play itself in giving them a law, written in their hearts, or communicated by external revelation, for their guidance in moral and religious duty. But when they broke the covenant of life, and became obnoxious to God's anger, and liable to the miseries consequent upon disobedience, they had no longer any claims on the divine goodness. They stood in a totally different relation to Him, whose responsible creatures they were. They became objects of his aversion and indignation. They had so changed their character and their state, that his justice demanded from them a penalty which they were unable to pay. It would have been no unrighteousness in him, to have actually doomed them to the destruction which they had merited by their apostacy. And the question came to be, if we may so speak, in the councils of heaven, whether, and in what way, fallen man, who had been at first the worthy recipient of the divine goodness, should still be so dealt with as to participate in its bounties, to be rescued from the degradation and ruin into which he had plunged, and restored to that high and happy estate which he had deservedly lost.

Now it seemed meet to the adorable Godhead to settle this question in favour of our apostate race,—to determine that the innate goodness of Deity should be extended to them, all unworthy as they had made themselves,-to accommodate

its operations to their altered nature and their altered circumstances,-to make them still the objects of its care and of its liberality,—and thus to exhibit it under that new, and appropriate, and attractive modification, which is denominated mercy, which is so peculiar in its bearing on the government and the destinies of our fallen world as almost to wear the aspect of a distinct and additional attribute, and which, at any rate, provides as richly and effectually for the redemption of the sinner, as, in its original actings, it provided for the felicity of his first progenitors, while they were yet pure and holy in paradise. And whenever that attribute by which God is prompted to be kind or beneficent to his rational offspring is spoken of as a ground on which they may confide in him, when they have contracted guilt by breaking his commandments, it is right and expedient that, instead of regarding it under the general and vague appellation of goodness, which is more applicable to the angels that surround the throne of the Eternal, than to the polluted inhabitants of this polluted earth, they should view it, and have recourse to it, under the appellation of mercy. This appellation, more precisely, and certainly, and emphatically conveys the truth, that while it is impossible for us to appear before God in any other light than that of crimi nals, pronounced to be such by his law, senten

ced to the punishment which it has threatened, and actually and helplessly lying under its curse, still he is not relentless and implacable, but has revealed himself in the attitude of compassionating our case, and as possessing an excellence which, but for the existence of our sinfulness, we should not have known, which teaches us to look to him without despondency or distrust, and which may embolden us to prefer the petition, equally indicative of humility and hope, "God be merciful to me a sinner."

We have already asserted the propriety and necessity of taking a comprehensive survey of the divine character. Even though it is the mercy which resides in it, that bespeaks and demands our chief attention, as being in a situation which especially requires its exercise, still our due homage is not rendered to the divine character, nor can we account ourselves sufficiently safe in our contemplation of it, as possessing the attribute of mercy, unless we consider at the same time those other attributes with which it is connected. And, indeed, having ascertained that it does possess mercy, so far from being afraid of meditating on the other attributes with which it is adorned, we should engage in that meditation of them, in order to have our ideas of its mercy confirmed, and exalted, and accompanied with hope.

Had we looked to God as just, powerful, wise,

faithful, and good, we should have discovered nothing calculated to relieve us of the apprehensions created by guilt, but every thing calculated to strengthen, to rivet, and to increase them. For the goodness which lavished so much honour and blessedness on our first parents ere they lapsed into rebellion, and which cannot fail to watch over the well-being and happiness of all God's intelligent creatures who have never sinned against him, does not necessarily embrace those who, by transgression, have at once forfeited the blessings which it would have otherwise bestowed, contracted a debt to the justice with which it stands united, and are incompetent to liquidate the debt by any resources of their own. And if the goodness of God is withdrawn from the sinner's view, or if no declaration is made of its being extended to the sinner's case, then the exactions of his justice must be satisfied in our punishment, his faithfulness will secure the fulfilment of every evil he has threatened, his wisdom will contrive and his power will execute the most effectual methods of inflicting the wrath that has been incurred, while his very goodness, from the abundance of the gifts which it conferred, and the ingratitude and disobedience with which it was requited, will only serve to render his vengeance more certain and more awful.

But the moment that we substitute mercy

for goodness, and introduce it into the divine character as an essential ingredient, and as an object of believing contemplation, the whole complexion of that character is changed to the sinner's eye. The attributes which formerly created and enhanced his terror, assume, from their alliance with mercy, a friendly bearing on his fate. Each of them now acts its part in seconding the exercise, and securing the awards of mercy in his behalf. And, in their combined operation, he sees a perfect and indubitable pledge, that whatever mercy designs for him will come into his lot, without failure and without deficiency. From the mercy of God, as now working in that system of divine administration under which he is placed, he may anticipate deliverance instead of ruin; and his anticipation does not rest on the mere insulated position that with God there is mercy, but on the glorious harmony which subsists among all the attributes of the divine character, and in pursuance of which they are all united in giving to that mercy its proper direction and its full effect. The mercy of God must and will extend to communicate to him the blessings that are suited to his state. And nothing can occur to frustrate that gracious purpose, or to detract either from its extent or its efficiency. On the contrary, the wisdom of God must provide most skilfully for the full execution of it: the power of