On the proper DISPOSITION of the HEART towards GOD.

SERMON

II.

ACTS, xvii. 28.

In him we live, and move, and have our

THERE

Being.

HERE is nothing which all nature more loudly proclaims, than that some Supreme Being has framed and rules this universe. Day uttereth speech of it to day, and night sheweth knowledge of it to night. Our birth and our life, our sensations and our actions, the objects which we behold, and the pleasures which we enjoy, all conspire to testify that some wonderful intelligence has disposed and arranged, and still supports and animates, the whole frame of nature. This is what scarcely any man of

sober

II.

sober mind ever called in question. It SERMON was the dictate of nature to the most savage and barbarous, as well as to the most civilized nations. The American and the Indian in his desart, as well as the Grecian sage and the Roman conqueror, adored, each, after his own mode, a Sovereign of the Universe. The Psalmist observes, that the fool bath said in bis heart there is no God *. Among the follies, however, with which the human race is chargeable, this is one which, in the course of ages, seemed to have made the smallest progress. It was reserved for modern times and evil days, to engender, in one region of the earth, a system of false philosophy, which should revive the exploded principles of atheism, and study to pour forth their poison among the nations, not only to the extinction of religion, but to the subversion of established governments, and of good order among mankind.

Dismissing all delusions of this nature as unworthy the attention of any reasonable unperverted mind; holding it for certain

• Psalm xiv. f

that

II.

SERMON that nothing can be more real than the existence of a Supreme Divinity, it follows of course from this belief, that there are dispositions correspondent to Him which ought to be found in every human mind, among the young and the old, among the high and the low, the rich and the poor. It is absurd to suppose, that while the relations in which we stand to our fellowcreatures, whether as equals, superiours, or inferiours, naturally call forth certain sen timents and affections, there should be none which properly correspond to the first and greatest of all Beings; to Him, whom, though we see him not, we all recognize; to Him, in whom, as it is beautifully expressed in my text, we live, and move, and bave our being.

THE proper disposition of mind with respect to God, is generally expressed by the term of Love to him. This is very justly founded on the solemn injunction of our blessed Lord *. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy

Matth. xxii. 37.

soul,

II.

soul, and with all thy mind; this is the first SERMON and great commandment. Hence, it is com mon among religious writers to include the whole of pious affections towards God in Love. But when this term is applied to the Almighty, we must be careful to understand aright what it imports. We all know what it is to love any of our fellow-creatures; but such an affection as we bear to them, cannot in a literal sense be transferred to God. Among them it is sometimes connected with the fervency of passion, it commonly imports some similarity of nature, and some degree of fond and intimate attachment; all which it were highly improper in us to affect towards the Supreme Being, whose ways are not as our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts. I am afraid that the application of Love in a strict sense, and sometimes in too fervent and passionate a strain towards God, has, among some serious and well-disposed minds, given rise to no little enthusiasm in religion.

When therefore we treat of Love as applied to God, it must be analysed or resolved into those sentiments which are

SERMON proper and suitable for us to encourage II. towards the God whom we adore.

That

Love of him which religion requires, and which our Saviour has so solemnly enjoined, is a compounded affection, and the dispositions which it includes are principally three; reverence, gratitude, submission. Of the nature and foundation of each of these I am to treat in the sequel of this Discourse, and shall endeavour to illustrate them as forming that temper and disposition of mind, which we ought always to preserve towards the Great Author of our existence.

I. THE foundation of every proper disposition towards God must be laid in Reverence, that is, admiration mixed with awe; what, in its lower degrees among men, is called Respect; but carried to its highest point with relation to God, may be termed profound Veneration. In this disposition towards Him we ought habitually to be found not only in the exercises of immediate devotion, but amidst the ordinary occurrences of life. Every thing indeed that we see around us gives perpetual occasion for it. We find ourselves in an immense universe,

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