55. The loving of ourselves sensually, preferring our present life and earthly pleasure before our higher spiritual felicity in heaven, and our neglecting to love holiness, and seek it for ourselves, and then to love God in ourselves, is a neglect and hinderance of the love of God.
56. Man hath not lost so much of the knowledge and love of God, as appearing in his greatness, and wisdom, and natural goodness in the frame of nature, as he is the Author of the creatures' natural goodness, as he hath of the knowledge and love of his holiness, as he is the holy Ruler, Sanctifier, and End of souls.
57. The sensitive faculty and sensitive interest are still predominant in a carnal or sensual man; and his reason is voluntarily enslaved to his sense: so that even the intellectual appetite, contrary to its primitive and sound nature, loveth chiefly the sensitive life and pleasure.
58. It is therefore exceeding hard in this depraved state of nature, to love God or any thing better than ourselves; because we love more by sense than by reason, and reason is weak and serveth the interest of sense.
59. Yet the same man who is prevalently sensual, may know that he hath a rational, immortal soul, and that knowledge and rectitude are the felicity of his soul; and that it is the knowledge and love of and delight in God, the highest good, that can make him perpetually happy: and therefore as these are apprehended as a means of his own felicity, he may have some kind of love or will unto them all.
60. The thing therefore that every carnal man would have, is an everlasting, perfect, sensual pleasure; and he apprehendeth the state of his soul's perfection mostly as consisting in this kind of felicity: and even the knowledge and love of God, which he taketh for part of his felicity, is principally apprehended but as a speculative gratifying of the imagination, as carnal men now desire knowledge. Or if there be a righter notion of God and holiness to be loved for themselves, even ultimately above our sensual pleasure and ourselves; yet this is but an uneffectual, dreaming knowledge, producing but an answerable lazy wish: and it will not here prevail against the stronger love of sensuality and fantastical pleasure, nor against inordinate self-love. And it is a sensual heaven, under a spiritual name, which the carnal hope for.
61. This carnal man may love God as a means to this felicity so dreamed of; as knowing that without him it cannot be had, and tasting corporal comforts from him here: and he may love holiness as it removeth his contrary calamities, and as he thinks it is crowned with such a reward. But he had rather have that reward of itself without holiness.
62. He may also love and desire Christ, as a means (conceived) to such an end; and he may use much religious duty to that end; and he may forbear such sins as that end can spare, lest they deprive him of his hoped-for felicity. Yea, he may suffer much to prevent an endless suffering.
63. As nature necessarily loveth self and self-felicity, God and the devil do both make great use of this naturalpondus, or necessitating principle, for their several ends. The devil saith, thou lovest pleasure, therefore take it and make provision for it. God saith, thou lovest felicity, and fearest misery: I and my love are the true felicity; and adhering to sensual pleasure depriveth thee of better, and is the beginning of thy misery, and will bring thee unto worse.
64. God commandeth man nothing that is not for his own good, and forbiddeth him nothing which is not (directly or indirectly) to his hurt: and therefore engageth self-love on his side for every act of our obedience.
65. Yet this good of our own is not the highest, nor all the good which God intendeth, and we must intend; but it is subordinate unto the greater good aforementioned.
66. As a carnal man may have opinionative, uneffectual convictions, that God and his love are his spiritual felicity (better than sensual); yea, and that God is his estimate end above his own felicity itself; so the sanctifying of man consisteth in bringing up these convictions to be truly effectual and practical, to renew and rule the mind, and will, and life.
67. Whether this be done by first knowing God as the beginning and end, above ourselves, and then knowing (effectually) that he is man's felicity; or whether self-love be first excited to love him as our own felicity, and next we be carried up to love him for himself, as our highest end, it cometh all to one when the work is done; and we cannot prove that God tieth himself constantly to either of these methods alone. But experience telleth us, that the latter is the usual way; and that as nature, so grace beginneth with the smallest seed, and groweth upward towards perfection; and that self-love, and desire of endless felicity, and fear of endless misery, are the first notable effects or changes on a repenting soul.
68. And indeed the state of sin lieth both in man's fall from God to self, and in the mistake of his own felicity, preferring even for himself a sensible good before a spiritual, and the creature before the Creator: and therefore he must be rectified in both.
