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
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
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
Answered § 7. Argument 7. God only is to be loved because he only acts upon our Spirits produceth our Pleasure and he only does us Good Answered § 8. What the Lady offers on this Subject briefly Considered and Answered § 9. HAving thus considered the Arguments produced from Scripture against the common Interpretation of this Great Commandment and for a love of God wholly exclusive of all love to and desire of the Creature even so far and so unhappily exclusive of it that we are told That he that desires any thing besides God whatever he pretend or however he deceive himself doth not truly love God That the desire of God and desire of the Creature are in their own Nature incompatible even so incompatible that whenever the Soul moves towards the Creature it must necessarily forsake the Creator I now proceed to the Examination of those Arguments from Reason by which Good Mr. Norris and the Lady endeavour to establish this Opinion only premising for the better stating of the Question What he and the Good Lady grant to us And First They own That we may seek and use those sensible things to which by the Order of Nature Pleasure is annexed That they may be innocently sought for and used though they must not be loved That we may seek and use sensible things for our Good but we must not love them as our Good Which in plain terms is affirming and denying the same thing as is demonstrable from Mr. N.'s definition of the love of Concupiscence for Pleasure saith he is Good even our Good seeking Pleasure must suppose a desire of it and that desire is Love or the effect of Love for it supposeth a motion of the Soul towards it and Love saith he is only a Motion of the Soul towards Good Again seek and use sensible things for our Good we cannot whilst we suppose they are not Good for us i. e. that they will do us no Good if then we may seek and use sensible things for our Pleasure and our Good they must do us Good and so be our Good For That saith he is our Good which does us Good Moreover it may be enquired why he is so indulgent to our seeking of these things who will not permit us to love them in the least measure and who contends for an utter annihilation of all desire of the Creature does not our Saviour say as expresly Seek not what you shall eat or what you shall drink as St. Iohn doth love not the World Does not his Apostle say as expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let no Man seek his own things And can he tell us any reason why of two things equally prohibited we may be allowed the one and not the other or why the Prohibition of loving or desiring the Creature should be entirely exclusive of all love and all desire of the Creature and yet the prohibition of seeking and minding the Creature should not be as exclusive of all seeking and all minding of it But to proceed This saith he in his Letter I farther illustrate thus you are to distinguish betwixt the Movements of the Soul and those of the Body the Movements of the Soul ought not to tend but towards him who only is above her and only able to act in her but the Movements of the Body may be determined by those Objects which environ it and so by those Movements we may unite our selves to those things which are the Natural or Occasional Causes of our Pleasure thus because we find Pleasure from Fire N. B. this is warrant enough to approach it by a Bodily Movement but we must not therefore love it for Love is a Movement of the Soul And that we are to reserve for him who is the true cause of that Pleasure which we resent by occasion of the Fire who as I have proved is no other than God by which you may plainly perceive what 't is I mean by saying that Creatures may be sought for our good but not loved as our Good But this saith he is more intelligible than practicable But 1. Is this Philosophy suitable to the Language of the Holy Ghost doth he speak as if we sought and approach'd the Creature only by a Bodily Movement and not with any Movements of the Soul Doth not he say Notwithstanding thou mayst kill and eat flesh in all thy Gates whatsoever thy Soul lusteth after according to the Blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee When the Lord thy God shall enlarge thy Borders and thou shalt say I will eat flesh because thy Soul longeth to eat Flesh thou mayst eat Flesh whatsoever thy Soul lusteth after Thou shalt kill of thy Herd and of thy Flock which the Lord hath given thee and thou shalt eat in thy Gates whatsoever thy Soul lusteth after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all the desire of thy Soul thou mayst eat saith the Hebrew thrice Thou must do it only by the Movements of the Body saith Mr. N. Again Thou shalt bestow thy Money for whatsoever thy Soul lusteth after for Oxen or for Sheep or for Wine or for strong Drink or for whatsoever thy Soul desireth Where again we find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the desire of the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Concupiscence of the Soul allowed to go forth towards Oxen and Sheep and Wine and strong Drink The Preacher also laments the Folly of the Man who having Riches Wealth and Honour in such abundance that he wanteth nothing which his Soul can desire and yet he hath