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
and so far entred into the methods of true Mortification as to be capable of Conviction and of having their minds wrought upon by the light and force of Reason And lastly he adds That Men are backward not only to pay that entire Love which they owe to God but even to acknowledge the Debt and are not only loath to obey the Command but even to understand it will use a thousand Arts and Devices to shift off and evade the genuine force of it and rather than fail will say That though God in the most plain and express terms calls for whole Love yet he means but a part of it Strange and amazing Partiality and Presumption But of this general Backwardness to receive the Sense of this plain Command as plain as Thou shalt have no other Gods but me I have already hinted an account in the former part of this Letter I shall not return that Answer to these reflecting Words which they deserve but shall content my self First To offer to Mr. N. some General Considerations which may be proper to move him upon second thoughts to abate him somewhat of his Confidence and be more moderate in his Censures of his Fathers and Brethren if not out of respect to them yet out of regard to his own dear Self who in his other Writings hath plainly and expresly taught that very Doctrine and Exposition which he now Condemns Secondly I shall further establish the common Exposition and confirm it by the clearest Evidence of Scripture and of Reason And Thirdly Shall endeavour to return an Answer to his pretended Demonstrations for his new elevated Sense of this Command And First Whereas he saith The common Interpreters sure could not but be sensible that herein they did not rise up to the Letter of the Text which manifestly requires a more elevated Sense Let me instruct him to consider whether Christian Charity will permit him thus peremptorily to pronounce that before him and Mr. Malbranch and all Commentators gave such a Sense of this great Commandment of which they could not but be sensible that it fell short of all Mens Duty or of what God required them to do that they might live and that they thus deviated from the Sense which the Text manifestly required that is that the Interpretation they delivered as the true import of the Text was contrary to the manifest Sense of it and to the inward Sentiments of their own Consciences Secondly Whereas he adds That they could not advance higher without building in the Air and were therefore forced to cramp the Sense of this great Commandment and to put such a Construction upon it not as the express words of it require but as their Hypothesis would bear And that only he and Mr. Malbranch have thought otherwise or any further Let me entreat him to consider whether it be reasonable to conceive that God left all Men ignorant of the true Grounds of this Command till he and Mr. M. appeared to instruct the World in the true meaning of it that though all Men were obliged by the light of Nature all Jews and Christians by the light of Scripture to love God with all their Hearts and Souls yet they had no just Ground or Reason so to do till he and Mr. M. bless'd the World with this new Invention that our Lord hath given us another reason of this Precept is evident from these words Hear O Israel the Lord thy God is one God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart c. And I hope he will not dare to say that he built Castles in the Air for want of his Philosophy or gave us only such a reason as forced us to cramp the Sense of this Commandment Thirdly Let me entreat him to consider the plain Consequences of this his singular Opinion and Interpretation of these words viz. That all Interpreters before him have taught all Men to love God less than he required of them by virtue of this great Law to do God great Injury and Injustice to defraud the Creator of what was due to him to cross the Order of Nature and resist the Will of its Great Author to be Idolaters i. e. to worship the Sun and to give every Creature a share in our Religious Acknowledgments to commit Spiritual Fornication and Adultery to Deifie and Idolize the Creature to do what is as much Idolatry as is that Relatiâ—e Worship which the Papists do ascribe to Images Now can he indeed believe all Christians and Jews of former Ages were and that all at present besides Mr. Malbranch and those few who embrace his Sentiments are Guilty of these horrid Crimes If not he must be so Uncharitable as to think they do not act according to their Principles or must confess that these things do not follow from them Fourthly When he saith his Exposition is so very evident that it is matter of just Admiration that any Rational and Considerate Person can with-hold his assent from it and that the reason why we do not see or seeing will not own it is because it thwarts our Passions Interests and Lusts Customs and Prejudices Because we have not purged our selves from the Prejudices of Sense disingaged our Hearts from the love of sensible Objects nor entred so far into the Methods of true Mortification as to be capable of Conviction That they who allow not of it are Guilty of strange and amazing Partiality and Presumption unwilling not only to obey the Command but to understand it and rather willing to shew a thousand Arts and Devices â—o shift off and evade the genuine force of it I say when he useth such Expressions let me entreat him to consider whether it doth become him thus to bespatter all his Adversaries and tell them to their faces if they will not yield assent to his odd Notion they must have Lusts and Passions which obstruct the Evidence of Truth to cause all his Fathers and Brethren who comply not with his Sentiments which scarce any of them do as Guilty of strange and amazing Partiality as Men not purged from the Prejudices of Sense not disingaged from the love of sensible Objects not entred so far into the Methods of true Mortification as to be capable of Conviction Fifthly Because it may be some Inducement to him to shew more moderation in his Censures of those that differ from him in this Matter to consider that the Great Mr. Norris was formerly of the same Opinion with them and that they differ no more from him than he now differs from his former self I shall proceed to shew that in his former Treatises he hath conspired with us in this matter For 1 st In his Idea of Happiness discoursing of the Degrees of the love of God he saith The Computation of Bellarmine is accurate enough who reckons Four The first is to love
