Hos. vi. 3. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord : his going forth is prepared as the morning ; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.
THEY, who are strongly attached to human sys- tems, are apt to set divine truths at variance with each other, and to wrest some from their plain and obvious meaning, in order to reconcile them with others more agreeable to their sentiments. But they, who receive the word of God as little children, will find a harmony in passages, which at first sight appear contradictory, and will derive equal benefit from the contemplation of them all. Some imagine, that, if our salvation depend wholly on the free and sovereign grace of God, there can be no need for exertion on our part. Others, on the contrary, argue, that if our salvation be to be effected by means of our own en- deavours, it cannot be dependent on Divine grace. But these apparently opposite assertions are not made only in different and detached passages, but often- times in the very same passage. Our Lord, for instance, exhorts us to labour for the meat that en- dureth unto eternal life, at the same time that he says, the Son of man will give it us. And St. Paul bids us work out our salvation with fear and trem- bling, and yet assures us in the very same sentence, that it is God who worketh in us both to will and to do. Thus the prophet represents those who are returning to God, as encouraging themselves with the thought, that though they could no more accom- plish their end by their own exertions than they could command the sun to shine, or the clouds to pour down their waters, yet, if they persevered in the use of God's appointed means, they could not but succeed.
The effects of diligence in religion are here, I. Plainly stated —