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Virtue, Knowledge; and to Knowledge, Godliness; and to Godliness, Brotherly-Kindness, &c. for if thefe Things be in us, and abound, they will make us acceptable to God, as being Partakers of the Divine Nature.

3. Again: Nothing is more uneafy, than the Mind of a Lover, when feparated from the Object of his Affections. His Thoughts, his Dreams, his Wishes, and Defires run continually upon it; nor can he recover his Eafe and Tranquillity, till he is happily restored to his former Enjoyment. And, in like Manner, when God, for the Trial of our Faith or Patience, hides his Face from us for a Season, either with-holding from us that ready Aid in Distress, or Comfort in our Obedience, or Pleafure in our Devotion, which we formerly experienced; if Love refide in our Hearts, it will furely dispose them to fenfible Grief, and inspire them with fuch ardent Petitions as thefe; Hide not thy Face from thy Servant; for I am in Trouble: Turn unto me, according to the Multitude of thy Mercies, and draw nigh unto my Soul, and fave it. But efpecially, when our Iniquities, as the Prophet expreffes it, bave Separated between our God and us, and our Sins have hid his Face from us; when that thick Cloud hath eclipfed the Light of his Countenance, and intercepted his gracious Influences; then, if any Love be alive in our Breafts, it will prompt us, with the good Men of old, in their penitential Agonies, forely to bewail our wretched Condition. There will be no Soundness in our Flesh, nor Reft in our Bones; our Spirit will be overwhelmed within us, and our Heart within us defolate, till, by an humble Deprecation, we have regained fome Glimpse of God's Favour, and are in Hopes of being re-inftated in our Poffeffion of him.

4. Once more. Love is a bold and active Paffion, which warms and animates the Heart with

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fuch a generous Fire, as difdains all Oppofition, and out-braves the greatest Dangers and Difficulties. If therefore we love God fincerely, our Love will quicken our Endeavours to ferve him, and carry us, with fuch a Spirit and Alacrity, through all the weary Stages of our Duty, that it will be our Joy and Recreation to do his Will. The more Difficulties we meet with in our Way, the more will they whet our Activity, as being proper Opportunities to manifeft the Sincerity of our Love, and thereby to recommend our Services to our Beloved. And in this Senfe I conceive these Words of St John, berein is our Love made perfect, i. e. this will try the Perfection of our Love to God, namely, that we may have Boldness in the Day of Judgment, i. e. that, in the Time of Danger, when we are brought before Rulers and Judges, and are in Peril of lofing our Lives for the Caufe of Christ, we then manfully confefs him, and feal the Truth of our Testimony with the Price of our Blood.

These are the genuine Signs and Properties of the Love of God in our Hearts: And from hence we may observe the great Miftake, that several Perfons may lie under, in their Computation of this Matter; fuch, I mean, as measure their Affection to God by the mere Impreffion of fenfitive Paffion; who, because, upon fome affecting Reprefentations of his amiable Perfections, they feel in themselves the fame Emotions they were wont to do, when they fall in Love with other Things, do inftantly conclude, that they are infinitely in Love with God: Whereas all this is, many Times, nothing elfe, but the Effect of a fanguine Complexion, tinctured and inflamed with religious Ideas, which is the most distant Thing imaginable from the Virtue of Divine Love. For, as there are fincerely good Men, that cannot raise their fenfitive Paffions in their religious Offices; that are heartily forry

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for their Sins, and yet cannot weep for them; and do entirely love God, and delight in his Service, and yet cannot move their Blood and Spirits into the ravishing Tranfports of Love and Joy; fo are there many grofs Hypocrites, that have not the leaft Tincture of true Piety, who yet, in their religious Exercises, can put themselves into wonderful Extafies of bodily Paffion; can pour out their Confeffions in Floods of Tears, and make their Hearts dilate into Raptures of Love and Joy And yet, all the while, this is no more than the different Temper of Mens Bodies, which in fome is calm and fedate, and not eafily to be disturbed; in others is foft and tender, and fo very fufceptible of Impreffion, that any frivolous Fancy can raife a Commotion in them. . Unless therefore we are minded to deceive ourselves in this important Affair, we must not truft to fuch fallacious Evidences as thefe, but try our Love to God by his own Touchstone, viz. by our Obedience to his heavenly Will; for fo himself hath inftructed us, ye are my Friends, if ye do whatfoever I command you; for he that bath my Commandments, and keepeth them, he it is, that loveth me.

