Had not the covenant of mercy been infinitely holy, man could never have been saved. We stand in need of holiness as well as mercy. The grace of God in the child of God is infinitely more glorifying to God than the sun which shines by day, or the moon and stars which govern the night. Holiness raises man more highly above his fellow-men, than reason elevates him above the brute creation. The holiness of God reigns in hell, and ever will reign there: nor is the holiness of God less glorified in the condemnation of the wicked than in the salvation of the righteous. The law which executes the criminal is just as holy as the law which declares, "Thou shalt not kill." Howels.

GOD.

GOD-Living Without.

The high and the low, the young and the old, the busy and the idle, alike shun acquaintance with God, as if His very name brought uneasiness, and disturbed our comfort and repose. If we mention God to the young, we too often seem to be troubling them with what they had rather forget in such early! days while the aged dislike to be reminded of their misfortune, that their time on earth is drawing near to an end. If we mention God to the gay and happy, we appear to be interfering with their pleasures. If we mention Him to the great and to the learned, they will intimate that such subjects belong rather to a humbler class and station. But the poor and laborious, on their part, refer us to those who have more information and more leisure. Thus a large portion of mankind, in all classes, strive to keep God out of their thoughts, and to live, so far as in them lies, without Him in the world. Yes, without Him, who, as the Apostle says, is not far from any one of us: for in Him we live, and move, and have our being. Why should they act so strangely and unreasonably, if they believed that acquaintance with God would give them peace.

Bishop Sumner.

GOD-the Creator of Light.
And God said, Let there be light, and there
Moses.
was light.

GOD-Love of.

It is the nature of every artificer to tender and esteem his own work; and if God should not love His creature, it would reflect some

disparagement upon His workmanship, that He should make anything that He could not own. God's power never produces what His goodness cannot embrace. God oftentimes, in the same man, distinguishes between the sinner and the creature; as a creature, He can love him, while as a sinner He does afflict him. South GOD-Celestial Love of.

Celestial love, with the affections of good and truth, and the perceptions thence derived, and at the same time with the delights of these affections and the thoughts thence derived. may be compared to a tree with beautiful branches, leaves, and fruits; the life's love is that tree; the branches, with the leaves, are the affections of good and truth, with their perceptions; and the fruits are the delights of the affections, with their thoughts.

GOD-Universal Love of.

Swedenborg.

Canst thou believe the vast eternal mind
Was e'er to Syrts and Libyan sands confined!

1

Power is that glorious attribute of God Almighty, which furnishes the rest of His perfections. Tis His omnipotence that makes His wisdom and goodness effectual, and succeed to the length of His will. Thus, His decrees are immutable, and His counsels stand; this secures His prerogative, and guards the sovereignty of His being; 'twas His power which made His ideas fruitful, and struck the world out of His thought. Twas this which answered the model of the creation, gave birth to time and nature,

He spake the word, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created. 'Tis the divine power which is the basis of all things; which continues the vigour of the second causes, and keeps the sun and moon in repair. This holds everything constant to appointment, and true to the first plan; thus, the revolutions of the seasons, the support of animals, the perpetuity of species, is carried on and maintained. Without this, things would soon run riot, and ramble out of distinction; the succours of life would be cut off, and nature drop into decay. Omniscience and goodness without a correspondent power would be strangely short of satisfaction; to know everything without being able to supply defects, and remedy disorders, must prove an unpleasant speculation; to see so many noble schemes languish in the mind and prove abortive; to see the most consummate wisdom, the most generous temper, fettered and disarmed, must be a grievance; but when omnipotence comes into the notion, the grandeur is perfect and the pleasure entire. Jeremy Collier.

GOD-Omnipresence of.

me.

O Lord, Thou hast searched me, and known Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in If I take the hell, behold Thou art there. wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee. David.

GOD.

confidential friend, telling your secrets, or alone planning them, if, I say, you saw an eye constantly fixed on you, from whose watching, though you strove ever so much, you could never escape; and even if you closed your own eye to avoid, you still fancied that to get rid of was impossible, that it could perceive your every thought? The supposition is awful enough. There is such an Eye, though the business and struggles of the world too often prevent us from considering this awful truth. In crowds we are too much interrupted, in the pursuit of self-interest we are too much perverted, in camps we are struggling for life and death, in courts we see none but the eye of a human sovereign; nevertheless, the Divine eye is always upon us, and when we least think of it, is noting all, and, whatever we may think of it, will remember all. De Vere.

There is something in the thought of being surrounded, even upon earth, by the Majesty on high, that gives a peculiar elevation and serenity of soul. To be assured in the loneliest hour of unknown or neglected sorrow, that every sigh ascends to the eternal Throne, and every secret prayer can be heard in heaven; to feel that, in every act of conscious rectitude, the heart can appeal, amidst all the contradictions of sinners, to One who seeth not as man seeth, produces a peace which the world can never give. Feeling itself, like Enoch walking with God, the heart perceives a spirituality and purity in every joy, a mercy and a balm in every sorrow, and, exalted above the intrusions of an intermeddling world, has its "conversation in heaven."

