this, that evil would never be permitted to enter his dominions. He is infinitely good, and therefore all evil must be inconceivably offensive to him; he is infinitely wise and powerful, and therefore he could easily have prevented the introduction of it, or annihilated it, the moment it appeared. The fact, however, is unquestionable, that sin has entered the world, and misery and death have entered by sin; and though we may indulge the hope of some pious and benevolent minds, that there is so overwhelming a preponderance of good in the universe, that the region which sin has polluted and ravaged is only like a prison in some obscure corner of a populous and flourishing empire, still it is an incontrovertible fact that evil, both moral and natural, has obtained a fearful ascendancy in this department of the universe.

To reconcile the permission of sin and misery with the attributes of God, is a task which has been attempted by the profoundest philosophers, and if they have lessened a little the difficulties of the subject, it is so very little, and so ludicrous is the contrast between their gigantic pretensions and their dwarfish achievements, that we may well say of their most vaunted speculations, that they are but "a darkening of counsel by words without knowledge;" "vain wisdom all, and false philosophy."

But does divine revelation not solve the difficulty connected with a subject affecting so vitally the character of God, and so painfully interesting to our feelings? It is the design of revelation, my friends, to inform us how we may be delivered from evil, not to give us the theory of its origin, or the reasons for the permission of it; and instead of diminishing the difficulties connected with this subject, it multiplies and augments them. From revelation we learn that evil is

not confined to our race or our world, but that creatures nobler than man had been previously brought under its accursed influence. Revelation, too, cuts off the hope that evil will not be perpetuated through an interminable duration, for it informs us that evil will for ever retain its hold of multitudes of its victims. In addition to all this, the mode in which, according to the infallible testimony of revelation, we come to be individually involved in guilt and misery, presents a new difficulty as insuperable as any connected with this awful subject. How are we to reconcile with the justice and goodness of the Creator that constitution which suspended the fortunes of the whole human race on the conduct of a single person, and the result of which has been that "by one man's disobedience all are made sinners?" Divine revelation, then, does not tell us why the Almighty permitted evil to enter the universe, nor enable us to reconcile its existence with his perfections. The grand problem remains, and perhaps it will for ever remain, among the impenetrable arcana of the divine administration,-among those "secret things which belong to God." Instead, therefore, of hoping to grapple successfully with a question so difficult, it would be better to acquiesce at once in the representation given of it by the wisest of men, after he had endeavoured in vain to explore it. "I said I will be wise as Solomon, but it was far from me. That which is far off and exceeding deep, who can find it out ?”* III. Our knowledge of the grand scheme of redemption is but partial.

To unfold this scheme, is the principal object of divine revelation; and by disclosing it, revelation has poured an immense accession of light on the condition

*Ecc. vii. 24.

and destinies of man. Compared with the announcement of eternal life by Jesus Christ, the most valuable discoveries of human science, and the most splendid productions of human genius, are nothing better than idle tales or jejune fancies; nor is the intelligence of salvation described in exaggerated language, when it is characterized as "a marvellous light, and as the day spring from on high visiting those who sat in darkness and in the region of the shadow of death." It is also most consolatory to be assured that every thing relative to the scheme of mercy, which it is indispensable to know in order to our personal salvation, is placed within the reach of ordinary understandings. The way of salvation and of holiness, is a "highway in which the wayfaring man, though unlearned, need not err.' To the poor the gospel is appointed to be preached, and the gospel would not have been appointed to be preached unto the poor, unless its doctrines had been accommodated to the level of their capacities.

Delightful as it is to know all this, there is perhaps no subject in religion that furnishes a more striking exemplification than the scheme of redemption, of the remark formerly made, that things the most plain and momentous stand generally in immediate contiguity and in intimate connexion with "things hard to be understood." Pass from the perplexing question connected with the origin and transmission of that moral malady, which has infected the whole human species, to the consideration of the glorious remedy, and while you find every thing essential explicitly revealed, you find also that every thing is connected with august and impenetrable wonders. A

*Isa. xxxv. 8.

single step conducts you from ground where you have a firm footing, into depths which no created being can fathom; from a region irradiated with celestial light and adorned with celestial beauty, into "a land of darkness and of the shadow of death, and where the light is as darkness."*

Respecting the relations and consequences of the gospel remedy to other orders of creatures, we are almost entirely uninformed. The scripture gives some intimations on the subject, but they are few and indistinct, and have been, not improperly, represented "as presenting only a faint opening, through which may be seen some few traces of a wider and a nobler dispensation; as bringing before us a dim transparency, on the other side of which the images of an obscure magnificence dazzle indistinctly upon the eye."

Even the interior and most vital parts of the stupendous plan of redemption, as well as its exterior bearings and relations, are invested with a vail of awful and mysterious grandeur, so that on the whole might not unfitly be written the inscription "Mystery." You cannot tell why it is that the "Son of God took not hold of angels to save them, but took hold of the seed of Abraham;" thus preferring that race which is inferior in rank and is earthly in its origin, to that which is nobler and celestial, and qualified to render a richer tribute of gratitude and service. You cannot explain how it is that a finite and an infinite nature are united in the Redeemer, so as to constitute only one person. You cannot completely reconcile it with the divine justice, that he who is perfectly innocent and holy, should suffer the fearful penalty which is due to the guilty. You cannot tell why it is that, though a

* Job x. 22.

method of salvation so wonderful and expensive has been adopted, multitudes should yet be abandoned to perish eternally. It may be hoped that many, if not all who die in infancy, are admitted to share in the blissful results of his mediation; but you cannot satisfactorily explain how they are admitted to salvation while incapable of that faith which forms the appointed medium, by which others are put in possession of its blessings. Many of you, I trust, "comprehend with all saints the height and depth, and length and breadth, and know the love of Christ," but you cannot know it fully, for "it passeth knowledge," and its dimensions transcend all measurement and all computation.

If you demand additional proofs of the imperfection of our knowledge respecting the scheme of grace, additional proofs almost without number may easily be multiplied. You cannot explain, for example, the mode in which the divine Spirit operates in regenerating the human soul, for "the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit." You do not know fully the circumstances of that glorious state to which the Saviour is now elevated, or the nature of those beneficent operations which he is now conducting as the head of the church; nor can you explain that surrender of the kingdom, and that subjection of the Son to the Father, which are to take place at the consummation of all things. Nor need it surprise you, that, with regard to many things connected with the great scheme of grace, our conceptions should be inadequate, and our knowledge imperfect; since infinity enters as an element into its most prominent and momentous