objects unto love. So many faculties in our souls! so many passions and affections to be ordered and exercised aright! so many senses for reception! so many organs and instruments for the commodious promoting and securing of our own good! so many objects, employments, and acquests, to be engaged vigorously about, and orderly conversant with all continually! And God in all this eminently beaming forth those perfections which are so fit and worthy to take endearingly with us! How inexcusable is cold-heartedness, whenas it may so easily be cured by serious contemplations of these objects! Light and colours and beautiful proportions to the eye, words and melodies to the ears, food to the taste, and all the objects, exercises, and entertainments of every sense, afford our very minds and hearts their delicacies to feed on, and urge us to love God and man.

And let me add this also,-the beauties and delightfulness of holiness and practical religion, as exemplified in holy persons; those "excellent ones, in whom is all my delight," saith David. (Psalm xvi. 3.) O to observe them in all their curious imitations and resemblances of their God; in the wisdom of their conduct, the fervours of their spirits, the steadiness of their purposes, the evenness of their tempers, the usefulness and blamelessness of their lives, the loftiness of their aims, the placid gravity of their looks, the savour and obligingness of their speeches, the generous largeness of their hearts, the openness of their hands, the impartiality of their thoughts, the tenderness of their bowels, and all the sweetnesses of their deportments toward all! Such things are really where Christian godliness obtains indeed; though mere pretenders, or real Christians in their decays and swoons, may represent religion under its eclipses to its great disadvantage and reproach.

When, therefore, we contemplate all these excellences, (and many more, not mentioned,) will not our hearts take fire, and burn with love of complacency, where these things are visible; and with the love of benevolence and beneficence, to that degree, toward those that are receptive of, but want, them, which shall enrage desires and prayers, and quicken us to diligent endeavours after what by such may be attained unto, were they but closely and warmly followed by us, and brought to the diligent pursuits thereof? Thus, you see, deep thoughts about lovely objects will get up love and cure lukewarmness in us to the purpose. Let this, then, be done.

DIRECT. III. Heart-awakening and love-quickening truths are to be duly and intimately considered.-And this is, indeed, in part, to "truthify in love;" if I may make an English word to express the valor of the Greek word, aλnevovтES ev ayann. (Eph. iv. 15.) [We must duly consider] the existence and excellence of the great Jehovah, the Trine-Une Holy One; the care which he hath taken, and the expensive cost [which] he hath been at, to cure this malady by the fore-mentioned means and helps; the critical inspections of his eye into the heart of man; and his making this the test and balance of the sanctuary to try us by; counting and judging us more or less fit for mercies and judgments, heaven or hell, service or to be thrown

aside as refuse, as our hearts stand affected. No exact soundness in our spirits, no safety in our state, no real ease and cheerfulness in our souls, no evidence of our acceptance with our God, no duty well performed toward God or man, no sins subdued, no trial bravely managed and resulted, no talents used fully to the Master's satisfaction and advantage, nothing professed, performed, endured, or obtained, without this love. And according to its ebbs and flows, its inflammations and abatements, so doth it fare and go with all our Christianity and The truth is, all the concerns of souls and persons, in life, death, judgment, heaven, and hell, are hereupon depending. These articles of truth, considered well, will make us serious, fervent, resolute, and industrious in the things of God.

concerns.

Be

DIRECT. IV. Heart-warming duties are to be performed thoroughly, in public, private, and in secret. (Eccles. ix. 10; Rom. xii. 11, 12.)— Pray hard, read frequently and seriously, hear diligently and impartially; meditate closely and concernedly upon all you read or hear relating to the great concern. Be much in Christian conference, in the due spirit and to the genuine design and purposes thereof. much in praise, thanks, self-observation, government, and discipline. Look up to heaven for help, and improve faithfully what you thence obtain. And I do take the Supreme, essentially Infinite Good to be dishonoured and degraded by us in our thoughts and walk, if any creature-interests or excellences do ultimately terminate our affections and intentions.

