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
and so far entred into the methods of true Mortification as to be capable of Conviction and of having their minds wrought upon by the light and force of Reason And lastly he adds That Men are backward not only to pay that entire Love which they owe to God but even to acknowledge the Debt and are not only loath to obey the Command but even to understand it will use a thousand Arts and Devices to shift off and evade the genuine force of it and rather than fail will say That though God in the most plain and express terms calls for whole Love yet he means but a part of it Strange and amazing Partiality and Presumption But of this general Backwardness to receive the Sense of this plain Command as plain as Thou shalt have no other Gods but me I have already hinted an account in the former part of this Letter I shall not return that Answer to these reflecting Words which they deserve but shall content my self First To offer to Mr. N. some General Considerations which may be proper to move him upon second thoughts to abate him somewhat of his Confidence and be more moderate in his Censures of his Fathers and Brethren if not out of respect to them yet out of regard to his own dear Self who in his other Writings hath plainly and expresly taught that very Doctrine and Exposition which he now Condemns Secondly I shall further establish the common Exposition and confirm it by the clearest Evidence of Scripture and of Reason And Thirdly Shall endeavour to return an Answer to his pretended Demonstrations for his new elevated Sense of this Command And First Whereas he saith The common Interpreters sure could not but be sensible that herein they did not rise up to the Letter of the Text which manifestly requires a more elevated Sense Let me instruct him to consider whether Christian Charity will permit him thus peremptorily to pronounce that before him and Mr. Malbranch and all Commentators gave such a Sense of this great Commandment of which they could not but be sensible that it fell short of all Mens Duty or of what God required them to do that they might live and that they thus deviated from the Sense which the Text manifestly required that is that the Interpretation they delivered as the true import of the Text was contrary to the manifest Sense of it and to the inward Sentiments of their own Consciences Secondly Whereas he adds That they could not advance higher without building in the Air and were therefore forced to cramp the Sense of this great Commandment and to put such a Construction upon it not as the express words of it require but as their Hypothesis would bear And that only he and Mr. Malbranch have thought otherwise or any further Let me entreat him to consider whether it be reasonable to conceive that God left all Men ignorant of the true Grounds of this Command till he and Mr. M. appeared to instruct the World in the true meaning of it that though all Men were obliged by the light of Nature all Jews and Christians by the light of Scripture to love God with all their Hearts and Souls yet they had no just Ground or Reason so to do till he and Mr. M. bless'd the World with this new Invention that our Lord hath given us another reason of this Precept is evident from these words Hear O Israel the Lord thy God is one God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart c. And I hope he will not dare to say that he built Castles in the Air for want of his Philosophy or gave us only such a reason as forced us to cramp the Sense of this Commandment Thirdly Let me entreat him to consider the plain Consequences of this his singular Opinion and Interpretation of these words viz. That all Interpreters before him have taught all Men to love God less than he required of them by virtue of this great Law to do God great Injury and Injustice to defraud the Creator of what was due to him to cross the Order of Nature and resist the Will of its Great Author to be Idolaters i. e. to worship the Sun and to give every Creature a share in our Religious Acknowledgments to commit Spiritual Fornication and Adultery to Deifie and Idolize the Creature to do what is as much Idolatry as is that Relatiâ—e Worship which the Papists do ascribe to Images Now can he indeed believe all Christians and Jews of former Ages were and that all at present besides Mr. Malbranch and those few who embrace his Sentiments are Guilty of these horrid Crimes If not he must be so Uncharitable as to think they do not act according to their Principles or must confess that these things do not follow from them Fourthly When he saith his Exposition is so very evident that it is matter of just Admiration that any Rational and Considerate Person can with-hold his assent from it and that the reason why we do not see or seeing will not own it is because it thwarts our Passions Interests and Lusts Customs and Prejudices Because we have not purged our selves from the Prejudices of Sense disingaged our Hearts from the love of sensible Objects nor entred so far into the Methods of true Mortification as to be capable of Conviction That they who allow not of it are Guilty of strange and amazing Partiality and Presumption unwilling not only to obey the Command but to understand it and rather willing to shew a thousand Arts and Devices â—o shift off and evade the genuine force of it I say when he useth such Expressions let me entreat him to consider whether it doth become him thus to bespatter all his Adversaries and tell them to their faces if they will not yield assent to his odd Notion they must have Lusts and Passions which obstruct the Evidence of Truth to cause all his Fathers and Brethren who comply not with his Sentiments which scarce any of them do as Guilty of strange and amazing Partiality as Men not purged from the Prejudices of Sense not disingaged from the love of sensible Objects not entred so far into the Methods of true Mortification as to be capable of Conviction Fifthly Because it may be some Inducement to him to shew more moderation in his Censures of those that differ from him in this Matter to consider that the Great Mr. Norris was formerly of the same Opinion with them and that they differ no more from him than he now differs from his former self I shall proceed to shew that in his former Treatises he hath conspired with us in this matter For 1 st In his Idea of Happiness discoursing of the Degrees of the love of God he saith The Computation of Bellarmine is accurate enough who reckons Four The first is to love