not an heart to enjoy them freely and delight himself in the Good of them See Isa. 58.11 12. Rev. 18.14 So plainly doth the Holy Ghost contradict this New Philosophy 2 dly Is it suitable to the Sentiments of Mr. N. when he saith There are some things in the World which I love N. B. with great passion such as are Conversation with select Friends or Men of Harmonical and Tuneable Dispositions Reading close and fine-wrought Discourses solitary Walks and Gardens the Beauty of the Spring and above all Majestick and well composed Musick these I delight in with something-like satisfaction and acquiescence and the last could I enjoy it in its highest Perfection would I am apt to phansie terminate my Desires and make me Happy Now could he do all this without any Movement of his Soul towards them Are none of these things truely and really lovely because they are Creatures Or must he love them too much if he love them at all 3 dly He is here speaking of seeking the Creatures for our good Now hath the Body any apprehensions of what is for our good Can it desire or seek any thing under that Notion Hath it any apprehension of the Objects that make Impressions on it as the natural or occasional Causes of our Pleasure Doth that find Pleasure from the Fire
or remember that it did so Is it not evidently the Soul that apprehends remembers seeks desires and doth all these things How unintelligible therefore is it to talk of all these things only as Movements of the Body and and not as Movements of the Soul To take his own Instance Do we approach to the Fire by a Bodily movement without desiring the Fire and expecting Pleasure from it And is not this desire and expectation a movement of the Soul Is it not the Soul which moves those animal Spirits into those Parts and Muscles by which we are enabled to approach the Fire by a bodily movement So that as far as I am able to perceive here is nothing true nothing satisfactory I had almost said nothing intelligible in this pretended Illustration Moreover when He and the Lady allow us to move toward these things only as the Occasions not as the Causes of our Good I ask Is not the continuance of my Life and Being good And is Food only the occasion is it not the means by God appointed for the continuance of Life Is Physick only the occasion is it not the means of my Health Is sleep only the occasion is it not the means of my Refreshment And so of the Pleasure that we find in the Recovery of our Health and the Refreshments of our wearied Spirits And lastly were it true that God is the immediate cause of all the Pleasure that we find in the Creature was any Body acquainted with this Notion till these latter days Doth one in Ten thousand now believe it Are the generality of Men capable of Understanding it And must not then all who in former Ages did not and who at present cannot understand or believe it lie under a necessity of desiring the Creature as the true cause of their Pleasure and so have a movement of the Soul toward it as such So that this matter is both impracticable and unintelligible The Notion also seems as useless as 't is unintelligible for am I not as much obliged to God for the Benefit and Pleasure I receive from any of his Creatures whether he do immediately produce that Pleasure in me by occasion of them or doth produce in me those Faculties by which I am enabled to perceive the Pleasure they afford Is not the Pleasure which reflects from them as occasions or as natural Causes of it still the same And is not the Giver of these Faculties and Creatures the sole Author of it Is not causa causae causa causati Must not he who is the efficient cause of all those Faculties by which I perceive Pleasure from the Creatures his Providence affords me be the true efficient cause of all my Pleasure Is it not the same Kindness to give me Money to build me an House and to pay my Debts my self as to build an House or pay my Debts for me since either way my Debts are equally paid and my House built and the Benefit is the same In fine Doth this Notion tend at all to abate or lessen our desires of the Creature Not at all For be it supposed that they are only occasions of our Pleasure yet are they granted to such occasions as are always attended with this Pleasure and without which it would not be produced in us by God If then the Object be as pleasing as it would be provided God had lodged a power in it to excite this Pleasure in me and given me Faculties to perceive it without his immediate Operation as certainly it is then is it also equally desirable it being the Pleasure it self not the efficient of it that I do desire Mr. N. saith We must not desire them as our Good because they do us no Good they afford us no Pleasure but God doth upon occasion of them A very Metaphysical Consideration which scarce any one regards in the pursuit of his Pleasure and which will abate no Man's desire of it for the Gratification of the Appetite the Enjoyment of the Delight and the pleasing Sentiment is that thing desired and pursued Now the Creatures being allowed to be the positive Conditions upon which God by his immutable Law and Order stands obliged to give these Gratifications and Delights and without which he will not produce in us one of these pleasing Sentiments must not my pursuit of Pleasure and desire of it oblige me to desire and pursue that without which I know I cannot have it and with which