Page:Sermons by Richard Fuller.djvu/20

10  that he obeys the impulses of his own feelings and passions. Well, did not God endow him with these passions? Did not God know that if certain temptations assailed the creature to whom he had given these passions, he would fall? Did he not foresee that these temptations would assail him? Did he not permit these temptations to assail him? Could he not have prevented these temptations ? Why did he form him with these passions? Why did he allow him to be exposed to these temptations? Why, in short having a perfect fore-knowledge that such a being, so constituted and so tempted, would sin and perish — why did he create him at all? None will deny the divine fore-knowledge; and I at once admit that the mere foreseeing an event, which we cannot hinder and have no agency in accomplishing, does not involve us in any responsibility. But when the Creator, of his own sovereign pleasure, calls an intelligent agent into being, fashions him with certain powers and appetites, and places him amid scenes where he clearly sees that temptations will overcome him — in such a case it is self-evident that our feeble faculties cannot separate fore-knowledge from fore-appointment. The denial of pre-ordination does not, therefore, at all relieve any objection, it only conceals the difficulty from the ignorant and unthinking.

But even if the theory of the Libertarians were not a plain evasion, it would be impossible for us to accept such a solution ; for it dethrones Jehovah ; it surrenders the entire government of the world to mere chance, to wild caprice and disorder. According to this system, nature, providence, grace are only departments of atheism; God has no control over the earth and its affairs ; or — if that be too monstrous and revolting, he exercises authority over matter, but none over the minds and hearts of men. "The king's heart is in the hands of the Lord, as rivers of Avater, he turneth it whithersoever he will ;" such is the declaration of the Holy Spirit ; but this theory rejects this truth. God exercises no control over men's hearts, consequently prophecy is an absurdity ; providence is a chimera; prayer is a mockery ; since God does not interfere in mortal events, but