GOD THE FATHER.

"The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy:" ISAIAH lvii, 15.

"It is no wonder that, when God would reveal Himself, He goes out of our common speaking one to another, and expresseth Himself in a way peculiar to Himself, and such as is suitable and proper to His own nature and glory. Hence, as when He speaks of Himself, and His own eternal essence, He saith, 'I am that I am;' so when He speaks of Himself, with reference to His creatures, and especially to His people, He saith, 'I am.' He doth not say, 'I am their friend, their father, or their protector.' He doth not say, 'I am their light, their life, their guide, their strength, or tower;' but only 'I am.' He sets, as it were, His hand to a blank, that His people may write under it what they please, that is good for them. As if He should say, 'Are they weak? I am strength. Are they poor? I am riches. Are they in trouble? I am comfort. Are they sick? I am health. Are they dying? I am life. Have they nothing? I am all things. I am wisdom and power, I am justice and mercy, I am grace and goodness; I am glory, beauty, holiness, eminency, super-eminency, perfection, allsufficiency, eternity, Jehovah, I am. Whatsoever is suitable to their nature, or convenient for them in their several

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conditions, that I am. Whatsoever is amiable in itself, or desirable unto them, that I am. Whatsoever is pure and

holy, whatsoever is great or pleasant, whatsoever is good or needful to make men happy, that I am.' So that, in short, God here represents Himself unto us as a universal good, and leaves us to make the application of it to ourselves, according to our several wants, capacities, and desires, by saying only in general, I am.'"-Beveridge.

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"God is an eternal Being. Then a thousand years with Him are as one day, and one day as a thousand years. is to say, a thousand years and one day are such inconsi lerable measures of duration, that whatever disproportion they may have to each other, they appear to have none when compared to the duration of eternity. There is a great difference between one drop of water, and the twenty thousand baths which were contained in that famous vessel in Solomon's temple, which, on account of its matter and capacity, was called a sea of brass; but this vessel itself, in comparison with the sea properly so called, was so small, that when we compare all that it could contain, with the sea-one drop of water with the sea is as twenty thousand baths, and twenty thousand baths is as one drop of water. There is a great difference between the light of a taper and that of a flambeau; but expose both to the light of the sun, and their difference will be imperceptible. The light of the taper before the sun is as the light of a flambeau, and the light of a flambeau as the light of a taper. In like manner, eternal duration is so great an object, that it causeth everything to disappear that can be compared with it: a thousand years are no more before it than one day. We minute creatures consider a day, an hour, a quarter of an hour, as a very little space in the course of our lives; we lose without scruple a day, an hour, a quarter of an hour; but we are very much to blame; for this day, this hour, this quarter of an hour,

should we even live a whole age, would be a considerable portion of our lives. But God revolves, if I may venture to say so, in the immense space of eternity. Heap millions of ages upon millions of ages; add new millions to new millions: all this is nothing in comparison with the duration of an eternal Being. In this sense, a thousand years are but as one day, and one day as a thousand years."-Saurin.

"God is independent altogether, and self-sufficient. This is his royal prerogative wherein He infinitely transcends all created perfection. He is of himself, and for himself,' from no other, and for no other, but of him and for him are all things.' He is the fountain head; you ought to follow the streams up to it, and then to rest, for you can go no farther. But the creature at its greatest perfection hath these two ingredients of limitation and imperfection in it; it is from another and for another. It hath its rise out of the fountain of God's immense power and goodness, and it must run towards that again until it empty all its faculties and excellences into that same sea of goodness. Dependence is the proper notion of a created being; dependence upon that infinite Being as its first immediate cause, and last immediate end. You see, then, that this principle is engraven on the very nature of man, it being as certain and evident that man was created for God's glory, and for no other end, as that he is from God's power and from no other cause."-Binning.

"Only to be permitted to contemplate such a being as Jehovah, to see goodness, holiness, justice, mercy, longsuffering, and sovereignty personified and condensed; to see them united with eternity, infinite power, unerring wisdom, omnipresence, and all-sufficiency; to see all these natural and moral perfections indissolubly united and blended in sweet harmony, in a pure, spiritual Being, and that Being placed on the throne of the universe:-I say, to see this would be

happiness enough to fill the mind of any creature in existence. But in addition to this, to have this ineffable Being for our God, our portion, our all; to be permitted to say, 'This God is our God for ever and ever;' to have His resplendent countenance smile upon us; to be encircled in His everlasting arms of power, and faithfulness, and love; to hear His voice saying to us, 'I am yours, and you are Mine; nothing shall ever pluck you from My hands, or separate you from My love, but you shall be with Me where I am, behold My glory, and live to reign with Me for ever and ever'—it is honour, it is glory, it is happiness too overwhelming, too transporting for mortal minds to conceive, or for mortal frames to support; and it is perhaps well for us that here we know but in part, and that it doth not yet appear what we shall be. Oh, then, in all circumstances, under all inward and outward afflictions, let God's Israel rejoice in their Redeemer, let the children of Zion be joyful in their King!" Payson.

"The brightest and least unlike idea we can form of God is infinitely more inferior in reference to Him than a parhelion is in reference to the sun; for, though that meteor appear a splendid and sublime thing, and have so much resemblance to the sun, without whose own beams it is not produced, as to be readily perceived to be his image, exclusively to that of any other; yet, residing in a cloud, whose station is near the earth, it is by an immense distance beneath the sun, and is no less inferior to him in bigness and splendour, as well as in many other attributes. He has, in my opinion, the truest veneration for God, not who can set forth His excellences and prerogatives in the most high and pompous expressions; but he who willingly has a deep and real sense of the unmeasurable inferiority of himself and his best ideas, to the unbounded and unparalleled perfections of his Maker."Boyle.