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our first parents, towards the Jews, towards the heathen, and towards those who embrace and reject the gospel, often appears dark to the children of God. So do the commands, prohibitions and threatenings of the divine law. So do divine invitations and promises. So do the predictions of great future events. And so do the final decisions of the great and last day. But a clear view of the beauty of divine benevolence spreads a beauty over all these dark and difficult things in scripture, and enables those who are holy as God is holy, just as God is just, and good as God is good, to see why he commands all men to love him supremely upon pain of his everlasting displeasure; why he saves a part and only a part of mankind; why he causes so many natural and moral evils to abound; why he has conducted all things as he has done; and why he will settle all the affairs of the universe in the manner he has told us in his word. Indeed, it is the moral beauty, glory and rectitude of the Deity, which spreads a supreme glory over himself and over all his works.

I shall conclude at present with one reflection.

It appears from this subject, that the worthy communicants at the table of Christ have a precious opportunity of seeing and enjoying the beauty of the Lord. God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in their hearts to give them the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ. God has made the brightest display of his goodness, which is the supreme excellence of his character, in so loving the world as to give his dearly beloved Son, to pour out his soul unto death on the cross to make atonement for the sins of his guilty and perishing creatures, and to open the way for their restoration to his forfeited favor. While Christ crucified is clearly exhibited before the eyes of his enlightened followers by the symbols of his body and blood, they have the most precious opportunity that they can have, this side of heaven, to behold the beauty of the Lord, shining with its brightest lustre in the face of Jesus Christ. Behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord, that you may be changed into the same image from glory to glory. The season will be delightful and edifying, if you please to make it so by grateful reflections and joyful anticipations.

IMPROVEMENT.

1. If it be true, as has been said, that the supreme beauty or glory of God consists in his pure and universal goodness, then sinners hate God for that for which alone they ought to love him supremely. It cannot be denied that they are disaffected towards God, that their heart is alienated from him, and that they have a carnal mind, which is enmity against him, not subject

to his law, neither indeed can be. But why are they enemies to him? They do not hate him for any of his natural attributes. They do not hate him because he is eternal, self existent, independent, all wise, or all powerful. They have no objections against his having such an existence, and possessing such perfections. Why then do they hate him? No other reason can be given for their hating him, but his goodness in employing all his perfections to promote the most wise and benevolent purposes. If he would employ them solely for their personal, private good, they would be highly pleased, not only that he exists, but that he governs all things. But he has told them in his word, and confirmed it by his providence, that he is not altogether such an one as themselves. He has required them to exercise pure, disinterested love, and forbidden them to exercise the least partial, selfish affection. He has declared that he will reign in righteousness, and bring the private interests of individuals into subordination to his own glory, and the higher interests of the universe. And who can say this is not an expression of pure, perfect, disinterested, universal goodness? But it is for this, and this only, that sinners hate him. Their eyes are evil, because he is good. They hate his moral character, which is his supreme glory, beauty and excellence, with perfect hatred. Their selfish, stout hearts say that he shall not reign over them. His goodness has no form or beauty in their eyes wherefore they should love it. Though there are many shades of difference in the external conduct of sinners, yet they all agree to hate God, and to hate him precisely for the same thing, that is, for his goodness, for which they ought to love him supremely. Why do sinners murmur and repine under divine providence? Because it displays divine goodness. Why do sinners hate the Bible? Because it displays divine goodness. Why do sinners deny the Bible? Because it displays divine goodness. Why do sinners deny the existence of God? Because they suppose if he exists, he must be good. Every sinner says in his heart, There is no God. That is, he wishes there were no God of perfect goodness. Though many say that the only reason why sinners hate God is because they are ignorant of his moral beauty and excellence, yet the truth is, that they hate him because they do know the excellence of his moral character. Christ, who knew the hearts of sinners, said, "They have both seen and hated both me and my Father."

2. If saints sincerely and ardently desire to behold the beauty of the Lord, then they are essentially different from sinners. Saints view the goodness of God as constituting his supreme beauty and glory, and sincerely desire to see the glory of his goodness; but sinners do not desire to see his goodness, and when it is most clearly exhibited before them, they hate it more

than any other trait in the divine character. These different views and feelings in respect to the supreme beauty and glory of God, demonstrate that saints are radically and essentially different from sinners. It does not arise from knowledge on the one side, nor from ignorance on the other. They both know enough of divine goodness to love it, and to hate it. Why then do saints love it, while sinners hate it? Sinners are very fond of believing that saints do not essentially differ from them, and often endeavor to account for the external difference in their conduct, in the same way that the accuser of the brethren attempted to account for Job's external conduct. They suppose that it is owing to their selfishness, that they pay external obedience to the divine commands. They suppose that they outwardly pay respect to God, either because they have received, or expect to receive peculiar favors from him, and not because they love him for the moral beauty and excellence of his character. But it appears from what saints say of themselves, and from what God says of them, that they love him for his supreme moral excellence. And if this be true, there is no way to account for it but by supposing that saints have a new, a better and more benevolent heart than sinners, which is a radical and essential difference. So that if God should place saints and sinners in precisely the same circumstances, they would feel and act differently towards him. If he should place them in the same state of prosperity, they would feel and act differently towards him. Or if he should place them in the same state of adversity, they would feel and act differently towards him. Or if he should place them in heaven, they would feel and act differently towards him. This has been demonstrated in a thousand instances. Saul and David were placed on the throne of Israel, but they felt and acted differently. Judas and the apostles were placed under similar circumstances, but they felt and acted differently. Let saints and sinners be placed in the same situation in any part of the universe, and they would feel and act differently. There must be therefore an essential, radical difference between the hearts of saints and the hearts of sinners, while the latter hate, and the former love the moral excellence of the divine character.