GOD-Omniscience of.

Mathew.

GOD.

GOD-Protection of.

The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them. David.

GOD-Providence of.

Must not the conduct of a parent seem very unaccountable to a child when its inclinations are thwarted; when it is put to learn letters; when it is obliged to swallow bitter physic; to part with what it likes, and to suffer, and do, and see many things done, contrary to its own judgment? Will it not, therefore, follow from hence, by a parity of reason, that the little child man, when it takes upon itself to judge | of parental providence-a thing of yesterday to criticise the economy of the Ancient of Days-will it not follow, I say, that such a judge of such matters must be apt to make very erroneous judgments, esteeming those things in themselves unaccountable which he i cannot account for; and concluding of some things, from an appearance of arbitrary carriage towards him, which is suited to his infancy and ignorance, that they are in themselves capricious or absurd, and cannot proceed from a wise, just, and benevolent God?

Berkeley. GOD-Belief in the Superintendence of. When any one acknowledges a moral governor of the world; perceives that domestic and social relations are perpetually operating, and seem intended to operate, to retain and direct men in the path of duty; and feels that the voice of conscience, the peace of heart which results from a course of virtue, and the consolations of devotion, are ever ready to assume their office, as our guides and aids in the conduct of all our actions;-he will probably be willing to acknowledge also that the means of a moral government of each individual are not wanting and will no longer be oppressed or disturbed by the apprehension that the superintendence of the world may be too difficult for its Ruler, and that any of His subjects and servants may be overlooked. He will no more fear that the moral than that the physical laws of God's creation should be forgotten in any particular case: and as he knows that every sparrow which falls to the ground con

tains in its structure innumerable marks of the Divine care and kindness, he will be persuaded that every man, however apparently humble and insignificant, will have his moral being dealt with according to the laws of God's wisdom and love; will be enlightened, supported, and raised, if he use the appointed means which God's administration of the world of moral light and good offers to his use.

Whewill.

F

of.

Our existence is dependent on a succession of changes, which are taking place at every moment in ourselves, over which we have no power whatever, but of which, each one involves the necessity of the existence, and the superintending power, of the Deity. The existence of the whole material universe is of the same nature. Now, each of these changes is, with infinite skill, adapted to the relative conditions of all the beings whom they affect, and they are subjected to laws, which are most evident expressions of Almighty power, of unsearchable wisdom, and exhaustless goodness. Now, were we merely intellectual beings, it would not be possible for us to consider anything more than these laws themselves; but, inasmuch as we are intellectual and also moral beings, we are capable not only of considering the laws, but also the attributes, of the Creator from whom such laws are the emanations. As everything which we can know teaches a lesson concerning God; if we connect that lesson with everything we learn, everything will be resplendent with the attributes of Deity. By using, in this manner, the knowledge which is everywhere spread before us, we shall habitually cultivate a devout temper of mind. Thus, "the heavens will declare unto us the glory of God, and the firmament will show His handy work;" thus, "day unto day will utter speech, and night unto night show forth knowledge of Him." Wayland.

GOD-Supremacy of.

Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty for all that is in the heaven and in the earth, is Thine; Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above ali. David.

Thou, even Thou, art Lord alone; Thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and all things that are therein, the seas and all that is therein, and Thou preservest them all. Nehemiah.

GOD-Will of.

I cannot tell by what logic we call a toad, a bear, and an elephant, ugly, they being created in those outward shapes and figures which best express the actions of their inward forms, and having past that general visitation of God, who saw that all that He had made was good, that is, conformable to His will, which abhors deformity, and is the rule of order and beauty. Sir Thomas Brown.

What an immense workman is God! in miniature as well as in the great. With the one hand, perhaps, He is making a ring of one hundred thousand miles in diameter, to revolve round a planet like Saturn, and with the other is forming a tooth in the ray of the feather of a humming-bird, or a point in the claw of the foot of a microscopic insect. When He works in miniature, every thing is gilded, polished, and perfect, but whatever is made by human art, as a needle, &c., when viewed by a microscope, appears rough, and coarse, and bungling. Bishop Law.

The power of godliness, among other things, hath these three advantages.

It makes a man do everything strongly and mightily; and whatever might take a man off from duty, or distract or distrust him in it, all falls to nothing before this power.

It makes a man inflexible in the ways of God, that he shall neither turn to the right hand nor to the left, but take straight steps towards the mark set before him.

It makes a man invincible from all evils and enemies, because all the power against him is but the power of the creature, but the power in him is the power of God. And the power of God easily overcomes the mightiest power of the creature, but is never overcome by it.

To conclude the power of godliness is the doer of every duty in God's kingdom, the subduer of every sin, the conqueror of each tribulation and temptation, the life of every performance, the glory of each grace, the beauty of a Christian's life, the stability of his conversation, the lustre of his religion, his great honour and excellency both in doing and suffering; yea, it is the very glory of God Himself in the church of God; for by faith the Lord arises on us, and by this power of godliness His glory is seen upon us. W. Dell.