which safety may certainly be found, and which leads directly to Heaven. Do you know any other, which terminates in that happy place, and will conduct you to everlasting joy.

4thly. How useful a Friend must such a God be to the Righteous. That God is a faithful and steadfast friend to the righteous, cannot be questioned; because they love, and labour, to please him, and must therefore be loved of him; and because they are the friends and followers of his Son. Accordingly, he has disclosed in his Word designs of mercy and goodness to them, so great, as almost to transcend belief, and to leave the mind rather lost in astonishment than filled with expectation. He, who regards his own character with the candour, and humility, of the Gospel; who considers how greatly and how often he has sinned, how guilty his life must appear before God, and how utterly unworthy he is of the least of all his mercies; cannot but exclaim, when he casts his eye over the promises of the Gospel, Who am I, O Lord God, that thou hast brought me hitherto? For thy word's sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou spoken all these great things to make thy servant know them. Let thy name be magnified for ever: for now, O Lord God, thou art God; and thy words be true; and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant: and with thy blessing let me be blessed for ever*.

In the Covenant of grace there are contained treasures of good, to which no limit can be assigned. On this subject the Apostle Paul, in comments of unrivalled sublimity, has expressed the most accurate, as well as the most exalted and astonishing, sentiments, which can be found even in the Scriptures. All things, saith he to Christians, are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours. And again, I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And again, We know, that all things do t labour together for good to them that love God. From these declarations we learn, that all things are the property, and the destined possession, of the righteous; that no being, or event, shall preclude them from the enjoyment of this mighty inheri† συνεργει.

* 2 Samuel vii.

tance; but that, on the contrary, every being and every event is employed, with one vast and united effort, to place this boundless good in their hands. Whatever, therefore, is really needed by them, whatever is really good for them, in the present life, whatever can render their future immortality blessed and glorious, God has covenanted to bestow on them through the mediation of Christ.

"Thou art my fa

When he, who can truly say to Corruption, ther," and to the Worm, "Thou art my mother, and my sister," turns his eye to these wonderful promises, and to the immense assemblage of blessings, which they convey; he is naturally lost in amazement, and prepared to believe them, only in a loose and general manner. Scarcely can he persuade himself, that they are not the language of bold and sublime exaggerations, of ardent and daring Hyperbole, rather than sober communications of simple truth. Were the rewards promised, the result of his own obedience; well might he doubt. But, when he remembers, that God has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, he cannot, if he would act rationally, fail to unite with the Apostle in exclaiming, How shall he not with him, also, freely give us all things? The benevolence, necessary to the origination, and the communication, of these blessings, is in this event proved beyond a question.

In the Omniscience of God we are presented with ample ability to contrive, and in his Omnipotence with ample ability to accomplish, every part of this amazing sum of good. To Him, who willed the Universe into being, it is equally easy to create great enjoyments, as little; many, as few; endless, as momentary. The vast system of Good, which he has promised, he can call into existence in a moment, with the same ease, with which he can create an insect or an atom. Whatever he gives, his store cannot be lessened: nor can a preceding communication of good be, with Him, a reason for refusing, or neglecting, to communicate again. Immeasurably bountiful, he can never be weary of giving : immeasurably powerful, he can never be weary of providing.

From the Omnipotence of God every righteous man may, then, confidently expect a final deliverance from all his enemies, sorrows, and sins; from death, and the grave; from future pollution, and eternal woe. He may be certainly assured, that the

same glorious and everlasting Friend will communicate to him, and to his fellow-christians, immortal life; will enlarge their minds with increasing knowledge; will improve them with evergrowing virtue; and will supply them with endlessly advancing happiness.

5thly. How great and glorious does God appear, as invested with Almighty power?

