ble to be or that actually would be....and of all the relations one being would bear to another, and the relation that all would bear to him-and has seen what conduct would be right and fit in him towards them, and in them towards him and towards one another, and what would be wrong: and, from eternity, it has been his nature infinitely to love that which is right, and hate that which is wrong: And this, his nature, has influenced him in all his conduct, as moral Governor of the world; and he has given so bright a representation of it, that this seems to be the first and most natural idea of God that we can attain: It shines through all the scriptures....through the law and the gospel, and through his whole conduct, in a thousand instances.

God does not appear to be a Being influenced, acted, and governed by a groundless, arbitrary self-will, having no regard to right reason....to the moral fitness and unfitness of things; nor does he appear to be a Being governed and acted by a groundless fondness to his creatures. If a thing is not right, he will not do it, merely because he is above controul.....is the greatest and strongest, and can bear down all before him....Gen. xviii. 25: And if a thing is wrong, he will not connive at it at all, because it was acted by his creatures, although ever so dear to him, and although the most exalted in dignity, honor, and privileges; for instance, the sinning angels....sinning Adam.... the Israelites in the wilderness, his peculiar people. Moses, for speaking unadvisedly with his lips, shall not enter into Canaan. David, the man after his own heart, he sinned; and the sword, says God, shall not depart from thy house: Yea, he spared not his own Son, when he stood in the room of sinners. If he had been governed by any thing like human fondness, surely it would now have appeared: And besides, if that were the case, he could never bear to see the damned lie in the dreadful torments of hell to all eternity: Indeed, by all he has said, and by all he has done, he appears to have an infinite sense of the moral fitness and unfitness of things, and an answerable frame of heart; and to be governed and actuated by this temper, under the direction of infinite wisdom: Hence, as is his nature,

so is the name which he has taken to himself, viz. the HOLY ONE of Israel.

It is true he is a Being of infinite goodness and mercy; yet that is not a fond, but a holy propensity, under the government of infinite wisdom: that is, he considers the happiness and good of his creatures, his intelligent creatures, as being what it is.— He sees what it is worth, and of how great importance it is ; and how much to be desired, in itself, and compared with other things he sees it to be just what it really is, and has an answerable disposition of heart, i. e. is desirous of their happiness, and averse to their misery, in an exact proportion to the real nature of the things in themselves. It is true, so great is his benevolence, that there is not any act of kindness or grace so great, but that he can find in his heart to do it—yea, has an infinite inclination to do it, if, all things considered, in his unerring wisdom, he judges it fit and best: and yet, at the same time, it is as true, such is the perfect rectitude and spotless purity of his nature, that there is not any act of justice so tremendous, or any misery so dreadful, but that he can find in his heart, his creatures' happiness notwithstanding, to do that act of justice, and inflict that misery, if need so require-yea, he has an infinite inclination thereto. He regards their happiness and misery as being what they are, of very great importance in themselves, but of little importance, compared with something else. He had rather the whole system of intelligent creatures should lie in hell to all eternity, than do the very least thing that is in itself unfit and wrong: Yea, if it was put to his own case, if we could possibly suppose such a thing, he would make it appear that he does as he would be done by, when he punishes sinners to all eternity. It was, in a sort, put to his own case once, when his Son, who was as himself, stood in the room of a guilty world—and his heart did not fail him; but he appeared as great an enemy to sin then as ever he did, or will do to all eternity. His treating his Son as he did, in the garden and upon the cross, immediately himself and by his instruments, was as bright an evidence of the temper of his heart, as if he had

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damned the whole world. He appeared what he was then, as much as he will at the day of judgment: He is infinite in goodness; yet he is infinitely averse to do any act of kindness, at the expence of justice, from mere fondness to his creatures.

