session of the greatest holiness a creature is capable of. We are apt to be proud with the Pharisee; but let any clap their wings, if they can, in a vain boasting and exaltation, when they view the holiness of this God. Who can stand before this holy Lord God?"

5. This would make us full of an affectionate reverence in all our approaches to God. By this perfection God is rendered venerable, and fit to be reverenced by his creature; and magnificent thoughts of it in the creature would awaken him to an actual reverence of the Divine" Majesty. (Ps. cxi. 9.) "Holy and reverend is his name." Ps. xlvii. 8.

6. A due sense of this perfection would inflame us with a vehement desire to be conformed to him. Contemplating it as it shines forth in the face of Christ will transform us into the same image.

7. Let us seek for holiness to God, the fountain of it. As he is the author of bodily life in the creature, so he is the author of his own life, the life of God in the soul. By his holiness he makes men holy, as the sun by his light enlightens the air. He is not only the Holy One, but our Holy One. (Isa, xliii. 15.) The Lord that sanctifies us. (Lev. xx. 8.) As he hath mercy to pardon us, so he hath holiness to purify us; the excellency of being a sun to comfort us, and a shield to protect us, giving grace and glory. Ps. lxxxiv. 11.

ON THE GOODNESS OF GOD.

And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God.-Mark x. 18.

TRULY"God is good." (Ps. lxxiii. 1.) All nations in the world have acknowledged this truth. The notion of goodness is inseparable from the notion of a God. We cannot own the existence of God, but we must confess also his goodness.

I. What this goodness is?

There is a goodness of being, which is the natural

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exact and infinite righteousness. Faith is the condition God requires to justification; but not a dead, but an ac tive faith; such a "faith as purifies the heart." (James ii. 20; Acts xv. 9.) He calls for repentance, which is a moral retracting our offences. He requires mortification, which is called crucifying; whereby a man would strike as full and deadly a blow at his lusts, as was struck at Christ upon the cross. There is no admittance into heaven of a starting, but a persevering holiness, (Rom. ii. 7,) “a patient continuance in well-doing."

III. It appears in the actual regeneration of, and a carrying it on to a full perfection. Our pardon is the fruit of his mercy, our knowledge a stream from his wisdom, our strength an impression of his power; so our purity is a beam from his holiness. "Holy Father, keep them through thy own name, and sanctify them through thy truth;" as the proper source whence holiness was to flow to the creature: as the sun is the proper fountain whence light is derived, both to the stars above and bodies here below. Hence he is not only called holy, but the "Holy One of Israel." Isa. xliii. 15.

To conclude.

1. There can be no communion between God and unholy spirits. Can there be any delightful communion between those whose natures are contrary? Darkness and light may as soon kiss each other, and become one nature; God and the devil may as soon enter into an eternal league and covenant together; for God to have pleasure in wickedness, and to admit evil to dwell with him, are things equally impossible to his nature.

2. Hence it will follow, there is no justification of a sinner by any thing in himself. (Eph. i 6,) "Who hath made us accepted in the Beloved." The infinite purity of God is so glorious, that it shames the holiness of angels, as the light of the sun dims the light of the fire.

3. This attribute renders God a fit object for trust and dependance. The notion of an unholy, and unrighteous God, is an uncomfortable idea of God, and beats off our hands from laying any hold of him: (Isa. xli. 14,) "Fear not, thou worm Jacob;" he will be in his actions what he is in his nature.

4. A sense of this will render us humble in the pos

session of the greatest holiness a creature is capable of. We are apt to be proud with the Pharisee; but let any clap their wings, if they can, in a vain boasting and ex"Who altation, when they view the holiness of this God. can stand before this holy Lord God?"

5. This would make us full of an affectionate reverence in all our approaches to God. By this perfection God is rendered venerable, and fit to be reverenced by his creature; and magnificent thoughts of it in the creature would awaken him to an actual reverence of the Divine Majesty. (Ps. cxi. 9.) "Holy and reverend is his name.' Ps. xlvii. 8.

6. A due sense of this perfection would inflame us with a vehement desire to be conformed to him. Contemplating it as it shines forth in the face of Christ will transform us into the same image.