69. And the hypocrite's uneffectual love to God and holiness is much discovered in this, that, as he loveth dead saints, and their images and holidays, because they trouble him not, so he best loveth (opinionatively) and least hateth (practically) the saints in heaven, and the holiness that is far from him, and God as he conceiveth of him as one that is in heaven to glorify men; but he hateth (practically, though not professedly) the God that would make him holy, and deprive him of all his sinful pleasures, or condemn him for them: and he can better like holiness in his pastor, neighbour, or child, than in himself.
70. Therefore sincerity much consisteth in the love of self-holiness; but not as for self alone, but as carrying self and all to God.
71. As the sun-beams do without any interception reach the eye, and by them without interception our sight ascendeth and extendeth to the sun; so God's communicated goodness and glorious revelation extend through and by all inferior mediums, to our understandings, and our wills, and our knowledge and love ascend and extend through all and by all again to God. And as it were unnatural for the eye illuminated by the sun, to see itself only, or to see the mediate creatures, and not to see the light and sun by which it seeth (nay, it doth least see itself); so it is unnatural for the soul to understand and love itself alone, (which it little understandeth and should love with self-denial,) and the creatures only, andnot to love God, by whom we know and love the creature.
72. It is possible to love God, and holiness, and heaven, as a conceited state and means of our sensual felicity, and escape of pain and misery; but to love God as the true felicity of the intellectual nature, and as our spiritual rest, and yet to love him only or chiefly for ourselves, and not rather for himself as our highest end, implieth a contradiction. The same I say of holiness, as loved only for ourselves. The evidence whereof is plain, in that it is essential to God to be not only better than ourselves and every creature, but also to be the ultimate end of all things, to which they should tend in all their perfections. And it is essential to holiness to be the soul's devotion of itself to God as God, and not only to God as our felicity: therefore to love God only or chiefly for ourselves, is to make him only a means to our felicity, and not our chief end; and it is to make ourselves better, and so more amiable than God, that is, to be gods ourselves.
73. This is much of the sense of the controversy between the Epicureans and the sober philosophers, as is to be seen in Cicero, &c. The sober philosophers said, that virtue was to be loved for itself more than for pleasure; because if pleasure as such be better than virtue as such, then all sensual pleasure would be better than virtue as such. The Epicureans said, that not all pleasure, but the pleasure of virtue was the chief good, as Torquatus's words in Cicero show. And if it had been first proved, that a man's self is his just, ultimate end, as thefinis cuior the personal end, then it would be a hard question, whether the Epicureans were not in the right as to thefinis cujusor the real end (which indeed is but a medium to the personal,cui). But when it is most certain, that no man's person is to be his own ultimate end, ascui, but God, and then the universe, and societies of the world as before said, it is then easy to prove that the sober philosophers were in the right, and that no man's pleasure is his ultimate end,finis cujus; because no man's pleasure is either such a demonstration of the divine perfection as virtue is, as such; nor yet doth it so much conduce to the common good of societies or mankind, and so to the pleasing and glorifying of God. And this way Cicero might easily have made good his cause against the Epicureans.
74. Though no man indeed love God as God, who loveth him not as better than himself, and therefore loveth him not better, and as his absolutely ultimate end; and though no man desire holiness indeed, who desireth not to be devoted absolutely to God before and above himself: yet is it very common to have a false, imperfect notion of God and holiness, as being the felicity of man, and though not to deny, yet to leave out the essential superlative notion of the Deity; and it is more common to confess all this of God and holiness notionally, as was aforesaid, and practically to take in no more of God and holiness, but that they are better for us than temporary pleasures. And some go further, and take them as better for them, than any (though perpetual) mere sensual delights; and so make the perfection of man's highest faculties (practically) to be their ultimate end; and desire or love God and holiness (defectively and falsely apprehended) for themselves, or their own felicity, and not themselves, and their felicity and holiness, ultimately for God. Which showeth, that though these men have somewhat overcome the sensual concupiscence or flesh, yet have they not sufficiently overcome the selfish disposition, nor yet known and loved God as God, nor good as good.
75. Yet is it not a sin to love God for ourselves, and our own felicity, so be it we make him not a mere means to that felicity, as our absolutely ultimate end. For as God indeed is, 1. The efficient of all our good; 2. The dirigent cause, that leadeth us to it; 3. The end in which our felicity truly consisteth; so is he to be loved on all these accounts.
76. If God were not thus to be loved for ourselves, (subordinated to him,) thankfulness would not be a christian duty.
77. Our love to God is a love of friendship, and a desire of a kind of union, communion, or adherence. But not such as is between creatures where there is some sort of equality: but as between them that are totally unequal; the one infinitely below the other, and absolutely subject and subordinate to him.