I am sure I cannot want it they being the positive Conditions determining the Operation of God to produce this Pleasure in me i. e. to give me that which only I desire and pursue and for which only I desire the Creature However it is granted First That we may seek and use sensible things for our Good and hence it is inferred that we may desire and be pleased with that is may love them as our Good because it is the apprehension of them as Good to us or as things which may do us Good which moveth us to use and seek them for our Good Secondly 'T is also granted That we may unite our selves and approach to them by the Movements of the Body which Movements of the Body being not Mechanical Motions but caused by some Movements of the Soul towards them hence I conclude we may approach or unite our selves to them also by some Movements of the Soul which is the thing denied by Mr. N. And having premised this I proceed directly to return an Answer to the Arguments by which Mr. N. endeavours to establish his Opinion That the Love of God is exclusive of all Love of the Creature and doth require us in Iustice to withdraw every straggling Desire from it I confess the Incomparable Lady hath let fall some words which seem to lay an Imputation of the worst of Follies upon this attempt Her words are these I will not search for Arguments to inforce this Love after those incomparable ones you have so well inculcated which are indeed unanswerable And not to be opposed by any thing but that which is as unconquerable as it is unaccountable wilful Folly But though these be indeed hard Strokes I 'm sure they come from a very soft and tender hand and from as sweet a temper'd Soul as lives in Flesh. They therefore must be taken by the right handle and must be thought to be intended as an high Compliment to Mr. N. not as an imputation of Folly to all that should oppose his incomparable Inforcements of his Tenet Passing them therefore over with this gentle touch I pass on to a Consideration of the Arguments of Mr. N. contained in his Sermon and in his Letters Then he argues thus God is the only Cause of our Love that is of that Bent or Endeavour whereby the Soul of Man stands inclined to Good in General this Notion of our Souls being a necessary Adherent to our Beings such as we never were without and such as
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
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. P. 91. CHAP. V. 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 Examin'd 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 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 Answer'd § 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 Answered § 7. Argument 7. God only is to be loved because he only acts upon our Spirits produceth our Pleasure and he only does us Good Answered § 8. What the Lady offers on this Subject briefly Considered and Answered § 9. P. 114 ERRATA PAge 2. Line 7. in the Margin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 3. l. 25. greater worth p. 7. l. 5. affect p. 8. l. 20. our p. 9. l. 2. fat p. 16. l. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 17. l. 3. add our p. 24. l. 27. add are p. 35. l. 17. add desires p. 44. l. 25. add as p. 45. l. 6. the p. 46. l. 25. add all p. 49. l. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 51. l. 18. add giveth p. 52. l. 6. add fatness p. 58. l. 17. dependent p. 66. l. 19. dele him p. 67. l. 5. entreat p. 69. l. 25. accuse p 73. l. 25. add from p. 74. l. 15. add be p. 75. l. 28. affect p. 104. l. 11. them p. 106. l. 14. the p. 111. l. 32. the p. 121. l. 14. be p. 139. l. 8. Iustice p. 143. l. 10. of p. 153. l. 21. us A DISCOURSE OF THE Love of God CHAP. I. The Contents 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. THE love of a Being infinitely Excellent in himself and infinitely Beneficial to us is so much our Duty and so much our Interest 't is such an excellent preservative against the Charms of sinful Pleasures and all the Lures of those Temptations which tend to the destruction of our precious Souls such a powerful incentive to that Obedience and Holiness which will most certainly conclude in everlasting Happiness such a constraining motive to that assimulation to God which renders us partakers of the Divine Nature and by the Heathen Moralists is truly stiled The Perfection of Man 'T is such a Treasury of inward Satisfactions and ravishing Delights such a Feast of Marrow and Fatness such a soveraign Antidote against the Miseries and Evils of this present Life such a Spring of sweet Contentment under all Conditions and of entire resignation to the Will of our Beloved that a good Man cannot without Reluctancy of Mind and secret Regret seem to dislike any Opinions or Hypotheses which are honestly designed to advance it to the highest pitch And did I not certainly believe that the Measures of Divine Love I approve of and contend for serve all those glorious Ends and minister as properly and fully to kindle and advance within us this divine Affection as do those high and impracticable Stretches to which my worthy Friend and this Incomparable Lady with so great Beauty of Expressions and with as hearty Zeal have laboured to scrue it up and that they do all this without those Inconveniencies to which their singular Hypothesis seems evidently exposed and without those Temptations it may minister to Men not well affected