same character. It was extraordinary and retributive in the punishment of Cain, the translation of Enoch, the preservation of Noah, the selection of Abraham, and his chosen descendants.

These are but rare occurrences, it may be said;, they are insulated facts, scattered at wide intervals through the long period of five and twenty hundred years; they do not establish the existence of a system. Nor is it contended that the system of Providence during this period was extraordinary; or extraordinary at least to any extent compared with that over the Church of Israel. And yet the instances we have are not confined exclusively to the more eminent subjects of the history, or to individuals selected for special purposes. God dealt well with the midwives" of Israel, who disobeyed the barbarous edict of the king of Egypt, and "saved the men-children alive;"" and it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses"." And the text implies, that external prosperity was generally recognised and understood to be an indication of the favour of God. Joseph's master" saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand." And this persuasion was not confined to that age or country. It was thus Laban

h Exod. i. 17, 20, 21. cf. Gen. xxix. 31. xxxviii. 7, 10.

"learned by experience that the Lord had blessed him for Jacob's sake." And thus the kings of the Philistines " saw certainly that God was with" Abraham and with Isaack. It is probable therefore that there was in fact a more frequent display of an extraordinary and retributive providence throughout the period antecedent to the Exodus, than was exhibited to after ages, except in the single instance of the Church of Israel. But whether this was so or not, still the circumstance especially to be noticed is this-the events recorded are of this description; they give the character to the record; and this is the point which is really material to our present purpose. For

II. The state of the fact being such as it has been represented, how shall we apply to our own advantage the records of circumstances exceedingly different from ours ?-But here we must endeavour to ascertain with somewhat greater precision the points in which the systems of Divine Providence under consideration do in reality agree or differ.

1. In the first place, in these periods, as in our own, and under every dispensation of religion, this

i Gen. xxx. 27. cf. xxxi. 42.

* Gen. xxi. 22. xxvi. 28. cf. xxiv. 35, 36, 60. xlii. 21, 22.

life was and is a state of trial or probation. And all the circumstances connected with a state of probation are found in those earlier periods. Thus the free agency of man was always left unfettered. Providence never interfered in such a manner, or to such an extent, as to become compulsory; controlling absolutely, or superseding the free will of men. On the contrary, the great object, according to the Scriptures, of Divine Providence, from the creation of the world to the close of time, is so to guide the actions of men, as not absolutely to control their freedom'. Again, although the system

1 "The Divine Wisdom seems to have set apart the government of free agents as its peculiar province, &c." Archbishop King's "Origin of Evil," chap. v. sect. v. §. 5. (Bishop Law's translation) cited, together with other valuable passages from Bishop Butler's Analogy, &c. on the Moral Government of God, by Dr. Graves, in a very useful note to his Lectures on the Pentateuch, Part iii. Lect. ii. There are, indeed, strong expressions in the Old Testament as well as in the New, which seem to express absolute compulsion; see Exod. iv. 21. Deut. ii. 30. Josh. xi. 20; as, if the Lord made Pharaoh, and Sihon, and the Canaanites to disobey His will, in order that He might destroy them. This is the literal sense of these expressions. And the difficulty is only shifted, not resolved, by interpreting the "hardening their hearts" with reference not to their will or moral powers, but only to their understanding. Yet if we recollect that the Hivites of Gibeon (not to mention the Girgashites, whose case is less certain) actually made themselves an exception to these strong declarations, and did save themselves from the

of Providence under the earlier dispensations was more palpably retributive than at present, it was at no time exactly retributive. It was not so even in the instance of the Jewish Church, at any period of her history; much less was it so with respect to other Churches, or in the earlier dispensations. Joseph, the most blameless character perhaps recorded in history, was severely tried by afflictions not deserved. Jacob, however favoured of heaven, yet confessed to Pharaoh that "few and evil had been the days of the years of his pilgrimage And Abraham himself more than once found his faith fail him as he sojourned in strange lands devoid, as he thought, "of the fear of God"." Then as now, in a word, mankind were tried and proved under the superintendence of Divine Providence, whose interpositions, however varied in manner or in extent, have never differed in principle.

m ""

2. In the second place, there is one great depart

general destruction, it will be admitted that even in these cases there was no actual compulsion. These strong expressions may indeed imply that these sinners were abandoned to their own obstinacy, but not that they were compelled to be obstinate and disobedient, and then destroyed for their disobedience.

m Gen. xlvii. 9.

n Gen. xii. 12. xx. 11. cf. xxvi. 7.

ment of Divine Providence which has never altered; which runs like a golden thread through the varied tissue of the history of mankind; and which, because it has never altered, is commonly termed the constitution and course of nature. It is by this that virtue and vice bring with them their own reward and punishment in this life in the way of usual or natural consequence. Thus temperance

and industry, kindness and meekness, naturally promote health and wealth, the good-will of men, or internal serenity and peace. But however ordinary and natural are these consequences, they are not the less the appointments of the Divine Author of nature. And the inspired writers, not condescending, as was observed before, to refer events to fate, or fortune, or nature, are accustomed to speak of these natural consequences of vice or virtue as among the operations of Divine Providence.

3. We must take into our account, thirdly, that Christians are not at all warranted in concluding that there is no place reserved in the present system for more direct and immediate interpositions of Providence, especial mercies, or signal judgments. We can no longer recognise them, it is true, by any infallible signs. Inspiration is necessary to assure us, that any particular event is in this sense providential, is an especial interposition of Pro