we have been wont to own for our Bible, and get some other rule, by which to judge of the nature of religion.

5. The scriptures do represent true religion as being summarily comprehended in love, the chief of the affections and fountain of all other affections.

So our blessed Saviour represents the matter, in answer to the lawyer, who asked him, which was the great commandment of the law, Matt. xxii. 37-40. “ Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets,” which last words signify as much, as that these two commandments comprehend all the duty prescribed, and the religion taught in the law and the prophets. And the apostle Paul does from time to time make the same representation of the matter; as in Rom, xxiii, 8. “He that loveth another hath ful

. filled the law.” And ver. 10. “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” And Gal. v. 14. " For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” So likewise in 1 Tim. 1.5. “Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart,” &c. So the same apostle speaks of love, as the

a greatest thing in religion, and as the vitals, essence and soul of it; without which the greatest knowledge and gifts, and the most glaring profession and every thing else which appertains to religion, are vain and worthless; and represents it as the fountain from whence proceeds all that is good, in 1 Cor. xiii. throughout; for that which is there rendered charity, in the original is aytan, the proper English of which is love.

Now, although it be true, that the love thus spoken of, includes the whole of a sincerely benevolent propensity of the soul, towards God and man; yet it may be considered, that it is evident from what has been before observed, that this propensity or inclination of the soul, when in sensible and vigorous exercise, becomes affection, and is no other than affectionate love. And surely, it is such vigorous and fervent love, which Christ speaks of as the

sum of all religion, when he speaks of loving God with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our minds, and our neighbour as ourselves, as the sum of all that was taught and prescribed in the law and the prophets.

Indeed it cannot be supposed, when this affection of love is here, and in other scriptures, spoken of as the sum of all religion, that hereby is meant the act, exclusive of the habit, or that the exercise of the understanding is excluded, which is implied in all reasonable affection. But it is doubtless true, and evident from these scriptures, that the essence of all true religion lies in holy love; and that in this divine affection, and an habitual disposition to it, and that light, which is the foundation of it, and those things which are the fruit of it, consists the whole of religion.

From hence it clearly and certainly appears, that great part of true religion consists in the affections. For love is not only one of the affections, but is the first and chief of the affections, and the fountain of all the affections. From love arises hatred of those things which are contrary to what we love, or which oppose and thwart us in those things that we delight in; and from the various exercises of love and hatred, according to the circumstances of the objects of these affections, as present or absent, certain or uncertain, probable or improbable, arise all those other affections of desire, hope, fear, joy, grief, gratitude, anger, &c. From a vigorous, affectionate, and fervent love of God, will necessarily arise other religious affections; hence will arise an intense hatred and abhorrence of sin, fear of sin, and a dread of God's displeasure, gratitude to God for his goodness, complacence and joy in God, when God is graciously and sensibly present, and grief, when he is absent, and a joyful hope, when a future enjoyment of God is expected, and fervent zeal for the glory of God. And in like manner, from a fervent love to men, will arise all other virtuous affections towards men.

6. The religion of the most eminent saints, we have an account of in the scripture, consisted much in holy affections.

I shall take particular notice of three eminent saints, who have expressed the frame and sentiments of their own hearts, and so described their own religion, and the manner of their intercourse with God, in the writings which they have left us, that are a part of the sacred canon.

The first instance I shall take notice of is David, that “ man after God's own heart,” who has given us a lively portraiture of his religion in the book of Psalms. Those holy songs of his, he has there left us, are nothing else than the expressions and breathings of devout and holy affections, such as an humble and fervent love to God, admiration of his glorious perfections and wonderful works, earnest desires, thirstings, and pantings of soul after God, delight and joy in God, a sweet and melting gratitude to God for his great goodness, an holy exultation and triumph of soul in the favour, sufficiency and faithfulness of God, his love to and delight in the saints, the excellent of the earth, his great delight in the word and ordinances of God, his grief for his own and others sins, and his fervent zeal for God, and against the enemies of God and his church. And these expressions of holy affection, which the Psalms of David are every where full of, are the more to our present purpose, because those psalms are not only the expressions of the religion of so eminent a saint, that God speaks of, as so agreeable to his mind; but were also, by the direction of the Holy Ghost, penned for the use of the church of God in its public worship, not only in that age, but in after ages, as being fitted to express the religion of all saints, in all ages; as well as the religion of the Psalmist. And it is moreover to be observed, that David, in the book of Psalms, speaks not as a private person, but as the Psalmist of Israel, as the subordinate head of the church of God, and leader in their worship and praises; and in many of the psalms, speaks in the name of Christ, as personating him in these breathings forth of holy affection; and in many other psalms he speaks in the name of the church.

