confusion As eye hath not seen ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him So nor hath eye seen ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man while on earth the dreadful vengeance and eternal fadnes that wil be the portion of all those that finally persist in the love of themselvs which is enmity to God Eternal sorrow is eternal death in reference to which man wil be kept up in a most exquisite sensiblenes by the omnipotent hand of divine justice God know's exactly all the sins and follies of men in their full dimensions and aggravations and will proportion their punishment thereunto Those that deny God his due by not loving him but themselvs and so hating him with all their heart soul strength and mind wil be sure to meet with their due from the most just avenging hand of God that fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries Man by self-self-love exalt's himself into the room of God with an ERO SIMILIS ALTISSIMO in harmony with the devil's first sin on which he will come to be cast down to hel 2. Pet. 2. 4. with his leaders the devil and his angels The punishment due to man for such contempt of his omnipotent creatour is unexpressible by the tongu's of men or angles Fire as the most afflicting thing in nature is used to express the eternal punishment of man The eternal fire into which he wil be cast will burn but not consume him or afford him any light It wil be accompanied with eternal darknes It will have all the afflicting grieving properties of fire but none of the relieving comforting properties at all Men that love darknes rather then light here because their deeds are evil will have their fill of darknes at last for all their evil deeds Man only of all the visible world can properly deserv and accordingly receive punishment from the hand of god because he only is furnished with rational powers to know what he ought to do and to do what he ought in obedience to God If therefore he do things contrary to the will of God and his own light God will bring somthing upon him contrary to his will with eternal darknes His will being a perpetual thing and fixed in enmity to God God will do that which wil be perpetually contrary to it His inordinate will chiefly affected and sought his own honour praise glory and pleasure the contraries whereunto in extreamity wil be his portion eternal dishonour contempt shame confusion and sorrow unutterable The everlasting punishment of man from the hand of God wil be managed and executed in such a way as is most contrary to his will and desire and most conducible to the aggravation and advance of his sorrow SECT III. Resurrection AGain from the eternal punishment and sorrow due to the soul of mā we may conclude it shall recover its own body again and that in a state most contrary to its desire for the encrease of its sorrow As it us'd it contrary to the will of God on earth it shall have it in a posture most contrary to it 's own will in hel for ever As the whole man body and soul acted against the will of God in this world So must the whole man body and soul suffer against his own will in hel And because 't is more contrary to the will of man in such case to receive his body again in a passible condition or capacity of suffering then impassible and in an immortal condition uncapable of losing its sensiblenes then mortal c. we may conclude that he will receive it clogg'd and attended with all imaginable disadvantages a passible and yet immortal body that it may ever suffer a most obscure dark deformed body for the encrease and aggravation of his sorrow Furthermore all the sorrow of others in fellowship with him and all the joy of others in the opposite condition thereunto will make for the encrease of his sorrow The creatour and every creature yea the very soul itself shall avenge the cause of God upon man so that he will have no comfort on any account or from any thing for ever The creatour every creature all the joy and good of others all the sorrow and evil of others shall make for the encrease of his sorrow So have we the truth and certainty as to the two final fruits which will arise from the two above mention'd first loves the love of God and self CHAP. XIV Two generall societies and everlasting habitations of men THe freedom which man hath in the united exercise of his understanding and will above-spokē to for the judging and turning this way or that qualifies and capacitates him for the taking of two contrary wayes the steering of two opposite courses unto life or death By the different wayes which men take in the exercise of these their rational powers do they come to be divided and separated in will affectiō mind doctrine and interest so as to be direct enemies to each other T is requisite therefore that there be two distinct final receptions or habitations for them suitable to the distance and contrariety of their affections The same thing may be also concluded from the two above-said first loves the love of God and self which render men directly contrary to each other separating elongating alienating and distancing them from one another in will affection and their whole course as far as is possible One of their habitations will be the place of sorrow and eternal death the other of joy and eternal life The one wil be the royal palace and house of God the other an everlasting dungeon full of confusion darkness and all evill In the one wil be more good in the other more evil then can be express'd by the tongu's of men or angels All that have walk'd and finish'd their course in self-love being of the same nature and inclination wil be gathered together into one place And all that have lived in the love of God as being also of one temper and inclination wil be gathered into a distinct place separated from and most opposite to the other as a company or corporation most contrary in Spirit and principle to the other The sheep will finally be separated from the goats and enter into life eternal the goats must away into everlasting punishment Mat. 25. 32. 46. Seing there are but two general inclinations of men there can be but two places for their final abode heaven and hel And each place wil be suitable to the different temper of the inhabitants Those that by self-love have sought to dethrone God and to usurp the peculiar soveraignty of his will wil be thrust into outer darknes where shal be weeping and gnashing of teeth CHAP. XV. Concerning hatred MAn's obligation extend's to hatred as well as love The right knowledg then of hatred and love is the same All that hath bin proved of
