subsequent part of it being thus misunderstood, he declares in direct contradiction to such an opinion, the universally and equally righteous judgment of God; "who will render to every man according to his deeds; to them who by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life; but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath; tribulation and anguish on every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; but glory, honour, and peace to every man who worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile; for there is no respect of persons with God."* How much is it to be lamented, that this plain declaration, did not prevent the passage concerning Jacob and Esau from being misapplied, to support the doctrine of personal and unconditional predestination, and the equally erroneous application of the simile, first employed by the prophet, to illustrate the supreme sovereignty and resistless power of God, in exalting or debasing nations according to their national deserts, and afterwards brought forward by the apostle, to illustrate the right and power of God to honour one chosen people, by establishing in it true religion, or to degrade it again, when that sacred gift had been abused, and to transfer that honour to others who would gratefully receive it, and this without giving any just ground to question the wisdom or equity of such dispensations, any more than the clay could question the right of the potter to mould it as he pleased. How irrational is it to bring forward this simile, in order to silence all appeal to reason against the dogma of personal and unconditional election and reprobation, as if every such appeal was arrogant and impious! Let us not be thus deterred from tracing the multiplied instances which Scripture affords in corroboration of the clear declaration of the prophet in our text, that the divine decrees are conditional, and that the divine dispensations towards men, nationally and individually, change as their conduct changes, in one thing only eternally immutable, even in being uniformly adjusted to the principles of perfect justice, combined with long-suffering Rom. ii. 6—11. mercy, and in being accurately adapted to the character of a moral government, exercised over such agents as men are found to be in this state of probation, accountable, because rational and free. This CONDITIONALITY of the Divine dispensations to men both in PROSPECT AND RETROSPECT, AS TO WHAT THEY ARE TO LOOK FOR ACCORDING TO WHAT THEY SHOULD HEREAFTER DO, WHAT THEY HAD RECEIVED ACCORDING TO WHAT THEY HAD DONE, AND WHAT THEY WOULD HAVE EXPERIENCED IF THEY HAD CONDUCTED THEMSELVES DIFFERENTLY; this is illustrated by the whole series of Scripture history. Thus, at the first placing man in Paradise, his retaining it was on the condition of obeying the divine restriction from the fruit of the tree of good and evil. "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." He disobeyed the command, and forfeited his immortality; and that instant he became subject to death with all his attendants, toil and pain, sorrow and disease. When God overwhelmed the earth with a deluge, it was because the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold I will destroy them with the earth. But Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generations, and walked with God. And Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and he said, with thee will I establish my covenant, come thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation."* When Abraham was chosen as the progenitor of the chosen people, God tried his obedience and his faith, first by commanding him to quit his country and his kindred, and his father's Gen. vi. 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 18; and vii. 1. house; and on his doing so, God promised to give him another land, and to "make of him a great nation, and that in him all the families of the earth should be blessed. And his faith was counted to him for righteousness. This faith was next proved, by his obeying the divine command, "to sacrifice his only son," "accounting that God was able even to raise him from the dead." Then we are also told, "the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Now I know that thou fearest God, because thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me;" and further said, "by myself have I sworn saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying, I will multiply thy seed as the stars in heaven; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies, in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice."† Can we, after this, believe that the selection of this great patriarch, was made without any regard to the foreseen faith or works of the individuals thus selected: when, on the contrary, God declares; "for I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of him ?"‡ The general covenant first made with Abraham personally, was confirmed, so as directly to include his family and posterity; but at the same time made more evidently conditional, by appointing circumcision as its sign and pledge. "I will establish (says God) my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant which ye shall keep between me and you, and thy seed after thee; every man-child among you shall be circumcised. And this shall be a token of the covenant between me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you. And my covenant shall be in your * Gen. xii. 1-4. Heb. xi. 8, 9, 10. Gen. xv. 6. + Gen. xxii. and Heb. xi. 17, 18, 19. Gen. xviii. 19. flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised manchild, whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from His people; he hath broken my covenant."* Can words be conceived more clearly expressing a conditional covenant, where the divine favour was to be continued only on condition of man's performing his part, by fulfilling the condition required of him. When, long after, God having so far fulfilled this promise as to multiply the Israelites in Egypt, and having rescued them out of that house of bondage, "with many signs and wonders, with a mighty hand and outstretched arm,"† and having brought them into the wilderness of Sinai, was about to give them a law from heaven-as the promise had been made and confirmed to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, (because said the Lord, "Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, and my laws,"‡) so the same covenant was then solemnly renewed with the assembled nation; for the Lord commanded Moses, "thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagle's wings and brought you unto myself. Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine, and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation: and all the people answered together and said, all that the Lord hath spoken we will do."§ Can any transaction, or any language be more opposite to the ideas of absolute predestination or election, without any regard to past or future obedience or disobedience ;-of decrees on the part of God, requiring no conditions on the part of man, and unchangeable by any thing in human power to perform, than the transaction the inspired law-giver has here recorded, and the language he has employed? On every subsequent occasion, which Divine wisdom and mercy employed to impress more deeply on the Jews the obligation of his law, it is still on this principle that the divine administration over them was conditional, and changeable, as their conduct should change; that obedience would be rewarded * Gen. xvii. 7, 9–14. † Deut. xxvi. 8. Gen. xxvi. 5. § Exod. xix. 3—8. with the divine blessing and protection, disobedience followed with the severest chastisements; and this conditionality is conspicuous in the most extraordinary and supernatural, as well as in the ordinary affairs of life. Witness the command, “that all their males should appear thrice in the year at the place where the Lord should choose to put his name and fix his sanctuary,"* and that command also to leave their land "uncultivated every seventh year, as a sabbath of rest unto the Lord."t The natural motives to disobey these commands, the one from the terror of invasion by their surrounding enemies, the other from the dread of famine-these motives were not merely counteracted by an unqualified assertion of God's right over their properties and lives, to which they were unconditionally to submit, (a declaration unquestionably true, but not adapted to the narrow views and characteristic weakness of the people from whom this obedience was required,) but, on the contrary, allowance for their natural fears was mercifully made by their God, and these fears were removed by his engaging to exercise his almighty power to defend them against the dangers which they naturally must apprehend :-"for I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders, neither shall any man desire thy land when thou shall go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year." "And if ye shall say, what shall we eat every seventh year, behold we shall not sow nor gather in our increase. Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years."§ I note these facts, to show that the Divine government over the chosen people, even in its most peculiar requisitions, had due regard to the general nature of the human mind, and the motives by which it is usually influenced, as also to the peculiar feelings and even weaknesses of the Jewish character,—a regard which would seem altogether useless, and even inconsistent, if their conduct and character did not depend on their own free choice, but were pre-ordained, and if their fate nationally and individually were fixed from eternity by absolute predestination. In truth, the entire series of the Divine promises and denun * Exod. xxxiv. 23. Levit. xxv. 1-7. |