiat of the Son of God. By him all things were made. John i. 3. And irrespective of his mediatorial

character was not any thing made that was made. Col, i. 16. Do they with grateful astonishment contemplate their own glorious existencies? Those existencies, glorious as they are, they received from his hands,-for he made all, whether they be thrones, principalities, or powers, all were made by him and for him. Col. i. 16. Do they with all the fervor of angelic feelings and gratitude, view the happiness of their state and the glory of their mysterious appointments, as ministrying spirits to attend upon Christ and his charge in the world? The one they enjoy in and from him, as the head of all principalities and powers. Col. ii. 10. In him they are gathered, in him they are chosen, and in him they are confirmed in this happy state; and their appointment to the other is in consequence of the mysterious plan of sovereign love and mercy to fallen,

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it, till the six days work was finsihed, the seventh at even, Adam might (I suppose) Ps. xlix. 12. see, in his fall, the will of God, in respect of government and providence, and so to the world's end.

Do they

faithless, and guilty men. Heb. i. 14. witness with what undeviating regularity, all things are conducted and are supported; by him all things consist. Col. i. 17. Do they in the discharge of their office, witness the return of any prodigal, and see his lazar sores healed? they see him return, and they rejoice at the sight: they see him healed, and they communicate the glad tidings; but neither did his return, nor the cure that is effected, spring from the resolution of his will, or the renovating energy of any created being; all were performed by the mighty power of God, for none can come unto the Son except the Father draw him, and out of the fullness (in the Son have all thus led) received, and grace for grace. John i. 16. Thus they learn the manifold wisdom of God by the church, or by the different dispensations of God towards his church. Eph. iii. 10. Christian men derive all their religious information from the same source. As God is invisible, dwelling in light inaccessible, he formed the gracious resolution of revealing the name of God, the nature of God, the gracious designs of God, and well qualified he is for the arduous undertaking. No

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