each of these cases, the sufferers were first actual rebels against God. But if you look to the cross of Christ, there you will see the beloved of the Father, higher than the angels, set forth to be a propitiation for sin, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, that he might be just (appear so in the eyes of men and angels) and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus, Rom. iii. 26.

We have often appealed to the death of Christ, and shall hereafter, yet, we hope, without the charge of needless repetition: because this marvellous fact, considered in different views, affords the strongest proof of different perfections in God. At present it is urged in demonstration of his infinite hatred of sin. In this light, it may be well illustrated by a remarkable passage in sacred history. We read that the Moabites, 2 Kings, ch. iii, fled before the kings of Israel and Judah, and, after a great slaughter, were forced to retire with their king into their city. Here finding himself reduced to the last extremity by his besiegers, he made use of an astonishing method to shew his great indignation against Israel. For he took his eldest son, the heir of his kingdom, and, in the sight of his enemies, offered him up a burnt-offering upon the wall. He obtained his purpose; the kings of Israel and Judah, amazed at the fury which urged him to such a deed, returned instantly to their own country.

This most memorable example, taken in one point of view, applies perfectly well to the subject we are upon. For the eternal Father, after using promises and threatenings, after bestowing mercies and executing judgments, still seeing our sins reach up to Heaven, as if they meant to besiege his throne, expresses infinite indignation against our rebellion: he takes his only begotten Son, the heir of all things,

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and, in the sight of heaven and earth, cries out, "Awake, O sword! and smite my shepherd, the man that is my fellow (my equal) saith the Lord of hosts." That, from this fact, we might always remember the divine indignation kindled by our offen, ces, and be assured that our God will be a consuming fire to sinners, who plead not this oblation of Christ on the cross, to obtain pardon and victory over sin.

We produced, in the last chapter, many declarations of the distinguishing love exercised by the Almighty towards each individual who walks before him humbly. The history of providence attests this. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, because unconquerably attached to the truth and authority of his Maker, amidst the abounding impieties of his kindred, is taken from them in a way, which at once immortalizes his own name, and proclaims the love which God bears to all his saints. Before this illustrious fact could be forgotten, Noah, like the ark, which preserved him and his family, is lifted up to the notice of the whole world, as an everlasting me. morial, that, in the most desolating judgments, the care of each individual saint is with the Most High. In the case of righteous Lot, the same peculiar love is again manifested; and two assertions are made upon this occasion, expressing the tenderest regard to his faithful servants. Sodom itself, it is said, should have been spared for the sake of ten righteous persons, had only so small a number been found within its walls. We are also assured, that, till Lot was escaped and safe, vengeance could not be poured out on that detested city. In the same animating and comfortable view, we are to ponder on the history of Joseph; the peculiar favour Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, found with the Lord, and they only of all Israel,

who came out of Egypt. To the same purpose we are to consider David's astonishing preservation, in spite of all the bloody-minded Saul could do; Elijah's miraculous ascension into Heaven; the three Hebrew youths walking in the midst of a fiery furnace; and Daniel's inviolable safety in the den with ravenous hunger-bitten lions. All these are witnesses chosen of God, and established by mira. cles wrought in their favour, as precedents to assure every dear obedient child of God, who in a measure copies the pattern they set before him, that his self, no less than they were, is the objects of God's special care and love. And though we see not now the course of nature over-ruled for the deliverance of the faithful, still the comprehensive promise of the unchangeable Jehovah abideth sure; "He knoweth them that are his, and will make all things work together for good to them that love him," and are called according to his purpose.

We read also in scripture a demonstration, in facts, of God's holiness. Many awful instances of immediate vengeance, executed on presumptuous offenders, are recorded in his oracles. Scarcely can you name one sin, which has not been singled out as the object of his hot displeasure. Ham mocking his excellent father, betrayed for once into excessive drinking, is cursed; Onan, for self-pollution, slain on the spot; Lot's wife, full of worldly cares, and lusting after wealth, is turned into a pillar of salt, where she turned back in her heart to Sodom. Envy and aspiring pride are punished with horrible destruction in Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. In Achan's fate, and Gehazi's leprosy, we see how God abhorreth the covetous. Behold, thou vile advocate for fornication, the javelin of Phineas thrust through Zimri and Coshi his paramour; an act of justice so grateful to God, as to be rewarded with highest honour in the

family of Phineas for many generations. Give up thy favourite conceit, that whoremongers God will not judge; for, behold, three and twenty thousand are cut off by him, for this sin, in one day. Stand astonished at the divine patience towards thee, thou lying tongue, when thou readest how Ananias and Sapphira perished with the breath of falsehood on their lips! Ponder well thy fellow criminals' doom, thou despiser of Jesus, and see what infernal malice actuates thy heart, which seeks to pervert the right ways of the truth, when Elymas, the sorcerer, is set before thee as an enemy to all goodness, a child of the Devil, and smitten with blindness, by the act of God, for his infidelity. Understand, from the ignominious death of Herod, that self-exaltation is an abomination to the Lord; for, behold, the royal deified orator, after receiving, as his due, the shout of blasphemous applause, is immediately stricken by the angel of the Lord, "because he gave not God the glory; and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost."

All these instances, and many more recited in holy writ, undeniably prove, that wherever envy or malice, covetousness or pride, profaneness, impurity, or any temper contrary to God's law prevails, there the wrath of God abideth, and must abide, till it be done away.

Such, in his natural and moral perfections, in his government and providence towards his whole rational creation, is the true God. And that there is only one God, in all, and through all, and over all, the scripture most plainly affirms. "I, even I, am he, and there is no God with me. Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I am the first, and I am the last, and beside me there is no God." Yet the same scripture, with equal plainness of expression, teaches us, that in this uni

ty, the Son and Spirit are comprehended, in glory equal, in majesty co-eternal, with the Father. Without controversy, great is this mystery of godliness; yet it must be received, because divine perfections, which cannot consist with the condition of creatures, being the essential glory of God above them all, we are assured, the Son and the Spirit possess. Eternity, omnipresence, infinite knowledge, and almighty power belong to them; therefore, together with the Father, are they to be worshipped and glorified. God the Father, Son, and Spirit, is the God of the Christian church. Jews and Turks openly revile this mystery as execrable blasphemy; and baptized apostates, not able to brook implicit submission to the oracles of God, heartily join with them. But the church universal (i. e. all the assemblies of Christ's people) unanimously acquiescing in the word of God, and perfectly satisfied with its naked declaration, dedicate their children in baptism to the ever-blessed Trinity, and continually conclude their public worship with prayer to partake of the distinct blessings each of these sacred three impart, entreating that the love of God the Father, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, may be with us all.

Examine, therefore, and prove yourself, whether your idea of God be faithfully copied from the scripture? Whether you do not remain in gross and fatal ignorance of his real character, notwithstanding the complete manner in which he has revealed himself in his own word? Take it by no means for granted, that you are in reality what you profess, a Christian, knowing God. For thousands thus flatter themselves, whilst their ideas of him are detestable in his sight. Search, therefore, the matter to the bottom, and see whether you heartily acknowledge God is what he declares himself to be, in those