yet it is the Root of many and great Vices it is that which renders it exceeding difficult to obey the Laws of Christ when they once come in Competition with these Beloved's of our Souls for where there is by Nature the closest Union and the most intimate Affection it must be very difficult to burst these Bonds asunder and disingage our Hearts from them Hence that great Duty of Self-denial is still expressed by loving God more than these for He saith Christ that loveth Father and Mother Son or Daughter more than me is not worthy of me And by a comparative hatred of them for He saith Christ that hateth not Father and Mother Wife and Children Brothers and Sisters cannot be my Disciple Moreover doth not Experience convince us that from the excessive love we bear to our Relations beloved Sects and Parties mostly proceeds that Strife Debate and Variance those Quarrels and Contentions that Wrath Hatred Envy Bitterness of Spirit those Schisms Factions and Seditions those Animosities and Heart-burnings those Calumnies Detractions rash Censures which are in the World Is not this one great Root of that Avarice that scraping for the World that hoarding of it up that want of Charity we complain of that Men are very desirous to advance their Families and leave them in great Plenty and Splendor in the World Can it be therefore doubted Whether this love of Benevolence be one great thing forbidden in this Injunction To love the Lord with all our Heart c. or whether it be not inconsistent with it as that love of the Creature of Houses Lands joined with it in the Text which Men do often part with to preserve the Life of these Beloveds But will Good Mr. N. or the Lady hence conclude That the Love of God with all our Hearts is entirely exclusive of all Love of Benevolence to Father or Mother Wife or Children Fourthly That though this Precept thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self cannot be reasonably supposed to command us to desire our Neighbour as our Good yet is it not only lawful but very commendable so to do I say the Command to love our Neighbour cannot be a Command to desire him as our Good because the love of my Neighbour is this love of another as such the wishing well and doing good to another without a formal respect to my self whereas loving another as a Good to me is properly Self-love The true reason then why I cannot love my Neighbour in the Sense here required with love of desire as a Good to me is not because he is a Creature for I my self am a Creature and yet may love my self as I have proved with a love of Desire and I may love and desire those temporal good Things God hath promised though they be only Creatures but because whatsoever I thus love must be affected and desired from Self-love and not from love unto another Nevertheless it is very evident that I may and sometimes ought to desire my Neighbour as a Good to me For is there not such a thing as a good Friend a good Companion a good Neighbour a good Counsellor and may not I want and so have reason to desire this Friend Companion Neighbour Counsellor as a Good to me Are not such Persons very needful and beneficial to us in this Life And will not Self-love teach us to desire what is so needful and so beneficial to us May not the Parish of B. desire that Mr. N. may continue their Minister as being a Good to them When Great and Good Men are in danger to be taken from us by Sickness or the Casualties of War how heartily do we pray for the continuance and preservation of their Lives And do we not desire this as a publick Good And when we grieve for them as dead and gone into a State of Happiness can we do this out of Benevolence to them Or do we not so from the Sense of our own Loss of one so good and so desirable to us Did not Ioash weep over Elisha because he was the Charriot of Israel and the Horsemen thereof Did not all Iudah and Ierusalem mourn for Iosiah because they said Under his shadow we shall live among the Heathens Are not Good and Righteous Men the greatest Blessings to a Nation and may we not then desire the continuance and encrease of them as our Good Does not the Psalmist speak of God's Saints and Servants as the Excellent in whom was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all his desire Does not Mr. N. say There are some things which I love with great Passion such as are Conversation with select Friends Is not Vir desiderii the Scripture Expression for a Person highly beloved And may not Madam B. and Madam I. be to the Lady Mulier desiderii What though they cannot supply our Wants yet if they can supply any of them our want of good Company Instruction Learning Knowledge Health may they not be desired on that account What though they must seek their Felicity abroad and cannot be their own chief Good can this authorize us wholly to withdraw our Hearts from our Neighbour or from a faithful Friend who is better to us than a Brother and never to desire any Conversation with him for our Good 'T is therefore evident from those Considerations That we may not only desire Good to our Neighbour but that we may also desire him as a Good to us Thirdly I add that this Opinion That the Love of God is absolutely exclusive of all love to and all desire of the Creature destroys the whole Foundation of these two great Virtues Justice and Charity For 1. This is the natural Foundation of all Justice Thou shalt do to others as thou wouldst be dealt with If then the love of God obligeth me to have no love and no desire of the Creature it must oblige me to have no desire to preserve my own Life my Health my Goods my Wife my Servant or any other Creature that is mine and then no Obligation can be laid upon me from this Rule of Christ To desire to preserve the Life Health Goods Relations of my Neighbour or any other thing that is his Nor if I suffer them to be impair'd can I have any inward Sense that I do that to others which I would not have done unto my own self 2. All Charity or Love unto my Brother depends upon this Precept Thou shalt love thy Brother as thy self Now if this love to my self doth naturally produce within me a desire of all things that will do me good i. e. a desire of the continuance of my Being and so of all things necessary to my Being a desire of Ease when I lie under Pain of Supplies when under Want of Comfort when I am in Trouble of Pleasure when I may innocently enjoy it In a word a desire of every thing by which I may receive Advantage
A DISCOURSE OF THE Love of God SHEWING That it is well consistent with some Love or Desire of the Creature And Answering All the Arguments of Mr. Norris in his Sermon on Matth. 22.37 And of the Letters Philosophical and Divine to the Contrary By DANIEL WHITBY Chantor of the Church of Sarum I suppose that All which is intended by that Phrase Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart c. amounts to no more than 1st a sincere Love as 't is opposed to that which is partial and divided and 2dly such a degree of Loving as admits of nothing into Competition with him Mr. Norris's Treatise of Heroick Piety p. 282. LONDON Printed for Awnsham and Iohn Churchill at the Black Swan in Pater-Noster-Row 1697. TO THE READER I Think I have sufficiently considered all that is material both in the Sermon and in the Letters of Mr. N. and the Lady In his Preface he endeavours to vindicate his Exposition from Singularity appealing 1. to the Books that are written after the Mystical and Spiritual way i. e. those Phanatical Pretenders to extraordinary Visions and Illuminations to passive Unions and Deiform Funds of the Soul a State of Introversion and a Superessential Life who talk of being baelosed in the Midhead of God and in his Meek-head and his Benignity and in his Buxomness And sure it is not much for his Glory that such Persons speak like him 2. To some French Poets and Divines which neither can we envy him But 3. Whereas he calls in the Suffrage of the Reverend and Learned Bishop Lake a Man too Great to be overlook'd he is the very Person whose sense of the words contested I have given Chap. 3. § 1. and who in his Seventh Sermon is most express against him in these words But mistake me not All other things besides God are not excluded of our Love Wherefore for the farther understanding of this Entireness of the Love of God we must not take other things oppositè but compositè we must exclude nothing from our Love that doth not enter into competition with God and oppose it self against the Love of God 2 dly If there be any thing that may be loved jointly with God it must not be taken as Coordinatum but Subordinatum it must not share equally with God but keep its distance and receive our Love by a reflection from God 3 dly Upon this Inequality must our Love ground an unequal Estimate of things and we must love God above all Appretiativè we must account all in comparison of God to be as Dung to be very Loss 4 thly Finally according to the Estimate must the heat of our Affection be we must love God above all Intentivè also we must love other things as fit to be used not fit to be enjoy'd yea we must use all the World as if we used it not but we must love God as him whom we would not only use but enjoy also Again There be many things and Persons which we are allow'd to love but we must love them only until they come to the Comparison If then the Question be Whether of the two we love more to Whether of them we will stick in a case where both cannot be held or upon which of them we will fall foul when it is not possible for us to keep in with both if then we can with Moses esteem the Reproach of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures of Egypt we conform our selves to Christ's first Rule Thus if we love God we love him as we ought that is we love him above all things and we love him for himself for that must needs follow when we love him for no other thing no not for our own sakes but are willing to hazard all even our selves and all for the love of him This I hope is sufficient to shew that Excellent Prelate is an Adversary to the Exposition of Mr. N. and an Abettor of the Vulgar Exposition He appeals 4 thly to St. Austin in his Devotional Tracts Now true it is that St. Austin hath said many things which to one unacquainted with his use of Phrases may mislead him into this Imagination tho' as he doth explain them it is evident they are nothing to the purpose V. G. He inveighs very much contra cupiditatem mundi but then he lets you know that we are then only Guilty of it when our Souls move towards themselves their Neighbour or any other thing without respect to God For otherwise he informs us that the Fault we commit in the use of these transitory things is not in the nature of the things themselves but from the cause of using and the manner or degree of desiring them Sometimes he will not allow us diligere terrena but then it is because dilection is a word that is used properly only for the love of better things Sometimes he will also tell us we must not amare love Earthly things but then to love them is in his Language only to affect them for themselves for otherwise saith he Non prohibet te Deus amare ista sed non deâ—igere ad beatitudinem God doth not absolutely forbid thee to love these things but he forbids thee to love them as thy Happiness He also oft informs us that we must not enjoy but only use these things but then he adds That we enjoy that only which we love for it self and in which we place our Happiness and make the end of our Ioy but if by enjoying be only meant that using them with delight and so as to pass from them to that in which we ought to rest this he allows of Take St Austin without his own Interpretation of the words Love Dilection Concupiscence Enjoyment and he seems oft to favour Mr. N.'s new Notion but if he be permitted to be his own Interpreter he will be found to have said nothing to his purpose of which we cannot have a fuller Evidence than his own Exposition on the words urged by Mr. N. for his own Opinion For 1. St. Austin in his First Book of Christian Doctrine sets himself expresly to the Consideration of the words of St. Matthew Chap. 22.37 and in his Discourse upon them expresly grants That the love of our selves and the love of the Body and of Provisions for it is included and for this saith he we need no Precept the Law of Nature teaching us and the Beasts thus to love And when he comes to give us the sum of what he had discoursed upon this Subject he begins it with this Advertisement That there needs no Precept to engage us to love our selves and that we may know and do this the whole temporal Dispensation of Providence saith he was designed which we are to use not with a permanent Love and Delight but only with a transitory as being the way the Vehecles the Instruments the things by which we are carried
