the brightness and fplendor, their ears will be dinned with the found, and their hearts overwhelmed with the revelations and exhibitions of it. Four thousand years therefore, will be little enough to give notice of it. On this account, God fent forth heralds and made proclamations in all ages, and caufed the found of his feet to be heard upon the mountains, till time was of age and the creation come to maturity.

The subject was too big for utterance, and man in his best state, too weak and feeble to hear it. So marvellous and matchlefs is this love, that it transcends every thing great befides; and nullifies all other things, and remains alone the object of wonder and admiration. There was no room to pour it forth, and therefore there must be time. allowed for it. And befide, God would hereby, raise the expectations of mankind, that he might come at their defire; and be received with affection and esteem by them; and be, as the Prophet has it, Haggai 2. 7. the defire of all nations.

And if fin had not entered, and Satan become by ufurpation, the lord and god of the world, and

filled men with wrath againft him, it had been fo. He would have been the joyous defire of all the nations of the world, and would have been received by them with fuitable affections and applaufe. But the deceiver throwing things into diforder and confufion, prevented it, and made his gracious appearance and engagement for us, a matter of • difguft and offence.

This wickednefs of the devil prevented that general jubilee, which all nations would have had by the coming of their univerfal mediator and subfitute, whofe coming and engagement, was pregnant with love and good will. And many would have been joyful fpectators of the fcene, while he was fulfilling all righteousnefs, and rendering every human character truly refpectable and fublime.

Nothing but this would fatisfy the love of God to man. Time and eternity had been filled and burdened with it; and mankind are unable to this day, either to look at it or hear it. Not abfolutely unable; but accidentally, through their own fault, they can endure neither the fight nor found of it. The creation has been declaring and publifhing invifible

1

invifible things; even an eternal power and godhead wholly in love with us, laboring and ftriving how to exprefs it. And this is one peculiar manifeftation of it under our prefent confideration.

Now to justify a man is not the fame as to pardon him. To pardon him is to overlook his faults, and to forbear the punishment which is due. But to justify him is to vindicate his character, to difprove all that may be laid to his charge as flanders, and to declare him innocent and unblemished in the eye of the law. And, as it is to be taken here, it is to vindicate him fo far as to prove, that it was impoffible to be better, or to do more good than he has done. He has magnified the law and made it honorable.

The law by which his righteousness is measured, is the law of ten commands, delivered on mount Sinai. This law, is nothing but the refult and expreffion of the inward averfion which God has to what is evil, and the delight he has in what is good. All the force, with which he hates injuftice and confufion, and all the energy with which he loves what is reasonable, juft and good, is come

out into ten words or rules.

It is a law there

fore which is infinitely against all fin, and for holiness.

And when all men had loft this awful idea and fense of it, God, to revive it again, gathered together the children of Ifrael, to the number of about two millions of people, at the foot of mount Sinai, to give it once a proper reading. He read it chiefly in its prohibitory parts, where it forbids to do evil. And he allowed himself in fome degree, to fpeak as he felt. And the adorable fiery flame and energy, with which he hates evil, coming out in the pronunciation, every human ear and nerve, found the dreadful emphasis, and hard accents insufferable; not to be heard, but at the peril of life. Man is fo far from being able in his own perfon to fulfil this law, that if the teftimony of near two millions of people is to be admitted, he is not able to hear it read to him with a proper pronunciation. Its being read by a proper reader but once, had like, not to be the life, but the death of one of the largest affemblies in the world.

He

He was not able to keep it in his primitive ftate of goodness, before he fell into fin and corruption. For though he very far, in all abilities, exceeded our present ftate, yet being but finite, it was impoffible for him to comprehend and reduce into practice, in its full latitude, a law which was infinitely against evil, and for holiness. He was honeft and innocent, a well-wifher to the cause of holiness, and an admirer of the law as holy, just and good; and, he could, in a limited degree keep from what it forbad, and do what it required. But the business contained in it, far exceeded his finite capacity; and the commandments being exceeding broad and high, in all his attempts and endeavors, left him far behind.

Man was created with a capacity, in a certain sense, neither to fave nor deftroy himself; but to admit of principles, that might do either. Yet he was the most excellent of the works of God, fuperior to the angelic nature. For fin might originate in the nature of angels, and, though not neceffarily, yet, fpontaneously might fpring from them. They might, and did fall from fome. thing within themfelves, but man could not. He

was