tions. Have we ever seen divine things in the light of the gos pel? Is holiness our greatest desire, and sin our greatest abhorrence? Have we ever seen ourselves in the glass of the law, and has the deformed object caused us to loath ourselves and repent in dust and ashes? Are we making the glory of God the habitual end of our conduct? Is it our daily prayer to know our duty, and to have grace to perform it? Are we maintaining communion with God, living by faith on Christ Jesus, and making religion our business?

Let us all be exhorted to be pursuing after holiness. It is spir itual life, and the soul of eternal felicity. Let us never forget, "That without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Godliness

is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."

SERMON XXXV.

LOVE TO GOD THE GREAT COMMANDMENT,

MARK XII, 80.

And 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.

AMONG all the teachers of religion who have appeared in our. world, Moses and Christ have been pre-eminent. The former was the first writer on the origin of the world, the state of man, and the nature and advantages of religion. The latter explained his inspiration, established his principles, and perfected all his sacrifical and ceremonial appointments, and opened the way to the favor of God and eternal felicity, in a way and manner the most simple, plain and easy. The humiliation of Christ Jesus, his ignominious sufferings on the cross as a fulfillment of the law and anjatonement for sin, has ever been, and will be an object of contempt to a blind and deluded world till the day of judgment, when God, in all the fullness of deity, perfection and glory, will be unfolded to the utmost conception of angels and men. This event will fill the universe with all the feelings and passions of creation. The present language of mortals dare not attempt the scene. Its horrors on the left hand, and its blessing on the right must be refered to the falling curtaine

The religion promulgated by Christ, was preferable to that of Moses. This was burthened with rites and ceremonies; and the other was cloathed with a simplicity adapted to the feeblest understanding, yet the essential articles of religion were still the same "Love to God and man.”

Moses had established this principle by a revelation from hea ven, that love to God was the foundation of happiness to the whole intellectual universe. And the essential ingredients of this love, are sincerity, supremacy and perseverance. Hence the strong, periphrastic and irresistable language of our text is employed, "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." The enumeration here of the distinguished faculties of man, is intended to impress our souls with the infinite importance of the intenseness, sublimity and purity of the affection due to God. It ought to hold such a sway and dominion over all the powers of the mind, as to ex clude all idols, and to banish all other competitors from the su preme seat of the heart. Hence heart, soul, mind and strength, are here by our Lord collected into one groupe, to teach us that every power, faculty and passion in man, should be devoted in love to God.

It would not comport with my intended brevity in these lec tures, to enter into the philosophy of the human passions and af fections, either in describing their nature as essential constituents of every intellectual being, and how they distinctly operate and influence man, who is a compounded creature. Man stands as a singular instance of creation, entirely different from all the other works of God. He is material and immaterial, which is characteristic of no other beings. Moralists have divided the human passions into original and their consequents, into simple and mixed. With regard to simple and radical passions, they have been much divided; but amidst all the variety of their enumeras

tion on this head, they have all agreed, that love is one of the first, simple and original passions of the soul of man. And this is the passion, as it respects God, to which our attention shall be directed at this time. Relative love, or love to our neighbour, shall be matter of future consideration.

Love to God, reason and scripture declare to be a fundamen tal article of religion. Therefore, to understand its nature, to experience its operation, and to be acquainted with its effects, is of the highest consequence to all the children of men.

Our business at present shall be,

First, To enquire into its nature.

Secondly, How it operates and manifests itself.

First, As to the nature of holy or divine love, two things must be pre-supposed as its foundation. An amiableness in the object, and some just apprehensions or conceptions thereof.

That God is infinitely amiable, transcendently excellent, supremely worthy, and inconceivably beautiful in all his perfections, none who believe his existence, will venture to deny. If this be the case, then all created intelligences ought to esteem, respect, and regard him above all other objects. All the beauties of crea tion, scattered through the starry worlds, and spread over the animal and vegetable kingdoms in this, are only drops of the bucket compared with him, the source and ocean of glory.Hence, God is the sum of all amiableness, excellency and beauty, whether he be perceived or understood, and esteemed as such or not. This is a maxim. He is thus in himself. Excellency, perfection, and incomparable glory, all which express incompre hensible amiableness, are every where attributed to him in the sacred oracles. "Shall not his excellency make you afraid? "How excellent in all the earth is his name? Your Father in heaven is perfect. Great is the glory of the Lord. He has

"set his glory above the heavens." Yea, he is perfectly, eter nally and immutably glorious; hence he is altogether amiable and worthy of the most exalted love of all his intelligent creatures throughout the unbounded extension of his dominions.

The next thing, as the ground of divine love, is proper appre hensions, and just conceptions of this transcendent amiableness and holy beauty. These the angels have, according to their various capacities, from the highest archangel down to the lowest grade; these all the spirits of just men made perfect have; the devils and wicked men, however they may believe, and fear and. tremble, have not, neither can they have these conceptions. No such ideas ever did, or ever will enter into hell. And in this world, they are peculiar to the regenerated and spiritually illu minated. Spiritual beauties and glories, can only be discerned by spiritual minds.

The origin of this love, in every true believer, arises from 'be holding God infinitely excellent, transcendently glorious, and altogether lovely. Real and deluded christians, both love God ; the one is true and sincere, the other false and hypocritical. The one takes its rise from views of the amiableness of God, and the beauty of all his glorious perfections; the other from mistaken apprehensions that God loves them, will do them good, and make them happy forever. The one is a genuine, and the other a spurious passion. The one a benevolent, and the other a selfish affection. The one arises from perceiving God altogether excellent, the other from beholding himself as highly favoured.. Hence, the language of the latter always is, "We thank God,

we are not as other men." Whereas the habitual breathings of the former, in the valley of humility and self-abasement, are, "Behold we are vile, God be merciful to us sinners."

Now a genuine or evangelical love to God, is to have the soul attracted to him under conceptions of the glories of his excellen cies; an inclination of the whole heart to be near him and like