been strictly faultless as to the claims of his brother, this could only secure an acquittal with respect to the minor branch of the charge preferred against him. He owes much to man, but more to his Maker. Man is his equal, his brother, and should be the object of an equal, a fraternal love. God is his superior, infinitely so; his benefactor to an infinite amount. To fail, therefore, with respect to what is due to God, is to fail as to his greatest obligation, the great end of his existence.

Now man has not only failed on this point, but failed so entirely, and so awfully, that the strongest language employed in scripture to describe his sinfulness is evidently applicable to him. Even here, however, as in the former instance, we must exercise some thoughtfulness if we would distinguish between things that differ, and not mar the just impression of the truth by an over-statement of it.

When it is said that the carnal mind is enmity against God, it cannot be meant that there is no view of the divine Being which is not thus regarded by our unrenewed nature. It would seem unquestionable, that persons who have not been Christians, have felt a sincere admiration of certain perfections of the Godhead, as manifest in the systems of nature and providence. They have spoken of the heavens and the earth, the winter and the summer, as telling of the glory of the Deity. In the majesty, and beauty, and abundance of these, they have professed to see something of the greatness, and skill,

and goodness, of the Nature which has appointed them.

But there are views of the divine character in a great degree peculiar to the scriptures, and it is against these that the unchanged spirit never fails to evince a deadly opposition. Nature, indeed, has its host of difficulties, when viewed in connexion with any conception we may form as to the moral perfections of its author. But these are less explicit in their intimations, and less practical in their consequences, than those of revelation; and, accordingly, are more easily explained away, obscured, or forgotten. Were the jealous scrutiny, so often exercised upon the matters of the gospel, extended to the mysteries of providence, the difficulties of deism would soon be found to be more accumulated and weighty than those of Christianity. The God of nature would be even less acceptable than the God who speaks in holy writ, inasmuch, as deism has to do with all the evils now in the world, without the counteracting influence of that expedient of mercy which Christianity supplies.

Still, it is much easier to overlook the character of the Almighty, considered in his relation to the evil and the good, while gazing on the wonders of nature, or watching the course of providence, than while reading the Bible. And in proportion as this view of the Supreme Being is neglected, so as to leave the guilty little to apprehend, there is a kind of complacency which even the irreligious may feel with regard to the divine nature or rather with

regard to what they suppose to be the divine nature. The whole of what may be known concerning the Creator, even from his works, is carefully avoided; and for the same reason that what may be known concerning him from scripture is avoided. The natural hope of all worldly, vicious, unteachable men is, that God may prove to be such an one as themselves; and he is the object of their approval, only when they find themselves capable of so regarding him. Nor is it doubtful that the boasted light of nature, in this respect, is commonly a mere delusion, adhered to as affording the best excuse for not attending to other claims which it would be inconvenient to admit.

God never meant that man should scale the heavens

By strides of human wisdom, in his works

Though wondrous: he commands us in his word
To seek him rather, where his mercy shines.
The mind, indeed, enlightened from above,
Views him in all; ascribes to the grand cause
The grand effect; acknowledges with joy
His manner, and with rapture tastes his style.
But never yet did philosophic tube,

That brings the planets home into the eye
Of Observation, and discovers, else

Not visible, his family of worlds,

Discover Him that rules them; such a veil
Hangs over mortal eyes, blind from the birth,
And dark in things divine. Full often too
Our wayward intellect, the more we learn
Of nature, overlooks her Author more;
From instrumental causes proud to draw
Conclusions retrograde, and mad mistake.

Cowper.

The perfections of Jehovah, as exhibited in the universe, are all before us in the gospel :-but in

the gospel is the glory that excelleth. From this source we know more of the holiness, the rectitude, and the truth of God, than could otherwise have been ascertained; and more of his goodness, and of his mercy. And every new disclosure of his excellence, in proportion as it is received, brings with it a more humbling conviction of our own depravity. His holiness is only another aspect of his benevolence,-his benevolence being that property of his nature of which every other is merely a modification. God is love. His law is holy, and he is the guardian of it. This follows, because the state of existence which it requires is essential to the order and happiness of the universe. His gospel is holy. It magnifies the law, and makes it honourable, by means of the great sacrifice which it proclaims; and its constant employment is in preparing a people, who shall, ere long, be presented before the throne above, having neither spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. It speaks of the natural perfections of the Deity, but speaks of them, not only, or chiefly, as connected with the works of creation and providence, but, rather, as manifested in that work of redemption, which, whether considered in its origin, its means, or its results, is a work of unsullied holiness, of supreme moral excellence.

Men are every where admonished of these things in scripture. It assures them that they are in a state of enmity against the holiness of the Divine Nature, and they confirm this alarming testimony

by rejecting it; and still more by rejecting the gospel, though exhibiting the only means by which they may be saved from the power and the consequences of their ungodliness. They are not subject to the law because it is holy, and they make light of the gospel for the same reason. It demands an abstraction from earthly things, to which they have no inclination, and a state of mind, with regard to the future and invisible, which they have no disposition to cherish. They have some idea, perhaps, of a state beyond the present but it is a state of mere repose, or, at best, of intellectual pleasure, having no real connexion with those affections which the character of God, and the nature of his benefits, render imperative. It is not a region deriving its chief endearment from the perfected purity of those who dwell there; from the delight experienced in uttering the praise of God, in holy contemplation, in devout obedience. Such, however, is the heaven brought to light in the gospel; and the discipline by which believers are prepared to become partakers of it, is, in substance, what we mean by the christian warfare.

It follows, therefore, after every extenuating circumstance is fairly admitted, that man is, by nature, the foe of infinite excellence;-a rebel against infinite mercy. So lost is he to that love of God, and delight in his service, which constitute the happiness of perfect natures, that he is dead while he liveth; prayerless, instead of