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more than of the mind of Him who formed the ruined agent, and comprehends the good rejected and the evil chosen, the amplitude of the remedy, the urgent sincerity of its offer, and the voluntariness of its rejection, while the incorrigible ingrate is moving onward to the crisis of a confirmed and everlasting madness, where insatiable desire, and pinching famine, and wounded pride, and rankling envy, and fear, and ferocious hate, and terror, and sinking of heart, and lamentation, and despair, will occupy the ever-coming periods of duration.

Miserable innocence, exposed only to temporary evils, would not fail to participate in the compassion of the Deity; but how much more moving are the exhibitions of miserable guilt, exposed to evils which will never end, and obstinately regardless of deliverance.

Nor does the immensity of the divine mind, or the extent of its supervision, disqualify or disincline for minute, constant, and kind attention.

When He projected creation, he understood his resources, and has not set for himself a task too hard. The Almighty fainteth not, neither is weary; and the Watchman of Israel never slumbers, but superintends, with equal ease, the orbs whose being we learn from the telescope, and those minutest mites of animated being which the microscope brings up to our knowledge from the downward distance. Minute and great are alike in respect to the adaptation of his powers, or the claims of mind on his benevolence.

It is consistent with the purity of his holiness, and his public character as the supreme executive of the universe, that he should feel compassion for the miserable and the guilty. It implies no complacency in sinful character, and no faltering of purpose in respect to the claims of public

justice, but renders his administration more lovely, sure, and terrible to the incorrigible, — that it is the unchanging award of a benevolence full of compassion, but yet will by no means clear the guilty.

It is compassion, mingled with parental government and discipline, which gives it loveliness and tone. It is compassion, in human governments, mingling with justice, which takes off the appearance of cruelty, and makes rulers a terror to evil-doers, and a praise to them that do well.

Nor need our faith in the compassion of the Deity be shaken by the strong and terrible expressions contained in the Bible, of his abhorrence of sin, his anger, wrath, fury, and unalterable determination to punish it. Metaphors express analogies, but not exact identity. There must be points of resemblance, to render one thing the symbol of another; and how are conceptions of the movements of the divine mind to be communicated, but by the aid of some analogous movement of the human mind, with which we are acquainted? Now, anger includes strong moral disapprobation, and a strong purpose of inflicting evil, only with this difference, that in man malignity and revenge is the spring of action, while in God it is benevolence in the form of public justice. It is, then, a suitable, forcible, terrific imagery, to speak of God as angry, wroth, incensed, full of indignation and fury. But it expresses only, by the power of metaphor, the strength of his aversion to sin, the intensity of his purpose to punish it, and the terrible effects of public justice when the work of desolation shall begin. Anger, in God, is not malignant feeling; not any thirsting for the blood of the slain; not any pleasure in suffering, or an opportunity to inflict it; nothing which

will prevent compassion, even while the tide of desolation rolls; nothing which will obscure the bow, and a smiling sky, to him that is humble and of a contrite heart, and believeth in Jesus.

Nor is the exercise of compassion inconsistent with the blessedness of God, if to any it should seem to be so. God understands his own character; and we are not permitted to thrust up the lamp of our philosophy, to prove that he has misdescribed his capabilities and emotions. But the delicate and tender susceptibilities of a mighty mind would appear to be as indispensable to its enjoyment as vast emotions of unmingled pleasure; and quite indispensable to its fellowship with created minds, and especially so, to revive the confidence, and reëstablish the loyalty of the dismayed, alienated, jealous, fearful hearts of a ruined world. How sweet is the voice of mercy to the desperate or despondent mind - how soul-subduing the notes of divine compassion on the ear of guilt how sweet the tender cords of love, drawing the soul into fellowship with Heaven, while, as yet, it half believeth not for joy! But it is enough that, in believing in the sympathetic affections of the divine mind, we do not follow philosophy or fables, but divine testimony. God, who cannot lie, has caused it to be written, that he is God over all, blessed forever; and at the same time that he is full of compassion, not willing that any should perish, but desiring sincerely that all should come to the knowledge of the truth, as it is in Jesus.

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LECTURE VI.

THE NECESSITY OF A REVELATION FROM GOD TO MAN.

I REMEMBER the time when there was no such thing as infidelity openly advocated in our land. It was imported from France during the Revolutionary war. The first public assault that was made upon the Bible was by Thomas Paine, in his Age of Reason. It went like an electric shock through the land, and, for a time, unsettled the confidence of many. But an era of prayer, and discussion, and revivals of religion, speedily followed, and the tide of infidelity ebbed; until, after about six or eight years, there was no longer any ostentatious display of infidel opinions in high places, and scarcely at all anywhere; and the name of infidel was no longer coveted as indicative of knowledge, or talent, or courage. Since then the epidemic has revived, and extended to large classes of society not usually affected by it—the laboring classes; and, by the circulation of tracts, and continued boasting declamation, the advocates of infidelity have turned their footsteps to the farm and work-shop, - well knowing that if they could succeed in depositing their poison there, a copious harvest would ensue.

The danger of the working men of our nation does not arise from any prejudice against Christianity peculiar to them; but objections are thrust upon them, and cavils are insinuated, of the most injurious kind, which they know not how to answer;

divine mind is like an ocean, of immeasurable circumference, unfathomable depth, and inexhaustible fulness, ever spontaneously overflowing in the communication of enjoyment.

This benevolence of God, though vast, is also minute in its inspection, and impartial in its administration. All beings are regarded with good will, according to their capacity, and with complacency, according to their character and deeds.

It includes, of course, his own well-being, as comprehending the greatest good; and the well-being of the universe, as involved in the stability of his counsels, and the prosperity of his kingdom; and extends to every creature capable of enjoyment, from angel to insect, with an impartiality which none but God himself can graduate.

It is a benevolence which is pure and unmingled. In convalescent human nature, it exists in alliance with great defects of passion, and selfishness, and pride; but in God it

is not so. There is no spot on his sun. God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all; and pure as crystal are the waters which flow from the throne of God and the Lamb. The benevolence of God is also infinite. It is great like power, and immense like his being.

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All created intellect, condensed into one mind, would be but a ray compared with the eternal mind; and all the benevolence which warms the hearts of holy beings, united, would constitute but a drop, when compared with the ocean of his love. It is a height, and depth, and length, and breadth, which cannot be comprehended.

It is also a principle of omnipotent, constant, eternal action. It is the nature of mind to act, and the blessedness of benevolent minds to act in doing good; and it is in his

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