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law. The atonement is one: the character to which the blessings of it are given is one: the salvation promised is one. Amid the endless varieties of instruction, precept, and promise; of admonition, reproof, and threatening, contained in the Scriptures, a single scheme runs through the whole volume, and is adopted with absolute exactness by every writer. Hence the way of holiness becomes a highway, and wayfaring men, though fools, need not err therein.

Finally, the Scriptures contain examples of real virtue, which in the happiest manner elucidate and enforce the nature and the importance of obedience to God. They elucidate these things by showing that virtue has in fact existed in this sinful world. Such is the exhibition given of them, that no person who reads it can doubt for a moment, that the examples which are presented to our view were possessed of real piety, or that they were genuine children of God. That this was the character of Abraham and Moses, of Paul and John, can be doubted by him only who is resolved to doubt concerning every moral subject. This fact, let it be remembered, is of high moment to such beings as we are. With all her boasts, philosophy had no such example to give, and was, at the best, compelled to leave unanswered the great question, Whether virtue ever existed in the present world?

By these examples also we are taught the manner in which virtue operates in human minds, and in the progress of human life; the duties which it performs; the sins which it shuns, and the manner in which it believes, repents, and obeys. The value of this instruction cannot easily be estimated. Whatever is done is far more clearly understood, more deeply felt, and either more faithfully followed, or more cautiously shunned than that which is barely taught.

In all this the importance of a virtuous character is evident. Still more gloriously is it manifested in the rewards to which we see those who possess this happy disposition, regularly conducted. These rewards are immortal and divine, transcending every thought and every wish which can be formed by a created mind.

Among these examples there is one, like to which nothing ever existed in the present world, and nothing was ever formed by the power of human imagination. This is the example of Christ. Search all the books, beside the Scriptures, which have been written since the world began; and one of those little histories, which record his example, will be acknowledged by you, if you are an honest man, to exhibit more clearly and comprehensively, the nature and excellence of real virtue, than all the immeasurable mass of philosophical instructions united.

SERMON VII.

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD.

MATTHEW III. 9.

"And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham "to our father; for I say unto you, that God is able of these "stones to raise up children unto Abraham.””

THE Jews were accustomed to pride themselves on their descent from Abraham. God, they thought, would never cast off the children of his friend and the people of his covenant. Both the existence and the danger of this error the Baptist perfectly well understood, and felt himself bound to guard them against its pernicious influence. While, therefore, he urged the absolute necessity of repentance to the remission of sins, he took effectual care to prevent the objections which he foresaw would arise in their minds against his injunctions. For this purpose he anticipated the reply which they were ready to make, and informed them, that their relation to Abraham would be of no avail towards their attainment of eternal life; as they could not but see, if they considered, that God was able of the stones which lay before them, to raise up children unto Abraham. This declaration plainly cut off all the hopes which they derived from this source, and taught them irresistibly, that something, beside their kindred to the Patriarch, was necessary to secure the favour of God.

We, like the Jews, are prone to indulge expectations of future good on false grounds, if not on the same, yet on others equally indefensible and dangerous; and, like them, need to be taught the error, and warned of the danger. The declaration in the text is admirably fitted for this purpose. The con

templation of it, therefore, and of certain truths flowing from it by necessary inference, can hardly fail of being useful to us, unless we prevent it by our own opposition.

The doctrine, stripped of the peculiar language of the text, is evidently this :

God is able, with infinite ease, to create any number of virtuous beings, and those possessed of any degree of excellence.

The children of Abraham, in the language of the Jews, and of course in that of the Baptist, denoted such persons as were within the covenant of grace, and were therefore entitled to the blessings of that covenant; in other words, persons who, in the evangelical sense, were virtuous, and, therefore, objects of the divine favour.

If God be able to form such beings of stones, he must be equally able to form them out of nothing. This also, it is equally evident, he can do with infinite ease. The universe, with all its inhabitants, he called into existence by his command. With a command, therefore, he can summon into existence any additional number of worlds. He can, in the same manner, people them with any additional number of inhabitants. Of the beings whom he has already created, immense multitudes are virtuous. The same work he can accomplish again in the same manner. Such virtuous beings as he may hereafter create, he can endow with any supposable degree of excellence. He has already created angels. Certainly, then, he can create more, and can fill the universe with thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers; with beings exalted in their nature above all our comprehension, nay, of that of angels themselves, beings wonderfully enlarged in their understanding, spotless in their disposition, noble in their character, and amiable in all their conduct.

No person who has read and believed his Bible, or who even admits the existence and character of God, will question the truth of these positions. Any attempt to prove them would, of course, be trifling. I shall, therefore, proceed to derive from the doctrine certain inferences, for the sake of which principally I have chosen the text as the foundation of the present discourse.

I. It follows from this doctrine that God was the ultimate end of all his works.

In the language of Paul," All things were made not only "by him, but for him."

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It has been frequently thought, that because God was from eternity perfect and happy in himself, he cannot be supposed to have made himself the chief end of his works, but must have aimed supremely at the happiness of his creatures. Let me ask,-How can creatures, who can be created in any numbers, and of any character, by a word, be in themselves of any importance to the Creator? If they were all to perish at once, the universe might the next moment be filled with others like them; nay, with others unspeakably wiser, nobler, and better than themselves; with beings, on whom he would look with the same or greater complacency, and by whom he would be served in the same manner, or a manner more accordant with his pleasure.

To such a being, the loss of all created intelligences would be no loss, because it could be ten thousands or ten millions of times more than supplied in the number and excellency of others, whom a single word could produce in an instant of time.

Of what consequence would be the loss of any enjoyment to us, if, with a word, we could recal it; or, if we chose, could produce another, a hundred, or a thousand, of equal or superior value? Of what importance would be friends, money, or children, if, by a wish, we could fill their places again with others exactly like them, or with more and better property, friends, or children?

But how evident is it, that things which are of no importance to God could not be the ultimate end of his exertions. To Him, nothing could be of great or even real importance but Himself. All other beings, as He declares in the language of Isaiah, concerning the nations of men," are before Him as nothing, and are accounted unto Him as less than nothing, ❝ and vanity.”

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Hence Himself must clearly have been the supreme end of all His designs and labours, To indulge His own benevolence,

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