masters, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God. Here you may aptly observe, in masters with regard to servants, and in God with regard to us, three senses of the phrase. There is a hand of beneficence, a hand of protection or deliverance, and a hand of correction. A servant expects favours from the hand of his master, not from that of a stranger. He looks to him for protection and deliverance in threatening dangers, and refuses all help, except that of his master. He expects correction from him when he commits a fault, and, when corrected, humbles himself under his master's frown, in order to disarm him by tears of repentance. The application of these to the servants of God is easy. The word succour is general, and may very well be considered by descending from the genus to the species, and by observing the different occasions which we have for divine assistance, and, consequently, the different assistances and succours which God affords us as the help of his word, to remove our ignorance, doubts, or errors-the help of his providence, to deliver us out of afflictions-the help of his grace and spirit, to guard us from the temptations of the world, and to aid us against the weaknesses of nature-the help of divine consolations, to sweeten the bitterness of our exercises under distressing circumstances, and to give us courage to bear afflictions-the help of his mercy, to pardon our sins, and to restore to our consciences that tranquillity which they have lost by offending God. You will meet with a great number of texts which may be discussed in this manner: but great care must be taken not to strain the subject; for that would make you look like a school-boy. The best way is, to make only one general observation, and then to apply it to several particular subjects, collecting all at last into one general point of view.

III.

REMARK THE DIVERS CHARACTERS OF A VICE, WHICH IS FORBIDDEN, OR OF A VIRTUE, WHICH IS COMMANDED.

For example, 2 Thess. iii. 5. The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ. Here I should describe the characters of true love to

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

To begin with the characters of true love to God.

1. The seat of it is the heart, which it penetrates and possesses. This distinguishes it from the feigned love of hypocrites, which is only in word, or in external actions, while their hearts are full of sinful self-love; so that it may be said of them as God once said of the Israelites, This people honour me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

2. It is a love that possesses the whole heart, without allowing a partition among different objects. Thus it is distinguished from that partial love which almost-Christians have, who have sometimes good desires towards zeal and repentance; but they are transient only, and never come to perfection, because the soul 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 reason that Scripture commands us to love God with all our hearts, or, as David speaks, to love him with a cordial affection.

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3. The love of God is not indeed alone in the heart of a good man; he may also love creatures; a father loves his children, a friend his friend, a master his servant, a king his subjects, a wife her husband; but the character of divine love in us is, on the one hand, to suffer no love contrary to itself in the heart, (for no man can serve two masters, and the love of the world is enmity against God), and, on the other hand, love of God does not suffer any of the objects, the love of which is compatible with itself, to hold the chief place in the heart. This chief place is for God; to put him in a second place is to treat him opprobriously. Even to equal another object with him is to insult him; wherever he is, he must fill the throne himself; and, if a holy heart be an image of heaven, as it is in effect, God must reign there, and all must be submissive to him.

4. The emotions and acts of this love must be infinite, without measure as well as without subordination; without bounds as well as without partition. The reason is,

our

our love must resemble its object; and its object is infinite; and this is one sense of this command, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul. But how, say you, can we, who are finite creatures, perform infinite acts? I answer, the acts of the creature are, in a manner, infinite. This infinity consists, in my opinion, in two things. First, our emotions go to the utmost extent of our power, without coolness or caution; and, secondly, when we have stretched our souls to the utmost of our power, we cannot be content with ourselves, 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 so speak) our whole souls to him, and at the same time we shall feel a secret dissatisfaction with ourselves for not being able to love him enough.

5. This love, which has no bounds itself, sets bounds to every emotion towards other objects: it is, as it were, an immense fire, emitting a few sparks, a few comparatively faint emotions towards inferior objects. So a king collects in his own person all the honours of his kingdom, and communicates some lucid titles to inferior subjects so the sea distributes of its boundless waters to rivers, fountains, and rills. Not only must we refuse to love what God has forbidden, and choose to respect 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, amidst all our other affections, as a prince is among the officers of his army, or, to speak more strongly, as God himself is amongst all the creatures of the whole universe, giving to all life, motion, and being.

6. The love of God is accompanied with humility and fear, as a salt to prevent corruption; and by this mean we are kept from degrading liberty into licentiousness. In effect, how great mercy soever God has for us, it is the mercy of a master. How great soever his paternal tenderness is, it is the tenderness of a sovereign judge. His mercy, which is so amiable to us, is never separated from his infinite justice and power; and one of the most essential marks of our love to him is, to tremble and become nothing in his presence. These two things always

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

7. This love must in one respect imitate the love of God, from which ours proceeds; but in another respect it must not imitate his. It must imitate his, by diffusingitself where his diffuses itself; and follow it, even when it is bestowed upon enemies, according to our Lord's precept, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. But in another respect we must not imitate his love; for God's love to us is a jealous love, which cannot consent to our having any other object of supreme love besides himself: but our love to him can have no greater perfection than that which arises from a multiplicity of objects: our jealousy resembles that of the prophet Elijah, who, being asked, when he was in the cave of Beer-sheba, what he did there, answered, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant and thrown down thine altars. This was St. Paul's jealousy, when he saw the Corinthians turned from the purity of his Gospel; I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy; for I have espoused you to one hushand, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Indeed, one of the most indubitable marks of our love to God is, to lament when. his name is dishonoured, his word neglected or despised, and his commands violated,

8. A Christian's love to God principally consists in obedience. This, I grant, is not always a certain character; for how many persons are there who abstain from evil and do good, from principles of interest or fear rather than love! but, however, it is a negative character always sure; because 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 reason is evident: all, who truly love God, have an ardent desire of being loved by him; and it is essential to love to desire a return of affection from its object. We cannot expect to

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 fear of offending him. A true believer is always afraid lest, any thing, through negligence or infirmity, should escape him, and clash with his duty, or provoke his God. This made St. Paul say, Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; and elsewhere, I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest, after I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway; and hence those 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 pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ!

9. The love of God is not only continued in a Christian, but it is also inflamed under the rod of correction, contrary to that false love which subsists only in prosperity, and is quite extinct in adversity: for false love in religion flows from temporal interest, and is dependent on irregular self-love; but true love to God regards his glory and our salvation, two things which can never be separated, because God has united them so, that they constitute the very essence of religion. Whenever, then, it pleases God to chastise us, these two great interests (I mean his glory and our salvation) present themselves before our eyes; and whether we consider chastisements as the fruits of our own sins which have offended God, or as paternal strokes to establish us in holiness, they cannot but inflame our love. Add to these, that when a believer sees his God frown, he cannot help apprehending, in some sense, that his wrath will go further, that the Lord will forsake, and entirely leave him. Hence these expressions of David, Forsake me not, O Lord: O my God, be not far from me! My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? And hence Asaph says, Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? Doth his promise fail for evermore?

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