586.']
penal evil of damnation will not appear in the least to exceed the moral evil of sin, if we duly consider against whom sin is committed.
Consider his greatness. " Great is the Lord," says the Psalmist, " yea, his greatness is unsearchable." If we could conceive the meanest reptile, or the smallest insect, endued with such a measure of intelligence as to be able in some degree to appreciate the dignity of a mighty monarch ; and then to exalt itself against him, and to pour all manner of contempt upon him; the atrocity of such presumption would justly excite our keenest indignation. But the whole universe together is not as the smallest insect in comparison of God ; and yet we, we atom insects of an atom world, dare to set ourselves against his divine majesty, yea, to defy him to his face. Will God then be unjust if he execute his judgments on such impious worms ? Are we at liberty to insult him ; and is he not at liberty to avenge himself on us? ]
But consider also Jiis goodness. O how unbounded has this been ! How has he borne with us in all our rebellion ! How has he sent his only-begotten Son, to expiate our sin, and to open a way for our reconciliation with him ! How has he sought to glorify in our salvation those very perfections, which we have so impiously despised, and which he might well glorify in our everlasting condemnation ! How has he sent his Holy Spirit, to instruct, renew, and comfort us ! How has he sent his word and ministers, to invite, entreat, expostulate, yea, and, as it were, to " compel us " to accept of mercy ! This he has done from our youth up : this he is doing yet daily and hourly : and, as if all his own happiness were bound up in ours, he says, " How shall I give thee up?" "Wilt thou not be made clean? Oh ! when shall it once be ? " This is the God against whom we are sinning. This is the God whom we wish extinct*^ ; and respecting whom we say, " Make the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us." This is he, " whose blessed Son we trample under foot, and to whose eternal Spirit we do despite®:" yea, that very " goodness and long-suffering and forbearance which should lead us to repentance," are made by us an occa- sion of multiplying our offences against him. Say now whether he will " be unrighteous in taking vengeance ? " Were a fellow- creature to make such returns to us, and to render nothing but evil to us for all the good we did him, should we think that he had any claim on us? Should we account ourselves unjust, if we did not acknowledge him as one of our dearest friends, and place him on a footing with our own beloved children, and make him an heir of all that we possessed ? Should we not feel ourselves amply justified in rejecting such an absurd and
^ Ps. xiv. 1. Omitting the words in Italics. <= Jjeb. x. 29.