God proportionably to his loveliness i. e. with an infinite Love and this Degree is peculiar to God himself The second is to love him not proportionably to his Loveliness but to the utmost Capacity of a Creature and this Degree is peculiar to Saints and Angels in Heaven The third is to love him not to the outmost Capacity of a Creature absolutely considered but to the outmost Capacity of a mortal Creature in this Life and this he says is proper to the Religious The fourth is to love him not proportionably to the outmost Capacity of a Creature but only so as to love nothing equally with or above him that is not to do any thing contrary to the Divine Love and this saith Mr. N. is an absolute indispensable Duty less than which will not qualifie us for the Enjoyment of God hereafter In his Treatise of the Theory and Regulation of Love he saith That as we are obliged to love God so ought we to love him beyond all other things whatsoever We may and must Prefer him in our Love Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart with all thy Soul with all thy Mind and with all thy Strength So runs the Commandment and very just we should for if even in particular Goods Order requires that the most lovely should be loved most N. B. much more ought we to love him who is the very Essence of Good Good it self beyond all Derivative and secondary Good In his Treatise of Heroick Piety he hath these words I know it is usually Objected That what is supposed to be thus Heroickly performed is inclusively enjoined by virtue of those comprehensive Words Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy Heart To which Objection he Answers thus I conceive that All which is intended by that Phrase amounts to no more than 1st a sincere love of God as 't is opposed to that which is partial and divided and 2dly such a degree of loving as admits of nothing in competition with him And thus far reaches the bounds of indispensable Duty it being impossible that he who does not love God in this Sense and Degree should keep his Commandments Now here I would crave leave to ask him whether when he wrote these things He could not but be sensible that he did not rise up to the Letter of the Text and that it manifestly required a more elevatâ—d Sense though to preserve his Heroick Piety he pretended to conceive it amounted to no more than loving God sincerely in opposition to a parâ—ial â—â—d divided love and so as to admit of nothing into competition with him Whether by these Savings he taught Men to love God less thâ—n â—e râ—â—â—ired to defraud him of his due to râ—sist his Wâ—ll c. Whether he only said these things as bâ—ing then under the Power of his Passions Lusts Interests Customs and Prejudices and not being in due measure purged from the Prejudices of Sense not disingaged from the love of sensible Objects not so far entered into the methods of true Mortification as to be capable of Conviction and of having his mind wrought upon by the light and force of Reason If not let him learn hereafter from his own Sense and Experience not to pass such severe and undue Censures on his Brethren Having premised these things I proceed 2 dly To establish and confirm the common Exposition from the Evidence of Scripture and of Reason Let it be then observed First That this Command was given to the Iewish Nation and is only cited by our Lord or by the Lawyer from Deut. 6.5 where the words runs thus Hear O Israel the Lord thy God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind and with all thy soul and with all thy might Now hence ariseth a demonstration that this Text cannot be expounded so as to exclude all love or all desire of the Creature For the Land they lived in was the Land of Promise stiled by God himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The pleasant Land or The Land of Desire Psal. 106.24 Dan. 8.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Land of Glory or the Glorious Land as being the Glory the most pleasant and desirable of all Lands to encourage them to go in and possess it it is represented to them as an exceeding good Land a Land which floweth with Milk and Honey a good Land a Land of Wheat and Barley and Vines and Figtrees and Pomegranates a Land of Oil-Olive and Honey a Land wherein they should eat Bread without scarceness and in which they should not lack any thing a Land which the Lord thy God careth for the eyes of the Lord thy God are upon it from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year And might they not desire what was the very promise made to the Seed of Abraham Might they not love or be pleased with a Land so glorious so pleasant and desirable Doubtless they would have marched but heavily through the Barren and Desolate Wilderness had Moses by this Precept forbid them to desire or be pleased with this Land flowing with Milk and Honey Moreover the Blessings of this Life were the chief things which God did promise to these Iews as the Reward of their Affection and Obedience to him whence he is said to give them Wealth that he might stablish his Covenant with them to make them plenteous in the Works of their hands for Good And the taking away of those outward Blessings was the chief thing threatned in the Law of Moses to deter them their Disobedience For saith God if you will hearken diligently to my Commandments to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul then will I give you the Rain of thy Land in due season that thou mayst gather thy Corn and thy Wine and thy Oil And I will send Grass in thy Field for thy Cattle that thou mayest eat and be full Ye shall serve the Lord thy God and he shall bless thy Bread and thy Water and I will take Sickness from thee and fulfil the number of thy days Ye shall do my Statutes and shall keep my Iudgments and ye shall dwell in the Land in safety and the Land shall yield her Fruit and ye shall eat your fill If ye walk in my Statutes and keep my Commandments to do them then will I give you Rain in due season and the Land shall yield her increase and the Trees of the Field shall yield their Fruit and you shall eat your Bread to the full and dwell in your Land safely And I will give you peace in the Land and you shall lie down and none shall make you afraid and I will have respect unto you and make you fruitful and multiply you If thou observe to do all the Commands which I command thee this day blessed shalt thou
did thus love him that love cannot require a Perfection of Degrees but only a sincere and prevalent Affection to him In a word in the Language of the Old Testament to serve God with the whole heart and Soul to walk before him with a perfect heart and with Integrity of heart hath an essential respect to the owning him alone to be the true God in opposition to all strange Gods and the continuing stedfast in his Service in opposition to the Service of the Heathen Idols or the Calves of Dan and Bethel Thus when God permitted a False Prophet to arise among them and to shew a Sign or do a Wonder to tempt them to desert him and go after other Gods he declares he did this for tryal Whether they loved the Lord their God with all their Hearts and all their Souls and therefore it must be sufficient to shew they did so that they were not prevailed upon by that false Prophet to decline from following after God but still cleaved stedfastly to him Hence of those Kings who with the true God served Idols or served him in an undue manner it is said they did not serve God with all their hearts V. G. Iehu took no heed to walk in the Law of the Lord his God with all his heart for he departed not from the sins of Ieroboam And of Solomon it is said That his Wives turned away his heart after other Gods and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God Of Abijam That his heart was not perfect with the Lord as the heart of David his Father for he walked in all the sins of his Father Rehoboam who forsook the Law of the Lord. And of Amaziah That he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but