such faculties or perform any such offices And as the organs are stronger or weaker better or worse temper'd accordingly are such offices performed 2. There are a middle sort of powers in man the sensitive perform'd by outward and inward organs By outward organs are the powers of seing hearing smelling tasting touching performed to wit by eyes ears nose palate and the whole body which is the organ of touching By inward organs within the head of man calculated and suited thereunto do the common sense the imaginative and memorative powers of the soul perform their several offices The visive power by the eye discerns and distinguishes the colours forms and figures of things The auditive by the ear perceiv's and distinguishes sounds words c The olfactive perceivs and distinguishes different odors or smells c. These are their offices We may observ a kind of natural matrimony between the several organs of the body on the one part and the correspondent faculties of the soul on the other The body has a multitude of excellent organs without and within The soul has a wel-proportion'd multitude of excellent faculties exerciseable only in conjunction with these organs Besides these corporeal organical powers in man hitherto named he has also a loco-motive power by contracting and extending the parts of his body whereby he can goe from place to place and perform all artificial works c. 3. The supream and most noble powers in the kingdom of man are the rational or intellectual whose office it is to order and regulate all the inferiour both vegetative and sensitive The understanding is the chief counsellour of state in the soul judging discerning and advising what 's to be done The will is commander in chief furnished with a kind of kingly imperiall executive power Man thus furnish'd and adorn'd with many wonderful natural powers in his soule and organs in his body and having also in his personal constitution being life and sense in a superiority to what is found in the three inferiour orders of creatures because in conjunction with reason which render's him the fourth and highest may well be termed a microcosm or little world an epitome of the whole universe All that man has in himself and all that is to be found in the whole visible creation set up and ordeined for his use and service proceeds from the meer bounty and love of his creatour The love of God to man is the principal thing of all It is of like infinite excellency with himself for God is love Jo. 4. 8. Great are the gifts of God unto man that have proceeded from and do manifest his love But his love to man is infinitly greater then all his other gifts infinitly more valuable then man himself and all other creatures given for his use Thus is there an infinite and unspeakable obligation on man to God first for his infinite love and secondly for his unspeakable gifts But the knowledg of all this will little availe man unless his will be yeilded up in such sort unto the will of God as to be brought into unchangable harmony therewith and subjection thereunto Chap. 7. Sect. I. What is it man ought to render unto God for his love and all his benefits LOve Something he has to render unto God that may properly be called his own otherwise would he be obliged to an impossibility Forasmuch as the love of God is his principal gift unto man the root and foundation of all his other gifts which are but as tokens and manifestations of that the intire free and most syncere love of man to God is the most natural reasonable and suitable requital that 't is possible for him to make unto the lord for his love and all his benefits Love is the most precious and excellent gift the will of man has to dispose of freely and uncompulsorily where it list's Thus have we found the thing we sought for love seated in the supream ruling power in man his will Syncere love to God carries that in and with it which is the best requital man can make for all that God has done for him It does comprehend in it all that God requires of him It is written thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart soul strength and mind and thy neighbour as thy self Luk. 10. 27. Love is the fulfilling of the law Rom. 13. 10. Love is the radical gift of God unto man from whence did issue forth all other gifts And by the love of man to God as the prime and radical gift he has to return will all the secondary gifts of God that are tokens and manifestations of God's love to him in his own and all inferiour nature be surrendred and returned used and improved to the praise of his creatour Man's love to God will cause him to glorify God in his body and in his spirit which are God's 1 Cor. 6. 