with a settled
conviction of its being their duty as his creatures, to submit in all
things to the will of their great Creator. But these awful impressions
are relieved and ennobled by an admiring sense of the infinite
perfections and infinite amiableness of the Divine Character; animated
by a confiding though humble hope of his fatherly kindness and
protection; and quickened by the grateful recollection of immense and
continually increasing obligations. This is the Christian love of God! A
love compounded of admiration, of preference, of hope, of trust, of
joy; chastised by reverential awe, and wakeful with continual gratitude.

I would here express myself with caution, lest I should inadvertently
wound the heart of some weak but sincere believer. The elementary
principles which have been above enumerated, may exist in various
degrees and proportions. A difference in natural disposition, in the
circumstances of the past life, and in numberless other particulars, may
occasion a great difference in the predominant tempers of different
Christians. In one the love, in another the fear of God may have the
ascendency; trust in one, and in another gratitude; but in greater or
less degrees, a cordial complacency in the sovereignty, an exalted sense
of the perfections, a grateful impression of the goodness, and a humble
hope of the favour of the Divine Being, are common to them
all.--Common--the determination to devote themselves without exceptions,
to the service and glory of God.--Common--the desire of holiness and of
continual progress towards perfection.--Common--an abasing consciousness
of their own unworthiness, and of their many remaining infirmities,
which interpose so often to corrupt the simplicity of their intentions,
to thwart the execution of their purer purposes, and frustrate the
resolutions of their better hours.

But some perhaps, who will not directly and in the gross oppose the
conclusions for which we have been contending, may endeavour to elude
them. It may be urged, that to represent them as of general application,
is going much too far; and however true in the case of some individuals
of a higher order, it may be asserted they are not applicable to
ordinary Christians; from these so much will not surely be expected; and
here perhaps there may be a secret reference to that supposed
mitigation of the requisitions of the divine Law under the Christian
dispensation, which was formerly noticed. This is so im