unto Piety and without those Misbodings it may create in those who are religiously enclined I should not have given my self the uneasie task of contradicting the Opinions of Persons I so highly and so justly love and honour or the Fatigue of canvasing the ensuing Question so fully as these Papers do I hope without offence to either of the Persons concerned because with all the Deference I can shew to their great Endowments and their great Works The Question then is this Quest. Whether the Scripture doth require us to love God so entirely as that we may love nothing else with a love of desire though it be only with Subordination to him So the philosophical and divine Letters dogmatically do assert declaring That the love of God is exclusive of all other love that it requires us in Iustice to withdraw every straggling desire from the Creature and that it is clear from the letter of the Commandment that God is not only the Principal but the sole Object of our Love Whence it must follow that every degree of desire
of any Creature is a sin as being a transgression of this Precept 2 dly Hence it must follow that this sin is plain Idolatry for Idolatry consists in giving that Reverence and Affection to the Creature which is due only to the Creator If therefore no degree of love or of desire be due unto the Creature but to the Creator only by loving or desiring the Creature in any degree whatsoever we must give the affection to the Creature which is only due to the Creator and therefore must be guilty of Idolatry Hence sutably to their Opinion 't is asserted That the Creatures are no more our Goods than our Gods and we may as well worship them as love them And again p. 77 78. As to worship the Creature though but relatively is to give that worship to the Creature which is proper to God so to love the Creature though but relatively is to give that love to the Creature which is proper to God I cannot see why one should not be reckoned Idolatry as well as the other Now Idolatry in the New Testament is frequently declared to be a damning sin which they that do shall not inherit the Kingdom of God No Idolater having any inheritance in the Kingdom of God or of Christ but in the lake of fire and brimstone which is the second death So that according to this new Divinity if I desire Fire as my good when I am starved with cold I shall be cast into Hell fire And if I love a Woman and so desire her for a Wife I must be excluded from Heaven because I love and I desire a Creature Moreover these Letters lay this down for certain That he that desires any thing besides God whatever he pretends or however he deceives himself does not truly love God And that whenever the Soul moves toward the Creature it must necessarily forsake the Creator and that it can never truly turn to him without a dereliction of all besides him Now if it cannot truly love him it never can be loved by him if it can never truly turn to him it can never be converted and so it never can be saved if it forsake the Creator by desiring or moving towards any Creature it must perish for saith the Prophet all that forsake thee shall be ashamed and consumed Now is it not strange Doctrine to affirm as certain That we cannot truly love God if we desire our daily bread that I forsake God if I move towards meat when I am hungry or drink when I am thirsty Such Doctrines as these tend plainly to perswade Men that God requires what they find opposite to their very Constitution and Being in this World and so impossible for them to perform and live and this must render the highest act of our Religion the divine Love ridiculous to some and drive the weaker sort of People into despair by giving them occasion to think they do not love God truly or as they ought because they by experience find they love a Dish of good Meat and a Cup of good Drink and cannot but desire the one when they are hungry and the other when thirsty In opposition to this new Opinion I shall endeavour to shew First That it is manifestly and expresly contrary to the plain Dictates of the Holy Scripture and the Experience and Reason of Mankind Secondly That it is contrary to the Commandment which enjoins us to love our Neighbour as our selves Thirdly That it virtually destroys the Foundation of those two great moral Virtues Justice and Charity Fourthly That it casts a vile contempt upon the Works of God to wit his Works of Creation and of Providence Fifthly That it is attended with many other pernicious Consequences Sixthly That it hath been expresly and manifoldly contradicted even by him who now so hotly contends for it Seventhly And lastly I shall endeavour to return a plain and satisfactory Answer to all that 's offer'd for this Doctrine from Scripture or Reason First It is manifestly and expresly contrary to the plain Dictates of the Holy Scripture and the Experience and Reason of Mankind To make this evident I lay this down as the Foundation That love of Concupiscence and of Desire are the same Desire being in English the same which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Concupiscentia are in Greek and Latin Love is saith Mr. N. a motion of the Soul towards Good and thus considâ—red it is what we call Concupiscence or Desire Now hence it necessarily follows that what I desire I do also love and that I may innocently love what I may lawfully desire to have or to enjoy Now God himself by