really as He is the object of the affection, which is in the
strictest sense called love; and all of them equally rest in Him as
their end. And they may all be understood to be implied in these
words of our Saviour, without putting any force upon them: for He
is speaking of the love of God and our neighbour as containing the
whole of piety and virtue.

It is plain that the nature of man is so constituted as to feel
certain affections upon the sight or contemplation of certain
objects. Now the very notion of affection implies resting in its
object as an end. And the particular affection to good characters,
reverence and moral love of them, is natural to all those who have
any degree of real goodness in themselves. This will be illustrated
by the description of a perfect character in a creature; and by
considering the manner in which a good man in his presence would be
affected towards such a character. He would of course feel the
affections of love, reverence, desire of his approbation, delight in
the hope or consciousness of it. And surely all this is applicable,
and may be brought up to that Being, who is infinitely more than an
adequate object of all those affections; whom we are commanded to
LOVE WITH ALL OUR HEART, WITH ALL OUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL OUR MIND.
And of these regards towards Almighty God some are more particularly
suitable to and becoming so imperfect a creature as man, in this
mortal state we are passing through; and some of them, and perhaps
other exercises of the mind, will be the employment and happiness of
good men in a state of perfection.

This is a general view of what the following discourse will contain.
And it is manifest the subject is a real one: there is nothing in
it enthusiastical or unreasonable. And if it be indeed at all a