532 DIVINE LOVE IS TIIE COMMANDING PASSION. " O how hateful have all my sinful thoughts been ! My proud,. my angry, andmy revengeful thoughts ! That covetousness, that malice and envy, which have been working in my heart ! Those wandering imaginations which have called me away from the blessed God, even from the midst of his worship ! .How vile and guilty is my tongue, because of the foolish and passionate, and sinful words that I have spoken ! What a multitude of evil actions have been scattered up and down throughout my life, and, intermixed with my behaviour towards God and man !" All these create bitter uneasiness and pain in the remembrance, be- cause they are offences against a God who is supremely beloved. Whatholy confusion, what meltings of heart in secret sorrow, do the true lovers of God fee), after they have indulged temptation, fallen under - some more grievous sin, defiled their consciences, and dishonoured their God ? What pangs of inward remorse, and what sincere indignation against themselves ? And as an evi- dence of their love to God, they sometimes see reason to confess and bewail their folly, even in the sight of men. Holy David was not backward 'upon such occasions, to confess his grief for having offended his God : We may read the mournings of his Iove, in his penitential Psalms particularly Ps. li. 3, 4, 17. and he offers a broken and-a contrite heart in sacrifice, to that God whom he had offended. A true and affectionate lover of God is pained at the heart, and feels a sensible inward sorrow to see how iniquity abounds in the land, to behold the laws of God broken by his fellow crea- tures, and his holy name blasphemed. I beheld the trangressors, and Iwas grieved, because they kept not thy word : Rivers of tears run down my eyes, because men break thy holy law ;". Ps. cxix. 136, 158. VIII. Every thing that has a tendency to divide the soul from God is matter of religious jealousy and holy fear. Divine love hath its jealousies : If we love God with intense affection we shall feel an inward anxiousness and solicitude, lest our hearts depart from the living God, and lest God should hide himself in his displeasure from our souls. This is what holy David is ever afraid of, and begs that God would not hide himself in anger. The apostle Jude, verse 21. bids us keep ourselves in the love of God : The holy soul will watch against every thing that may begin a'separation or break the divine friendship, and it grows jealous of every thing that comes too near the heart. When the true lover of God is deeply engaged in the busi- nesses of the present world, he manages them with a pious cau- tion, lest his soul should be immersed and drowned with over- whelming cares,, or overladen with increasing riches; he is watch- ful, and afraid lest the dust and rubbish of this world should bury theholy seed in the heart, should obstruct the growth of religion,
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