But tho’ our outward means of doing good are often thus limited, yet, if our hearts are full of love, we get, as it were, an infinite power; because God will attribute to us those good works, which we would have performed, had it been in our power. You cannot heal all the _sick_, relieve all the _poor_; you cannot comfort all in distress, nor be a father to all the fatherless. You cannot, it may be, deliver many from their misfortunes, or teach them to find comfort in God. *But if there is a love in your heart, that _excites_ you to do _all_ that you can; if your love has _no bounds_, but continually _wishes_ and _prays_ for the relief of all that are in distress, you will be received by God as a benefactor to those, who had nothing from you but your _good-will_, and tender affections. You cannot build _hospitals_ for the _incurable_; but if you join in your heart with those that do; if you are a friend to these great friends to mankind, and rejoice in their eminent virtues, you will be received by God as a sharer of such good works, as tho’ they had none of your _hands_, yet had _all_ your _heart_. This consideration surely is sufficient to make us watch over our hearts with all diligence: and aspire after the height of a loving, charitable, and benevolent mind. 13. And, on the other hand, we may hence learn the great evil of _envy_, _spite_, _hatred_, and _ill-will_. For if the goodness of our hearts will intitle us to the reward of good actions, which we never performed; it is certain that the badness of our hearts, will bring us under the guilt of actions that we have never committed. *As he that lusteth after a woman shall be reckoned an adulterer, tho’ he has only committed the crime in his heart; so the malicious, spiteful, ill-natured man, that only _secretly_ rejoices at evil, shall be reckoned a _murderer_, tho’ he has shed no blood. *Since therefore our hearts, which are always naked and open to the eyes of God, give such an exceeding extent and increase, either to our virtues or vices, it is our _greatest_ business to govern the motions of our hearts, to correct and improve the inward state of our souls. 14. Now there is nothing that so much exalts our souls, as this heavenly love; it cleanses and purifies like a holy fire, and all ill tempers fall away before it. By love, I don’t mean any _natural tenderness_, which is more or less in people, according to their constitutions; but a _larger principle_ of the soul, which makes us kind to all our fellow-creatures, as creatures of God, and for his sake. It is this love that loves all things in God, as his creatures, as the images of his power, as the creatures of his goodness, as parts of his family, as members of his society, that becomes a holy principle of all great and good actions. These reasons sufficiently shew, that no love is _holy_, or _religious_, till it becomes _universal_.