punishments, and was peculiarly applicable to the state of the Israelites, with whom a national covenant was made. Yet often we see the sad consequences of the sins of a forefather descending in temporal misfortunes and sufferings through several generations of descendants. In the eternal world however each must bear his own burden. As none can ransom another, so none will suffer for another. "The righteousness of the righteous will be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon him." Yet all should have such a feeling for their children and posterity, as should make them fear those extravagancies and sensual indulgencies which necessarily tend to impoverish them in their fortunes or constitutions, and burden them, as it were, with an entail of poverty and disease.

And now in application of this subject let me speak a few words, in the first place, to those who have in them a fear and love of God, and desire to honour and glorify his holy name. Contemplate this proclamation of his It will give you an accurate view of

name.

his nature and glorious perfections. Consider his mercy and grace, his patience, goodness, and truth, with all his forgiveness of long and multiplied offences: and this will fill your souls with lively and happy emotions of gratitude and love, and lead you to a sure and stedfast trust and confidence in him. Yet connect with this view of his attributes and acts of mercy the thought of his unspotted holiness and inflexible justice, and that thought will have the double effect of causing you to live circumspectly, lest you bring guilt on your soul, and also of making you seek the more earnestly for an interest in that almighty and most merciful Saviour, by whose death and righteousness alone you can be cleared from guilt. The whole view, I trust, will have just such an effect on your minds, as it had upon Moses, who "made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped." So you, I trust, will feel a deep and solemn reverence of this great and glorious God. And as Moses reiterated his prayer that God would pardon their iniquity and sin, and take them for his

inheritance and go among them; so you, I trust, will have the same desires, that your sins may be all pardoned, that you may be of the Lord's people, and that his presence may ever go with you. Every view of God, with which his holy word presents us, should fill our minds with a higher estimation of him, and with more devout and habitual regard. And I pray God, my Christian friends, that such may be the effect produced among you by this discussion of the proclamation of his name to Moses.

I must also speak a few words to penitents. See with what a God you have to do; with one who declares himself to be merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Perhaps you may fear when he says that he will by no means clear the guilty. But know assuredly from the whole proclamation that if you be indeed penitent, and if you take that method of being freed from your guilt which is so clearly set before you in the gospel, then you have nothing whatever to fear. I repeat it, if you be but penitent, humbled, ashamed, and grieved for

your sins, and determined by the help of his grace to renounce and forsake them, and if, in true and lively faith, you earnestly apply to your great mediator, the blessed Jesus, then you may take to yourself the comfort of all the first part of this display of the merciful character of God. He has made such a display of himself, and proclaimed this name and these attributes, that you may be encouraged to cast yourself on his mercy, and to return to his service with confidence. Behold him here as a just God indeed, yet a Saviour. Behold him in the gospel as "in Christ Jesus reconciling the world unto himself, and not imputing their trespasses."

Must I part with the impenitent, the unholy, and sinful, without a word of address and admonition to them? That would indeed be a dereliction of duty. I warn you,—oh! that the warning may not be in vain,—that that justice, which is an essential part of the character of God, requires that he should execute judgment upon all who transgress against him, and continue impenitent, and seek not his mercy in Christ. He would not

be just to himself, nor would truth be in him, if he did not punish impenitent and unbelieving sinners. And do you continue in sin because he is long-suffering? How greatly do you thereby aggravate your guilt! And has God moreover set before you in his gospel so merciful a method of pardon and peace, and do you set it at nought, as though it were a light thing that Christ has died for you? Alas! how full both of guilt and danger is your state! If you die in this state, you must necessarily perish. May God give you repentance: may he lead you to the sacrifice of his Son. This is the preaching of the gospel, repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh! that you may manifest both, and so shall the gracious Lord have mercy upon you.