1. _Self-existence_--_being underived_. How this can be proved from
reason. How this truth is recognized in Scripture. Ex. 3:14. Rev. 1:8.
Jer. 10:10. Dan. 6:26. All other existence derived from him. Ps. 33:6.
John 1:3. Col. 1:16, 17. Heb. 11:13.
_Practical Reflections._ (1.) Ps. 53:1, f.c., (2.) Isa. 29:16, l.c.
45:9, 10. Rom. 9:20, 21. (3.) Ps. c. 3, 4. Isa. 43:7. Dan. 5:23, l.c.
2. _Eternity and Immutability of God._ How one of these involves the
other. How these attributes can be discovered by reason. How by
Scripture. Gen. 1:1. Deut. 32:40. Ps. 90:2. 102:24-27. Mal. 3:6. Heb.
13:8. Jas. 1:17. Rev. 1:4. 22:13.
Consider these attributes separately:--(1.) Eternity--being without
beginning or end--ever being. (2.) Immutability--subject to no change in
his manner of being, his perfections, his thoughts, desires, purposes,
or determinations.
_Practical Reflections._ (1.) How God appears to us in view of these
attributes. (2.) How necessary they are to the character of the Supreme
Ruler. (3.) How these attributes make God appear to the sinner. (4.) How
to holy beings. (5.) What encouragements to prayer. Suppose God were
changeable in his character, feelings, and purposes, what confidence
could be reposed in his promises? (6.) What feelings these attributes
should inspire.
3. _Omnipresence and Omniscience of God._ (1.) Contemplate knowledge
without limit, and presence without bounds. (2.) How these attributes
are manifest from the works of creation. (3.) How declared in the Word
of God. Ps. 139:1-12. Jer. 23:24. Ps. 147:5. Isa. 40:28.
_Solemn Thoughts._ (1.) In what light God is manifested by these
attributes. (2.) How necessary these attributes to the Supreme Governor
and righteous Judge of all. (3.) No individual so small or unimportant
as to escape the attention of such a being. Matt. 10:29, 30.
_Practical Reflections._ (1.) Danger of forgetting or losing a sense of
the presence of God. Ps. 9:17. 50:22. (2.) What feelings should be
inspired in view of these attributes. Ps. 4:4. Heb. 4:13. (3.) How
sinners should feel in view of them. Job 34:21, 22. Prov. 5:21. 15:3.
Jer. 16:17. Amos 9:2, 3. (4.) What emotions these attributes should
excite in the hearts of God's children. 2 Chron. 16:9, f.c. (5.) How
these attributes will appear in the day of judgment.
4. _Omnipotence and Independence of God._ (1.) How the omnipotence of
God is manifested by the works of creation. Job, chapters 38-11. Reflect
on the works of creation as a whole, and minutely and particularly, and
also _how_ they were made. Gen. 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26. (2.) How
the independence of God is manifested by his works. Creative power must
be underived. (3.) How the omnipotence of God is displayed, in his
upholding and governing all things. (4.) How this attribute is declared
in Scripture. Gen. 17:1. 18:14. Matt. 19:26. (5.) How omnipotence proves
independence.
_Practical Reflections._ (1.) How God is hereby qualified to be the
Supreme Ruler. (2.) The condition of sinners, while they remain at
enmity with such a being. Deut. 32:41. (3.) How Christians should feel,
in view of this. Ex. 32:32. Rom. 9:2, 3. (4.) What they ought to do.
Acts 20:31. Jas. 5:20. Jude 23. (5.) Feelings of those who can view such
a being as their Friend and Father. Rom. 8:28, 38, 39. 1 Cor. 3:22, 23.
(6.) Appropriate emotions on contemplating the omnipotence of God. Job
11:7, 8. 26:14. Ps. 145.
5. _Benevolence of God._ God is essentially benevolent. 1 John 4:8. (1.)
How the benevolence of God is exhibited to us by the light of reason.
(2.) How by his works of creation and providence. (3.) By Revelation.
_First_, by direct assertion. Exod. 34:6. Ps. 145:9. Nah. 1:7. Matt.
5:45. _Second_, by the character of his law. Ps. 19:7, 8. Matt.
22:37-39. Rom. 7:12. _Third_, by the work of redemption. John 3:16, 17.
_Inferential Thoughts._ (1.) The benevolence of God without bounds. (2.)
Always active (3.) It constitutes his whole moral character. (4.) A
being of infinite benevolence must prefer the greater good to the less,
and the supreme good above all. (5.) Such a being must love the same
disposition in his creatures, and hate the opposite.
_Practical Reflections._ (1.) How odious selfishness must be in the
sight of God. (2.) Sinners directly opposed in their characters and
feelings to God. Exod. 20:5, l.c. Rom. 8:7. (3.) The exceeding great
evil of sin, as committed against infinite benevolence. (4.) The
ingratitude and baseness of sinners. (5.) What the goodness of God
should lead them to. Isa. 30:18. Rom. 2:4. (6.) What emotions the
contemplation of the goodness of God should excite in the hearts of his
children. Ps. 118. Isa. 63:7. Eph. 5:20. (7.) How we may apprehend the
goodness of the Lord. Ps, 107:43.
