unjust." The apostle John expreffes himfelf in the most emphatical manner concerning this fubject, when he fays, 1 Jchniv. 16. "We have known and believed the "love that God hath to us. God is love; "and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in "God, and God in him." And the apoftle James fays, ch. i. 17. Every good gift, "and every perfect gift is from above, and "cometh down from the father of lights."

The feverity with which good men are fometimes treated, is always reprefented in the fcriptures as the correction of a tender father, intended to promote the reformation and good of his children; and what he always inflicts with reluctance. Jeremiah fays, Lam. iii. 31. "The Lord will not caft off "for ever. But though he caufe grief, yet "will he have compaffion, according to the "multitude of his mercies; for he doth not "afflict willingly, nor grieve the children "of men." The prophet Hofea draws a most affecting picture of the painful reluctance with which the divine being has recourse to severity, after the most aggravated

and

and repeated provocations, Hofca xi. 1. &c. "When Ifrael was a child, then I loved him, "and called my fon out of Egypt----They "facrificed unto Baalim, and burnt incenfe “to graven images. I taught Ephraim alfo "to go, taking them by their arms, but

they knew not that I healed them. I drew "them with cords of a man, with bands of

love----My people are bent to backfliding "from me: though they called them to "the moft High, none at all would exalt "him. How fhall I give thee up, Ephraim? "how fhall I deliver thee, Ifrael? how "fhall I make thee as Admah? how fhall I "fet thee as Zeboim? Mine heart is turned "within me, my repentings are kindled tcgether. I will not execute the fiercenefs "of mine anger, I will not return to deftroy

Ephraim; for I am God, and not man, "the holy One in the midst of thee."

The author of the Epiftle to the Hebrews, alfo, reminds the perfecuted chriftians of his age, of thefe comforting fentiments, fo peculiarly proper to their circumftances, Heb. xii. 5. &c. "Ye have forgotten the Q4 " exhortation

“exhortation which speaketh unto you as "unto children, My fon, defpife not thou "the chaftening of the Lord, nor faint when

thou art rebuked of him. For whom the "Lord loveth he chafteneth, and fcourgeth every fon whom he receiveth. If ye en

dure chaftening, God dealeth with you "as with fons: for what fon is he whom "the father chafteneth not?----Now no

chaftening for the prefent feemeth to be "joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, after"ward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteoufnefs, unto them who are exer"cifed thereby."

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Lafly, the difpenfation of the gospel is always reprefented as an inftance of the ex-ceedingly great love and goodness of God, John iii. 16. "God fo loved the world, "that he gave his only begotten fon, that whofoever believeth in him fhould not perish, but have everlasting life." I John

iv. 9. "In this was manifefted the love of "God towards us, because that God fent "his only begotten fon into the world, that "we might live through him. Herein is

"love, not that we loved God, but that he "loved us." Rom. viii. 32. "He that fpared "not his own fon, but delivered him up "for us all, how thall he not with him alfo freely give us all things.",

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SECTION IV.

Of the mercy of God.

HE mercy of God to thofe who are

ΤΗ

difpofed to return to their duty, when they have once rendered themselves obnoxious to his difpleafure by their offences, is a fubject of which mankind, especially thofe whofe minds were rendered timid and fearful by a confcioufnefs of guilt, would be more apt to entertain doubts, than of the goodness of God in general. No proof by way of inference only, how fhort and plain foever, would be fufficient for fuch perfons; and yet it is easy to fee, that it is of the utmost importance, that fuch perfons should

receive

receive all poffible fatisfaction with respect to it: left, through a diftruft of the mercy of God, they fhould be driven into abfolute defpair. Befides, nothing is fo engaging, and furnishes fo powerfula motive to a return to duty, as a thorough perfuafion of the clemency of the offended party. On this account, probably, it is, that the declarations of the mercy of God, to the truly penitent, are fo remarkably full and explicit in the fcriptures, infomuch that no doubt can poffibly remain with respect to it.

At the very time of the promulgation of the law of Mofes, which is deemed to be the most rigorous of all the divine dispensations, when Mofes waited in mount Sinai with the fecond tables of ftone, immediately after that most aggravated offence of the Ifraclites in making the golden calf, the divine being makes the most folemn declaration of his mercy imaginable, Ex. xxxiv. 5. &c. And the Lord defcended in the "cloud, and ftood with him there, and pro"claimed the name of the Lord. And the "Lord paffed by before him, and proclaim

❝ed,