For my part, I take converses, employments, ingenious recreations, and even sensitive entertainments, to be most delicious and grateful, when they occasion or provoke me to those observations of God in all, which carry up my thoughts through and from them to him, with thanks and holy wonder. And when these thoughts do, as it were, return again from heaven, to set us more delightfully and strenuously to our needful work on earth, for heaven and for the most generous and true services, to the great benefit of the church and world; 0 what a sea of pleasures and advantages do love and good works cast us then into, and keep us in!

How often have the delicate composures of grave and sprightly music, well managed by the sweet and skilful voice or touch, provoked and urged my soul to admire the Chief Good, and the Eternal Source of all communicated and communicable ingenuity and expertness in that, and in all sorts of arts and sciences! The delicate composure of the ear, to render it receptive of melodious sounds; the usefulness of the air for the conveyance of them to the prepared ear; the pregnancies of human souls and fancies for the endlessness of various compositions; the command that the soul hath over the animal spirits, to order and command the voice or fingers; the rules of harmony, and the particular gracefulness of relishes and flourishings and humourings of some particular notes and touches; and the different tempers that God hath made, whereto the varieties of sounds have their as various degrees and ways of gratefulness;-these things, with all the mysteries of sounds and numbers, O what is their cry?— "How lovely is the Eternal God, that gives us such abilities and

entertainments! How lovely are the souls of men, that are receptive of such things! How lovely are those labours and designs, that are, with wisdom, diligence, and faithfulness, directed to the cultivation and salvations of such souls! O how beautiful and lovely are the feet of those, and how deserving of our prayers and universal helpfulness are they themselves, who lay-out all their time and strength, to get each other, and as many as they can, in readiness to bear their parts and take their share in the melodies and entertainments of that triumphant state of love and holiness in the heavenly glory!" The cry of all is, "Love! love!"

These are things and objects that require and deserve our love, in its most urgent vehemencies, to promote their interests. This noble flame is desecrated and profaned by us, and used to its own prejudice and reproach, when it is not directed to, and diligently conversant about, objects and services truly worthy of itself. (Gal. iv. 18.) I should have thought my thoughts and heart, not only feculent, but in a sort profane, had I applied my studies, or this sacred directory in my text, to the promoting of fervour, noise, and stir about things much below, or repugnant to, the weightier things and matters of Christ's gospel-kingdom,-judgment, mercy, and love; (Matt. xxiii. 23;) "the love of God," saith Luke. (xi. 42.)

Woe worth that Papal zeal and diligence, that is for the promotion of an universal visible headship! wherein they pretend that all the church militant must be united, into whose arbitrary and bold dictates it must resolve its faith, according to whose edicts it must form all its practices, and to the supports whereof, in all its secular grandeurs, pageantries, and usurped prerogatives, it must devote and sacrifice its all. Is he lukewarm in God's account, that will not anathematize, traduce, distress, destroy, souls, persons, families, churches, kingdoms, and the choicest and most useful persons; who will not absolutely devote himself hereto, and show his zeal in desolating flames and slaughters? Such zeal, we know by whom it was called "madness." (Acts xxvi. 9-11; Phil. iii. 6.)

Woe worth malignant and censorious zeal, that overlooks much excellence in others, and that envies or despises all deserving services, gifts, and graces, if not seated in and performed by themselves!

Woe worth dividing zeal, that intimately espouses particular opinions, modes, forms, and humours; and then makes these the main, or the only, terms of peace and concord; that lays out all its time, strength, interest, and fervours, to gain proselytes and votaries hereto, and to defend their own fictions; and quarrel with, and keep at sinful distances from, persons better (perhaps) than themselves, because their Shibboleth is not pronounced by them!

Woe worth partial zeal, that measures things and persons by their discords and agreements with our own interests, parties, or persuasions! Every thing is idolatry, superstition, and rigorously to be dealt withal, that falls not even with our sentiments and ways!

Woe worth self-conceited zeal, that lays its quarrels upon this cause and bottom,-that others will not reverence and yield to us, as wiser and better than themselves!

And woe worth all zeal, that lays the Christian interest, peace, and welfare, on covenants, subscriptions, or any terms too mean and narrow to sustain them! I shall never value, vindicate, practise, nor endure that zeal which bears not all those characters of God mentioned in James iii. 17, 18.

POSTSCRIPT.

