Their religion being merely ceremonial and political, never pretended to reach the heart, or to inspire it with any fincerity or warmth of affection towards the Deity. Indeed how was it poffible to have any love for fuch gods as they worshipped: for gods debased with every human weakness, and polluted with every human vice? It was enough, furely, to make the people worship such a crew. Το have infifted upon their loving them too, would have exceeded all bounds of modesty and common fenfe. But Christianity having given us an infinitely great and good and holy God to worship, very naturally requires from us the pureft and devouteft fentiments of affection towards him; and with great justice makes the love of our Maker an indifpenfable requifite in religion, and the grand fundamental duty of a Chriftian. Surely then it concerns us to enquire carefully into the true nature of it. And it concerns us the more, because it has been unhappily brought into disrepute by the extravagant conceits of a few devout enthufiafts concerning it. Of thefe, fome have treated the love of God in fo mystical and refined a way,

and

and carried it to fuch heights of feraphic extasy and rapture, that common minds must for ever defpair either of following or understanding them; whilft others have defcribed it in fuch warm and indelicate terms, as are much better fuited to the grofsnefs of earthly paffion, than the purity of spiritual, affection. And what is ftill more deplorable, the love of God has been fometimes made the fcourge of man; and it has been thought that the most effectual way to please the Creator, was to perfecute and torment and destroy his creatures. Hence the irreligious and profane have taken occafion to treat all pretence to piety as fanatical or infincere; and even many of the worthier part of mankind have been afraid of giving way to the leaft warmth of devout affection towards the great Author of their Being. But let not the fincere Christian be scared out of his duty by fuch vain terrors as thefe. The accidental exceffes of this holy fentiment can be no just argument against its general excellence and utility. As the finest intellects are most easily disordered and overfet, fo the more generous and exalted our affections are, the

more liable are they to be perverted and depraved. We know that even friendship itfelf has fometimes been abused to the most unworthy purposes, and led men to the commiffion of the most atrocious crimes. Shall we therefore utterly difcard that generous paffion, and confider it as nothing more than the unnatural fervour of a romantic imagination? Every heart revolts against so wild a thought. And why then muft we fuffer the love of God to be banished out of the world because it has been sometimes improperly represented, or indifcreetly exercised? It is not either from the visionary myftic, the sensual fanatic, or the frantic zealot, but from the plain word of God, that we are to take our ideas of this divine fentiment. There we find it described in all its native purity and fimplicity. The marks by which it is there distinguished contain nothing enthusiastic or extravagant. The chief teft by which the gofpel orders us to try and measure our love to God is, the regard we pay to his commands. "He that hath my commandments, " and keepeth them," fays our Lord, “he it "is that loveth me*." "This is the love

* John xiv. 21.

"of

"of God," fays St. John, "that we keep his "commandments *." And again, in ftill ftronger terms: "Whofo keepeth God's "word, in him verily is the love of God perfected +." Had a proper attention been paid to fuch paffages as thefe, we should have heard nothing of those abfurd reveries which have fo much disgraced this doctrine. Yet, while we thus guard against the errors of over-ftrained pietifm, let us take care that we fall not into the oppofite extreme of a cold and cautious indifference; that, as others have raised their notions of this excellent quality too high, we, on the other hand, fink them not too low. Because the scriptures fay, that to keep the commandments of God, is to love God, therefore too many are willing to conclude that no degree of inward affection need accompany our outward obedience; and that all appearance of devout ardour is a fufpicious and even dangerous fymptom. But this notion is to the full as groundless and unfcriptural as thofe above-mentioned; and needs no other confutation than the very † 1 John ii, 5.

* 1 John v. 3.

words of the text. We are commanded not merely to love God, but to love him with all our heart, and foul, and mind, and ftrength. Since then our obedience muft be, as we have seen, the measure of our love, we are plainly bound by this command to obey him alfo with all our heart, and foul, and mind, and strength; that is, with zeal, with alacrity, with vigour, with perfeverance, with the united force of all our faculties and powers, with one univerfal bent of the whole man towards God. The love of our Maker, then, is neither a mere unmeaning animal fervour, nor a lifeless formal worship or obedience. It confifts in devoutness of heart, as well as purity of life; and, from a comparison of the text with other paffages of fcripture, we may define it to be, define it to be, "fuch a reverential admiration of God's perfections in general, and fuch a grateful fenfe of his infinite goodnefs in particular, as render the contemplation and the worship of him delightful to us; and produce in us a conftant defire and endeavour to please him in every part of our moral and religious conduct."

This it is that the fcriptures mean by the

love