divers Methods hath instructed us that we may lawfully desire the Creature He hath himself obliged us to desire and therefore moderately to effect the World 's good Things For 1. He hath made the desire of them the matter of our daily Prayer requiring us to address unto him daily for our daily Bread Now under the name of Bread it is agreed by all Interpreters that I have met with that all things needful to the sustaining and the comfort of this present Life are comprehended of which nature are Meat Drink and Clothing For saith our Saviour your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of All these things Moreover the Reason why we are to desire Bread being this because 't is needful for the Support and Comfort of this present Life it follows that we have the same reason to desire of God what ever else is needful to the Support and Comfort of this Life And so to beg his Blessing not only on our honest Labours and endeavours to obtain and to preserve what is needful for the Support and Comfort of our selves and our dependants but also on our Flocks and Herds and on all those Fruits of the Earth he hath provided for the use of Man Prayer therefore being the desire of some good thing from God two things are evident which destroy the Foundation of this Imagination 1. That our Bread is our Good 2. That we may lawfully desire and therefore love all that in this Petition is comprehended under the name of daily Bread Again St. Paul condemns those Hereticks who taught Men to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them who believe and know the truth viz. that nothing is unclean of it self Rom. 14.14 For every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving For it is sanctified by the word and prayer By the Word giving us Authority to eat of every Herb and every living Creature And by Prayer asking these good Creatures of him who is the giver of every good Thing Here then again we learn First That every Creature of God is good i. e. is good for Food to be received by us and therefore for our Food and consequently for good and why else is it
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
any temporal Blessings which we want either for our selves or others Whosoever looks into the Prayer of Dedication made by Solomon will find it is imploy'd in begging temporal Mercies for the Iews in answer to their Prayer viz. in asking deliverance from that Pestilence which destroyed their Lives that Famine Mildew Blasting Locust which consumed their Fruit that Drought which consumed their Drink and that Exile which deprived them of that good Land which flowed with Milk and Honey The Ancient Liturgies pray'd always thus Let us beseech the Lord to give us a temperate Air gentle Showers refreshing Dews and plenty of all Fruits so that the year may afford us store of all good things and abundance of all Provisions In our Liturgy we pray that God would give and preserve to us the kindly Fruits of the Earth so as in due time we may enjoy them That the King may study to preserve his People in Wealth Peace and Godliness That we may receive the Fruits of the Earth to our comfort That God would encrease the Fruits of the Earth by his heavenly Benediction and turn our great Scarcity and Dearth into Plenty and Cheapness Now seeing Prayer is a desire of some good thing from God if these Enjoyments be not our good things if we may not desire or affect them we cannot thus address unto God for them Secondly This Doctrine is inconsistent with that Praise and that Thanksgiving which we owe to God for all the Mercies we enjoy How often doth the Psalmist call upon us to praise the Lord for his goodness in these things for feeding the Hungry relieving the Fatherless and Widow for feeding us with the flower of wheat for filling our mouth with good things for opening his hand and filling all things living with plenteousness How punctual is our Liturgy in giving thanks for our Creation Preservation and all the Blessings of this Life for sending Rain upon the Earth that it may bring forth fruit for the use of man to our great comfort for the relief and comfort we receive from any seasonable and blessed Change of Weather for Plenty owned as an act of God's especial Bounty and his loving Kindness to us But how can we esteem these things the Blessings of this Life acts of God's special Bounty and testimonies of his loving Kindness to us if by conferring them God affords us nothing we can or need to desire or ought to be affected with Ought we not highly to value to have a due esteem and a due sense of divine Goodness in affording us those mercies which thus engage our Souls to bless him and all that is within us to praise his holy Name And can any thing tend more to lessen this value and esteem for them or to impair the sense of Divine Goodness in affording them then thus to represent them as things which good Men do not need cannot desire and ought not to affect Thirdly This Doctrine tends to depreciate the divine Gifts to undervalue all God's temporal Blessings to cause Men to despise and slight his temporal Promises and to contemn his threats of the same kind and render both unable to obtain the ends his Wisdom hath designed in making them for what greater contempt can we cast upon the divine Gifts how can we more effectually vilifie the divine Blessings or slight these Promises than by thus solemnly declaring they