not with a perfect heart because coming from the Slaughter of the Edomites he brought the gods of the Children of Seir and set them up to be his gods and bowed down himself before them and burnt incense to them Whereas the contrary is said of all those Kings who put away all Idolatry and served him according to the Law of Moses viz. of Hezekiah who removed the high Places and brake the Images and cut down the Groves it is said That he walked before the Lord in truth and with a perfect heart Of Asa who removed all the Idols which his Father had made That his heart was perfect with the Lord all his days And of Iosiah who put away all the Images and the Idols and the Abominations which were in the land of Iudah and in Ierusalem That he turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might acccording to all the law of Moses Thus of Iudah revolting from the Lord after the Punishment of Israel for her Idolatry it is said she turned not unto the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from her whole heart but feignedly And the advice of Samuel to Israel runs thus Serve the Lord with all your heart and turn you not aside after vain things From which Observation we may reasonably Collect that when we love God so as not to make an Idol of any thing by loving it in opposition to his will or equally with God or so as that it Rivals not him nor draws our Hearts from that Obedience we owe to him then do we in the prime import of this Phrase love God with all our Souls and Hearts and hence we learn how apposite the reason here assigned is for loving God with all our Hearts and Souls viz. That the Lord is one God or that he only is the Lord and therefore to him alone belongeth the superlative Affection of the Soul and Heart which is due from all Creatures to their God Thirdly The love required by this Text our Lord requires as the Condition of Salvation for the Question of the Scribe was this By doing what shall I inherit Life Eternal the Answer of our Lord is this Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart c. this do and thou shalt live i. e. eternally What therefore he requires in this Text he plainly doth require as the Condition of Salvation Now that cannot be love of God with that Perfection of degrees which excludes all Imperfection and so all Sin for were that made the necessary Condition of Salvation no Person could be saved the best of Men being Imperfect and subject to sin in this Life Moreover this new Exposition destroys the Covenant of Grace for that requires only sincere Obedience as the Condition of Salvation and introduceth again the Covenant of Works i. e. a Covenant requiring perfect Obedience in order unto Life Fourthly If to love God with all the heart import the loving him with all our love so as to have no other Object of our love or on which we may in any measure set out heart then to love God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all our Mind and all our Understanding must import that we must have no other object of our Mind no Knowledge no Understanding of any thing else nothing but God on which we may imploy our rational Faculties the reason being perfectly the same in both cases because the Command is so but this is manifestly absurd as being not only contrary to the Practice of all Mankind but destructive of all Sciences all Arts and Trades unless they are best learnt and acquired by thinking upon God alone Moreover this Exposition as it gives the truest import of these words so hath it also this to recommend it that it serves all the designs of Religion in the General and of Christian Religion in Particular as much as doth the Exposition of these words for which good Mr. N. and the Lady do so much contend For First Do Mr. N. and the Lady recommend unto us their Sense of this command as an effectual preservative against Sin Sure this is done as fully by that love which doth engage us to be always ready to lose any temporal Good or suffer any temporal Evil rather than commit the least Sin against God Moreover can his Understanding be prevailed upon to prize any thing or be concerned for any thing so much as to endeavour to obtain or to preserve it by displeasing God who values the favour of God infinitely above all other things and counts them loss and dung compared to him Can his Will be diverted from God by any temporal Concerns or any Charms of a Temptation who loves him so as still to cleave unto him in opposition to all other things and to admit of nothing which stands in competition with him for his love yea who has nothing he doth not truly hate and despise comparatively to his Favour nothing that can tempt him to depart from him or do the thing that will provoke his Displeasure can he
Adulterers and Adulteresses know ye not that the Friendship of this World is enmity to God James 4.4 § 2. 3dly From these Words of St. John Love not the World neither the things that are in the World 1 John 2.15 § 3. And to his Arguments against the relative Love of the Creature V. G. 1. That it is as much Idolatry as the relative Worship of the Creature This Answered 1. ad hominem by shewing that it was formerly approved by Mr. N. 2. By shewing the Disparities betwixt the relative Love of the Creature and the relative Worship of Images § 4. Object 2. If Creatures be truly and properly lovely as being our true and proper Good they are to be loved absolutely and for themselves if not they are not to be loved at all Answered by shewing in what Sense they may be stiled our true and proper Good and be loved for themselves viz. as that imports a love of them only for that Goodness God hath put into them and how they may not be loved absolutely and for themselves viz. as that excludes the Subordination of that Affection to the Love of God § 5. AGainst this sense of the Words I plead for Mr. N. hath but one Objection from the words themselves and it runs thus The Text saith Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Mind but does he love God at this Rate who loves him only principally and more than any thing else Does this exhaust the Sense of this great Commandment Can he be said with any tolerable Sense to love God with all his Heart and Soul that only loves him above other things at the same time allowing other things a share in his love Can he be said to love God with all his Love N. B. who loves him only with a part What though that part be the larger part 't is but a part still and is a part of the whole What Logick or what Grammar will endure this To this I answer First That he assumes what never will be granted by Divines viz. That Scripture Phrases must be Interpreted not according to the Analogy of Faith and the import of the same words elsewhere occurring in the Holy Scripture but according to the Rules of Logick and of Grammar which supposition would render the Interpretation of Scripture very absurd in many places For instance 1. The Apostle saith All Men seek their own and not the things of Iesus Christ that is say Interpreters many or most Men do so The Gospel was Preached to all the World to every Creature under Heaven saith the same Apostle and the Faith of the Romans was spoken of in all the World when as then many Parts even of the Roman Empire had heard nothing