God (which even in a state of innocence was not entirely unconnected with a fear of divine punishment, for the threatening of God was, "in the day that thou eatest thou shalt surely die,") he was happy; but no sooner had he lost that fear, than he lost at the same time his innocence and his bliss.

Hence it becomes easy to see why the fear of God is often put for the whole of religion; and why, moreover, it is considered to be the root of all religion, as it evidently is in that scripture where it is said, 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.'

Indeed, not only does the true fear of God run through all the other acts of religion whether towards God or towards man, but whenever it is truly exercised, all other acts of piety will be found to flow from it, as love to God and love to man, as created in the image of God, penitence, humility, and firm trust in God's mercy through Christ with a thankful remembrance of His death, in a word, a right and diligent use of all the means of grace, and a firm and well-grounded hope of glory.

If any should enquire how the statements contained in this essay are reconciled with the assertion of St. John, where he says, ' perfect love casteth out fear?'-I answer, the more persons are brought to love God, the more holy will their lives become, the more will the affections of their souls become weaned from this perishing world, and the less reason will they have to fear the righteous judgments of the Lord.

But inasmuch as the best Christians can never perfectly love God here on earth, it would seem to follow that they can never be perfectly delivered from the fear of those divine punishments which they know their iniquities have justly deserved.

There is quickly approaching a time, however, when the faithful in this sense will fear no longer, for after the souls of the righteous have been delivered from the burden of the flesh they will be no longer capable of sin, and therefore no longer in any fear of the punishment which is due to it.

And now let the appeal be made to the fidelity with which the Church of England is ever careful to inculcate the true fear of God.

And first I may observe, that in the Catechism, a very early part of our duty towards God is said to be to fear Him,' and in the Litany we are taught to pray, "that it may please thee to give us a heart to love and dread thee, and diligently to live after thy commandments."

In one of the Collects we are taught to pray that we may have a perpetual fear and love of God's holy name,' and in the Te-Deum we express that godly fear when we say we believe thou shalt come to be our judge."

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When, moreover, we pray that " we who for our evil deeds do worthily deserve to be punished, by the comfort of thy grace may mercifully be relieved;" the very expressions imply a holy fear of the righteous judgments of God.

And if any should enquire, what is the form correspondent to that part of the power of godliness which consists in the fear of God? I answer, so to direct all our thoughts, words, and actions by the rule of God's commandments, as to walk in the fear of God all the day long; so reverently and humbly to carry ourselves towards Him, as not to let an overweening confidence destroy all godly fear; in a word, so to pass through

this world as those who must hereafter give a strict account of the deeds done in the body before Him, who is ready to judge both the quick and the dead. Lastly let the appeal be made to the practice of one of the most faithful and devoted sons of the Church of England, and one who had imbibed a large portion of her spirit.

The example I have selected is that of the godly fear of the righteous judgment of the Lord, which was entertained by the venerable Hooker, as it is expressed in his own words.

In a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury there occurs the following passage:

"But my Lord, I shall never be able to finish what I have begun, unless I be removed into some quiet country parsonage, where I may see God's blessings spring out of my Mother Earth, and eat my own bread in peace and harmony; a place where I may without disturbance meditate my approaching mortality, and that great account, which all flesh must at the last great day, gire to the God of all Spirits.”

"I have lived to see this world is made up of perturbations, and I have been long preparing to leave it, and gathering comfort for the dreadful hour of making my account with God, which I now apprehend to be near

Walton's Life of Hooker.

ESSAY THE SIXTH.

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."-Deuteronomy vi. 5.

THE unspeakable importance of an unshaken belief in the existence and attributes of God, has been in some degree shewn by what has preceded; and a right contemplation of the several attributes of God, will be found, in the case of the pious Christian, to call forth acts of godliness which are respectively correspondent to the several attributes of Jehovah.

In no instance will this last remark receive stronger confirmation than in that act of godliness which will form the subject of the present essay. True it is, that he who duly considers the strictness of God's justice, and His Almighty power to execute it, must necessarily feel an awe and a dread at the contemplation of Him who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, who will in no wise clear the guilty, and into whose Holy Presence shall enter nothing that defileth.