78. Therefore, though in love of friendship, a union of both parties, and consequently a conjunct interest of both, and not one alone, do make up the ultimate end of love; yet here it should be with an utter disproportion, we being obliged to know God as infinitely better than ourselves, and therefore to love him incomparably more, though yet it will be but according to the proportion of the faculties of the lover.
79. The purest process of love, therefore, is, first thankfully to perceive the divine efficiencies, and to love God as communicative of what we and all things are, and have, and shall receive, and therein to see his perfect goodness in himself, and to love him as God for that goodness; wherein is nothing but the final act, which is our love, and the final object, which is the infinite good. So that the act is man's, (from God,) but nothing is to be joined with God as the absolutely final object; for that were to join somewhat with God as God.
80. And though it be most true, that this act may be made the object of another act, and (as Amesius saith,Omnium gentium consensu dicimus Volo velle, so) we may and must say,Amo amare, I love to love God, and the very exercise of my own love is my delight, and so is my felicity in the very essential nature of it, being a complacency, and being on the highest objective good: and also this same love is my holiness, and so it and I are pleasing unto God; yet these are all consequential to the true notion of the final act, and circularly lead to the same again. We must love our felicity and holiness, which consisteth in our love to God, but as that which subordinately relateth to God, in which he is first glorified, and then finally pleased; and so from his will which we delight to please, we ascend to his total perfect being, to which we adhere by perfect love. In a word, our ultimate end of acquisition (and God's own, so far as he may be said to have an end) is the pleasing of the divine will, in his glorification; and our ultimate end of complacency, objectively, is the infinite goodness of the divine will and nature.
81. There is, therefore, place for the question whether I must love God, or myself, more or better? as it is resolved. But there is no place for the question, whether I must love God or myself? Because God alloweth me not ever to separate them; though there is a degree of just self-loathing or self-hatred, in deep repentance. Nor yet for the question, whether I must seek God's glory and pleasure, or my own felicity? for I must ever seek them both, though not with the same esteem. Yea, I may be said to seek them both with the same diligence; because by the same endeavour and act that I seek one, I seek the other; and I cannot possibly do any thing for one, that doth not equally promote the other, if I do them rightly, preferring God before myself, in my inward estimation, love, and intention.
82. Though it be essential to divine love, and consequentlyto true holiness, to love God for himself, and as better than ourselves, (or else we love him not as God, as is before said,) yet this is hardly and seldom perceived in the beginning in him that hath it; because the love of ourself is more passionate, and raiseth in us more subordinate passions, of fear of punishment, and desires of felicity, and sorrow for hurt and misery, &c. Whereas, God being immaterial, and invisible, is not at all an object of our sense, but only of our reason and our wills, and therefore not directly of sensitive, passionate love: though consequently while the soul is united to the body, its acting even on immaterial objects, moveth the lower sensitive faculties, and the corporeal spirits. Also God needeth nothing for us to desire for him, nor suffereth nothing for us to grieve for, though we must grieve for injuring him, and being displeasing to his will.
83. I cannot say nor believe (though, till it be searched, the opinion hath an enticing aspect) that the gospel faith which hath the promise of justification, and of the Spirit, is only a believing in Christ as the means of our felicity, by redemption and salvation, out of the principle of self-love alone, and for no higher end than our said felicity; because he is not believed in as Christ, if he be not taken as a reconciler to bring us home to God. And we take him not to bring us to God as God, if it be not to bring us to God as the beginning and end of all things, and as infinitely more lovely than ourselves. And our repentance for not loving God accordingly above ourselves, must go along with our first justifying faith. Therefore, though we are learners before we are lovers, and our assent goeth before the will's consent, yet our assent that God is God, and better than ourselves, must go together with our assent that Christ is the Mediator to save us, by bringing us to him; and so must our assent that this is salvation, even to love God above ourselves, and as better than ourselves; and accordingly our consent to these particulars must concur in saving faith.
84. He, therefore, that out of self-love accepteth Christ as the means of his own felicity, doth (if he know practically what felicity is) accept him as a means to bring him to love God perfectly, as God above himself, and to be perfectly pleasing to his will.
