palliating our
transgressions of the laws of God. It would not be difficult to shew
that such a notion is at war with the whole scheme of redemption by the
atonement of Christ. But perhaps it may be enough when any such
suggestions as those which we are condemning force themselves into the
imagination of a Christian, to recommend it to him to silence them by
what is their best practical answer: that if our natural condition be
depraved and weak, our temptations numerous, and our Almighty Judge
infinitely holy; yet that the offers to penitent sinners of pardon and
grace, and strength, are universal and unlimited. Let it not however
surprise us, if in all this there seem to be involved difficulties which
we cannot fully comprehend. How many such every where present
themselves! Scarcely is there an object around us, that does not afford
endless matter of doubt and argument. The meanest reptile which crawls
on the earth, nay, every herb and flower which we behold, baffles the
imbecility of our limited inquiries. All nature calls upon us to be
humble. Can it then be surprising if we are at a loss on this question,
which respects, not the properties of matter, or of numbers, but the
counsels and ways of him whose "Understanding is infinite[20]," "whose
judgments are declared to be unsearchable, and his ways past finding
out[21]?" In this our ignorance however, we may calmly repose ourselves
on his own declaration, "That though clouds and darkness are round about
him, yet righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his
throne[22]." Let it also be remembered, that if in Christianity some
things are difficult, that which it most concerns us to know, is plain
and obvious. To this it is true wisdom to attach ourselves, assenting to
what is revealed where above our faculties, we do not say contradictory
to them, on the credit of what is clearly discerned, and satisfactorily
established. In truth, we are all perhaps too apt to plunge into depths,
which it is beyond our power to fathom; and it was to warn us against
this very error, that the inspired writer, when he has been threatening
the people, whom God had selected as the objects of his special favour,
with the most dreadful punishments, if they should forsake the law of
the Lord, and has introduced surrounding nations as asking the meaning
of the severe infliction, winds up the whole with this instructive
admonition; "Secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those whi