X pinefs dwells with God; and from the SERM, light of his countenance, it beams upon the devout man. His voice is, Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I defire befide thee. After cxploring heaven and earth for happiness, they seem to him a mighty void, a wilderness of shadows, where all would be empty and unfubftantial without God. But in his favour and love, he finds what supplies every defect of temporal objects; and affures tranquillity to his heart, amidst all the changes of his existence. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel; and thou shalt receive me to thy glory. My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the ftrength of my heart, and my portion for ever. FROM these sentiments and affections, Devotion advances, fourthly, to an entire resignation of the foul to God. It is the confummation of truft and hope. It banishes anxious cares, and murmuring thoughts. It reconciles us to every appointment of Divine Providence; and refolves VOL. I. T SERM. folves every wish into the defire of pleaf X. ing him whom our hearts adore. Its genuine breathings are to this effect: "Con- . “duct me, O God! in what path fo ever seemeth good to thee. In nothing "fhall I ever arraign thy facred will. "Doft thou require me to part with any worldly advantages, for the fake "of virtue and a good confcience? I .. give them up. Doft thou command "me to relinquifh my friends, or my "country? At thy call I cheerfully leave "them. Doft thou fummon me away "from this world? Lo! I am ready to tr depart. Thou haft made, thou haft "redeemed me, and I am thine. Myfelf, and all that belongs to me, I fur"render to thy difpofal. Let the men of "the world have their portion in this life. "Be it mine, to behold thy face in righteousness; and when I awake, to be fatisfied with thy likeness." This, furely, is one of the noblest acts of which the human mind is capable, when thus, if we may be allowed the expreffion, preffion, it unites itself with God. Nor can any devotion be genuine, which infpires not fentiments of this nature. For devotion is not to be confidered as a tranfient glow of affection, occafioned by fome cafual impreffions of Divine goodness, which are fuffered to remain unconnected with the conduct of life. It is a powerful principle, which penetrates the foul; which purifies the affections from debafing attachments; and by a fixed and steady regard to God, fubdues every finful paffion, and forms the inclinations to piety and virtue. SUCH in general are the difpofitions that conftitute devotion. It is the union of veneration, gratitude, defire, and refignation. It expreffes not fo much the performance of any particular duty, as the spirit which muft animate all religious duties. It ftands opposed, not merely to downright vice; but to a heart which is cold, and infenfible to facred things; which, from compulfion perhaps, T 2 and SERM. and a fenfe of intereft, preferves fome X. regard regard to the divine commands, but II. To recommend this devout spirit to your imitation. I begin with observing, that it is of the utmost confequence to guard against extremes of every kind in religion. We must beware, left, by feeking to avoid one rock, we iplit upon another. It has been long the fubject of remark, that fuperftition and enthufiafm are two capital fources of delufion; fuperftition on the one hand, attaching men, with immoderate zeal, to the ritual and external part of religion; and enthufiafm on the other, directing their whole attention to internal emotions, and mystical communications with the spiritual world; while neither the one, nor the other, has paid fufficient regard to the great moral duties of the Chriftian life. But running with intemperate eagerness from thefe two great abufes of religion, men X. men have neglected to obferve, that there SERM. are extremes oppofite to each of them, into which they are in hazard of precipitating themselves. Thus the horror of fuperftition has fometimes reached so far, as to produce contempt for all external infitutions, as if it were poffible for religion to subsist in the world, without forms of worship, or public acknowledgment of God. It has also happened, that fome who in the main are well affected to the cause of goodness, observing that perfons of a devout turn have at times been carried, by warm affections, into unjustifiable exceffes, have thence haftily concluded, that all devotion was akin to enthufiafm; and, feparating religion totally from the heart and affections, have reduced it to a frigid obfervance of what they call the rules of virtue. This is the extreme which I purpose at present to combat, by showing you, first, that true devotion is rational, and well founded; next, that it is of the highest importance to every other part of religion and |
