mind, unrestrained by the awe, or the exertions, of Omnipotence, would naturally increase in its pride, selfishness, malice, and cruelty; in a general disregard to the well-being of others, and in a supreme devotion to its private, separate purposes. To all who oppose, to every thing which clashes with, these things, such a mind is of course an enemy. Nor can any bounds be set to this enmity, or to its effects, except by God himself. Were he to remain quiescent in mere kindness and good wishes to the universe, the schemes of personal greatness, oppression, rage, revenge, and fury, which would be formed by evil beings, cannot be measured. Every evil being would become a fiend; and to tempt a race, to ruin a world, and to involve a system in misery, would be familiar events in the annals of the universe.

2dly. What reason have Wicked men to fear the justice of God! The wicked are secured by God's perfect justice from the sufferance of any evil, which they have not deserved; but, at the same time, are wholly exposed to the sufferance of all such evils, as they have deserved. These are sufficiently dreadful to excite in their minds every degree of alarm, which man is capable of experiencing.

The denunciations of woe in the Scriptures of truth are couched in as awful terms, as language can furnish. The God, who is immutably and eternally just, as he uttered them in conformity to strict justice, so in executing them will conform to the same justice in the most perfect manner.

Whatever their rebellion against God, their rejection of his Son, their deceit, injustice, and cruelty to each other, and their pollution of themselves, deserves, they will receive exactly at his hand, and will be rewarded exactly according to their works. It becomes every impenitent sinner to ask himself, what reward he ought to expect for a life, spent wholly in rebellion of thought, word, and action; with no account of voluntary obedience, and millions of accounts of gross disobedience against his Maker?

It is plainly a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. In his hand, and within his knowledge and power, are all the avenues to woe, all the ingredients of misery. He is equally able to pierce the soul, and to agonize the body. There is no escape from his power; no concealment from his eye. What.

then, will become of hardened sinners? How will the justice of God overwhelm them in consternation and horror at the great day!

3dly. We see here the great reason, why the Scriptures are opposed, and denied, by wicked men.

All the difficulty, which men find in admitting the Scriptures to be the word of God, exists in this attribute. I do not remember, that I ever heard, or read, of a single objection to the Scriptural God, except what was pointed against his justice. All men are usually willing to acknowledge his power, wisdom, goodness, faithfulness, truth, and mercy; but few beside good men, are ready to acknowledge his justice.

Whence this objection? Is not Justice a glorious and eminently divine perfection? Can an unjust ruler be the object of approbation? Is not injustice the ground of perpetual complaint against earthly Rulers? The secret lies wholly in this fact. We are willing, nay, desirous, that rulers should be just, when justice does not endanger ourselves, and our happiness; but no character is so dreaded, so hated, when justice is considered as inconsistent with our safety, peace, and hopes. But can this be right? A just ruler must punish wicked and unjust men. We choose, that other wicked and unjust men should be punished; and hesitate not to say, that the common good indispensably requires it. But we make another law for ourselves; and would rather that the ruler should prove unjust, than either reform ourselves, or be punished.

The justice of God holds out to us, and to all others, certain and dreadful punishment as the proper reward of our sins. If God be just, we cannot without repentance, faith, and reformation of life, possibly escape. Between reformation and punishment there is no alternative. Reform we will not; Be punished we cannot. Hence we believe that God is not just, because we wish this not to be his character. Of course, we deny the Scriptures to be his Word, to free ourselves from the terror of his justice. What wretched reasoning is this? How foolish, how fatal? How foolish, because it cannot possibly help, or save us; since God will plainly pursue his own counsels, and accomplish his own purposes, whether we believe his justice, or not.

How

foolish, because the whole purpose, for which such reasoning is adopted, is to enable us to continue peacefully in sin; a miserable character, and plainly exposed alway to a miserable end?

How fatal is such reasoning, because it will actually induce us to continue peacefully in sin, and prevent us from repentance and salvation?

Who form, and

such, as wickWhat kind of

On what is it grounded? On mere wishes. indulge them? Wicked men only. Can God be ed men wish him to be? Can they suppose it? a ruler do wicked men wish to have rule? A vile one. What God do wicked men wish to have rule the universe? A vile one, Why? Because such a God only can be supposed to favour them. No good man, no Angel, ever regretted, that God was just. It is impossible, that a virtuous being should not rejoice in the justice of God. The instinctive voice of all the virtuous universe is the voice of Angels, and of the Spirits of Just Men made perfect, in the heavens, crying, Alleluia! Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, be unto the Lord our God; for true and righteous are his Judgments. Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints!

SERMON XI.

THE TRUTH OF GOD.

PSALM CXVii. 2.

And the truth of the Lord endureth for ever.

IN my last discourse, I considered briefly the Justice of God. I shall now proceed to make some observations concerning His Truth, which in the text is asserted to be an eternal, and therefore an inseparable, attribute of Jehovah.

As a prelude to these observations, it will be useful to take a concise notice of the several significations of this term. The word, Truth, denotes,

1st. A Proposition, conformed to the real state of things. Thus St. Paul says, I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not. Rom. ix. 1.

2dly. All such propositions, generally considered. Thus Pilate asked Christ, What is truth? John xviii. 38. 3dly. That collection of such propositions, which is contained in the Gospel, and is commonly called Evangelical truth :

Thus says our Saviour, The Spirit of truth shall guide you into all THE TRUTH. John xvi. 13. Thus also St. Paul observes, Love rejoiceth in THE TRUTH. 1 Cor. xiii. 8. In both these instances, the Truth mentioned is Evangelical Truth.

4thly. Reality, in opposition to that, which is fancied, or visionary.

Thus the True God denotes the real God, in opposition to the imaginary gods of the Heathen.

5thly. The Substance, in opposition to types.