Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

XXI
stated as the first spring of that communion with
God, that delight in him as a Father, that inward
life of love, and repose, and gratitude, which consti-
tutes the essential difference between the living and
the nominal Christian. The Author has an interior
view of religion as seated in the breast, nourished by
the grace from which it sprung, and rising up towards
God as the Fountain of felicity. Yet there is no-
thing of mysticism in this. It is the genuine, scrip-
tural, sound view of that union with God through
Jesus Christ, which re-unites what the fall had dis-
severed, and replaces man in a commerce with the
Father of spirits.
Let this be a specimen. John xv. 7— 10. " Ob-
serve here three sorts of union, or three conditions,
in order to obtain from God that which we desire
—1. We must be united to Christ by a lively faith,
and by charity. 2. We must be united to him by a
love of his truth, and a frequent meditation upon his
word.—3. The third is prayer. It is by this that
the branch draws the juice and sap of the vine, and
receives from thence more plentiful nourishment.
God chooses us to be Christ's members, and on
purpose to work in and by us all the good we do.
Thou God of my heart, who didst first love me,
cause me to continue with perseverance in thy love,
that thy love may continue eternally in me.—The
fidelity of my love towards God, and the adherence
of my heart to his law, can be nothing but the effect
of thy almighty grace, O Jesus : vouchsafe, I be-
seech thee, to produce this effect in me, in honour of
that which thy Father produced in thee."
3. But the application of every thing to the prac-