The Apostle takes this truth for granted ; and makes it the foundation of his appeal. But I lament to say, that it needs to be brought home to our con- sciences with more force than we are wont to assign to it in our own minds.
That God deserves our love, cannot be denied —
[View him in his works of creation. No sooner had he formed every thing, than he pronounced it " very good." See man in his compound state both of body and soul : how fear- fully and wonderfully are we formed in our corporeal frame !
and with what astonishing powers are our souls
endued, insomuch that we are capable of appreciating in a measure all that we behold with our eyes, and can soar also to the contemplation of the invisible God himself, and are capable of knowing, loving, serving, and enjoying him.
Behold the earth and all that it contains ; how formed for the
service and the use of man ! Yea, and all the heavenly
bodies also, how do they too in their orbits (for in all probability the whole solar system forms but a part of other systems, with which it moves) administer to the comfort and happiness of man !
And is not the Creator of all this worthy of our love ?
View him in his ivorks of providence. All this has God up- held, if not in its primeval grandeur, yet in its ministrations to the good of man ; and that too notwithstanding all the provo- cations which he receives continually at our hands. All our
faculties both of body and mind are continued to us
whilst the whole terraqueous globe affords us sustenance, and the heavenly bodies, according to their capacities, minister to our necessities and comforts. True, the world was once drowned with water ; and the cities of the plain were consumed with fire: but this only shews us what might have been daily expected, if God had dealt with us in any respect according to our deserts.
Should not then such a long-suffering and gracious God be made an object of our most intense regard ?
But view him in his great work, the work of redemption : and what shall we say of him there ? View him as taking our very nature, and becoming in all things like unto us, sin only excepted. View him as dying upon the cross, and expiating our
guilt by the sacrifice of himself -— View him as sending
down from heaven his Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts, and by his enlightening, quickening, transforming energies, to ren- der the work of Christ effectual for the salvation of all who will
believe in him But here I seem to exceed the utmost
bounds of credibility. Yet so it is ; and this is the God who