duces obedience, an earnest desire to please, and to be, as much as we can, in his presence.-In what more the love of God consists, I know not: so that I scruple not to rest it on reason, rather than on passion. Indeed this seems to be the idea, which the scripture every where gives of divine love. God is a spirit, we are told, and we are ordered to worship him in spirit and in truth. This is certainly making worship a rational act. Passion has nothing to do with spirit; passion is of corporeal origin.—The text itself indeed seems to favour the explication I have given. The heart, the soul, and the mind, all seem to belong chiefly to the province of reason-the two last especially.

THE love of our neighbour also rests on a foundation equally rational. You are to love your neighbour as yourself. How is that? In self-love there is nothing of what is properly called the passion of love.

Besides, self-love often prompts us to act very viciously. But we are to follow only its rational lead. That is, it must be put under the direction of reason. Under this direction therefore our love to our neighbour will prompt us to avoid every thing, that will injure him; and do every

thing, that can tend to his advantage; for this is certainly the idea of rational self-love.

With regard to our neighbour, we have another rule also, which falls under the same regulation: we should do to others, as we would have others do to us. This rule is indeed a direct appeal to reason. It is not supposed, that we are to do to others, according to the tenor of every wanton wish, which we may suppose they may indulge. We should weigh the matter in reason -we should place ourselves in the situation of others; and them in ours; and should do for them, whatever we think we should reasonably expect from them. Thus when St. Paul gives a detail of the duties of charity, he seems to resolve them all into efforts of reason, formed into habits of benevolence *.

Thus then, I think, it appears, that no one need fright himself, if he do not feel that ardour of passion, either to God, or his neighbour, which he may think the text inculcates. At the same time, we ought to guard against the natural coolness of reason; and should be very cautious, how we draw an apology from its dictates for the transgression of duties, on which hang all the law and the prophets.

XXX.

Secret things belong unto the Lord: but those things which are revealed, belong unto us, and to our children for ever-that we may do all the words of the law.-Deuteronomy,

xxix. 29.

THIS text is taken from the law of Moses. But the law of Moses is one of God's revelations : and God's revelations will always have the same tendency. We may consider the text therefore as perfectly christian.

It contains these truths-that there are points of religion, (such as its mysterious doctrines,) which the understanding of man cannot fathom -that these points cannot properly be said to be revealed, as they belong to God-that there are other things which are revealed, and are intended merely for our use-that these things are plain and obvious to our capacities that they belong to us and our children-and that the reason given for this distinction is, that we may do all the words of this law. That is, in short,

XXXI.

In which some things are hard to be understood. -2 Peter, iii. 16.

THIS expression is commonly thought to refer to St. Paul's epistles; which are here supposed to contain things hard to be understood. But the original rather leads us to suppose, that, instead of St. Paul's epistles, the mysteries of the gospel are hard to be understood. This makes a much better sense; for though many reasons may be given, why some things in St. Paul's epistles may at this day be hard to be understood; yet we cannot well conceive them to have been so at the time they were written: we cannot well suppose that epistles written to particular churches, could contain any thing that was not easily understood by those churches.To let this matter however pass, in the following discourse, I shall consider, first, the source of scriptural