200 Tite NEW and COMPLETE LIFE of our BLESSED LORD long after thefe venerable patriarchs were dead, the relation denoted by the word God Pill fubfifted between them ; confe- quently they were not annihilated as you pretend, but arePill in being, and continue to be the fervants ofthe Moli High. This argument was conclufive ; it effeiivally filenced the Sadducees, and agreeably fur- prifed the people, to fee the objeaion, hitherto thought impregnable, totally abo- lilhed, and the fell they had long abomi- nated, fully confuted : And when the multitude heard this, . they were aftoned at his doltrine, Mat. xxii. 33 Though the Pharifees had joined with the Sadducees, in order to put our bleffed Saviour to death, they, could not fail of being pleafed to fee their inveterate ene- mies put to filence, and the famous argu- ment they had fo often propofed with oflentation, as unanfwerable, fully confuted. Nor could they refrain from giving the Saviour of mankind the praife due to his fuperlative wifdom ; for one ofthe Scribes defired him to give his opinion, on a queftion often debated among their teachers ; namely, which was the great commandment of the law. The true rea- fon for their propofing this queflion, was to try whether he was as well acquainted with the facred law, and the debates that had arifen on different parts of it, as he was in deriving arguments from the in- fpired writers, to defiroythe tenets of thofe who denied a future Pate. In order to underfland the queliion pro - pofed to our bleffed Saviour by the Scribe, it muli be remembered, that fome of the moli learned Rabbins had declared, that the law of facrifices was the great com- mandment ; fome, that it was the law of circumcifion ; and others, that the law of meats and wafhings bell merited that title. Our bleffed Saviour, however, (hewed that they were all miflaken ; and that the great commandment of the law is the duty of piety ; and particularly mentioned that comprehenfive fummary of it, given by Mofes: Hear, 0 Ifrael; the Lord our God 3 is one Lord : and thou (halt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy foul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy ftrength : this is the Jill and great commandment, Mark xii. 29, 30. Here I cannot help obferving, that this fummary ofpiety begins with an emphati- cal affertion of there being onlyone God, the maker of heaven and earth, and the poffeffor of all perfe&ion, in order to in- duce us to ufe the utmol diligence in obey- ing his precepts ; the fire and chief of which is, to give him our hearts. The Divine Being is fo tranfcendantly amiable in himfelf, and hath, by the innumerable benefits conferred upon us, fuch a title to our utmoll affection, that no obligation bears any proportion to that of loving him. The honour affigned to this precept, proves that piety is the nobles ail of the human mind, and that the chief ingredient in piety is love, founded on a clear and extenfive view of the Divine perfeilions, a perma- nent fenfe of his benefits, and a deep con - viilion of his being the fovereign good our portion our happinefs : but it is effen- tial to love, thatthere be a delight in con- templating the beauty ofthe objet beloved, whether that beauty be matter of fenfation or reflection ; that we frequently, andwith pleafure, reflect on the benefits conferred on us by the objeél of our affections ; that we have a Prong defire of pleafing him, great fear of doing any thing to offend him, and a fenfible joy in thinking we are beloved in return. Hence the duties of devotion, prayer, and praife, are the moli natural and genuine exercifes of the love of God: nor is this virtue fo much any fingle affection as the continual bent of all the affections and powers of the foul; con- fequently to love God is as much as poffible to direa the whole foul towards him, and to exercife all it's faculties on him as it's chief objeil. Accordingly, the love of God is defcribed in Scripture, by the feveral operations of the mind, a fol- lowing hard after God, namely, by intenfe contemplation; a'fenfe. of his perfections, gratitude
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=