up to him we love In his set Discourse upon those words of St Iohn Love nâ—t the World neither the things of the World he expresly declares That God doth not absolutely forbid us to love these things but only not to love them as our Happiness not so as to neglect our Creator that he requires us to use a mean in our Affection to them and not to enjoy what we should only use nor have our Affections cleaving to them In his Meditations which is one of his Devotional Tracts he observes how the World and all things in it serve both our Necessity and Delight but hence he will allow us to love them only as things Subject to and serving of us as the Gifts of God remembring that we owe them to him and must not love them for themselves but for him not with him but for him and should love him by and above them And this I think may be sufficient to acquaint us with the Opinion of St. Austin in this Matter I am only farther to acquaint the Reader that the Substance of many of these Arguments was sent to Mr. N. long before his Letters appeared in Print and seeing he thought none of them worthy of the least notice I humbly offer them to the Reader especially to the Ingenuous Author of the late Discourse concerning the Love of God to whom I own my self obliged and rest THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. The Question Whether we are obliged to love God so entirely as that we may love nothing else with a love of Desire § 1. This Assertion is shew'd to be contrary 1st To our Prayers for our daily Bread § 2. 2dly To God's Promises of temporal good Things § 3. And to his Threats of temporal Evils § 4. 3dly To the Representation of them as God's Gifts and Blessings and our good Things § 5. To God's Command to rejoice in them § 6. To the Industry required by God to procure these things and his Blessing promised to that Industry § 7. Proofs from Reason That God hath not absolutely forbidden the Desire of Pleasure of Honour or of temporal Enjoyments § 8. Corollaries 1. That this Doctrine is inconsistent with our Obligation to Pray and with the Prayers of our own and of Ancient Liturgies 2. With the Praises due to God for temporal Blessings and with the Thanksgivings for them used in our Liturgy 3. It tends to depreciate the Divine Gifts to teach Men to slight God's Promises and contemn his Threats 4. To destroy all Industry in our Calling 5. It lays the vilest Imputation upon the Dispensations of God's Providence towards us § 9. Page 1 CHAP. II. To avoid the seeming Inconsistence betwixt the Love of God only and the Love of my Neighbour as my self it is said That the Love of God with all our Heart enjoined in the First Commandment is the Love of Desire the Love of my Neighbour required in the Second is only Love of Benevolence § 1. To take off this Evasion it is proved First That the Love of God required in the Injunction to love him with all our Hearts c. cannot be discharged by a Love of Desire only but requires also a Love of Benevolence § 2. Secondly That though the Love of our Neighbour here enjoined be not love of Desire of him as our Good yet neither is it love of Benevolence or wishing well to him only but to the due performance of it a desire of the Creature is necessary § 3. Thirdly That the Love of our selves our Relatives our Neighbour and our Friend all which saith Mr. N. is love of Benevolence only is indeed that Love which chiefly opposes and obstructs our Love to God and is the rise of our inordinate Affections to the World § 4. Fourthly That tho' the Command to Love our Neighbour as our selves doth not require us to Love our Neighbour as our Good yet is not only lawful but very commendable so to do § 5. This Doctrine That the Love of God is entirely exclusive of all Love to and Desire of the Creature destroys the Foundation of these two great Virtues Iustice and Charity § 6. It also casts a great Contempt upon the Works both of Creation and of Providence § 7. P. 27 CHAP. III. The ordinary Exposition of these Words Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart c. laid down in the Words of Mr. N. and of the Scoolmen viz. That we are obliged by them to love God above all Things 1. Appretiatively 2. Comparatively 3. Intensively and 4. So as to love other things only by way of Relation and Subordination to God § 1. That our Lord Christ hath approved of this Exposition is shewed § 2. The Censure which Mr. N. gives of this Opinion and the Abettors of it reflects very unbecomingly upon all the Prelates and Pastors of the Church of England which are not of his Mind and lays unworthy Imputations on them § 3. Some General Considerations offered to engage him to abate somewhat of his Confidence and his Censorious Reflections for the future § 4. Especially this That they who adhere to the common Exposition of these Words differ no more from him than he differs from his former self Sect. 5. The common Exposition further confirmed First From this Consideration That this Command was given to the Jewish Nation whose Promises were chiefly Temporal and therefore could not be exclusive of the desire of Temporal Blessings Sect. 6. That therefore it ought to bear that Sense which is the certain Import of the like Phrases in all the Old Testament where they are only to be found which Sense is plainly opposite to that which Mr. N. contends for Sect. 7. The true Sense of loving God with all the Heart and Soul in the Old Testament shew'd from that primary Relation and respect it hath to their owning God to be the true God in opposition to all strange Gods § 8. Secondly From this Consideration That this Love is required as the Condition of Salvation § 9. Thirdly That to love God with all our Mind cannot bear this Sense § 10. The common Exposition serves all the Designs of Religion in General and of Christian Religion in Particular as well as the Exposition of Mr. N. and the Lady § 11. P. 53 CHAP. IV. This Chapter contains an Answer to Mr. N.'s Arguments from Scripture for a Love of God exclusive of all love of Desire of the Creature as V. G. 1st From these Words Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart c. Matth. 22.37 § 1. 2dly From those Words of St. James Ye Adulterers and Adulteresses know ye not that the Friendship of this World is Enmity to God Iames 4.4 § 2. 3dly From these Words of St. John Love not the World neither the things that are in the World 1 Iohn 2.15 § 3. And to his Arguments against the Relative Love of the Creature V. G. 1. That it is as much
with whom we do converse may advance in them from the same Principle in all these cases we express our good will to him When we are zealous for his Honour rejoice to see it promoted are grieved at any thing which doth dishonour and displease him and are industrious to prevent it in this we we shew a Zeal for God and a displeasure against these things arising from a love to him And when we love his Servants for his sake and our Neighbour because made after the Image of God this is in Scripture represented not only as an Indication but an Expression of our love to him For God is not unrighteous saith the Apostle to forget your labour of love which you have shewed to his name in that you ministred to the Saints And forasmuch as you did it to one of these saith Christ you did it unto me And therefore Crellius and Carrellaeus do well inform us That the love of God is strictly and most properly taken for that affection by which we desire that those things which are grateful to God may be done by us and others For as love to others in the General is that affection by which we desire those things to another which are good and if that love be fervent endeavour as we are able to effect it and chiefly are concerned that he whom we love may enjoy what is grateful and profitable to him So Charity or Love to God only N B. those things which as we may say are good that is grateful and delightful to God as are all those things which conduce to his Honour or are otherwise according to his Will And indeed the desire of enjoying God as the chiefest good is so natural so deeply rooted in self-Love that it bears an affinity to that general desire of Happiness which Philosophers will not allow to be Virtuous or Praise-worthy because it is not free but natural but this Love of Benevolence to him is a more pure Flaâ—â— a more noble and disinterested Affection the desire that he may be Glorified by others and that he may not be Dishonoured by them is the desire of that on which our Happiness doth not depend and so it is a love which Centers upon God alone without respect unto our selves it also shews a stronger compliance of our Will with the Will of God a greater Sympathy of Affections a stronger Complacency in Goodness an higher Resemblance of Divine Perfections than our desire of the chief Good imports and so it renders us more partakers of the Divine Nature and so more acceptable and lovely in the sight of God Love of Benevolence is therefore due to God as well as to my my Neighbour and so the love of God and of Neighbour is not on that account of different kinds And if it cannot be denied that this is true and genuine love of God it cannot be denied that this love also is required in the Command To love the Lord with all our Heart and all our Soul and then it is demonstratively evident that Phrase cannot exclude the love of any Creature because it is confessed that with this love of Benevolence we are to love our Neighbour as our selves Secondly I add That the Duty of Love I owe to my Neighbour cannot be discharged by a love of Benevolence or by wishing well to him only but that it imports also a love of Beneficence or a sincere endeavour of doing all the good I can to him This is self-evident and confessed by Mr. N. when he