day. If he turn not, he will whet his sword: he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.-Upon the ungodly he shall rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and an horrible tempest; this shall be their portion to drink :-for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, his countenance will behold the thing that is just.-The Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots, like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire; for by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh, and the slain of the Lord shall be many. And they shall go forth, and look upon the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh."

To comment on these nervous expressions would be to enfeeble them. To suppose them figurative expressions, in such a sense as not most emphatically to affirm God's utter abhorrence of sin, and his determined purpose to cast into hell those who die in their sins, is, in fact, to contradict them. Instead of cavilling at them, or vainly endeavouring to explain them away, let us receive them with awe and fear. This is the end which they are intended to produce. "Hear ye, and give ear, for the Lord hath spoken: behold, I will execute judgment; vengeance is mine, I will repay."

If any additional proof were wanting to confute the false and dangerous opinion of those who vainly suppose the Deity to be all mercy; and who pretend to be shocked at the notion of a God who will not let the wicked pass unpunished; it may be derived from the attestations of our Saviour. Yes, the only-begotten of the Father, who cannot deceive, who has shewn the perfection of benevolence towards sinners, since he laid down his life for them on the cross, has confirmed, by his own declarations, all the denunciations of wrath above-mentioned. He declares that in the last day, all nations shall be gathered before him, and at that most solemn time, in the hearing of the whole rational creation, he will say to all them on the left hand, that is, to the vast multitudes of obstinate and incorrigible sinners, "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."*

*See Prayer the 2d.

CHAPTER IV.

THE CHARACTER OF GOD EXEMPLIFIED.

In our last chapter we have the character of God, given by his own inspired penmen. We have seen that they represent him as a Being merciful and yet just; merciful, even abounding in grace towards his obedient children; but just to those who despise him, in bringing upon them all the curses written in his book. By this disposition towards both, he appears infinitely holy and reverend, and his character gives the greatest encouragement to the exercise of faith in his name, and to the practice of righteousness for his sake.

But if the character of God were only marked out to us by his own declarations, we should be apt (such is our nature) to be only faintly impressed by it. To give it weight sufficient to regulate our practice, the character must be made still more conspicuous by actions. There must be facts, established upon such authority, that we can no more question their truth, than if with our own eyes we had seen them performed; facts expressive of the very same perfections in God, which his word declares he possesses. Accordingly the method of God's procedure, both with angels and men, is an additional and the strongest confirmation possible that he is good, merciful, and holy; that he abounds in love towards his faithful people, but is the dreadful avenger of iniquity.

With respect to the goodness of God, it shines forth in all the excellencies which angels possess, and all the bliss they inherit, who have never fallen from God, nor left that glorious habitation he of his bounty provided for them.

On man, as he came immediately out of the hands of his creator, and whilst he stood in his first estate, the signatures of the divine goodness were so strongly impressed, as to excite envy in one who had himself experienced the happiness of angels.-Adam was created full of light and knowledge, of purity and peace, of delight and blessedness. He was formed in the image of God: he was invested with dominion over the animal creation. He was

not only conscious of the favour of his infinitely powerful and beneficent Creator, but he was admitted to hold personal communion with him. Thus was he made only a little lower than the angels themselves, who shouted for joy at the display of the goodness of God, manifested in the happiness of man. In this state of perfection Adam stood: he was put in possession of it for himself and all his progeny; incapable of forfeiting or diminishing it but by his own wilful apostacy.

Now, who can consider this account of man's original happiness, and not admire the benevolence of Him who was the author of it? Who can survey the riches of the inheritance provided for Adam, compared to which, the glory of Solomon was but the wretchedness of a captive exile, and not adore the infinite goodness of the Creator?

