is thus the same principle with that which rules LECT. VIII. in the bosoms of creatures that have never fallen. There is in the nature of the Divine Being what is fitted to inspire the very holiest and happiest of creatures with awe, even while they love, delight, and adore. The entire character, in all its parts, is at once the object of "reverence and godly fear," and of the purest, the most fervent, and the most confiding affection; and by the contemplation of it in the cross, both feelings are called forth into exercise, even in angelic bosoms. Were it in our power to separate these views of God;-could we give a guilty creature, in the full consciousness of his guilt, to see one side only of the manifestation,-to see the cross as the exhibition solely of the untainted purity, the undissembling truth, the unbending justice, and the avenging jealousy, of the Being with whom he has to do, the cross itself would become the mightiest instrument of torture to the awakened soul,-subjecting it to the agonies of a spiritual crucifixion, inflicting on it the horrors of despair. But the cross, whilst it shows the holiness of God in all its purity, the justice of God in all its strictness, and the jealousy of God in all its consuming terrors, holds forth also to view the love of God in all its infinitude, the compassions of God in all their tenderness, the mercy of God in all its fulness and freeness:-so that, from the believing view of it there spring

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LECT. VIII. up, at the same moment, the emotions of affectionate fear and reverential love,-of complacent delight and thankful joy,-under the combined influence of which the happy spirit relies upon him, serves him, imitates him, enjoys him :and in ninety-nine cases out of the hundred,probably in nine hundred and ninety-nine out of the thousand, were the metaphysical question proposed to the simple-hearted subject of divine grace, while charmed and melted and gladdened by the new lights that have come in upon his mind, whether the love of gratitude or the love of complacency had first touched his soul,-he would be at a loss for a reply ;-he would be in danger of fretting at the unwelcome interruption thrown into the delightful current of his feelings; and especially if you joined with the inquiry, the puzzle about the order of nature and the order of time :-he could only tell you, that he had seen the love of God in Christ, and that it had won and captivated his heart;— that in Christ he saw God as at once the God of grace and the God of holiness; and that he loved him for both, for the grace of his holiness, and for the holiness of his grace,--for what He was in himself, and for what He had done for sinners!

Considering, as I do, the LOVE OF GOD as the grand essential principle of all morality, I have devoted to it the greater measure of attention. In next Lecture, which will close the series, we

shall see how this great principle is brought into LECT. VIII. operation by the gospel,-and what are the peculiarities to which the discoveries of the gospel give rise, in the exercise both of this primary principle and of the "second which is like unto it," the love of our neighbour. We shall have occasion, in illustrating these topics, to offer a few strictures on the theory of virtue proposed and advocated by President Edwards.

LECTURE IX.

ON THE PECULIARITIES OF CHRISTIAN OBLIGATION AND DUTY.

LECT. IX.

Strictures on

Edwards's

ROM. XII. 1.

"I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies

of God."

IN last Lecture, I had occasion to notice the sentiments of the unrivalled theological metaphysician, Jonathan Edwards, on the necessity of disinterestedness in our love to God. I shall introduce the subject of the present Lecture by a few strictures on his more general theory of virtue; a theory, which the celebrity of its author entitled to an earlier notice, but which would not have found a place formerly, without, in some degree, anticipating other topics.

According to Edwards, then, true virtue contheory of sists in benevolence to being in general." Such Statement of is his own expression:-" True virtue most essentially consists in benevolence to being

virtue.

the theory.

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"in general:—or, perhaps, to speak more accurately, it is that consent, propensity, and

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"union of heart, to being in general, that is LECT. IX.

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immediately exercised in a general good-will."

More at large :-" When I say, true virtue con

"sists in love to being in general, I shall not be

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likely to be understood, that no one act of the

mind, or exercise of love, is of the nature of "true virtue, but what has being in general, or "the great system of universal existence, for "its direct and immediate object; so that no "exercise of love, or kind affection towards any "one particular being, that is but a small part of this whole, has any thing of the nature of true virtue. But that the nature of true virtue "consists in a disposition to benevolence towards being in general; though, from such a dispo"sition may arise exercises of love to particular beings, as objects are presented and occasions arise. No wonder, that he who is of a generally benevolent disposition should be more disposed than another to have his heart moved "with benevolent affection to particular persons, "whom he is acquainted and conversant with, "and from whom arise the greatest and most 'frequent occasions for exciting his benevolent "temper. But my meaning is, that no affec"tions towards particular persons or beings are "of the nature of true virtue, but such as arise "from a generally benevolent temper, or from "that habit or frame of mind wherein consists "a disposition to love being in general." Again, he says:-"That temper, or disposition of heart,

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