saith It makes us ready not only to wish them but to do them all the good we can to wish and to do well to them to desire good to them all and to do them good as far as we have Opportunity And of this St. Iames sufficiently informs us when he saith That to wish well to our Brother to wish he may be warm and cloathed without affording him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things which are profitable to the Body is an unprofitable piece of Charity And yet how is it possible we should be able or even desirous to afford him what is necessary for the Body if we our selves may not desire the things that are so Let us reflect upon those acts of Charity to our Neighbour for which our Lord hath promised to us the Kingdom and we shall easily discern we cannot do them without desire of the Creature as their Good For can we feed the Hungry or give drink to the Thirsty without desiring to have Food and Drink to give them Can we take the Stranger in without desiring an House in which we may receive him Or Cloath the Naked without desiring to have wherewith to Cloath him 'T is therefore certain that we cannot discharge this Christian Duty to our Neighbour without a desire of and an endeavour also to enjoy the Creature and then it must be also certain that the Love of God is not exclusive of all love and all desire of the Creature Besides we by this Precept are obliged to love our Brother as our selves now are we barely to wish well to our selves and not desire Life Health Sleep Ease Comfort and all the Necessaries of this present Life If then we are to love our Neighbour as our selves that love must certainly engage us to desire for our Brother the continuance of Life Health Ease and Comfort and all the Necessaries of this present Life and also that we may have what will enable us to minister to him in these things But saith Mr. N. Our love of our selves is not love of Desire but Benevolence for whosoever reflects upon the love of himself will presently perceive that 't is not a desire of himself as his Good but a desire of some Good to himself as appears from the Vulgar Expression Charity begins at Home and from the Vice of Self-love by which we mean a Craving N. B. and seeking after more than comes to a Man's share without having any regard to the Community or a greedy pursuit of our Private Interest in opposition to that of the Publick I Answer Let this be granted hath he not in these words said enough to destroy his own Hypothesis That the Creature must not be desired as our Good For if Self-love be a desire of something good to my self if I may Crave and Seek after as much as comes to my Share If I may pursue my private Interest as far as I can do it without Opposition to the Publick then it will follow that if any Creature can be good for me if any portion of them may fall to my share if it may be for my Interest to pursue any of them I may so far Desire and Crave them and then my Love of God cannot exclude my Love or my Desire of them 2 dly Though Mr. N. saith 'T is most undoubtedly so that my Love of my self is not Love of Desire Both Scripture and Reason most
mighty in power safe from fear free from the rod of God spending their days in mirth and wealth Whereas many were the afflictions of the Righteous they being plagued all the day long and chastned every morning That there is a just man who perisheth in his righteousness and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness That there be just men to whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked Again there be wicked men to whom it hapneth according to the work of the righteous Now had it not been generally received as a certain truth that these external things were our Good that they were proper Objects of our Desire and Affection and that the want of them was the want of what was good and fit to be desired there could have been no foundation for this Objection against Providence Whence it is evident that the Opinion which represents the Creature as no fit Object of our Desire and Affection and and denies them to be our Good doth contradict the general Judgment of Mankind CHAP. III. The Contents The ordinary Exposition of these Words Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart c. laid down in the Words of Mr. N. and of the Schoolmen viz That we are obliged by them to love God above all Things 1. Appretiatively 2. Comparatively 3. Intensively And 4. So as to love other things only by way of Relation and Subordination to God § 1. That our Lord Christ hath approved of this Exposition is shewed § 2. The Censure which Mr. N. gives of this Opinion and the Abettors of it reflects very unbecomingly upon all the Prelates and Pastors of the Church of England which are not of his Mind and lays unworthy Imputations on them § 3. Some General Considerations offered to engage him to abate somewhat of his Confidence and his Censorious Reflections for the future § 4. Especially this that they who adhere to the common Exposition of these words differ no more from him than he differs from his former self § 5. The common Exposition further confirmed First From this Consideration That this Command was given to the Jewish Nation whose Promises were chiefly Temporal and therefore could not be exclusive of the desire of Temporal Blessings § 6. That therefore it ought to bear that Sense which is the certain Import of the like Phrases in all the Old Testament where they are only to be found which Sense is plainly opposite to that which Mr. N. contends for § 7. The true Sense of loving God with all the Heart and Soul in the Old Testament shew'd from that primary Relation and respect it hath to their owning God to be the true God in opposition to all strange God's § 8. Secondly From this Consideration that this love is required as the Condition of Salvation § 9. Thirdly That to love God with all our Mind cannot bear this Sense § 10. The common Exposition serves all the designs of Religion in General and of Christian Religion in Particular as well as the Exposition of Mr. N. and the Lady § 11. HAving thus establish'd and confirmed this Proposition That it is lawful to have some love for and some desire of the Creature and shew'd that the love of God cannot be entirely exclusive of all love or all desire of the Creature as our Good I now proceed to answer what is offer'd to the contrary from Scripture and from Reason And First The great Objection insisted on from Scripture ariseth from the words of Christ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind Now to fix the true sense of these words I shall 1 st Lay down the ordinary Exposition of them and offer some Arguments to confirm it 2 dly I shall consider and confute the Novel Exposition of Mr. N. and answer what he offers against the commonly received Interpretation Now the ordinary Exposition of these words saith Mr. N. is by the generality of Divines express'd thus 1 st That we are to love God with a superlative Affection so as to be ready always to prefer his Favour before all other things to chuse to obey him rather than man to please him rather than to gratifie our selves to enjoy him rather than any carnal Interest whatsoever and so as to be ready rather to lose any temporal good or suffer any temporal Evil than commit the least Sin against him 2 dly That we are to love other things only in a way of Relation and Subordination to God for seeing God requires us to love him with all our hearts our love to other things must be derived from and dependant on our love to God and we must only love them for his sake as they relate unto him or as they enable us to serve him or as they are instrumental to the Enjoyment of him This by the School-men and Systematical Divines is thus expressed First That we are to love God above all things Appretiativè i. e. so as to prize him in our Judgments above all things to esteem him more valuable in himself more beneficial to us than all things else we can enjoy according to that saying of the Psalmist Thy loving kindness is much better than is Life it self to esteem him as the only Felicity of our Immortal Souls their chief and most desirable Good the only Being in whom is perfect Rest entire Complacency and full Satisfaction to be found and consequently to look on all things else as Loss and Dung compared to him And whilst we retain this value for him we can never prize or be concerned for any thing so much as for his Favour nor refuse to part with any thing which tendeth to deprive us of it we can never value any other thing so much as to permit it to rival him who is exceedingly more precious in our Eyes and more desirable to our Souls and so we cannot overvalue any worldly thing This therefore may be truly stiled the loving him with all our Mind Secondly That we are to love God above all things Comparativè i. e. with a superlative Affection so as to be ready always to prefer his Favour before all other things And this Affection this cleaving of our hearts unto him must follow from the forementioned Estimation of him For if we fully are convinced that there is infinitely more Excellency in God more Happiness to be expected from him than all the Honours Pleasures Profits Interests Relations and Satisfactions of the World can tender and so the highest reason that he should always be prefered before them and that we should still cleave unto him in opposition to any other thing 'T is certain he can have no rival in our hearts nothing that stands in competition for our love nothing we do not truely hate and despise comparatively to his Favour nothing that can tempt us to depart from from him or
