did thus love him that love cannot require a Perfection of Degrees but only a sincere and prevalent Affection to him In a word in the Language of the Old Testament to serve God with the whole heart and Soul to walk before him with a perfect heart and with Integrity of heart hath an essential respect to the owning him alone to be the true God in opposition to all strange Gods and the continuing stedfast in his Service in opposition to the Service of the Heathen Idols or the Calves of Dan and Bethel Thus when God permitted a False Prophet to arise among them and to shew a Sign or do a Wonder to tempt them to desert him and go after other Gods he declares he did this for tryal Whether they loved the Lord their God with all their Hearts and all their Souls and therefore it must be sufficient to shew they did so that they were not prevailed upon by that false Prophet to decline from following after God but still cleaved stedfastly to him Hence of those Kings who with the true God served Idols or served him in an undue manner it is said they did not serve God with all their hearts V. G. Iehu took no heed to walk in the Law of the Lord his God with all his heart for he departed not from the sins of Ieroboam And of Solomon it is said That his Wives turned away his heart after other Gods and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God Of Abijam That his heart was not perfect with the Lord as the heart of David his Father for he walked in all the sins of his Father Rehoboam who forsook the Law of the Lord. And of Amaziah That he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but not with a perfect heart because coming from the Slaughter of the Edomites he brought the gods of the Children of Seir and set them up to be his gods and bowed down himself before them and burnt incense to them Whereas the contrary is said of all those Kings who put away all Idolatry and served him according to the Law of Moses viz. of Hezekiah who removed the high Places and brake the Images and cut down the Groves it is said That he walked before the Lord in truth and with a perfect heart Of Asa who removed all the Idols which his Father had made That his heart was perfect with the Lord all his days And of Iosiah who put away all the Images and the Idols and the Abominations which were in the land of Iudah and in Ierusalem That he turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might acccording to all the law of Moses Thus of Iudah revolting from the Lord after the Punishment of Israel for her Idolatry it is said she turned not unto the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from her whole heart but feignedly And the advice of Samuel to Israel runs thus Serve the Lord with all your heart and turn you not aside after vain things From which Observation we may reasonably Collect that when we love God so as not to make an Idol of any thing by loving it in opposition to his will or equally with God or so as that it Rivals not him nor draws our Hearts from that Obedience we owe to him then do we in the prime import of this Phrase love God with all our Souls and Hearts and hence we learn how apposite the reason here assigned is for loving God with all our Hearts and Souls viz. That the Lord is one God or that he only is the Lord and therefore to him alone belongeth the superlative Affection of the Soul and Heart which is due from all Creatures to their God Thirdly The love required by this Text our Lord requires as the Condition of Salvation for the Question of the Scribe was this By doing what shall I inherit Life Eternal the Answer of our Lord is this Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart c. this do and thou shalt live i. e. eternally What therefore he requires in this Text he plainly doth require as the Condition of Salvation Now that cannot be love of God with that Perfection of degrees which excludes all Imperfection and so all Sin for were that made the necessary Condition of Salvation no Person could be saved the best of Men being Imperfect and subject to sin in this Life Moreover this new Exposition destroys the Covenant of Grace for that requires only sincere Obedience as the Condition of Salvation and introduceth again the Covenant of Works i. e. a Covenant requiring perfect Obedience in order unto Life Fourthly If to love God with all the heart import the loving him with all our love so as to have no other Object of our love or on which we may in any measure set out heart then to love God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all our Mind and all our Understanding must import that we must have no other object of our Mind no Knowledge no Understanding of any thing else nothing but God on which we may imploy our rational Faculties the reason being perfectly the same in both cases because the Command is so but this is manifestly absurd as being not only contrary to the Practice of all Mankind but destructive of all Sciences all Arts and Trades unless they are best learnt and acquired by thinking upon God alone Moreover this Exposition as it gives the truest import of these words so hath it also this to recommend it that it serves all the designs of Religion in the General and of Christian Religion in Particular as much as doth the Exposition of these words for which good Mr. N. and the Lady do so much contend For First Do Mr. N. and the Lady recommend unto us their Sense of this command as an effectual preservative against Sin Sure this is done as fully by that love which doth engage us to be always ready to lose any temporal Good or suffer any temporal Evil rather than commit the least Sin against God Moreover can his Understanding be prevailed upon to prize any thing or be concerned for any thing so much as to endeavour to obtain or to preserve it by displeasing God who values the favour of God infinitely above all other things and counts them loss and dung compared to him Can his Will be diverted from God by any temporal Concerns or any Charms of a Temptation who loves him so as still to cleave unto him in opposition to all other things and to admit of nothing which stands in competition with him for his love yea who has nothing he doth not truly hate and despise comparatively to his Favour nothing that can tempt him to depart from him or do the thing that will provoke his Displeasure can he