How then shall we raise in our Minds this Affection, and by what Means fhall we improve and cultivate the Love of God in our Hearts? The Apostle has directed us to the proper Method; love not the World, neither the Things which are in the World; for, if any Man love the World, the Love of the Father is not in him. We must therefore call home our roving Appetites, which run gadding abroad after worldly Objects, fondly pursuing every Shadow and Phantom of Pleasure, that they meet with This Love of ours, I fay, which runs out into fo many little Streams, and is difperfed among fo many Objects in the vifible World, we must collet together, and caft into one great Channel, and 3

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let it flow in one great Tide towards God. And indeed, how can we reflect upon the Beauties of his Nature, his Goodness, and Juftice, and Mercy, &c. without being charmed and captivated with the Love of them? How can we think of the stupendous Love, which he hath expreffed towards us, in giving us our Being, and all the Blessings we enjoy, in preparing an Heaven of immortal Joys for us, and fending his Son from thence, to conduct us thither, without being all inflamed with Love to him? Our Business therefore must be, to set ourfelves feriously to the Contemplation of God, of the Loveliness of his Nature, and of his infinite Kindnefs to us, and to all his Creation; to be constant and diligent in Prayer and Supplication, in praifing him, and celebrating the Memory of his Mercies, in confulting the Scriptures, hearing the Word, and attending to all other religious Offices and Employments; for in these the God of Heaven communicates himself, and by these Divine Love is infufed into the Soul.

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2. Of Delight in GoD.

O delight in God, is to poffefs our Minds with fuch a proper Sense of his Goodness, as may produce an habitual Comfort and Pleasure in the Contemplation of him; as may excite us to Diligence and Alacrity in his Worship and Service; to approach his Altars with Joy and Thanksgiving; to hear his Word with Reverence and Attention; to converfe with him here in Meditation and Prayer; and to long to enjoy what his beatific Prefence imparts hereafter. This is the Duty. And our Business muft be, 1. To point out the Reasonableness and Expediency of it; and then, 2. To obferve by what Means we may be enabled to perform it.

I. Now all the delectable Things in Nature, which we either know or can imagine, are but of three Kinds, Natural, Moral, and Heavenly. In the first confift the Pleafures of the World; in the fecond the Pleasures of the Godly; and in the third the Pleasures of the Blessed: And, to evince the Reasonableness of our delighting in God, we fhall feparately obferve how each of these directs us to God, as an Object much more deferving of our Affections and Complacency.

1. Wonderful is the Variety of the Things in Nature, that are accommodated to our Liking, and their Power of pleasing us is but too manifest from the strange Afcendant they have over our Affections: And yet all thefe Things do naturally lead us to fomething better, and more fatisfying, as we must needs acknowledge, whenever we reflect on their tranfient and empty Nature, and how, by Reason either of their offenfive Mixtures, or necessary Decay, they leave our Souls lean and pining in the very Midft of their Enjoyments. This is the Thing, which, to confirm our Experience, God himself has been pleafed to fignify to us, when he complains of his People, that they bad forfaken him, the Fountain of living Water, and had bewed to themfelves Cisterns, broken Cisterns, that could hold no Water: For, by comparing himself to a Fountain of living Water, he plainly intimates, that he is the Source of folid Refreshment, of fincere and lasting Delectation, fuch as is adequate to the Defires of our Soul, and by comparing all worldly Enjoyments to broken Cisterns, that can hold no Water, he likewife intimates how vain and imperfect they are, how tranfient, uncertain, and unfatisfactory.

Nor are they only deceitful in their Use, and unfatisfying in their Nature, but are likewife unable to ferve us, when we have moft Need of them, in the Bitterness of Affliction, in the Deftitutions

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