to do the thing which will hazard his Favour or provoke his Displeasure and may we not then be faid to love him with an entire and undivided heart Thirdly That we are to love God above all things Intensive that is our desires must be more ardently enclined towards his Favour and the Enjoyment of him we must long thirst and pant more after him rejoice more in his Favour than in any other thing be more concerned to retain it than to secure any worldly Blessing and be more satisfied in it than in Marrow and Fatness and what more can the love of God with all our Souls import For seeing such a prevalence of our Desires towards him and Delight in him will not permit us to desire any thing in opposition to him or against his Will and Pleasure but will constrain us to quit all other Interests that we may happily retain our Interest in him we thus desire and delight in above all other things It follows that by thus loving God with all our Souls our love unto or our desire of the Creature can never be inordinate or irregular and so can never be offensive to God and then it cannot be forbidden by the Command To love the Lord our God with all our Souls In these things seems to be implied or from them certainly will follow that endeavour above all things to please him that industrious care to serve and to obey him that vigorous Imployment of all our other Faculculties in his Service which will demonstrate that we comparatively do not labour for the Meat that perisheth do not permit our Secular Imployments or our pursuit of any temporal Enjoyments to impair our diligence in the securing our eternal Interests and therefore that in the true import of the Phrase we love God with all our might all other Senses of it being inconsistent with that Diligence in our Callings and that Industry in our Civil Affairs which God himself requires from us And Fourthly Hence it follows that we are to love all other things only in way of Relation and Subordination to God for if we do co-ordinately love any other thing we love it equally with God And certainly if God requires us to love him with all our Hearts and all our Souls our love to other things must virtually be comprised in our love to God or be independant on it or subservient to it or else we must deprive him of some portion of the Heart he wholly calls for Moreover God being our ultimate and chiefest Good all other things can only be Good as they conduce to the Enjoyment or Service of him and so are to be loved by him that is we must love them as they relate to him as they enable us to serve him as they are or may be Instrumental to his Glory or to our Enjoyment of him When therefore we desire the Creature only for God's sake viz. that we may have Food and Rayment to sustain that Life we have devoted to his Service Encrease of temporal Enjoyments that we may be more able to feed Christ's hungry and clothe his naked Members or more engaged to serve him with Ioy and Gladness of Heart for the abundance of all things when we desire Marriage or a Wife that we may not burn and Children that as Plato saith we may breed them up in the Fear and Nurture of the Lord and leave behind us a Race of pious Persons who may do him service when we are dead and gone and Honour that we may be more instrumental to promote his Glory and to do Good to others and lastly the Knowledge of the Creature that we may learn to Glorifie the Creator by viewing the Power Wisdom and Goodness he hath discovered in the Creation of them who sees not that this love of the Creature centers in the love of God and tends expresly to his Glory and therefore cannot be forbidden by this Command to love the Lord with all our Hearts and all our Souls And of this Exposition of these Words we cannot reasonably doubt if we consider that our Lord himself doth plainly seem to favour and approve of it making that Service and so that Love which he requires from us to consist in that prevalence of Affection which enables us in any competition betwixt the love of the World and the love of Him to cleave to God and despise the World This evidently is the import of these words No Man can serve two Masters when their Services and Commands do interfere for he will either hate the one and love the other he will cleave to the one and despise the other ye cannot therefore serve God and Mammon Mr. N. indeed saith Here we are plainly told we cannot divide between God and the Creature because we cannot love either of them but upon such a Principle as must utterly exclude the love of the other But 1 st the word Mammon doth not signifie the Creature in general but Riches and Money in particular Now will it follow that because I must not love Money that I may not love my Victuals or that because I may not desire Riches which Agur prayed against I may not desire Food convenient for me which he prayed for 2 dly When our Lord saith No Man can serve two Masters can this be so interpreted as to infer we cannot serve our Master Christ and be Servants to our Masters according to the Flesh in all things not forbidden by him Must I needs hate my Master if I love my Saviour or despise him if I cleave to my Lord Christ Must not then the words be necessarily Interpreted of Masters Co-ordinate or Masters whose Commands and Services do interfere 3 dly What is the Business of a Servant is it not to obey the Pleasure of his Lord and yield himself up entirely in Subjection to his Commands What therefore must it be here to serve God but to give up our selves entirely to his Service and the Obedience of his Will What to serve Mammon but to give up our selves to the pursuit of Riches and to obey the Desires and Cravings of our covetous and worldly Appetites Thus it is certain that we cannot divide betwixt God and the Creature or love the one but from a Principle which excludes the love of the other but a Subordinate Affection to the Creature is no more exclusive of our love to God then is the Service of an Earthly Master exclusive of the Service which we owe to Christ our Master Again Christ places the due love of himself in the prevalence of our Affections to him above other things saying He that loveth Father and Mother Son or Daughter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above me is not worthy of me whence it must follow by the Rule of contraries that he who loveth Christ more than Father and Mother Son or Daughter or any worldly Interest whatever must be worthy of him From these two places it is
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
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
Reward compared to whom nothing is lovely or desirable the same Object still present with us And the same reason to fix the Eyes of our Understanding on and direct the Motions of our Will towards him May we not always Contemplate and Enjoy his Beauty asswage our Thirst at this Fountain and feast our hungry Souls upon his never-failing Charms And must not the Assurance of our Interest in so great a Good our Enjoyment of a Reward so Excellent our sight of such a Perfect and a Charming Beauty the Satisfaction which all our Appetites may find in sweet Communion with and in Enjoyment of him who is so able to replenish all our Faculties and gratifie all our Desires even Ravish our Hearts and fill our Souls with unspeakable Delight Must not these Sentiments be highly Ravishing and Entertaining must they not fill every Faculty with a full Tide of Ioy Must they not be Sweets that know no Bitter Ioys without Allay Pleasures that have no Sting Fourthly Do they add that by this Love we are secured from Disappointment Iealousies and all that long train of Pain and Grief which attends Desire when it moves towards the Creature While others are tormented with Fears and Cares unsatisfied Desires and unprosperous Attempts c. Are they not as entirely secured from any thing of this nature who love nothing and desire nothing but in relation to God i. e. as it enables us to serve him is instrumental to his Glory or to our Enjoyment of him or to perform the Duty we owe to others for his sake And 2 dly in Subordination to God so as that our Love to or our desire of them is wholly subject to and governed by our Affection to him And 3 dly with entire Resignation to his all-Wise Providence and full Submission to his Will so that we desire nothing but conditionally if Divine Wisdom see it good for us we ask nothing but with this Restriction if it be thy pleasure and are still ready to parâ—t with it when he who gave it is pleased to recal it and to say when he hath done so The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Name of the Lord. For what more naturally tends to produce in us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Quietness that Smoothness and Tranquillity of Spirit in all Conditions and Events in which Philosophers have plac'd the Happiness of Man Is it not evident that he whose Will is thus resigned to the Will of God cannot be cross'd in his Desires and so he never can admit of a Disturbance or a Disappointment or be in Pain or an excess of Grief but whatsoever doth befal him can possess his Soul in Patience he fears not any thing which may betide him because he knows it must befall him by the Direction of that Providence which he is willing should dispose of all his Interests and Concerns nor is he troubled with distracting Cares for any thing he wants because he is contented to want what Providence sees fitting to deny him How happy therefore is the Man who can thus Order and Regulate the Master and leading Passion of his Nature That can thus love the Lord his God with all his Heart Soul and Mind how to be envied is that Man who can thus disingage his Affections from the Creature and settle his whole Love upon God That he loves nothing else but for his sake nothing but as 't is instrumental to his Glory nothing but with entire submission to his all-wise Pleasure That can force the Creatures to withdraw command their absence and wholly empty his heart of their love Yea can hate and despise them whenever they prove Temptations to or Hinderances of his Love to or his Enjoyment of God How ravishing and lasting are his Delights How solid and profound is his Peace How full and overflowing are his Joys How bright and lucid are the Regions of his Soul How entire and undisturbed are his Enjoyments What a settled Calm possesses his Breast What a firm stable Rest does his Soul find when she thus reposes her full weight upon God How loose and disentangled is he from the World and how unconcerned doth he pass along through the various Scenes and Revolutions of it how unmoved and unaltered in all the several Changes and Chances of this present Life Why therefore doth Mr. N. tell us That the Man that harbours Creatures in his Bosom and divides his Heart betwixt God and them will be always in great danger of being betrayed by them and though he should with great Care and habitual Watchfulness preserve for God a greater share in his Affections which is the most such a one can pretend to yet he will have such a weight constantly hanging upon his Soul that he will be never able to sore very high or arrive at any Excellency in Religion Can our Love of what God promises our Esteem for his Blessings our Desire of what he commands us to pray for that we may and to give thanks for when we have received be obstructive to our advancement in Religion Can that Heart be said to be divided betwixt God and the Creatures which never suffers the Creature to come in competition with him never loves it in opposition to him Can that Soul have any weight upon it obstructing its ascent to God which always infinitely prefers him in her Affections before all other things and is still ready to quit them for his sake In fine it may deserve to be considered that we cannot safely argue that a thing is may or should be so because it would be an advantage to Religion were it so For what an advantage would it be to Truth to have a living Infallible Iudge of it or that every Parson of a Parish or every Private Person were Infallible But must we therefore grant to the Papist such a living Iudge or to the Quaker such an Infallible Spirit What fine Harangues might Mr. N. and the Good Lady make of the Advantages to Religion which might arise from living without sleep or weariness or without the Body which presseth down the Soul and yet all their fine Rhetorick would be lost because this sutes not with that Nature God hath given us if then he hath given us a Nature subject to the same Necessities of other things as well as Sleep and Faculties which cannot but desire them so that we may expect as well to live without the Body as without them They must also spend their Rhetorick in vain when they endeavour to perswade us to banish all desire of the Creature from us CHAP. IV. The Contents This Chapter contains an Answer to Mr. N.'s Arguments from Scripture for a love of God exclusive of all love of Desire of the Creature as V. G. 1st From these Words Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart c. Matth. 22.37 § 1. 2dly From those Words of St. James Ye
