nal mind is wholly made up of goodness and love. The moral character of the infinite God is all made up of love. The Lord exifts to do good-For purpofes of goodnefs it is, that he reigns. This being the excellent nature and difpofition of the divine mind, it must be that his higheft delight is in doing good. God's own enjoyment and happiness must be, in producing and diffufing happiness. He enjoys the good which he does; and enjoys it to an infinitely higher degree, than his creatures, who receive it. A difpofition to do good, rejoices in the good which is done. As love feéks, fo it enjoys the happinefs of others. It is, therefore, the glory of God to do good-to do excellent things. In this way God feeks his own glory-In this way, glorifies himself. This was his motive to create: The fameinfluences in his whole government of the world. and this be the fenfe, in which God makes his own glory his last end, it will follow, 1. That it is a moft defirable thing that God fhould make his own glory his great and ultimate end. This implies, that the higheft felicity of the infinite Being himself is in doing good. Were not the difpofition of the divine mind fuch, that his chief and higheft delight is in doing good, what reafon have we to fuppofe, that his laws would be holy, just and good? And what certain evidence could we have, that his government is, or will be wifely administered? Were not this the divine moral character-were not this the difpofition of the Eternal Mind, what reafon could we have to rejoice, that the Lord reigns? But that a Being, whofe love and good will are abfolutely infinite, fhould make his own glory his highest and last end, reprefents his character in the For God to make his own glo- moft excellent light, and renders ry his laft and highest end, is no him an object worthy of the fuother, therefore, than to exercife preme and higheft love of his creaan infinitely ftrong difpofition to tures. There is no other or highdo good; and, to be primarily and er end, for which it can be defiraprincipally influenced by it, in the ble, that the holy God fhould act. whole of his works and adminif- In what can it be defired, that the tration. In no other light can the great God fhould more delight, divine character appear fo excel- than in doing good-in diffufing lent, fo lovely and glorious. For happinefs? When we confider God to make his own glory his what the moral character of the dihighest end, naturally and neceffa- vine Being really is, as represented rily comprises the greatest good in the holy fcriptures, we evidentand higheft felicity of his morally detract from it, by fuppofing kingdom. In his making this his him to be influenced, in his wonhighest end, his own happinefs and derful and excellent works, by any that of his creatures are united-other, or lower end, than his own they are fo united, that they can- glory. not be feparated from each other. God accomplishes his end only in the production of a good, which will fatisfy his own infinite good will. In this way he is glorified, and will be glorified forever. If thefe obfervations are juft, 2. God's making his own glory his laft and highest end, is the fulleft and only fecurity for the beft and highest good of the created fyftem. Here, and here only, we find evidence, that a good will take place adequate to the purposes of the recovery of finners, purely by the inherent, infinite good will and infinite love and good will→a created holiness and happiness, in which God himself will reft fatisfied-love of the divine nature itself; which will fatisfy the infinitely ftrong defires of divine, unbounded love. We accordingly find it promifed to Chrift, that he should fee of the travail of his foul, and be fatisfied. Could that love, that travail of foul, which brought the Lord of glory into our world, and to the cross, be fatisfied with a good with a created felicity, which might have been exceeded? If infinite power and wisdom and love fail of producing fuch meafures of created holinefs and created happiness, as cannot be exceeded; the great and glorious God fails, for aught we can fee, of accomplishing his laft and higheft end. And, failing of this, how can he reft fatisfied in his works, and enjoy complete and infinite felicity? 3. As God makes his own glory his laft and higheft end, it is most defirable, that he fhould be an abfolute fovereign. The fovereignty of God principally intends his being influenced to acts of goodness purely by the inherent goodness of his own glorious nature-taking his motives wholly from within himfelf-his own wifdom alone adopting and directing the measures for accomplishing the purposes of his love. Were it not that the glorious God is this abfolute fovereign, where would it have been poffible for him to find a motive for faving finners! Where, but in his own infinite good will, could there have been a motive for God's being manife in flesh-for Christ's dying, and himfelf becoming a curfe! Had not the holy God been moved to give his only begotten Son-had not the glorious Redeemer been influenced to that humiliating and painful work, which lays the only foundation for the work of redemption never would, or could have been accomplished: Nor could finners of mankind ever have been faved. And, whatever difpofition might have exifted in any one for the falvation of finners, had not God's wifdom alone devised the plan, and chofen and directed the measures for its accomplishment, we must, all, infallibly have perifhed forever. It is infinitely beft, that the unerring wifdom of God fhould alone direct the measures for accomplishing fuch good, as his own infinite love alone can incline him to accomplifh. What can be more defirable, than that fuch a Being as the Lord is fhould be an abfolute fovereign! Confidering the moral character, and the infinite perfection of God, what more precious doctrine, than that of his abfolute fovereignty! Who, that is a friend to the greatest good, can underftandingly be an enemy to it! 4. It is eafy to fee that, had there not been fuch fallen, finful creatures as we are, there would have been no opportunity for a dif covery of fuch infinite strength of divine love and good will, as evidently appear in the recovery and falvation of finners.