rash vow of Jepthah, the ephod of Gideon, which proved a snare unto him and all his

house,

or of the most remarkable persons employed in those interpositions. God raised up various judges, and kings and prophets to deliver, to instruct, and to govern his people; and he gave them such aids of valour, prudence, knowledge, and such a degree of success, as were sufficient for the purposes they were necessarily to answer; but he did not make them, or the nation at large, infallible or impeccable: the judges often fell into errors and crimes; Samson abused his supernatural strength; David's piety and virtue was overpowered by criminal desire, acquiring an undue ascendancy; Solomon, notwithstanding his extraordinary wisdom, was corrupted by sensuality, and fell into idolatry; and thus of the rest. But does this render it incredible, that they were at all employed by God to effect his purposes, or on particular occasions assisted with extraordinary aid? Assuredly not. This would be to affirm that God could not interpose at all in human affairs, without interposing to such a degree, as would totally subvert the laws of man's moral nature, and the principles of his own moral government, by forcibly controuling human agency, and subverting all free will. The unreasonableness of supposing or expecting that the Deity should interpose to such a degree as this, is strongly and beautifully illustrated by archbishop King, in his celebrated treatise on the Origin of Evil; and his observations are applied to the subject before us, by his learned and ingenious annotator, bishop Law. I shall insert a short extract from each; vide King's Origin of Evil, translated by Law, ch. v. sect. v. Subsect III. p. 359. "Such an interruption as this, (viz. God's "restraining all exercises of free will, when they tend to "vice and absurdity, vide the two preceding paragraphs, "particularly p. 356,) would not only do violence to

2

"nature,

house, involving them in the guilt of idolatry; the excessive indulgence of Eli to

his

"nature, but quite invert the method of treating free "agents; this method is, to hinder or excite elections by "rewards or punishments, to divert them from unreason"able or absurd things, and draw them to better by the

persuasion of reason; but it is doubtful whether the "nature of the thing will permit an election to be deter"mined by impulse, or as it were by immediate contact, "for it seems equally absurd to attempt a change of elec❝tion by any other means than those above mentioned, as "to desire to stop the motion of matter by intreaty or offering rewards; may we not with the same reason, expect "that matter should be moved by rewards and punish

ments, as the will influenced by physical impulse, as they "call it; for it is by these means they would have God to

stop or alter the choice? So preposterous an interposal "would confound every thing, and leave nothing certain " in nature. How fatal such an experiment would be, and "how it would affect the minds of the observers, or what

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suspicions concerning God and their own security, it "might suggest to the whole system of thinking beings, "God only knows. We see that human laws cannot be dis"pensed with, without very many inconveniencies, which yet, as they are made upon an imperfect foresight, and can provide for few causes, seem naturally to require some "interposition: how much greater evils may we apprehend, from a dispensation with the divine, the natural "laws, on the observance of which the good of the whole depends. This seems to be the reason why God makes "use of so much labour and pains, so great an apparatus "of means, so many precepts, persuasions, and even "entreaties for the amendment of mankind, which nevertheless he could effect in a moment, if he were pleased

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his profligate sons, the manner in which the sons of Samuel himself, abused their pious

"to apply force; and, he would undoubtedly do it, if he "had not foreseen more inconveniencies from a change in "the order of nature, and violence done to elections." On the preceding paragraph his annotator very truly remarks, "The history of the Jewish nation affords good instances of "this: what an apparatus of outward means was continually "made use of, in the government of that stiff-necked people! "What frequent murmurings, rebellions and apostacies were "permitted and then punished! What numerous miracles, "both of the remunerative and vindictive kind, were ap

plied, in order to bring them to some tolerable sense of "their dependence on God, and suitable practice of the "duties resulting from it! All which would have been un

necessary at least, if one miracle exerted on their minds "could have done the business. If their understandings "could as well have been illuminated, and their wills re❝formed at once; and if their practice produced by this 'means, and as it were, extorted from them, would have "been equally agreeable to the Deity. And in this, as "well as many other respects, they seem to have been "types and representatives of all mankind."

Archbishop King's idea of the nature of God's moral government in Subsect V. of the same chapter, seems to me so just, and to cast so much light on many facts and arguments considered in this work, I cannot forbear transcribing it. "As it would be prejudicial to man, to all nature, for God "to hinder bad elections by his absolute power; so nothing " can be conceived so disagreeable to himself. We have said that God made the world, in order to have something "whereon to exérise his attributes externally. But since " he has several attributes, he cannot exercise them all in "every thing alike: his power, therefore, exerts itself chiefly

pious parent's authority, the crimes even of David and Solomon, all these facts supply abundant proofs, that as in the people,

"in one thing, his wisdom and goodness in another. He "exercised his power in creating the world and putting it "into motion; his goodness and wisdom in the order and agreement of things; but the Divine Wisdom seems to "have set apart the government of free agents, as its pecu"liar province; herein it fully exercises itself, and acts up "to its infinity for if it were finite, it would not be equal "to so great a task. It does not seem a very extraordinary thing, for God to be able to govern and absolutely direct "such beings as are merely passive, and deprived of all "motion of their own, whereby they might make resistance; "for those things obey easily which do not move but when

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they are moved, neither is there need of infinite wisdom "to govern them; for infinite power with a moderate use " of wisdom, would have been sufficient. That there might "be a subject, therefore, whereon the infinite wisdom of "God should display itself, he created free agents; which "being as it were put out of his power and left to "themselves, might act in a manner independent of his will. "It is evident to any person, how much more difficult it is,

and how much greater exercise of wisdom it requires, to "direct a multitude of these to a certain end, and make "them conspire to the common good; than to order brute "beasts, and such as have no power of themselves, in what "manner you please. To them that consider the vast mul

titude of free agents, which is almost infinite, and their "independence, (since every one is, at least in many cases, "absolute master of his own actions, and is permitted by "God to act according to that liberty,) God seems to have

given a specimen of the extent of his wisdom, which is "able thus certainly and effectually to bring to the end proposed, so many free spirits, so many agents that were in a

"

manner set at liberty from his dominion, and committed

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so in the chiefs, there was a mixture of weakness and unsteadiness; an immaturity

of

every one to his own government. Here is the proper place for wisdom, wherein setting aside and in a manner suspending the exercise of his power, he attains his ends "by prudence only, by mere dexterity of acting; and "brings it to pass, that so many jarring wills, depending on "themselves alone, and no more inclined to either side by "the divine Power, than if there were no such thing; shall "yet conspire together to promote the good of the universe." Colliber's opinion, as quoted by Law, shall close this already too long note, for which the importance of the subject will, it is hoped, apologize." It was highly suitable," (says this judicious writer) "to the divine wisdom, in the government "of the world, both to preordain some of the principal “events, with relation to the entire human community, or "to the more considerable parts of it, and to reserve to him"self a right of interposing, and influencing particular agents, "6 as in other cases, so more especially in order to the ac

complishment of these events. That he has actually done "so, is abundantly evident from Scripture prophecies and "histories; and that in so doing he has acted in a manner "most worthy his wisdom, is no less manifest. For hereby "it appears, that the divine government is equally opposed "to chance and destiny. Had the Deity taken no care of "futurity, but left every man to the conduct of his own "inclination, and natural effects in general to the influence "of their causes, without ever interposing to direct them to "the attainment of his great design, this would have been "almost in effect to divest himself of the government of ra"tional agents, and to subject their affairs to chance, and to "the hazard of the utmost disorder and confusion; or had "he, on the contrary, absolutely or fatally determined every “event, though this would have been far enough from divesting himself of the government of the world, yet it "would