per Sense 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 said, 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 these Men have a Religion without the Love of God; that is to say, they are religious without having that wherein Religion chiefly consists. But it will be faid, Are not Honesty, and Justice, and Regularity of Life, are not these Instances and Expressions of Love to God? Right; they are so, when they proceed from a good Principle; when they flow from such a lively Sense of God, and hearty Affection to him, and serious Defire of recommending our selves to his Favour, that we do sincerely endeavour to put in Practice every thing and all things that we know he hath commanded; among the which we are deservedly to account Acts of Justice, and Mercy, and Sobriety, and Generofity, and the like; I say, when such Actions proceed from this Principle, they are really Instances and Expressions of our Love to God; but without this Principle they are not at all. Otherwise we must say that a perfect Atheist does express his Love to God when he practises these things (as certainly such 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.

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 rest in such Performances as these. That Principle will carry him a great deal further, and will put him upon doing a great many other things besides these: More-especially it is impossible it should fuffer him to live in a constant Neglect of those 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 Confcience. It is impossible we should perswade our selves that we love God, when we find in our selves 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 should have a hearty Sense of his Power, his Wisdom, his Justice, and his Providence. We should feelingly own our continual Dependance on him, our infinite Obligations to him, and the hourly Needs we

stand in of his Mercy and Bounty. We fhould should ardently defire to have his Favour, to be at Peace and Friendship with him, to have him for our Guide and Protector in all the Stages of our Life, and especially that he would vouchsafe us the continual Assistance of his Grace, that we may not in any Instance start aside from our Duty, nor fail at last safely of arriving to his glorious Kingdom.

Now, I say, where-ever a Man feels this Sense, these Defires, these Breathings after God and Goodness, he cannot for his heart avoid the expreffing of them in a constant and serious Devotion. He will pray to God in private, he will pray to him in publick, he will exercise Acts of Repentance for his former Follies and Sins, and over and over again renew his Vows and Purposes of better Obedience, he will shew that he entirely depends upon God, by returning the most hearty Thanks and Acknowledgements for every good thing he receives, and begging of him the Supplies of what he needs; he will most seriously and importunately, both in his Closet and in the Congregation, recommend to his heavenly Father the Care both of himself, and of all that he loves in this World, imploring the Continuance of his Mercies, both private and publick, and that he would avert the Judgment and Punishment which he and all of us have deferved by our manifold Transgressions and

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Provocations. Above all, he will make his most earnest Supplications at the Throne of Grace, that neither he nor any other devout Soul may ever want the Help and Afsistance of God's Grace and Spirit to conduct them in the Fear and Love of God, through all the Varieties and Viciffitudes of the Temptations of this World. All these, I say, are the natural and necessary Fruits and Effects of Love to God whereever it is entertained in any Man's Heart, and therefore let Men pretend what they will, if they can live without praying or worshipping God, it is certain they have not the Love of God in them.

And the same thing we say as to the Business of professing our Faith in Chrift Jesus, owning his Revelations, believing his Doctrines, and communicating in his Sacraments, and giving up our selves to him as our Lord, our Prieft, our Saviour. These are indeed things that are but of small Confideration, and very lightly regarded by such Perfons as I before spoke of. For as they have laid the Scheme of Religion, the natural indispensible Duties of Morality are all in all; but for Faith in Chrift, and relying upon him for Salvation, and the like, you must excuse them if they have no great Regard for those Matters. But this also, I say, doth certainly proceed from, and is an undeniable Argument of their being devoid of the Love of God,

God, and confequently of their wanting the main effential Part of true Religion : For it is obvious to every one, that among the Expreffions of our Love to God this must eternally be one, and a principal one; namely, that we do heartily and readily close with all those Methods that he hath proposed and declared for the bringing us into Favour and Reconciliation with himfelf; that we should joyfully embrace all those Directions and Instructions that he hath been pleased to afford to us for the walking acceptably before him.

Tho', therefore, (as I observed before) the Whole of our Religion (our Christian Religion, I speak as to the Duties required of us in it) is comprehended in these two Things, the Love of God, and of our Neighbour; yet this very first Duty (the Love of God) doth likewise include in it a hearty Belief of, and a firm Adhæsion to the Doctrine and Revelation of our blessed Saviour, as to all the Parts of it: For fuppofing that God sent him into the World out of pure Kindness to us, to help our Ignorance, and to strengthen our Weakness, and to heal our Sicknesses, by teaching us how we ought to love and serve God, by encouraging us in that Service with the most forcible Arguments, and the most glorious Promises: And Lastly, By laying down his Life to obtain a Pardon of our Sins, and rifing again from the Dead, that