-Creatures would have had no advantage to fee, that the divine Being poffeffes fuch treafures of good will, as to be influenced to fuch wonders of goodnefsinfinitely undeferved goodness, by nothing but the mere infinite benevolence of his own heart! That glorious fovereignty, which implies felf-moving infinite goodnessa difpofition to do good, for the pleafure of doing it doing the greateft poffible and the moft undeferved good, for the fake of the delight there is in doing it, never could have been seen in its glory, had there not been fuch infinitely unworthy and ill-deferving objects as we are, toward whom it may be displayed, and on whom it may operate. 5. If God's own glory be his laft and highest end, and if his goodness is his glory, it might reafonably be expected, that he make fome monuments of his juft and everlasting displeasure. Should the infinitely good God make no diftinctions among mankind, having mercy on whom he will have mercy; how apt would creatures be to fuggeft, that there were other motives for the good which he does to finners, than those by which he designs to make it appear he is folely influenced-other reafons, than the fupreme delight, which the infinite God has in doing good! Without fuch a diftinction, how could that glorious fovereignty, which is the highest evidence of infinite, incomprehenfible love, ever have been seen and enjoyed! God is fo ordering things, and will forever fo difpofe them, as to exhibit the brightest evidence, that he is goodness itfelf-pure, infinite goodness and love. This is God's great end-This is to act for his own glory-This is his wife and glorious fovereignty. And what abundant reafon have all creatures to rejoice, that God makes his own glory his laft end-That such a Being is a fovereign and will glorify himself-his own great and excellent name !-To rejoice in a glory and fovereignty to do good the most and greatest good! Infinitely greater will be the felicity of his moral kingdom, for thefe glorious attributes, forever and ever. all fitted to make the most lively impreffions, and give the most exalted views of the tranfcendent and incomprehenfible excellency of the moral character of the glorious God! No one but he, who poffeffes, could have drawn and exhib. ited fuch a character !—a character fo infinitely friendly to the greateft good of the univerfe; and, which fo certainly and perfectly fecures it! In contending with thofe doctrines, which represent the Lord as an abfolute sovereign, ever acting for his own glory, why is it not evident, not only that we oppofe our own greatest and best good, but that we are enemies to God's highest and most excellent felicity, and the greatest good of the moral fyftem! TO THE EDITORS OF THE CONNECTICUT EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE. ONE of your correfpondents has requested an explanation of 1 Peter, iv. 6. "For, for this caufe "was the gospel preached alfo to "them that are dead, that they "might be judged, according to men, in the flesh; but live, ac"cording to God, in the fpirit." If the following attempt to explain the difficult paffage fhould appear to reflect any light upon it, you are requested to publifh it. I THINK the phrafe to them that are dead, or, to the dead, as the original word is ftriétiy rendered, is to be taken literally, intending thofe who had finished their courfe on earth, and not metaphorically, intending those who were fpiritually dead, or dead in fin. I incline to this opinion for the following reafons. What a beautiful and bleffed 1. The words immediately preharmony is there in the doctrines of ceding "Who fhall give account the word of God! How are they!" to him that is ready to judge the oppofite characters, because the end of preaching the gospel expreffed in the words that they might be judged, &c. whatever may be their meaning, is the fame with refpect to both; and the fentiment would have been better expreffed in general terms. For this caufe was the gofpel preached to men that they might be judged, &c. but if the term be taken literally, it will exprefs, in a word, what is illuftrated and dwelt on, in the epistle to the Hebrews, as a matter of great moment, that the gofpel has been preached, though under types and fhadows, under all former difpenfations, from the beginning, and that its defign was ever the fame. "quick and the dead" lead to this, the words, for difcriminating these conftruction; there, the word rendered the dead is the fame as in the paffage in queftion, and is evidently ufed in its literal fenfe, and it would be arbitrary, unless the fcope of the writer plainly required it, to depart from the literal meaning of the word, in explaining the paffage. In those words of our Saviour "Let the dead bury their dead," the fenfe requires a variation in the meaning of the word dead, it is first used metaphorically, and then literally: But here, the fenfe does not appear to require a variation. On the contrary, the