*through the knowledge of him who hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby we have exceeding great and precious pro"mises." And besides these, all that is requisite in this life for holiness, and a compleat preparation for the life to come, is fully comprehended in this counsel, "Giving all diligence, add to your "faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge tem"perance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godli"ness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly "kindness, charity. For if these things be in you and abound, "you will neither be barren nor unfruitful in this world ;" nor will you miss of an eternity of glory and felicity in the next. Happy are all the souls, who have begun a course of holiness.

Thirdly, This doctrine should direct every one, minister and hearer, into a serious consideration of himself, his disposition, temper and practice. At present, the application shall be made to simple feelings and experience. Have we ever beheld the beauty and excellency of divine objects, sheding new and strange feelings into our souis? The discovery has irradiated the understanding, subdued the will, reformed the choice, and captivated the affections, and all before it is God. The transcendent holy beauty and amiableness of the Father and the Saviour, awakens pantings of heart to be transformed into that similitude, and the enjoyment of the object is all its desire and all its wish. These views open a spring in the soul, whose streams are eternal life. David had this blessing, when he said, "As the hart panteth for "the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My "soul thirsteth for God, for the living God." No man ever equalled these feelings but St. Paul, when he exclaimed, "For "me to live is Christ, and to die is gain," the more common employment of the Apostle, and shows the experience of every christian is expressed in these words: "I press towards the mark "for the high prize of the calling of God in Christ Jesus."

Let our reflections at present be limited to these three ques

tions. Have we ever seen divine things in the light of the gos pel? Is holiness our greatest desire, and sin our greatest abhor rence? 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 spire 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 curtain,

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 exclude 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, lectures, to enter into the philosophy of the human passions and affections, 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 charac teristic 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 mush divided; but amidst all the variety of their enumera

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, su premely 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 creation, 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 incomprehensible 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