be beloved of God, unless we strive to please him; nor can we please him without keeping his commandments. The love of God is always accompanied with an holy diligence to please him, and an awful fear of offending him. A true believer is always afraid lest any thing, through negligence or infirmity, should escape him, and clash with his duty, or provoke his God. This made St. Paul say, Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; and elsewhere, I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest, after I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway; and hence those prayers of holy men, Teach me thy ways, O Lord, I will walk in thy truth Unite my heart to fear thy Name. May God make you perfect in every good work, to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ!

9. The love of God is not only continued in a Christian, but it is also inflamed under the rod of correction, contrary to that false love which subsists only in prosperity, and is quite extinct in adversity: for false love in religion flows from temporal interest, and is dependent on irregular self-love; but true love to God regards his glory and our salvation, two things which can never be separated, because God has united them so, that they constitute the very essence of religion. Whenever, then it pleases God to chastise us, these two great interests (I mean his glory and our salvation) present themselves before our eyes; and whether we consider chastisements as the fruits of our own sins which have offended God, or as paternal strokes to establish us in holiness, they cannot but inflame our love. Add to these, that when a believer sees his God frown, he cannot help apprehending, in some sense, that his wrath will go further, that the Lord will forsake, and entirely leave him. Hence these expressions of David, Forsake me not, O Lord: 0 my God, be not far from me! My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? And hence Asaph says, Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? Doth his promise fail for evermore?

The Tyrians, it seems, when Alexander besieged them, imagined they saw, by some extraordinary motion, that the image of Apollo, in which all their hopes of protection were placed, intended to quit their city to prevent this misfortune, they fastened their god with chains of gold. This I own was a foolish superstition: but methinks we may sanctify the thought, and almost learn a believer's conduct from it. When he imagines his God means to forsake him, he holds him (if I may be allowed to say so) with chains of love, he throws around him the tender arms of his piety, he weeps on his bosom, and, to make use of a better example than that of the Tyrians, he constrains him, as the disciples did at Emmaus, Abide with me, for the day is far spent, and it is towards evening.

10. True love to God is not superstitious. Superstition usually springs from one of these four principles. Either, first, from servile fear, which makes people believe that God is always wrathful, and which invents, means to appease him, employing for this purpose, ridiculous practices unworthy of humanity itself; or, 2dly, from a natural inclination, which we all have, to idolatry, which makes men think they see some ray of the divinity in extraordinary creatures, and, on this account, they transfer a part of their devotion to them; or, 3dly, from hypocrisy, which makes men willing to discharge their obligations to God by grimace, and by zeal for external services; for which purpose they can perform a great number of any kind. Finally, from presumption, which makes men serve God after their own fancies, and establish such a worship as pleases and flatters themselves, without regarding whether they please God. All these appear in the superstitions of the church of Rome, the greatest part of which sprang from fear of the fire of purgatory; as mortifications, masses, jubilees, indulgences, penal satisfactions, and many more of the same kind. It is also evident, that some came from that dreadful propensity natural to all mankind to deify creatures; to this may be referred the worshipping of images, the invocations of saints and angels, the custom of swearing by creatures, the adoration of relics, pilgrimages, the adoration of the host, and many such things. Nor is it less true that hypocrisy produced others, as beads, chap

lets, rosaries, prayers by tale, frequent fasts, visiting holy places, &c. And, finally, some came from human vanity and presumption, as festivals, processions, the magnificence of churches; and, in general, all pompous, ceremonies in the worship of God. All these are contrary to the love of God, which is free from superstition. It is su perior to servile fear, and accompanied with a persuasion that God is good, and that he loves us. It has only God for its object; it acknowledges between God and his creatures, however amiable the latter may be, an infinite distance, and consequently, cannot bestow any part of that worship upon them which is due to him alone. It is sincere and soild, more attentive to the interior than to the outward appearance; for, having its principal seat in the heart, it rectifies a man's sentiments, whence, as from a sacred source, good works flow. In a word, it is humble and submissive to the will of God, which it regards as the only rule of its duty, without paying any respect to the vanity of sense, or the caprice of the human mind.

11. Genuine love to God is tranquil and peaceable, acquiescing in the ways of Providence without complaining, happy in itself, without inquietude and without chagrin, flying from quarrels and divisions, easy, and gentle in all things, yielding in every thing, except in the service of God and the grand interest of salvation, in which love itself is inflexible, and incapable of compounding.

