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boliness, including his regard to moral virtue in general, and then his goodness, mercy, and veracity, in the order in which they are here mentioned.

Paffages which exprefs the purity or holinefs of God in general, are exceedingly numerous, and many of them of them very emphatical; as Lev. xix. 2. " Ye shall be holy: "for I the Lord your God am holy.” The angels, in the vifion of Ifaiah, vi. 3. are reprefented as crying one to another," Holy,

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holy, holy is the Lord of hofts, the whole "earth is full of his glory. Mofes, in that remarkable fong which he composed for the Ifraclites, in order that they might commit it to memory, fays, Deut. xxxii. 3. " I will publish the name of the Lord: afcribe ye greatnefs unto our God. He is the rock, "his work is perfect: for all his ways are

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judgment: a God of truth, and without iniquity, juft and right is he." Habbakuk, addreffing himself to God, fays, ch. i. 12. "Art thou not from everlafting, O Lord my God, mine holy one? Thou art of

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"not look on iniquity." When David enumerates the particulars which conftitute the character of the man who is moft in favour with God, he draws a picture of the moft diftinguished moral virtue, Pf. xv. 1. &c. "Lord who fhall abide in thy taberna"cle? who fhall dwell in thy holy hill? He "that walketh uprightly, and worketh

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righteousness, and speaketh the truth in "his heart, &c." Laftly, the apostle James fays, ch. i. 13. "Let no man fay when he is "tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.'

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A thousand paffages in the fcriptures exprefs the pleasure which God takes in good men, and the happinefs which he referves for them, Pf. cxlvii. 11. "The Lord taketh

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pleasure in them that fear him, in those "that hope in his mercy." Pf. xxxvii. 23. 24 "The fteps of a good man are ordered by "the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.

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Though he fall, he fhall not be utterly "caft down for the Lord upholdeth him "with his hand." Pf. ciii. 13. Like as a "father

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"father pitieth his children: fo the Lord 'pitieth them that fear him." Pf. lxxxiv. II. "For the Lord God is a fun and fhield: "the Lord will give grace and glory: no "good thing will he with-hold from them "that walk uprightly. O Lord of hofts, "bleffed is the man that trufteth in thee." On the other hand, the wicked are always reprefented as the fole objects of the divine difpleafure and vengeance, as If. xlviii. 22. and lvii. "21. There is no peace, faith my God, to the “wicked.” And all the judgments which the divine being is reprefented as interpofing to inflict, are always faid to have been on the account of wickednefs only, as in the cafe of our first parents, the inhabitants of the old world, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Canaanites, and many others.

Whereas the favour of the heathen gods was fuppofed to be gained by the performance of certain rites and ceremonies, while moral virtue was feldom thought to be of any ufe for that purpofe; the contrary is expreffed, in the ftrongest terms, with respect to the true God; and admonitions of this kind

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are repeated again and again in the books of fcripture. David, confeffing his fins before God, fays, Pf. li. 16. " Thou defireft not

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facrifice, elfe would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The "facrifices of God are a broken spirit: a "broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou "wilt not defpife." One of the finest paffages in the facred writings to this purpose is If.i. 13. &c. “ Hear the word of the Lord,

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ye rulers of Sodom, give ear unto the law "of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To "what purpose is the multitude of your "facrifices unto me? faith the Lord: I am "full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the "fat of fed beafts, and I delight not in the "blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of "he

goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, "to tread my courts: Bring no more vain "oblations, incenfe is an abomination unto me, the new-moons and fabbaths, the

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calling of affemblies I cannot away with, "it is iniquity, even the folemn meeting. "Your new moons, and your appointed "feafts my foul hateth; they are a trouble

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"unto me, I am weary to bear them. And "when ye spread forth your hands, I will "hide mine eyes from you: yea, when

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ye make many prayers, I will not hear:

your hands are full of blood. Wash ye, "make you clean, put away the evil of your

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doings from before mine eyes, cease to "do evil, learn to do well, feek judgment, "relieve the oppreffed, judge the fatherless,

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plead for the widow. Come now and let "us reafon together, faith the Lord: though "your fins be as fcarlet, they fhall be as "white as fnow; though they be red "like crimson, they fhall be as wool." The fame fentiment is alfo admirably expreffed in Micah vi. 6. &c. "Wherewith shall I "come before the Lord, and bow myself "before the high God? fhall I come before "him with burnt offerings, with calves of a

year old? Will the Lord be pleafed with "thousands of rams, or with ten thousands "of rivers of oil? fhall I give my first "born for my tranfgreffion, the fruit of

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my body for the fin of my foul? He "hath fhewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee,

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