The holiness and benevolence of God, or what we may conveniently call his holy benevolence, being thus the sum of his character, we may regard all those specific attributes which he revealed to Moses, as ways or modes in which he is pleased to develope it, and bring it to bear upon the welfare of the universe. Thus his mercy is his holy benevolence tenderly directed towards the suffering guilty; his grace is benevolence engaged in reclaiming sinners; his long-suffering is benevolence extending the term of grace; his goodness is benevolence conferring various blessings; his truth is benevolence faithfully concerned in declaring nothing but what is strictly true; his forgiveness is benevolence bestowing pardon; and finally his justice is the same benevolence, guided by infinite wisdom, aiming at the highest welfare of the universe, by sustaining the authority of righteous laws.

Thus all the specific moral attributes of God are but radiations of an infinitely wise and holy benevolence, and in their source resolve themselves into it. As the seven elementary rays of solar light, when melted together in their natural proportions, constitute one perfect mass of dazzling brightness, as seen in the face of yonder sun, so these seven elementary moral perfections of God, uniting as they do in him, constitute a character of ineffable excellence and glory. Hence the character of God is the glorious moral sUN of the universe-the everlasting light and joy of all the righteous. The Scriptures teach us that "the Lord God is a sun,' "* and that the unclouded lustre of his

*Ps. lxxxiv. 11.

character makes heaven an eternal day. "And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the GLORY OF GOD did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."*

We are now prepared to consider, more particularly, these seven attributes which God revealed to Moses, in which the glory of his character emanates upon the moral universe. Other analysis might be adopted, making the divine attributes more or less in number, and of course more or less specific, but as this analysis has been given us by God himself we cannot do better than to adopt it. This subject is of the highest importance to us, for in the moral attributes of God are found the origin and the principles of his moral government. They are the guardians of the universe.

1. MERCY. "The Lord God merciful."+ Mercy, as we have said, is a tender regard to the suffering guilty. But it is important to distinguish here between a mere constitutional or instinctive impulse and moral principle. In the former there is no character. Thus the clemency which some brutes exercise towards their young, and towards each other, possesses no moral excellence, for it is an instinct, implanted in their nature by the Creator. The same disposition among men is sometimes called mercy. It is an amiable instinct, of much value in the constitution of the soul. Not only is it of itself destitute of moral principle, but, like all our other propensities, when not rightly controlled, it tends to the destruction of moral principle.

When it is indulged at the expense of righteousness, as in the case of the parent withholding from his child needful chastisement, or gratifying him with enervating indulgencies; or when it induces the minister of Christ to compromise truth, and please the worldly and the selfish with the expectation that all will be happy at last; or when it so sways the breast of the judge on the bench, as to induce him to acquit the guilty ;-in short, whenever it obtains the mastery of moral principle, and moves by a blind and self-gratifying impulse, so far from being mercy, as that attribute exists in God, it is weakness, it is sin, tending to the subversion of all true mercy, and to the utter ruin of its object.

Mercy, as it exists in God, is one of the elements of wise benevolence. It is divested of all human imperfections, and is purely a moral principle. It expresses the tender compassion of God towards the guilty and the suffering, his desire for the repentance and salvation of sinners; the yearnings of his heart towards the fallen, the needy, the wretched. This view of the divine mercy is sustained throughout the Scriptures.

2. GRACE. "The Lord God gracious." This attribute goes a degree beyond mercy. Mercy expresses tenderness and compassion, grace implies positive favor conferred on the undeserving. A gracious disposition is a disposition to bless enemies, to overcome evil with good, to subdue foes by kindness. It differs from mercy in this essential particular, it has no resemblance in any instinct. None of all the brute creation exhibit any thing like it; nor does it exist in

its genuine character amongst men, except as they are renewed by the Holy Spirit. It is one of the richest and most brilliant emanations of the divine character, especially as contemplated by man its object.

It was grace that rolled back the tempest of approaching wrath from the world, when seen from heaven lying in guilt and justly exposed to perdition ;it was grace that lit up the bow of hope on the face of the frowning sky;-it was grace that gave to mankind a Saviour;—it was grace that planted the church on the earth, and raised up a kingdom of redemption from the ruins of the apostacy;-it is grace that has sustained this kingdom, and has borne it along in safety from age to age, through the deluge, through fire, and through storms of persecution ;—it is grace that gives the Holy Spirit in every instance of regeneration, and every degree of sanctification;—it is grace, sovereign, eternal, glorious grace, that originated, pursues, and will finally accomplish, the entire scheme of salvation by Jesus Christ.

"Grace first contrived a way

To save rebellious man;
And all its steps that grace display,
Which drew the wondrous plan.

"Grace all the work shall crown,
Through everlasting days;

It lays in heaven the topmost stone,
And well deserves the praise."

Every man upon earth who is now any thing but an impenitent sinner, condemned by the law, must say with Paul, "By the GRACE OF GOD I am what I am ;"

* 1 Cor. xv 10.

and the headstone of Zion's temple will be laid at last, "with shoutings, Grace, grace, unto it."*

3. LONG-SUFFERING. "The LORD GOD-longsuffering." This is grace protracted. It is the prolonged endurance of unyielding sin. It is grace that prevents the hand of justice from smiting the sinner dead, according to his strict deserts, the moment he sins; it is long-suffering that holds the hand of justice in continued arrest, still bearing with him and waiting to be gracious. It is grace that provides and offers salvation to men ;—it is long-suffering that gives them weeks and months and often years to accept it. It was the long-suffering of God that waited on men in the days of Noah ;† it was the same that subsequently bore with his highly favored but stiff-necked and revolting people ;—it is with much long-suffering that God endures all "the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction ;"|--and it is only by virtue of the same, that any of us continue to live in a world of probation and hope.

But the long-suffering of God never degenerates into pusilanimity. Like all his other attributes, it is under the control of his infinite wisdom and holiness. There is a limit beyond which long-suffering towards sinners cannot go, but to the moral detriment of the universe; and beyond that, God will never extend it. This doctrine runs through the whole Bible, and is fundamental in a moral government.

There is probably no other divine attribute so much abused as this. "Because sentence against an evil

* Zech. iv. 7. † 1 Pet. iii. 20. ‡ Num. xiv. 18.

|| Rom. ix. 22,