b30 DIVINE LOVE IS THE COMMANDING PASSION. towards Jesus the Son of, God : He is in their eyes the chiefesf of ten thousand, altogether lovely. V. Where the passion of divine love reigns gloriously in the heart, every creature separated from God will fall under a holy neglect and contempt. Nothing will serve or satisfy the good man, in the room and place of his God : All things, when laid in the balance, are lighter thanvanity ; they are in his esteem, like a small dust of the earth before a mountain, or the drop of a bucket, when compared with the ocean ; Is. xl. 15. The lan- guage of such a soul is, whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee ; Ps. lxxiii .25. Creatures, with all their attractives.and allurements, have no power tocharm his heart away from God : The divine lover is crucified to the world; it is. like a dead thing to him, tasteless, disrelishing, worthless and vain : There is a vast emptiness, and wide and universal desolation in the world, if the soul see not God in it. Business and diversions, cities and palaces, with their vari- ous ornaments, fields and groves, spring, summer and autumn, with all their flowery beauties, and their tasteful blessings, are some of the delights of the sons of men : Books and learning, and polite company, and refined science, are the more elegant joys of ingenious spirits: These things are the enticing gratifi- cations of the senses of the mind of man : They are all innocent in themselves, they may be sanctified to divine purposes, and afford double satisfaction, if God be amongst them : But if God be absent, ifhe hide his face, or frown upon the soul, not palaces, nor groves, nor fields, not business nor diversions, not all the floweryor'tasteful blessings of spring or summer, not the more refined joys of books and learning, and elegant company; not all the rich provisions of nature or art, can entertain or refresh, can satisfy or please the soul of a christian, who is smitten with the love of his God. I add further, if the affectionate christian find not God even in his church and ordinances ; if his mind be not raised to hea- venly objects in the house of God, and in his sacred institutions, they are all empty and unsatisfying ; there is no life nor pleasure in them : A hypocrite is content with outward forms, and is well pleased with haying paid his devoirs, and madehis appearance in the church ; but the heart that loves God sincerely, cannot be satisfied with mere bodily devotion, nor with any pictures, shadows, or emblems of divine things, unless God who is the life, the spirit, and the substance be there, and manifest himself in a way of mercy ; unless God fill his own institution with his own presence, that is, with the influen*es of his grace, with they enlightening, the sanctifying, and the comforting operations of his own Spirit.
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