contain nothing in them which a good Man can desire or affect What motive can such Promises afford us to serve the Lord with chearfulness and gladness of heart iâ— the abundance of all things And if the temporal Evils which God threatens are not to be valued if they cannot deprive us of any thing which is our good or which a pious Soul can either desire or need why should we be afraid of them Or what effect can they have on us to deter us from the evil of our ways To engage us to love God only the incomparable Lady desires us to consider That this is the best way to secure to us that which we are so fond of even the Enjoyment of the Creature and that to fix our love warmly and entirely N. B. on God is to be sure of possessing all that is good in other things Now doth she not by these words confess there is some good in other things and consequently something desirable Why therefore doth she say That in all reason Creatures ought not to be thought desirable Hath she not told us That the desire of God and the desire of the Creature in their own natures are incompatible Why therefore doth she move us by this consideration to secure to our selves what we may not desire Doth she not add That he that desires any thing besides God what ever he pretends or however he deceive himself doth not truly love God And that the Soul that moves toward the Creature must necessarily forsake the Creator Why then did she her self propose this Argument to move us to the Enjoyment and consequently to the desire of the Creature She did it doubtless because she found this was God's motive to seek first the Kingdom of God the Righteousness thereof that then all things else shall be added to us that this was his encouragement to Godliness that it had the promise of this life But this affords a demonstration of her mistake in all that I have quoted from her for may we not desire what God doth promise If then he promiseth these Creatures as the reward of Godliness and seeking first his Kingdom can the desire of what he thus hath promised be incompatible with the desire of God Can we forsake the Creator by moving towards what he thus excites us to Can we cease truly to love God by desiring that which he doth promise Fourthly This Doctrine tends to destroy all Industry in our Calling and all pursuit of temporal Enjoyments by our honest Labour For let me totally withdraw every straggling desire from the Creature and surely I shall be so kind to my self as to withdraw my labour from it If in all â—eason Creatures not to be thought desirable 't must be unreasonable to toil and labour for them and to eat them in the sweat of our brows If none of these Enjoyments be worth my labour surely I have no ground to labour for them now where there is nothing good to me nothing desirable to be obtained by Labour there can be nothing worth my labour Fifthly This Doctrine lays the vilest imputations upon the dispensations of God's Providence towards us For it makes God encourage us to the performance of our Duty by promising that we cannot move towards without forsaking him nor desire without doing that which is inconsistent with true love to God It lays this Imputation on the Just and Holy God that he hath made that our Sin which is natural and ncessary as sure it is to desire Food
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
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
offend in his Affections to or his desire of any worldly Good whose love to God and his desire to enjoy him will not permit him to desire any thing in opposition to him or against his Will and Pleasure If then the Love we plead for will not permit the Lover to offend in Mind in Will Affection or Desire how can it suffer him to offend in Action How pure and chast then must his Soul be that is so thoroughly purged of all created Loves and in whom the love of God reigns so absolute and unrival'd as it does in such a Lover's Breast who never suffers any thing to stand in Competition with his Love and Duty to his God But when it once begins to do so hates and rejects it with the utmost detestation How secure must he needs be from Sin when he has not that in him which may betray him to it He has but one Love at all predominant in his heart and that is for God none but what is entirely subject to and governed by it and how can he that thus loves nothing but God be tempted to Transgress against him Secondly Do they represent the Sense which they impose upon this Precept as that which elevates the amorous Soul to the most noble Heights of Piety as an effectual means to secure Obedience and a strong Impellent to Good Will not that Love which will not suffer me to Sin against God preserve me holy pure and harmless before him in love Will not that Affection do the same which obliges me 1. to prize him above all things to esteem him infinitely more valuable in himself and infinitely more beneficial to me than all things else I can enjoy to look upon him as my chief Good the only Felicity of my Immortal Soul the only Being in whom its Everlasting Happiness and its true Satisfaction doth consist Oh! What can be too difficult to do to acquire a more perfect Enjoyment of what we thus love and prize What can be too hard to suffer for the sake of the chief Object which hath thus won our heart 2. Will not that Affection which so powerfully doth convince me 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 