who must be worshipped in spirit and in truth.

4. If it is owing to divine mercy that we are not consumed, then we are all under very great obligations, this day, to give thanks to the Father of mercies and God of all grace. He hath spared our lives and prolonged our day of grace, while many have gone down to the grave, and to the pit of despair. We have been favoured with an unusual degree of health, the greatest of temporal blessings.The earth has yielded her increase. The labours of our hands have been blessed. God hath crowned the year with his goodness. Let us, then, be thankful unto Him, and devoutly bless his holy name. This is a pleasant, solemn, joyful duty, from which none can be exempted. It is proper, under all circumstances, to observe our annual thanksgivings; because there is never a year, when we are not, as individuals, and as a people, under weighty and endearing obligations to our Heavenly Preserver and Benefactor. Every individual ought sincerely and cordially to join in our public expression of thanksgiving and praise. Though some have received fewer favours than others, and some may have experienced sickness, losses and bereavements; yet all have received favours innumerable and inexpressably great; for it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

Let none then, imagine, that they may refuse to unite in humble and hearty thanksgiving, without giving great offence to Him, whose goodness and long suffering they daily experience. Nothing can hinder any one from the performance of this duty, but a selfish, proud, impenitent heart..

Let us, then, each one, sincerely adopt the words of David, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits." Happy are all those, who find it in their hearts to be truly thankful this day. They are saints, and in favour with God: they are prepared to rejoice, as long as they live, in the God of their salvation, and hereafter to behold the beatific presence of their Lord and Saviour, with exceeding joy forever.

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Miserable are those, who have no heart to give thanks to God for his loving kindness and tender mercy. With all their possessions, they are poor indeed with all, their sensual pleasures, they are wretched. They have no part in the holy joy of saints. They may indulge themselves in vain mirth; but 'sorrow is better than such laughter; for it is mad. God 'gives them their desires, He sends leanness into their souls.'The 'prosperity of such fools, shall destroy them.' To them may be pertinently addressed the exhortion of James, "Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." Amen.

In this light they can always see light respecting all the objects and events that come within the circle of their knowledge. Hence the most eminent saints have always had a supreme and increasing desire to become intimately acquainted with God, and to penetrate the incomprehensible perfections of his great and glorious character. David says of himself, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord forever, to be hold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple." Speak ing of the saints he says, "They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thine house, and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of light; in thy light we shall see light. And in the 63d psalm he says, "O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth, for thee; my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory as I have seen thee in the sanctuary." Moses had a supreme desire to see God as he is, and said in prayer to him, "I beseech thee, show me thy glory." Indeed, such a desire is the spontaneous sentiment of every pious heart. And a clear and full view of the divine character, is instead of all other objects and motives, to "strike all sin forever dead," and give life and elevation to piety. Nor can there be proposed any valuable end to be answered by the preaching of the gospel, but what the faithful exhibition of the true character of God is directly adapted to promote, and the concealment of it effectually to hinder. There is no other way in which a religious teacher can coincide with the leading design of God in his providence, but to make mankind understand the true char

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acter of God. That his name might be declared throughout all the earth, is the reason God usually assigns in his word, for performing his mighty deeds among all nations. Accordingly to "publish the name of the Lord," was the great burden of the preaching of Moses and the prophets, of Jesus Christ and the apostles. Moses says, "My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass; because I will publish the name of the Lord." The Lord Jesus said to his Father, "I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be where I am; that they may behold my glory. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. declared unto them thy name and will declare it." In the seven, teenth chapter of Acts we have recorded an example of Paul's preaching to the heathen, when he found an altar with this inscription, "To the unknown God;" whom there fore, said he, ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. He there delineated the being and perfections of the true God; which was the means of converting Dionysius, Damaris, and several others. Christ and him crucified, or the being and perfections of God, which were so clearly manifested in the work of redemption, was the great burden of the apostles preaching, which was made the power of God, and the wisdom of God, to such multitudes in the first century. By exhibiting the light of truth respecting the tre God, the apostles and their successors penetrated and in a good measure dissipated the gross darkness and delusion of the principal heathen nations, and turned great numbers of them from their idolatry to the service of the

living and true God. And though false and unfaithful teachers of religion, who have denied or concealed the leading truths respecting the true God, have sometimes been apparently more successful among the foolish and sinful race of Adam, who like not to retain the true God in their knowledge; still the faithful exhibition of the truth respecting the true God, has ever been the only means of promoting true holiness, or permanent morality.Nothing else ever had, or can have, a divine, transforming influence upon mankind, and be instrumental of conforming them to the moral image of their Creator. "But we all," says an apostle, "with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord."