of it Here therefore all Interpreters allow a Synecdoche totius pro parte i. e. the whole is put for the most celebrated Parts of the World and will he here ask Can that be said to be Preached to all and spoken of in all the World which is only Preached and spoken of in a part of it Is a part the whole 2. Again Children obey your Parents in all things Servants obey your Masters according to the Flesh in all things saith the Text. This Generality say Interpreters is to be restrain'd to all things honest to all things belonging to their Right as Parents or Masters to command and will he here cry out What Logick or what Grammar will endure this 3. In Precepts absolutely negative and even exclusive that which in Words is absolutely denied must be interpreted so as only to import that 't is denied not absolutely but comparatively not as to the whole but as to the degree as V. G. God saith I required Mercy and not Sacrifice when as yet the greatest part of Leviticus is imploy'd in giving Laws concerning Sacrifices Christ saith Fear not them which can kill the Body Samuel Only fear the Lord and serve him and yet saith the Scripture Fear the Lord and the King and Render to all their dues fear to whom fear so that the import of these Words must be this Fear not the one so much as the other fear not Man or Idols so as to incur the displeasure of God Labour not for the Meat that perisheth saith the Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Work not for it and yet saith the same Scripture Let him that stole steal no more but rather let him labour working with his hands the thing that is good for he that will not labour shall not eat so that the import of that Phrase is only this Do not chiefly and primarily labour for the Meat that perisheth and will he here again cry out What Logick or what Grammar will endure this Secondly I ask what Grammar will not endure it I have already shew'd the Hebrew and the Greek of the Septuagint do use the Phrase in this Sense as for the Latins nothing is more common with them than to express an ardent Love by saying In amore est totus unicè amat toto pectore diligit omni studio aliquem amplectitur In French it is as common to say Ie vous aime de tout mon coeur We teach our very Children to say I love my Dad I love my Mam with my whole Heart nothing therefore being more ordinary in every Language than to use this Expression when we do not in the least intend to signifie the Person we thus love is loved exclusively of all others but only that he is very much beloved by us Why may not the Scripture say this of that God we are obliged to love above all things and before all things and so as to love other things only in Subordination and Relation to him loving none other with that Love which is due and proper to him For as we are commanded to serve him only and yet may serve our King our Master and our Friend to fear him only and yet may fear our Parents our Superiors and Masters because we do not serve them with that Religious Worship nor fear them with that Reverence which is due to God alone So may we love the Creature with a love of Desire and our Neighbour with a love of Benevolence and yet love God only with that Desire and Benevolence which is due to him alone When Mr. N. proposeth this Objection against his own Opinion That if the Love of God required our whole Affection we could not love our Neighbour as our selves he is forced to Answer thus that If the Love of God and of our Neighbour were of the same Kind that entire Love of the former would indeed exclude the latter but this is not the Case we are not here supposed to love God in the same Sense or with the same sort of love wherewith we love our Neighbour So say I is it in
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
with whom we do converse may advance in them from the same Principle in all these cases we express our good will to him When we are zealous for his Honour rejoice to see it promoted are grieved at any thing which doth dishonour and displease him and are industrious to prevent it in this we we shew a Zeal for God and a displeasure against these things arising from a love to him And when we love his Servants for his sake and our Neighbour because made after the Image of God this is in Scripture represented not only as an Indication but an Expression of our love to him For God is not unrighteous saith the Apostle to forget your labour of love which you have shewed to his name in that you ministred to the Saints And forasmuch as you did it to one of these saith Christ you did it unto me And therefore Crellius and Carrellaeus do well inform us That the love of God is strictly and most properly taken for that affection by which we desire that those things which are grateful to God may be done by us and others For as love to others in the General is that affection by which we desire those things to another which are good and if that love be fervent endeavour as we are able to effect it and chiefly are concerned that he whom we love may enjoy what is grateful and profitable to him So Charity or Love to God only N B. those things which as we may say are good that is grateful and delightful to God as are all those things which conduce to his Honour or are otherwise according to his Will And indeed the desire of enjoying God as the chiefest good is so natural so deeply rooted in self-Love that it bears an affinity to that general desire of Happiness which Philosophers will not allow to be Virtuous or Praise-worthy because it is not free but natural but this Love of Benevolence to him is a more pure Flaâ—â— a more noble and disinterested Affection the desire that he may be Glorified by others and that he may not be Dishonoured by them is the desire of that on which our Happiness doth not depend and so it is a love which Centers upon God alone without respect unto our selves it also shews a stronger compliance of our Will with the Will of God a greater Sympathy of Affections a stronger Complacency in Goodness an higher Resemblance of Divine Perfections than our desire of the chief Good imports and so it renders us more partakers of the Divine Nature and so more acceptable and lovely in the sight of God Love of Benevolence is therefore due to God as well as to my my Neighbour and so the love of God and of Neighbour is not on that account of different kinds And if it cannot be denied that this is true and genuine love of God it cannot be denied that this love also is required in the Command To love the Lord with all our Heart and all our Soul and then it is demonstratively evident that Phrase cannot exclude the love of any Creature because it is confessed that with this love of Benevolence we are to love our Neighbour as our selves Secondly I add That the Duty of Love I owe to my Neighbour cannot be discharged by a love of Benevolence or by wishing well to him only but that it imports also a love of Beneficence or a sincere endeavour of doing all the good I can to him This is self-evident and confessed by Mr. N. when he saith It makes us ready not only to wish them but to do them all the good we can to wish and to do well to them to desire good to them all and to do them good as far as we have Opportunity And of this St. Iames sufficiently informs