85. Yet it is apparent that almost all God's preparing grace consisteth in exciting and improving the natural principle of self-love in man; and manifesting to him, that if he will do as one that loveth himself, he must be a christian, and must forsake sin, and the inordinate love of his sensuality, and must be holy, and love God for his own essential as well as communicated goodness. And if he do otherwise, he will do as one that hateth himself, and seeketh in the event his own damnation. And could we but get men rationally to improve true self-love, they would be christians, and so be holy.
86. But because this is a great, though tender point, and it that I have more generally touched in the case, Whether faith in Christ, or love to God as our end, go first? and because, indeed, it is it for which I principally premise the rest of these propositions; I shall presume to venture a little further, and more distinctly to tell you, how much of love to God is in our first justifying faith, and how much not; and how far the state of such a believer is a middle state between mere preparation, or common grace, and proper sanctification or possession of the Holy Ghost. And so, how far vocation giving us the first faith, and repentance, differeth from sanctification. And the rather because my unriper thoughts and writings defended Mr. Pemble, who made them one, in opposition to the stream of our divines. And I conceive that all these following acts about the point in question, are found in every true believer, at his first faith, though not distinctly noted by himself.
(1.) The sinner hath an intellectual notice, that there is a God, (for an atheist is not a believer,) and so that this God is the first and last, the best of beings, the Maker, Owner, Ruler, and Benefactor of the world, the just end of all created beings and actions, and to be loved and pleased above ourselves: for all this is but to believe there is a God.
(2.) He is convinced that his own chief felicity lieth, not in temporary or carnal pleasure, but in the perfect knowing, loving, and pleasing this God above himself: for if he know not what true salvation and felicity is, he cannot desire or accept it.
(3.) He knoweth that hitherto he hath been without this love, and this felicity.
(4.) He desireth to be happy, and to escape everlasting misery.
(5.) He repenteth, that is, is sorry, that he hath not all this while loved God as God, and sought felicity therein.
(6.) He is willing and desirous for the time to come, to love God as God above himself, and to please him before himself; that is, to have a heart disposed to do it.
(7.) He findeth that he cannot do it of himself, nor with his old carnal, indisposed heart.
(8.) He believeth that Christ, by his doctrine and Spirit, is the appointed Saviour to bring him to it.
(9.) He gladly consenteth that Christ shall be such a Saviour to him, and shall not only justify him from guilt, and save him from sensible punishment, but also thus bring him to the perfect love of God.
(10.) He had rather Christ would bring him to this by sanctification, than to enjoy all the pleasures of sin for a season, yea, or to have a perpetual sensitive felicity, without this perfect love to God, and pleasing of him.
(11.) God being declared to him in Jesus Christ, a God of love, forgiving sin, and conditionally giving pardon and life to his very enemies, as he is hence the easilier loved with thankfulness for ourselves, so the goodness of his nature in himself is hereby insinuated and notified with some secret complacency to the soul. He is, sure, good, that is so merciful and ready to do good, and that so wonderfully as in Christ is manifested.
(12.) So that as baptism (which is but explicit, justifying faith, or the expression of it, in covenanting with God) is our dedication by vow to all the Three Persons; to God the Father, as well as to the Son and Holy Ghost; so faith itself is such a heart-dedication.
(13.) Herein I dedicate myself to God as God, to be glorified and pleased in my justification, sanctification, and glorification, that is, in my reception of the fruits of his love, and in my loving him above all, as God: or to be pleased in me, and I in him, for ever.
(14.) In all this the understanding acknowledgeth God to be God, (by assent,) and to be loved above myself, and the will desireth so to love him: but the object of the will here directly, is its own future disposition and act. It doth not say, I do already love God, as God, above myself; but only I would so love him, and I would be so changed as may dispose me so to love him; I acknowledge that I should so love him, and that I do love him for his mercies to myself and others. Nor can it be said, thatVolo velle, orVolo amare, a desire to love God as such, is direct love to God. Because it is not all one to haveGod to be the object of my will, and to have my own act of willing or loving to be the object of it. And because that a man may for other ends (as for mere fear of hell) will to will or love that, which yet he doth not will or love, at least for itself.
(15.) In this case, above all others, it is manifest, that every conviction of the understanding doth not accordingly determine the will. For in this new convert, the understanding saith plainly, God is to be loved as God, above myself: but the will saith, I cannot do it though I would: I am so captivated by self-love, and so void of the true love of God, that I can say no more, but thatPropter me vellem amare Deum propter se; I love my own felicity so well, that I love God as my felicity; and love him under the notion of God the perfect good, who is infinitely better than myself; and desire a heart to love him more than myself; but I cannot say, that I yet do it, or that I love him best or most, whom I acknowledge to be best, and as such to be loved.