20. Love then is the most natural orderly proportion'd retribution and therefore the most pleasing and acceptable unto God that man can make No other gifts or performāces of mā whatsoever can be acceptable unto God unlesse love be the root and spring from whence they do proceed Love as it is the first so is it incomparably the greatest gift of God to man or man to God The love of man to God is that which season 's qualifies and render's acceptable all his other gifts and performances God first loved man man therefore ought to love God and that in the first place above all and no other things but for his sake or as bearing his image and superscription stamp'd or impress'd upon them Otherwise his love to God will carry no correspondency with God's love to him and so will not be accepted Though the most absolute and perfect love of man to God can in no wise equal the infinite love of God to him yet being the best thing man can give it wil be accepted The love of God to man as much exceeds all possible love of man to God as the being of God who is love excell's the being of man that is infinitely But if man give all that God requires of him even all he has to give it wil be accepted There is no pain wearisomnes or trouble in love It alleviates all other labour and renders all right performances delightfull Our love rightly plac'd and fix'd begets continual delight and gladnes of heart SECT II. The whole debt or service of love which man is obliged to pay unto God redound's and return's singly and wholly to his own profit and advantage GOd is infinitly perfect wanting nothing that any of his creatures can do for him The profit and advantage of the service performable by inferiour creatures unto man or by man unto God must light somewhere All is for man's profit both what other creatures do for him and what he does aright unto God And by how much man's nature excell's the natures of all inferiour things so much does
love may be proved of hatred As the will can love so can it hate Hatred alway's follow 's love If man be bound by the law of nature to love the lord with all his heart soul mind and strength he is consequently bound by the same law to hate every thing that 's against God with all his heart soul mind and strength and that continually and incessantly There 's the same obligation upon man to hate all that 's contrary to the will of God as to love God above all The first and principal thing he ought by the law of nature to hate is his own private self-will and that with all his heart as most contrary to God And forasmuch as our own honour praise glory and bodily pleasur's do necessarily follow the love of our own will in opposition to God's we ought to hate our own honour praise and bodily delights and consequently all the vices subservient thereunto covetousnes envy wrath and the rest As from one principal love many secondary subordinate loves do arise so from one principal hatred many secondary hatreds Every man ought to hate and oppose whatever is contrary to God to the true good of himself or any other man on the same account that he is bound to love the lord his God with all his heart and his neighbour as himself Luk. 10. 27. SECT II. The nature force properties and fruit of hatred THe principal power and property of love is the transforming of the will into the thing chiefly loved or the uniting it most intimately therewith The principal force and property of hatred then is to divide separate alienate and elongate a man from what he hates The greater the love the stronger is the union of the will with the thing loved the stronger and deeper the hatred the greater is the division and distance of the will from the thing hated And neither love nor hatred can be compelled but are free voluntary things SECT III. Two chief hatreds AS there are two principal loves so two principal hatreds the hatred of God and his will or of ourselvs and our own will And as the two chief loves so are the two principal hatreds capital enemies to each other The love of God and hatred of God are opposite so are the love of self and hatred of self as also the hatred of God and hatred of self But the love of God and hatred of self agree well together in the same will So do the love of self and hatred of God He that loves God and his will hates himself and his own will He that loves himself and his own will hates God and his There 's no middle state or way SECT IV. The different fruits of these two hatreds LOve has the primacy of hatred For hatred arises from love From the love of God and of all things in conjunction with him and his will does necessarily arise the hatred of self and of all things in combination with our own private selfish will In like manner does the hatred of God and of all things in conjunction with his will arise from the love of self and its interests If the love of God be good holy most orderly and just according to the law of nature then is the hatred of God most wicked disorderly unjust and contrary to the law of nature In like manner if the hatred of our own will be good orderly just and according to the law of nature then is the love of it wicked disorderly unjust and contrary to the law of nature The good hatred of self arises from the good love of God the evil hatred of God arises from the evil love of self The fruits above-specified that arise from a good love arise secondarily from a good hatred which alway's followeth such a love and the fruits that naturally flow from an evil love the love of self do flow secondarily from an evil hatred the hatred of God So much of love and hatred Chap. 16. Section I. Concerning other particular debts man owes unto God besides love and that first in generall HAving considered the debt of love which man owes to God and the great advantage redounding unto him by the due payment thereof as also his unutterable damage if he pay it not let 's enquire after other debts the payment whereof will also be our great gain and