impenitent, will be as unquestionable, as his infinite mercy will be, in the salvation of the redeemed.

If the will of God is done on earth, among men, there will be no more injustice done to the inhabitants of the earth, than there is done to the blessed in heaven. Was it ever known -Did any ever complain-Was it ever conceived, that God was a tyrant, in heaven? Why then should we question the justice of his government on earth? Is he not the same God below, as above? Are not all his attributes equally employed? Does he not govern for the same end, and will not his government below conspire to promote the same joyful end, as his government above?

Finally. It is greatly to be desired, that God should govern the world according to his pleasure, because his own infinite blessedness, as well as the happiness of his kingdom, depends upon his working all things according to the counsel of his own will.

Could the Almighty be prevented from expressing the benevolence of his nature, according to his purposes, his present boundless blessedness would become the pain of ungratified desire. God is love, and his happiness consists in the exercise and expression of it, according to his own eternal purpose, which he purposed in Christ Jesus before the world began. It is therefore declared, "The Lord hath made all things for himself," that is, to express and gratify his infinite benevolence. The moral excellence of God does not consist in quiescent love, but in love active, bursting forth and abounding. Nor does the divine happiness arise from the contemplation of idle perfections; but from perfections, which comprehend boundless capacity and activity to do good.

From what has been said, we may be led to contemplate with satisfaction, the infinite blessedness of God.

God is love! This is a disposition, of all others, the most happy in its own nature. He is perfect in love; there is, therefore, in his happiness no alloy. His love is infinite; and,

of course, his blessedness is unbounded.

If the little holiness existing in good men, though balanced by remaining sin, occasions, at times, unutterable joy; how blessed must God be, who is perfectly and infinitely holy? It is to be remembered, also, that the benevolence of God is, at all times, perfectly gratified. The universe which God has created and upholds, including what he has done, and what he will yet do, will be brought into a condition which will satisfy his infinite benevolence. The great plan of government which God has chosen, and which his power and wisdom will execute, will embrace as much good as is in the nature of things possible. He is not, like erring man, straitened or perplexed, through lack of knowledge or power. There is, in his plan, no defect, and in its execution, no failure. God, therefore, is infinitely happy, in his holiness, and in the expression of it which it pleases him to make.

The revolt of angels, the fall of man, and the miseries of sin, do not, for a moment, interrupt the blessedness of God. They were not, to him, unexpected events, starting up suddenly, while the Watchman of Israel slumbered. They were foreseen by God, as clearly as any other events of his government, and have occasioned neither perplexity nor dismay. With infinite complacency, he beholds still, his unshaken counsels, and with almighty hand, rolls on his undisturbed decrees. Surrounded by unnumbered millions, created by his hand, and upheld by his power, and made happy in the contemplation of his glory, he shines forth, God over all blessed forever. What an object of joyful contemplation then, is the blessedness of God! It is infinite: his boundless capacity is full. It is eternal: he is God blessed forever. The happiness of the created universe is but a drop, a drop to the mighty ocean of divine enjoyment. How delightful the thought, that in God there is such an immensity of joy, beyond the reach of vicissitude. When we look around us below, a melancholy sensation pervades the mind. What miserable creatures! What a wretched world! But when,

from this scene of darkness and misery, we look up to the throne of God, and behold him, high above the darkness and the miseries of sin, dwelling in light inaccessible and full of glory, the prospect brightens. If a few rebels, who refuse to love him and participate in his munificence, are groping in darkness on his footstool, God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.

Secondly. How vast may we conceive to be the sum of created good which is comprehended in the kingdom of God.

It will satisfy infinite benevolence. If all the good might exist, which angels and men could conceive, it would be nothing, compared with the enjoyment which God will actually communicate and uphold. The happiness which God will communicate will be worthy of himself. It will illustrate, so far as a created system can illustrate, the power, and wisdom, and goodness, of God. How vast and blessed then, must that kingdom be, which God erects as an expression of his glory, and in which he dwells and reigns, to prove by experiment, his capacity to govern and to bless the universe.

This kingdom of God, so vast and so full of joy, is still destined to increase. God will never be idle. He will never have communicated, actually, infinite blessedness. His work will continue to grow under his hand, and his kingdom to expand around him in capacity and joy. O how great is God! How glorious will his works be! A fountain, ever flowing, and never exhausted, pouring out streams of blessedness to fill unnumbered fountains around him, each to eternity becoming more capacious, and yet the whole bearing no proportion to the uncreated source!