engage me always to prefer his Service before these base and trivial Interests And 3. will not that Love which carries my Heart more ardently my Desires more fervently after God than any other thing make me long breath pant thirst more after him rejoice more in his Favour and be more satisfied with it than in Marrow and Fatness make me diligent and vigorous always abounding in the work of the Lord. Whilst this Devout Lover thus Contemplates the Divine Perfections whilst he looks on God as his exceeding great Reward and desires him accordingly is not his Obedience prompt and ready Does not his mind move with alacrity and unwearied vigour And are not all its Motions regular and pleasing Must not he who so zealously desires and so impatiently thirsteth after God be very well disposed and above all things industrious to unite himself unto God must not he who thus prizes him for his incomparable Excellencies think it his Happiness and Perfection and therefore make it above all things his endeavour to be like him Must not that secure our Obedience to him which constrains us always to prefer our Interest in his Perfections and in the Blessings he hath promised to the Obedient before all other things To obey him rather than Man to please him rather than to gratifie our selves to enjoy him rather than any worldly or carnal Interest whatever And forces us to say with the Psalmist Whom have I in Heaven like thee or what is there on Earth I can desire in comparison of thee What incentive can he want to engage him to walk before God unto all well-pleasing and to perfect Holiness in the fear of God and what a wonderful Progress must he needs make in it Whether will not this superlative Love of God carry him and to what degrees of Perfection will he not aspire under the Conduct of so Divine so Omnipotent a Principle If Obedience be the Fruit of Love then what an entire Obedience may we expect from so intire a Love as can admit of nothing into competition with it nothing which is not wholly subject to and governed by it And so can have no Suckers to draw off the Nourishment from it no other Love to check and hinder its Growth what is there that can hinder him who has so emptied his heart of the Creatures and devoted it so entirely to God that his desire of all other things is always comparatively none and when they hinder his desire of him are absolutely none from reaching the highest pitch of assumable Goodness Since therefore where-ever Obedience is found 't is a certain Criterion of Love and to derive universal Obedience from the Love of God or to argue from that Obedience to the entire N. B. Love of God is as sound a way of Argumentation as to prove any other Effect by its Cause or Cause by its Effect Hence from the universal Obedience which this Love must produce I argue demonstratively That it is that entire Love of God which is required by the Command To love God with all our hearts Seeing there is no better Diagnostick to discover our Love then by observing what is the most frequent Subject of our Thoughts and where-ever the weight of our Desire rests the stream of our Thoughts will follow it being certain that what I prize above all things and above all things desire must be still uppermost in my Thoughts and be the very thing on which the weight of my desire rests What better Diagnostick can I have to prove my Genuine Affection to that God I do so infinitely prize so fervently desire and in Affection do prefer before all other Objects If therefore we would come up to our Holy Religion if we would be those Wise and Excellent Creatures that God designs we should let us above all things fix our love upon its proper Object put it into a regular Motion and then do but allow it scope and faithfully pursue its Tendencies and we need not be afraid of doing amiss we should run the Race that is set before us with Chearfulness and Vigour in a direct Line and with unwearied Constancy For what wise Man would think much to relinquish a lesser for a greater Good Or shew any Inclination for lower Delights when courted to the Enjoyment of the Highest Thirdly Do they say the Love of God they plead for makes the best provision for our Pleasure Is not this as true of the measures of Divine Love assigned by us For have not we who Contemplate and Prize him as our Chiefest Good and our exceeding great
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
time in Idleness and Sleep which was not spent in Prayer They also neglected both the Hearing and Reading the Word of God and contemned the use of the Sacraments as thinking That the Soul could not be purged by them but only by the Prayer they magnified so much Now as the Scriptures on which they grounded these Practices in their Grammatical Import are as full for Praying always without ceasing and against Labouring for the Meat that Perisheth as is the Text under contest for loving God exclusively of any Love of the Creature so is it easie to Harangue in Favor of these Hereticks after the manner of Mr. N. viz. The Duty which we recommend is the desire of Happiness and Salvation that is of all that is truly lovely and desirable of the truest Riches the Divinest Honours the most Ravishing Delights of the Vision of God in Glory the Enjoyment of him the being made like him and seeing him as he is And can any desire be too Great or too High for such an Object or rather