Fourth Sunday after Easter — On the great Commandment of divine Love

Consider, first, those words of the divine law, quoted Mark xii. 30; Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole sold, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This, says our Ird, is the greatest, and the first commandment. Matt. xxii. 39. Yes, my soul, it is the greatest ' of all the commandments of God, in his divine eyes, and that which he takes most of all to heart, since he has made our souls to his own image and likeness, to this very end, that we should love him, and should dedicate our whole being to his divine love, for all the time of our pilgrimage here upon earth; that so we might come to be happily united to him, in an eternal band of love, in his heavenly kingdom. O the excellent dignity of this divine commandment, which tends directly and immediately to raise our souls above this earth, and above the heavens of heavens, and the whole created universe, and to bring them to the God that made heaven and earth, and to unite them to him, by a most perfect love, both for time and eternity I

Consider, secondly, the incomprehensible goodness of God, manifested to us in this commandment, in his insisting so much upon our loving him, and upon our tending whh all our power to a union with him. Is, then, our love of any x>nsequence to him? Or can we add any thing to his happinesf by loving him? Or will he lose any thing, if we refuse him o t love? And what is there in us, poor little ants, if compared to his infinite majesty, that he should concern himself whether ve love him or no? Would it not be an unspeakable favoui V> us, that he should even suffer us, considering who he is, and who we are, to aspire so high as to pretend to his love? But rt this great God should make it a commandment, and the ery first and principal of all his commandments, that we should 've him, and love him with our whole heart; that he should inr st upon our entering into this strict league of eternal friendsht with him, promising all happiness for eternity upon our conp» Uance, and threatening us with most dreadful and eternal evils if we love him not; it is this that shows forth, and sets in so wonderful a light, the goodness of our God, and his love for i; that we should be not only most wretched, insensible, and ungrateful beyond expression, but even, in some sense, worse t n devils, if we should refuse him our love.

Consider, thirdly, the excellence of this commar Iment of divine love, with regard to the fruits it brings to souls.

Divine Love is the queen of virtues; she never com' alone, but brings all other virtues along with her; she gives=> life to them all; even faith and hope are dead, when she is no in their company. She brings with her the remission of all c r sins; she makes us the friends and favourites of the Most Hih; she makes us his children, his spouses, his temples; she is bond of all perfection. O my soul, how glorious it is, how happy, how delightful, to be thus united to thy God by a strict 1 uid of friendship and love! O embrace, then, with all thy powr s, thi. great commandment, which, by obliging thee to give thy whole self up to the love of God, brings down thy God, with >1 his treasures, to thee.

Conclude to make it henceforward the business of thy hS% to learn this great lesson of loving God; and as no one but God himself can effectually teach thee so sublime and so divsn». science, continually beg of him to introduce thee into his school'.' which he holds m thy intenor, and there to be thy Master.