350 THE USE OF THE PASSIONS IN RELIGION. praises ! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name : Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits; Psal. ciii. 1, 2. Seven times a-day will I praise thee : My heart isfixed, O Godniy heart is fixed ; I will sing and givepraise: Awake, my tongue, my glory, awaketo thejoyful work ; Psa. lvii. 7, 8. While thepious affections are duly engaged in prayer, even acommon christian is enabled to make divine work of it : Our minds never want matter, nor our tongues expression. Sense and language are very much at the call of the devout passions; where the mind is tolerably furnished with the principles of re- ligion ; and then the soul converses with its Maker with unknown delight. But when we are impelled by a mere precept command ing us to our knees, and conscience goads us on as it were to the task and drudgery of prayer, without any devout affection, how cold is the heart ! How languid the worship !: How dry the mind ! How scanty the language ! The invention and the lips strive and labour, and all to little purpose. In such a case, I cannot but think that well-composed forms of devotion may be usefulhelps to awaken the drowsy powers, and to call up sleep- ing religion. But where these powers are awake and lively, such helps are less needful in our praying seasons. The same experiment may be repeated in reading the word of God. How full of sweetness andholy pleasures are she disco- veries and the promises of the bible, when devout affectionsare at work ! Howsweet arethehistories of Abraham and David, the prophecies of Isaiah, and thepredictions that point to Christ ! How glorious the epistles of Peter and Paul ? How divinely pleasing is the gospel of John, and the dying discourses and prayer of our Saviour in the xiv. xv. xvi. and xvii. chapters of this evangelist ! I-Iow full of rapture and holy transport are the Psalms of David! We enter into his spirit, and we feel his di- vine sentiments and joys. Butwhat a deadness, what a dryness overspreads even the most delicious and heavenlyparts of thosè divine writings ; what an insipid and tasteless thing is the gospel itself, when theholypassions are all asleep ! So it is in hearing' sermons : When our sacred affections are awake, we dwell on the lips oftheminister, as on the lips ofan angel of God :'Every sen- tence seemsto come from heaven ; and even a feeble teacher, with allhis infirmities at such a season, seems like a divine mes- senger, and raises your attention and delight. But the cause is within yourselves, the activity,ofyour devout affections under the, influences of divine grace. Is not benevolence and 'kindness,to our fellow-creatures, liberality to the poor, and especially to ourfellow-christians, ano- ther part ofour religion? Pure religion and undefiled is this, tovisit thefatherless and the widow in their aliction; James i.
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