us when he saith That to wish well to our Brother to wish he may be warm and cloathed without affording him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things which are profitable to the Body is an unprofitable piece of Charity And yet how is it possible we should be able or even desirous to afford him what is necessary for the Body if we our selves may not desire the things that are so Let us reflect upon those acts of Charity to our Neighbour for which our Lord hath promised to us the Kingdom and we shall easily discern we cannot do them without desire of the Creature as their Good For can we feed the Hungry or give drink to the Thirsty without desiring to have Food and Drink to give them Can we take the Stranger in without desiring an House in which we may receive him Or Cloath the Naked without desiring to have wherewith to Cloath him 'T is therefore certain that we cannot discharge this Christian Duty to our Neighbour without a desire of and an endeavour also to enjoy the Creature and then it must be also certain that the Love of God is not exclusive of all love and all desire of the Creature Besides we by this Precept are obliged to love our Brother as our selves now are we barely to wish well to our selves and not desire Life Health Sleep Ease Comfort and all the Necessaries of this present Life If then we are to love our Neighbour as our selves that love must certainly engage us to desire for our Brother the continuance of Life Health Ease and Comfort and all the Necessaries of this present Life and also that we may have what will enable us to minister to him in these things But saith Mr. N. Our love of our selves is not love of Desire but Benevolence for whosoever reflects upon the love of himself will presently perceive that 't is not a desire of himself as his Good but a desire of some Good to himself as appears from the Vulgar Expression Charity begins at Home and from the Vice of Self-love by which we mean a Craving N. B. and seeking after more than comes to a Man's share without having any regard to the Community or a greedy pursuit of our Private Interest in opposition to that of the Publick I Answer Let this be granted hath he not in these words said enough to destroy his own Hypothesis That the Creature must not be desired as our Good For if Self-love be a desire of something good to my self if I may Crave and Seek after as much as comes to my Share If I may pursue my private Interest as far as I can do it without Opposition to the Publick then it will follow that if any Creature can be good for me if any portion of them may fall to my share if it may be for my Interest to pursue any of them I may so far Desire and Crave them and then my Love of God cannot exclude my Love or my Desire of them 2 dly Though Mr. N. saith 'T is most undoubtedly so that my Love of my self is not Love of Desire Both Scripture and Reason most
therefore evident that to love God so as to despise and to forsake all other things to cleave unto him to love God superlatively so as to have our Affections more powerfully carried out after him than any other thing that is most dear unto us is in the Scripture Sense to love God with a whole and an entire Heart And surely if I love God so as to love nothing which is contrary to him or which he forbiddeth me to love I can do nothing contrary to the love I owe unto him If I love him so as to prize neither Friendship Relations Fame Honour Pleasures Riches Life or any temporal Concernments so as to offend him by preserving them I do not inordinately love them for Obedience being the true test of Love where there is no neglect of Obeeience there can be no want of love Moreover if I prize nothing in comparison with God in my mind if I cleave to nothing in competition with him in my will if I desire nothing in comparison with him in my Affections if I pursue nothing but with relation to his Glory and in Subordination to his Sacred Will how can I be wanting in my Duty to him And if I be not wanting in my Duty to him how can I sin against him That by this Exposition this precept is extended beyond the real import of it even beyond what any Person in this State of Imperfection doth or can do is very plausibly asserted by all the Romish Commentators I have read and by the most judicious of the Reformed who affirm it only doth require sincere Obedience and to aim at and endeavour to advance to that Intension and Superlative Affection which we cannot expect compleatly to attain to in this Life But that any Person should not be satisfied with all this but still be stretching of this Duty to a higher pitch charging the Authors of this Exposition with Insincerity and love unto their Lusts and the Exposition it self with the most odious Consequences this is just matter of our Admiration And yet this is so plainly and so confidently done by Mr. N. that in defence of their own Reputations and of the Reputation of their traduced Brethren all the whole Body of the Clergy who differ from him in these Sentiments stand bound to vindicate themselves from those vile Imputations which he casts upon them For First As to the first Part of the common Exposition That God must be loved with a Superlative Affection he Affirms that Sure the Authors of it could not but be sensible that herein they did not rise up to the Letter of the Text which manifestly requires a more elevated Sense namely that our whole Affections be placed upon God and that we love him so entirely as to love none but him That we ought to love God not only with the best and most but with the whole of our Affection that we love him entirely not only with Integrity of Parts but with Integrity of Degrees that we love him not only with every Capacity Passion and Faculty with the Understanding suppose Will and Affections but in every degree of every Power with all the latitude of our Will and with the whole possibility of our Souls that we bestow on him not only the highest degree of it but every degree of it the whole In one word that God be not only the Principal but the Only Object of our Love No less can he be supposed to require from us by Virtue of this Great Law when he bids us to love him with all our Heart with all our Soul and with all our Mind Secondly As to the second Branch of the ordinary Exposition That we are to love other things beside God only in a way of relation and subordination to God He is pleased to speak somewhat contemptibly of the Authors of it as if he pitied their Ignorance His words are these So it is said by some who think they strain the love of God to a very high pitch when they tell us we must love nothing but God or in order and relation to God So then according to these Men we are allow'd to love Creatures provided it be in a Relation and Subordination to God who upon this Principle is not to be the only but only the final and ultimate Object of our Love But methinks these Mens relative Love is very much like the relative Worship of the Papists they make God the only ultimate Object of Divine Worship and so do these Men make him the only last Object of divine Love but yet they allow of giving divine Worship to a Creature provided it be in a transitive and relative way And so these Men allow of bestowing our love upon a Creature