is good; by his providence we are hourly protected from a multitude of unseen dangers and calamities; to his bounty we owe the various comforts and delights that surround us here, and the provision that is made for our everlasting happiness hereafter. Is it possible now to receive such favours as these, without sometimes thinking of them; or to think of them without being filled with love and gratitude towards the gracious Author of them? If they affect us at all, they must affect us strongly and powerfully. For, although the love of God is not a sudden start of passion: but a sober, rational, religious sentiment, acquired by reflection, and improved by habit; yet, as I before observed, it must not be so very rational as to exclude all affection; it may, and it ought to produce in us a steady and uniform, a sedate yet fervent sense of gratitude towards God; exerting itself in acts of adoration and praise, and substantialized in the practice of every Christian virtue.

Have you then (ask your own hearts) have you ever given these practical, these

God, as the text requires you to do, with all your heart, and soul, and mind, and strength? Have you made his precepts the first and principal object of your care, and pursued other things only in subordination to that great concern? Have you not only admired and adored his perfections, but, as far as the infirmity of your nature, and the infinite distance between God and man would allow, endeavoured to imitate them? Have you delighted to think and to speak of him, and never thought or spoke of him, but with the utmost veneration and awe? When you have heard his holy name profaned, or seen any of his ordinances or laws insulted, have you always felt and expressed a proper abhorrence of such unworthy behaviour? Have you sacredly observed that holy day which is set apart for his service, and not only attended public worship yourselves, but taken care that all under your roof and under your protection should do the same? Have you brought up your children "in the "nurture and admonition of the Lord*;" and amidst all the fine accomplishments, amidst

* Eph. vi. 4.

all the prudent maxims with which you have furnished them, have you taught them that "wisdom which is from above," and formed them to shine in another world as well as this? Have you gladly seized all opportunities of conversing with your Maker in private and in domestic prayer; of pouring out your soul before him on all occasions, whether of sorrow or of joy, entreating pardon for your offences, and imploring his assistance for your future conduct? Have you for his sake been content sometimes not only to forego many worldly comforts and advantages, but even, if necessary, to encounter ridicule, reproach, and injurious treatment? Have you cheerfully sacrificed to his service, when called upon, your health and your repose, your amusements and pursuits, your favourite passions and your fondest wishes, the pleasures of youth, the ambition of manhood, the avarice of old age? Have you borne with patience and resignation all the disappointments, losses, and afflictions, that have befallen you? Have you considered them as the corrections of his fatherly hand,

dispensations of his providence? Have you, in fine, entirely subdued all anxious and fretful thoughts about your temporal affairs, and acquired that absolute composure and serenity of mind in every condition of life, which nothing but religion can give, and nothing but guilt can take away; committing yourselves and all your concerns to the great Disposer of every human event; with a perfect confidence in his infinite wisdom and goodness, and a firm persuasion that every thing will work together ultimately for your good?

By questions such as these it is that you must try and examine yourselves whether you really love God or not. In all this there is nothing visionary or fanatical, nothing but what the coolest heads and the calmest spirits may easily rise to, nothing but what reason approves and the Gospel enjoins, nothing but what we ourselves should in a proportionable degree require from those who pretended to have a sincere regard and affection for us. What answers you can give to these questions, your own consciences can best tell. But what a very great part of

mankind can say to them, one may but too well imagine. Some there are, who, far from having any love for God, affect to doubt his very existence, and professedly make a jest of every thing that looks like religion. Others, immersed in the pursuits of pleasure, of interest, of ambition, have no time to waste upon their Maker, and hardly know whether they believe a God or not. And even of those who profess both to believe and to reverence him, how few are there that know any thing of that inward and hearty love for him which leads to universal holiness of life? If they maintain an external decency of conduct, are just in their dealings, and generous to their friends, they think that all is well, and that they are in the high road to salvation. All their notions of duty terminate in themselves, or their fellow-creatures, and they seem to have no apprehensions of any peculiar homage or service being due to their Creator. They can therefore, without any remorse of conscience, make a wanton and irreverent use of his holy name, in oaths and execrations, which can answer no other