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
them not again He introduceth the Rich man saying there will I bestow all my fruits and my Goods He introduceth Abraham saying to Dives Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things And Zacheus saying Half of my goods I give unto the poor Though I give all my goods to relieve the poor and have not Charity I am nothing saith St. Paul And he commendeth the believing Jews for taking joyfully the spoiling of their goods All which things plainly shew that in the Language of the holy Ghost whatever Metaphysicks may say to the contrary these outward Blessings were their Goods Moreover the wise Man frequently informs us That it is the Good of man to eat and drink and make his soul enjoy the good of all his labour That this is his Portion To receive them is to receive good at the hand of God Job 2.10 to be silled with them is to be filled with goodness Psal. 107.9 Jer. 31.14 to use them freely is to fill our soul with good Eccl. 6.3 to promise these things is to promise good to them Deut. 30 9. Jer. 32.42 to give them is to do them good Jer. 33.9 to deny them to our selves is to bereave our souls of good Eccl. 4.8 and to withold them from the Poor is to withold good from him to whom it is due Pro. 3.27 All which Expressions are a perfect Demonstration That these temporal Enjoyments are in the Language of the Scripure our Good things and therefore may be loved and desired as our Goods Moreover the Apostle makes the giving of these temporal Blessings to the Heathen World the Testimony of God's Goodness to them He hath not saith he left himself without a Witness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doing them good in giving them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling their hearts with food and gladness This also by our Saviour is represented as a Demonstration of God's Love to all That he maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust By this he sheweth himself kind to the unthankful and to the evil They therefore who do absolutely deny that these are our good things i. e. things which do good to us they leave God without a Witness of his Goodness to the Heathen World and weaken the Engagement laid upon us from this Example of our God to love our Enemies and to do good to them And Fifthly As a just Consequence of this God hath enjoyned us to reioyce in them and so to return the Tribute of our Praises and Thanksgivings to the Author of them For thou saith God shalt rejoyce in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given to thee and thine house The Iews were commanded to rejoyce in all their Feasts but in this of the First Fruits particularly for all the good Things that Year afforded The wise Man after all that he had said touching the Vanity of the Creature concludes There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink and make his Soul enjoy good or delight himself in the fruits of his labour Eccles. 2.24 and rejoyce in his own works ch 3.13 22. And for neglect of serving God with chearfulness and gladness of heart in the abundance of all things i. e. saith the Targum of Ionathan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all good things God threatens to the Jews That they should serve their enemies in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness and in want of all good things These things saith the Apostle God hath created to be received with thanksgiving and God expecteth we should continually bless him for them saying to his own people when thou hast eaten and art full then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee Bless the Lord O my soul saith David and all that is within me bless his holy name Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits who satisfieth thy mouth with good things And again Bless the Lord O my soul for he causeth the grass to grow for the cattle and herb for the service of men and wine that maketh glad the heart of man and oyl to make his face shine and bread which strengthens man's heart Now if Love Praise and Service be due unto God for these things surely they must be good things to us as they are represented here if he is to be blessed for them they must be desirable Blessings if we are to rejoyce in them if the abundance of them should create in us Chearfulness and Gladness of Heart they must be a fit ground of Joy and Gladness and so must be our Goods since no man can rejoyce in that Enjoyment which yeilds no good to him if from them we may make our Souls enjoy good and delight and there is no better Employment we can put them to than to enjoy them chearfully our selves and to make others chearful by the Participation of them must they not be our Good and proper Objects of our Delight and Joy much more of our Desire Sixthly The Industry which God requires from us that we may enjoy these temporal good things the Appetites he hath implanted in us towards them which cannot be satisfied without Industry the Faculties he hath given us to fit us for it the Callings he hath placed us in and in which we can never thrive without it and the temporal Blessings he hath promised as the Reward of our Industry are all sufficient to convince us That these temporal Enjoyments are good and desirable things to us Even in Paradice God found Employment for our Industry requiring the Man that he had put into it to dress it and to keep it and so by Industry to sustain his Life and to secure his Pleasure when he was turned out thence God laid the Burthen upon him and his Posterity That in the sweat of their faces they should eat their bread till they returned unto the ground Under the Evangelical Dispensation every Christian is to have his Calling in which he must abide he is exhorted with quietness to work and eat his own bread and to do his own business working with his hands or working 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is good with his hands and if he will not labour when he can the Apostles Canon saith he must not eat when he would Moreover though we bring nothing into the World yet we bring Appetites which have no other use but to desire these Temporals and Constitutions which cannot at all subsist or not conveniently without them which therefore were undoubtedly designed to prompt us to that Industry by which alone we can obtain them We have hands also suted for Work and Strength enabling us to labour and Reason to contrive how to employ that Labour in procuring the things we
undoubtedly declare the contrary for Self-Preservation and the continuance of Life are the natural Desires of all Men Now these are truly a Desire of our selves that is of something of our selves which we have not already and yet this desire of Life and love of many Days being only the desire of what God doth promise as the Reward of our Obedience it is unquestionably the Desire of something Good for us and so of something which Self-love doth prompt us to desire When Christ requires us to love him more than Life it self and God enjoins his People to obey his Precepts that they may live do not all these things teach us That the continuance of Life is a thing desirable and that we may love many days Now this only Happiness to be the desire of some Good to us because the desire of our selves i. e. of the continuance of our Being is the desire of some Good to us and is at once the desire of our selves and the continuance of Good that is of Being to our selves And this we learn from Mr. N. himself in these very Letters whereof he saith That since our Being is in it self a Good and the Foundation of all the Good that we do or shall ever enjoy it can be no sooner received that it brings an Obligation of loving our Creator For if our Being is in it self a Good must it not be our Good Must not the continuance of it be the continuance of our Good Doth it not therefore lay an Obligation on us to love our Creator because we by receiving it have received Good from him And if our Being is the Being of our selves must not the love of it be the love of our selves and the desire of the continuance of it be the desire of the continuance of our selves Thirdly That the love of Benevolence is indeed that love which chiefly opposeth and obstructeth our true love to God and is the rise of our inordinate Affections to the World is also very evident For 1. That the love of our selves is love of Benevolence he and this Lady have informed us Now This saith the Excellent Dr. Barrow is the Root from which all other Vices do grow and without which hardly any Sin could subsist the chief Vices especially have an obvious and evident dependance upon it All Impiety doth involve a loving our selves in undue manner and measure so that we set our selves in our Esteem and Affection before God we prefer our own Conceits to his Judgment and Advice we raise our Pleasure above his Will and Authority From hence particularly by a manifest Extraction are derived those chief and common Vices Pride Ambition Envy Avarice Intemperance Injustice Uncharitableness Peevishness Stubbornness Discontent and Impatience For We overvalue our selves our Qualities and Endowments our Powers and Abilities our Fortunes and external Advantages hence we are so Proud that is so Lofty in our Conceits and Fastuous in our Demeanors We would be the only Men or most considerable in the World hence are we Ambitious hence continually with unsatiable greediness we do affect and strive to procure encrease of Reputation of Power of Dignity We would engross to our selves all sorts of good Things in the highest degree hence enviously we become jealous of the Works and Virtue we grudge and repine at the Prosperity of others as if they defalked somewhat from our Excellency or did Eclipse the brightness of our Fortune We desire to be not only full in our Enjoyment but free and absolute in our Dominion of Things not only secure from needing the Succour of other Men but independant in regard to God's Providence Hence are we so covetous of Wealth hence we so eagerly scrape it and so carefully hoard it up We can refuse our dear selves no satisfaction although unreasonable and hurtful therefore we so greedily gratifie sensual Appetites in unlawful or excessive Enjoyments of Pleasure Being blinded or transported with fond Dotage on our selves we cannot discern or will not regard what is due to others Hence are we apt upon occasion to do them wrong Love to our selves doth in such manner suck in and swallow up our Spirits doth so pinch in and contract our Hearts doth according to its Computation so confine and abridge our Interests that we cannot in our Affection or in real expression of Kindness tend outwards that we can afford little good Will or impart little Good to others Deeming our selves extreamly Wise and worthy of Regard we cannot endure to be contradicted in our Opinion or cross'd in our Honour Hence upon any such Occasion our Choler riseth and easily we break forth into violent Heats of Passion From the like Causes it is that we cannot willingly stoop to due Obeisance of our Superiors in Reverence to their Persons and Observance of their