But it will be found to be equally true, that he who duly contemplates the loving kindness of the Lord, and remembers the fatherly care and love which He continually exercises towards even the meanest creatures of His hand, and further reflects that He willeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live, cannot fail to have likewise awakened in his heart such a love towards God, as will lead him to give testimony of possessing it, not only with his lips but in his life.

To him on whom the loving kindness of the Lord has been hitherto bestowed in vain, such a principle is doubtless unknown, and such a person will say in his heart, if not with his lips, depart from me for I desire not a knowledge of Thy ways; yet for all that, we may say that he must have a cold and an ungrateful heart who is thus found to return evil for good, to

remain insensible to the manifold and great mercies of the Lord, and to suffer no love to be awakened in his heart in return for the great love wherewith Christ hath loved him.

The great importance of the love of God, and of our continuance therein being laid down in various passages of Holy scripture; the first part of this essay will treat of love to God, and the second part of it will be employed in speaking of the only true evidence of its existence.

All persons who ever think at all upon their present condition and their eternal prospects, when they consider the effects of God's goodness towards mankind in general, and towards themselves in particular; the various earthly blessings which He has so nicely adapted to their several wants and necessities, as well as the bountiful provision which He has made for their welfare and happiness, must one would think (did we not know of many painful instances to the contrary) feel gratitude to that Merciful Being from whom all these blessings proceed, and unfeigned love to Him who is the Author as well as the Giver of all good things.

For surely (one is apt to say) those who retain any remains of goodness in themselves will not only love those effects of God's goodness of which they are hourly and momentarily partakers; but also that Great and merciful Being Himself, who is the cause and Giver of them all.

Strange however as the assertion may appear, thousands of people are content to live from day to day, and from year to year, without ever having any just sense of God's goodness towards them, and without any true feeling of love and devotion to Him.

And it is a most lamentable truth, that by far the greater part of mankind give up all their thoughts, their attention, and their diligence in the exclusive pursuit of things temporal; and employ no means to enable themselves to attain unto true love to God (the cold and heartless discharge of their religious duties not being excepted.)

And although the greater part of mankind are destitute of true love to God; yet there is no one who does not feel a want, a craving, and a longing to which he is sure from past experience that this world is quite unable to give content, and which the love of God alone can satisfy.

In order to get rid of (or rather to mitigate, for every one knows it cannot be got rid of) the uncomfortable feeling of discontent which this craving want of the soul invariably produces, various schemes are resorted to by those who are strangers to the love of God; amusements of all kinds, an unceasing round of mirth and revelry, gay company, and all those other expedients for passing away time, as they speak, are eagerly sought after, and as eagerly pursued, with the view, if not of satisfying this want of the soul, at least of enabling them to stifle its cravings and forget its existence for a time.

And here we shall probably be met with the important enquiries:-Is the soul of man capable of any complete and permanent satisfaction? and if so-where is its true content to be found?

In reply to the first question it is sufficient to say, that the soul of man must be capable of both complete and permanent satisfaction; for it is impossible to believe that a merciful God would have implanted a want in the soul of man for the satisfaction of which both the capability and the means were denied. Nor will the fact that none ever attain to complete and permanent satisfaction of soul in this world at all disturb the

truth of this answer, for that fact is fully accounted for, when we consider that none are perfectly delivered from sin in this world, which, so far as it prevails, is an insurmountable impediment to the complete and permanent satisfaction of the soul.

To the second question, where is the soul's true content to be found? The true answer is-it is only to be found in that Great and Merciful Being Himself, who made us and all the world, and who implanted this want in the soul of man with the intent of satisfying it in part, and so far as the remaining imperfections of the faithful whilst they continue on earth, will permit; and of fully and permanently satisfying it hereafter, when all His good and faithful servants shall enter into the eternal joy of their Lord.

The question next in order is: by what means does God satisfy in part the craving want of the soul with regard to His faithful servants here on earth; and how, as far as He has revealed His will on this subject, will He fully and permanently satisfy it in Heaven?