the final non-payment our eternal damage God made all inferiour creatures for man and man for himself furnishing him alone with a nature and capacity fit to perform all the duties and to pay all the debts which he owes unto God both for himself and all the rest No inferiour creatures can perform or understand any such matters From what man is furnished with for the performance of all duty to God may he certainly conclude what ought to be done by him If he can know love fear honour glorify praise adore or pray to God if he can beleeve hope and trust in God he may conclude that God is to be known lov'd fear'd honour'd glorified prais'd ador'd beleev'd hoped and trusted in If he can wholly delight himself in God then is God wholly delectable If he can do well God can reward him if ill he can punish him If he can be guilty God can be a judg If he can ask pardon God can give it In like manner we may the other way from the properties of God argue the duties of man If God ought chiefly to be loved as infinitly most desireable man ought chiefly to love him If he ought chiefly to be fear'd honour'd prais'd man ought to fear honour and praise him The like correspondence as is between the soul and body of man is between God and man in this case If the body have eyes ears nose c we may certainly conclude that the soul has a power of seing hearing smelling c. And if the soul have these powers the body ought to have such organs The bodily organs without such faculties in the soul or such faculties of the soul without such organs in the body would be useless and in vain A man that has no eyes is never the better for having a visive faculty in his soul. He sees nothing Though all other debts man owes unto God are included in and connexed with love yet hath each its proper and special reason why it ought to be paid For they are due to him on different and special accounts love on one fear on another honour on a third praise on a fourth c. Again love is not fear or honour nor is honour love or fear each is a distinct debt But where love is paid all wil be paid God is chiefly to be loved because he is originally essentially and unchangably good There is none thus good but God only Mar. 10. 18. He alone is to be fear'd as omnipotent He alone is to be honour'd as the inexhaustible fountain of all things and of all the joy comfort and blessednes that his
our use only as they do gratify our wills in enmity to god and not at all as the works of his hands or as bearing any thing of his image and superscription upon them SECT IV. THe right paying or performing of the secondary debt of love to all creatures as the works of gods hands but specially to all men and yet more especially to the houshold faith those that are not only made but born of God doth redound wholly to the profit of man as well as his performing the first debt of love immediatly unto god himself God is above all capacity of receiving any profit by any thing his creatur's can do All inferiour things are designed for the profit of man not of god And all the duty god requir's of man is calculated singly and wholly to his own advantage If he be wicked he hurts other and himself but god he cannot hurt If he be righteous what gives he to god or what receiveth god at hiâ— hand Job 35. 6 8. The disadvantage of sin and profit of righteousnes belongs to ourselvs only God can't be hurt by the one or profited by thâ— other CHAP. VIII The nature conditions force properties and fruit of love LOve is the only treasure man has properly to dispose of If it be rightly bestow'd 't is good and the man so too if wrongly evil When 't is given the thing chiefly beloved obteins dominion over it and so over the whole man The will is the ruling power in man commands all the rest of him To whom or whatsoever a man 's whole love is given his whole will is given and consequently the whole man As the chief love is so is the man good or evil Nothing better then a right love nothing worse then a wrong Love being all we can properly call our own when we give that we give all we have If then we mis bestow and lose that we lose all We are undone We lose it when we give it where it is not due whereby we dishonour and provoke him to whom alone it is due Good love is the root of all other vertues evil love the root of all other vices He that has a right knowledg of love know's the whole good of man He that know's not the nature of love is ignorant of the whole good of man The proper nature and inseperable condition of love is that thereby the lover is tranformed into and united with the thing loved The lover and chiefly beloved are of two things made one by love The thang brought upon the lover by the beloved through the transforming assimilating property of love is not forc'd violent painful or laborious but free voluntary pleasant and delightfull The will and so the whole man is denominated from the thing chiefly loved If earthly things be chiefly loved he is an earthly man has an earthly will If god be his chief beloved he is a heavenly man has a heavenly will By love a man is capable of being transformed and brought into union with another thing better then himself as god or equal to himself as man or inferiour to himself as earth gold beasts houses lands c. The first union advances him the last degrades him Through love as wel or ill plac'd is man capable of ascending and being exalted above himself or of being vilified degraded corrupted and so of descending below his own natural dignity in the universe He ascend's or descend's is advanced or depressed enobled or abased accordingly as the thing chiefly loved by him is more or lesse worthy then himself If he place his chief love on what 's equal to him he ascend's not nor advantages himself at all but indeed does deprave and abase himself because he sin's in giving away god 's peculiar due to any creature whatsoever God alone who is infinitly above us and infinitly deserv's our chief love does undispensably require it and by having it will unspeakably advance us Those that so honour him he will honour 1 Sam. 2. 