render it expedient for them to tread the most perilous paths alone. He that despises the counsel of others is, for the most part, sure to rue the effects of his folly. Nor is it necessary that the party consulted should possess superior capacity, or even knowledge of the subject in question. Different individuals see the same object in a different light, and a person of weaker intellect, not being immediately concerned, may be much more cool and impartial; some circumstance, therefore, which escaped the attention or the recollection of the most sagacious individual whose passions were excited, may occur to another person possessed of a very inferior degree of intellectual power. Those who are the immediate agents in any plan of operation have their feelings generally too much excited, are too eagerly engaged in the chase, to be capable of discerning all those possibilities of disappointment and frustration which may present themselves to the calm survey of indifferent spectators. But it is infinitely worthy of the Divine Being to give no account of any of his matters, with a view to obtain information from his creatures. "Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity." "Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever. Amen."t

The Divine Being may, with infinite safety and propriety, retire within himself, into the secret recesses of his own essence, the depths of his own immensity, form his purposes apart, consult with none but himself. "He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it." The resources of his own nature are infinitely sufficient. Of whom should he ask light, who is himself the Father of lights? Why should he take advice of creatures, of whose wisdom all human knowledge is but a spark? There is not a portion of intelligence in the universe which is not already his own: to consult with his creatures would therefore be but to consult with himself. "There is, indeed, a spirit in man; but it is the inspiration of the Almighty which giveth him understanding." The counsels of God are his own counsels, unmixed with any communication of human wisdom. He cannot mingle his designs with any others, or take associate minds into his cabinet. He needs not to receive back, nor can he receive back, from his creatures any portion of the light which has been diffused from that ocean of wisdom and intelligence which eternally resides in himself.

3. The Divine glory is promoted by concealing, inasmuch as such

* Isaiah xl. 13-15, 17.

VOL. III.-X

† Rom. xi. 34-36.

a degree of obscurity as attends the partial manifestation of the Divine will, and the progressive development of the Divine purposes, is eminently adapted to the state, exigency, and condition of man. Many important purposes are accomplished by this temperature between concealment and manifestation, as we have already in part shown, and proceed more clearly to exhibit in a few particulars.

(1.) The prophetic part of the Word of God, while it contains some general intimation of future events, is expressed in language, or denoted by imagery, proverbially obscure. This is intended to afford some general knowledge of the future, or it would not be prophecy; but, at the same time, obscurity forms a necessary ingredient. Were it free from that, were it like the language of narrative, it would give such a distinct knowledge of the future event as would lead some persons to use means for the purpose of accomplishing it by their own power, and tempt others presumptuously to endeavour to frustrate it. The design of prophecy is, not to enable persons to anticipate the minute circumstances of events, but partly to excite in their minds a general expectation, by presenting a vague and shadowy outline; partly to afford a striking illustration of the power and providence of God, in bringing to pass those events on the arrival of a distant age. The infinite wisdom of God appears in his foretelling future events, in such a manner that when they arrive they tally and correspond to the prophecy in a great variety of particulars; while in the mean time the events are so darkly shadowed, that the human agents by whom they are accomplished are ignorant that in so doing they are, in fact, fulfilling the counsels of Heaven. They merely follow the dictates of their own minds, act agreeably to their own inclinations, and have no intention of bringing to pass those events to which the prophecy has reference. Nebuchadnezzar little supposed that he was a mere rod in the hand of Deity, to chastise his own people. Cyrus, when he set out for Babylon to deliver them, little supposed that the hand of God had girded him, and prepared his way before him. Both were unconscious agents in accomplishing the purposes of that Divine Providence whose wisdom enlightened their path, and whose energy sustained them. God had foretold by his prophets the rejection of Jesus Christ by the Jewish nation, and his crucifixion; get the Jews, in delivering him up, as well as Pilate and Herod in condemning and executing him, acted as freely, were therefore as much accountable, as if he had not been "by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God delivered up." The treason that was practised by Judas on his Lord and Master had been announced by the Psalmist David; yet how much is the wisdom of God magnified in permitting this to remain so secret, that the very perpetrator was probably ignorant of it, acting with the same freedom and spontaneity, with as close an adherence to the dictates of his own heart, the peculiarities of his own character, as if no such prophecy had been recorded. Thus God secures the glory of his own foreknowledge, at the same time that he

Acts ii. 23.

leaves undisturbed the sphere of human agency. Were future events so distinctly predicted as to be clearly foreseen, this would either destroy the proof of Divine superintendence and agency, or would require such a perpetual miraculous control over the exercise of human faculties as would be inconsistent with the state and condition of accountable creatures in a world of probation. It is also necessary that prophecy should not operate as precept; for, with some, the will of God clearly foreseen would have the force of a command, and would be fulfilled as such; which would confound human agency with Divine. On the other hand, in consequence of this arrangement, none have it in their power to frustrate his designs: "He frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish.”* In order, therefore, that the free agency of creatures may be preserved, the time and other circumstances of an event predicted are permitted to remain so uncertain that the persons who are to accomplish it continue ignorant of them till the event itself takes place.

