and, perhaps, it might not be improper to fubjoin the characters of expectation of Chrift; and, that I might not seem to travel the fame road twice, I would call the latter, emotions, which accompany hope in Chrift.

To begin with the characters of true love to God.

1. The feat of it is the heart, which it penetrates and poffeffes. This liftinguithes it from the feigned love of hypocrites, which is only in word, or in external actions, while their hearts are full of finful felf-love; fo that it may be faid of them as God once faid of the Ifraelites, This people honour me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

2. It is a love that poffeffes the whole heart, without allowing a partition among different objects. Thus it is diftinguithed from that partial love which almoft-Chrif tians have, who have fometimes good defires towards zeal and repentance; but they are tranfient only, and never come to perfection, because the foul is divided, and occupied with various worldly objects; and because the love of God, from which true repentance and zeal proceed, is not rooted in the heart: it is for this reafon that Scripture commands us to love God with all our hearts, or, as David fpeaks, to love him with a cordial affection.

3. The love of God is not indeed alone in the heart of a good man; he may alfo love creatures; a father loves his children, a friend his friend, a mafter his fervant, a king his fubjects, a wife her hufband; but the character of divine love in us is, on the one hand, to fuffer no love contrary to itfelf in the heart, (for no man can ferve two mafters, and the love of the world is enmity against God), and, on the other hand, love of God does not fuffer any of the objects, the love of which is compatible with itfelf, to hold the chief place. in the heart. This chief place is for God; to put him in a fecond place is to treat him opprobrioufly. Even to equal another object with him is to infult him; wherever he is, he muft fill the throne himself; and, if a holy heart be an image of heaven, as it is in effect, God muft reign there, and all must be fubmiffive to him.

4. The emotions and acts of this love muft be infinite, without measure as well as without fubordination; without bounds as well as without partition. The reafon is,

our love must resemble its object; and its object is infinite; and this is one fenie of this command, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy foul. But how, fay you, can we, who are finite creatures, perform infinite acts? I anfwer, the acts of the creature are, in a manner, infinite. This infinity confifis, in my opinion, in two things. Firft, our emotions go to the utmost extent of our power, without coolnefs or caution; and, fecondly, when we have ftretched our fouls to the utmoft of our power, we cannot be content with ourfelves, and we acknowledge our duty goes infinitely beyond our emotions and actions. Thus we ought to love God with all the powers of our hearts, giving up (if I may fo fpeak) our whole fouls to him, and at the fame time we fhall feel a fecret diffatisfaction with ourselves for not being able to love him enough.

5. This love, which has no bounds itfelf, fets bounds to every emotion towards other objects: it is, as it were, an immenfe fire, emitting a few fparks, a few compara tively faint emotions towards inferior objects. So a king collects in his own perfon all the honours of his kingdom, and communicates fome lucid titles to inferior fubjects fo the fea diftributes of its boundlefs waters to rivers, fountains, and rills. Not only muft we refufe to love what God has forbidden, and choose to refpect what he allows us to love, but, to speak properly, we ought to love only what he commands us to love.

This love should be in our hearts, amidit all our other affections, as a prince is among the officers of his army, or, to speak more ftrongly, as God himfelf is amongst all the creatures of the whole univerfe, giving to all life, motion, and being.

6. The love of God is accompanied with humility and fear, as a falt to prevent corruption; and by this mean we are kept from degrading liberty into licentiousness. In effect, how great mercy foever God has for us, it is the mercy of a mafter. How great foever his paternal tenderness is, it is the tenderness of a fovereign judge. His mercy, which is fo amiable to us, is never feparated from his infinite juftice and power; and one of the most effential marks of our love to him is, to tremble and become nothing in his prefence. Thefe two things always

go together. To fear him rightly, we muft fear him as a father; and to love him rightly, we must love him as a fovereign Lord.

7. This love muft in one refpect imitate the love of God, from which ours proceeds; but in another refpect it must not imitate his. It muft imitate his, by diffufing itself where his diffufes itself; and follow it, even when it is bestowed upon enemies, according to our Lord's precept, Love your enemies, bless them that curfe you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully ufe you and perfecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven; for he maketh his fun to rise on the evil and on the good, and fendeth rain on the juft and on the unjuft. But in another refpect we muft not imitate his love; for God's love to us is a jealous love, which cannot confent to our having any other object of fupreme love befides himfelf: but our love to him can have no greater perfection than that which arifes from a multiplicity of objects: our jealousy resembles that of the prophet Elijah, who, being afked, when he was in the cave of Beer-fheba, what he did there, answered, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of Hofts; for the children of Ifrael have forfaken thy covenant and thrown down thine altars. This was St. Paul's jealoufy, when he faw the Corinthians turned from the purity of his Gofpel; I am jealous over you with a godly jealoufy; for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may prefent you as a chafte virgin to Chrift. Indeed, one of the moft indubitable marks of our love to God is, to lament when his name is dif honoured, his word neglected or defpifed, and his commands violated.

