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Such a divine spiritual intercourse is not complete, until the purposes of the mental illumination and heart impressions are realized. Thus, "I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people." The sustaining of these very gracious relations between God and man, is the ultimate purpose to be secured in the church, from the world-wide mental illuminations and heart impressions by the laws of God. O, endearing relations! O, blissful state!

1. "I will be to them a God."

"Thou shalt have no

other gods before me," in my presence, nor in my stead.

"The dearest idol I have known,

Whate'er that idol be,

Help me to tear it from thy throne,

And worship only THEE."

"Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee."

"My God, the spring of all my joys,

The life of my delights,

The glory of my brightest days,

And comfort of my nights."

In this clause of the communing covenant, God promises all that is requisite for spiritual prosperity and happiness.

2. "They shall be unto me a people." This, and only this, God enjoins on man, in order to make the divine influences effectual and saving. While God promises so largely, he requires that we give to him the affiance, love and worship of the heart. God desires a people on earth. He has taken all commendable means to secure them. Are we among them? His laws have been put into our minds; are they written upon believing and obedient hearts? "Blessed are the people whose God

is the Lord.”

"Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here's my heart, O take and seal it;
Seal it for thy courts above."

This gracious intercourse of the soul with God, is opened and continued through grace, by the prayer of faith. "Let us, therefore, come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

HOW CAN GOD BE JUST AND MERCIFUL, AND CREATE MEN WHOM HE KNEW WOULD SIN, AND IN CONSEQUENCE BE MISERABLE FOREVER?

BY REV. CHARLES DEVOL, M. D.

There is no power or causation in knowledge. And this is equally true of knowledge human and divine.

This is the key to all the difficulties which have arisen in some minds, by confounding the foreknowledge of God with his decrees.

It is evident that if divine prescience be identical with divine decrees, and whatever God foreknew was therefore decreed, no power is requisite to the accomplishment of any act or result, within the circle of divine government. Nor can there be any other divine attribute, since Omniscience alone absolutely secures all the events which can ever possibly transpire in the history of our race.

God, then, is foreknowledge, and foreknowledge is God. Then is there not only no other perfection of deity but foreknowledge, but no other God besides foreknowledge.

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But if there be no power or causation in knowledge, then, instead of every thing being caused by it, nothing is caused by it. It may be asked, will not, and must

not everything be as God foreknew it would be? but not because he foreknew it would be so.

Yes;

Knowing that a thing is, or will be, does not make it so. I know the sun shines, but this does not make the sun to shine. God foreknew that men would sin, but it would be little less than blasphemy to say that God decreed that men should sin, and it would be the same to say that his foreknowledge caused men to sin.

In connection with the question, whether God could be just and merciful, and create men whom he knew would sin, and in consequence be miserable forever, it may be observed: There was a period when God existed alone, when he had not created anything, either mind or matter, or angels or men.

If we may reverently inquire why God created man, we may reverently answer, to constitute him happy in obedience to his commands, and thereby, thus, in man, to glorify himself.

In order to do this, men must be free moral agents, that is, capable of keeping or breaking the divine law. Otherwise they could not obey God, or love him, or praise him. They could not be accountable; they could not sin or fall; they could not be saved; they could not be rewarded; they could not be punished; they could not go to heaven; they could not go to hell. In short, they could not act with reference to God or his law in any way, since in such case all their volitions and actions would be necessitated by God's foreknowledge or decrees, and hence their volitions and actions are God's volitions and actions.

Hence, men so created would have no identity or distinct existence, and might as well have no existence at all, so far as loving, serving, or glorifying God is con-. cerned, or answering any rational end of their creation. Moral freedom, then, was elementary in the constitution

of man; and the creation of men without this, would have been a mere nullity.

God never foreknew that man would sin and be lost, in any such way as to make it so. God made men so that they might all keep or break his law; so that all men might keep his law and be happy forever (not saved, for in such case they would need no salvation).

At the same time, God made men so that they might all break his law and persist in sin, and be eternally lost; and that without the possibility of one actual sinner being saved, by atonement or otherwise! For God to save actual sinners by prerogative, or at the expense of justice, would be to violate their moral freedom which would be the same as to uncreate or annihilate them, and this would be the same as to confess they were made wrong!

Hence, while the atonement makes the salvation of all men possible, it does not necessarily secure the sal vation of even one actual sinner. God never made a man determining or willing his damnation. "God hath not appointed us to wrath" (1 Thess. v, 9). So far from this, he swears he has " no pleasure in the death of the wicked" (Ex. xxxiii, 11). Which he certainly would have, had he foreknown it in such a way as to necessitate it.

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God will have all men to be saved" (1 Tim. ii, 4. "He is not willing that any should perish" (2 Peter iii, 9). He has done, and is doing all that he can do (in accordance with his government and man's freedom), to save every sinner. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it" (Isa. v, 4). Did not Jesus Christ will the salvation of the Jews? And did he not preach and pray, and work miracles, and suffer, and die to save them? Did he not say to some of them, "Ye shall die in your sins, whither I go ye can not come?" (John viii, 21.) "How often would I have

gathered thy children together, and ye would not" (Matt. xxiii, 37). Jesus Christ doubtless did all in his power to save the persons above mentioned, and yet he says, in substance, they were lost forever.

No sinner can be lost whom God can save Some sinners will be lost (John viii, 21). there are sinners whom God can not save.

(Isa. v, 4).

Therefore,

But some will say, "the will of God can not be thwarted; what he wills is always done." If the will of God be always done, then of course there never was any sin in the universe. Hence, no need of a Savior or atonement. Hence, whatever the Bible contains concerning sin or a Savior, is false. And since, according to this sentiment, the Bible is false, we have no revelation from God, if there be any God; no revelation of a future state, if there be any future state; and we are totally ignorant as to our origin and destiny.

From what precedes, it follows that God is just and merciful, although he created men so that they may sin and be eternally miserable, if they will; and he will not, he can not prevent it, even though the whole race should sink to the lake of eternal fire.

"God gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever be lieveth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John iii, 16). All men may so believe and be saved, and this is the will of God, as above, that all men should be saved. So all men may disbelieve and be damned. But this is contrary to the will of God.

God never gave his Son to save any actual sinner, except on the above conditions.

The falsity and presumption of the unqualified statement, that "God gave his son to save all men, and hence, all men will be saved, are obvious.

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So far from this being true, it is not true, that even one of all Adam's race, who sins, shall be saved necessarily.

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