We are all his offspring. Acrs xvii. 19.

WHEN the celebrated poet and orator, Simonides, was asked by the king of Syracuse, What God was? he desired a day to consider of it; when that time was over, he requested two more; when these terminated, he demanded four. Having repeatedly doubled the time, the king at length inquired the reasons of the delay; he then made this celebrated reply; "Because the more deeply I enter into the subject, the more obscure it appears." The real nature, the actual essence of God, we cannot indeed discover; but from scripture in general, and especially from the

New Testament, we can obtain, what is to us of far greater importance, a knowledge of his attributes and perfections; and of his designs respecting ourselves: enough may be drawn from that source to excite gratitude, worship, obedience, and trust. The goodness of God is all in all to us. Other perfections of the Deity may raise our astonishment; his eternity may fill us with awe, his omnipotence and power may promote reverence, his justice and truth we may behold with admiration, but his goodness is the attribute in which, as sinners, we feel ourselves peculiarly interested. Where shall we find this gracious attribute more clearly displayed, than in the life and writings of our Saviour? There we behold in characters, simple as the alphabet of a child, and sublime as the language of angels, "God is love."

The words I have chosen as a motto, are taken from a discourse delivered by St. Paul to the Athenians; the whole of which is one continued argument in favour of this doctrine. I shall not now enter into a discussion on the merits of this discourse; I shall not call your attention to (what well deserves our admiration) the oratory it contained, or the eloquence with which it was delivered; the occasion which called it forth, or the excellent sentiments expressed in every

sentence. I shall merely read a few verses immediately preceding the text, which directly apply to the subject before us. "God that made the world, and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all, life and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation." And why has he done this?" That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us; for in him we live, and move, and have our being;" as certain of your own poets have said,

"For we his offspring are;"

To give it (as Doddridge beautifully has) a poetical turn. Does not this strikingly exhibit the goodness of God in the moral world?

Before I enter on the division of my subject, I shall endeavour to show the difference which subsists between the expressions, natural and moral.

Two examples will serve to exemplify this; the one of pain, the other of pleasure.

If a person, by any accident, breaks a bone, let him be of what character he will, he will feel pain; but if the accident be occasioned by his intemperance, or vice, he will feel another kind of pain; remorse will then enter his bosom; this is a moral feeling, the other was a natural one. Again, suppose a person unintentionally to have done a piece of service to a friend, he would doubtless feel happy when informed of it; but if it had been in consequence of his own exertions, and earnest endeavours in the cause, would he not experience a superior gratification? This is a moral pleasure, the other was a natural one.

I have been the more nice in discriminating between these two ideas, since within the last fifteen or twenty years, philosophers have arisen in the world, who have strangely confounded these expressions.

I shall draw four arguments to prove the goodness of God, as exhibited in the moral world.

1. From analogy.

Is not every thing in nature formed for

the comfort of our bodies, and the gratification of our senses? Has he not placed our earth exactly at that distance from the sun, which is to us desirable? Were we nearer to it, or more remote, we could not exist. Has he not made the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser, the night, and caused the variation of the seasons, to contribute to our comfort? Has he not created animals for our use, to carry us from place to place, to nourish us with their milk, and when dead, to support us with their substance? Has he not formed millions of creatures to exist in the water, where quadrupeds could not breathe? Do not many live in the air, where we could not walk? Is not every particle in nature so full of living creatures, that if we take a drop of water from the purest spring, and examine it by a microscope, we shall discover that it teems with life? And will God desert the creatures he has formed, and for whose comfort he daily provides? What should we say to the parent, who, after spending a large fortune in erecting a house for his son, should leave him nothing with which to possess it? And can we for a moment suppose, that God would act in a manner so inconsistent with the goodness of his nature?