SERMON I.

ON THE JUSTICE OF GOD.

2. Cor. v. 11.

Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade

men.

DIFFERENT ages of the world have had their different errors and vices. In a former age, superstition was the reigning evil: in the present, profaneness and infidelity predominate. During the prevalence of superstition, erroneous conceptions were formed of the character of God, as a Being strict in exacting the performance of rites and ceremonies, rigid in his laws, and severe in enforcing penances. The present age has gone into the opposite extreme:-it has abandoned the ideas of justice and vengeance in the Divine nature, not considering God as a Judge who will render to every man according to his works, punishing the sinner with everlasting destruction; but rather as a tender Father, excusing the frailties of his children, and chastening and disciplining them here, in order to make them all finally happy hereafter. He is, according to the

popular notion, a God all mercy and love, incapable of anger or resentment; and though himself perfectly holy and pure, yet so indulgent to the frailty of his creatures as not to observe, with any vigilant attention, what is done amiss by them. Now as our religion always takes its character from the views we entertain of the Divine Being, so, in consequence of the change I have noticed, the form and complexion of religion amongst us has undergone a remarkable alteration. In the age of Superstition, ceremonial observances were multiplied; abundant charities were offered as commutations for sin, and severe penances and mortification were voluntarily endured as an atonement for it. Although the real nature of religion was entirely mistaken, yet the forms, however erroneous, under which it appeared, were universally prevalent. Pilgrimages were made, monasteries were built, and churches and masses were multiplied. For a short period after the Reformation, just and true ideas of the character of God prevailed among the Protestant churches; and a proper fear of his Name, and reverence for his authority, were united to the love of him as a Parent. But afterwards, infidels and professed Christians, led astray by a philosophizing spirit, succeeded in very generally establishing what they termed a more liberal notion of the character of God, and in subverting the faith of mankind in his retributive justice. The effect was, as they wished, to relax, in popular opinion, the obligations to holiness. The violation of the Divine Law was considered as a slight evil; the necessity of deep repentance and contrition for sin was superseded; the salutary dread of the judgments of God was ridiculed; the doctrine of the atonement was undermined; faith in Christ was degraded from the high rank it had hitherto held in the estimation of Christians; instead of a just distribution of rewards and punishments, the universal salvation of mankind was anticipated; and Christianity itself was reduced nearly to a level with natural religion. The standard of morals, was of course, lowered.