that gratification at the expense of the honour, the mterest, the happiness of the ohject beloved ; and it trampled under foot every law w^hether human or divine. In the case before us this is plain and obvious ; and it will be found that very much of that which is called love and friendship, is of precisely the same stamp and character. It is scarcely needful to advert to that which issues in the seduction of innocence, and a dere- liction of the seduced object to all the horrors of infamy and want ; yet, how many thousands, of the lower classes especially, have reason to deplore and execrate the existence of such love, amongst their family, their friends, or their acquaintance ! Nor is the friendship of innumerable classes both in higher and lower life unlike to this. Behold the gamester ; he has his friends to whom he is strongly attached, not for any valuable qualities in them, but because they administer to his pleasure : but so cruel is his attachment, that if he can win from them all that they possess, he will gladly do it, though he thereby reduce both them and their families to the lowest ebb of misery and ruin. In like manner the persons that unite for what is called conviviality and good fellowship : what are these, but confederates against the God of heaven and earth, associated together to encourage one another in a contempt of his majesty, and a violation of his laws ? If men unite for the purposes of plunder, or in resistance to the constituted authorities of the land, we conceive that we do them no injustice, when we speak of them as thieves or rebels : nor vnll God designate by any gentler terms the union of those who uphold one another in a systematic opposition to his holy wiU. Whatever be the par- ticular line of conduct they pursue, whether the more flagrant one of open licentiousness, or the more approved one of sober sensuality, their love is selfish, because it centres in self; it is cruel, because it seeks its own ends without regard to the happiness of others ; and it is imj)ious, because it is a con- spu-acy to banish God from the world.]
2. The deficiency of that which is good —
[Nothing is more honourable than virtuous love, nor any thing more delightful than friendship founded on virtuous principles. But still if the attachment be merely that which springs from natural affections, it is defective : it is defective in its foundation, its exercise, its cotitinuance.
That cannot be perfect which has not piety for its basis. Our love to each other should spring from our love to God, and have respect to his image in the person beloved. The person's conformity to God's mind and will should be the reason, and the measure, of our love to him. Where this is not the case, the union will be in danger of being dissolved by that very thing which ought most powerfully to cement it. If