30. The chiefly beloved is to the will of man by love as the bridegroom to the bride There 's a kind of matrimonial union contracted by love between the will and its chiefly beloved the thing so loved becomming the husband and the will the wife And as the woman ought to have but one husband the will can have but one chiefly beloved If a poor mean man should have eight daughters and one of them should marry a man of like meaness with herself the second a gentleman the third an esquire the fourth a knight the fift and earl the sixt a duke the seventh a king the eighth an emperour they would ascend one over the head of another according to the several dignities of their husbands But though we may find many husbands or chiefly beloveds of different degrees amongst creatures for the will of man there is indeed none but God himself the universal emperour and king of kings who can truly dignify ennoble and advaÌ„ce our will by its being brought into a state of unchangable marriage-union with his To a greater dignity it cannot ascend then is so atteinable But the wills of men which are equal by nature contract some gradual difference in dignity within the compass of creature-beloveds They are called earthly brutish or humane accordingly as their husband or chief-beloved is But there is no creature-beloved nothing below God which finally rested in and fixed on will not leave the will and whole person exposed to eternal confusion We can never attein any true hapines but by the marriage-union of our will with God's Nothing is worthy to be our chief beloved that cannot truly meliorate and ennoble us God only can do thiâ— who is infinitly lovely and can render all that love him everlastingly and unspeakably blessed He that finally fail's as to the performance of this highest duty by placing his chief love on any thing below god will sink down into the uâ—most exâ—rdainity of vileness misery and confusion for ever A woman joyn'd to a husband that 's good rich valiant powerful and wife has proportionably a temporary peace security rest comfort and joy if joyn'd to an ill-natur'd perverse miserable poor conceited foolish man she is like to know sorrow misery and tribulation by himelf the will of man be joyned to a husband that 's infinitly good rich powerful and wise it hath serenity peace rest joy unspeakable and glosious Nothing can hurt that beloved or separate us from his love neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature Rom. 8. 38 39. But if our will be joyned to some poor weak slight feeble indigent variable insufficient thing as it s chiefly beloved it is in continual tribulation or at best can have no true and wel-grounded security rest peace or comfort at all This doctrine about the right transmutation of maÌ„'s will by resignation to and
union with god's to his unspeakable advantage is signified to him by such natural and advantageous transmutations as are observable in inferiour creatures Things of the lowest degree are changed or tranform'd into things of the second things of the second into those of the third and all into man the only creature in the fourth The elements are transform'd as they run-together into the composition of trees and plants These with their fruits roots c. are transform'd into things of the third degree whereby they receive a more noble being in the life of sense And all are farther advanc'd by way of transformation into the life of man in whom they do attein a yet more noble and excellent kind of being And man by rightly placing his love upon God so as to live in his will advances all in his own person and nature into unchāgable union with God By this last transformation do all things in man attein the most excellent kind of being that is possible for them to have If man be not induced freely to yield up himself to the will of God by this last and utmost transformation he thwart's the naturall order and course of the whole universe to his own destruction Inferiour things do most orderly attein their advance by quitting their own form's and ascending into personal union with rational nature in him If he refuse to quit the naturall activity life and freedom of his rationall powers to live in the transcendently more excellent freedom and power of the mind and will of God as partaker of the divine nature he for whom all the rest were made is the only disorderly creature to his own eternal damage and confusion Chap. 9. Section I. Two first loves or chiefly beloveds THere are properly but two principal loves or beloveds God and self his will or our own The love of God carries our will forth to a right general universal love of all things as the works of his hands loved and approved by him If our own will be by way of reflexion upon itself our chiefly beloved such a narrow private love will not carry us forth to a right love of any other things but will cause us to regard or value them no otherwise then as relating or subservient unto the great idol self-interest We shall love only ourselvs in them not them as the works of God's hands related to and approved by him To these two chief loves of God or self are all other loves reducible as flowing from the one or other of them There can be but one thing chiefly beloved for whose sake only other things in connexiō therewith or as related thereunto are loved All other subordinate loves to all other things considered as