per Sense that they can be said to have any Religion at all.

The very Life, and Soul, and Spirit of all Religion, as I have often faid, is to love God with all our Heart and Mind. This is the Principal Part of it; nay, this is the very Sum of it. But now these Men have a Religion without the Love of God; that is to fay, they are religious without having that wherein Religion chiefly confifts. But it will be faid, Are not Honefty, and Justice, and Regularity of Life, are not these Instances and Expreffions of Love to God? Right; they are fo, when they proceed from a good Principle; when they flow from fuch a lively Senfe of God, and hearty Affection to him, and serious Defire of recommending our felves to his Favour, that we do fincerely endeavour to put in Practice every thing and all things that we know he hath commanded; among the which we are deservedly to account Acts of Juftice, and Mercy, and Sobriety, and Generosity, and the like; I fay, when fuch Actions proceed from this Principle, they are really Inftances and Expreffions of our Love to God; but without this Principle they are not at all. Otherwise we must fay that a perfect Atheist does express his Love to God when he practises thefe things (as certainly fuch a Man may live in the Practice of all these things) when

yet

yet he doth not believe that there is any God at all.

But now if a Man has this Principle of the Love of God within him, if he do his Actions out of the Power and Influence of that; it is certain he cannot reft in fuch Performances as these. That Principle will carry him a great deal further, and will put him upon doing a great many other things befides thefe: More-efpecially it is impoffible it fhould fuffer him to live in a conftant Neglect of thofe Duties that do more immediately and directly concern God himself. It is a vain thing for any Man to pretend to love God that never worships him, or but very rarely; nay, that is not frequent in the Performances of his divine Offices, and that too out of Confcience. It is impoffible we should perfwade our felves that we love God, when we find in our felves no Affections to him, no Defires after him, but our Hearts are quite dead as to all the things whereby Communion between him and us is maintained; when we can live Day after Day without reflecting on his Benefits to us, or our own Miscarriages towards him. If we did truly love God, we should have a hearty Senfe of his Power, his Wisdom, his Juftice, and his Providence. We should feelingly own our continual Dependance on him, our infinite Obligations to him, and the hourly Needs we ftand in of his Mercy and Bounty. We

fhould

fhould ardently defire to have his Favour, to be at Peace and Friendship with him, to have him for our Guide and Protector in all the Stages of our Life, and especially that he would vouchfafe us the continual Affiftance of his Grace, that we may not in any Instance start afide from our Duty, nor fail at laft fafely of arriving to his glorious Kingdom.

Now, I fay, where-ever a Man feels this Sense, these Defires, thefe Breathings after God and Goodness, he cannot for his heart avoid the expreffing of them in a conftant and ferious Devotion. He will pray to God in private, he will pray to him in publick, he will exercife Acts of Repentance for his former Follies and Sins, and over and over again renew his Vows and Purposes of better Obedience, he will fhew that he entirely depends upon God, by returning the most hearty Thanks and Acknowledgements for every good thing he receives, and begging of him the Supplies of what he needs; he will most seriously and importunately, both in his Clofet and in the Congregation, recommend to his heavenly Father the Care both of himself, and of all that he loves in this World, imploring the Continuance of his Mercies, both private and publick, and that he would avert the Judgment and Punishment which he and all of us have deferved by our manifold Tranfgreffions and

Pro

Provocations. Above all, he will make his most earnest Supplications at the Throne of Grace, that neither he nor any other devout Soul may ever want the Help and Affiftance of God's Grace and Spirit to conduct them in the Fear and Love of God, through all the Varieties and Viciffitudes of the Temptations of this World. All thefe, I fay, are the natural and neceffary Fruits and Effects of Love to God whereever it is entertained in any Man's Heart, and therefore let Men pretend what they will, if they can live without praying or worshipping God, it is certain they have not the Love of God in them.

And the fame thing we fay as to the Bufinefs of profeffing our Faith in Chrift Jefus, owning his Revelations, believing his Doctrines, and communicating in his Sacraments, and giving up our felves to him as our Lord, our Prieft, our Saviour. These are indeed things that are but of fmall Confideration, and very lightly regarded by fuch Perfons as I before spoke of. For as they have laid the Scheme of Religion, the natural indifpenfible Duties of Morality are all in all; but for Faith in Chrift, and relying upon him for Salvation, and the like, you muft excuse them if they have no great Regard for those Matters. But this alfo, I fay, doth certainly proceed from, and is an undeniable Argument of their being devoid of the Love of

God,

God, and confequently of their wanting the main effential Part of true Religion: For it is obvious to every one, that among the Expreffions of our Love to God this muft eternally be one, and a principal one; namely, that we do heartily and readily clofe with all thofe Methods that he hath propofed and declared for the bringing us into Favour and Reconciliation with himfelf; that we fhould joyfully embrace all thofe Directions and Inftructions that he hath been pleafed to afford to us for the walking acceptably before him.

Tho', therefore, (as I obferved before) the Whole of our Religion (our Christian Religion, I fpeak as to the Duties required of us in it) is comprehended in these two Things, the Love of God, and of our Neighbour; yet this very firft Duty (the Love of God) doth likewife include in it a hearty Belief of, and a firm Adhesion to the Doctrine and Revelation of our bleffed Saviour, as to all the Parts of it: For fuppofing that God fent him into the World out of pure Kindness to us, to help our Ignorance, and to strengthen our Weakness, and to heal our Sickneffes, by teaching us how we ought to love and ferve God, by encouraging us in that Service with the moft forcible Arguments, and the most glorious Promifes: And Laftly, By laying down his Life to obtain a Pardon of our Sins, and rifing again from the Dead, that