doth it not deserve infinitely more than we are able to bestow upon it What can an Endless Happiness and Immense Glory be desired too much Why then should it be thought such a stretch of the Desire of Happiness to make it Intire and Exclusive of all Labour for the World Can we love Happiness too much or the World too little I appeal to the Judicious Reader whether the Argument of the Massalian Heretick be not as like to that of Mr. N. as one Egg is to another and whether it be not of equal strength with that which he hath here produced What he has more to say upon this Subject is directly levelled against those Persons if there be any such in the World who conceive the Love required in the Command to love our Neighbour as our selves is a love or desire our Neighbour as our Good which I have shewed to be a Contradiction in adjecto the desire of our Neighbour as our Good being not properly love of our Neighbour but our selves and therefore though some Divines do and reasonably may say that Mr. N.'s Exposition of the First Command renders it inconsistent with the Second which requires me to love my Neighbour as my self because it excludes me from the desire of those Creatures by which I may do good to him and give him the things needful for the Body as I do to my self yet I desire one Instance of one of those many who ever said that the Love of our Neighbour in this Precept signifies the desiring him as a Good or of those Objectors who are pleased to presume this that so he may in some measure account for his Imagination that the World runs so generally upon this Notion But though neither I nor I believe any Body else is concerned in any thing he said as it relates to that Particular yet because he so discourses on that Subject as seems to render it as absurd to Love or desire any other Creature as our Good I will single out and accommodate those Passages to this matter and then return an answer to them He therefore enquires thus Is it once to be thought that God who is Infinitely Good Infinitely desirable Infinitely deserving of our highest Affections nay of our whole Love and withal Infinitely able to satisfie and reward it should command us to love and desire a Creature as vain and infirm and as much a shadow as our selves Is it to be thought that he should first call us to himself and then as if he alone were not able to suffice for us and to satisfie the enlarged Appetites which he had given us should call in the Creatures to part of the Expence and send us from himself to them Are these thoughts worthy of God What means he by these Questions Does he not know that the same Jesus who said Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart Soul and Mind commanded us to say unto him Give us day by day our daily Bread And hath he not then commanded us to desire and so to love what he commandeth us daily to ask of him whom we thus love with all our Hearts Was it not usual with him when he had fed his Hearers with the Bread of Life the Food that abideth to Eternal Life to feed their Bodies also with his Creatures and so to send them from the one Food to the other as knowing well the Bread of Life was never designed to suffice for the Body or to satisfie those Bodily Appetites which he had given them Again does he not know that God commanded his own People to love and serve him with all their Hearts and Souls encouraging them to do so by this Promise that then he would give them Corn and Wine and Oil and they should eat and be full That the Blessed Jesus exhorts us to seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof and then all these things Meat Drink and Clothing should be added to us by our Heavenly Father who knoweth we have need of them Doth not St. Paul excite us to live Godly because Godliness is profitable to all things having the promise of this Life Doth not the Psalmist say O fear the Lord all ye his Saints for there is no want to them that fear him The Young Lions do lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing And again The Lord will give Grace and Glory and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly And hath not God by these Expressions first called us to himself and then sent us to his Creatures as his Blessings on our Obedience Do not those Promises suppose in us a Love of and a desire to enjoy the Blessings promised And then doth he not send us to these Creatures for satisfaction of those Appeties he hath implanted in us towards them As knowing Spiritual Nature was never designed to satisfie the Body and that these Creatures were by his Wisdom and Goodness purposely provided to satisfie our bodily Appetites so that this pompous Rhetorick serves only to Arraign the Providence of God in making us with Appetites which not be satisfied without the Creature and his Wisdom in drawing us to Love and serve him by the promise of these outward Blessings Our Conscience doth often upbraid to us the Love of the Creatures but never that I know of doth it reproach us for our indifferency towards them or prompt us to repent of it And indeed it would be a strange kind of Repentance for a Man to fall upon his knees and confess to God as a Sin that he had withdrawn all his Desires from his Creatures and fixed them upon Him I will suppose a Man to place his whole Affection upon God and so to love him with all his Heart Soul Mind and Strength as to withdraw his Love from all