come to repentance and be saved. He waits to be gracious not only upon a few of the least guilty, but upon the most guilty and obstinate sinners. He waited a long time to be gracious to Manasseh and Saul of Tarsus while they were spreading misery and destruction all around them, and exerting all their false zeal in opposing his cause and kingdom. Nor is this all. He not only waits upon sinners to turn and live, but uses the most powerful and best adapted means to prevent their ruining themselves; which shows that his patience flows from a tender and benevolent regard for their final salvation. He treats them just as he would treat them, if he were sincerely and deeply concerned for their future and eternal happiness. His whole conduct towards them is a lively and striking manifestation of his unwillingness that they should be lost, and of his ardent desire that they should be saved. There appears no truth in the Bible more clearly revealed, nor more strongly confirmed, than God's benevolent and sincere desire that all men should come to the knowledge of the truth, escape the wrath which is to come, and lay hold of eternal life. He has provided salvation for them. He has freely and universally offered salvation to them, and commanded them to accept it. What more could he have done, that he has not done, by way of means, to make them believe and feel that he sincerely desires their salvation?

IMPROVEMENT.

1. If God be so far from being willing that any of mankind should be lost, that he sincerely desires that all should be saved, then he always did and always will feel as much benevolence towards those who are lost, as towards those who are saved. There can be no doubt whether God did not feel as much benevolence towards Lucifer before he rebelled, as towards Gabriel. We have reason to suppose that he was every way equal to Gabriel. His intellectual powers were equal. His capacity for knowledge, holiness, happiness and usefulness were equal. He was as great, as good and valuable a being as Gabriel; and God felt as much benevolence and complacency towards him, as towards Gabriel, before he became an enemy and rebel. Though then, indeed, he was no longer an object of the divine complacency, yet he still remained an object of divine benevolence. God saw all the good he had lost, and all the misery he would endure through interminable ages, in which he never did and never will take any pleasure. He had no pleasure in his death, before he died, nor since he died; and therefore feels as truly benevolent towards him as ever he did. And as God feels as benevolent towards the disobedient, as towards the obe

dient angels, so he feels as benevolent towards those that will be finally lost, as towards those that will be finally saved. He will feel as much benevolence towards the finally miserable in another world, as he felt in this. We have seen that he feels benevolent towards the vilest sinners in this world; and they will be as proper objects of his benevolence after they leave this world, as they were before. And no reason can be seen why he should not feel the same benevolence towards them while he is punishing them, as while he was fitting them for punishment. The righteous and benevolent judge feels as benevolent towards the criminal whom he condemns, after he has condemned him, as he did before. And shall not the righteous and benevolent Judge of all the earth feel as benevolent towards those whom he has consigned to endless misery, after his condemnation of them as before? And an irresistible conviction of his benevolence towards them, will give a peculiar weight and emphasis to their final condemnation.

2. If God is so far from being willing that any of mankind should be lost, that he sincerely desires that all should be saved, then it is easy to see how his love of benevolence towards them should be entirely consistent with his hatred of them. This appears to many a great paradox. They cannot reconcile his declarations of love to them, with his declarations of displeasure towards them. But it is plain that a being of perfect benevolence must desire the good of sinners more than any other being; and for the same reason he must hate their sinful and odious characters more than any other being. Though Satan has no benevolence to sinners, yet he does not hate them so much as God does. The more God desires the good of sinners, the more he hates their totally corrupt hearts and selfish conduct. He knows that they are enemies to him and to all righteousness; that their hearts are as malignant as serpents; that the poison of asps is under their lips; that for the sake of indulging their present selfish feelings, they would sacrifice their own eternal good and the eternal good of their fellow men; and, if possible, dethrone their Creator. Such is their perfectly sinful and hateful character. But God is of purer eyes than to behold a character so deformed and depraved. The more holy he is, the more he must hate sin. The more benevolent he is, the more he must hate selfishness. The more he loves the happiness of sinners, the more he must hate them for destroying it. The more he loves the good of their fellow men, the more he must hate them for opposing it. And the more he loves his own great and amiable character, the more he must hate his malignant and mortal enemies. The same benevolence in God which disposes him to desire their everlast

ing good, disposes them to hate him with a perfect hatred. So that his hatred of them is not only consistent with his benevolence towards them, but necessarily flows from it.

3. If God's benevolence to sinners is consistent with his hating them, then it is consistent with his punishing them for ever. As his benevolence disposes him to hate sinners, so it must dispose him to punish them. If he can hate them while he exercises benevolence towards them, then he can punish them while he exercises benevolence towards them. And if his benevolence disposes him to hate them for their sinful and odious characters in this world, it must equally dispose him to hate them for the same sinful, odious characters in the world to come. And so long as his benevolence disposes him to hate them, it cannot fail to dispose him to punish them; for punishment is the proper expression of hatred. The benevolence of a parent disposes him to hate the disobedience and obstinacy of his child, and to punish him for it. So the benevolence of the Deity disposes him to hate the disobedience and obstinacy of sinners, and to punish them for it. As the benevolence of the Deity disposes him to hate impenitent sinners for ever, so it disposes him to punish them for ever, to express his hatred of them. Pure benevolence not only may, but must dispose God to feel and conduct in this manner towards impenitent sinners. Though the finally impenitent will be the objects of his benevolence for ever, yet they will always be the objects of his displacency, disapprobation and abhorrence; and therefore he must be disposed to express his displacency, disapprobation and abhorrence of them, punishing them for ever, according to their desert. And this he expressly threatens to do. whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and reward them that hate me."