in harmony correspondence union and connexion with the chief beloved are included in the first love as the basis and cause of all the root and fountain whence they do pullulate and arise All are but as one love centring in and relating to the chief beloved T is the chief beloved only that is properly loved in all other things Whatever is in conjunction with that must necessarily be loved and whatever is against it or contrary to it will as certainly be hated It is so strongly and intimately united with the will does so vehemently and intirely draw and engage it unto itself that it suffers it not to love any other thing but for it's sake as in harmony with and subserviency thereunto By necessary consequence so many particular hatreds wil be begotten in the will as there are things contrary to or against its chief beloved and as many particular subordinate and secondary loves as there are things in harmony and union therewith If the radical or chief love be good just and orderly all the rest are so too if evil corrupt and disorderly so are the rest As is the root such are the branches as the fountain so are the streams issuing there-from Self-love is a narrow private unlawfull destructive thing the fountain and root of all false and unlawful loves of other things If the love of God be not the chief the love of the creature is And amongst the creatures that which is most neer and dear unto the will wil be its chief beloved and that is the will itself which can reflect its love upon itself as the most dear lovely and desireable thing to itself If then God be not a man's chief beloved his own will or himself most certainly is And then he loves neither God nor any other creature but as conducible to the gratifying and pleasing of his selfish private narrow will If he do seem to have some regard unto God so as to pray to him he does in such demeanour but make use of God in a subserviency to his own selfish will He askes things of God to consume upon his lusts Jam. 4. 3. He regards not God any body or any thing else but as conducible and helpful towards the bringing in provisions for his flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof Rom. 13. 14. In the first sin of Adam we all turn'd away from God into the love of our own will in distinction from and opposition to his Such self-love can never be destroy'd or eradicated but by the irresistible grace of God which alone can cause man's will freely to draw off and disengage its love from every thing else in order to the receiving of the omnipotent creatour in the room of a fraile impotent creature as its chief beloved By receiving God for its beloved it is furnish'd with the power and armour of God ha's the power of godlines in it whereby to withstand all the powers and works of darkness No created being can bear up against a man that 's thus furnished with power from on high If God be for us in us with us who can be against us Rom. 8. 31. SECT II. THese two chief loves are capital enemies of each other contending for primacy The primacy is due to god alone and he has no enemy to contest with but self love As he is infinitly above all so ought he to be loved above all The prerogative and honour of being our chief beloved does on all accounts belong to him alone Whatever then stands in competition with or oppositiō to him in this point ought to be look'd upon and handled as the capital enemy of god Self-love is an unjust false tortuous inordinate love contrary to god to truth to the good of man to the order and voice of nature in the whole universe T is the root of all other evil loves of all vice injustice iniquity To deny God the first place in our hearts and to place our selvs in his room is a high contempt of him a denying and jusslling him out of what is his due by the law of nature When a man bestow's his chief love on himself he offends God both as he is the giver and receiver of his own love He gives and receiv's that unto
himself which is indispensabiy and undeniably due to God alone So on both accounts as giver and receiver thereof is he the direct enemy of God If he should bestow his chief love on some other creature and not on himself he would be the enemy of God only as the giver away of his right unto another but not as the receiver thereof By self-love man preferr's his own will to God's and so makes himself his God In pursuit of self-interest he will desire to annihilate God which is the highest enmity to him imaginable His will by self-love assum's an absolute primacy refusing to follow or obey another will which is the incommunicable prerogative of God alone T is peculiar to him only to follow his own will and not be subject unto or lead by any other When a man has once proudly set up his own will in the room of God's he wil also rob God of his other dues He will desire his own honour his own glory his own praise not God's When he hath presumptuously made himself his God he will desire all those things for himself that are due to god Self-love erects a new Kingdom dominion and soveraignty within man out of God and against him which renders man a direct capital enemy of God Man's love of God or himself is the root and cause of all he does The love of God in him is the root and fountain of all good actions 'T is also the fountain of all other right love of all true friendship courage rest peace comfort light joy gladnes and whatever is truly good for man self-Self-love then as the capital enemy of the love of God is the root of all evil actions of all injustice sin blindnes ignorance and so of all sorrow's and evils incident unto man He that by selflove exalt's his own will into the rooÌ„ of god's find's this false god to be but a weak indigent thing This puts him upon