delusions! What lasting contrition, what severe repentance, must be necessary for such deep and such accumulated guilt! Surely, if blood be required for blood, a soul shall be required for a soul.

There are others who deride religion for the sake of displaying their own imaginations, of following the fashion of a corrupt and licentious age, or gaining the friendship of the great or the applause of the gay. How mean must that wretch be, who can be overcome by such temptations as these! Yet there are men who sell that soul which God has formed for infinite felicity, defeat the great work of their redemption, and plunge into those pains which shall never end, lest they should lose the patronage of villains and the praise of fools.

I suppose those whom I am now speaking of to be in themselves sufficiently convinced of the truth of the Scriptures, and may, therefore, very properly lay before them the threatenings denounced by God against their conduct.

It may be useful to them to reflect betimes on the danger of "fearing man rather than God;" to consider that it shall avait a man nothing if he "gain the whole world and lose his own soul;" and that whoever shall be ashamed of his Saviour before men, of him will his Saviour be ashamed before his Father which is in heaven.

That none of us may be in the number of those unhappy persons who thus scoff at the means of grace, and relinquish the hope of glory, may God of his infinite mercy grant, through the merits of that Saviour who hath brought life and immortality to light!

102

SERMON XXI.

PSALM CXLV. VERSE 9.

The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.

In this devout, masterly, and useful performance, the author appears deeply sensible of the divine greatness, and peculiarly transported with contemplating God's infinite goodness; even to that degree, that he cheerfully engages in, and absolutely devotes himself to, the very important service of adoring and obeying this almighty, unbounded, and most benevolent Being.

This his religion, as he intimates, was founded upon the most solid ground of reason; for as the great Father and Lord of all is certainly matchless, and unrivalled in majesty and in power, so is he disinterested, wonderful, and glorious, in bounty and compassion; averse and slow to anger, but ready to receive, to favour, and reward, all who diligently seek and faithfully serve him. "The

Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works."

In discoursing on this subject, I shall consider,

First, Some arguments that support or prove it. Secondly, Illustrate its extensive signification and import in some remarkable instances, and conclude with a practical application.

First, I am to consider some arguments that establish this sentiment.

Our great Lord and Master has taught us, that "there is none good but one, that is God:" by which expression we may understand, that there is none so perfectly disinterested, so diffusively and so astonishingly good, as God is. For, in another place, he instructs us both how to comprehend, and rely on, this unchangeable and never-failing attribute of the divine nature; resembling it to, or representing it by, a human quality or virtue, namely, the affection and tender regard of parents to their children. "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him!" From whence it is obvious to remark, that as the humane and generous man has a peculiar tenderness for his more immediate descendants, and, proportionally to his power and influence, is willing and active to succour and relieve the indigent, to divide care, lessen misery, and diffuse happiness through the world; inconceivably more affectionate is the eternal Parent unto, and regardful of, all his intelligent creatures; truly disposed, according to their rank of existence, to promote their welfare; and beyond comprehension inclined to conduct them, through the greatest variety of circumstances, to the noblest perfection, and the highest degree of felicity. In his righteous and benevolent nature there cannot possibly be the most distant tendency to caprice, severity, or selfishness; for the multitude of sharers, he knows, can never subtract from his inexhaustible fulness. He created to communicate. In every evil which he prevents, he is pleased; and in all

the good that he bestows, he glories. His goodness dictated the bestowing of existence, in all its forms and with all its properties. His goodness displays itself in sustaining and disposing of all things. His goodness connects unnumbered worlds together, in one spacious, vast, and unbounded universe, and embraces every system. "His tender

mercies are over all his works."

Without goodness, what apprehensions could we entertain of all the other attributes of the Divine Being? Without the utmost extent of benevolence and mercy, they would hardly be perfections or excellences. And what would an universal administration produce, in the hands of an evil, or a partial, or malevolent direction, but scenes of horror and devastation? Not affliction and punishment for the sake of discipline and correction, to prevent the offence or reform the sinner; but heavy judgments and dreadful vengeance, to destroy him; or implacable wrath and fiery indignation, to prolong his misery, and extend the duration of his torture through the revolving periods of an endless eternity.

Without the most enlarged notions of an infinite and everlasting goodness in the divine nature, an impenetrable gloom must hang over every mind, and darkness overspread the whole face of being. Neither could any other conceivable sentiment disperse our suspicions, or banish one of our guilty or superstitious fears: for suppose he confined his goodness to a few, without any reasonable cause or just ground, and we could be so whimsically partial to ourselves as to conceit that we were of this select number; yet there could be no security of happiness, not even to this little flock. He that

chose them by chance, might as accidentally abandon them; and, as the former was without reason or goodness, the latter might be without righteousness or mercy. Therefore it is infinitely desirable to think, and we are confident of the truth of our idea, that "the Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works."

For if he be self-existent, omnipotent, and possessed of perfect liberty; if it be impossible for him ever to err, or mistake, in what is good and fitting; and if he enjoys an infinite ability to effect, with a thought only, what shall always be for the greatest advantage, he must be originally and essentially, immutably, and for ever good.

Holy Scripture, as if beauty and goodness were synonymous terms or inseparable qualities, thus describes him: "How great is thy goodness! And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us." And as if glory and goodness signified the same thing, you find, Exod. xxxiii. 18, 19, "And he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory." To which the answer is, "I will make all my goodness pass before thee." And when, as it is written in the next chapter, the Lord descended, and proclaimed his name, or published the attributes in which he is peculiarly delighted, what is this distinguishing name, or what these divine and glorious attributes? "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin." The apostle sums up all these in one word, when he saith, "God is love." Which leads me to the second thing proposed, Namely, to illustrate the extensive signification