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the house of God, cries out in this affecting strain, “ As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come, and appear before God?"* This is certainly your temper, if his love dwell in you.

Sixthly, The love of God is not in you, unless you make it the great business of your lives to please him by keeping his commandments.

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It is natural to us to seek to please those we love; and to obey them with pleasure, if they be invested with authority to command us. But those whom we disaffect, we do not study to please or if we should be over-awed and constrained by their authority to obey their commands, it is with reluctance and regret. So, my brethren, if you love God, you will habitually keep his commandments, and that with pleasure and delight. But if you can habitually indulge yourselves in wilful disobedience in any one instance, or if you yield obedience through constraint, it is demonstration against you, that you are destitute of his love. This is as plain, as any thing in the whole Bible. "If ye love me," says Christ himself, "keep my commandments." "If any man love me, he will keep my words he that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings." "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you."§ "This is the love of God, says St. John, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous."|| Keeping his commandments is not griev ous, when love is the principle. You see, my brethren, that obedience, cheerful unconstrained obedience, is the grand test of your love to God. There is more stress laid upon this, in the word of God, than, perhaps, upon any other: and therefore you should regard it the more. Now recollect, is there not at least some favourite sin, which you wilfully and knowingly indulge yourselves in? And are there not some self-denying mortifying duties, which you dare to omit? And yet, you pretend that you love God! You pretend that you love him, though your love is directly opposite to this grand test, which himself has appointed to try it. You may have your excuses and evasions: you may plead the goodness of your hearts, even when your practice is bad—you may plead the strength of temptation, the frailty of your nature, and a thousand other things: but plead what you

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* Pșa. xlii. 1, 2. † John xiv. 15. v. 23, 24. § John xv. 14. 1 John v. 3.

will, this is an eternal truth, that if you habitually and wilfully live in disobedience to the commandments of God, you are entirely destitute of his love. And does not this flash conviction on some of your minds? Does not conscience tell you just now, that your love does not stand this test?

And now, upon a review of the whole, what do you think of yourselves? Does the love of God dwell in you, or does it not? that is, Do those characters of the want of love belong to you ? or do they not? If they do, it is all absurdity and delusion for you to flatter yourselves, that you love him: for it is all one as if you should say, "Lord, I love thee, though my native enmity against thee still remains unsubdued. I love thee above all, though my thoughts and affections are scattered among other things, and never fix upon thee. I love thee above all, though I prefer a thousand things to thee and thy interest. I love thee 'above all, though I have no pleasure in conversing with thee. I love thee above all, though I am not careful to please thee;" that is, I love thee above all, though I have all the marks of an enemy upon me. Can any thing be more absurd? Make such a profession of friendship as this, to your fellow-creatures, and see how they will take it? Will they believe you really love them? No; common sense will teach them better. And will God, do you think, accept that as supreme love to him, which will not pass current for common friendship among mortals? Is he capable of being imposed upon by such inconsistent pretensions? No; "be not deceived: God is not mocked." 99* Draw the peremptory conclusion, without any hesitation, that the love of God does not dwell in you.

And if this be your case, what do you think of it? What a monstrous soul have you within you, that cannot love God-that cannot love supreme excellence, and all perfect beauty-that cannot love the origin and author of all the excellence and beauty that you see scattered among the works of his hands-that cannot love your divine parent, the immediate father of your spirit, and the author of your mortal frame-that cannot love your prime benefactor and gracious Redeemer-that cannot love him, "in whom you live, and move, and have your being,† in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways," and who alone is the proper happiness for your immortal spirit-that can love a

* Gal. vi. 7.

+ Acts xvii. 28.

+ Dan. v. 23.

parent, a child, a friend, with all their infirmities about them, but cannot love God-that can love the world—that can love sensual and even guilty enjoyments, pleasures, riches, and honours; and yet cannot love God that can love every thing that is lovely, but God, who is infinitely lovely-that can love wisdom, justice, veracity, goodness, clemency, in creatures, where they are attended with many imperfections; and yet cannot love God, where they all centre and shine in the highest perfection! What a monster of a soul is this! Must it not be a fallen spirit, to be capable of such unnatural horrendous wickedness? Can you be easy, while you have such a soul within you? What a load of guilt must lie upon you? If love be the fulfilling of the whole law, then the want of love, must be the breach of the whole law. You break it all at one blow; and your life is but one continued, uniform, uninterrupted series of sinning. The want of love takes away all spirit and life from all your religious services, and diffuses a malignity through all you do. Without the love of God, you may pray, you may receive the sacrament, you may perform the outward part of every duty of religion; you may be just and charitable, and do no man any harm; you may be sober and temperate; but, without the love of God, you cannot do one action that is truly and formally good, and acceptable to God: for how can you imagine, he will accept any thing you do, when he sees your hearts, and knows that you do it not because you love him, but from some other low selfish principle? If a man treat you well, and perform for you all the good offices of the sincerest friendship; yet, if you know in the mean time, that he has no real regard for you at all, but acts from some sordid mercenary views, are you thankful for his services, or do you love him in return? No, you abhor the deceiver, and secretly loathe his services. And will God accept of that as obedience from you, which he knows does not proceed from love to him? No. Hence it is, that as Solomon tells us, the prayer, the sacrifice, and even "the ploughing, of the wicked, is sin."*

