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not, nor can be univerfally practifed in the SER M. fame way as by any other being, or brought down to the standard of inferior virtue. It is the rectitude of a fuperior in every respect; and confists in what is more strictly call'd goodness and justice, which I propose afterwards particularly to confider; Goodness diverfified in its exercise, according to the condition and circumstances of the objects, comprehending grace, mercy, patience, and righteousness, whereby he is univerfally inclined to render to all his rational creatures, according to their works.

But the principal exercise of the divine rectitude in the administration of providence, as it relates to us, and which ought very fenfibly to affect our minds, confifts in what I have already fhewn to be most directly prov'd from the law of our nature, confider'd as a divine conftitution, namely, that God approves good and disapproves evil in the difpofitions and works of his rational creatures. Tho' his actions are not to be brought down to the standard of inferior moral agents, and their virtues, fuited to the imperfection of their state, are too low to be practis'd by him in kind; and tho' his administration, as the fupreme infinitely wife and powerful ruler, (in itself exactly agreeable to goodness and juftice,

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SER M. ftice, and fo it will appear in the last issue of I. things,) is too deep for our narrow understand

ing to comprehend, and therefore we cannot take upon us to judge in particular circumftanc'd cafes, how these perfections are to exert themselves, and what they require to be done: Yet this is very plain, and ought to make a deep impreffion upon our minds, that the iniquities of man, and all other moral agents, are always an abomination to him, and that be beholds the righteous with a pleafant countenance; That as his eye is always on our behaviour, and the moft fecret of our actions, even our thoughts, are not hid from his view, he is not a careless indifferent spectator, but pleas'd with what we do right, and difpleas'd with what we do amifs. This fhews that the omniscience of the Deity, his fearching the hearts and trying the reins of the children of men, is not a point of meer fpeculation, but in conjunction with that glorious attribute of his nature, his perfect purity, his unchangeable love of righteousness, and aversion to moral turpitude, renders him the juft object of our highest veneration, and makes it our most important concern to be approved by him. So it is, even abstracting from the future confequences of his favour or difpleafure as our judge; for the mind of

man

man is fo fram'd, as naturally to defire the SER M. esteem of other intelligent moral agents, and I. the more perfect their characters are, the more folicitous we shall be to obtain their approbation. Above all, the univerfal and most accurate inspection of that Being who is perfectly free from the least moral defect, must be regarded by the mind which believes and seriously attends to it, as a powerful motive to the avoiding of all evil, and the fincere practice of every virtue. But this has still the greater force, when we confider that as the confciences of men neceffarily approve the whole work of God's law written in their hearts as pure and righteous, and as this cannot but raise in us a high veneration for the law-giver, so his inviolable regard to rectitude, which makes our conduct now the object of his special attention, gives us the greatest reafon to believe he will hereafter call us to account.

It

may be a very proper and ufeful illuftration of this subject, to confider it in the light in which the scriptures fet it. One great excellency of these facred books, as a rule of religion, is, that they contain noble descriptions of the Deity, tending to form in our minds the most becoming fentiments concerning the tranfcendent perfection and dignity of his na

ture,

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SERM.ture, and glory of his fupreme government, and the most apt to excite in us pious and devout affections. Particularly, they represent that which I have been endeavouring to prove and to explain, his moral attributes in general, or that perfect rectitude which comprehends them all under the character of holiness, as the object of our highest admiration and most profound reverence, which in a peculiar sense they ascribe, nay, appropriate to him, as in the text: Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy Name, for thou only art Holy? In like manner, the angels are reprefented in vifion to the prophet Isaiah as in God's train which filled the temple, that is, as attending in their ministry when he reveals his will to men, and governs them according to that revelation: And on that occafion they celebrate his glory under the fame denomination, as expreffing the most proper idea we can have of the object of our worship, faying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hofts, the whole earth is full of his glory. It is therefore the incommunicable title of the true God, denoting his incomparable moral excellence, which the prophets often gave him, the Holy one of Ifrael. Other perfons, 'tis true, and even inanimate things, are called holy in fcripture. But things are fo denominated only because of their be

ing used in the external religious fervices performed by men: and perfons in a more proper, but far inferior fense, so that the glory of the pureft and most exalted created beings is represented as finking into nothing, when set against original and immutable holiness. The heavens are not clean in his fight, and he chargeth his angels with folly. But when this defignation is given to God, it means that which is the principal and peculiar object of reverence; which ought to be held facred by all intelligent creatures, and claims their humble adoration on its own account, without reference to any thing else as a superior excellence, or its original pattern, and it is the universal perfect rectitude of the divine nature.

SERM.

Now the holiness of God, that most eminent character given him in scripture, comprehending all his moral excellencies, and proposed as the just object of our religious fear, and the perfect pattern to which we should always endeavour to conform our temper and behaviour;-The holiness of God, I fay, is celebrated as confifting in fuch particulars as you will fee are imported in his approbation of good and difapprobation of evil; his moral character, as it appears by the evidence of reason, confifting in an eternal distance from every kind and degree of fin and unrighteouf

nefs,

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