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most glaring and odious? Shall we exert our affections with ardour on many inferior objects, and reserve none for him whose power made us, and whose goodness has made us happy? You excuse yourselves, perhaps, by saying, that your affections are engaged to your friends and benefactors, because they are objects of perception, and you have seen and conversed with them; whereas God is unseen and spiritual, so that your feelings with regard to him cannot be so lively. Is nothing then an object of your affections but what you have seen with your bodily eyes? Is it only the outward form of your friend that you love? Is it only the hand that confers the benefit, or the feet that move to serve you? Is it not rather the soul, the heart of your friend, that engages your love? even that kindness which never fails, that sincerity which you can always trust, that faithfulness on which you can at all times depend, that sympathy which makes your griefs and joys his own? Do you cease to love your friend after his body is laid in the dust? Sure I am, none who ever knew a friend will say so.

It is then the soul that engages affection-And is not the soul visible? Are you not as certain of the existence of God as you are of your own soul's existence, or the souls of those you converse with? True it is, that God is not to be discerned by our senses; but is he then afar off? Doth he not fill heaven and earth with his presence? Do not kindness, faithfulness, and sympathy, belong to his character, more than to any earthly friend? Who is it that hath said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee?" Who is it that hath said, "Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me?" Who is it that hath desired us to cast all our care upon him, because he careth for us? Who is it that hath hath said, "He that toucheth you, toucheth

the apple of mine eye?" Say not, then, I cannot love God, because I have not seen him; say rather, if thou hast the heart to say so, I cannot love God, because that love is already engaged to his rival. I love the world too much, I love my sins too much, i. e. I love his enemies too much to have any remaining affections to bestow on him. In the

2d place, We may infer from what hath been said, if God so loved us while we were enemies, how much more will he love us, now that we are reconciled to him by the death of his Son? There are but few points on which I am sanguine enough to think I could argue to the conviction of a person disposed to evade the force of evidence; yet if there is any, I think it is in proof of this sentiment of the Apostle, "He that spared not his own Son, but gave him up to the death for us all, how shall be not with him also freely give us all things." Allow me that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might have life through him; and then say, is there another favour so costly that you should think it beyond the reach of his benevolence? You may perhaps say, that he hath already done so much, that you cannot conceive how he should do more. But I will ask you this, Why did he confer the first favour? Was it only to save appearances to his creatures? Do you conceive of it as of that constrained kind of benevolence which we sometimes see in the world—a man paying the debts of another, and then setting him adrift to do as he best can in the world? No; I will tell you what it rather resembles, if a resemblance to it can be found in this selfish world. It resembles a man taking up a helpless orphan. He at first clothes and feeds him; by and by, he conceives an attachment for him. Having done so much, he is unwilling to leave his work imper

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fect; he makes him worthy of his care, by instilling good principles into him. In time he adopts him into his family; at last he makes him his heir, and leaves him all he has. Whoever knows the human heart, knows that this is the natural progress of affection. He that gives, cherisheth his own benevolence by the gift; and to have conferred one favour, is a reason for continuing and adding others. I say not this, as if God's thoughts were to be measured by ours. I have a better warrant for using this comparison-" being confident," as an apostle has expressed it, "of this very thing, that he who hath begun a good work in you, will per. form it until the day of Jesus Christ.-Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God-and if sons, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.God commended his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.-Much more, then, being now justied by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him: for if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

But here, my brethren, I find the subject rising and widening beyond the reach of my thoughts, or feeble illustrations. "How great, O God, is that goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee, before the sons of

men !"

One other inference from what hath been said we cannot omit, being the inference of the Apostle himself in the context. "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” I will not inquire whether this is an exhortation to universal benevolence, or an

exhortation

to Christians to love their brethren; certain it is, that

the disciples of Christ are exhorted to both of these amiable dispositions. Of whom are we bold enough to say, that he may not be one of those for whom Christ died; that he may not become, through grace, one of the excellent ones of the earth? If thou art a vessel of mercy, consider who it was that filled thee; and may not the same fountain fill him-fill any of the race of Adam? Let your benevolence then extend to the whole of mankind: but let your love be special towards the household of faith. Love them for the image they bear-love them for the ties by which you are connected together. Let your love to them be fervent and active. Impart to them every assistance of friendship, especially of that friendship which regards the interests of their souls. Exhort one another daily, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Continue together in one accord, in prayer and supplication, forwarding one another in your way to Zion, and singing songs of comfort as you go along.

On the whole, you see how much the religion of Christ applies itself to the best affections of the human heart. To whom does it direct our worship?-To the God of love, the God who is love, and who manifested his love to us, in that he sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. What doth it require of us, but that we should love him who first loved us; that we should yield ourselves to be his, and trust in him for all good things. Are ye willing? The pledges of the covenant are at hand, and may God seal them to your souls. Amen.

444

SERMON LXX.

Preached after the Celebration of the Lord's Supper.

ACTS viii. 39.

and he went on his way rejoicing.

THE person of whom this account is given was a man

of Ethiopia, who possessed a place of great trust and authority under the queen of that country. It appears from the history, that he was a proselyte to the Jewish religion; for he had come as far as Jerusalem to attend on the worship of the God of Israel. The manner of his conversion to Christianity, by the ministry of Philip the Evangelist, is circumstantially related in the preceding verses; and as there are several striking incidents in this passage of history, I shall point out a few of them which are chiefly remarkable.

1st. We are told, that when this officer of the Ethiopian queen was about to take his departure from Jerusalem, God sent his angel to Philip at Samaria, with a peremptory order to leave that place, and to travel southward till he should come upon the road that goeth down from Jerusalem to Gaza; which place he had no sooner reached, than lo, the illustrious stranger appears in his chariot, pursuing his journey to his own country.

2dly. It deserves our notice, that at the precise moment when Philip, by a divine impulse, ran to meet him, this devout proselyte was reading aloud a part of Isaiah's prophecy, which speaks plainly and directly concerning the Messiah. The place of Scripture which

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