ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE FIRST EDITION.

OF the following fermons, the second, eighth, eleventh, a part of the thirteenth, and the whole of the fourteenth, have been published before, and are here reprinted, with confiderable alterations and corrections. The reft are now for the first time offered to the public.

SERMON

SERMON I.

MARK Xii. 30.

THOU SHALT LOVE THE LORD THY GOD WITH ALL THY HEART, AND WITH ALL

THY SOUL, AND WITH ALL THY MIND, AND WITH ALL THY STRENGTH. THIS IS THE FIRST COMMANDMENT.

Teated in this

HE LOVE OF GOD, fo forcibly incul

cated in this and other paffages of fcripture, is a fentiment purely evangelical; and is one of those many peculiar circumftances which fo eminently distinguish the doctrines of the gospel from the dry unanimated precepts of the antient heathen moralifts. We never hear them urging the love of God, as a neceffary part of human duty, or as a proper ground of moral obligation. Their

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Their religion being merely ceremonial and political, never pretended to reach the heart, or to infpire 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 debafed with every human weakness, and polluted with every human vice? It was enough, furely, to make the people worship such a crew. 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 devoutest sentiments of affection towards him; and with great juftice 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 difrepute by the extravagant conceits of a few devout enthufiafts concerning it. Of thefe, fome have treated the love of God in fo myftical and refined a way,

and carried it to fuch heights of feraphic extasy and rapture, that common minds must for ever despair either of following or understanding them; whilft others have defcribed it in fuch warm and indelicate terms, as are much better fuited to the grossness of earthly paffion, than the purity of spiritual affection. And what is still more deplorable, the love of God has been fometimes made the scourge 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 feared out of his duty by fuch vain terrors as these. 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 abufed 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 fo wild a thought. And why then must we fuffer the love of God to be banished out of the world because it has been fometimes improperly reprefented, or indifcreetly exercifed? It is not either from the vifionary myftic, the fenfual 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 defcribed 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