of the paffion of love be innate in our nature, and is eafily excited by a thousand created beauties, yet, alas! it has no natural tendency towards God. Human nature in its present state is strangely indisposed and difaffected in this refpect, as experience has abundantly convinced us, unless we have been ftupidly unobfervant with regard to ourselves. A ftate of nature is uniformly reprefented in fcripture as a ftate of enmity againft God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, John iii. 6. and therefore, by nature, we are all flefh in the fcripture ftyle. Now they that are in the flesh cannot pleafe God, fays St. Paul, becaufe the carnal mind is enmity against God, &c. Rom. viii. 7, 8. The fcriptures every where reprefent us as being faved in the way reconciliation; now reconciliation fuppofes a previous variance and enmity. Nay, St. Paul exprefsly tells us, that we were enemies when we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son. Rom. v. 10. By nature we are children of wrath, Eph. ii. 3. and furely we cannot be children of wrath and lovers of God at one and the fame time! Here then you must all plead guilty.Whatever you now are, it is beyond all doubt that you were once enemies to God. It is fufficient conviction against you that you are men, and belong to a race univerfally difaffected. And now have you ever been brought out of that state? if not, you are enemies to God ftill. You could not pafs from death unto life in a dream, or an entire infenfibility; for you must have experienced a great change, and you must have been fenfible of, and may now recollect a great many deep and affecting fenfations that attended it. must have seen and been shocked at your difaffection : you must have been brought to cry in the most importunate manner to God to give you a better temper, and to fhed abroad his love in your hearts by the Holy Ghost. Rom. v. 5. In fhort, you are made new creatures; old things are paffed away, and all things are become new; and all these new things are of God, who hath reconciled you to himself. 2 Cor. v. 17, 18. You Now Now if this be the teft, what would you fay to this queftion, Loveft thou me? Some of you, I truft, could anfwer, "Lord, I am afraid of the truth of my love; but this I am fure of, a great change hath been wrought in my foul. Whether I am now a fincere lover of God or not, I am fure I am not what I once was; not only my outward practice, but the inward temper of my heart towards thee is vaftly altered; it is more filial, affectionate and dutiful." If any of you can advance thus far in your anfwer, my brethren, it looks comfortable, though you should still be jealous of yourfelves. But, firs, let confcience now deal honeftly with you; Are there not many of you who are still in your natural ftate? All your religion is an earth-born, selffprung thing. You have never been the fubjects of a fupernatural work of divine grace, nor felt fuch a great change in the temper of your minds; and if this is your cafe I muft pronounce, that, however many amiable qualities you may be poffeffed of, and however fair a profeffion you make of religion, you have not the love of God in you; for how fhould you have it, when it is not natural to you, and when it has not been implanted in you by an operation above nature? Indeed, my brethren, if this be your cafe, you are plainly convicted this day of being deftitute of the very firft principle of all religion; and pray admit the conviction: you may as well expect to be men without being born, as to love God without being born again. But, 2. If we love the Lord Jefus Chrift in fincerity, we frequently and affectionately think of him. This you know is the genius and tendency of love in general, to fix our thoughts upon its object; and the Pfalmist often mentions this as an attendant of his love to God. How precious are the thoughts of thee unto me, O God! how great is the fum of them! if I fhould count them, they are more in number than the fand; when I awake I am fill with thee. Pfal. cxxxix. 17, 18. I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night-watches. VOL. III. N Pfal. Pfal. Ixiii. 6. My meditation of him fhall be fweet. Pfal. civ. 34. Ifaiah represents the whole church as faying, The defire of our foul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee with my foul have I defired thee in the night; yea, with my fpirit within me will Ifeek thee early. Ifa. xxvi. 8,9. This you fee is the character of the lovers of God. And on the other hand, his enemies are characterized as perfons who do not like to retain him in their knowledge, Rom. i. 28. who forget. God; Pfal. ix. 17. and 1. 