IX. rules of conduct, as are fuitable to ra- SERM. tional and immortal beings. Then will your character become uniform and respectable. Then you may hope, that your life will proceed in fuch a train as shall prepare you, when it is finished, for joining the fociety of more exalted spirits. SERM. SERMON X. On DEVOTION. ACTS X. 2. Cornelius-A devout man THAT movements In or- SERM. movements of the human frame. of X. SERM. of devotion; II. To juftify, and recom X. mend it; and, III. To rectify fome miftakes concerning it. I. DEVOTION is the lively exercise of those affections, which we owe to the Supreme Being. It comprehends several emotions of the heart, which all terminate on the fame great object. The chief of them are, veneration, gratitude, defire, and refignation. It implies, first, profound veneration of God. By veneration, I understand an affection compounded of awe and love; the affection which, of all others, it best becomes creatures to bear towards their Awe is the infinitely perfect Creator. is, is, at once, the greatest and the best of Beings. Omnipotence, viewed alone, would be a formidable object. But confidered in conjunction with the moral perfections of the Divine Nature, it ferves to heighten devotion. Goodness affects the heart with double energy, when refiding in One fo exalted. The goodness which we adore in him, is not like that which is common among men, a weak, mutable, undiscerning fondness, ill qualified to be the ground of affured trust. It is the goodness of a perfect Governor, acting upon a regular extensive plan; a fteady principle of benevolence, conducted by wisdom; which, fubject to no variableness or fhadow of turning, free from all partiality and caprice, incapable of being either foothed by flattery, or ruffled by resentment, resembles, in its calm and equal luftre, the eternal ferenity of the highest heavens. Thy mercy, O Lord! is in the heavens, and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains, and thy judgments are a great depth. Such |