Man stands at the head of creation here, and from him the works of God descend through an endless and almost imperceptible gradation downwards. But why may there not be also an ascending scale of being? Why may there not be a class of intelligences immediately above man, as there are classes of beings below him? The probability is that man is not the last link of the chain, but that it ascends, in golden beauty, to higher orders of intelligence. But, if man is to cease to exist at death, this chain is broken, the gradation is interrupted, and a chasm introduced which we do not observe in the other works of God.

Such is a short view of the principal arguments which reason furnishes in favour of a future state. Whatever may be thought of the separate and independent force of each, it will surely be admitted that, when all combined, they furnish a very considerable amount of evidence. The light of each solitary ray in the illustration may not strike us very strongly; but when concentrated into one common focus, they are sufficiently powerful to dissipate the clouds of obscurity and doubt, and to open up a clear and happy pathway to the skies.

CHAPTER VII.

OF THE SENTIMENTS AND SERVICES DUE TOWARDS GOD.

HAVING seen that God is, and that He is the Preserver and Governor of men, not only in this life, but in another life to come, it remains to inquire what Sentiments and Services are due from us directly towards Him. For while all duties should be discharged from a regard to His authority and will, there are some duties of which He is more immediately the object.

SECTION I.-Of the Sentiments and Affections due towards God. The religious Sentiments or Affections, meaning by these terms the See Hutcheson, Mor. Phil., b. i. ch. 10. Hon. Mr. Boyle, Tract on Veneration due

general frame of mind which it becomes us habitually to cherish towards God, have been denoted by words which may seem, at first sight, to have a contrary meaning. The Fear of God, and also the Love of God, are phrases which have been employed to denote them. But this does not imply any contradiction. The feelings or affections which the contemplation of the natural attributes of the Deity is fitted to awaken, in the bosom of a being like a man, are certainly more allied to Fear than to Love. But, on the other hand, Goodness is the natural and proper object of Esteem and Love. The one class of feelings or affections, however, does not exclude the other. The truth is, that although we distinguish between the different attributes of the Deity they cannot be separated, and ought not to be regarded by us without reference to one another, but rather as constituting one glorious essence. The contemplation of the natural attributes of the Deity, such as Self-existence, Eternity, Immutability, Omnipresence, Omnipotence, Omniscience, &c., is a contemplation fitted to excite in us sentiments of the deepest Reverence and Awe; and these are sentiments which it becomes us to detain and cherish when they are awakened within us. Should these Sentiments at any time wax weak within us, and should we grow insensible to the august presence of Him in whom we live, and move, and have our being, then it becomes us to stand still and reverently to contemplate those stupendous proofs of power which the mighty movements of the universe exhibit, or those wonderful marks of wisdom which are scattered in such profusion around us. To beings weak and ignorant as we are the feelings of Reverence and Awe may always find their proper food and sustenance in those miracles of Divine Power and Wisdom with which we have been surrounded. And the fact of our having been so surrounded must leave us altogether without excuse, if we neglect to cultivate feelings which are so justly due from us to the All-powerful and All-wise Creator and Preserver of the Universe.

Our contemplations, however, should not be limited to the Natural Attributes of the Deity, but should extend to the Moral Attributes, in order that the Sentiments inspired by the former may receive their proper modification through the influence of the latter. Now, the Moral Attributes, such as Holiness, Justice, and Goodness, though they may be enumerated and spoken of as distinct and separate, are in reality inseparable in the Divine Nature. The possession of any one of them, in a perfect degree, implies the possession of all. Holi

ness, without Justice, would not be Holiness; and Goodness, if manifested separately from Holiness, would no longer be Goodness. When the religious Sentiments or Affections are denoted by one term, it is not meant that they have respect merely to one attribute, or even to one class of attributes, belonging to the Divine Nature. The fact that the opposite terms of Fear and Love have been employed for this purpose, may serve to show that our contemplations, and consequently the Affections excited and sustained by these contemplations, should extend to the whole of the Divine Character.

In this view, and with this explanation, Love to God may be delineated and recommended as the sum and substance of those Affections which we ought to cherish towards Him. As Goodness is frequently employed as a summary expression of the Divine Nature, so Love may be employed as a summary expression of the Religious Affections. (Edwards, Treatise concerning Religious Affections.)

Goodness is the natural and proper object of Love; and he who can contemplate it without emotion, wants one of the most pleasing attributes of our species. We feel it as an act of natural violence and injustice to withhold our esteem from the man who is active and zealous in the promotion of human happiness; and when we ourselves enjoy the fruits of his benevolent exertions, the feeling becomes more intense,-esteem rises into affection, and our bosoms glow with Gratitude and Love. To creatures constituted, then, as we are, the character of the Supreme Being possesses the most powerful attractions. All His works, and the benevolent arrangements which pervade them, declare Him to be a Being of Infinite Goodness, while our own experience adds touching testimony to the same truth.

