suppose will give pleasure to the Deity, we may reasonably be inclined to conclude we are influenced by love, which is the next affection the words enjoin. We must "love the Lord our God "with all our heart, with all our mind, with all "our soul, and with all our strength."-First, we will take a short and general view of what is meant by loving God, by showing what a different behaviour governs the world; and then consider the meaning of these several forcible expsessions, made use of, in order to enforce this duty.

1. We must lay down as a most certain maxim, what our blessed Lord asserts (Matt. vi. 24), that no man can serve two masters. If you would be saved, you must love and serve God: Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. (Deut. vi. 13.) But how is it that the generality of mankind act towards God in this respect? They would fain rob that love and service of every thing burdensome: in short, they would divest it of the very nature of service. Now, love requires proof, faithful serious subjection; but they would only leave it what they like-they would show their love in bearing nothing but what they desire themselves --and they would serve God on the condition of only giving him a few words and ceremonies, such as are not too long and tedious, or may not interfere with their vain and idle engagements:

they would love God upon the terms of loving with him, and, perhaps, above him, things which he has positively forbidden and condemned: their affection for him does not rise high enough to oppose that blind self-love which turns them from God, by whom and for whom they were created and preserved, and on whom they depend for true peace here, and eternal peace hereafter. On the contrary, they consider God in a secondary light-they reverse the whole order of the relationship, as if they were not made for his glory, but as if he were obliged to consult their happiness, independent of the only principle that can contribute to it, viz. submission to his will; and from this mistaken idea of their condition, they never turn to God, or weigh the duty they owe him, till they are drawn from a motive of self-interest: it is seldom they apply to him as a source of comfort, till the support and gratification of the creatures fail. When such indignity, error, and ingratitude, mark the conduct of the creature towards the Supreme Being, we may readily comprehend how justly he may be styled a jealous God towards such unworthy servants-towards such as outwardly profess to love him, but cannot bring themselves to do it, without sometimes showing they are ashamed of him, or not venturing to pay him more homage than a vain and deluded world shall allow and approve of.

Will any Christian presume to call this love? It deserves no such sacred title. To prove that we love this adorable Being, we must be faithful to the terms we engaged to perform at our baptism: God will admit of no less. We then promised to renounce the world, for his sake; and we shall forfeit all our expectation of his favour, if we persist in preferring it, and all its pomps and vanities, to his service. As a short rule to know when we may be said seriously to love God, we may safely determine it to be, when we act towards him in direct opposition to the general ways of the world-when we love him for himself, because he is the sole principle of all good, the ultimate end of all our best hopes-because he first loved us, and gave his Son to redeem us-because, in him we live, and move, and have our being; and, therefore, as we are indebted to him for all we enjoy, for our very existence, and our future happiness, it is just and right, and our bounden duty, that we should submit to his will in all things, walk humbly in his sight in all godly fear, and dedicate body and soul to his service.

The next consideration that presents itself to us, under this first and great commandment, is, that we should love God with our whole heart, mind, and strength. My son (says God), give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. (Prov. xxiii, 26.) As the heart is the

most precious part of the whole human frame, the grand mover that supplies animal life to the creature, so it is continually used in Scripture, in a figurative sense, to describe the purity of all principles. The pure in heart are blessed, and to them is the promise that they shall see God. The end of the commandment is charity (or Christian love) out of a pure heart (1 Tim. i. 5): and the Apostle St. Peter (1 Ep. i. 22) exhorts us to love one another with a pure heart fervently. When, therefore, we are enjoined to love God with all our heart, it signifies that we are to show due affection, disposition, and resolution towards him, out of an honest and good heart; that is, a heart studious of holiness, and prepared, through prayer, for the habitation of the Spirit of God; and, by the power of his grace, to entertain the true love of him, near and dear to us as our very heart.

2. To love him with all our mind, denotes that we must entertain a proper sense of his divine majesty, and authority over us; of his right to our love, as being the creatures of his will, and the humble instruments of his various and wise designs: it includes the exercise of our understanding likewise, that we should study to raise our love towards God, by possessing ourselves with true and worthy notions of him, by meditating upon his infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, and on our own depend

ence, imperfection, and unworthiness of his favour; by letting all our thoughts and actions in great measure be referred to his direction—all our designs be grounded in the desire of promoting his service: in short, whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, doing all to the glory of God; considering him as always present with us-that to him belongs all dominion, and for him are all things that are or were made. This is the exercise of the mind we are required to show towards God.

3. To love God with all the soul, signifies a still higher degree of inward communication with him. By the soul, we mean the essence, or immaterial and immortal principle of divine life, communicated to the body, through the good pleasure of God's will, by which it is rendered a thinking, rational, and accountable creature. To love him with all the soul, is to feel, in some degree, that desire and affection for the Source of all happiness, with which we shall love him to all eternity, when we shall be sufficiently purified and prepared to be admitted into his presence, and the society of the saints and the souls of just men made perfect; and, though the measure of this love, while the soul is united to a corrupt body, is very disproportionate to such exalted powers of loving God, as it will receive when it is released from it; yet, to fulfil the task enjoined us properly, it must