- suitable love to God and holiness, and suitable hatred and sorrow for sin.

If there may be so important defects in those divine contemplations, which may be in the main regulated by true schemes of religion founded on Scripture; much more must this take place in contemplations which deviate from that standard. The Scripture foretels, that in the last days men would heap up to themselves teachers, having itching ears, according to their own lusts; that seducers would inveigle incautious persons, and impose upon them by swelling words of vanity, 2 Tim. iv. 3. 2 Pet. ii. 17, 18 Jude, ver. 12. And it seems to be on account of the inefficacy of their notions to sanctify heart and life, that they are compared to wells without water, and clouds carried about with winds, which do not water and fructify the earth. These predictions have been verified, in several ages, by various schemes of religion, whose principal tendency seems to be, to gratify vain curiosity, to intoxicate the imagination, and to puff up men with an over-weening conceit of profound knowledge.

It is true, that perhaps there was scarcely ever any scheme of religion so made up of mistakes and absurdities, as to exclude all mixture of truth, and every branch of the divine moral law. And so far as any branches of truth and moral precepts enter into men's schemes, so far may they produce some good effects, however defective and partial. But as to the deluding parts of fictitious schemes of religion, whatever emotions they produce in men's hearts, or rather in their imaginations, it is evident these things must be as different from divine love, as falsehood is from truth.

What has been said concerning the attainments which bear some resemblance to divine love, or may be mistaken for it, will receive farther light by considering the Scripture account of the na

ture and chief characters of that holy disposition of soul.

Seeing we are required to love God with all our heart, and soul, and strength; this plainly implies, that all the ingredients of the most perfect love should concur, in the highest degree, in that holy affection. It must include the highest esteem, gratitude and desire: a due esteem of God's perfections, a grateful sense of his benefits, a propensity to suitable acknowledgment of his perfections in the various manifestations of them, and in a special manner to suitable acknowledgments of all the ef fects of his goodness to us; a suitable desire of his favour, proceeding from a just esteem of his excellencies; together with suitable desire of his approbation, of conformity to him in his moral excellencies, and of the enjoyment of him as our chief good; and a due concern for and complacency in his declarative glory. It deserves particular consideration, that, according to the Scripture-account of divine love, a prevalent inclination to universal conformity and obedience to him is so important an ingredient of it, that all other holy affections which may be distinguished from that inclination, must conspire to strengthen it. But it is no less evident, that this inclination to obedience to God, must proceed from a due esteem of his excellencies, gratitude for his goodness, and desire of his approbation, and the enjoyment of him.

It is not needful to insist much on particular proofs of these things. They are evident from the whole strain of Scripture doctrine on this important subject. As the whole of religion, and of scripture-instruction, is oft times comprehended under the knowledge of God, all the parts of divine knowledge are designed to produce and excite divine love. All the Scripture-instructions which treat at large of God's various perfections; of the manifold displays of them in his several works, in

the works of creation, providence and redemption; of the various relations we stand in to him, and our absolute dependance on him; of the happiness to be bad in drawing near to him with our whole hearts, and of the misery of departing from him ; the necessity of glorifying him as God, and of being thankful to him; of giving him the glory due to his name, of fixing our desires on him above all things in heaven and earth, of glorifying him in all things, and of praising him because his name alone is excellent: all these, and the like Scripture instructions, contain evident proofs of those ingredients of divine love, which have been already mentioned.

It is no less evident, that love to God with our whole heart, must not only exclude all affections that are more directly contrary to it, but also that it must so moderate all our affections which are dif ferent from it, that they shall become duly subordinate and subservient to it. It is necessary that the tenor of our thoughts and actions be suited to that just and noble affection, that it have the sovereignty in our hearts, and that it be the governing principle of our lives. To honour and obey God, must be purposed by us, not merely as a means of some other end, which would imply that there is something else which our hearts are more intent upon, but as itself our highest end. The difference between loving or desiring an object merely as a means of something else, and desiring it as an end, or for itself, is a very considerable difference. What we love or desire only as a means, is what would be the object of our indifference, or perhaps of our aversion, were it not for its connection with some other thing. It is evident, that if we love God with all our heart, we must love him as our chief' good and chief end. Whereas men's hearts may sometimes be warmed with fictitious affections, or affections relating to things which they do not be

lieve; it is evident, that the holy affections included in divine love, must be founded on a well informed judgment and sincere faith, or belief of the proper motives of it. And whereas sometimes men may feel transient and superficial emotions about objects to which they have no habitual inclination or affection, it is evident, that love to God with the whole heart, must be a strong habit, deeply rooted in the soul. Thus the Scripture teaches us, that love must proceed from faith unfeigned, and that we must be rooted and grounded in love. 1 Tim. i. 5. Eph. iii. 17.

Though these various characters of divine love be of manifold use for explaining the true nature of it, considered more abstractly, yet, in order to a right view of divine love as inplanted in the hearts of redeemed sinners, it is necessary to consider more particularly the chief grounds and motives of it, and the impressions they must make on their hearts. A just impression of the chief motives and obligations to the love of God, is a main thing included in the nature of it. These obligations may be usefully divided into two sorts, namely, those that are known by the light of nature, and those that are peculiar to the gospel. We are under infinite obligations to love and honour God on account of his infinite excellencies, as manifested in creation and providence; but we are also under new additional obligations on the account of God's incomprehensible mercy in our redemption. It was proved above, that this divine mercy in our redemption from sin, is that which should habitually occupy the hearts of redeemed sinners. It is not sufficient for us to consider in general, that we should have a high esteem of God's perfections, and a grateful sense of his benefits; it is needful to consider more particularly what esteem we should have of the divine glory displayed in our salvation, and what grateful sense we ought to have of that love, whose height and depth are

incomprehensible. It is not sufficient to consider in general that the love of God includes transcendent desires after God, that is, after the favour, the image, and enjoyment of God. It is needful to consider in what manner we are to desire and seek from God so inestimable blessings, of which we are so utterly unworthy.

SECTION III.

Arguments from Experience for the Necessity of Divine Grace.

IN considering the arguments from experience for the necessity of sanctifying grace, in order to true holiness, it is necessary to join together the consideration of the following things: namely, of the nature of true holiness itself; the insufficiency of external causes to produce it; and the power of human depravity or corruption, which is so opposite to it. It is necessary to have in view the nature of true holiness itself, to prevent mistakes about the ends and effects for which sanctifying grace is affirmed to be necessary; this being a subject in which misrepresentations are very ordinary. They who assert the necessity and efficacy of sanctifying grace, do not deny that, without such grace, men may avoid enormities, or perform any external good actions; yet sometimes men seem to charge that doctrine with such consequences. That for which sanctifying grace is affirmed to be necessary, is, the restoring of the divine image or true holiness in the heart of a sinner. Though true holiness necessarily includes a prevalent inclination to all acts of obedience in the outward practice, yet its nature consists chiefly in the inward rooted dis