Great is the Lord, says the Psalmist, and greatly to be praised. One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. All thy works praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. Canst thou, says Zophar, by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is high as heaven, what canst thou do? deeper than hell, what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the Sea. Who hath measured the waters, says Isaiah, in the hollow of his hand; and meted out heaven with the span; and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure; and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

The Being, who made, upholds, and governs, the Universe, discloses in these acts his own proper character; a character infinitely greater and more glorious than the highest creature can sustain, or comprehend. All beings are before him as nothing, and justly accounted unto him less than nothing, and vanity. We were not, indeed, present at the birth of this wonderful Work. We did not behold the boundless midnight enlightened with suns, or the desolate wilds of immensity filled with worlds and their inhabitants. We did not hear the morning Stars sing together, and the Sons of God shout for joy. But in the history of the Creation, dictated by the voice of God, we are presented with such sublime views of this amazing subject, as stretch our imaginations to the utmost, and fill our understanding with astonishing ideas. In the same work, as it is daily seen by our eyes, we discern wonders surpassing number and measure, and gloriously illustrating the Power by which all are accomplished. In the history of past events, also; in the Deluge; the DestrucVOL. I.

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tion of Sodom, the Wonders of Egypt, of Sinai, and of Canaan; in the miracles of the Prophets, of Christ, and of the Apostles; are such manifestations of Almighty power, as cannot fail to astonish every mind, and fill every heart with the most awful apprehensions of its Maker.

In the daily providence of God, we are also witnesses of the amazing effects of his Omnipotence. In the rising and setting of the sun, and the revolutions of the heavens, we behold a hand, whose exertions disclaim all limit. We hear him, also, thundering marvellously with his voice; we see him sending forth lightnings with rain, making the earth to tremble, and the mountains to fall, pouring out rivers of fire from the volcano, and whelming cities and countries in a general conflagration.

On the other hand, what pleasing and glorious proofs of the same power are exhibited in its softer and gentler, its less awful, but not less solemn exertions through the circuit of the seasons in the spring, particularly; when God appears as the light of the morning when the sun ariseth, even of a morning without clouds; and as the clear shining of the sun after rain upon the tender herb of the field. Then, with a hand eminently attractive and wonderful, he diffuses life, and warmth, and beauty, and glory, over the face of the world; and from the death of winter, bids all things awake with a general and delightful resurrection. The successive seasons are replete with successive wonders, wrought by the same almighty hand. Day unto day, indeed, uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge, concerning this great subject. He who does not mark these astonishing disclosures, made in heaven and in earth, in ten thousand and ten million forms, must be a brute; and he, who, surveying them, does not regard God as infinitely wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working, has indeed eyes but he sees not; ears, but he cannot hear; and a heart, but he cannot understand. Every good man, on the contrary, must admire and adore Him, who doeth all these things; must rejoice with humble gratitude, and divine joy, in all the stupendous displays of his goodness; must tremble at the terrible things, which he doeth in righteousness, when his judgments are abroad in the earth; and must on every occasion be ready to exclaim: Who is like unto thee, O Lord? glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders.

SERMON VIII.

BENEVOLENCE OF GOD

PROVED FROM THE

WORKS OF CREATION AND PROVIDENCE.

1 JOHN iv. 8.

For God is love.

HAVING considered the existence, and the natural attributes, of God, at some length; I shall now proceed to the next subject of theological inquiry; viz. his moral attributes. In the order, best suited to the method of discussion, which I have preferred, that, which first offers itself for examination, is his Benevolence.

This perfection is ascribed to God in the text, in a singular manner. It is not asserted, that God is benevolent, but that he is Benevolence; or that Benevolence is the essence, the sum, of his being and character. The force, and beauty, of this assertion will be felt by every one, who attends to it, without any remarks from me.

That Ayan signifies the kind of Love, which in English is called Benevolence, will not, I presume, be questioned. If any one is at a loss concerning this fact; he may be satisfied by reading St. Paul's extensive definition of this word, contained in the 13th chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians.

In canvassing this important subject, I propose to inquire in what manner it is exhibited to us, in the