provided it be for God's sake or in relation to God provided it do not stop at the Creature but run on till at last it fix upon God as its final Object In his Tenth Letter he speaks thus The Truth and Reasonableness of this Notion viz. That God only is to be the Object of our Love seems to me so very evident that as I cannot with-hold my assent from it my self so were it not a matter of Practice wherein our Passions and Interests are concerned as well as Theory that imploys our Understandings I should strangely wonder at all Rational and considerate Persons that can But this in great measure silences my admiration For this is the great disadvantage that all Truths of a moral Nature lie under in comparison of those that are Physical or Mathematical that though the former be in themselves no less certain than the latter and demonstrated with equal evidence yet they will not equally convince nor find a parallel reception in the minds of Men because they meet with their Passions and Lusts and have often the Will and Affections to contend with even after they have gained upon their Understandings Were I to deal only with the Rational Part of Man I should think the half of what has been said enough to convince that but considering the nature of the Truth I advance and what a strong Interest is made against it in the Affectionate Part of Human Nature I cannot expect to find the Generalâ—ty of Men over forward to receive it The other Precepts of Morality cross only some particular Interests of Man and fight only against some of his stragglings Passion but this engages the whole Body of Concupiscence and at once encounters the whole Interest of Prejudice all the Force that is or can be raised in Humane Nature which when I consider I cannot hope by the clearest and strongest Reasoning to reconcile the Generality of the World to a Notion so opposite to the Passions Customs and Prejudices of it only there may be here and there some liberal and ingenious Spirits who have in great measure purged themselves from the Prejudices of Sense disingaged their Hearts from the love of sensible Objects
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
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
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
up to him we love In his set Discourse upon those words of St Iohn Love nâ—t the World neither the things of the World he expresly declares That God doth not absolutely forbid us to love these things but only not to love them as our Happiness not so as to neglect our Creator that he requires us to use a mean in our Affection to them and not to enjoy what we should only use nor have our Affections cleaving to them In his Meditations which is one of his Devotional Tracts he observes how the World and all things in it serve both our Necessity and Delight but hence he will allow us to love them only as things Subject to and serving of us as the Gifts of God remembring that we owe them to him and must not love them for themselves but for him not with him but for him and should love him by and above them And this I think may be sufficient to acquaint us with the Opinion of St. Austin in this Matter I am only farther to acquaint the Reader that the Substance of many of these Arguments was sent to Mr. N. long before his Letters appeared in Print and seeing he thought none of them worthy of the least notice I humbly offer them to the Reader especially to the Ingenuous Author of the late Discourse concerning the Love of God to whom I own my self obliged and rest THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. The Question Whether we are obliged to love God so entirely as that we may love nothing else with a love of Desire § 1. This Assertion is shew'd to be contrary 1st To our Prayers for our daily Bread § 2. 2dly To God's Promises of temporal good Things § 3. And to his Threats of temporal Evils § 4. 3dly To the Representation of them as God's Gifts and Blessings and our good Things § 5. To God's Command to rejoice in them § 6. To the Industry required by God to procure these things and his Blessing promised to that Industry § 7. Proofs from Reason That God hath not absolutely forbidden the Desire of Pleasure of Honour or of temporal Enjoyments § 8. Corollaries 1. That this Doctrine is inconsistent with our Obligation to Pray and with the Prayers of our own and of Ancient Liturgies 2. With the Praises due to God for temporal Blessings and with the Thanksgivings for them used in our Liturgy 3. It tends to depreciate the Divine Gifts to teach Men to slight God's Promises and contemn his Threats 4. To destroy all Industry in our Calling 5. It lays the vilest Imputation upon the Dispensations of God's Providence towards us § 9. Page 1 CHAP. II. To avoid the seeming Inconsistence betwixt the Love of God only and the Love of my Neighbour as my self it is said That the Love of God with all our Heart enjoined in the First Commandment is the Love of Desire the Love of my Neighbour required in the Second is only Love of Benevolence § 1. To take off this Evasion it is proved First That the Love of God required in the Injunction to love him with all our Hearts c. cannot be discharged by a Love of Desire only but requires also a Love of Benevolence § 2. Secondly That though the Love of our Neighbour here enjoined be not love of Desire of him as our Good yet neither is it love of Benevolence or wishing well to him only but to the due performance of it a desire of the Creature is necessary § 3. Thirdly That the Love of our selves our Relatives our Neighbour and our Friend all which saith Mr. N. is love of Benevolence only is indeed that Love which chiefly opposes and obstructs our Love to God and is the rise of our inordinate Affections to the World § 4. Fourthly That tho' the Command to Love our Neighbour as our selves doth not require us to Love our Neighbour as our Good yet is not only lawful but very commendable so to do § 5. This Doctrine That the Love of God is entirely exclusive of all Love to and Desire of the Creature destroys the Foundation of these two great Virtues Iustice and Charity § 6. It also casts a great Contempt upon the Works both of Creation and of Providence § 7. P. 27 CHAP. III. The ordinary Exposition of these Words Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart c. laid down in the Words of Mr. N. and of the Scoolmen viz. That we are obliged by them to love God above all Things 1. Appretiatively 2. Comparatively 3. Intensively and 4. So as to love other things only by way of Relation and Subordination to God § 1. That our Lord Christ hath approved of this Exposition is shewed § 2. The Censure which Mr. N. gives of this Opinion and the Abettors of it reflects very unbecomingly upon all the Prelates and Pastors of the Church of England which are not of his Mind and lays unworthy Imputations on them § 3. Some General Considerations offered to engage him to abate somewhat of his Confidence and his Censorious Reflections for the future § 4. Especially this That they who adhere to the common Exposition of these Words differ no more from him than he differs from his former self Sect. 5. The common Exposition further confirmed First From this Consideration That this Command was given to the Jewish