goodness, though often to a very limited extent, and in a very low degree; and if there are some who are placed in stations of great moral disadvantage, and who become miserably depraved, there are others, who, being happily exposed to more favourable impressions, become eminently wise and virtuous, and just and good—the benefactors of their species, the honour and ornament of human nature. These moral effects have been the result of that wise and righteous moral discipline to which human beings have been subjected in every age. They are still produced by a similar moral process; perhaps in a higher degree at present than in any preceding age or state of the world; and the obvious tendencies of things are to moral improvement; to a still better, happier, and more perfect state: so that eventually all the bad passions of men will be over-ruled and exterminated; and all will be happy, because all will be just and good. The world will again become a Paradise; there shall be nothing to hurt nor to destroy; and the knowledge of the Lord

shall cover the earth as the waters cover the seas. These moral causes are the арpointment of God; they owe all their efficacy to him: it is he that regulates them in every case so as to produce their effect with the same certainty and precision as the mechanical powers: they all fulfil his sovereign purpose, and that purpose is Love.

Rewards and Punishments, as dispensed by the supreme Governor of the universe, are acts of benignity and Love.

The gift of God is eternal life: glory, honour, and peace, to all who, by patient continuance in well-doing, are seeking for happiness and immortality: what eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to comprehend. It is a portion which will correspond with the relation which God vouchsafes to sustain with regard to the virtuous, as their father and their God. It is a crown of glory which fadeth not away.

I add, that punishment, equally with reward, is a dispensation of Love. This may

seem a paradox, but it will appear upon consideration to be an undeniable fact. The punishment which will finally be inflicted on the impenitent, will no doubt be beyond thought and description dreadful, but it will not be the infliction of unreasonable resentment, much less of deliberate malignity and revenge: far be the thought from that all-perfect Being, whose name, whose essence, whose chosen attribute is Love. Fury is not in him; he punishes with a slow and reluctant hand; and the only motives which can reasonably be imputed to him, are the ultimate reformation of the offender himself, and his restoration to virtue and to happiness; and in the mean time to exhibit him as an affecting example, and warning to others to abstain from similar courses, lest they should fall into similar condemnation. Thus he pursues with undeviating steps the great original purpose of his wisdom, to exterminate vice and misery from the creation. The Lord is known by the judgments which he executeth; and that God who is

a consuming fire to the wicked, and whose anger burns to the lowest hell, maintains his character as a God of infinite benevolence, in the most terrific displays of his justice and his power; and Love will still appear in the front even of his most awful attributes.

5. Love is the attribute and character by which he chuses to be made known, and to be regarded by man.

God is great. He is a being of infinite majesty; and it is right that the mind should be duly impressed with an habitual sense of his self-existence, and his self-sufficience; of his omnipresence, his omniscience, and his almighty power; of his immutability, his perfect rectitude, his impar tial justice. The contemplation of these glorious attributes will naturally fill the mind with awe and reverence of the divine majesty, and will bow the spirit into the very dust before him; and this fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: it is perhaps the very first impression of which the mind is susceptible; and it is a most

useful affection, which never ought, and which never can be banished from the mind of one who entertains right thoughts of God. But this fear must be tempered with love: otherwise it will degenerate into a grovelling, servile spirit, which gives rise to a mean and abject superstition, that sours the temper, degrades the character, and is inconsistent with true peace and dignity of mind.

The attribute under which it is our duty, and our best interest, to think of God, the view under which we should habitually and predominantly regard him, is that of love: for God is Love. We have indeed great reason to conceive of him under the character of unlimited benevolence. All his works and all his dispensations prove the perfection of his goodness: and the doctrine of nature and providence is confirmed by the most explicit declarations of his revealed will. It is indeed observable in the sacred oracles, that it is no where said, that God is power; that God is holiness; that God is justice; but it is explicitly asserted,