12. Real love is always active. Its tranquillity is not negligence; it is lively and energetical, always in peace, but always in action; like the heavens, whence it came, without noise, in profound silence, perpetually moving, and incessantly shedding benign influences: it is not content to seek God in his temples only, but it pursues him in houses, chambers, and closets; it rises after him to heaven; it enjoys him in the heart, where it entertains and adores him; it goes even to seek him in his members, and chiefly in the poor, whose secret necessities it enquires after, and endeavours to relieve.

Finally, One of the greatest evidences of love to God is, spontaneous obedience, not waiting for chastisements to awake us, after we have fallen into sin, but returning immediately to repentance. Indeed, tardy repentances, VOL. I. Ꭱ .

which come after we have exhausted the patience of God, and drawn the strokes of his rod upon us, are much more likely to be effects of nature than of love to God. Selflove has so great a share in such a conduct, that, if we do not attribute our repentance wholly to it, we must in great part. Yet it is certain, when repentance does not flow wholly from love to God, it is not wholly heavenly and spiritual; it is a compound of heaven and earth, divine faith and human prudence; and so much as it has of nature and sinful self-interest, so much it loses of its worth and excellence. Genuine love does not then wait for carnal solicitations, nor till afflictions inform us of our state; it freely comes to our aid, and constrains us to return to God, even before we feel the effects of his indignation. So much for the characters of love.*

In regard to the emotions included in the words patient waiting, you may remark, 1st, That the coming of Jesus Christ being the subject in question, the expectation of a believer is a true and real hope, directly opposite to the expectation of the wicked, which is a fear. The latter consider Jesus Christ on this occasion as their Judge, and enemy, who will avenge himself, punish all their sins, and plunge them for ever into perdition. Believers, on the contrary, consider him as their head, their husband, their Saviour, who will come to raise them from dust and misery, and to exalt them to his glorious kingdom. The wicked, in their fore-views, resemble the devils, who, at Christ's first appearance, exclaimed, Let us alone! what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? but the righteous imitate those who attended his public entry into Jerusalem; Hosanna! said they, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

*The multiplying of divisions and subdivisions is, in the Editor's judgment, a great fault in composition. They should consist only of such a number as will fairly embrace the whole subject, and may easily be remembered. All that really belongs to the subject in these thirteen heads might have been introduced under the three following. True love to God is, 1. Supreme, possessing the heart, the whole heart, &c. 2. Uniform, as well under his corrections as under his smiles. 3. Obediential, instigating us, not to an observance of superstitious rites, but to an humble and active performance of his revealed will.

2. This expectation is accompanied with an holy and ardent desire, as being an expectation of the greatest blessings. Come, Lord Jesus, says the church, Lord Jesus, come! Such was David's expectation, when he was among the Philistines; As the heart panteth after the waterbrooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. The desire of a believer is not less fervent, or (to speak more properly) it is far more ardent, when he meditates on his entrance into the heavenly Jerusalem, where we shall hunger and thirst no more, for the Lamb shall feed us, and lead us to fountains of living waters. What the first ap. pearance of Christ in the flesh was to the ancient church, that his second manifestation is to us; with this difference, that then he was to appear in grace, whereas now we expect him in glory-then he was to appear in the form of a servant, and in the likeness of sinful flesh; but hereafter he will appear in the form of God, thinking it not robbery to be equal with God. As he was then the desire of all nations, how should he not now be the desire of all believers?

3. This desire is accompanied with an holy inquietude, almost like what we feel when we expect an intimate friend, of whose coming we are sure, but are uncertain about the time; or, if you will, such as an oppressed and enslaved people feel, while they wait for a deliverer; or such as an affectionate consort feels, while she waits for the return of her lord. On these occasions days and hours move slowly, time is anticipated, futurity is en joyed, and there is a prelibation of the expected plea sure. This is the holy inquietude which St. Paul attri butes to the creatures in general, saying, They groan and travail in pain together with the earnest expectation of the manifestation of the sons of God. How much more, then, must believers do so!

4. But this inquietude does not prevent our possessing our souls in patience; for it does not proceed to murmuring, but submits to the will of God; knowing that times and seasons are in his own power: If he tarry, wait for him, as St. Paul after Habakkuk says, Heb. x. 37. that is, be not impatient, do not murmur, for he will cer tainly come, and will not tarry. They are the profane only who say, Where is the promise of his coming? for