Nation whose Promises were chiefly Temporal and therefore could not be exclusive of the desire of Temporal Blessings Sect. 6. That therefore it ought to bear that Sense which is the certain Import of the like Phrases in all the Old Testament where they are only to be found which Sense is plainly opposite to that which Mr. N. contends for Sect. 7. The true Sense of loving God with all the Heart and Soul in the Old Testament shew'd from that primary Relation and respect it hath to their owning God to be the true God in opposition to all strange Gods § 8. Secondly From this Consideration That this Love is required as the Condition of Salvation § 9. Thirdly That to love God with all our Mind cannot bear this Sense § 10. The common Exposition serves all the Designs of Religion in General and of Christian Religion in Particular as well as the Exposition of Mr. N. and the Lady § 11. P. 53 CHAP. IV. This Chapter contains an Answer to Mr. N.'s Arguments from Scripture for a Love of God exclusive of all love of Desire of the Creature as V. G. 1st From these Words Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart c. Matth. 22.37 § 1. 2dly From those Words of St. James Ye Adulterers and Adulteresses know ye not that the Friendship of this World is Enmity to God Iames 4.4 § 2. 3dly From these Words of St. John Love not the World neither the things that are in the World 1 Iohn 2.15 § 3. And to his Arguments against the Relative Love of the Creature V. G. 1. That it is as much
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
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
that sufficient warrant so to interpret the other Particulars And since these words respect the Moderation of our Joy and Grief and we do joy and grieve according as we do affect the Objects of those Passions why should they not be also deemed to respect the Moderation of our Affection to or our desires of this World Secondly If we Deifie the Object that we love we Deifie every Woman that we love in order to Matrimony every Child and Relation we desire to preserve that so we may enjoy the Benefit and Comfort of their Presence we Deifie our selves when according to the Psalmist we desire life and love many days yea we Deifie all the Meat and Drink we love and therefore do desire to eat and drink of and if I love and desire a Cup of good Wine because it maketh glad the Heart of Man I am ipso facto an Idolater Thirdly I deny that it is necessary that he who loves i. e. desires any Creature suppose Meat when he is hungry or Drink when thirsty must suppose that Creature perfects his Being and is the cause of his Happiness or that it is able to act upon his Soul and affect it with pleasing Sensations 'T is only necessary that he should suppose those pleasing Sensations will follow upon the Enjoyment of those Creatures and are not to be had without them for put case a Sensual voluptuous Man were of your Opinion would he ever the less pursure the delights of the Flesh and of the sensual Appetites Is it not the Pleasure annexed to the Enjoyment of these things which all the World pursue And must they not then have the same reason to desire and pursue them while the same Pleasures are annexed to the Enjoyment of them whoever be the efficient cause of that Pleasure or whatever it be that acts upon the Soul and affects it with these pleasing Sensations Fourthly It cannot be Idolatry to suppose God acts upon my Soul by the virtue he hath put into a Creature rather than immediately by himself for then all the World must have been Idolaters before Mr. M. and Mr. N. made known this new Opinion to the World for he confesses that among the whole Tribe of Philosophers that went before them none of them thought any otherwise or any farther but universally held that Bodies had a power of producing such Sensations 'T is also evident that Children for a long time taste the Pleasures of the Creatures before they can be able to discern that God immediately produces these pleasing Sensations in them and that the Generality of the World are still uncapable of knowing that he doth so Now is not this to vilifie the Providence and Wisdom of God and to reproach his Goodness to say That he hath laid the World under a sad necessity of defrauding God of his Worship and committing that Sin of Idolatry which he that doth saith the Apostle shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Moreover all Idolatry implies an act of Religious Worship though misplaced now do we by desiring Meat when we are hungry or Drink when thirsty or by thus loving Meat and Drink as things which may gratifie our hungry or our thirsty Appetites by the virtue God himself hath implanted in them worship Bread and Drink All religious Worship proceeds from a direct immediate Intention either to give Honour to that which we conceive to be God or else ascribes to the Object worshipped some of the Divine Attributes or Essential Perfections but do we conceive Bread and Drink to be God by asking them of God that is desiring them or by rejoicing in them as his Blessing i. e. being pleased or affected with them as such or by conceiving he hath put any virtue into them to do us Good Do we ascribe unto the Creature any of the Divine Attributes or Perfections or say in effect they are Omnipotent by thinking God may enable them to raise pleasing Sensations in us or to work upon our Animal Spirits and by them upon our Souls Surely could there be any semblance of Idolatry in this case it must wholly lie not in conceiving that Creatures can move our Animal Spirits which is all we say or think they do but in conceiving that these Animals Spirits can act upon the Soul and that these Motions of them can be grateful or ungrateful to it The words of the Apostle Iohn run thus Love not the World neither the things that are in the World if any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the World the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life is not of the Father but is of the World And the World passeth away and the Lusts thereof but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever Here you have again all Love of the World expresly forbidden as altogether inconsistent with the Love of God not the immoderate Love of the World only For 't is plain that the words import a great deal more namely That we are not to love the World at all that all Love of it is immoderate To this the Reverend Dr. Barrow Answers that The Apostle explains himself that by the World he means those things which are most generally embraced and practised in it the Lust or the desire of the Flesh that is Sensuality and Intemperance the Lust of the Eyes that is Envy Covetousness vain Curiosity and the like the Ostentation or Boasting of Life that is Pride Ambition vain Glory Arrogance Qualities as irreconcilably opposite to the Holy Nature and Will of God so altogether inconsistent with the Love of him begetting in us an Aversation and Antipathy towards him rendring his Holiness distasteful to our Affections his Justice dreadful to our Consciences and Himself consequently his Will his Law his Presence hateful to us And that this is the true import of the words is highly probable 1. Because these things saith the Apostle are not of the Father Whereas the moderate Desire of and Affection to the World 's Good things is of that God who hath implanted in us natural Affections and Propensions to them made them the Objects of our Desires and our Industry encouraged us to affect them by making the matter of his Promises and hath allowed us to rejoice in them 2. Because he saith He that loveth the World the love of the Father is not in him which cannot possibly be true of that Relative and Subordinate Love unto it which he hath made Provisions for Again if we understand by these things the desire of those things which gratifie our Appetites with Pleasure V. G. by the Lusts of the Flesh the desire of Meat Drink and voluptuous Enjoyments as they do gratifie the Flesh by the Lust of the Eye the desire of Gold Silver large Possessions noble Houses rich Furniture fair Gardens as they do gratifie the Eye By