7. Let us seek for holiness to God, the fountain of it. As he is the author of bodily life in the creature, so he is the author of his own life, the life of God in the soul. By his holiness he makes men holy, as the sun by his light enlightens the air. He is not only the Holy One, but our Holy One. (Isa. xliii. 15.) The Lord that sanctifies us. (Lev. xx. 8.) As he hath mercy to pardon us, so he hath holiness to purify us; the excellency of being a sun to comfort us, and a shield to protect us, giving grace and glory. Ps. lxxxiv. 11,

ON THE GOODNESS OF GOD.

And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God.-Mark x. 18.

TRULY "God is good." (Ps. Ixxiii. 1.) All nations in the world have acknowledged this truth. The notion of goodness is inseparable from the notion of a God. We cannot own the existence of God, but we must confess also his goodness.

I. What this goodness is?

There is a goodness of being, which is the natural

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is not only holy, but holiness. Holiness, in the highest degree, is his sole prerogative.

3. God is so holy, that he cannot possibly approve of any evil done by another, but doth perfectly abhor it; would not else be a glorious holiness. (Ps. v. 4,) "He hath no pleasure in wickedness."

1. He abhors it necessarily. Holiness is the glory of the Deity, therefore necessarily. The nature of God is so holy, that he cannot but hate it. (Hab. i. 13,) "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil." He is more opposite to it than light to darkness; and therefore it can expect no countenance from him.

2. Therefore intensely. Nothing do men act for more than their glory. He hates the first spark of it in the imagination. (Zach. viii. 17.) With what variety of expressions doth he repeat his indignation at their polluted services; (Amos v. 21, 22; so Isa. i. 14,) it is the abominable thing that he hates; (Jer. xliv. 4,) he is vexed and fretted at it; (Isa. Ixiii. 10; Ezek. xvi. 43,) he abhors it so, that his hatred redounds upon the person that commits it. (Ps. v. 5,) "He hates ail workers of iniquity."

3. Therefore universally, because necessarily and intensely. He doth not hate it in one, and indulge it in another, but loathes it wherever he finds it; not one worker of iniquity is exempt from it. (Ps. v. 5,) "Thou hatest all workers of iniquity."

4. Perpetually. This must necessarily follow upon the others. He can no more cease to hate impurity, than he can cease to love holiness. (James i. 17,) God is always the same, without any shadow of change; and "is angry with the wicked every day," (Ps. vii. 11,) i. e. uninterruptedly.

5. God is so holy, that he cannot but love holiness in others. Not that he owes any thing to his creatures, but from the unspeakable holiness of his nature. (Ps. xi. 7,) "The righteous Lord loveth righteousness."

6. God is so holy, that he cannot positively will or encourage sin in any. How can he give any encouragement to that which he cannot in the least approve? Light may sooner be the cause of darkness, than he that is the fountain of good should be the source of evil. James iii. 11.

1. God cannot commit any unrighteousness.

2. Nor can God secretly inspire any evil into us.

3. Nor can God necessitate man to sin. Indeed sin cannot be committed by force; there is no sin but is in some sort voluntary.

II. The demonstration of it.

1. His holiness appears as he is Creator, in framing man in a perfect uprightness Angels, as made by God, could not be evil; for God beheld his own works with pleasure, and could not have pronounced them all good, had some been created pure, and others impure; two moral contrarieties could not be good. Human nature was well strung and tuned by God, according to the note of his own holiness. (Eccles. vii. 29,) "God hath made man upright." Other creatures were his footsteps, but man was his image. "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness;" which, though it seem to imply no more in that place, than an image of his dominion over the creatures, yet the apostle raises it a peg higher, and gives us a larger interpretation. (Col. iii. 10, “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him;" making it to consist in a resemblance to his righteousness.

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2. His holiness appears in his laws; and he is a lawgiver and a judge. Man was bound to be subject to God, as a creature, and had a capacity to be ruled by the law. (Deut. iv. 8,) "What nation hath statutes and judgments so righteous?" They are compared to fine gold, that hath no speck nor dross. Ps. xix. 10.

This purity is evident,

In the moral law; which is therefore dignified with the title of holy twice in one verse. (Rom. vii. 12,) "Wherefore the law is holy."

1. The purity of the law is seen in the matter of it. It prescribes all that becomes a creature towards God, and all that becomes one creature towards another. "Wherefore the law is holy." The purity of this beam and transcript of God, bears witness to a greater clearness and beauty in the sun and original. Undefiled streams manifest an untainted fountain.

2. It is seen in the manner of his precepts. As it prescribes all good, and forbids all evil; so it doth enjoin the