Page images
PDF
EPUB

judge, reafon, remember, and freely determine our own Actions. It is he that upholdeth the Powers which he gave us, and enableth us to exert those Powers, and put them forth to Action. And this he doeth not only when we do Good, but when we employ our Powers in acting wickedly. And yet this doth not derive the least Stain of Guilt upon God, or make him the Author of our Sins. The natural active Power, and the Ufe of it, which is in itself good, is from God; the Abuse of it to finful Purposes is wholly owing to ourselves, and to the Corruption of our Wills. God fuftaineth the Sinner in Being, and in the Exercise of his natural Powers, whilft he is committing the finful Action, but the Obliquity of the Action is wholly from the Sinner himself. And indeed, on Suppofition that God hath created reasonable Beings capable of acting freely, and of doing Good and Evil, it is proper that he fhould uphold them in Being, and in the Ufe and Exercife of their natural Powers, even whilst they do evil Actions as well as good. For if he should withdraw his sustaining Influence from them the Moment they attempt to abuse their natural Powers, this would be abfolutely to hinder them to exercise their Liberty, nor could they in that Cafe be accounted free Agents at all.

[ocr errors]

As

[ocr errors]

As the God of Nature, he ordinarily upholdeth or continueth them in Being, and in the Use of their natural Powers, in what Manner foever they act; and then afterwards, as the moral Governor, he will call them to an Account for their Actions, and will reward, or punish them accordingly.

I fhall conclude with fome fuitable Reflections.

First, When we confider the univerfal Dependence of the whole Creation upon God, what admiring Thoughts fhould it caufe us to entertain of God, and what diminishing Thoughts of ourselves, and all created Beings! Who would not adore the great Jehovah, whofe everlafting Existence is the folid Bafis and Support of the Existence of all other Beings whatsoever? Should not we be even as nothing in our own Eyes, whilft God is all in all? Let us with the profoundest Veneration proftrate ourselves before his Divine Majefty, who is the great I am, the Fountain of Being and Perfection, and be ready to fay, Worthy art thou to receive Honour, and Glory, and Bleffing; for thou haft created all Things, and for thy Pleafure they are, and were created! And not only fo, but thou preservest them all; thou upholdeft them by thy most powerful

powerful Word; and in and by thee all Things confift!

Secondly, We may hence fee, what a just Propriety and Dominion God hath in and over us, fince it is he that both gave us our Being, and all our Powers and Faculties, and who upholdeth us in Life, and in the Ufe and Exercife of thofe Powers. These two taken together, his Creation and Preservation of us, certainly give him the most full and abfolute Property in us, and in all our Services, that can be conceived; a Property and Dominion infinitely exceeding what one Creature can poffibly have over another. He made us, and not we ourselves; he preferveth and sustaineth us in Being, and not we ourselves; and therefore it is most fit and reasonable, that we should live unto him, and not unto ourselves; and that we should employ our Powers and Faculties according to his Will, and for fuch Purposes as he prefcribeth. Nor can any Thing be more unjuft, than to turn the Beings we derive from him to his Difhonour; to use those bodily Members he hath furnished us with, and which he continually upholdeth, as the Inftruments of Unrighteousness unto Sin, instead of using them as Inftruments of Righteousness unto God; and to employ thofe reafoning thinking Powers, and that Gift of Speech which he hath bestowed upon us, to Purpofes quite VOL. I.

D

different

different from thofe which he gave them to us for. This certainly involveth in it a very heinous Guilt, and is a facrilegious Alienation of ourselves from his Service, to whom we do of Right belong. That is a heavy Charge which Daniel bringeth against Belshazzar, The God in whofe Hand thy Breath is, and whofe are all thy Ways, hat thou not glorified. Dan. v. 23.

Thirdly, Another Reflection that is proper to be made on this Occafion is this, that fince God preferveth us every Moment, fince we cannot move a Limb, nor think a Thought without him, he must needs be perfectly acquainted with all our Thoughts,. Words, and Actions, and all the Events which befal us. Juftly may every one of us fay with the devout Pfalmift, Lord, thou knoweft my Down-fitting and mine Uprifing, thou understandeft my Thoughts afar off. Thou compaffeft my Path, and my Lyingdown, and art acquainted with all my Ways. For there is not a Word in my Tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knoweft it altogether. Pfal. cxxxix. 2, 3, 4. God knoweth every the leaft good Action we perform, and every good Motion which arifeth in our Hearts. Nor, on the other Hand, can any of our moft fecret Sins poffibly efcape his Notice. For it is by his Influence that we are upheld in Being, even whilft we are committing

committing those Sins against him. Our being able to commit them, our being preferved in Life whilst we do fo, is a Proof that he is present with us, and, confequently, that he must know whatsoever we are doing in every Circumstance.

Fourthly, How ftrange and inexcufable will our Conduct be, if we allow ourselves in an habitual Neglect and Forgetfulness of the Deity! Shall we be unmindful of him, without whom we cannot fubfift a Moment, by whom we are conftantly upheld in Being, and in the Ufe of all our reasoning and active Powers? As foon ought we to forget that we ourselves exift. And And yet fo it is, that a great Part of Mankind go on from Day to Day, without ever thinking of that God to whom they owe it that they are able to think; and without fpeaking of him who gave, and continueth to them, the Faculty and Ufe of Speech. They act in too many Instances, as if there were no fuch Being at all, though without him they could not be. Amazing Perverseness! What a ftrange Depravation of a reasonable thinking Mind doth this argue! Let us carefully guard against it, and often realize God to our Minds, endeavouring to maintain a conftant Sense of our absolute Dependence upon him, fo as to stand in Awe of his Power, to be thankful to D. 2

him

« EelmineJätka »