Those great events which have materially affected the condition of the world were foretold by the ancient prophets. But did the human agents know they were fulfilling these predictions? Nothing was farther from their view: "they meant not so, neither did their heart think so;" they were merely gratifying their own little passions, pursuing no other end than their own sinister and selfish policy. They were instruments in the hands of the Divine Being, as passive in accomplishing his purposes as the axe or hammer in the hands of a man. The predictions were mingled with much obscurity, as I have before remarked, to leave the free-agency of creatures undisturbed, and their accountability consequently unimpaired.

Prophecy is not intended to give men such a knowledge of futurity as to enable even the most sagacious to predict events. Those who have attempted with certainty to assign, beforehand, particular prophecies to particular events, have uniformly failed in their presumptuous endeavours. The design of prophecy is only to afford some general intimation, which may operate either as warning or encouragement. Its chief use is, after the event has taken place, to assure men of the universal providence of God, and convince them of that wisdom which foresees all future events, and that power which accomplishes them when the appointed period arrives. When, therefore, the Divine Being has been disposed to lift, in some degree, the veil which conceals futurity, he has only done it so far as to excite a general and indefinite expectation of the event, by exhibiting its general character and features, but by no means to disclose such circumstances of time, place, and instrumentality as might interfere in the least degree with the morality of human actions.

(2.) The Divine Being, by giving no account of the design of many dispensations of his providence, trains us to submission. He is the fit and proper object of trust to mankind. Trust in God is the grand

principle of religion; it is another word, indeed, for faith, as that term is applied in the New Testament, the grand principle which distinguishes good men from men of the world. The former trust in God; and, trusting in him, their souls are kept in peace. They commit their way to him, and resign their wills into his hands. God demands from his creatures universal confidence, not only explicit, but also implicit. The former is that which arises from a clear perception of his intentions and designs. When we are able to trace his counsels, our trust in him is regulated by our knowledge of his ways and purposes, and this must precede any exercise of the latter kind of trust. But when the Divine Being has, by such a manifestation of himself, by such a degree of illumination, established a conviction of his paternal character, and sufficiently revealed the principles of his government, it is worthy of his majesty to put his rational creatures to the test. Having had innumerable experimental proofs of his loving-kindness, and of those tender mercies which are over all his works, should we not be ready to follow him in a path that we cannot discern, even when his footsteps are in the great deep? May not the Father of the universe call on all his rational offspring to place unlimited confidence in himself, to be willing to fall into his hands, to commit all their concerns to his disposal, to abandon themselves to his pleasure? When we consider also the provision he has made for our eternal happiness in the economy of redemption, in those exceeding great and precious promises he has there revealed, and especially in the gift of his own Son, the sum and substance of all possible communications of good, how infinitely fit is it for such a creature, having to deal with such a God, to say, with the most entire selfoblivion, "Do with me as seemeth good in thy sight;" joy or sorrow, prosperity or adversity, are indifferent to me, since thou canst bring light out of darkness, order out of confusion, and cause these light afflictions, which are but for a moment, to work for me a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

(3.) Another advantage derived from this proceeding is, that it tends to promote humility and vigilance, at the same time that it excites to diligence and exertion. As we are to give account of our conduct, it is necessary that the Divine Being should afford us a rule of action, and this must be clear and determinate. But it is not necessary that we should be informed of the issue of actions; these, therefore, he is pleased to keep in his own hand. Yet, as without the hope of attaining some advantage, to stimulate us to activity, the mind would become lethargic, because we should feel ourselves chained down by a fatal destiny, in helpless despondency; such a constitution is wisely established, that success may be the general rule, failure the exception. But occasional instances of the latter are useful, by teaching us not to lean to our own understanding. Men are now too much disposed to "sacrifice to their own net, and burn incense to their own drag;" but if they were capable of certainly foreseeing the issue of their schemes, if the battle were always to the strong, and riches to men of understanding,-how would the strong man glory in his strength,