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eternity in which they are to be realized-we might suppose that circumstances such as these would make us feel and act like persons anxious for salvation and eternal life. But while day and night, and summer and winter, heaven and earth, are continually reminding us how nearly we are approaching to the tribunal of our almighty and immutable Judge, we still have too much reason to ask, "Who hath believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?"

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VI. The eternity and immutability of God give us confidence in the power and all-sufficiency of Christ. To him these awful and incommunicable attributes of the Deity belong; for he himself claims them, and they are repeatedly ascribed to him. To him the Apostle applies that passage from the Psalms which I have already quoted as affording an impressive view of the eternity, and unchangeableness of God. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands; they shall perish, but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail." The eternity and immutability of Christ give ample security to the Church for her safety and her ultimate triumph in the midst of her enemies. Distant as the period may seem to us of her universal extension over the whole earth, he who is eternal will surely accomplish it ;-he will fulfil the predictions

of his word regarding her latter-day glory,—he will make her the joy and the excellency of many generations. "Thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever, and thy remembrance unto all generations. Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come: for thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof. So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory."

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CHAPTER V.

ON THE POWER AND DOMINION OF GOD.

WHAT is power? In answer to this question much has been written, and by men of the first talents. In general, it may be described as the efficient cause of any effect. effect. All All power is God's; and in him who is eternal and self-existing, and from whom whatever is has received its being, power must be unlimited. The power, which can call an insect from nothing into life, is really as incomprehensible to us as that which creates and suspends in space a thousand systems of revolving worlds. The effect in the one case, indeed, is more astonishing and magnificent; but in the other, it is not less referable to omnipotence. The will of the Creator is power. His will is the cause why any thing exists; and why it does not exist differently from what it is. His willing that to be accomplished

which he knows best to be done is the sole cause of its performance. To say that God wills a world to be, is the same thing as to say, that God creates a world. He speaks, and it is done; he commands, and it stands fast. The Mosaic account of the creation of light is not more simple and sublime in description than it is conformable to unadorned truth. "God said, Let there be light; and there was light." He wills the creation of the universe, and the universe is created; he wills the preservation and continued existence of the universe, and the universe is preserved

and continued.

"He removeth the mountains, and they know it not; he overturneth them in his anger. He commandeth the sun and it riseth not, and sealeth up the stars. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at his reproof. So these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? But the thunder of his power who can understand?"

The almighty power of God is that attribute of the divine nature which is most obvious to reason, and which, therefore, has been always acknowledged. To admit that God is the creator of all things, and to deny him the possession of unlimited power is contradictory. To him that made all things, must of course belong all the power which anywhere exists. There is no activity in any agent, no influence in any cause, but what depends on the principal agent, but what has proceeded from the first of causes. Can there be any bounds to his power, who performs all that he wills, and whose will cannot be resisted? He doth according to his will, in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand, or say unto him what doest thou. The Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? We cannot conceive of such a power otherwise than as adequate to the creation of every possible existence. However splendid and magnificent are the effects which have already resulted from it, they are only as a drop of the bucket, or the small dust of the balance, in comparison of that which the Almighty can produce. His is a

mighty power, able to do above all that we can ask or think.

The infinity of the divine power may be argued from the infinity of the divine essence. Power in God is not any thing distinct from his nature, but is his nature or will acting in a certain way, doing whatever he pleases without difficulty and without resistance. It is only to aid our conceptions that revelation ascribes hands and arms to him; as we exert our power by such instruments; but his will is power; it executes without either matter to work upon, or means to work by; and his works stand forth when, and as, he wills them. Though the effect must be finite, the cause is infinite: it is co-eternal and extensive as the essence and being of God. As his power is not any thing different from himself, but is his own will acting according to the boundless perfection of his nature; and as, he is everywhere, and always the same, his power is of course everywhere and always infinite.

If we only bear in mind, that power in God is power in a Being of infinite perfection, exercised in union with absolute wisdom and goodness, we shall feel no difficulty in deciding in what sense, and with what limitations, divine omnipotence is to be understood. It reaches to the limit of possibility; but it cannot go beyond it without involving a contradiction. What the measure of possibility is we know not. According to some, it is our power of conceivableness. But it may be asked, are there not many things possible and true, respecting which it may be said, that it never entered into the heart of man to conceive; and which, if proposed for our consideration, might seem

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