14 



THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER. 



clear conception of those new and interesting 

 relations into which we have been brought by the 

 mediation of Jesus Christ. 



If man had continued in his primitive state of 

 integrity, he would have been for ever exercised 

 iti tracing the Power, the Beneficence, and other 

 attributes of Deity, in the visible creation alone. 

 Now that his fallen state has rendered additional 

 revelations necessary, in order to secure his hap 

 piness is he. completely to throw aside those con 

 templations and exercises which constituted his 

 chief employment, while he remained a pure moral 

 intelligence? Surely not. One great end of his 

 moral renovation, by means of the Gospel, mast 

 be, to enable him to resume his primitive exercises, 

 and to qualify him for more enlarged views and 

 contemplations of a similar nature, in that future 

 world, where the physical and moral impedi 

 ments which now obstruct his progress will be 

 completely removed. 



It appears highly unreasonable, and indicates 

 a selfish disposition of mind, to magnify one class 

 of the Divine attributes at the expense of another, 

 to extol, for example, the Mercy of God, and ne 

 glect to celebrate his Power and Wisdom those 

 glorious perfections, the display of which, at the 

 formation of our globe, excited the rapture and 

 admiration of angels, and of innocent man. All 

 the attributes of God are equal, because all of 

 them are infinite ; and, therefore, to talk of darling 

 attributes in the Divine Nature, as some have 

 done, is inconsistent with reason, unwarranted 

 by Scripture, and tends to exhibit a distorted 

 view of the Divine character. The Divine mercy 

 ought to be celebrated with rapture by every indi 

 vidual of our fallen race ; but with no less rapture 

 should we extol the Divine Omnipotence ; for 

 the designs of mercy cannot be accomplished with 

 out the intervention of Infinite Power. All that 

 we hope for, in consequence of the promises of 

 God, and of the redemption accomplished by Jesus 

 Christ, must be founded on the conception we 

 form of the operations of Omnipotence. An ex 

 ample or two may not be unnecessary for illus 

 trating this position. 



We are warranted, by the sacred oracles, to 

 entertain the hope, that these mortal bodies of 

 ours, after they have mouldered in the dust, been 

 dissolved into their primary elementary parts, and 

 become the prey of devouring reptiles, during a 

 lapse of generations or of centuries, shall spring 

 forth from the tomb to new life and beauty, and 

 be arrayed in more glorious forms than they now 

 wear ; yea, that all the inhabitants of our globe, 

 from Adam to the end of time, though the bodies 

 of thousands of them have been devoured by can 

 nibals, have become the food of fishes and of 

 beasts of prey, and have been burnt to cinders, 

 and their ashrs scattered by the winds, over the 

 different regions of a r and land, shall be reani 

 mated by the voice of the Son of God, and shall 

 appear, each in his proper person and identical 



body, before God, the Judge of all. Now, the 

 firmness of our hope of so astonishing an event, 

 which seems to contradict all experience, and 

 appears involved in such a mass of difficulties 

 and apparent contradictions, must be in propor 

 tion to the sentiments we entertain of the Divine 

 Intelligence, Wisdom, and Omnipotence. And 

 where are we to find the most striking visible 

 displays of these perfections, except in the actual 

 operations of the Creator, within the range of 

 our view in the material world ? 



Again, we are informed, in the same Divine 

 records, that, at some future period, the earth on 

 which we now dwell shall be wrapt up in devour 

 ing flames, and its present form and constitution 

 for ever destroyed ; and its redeemed inhabitants, 

 after being released from the grave, shall be trans 

 ported to a more glorious region ; and that &quot; new 

 heavens and a new earth shall appear, wherein 

 dwelleth righteousness.&quot; The Divine mercy hav 

 ing given to the faithful the promise of these 

 astonishing revolutions, and most magnificent 

 events, our hopes of their being fully realized 

 must rest on the infinite wisdom and omnipotence 

 of Jehovah ; and, consequently, if our views of 

 these perfections be limited and obscure, our hope 

 in relation to our future destiny will be propor- 

 tionably feeble and languid ; and will scarcely 

 perform its office &quot; as an anchor to the soul, both 

 sure and steadfast.&quot; It is not merely by telling 

 a person that God is All-wise, and All-powerful, 

 that a full conviction of the accomplishment ol 

 such grand events will be produced. He must 

 be made to see with his own eyes what the 

 Almighty has already done, and what he is now 

 doing in all the regions of universal nature which 

 lie open to our inspection ; and this cannot be 

 effected without directing his contemplations to 

 those displays of intelligence and power which 

 are exhibited in the structure, the economy, and 

 the revolutions of the material world. 



If the propriety of these sentiments be admit 

 ted, it will follow that the more we are accustom 

 ed to contemplate the wonders of Divine intelli 

 gence and power, in the objects with which we 

 are surrounded, the more deeply shall we be im 

 pressed with a conviction, and a confident hope, 

 that all the purposes of divine mercy will ulti 

 mately be accomplished in our eternal felicity. 

 It will also follow, that, in proportion as the mind 

 acquires a clear, an extensive, and a reverential 

 view of the essential attributes of the Deity, and 

 of those truths in connection with ihern, which 

 are objects of contemplation common to all holy 

 beings, in a similar proportion will it be impress 

 ed, and its attention arrested, by every other 

 divine subject connected with them. And it is, 

 doubtless, owing to the want of such clear and 

 impressive conceptions of the essentin char.icte* 

 of Jehovah, and of the first truths of religion, tnai 

 the bulk of mankind are so little impressed and 

 influenced by the leading doctrines and duties 



