Page:Sermons by Richard Fuller.djvu/21

Rh  abandons all to the wanton humors and passions of myriads of independent agents, none of whose whims and impulses he restrains, by whom his will is constantly defeated and trampled under foot. A creed so odious, so abhorrent to all reason and religion, need only be carried out to its consequences, and no sane mind can adopt it.

And this heresy is condemned on every page of the Bible. It is deeply to be lamented that theological partisans so often treat texts of Scripture, as hired advocates in our courts treat those witnesses whose evidence damages their cause, — cross examining and brow-beating the clearest passages, — seeking to perplex their plain meaning— and to extort from them a testimony they will not and cannot give. But, after all ingenuity has been exhausted, how unequivocal is the language of inspiration. "The counsel of the Lord standeth forever, the thought of his heart to all generations;" "All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou ;" "And they prayed and said, Lord shew whether of these two thou hast chosen ; that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship ;" "Whom God did foreknow he did predestinate, moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called;" " Being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsels of his own will." Passages like these might be easily multiplied, but I prefer to take another course, and to establish the doctrines of the Sacred Oracles by a sort of proof which is very striking, and which silences all cavil and sophistry.

The depositions to which I now refer are gathered from those narratives in which man's free agency is taken for granted or expressly affirmed, while at the same time, the entire event is ascribed directly to God's over-ruling decrees. Let us turn for a moment to these records, and let us begin with the transportation of Joseph into Egypt. Head the history of his mission to his brethren, of the conspiracy among these brethren to slay him, of