The answer is, by the unfeigned love of God; the true exercise of which will mitigate and subdue the want and discontent of the soul in this world; and will eternally abolish it, and do away with it in the world to come.

And the truth of this assertion will appear more clearly, when we consider that none can exercise unfeigned love to God, without being at the same time loved by God, as the Holy scriptures frequently shew,

Even the nature of the case, would lead us to conclude that complete and permanent satisfaction of soul, could only arise from the exercise of unfeigned love to God.

For if some degree of satisfaction is to be had from God's creatures, if some kind of content is found to flow continually from Him indirectly, and through the channel of those things which He has created; is it not highly reasonable to believe that a much higher satisfaction may be derived from the Great Creator Himself, and that, because the satisfaction which the love of God lays hold of must necessarily come immediately and directly from God Himself, and not be conveyed through any intermediate channel.

And what the nature of the case would lead us to expect, that we are assured in many places of Holy scripture is strictly and literally true; and the satisfaction which arises immediately from God Himself, and which is only to be apprehended by the exercise of unfeigned love to God, is spoken of in various passages as the only real satisfaction of the soul. -See Psalms xvii. 15. xlii. 1. 2. Ixxiii. 25. 26.

From these, and many other passages of scripture which might be cited, it is clear, that the more we know of the divine perfections the greater will be our love to God, and that in proportion as our love to God increases, in just that proportion will true content and satisfaction of soul increase likewise; and further, that though little is said in Holy scripture of the enjoyments of Heaven, yet these and other passages plainly teach us that when the faithful shall have dropped the burden of the flesh, and shall have entered into the eternal joy of their Lord, all the impediments, which during their stay in this world, hindered them from beholding God's face in righteousness having been removed, they will then be made perfect in the love of God, and their happiness will therefore be perfect also.

But here it may be asked, does not this view of the subject open the door to the wildest enthusiasm? Has not the love of God been continually on the lips of the most extravagant fanatics who have given the least proof of possessing it in their lives? I answer-true. But this circumstance does not do away with the importance of the unfeigned exercise of love to God, or release us from the unalterable obligation we lie under " to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and all our might."

The fact of love to God being feigned and grossly abused, (and what christian virtue has not been feigned and grossly abused?) only shews us the importance of strictly examining whether we truly love God or not, and of guarding against the fatal error of deceiving ourselves in this most important particular.

And this brings me to the consideration of the only true evidence of possessing the love of God, which was to be the subject of the second part of this essay.

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The true evidence has been stated by the Eternal Son of God Himself, love Me, keep my commandments."

If ye

Even among human beings the only sound proof we can give of real love and affection, is to give way to the will of the person beloved as far as possible, to sacrifice our own wishes whenever we can, in order to meet the wishes of those whom we love, and in our conduct, rather to consider what will be gratifying to them than pleasing to ourselves.

And if, instead of pursuing this course we should do every thing to thwart and oppose the wishes of those whom we profess to love, if instead of doing what we know to be agreeable to them, according to the uttermost of our powers, we should act altogether in a contrary manner, however loud and repeated our professions of love and affection might be, we should find little regard paid to them, and should gain little credit for sincerity. And justly so. Because the only substantial proof of love and affection, which consists of compliance with the wishes of the person beloved as far as possible, would in that case be wanting.

And this is true in a much higher degree with respect to God; for however much people may talk about their love to God, and of the warmth of their religious feelings towards their Lord and Saviour; yet if the only substantial proof of true love to God be wanting, I mean a diligent keeping of His commandments, a patient resignation of our wills to His will, and a constant endeavour, ourselves to follow in the Blessed steps of His most holy life; we may be sure that we have not the love of God

in us.

Among human beings persons may comply with the wishes of those whom they love even where they ought not to do so, (as parents who in a mistaken fondness sometimes indulge their children to their ruin) and there may occur instances in which the most unfeigned affection will urge us to oppose the wishes of those whom we love however painful it may be to do so.

But this can never be the case with regard to God, for His goodness being perfect, and His judgment being always according to the truth, it follows that no instance can occur in which we should oppose His will; and therefore in all cases, if we would give proof that we truly love Him, we must keep His commandments.

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