Good-will and kindness to Mankind and terminating in his Happiness Whereas Mr. N.'s account of God's Love his Will and Actings doth render him the most selfish Being that we can imagine one who can love nothing but himself will and do nothing but purely for himself Our Charity must be such as seeketh not our own things it must engage us not to seek our own but every Man anothers Good and to please him for his Good Our Friendship purely must respect the Welfare of our Friend and when we exercise our Charity or pretend Friendship purely from prospect of our own Advantage our Friendship becomes Mercenary and our Charity degenerates into Self-love And to this Charity and Friendship we are incited chiefly by the Example of our God and yet it seems his Love terminates only in himself and can be no other than the love of himself and how then can it oblige me to the forementioned Charity and Friendship to my Neighbour for his sake To this Question therefore Can God move us towards a Creature Can he move us from himself I Answer Yes he doth move us towards the Creatures by all those Appetites Affections and Desires he hath implanted in our Natures to them by all the Commands he hath laid upon us to pray for our daily Bread to be industrious to procure them and to bless him for them Does he not move the hungry Appetite to desire Meat the thirsty Drink the naked to desire Cloths the Poor supply of his Wants c. And doth he not in all these Cases move us towards the Creature Hath not God made these things the matter of his Promises and his Encouragements to Duty entailing upon Godliness the Promises of this Life and engaging to them who seek first the Kingdom of God that all other things shall be added to them We therefore are by him moved towards the Creature as a motive to the Enjoyment of himself And sure thus moving us to the Creature is not to move us from himself but to himself by means very proper to excite us to love obey and cleave unto him who doth thus load us with his Blessings and poureth his Benefits upon us as the whole Book of Psalms and the whole Law of Moses testifies The Love here discoursed of and recommended is the Love of a God that is of all that is Good of all that is Perfect of all that is Lovely of all that is Desirable in short of all that truly is and can any Love be too great or too high for such an Object Or rather doth he not deserve infinitely more than we or any of his Creatures can bestow upon him What can infinite Good be loved too much Or is any degree of Love too high for him who is infinitely lovely and who infinitely loves himself And why then should it be thought such a stretch of the Love of God to make it intire and exclusive of all other Loves Can we love God too much or Creatures too little To this I Answer First That what I have discoursed is sufficient to evince that this is such a stretch of the Love of God as renders it inconsistent with our Duty and Obligation to pray for any temporal Blessings which we want That it tends to depreciate the Gifts of God and to impair the sense of Divine Goodness in them to destroy all our Industry in our Callings and all pursuit of Temporal Enjoyments by our honest Labours That it removes the natural Foundation of all Injustice and cramps all charitable Beneficence That it casts a vile Contempt upon the Works both of Creation and of Providence And lastly that it casts this imputation upon the Just and Holy God that he hath made that our Sin which is Natural and Necessary As sure it is to desire Food when we are hungry that he will not allow us to desire what he knows we have need of It makes him to have planted in us natural Appetites and Desires which he intended we should gratifie and yet hath not permitted us to desire that which alone can gratifie them And sure if this Hypothesis do all or any of these things it by so doing must stretch this Duty of the Love of God beyond the bounds prescribed to it by our God and Saviour Secondly If God be all that truly is all that is not God truly is not and what is not can have no Love to God or any other thing So that this stretch of Metaphysicks destroys that Love he recommends Moreover to say that God is all that is Good is to contradict God himself who said of all the Creatures that he made that they were very Good To say that he is all that is lovely all that is desirable is to beg the Question Again that God deserves infinitely more than we can bestow upon him that an infinite Good cannot be loved too much i. e. more than he deserves is very true but not pertinent for we can be no more obliged to love God than we are to serve him as he deserves which we can never do For he deserves to be served answerably to the Reward that he hath promised but can we perform such Service He deserves Perfect and Angelical Obedience but are we therefore in this State of Imperfection obliged to it The Question is not What is too much for him if we could perform it but What he hath made our Duty and therefore doth expect we should perform Now hath he made it our Duty so to love him as not to love our selves not to love Health and Pleasure not to desire Food and Raiment or any other Blessing he hath promised as the Reward of our Obedience If not 't is evident that Duty of Affection which we owe unto him cannot be exclusive of all love of the Creature But Thirdly the Absurdity of this way of Arguing will best appear by the propounding of some Parallel Instances as 〈◊〉 The Messalians or Euchitae stretching those words of Christ which command us to pray always and not to faint and those of the Apostle pray without ceasing as Mr. N. doth the Command to Love God with all our Heart c. declared That they who would be saved must be continually employed in Prayer so as to do nothing else till they had found their Sins sensibly expelled by them and going out from them as an Evil Spirit and the Holy Ghost as sensibly entring into and dwelling in their Souls And this said they was the true Communion of Christians one with another Hence they declared themselves to be the Men who had wholly renounced the World left all things and had no Possessions upon Earth as Epiphanius saith of them And misunderstanding those Words of Christ Labour not for the meat that perisheth they held it unlawful to work for the sustaining of this present Life And therefore they stiled themselves Spiritual Men or the Poor in Spirit and spent that