"God is love," and the plan of redemption which it unfolds, is a most sublime and glorious display of benignity and mercy, on the part of the Father who gave his Son, and of the Son who voluntarily shed his blood, for the expiation of human guilt. In fact, our admiration for the Christian system arises chiefly from the circumstance, that it diffuses a brighter and more attractive lustre over the amiable perfections of the Godhead, than any other scheme which has yet been presented to mankind. It exhibits Jehovah as looking with the tenderest emotions on his fallen creatures-as employing all the resources of his matchless wisdom in the contrivance of a method for their rescue-as consenting to sacrifice his only-begotten and well-beloved Son for the accomplishment of the benign object which he had in view-as sending forth his Spirit to co-operate in the furtherance of such object-as devising a system of means through which he might make known to men the expedient invented for their relief, and urge them to the acceptance of the benefits provided for them as manifesting the utmost forbearance towards those who neglect or despise these means, and at last consigning them to misery, only when they have become so hardened, that there is no longer any possibility of their amelioration. Yes, when we contemplate these prominent features of the gospel, we are prepared to say, that it spreads a moral beauty around the character of Deity, far transcending any with which the speculations of philosophers have been able to invest the divine nature.

But while we entertain the most exalted ideas of the benevolence of God, we cannot admit, that he is a being whose general and uncovenanted mercy affords a safe ground of confidence to the violators of his law. We cannot believe, that his goodness is of such a kind as to render him indifferent to the distinctions of moral charac

ter among men. We should presume, that in him justice is an attribute as essential as clemency. The unsophisticated deductions of reason would lead to this conclusion. And when we look abroad upon the works of nature, we think that we behold a numerous and various class of facts, from which we may infer, that the Governor of the universe can inflict misery, as well as confer happiness. What means the volcano which emits its liquid fire, and dosolates a city in an instant? What means the pestilence that walketh in darkness, and what the destruction that wasteth at noon-day? What mean the whirlwind and the storm, that level with the dust the loftiest and firmest habitations of man, leaving man himself, the inhabitant, a part of the ruins? Tell us, soft and sentimental religionist, are these the doings of a God, whose only attribute is mercy, and who cannot, under any circumstances, be provoked to punish the guilty? It may be replied, that they are events which, though calamitous for a season, may contribute, in the end, to subserve the purposes of infinite benevolence. We admit the correctness of the suggestion. But we cannot see, that it furnishes any argument against the justice of Deity for which we are now contending. We can cheerfully subscribe to the doctrine of the poet, who, contemplating the universe as a stupendous whole, pronounces,

"All discord harmony not understood,

All partial evil universal good."

But we must protest against the inference which some would deduce from this doctrine. Let us not suppose, that because God renders evil the means of producing eventual good, such evil is not, in any instance, to be regarded as an expression of the Divine displeasure against sin; or, in other words, as the penal consequence of transgression. The misery which overtakes the guilty, may

be instrumental in swelling the aggregate amount of general happiness in the universe. And yet this circumstance, while it tends illustriously to display the wisdom and the benignity of the Most High, is surely no evidence, that the amiable perfections which belong to his nature, may not co-exist in harmony with others of a sterner character. The moral government which he exercises over this world, so far as we can trace its operations and ascertain its principles, indicates a disposition to punish vice. Of the future state reason has no knowledge beyond the imperfect conjectures which the argument from analogy affords. These conjectures fully coincide with present observation, and thus leave upon the mind the impression, that justice, no less than goodness, has its influence in the divine administration.

Again, if the character of God, as delineated on the works of nature, does not correspond with what the rejecters of the gospel imagine, it is still more emphatically certain, that the character of God, as exhibited in his own Word, is totally at variance with the views which they entertain. The Deity of the Bible is a being whose benevolence does not absorb all his other perfections, but in whom mercy and justice, goodness and severity, are awfully and gloriously combined. He is full of compassion for the miserable, and of forbearance towards the disobedient. And yet he "will by no means clear the guilty." The history of his dealings with man, recorded in the sacred volume, furnishes the amplest evidence, that while he desires the happiness of our race, and "has no pleasure in the death of the wicked," he utterly abhors sin, and cannot do other than punish the sinner. Behold the expulsion of our first parents from the garden which they had profaned by their disobedience. Behold the antediluvian world rendered desolate for the

guilt of its inhabitants. Behold the cities of the plain consumed by fire from heaven, because ten righteous persons could not be found within their walls. Behold the signal disasters inflicted, at different periods, upon the Jews for their idolatry. Do not these, and numberless facts of a similar kind, with which we are all familiar, abundantly demonstrate, that they who rely for acceptance with Jehovah, on the general benevolence of his nature, are "hewing out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water?"

Upon the whole, the gospel presents you, dear hearers, with the only secure basis on which to rear your hopes for eternity. It teaches you, that the Deity who is just, as well as good, has devised a plan by which he can exercise his goodness towards our fallen race, without doing violence to his justice. To use its own language, than which none could be more expressive, it shows us how "God can be just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." This wonderful contrivance of Heaven for the benefit of earth, has removed every obstacle to the display of the divine benignity. It has opened a fountain broad and deep and full, from which the living waters of salvation may be dispensed, without money and without price, to perishing men.-Blessed, thrice blessed, is he who repairs to this fountain! Wretched beyond expression is he who forsakes it!

The passage of Scripture to which we have now endeavoured to direct your attention, ought to awaken the deepest anxiety in the bosom of every individual who is conscious that he has not humbly submitted to the terms of the gospel. It has been shown that his conduct is criminal in a very high degree. The inhabitants of heaven are here called upon to behold it with amazement and consteruation. And what offence, we would ask, can be

greater than that of rejecting blessings which God has purchased for mankind, by the mysterious sacrifice of his own Son? Let us suppose that a culprit has been condemned to death, and that at the very moment when all things are in readiness for his execution, he is informed of a plan devised for his rescue-a plan, the accomplishment of which was attended with vast expense to the dispenser of pardon, but of which the dying man may at once avail himself, on certain conditions reasonable and easy to be complied with. Would we not think it the extreme of fatuity in such a culprit to refuse the boon of life thus tendered to his acceptance? Would we not look upon his refusal as an indignity to the chief magistrate who had so kindly interposed for his relief? And yet this imaginary case affords only a faint emblem of the folly and the guilt of him who neglects the great salvation provided in the gospel, and resolves to risk his eternal destiny upon views of the divine character and of human duty, for which he has no higher sanction than the dictates of his own erring reason.

Permit us, dear hearers, to urge upon you, one and all, the prompt and cordial acceptance of the blessings proffered in this gospel, which it is our business to preach. Believe us, Christianity is the only system of faith that can administer effectual solace under the severe trials of life. And it is the only system which can sustain and comfort you in the terrific hour of death. Ah! you will then find, that those vague impressions of the divine benevolence, on which you now so confidently rest, will not do to die by-will not meet the exigences of the departing spirit. We are sure, impenitent sinner, that when you are trembling on the brink of the eternal world, you will wish that you had received and obeyed the gospel of the Son of God-you will see the emptiness of those cis