which it cannot utter, and can only in silence feel and adore:

Nor does it lie in exerting and enlarging ourselves towards God in prayer and praise: for these are but particular expressions of our devout affection for him: very useful and proper to nourish it; yet which the worst and most ungodly may sometimes join in and counterfeit :

But it is an inward, permanent affection towards him, the infinitely holy, wise, and good, arising from a sense of his perfect benevolence and goodness; reposing itself and all its cares and concerns with the most entire assurance and confidence in his hands, as of one who will always do and direct what is wisest and best.

II.

Our Lord would mark out the degree and fervour of our love to God by that enumeration as it were of all our powers, that are to be exercised in it; "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength."

Not that it is to exclude (when Moses first, and the holy Jesus after him, enjoined to love Jehovah with all the heart) our love for others to a certain

certain extent, but only limit it: that our love to God must be predominant and supreme. He must have no rival in our affections. All our partial and particular affections are to be subordinate to the love and duty we owe to God, and to be regulated by it. Parents, children, friends, are to be tenderly loved by us; but only so far as is consistent with the loyalty and obedience we owe to God.

Not that he, our all-sufficient Creator, stands in need of, or requires our devoting ourselves to him for his own benefit, as if we could add any thing thereby to his glory and happiness for himself.

But he requires of us this preference of affection, because it is for our own happiness; and because it would be our ruin to love or regard any one more than him, and would do them no real good; and also because it would be in itself most unjust for we owe him infinitely more than we do, or can do to any other being whatsoever; and therefore ought in all reason to value, love, and prefer him above all others, however nearly related or dear to us.

The love of God then is the prevalence of pious and devout affections, ruling the heart, controlling

controlling and subduing irregular passions and appetites, and bringing the whole man into subjection to the will of God.

It is to be lamented, that so few are seen who are possessed of, or aiming to attain this supreme love of God!

Some seldom or never turn their thoughts to him, though he be the most glorious object in the universe, however invisible to the bodily eye, and so near them; and live without God, without any acknowledgement of his goodness, though they are each moment supported by him.

Many there are who imagine themselves possessed of this love to God, whilst they live in known disobedience to his laws; because they find their hearts melted and touched by the thought and descriptions of his goodness. But this, in such characters, is only a mark that they are not quite abandoned, and their minds callous and hardened against all sense of God and goodness. But, to know and approve what is right, without practising it, so far from recommending us to our Maker, will only serve to enhance our guilt.

But, perhaps, we shall more easily discern how far we are possessed of this love to God,

if we consider the progressive steps by which such creatures as we, are brought to it.

For we are not born with it; nor is there any way in which it can be poured into us all

at once.

At first, in our infant state, we are under the direction of sense and appetite. We are affected only by the pleasures and pains of the present moment, without any knowledge of God, or thought of to-morrow. By degrees, and by the care of others, we are taught to restrain our appetites, and to give up a present good for the avoiding of future evil, or the attainment of a greater good in reversion.

By slow advances, and in a long process of time and course of discipline, we come to know what is right and wrong, virtuous and vicious, and to prefer the one to the other; and also that there is a great invisible Being, our heavenly Father, who loves us far beyond our earthly parents, and is therefore to be loved by us; but who can only favour and befriend those who love him, and follow virtue and goodness; and, therefore, that he is to be chiefly loved by us, and every thing else to be given up, that would draw us

from

from the love and obedience which we owe to him.

III.

The great importance of this principle of the love of God, is discerned in the influence that it has upon our conduct, to make us cheerful in the discharge of our whole duty, and keep us steady in it.

For the continual exertion of a pleasing affection towards that gracious Being, who is a lover of truth and righteousness; who is ever present with us; who loveth us, and who has all wisdom and power to help us; will inspire us with a desire always to please him, and with a horror of all vice and wickedness, as most displeasing and offensive to him, as well as odious in itself.

It is this that will support us in that love which we owe, and which is due to our brethren of mankind, and in our endeavours to promote their happiness.

For without this, fretted with the follies and perverseness of some, disappointed in the returns we expected from others, despairing of being able to do any good, our benevolence might flag and grow weary.

But