Deut, 32: 35. To me belongeth vengeance and recompense; their feet shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. 36. For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left. 39. See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. 40. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. 41. If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. 42. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain, and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy. 43. Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people; for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people. (12.) God declares that he will maintain his own sovereignty. Isa. 42: 8. I am the Lord; that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. 48: 11. For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another. These passages will disclose the general tenor of scripture upon this subject. REMARKS. 1. The Sovereignty of God is an infinitely amiable, meek, sweet, holy, and desirable sovereignty. Some seem to conceive of it as something revolting and tyrannical. But it is the infinite opposite of this and is the perfection of all that is reasonable, kind, and good. Is. 57: 15. For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. 16. For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made. 17. For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. 18. I have seen his ways, and will heal him; I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him, and to his mourners. 19. I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; and I will heal him. 2. Many seem afraid to think or speak of God's sovereignty, and even pass over, with a very slight reading, those passages of scripture that so fully declare it. They think it unwise and dangerous to preach upon the subject, especially unless it be to deny or explain away the sovereignty of God. This fear, no doubt in pious minds, has originated in a misconception of the nature of this sovereignty. They have been led either by false teaching, or in some way have come to conceive of the Divine Sovereignty as an iron and unreasonable despotism. That is, they have understood the doctrine of Divine Sovereignty so to represent God. They therefore fear and reject it. But let it be remembered and forever understood, to the eternal joy and unspeakable consolation of all holy beings, that God's Sovereignty is nothing else than infinite love directed by infinite knowledge in such a disposal of events as to secure the highest well-being of the universe; that in the whole details of creation, providence, and grace, there is not a solitary measure of his that is not infinitely wise and good. 3. A proper understanding of God's universal agency and sovereignty, of the perfect wisdom and benevolence of every measure of his government, providential and moral, is essential to the best improvement of all his dispensations toward us and to those around us. When it is understood that God's hand is directly or indirectly in every thing that occurs, and that he is infinitely wise and good, and equally wise and good in every single dispensation-that he has one end steadily and always in view-that he does all for one and the same ultimate end-and that this end is the highest good of himself and of universal being; I say, when these things are understood and considered, there is a divine sweetness in all his dispensations. There is then a divine reasonableness and amiableness and kindness thrown like a broad mantle of infinite love over all his character, works and ways. The soul in contemplating such a sacred, universal, holy sovereignty takes on a sweet smile of delightful complacency and feels secure and reposes in perfect peace, surrounded and supported by the everlasting arms. I. LECTURE LXXIV. PURPOSES OF GOD. In discussing this subject I shall endeavor to show, II. CREE. III. THAT IN SOME SENSE THE PURPOSES OF GOD MUST EXTEND TO ALL EVENTS. IV. DIFFERENT SENSES IN WHICH GOD PURPOSES DIFFER ENT EVENTS. V. THAT GOD'S REVEALED WILL IS NEVER INCONSITENT WITH HIS SECRET WILL OR PURPOSE. VI. THE WISDOM AND BENEVOLENCE OF THE DIVINE PUR POSES. VII. THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. VIII. THE PURPOSES OF GOD ARE A GROUND OF ETER NAL AND JOYFUL CONFIDENCE. IX. THE RELATION OF THE PURPOSES TO THE PRESCIENCE OR FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD. X. GOD'S PURPOSES ARE NOT INCONSISTENT WITH, BUT DEMAND THE USE OF MEANS BOTH ON THE PART OF God and ON OUR PART TO ACCOMPLISH THEM. 1. What I understand by the purposes of God. Purpose, in this discussion, I shall use as synonymous with design, intention. The purposes of God must be ultimate and proximate. That is, God has and must have an ultimate end. He must purpose to accomplish something by his works and providence which he regards as a good in itself or as valuable to himself, and to being in general. This I call his ultimate end. That God has such an end or purpose, follows from the already established facts, that God is a moral agent, and that he is infinitely wise and good. For surely he could not be justly considered as either wise or good had he no intrinsically valuable end which he aims to realize by his works of creation and providence. His purpose to secure his great and ultimate end, I call his ultimate purpose. His proximate purposes respect the means by which he aims to secure his end. If he purposes to realize an end, he must of course purpose the necessary means for its accomplishment. The purposes that respect the means are what I call in this discussion his proximate purposes. II. Distinction between purpose and decree. Purpose has just been defined, and the definition need not be repeated. The term decree is used in a variety of senses. It is much used in legal and governmental proceedings. When used in judicial or equitable proceedings; it is synony mous. 1. With judgment, decision, determination, and, 2. With order, direction, command. When used in legislative proceedings, it is synonymous with ordinance, law, statute, enactment, command. The term is used in the bible as synonymous, (1.) With foreordination or determination, appointment. Job 28: 10. He putteth forth his hand upon the rock; he overturneth the mountains by the roots. 26. When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder. Ps. 2: I will declare the decree, the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee. 148: 6. He hath also established them for ever and ever; he hath made a decree which shall not pass. Prov. 8: 29. When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment; when he appointed the foundations of the earth. Jer. 5: 22. Fear ye not me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree that it can not pass it, and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it? Dan. 4: 24. This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the Most High, which is come upon my lord the king. 2. It is used as synomymous, with ordinance, statute, law. Dan. 6: 7. All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree that whosoever shall ask a petition of any god or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions. 8. Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. 26. I make a decree, that in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel; for he is the living God, and steadfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destoyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end. This term has been generally used by theological writers as synonymous with foreordination, appointment. To decree, with these writers, is to appoint, ordain, establish, settle, fix, render certain. This class of writers also, often confound decree with purpose, and use the word as meaning the same thing. They seldom, so far as I recollect, use the term decree as synonymous with law, enactment, command, &c. men. I see no objection to using the term decree in respect to a certain class of physical events as synonymous, with appointment, foreordination, fixing, rendering certain. But I think this use, of it, applied, as it has been, to the actions of moral agents, is highly objectionable and calculated to countenance the idea of fatality and necessity in respect to the actions of It seems inadmissible to speak of God's decreeing the free actions of moral agents, in the sense of fixing, settling, determining, foreordaining them as he fixes, settles, renders certain physical events. The latter he has fixed or rendered certain by a law of necessity. The former that is, free acts, although they may be, and are certain, yet they are not rendered so by a law of fate or necessity; or by an ordinance or decree that fixes them so that it is not possible that they should be otherwise. In respect to the government of God, I prefer to use the term purpose, as I have said, to signify the design of God both in respect to the end at which he aims, and the means he intends or purposes to use to accomplish it. The term decree, I purpose to use as synonymous with command, law, or ordinance. The former I use as expressive of what God purposes or designs to do himself, and by his own agency and also what he purposes or designs to accomplish by others. The latter I use as expressive of God's will, command, or law. He regulates his own conduct and agency in accordance with the former, that is, with his purposes. He requires his creatures to conform to the latter, that is, to his decrees or laws. We shall see in its proper place that both his purposes and his actions are conformed to the spirit of his decrees or |