but punish presently for disobedience. Hence are all those most pathetical and affectionate strains we read in scripture." O, that there were such a heart within them, that they would fear me and keep all my commandments. (Deut. v. 29.) Woe unto thee, O Jẹrusalem, wilt thou not be made clean? (Jer. xiii. 27.) Turn ye, turn ye. (Ezek. xxxiii. 11.) O Jerusalem, Jerusalem." (Mat. xxiii. 37.) What majesty, and yet what sweetness and condescension is there in these expressions? Such a matchless and unparalleled strain of rhetoric is there in the scripture, far above the art and insinuations of the most admired orators.

The scriptures may be considered as a rule of life, or as a law of God which is given for the government of the lives of men, and therein the excellency of them lies.

1. In the nature of the duties required, which are 1. Most becoming God to require, as they are most suitable and agreeable to the Divine nature, the imitation of which in our actions is the substance of our religion. Imitation of him in his goodness and holiness, by our constant endeavours of mortifying sin and growing in grace and piety. In his grace and mercy by our kindness to all men, forgiving the injuries men do unto us, doing good to our greatest enemies, In his justice and equity, by doing as we would be done by, and keeping a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men.

2. They are most reasonable for us to perform, in that 1. Religion is not only a service of the reasonable faculties which are employed the most in it, the commands of the scripture reaching the heart most, and the service required being a spiritual service, not lying in meats and drinks, or any outward observations, but in

a sanctified temper of heart and mind; but, 2. The service itself of religion is reasonable; the commands of the gospel are such, as no man's reason which considers them, can doubt of the excellency of them. All natural worship is founded on the dictates of nature, all instituted worship on God's revealed will; and it is one of the prime dictates of nature, that God must be universally obeyed.

2. The encouragement is more than proportionable to the difficulty of obedience. God's commands are in themselves easy, and most suitable to our natures. What more rational for a creature than to obey his Maker? all the difficulty of religion ariseth from the corruption of our nature. Now God to encourage men to conquer the difficulties arising thence, hath propounded the strongest motives, and the most prevailing arguments to obedience. Such are the considerations of God's love and goodness manifested to the world by sending his Son into it to die for sinners, and to give them an example which they are to follow and by his readiness through him to pardon the sins, and accept the persons of such who so receive him as to walk in him? and by his promises of grace to assist them in wrestling with the enemies of their salvation. And to all these, add that glorious and inconceivable reward which God hath promised to all those who sincerely obey him.

The excellency of the scriptures appears as they contain in them a covenant of grace, or the transactions between God and man in order to his eternal happiness. The more memorable any transactions are, the more valuable are any authentic records of them. The scriptures contain in them the magną charta of heaven, an act of pardon with the royal assent of heaven, a

proclamation of good-will from God towards men. It remains only then, that we adore and magnify the goodness of God in making known his will to us, and that we set a value and esteem on the scriptures, as on the only authentic instruments of that grand charter of peace, which God hath revealed in order to man's eternal happiness.

OF GOD AND HIS NATURAL PERFECTIONS.

God is a spirit.-John iv. 24.

THE existence of God, and several of his perfections, open themselves with shining evidence in his works, and in his word; but the manner of his existence, and the eminent perfections, as they really exist in him, are wrapped up in thick and awful darkness, as a pavilion round about him. These are far, infinitely far, above our reach; "who by searching can find out God." (Job vi. 7.) We can easier say what he is not than what he is. O, may he assist our thoughts, lest we darken counsel by words without knowledge, while we speak concerning him!

I. That there is but one God, or one Divine Being That there is only one God, is the concurring language of the genuine light of nature, and of scripture revelation. We are led into this sentiment,

1. By the light of nature.

The very notion it gives us of a God, and the very same arguments by which it proves that there is a God, must, if duly pursued, necessarily lead us into the thought, that there can be no more gods than one; for there can be but one necessarily existent Being, one first Cause, one absolutely infinite, one Supreme.

Hence though the rude, unthinking multitude among the pagans were led, perhaps chiefly by the wild fietions of the poets, into the absurd notion of gods many, and lords many, yet the soberer and wiser of their philosophers had their one supreme God, and all the rest were looked upon but as petty deities. Their most celebrated writers go into this way of representing things; and it is notorious, that Socrates fell a sacrifice to Athenian fury, for asserting the doctrine of one God. But we are still more abundantly assured of this important doctrine,

2. By scripture revelation.

The great and blessed God himself has given us the clearest evidence of his unity in his word. "I, even I, am he, (Deut. xxxii. 39.) Before me there was no God formed, (Isa, xliii. 10.) I am the first." (Isa. xlvi. 6.) And the sacred writers, under Divine inspiration, have said of him, "The Lord he is God," (Deut. iv. 35.) And, Hear, O Israel, (Deut. vi. 4.) and, Thou art great," says the Psalmist, Ps. lxxxvi. 10.

All this is evidently brought over by our Lord into the doctrine of the New Testament: he told the scribe that came to question him, The first of all the .commandments. (Mark xii. 29.) And he spoke with high approbation of the answer, ver 32. 34.

II. That this God is a spirit, or that he is a spiritual being.

God is spirit. This relates to the nature of God, and as a spirit is the most excellent of beings that we have any notions of, God is represented under this character to heighten our thoughts of him. We indeed know but little of the nature of spirits. The most natural, obvious thought, that arises in our minds about a spirit is, that it is an incorporeal and invisible being, with life and action, understanding and will.

Let us then a little consider these, as applicable to God.

1. He is incorporeal and invisible.

All corporeal beings consist of parts, and so are in their own nature capable of separation or dissolution, of alterations, additions, or diminutions, and of different figures, sizes, shapes, or forms; but all this argues composition and imperfection.

God can indeed, by his infinite power, make what visible appearances he pleases, as he did in various forms, under the Old Testament, and at Christ's baptism and transfiguration, in the New; but these were not appearances of the essence of God itself, they were only outward symbols, which he occasionally formed to notify his presence for special purposes; but as to his own nature, or essence, he is the "invisible God, whom no man has seen, nor can see." (Col i. 15; 1 Tim. vi. 16.) Accordingly our Lord says of his Father, "Ye have neither heard his voice." John v. 37.

Whenever therefore we read in scripture of any representations of God, as having eyes, ears; or, as seeing, hearing, we are by no means to imagine, that he hath such bodily organs, or acts by them; for, "To whom will you liken God?" Is. xl. 18.

2. He lives and acts, or is a being that has life and action.

He is usually styled, by way of eminence, the living God; "he has life in himself; and with him is the fountain of life." (John v. 26; Ps. xxxvi. 9.) All the life of the vegetative, animal, and rational world; the life of nature, and the life of grace here, and the life of glory hereafter, are of him, and derived from him; and therefere he himself must live.