S3 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. 



existence. All these, and many other relations, 

 in which we stand to the God of heaven, de 

 monstrate, that supreme love to this beneficent 

 Being, is the first and highest duty of every ra 

 tional creature ; and they present the most 

 powerful motives to stimulate us to its exercise. 

 But, to illustrate these topics, in minute detail, 

 would be inconsistent with the limited plan of 

 the present work ; and it is the less necessary, 

 as several of them have already been brought 

 into view, in the course of the preceding illus 

 trations. 



SECTION VII. 



MOPES IN WHICH LOVE TO GOD IS DIS 

 PLAYED. 



I shall now offer a remark or two on the na 

 ture of this sublime affection, and the manner in 

 which it ought to be manifested. Love to God 

 is not a single and solitary affection in the hu 

 man breast, which evaporates in a few transient 

 and undefined emotions ; but is the spring of 

 every holy activity, and is intimately connected 

 with every virtuous emotion, with every pious 

 sentiment, with every religious requirement, 

 with every sensitive enjoyment, with our pre 

 sent comforts, and our future and eternal pros 

 pects. 



It includes in it, complacency, or delight in the 

 character and administration of God. Viewing 

 him as a self-existent and eternal Being, fill 

 ing immensity with his presence, launching in 

 numerable worlds into existence, upholding them 

 all by the &quot; word of his power,&quot; and superin 

 tending the minutest concerns of all his offspring, 

 from the loftiest seraph, through all the inferior 

 gradations of existence, to the smallest animal- 

 cula, the mind feels the most delightful emo 

 tions, in regarding the happiness of the universe 

 as perfectly secure under his physical and moral 

 administration. Contemplating his bounty to 

 angels and to men, to the birds of the air, the 

 fishes of the sea, and the numerous tribes which 

 traverse the surface of the land, his mercy to 

 wards our fallen race, his long-suffering and 

 forbearance towards wicked nations and indivi 

 duals, his faithfulness in the accomplishment 

 of his promises and threatenings, and the un 

 erring rectitude of his dispensations towards all 

 his creatures, the mind feels supreme appro 

 bation and complacency in his attributes, pur 

 poses, and administrations; beholding in his cha 

 racter an excellence and amiableness, a moral 

 dignity and grandeur which is not to be found in 

 any created intelligence. Even in reference to 

 those acts of his government which appear 

 dreadful and appalling in the volcano, the earth 

 quake, the thunders, the hurricane, the tempest, 



and the doom of the impenitent, its approbatiC-f 

 and complacency are not withheld, convincec 

 that perfect rectitude is the rule of his procedure, 

 and that his righteousness will one day be 

 brought to light before an assembled world. 



Love to God includes admiration of hi* won 

 derful works. The man whose affections are 

 directed to the Supreme Intelligence is not an 

 indifferent spectator of the manifestations of 

 Deity. He beholds the magnificent canopy of 

 heaven daily moving around him in silent gran 

 deur; his eye penetrates beyond the apparent 

 aspects of the twinkling luminaries which adorn 

 it, and surveys the hand of the Almighty wheel 

 ing stupendous globes through the immeasura 

 ble regions of space, and extending his operations 

 throughout unnumbered systems, dispersed over 

 the boundless expanse of the universe. He be 

 holds the great globe on which he is placed, im 

 pelled by the same omnipotent arm, prosecuting 

 its course through the depths of space, and cir 

 cling around the sun, to bring about the revolu 

 tions of the seasons. He contemplates the vasl 

 ranges of mountains that stretch around it the 

 mass of waters in the mighty ocean, and its nu 

 merous tribes of animated beings the &quot; dry 

 land,&quot; with all its furniture and inhabitants 

 the vast caverns, chasms, and shattered strata 

 which appear in its interior recesses and the 

 atmosphere with which it is surrounded, with 

 the clouds, the lightnings, and the tempests 

 which diversify its aspect. He traces the foot 

 steps of the Almighty in his moral administra 

 tion in the deluge which swept away the in 

 habitants of the antediluvian world in the 

 burning of Sodom, the dividing of the Red sea, 

 the thunders and lightnings of Sinai the mani 

 festation of the Son of God in human flesh; his 

 sufferings, death, resurrection, and triumphant 

 ascension in the propagation of the gospel it 

 the face of every opposition, in the rise and fall 

 of empires, the dethronement of kings, the bat 

 tles of warriors, and the convulsions of nations. 

 And, while he contemplates such objects and 

 operations, his admiration is excited by the in 

 comprehensible knowledge displayed in the con 

 trivance of the universe, the boundless benevo 

 lence which extends over all these works, and 

 the omnipotent power by which all the mighty 

 movements of Creation and Providence are ef 

 fected. And, while he admires, he is filled 

 with strong emotions of reverence of the glorious 

 perfections of that Being, whose mighty hand 

 conducts those stupendous movements, and he 

 feels the fuil force of the impressive exhortation 

 of the psalmist, &quot; Let all the earth fear the 

 Lord ; let all the inhabitants of the world stand 

 in awe of him : for he spake, and it was done ;. 

 he commanded, and it stood fast.&quot; Even the 

 abstract conceptions we have of the immensity 

 of the Divine Being, by wnich he is present it 

 every part of infinite space the eternity of hig 



