that Jehovah makes these abstract qualities the rule of his conduct, overlooking the great fact that God is a moral not a physical being, and that he makes fixed and eternal moral principles, not physical ones, the rule of his conduct. And having created us rational and intelligent beings, he acts towards us on such rational and intellectual principles as we can understand. He, therefore, created Ham for a peculiarity of climate, which he contemplated in the destruction of the world; but the conduct of Ham, with the curse upon him and his posterity, were all incidents by the way, and were no more a part of the divine plan and arrangement, than murder, theft and injustice occurring under the moral government of God, is a part of that government. Ham, like Adam, brought himself into his sad dilemma—both having been created for better things: nor are they the only specimens of our race who have frustrated the will and purpose of their Creator, though they are the only two whose delinquencies have reached so far and wide.
Perhaps some may feel a difficulty with the declaration, that the will and purposes of God are not always fulfilled; but a simple explanation will remove this difficulty. The expressed law of God to man, contains his will and purpose, and that law is the rule of God, nor does he act contrary to it. And that law has a two-fold purpose towards every man—to reward him if he does well, and punish him if he does evil—this is the will and purpose of God towards every man; to save and glorify every member of the human family, on condition of their acceptance of his son, or destroying them forever without remedy if they do not: the first is the choice of God, the latter an alternative, but an alternative he will as certainly execute as he will fulfill the former. Here then is a two-fold will and purpose on the part of God towards all men, and one or the other he will fulfill, and nothing can prevent him; hence he says, “I will do all my purpose.” But he cannot execute both these purposes in one individual, because this involves a contradiction, a thing morally and physically impossible to God. Take an example. When the Son of God wept over Jerusalem, it was his wish and purpose to save her, at least he says so—and we cannot for a moment believe him insincere; this was his first will and purpose—as it always is the first will and purpose of God to save men: but, as the Jews would not gather themselves for safety, under the outspread wings of the Almighty, he executed to the uttermost, his latter will and purpose in their destruction. Hence, not only is the purpose of God defeated, but the purpose he would most willingly fulfiill, and the one he would not, he executes.—Theologians seem to have lost sight of these simple truths and facts, in their fanciful speculations on abstract sovereignty and omnipotency, in which they have not only lost themselves, which would be a small loss, were it the only loss—but they have involved the whole system of moral science and christianity, in
