clean gone for ever, and he will be favourable no more." But there is neither wisdom, nor truth, nor integrity, in such imperfect and partial conceptions of the Deity. No! there is a holy congenial radiance beaming from the darkness of the cloud; and though clouds and darkness are round about him, yet righteousness and judgment are the habitations of his throne.

My brethren, the scriptures give us the most sublime representations of the Deity; and if there were no other proofs and comparisons than the pure, and coherent, and majestic delineation which is furnished in these pages, of the government and character of God, the obscene and monstrous mythology of the heathen would be sufficient to stamp upon these oracles the impress of an Almighty hand. I say the delineation which they give of the character and government of God, for the sacred writers are too wise to attempt to describe an essence which is purely spiritual; they only give us such information concerning the mysterious and inexplicable modes of his existence as is necessary to our right understanding of those relations, which he bears to

economy of providence and redemption. We never rise from the study of this book with an evidence in our minds that God cannot be as it represents him; on the contrary, there is a consciousness within which even the most vain and careless observer must feel, that every representation is correct and true, and even that which is beyond the utmost grasp of our reason to comprehend, still commends itself to our reason as in harmony with every just idea of a being who, because of his infinity, must be beyond the grasp of a finite mind; and who is, therefore, in his arrangements, plans, and operations, mysterious and inexplicable to his creatures. Will the pride of reason and vain philosophy allow and acknowledge that there is most of God where we can least comprehend him, and infinite when he surpasses our finite and degraded intellects? "Who by searching can find out God? who can find out the Almighty to perfection?" and yet, Christian, where you cannot trace him, you may trust him with an unwavering confidence; with an unhesitating faith; for the basis of his throne is "righteousness and judgment," though the superstructure may be obscured, which shadows the summit where he sits concealed in the darkness of eternity. "Clouds and darkness"-I feel the majesty of the terms! the words I utter thrill through my brain! "Clouds and darkness are round about him; righteousness and judgment are the habitations of his throne." Let us endeavour to elicit and illustrate the great truth asserted in our text, and to draw from it those practical lessons which it is calculated to afford. First, then, we are to elicit and illustrate the great truths contained in the text: "Clouds and darkness are round about him, righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne." God is a spirit, and when we read such language as this concerning the Deity, we must not suppose he has a bodily shape, a local habita

tion, a material throne, or that he dwells in pomp and splendour obvious to the senses of his creatures. We must not suppose that he has confirmation and figure, parts and passions, such as we have; no, though he sometimes assumes these material splendours, they are no part of Deity. Though he has sometimes spoken with an audible voice, the organs that uttered the voice were not the organs of Deity. Nothing that belongs to matter can attach to him; and if it were possible for us to conceive of pure, essential, all persuading, unlimited spirit, then we could have a just conception of the Deity. But we cannot: it is to us with spirit as it is with eternity; and we could no more conceive of a Being, whose capacities and whose presence are unlimited, than we can conceive of a period that neither had beginning nor end. The moment we pass the threshold of these ideas, we plunge into a world, in which we are swallowed up and lost! lost in the Godhead! lost in eternity! so that if it were not for these material representations, which are obvious to our senses, we should have no correct conceptions of the Deity, if clouds are the obscurity, and darkness is the concealment, in which he hides his purposes and plans from the idle and curious gaze of his creatures; and righteousness and judgment are those eternal principles of rectitude upon which his moral government proceeds, and by which, from first to last, he regulates the whole of his affairs. For I conceive that the passage is improperly rendered, "righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne": the reading of the margin is better: "the establishment of his throne"; for habitation has respect rather to being than to things; and the words are intended to convey to us the idea that finite rectitude is the principle of the divine government and the spring of all his conduct. Thus then the doctrine of the text is the mingled mystery and rectitude of the divine proceedings; and we shall appeal for illustration to the great scheme of human redemption and to the dispensations of his providence.

1st. To the great scheme of human redemption. And I love to treat this glorious subject thus: that we may see the wisdom of the wise destroyed, and the understanding of the prudent come to nought; that we may see the foolishness of God to be wiser than the wisdom of men, and the weakness of God to be stronger than the mightiest energies of the most exalted intelligencies. These Angels are lost! well may mortals fall and adore the mystery! There are abysses in it so deep, so profound, that the prying eye of Gabriel cannot see the amazing depth, or measure the vast profound! mysteries into which the angels desired to look! How much is there in this great scheme of infinite justice and mercy that is dimly seen by mortals; how much that mortals cannot comprehend, because of their finite capacities—much that God has not condescended to reveal at all! for "clouds and darkness are round about him, righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne." Our thought, brethren, with its strongest pinions, and

in its boldest flight, can never reach the fathomless abyss of that eternity in which this plan was laid, and all its parts adjusted, "when as yet the morning stars had not sung together, nor the sons of God shouted for joy;" when as yet there was no earth, and this beautiful universe had not burst from the darkness and the disorder of chaos; when the eternal son intensely dwelling, in the plenitude of his compassion, on human misery, said, "Lo, I come," and in the intense desire of his generous soul, rejoiced in the habitable parts of our earth, and his delights were with the sons of men !"