confideration, that Chrift was ready to judge the dead, as well as the living, naturally led the apoftle to point out the general defign of the preaching of the gofpel with refpect to all, in every age, and un-rectly rendered from the original, der every difpenfation, from the beginning, as well as to thofe, who were then living, and on whom the ends of the world were come. 66 2. The word also, which is effential in the tranflation, fupports the fame construction; "For this "caufe was the gospel preached alfo to the dead"; the phrafe is elliptical, the correlative part is not expreffed, but clearly understood. The fentence completed would ftand thus. "For this caufe was "the gofpel preached alfo to the "dead, as it is to the living." Now it is evident, that in fuch a connection the term living must stand directly opposed to the term dead, they must be taken both literally, or both metaphorically; if metaphorically, the fentence would ftand thus. For this caufe was the gofpel preached to the fpiritually dead, as well as to the fpiritually alive; or, more fimply, to finners as well as to faints, that they might be judged, &c. but there feems to be no good reafon, in this view of 3. The verb was preached in the past indefinite, which is cor is proper, if the expreffion the dead be taken literally, but not fo if taken metaphorically; for, in that cafe, the fentiment. would be. better expreffed, in the prefent tenfe. For this cause the gospel is preached to dead finners; its im port then would be as extensive as the fubject requires, and would apply, without limitation, to dead finners, in every period of time, past, present and to come; for whatever be meant by their being judged, &c. it will apply as well to all, in every age, as to those in former ages. 4. The expreffion in its literal fenfe is analogous to that in the 19th verfe of the preceding chapter, "By which alfo he went and "preached unto the fpirits in prif "on," that is, to the finners of the old world, who were in prif on, or in the state of departed fouls, referved unto judgment, at the time when the apostle wrote. It is alfo perfectly fimilar to that in Ruth, i. 8. The Lord deal kindly with you as ye have dealt with the dead, that is, with their father-in-law, and their husbands, who were dead when Naomi fpake the words. fore, in this fenfe, is not folitary, and may be faid to be in the manner of this apostle. For this end was the good news of falvation proclaimed to finners, under every difpenfation of grace, in the paft ages of the world, as well as to thofe now living in the law hath abfolute dominion as long as he liveth; as flain by the law; and as dead to the law by the body of Chrift: The latter is reprefenThe expreffion there-ted as rifen with Chrift; as married to Chrift; as freed from fin; as the fervant of God; as delivered from the dominion of the I proceed now to confider the law; it is reprefented as fucceed. import of the phrafe "that they ing the former in every faint, but, might be judged, according to during the prefent life, co-exiftmen, in the flesh; but live ac-ing and conflicting with it; and, "cording to God, in the fpirit." at death, through the grace of When the apostle fays, "For, Chrift, triumphing. The paffage "for this caufe, was the gofpel in question appears to be of like "preached," &c. the caufe is not import; it comprehends, in a to be fought in what precedes, but word, what is diftin&ly illustrated in what follows; the words recited in other parts of the new-testaexprefs the cause. It is proper to ment; and it may, on the foregoremark, that the two members of ing principles, be thus paraphrafed. the claufe are perfectly contrafted with each other, and even the parts of thofe members are fo; that they might be judged, and that they might live according to men and according to God in the flesh and in the fpir-days of the gofpel, that the depra it. To live, according to God, in the fpirit, feems to be the fame as to be renewed in holiness, and, in the actings of fpiritual life, to walk according to the will of God. To be judged, according to men, in the flesh, then, will mean to be fentenced and flain by the law, as That this is the true sense of the to that depraved nature and evil paffage is further evident from the concupifcence which is common to fcope of the apostle's reafoning. men in their fallen ftate, and which From the fufferings of Chrift for our is enmity against God and his law. fins, mentioned in the 18th verfe of Several of the divine writers the preceding chapter, the apostlebegive a kind of distinct perfonality gins this, with an exhortation to to the oppofite principles of fin Chriftians to put on the mind of and holincfs in men, the finful Christ, as their best armour; or principle or nature is called, the to imitate his divine temper, in the old man, or the flesh; and the ho- exercise of faith, truft, hope, and ly principle or nature, produced in joy in God, and of meeknefs and the new-birth, is called the new patience under reproaches and fufnan, or the fpirit. The former ferings, in the cause of God; and is reprefented with refpect to all for this he urges the further reafon, Chriftians as crucified with Chrift; that he that hath fuffered in the flesh, as buried with him in baptifm; as the man or person over whom the ved nature, common to men in their fallen ftate, might be sentenced and flain by the law, under which it is holden; and that a new and holy nature and life might be formed and fupported in those, to whom the proclamation is made. as Chrift had, and as every Chrif'tian has, being crucified with Chrift, |