SERMON XX.

PSALM L. 21.

THOU THOUGHTEST THAT I WAS ALTOGETHER SUCH AN ONE AS THYSELF.

RELIGION, as far as it is, in any way, distinct from morals, has reference to God. If there were no God at the head of the universe, there could be no religion; because it is implied in every definition which can be given of a religious man, that his conduct is governed by his sense of God's approbation. Of course, as far as the characters of men differ who believe in the existence of such a Supreme Being, the different ideas, which they entertain of this Being, must lie at the root of the diversities in their characters. Hence, if you follow men up to their most secret persuasions, you will find that their notions of God's character are variously modified. If we all conceived of it exactly alike, it would be impossible, that such varieties should exist in our speculations and practice. It becomes, therefore, to every man, a subject of important inquiry, whether he has not, in some manner, figured to his own mind a being like himself, and placed him at the head of the universe, instead of the unchangeable and perfect Jehovah.

It is true, that the only ideas, which we can form of the moral perfections of God, must be originally derived from

our conceptions of these qualities as we find them in human nature; that is, in ourselves and others. Hence it follows, that every man's notions on this subject will be more or less accurate, according to the purity and truth of his moral ideas and sentiments. For it is only by exalting to the highest degree of excellence those qualities which we love or approve in men, that we can conceive of God at all, as a good and moral Governor. Hence he, that has no just conceptions of the true nature of moral excellence, must form unworthy conceptions of God; and hence, too, it naturally follows, that in proportion to the purity of our own minds will be the justness of our thoughts of our Maker. In this view of the subject it may also be said, that every man makes a God for himself, insensibly degrading or exalting the object of his adoration, according to the cast of his own wishes or character. This is a consideration fraught with the most solemn consequences.

In conformity with these remarks, we find, in the history of the world, the gods of those nations, who have had no revelation, fashioned according to the characters of the times and people. In the rude and warlike ages of the world, their gods were as quarrelsome as themselves. They were, indeed, little more than a race of stronger men; and the moral ideas of mankind were so few and so imperfect that strength was the only quality thoroughly understood and really reverenced, even in Divinity. The barbarous nations of the north ascribed to their supreme divinity the most cruel and bloodthirsty propensities; he was appeased with the scent of human gore, and gratified with the sacrifice of the most innocent victims. As society became more luxurious and effeminate, the gods were also sensualized and enervated; till, at last, even in the times of re

finement and philosophy, it was thought the greatest perfection and felicity of the Godhead, to have no concern with the affairs of this world, but to pass a life of the most senseless inactivity. This was the philosophy of Epicurus.

For these strange misapprehensions of the Deity there is some excuse in the want of a written revelation which should fully declare the character of God. The proofs of it, which are found in the works of nature, are not easily apprehended by an uncultivated mind. When God was seen only in the clouds and heard in the wind, the clouds often obscured his majesty, and the wind brought only indistinct murmurs of a mighty power. To us there is no such apology; and, if we think unworthily of God, it argues some perversion of the mind, in which we cannot be blameless. That eye must be diseased which cannot now see the sun of righteousness travelling in his strength and unclouded in his lustre.

It shall be my object in this discourse, to inquire into the sources of the most common misapprehensions of God, and to lead you to examine your own notions on this subject.

The first source of misapprehension is found, where we should least of all expect it, in Scripture itself. There are many, who form their ideas of their Maker from detached passages of the Bible, without consulting the general tenor of the volume. They seize upon particular texts, and dwell on them with a kind of superstitious partiality, as if they were glad to find the picture of a Being such as they had feared or fancied. From the texts, which proclaim the mercy of God and the extent of the redemption by Jesus, they figure to themselves a God who is all fondness or compassion; who is too gentle to punish, too kind to look with displacency on any of his creatures, how corrupt and

wicked soever they may be. Thus they frame, from a few unconnected texts, a system in which God is introduced only to make men happy, whether they are fit for it or not, and the awful and pure Majesty of Heaven is changed into a doating and foolish parent.

Others seem to search the Scriptures only to find proofs of arbitrary power and irresistible determination in the Deity. To him they ascribe unconditional decrees, and to themselves an invincible fatality of action, which leave them without blame, or power, or accountability. Destitute of that spirit of devotion, which a just sense of our dependence is calculated to preserve, their notions of God's government are adapted only to excuse themselves in sin, or make them presumptuous in religion. Because God controls their fate, they think that they have nothing to do with it; and, though, in the business of the world, they are as sensible as other men that their condition must depend upon their exertions, in the affairs of religion they are willing to believe that everything is fixed, everything immutable, bound down in the chains of an unrelenting fate, which leaves them without the means to conquer or to fly. "I am only what God has made me, I must be what he has determined." But why do they never recollect that it is his determination, that we should be moral beings, placed here for probation, whose condition must depend always upon character? It is only from a strange partiality to individual texts, that we see some men reposing in the deceitful dream of an Elysium of universal and unconditional salvation, and others worshipping a God who looks with complacency upon the eternal and unalterable torments of one half of a race of human creatures whom he has unconditionally reprobated from the beginning of time.

Another source of misapprehension is to be found in the partial views which we take of God's providence. There are men who, from the very regularity with which the universe proceeds, conclude against the government of a supreme controller. They have seen no miraculous interpositions, they have witnessed no disturbance of the common course of causes and effects. Hence they conclude that God has never interfered in the quietude of nature, that the story of miracles is a fabrication, and the proofs of revelation the dream of enthusiasts. They see, too, in the world, the judgments of God against the wicked unaccountably delayed, and the happiness of the good strangely interrupted; crimes triumphing in unpunished presumption, and humility and integrity groaning under the persecution of the impious. "All things," in their estimation, "come alike to all;" and, if they admit the necessity of a prime mover, they admit an agent who is of little more consequence in the universe than the spring in the movements of a watch, which serves to keep the parts in motion, but which knows not how irregularly the hands may point, or how widely the action of the parts may be disarranged. They fondly imagine that what to them appears confusion would appear so to God, if he observed it; and, therefore, they would place him out of sight of the scenes and changes of this state of things.

There is another class of men, who judge of the character of God from particular events which happen to themselves or others. Where their thoughts are full of some darling projects, and their zeal influenced by some favorite set of opinions, they exalt themselves into the ministers of God's especial designs, and every unexpected occurrence, which favors their plans, they fondly call a special inter