215 SERMON MATT. XXII, 37, 38. X 37. Jefus faid unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart, and with all thy Soul, and with all thy Mind. 4 38. This is the first and great Com• mandment. Have, in two former Difcourfes, fhewed you both what it is to love the LORD our GOD with all our Heart, and Soul, and Mind; and, fecondly, that this is indeed the first and greatest of all the Commandments. The Business I am now upon is to make fome Application, to draw fome Inferences from this Point, and one of them I mentioned and infifted upon the last Lord's Day. P 4 I pro I proceed now to a fecond Inference from this Point, and it is this: Is it the firft and principal Part of our Duty to love GOD, and afterwards to love our Neighbour? Then we may learn from hence, how prepofterous those Mens Notions are, who place the Sum of Religion in the Performance of thofe Duties we owe to ourselves, but lay but very little or no Strefs on those that properly and immediately concern GOD. There are fome among us that pretend to own Religion, but place it in a great measure, if not altogether, in the Practice of that which they call Moral Honefty, without any Regard to the Love of GOD in their Mind, or expreffing their Senfe and Veneration of him in their Actions. It is enough, in their Opinions, to fecure all the Intereft of their Souls, that they are Men of Honour and Juftice, that they are fair and gentle in their Dealings, or that they are true to their Words, civil to their Friends, kind to Relations; that they fcorn to do any bafe or infamous Action; that they do to all Men as they defire to be done to themselves; and, laftly, that they are not fcandaloufly lewd, or debauched, or profligate, in their Conversation; but then, as for the Duties of Piety, properly fo called, fuch as hearty Faith in Chrift Jefus, Love, and Truft, and Dependence upon GOD, devoting themfelves to the Service of him and Chrift, and expreffing their Senfe and and Dependence on him by Prayers and Thanksgivings, and other Acts of Worship; all this they are perfect Strangers to. They maintain, no Communion with GOD in their Clofet, nor is there any Face of divine Worfhip appears in their Family: They do not much refort to the holy Affemblies at the accuftomed Times, and when they do, it is rather to comply with the Cuftom, or to gratify fome Piece of Curiofity, than for any Ends of Devotion; and as for the most folemn Part of the Chriftian Worship, that of commemorating the Death of our Lord in the holy Sacrament, they have never any thing to do with it; unless perhaps they have fome fecular Turn to be ferved by their coming thither. But what fhall I fay of this fort of Men? We dare not indeed call them Atheists, because they pretend to believe a GoD, and they pretend likewife to live foberly and honeftly, as being GoD's Commandment; but we can in no Senfe call them Chriftians: For, if it fhould prove, that they believe in Jefus Chrift (which whether they do or no we know not) yet they are far from living like his Difciples: Nay we may truly fay, that, however they may own both GOD and Chrift, in Notion and Opinion, yet really they deny both in their Actions and Converfation; and may be truly faid to live without GoD in the World: So that in truth, it is but in a very impro per . per Senfe that they can be faid to have any Religion at all. The very Life, and Soul, and Spirit of all Religion, as I have often faid, is to love GOD with all our Heart and Mind. This is the principal Part of it; nay, this is the very Sum of it. But now thefe Men have a Reli gion without the Love of GOD; that is to fay, they are religious, without having that wherein Religion chiefly confifts. But it will be faid, Are not Honesty, and Justice, and Regularity of Life, are not thefe Inftances and Expreffions of Love to GOD? Right; they are fo, when they proceed from a good Principle; when they flow from fuch a lively Senfe of GOD, and hearty Affection to him, and ferious Defire of recommending ourfelves to his Favour, that we do fincerely endeavour to put in Practice every thing and all Things that we know he hath commanded; among the which we are defervedly to account Acts of Juftice, and Mercy, and Sobriety, and Generofity; and the like; I fay, when fuch Actions proceed from this Principle, they are really Inftances and Expreffions of our Love to God; but, without this Principle, they are not at all. Otherwife we muft fay, that a perfect Atheist does express his Love to GOD, when he practises these Things (as certainly fuch a Man may live in the Practice of all these Things), when yet yet he doth not believe that there is any GOD at all. ry But now if a Man has this Principle of the Love of GOD within him, if he do his Actions out of the Power and Influence of that, it is certain he cannot reft in fuch Performances as these: That Principle will carhim a great deal further, and will put him upon doing a great many other Things befides. thefe: More efpecially it is impoffible it fhould fuffer him to live in a constant Neglect of thofe Duties that do more immediately and directly concern GOD himself. It is a vain thing for any Man to pretend to love GOD, that never worships him, or but very rarely; nay, that is not frequent in the Performances of his divine Offices, and that too out of Conscience. It is impoffible we should perfuade ourselves that we love GOD, when we find in ourselves no Affections to him, no Defires after him, but our Hearts are quite dead as to all the Things whereby Communion between him and us is maintained; when we can live Day after Day without reflecting on his Benefits to us, or our own Miscarriages towards him. If we did truly love God, we fhould have a hearty Senfe of his Power, his Wisdom, his Juftice, and his Providence. We should feelingly own our continual Dependence on him, our infinite Obligations to him, and the hourly Needs we ftand in of his Mercy and Bounty. We should |