It seems to be the imagination of some, that the kingdom of darkness will be as populous and as vast, as the kingdom of light, and that happiness and misery, of equal dimensions, will expand, side by side, to all eternity. But, blessed be God, it is a mere imagination, totally unsupported by reason or revelation. Who ever heard of a prison that occupied

one half of the territories of a kingdom; and who can believe that the universe, which was called into being, and is upheld and governed, to express the goodness of God, will contain as much misery as happiness? How could the government of God be celebrated with such raptures in heaven, if it filled with dismay and ruin half the universe! How vast soever, therefore, the kingdom of darkness may be in itself considered, it is certainly nothing but the prison of the universe, and small, compared to the realms of light and glory. The misery of that unholy community, whose exile from heaven is as voluntary as it is just, when the eye is fixed upon that only, fills the soul with trembling; but when, from this dreadful exhibition of sin, and display of justice, we raise the adoring eye to God, reigning throughout his boundless dominions, and rejoicing in their joy, the world of misery shrinks to a point, and the wailings of the damned die away, and are lost in the song of praise.

Thirdly. From what has been said, we may perceive wherein consists the exceeding sinfulness of sin.

The evil of sin does not consist in overt acts merely, nor in the misery which it actually occasions in time. The evil of sin is to be sought in its own nature; and is to be estimated, by the effects it would produce, if armed with power to express itself. Considered in this point of view, it is a deliberate, total, and obstinate dissent from the government of God. As a temper of mind, it is enmity against God, and hostility to his law and his entire government. God is the soul of his kingdom, and it is his purpose to make the happiness of every member of that kingdom to consist in love to

I am aware that Calvinists are represented as believing, and teaching, the monstrous doctrine that infants are damned, and that hell is doubtless paved with their bones. But having passed the age of fifty, and been conversant for thirty years with the most approved Calvinistic writers, and personally acquainted with many of the most distinguished Calvinistic divines in New-England, and in the middle and southern and western States, I must say, that I have never seen or heard of any book which contained such a sentiment, nor a man, minister or layman, who believed or taught it. And I feel authorised to say, that Calvinists, as a body, are as far from teaching the doctrine of infant damnation, as any of those who falsely accuse them. And I would earnestly and affectionately recommend to all persons, who have been accustomed to propagate this slander, that they commit to memory, without delay, the ninth commandment, which is, "Thou shalt not bear false-witness against thy neighbor."-Note to the Seventh Edition, printed in 1827.

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him, and to his holy family. Sin rejects God as an object of affection, and sets up a separate, and opposite, and unworthy interest. The temper of sin, and the temper of God, are opposite. The plans of sin, and the plans of God, are opposite. If the purposes of sin go into operation, the purposes of God are defeated. If sin succeeds, the kingdom of God fails. And, that sin does not succeed, is owing to nothing but want of power and skill. If its malignant nature, as it exists in men and devils, could be fully expressed in action, it would dethrone the God of heaven, abolish his law, overturn his government, extinguish the joy of God and of the universe, and fill the mighty void with everlasting wo. It is a wandering star, which will not obey the impulse of the sun, and which, if able, would blot out the sun, and leave to blackness of darkness every other luminary, that it might roll above the mighty ruin, eclipsed by no superior lustre.

Such is the selfish, malignant enmity to God, which reigns in the hearts of the children of disobedience. Such, by nature, is that carnal mind, which is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Nothing but its own imbecility, prevents it from being an evil as great, in fact, as it is in nature and tendency. Let benevolence abandon the throne of the universe, and let sin ascend and take possession of the treasures of knowledge and power, and reign to express its own nature in action, as God reigns to express his love, and it would soon dismay the universe with demonstrations of its evil nature.

Fourthly. What has been said concerning the character and government of God, may enable us to perceive wherein consists the glory of the Gospel.

The Gospel is not, as some have imagined, an expedient to set aside a holy, just, and good law, in order to substitute an inferior one, brought down more nearly to the depraved inclinations of men. God did not send his Son, to betray his government, and compromise with rebels, by repealing the

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