The same truth is also taught in those scriptures which represent God as blinding the mind, closing the eyes, giving the spirit of slumber, deceiving and deluding men. This blindness is altogether the blindness of the heart. It is wholly criminal. It is nothing but wilful wickedness. Any other blindness would not answer the purpose for which this is evidently designed, that is, to fit them for destruction. Isa. 6. 9, 10. “And he said, Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed." Alluding to this passage, John says, chap. 12. 39, 40. "Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with heir heart, and be converted, and I should heal them." And the apostle says, Rom. 11. 7, 8. "And the rest were blinded, according as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this day." Respecting Egypt, it is said, Isa. 19. 13, 14. "The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived. The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof." To the Jews, the

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prophet says, Isa. 29. 10. "The Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes; the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered." Respecting the

false prophets, God says, Ezek. 14. 9. "If the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet; and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him." Job says to God, chap. 17. 4. "For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them." Again, he says, chap. 12. 6, &c. "The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand God bringeth abundantly. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? With him is strength and wisdom; the deceived and the deceiver are his. He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools. He removeth away the speech of the trusty, and taketh away the understanding of the aged. He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there

is no way. They grope in the dark without

light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man." The royal preacher says, Eccl. 3. 10, 11. "I have seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart:

To

so that no man can find out the work that God maketh, from the beginning to the end.". Ezekiel, chap. 20. 25, 26. God says, when speaking of his giving up the Jews to idolatry, "Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live: And I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the Lord." And the apostle says, II Thess. 2. 11, 12. "For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."

But the time would fail me to enumerate all the scripture evidence in favor of this important and fundamental doctrine of the gospel. The evidence already adduced is more than sufficient. Surely, if God "moves" men to do wickedly, as he did David, to number the people; if he "inclines their hearts to evil," as the Psalmist prays he would not his; if he "stirs them up" to do wrong, as he did Hadad, and so many others; if he "puts in their hearts" to commit sin, as he did in those of the kings of the earth to give their kingdom to the beast; if he "turns their hearts" to wickedness, as he did those of the Egyptians to hate his people; if he "makes them to err from his ways," as he did the prophet and others;

if he declares that "he does" what the wicked are represented as doing, as in the case of the king of Assyria, and others; if he "blinds and hardens" them, as he did Pharaoh, and others; if he "makes their hearts obstinate,” as he did Sihon's; and "sets them one against another," as he did the Jews of old, according to the express declarations of scripture; there cannot be any doubt but that he works in men to will and do whatever they will and do, that he does, by his own agency, cause all their motions and actions, that he does "work all things after the counsel of his own will,”

SERMON IV.

EPHESIANS I. 11.

Who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.

HAVING shown that God has decreed, or foreordained, whatsoever comes to pass, and that he executes his decrees by his own agency, we come now, as was proposed,

III. To attend to some OBJECTIONS which are made against this doctrine.

Objection 1. It is said that this doctrine destroys free agency, and makes men machines; that if God worketh all things, then creatures do not work any thing; that if God, by his agency, causes every thing that takes place, then creatures have no agency at all, and God is the only agent in the universe.

Answer. To understand this objection, and ascertain its force, it will be necessary to inquire what is a free agent, and what is a machine. A free agent is one who chooses, or wills. If an object is set before any being, and he exercises