need to have recourfe to fo defperate a remedy. The difcuffion will neceffarily draw us into length. But our prolixity will not be greater than may well be claimed by the importance of the fubject, especially as it scarcely feems to have hitherto fufficiently engaged the attention of writers on the fubject of Religion.

IT cannot methinks but afford a confiderable prefumption against the doctrine which we are about to combat, that it proposes to exclude at once from the fervice of Religion fo grand a part of the compofition of man; that in this our nobleft employment it condemns as worse than ufelefs, all the moft active principles of our nature. One cannot but fuppofe that like the organs of the body, fo the elementary qualities and original paffions of the mind were all given us for valuable purposes by our allwife Creator. It is indeed one of the fad evidences of our fallen condition, that they are now perpetually rebelling against the powers of reafon and conscience, to which they should be fubject. But even if Revelation had been filent, natural reafon might have in fome degree prefumed, that it would be the effect of a Religion which should come from God, completely to repair the

G 4

SECT.

II.

CHAP. the confequences of our fuperinduced depraIII. vity. The schemes of mere human wisdom

had indeed tacitly confeffed, that this was a task beyond their strength. Of the two most celebrated systems of philofophy, the one exprefsly confirmed the ufurpation of the paffions; while the other, defpairing of being able to regulate them, faw nothing left but their extinction. The former acted like a weak government, which gives independence to a rebellious province, which it cannot reduce. The latter formed its boafted scheme merely upon the plan of that barbarous policy, which compofes the troubles of a turbulent land by the extermination of its inhabitants. This is the calm, not of order, but of inaction; it is not tranquillity, but the ftillness of death;

Trucidare falfo nomine imperium, & ubi folitudinem fa ciunt, pacem appellant

Christianity, we might hope, would not be driven to any fuch wretched expedients; nor in fact does the condefcend to them. They only thus undervalue her ftrength, who miftake her character, and are ignorant of her powers. It is her peculiar glory, and her main office, to bring all the faculties of our nature into their just fubordination and dependence;

66

pendence; that fo the whole man, complete SECT. in all his functions, may be restored to the II. true ends of his being, and be devoted, entire and harmonious, to the fervice and glory of God. My fon, give me thine heart"-"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all "thy heart:"-Such are the direct and comprehenfive claims which are made on us in the holy Scriptures. We can fcarcely indeed look into any part of the facred volume without meeting abundant proofs, that it is the religion of the Affections which God particularly requires. Love, Zeal, Gratitude, Joy, Hope, Trust, are each of them specified; and are not allowed to us as weakneffes, but enjoined on us as our bounden duty, and commended to us as our acceptable worship. Where paffages are fo numerous, there would be no end of particular citations. Let it be fufficient, therefore, to refer the reader to the word of God. There let him obferve too, that as the lively exercife of the paffions towards their legitimate object, is always fpoken of with praife, fo a cold, hard, unfeeling heart is reprefented as highly criminal. Lukewarmnefs is ftated to be the object of God's disgust and averfion; zeal and love, of his favour and delight; and the taking away of the heart of stone and the im

planting

III.

CHAP. planting of a warmer and more tender nature in its ftead, is specifically promised as the effect of his returning favour, and the work of his renewing grace. It is the prayer of an infpired teacher, in behalf of thofe for whom he was moft interefted, "that their "love" (already acknowledged to be great)

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might abound yet more and more:" Those modes of worship are prescribed, which are beft calculated to excite the dormant affections, and to maintain them in lively exercife; and the aids of music and finging are exprefsly fuperadded to increase their effect. If we look to the most eminent of the Scripture Characters, we fhall find them warm, zealous, and affectionate. When engaged in their favourite work of celebrating the goodnefs of their Supreme Benefactor, their fouls appear to burn within them, their hearts kindle into rapture; the powers of language are inadequate to the expreffion of their tranfports; and they call on all nature to fwell the chorus, and to unite with them in hallelujahs of gratitude, and joy, and praife. The man after God's own heart most of all abounds in these glowing effufions; and his compofitions appear to have been given us in order to fet the tone, as it were, to all fucceeding generations. Accordingly (to quote the

words

II.

words of a late excellent prelate *, who was SECT. himself warmed with the fame heavenly flame)" in the language of this divine book, "the praises of the church have been offered 66 up to the Throne of Grace from age to "age." When God was pleased to check the future Apostle of the Gentiles in his wild career, and to make him a monument of transforming grace; was the force of his affections diminished, or was it not that their direction only was changed? He brought his affections entire and unabated into the fervice of his bleffed Mafter. His zeal now burned even with an increase of brightness; and no intenfenefs, no continuance of fufferings could allay its ardor, or damp the fervors of his triumphant exultations. Finally

The worship and fervice of the glorified fpirits in Heaven, is not reprefented to us a cold intellectual investigation, but as the worship and fervice of gratitude and love. And furely it will not be difputed, that it should be even here the humble endeavour of those who are promised while on earth "to “be made meet to be partakers of the inhe-、 “ritance of the faints in light," to bring their hearts into a capacity for joining in those everlasting praifes.

* Dr. HORNE.

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