following terms, 'I will make all my goodness pass • before thee; and I will proclaim the name of the • Lord before thee. And I will be gracious to whom ◄ I will be gracious, and will fhew mercy on whom I · will fhew mercy.' And again, it is faid in the following chapter, 6, 7, verses. And the Lord paffed

by before him, and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord • God, merciful and gracious, long-fuffering, and a'bundant in goodness and truth. Keeping mercy for thoufands, forgiving iniquity, and tranfgreffion, and fin: and that will by no means clear the guilty, vifiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the childrens children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.'

We may also fee, that in the whole difpenfation of divine grace to men, God is represented as coming under a peculiar relation to them; and they are called not only to ferve him as God, but to trust in him as their God. Every hearer must be fenfible, how effential this is to a believer's defire, of feeing the glory of God. He cannot confider him as God overall, without, at the fame time, remembering, that he is one with whom he hath to do. There is also a neceffity here peculiar to ourselves. The holy angels confider him as their maker and their happiness: but the children of Adam must confider, not only his goodness to the innocent, but his mercy to the guilty. This glory of God fhines brightly, and fhines only in the face of Jefus Chrift. God, we are told, dwelleth in light which no man can approach un

to. No man hath feen God at any time; but the

only begotten of the Father, he hath declared him.'

In this wonderful difpenfation, indeed, all the perfections of God are found united; but above all, • Grace and mercy fhine and reign through righteoufnefs, by Jefus Chrift our Lord.'

Here I must add, that the believer not only defires to fee the glory of God's mercy, in general, as difplayed in the gospel, in which he may have a share, but to take an appropriating view of it, as what he hath a clear right and title to call his own. Doubtlefs the mercy of God is published, offering falvation to the chief of finners. It is their duty to accept of It; it is their interest to cleave to it. But they are many times deterred by what they fee in God, they are many times difcouraged by what they feel in themselves, and are afraid to affert their title to fo great a bleffing. But when, by the Holy Spirit, they are enabled to see the infinite price paid for their redemption, in the cross of Chrift; when they see the riches of divine grace, in the crofs of Chrift; when they hear the urgent invitations to them to believe in the cross of Chrift; when they are enabled freely to renounce and quit hold of every other claim; when their hearts are fweetly constrained by the bonds of their Redeemer's love; they can then look upon God as their reconciled father, through him who hath made peace, by the blood of his crofs, and fay unto him, My Lord! and my God! What an endearing view is this of the divine glory, and what ineffable fatisfaction fprings from it, to the foul? What an unspeakable confolation to thofe who have been wounded in their spirits, and grieved in their minds, when they are enabled to apply the encou

raging promifes of the holy fcriptures? Ifa. i. 18. • Come, now, and let us reason together, faith the Lord; though your fins be as fcarlet, they fhall be as white as fnow; though they be red like crimfon, they fhall be as wool. Ifa xliii. 25. I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy tranfgreffions, ⚫ for mine own fake; and will not remember thy fins. xliv. 22, I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy tranfgreffions, and as a cloud thy fins. Returá • unto me, for I have redeemed thee.'

3. The believer defires to fee the glory of God, as an all-fufficient God. This is a neceffary view of God, as the fupport and happinefs of the creature, as well as the ftrength and confolation of the finner.

My brethren, man was made for living upon God; forgetting this he firft went aftray from him, Self fufficiency, and a delufive fenfe of independance, is infeparable from a finful ftate. Conviction levels a blow at the foundation of this mistake. Serious confideration fhews us how infufficient we are for our own happiness. Daily experience difcovers the inherent vanity of all created comforts in themselves, and as feparated from God. When the penitent returns to God, he not only returns, from the fervice of other masters, to him, as his rightful Lord; but forfakes all forbidden joys, and cleaves to God as his happiness, and refts in him as his portion. Does not this appear from the uniform language of fcriptare, with regard to both parts of the covenant? what belongs to God, and what be longs to man. See the tenor of an early promise to

the father of the faithful, Gen. xv. 1.

Fear not Abram; I am thy fhield, and thy exceeding great ' reward.' Multitudes of others are of the fame import.

The power and providence of God, in behalf of his people, are largely and beautifully defcribed, in the ninety firft Pfalm, He that dwelleth in the fecret place of the Moft High, fhall abide under the fhadow of the Almighty. I will fay of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortrefs; my God, in him will I truft. Surely he fhall deliver thee from the fare of the fowler, and from the noifome peftilence. He fhall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings fhalt thou truft. His truth fhall be thy fhield and • buckler, &c.' 2. Cor. vi. 17. Wherefore come ⚫ out from among them, and be ye feparate, faith

the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I ⚫ will receive you, and will be a father unto you,

and ye fhall be my fons and daughters, faith the Lord Almighty.' On the other hand, the invitation, or exhortation to return, is ordinarily preffed from the profit of the change, Ifa. lv. 1. Ho, every one that thirfteth! come ye to the waters; ⚫ and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat ; yea come, buy wine and milk, without money, • and without price.' And, to name no more paf fages, when God came to establish the faith of Abraham in his promife, he fays, Gen. xvii. 1. 'I am the almighty,' or, as it ought to be tranflated, the all-fufficient God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.' Now, believers defire to fee the

glory of God, as all-fufficient; and all discoveries of this nature are attended with unfpeakable complacence and fatisfaction. They fee the glory of an infinite God as theirs, and rejoice in the richness of their portion. Wearied with repeated difappointments, and deeply convinced of the vanity of the creature, they reft in him, as able to give them complete happiness; happiness that will never change! happiness that will never be exhausted! He that hath chofen God as his portion, hath, as our Saviour beautifully expreffeth it, made choice of that good part, which cannot be taken away • from him.'

My brethren, we are now come to the very fubftance of practical religion. The glory of an allfufficient God, appears as more than a balance to all that pretends to rival him in our affections; to all that we are called to give up for his fake. When the believer fees the fulness of God, then his anxiety, and diftreffing fears, of every kind, are at an end. Does he want provifion? The earth is the

• Lord's, and the fulness thereof. The young lions

do lack and fuffer hunger; but they that feek the • Lord, shall not want any good thing.' Does he want friends? God is able to make his enemies to be at peace with him. Does he want any outward comfort? God is able to procure it, or make him happy without it. Not to mention particulars; the triumph of faith, in this view, is to attain an abfolute and unconditional refignation to the will of God, with a firm perfuafion, that he is able to make all things work together for our good, and willing