God proportionably to his loveliness i. e. with an infinite Love and this Degree is peculiar to God himself The second is to love him not proportionably to his Loveliness but to the utmost Capacity of a Creature and this Degree is peculiar to Saints and Angels in Heaven The third is to love him not to the outmost Capacity of a Creature absolutely considered but to the outmost Capacity of a mortal Creature in this Life and this he says is proper to the Religious The fourth is to love him not proportionably to the outmost Capacity of a Creature but only so as to love nothing equally with or above him that is not to do any thing contrary to the Divine Love and this saith Mr. N. is an absolute indispensable Duty less than which will not qualifie us for the Enjoyment of God hereafter In his Treatise of the Theory and Regulation of Love he saith That as we are obliged to love God so ought we to love him beyond all other things whatsoever We may and must Prefer him in our Love Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart with all thy Soul with all thy Mind and with all thy Strength So runs the Commandment and very just we should for if even in particular Goods Order requires that the most lovely should be loved most N. B. much more ought we to love him who is the very Essence of Good Good it self beyond all Derivative and secondary Good In his Treatise of Heroick Piety he hath these words I know it is usually Objected That what is supposed to be thus Heroickly performed is inclusively enjoined by virtue of those comprehensive Words Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy Heart To which Objection he Answers thus I conceive that All which is intended by that Phrase amounts to no more than 1st a sincere love of God as 't is opposed to that which is partial and divided and 2dly such a degree of loving as admits of nothing in competition with him And thus far reaches the bounds of indispensable Duty it being impossible that he who does not love God in this Sense and Degree should keep his Commandments Now here I would crave leave to ask him whether when he wrote these things He could not but be sensible that he did not rise up to the Letter of the Text and that it manifestly required a more elevatâ—d Sense though to preserve his Heroick Piety he pretended to conceive it amounted to no more than loving God sincerely in opposition to a parâ—ial â—â—d divided love and so as to admit of nothing into competition with him Whether by these Savings he taught Men to love God less thâ—n â—e râ—â—â—ired to defraud him of his due to râ—sist his Wâ—ll c. Whether he only said these things as bâ—ing then under the Power of his Passions Lusts Interests Customs and Prejudices and not being in due measure purged from the Prejudices of Sense not disingaged from the love of sensible Objects not so far entered into the methods of true Mortification as to be capable of Conviction and of having his mind wrought upon by the light and force of Reason If not let him learn hereafter from his own Sense and Experience not to pass such severe and undue Censures on his Brethren Having premised these things I proceed 2 dly To establish and confirm the common Exposition from the Evidence of Scripture and of Reason Let it be then observed First That this Command was given to the Iewish Nation and is only cited by our Lord or by the Lawyer from Deut. 6.5 where the words runs thus Hear O Israel the Lord thy God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind and with all thy soul and with all thy might Now hence ariseth a demonstration that this Text cannot be expounded so as to exclude all love or all desire of the Creature For the Land they lived in was the Land of Promise stiled by God himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The pleasant Land or The Land of Desire Psal. 106.24 Dan. 8.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Land of Glory or the Glorious Land as being the Glory the most pleasant and desirable of all Lands to encourage them to go in and possess it it is represented to them as an exceeding good Land a Land which floweth with Milk and Honey a good Land a Land of Wheat and Barley and Vines and Figtrees and Pomegranates a Land of Oil-Olive and Honey a Land wherein they should eat Bread without scarceness and in which they should not lack any thing a Land which the Lord thy God careth for the eyes of the Lord thy God are upon it from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year And might they not desire what was the very promise made to the Seed of Abraham Might they not love or be pleased with a Land so glorious so pleasant and desirable Doubtless they would have marched but heavily through the Barren and Desolate Wilderness had Moses by this Precept forbid them to desire or be pleased with this Land flowing with Milk and Honey Moreover the Blessings of this Life were the chief things which God did promise to these Iews as the Reward of their Affection and Obedience to him whence he is said to give them Wealth that he might stablish his Covenant with them to make them plenteous in the Works of their hands for Good And the taking away of those outward Blessings was the chief thing threatned in the Law of Moses to deter them their Disobedience For saith God if you will hearken diligently to my Commandments to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul then will I give you the Rain of thy Land in due season that thou mayst gather thy Corn and thy Wine and thy Oil And I will send Grass in thy Field for thy Cattle that thou mayest eat and be full Ye shall serve the Lord thy God and he shall bless thy Bread and thy Water and I will take Sickness from thee and fulfil the number of thy days Ye shall do my Statutes and shall keep my Iudgments and ye shall dwell in the Land in safety and the Land shall yield her Fruit and ye shall eat your fill If ye walk in my Statutes and keep my Commandments to do them then will I give you Rain in due season and the Land shall yield her increase and the Trees of the Field shall yield their Fruit and you shall eat your Bread to the full and dwell in your Land safely And I will give you peace in the Land and you shall lie down and none shall make you afraid and I will have respect unto you and make you fruitful and multiply you If thou observe to do all the Commands which I command thee this day blessed shalt thou
