that it possesses of truth, and goodness, and purity, to the very Bible which it now rejects; there would have been no such religion, but for the Bible; and shameful is the unnatural ingratitude of the child that disowns its parent; it is (according to the apt and beautiful illustration of a pious prelate of our church,) "as if the withered hand, which Christ had restored, and made whole, were to be raised to smite him; as if the dumb tongue, which he had loosened, were to employ its powers of utterance in railing at him; as if the impotent leg, which he had strengthened, were to lift up the heel against him; as if the blind eye, which he had enlightened, were to make the first use of its new faculty, in casting a glance of scorn at him. I repeat, that there could have been no true knowledge of God in the world, without a revelation; and we have ample proof of this, in the experience of the fact. There might have been a few traces of his character handed down from the earliest ages of mankind, and these few might have been selected by the wise, out of the immense mass of errors that obscured them, just as some passages of Scripture history may be discovered in the fables of the heathen religion; but, except for the Gospel, the natural religion of the world in general, would have been such as it was before

Christ, such as it is now, where Christianity has not yet imparted light and knowledge.

Let me now bring you back to the subject which gave rise to these observations. Having asserted the excellence of that first and great commandment, which makes love to God the motive of man's obedience to Him, I supposed you all ready to allow the truth of the remark, that affection is a much stronger support to authority, than power or terror; but I imagined it possible some might object, that there is such an immense distance and dissimilarity between God and man, that His nature is so far above our comprehension, that we cannot entertain such love for an invisible and unknown Being, merely because we are commanded to do so; that love must grow out of acquaintance with the object, out of a knowledge of something amiable, out of gratitude for kindness felt, and favours bestowed. In reply to this, I said that if I were a hea then, the objection would silence me immediately, that I could not give a reason why we should love a being whom we know not; and I maintained, that the heathens themselves did not love God, for that very reason, because they were ignorant of him.

But as a Christian, with the Bible in my hand, I can give you most solid and satisfactory

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reasons, why we should love God, if you the truth of the book from whence my reasons are drawn. I can now say, because He has made himself known to us, as a Being of perfect Goodness, and the author of every good thing that we enjoy or hope for. I can now answer, because we know that He is our Father, who created us in love, and solely that we might be happy; our Redeemer, who in that character, and by that name, has bestowed upon us a blessing beyond all thought, and all expression great, having undertaken to save us, even by the sacrifice of Himself; our Sanctifier, always ready to qualify those who apply to him, for the enjoyment of the happiness which He offers; our Guardian, ever watching over us for our good; our Defender, ever at hand to support us, if we throw ourselves upon his protection, against the ful temptations of the world, the sinful inclinations of our corrupt nature, and the snares and assaults of a malicious spirit, who studies to ruin us by every art; in short, our greatest and best Friend, who " first loved us," and who has faithfully promised, that if we will love Him in return, He will make us happy for ever, and bestow on us such good things as 66 eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor heart conceived." For the present, you have borne with me sufficiently, when we next meet, I propose to resume the subject.

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Lord of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things, pour into our hearts the love of thy name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of thy great mercy keep us in the same, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

SERMON VIII.

THE LOVE OF GOD.

DEUT. vi. 5.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

IN the conclusion of my last discourse I briefly enumerated the reasons which the Scriptures furnish, why we should love God. I propose, on the present occasion, to enlarge a little upon these reasons; secondly to show you what will be the natural effects of that love, sincerely entertained.

First, what are the considerations that should excite us to the love of God.

My brethren, I address you of course as Christians, not as persons who are totally ignorant of the nature and dealings of God, as the