"If I

4. If God is so far from being willing that any of mankind should be lost, that he sincerely desires that all should be saved, then he will do as much to save all, as he can do, consistently with his benevolence. His benevolence is entirely disinterested; and disposes him to seek the highest good of the universe supremely, and forbids him to do any thing for any particular person or object, which is inconsistent with his promoting his supreme and ultimate object. But his pure benevolence towards every one of mankind disposes him to do as much to save every one of them as it is morally possible for him to do, without neglecting or obstructing his supreme and ultimate design. He saw it to be consistent with his universal benevolence to provide a Saviour for all men. He sees it to be consistent to offer salvation to all. He sees it to be consistent to wait upon

sinners to embrace the gospel. He sees it to be consistent to use a vast variety of means and motives to persuade sinners to comply with the offers of mercy. These things he has always been disposed to do, to save all from future and eternal misery. He did these things for Pharaoh; for the Israelites, who perished in the wilderness; for Judas; and for thousands who probably have been lost. And he will do all he can do consistently, to save sinners who are now in their probationary state. And this is all that any of them can reasonably desire him to do for them. If he should do less for one than for another, it will not be owing to his want of benevolence, but to the nature of his benevolence, which regards the good of the whole, more than the good of a part. God perfectly knows whom the good of the universe requires to be saved; and for them he will do all it is necessary for him to do, in order to raise them from spiritual death to spiritual life, and bring them home to the kingdom of glory. And with respect to those whose future and eternal happiness the good of the universe does not require, but forbids, they themselves will be fully convinced that God did as much for them as he could consistently do, and that their own negligence and obstinacy were the only faulty causes of their own ruin. They will have to blame themselves, that when God put a price into their hands to get wisdom and obtain life, they had no heart to do it, but chose death rather than life. Sinners are extremely apt to complain that God does not do enough for them, and requires them to do too much for themselves. But there is no just ground for this complaint; for it arises entirely from the selfishness of their hearts. If they were not selfish, they would see that God does as much for them as benevolence requires him to do. If they were not selfish, they would see that he requires nothing of thern but what they would be willing to do, if they were benevolent. And if they were not selfish, they would see that he treats them in all respects just as he ought to treat them, and just as they would desire to be treated, if they were benevolent. If they would only exercise that benevolence which God has always exercised towards them, they would find all their objections against his character and conduct cease, and feel bound to praise him for every thing of which they now complain. They would freely acknowledge that all his ways are equal, but their own have been very unequal.

5. If God acts from the same benevolent motives in loving and in punishing finally impenitent sinners, then saints will for ever love and praise him for all his conduct towards those guilty and miserable objects. They will love and praise him for mercifully providing a Saviour for them, who suffered and

died to atone for their sins, and to open a way for their pardon and salvation. They will love and praise him for freely offering salvation to them upon the most gracious and condescending terms. They will love and praise him for giving them a

day of grace and space for repentance, and using so many means

for so many days and months, and years, to bring them to repentance; and all the while giving them a rich and ample supply of all temporal blessings. They will love and praise him for all his acts of kindness and benevolence towards the evil and unthankful in this world, during their whole probationary state. Nor will they be less disposed to love and praise him for giving them a just recompense of reward for all their ingratitude, enmity and opposition to him, and to all the holiness and happiness of the universe. They will see that his mercy towards them in time, and his justice towards them in eternity, are equally expressions of his pure, disinterested and universal benevolence. Being holy as God is holy, and benevolent as God is benevolent, they will feel as God feels towards those guilty and miserable objects, and love and praise him for treating them as he had treated them in time, and does treat them in eternity. And they will say, "Amen, Alleluia," while they see the smoke of their torments ascending for ever and They will see that the whole of God's conduct towards them taken together, both in time and eternity, has flowed from his perfect benevolence, for which they ought to love and praise him for ever. Moses will feel that he ought to love and praise him for his whole conduct towards Pharaoh; and the eleven apostles will feel that they ought to love and praise him for his whole conduct towards Judas; and all the heavenly hosts will feel that they ought to love and praise him for all his conduct towards the spirits in prison, which has displayed the beauties of his benevolence before the eyes of the whole intelligent

ever.

creation.

6. It appears from what has been said about God's willingness and desire that sinners might be saved, that they are extremely unwilling to be saved. They generally think and say that they are willing to be saved, and more willing to be saved than God is willing to save them. But what says their conduct? Does it not prove their insincerity? If they sincerely desired to be saved, would they not accept of salvation, when God has provided salvation for them, offered salvation to them, urged them to accept of it, by the most endearing and powerful motives, and removed every obstacle out of their way of obtaining eternal life, but merely their unwillingness to enjoy it? Nothing but their unwillingness to be saved has hitherto prevented their accepting of salvation, or ever can prevent their