3. If God be perfectly good, and his goodness spreads a moral beauty and excellence over all his perfections, then there is nothing to hinder sinners from loving him but merely their own selfishness. If they possessed any true benevolence, or disinterested love, they would discern the glory and excellence of the divine benevolence, and feel a pleasure in cordial reconciliation to God. And there is nothing that prevents their discerning the beauty and glory of God's benevolence, which 41

VOL. VI.

spreads a beauty and glory over all his other perfections, and all the displays of them in his works, in his providence, and in his word; but their selfishness. They are very loath, however, to own that this is the only difficulty in the way of their loving God. They sometimes plead that their ignorance of God prevents their loving him. But they have no ignorance in their understanding but what arises from the blindness of their hearts; and notwithstanding this blindness, they know enough of God to hate him, and consequently enough to love him. They more commonly and confidently plead that they have a hard and evil heart, which they can neither soften nor change. But they have no heart but what consists in free, voluntary exercises, which they are able to change, and which God requires them to change. It is only because they hate God, that they cannot love him. But can their hating God, whose goodness renders him infinitely amiable, be a good excuse for not loving him? Their reason and conscience tell them that all the excuses they ever have made, or can make, only serve to discover their selfishness and criminality, in hating a being whom they are able and bound to love with supreme affection.

4. If the supreme glory of God consists in his goodness, then the more clearly his goodness is exhibited before the minds of sinners, the more difficult they always find it to be to love him. Christ exhibited the impartial, disinterested, universal goodness of God in the clearest and strongest light, in his public and private discourses; and of all the doctrines he preached, this was the most disagreeable and stumbling to sinners. They called it a hard saying, and some said, "Who then can be saved?" It was too hard for the amiable young man to hear and bear, and he went away sorrowful. While sinners have a low and obscure view of the moral glory and excellence of the divine character, they are apt to think that they can, and even do love God. But when his pure, holy, impartial benevolence is clearly exhibited, they are ready to lament their moral weakness, and cry that it is impossible for them to love God, for their carnal mind is perfect enmity against him. Their selfishness cannot be reconciled to his benevolence. And the more clearly his love and benevolence is explained and illustrated, the more difficulty they find in seeing the supreme beauty and glory of it, and he appears less amiable than the most unamiable and odious being in the universe. His pure, disinterested love, instead of spreading a beauty over all his perfections, and works, and ways, and words, involves the whole world and whole universe in darkness, in the view of their totally selfish hearts. Is there a person who has been under genuine convictions, that does not know this to be true? There

is no way better adapted to determine whether a man be really blind, than to exhibit light before him; and so there is no way better adapted to determine whether sinners are morally blind, than to exhibit the supreme beauty and glory of the divine character before them, and inquire whether they see and love it. Christ said he came into the world to make them blind who said they saw. And he effectually did it. And so do all, who preach as he did. Those who are spiritually blind, complain bitterly of such preaching and such preachers. They say they cannot understand them. And when they say so, they prove the total moral blindness of their own sinful hearts. 5. If saints desire to see the beauty of the Lord, then we see one good reason why they love to attend the public worship of God in his house constantly. David, who desired to see the beauty of the Lord, loved to attend the services of the sanctuary constantly. He loved to be with God and with his people in his house, where God made the brightest displays of his glory, and the clearest revelation of his will. He ardently desired to attend constantly the worship and ordinances of God in his house, for the sake of two things especially. One was to gain the knowledge, and the other was to gain the enjoyment of God. These desires he expresses in the strongest terms, in the text. "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after." What is this one thing? It is "that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord;" that is, to enjoy him," and to inquire in his temple;" where his will is revealed in his word. These same desires he as clearly and fervently expresses at different times. In the sixty-third Psalm he devoutly says, "O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary." In the eighty-fourth psalm he devoutly cries, "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God." Those who have seen and tasted that the Lord is good, desire the sincere milk of the word, that they may grow thereby in knowledge and grace, and behold and enjoy the beauty of the Lord. And since these spiritual and divine favors may always be found, and always enjoyed in the house and worship of God, all good men desire constantly to attend the services of the sanctuary, and deeply regret being providentially prevented. They will take more care, and surmount more and greater difficulties, to attend public worship, than to attend to their own personal, secular concerns. It must be allowed,

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