Confidence towards God, explained, s 2 t brethren ; by it weknow that we are paled from S E R M. death to life; and while the oppofite difpofition XIII. ruleth in the hearts of men, they abide in "v--j death; that is, in a Bate of fervitude to fin, and liable to the wrath of God as the punifh- ment of it : By charity we imitate God, who is love; and when it is warm and vigorous in the heart, exprefiing itfelf in ads of be- neficence, we Phew a juff fenfe of that love which he hath fo glorioufly manifefled to us, in fending his Son to die for our redemp- tion ! But all this is not to be underflood as if charity were the whole of religion, and our hope towards God were founded on it in exclufion of other virtues : Charity doth not hide a multitude of fins in this fenfe, that it maketh amends for them, and, by its merit in God's fight, procureth the forgivenefs of them. There is an abfolute neceffity, in or- der to be approved of God, that we be juff, and temperate, and patient, and godly, as well as charitable; and our Saviour's doctrine, which his beloved difciple did not intend to contradict is, john xiv. 23. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, not one or fome, but all of them, and they enjoin uni- verfal righteoufnefs, he it is that loveth me, and he (hall be loved of my Father, and I will love him; without that we cannot V o L. III, affure 1; ii
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