22. God is not in all their thoughts, Pfal. x. 4. but they practically fay unto the Almighty, depart from us; we defire not the knowledge of thy ways. Job. xxi. 14. The thoughts of an enemy are always ungrateful, especially if he is unable to avenge himfelf of his adverfaries; and the mind will turn every way to avoid them. But the thoughts of one we love, how fweet, how welcome, how often do they return! How often does the dear image of an abfent friend rife to the mind! and with what affectionate endearments! Unlefs you are entire ftrangers to this generous paffion, you know, by experience, this is the nature and tendency of love. And do not these things enable fome of you to give a comfortable anfwer to this question, Loveft thou me? You are often jealous of your love; but if you love him not, why do your thoughts make fo many eager fallies to him? Once your thoughts could dwell within the compass of created nature, and fly from vanity to vanity, without attempting a flight to heaven. But now do they not often break through the limits of creation, in eager fearch after God as that fupreme good? And with what affectionate eagernefs do they at times dwell there! How do your fouls delight to furvey and gaze at his perfections, and contemplate the wonders of his works! And how often do your thoughts hover round a crucified Jefus, and, as it were, cling and clufter to his cross, like the bees round the hive! You do not indeed think of him fo frequently, or with fuch affectionate endearments as you fhould. But can you you not appeal to himself, that the thoughts of him are welcome to your minds; that you do at times dwell with pleasure in the delightful contemplation, even when your hands are bufy about other things; and that it is your daily forrow that your hearts are not more intimate with him, and pay him more frequent vifits? Does not your experience tell you, that you cannot always let your thoughts grovel in the duft, or run out in an endless chace of things below, but that, in fome happy hours, they rise on the wings of love, and moft affectionately cleave to your dear' Redeemer? And your thoughts are not the cold speculations of a philofopher, but the warm, paflionate and heart-affecting thoughts of a chriftian. If this be your cafe, my brethren, take courage. You love the Lord Jefus Chrift, and you may be fure he loves you, and will treat you as his friends. But are there not many of you who may be convinced by those things, that you have not the love of God in you? For are you not confcious that your affectionate thoughts are prostituted to fome trifle in this lower world, and hardly ever afpire to him? Nay, are not the thoughts of God, and things divine and eternal, unwelcome to you? and do you not caft them out of your minds as you would fhake a fpark of fire from your bofoms? Do not you find yourselves fhy of him, and alienated from him? Do not those things give you pain which would turn your thoughts towards him? You do not affect fuch fubjects of meditation or converfation, and you foon grow weary and uneafy when your minds are tied down to them!" And what can be the cause of this, but a ftrong difaffection to God, and a fecret confciousness that he is your enemy on this account! O, firs, what can be more aftonishing, or what can be a ftronger evidence of enmity to God, than that men fhould live in such a world as this, and yet hardly ever have one affectionate thought of their great Author, Preferver and Benefactor! His glory fhines upon them from all his works, and and meets their eye wherever they look; his word exhibits him to their view in a ftill more bright and amiable light. It reprefents the Lord Jefus in all the love and agonies of his crucifixion, and in all the glories of his exaltation; they are receiving mercies from him every moment of their lives; for, in him they live, and move, and have their being: their own reafon and confciences tell them that he is the most excellent and lovely being, and worthy of fupreme and univerfal love, and they profefs to believe it; and yet he cannot, after all, gain fo much as their frequent and affectionate thoughts! Their thoughts, thofe cheap and eafy things, are ungratefully denied to him, who gave them a power of thinking! O what ftupid indifferency about the fupreme good, or rather what prevailing enmity is here! Can you pretend to be lovers of Jefus Chrift while this is your cafe? Can you excufe or extenuate this under the foft name of infirmity? No, it is rank, inveterate, fullen enmity; and a righteous God refents it as fuch. But, 3. If you love God and the Lord Jesus Christ, you delight in communion with them. Friends, you know, delight to converse together, to unbofom themselves to one another, and to enjoy the freedoms of fociety. They are fond of interviews, and feize every opportunity for that purpofe; and abfence is tedious and painful to them. If you are so happy as to have a friend, you know by experience this is the nature of love. Now, though God be a fpirit, and infinitely above all fenfible converfe with the fons of men, yet he does not keep himself at a distance from his people. He has accefs to their fpirits, and allows them to carry on a spiritual commerce with him, which is the greateft happiness of their lives. Hence God is fo often faid, in the fcripture, to draw near to them, and they to him, James iv. 8. Heb. vii. 19. Pfalm lxix. 18. and lxxiii. 28. Heb. x. 22. Lam. iii. 57. and St. John, fpeaking of himself and his fellow-chriftians, fays, Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jefus ་ |