SERMON I.

PSALM CXXX. 7, 8.

"Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy; and with him is plenteous redemption; and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities."

THE Psalmist laboured under convictions of sin, and under the pressure of those distressful feelings which these convictions naturally produced. And so great was the affliction which he suffered that he represents himself as having been in "the depths." He had sunk so deep in " the horrible pit, and in the miry clay," as not only to be involved in much wretchedness, but to be beyond recovery, either by the exertion of any inherent energies of his own, or by the interposition of power and skill on the part of his fellow-men. Although the strength of the creature, however, was utterly unavailing for his deliverance, he did

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not despair. He directed his regards to that Being whom he had offended, and by whose "wrath he was troubled ;" and in the character and promises of God, he found all that was sufficient for his emancipation, and all that was needful for his comfort. The God of holiness whom he had provoked, was also a compassionate God, in whose willingness to forgive he might take encouragement to trust, because it had been both proclaimed and experienced. And, therefore, he applied to God for salvation, with the spirit and in the language of heartfelt penitence-lifted up to him the voice of earnest supplication-and, with assured, because warranted confidence, as well as with intense and longing desire, waited for those divine communications which the wants and the exigencies of his condition required.

The course which the Psalmist adopted was. attended with the consolation which he needed. It was not merely right and becoming in itself, but it was the means of procuring relief and solacement to him, in the midst of those calamities to which he had been subjected by sin. And sympathising with all those of the church of Israel, or of the people of God, who were placed in similar circumstances, he recommends to them the remedy which he had found so suitable and so efficient for himself-exhorting them to "hope in the Lord," as he had done, and detailing the

grounds upon which that hope might confidently and securely rest. "Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy; and with him is plenteous redemption; and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities." These grounds of hope we propose to illustrate in discoursing from the words of the text. And may God give us his Holy Spirit to open our minds to the lessons of his word, and to the influences of his truth.

I. Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy.

Mercy is that attribute in the divine character upon which the sinner's hope must ultimately depend. In every regard, indeed, that can be justly and safely paid to the divine character, there must be a becoming reference to all the attributes by which it is distinguished, because every one of these attributes is concerned in its perfection and its glory, and no dispensation can be true, whatever benefits it may hold out, in which any of them are violated or disregarded. But the sinner being in such circumstances as that all the attributes of God, if mercy is excluded, would conspire to destroy and not to save him, it is the attribute of mercy to which the sinner's eye must look, and on which the sinner's reliance must be built, as a source of comfort or as a foundation

of hope. It would be disrespectful to God, and dangerous for himself, were the sinner to limit his views to the divine mercy, and leave out of his contemplation, the divine holiness, or the divine veracity, or the divine omnipotence. These, and all the other divine qualities with which they are associated in the Supreme Being, must be duly honoured, in being duly acknowledged by him. Only it is essential that he recognise mercy as one of them, and that to it he must principally have recourse, if he would be justified in cherishing any expectation from that God whose law he has transgressed, and for the transgression of whose law he is condemned, and miserable, and lost.

We say mercy, and not goodness merely. Mercy is not synonymous with goodness. It is a specific exercise of goodness, and not a necessary but a sovereign exercise of it. Goodness is manifested towards sentient creatures in general,but mercy, towards those who are in sin, in danger, or in suffering. Before our first parents fell, God was good to them; and as they were created with capacities of enjoyment, and as he saw reflected from them the unsullied image of himself, and as they had done nothing to forfeit his favour, or to awaken his displeasure, his goodness emanated in liberal contributions to their happiness, as naturally as did his holiness dis