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plague? Sin is a thief,-sin is an assassin,sin is the plague. Zophar was a good man, though the Lord reproved him and his friends for their harshness towards Job. This is the reason why God commands the gospel to be preached, and why the believer wishes to have the gospel preached. It is the only means the Holy Ghost uses to destroy sin. The believer must always remember, the unity of truth is as necessary as the unity of Deity. Scripture tells us a soul cannot be saved by anything, but by the truth as it is in Jesus.

To improve this subject, let me observe, a season of affliction ought to be a season of self-examination. David "Search me, O says, God, and know my heart: try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." There is something very honest in this prayer,—may we be enabled to say so in the spirit of David.

Again we see another thing in the religion of God, this is purity: every other religion is full of impurity, and must be pregnant with hell. The religion of Jesus alone comprises heaven. Before a creature can be enabled to enter into the presence of God, he must be purified; there will be many struggles in the heart of every believer, but these struggles will endear God to his heart, for he will see in the

gospel a promise for restraining and subduing sin; and in the light of this truth, he goes on anticipating a vision of God in all his glory in the person of Jesus.

Again: see the generosity of true religion,— the believer not only has a hope no man taketh from him, but he wishes others to have it too; the milk of human kindness is not to be compared with the love of the gospel. It has been said, religious people send all the world to hell; but on the contrary, they would take them all to heaven, if they could. David says, "Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law." Behold our Saviour weeping over Jerusalem! This is the spirit

of truth, and this will unfold itself.

Sunday Morning, Feb. 23, 1823.

SERMON XXXI.

GOD DISCOVERED ONLY BY REVELATION.

Canst thou by searching find out God?

Canst

thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ?— JOB XI. 7.

1

I HAVE before observed in a preceding discourse, that the book of Job when divested of the misapplication to Job himself, comprises the sublimest truths: the question here put is a very pertinent, and very humiliating question; and may, with propriety, be put to every inhabitant of the habitable world. We may ask every human being, "Canst thou by searching

find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection?" It is recorded of St. Augustin, that, when walking once upon the sea-shore meditating upon the doctrine of the Trinity, which he was attempting in vain to comprehend, his attention was suddenly arrested

1 Supra p. 292.

by a child near him, who was stooping down, and attempting to collect the water in a shell, and as often as it was filled, the water ran out; St. Augustin approached, and observed a hole in the shell, and asked the child why he did it? the child replied, I am endeavouring to put the ocean into the shell; then replied Augustin, you are playing like a child indeed;'-' and so art thou,' answered the child, 'who art attempting to comprehend Deity,'-and then vanished.

It appears in the early times of the church, the Lord vouchsafed to manifest himself in visions to his people: the story is recorded, and was generally believed. One truth, however, is certain, we are as little capable of comprehending God, as the shell was of comprehending the ocean. In soliciting your attention to the subject before us, I would observe three things,

I. THERE IS IN MAN SINCE THE FALL, AND IT IS THE EFFECT OF THE FALL, A PRONENESS TO ATTEMPT ΤΟ COMPREHEND EVERY THING, NAY, EVEN GOD HIMSELF, IRRESPECTIVELY OF THE TEACHING OF GOD.

II. THAT THE ALMIGHTY IS ALTOGETHER

INCOMPREHENSIBLE BY MAN, EXCEPT THROUGH

REVELATION.

III. THAT THROUGH

REVELATION THERE IS

A DEGREE OF PERFECTION TO BE OBTAINED IN

THE

KNOWLEDGE OF THE ALMIGHTY, WHICH

IS AT ONCE SURPRISING AND DELIGHTFUL IN THE EXTREME, EVEN NOW, AND WHICH MUST EVENTUALLY RAISE US TO INEXPRESSIBLE BLISS, AND THAT FOR EVER.

I. THERE IS IN MAN SINCE THE FALL, AND IT IS THE EFFECT OF THE FALL, A PRONENESS ΤΟ ATTEMPT TO COMPREHEND EVERY THING, NAY, EVEN GOD HIMSELF, IRRESPECTIVELY OF THE TEACHING OF GOD. This would not have been the case, had man continued in a state of innocence with profound deference to the Deity, he would have pursued every study in which his intellect could have been engaged. No doubt Adam did this, and when the animals were brought before him, he gave them appropriate names so would it be now, had not man transgressed, and thus it will be when man is removed to heaven. The mind will then be wonderfully enlightened, and Christ will then unfold to it, through the countless ages of eternity, his own inexpressible glory. I do not mean to disparage science; but I would shew you where it should be placed, and how viewed; and that it should be pursued to the glory of God; and every individual in pursuing human science, ought to look up to God for instruction and guidance. Our old divines did

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