agreedy and eager pursuit after innumerable vanities corruptible transient things for the support of his impotent false God himself and so render's him subject unto those things which by nature are inferiour to him Such a man must needs be in continuall sollicitude and tribulation his false God and all the supports thereof being but feeble fickle unstable indigent things and the true omnipotent all-sufficient God being all along against him Thus have we seen how selflove renders a man the capital enemy of God evil and perverse in himself exposed to all evils and slavishly subject to abundance of transitory things inferiour to his own nature The love of God render's the will divine universal communicative and bountiful to others Selflove renders it narrow private incommunicative to others all for itself The love of god makes the will just holy righteous meek good peaceable friendly humble Selflove makes it unjust evil perverse proud unquiet litigious ful of discord tumult and confusion The love of God gives the will of man dominion over all inferiour creatures Self-love brings it into bondage and captivity under them The love of God makes the will unmoveable firm stable and fixed self-love renders it a fluctuating unstable variable thing In a word the love of God makes it beautiful and lovely Self-love makes it filthy deformed and detestable He then that know's what the love of God is know's all the good of man He that know's what self love is know's all the evil of man He that 's ignorant of both know's neither the good nor evil of man in the two distinct roots and causes of all He that has the love of God in him is thereby so illuminated that he know's what that is and what self-love is together with the comfortable consequents of the former and sad consequents of the latter But he that lives in self-love is thereby darkned blinded and confounded as to the making any right judgment of himself He neither know's what the love of God is nor what self love is nor what are the good or evil consequents of the one or other unto man The root of all evil in and to man self love is the greatest evil but the most lurking hidden undiscern'd thing of all the rest It obscures and blind's the mind of man that it may not be discovered in its native ethiopian hiew SECTION III. Two principal parts of self-love MAn having two principal parts in his constitution a soul and a body has distinct desires in reference to each but all centring in self-interest The soul desires praise honour and the like in reference to itself In reference to the body it desires and affects sensual delights Self-love then puts a man upon the seeking and looking after his own honour and bodily pleasur's as his two principal goods And from these two principal branches of self-love do arise the secondary loves of all other things as tending to the encrease defence or preservation of his own honour and sensual pleasur's On these accounts he must needs love desire and seek after outward riches as conducible both to his honour and pleasures He will also desire and seek after humane sciences offices and dignities as tending to the advance of his honour Thus from self-love do arise these vicious evil corrupt loves in man pride which is the love of his own honour with a glorying in it luxury and gluttony which is the love of bodily delights covetousnes which is the inordinate love of outward things And he that loves his own honour and pleasur's does by necessary consequence hate every thing that tends to the diminution or destruction thereof Hence arises anger which is a love and desire of revenge against those that endeavour to diminish his honour or bodily pleasur's Hence also spring's up another monster envy which contein's in it a hatred of any other 's good as it tend's to the obscuring or diminution of his as also a love of and delight in another's evil if it diminish not but rather tend to the encrease of his good From the love of bodily pleasures do arise negligence sloth intemperance incontinency and the rest Thus may we se how that all vices do arise and spring up from self-love CHAP. X. The love of God causes union amongst men self-love division and strife LOve does most intimatly unite the will with the thing chiefly beloved If then the thing first loved be one and satisfactory to all that love it they that unite with fix and center in that one beloved will have love and union amongst themselvs All that deny and quit the single motion of their own private wills and agree to live in the will of god must needs have union with one another But all that live in their own will making that their chiefly beloved in opposition to the will of God have so many distinct chief beloveds â—s they are men Every one is for his own will his own praise honour and bodily pleasur's in distinction and seperatioÌ„ from all others and therefore can no
