Practice of thofe Duties, which they hardly ever thought on before. Fourthly, By procuring greater Aids, and Helps, and Affiftances, for the Performance of this Duty, than ever was afforded under either of the other Difpenfations. Fifthly, By fetting a plain and eafy, but withal a perfect Example, in his own Life, of the Practice of thefe Duties in all the feveral Inftances of them. Sixthly, By propofing greater Rewards to all good Men, that would fincerely endeavour to recommend themselves by univerfal Love to God and Man, than either the Light of Nature, or the Law of Mofes did make over.

And

Laftly, By purchafing Remiffion of Sins by his Death and Paffion, for the Encouragement of all Mankind to fet themselves to the Practice of this true Religion, how faulty or negligent foever they had before been in these Matters.

This now to me seems a true Scheme and a genuine Reprefentation of the Chriftian Religion. As to the main Duties required. in it, it feems to be the fame in Substance both with natural Religion, and the Religion of the Jews; and the Sum of them lies in this, To love God with all our Heart, and to love our Neighbour as our felves; tho' both, as to the Inftances of expreffing thefe Duties, and the Strictness with which it requires them, and the Arguments it gives for the engaging us to P 3 them,

them, and the Affiftances it offers for the performing of them, and the unvaluable Promifes it makes to all that fincerely lay out themselves in them; I fay, in all thefe Refpects, there is no Comparifon to be made between Chrift's Religion and the other, Christianity having incomparably the Advantage, upon every one of thefe Accounts, both of the Heathen and the Jewish Religion.

But this is that which I aimed at, and all that I defire to obferve at this Time, that Religion is not a fictitious or arbitrary Thing; one Thing to Day, and another to Morrow ; one Thing in this Kingdom, and another in a diftant Region; but the true Religion, the Religion which is of God, is eternally the fame, and confifts in this which I have fo often repeated, That we love the Lord our God, with all our Heart, and with all our Mind, and with all our Soul; and that we love our Neighbour as our felves. And thus much of my firft Inference.

Several other Obfervatious I have to draw from this Text; but they will furnish Matter for my next Difcourfe; and therefore I here break off, defiring God to give a Bleffing to what hath been faid.

Now to God the Father, &c.

SERMON

215

SERMON X.

MATT. XXII. 37, 38.

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.

38. This is the firft and great Command

ment.

Have in two former Difcourfes fhew'd you both what it is to love the Lord our God, with all our Heart, and Soul, and Mind: And Secondly, That this is indeed the firft 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 laft Lord's Day.

I proceed now to a second Inference from this Point, and it is this: It is 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 those Duties we owe to our felves, but lay but very little or no Stress 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 Sense and Veneration of him in their Actions. It is enough, in their Opinions, to secure 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 Dependance upon God, devoting themselves to the Service of him and Christ, and expreffing their Sense

and

and Dependance 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 Worship appears in their Family. They do not much refort to the Holy Affemblies at the accustomed Times, and when they do it, it is rather to comply with the Custom, or to gratify fome Piece of Curiofity, than for any Ends of Devotion; and as for the moft Solemn 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