end. Instead of thinking, that a bare profession, or a system of notions, will qualify us for the enjoyment of heaven, we shall be aware that our hearts must be created anew, that our dispositions must be sanctified, and that our energies and our lives must be devoted to God.

On the subject of Divine justice, so intimately associated with all that we are bound to recognise, when we say, "Hallowed be thy name," the following passages are conclusive. "He is the Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are judgment; a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he. Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne." St. Paul inquires,-" Is God unrighteous, who taketh vengeance? God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?" This question obviously implies, that justice is essential to God, and that, were he defective in this property, he could not be the Judge of mankind. Now, if God is just in any degree, he must be infinitely just, for all the properties of an Infinite Being must themselves be infinite; and if he is infinitely just, he cannot, in any part of his administration, deviate from perfect equity; and, consequently, cannot suffer his law to be trifled with, nor bestow forgiveness on the guilty, in any way inconsistent with the character of a righteous judge. Hence

we conclude, that it is impossible for sinful creatures to obtain justification by their own defective performances, and, that the sacrifice of Christ was absolutely requisite to secure the rights of Jehovah in the salvation of perishing sinners.

God is infinitely benevolent. And it is proper, in forming our religious principles, to regard his benevolence as the spring of all his interpositions for fallen man. The grand exhibition of his moral excellence in the law; the gift of his beloved Son, to redeem us from the domination and curse of sin; and the act of bestowing his Holy Spirit, to renew us, and to prepare us for the eternal inheritance, are all wonderful emanations of Divine benevolence. But, while this gracious attribute is to be valued as the source of all our happiness, we must not lose sight of the design of God in displaying it; which was, to secure our salvation on terms infinitely honourable to himself, by acting in perfect concert with the purity and equity of his government.

Passing over other articles of this class, which might be introduced, I conclude this section of the discourse, by observing, that when Christians maintain a devout regard to the scripture revelation of the Divine Being, their principles will not only be in harmony,

one with the other; but will be calculated to hallow the name of the Eternal, because they will be formed on a connected view of all the glorious perfections of his character. But, while it is proper for us to be solicitous, that our religious sentiments may reflect the glory of God, let us remember that they will be of no advantage to us, but as they influence our hearts, and produce in us a greater conformity to the Divine image. If they do not increase our reverence for the great and holy God; if they do not make us more deeply acquainted with ourselves; if they do not engage us with greater zeal and disinterestedness in his service; if they do not improve our dispositions; if they do not expand our benevolence towards the church of God, and towards all men; if they do not inspire more elevating and endearing thoughts of the Redeemer, and induce us to seek our righteousness, and joy, and peace, in him; they will, to us, be worse than useless; for, destitute of these effects, we shall expose ourselves to the severest censure, and be deservedly classed with those unhappy persons who hold the truth in unrighteousness.

II. A sincere believer desires that the name of God may be hallowed in his salvation.

From the tenor of the New Testament, it is evident, that God designed, by the redemption of men from the direful consequences of sin, to glorify himself. He adopted the wonderful economy of salvation, which he has revealed to us, that he might exhibit all his moral perfections in the most advantageous and glorious manner, and thereby obtain everlasting honour in the wonder, adoration, and love, of all holy intelligences.

1

In making his own glory, in this revelation of his character, the grand and ultimate object of his regard, there is, unquestionably, the highest propriety and reasonableness; because he is the eternal and self-sufficient Jehovah, for whose pleasure all things were created, and by whose energy they all continue in being.

With respect to rational agents, no one can imagine that the Infinite Creator brought them into existence, because he deemed them necessary to his happiness; for that would suppose him to have been unhappy previously to their existence; or to have been in want of something to complete his happiness; or to have been under some apprehension, that his own resources would eventually fail him; but neither of these hypotheses can be admitted, since they would attach imperfection and dependence to an Infinite Being

Now the salvation of rational agents was no more necessary to the happiness of the Deity than their existence; consequently, when we say that his chief end in redemption, was, his own glory, we do not intend that this, or any other mode of advancing that end, was essential to his happiness; (otherwise than as his happiness is connected with the accomplishment of his purposes;) but that, according to the rules of eternal reason, he ensured, by displaying the excellence of his character, the honours and praises of his creatures, as his just and unalienable right.

For God to have proposed to himself any thing inferior to his own glory, in this great interposition, as an ultimate end, would not have been suitable to the grandeur of his nature. It behoved him, as "The First and the Last," as the Source and Centre of all excellence, to regard that object with supreme complacency, to make every thing subservient to it, and to promote the happiness of his creatures by such means, and on such a scale, as should be most conducive to its brighest manifestation. Had he sought, as his chief object, the glory of any other being, he must have regarded his own as a secondary consideration, which, in effect, would have been an act of homage to a creature, and a virtual