otherwise love another's honour or pleasure then as conducing to his own He will hate oppose and speak against any other's honour or pleasure that stands in competition with or opposition to his He that makes himself or his own will his chief beloved makes himself his God So many men then as are of this strein so many Gods And amongst this vast multitude of needy false idol-gods must needs arise envy strife division wrath hatred war every one seeking to defend and encrease his own honour and delights against others and â—aking what he can to himself for support thereof They contend for propriety in those outward things whereby their indigent wills may be gratified and maintein'd in the lusts thereof Whence come warrs and fightings amongst men but from their lusts that war in their members Jam. 4 1. A self-lover loves not himself as a man in common with others but as this individual man in separation from all others Pretend what he will he loves not the community of mankind He seeks only him self in the community His love is private narrow and personal not large universal and common to man as man Whatever love such a man pretend's to any other persons or things 't is himself only that he seek's in all All other loves arising from self-love are private and selfish as the root and fountain is from whence they flow He that loves God in the first place loves all creatur's as related to him The more common larg and universal our love thus is the better the more narrow particular singular and private the worse CHAP. XI From self-love may we argue our duty to god BY self-love may man find even from within himself as the neerest and most evidencing example that 's possible what it is he owes unto God For having by self-love made himself his God he gives seeks and ascrib's unto himself all things that he ought to give unto God He seek's his own honour praise and glory not God's But thereby may he know what belong's unto God into whose room he hath thrust himself By the consequents of loving himself and following his own will may be certainly know what would be the consequents of loving God and following of his will He now seek's his own honour above all other honour of God or men he does all he can to preserv defend and encrease it From hence may be certainly conclude that he ought to seek defend propagate and multiply the honour of God in the hearts of men to his utmost that he ought to hate oppose and do all he can to diminish and abolish any honour that 's contrary thereunto In a word all things a man does from an evil principle of self-self-love or would have done by others to and for himself ought he to do and desire may be done by others unto god Chap. 12. Sect. I. The different fruits of the two chief loves the love of God and self THat which is finally expected and desired by man from other creatur's is fruit Every kind of fruit has its proper seed and every seed brings forth its peculiar fruit distinct from others The will of man is a kind of spiritual field wherein two chief loves as two very different seeds are sown self love and the love of God Let us now enquire after the final fruit producible from these two seeds or roots which being contrary to each other the fruits must needs be so too Endless joy and endless sorrow wil be the two final fruits springing up in the field of man's will from the love of God or self Man seek's for joy in all he does hates and flee's sorrow True joy springs up only from the love of God true sorrow from self-love God only is that infinite invariable al-sufficient good which when man firmly loves and enjoys he hath joy enough and that such as none can ever deprive him of T is a fixed solid invariable joy Such as the thing chiefly loved is such is the love and such the joy arising therefrom The nature conditions and properties of such joy as arises from the love of God are the same with those of the love of God above demonstrated The fruit is of the same nature with the root If the love of god be a just holy true orderly pure clean excellent love suitable to the nature of man and of God the joy arising therefrom is also a just holy true orderly pure righteous excellent joy Such joy will endure as long as the love it spring's from and such love will endure as long as the thing beloved God The heart then that 's fix'd on God will have everlasting gladnes eternal pleasure delight complacency rest peace satisfaction jubilations Joy dilat's fortifies comfort 's delight 's the heart of man Sadnes contract's weaken's discourages and destroy's it He that has perpetual joy has perpetual life he that has perpetual sorrow has perpetual death God is an alsufficient inexhaustible fountain of life and joy eternal to innumerable creatur's without any diminution to himself Nor will the joy which any man will have eternally in God be any way 's diminished but increased by the like joy in other men If the holy angels rejoyce afresh at the conversion of a sinfull man unto God as receiving an addition thereby to their former joy how can it be but that all elect men and angels should eternally and mutually rejoyce in the joy which all of them will have in the lord By how much the more cleerly any man sees and know's the lord so much the more will he love him and rejoyce in him Perfection of joy in God arises from the perfection of love to him and the perfection of such love arises from the perfect knowledg of him Nothing can destroy such love such joy that cannot destroy God himself with whom man is inseperably united by such love SECT II. Resurrection THe perfection of man's eternal joy and blessednes in heaven argues the resurrection of his body The spirit of man has a natural inclination and love to its own body as that which was fashion'd by the hand of God and brought into a kind of natural marriage-union with it The body alone is not a man nor yet the spirit but both as put together in personal union The recovery and restitutioÌ„ of the body then after it is laid down by death cannot but be naturally desired by the spirit as a necessary ingredieÌ„t into the compositioÌ„ of the man Till he hath all the essentialls of his humane constitution about him so as to be compleated in his personal being wanting nothing that may justly he desired by him his joy cannot be absolutly perfect and compleat And on the same ground that we may conclude the body wil be restored may we farther conclude that it wil be restored in a state most proportion'd lovely and desireable to the elect to wit a most beautiful comeâ—ly glorious impassible immortal agile spiritual body He that can