Now, I appeal to yourselves, is not this a very dangerous situa tion? While you are destitute of the love of God, can you flatter yourselves, that you are fit for heaven? What! fit for the region of love! fit to converse with a holy God, and live forever in his presence? Fit to spend an eternity in his service! Can you be fit for these things, while you have no love to him? Certainly no ;

* Prov. xxi 4.

you must perceive yourselves fit for destruction, and fit for nothing else. You are fallen spirits-devilized already. Disaffection to God is the grand constituent of a devil, the worst ingredient in that infernal composition. And must you not then be doomed to that everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels? Are you capable of hoping better things, while the love of God is not in you?

And now, what must you do, when this shocking conviction has forced itself upon you? Must you now give up all hopes? Must you now despair of ever having the love of God kindled in your hearts? Yes; you may, you must give up all hopes, you must despair; if you go on, as you have hitherto done, thoughtless, careless, and presumptuous in sin, and in the neglect of the means which God has appointed to implant and cherish this divine, heaven-born principle in your souls. This is the direct course towards remediless, everlasting despair. But if you now admit the conviction of your miserable condition; if you endeavour immediately to break off from sin, and from every thing. that tends to harden you in it; if you turn your minds to serious meditation; if you prostrate yourselves as humble earnest petitioners before God, and continue instant in prayer; if you use every other means of grace ordained for this purpose; I say, if you take this course, there is hope-there is hope! There is as much hope for you, as there once was for any one of that glorious company of saints, now in heaven, while they were as destitute of the love of God, as any of you. And will you not take these pains to save your own souls from death? Many have taken more, to save the souls of others: and you have taken a great deal to obtain the transitory, perishing enjoyments of this life. And will you take no pains for your own immortal interests? O, let me prevail, let even a stranger prevail upon you, to lay out your endeavours upon this grand concern. I must insist upon it, and can take no denial. This is not the peculiarity of a party I am urging upon you. Is it presbyterianism, or new light, that tells you you cannot be saved without the love of God? Churchmen and dissenters, protestants and papists, nay Jews, Mahometans and pagans, agree in this, that the love of God is essential to all true religion and if you entertain hopes of heaven without it, the common sense of mankind is against you. Therefore, O, seek to have the love of God shed abroad in your hearts.

As for such of you, and I hope there are sundry such among you, that love God in sincerity, I have not time to speak much to you at present. Go to your Bibles, and there you will find abun. dant consolation. I shall only refer you to one or two passages, as a specimen. "All things shall work together for good to them that love God."*" Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." The love of God in your hearts is a surer earnest of your salvation, than an immediate voice from heaven. Heaven, the element of love, was prepared for such as you and you need never dread an exclusion.

SERMON 76.

THE OBJECTS, GROUNDS, AND EVIDENCES OF THE HOPE OF

THE RIGHTEOUS.

PROV. XIV. 32.-The wicked is driven away in his wickedness ; but the righteous hath hope in his death.‡

TO creatures that are placed here a few years upon trial for an everlasting state, it is of the greatest importance how they make their departure hence. The gloomy hour of death is nature's last extremity: it stands in need of some effectual support; and that support can proceed from nothing then present, but only from reviews and prospects; from the review of past life so spent as to answer the end of life; and from the prospect of an happy immortality to follow upon this last struggle.

Now, men will leave the world according to their conduct in it; and be happy or miserable hereafter, according to their improvement of the present state of trial. "The wicked is driven away in his wickedness," says the wisest of men ; "but the righteous hath hope in his death.”

"The wicked is driven away in his wickedness"-he dies as he lived he lived in wickedness, and in wickedness he dies. His wickedness sticks fast upon him, when his earthly enjoyments, his friends, and all created comforts leave him forever. The guilt of his wickedness lies heavy upon him, like a mountain of † 1 Cor. ii. 9.

*Rom. viii. 28.

Henrico, March 6, 1757.

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