Laws that we cannot contentedly acquiesce in the Station or Portion assigned us by Providence that we cannot patiently support our Condition or accept the Events befalling us In fine if surveying all the several kinds of naughty Dispositions in our Souls and of Miscarriages in our Lives we do scan their particular Nature and search into their Original Causes we shall find inordinate Self-love to be a main Ingredient and a common Source of them all In particular the love of Life which is by them esteemed Love of Benevolence to what base Fears and sordid Actions doth it not expose us How many myriads have lost their Reputation Honesty their Conscience and their own Souls to save it This therefore is that piece of Self-denial so oft inculcated so vehemently pressed in Scripture that we may continue Christ's Disciples and may be Faithful to him to the Death The immoderate love of it being that which is especially pronounced inconsistent with the love of God and with Fidelity to Christ. Hence he so often saith He that findeth his own Life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it And if any Man come to me and hateth not his own Life he cannot be my Disciple Can therefore any Person doubt whether this self-love this love of Life be not as much forbid by the Command of loving God with all our Hearts as the desire of Houses Lands or any temporal Possessions or think it less obstructive of or inconsistent with it because it is love of Benevolence But will Mr. N. or his Good Lady by reason of the mischievous Effects of this Self-love this love of Life perswade the World that no Man ought to love himself at all or desire at all the Preservation of his Life And yet would they be pleased to revise their Arguments and those especially which are taken from the Consideration of the Danger of the Love of the Creature they would soon perceive they were of equal Force against all love of our selves and of our lives Again the love of Parents Children Husbands Wives Relations Friends is love of Benevolence and
in the City blessed in the Field blessed in the Fruit of thy Body of thy Ground of thy Cattle in the encrease of thy Kins and the Flocks of thy Sheep in thy Basket and thy Store The Lord shall command the Blessing upon thee in thy Store-Houses and all that thou settest thy hand unto The Lord shall make thee plenteous in Goods in the Fruit of thy Body of thy Cattle and thy Ground The Lord shall open to thee his good Treasure the Heaven to give thee Rain unto thy Land in its season and to bless all the work of thine hand If thou obey the voice of the Lord he will make thee plenteous in every work of thine Hand in the Fruit of thy Body of thy Cattle and of thy Land for Good for the Lord will again rejoice over thee for Good as he rejoiced over thy Fathers These temporal good things he declares to be his Gifts for these he requires them to bless the Donor saying When thou hast eaten and art full then shalt thou bless the Lord thy God for the good Land he hath given thee commanding them to rejoice in every good thing he hath given them Moreover upon their Disobedience he threatneth the removal of all these Blessings and to strip them of all these good things that he would shut up the Heavens that there be no Rain that the Land yield not her Fruit and that they should perish quickly from the good Land that God had given them that they should be cursed in their Basket and Store in the Fruit of their Body of their Land of their Kine and Sheep that he would send upon them Cursing Vexation and Rebuke in all they put their hand unto and that they should serve their Enemies in Hunger and in Thirst and in Nakedness and in want of all things Now if God by requiring them to love the Lord with all their Hearts and Souls had enjoined them not to desire or affect any of these outward things to what purpose doth he promise what he forbids them to desire Or what Encouragement can such Promises afford them thus to love him If these things were in no sense their good why are they stiled God's Blessings and his Gifts And why are they commanded to rejoice in them and so bless him for them Yea why are they said to be blessed in them But if they were their good things why might they not desire or effect them proportionably to the Goodness that was in them Yea lastly if they were not good and desirable things wherein consists the hurt and Curse in being stripped and deprived of them 'T is therefore manifest that this Interpretation as it casts a slur and a reproach on all God's temporal Blessings as having in them nothing good nothing fit to be desired or worthy to be loved and therefore tends to rob him of the Praises due unto him for them so doth it also impair the force of all the Promises by which God did endeavour to engage his People thus to love him and of those threats by which he did deter them from their Disobedience this therefore cannot be the genuine import of these words Again from this Consideration That this Command was given to the Iewish Nation it follows that it ought to bear the Sense which is the certain import of it in all those other places of the Old Testament where it only doth occur it being only found in the New Testament as a Citation thence 'T is therefore certain that it doth not require us to love God in perfection of degrees or in the elevated Sense contended for but only to love him with a sincere and a prevailing love For First God's Servants entred into a Covenant to serve the Lord after this manner Thus Asa gathered all Benjamin and Iudah and they entred into Covenant to seek the Lord God with all their Heart and with all their Soul And good Iosiah with all his People made a Covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep his Commandments with all their Heart and with all their Soul Now if in this Covenant they promised to love God with every degree of every Power with the whole possibility of the Soul to bestow on him not only the highest Degree of it but every Degree of it the whole and to make him not only the Principal but the only Object of their love they promised what they knew they never could what to be sure they never did perform And why then is it said That the People stood to the Covenant and that God wus found of them But if they only promised love of Sincerity and love to God above all other things and that they would adhere to him and his Service then may this Phrase Import no more Secondly This God required them to do to render them the Objects of his Grace and Favour promising to have Mercy on them in their Captivity on this Condition If from thence saith Moses thou shalt seek the Lord thy God thou shalt find him if thou seek him with all thy Heart and all thy Soul And again if thou shalt return to the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul then the Lord thy God will turn thy Captivity and have Compassion on thee and will bring thee into the Land which thy Fathers possessed and thou shalt possess it and he will do thee Good And upon this Condition only doth Solomon desire this Mercy saying If they turn to thee with all their Heart and all their Soul in the Land of their Enemies then hear thou their Prayer and their Supplication Now is it reasonable to conceive that God required such an absolute Perfection of Degrees in their Affection and Obedience to qualifie them for his Favour under their Captivity If so they must for ever have continued Captives Would he promise to restore them to their good Land and to do them Good upon a Condition that would not permit them either to desire that pleasant Land or any other Temporal Enjoyment as their Good Sure the Suspension of his Favour upon this Condition is a clear Evidence that this Phrase bears a milder Sense Thirdly God doth acknowledge that some of them did actually love him thus That King David had kept his Commandments and followed him with all his heart saving in the matter of Uriah and yet we find him Guilty of Mistrust of God's own Promise by saying I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul of Lying to Abimelech of a rash Oath in Swearing to cut off the House of Nabal of Injustice in giving a deceitful Ziba half the Goods of Mephibosheth and of Pride in numbering the People God also testifies of good Iosiah That he turned to the Lord with all his Soul and all his Heart and all his Might since therefore God himself declares of Men thus subject to Imperfection that they
the Pride of Life the desire of Places of Dignity Noble Titles all the Honour and Glory of the World as they gratifie our Thirst of Honour Hath he not told us That the pleasing Sensations which produce these desires in us are not of the World i. e. the things contained in it but of the Father that they are the natural genuine and direct Effects of God that 't is of the proper Nature of God to produce them that he wills them for themselves and naturally delights in them and therefore sure would have us to will and delight in them and consequently to desire them What then remains but that we should understand by the love and desire of these things that immoderate love and desire which tends to captivate our Affections to them and to prevail upon us to transgress the Will of God that we may enjoy or preserve them that is the immoderate love and desire of these things I proceed now to consider what Mr. N. objects from reason against our Relative Affection to the Creature i. e. our love of it in Relation to God Now as saith he to worship the Creature though but Relatively is to give that Worship to the Creature which is proper to to God so to love the Creature though but relatively is in like manner to give that love to the Creature which is proper to God and if this be thought a sufficient reason to disallow of a Relative Worship I cannot see why we should not for the same reason give Sentence against this Relative Love or why one should not be reckoned Idolatry as well as the other To this I Answer 1. That Mr. N. was formerly of another mind for in his Discourse of Platonick Love he speaks thus Because God is of too sublime and refined Excellency to be fastned on immediately by our Love Plato recommends to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a method of Ascent which is from loving the Beauty which we see in Bodies to pass on to the love of that Beauty which we see in the Soul from the Beauty of the Soul to the Beauty of Virtue and lastly from the Beauty of Virtue to the immense Ocean of Beauty and these saith he are the Steps of the Sanctuary Now do we not find here all that Mr. N. condemns in our Relative Love viz. the love of the Creatures by way of Relation to God not as the only but the final and ultimate Object of our Love a love of that Creature for God's sake or in Relation to God provided that it do not stop and fix at the Creature but run on till at last it fix upon God as its final Object Again We ought saith he to make God the direct and primary Object of our Love and to love nothing for it self but only in and for God In his Aspiration he speaks thus My God I will love thee as thou teachest me the first and direct Motion of my Love shall be towards thee and whatever I love besides thee I will only love in and for thee And doth he not here say that he is taught of God to love