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man being upon another? Can the foul retreats of gluttony, drunkenness, and lewdness be objects of his complacency? Who can hesitate to believe, that He will avenge himself of such adversaries to his character, law, and government, and wipe them as a blot out of his creation?

But all this notwithstanding, the sinner has no reason to despair of the mercy of God. The work of saving them that were lost was not begun without the most ample view of its wisdom and propriety. God did not send his Son, to live a life of humiliation in this miserable world, and to die the accursed death, without counting the cost. He did not send his Spirit to sanctify the polluted soul of man, and to wash the rebel in the blood which cleanseth from all sin, without being perfectly aware of the whole nature and absolute propriety of this stupendous transaction. Accordingly, we are told that the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. From the beginning to the present time he has gone on giving his renewing and purifying grace to just such sinners, and calling them into his kingdom, and has never once repented that he began the work, nor for a moment intermitted its continuance. Turn your eyes to the heavenly world, and you will there find millions of just such sinners walking in the light of eternal day. There you will find David, once an adulterer and a murderer: there you will find Paul, once a blasphemer and a persecutor: there you will find Peter, who denied his Master, and perjured himself; there you will find an endless multitude more, whose sins, drawn out in order and displayed in their proper colours, would overwhelm you as well as them with amazement and horror. But they are washed, they are sanctified, they are justified in the blood of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

With this wonderful object before him, what sinner can rationally despair of the divine mercy? What sinner will not be encouraged to forsake his sins, and to hope for pardon and acceptance? Not indeed from any apprehensions of his own worth, his importance in the divine kingdom, or any need which he may suppose God has of him, or his services, but from

mere grace, from the overflowing mercy and goodness of his Creator.

With this subject sinners usually begin wrong, and thence both think and act in a manner dangerously erroneous. Usually, at least, they place all their hopes in themselves, in something which they are, something which they have done, or something which they have not done, their importance in the divine kingdom; some goodness of character, which they suppose themselves to possess; or their freedom from sin, existing in such a degree as to make it impossible for God to punish them hereafter. These, to say the least, are all mistaken and unhappy foundations on which to rest our hopes of salvation. The true ground of a sinner's hope is not that he is so good, or in so small a degree wicked; not that he is undeserv ing of punishment, but that God is so willing to forgive his sin. On this foundation he may safely build his hopes. All else is sand; this is a rock which can never be moved.

IX. This doctrine teaches every Christian to feel and acknowledge, that both his character and his hopes are all derived from the sovereign pleasure of God.

Look into your hearts and lives, my brethren, and ask yourselves whether there is, or ever was, any thing in them which, even in your own opinion, God could consider as a reason why he should sanctify and save you. Is there, has there ever been, any thing in your character or your conduct, which you are able to allege as a reason why God should receive you into his favour? When you take a retrospect of what you have been, or what you have done, do you find any thing by which you would be willing to be tried, and on the ground of which you would be willing to have your allotments fixed for eternity? You are undoubtedly accustomed at times to examine the foundation of your hopes. In such examinations, on what have you reposed yourselves? Has it been your own righteousness, or has it been the merits of your Redeemer, and the mercy of your Creator. You are often summoned to the table of Christ. Mark the wonders which it presents to your view.

Consider who he was that is here commemorated, what he did, and what he suffered. Remember, that stones in the street might have been in your place; animated with living souls; changed into men better than yourselves; and now looking forward with brighter hopes of a happy eternity.

With this affecting consideration in full view, let each of you ask himself, "Why was I made to hear the voice of the "Son of God, and live. Why was I not a heathen, an infi"del, an atheist? Why was I not cast off for ever? Why "am I not now weeping and wailing in the blackness of dark"ness, and suffering the vengeance of eternal life? Why am "I permitted to sing the praises of forgiving, redeeming, and "sanctifying love? Why am I permitted to rejoice in innu❝merable blessings which are past, and to supplicate far more "and greater blessings yet to come? Why can I look for"ward to death, the grave, and the judgment, not only with"out horror, but even with hope? Why am I able on the wings of faith to enter eternity, and humbly to expect, as

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my unchangeable portion there, an exceeding and eternal "weight of glory? In answer to all these questions, you will "be compelled to exclaim, Even so, Father; for so it seem"eth good in thy sight.""

SERMON VIII.

GOD'S WAYS NOT AS OUR WAYS.

ISAIAH LV. 8-9.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah.

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways

higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

WHENEVER We consider, originally, a revelation of the will of God as a subject of investigation, we are, perhaps always, prepared either to discover or to imagine difficulties attending such a work. That it may be attended with difficulties is universally admitted; that it must be, is to my own mind equally evident. Of these some will owe their origin to our disposition, and others to our ignorance. The disposition of man is evidently opposed to what must be the will of so perfect and glorious a being as God, and to the duties which such a being cannot fail to require. The actual expressions of the will of God in his providence are, in multiplied instances, strenuously opposed by our race. To question, to murmur, and to rebel against the divine government, is extensively as well as plainly characteristical of man, and clearly congenial to the human heart. A revelation, disclosing to us further accounts of the divine pleasure, and making it more distinctly known, must accord with those parts of that pleasure which are discovered in creation and providence. It must, therefore, be regarded as a thing of course, that we should be prepared to find fault with such a revelation. Nay, it ought to be expected, that we should

murmur against it with more dissatisfaction, and oppose it with more hostility, because it would more distinctly unfold the will of its author. If the character and pleasure of God, when seen imperfectly, awaken dislike, the same things, when more fully seen, must awaken greater dislike in the same mind.

But all the difficulties attending such a work do not arise from our dispositions. Not a small number of them are derived from our ignorance: the works of God are filled with difficulties of this nature. It is rationally to be supposed, that such a revelation would, in greater or less degrees, be fraught with them also.

When things which we have not known before are revealed to us, the revelation necessarily communicates various other things, with which these are inseparably connected. The things revealed are naturally attended with the same difficulties, or at least with a part of them, which are found in the works of God; and the things connected with these, and necessarily yet imperfectly disclosed in such a revelation, must involve more if not greater difficulties, from the imperfection of the disclosure. As the field of knowledge is boundless, and as our faculties continue the same, whatever the revelation may be, our perplexities must increase with every enlargement of its discoveries. Every thing revealed to us must, of course, disclose imperfectly many with which it is connected, and our perplexities must multiply at every step in the progress of the revelation.

Accordant with this account,, I readily acknowledge, is the nature of the Scriptures, the professed revelation of the character and will of God. There are in this volume many things which are hard to be understood; difficulties, which will seem such to a mind well disposed, which will puzzle all readers, and leave most not unfrequently in the dark.

To show that these things are no objections against the Scriptures, and ought not for a moment to perplex those who believe in them, or hinder the faith of those who do not, is the design of the following discourse. It is my intention to show that these difficult and incomprehensible things are things of course, and, in the nature of the case, necessary and unavoid

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