Those eternal, immutable purposes of God, in which that mighty scheme is fixed, as upon an eternal rock, we can never reach. We call them by various names; we seek a thousand illustrations and solutions; but still the knowledge is too high for us: we cannot attain to it, and they remain locked up amongst those secrets that belong alone to God. It is not for us to read the book of the divine decrees-the volume of life-or to tell the number of the saved, or to ascertain the principles on which personal or national election to everlasting salvation, or the privileges of the gospel proceed. Neither can our power of calculation ever number up the myriads of crowns which, because of the exalted rank he occupies in this great scheme of redemption, shall one day be placed upon the redeemer's brow, or the myriads of anthems and hallelujahs that his ransomed shall pour for ever at his feet! This mighty scheme, in which the wisdom, and the knowledge, and the power, and the justice, and the mercy of God are all alike displayed, requiring eternal duration in which to unfold its blessings; those immeasurable realms, in which to display these glories, uniting ends the most opposite to each other, and purposes that seem for ever at variance, the honor of the Creator, and the salvation of the fallen creature-the glory of the sovereign, and the pardon of the rebel-the justification of the guilty, and the justice of the justifier! such a plan, I say, may well bid defiance to human faculties, and disdain to compress all its illustrations and developments within the narrow limits of our three-score years and ten! Ask not, then, why God chose the Israelites to be his people, and not the Egyptians! Ask not why God has made these British Isles, and the continent of America, the depositaries of his truth, instead of China, or Hindoostan! Ask not why two men sit in one pew, and the gospel shall be to one the savor of life unto life, whilst unto the other it is a savor of death unto death-that to one it shall be the means of his eternal salvation, whilst it shall only aggravate the guilt, and enhance the punishment of the other! Ask not "Lord, are there few that be saved?" Ask not how God will deal with infants, idiots, and lunatics, who not possessing the requisite qualifications that constitute a moral agent, cannot be accountable. Ask not what sentence he will pronounce upon the heathen, who never heard the name of Christ, nor

listened to the glad tidings of salvation by his blood! Plunge not into these labyrinths of daring speculation or bold curiosity-put not this idle and senseless question to the Deity: he will not answer you—it is not in his word. Yet if you demand, he replies, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy." If you object, he says, "Nay but, O man, who art thou, that replyest against God? hath not the potter power over the clay, to make one vessel to honour, and another unto dishonour?" If you are dissatisfied with this, he says, " should it be according to thy mind?—— are you to be consulted in my infinité arrangements, and must my plans be submitted to your inspection, and receive your fiat ere I adopt them and proclaim them as my own?" Are you disposed to reason with him, he will reason too. What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endure with much long suffering, the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, and where is the idle objector, and the daring sceptic, and the proud reasoner, and the vain philosopher? "Let God be true, and every man a liar!" But if you are humble, and patient, and submissive, he cheers you with this promise, "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." Now you see as through a glass darkly; but then face to face! Now you know in part, and prophecy in parts; but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in parts shall be done away. "Clouds and darkness are round about him; righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne !" Brethren! here are mysteries which you cannot fathom; but they are no mysteries to God! You cannot grasp the mighty scheme in all its dependencies and parts; but infinite intelligence comprehends and fathoms all! It may seem to you a scene of wild confusion and disorder; but it is an ocean encompassed by his perfections! In the clouds that encircle it he has set the bow of promise; and every wave that rolls teems with love to his people, good to the universe, and glory to himself! That eternity in which the scheme of human redemption arose, and through which it will develop its blessings, he inherits. Though he does not condescend to assign the reason of his conduct to his creatures, (and that displays his sovereignty,) yet he has an infinite reason for all he does, and that distinguishes his sovereignty from mere caprice and arbitrary power. Though you cannot comprehend the eternal purposes of God, yet he has a glorious motive for every purpose. Though you do not read the book of life, he that wrote it reads it, and knows every name written in it; "and they shall be mine, saith the Lord, in the day when I make up my jewels." And he will pronounce a sentence on the heathen world that shall secure the admiration of all intelligences, by its infinite rectitude, justice, and truth. And then" at the name of Jesus," whom he has appointed to judge the world, "every knee shall

bow, of things in heaven, of things on earth, of things under the earth; and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father." From hell, as well as from heaven; from the damned, as well as from the redeemed, the vast revenue of his renown-the full tide of his glory-shall be for ever acknowledged! And when the darkness is removed, and the clouds are rolled away, the righteousness and judgment that support his throne shall beam forth and fill the universe with their splendour, and shall be the triumph of all holy beings throughout eternal ages! But in the

2nd place: We gather an illustration from the sentiment contained in the text, of the dispensations of his providence. The dealings of God with individuals in society, we call his providence general and particular; and his dealings with his people we call his gracious and special providence, because in all his dealings towards them he has a kind and gracious design. Every sigh, every pang, every tear, every sorrow, every loss, every distress, "all things work together for good to them that love God, and are the called according to his purpose." Is there a salutary pang that visits them that is not the commissioned messenger of mercy, and that does not bear on its balmy wings some token of his love? And yet the providence of God is proverbially mysterious: it abounds with mystery, and is ever perplexing to those that study it. There you see the righteous depressed, overwhelmed, and afflicted, whilst the wicked prosper and are exalted to rank and honor, and have all that heart can wish! There you see the active, the diligent, the energetic, and the useful, suddenly cut off, and the slothful, the supine, and the thoughtless left to encumber still the ground! There you see the young, the vigorous, the athletic, the faithful minister, the laborious itinerant, the devoted missionary, the beloved partner, cut off in the midst of their exertions, with the fairest prospects before them, and laid in an untimely grave, and devout men make great lamentation over them; whilst the hoary-headed sinner still continues a curse to his connexions, a foul blot on society, to multiply enormities and crime with his encreasing years! There we see the generous and the benevolent man suddenly bereft of his means of doing good; and he who was long and arduously engaged in the most glorious purposes, connected with the welfare of society, is reduced to indigence and want! There the mother is torn away from the midst of her family! the father removed, when all around him were hanging upon him for support! and the man finds, perhaps, all his plans are frustrated, every hope is destroyed, every prospect overcast, and every prayer seemingly refused, until at last he sinks, the victim of despondency, and ceases to struggle against what appears to be his inevitable destiny, and he cries out, "Show me wherefore thou contendest with me; for thou hast broken me with breach upon breach." Now, brethren, to tell this man that all