rior objects, and when disappointed and forrowful, retains still a noble mixture of delight in the fubject of it, and is amiable to those who contemplate it, when it is in the most perfect degree directed towards the most perfect object, must be confidered as a principal ingredient necessary to beatitude. When the reason of our love to a person is his physical perfections, it is esteem; when the reafon of it is his favours, or fome relation to ouri selves, which is a durable source of favours, it is gratitude; to delight in his happiness, is benevolence; and that love which has for its special object : and reason his moral perfections, is approbation or complacence; though this last term is sometimes taken in a larger sense: and all these contribute to that love which consists in defire of enjoying, of having the view, presence and society, and favour of a lovely object. A just love is when the reason of it is true, or when the object is really endued with those perfections, or caufses and reasons of love, which are supposed to be in it. Experience shows, that approbation heightens benevolence; and therefore the want of it naturally lessens it; and the greater the physical perfections of an object are, if they be joined with moral deformity, they make the object the more odious, and its prefence and society the more unpleasant. When we contemplate objects of unequal perfection and loveliness, it is just to have unequal love to them, or to love them in proportion to their loveliness, and to give the preference to the high eft. We may conceive several orders of justice in love and affection, according to the several orders of the objects of affection. The highest justice we are capable of, is to have a just affection or to give just preference to the highest perfection : where there are many objects of affection equally lovely, to love them 3 E 2 them equally; and consequently to have more love to many of them, or to a greater number, than to a less; because whatever reason there is in one of them, or any finaller number, to make us love them, there is still more reason for love in a greater number of them. We cannot be happy in any company, not even in our own, without love and approbation; the more complacence, approbation, and esteem, the more benevolence. Infinite happiness can want no degree of any thing neceffary to the highest approbation and love of the fubject of it. These things are neceffarily connected together: A being of infinite perfection, of infinite esteem, love, and complacency in himself, which is infinite love, and infinite juslice and truth. We cannot conceive the Supreme Being, either, as infinitely perfect, or just, or happy, without an infinite love and preference of himself above all other things; which is one way of conceiving with due reverence divine efssential holiness. No other being can be perfect, just, or happy, without the fame morai perfection, holiness, or preferring and loving God above all things; and, as was shown before, what we love, or what we love chiefly, we must chiefly delight in contemplating it, in rejoicing in its happiness, or we must chiefly delight in loving it. All actions flow from the moral difpofition of the agent, or his will and inclination. An agent inti. nitely lovely, can do nothing but what is most lovely, and nothing but what is a just reason for the greatest love to himself. He cannot appear unlike himself. Creatures can fee nothing but his works, and their own; and if perfectly lovely actions cannot be a temptation, a reason, or excuse, for despising the agent, then all want of holiness in a being capable of it is inexcufable. We cannot be holy, without approving and loving that moral disposition in ourselves, and all others; ✓ yea, the more holy a being is, the more it loves and approves of it where-ever it is; and the fame reason that is for love of holiness, is for want of love, that is, for aversion and hatred of the contrary difpo that fition. If holiness be the highest justice, ungodliness is the highest injuftice; and if the highest degree of it be hateful, any degree of it, in any person, at any time, must be so proportionably. What appears unjust to us, we think hateful al-ways when we think on it, or fee it; what is hateful at one time, is so always; and the way to remove that hatred is, to remove the object, or to hinder it from appearing to us at all, to forget it. Whatever be faid of punishment of fin, it is certain, that the knowledge and hatred of fin, suppofing it to exift, is essential to God. It is not an arbitrary thing, but effential, that he fees it all, fees it always, cannot forget it, and therefore always hates it; and if, as was observed before, a finite fuperior degree of holiness is an infallible cause of a fuperior hatred of fin, the greatest holiness must cause the greatest hatred of it. It is a moral difposition, and must incline to manifest itself in a manner worthy of the subject of it, and suitable to the object. All hatred inclines to manifest itself, and just hatred inclines to manifeft itself in a manner becoming the being who has that hatred. Reason tells us, that the way becoming a fovereign, or governor, is punishment; and as one of the leaft manifeftations of hatred is with-holding manifeftations of favour, or all benefits, that itself, in the present cafe, would be mifery. It is an effential perfection in God, both to give always the greatest reason to creatures to love him, that is, to act always in that manner that is most worthy of his own approbation, and theirs, or to be holy and happy, and to manifest the greatest hatred of fin after it is committed. Thus vindictive juftice 1 1 justice is but a different view of infinite holiness and goodness, the most lovely moral perfections in the world. It is essential to God to approve and love this holiness and justice; and in order to holiness in us, that is, in order to be happy, and to be just, it is necessary to approve of it likewise. We can have no just or reasonable joy, without both loving God, and confequently loving and approving of his vindictive justice; and, on the other hand, we can have no reasonable joy, without expecting God's love and favour to us; and therefore it is necessary we know his righteousness manifefted in the remiffion of fins; - without which, we can neither truly love him, nor expect his love; that is, we cannot be happy, without knowing that he favours us in a just and holy way. No facrifice of a mere creature in the room of multitudes, can be a manifestation of the greatest essential eternal hatred of fin, or the greatest motive of an eternal law against it. It is not sufficient to have any knowledge of the harmony of vindictive justice, and of mercy in our redemption, but such a knowledge as shall acquiefce, approve, and adore, that justice, and delight in contemplation of it, as perfectly amiable, and to believe, that we had no reason to despise God, and God no reason in us to love us; for if we believe it was just to give us no favour, all that is given is free. We can conceive no divine excellency more amiable, than the beauty of infinite holiness, or justice and mercy; no manifestation of them comparable to this; excepting the beatific vision itself, we can conceive no contemplation of divine glory so excellent in itself, so suitable to us: and a fuitable impreffion of it (which still admits of degrees) must increase the joy of the beatific vifion itself; for the more love we have to an intelligent being, the more delight we have in viewing its excellency and happiness. God God manifested in the flesh is an object which contains both the brightness of the glory of the creator, and the brightness of the glory of the creation. The three several orders of excellency and beauty fpoken of before, are here joined together in the nearest union; abfolutely fupreme or divine glory, fupreme created intellectual glory, and supreme vifible or material glory. His human nature has the #beauties of the intellectual and material universe united in it. Our present joy or happiness in this life is proportionable to our knowledge and love of God in Christ. That knowledge and love admits of degrees. It is just to be always making progress in it: one of the most manifest and most necessary means of heightening it is this, to be reflecting on our moral imperfections, fins, and corruptions, to be making progress in the knowledge of them, which is a very easy study, if we were fincerely inclined to it, since the materials lie so near us. Sense of need makes a favour precious; and sense of unworthiness heightens gratitude to God, which is an essential ingredient of the greatest joy, present or future. It is impossible to love God, without hating ourselves; because it is impossible to love holiness, without hating the contrary disposition. Reflection on our physical perfections or faculties, is useful; but it is in order to fee the goodness of the au thor of them, and the evil of those moral imperfections that have abused them. But in a state of complete happiness, the mind must be free of moral imperfections. For the inward reflection and contemplation of deformity in ourselves, is inconsistent with fullness of joy. But a just mind cannot reflect on its own perfections, though it must be confcious, and reflect on them, other wife than as derived from the original and effential |