True Devotion productive of the truest Pleasure.

1. You see that true devotion is not a melancholy sentiment, that depresses the spirits and excludes the ideas, of pleasure, which youth is so fond of: on the contrary, there is nothing so friendly to joy, so productive of true pleasure, so peculiarly suited to the warmth and innocence of a youthful heart. Do not, therefore, think it too soon to turn your mind to God; but offer him, the first fruits of your understanding and affections: and, be assured, that the more you increase in love to him, and delight in his laws, the more you will increase in happiness, in excellence, and honour:—that, in proportion as you improve in true piety, you will become dear and amiable to your fellow creatures; contented and peaceable in yourself, and qualified to enjoy the best blessings of this life, as well as to inherit the glorious promise of immortality.

2. Thus far I have spoken of the first principles of all religion: namely, belief in God, worthy notions of his attributes, and suitable affections towards him—which will naturally excite a sincere desire of obedience. But, before you can obey his will, you must know what that will is; you must enquire in what manner he has declared it, and where you may find those laws, which must be the rule of your actions.

3. The great laws of morality are indeed written in our hearts, and may be discovered by reason; but our reason is of slow growth, very unequally dispensed to different persons; liable to error, and confined within very narrow limits in all. If, therefore, God has vouchsafed to grant a particular revelation of his will—if he has been so unspeakably gracious as to send his Son into the world, to reclaim mankind from error and wickedness—to die for our sins—and to teach us the way to eternal life—surely it becomes us to receive his precepts with the deepest reverence; to love and prize them above all things; and to study them constantly, with an earnest desire to conform our thoughts, our words and actions, to them.