Again; when Adam through the envy and malice of the devil, operating in a manner too mysterious for us to comprehend, revolted from his Maker, and requited his bounty with the execrable insult of believing Satan to be a better friend to his welfare than God; though the hideous deed could not but draw innumerable miseries after it; yet even then, behold the goodness of God shined brighter than it did even at the first creation, and "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." God instantly revives our most criminal and desponding parents with a promise of salvation. He promises, O astonishing love! to send an invincible deliverer into the world, even His own Son! To send him into the world:-not to receive the worship due unto his name; not to be adored by every heart, as the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth:-but to be defamed as a confederate with Satan, crucified as a blasphemer, and to die, being made a curse for us. "Herein is love! not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Could God say of his most corrupt and idolatrous people, "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? My heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together?" What then must be the workings of his love towards his own Son, the perfect image of himself, when he "delivered him up for our offences?" when he seemed as it were to divest himself of the qualities of a father towards his son, and

for our sakes, to assume the severe character of a judge. "Herein God commendeth his love;" he places it in the most advantageous point of light in which it can possibly be seen by angels or by men, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." The conclusion resulting from this amazing demonstration of goodness and mercy, the sending his Son, "to suffer for the unjust, and to bear our sins in his own body on the tree;" the conclusion is irresistible. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?"

And as the great God has thus by his actions proved himself to be good and merciful, so has he in the same way demonstrated that he is a holy God. For once, his word informs us, there was war in heaven, Satan and his angels rising up in enmity against their Maker. The criminals, from the brightness of glory which they possessed, were called "stars of heaven;"* yet, no sooner did they sin, than they were stripped of all their honours, and clothed with shame and everlasting contempt: from the height of happiness they were plunged into an abyss of misery: between them and God an impassable gulph was fixed, so that no means of reconciliation will be ever found, no terms of peace ever offered to them. God," saith St. Peter," spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment." This single fact is a sufficient demonstration that the Lord our God is holy. For should a king, famed for wisdom and for mercy, command persons of the first distinction around his throne to be cast into dungeons, and loaded with fetters, refusing ever to look on them again with favour, or hear a word in mitigation of their punishment; must not all his subjects conclude their offence was most detestable? And can we draw any other conclusion, when we read that the God who delighteth in mercy has, in the greatness of his displeasure, cast down from their thrones, where his own hand had placed them, so many shining angels, and made them examples, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire?

Another display of the holiness of God, in which all

* Rev. xii. 4.

the children of men have been deeply interested, is the execution of the punishment threatened to Adam our first father. The threat was, that upon disobedience, he should immediately suffer death. This death consisted in the loss of the image of God, in which he was created:-his body, after some years spent in toil and sorrow, returning to the dust from whence it was taken; and his soul, unless renewed after the image of God, enduring the pains of eternal death. The latter part of the penalty, we trust, he escaped, through the Mediator so graciously revealed to him; but of the accomplishment of the former part we, alas, are witnesses at this very hour. For what have we, in the place of Adam's original power, but weakness and helplessness? What, for his divine light and knowledge, but brutish ignorance? What, instead of his peace and communion with God, but natural dislike to him, and guilty fears about his intentions concerning us? What, instead of his perfect purity, but a heart so deceitful, and so desperately wicked, that God alone can know it? And, in the place of an Eden, contrived by infinite wisdom for delight and spiritual happiness, what but a world of confusion and sin, a field of battle, a vale of misery!

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If you ask, whence comes this total reverse of circumstances between the first man in innocence, and his posterity? God, who in justice ordained it, gives you this awful account of it; By the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation.-By one man's disobedience, many were made sinners." Ponder this in your heart, and you will not be able to refrain from crying out, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts."

Further, the dreadful execution of God's wrath upon all the world, puts the holiness of his nature beyond dispute. Before the death, even of all the children of those, who saw Adam for his sin an outcast from Paradise; the fountains of the great deep are broken up, the windows of heaven are open to destroy the whole human race then upon earth, except eight persons. And lest this destruction should not be judged the act and deed of God himself, as the holy governor of the world, and as a punishment for its sin, hear the God of all mercy, the giver of every good and perfect gift, the Father of the spirits of