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
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
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
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
our case we do not love the Creature with the same sort of Love or in the same Sense in which we love God i. e. not with a Religious Affection but with a Natural only not as our Spiritual but as our Temporal Good not as the Good of our Immortal Souls but our Frail Bodies not as our End our Rest or our chief Good not for its own but for God's sake whereas we love God with a religious Affection as the Spiritual and Eternal Good of our Immortal Souls as our End Rest and our chief Good and even for himself For this he doth saith the Excellent Bishop Taylor who loves God above every thing else for all that supereminent Love by which God is more loved than all the World all that Love is pure and for himself For the Philosophers were wont to say A Man loved Virtue for Virtues sake if he loved it when it was discountenanced when it thwarted his temporal Ends and Prosperities and what they call loving Virtue for Virtuâ—s sake the Christian calls loving God for God's sake And had Mr. N. when he said There are but two sorts of Love that of Desire and Benevolence considered that this love of Desire may be branched into religious and natural Desires desire of things Spiritual and Temporal of things good for the Body and for the Soul of things to be used here and to be enjoyed here and hereafter of things as necessary for our being and our well-being of things to be desired for their own and for God's sake He would have discerned as great a difference betwixt one Love of Desire and another as betwixt Love of Desire and of Benevolence or at the least would not have thought that he who desired the Creature in a sense thus limited desired him in the same sense or with the same sort of Desire with which his Love and his Desire is carried out towards his Great Creator So that I need not now to advertise him that he should not insist so much on the English Particle with since the Original Greek from whence these words are cited ran thus Thou shalt love the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the whole Heart now sure we may love one thing ex animo from the whole Heart and desire it entirely and yet may also sometime imploy our desires upon other things The Second Objection from Scripture is taken from the words of the Apostles Iames and Iohn the words of the Apostle Iames are these Ye Adulterers and Adulteresses know ye not that the Friendship of this World is enmity to God Whosoever therefore will be a Friend of the World is an Enemy to God Whence he infers that in St. Iames's account our Heart is so much God's Propriety and peculiar and ought so entirely to be devoted to him that 't is a kind of Spiritual Adultery to admit any Creature into Partnership with him in our Love I Answer That as a Woman becomes not an Adulteress by any Affection to or Friendship with another Man for she ought to love her Friend and Neighbour and Relations and to shew Friendship to them but only by loving Friend or Neighbour with the love proper to her Husband with that love which comes in competition with and invades that conjugal Affection which belongs to him alone So neither doth all love of the Creature make us guilty of Spiritual Adultery but only that love of the Creature which is proper to God and stands in competition with him and makes us Idolize the Creature by giving it that share in our Affections which is due to God alone as is evident from the very words Ye Adulterers and Adulteresses for that Phrase as often as it Metaphorically occurs in the Old Testament imports the declining of the Iews to Idolatry and the giving that Worship and Service to Idols and false Gods which belongs only to the true and consequently that Friendship of the World which rendred the Persons here represented Guilty of Spiritual Adultery must be that inordinate Affection to the World which made it Rival God and Rob him of the Service and Obedience due to him and this the Context clearly shews for the Friendship of the World there reprehended was such as proceeded from the Lusts which were in their Members and caused them to desire the World 's Good not to supply their wants but to consume them on their Lusts and such a love of the World as produced Wars Fightings and even Murther that they might obtain the Worlds good things ver 1 2 3 4. But saith Mr. N. Every lover of the Creature is in proportion an Idolater upon our former Principle for by loving Creatures we suppose them our Goods that they are able to act upon our Souls and affect them with pleasing Sensations that they perfect our Being and are the causes of our Happiness which is to suppose them to be so many Gods so that there can be no such thing as loving the World with moderation since we ought not to love it at all for we Deifie the Object of our Love and to affect the Creature in any degree is so far to Idolize it To this I Answer First If there can be no such thing as loving i. e. desiring the Creature with moderation why doth the Scripture prescribe this Moderation as to the things of this World by saying Let your moderation as to these things be known unto all the Lord is at hand Be careful for nothing but in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God Are not our Petitions of these things from God our desires of them Is not our dependance on that Providence for them which will give good Things to them that ask them the Remedy here prescribed against our anxious Cares for these things And must not then the Moderation here required Respect the same things Again Brethren saith the Apostle the time is short it remaineth that both they that have Wives be as if they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it For the Fashion of this world passeth away Here do not all the Ancient Commentators agree that the Apostle prescribes mediocrity as to these transitory Things we can enjoy but for a short time And that by commanding us to have and use them as if we did it not he only doth enjoin us not to have our hearts affixed and our chief care imployed about them and that to abuse the world is thus to use it to the Satisfaction of our Lusts or so as to imploy all our Studies and Affections on it doth not the Apostle himself thus explain our weeping for our lost Friends viz. That we should not do it immoderately and is not
