than of others ; and the criminality of all must be estimated in some measure according to the peculiar circumstances under which they live : but, inasmuch as all violate the law that is in their own minds, and neglect to improve the advantages they enjoy, they all are obnoxious to the charge contained in our text, and are therefore " without excuse."]
But, that we may bring this matter home to our- selves, let us consider,
II. How much more inexcusable we are, if we re- semble them —
We have opportunities of knowing God, far beyond any that the heathen ever enjoyed —
[Even in reading the book of creation, we, by means of our superior advantages, are enabled to see much that was hid from them, or, at least, to discover with incomparably greater clearness the unity and perfections of God, which they could but faintly and doubtingly discern. But we have a revela- tion, wherein God has proclaimed his own name, " The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abun- dant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin ; and that will by no means clear the guilty"1." We have also a yet clearer revela- tion of God in the person of his own Son, who is " the image of the invisible Godn," " the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person0." Nor is it from words only that we discover his excellency, but from actions also. We behold our God incarnate : we behold his glory veiled, so that, without being blinded with the overwhelming splendour of his majesty, we may contemplate him, and familiarize ourselves, as it were, with his adorable perfections. In this especially the most ignorant amongst us excels all the greatest philosophers of Greece and Rome ; we behold the attribute of mercy; we can tell how that may be exercised in perfect con- sistency with justice : we can tell how God can be "just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly p." In a word, all the wonders of redeeming love are set before us in terms so plain, that " he who runs may read them."]
But how have we improved these advantages ?
[Have we glorified God as God, or his blessed Son as the one hope of a ruined world ? Alas ! alas ! if we take a survey of our own spirit and conduct through life, we shall find, that there has been but little difference between us and heathens.
Consider our defects. " We have not glorified God as God,
m Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7. " Col. i. 15.
0 Heb. i. 3. p Rom. iii. 26. and iv 5.
c2