Another instance, I shall observe, is the apostle Paul, who was in many respects the chief of all the ministers of the New Testament; being above all others a chosen vessel unto Christ, to bear his name before the Gentiles, and made the chief instru

a

ment of propagating and establishing the christian church in the world, and of distinctly revealing the glorious mysteries of the gospel, for the instruction of the church in all ages; and (as has not been improbably thought by some) the most eminent servant of Christ that ever lived, received to the highest rewards in the heavenly kingdom of his Master. By what is said of him in the scripture, he appears to have been a person that was full of affection. And it is very manifest that the religion he expresses in his epistles, consisted very much in holy affections. It appears, by all his expressions of himself, that he was, in the course of his life, inflamed, actuated, and entirely swallowed up, by a most ardent love to his glorious Lord, esteeming all things as loss for the excellency and knowledge of him, and esteeming them but dung that he might win him. He represents himself as overpowered by this holy affection, and as it were, compelled by it to go forward in his service, through all difficulties and sufferings, 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. And his epistles are full of expressions of an overflowing affection towards the people of Christ. He speaks of his dear love to them, 2 Cor. xii. 19. Phil. iv. 1. 2 Tim. i. 2.; of his" abundant love," 2 Cor. ii. 4.; and of his " affectionate and tender love," as of a nurse towards her children, 1 Thes. ii. 7, 8. "But we were gentle among you, ever as a nurse cherished her children: so being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the Gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us." So also he speaks of his "bowels of love." Phil. i. 8. Philem. v. 12. and 20. So he speaks of his "earnest care" for others, 2 Cor. viii. 16. and of his "bowels of pity, or mercy, towards them, Phil. ii. 1. and of his concern for others, even to anguish of heart, 2 Cor. ii. 4. "For out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote unto you with many tears; not that you should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you." He speaks of the great conflict of his soul for them, Col. ii. 1. He speaks of the great and continual grief that he had in his heart from compassion to the Jews, Rom. ix. 2. He speaks of his mouth being opened and his heart enlarged" towards Christians,

2 Cor. vi. 11. “Oye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you,

0 our heart is enlarged.” He often speaks of his affectionate and longing desires,”. 1 Thess. ii. 8. Rom. i. 11. Phil. i. 8, and chap. iv. 1. 2 Tim. i. 4. The same apostle is very often, in his epistles, expressing the affection of joy, 2 Cor. i. 12. and chap. vii. 7. and ver. 9, 16. Phil. i. 4. and chap. ii. 12. and chap. iii. 3. Col. j. 24. 1 Thess. iii. 9. He speaks of his “ rejoicing with great joy,” Phil. iv. 10. Philem. i. 7. of his “joying and rejoicing,” Phil. ii. 1, 7. and of his “rejoicing exceedingly,” 2 Cor. vii. 13. and of his being “ filled with comfort, and being exceeding joyful,” 2 Cor. vii. 4. He speaks of himself as “ always rejoicing, 2 Cor. vi. 10. So he speaks of the triumphs of his soul, 2 Cor. ii. 14. and of his “ glorying in tribulation,” 2 Thess. i. 4. and Rom. v. 3. He also expresses the affection of hope, in Phil. i. 20. he speaks of his “ earnest expectation, and his hope." He likewise expresses an affection of godly jealousy, 2 Cor. xi. 2, 3. And it appears by his whole history, after his conversion, in the Acts, and also by all his epistles, and the accounts he gives of himself there, that the affection of zeal, as having the cause of his Master, and the interest and prosperity of his church for its object, was mighty in him, continually inflaming his heart, strong. ly engaging, to those great and constant labours he went through, in instructing, exhorting, warning, and reproving others, “ travailing in birth with them;" conflicting with those powerful and innumerable enemies who continually opposed him, wrestling with principalities and powers, not fighting as one who beats the air, running the race set before him, continually pressing forwards through all manner of difficulties and sufferings; so that others thought him quite beside himself. And how full he was of affection does further appear by his being so full of tears: in 2 Cor. ii. 4, he speaks of his “many tears,” and so Acts xx. 19; and of his “tears that he shed continually night and day,” ver. 31.

Now if any one can consider these accounts given in the scripture of this great apostle, and which he gives of himself, and yet not see that his religion consisted much in affection, must have a