other things besides God for his sake In his Essay upon Contemplation and Love he saith God ought to be the ultimate end of all our Actions and we ought not in any of our Actions and therefore not in our Love to stop short of this Center but in all our Actions to make a farther Reference either actual or habitual And again An end may become evil by being rested in when it is not the last without any farther respect or reference So that 't is the want of this respect and reference which renders the love of the Creature evil And now to shew what little cause he had to parallel this Relative Love of the Creature with the Relative Worship we condemn in the Church of Rome and so unhappily to pronounce all Christians Guilty of Idolatry who love any thing besides God for his sake I need only to remind him of a few things which had they been considered would have put him out of love with this Comparison viz. First That the distinction of Relative Worship is proper to the Worship of Images which can deserve no Worship for themselves but as they represent some Object which deserveth Worship Now to say thus of all inferior good things that they can deserve no Love or cannot be desirable for any real Goodness God hath put into them is to beg the Question Secondly That we only charge them with Idolatry in Worshipping the Cross and the Images of God and Christ with Latria i. e for giving the same Worship which they give to God and Christ to the Cross and to the Image which is a Creature of their own making Now can Mr. N. charge us with giving the same love to the Creature which we give to the Creator Moreover we charge them with Idolatry for doing this with the same Individual inward and outward Act now can Mr. N. charge us with loving the Creature by the same Individual desire with which we love God Thirdly The Relative Worship which they do give to Images is plainly forbid in the Second Commandment but as this cannot be said of this Relative Love without begging the Question so I have sufficiently proved already that it is highly approved in the Holy Scriptures That God hath made Provisions for it accepts of it and doth encourage us to perform it as will be still more evident by an Instance proper to this Subject viz. Mr. N. doth and must allow a Relative Love of Benevolence to the Creatures Christ having so expresly said for the Encouragement of our Charity to his Servants For as much as you did it to one of these little ones my Brethren you did it unto me And again Whosoever shall give you a Cup of cold Water in my Name because you belong to Christ shall not lose his reward And the Apostle that God is not unrighteous to forget your labour of love that you have shewed to his name in that you have ministred to the Saints and do minister And Solomon that He that hath pity on the poor lendeth to the Lord. In all which cases there is a love of the Creature for God's sake or in Relation to God a love of the Creature in a Relative transitive way a love of them terminating upon God and Christ and yet a Love highly acceptable to God and such as he hath promised richly to reward but then it is not love of the same kind with that Affection which I owe to God as being not an Elicite or an immediate Act of Religion as is the love of God but only an Imperate Act of it as the Schools speak it proceeds not from the same act which carries me directly to God the love of God being the Cause that of Man the Effect it is not done by any act of
we never can put off Now if God be the only Author and Cause of our Love has He not then the Sole Right and Title to it If He does as much Produce my Love as He doth my Being why hath He not as much Right to my Love as to any part of my Nature This Argument proves nothing to the purpose by his own Confession for it only proves that God is the Cause of all that Love which is a necessary Adherent to our Beings such as is all over invincible and irresistible of that motion of Love in which we are purely passive over which we have no more Command than over the motion of our Heart and Pulse which we can never controul can never be without never can put off which the Devils and Damned Spirits saith he have as well as Glorified Saints Now is this the Love God calls for in this Text Is it a purely passive Love which it is not in the Power of Devils to withhold and in which the greatest Saints cannot excel them Is God concerned that we should not want that which is a necessary Adherent of our Beings That which we never can put off never can be with without Doth he require that only which no Man can defraud him of Mr. N. is sensible that the Text is not at all concerned in this Love confessing that our Free Love is the only Love that falls under Command and the only one that is in our Power And why then doth he argue from such a Love to that Free Active Love which too many are without and too many do put off or from that Love which cannot be to that Love which is commanded Moreover This Argument plainly destroys the thing it was designed to establish For he lays down his Thesis thus That our whole Affections are to be placed on God and that we are to love him so intirely as to love none but him This saith he I shall endeavour to establish upon this double Basis 1. That God is the only Author or Cause of our Love And will it not hence follow that he is the only Author and Cause of our Natural Love Bent and Inclination to every thing besides himself And can he be the only Author and Cause of our Love to all other things and yet forbid that very love which he alone produceth in us God saith Mr. N. is the Author of all my Love he hath produced it all 't is therefore highly just and reasonable he should have it all God say I then is the Author of all the Love of my self and of my Preservation my love of Food Drink Cloths of Honour Riches Pleasure Life my love of Women and of Sensual Delights and of the Gratification of all my Natural Appetites according to and not exceeding the Intention of the God of Nature which is acknowledged to be Pleasure And the natural tendency we have to them being from the Author of Nature must needs be right it being impossible saith Mr. N. that God should put a Biass upon the Soul If therefore it is the Perfection and Duty of every Rational Creature to conform those Determinations of his Will that are free to that which is natural or to take care that the Love of his Nature and the Love of his Choice conspire in one that they both agree in the same Motion and concenter in the same Object as he saith it is then 't is the Duty and Perfection of our Nature to chuse to Love or freely to affect the Preservation of our Life and Being our Food Drink Cloths Honour Riches Pleasure and the Gratification of all our Natural Appetites according to and not exceeding the Intention of the God of Nature Again God is the Cause and Author of all my Love of my self of my desire of Self-Preservation and of all that I judge needful for and pleasant to me He is the Author of all that natural 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we bear to our Relations and also of that love we owe unto our Neighbour as having made him in all considerable Respects the same with us or equal to us and therefore equally deserving our Affection and having founded it on this clear Principle of Nature That we should deal with others as we would be dealt with Will therefore Mr. N. say That because God is the Author of all this Love of Benevolence 't is just and reasonable he should have it all No sure the utmost that he can reasonably hence conclude is this that it is just and reasonable we should only love our selves our Relatives and Neighbouâ—s in relation to God or in Subordination to him And this is likewise all he can rationally conclude from God's being the Author of our Love of desire viz. That we should desire nothing but with Relation to or in Subordination and Submission to him In a word as God is the sole efficient Cause of my Intellectual Love in the true Philosophical Sense by giving me the Faculties and the Liberty by which I chuse Intellectual Good so also on the same is he the cause of all my sensual Love i. e. of my Love of the Body of all the Conveniences and innocent Delights of it as also the sensual Love of Beasts And must he therefore be the Proper and Immediate yea the Sole Object of this Love Do you not call that a sensual Desire whose Object is a sensual Good And is God such a one A Man saith Mr. N. is in Love that is he hath a sensual Desire toward a sensual Good And this saith he cannot be evil for then 't would be a sin to be in Love and consequently there would be a necessity of sinning in order to Marriage because no Man not therefore Mr. N. is supposed to Marry but whom he thus loves and so Mr. N. being Married had once a sensual Desire of a sensual Good without Sin and therefore was not obliged by this Commandment to make God the only Object of his Love of Desire And indeed 't is palpably absurd to say I do God Injury or Injustice in loving or desiring those things which he hath given me Faculties on purpose to love and desire which have no other use but to desire which cannot be satisfied without the Enjoyment of what we desire which if he did not intend we should Gratifie he gave them only as Snares and Torments to us God's Right therefore in this Case can be only this that I never love any sensual Good against him or to the Dishonour of him but rather that I love it only in Relation or in Subordination and Submission to him not that I love it not at all I lay down this an evident and undeniable Proposition that the natural Motion of the Will is to Good in General But now how can the Will be moved towards Good in General but by being moved towards All Good for to be moved