Adulterers and Adulteresses know ye not that the Friendship of this World is enmity to God James 4.4 § 2. 3dly From these Words of St. John Love not the World neither the things that are in the World 1 John 2.15 § 3. And to his Arguments against the relative Love of the Creature V. G. 1. That it is as much Idolatry as the relative Worship of the Creature This Answered 1. ad hominem by shewing that it was formerly approved by Mr. N. 2. By shewing the Disparities betwixt the relative Love of the Creature and the relative Worship of Images § 4. Object 2. If Creatures be truly and properly lovely as being our true and proper Good they are to be loved absolutely and for themselves if not they are not to be loved at all Answered by shewing in what Sense they may be stiled our true and proper Good and be loved for themselves viz. as that imports a love of them only for that Goodness God hath put into them and how they may not be loved absolutely and for themselves viz. as that excludes the Subordination of that Affection to the Love of God § 5. AGainst this sense of the Words I plead for Mr. N. hath but one Objection from the words themselves and it runs thus The Text saith Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Mind but does he love God at this Rate who loves him only principally and more than any thing else Does this exhaust the Sense of this great Commandment Can he be said with any tolerable Sense to love God with all his Heart and Soul that only loves him above other things at the same time allowing other things a share in his love Can he be said to love God with all his Love N. B. who loves him only with a part What though that part be the larger part 't is but a part still and is a part of the whole What Logick or what Grammar will endure this To this I answer First That he assumes what never will be granted by Divines viz. That Scripture Phrases must be Interpreted not according to the Analogy of Faith and the import of the same words elsewhere occurring in the Holy Scripture but according to the Rules of Logick and of Grammar which supposition would render the Interpretation of Scripture very absurd in many places For instance 1. The Apostle saith All Men seek their own and not the things of Iesus Christ that is say Interpreters many or most Men do so The Gospel was Preached to all the World to every Creature under Heaven saith the same Apostle and the Faith of the Romans was spoken of in all the World when as then many Parts even of the Roman Empire had heard nothing of it Here therefore all Interpreters allow a Synecdoche totius pro parte i. e. the whole is put for the most celebrated Parts of the World and will he here ask Can that be said to be Preached to all and spoken of in all the World which is only Preached and spoken of in a part of it Is a part the whole 2. Again Children obey your Parents in all things Servants obey your Masters according to the Flesh in all things saith the Text. This Generality say Interpreters is to be restrain'd to all things honest to all things belonging to their Right as Parents or Masters to command and will he here cry out What Logick or what Grammar will endure this 3. In Precepts absolutely negative and even exclusive that which in Words is absolutely denied must be interpreted so as only to import that 't is denied not absolutely but comparatively not as to the whole but as to the degree as V. G. God saith I required Mercy and not Sacrifice when as yet the greatest part of Leviticus is imploy'd in giving Laws concerning Sacrifices Christ saith Fear not them which can kill the Body Samuel Only fear the Lord and serve him and yet saith the Scripture Fear the Lord and the King and Render to all their dues fear to whom fear so that the import of these Words must be this Fear not the one so much as the other fear not Man or Idols so as to incur the displeasure of God Labour not for the Meat that perisheth saith the Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Work not for it and yet saith the same Scripture Let him that stole steal no more but rather let him labour working with his hands the thing that is good for he that will not labour shall not eat so that the import of that Phrase is only this Do not chiefly and primarily labour for the Meat that perisheth and will he here again cry out What Logick or what Grammar will endure this Secondly I ask what Grammar will not endure it I have already shew'd the Hebrew and the Greek of the Septuagint do use the Phrase in this Sense as for the Latins nothing is more common with them than to express an ardent Love by saying In amore est totus unicè amat toto pectore diligit omni studio aliquem amplectitur In French it is as common to say Ie vous aime de tout mon coeur We teach our very Children to say I love my Dad I love my Mam with my whole Heart nothing therefore being more ordinary in every Language than to use this Expression when we do not in the least intend to signifie the Person we thus love is loved exclusively of all others but only that he is very much beloved by us Why may not the Scripture say this of that God we are obliged to love above all things and before all things and so as to love other things only in Subordination and Relation to him loving none other with that Love which is due and proper to him For as we are commanded to serve him only and yet may serve our King our Master and our Friend to fear him only and yet may fear our Parents our Superiors and Masters because we do not serve them with that Religious Worship nor fear them with that Reverence which is due to God alone So may we love the Creature with a love of Desire and our Neighbour with a love of Benevolence and yet love God only with that Desire and Benevolence which is due to him alone When Mr. N. proposeth this Objection against his own Opinion That if the Love of God required our whole Affection we could not love our Neighbour as our selves he is forced to Answer thus that If the Love of God and of our Neighbour were of the same Kind that entire Love of the former would indeed exclude the latter but this is not the Case we are not here supposed to love God in the same Sense or with the same sort of love wherewith we love our Neighbour So say I is it in