And now, reader, let me bespeak thy candour. I am very sensible of very great inaccuracies and defects in this resolution of so great a case it became my work under unusual disadvantages, not fit to be mentioned here. I have exposed my first draught to an observant generation. The truths contained therein are God's; and the directions offered are, for the substance of them, according to the doctrine of the scripture of truth. May they but prosper to the cure of lukewarm hearts, I can the better spare the praise of men, and bear their censures and contempt. It is the desire, endeavour, and design of my poor soul to think as meanly of myself as others can. I have no time (and, through the infirmity of my right hand, writing is the most tedious part of my work) to correct my first copy; which entertains me, in the perusal thereof, with many superfluous expressions to be retrenched; many inaccuracies of phrase and method to be rectified; many defects to be made up, as to that matter which the full resolution of the case requires; many hints and heads which might more copiously have been insisted on: yea, and some passages in the text itself, I find, upon review, might have been more fully and nervously improved to the exacter resolution of the case. Much more I could have said; and much more than that can a multitude of my brethren speak, were they to undertake the subject, and handle it according to the grace and wisdom which God hath more copiously given unto them than unto me: though I will leave this testimony to his great and gracious name upon record,—that he hath ever helped me; and had done more for me, had I not unworthily obstructed the current of his kindnesses to me. My books and helps are nothing to me without him. It is ignorance of ourselves and of God, that makes us proud; but our sensible approaches to eternity and to himself will make us sneak and lay us in the dust before him; we being hereby made to see how little [that which] we know can signify, obtain, or do, without him.

Some may perhaps object my mistake and misapplication of this text, in that men, our fellow-Christians, are the object of this love and service here to be provoked unto. And I deny it not; but it is God's image, interest, and service, in and by them, in reference to the pleasing of his will, so "good," so "acceptable," and so "perfect," (Rom. xii. 1, 2,) that is the great inducement to this love. And as these things are discernible in them, communicable to them, and followed or neglected by them, so are they related to, and all of us concerned in, this love and good works, either as agents or objects, or both and of this love and service is God the original Dirigent, and ultimate End.

SERMON XV.

BY THE REV. SAMUEL SLATER, A. M.

WHAT IS THE DUTY OF MAGISTRATES, FROM THE HIGHEST TO THE LOWEST, FOR THE SUPPRESSING OF PROFANENESS?

For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.—Romans xiii. 3.

RELIGION, if right, doth excel all other things in the world, upon the account of its universal usefulness, and the powerful influences [which] it hath upon them that are true to it, for the promoting of their present, future, and everlasting happiness. Of all other, the Christian religion, which we own and profess, is the best and most worthy of our engaging in and immovable cleaving to, being "pure and undefiled before God and the Father," as the apostle James speaks. (Chap. i. 27.) Unspeakably profitable it is and advantageous to the kingdoms that receive it, and to the persons who are sincere in it, and studious of conforming themselves to its holy precepts and rules. The sacred scriptures, drawn up and left by men divinely inspired and infallibly assisted, from which alone we fetch it, (not from fathers or councils, whatever esteem and veneration we have for them,) do commend themselves unto the judgments and consciences of men who have not shaken hands with reason; and fetch so great a compass as to contain and reveal, either in particular or general directions, all that which is necessary for us to believe or do, in order to our full satisfaction and endless felicity in the next world, and our present safety, peace, and comfort in this foolish and troublesome one. David tells us, "Thy commandment is exceeding broad." (Psalm exix. 96.) It is long for its duration, being æternæ veritatis, "of everlasting truth," not any thing shall be diminished or cut off from it, not any thing shall be changed or altered in it; and it is broad for its usefulness, extending to and spreading itself over all the occasions of men for it hath comforts sovereign and proper in all distresses, though never so pinching, together with directions adapted to and fitted for all conditions and affairs, though never so difficult and abstruse.

The blessed word of God will teach you how to order and demean yourselves in your personal capacities, and in your relative too; how to walk alone, and how to draw in the yoke. It presents us with the best ethics, economics, and politics in the world: Aristotle's and Machiavel's are fooleries, if compared with it. This precious word, being well attended to and obeyed, will make comfortable families, flourishing kingdoms and states. O that all those unto whom the Lord hath in his goodness vouchsafed these oracles, would be so wise as to