Good-will and kindness to Mankind and terminating in his Happiness Whereas Mr. N.'s account of God's Love his Will and Actings doth render him the most selfish Being that we can imagine one who can love nothing but himself will and do nothing but purely for himself Our Charity must be such as seeketh not our own things it must engage us not to seek our own but every Man anothers Good and to please him for his Good Our Friendship purely must respect the Welfare of our Friend and when we exercise our Charity or pretend Friendship purely from prospect of our own Advantage our Friendship becomes Mercenary and our Charity degenerates into Self-love And to this Charity and Friendship we are incited chiefly by the Example of our God and yet it seems his Love terminates only in himself and can be no other than the love of himself and how then can it oblige me to the forementioned Charity and Friendship to my Neighbour for his sake To this Question therefore Can God move us towards a Creature Can he move us from himself I Answer Yes he doth move us towards the Creatures by all those Appetites Affections and Desires he hath implanted in our Natures to them by all the Commands he hath laid upon us to pray for our daily Bread to be industrious to procure them and to bless him for them Does he not move the hungry Appetite to desire Meat the thirsty Drink the naked to desire Cloths the Poor supply of his Wants c. And doth he not in all these Cases move us towards the Creature Hath not God made these things the matter of his Promises and his Encouragements to Duty entailing upon Godliness the Promises of this Life and engaging to them who seek first the Kingdom of God that all other things shall be added to them We therefore are by him moved towards the Creature as a motive to the Enjoyment of himself And sure thus moving us to the Creature is not to move us from himself but to himself by means very proper to excite us to love obey and cleave unto him who doth thus load us with his Blessings and poureth his Benefits upon us as the whole Book of Psalms and the whole Law of Moses testifies The Love here discoursed of and recommended is the Love of a God that is of all that is Good of all that is Perfect of all that is Lovely of all that is Desirable in short of all that truly is and can any Love be too great or too high for such an Object Or rather doth he not deserve infinitely more than we or any of his Creatures can bestow upon him What can infinite Good be loved too much Or is any degree of Love too high for him who is infinitely lovely and who infinitely loves himself And why then should it be thought such a stretch of the Love of God to make it intire and exclusive of all other Loves Can we love God too much or Creatures too little To this I Answer First That what I have discoursed is sufficient to evince that this is such a stretch of the Love of God as renders it inconsistent with our Duty and Obligation to pray for any temporal Blessings which we want That it tends to depreciate the Gifts of God and to impair the sense of Divine Goodness in them to destroy all our Industry in our Callings and all pursuit of Temporal Enjoyments by our honest Labours That it removes the natural Foundation of all Injustice and cramps all charitable Beneficence That it casts a vile Contempt upon the Works both of Creation and of Providence And lastly that it casts this imputation upon the Just and Holy God that he hath made that our Sin which is Natural and Necessary As sure it is to desire Food when we are hungry that he will not allow us to desire what he knows we have need of It makes him to have planted in us natural Appetites and Desires which he intended we should gratifie and yet hath not permitted us to desire that which alone can gratifie them And sure if this Hypothesis do all or any of these things it by so doing must stretch this Duty of the Love of God beyond the bounds prescribed to it by our God and Saviour Secondly If God be all that truly is all that is not God truly is not and what is not can have no Love to God or any other thing So that this stretch of Metaphysicks destroys that Love he recommends Moreover to say that God is all that is Good is to contradict God himself who said of all the Creatures that he made that they were very Good To say that he is all that is lovely all that is desirable is to beg the Question Again that God deserves infinitely more than we can bestow upon him that an infinite Good cannot be loved too much i. e. more than he deserves is very true but not pertinent for we can be no more obliged to love God than we are to serve him as he deserves which we can never do For he deserves to be served answerably to the Reward that he hath promised but can we perform such Service He deserves Perfect and Angelical Obedience but are we therefore in this State of Imperfection obliged to it The Question is not What is too much for him if we could perform it but What he hath made our Duty and therefore doth expect we should perform Now hath he made it our Duty so to love him as not to love our selves not to love Health and Pleasure not to desire Food and Raiment or any other Blessing he hath promised as the Reward of our Obedience If not 't is evident that Duty of Affection which we owe unto him cannot be exclusive of all love of the Creature But Thirdly the Absurdity of this way of Arguing will best appear by the propounding of some Parallel Instances as 〈◊〉 The Messalians or Euchitae stretching those words of Christ which command us to pray always and not to faint and those of the Apostle pray without ceasing as Mr. N. doth the Command to Love God with all our Heart c. declared That they who would be saved must be continually employed in Prayer so as to do nothing else till they had found their Sins sensibly expelled by them and going out from them as an Evil Spirit and the Holy Ghost as sensibly entring into and dwelling in their Souls And this said they was the true Communion of Christians one with another Hence they declared themselves to be the Men who had wholly renounced the World left all things and had no Possessions upon Earth as Epiphanius saith of them And misunderstanding those Words of Christ Labour not for the meat that perisheth they held it unlawful to work for the sustaining of this present Life And therefore they stiled themselves Spiritual Men or the Poor in Spirit and spent that
the Creatures and not in the least to desire any of them as his Goods I farther suppose him to persevere in this disposition of Mind to the very last And then ask whether you can think such a Person hath any thing to Answer at the Bar of God's Justice upon this account or whether you think God will Damn or eternally Separate such a one from his Presence as defective in his Duty meerly for not making the Creature his Good and the Object of his desire This Rhetorical Harangue is indeed somewhat affecting but hath nothing of Argument in it For when he saith Conscience doth never reproach us for our indifferency to the Creature what thinks he of the Prodigal who is so indifferent towards it as that he cares not tho' he spend that in Gaming or squander it away in Prodigality which had he been more concerned to keep it might have preserved himself and his Family from Want and Misery What thinks he of the Tradesman who is so indifferent towards the Creature that he will not give himself the trouble to consider whether he thrives or decays in his Trade or Calling till at last he breaks and robs many who had Dealings with him of their Right How easie is it to put twenty Cases of like nature in some of which an indiscreet Piety and Love to a Party joined with this indifference hath contributed not a little to their Want and Beggary And since he will be putting Cases why stopped he here where he did I will suppose saith he a Man to place his whole Affection upon God so as to withdraw his Love from all the Creatures and I suppose him to persevere in this disposition to the last And there he stops I go on therefore to suppose this Man to want Health Sleep Clothes and all things needful to the Body and to the Preservation of his Wife and Children and yet so employed in Love to God that he desires not Rest Health nor any thing else needful either for his Body or his Family and that he perseveres in thus withdrawing his Love from the Creatures to the last and then ask whether he may not have something to answer for at the Bar of God's Iustice upon that account I suppose this Man to be one of the Alambrados or a Quietist so intent upon his Mental Prayer Divine Contemplation and Union with God as that he hath withdrawn his Desires wholly from the Concerns of his Estate his Family or his own Body I suppose lastly that this Man withdraws himself thus from the Desire of the Creature out of a Principle of Religion either that of the Euchitae that we are not to labour for the Meat that perisheth or that of Mr. N. that the Love of God is exclusive of all Love and Desire of the Creature and that he cannot Love the Creature too little And then I ask again Whether this Man may not be defective in his Duty for not making the Creature the Object of his desire Whether he may not fall down upon his Knees and say Lord I have been so indifferent towards those Creatures which are thy signal Blessings and thy gracious Gifts to which all Mankind owe the Preservation of their Souls in Life that I have not thought them worthy of the least desire or been concerned to pray to thee for my daily Bread I have thought it my Duty to love thee so entirely as to withdraw my Love from my Wife Children Relations Friends and Neighbours by withdrawing it from those Creatures which could alone enable me to afford them what was needful for the Body and by so doing I have neglected to provide for those of my own House and to work with my hands that which is Good that I might have to give to others as thou hast commanded me I have so loved thee with all my Soul as not to suffer it to desire the Food which was necessary to sustain my Life And so have hated that Flesh and Body I stood bound to nourish and to cherish and so as to neglect my natural Rest and Health and thereby to contribute to the destruction of that Life which thou hast given me I have done all this from such a Principle of Religion as tends to depreciate thy great Goodness in affording them to vilifie thy Blessings and to make Men slight thy Promises as unworthy of the desire of the Man that truly loves thee and to lay this vile Imputation upon thy All-wise Providence that it hath planted in us natural Appetites and Desires which it would not have us gratifie 2 dly To return Question for Question When did Conscience upbraid him for praying for his daily Bread or asking with Agar food convenient for him or for desiring to procure it by honest Industry I suppose a Man to love the temporal Blessings God hath promised and so to make his desire of enjoying them one motive to obey and serve him to desire Life to love many days that he may see Good and therefore to depart from evil and do good to desire all things needful for the Body which he is to nourish and for that Family he stands bound to provide for Yea when God hath given him Riches and Wealth to desire to eat thereof to rejoice in it and to take his portion of it and to make his Soul enjoy Good in his Labour I suppose also that he perseveres in this disposition of mind to the end and then ask Whether you can think such a Person hath any thing to Answer for at the Bar of God's Iustice upon that account Or whether you think God will Damn or eternally Separate such a one from his Presence as defective in his Love to him meerly for making the Creatures his Good and the Object of his desire His last and in his own Opinion his strongest Argument for this entire and exclusive Love of God runs thus If God be the only true Cause that Acts upon our Spirits and produces our Pleasure then he only does us Good he only perfects our Being and makes us happy And if he only does us Good then he only is our Good then he only is lovely then 't is plain that we ought to love none but him and him entirely Or to Argue backwards we are to love nothing but what is lovely nothing is lovely but what is our Good nothing is our Good but what does us Good nothing does us Good but what causeth Pleasure in us nothing causeth Pleasure in us but God therefore we are to love nothing but God In Answering this Objection I shall first shew that it is not agreeable to the Sentiments of Holy Scripture And 1. Is this Doctrine consistent with all those Exhortations the Scripture every where affords us to do Good to our needy Brother and charitably to contribute to the Relief of his Wants for by abounding in these Alms we are said to abound in Good