It has been said, however, that Gratitude should form no part of our Love to God. No sense of the effects of His Goodness should enter into our feelings; but we ought to love Him solely for the amiableness of His perfections, without any reference to the benefits which we and others may derive from the exercise or manifestation of these perfections. Such was the opinion of Fénélon and others in his day. (See Fénélon, Maxims of the Saints; Bonnel, De la Controverse de Bossuet et Fénélon, sur le Quietisme, Macon, 1850; Upham, Life of Madame Guyon.) Now, the human mind may, perhaps, be able of such disinterested affection. The approbation which we Tow on the exertions of benevolence, even when we are entirely cluded from any participation in the benefits which flow from such

exertions, seems to show that we are, in some measure at least, capable of loving goodness for its own sake; and that if it had been possible for us to have been made acquainted with the Divine perfections without being made partakers in their fruits, we might still have admired and loved them. But it is idle, and worse than idle, for beings so needy and dependent as we are, to talk of considering the Goodness of God as separated from its effects. Without relinquishing those principles and feelings which are the glory of our nature, we cannot contemplate our Maker without recollecting the manifold obligations under which we lie to Him; and while gratitude shares a portion of the human heart, it would be sin to forget them. "To disconnect our interest from His Goodness is at once to detract from His perfections and to obscure the brightness of our hopes. Here modesty would be ingratitude, disinterestedness rebellion. It would be severing ourselves from Him in whom we live, and move, and have our being-it would be dissolving the connection which He has condescended to establish between Himself and his creatures.”Hannah More.2

Love to God, with the best of men, is but weak, and in this scene of trial it is liable to be overcome by the severities of affliction. The surest means, however, which we have for preserving the strength and maintaining the steadiness of our affection, when we labour under the darkness of desertion, is a vivid recollection of the better days which are past, and a hope of their return. But if our Love is to rest upon mere abstract ideas of the Divine Goodness, exclusive of any regard to the benefits which we may derive from the exercise of this perfection, we cannot avail ourselves of the preceding resource to sustain or strengthen our Love, and must be liable to sink under the pressure of distress. "I had fainted," said the Psalmist (xxvii. 13), "unless I had believed to see the Goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." Nothing, therefore, can be more injudicious than to destroy, by superfluous refinement, the energy of this most important affection, and sacrifice its real strength to its fancied purity. Why paralyze our Love by excluding every affectionate view of the Divine character, as if we were not indebted to the exercise of His perfections, or as if thankfulness for the benefits which

2 Molinos, a Spanish priest, taught that Christian perfection consisted in the pure love of God, without hope of reward or fear of punishment. His opinions were embraced aad propagated by Madame

Guyon, who was prosecuted and imprisoned. Fénélon published a work in justification of her character and in explanation of the degree in which he agreed with her. Bossuet opposed him.

we derive from Him were a feeling proscribed by God. He hath formed us susceptible of gratitude, He hath preferred the strongest claims upon the exercise of this affection, and any attempt to repress it deprives Him of all which He requires, and us of all which we can render in return for His benefits. The most powerful, and therefore the most proper, form in which this duty can be stated, is to love God because He first loved us.

And surely, if the defective benevolence and imperfect services of man can excite our esteem and our gratitude, the love wherewith God hath loved us should awaken the most lively emotions. If our feelings rise in their intensity in proportion to the excellence of their object, we ought to look up to the uncreated source of all Goodness with the most ardent affection. In God every quality which can render benevolence amiable in man exists in perfection, while those circumstances which lessen the loveliness of human virtue are entirely excluded. The Divine Goodness is perfect, as it is infinite. It is sullied by no frailty; it is confined by no limit; it is neither withheld from unworthiness nor withdrawn from abuse; but is pure in its nature and unbounded in its exercise, so that in contemplating it nothing can intervene either to check our esteem or to retard our gratitude. But while Goodness is the proper object of love, and while God is to be loved chiefly for His Goodness, it should be remembered that this is not the only perfection of the Divine nature, and that the feelings which arise from the contemplation of it should be modified by the feelings which are inspired by the contemplation of the others. God is Holy, Wise, and Just, as well as Good; and when the view of His Goodness excites our affection, the thoughts of His Holiness, His Wisdom, His justice, and all His other attributes should be taken in to regulate, confirm, and purify the impression, till our hearts are penetrated by the chastened yet vigorous emotions of Esteem, Gratitude, Admiration, and Awe, and we bow in humility and reverence before that throne which is established in righteousness and upheld by mercy.

Love to God, then, is not the hurried impulse of blind passion, but the steady result of sober reason. It is not the product of disordered feelings nor of a gloomy imagination, but is equally remote, both in its origin and effects, from slavish fear and irreverent preoption, and leads neither into the dark mazes of superstition nor wild extravagancies of enthusiasm. It recognizes the workings ther of constitutional fervour nor of constitutional fear, but admits