It was seeing God as he is, that led Job to exercise such deep repentance, and nothing else ever led any other saints or sinners to exercise true "repentance towards God."

It is proposed, in this essay, briefly to describe the true charac ter of God, show what is implied in seeing him as he is, and illustrate the practical influence of a faithful and constant exhibition of his true character.

When we extend our thoughts to God, one of the first impressions we receive is that of hisgreatness or sublimity. Those who have penetrated the deepest by their enquiries into the divine attributes, have been the most thorougly convinced that "none by searching can find out the Almighty unto perfection." "Our eyes can perceive without difficulty the scattered rays of the sun; but if we fix them steadily upon the sun itself, we are immediately involved in darkness by a profusion of ight. So our general views of Deity are clear and distinct; but if

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we take a more particular and steady survey of the divine mind, our mental sight is confused by the greatness and brightness of the object." But the greatness of any object does not make it impossible to obtain any true knowledge of it. Creatures may obtain a true, though not a perfect knowledge of their Creator. We can obtain clear and just views of all his perfections, though we cannot know the ground or comprehend the greatness of any of them. And what can be known by us respecting God, can be described. By having clear and just views of the divine attributes, we may be said to have clear and just views of God, and by describing his attributes, we describe his character. And here it may be said,

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That God possesses infinite knowledge. "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world," or from eternity. He knew from eternity the number, the capacity, the character, and the final destiny of all the creatures that have ever existed, or that ever will exist. He perfectly knows the number, the magnitude and the nature of all created objects. knows all things that have been, that now are, that will be, or that might be; and consequently his knowledge comprehends all beings, objects and events within the compass of possibility. His knowledge is intuitive, and covers all space and duration. He perfectly knows every thought that all creatures ever had, have now, or will have to all eternity. The Psalmist says, "O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou understandest my thoughts afar off. Thou compassest my path, and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways." It is written, "The ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings.

Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have "to do." The knowledge of God enables him exactly to measure the guilt of every sin that ever was or will be committed, and the exact amount of guilt that is, or ever will be chargeable to every creature.There can be no object or objects to bound his knowledge, not even his own existence, the nature, extent, and ground of which he perfectly comprehends,

God possesses infinite power. With God, says our Saviour, all things are possible. And from the created universe we know, that the power of God can meet with no resistance or obstruction within the bounds of possibility or space. The present created system is to us incomprehensibly great, but we can easily conceive that God might con tinue to create within the bounds of unlimited space, until the number of systems would be greater than we can compute or conceive. No created power, that ever was, or will be, or might be, can resist his will, which created, and constantly upholds and governs all things.

God is every where present.From the fact that all creatures constantly live and move and have their being in him, it is certain to a demonstration that his presence fills every place where creatures exist. It is written, "Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be

light about me." God is as much present at one time and place as another, with one creature as with another, and with all creatures as with one. The lowest hell is no further from his presence, than any place in heaven.

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This infinitely great, wise, powerful, and every where present 7 being, is also infinitely good. His goodness bears a just proportion to his natural attributes, and constitutes the beauty and glory of his character. It is pure, permanent, and as universal as his presence.It extends to every being and object in the universe, and constantly directs all the movements of his hand in heaven, earth and hell. It consists in love of holiness and happiness, and hatred of sin and misery, according to their nature and importance. It is impartial, universal and disinterested, and leads him to regard every object and being according and in a just proportion to their intrinsic loveliness and importance. The goodness of God leads him to love and regard holiness, and hate and abhor sin infinitely more than he loves and regards happiness and hates misery; because holiness is infinitely more lovely, excellent and important in its own nature, than happiness, and sin infinitely more hateful and undesirable than misery. To make the interests of happiness subserve the interests of holiness, will be an eternal manifestation of his infinite goodness. Goodness is the most active principle in the universe, and always moves its possessor to do the greatest amount of good of which he is capable. This glorious perfection of the Deity, moved him from eternity to adopt the best possible method of accomplishing the greatest amount of good.It guided his infinite knowledge, wisdom and power, to choose and