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God and man, by preaching divine truths plainly, then, no other ministers can expect to please both God and man by plain preaching. But as Paul chose to please God and profit men, by preaching plainly, rather than to please men to their own destruction; so ministers ought to make the same choice, and preach in the same manner, and leave the event to God, whether the truth they deliver shall be a savour of life unto life, or a savour of death unto death to their hearers. Plain and profitable preaching will always produce one, or the other of these important effects. Paul was willing to please men in every thing, except neglecting to preach truth plainly, and all ministers should be willing to do the one, and not the other. No preacher in the world can find a solid excuse for not preaching plainly and profitably, through fear of offending, or a desire of pleasing men. This, in many cases, is an extremely great trial. For by preaching plainly and profitably, many ministers have lost both the favour and support of their people, and involved themselves in great, distressing, and lasting temporal evils. But though such calamities may be foreseen, in consequence of ministers preaching plainly and faithfully, they have no right to shrink from the trial; but feel and say with the Apostle," None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace God."

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5. If ministers ought to preach plainly and profitably, as Paul did; then people ought to approve of their preaching in such a manner, though it be not pleasing to their natural hearts. People have no right to desire preachers to seek to please them simply, but they ought to desire them to seek to save them. How thankful have many been, who have been recovered from the delusions of false teachers, to the knowledge of the great and saving truths of the gospel, by plain and profitable preaching? Thousands, whom Paul instrumentally turned from pagan and fatal delusions,

were ready to give him their eyes, for joy. People never desire their physicians to please them at the risk of their life, and it is no less criminal and absurd, to desire their ministers to please them, at the risk of their eternal salvation. But how many at this day, are running after false teachers, who are crying peace, peace to them, while they are standing on the brink of endless destruction! Such persons will not so much as give a hearing to plain and profitable preaching, and endeavour to prevent others from hearing it. Their folly will sooner or later be made manifest.

6. This subject calls upon all to inquire, whether they approve, or disapprove of plain and profitable preaching. There is nothing more sensibly affects the heart than preaching, and therefore there is nothing, which has a greater tendency to discover to every person, whether his heart is good, or bad, than his feelings under preaching, whether the preaching be good, or bad. To be pleased with bad preaching, is one of the surest marks of a bad heart; and to be pleased with good preaching is one of the surest marks of a good heart. You have all had an opportunity to hear both bad, and good preaching; now let me ask, which has been the most pleasing? Your feelings are a mark to yourselves, if you never express them to others; and they are a mark to others, if you express them. How ready are people to express their feelings in respect to preaching, not considering that they thereby expose both their understanding and hearts. Be entreated then, to examine your feelings, for your own benefit, and for the benefit of others.

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SERMON V.

THE MORAL RECTITUDE OF GOD.

GENESIS xviii. 25.

That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

When God was about to destroy Sodom, he appeared to Abraham and told him his design. This deeply affected the benevolent heart of that pious man, who instantly offered the most fervent and importunate cries to the Father of mercies, to spare that corrupt and degenerate city. And the only plea he urged before the Supreme disposer of all events was the rectitude of his own character. "And Abraham drew near and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? That be far from thee to do after this mannar, to slay the righteous with the wicked; and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Abraham implicitly acknowledges, that it would be right for God to punish the guilty who deserved to be punished, but not to punish the innocent who did not deserve to be punished. This leads us to conclude,

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That Abraham knew, that God is a being of moral rectitude. I shall show,

I. That God is a being of moral rectitude; And,
II. Consider how Abraham could know this.

I. I am to show, that God is a being of moral rectitude. To make this appear, it may be observed

I. That God ought to be a being of moral rectitude. Though we do not know every thing about God, yet we know something about him. We know that he has an eternal and underived existence, and that he possesses almighty power, perfect knowledge and wisdom, and all the essential attributes of a moral agent. He knows the natures, relations, and connections of all beIngs in the universe. And this knowledge necessarily confers moral obligation. For that which the Apostle lays down as a maxim is an eternal truth: "To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." This applies to the Deity as well as to all other intelligent agents. As God perfectly knows the relation he bears to his creatures, and the relation they bear to him; so he perfectly knows how he ought to treat them, and how they ought to treat him. He knows what is right and wrong respecting his own conduct, and respecting the conduct of all other moral beings in the universe. He ought, therefore, to feel and act according to his moral discernment of what is right in the nature of things. And as he feels much more sensibly his obligation to moral rectitude, than any other being; so we have far more reason to believe, that he possesses moral rectitude, than that any other being in the universe does.

2. God claims to be a being of moral rectitude.

When Moses requested him to show him his glory, "The Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty." Moses says, "He is the rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth; and without iniquity, just and right is he !" Elihu says, "Far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should commit iniquity." David says, "The righteous Lord loveth righteousness. Justice

and judgment are the habitation of his throne; mercy

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He is my rock, and there He is represented as a Balaam under a divine man, that he should lie ; that he should repent:

and truth go before his face. is no unrighteousness in him." Being of immutable veracity. impulse says, "He is is not neither is he the son of man, hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" We read of the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began. To give greater security to the heirs of this promise, God confirmed the immutability of his counsel by an oath, "That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, they might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before them." In these divine declarations, God claims to be immutably holy, faithful, righteous, just, and good; and these immutable moral attributes constitute the highest possible perfection of moral rectitude.

3. God has made his rational creatures capable of discerning his moral, as well as natural attributes. He has implanted in their minds a moral sense, by which they can distinguish moral beauty from moral deformity in moral characters. But can we suppose, that he would have done this, if he knew that his own moral character would not bear examination? He must have known, that if his rational creatures should discover any thing in his heart, or conduct, which was contrary to moral rectitude, it would dissolve their moral obligation to love his character, to obey his commands, or to submit to his government, and lay them under moral obligation to hate him supremely. For if his heart were evil, he

would be the most odious instead of the most amiable Being in the universe. His conduct in making us competent to judge of his moral rectitude, is complete evidence of the perfection of his moral rectitude, and confirms his own declarations concerning it in his word.

4. God has not only made us capable of judging of his moral rectitude, but commanded us to do it. " “Judge, pray thee, between me and my vineyard." "Are not

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