yet goodness is the object of love to all creatures who have any
degree of it themselves; and consciousness of a real endeavour to
approve ourselves to Him, joined with the consideration of His
goodness, as it quite excludes servile dread and horror, so it is
plainly a reasonable ground for hope of His favour. Neither fear
nor hope nor love then are excluded, and one or another of these
will prevail, according to the different views we have of God, and
ought to prevail, according to the changes we find in our own
character. There is a temper of mind made up of, or which follows
from all three, fear, hope, love--namely, resignation to the Divine
will, which is the general temper belonging to this state; which
ought to be the habitual frame of our mind and heart, and to be
exercised at proper seasons more distinctly, in acts of devotion.

Resignation to the will of God is the whole of piety. It includes
in it all that is good, and is a source of the most settled quiet
and composure of mind. There is the general principle of submission
in our nature. Man is not so constituted as to desire things, and
be uneasy in the want of them, in proportion to their known value:
many other considerations come in to determine the degrees of
desire; particularly whether the advantage we take a view of be
within the sphere of our rank. Whoever felt uneasiness upon
observing any of the advantages brute creatures have over us? And
yet it is plain they have several. It is the same with respect to
advantages belonging to creatures of a superior order. Thus, though
we see a thing to be highly valuable, yet that it does not belong to
our condition of being is sufficient to suspend our desires after
it, to make us rest satisfied without such advantage. Now there is
just the same reason for quiet resignation in the want of everything
equally unattainable and out of our reach in particular, though