6. _The Justice of God._ (1.) What justice is: _First_, as exercised by
intelligent beings, whose relations will admit of mutual giving and
receiving; _Second_, as exercised by a ruler towards his subjects;
_Third_, as relates to all actions, with reference to the general good.
(2.) Which of these relations God sustains to the universe. (3.) The
disposition which would lead him to act justly in all these cases. (4.)
How God is just as respects himself (5.) As respects his creatures. (6.)
How the justice of God may be seen from the light of reason, and from
the system of his providence. (7.) How from the Sacred History. (8.) The
positive declarations of Scripture. Deut. 32:4. Isa. 45:21. Zeph. 3:5.
_Rev._ 15:3. (9.) From the revelation of a future day of righteous
retribution. Eccl. 12:14. Acts 17:31. 2 Cor. 5:10.
_Practical Reflections._ (1.) How, by this attribute, God is qualified
to be the Supreme Governor. (2.) How terrible this renders him to the
wicked. Exod. 34:7, l.c. Heb. 10:20-29. 12:29. (3.) How suffering the
guilty to go unpunished, without satisfaction and reformation, would be
doing injustice to the universe. (4.) Why we ought to look with
complacency and delight upon this attribute.
7. _The Truth of God._ (1.) His _veracity_; or a disposition always to
speak according to the real state of things. (2.) _Faithfulness_; or a
disposition to conform his actions to previous declarations of his Word.
(1.) How the truth of God may be proved by reason. _First_, from his
Benevolence. _Second_, from his Independence and Immutability. _Third_,
from the excellence of truth and the turpitude of falsehood. _Fourth_,
from the estimation in which truth is held by the intelligent creatures
he has made.
(2.) How proved from the Scriptures. _First_, by direct declarations.
Exod. 34:6, l.c. Ps. 117:2. 146:6, l.c. _Second_, by the accordance of
the histories recorded in Scripture with the facts substantiated by
other evidence. _Third_, by the predictions of events which have since
been fulfilled. _Fourth_, from the doctrines contained in his Word.
_Fifth_, by the agreement of Scripture with itself. _Sixth_, by the
fulfilment of promises, threatenings, covenants, &c., recorded in his
Word. _Seventh_, other proofs, as they may be suggested to the mind.
_Practical Reflections._ (1.) How God is qualified by this attribute to
be the moral governor of intelligent creatures. (2.) How necessary is
faith to acceptance with God. Heb. 11:6. (3.) How odious to a God of
infinite veracity must be the sin of _unbelief_. 1 John 5:10. (4.) How
terrible to the wicked this renders the threatenings of God's word. (5.)
How valuable his promises to the righteous. (6.) At what an infinite
expense God has sustained his truth, while pardoning rebels doomed to
die. Ps. 85:10. Rom. 3:26.
8. _The Mercy of God._ (1.) What mercy is. (2.) Contemplate mercy as a
disposition inherent in the Divine character. (3.) The only way in which
mercy can be exercised by Him, towards those who have merited anger and
punishment, consistent with the moral rectitude of his character, and
the great ends of his government. Ps. 85:10. Isa. 53:5, 6, 10. Acts
4:12. 5:31. Rom. 3:25, 26. (4.) How this attribute is manifested in his
providence. Matt. 5:45. (5.) How in his Word. Neh. 9:17. Ps. 3:8. Matt.
5:7. Rom. 5:6. (These two may embrace several subdivisions.) (6.)
Consider whether by the light of nature we could discover any possible
way for God to exercise mercy towards the guilty.
_Practical Reflections._ (1.) The loveliness and glory of this
attribute. (2.) How we should feel in view of it. Ps. 118. (3.) The
great guilt and danger of indulging an unmerciful or cruel disposition.
Prov. 11:17, l.c. 21:13. Mark 11:26. Jas. 2:13. (4.) The advantage of
being merciful. Ps. 18:25. Prov. 11:17, f.c. Matt. 5:7. Mark 11:25.
9. _The Wisdom of God._ (1.) What wisdom is. How it differs from
knowledge. How from cunning or subtilty. Whether that is wisdom which
does not design to accomplish a _good_ end. Whether this is a _natural_
or _moral_ attribute, or both. (2.) How the wisdom of God is manifested
in the works of creation. Ps. 104. Prov. 3:19. Examine particular
objects and see how exactly everything is fitted for the end for which
it is designed, and that a good end; such as the seasons; day and night;
provision made for the wants and for the comfort and pleasure of men and
animals; the body and mind of man; the laws which govern the material
world, carried put in a great variety of ways; in the infinite variety,
and yet extensive and convenient classification, of objects; human
languages; moral agency of intelligent beings, &c. (3.) The wisdom of
God, as exhibited in his Word; _First_, its perfect adaptation to the
wants of the world; its variety of authorship, style, matter, manner,
&c.; _Second_, the truths revealed; particularly the plan of redemption.
Rom. 11:33.
_Practical Reflections._ (1.) Ps. 48:14. (2.) The folly of setting up
our own reason in opposition to the word of God. Isa. 40:13, 14. Rom.
11:34, 35. (3.) The folly of self-conceit. Prov. 26:12. (4.) From whom
all wisdom comes. Prov. 2:6. (5.) What is the only true wisdom. Job
28:28.