my mind joining God and the Creature together as one integral Object but it is love to the Creature for that Relation which it hath and bears to God and Christ and therefore 't is not a forbidden but a very acceptable kind of Love though it be plainly Relative And so it is also in our Love of Desire to the Creature for I love them for God and for Christ's sake when I desire them that I may have wherewith to feed Christ's hungry and clothe his naked Members and in all the other Instances fore-mentioned 'T is therefore evident that this Relative Love and the Papists Relative Worship of Images are so far from being exactly Parallel as Mr. N. asserts that they have nothing common to each other but this that both are stiled Relative which also happens in that love of Benevolence for God's sake he allows of But saith Mr. N. Either Creatures are truly and really lovely as being our true and proper Good or they are not if they are then a Relative Love is too little we ought to love them with more than a Relative Love we ought to love them absolutely and for themselves but if they are not then even a Relative Love is too much for what is not truly lovely is always loved too much if it be lov'd at all So that either way there is no pretence for admitting this last Expedient of our Concupiscence the Relative Love of the Creature To this I Answer That when he saith The Creature is not our true and proper Goods this may be taken in the most elevated Sense in which God only is our true and proper Good and then his Argument runs thus Either Creatures are to be loved as our God or else they are not to be loved at all and this Consequence I hope is not as clear as the day or it may be taken in a large sense for that which is the Good of the whole Man Soul and Body and then also I deny that what is not thus lovely is not to be loved at all for I may love because I may desire my daily Bread though it be not the proper Good of my Soul but of my Body only Or lastly our true and proper Good may signifie that only which is some way conducing to our Good to the Advantage and Comfort of this present Life as being instrumental to the Sustentation and the Contentment and Pleasure of this Life or to our Preservation from those afflictive Evils which are incident to us in this Life and all that in this lower sense is lovely may be loved and yet not loved absolutely and for it self as that excludes the Subordination of that Affection to the love of God since thus we are not to desire Life it self but as this Life conduceth to God's Glory which is the soveraign end of all our Actions Secondly Therefore I add That Creatures may be said to be loved absolutely and for themselves either as that imports only for the Goodness God hath put into them the Good they do the Pleasure they afford to our natural Appetites and in this sense I have proved they may be loved absolutely and for themselves and this I also learn from these words of Mr. N. The Great Author of Nature hath made Provisions for the Entertainment of our natural Faculties and particular Appetites all our Senses Seeing Hearing Tasting Smelling and Touching have their proper Objects and Opportunities of Pleasure respectively and the Enjoyment and Indulgence of any of those Appetites is then only N. B. and in such Circumstances restrained when the greater Interests of Happiness are thereby crossed and defeated Now sure I may desire that Pleasure of Appetites which God hath made provision for and consequently may desire those particular Objects which afford that Pleasure since otherwise that Provision God hath made for the Entertainment of our Animal Falculties must be made in vain Again if the Enjoyment of and the Indulgence of these Appetites is only then restrained when the great Interests of Happiness are thereby cross'd and defeated then the Enjoyment of and the Indulgence to them is not wholly restrained and then the desire of that Enjoyment and Indulgence to them is not entirely restained and therefore in some measure and in some Circumstances is allow'd He also owns that Some repast may be found in the Creature and that it is Good to be chosen though not to be rested in and may I not then desire that Repast May I not love what is Good to be chosen with a love of Concupiscence But 2 dly to love Creatures absolutely and for themselves may signifie to love them exclusively of a Relation to and the Subordination of that love to God and in this sense they are not to be loved absolutely and for themselves 1 st Not exclusively of a Relation of them and our affection to them to God's Glory seeing whether we eat or drink or whatever we do we are to do it all to the Glory of God 2 dly Not exclusively of the Subordination of the love of them to the love of God because we must still love them with that Moderation and Indifferency which will not permit our Affection to them to hazard or obstruct our pursuit of the Supreme Good For saith Mr. N. Whenever we turn the edge of our Desire to Created Good 't is Prudence as well as Religion to use Caution and Moderation and gage the Point of our Affection least it run too far Where again he plainly allows of some affection to and some desire of Created Good and if Prudence and Religion require Caution and Moderation in the use of those Affections and Desires they by so doing do approve them in some measure for there can be no Caution or Moderation of our Affections and Desires to that which must not be at all affected or desired CHAP. V. The Contents Mr. N. grants That we may seek and use sensible things for our Good but saith he we must not love them as our Good and that we may approach to them by a bodily Movement but not with the Movements of the Soul This is Examined and Confuted § 1. Argument 1. That God is the sole Cause of our Love and therefore hath the sole Right to it Answered § 2. Argument 2. The Motion of the Will is to Good in General i. e. to all Good and therefore to God only Answered § 3. Argument 3. God is the end of our Love since he cannot act for a Creature but only for himself or move us to a Creature but only to himself Answered § 4. Argument 4. That God cannot be loved too much nor the World too little Answered § 5. Argument 5. That God having called us thus to the Love of himself cannot afterwards send us to a Creature § 6. Argument 6. A Man cannot repent of placing his whole Affection upon God or have any thing to Answer for on that account