And as his goodness is not fondness, so his justice is not cruelty. He infinitely hates that which is unfit and wrong, and is disposed to testify his hatred in some visible, public manner, by inflicting some proportionable punishment ;-not because sinners hurt him, and so make him angry and revengeful; for their any hurt obedience can do him no good, nor their disobedience .... Job xxxv. 6, 7 ;-nor indeed so much because they hurt themselves; for if they did wrong in no other respect, he would never treat them with such severity: but this is the truth of the case-the great Governor of the world has an infinite sense of the moral fitness and unfitness of things, and an answerable frame of heart: and so he infinitely loves that which is fit, and commends and rewards it; and infinitely hates the contrary, and forbids and punishes it ;-only it must be remembered, that the rewards he grants to the good are of mere bounty as to them, because they can deserve nothing....Rom. xi. 35. But the punishments he inflicts on the wicked are pure justice, because they deserve all....Rom. vi. 23: For although creatures cannot merit good at the hands of God, from whom they receive all, and to whom they owe all, yet they can merit evil: Nevertheless, rewards and punishments are both alike in this respect, viz. that they are visible public testimonies borne by the Governor of the world to the moral amiableness of virtue on the one hand, and to the moral hatefulness of vice on the other.The one is not the effect of fondness, nor the other of cruelty; but the one results from the holiness and goodness of the divine nature, and the other from his holiness and justice. By the one, it appears how he loves virtue, and how exceedingly bountiful he is; and, by the other, how he hates sin, and how much he is disposed to discountenance it, by treating it as being what it is.

Thus, I say, in the first place, we must consider God, the su preme Governor of the world, as a Being not only of infinite Q &

understanding and almighty power, but also infinite and unchangeable in all moral propensities-as one having a perfect sense of the moral fitness and unfitness of things, and an answerable frame of heart; or, in scripture-language, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty....the holy one of Israel: The Lord God gra cious and merciful, but by no means clearing the guilty....Of purer eyes than to behold iniquity....Who loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity....Who renders to every one according to their doings, &c. Without a right idea of God, the supreme Governor of the world, and a realizing, living sense of him on our hearts, it is impossible we should rightly understand the methóds he has taken to open a way for his mercy to come out after a rebellious, guilty world, or truly see into the grounds of his conduct the reasons of his doing as he has done. If we know God, and have a taste for moral beauty, we shall be in a dispo sition to understand the gospel; but otherwise we shall not.... John vii. 17, and viii. 47: For, in the whole of this great affair of our redemption, he has acted altogether like himself.

(2.) God is infinitely excellent, glorious, and amiable in being what he is. His having such a nature or temper, and, at the same time, being of infinite understanding and almighty power, renders him infinitely excellent, glorious, and amiable, far be yond the conceptions of any finite mind. Isa. vi. 3....Holy, ho ly, holy, Lord God Almighty, the whole earth is full of thy glory. Hence, God loves, esteems, and delights in himself infinitely: not indeed from what we call a selfish spirit; for could we suppose there was another just what he is, and himself an inferior, he would love, esteem, and delight in that other, as entirely as he does now in himself: It is his being what he is, that is the ground of his self-love, esteem, and delight.

Hence, again, he loves to act like himself, in all his conduct as moral Governor of the world, as entirely as he loves himself; and it is as much contrary to his nature to counteract the temper of his heart, in his public conduct, as to cease to be what he is: And the plain reason is, that there is the same ground for the one as for the other. He loves himself, because he is most ex

cellent in being what he is; and, for the same reason, he loves to act like himself, because that is most excellent too: He cannot be willing to cease to be of that temper or nature he is of, because it is most excellent; and, for the same reason, he can. not be willing to counteract it, because it is most excellent to act agreeably to it in all things: He is under necessity to love himself; and he is under the same necessity to act like him self....Gen. xviii. 25: Hence it is a common thing for God, in great earnestness, to say in his word, I will do so and so, and they shall KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD: as if he should say"A guilty, rebellious race may think and say what they will "of me, yet I am what I am, and I will act like myself, and all "the world shall know that I am the Lord, i. e. that I am what "I pretend to be: They shall know it by my conduct, sooner or later."

(3.) God cannot be said to act like himself, unless he appears as great an enemy to sin, in his public government of the world, as he really is at heart. If his conduct as moral Governor of the world, the whole being taken together, should look with a more favorable aspect towards sin, or appear less severe than really he is, then it is self-evident that his conduct would not be like himself, nor would it tend to exhibit a true idea of him to all attentive spectators in all his dominions. If his creatures and subjects, in such a case, should judge of his nature by his conduct, they would necessarily frame wrong notions of the divine Being: And he himself must see and know that he did not act like himself; nor appear, in his conduct, to be what he was in his heart.

But God, the supreme Governor of the world, does, at heart, look upon sin as an infinite evil; and his aversion and enmity to it is infinite. He looks upon it, and (to speak of him after the manner of men) is affected towards it, as being what it really is. But it is infinitely wrong and wicked, for us not to love him with all our heart, and obey him in every thing: The least sin is an infinite evil; and such he sees it to be, and as such does he abhor it. The infinite evil of sin does not consist