8. A Chriftian's love to God principally confifts in obedience. This, I grant, is not always a certain character; for how many perfons are there who abftain from evil and do good, from principles of intereft or fear rather than love! but, however, it is a negative character always fure; becaufe it may always be concluded, that they, who do not obey God, do not love him; for all, who do love God, obey his laws. The reafon is evident: all, who truly love God, have an ardent defire of being loved by him; and it is effential to love to defire a return of affection from its object. We cannot expect to

be

be beloved of God, unless we strive to please him; nor can we please him without keeping his commandments. The love of God is always accompanied with an holy diligence to please him, and an awful tear of offending him. A true believer is always afraid left any thing, through negligence or infirmity, fhould efcape him, and clash with his duty, or provoke his God. This made St. Paul fay, Work out your own falvation with fear and trembling; and elsewhere, I keep under my body, and bring it into fubjection; left, after I have preached to others, I myself Should become a caftaway; and hence thofe prayers of holy men, Teach me thy ways, O Lord, I will walk in thy truth. Unite my heart to fear thy Name. May God make you perfect in every good work, to do his will, working in you that which is well pleafing in his fight, through Jefus Chrift!

9. The love of God is not only continued in a Chriftian, but it is also inflamed under the rod of correction, contrary to that falfe love which fubfifts only in profperity, and is quite extinct in adverfity: for falfe love in religion flows from temporal intereft, and is dependent on irregular self-love; but true love to God regards his glory and our falvation, two things which can never be feparated, because God has united them fo, that they constitute the very effence of religion. Whenever, then, it pleases God to chaftife us, thefe two great interests (I mean his glory and our falvation) prefent themselves before our eyes; and whether we confider chaftifements as the fruits of our own fins which have offended God, or as paternal strokes to establish us in holiness, they cannot but inflame our love. Add to thefe, that when a believer fees his God frown, he cannot help apprehending, in fome fenfe, that his wrath will go further, that the Lord will forfake, and entirely leave him. Hence thefe expreffions of David, Forfake me not, O Lord: O my God, be not far from me! My God, my God, why haft thou forfaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? And hence Afaph fays, Will the Lord caft off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? Doth his promife fail for evermore?

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The

The Tyrians, it feems, when Alexander befieged them, imagined they faw, by fome extraordinary motion, that the image of Apollo, in which all their hopes of protection were placed, intended to quit their city: to prevent this misfortune, they faftened their god with chains of gold. This I own was a foolish fuperftition: but methinks we may fanctify the thought, and almoft learn a believer's conduct from it. When he imagines his God means to forfake him, he holds him (if I may be allowed to fay fo) with chains of love, he throws around him the tender arms of his piety, he weeps on his bofom, and, to make ufe of a better example than that of the Tyrians, he conStrains him, as the difciples did at Emmaus, Abide with me, for the day is far fpent, and it is towards evening.

10. True love to God is not fuperftitious. Superftition ufually fprings from one of thefe four principles. Either, firft, from fervile fear, which makes people believe that God is always wrathful, and which invents means to appeafe him, employing, for this purpofe, ridiculous practices unworthy of humanity itfelf; or, 2dly, from a natural inclination, which we all have, to idolatry, which makes men think they fee fome ray of the divinity in extraordinary creatures, and, on this account, they transfer a part of their devotion to them; or, 3dly, from hypocrify, which makes men willing to difcharge their obligations to God by grimace, and by zeal for external fervices; for which purpose they can perform a great number of any kind. Finally, from prefumption, which makes men ferve God after their own fancies, and cftablifh fuch a worship as pleafes and flatters themfelves, without regarding whether they please God. All these appear in the fuperftitions of the church of Rome, the greatest part of which sprang from fear of the fire of purgatory; as mortifications, maffes, jubilees, indulgences, penal fatisfactions, and many more of the fame kind. It is alfo evident, that fome came from that dreadful propenfity natural to all mankind to deify creatures; to this may be referred the worthipping of images, the invocations of faints and angels, the cuftom of fwearing by creatures, the adoration of relics, pilgrimages, the adoration of the hoft, and many fuch things. Nor is it lefs true that hypocrify produced others, as beads, chap

lets,