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of this institution to keep in the world? For although it may appear to some to be indifferent whether a man hold one God or many; besides that nothing can be indifferent which relates to Almighty God, the fact is, and always has been, that the opinion of a diversity of gods leads directly to gross corruption in religion, and, in consequence of this, to gross immoralities in practice: so that the knowledge of the one God, and the preservation of this knowledge, has always been essential to the preservation of virtue. In the Old Testament it was preserved, when it was nowhere else to be found. By the Jewish account it was not only preserved, but on many occasions communicated to the rest of the world; for as many countries as at any time became acquainted with this wonderful history, and with it their law, learned from it that the gods of the heathens were nothing-that in truth, there was but one God, and he the God of Israel.

But next and lastly, it comes to be considered how the matter stands in the New Testament, in the Christian dispensation, under which we live now. I say, that the Christian dispensation entirely confirms and repeats what the Jewish Scripture of the Old Testament had before delivered: " "Hear, O Israel!" saith our Saviour himself, "the Lord our God is one Lord." "We know," saith Saint Paul to the Corinthians, "that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one; that, though there be many that are called gods in heaven and in

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earth, to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ." And again: "There is one God and Father of us all, who is above all, and in you all." These passages are very clear and express, and can never be mistaken, to us Christians; that is, "There is one God, blessed for evermore." We hear, nevertheless, of three divine persons we speak of the Trinity. "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." these, it is to be observed, that they must all be understood in such a manner as to be consistent with the above positive declarations, that there is "one only, supreme God." What is that union which subsists in the divine nature; of what kind is that relation by which the divine persons of the Trinity are connected, we know little-perhaps it is not possible that we should know more: but this we seem to know, first, that neither man nor angel bears the same relation to God the Father as that which is attributed to his only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ; and secondly, that very thing does not break in upon the fundamental truth of religion, that there is "one only supreme God," who reigneth and dwelleth in heaven and on earth; who is All in All, the same Spirit always, unchangeable; "who only hath immortality-dwelling in light which cannot be approached; whom no man hath seen, nor can see; to whom be glory and dominion for ever. Amen."

VOL. II.

T

XXVIII.

THE GOODNESS OF GOD PROVED FROM THE LIGHT OF NATURE AND REVELATION.

(PART 1.)

PSALM XXXIII. 5.

The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

Or all the great and glorious attributes of the being whom we worship, whose we are, and on whom we depend, none is so endearing or so important to us as his goodness; that magnificent power which laid the foundation of the earth, which spread abroad the heavens as a curtain, which assigned for the sea its channels and its bounds, saying it should not pass them; who hath brought into being ten thousand worlds like our own, rolling in the firmament, all of which are put in motion and sustained in their orbs by his Almighty hand; that consummate wisdom which created universal nature, which drew such regularity as this out of chaos and confusion; which contrives, with such exquisite skill, the largest as well as the least part of creation, from globes of immeasurable magnitude down to the limbs of insects too small for our eyes to perceive.

Although such are a just and never-to-be-ex

hausted subject of astonishment and adoration, yet neither of them is of that immediate concern and consequence to ourselves as the benevolence, and kindness, and goodness of his disposition; because, if we ever find that these illustrious qualities are under the direction of a good and gracious will, then, but not till then, they become a solid ground of love, and confidence, and resignation to all who are to depend upon them besides. If God be not good, what reason have we to believe that by doing good we please him? So that the subject of the divine goodness lies at the root of all morality and religion -of all our rules of conduct, and all our hopes of happiness. Now no man hath seen God at any time; we can know him only by his works and his word his works are to be taken into consideration, both from this being the natural order, and because it is from his works we collect that his word is to be relied upon. We will therefore state, as briefly as we can, the argument by which is made out the divine goodness and benevolence to his creatures: for the main thing wanted, in an argument of this sort, is, that it be short and intelligible, that every one may retain and revert to it in his own thoughts. When God created the human species, either he wished their happiness, or he wished their misery, or he was indifferent and unconcerned about either: no other supposition is to be made. If he had wished our misery, he might have made sure of his purpose by framing our senses to be so many sores and pains to

us, as they are now instruments of gratification and enjoyment, or by placing us amidst objects as ill suited to our perceptions as to have continually offended us, instead of ministering to our refreshment and delight. He might, for example, if he had pleased, have made every thing we tasted bitter, every thing we saw loathsome, every thing we touched a sting, every smell a stench, and every sound a discord.

If he had been indifferent about our happiness or misery, we must impute to our good fortunes (as all design by this supposition is excluded), both the capacity of our senses to receive pleasure, and the supply of external objects fitted to excite it; but either of these, and still more both of them, being too much to be attributed to accident, nothing is. left for it but the first supposition, that God, when he created the human species, wished their happiness, and made for them the provision he has made, with that view and for that purpose.

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This is the argument in brief; but it deserves to be displayed somewhat more at large; for, I trust, the more it is considered, the more satisfactory it will be found. The world about us was certainly made, and made by God; and there are three suppositions, and only three possible suppositions, as to the disposition and design with which he made it— either from a delight in the misery and torment of his creatures, or with a total unconcern what became of them one way or the other, or with the good and gracious will and wish that they should enjoy and

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