(16.) Yet in all this, there is not onlysemen amoris, a seed of divine love to God as God, but the foundation of it laid, and some obscure, secret conception of it beginning, orin fieri, in the soul. For while the understanding confesseth God to be most amiable, and the will desireth that felicity which doth consist in loving him above myself, and experience telleth me, that he is good to me, and therefore good in himself, it can hardly be conceived, but that in all this there is some kind of secret love to God, as better than myself.
87. In all this, note, that it is one thing to love God, under the notion of the infinite good, better than myself and all things, and another thing for the will to love him more, as that notion obligeth.
88. And the reason why these are often separated, is, because besides a slight intellectual apprehension, there is necessary to the will's just determination, a clear and deep apprehension, with a right disposition of the will, and a suscitation of the active power.
89. Yea, and every slight volition or velleity will not conquer opposing concupiscence and volitions: nor is every will effectual to command the life, and prevail against its contrary.
90. Therefore, I conceive, that in our first believing in Christ, even to justification, though our reason tell us that he is more amiable than ourselves, and we are desirous so to love him for the future, and have an obscure, weak beginning of love to God as God, or as so conceived: yet, 1. The strength of sensitive self-love maketh our love to ourselves more passionately strong. 2. And that reason, at least in its degree of apprehension, is too intense in apprehending our self-interest, and too remiss in apprehending the amiableness of God as God: and so far, even our rational love is yet greater to ourselves, though, as to the notion, God hath the pre-eminence. 3. And that in this whole affair of our baptismal covenanting, consent, or christianity, our love to our own felicity, as such, is more powerful and effectual, in moving the soul, and prevailing for our resolution for a new life, than is our love to God, as for himself, and as God.
91. And therefore it is, that fear hath so great a hand in our first change: for all that such fear doth, it doth as moved by self-love; I mean the fear of suffering and damnation: and yet experience telleth us, that conversion commonly beginneth in fear. And though where self-love and fear are alone, without the love of God as good in and for himself, there is no true grace; yet I conceive that there is true grace initial in those weak christians, that have more fear and self-love in the passionate and powerful part, than love to God, so be it they have not more love to sin, and to any thing that stands in competition with God.
92. Therefore, he that hath a carnal self-love (or inordinate) inclining him to the creature, which is stronger in him than the love of God, is graceless; because it will turn his heart and life from God. But he that hath only a necessary self-love, even a love to his own spiritual, eternal felicity, operating by strong desire and fear, conjunct with a weaker degree of love to God as good in himself, I think hath grace, and may so be saved: because here is but an unequal motion to the same end, and not a competition.
93. If any dislike any of this decision, I only desire him to remember, that on both hands there are apparent rocks to be avoided. First, it is a dangerous thing to say that a man is in a state of grace and salvation, who loveth not God as God, that is, better than himself. And on the other hand, the experience of most christians in the world saith, that at their first believing, (if not long after,) they loved God more for themselves than for himself, and loved themselves more than God, though they knew that God was better and more amiable; and that the fear of misery, and the desire of their own salvation, were more effectual and prevalent with them, than that love of God for himself. And I doubt, that not very many have this at all, in so high a degree as to be clear and certain of it. And if we shall make that necessary to salvation, which few of the best christians find in themselves, we either condemn almost all professed christians, or at least leave them under uncertainty and terrors. Therefore, God's interest speaking so loud on one hand, and man's experience on the other, I think we have need to cut by a thread, and walk by line, with greatest accurateness.
94. By this time we may see, that, as Christ is the way to the Father, and the Saviour and recoverer of lapsed man from himself to God; so faith in Christ, as such, is a mediate and medicinal grace and work: and that faith is but the bellows of love: and that our first believing in Christ, though it be the regenerating work, which generateth love, yet is but a middle state, between an unregenerate and a regenerate: not as a third state specifically distinct from both, but theinitiumof the latter; or as the embryo, or state of conception, in the womb, is as to a man and no man. Faith containeth lovein fieri.
95. As the love of ourselves doth most powerfully (though not only) move us to close with Christ as our Saviour, so, while hereby we are united unto him, we have a double assistance or influx from him for the production of the purer love of God. The one is objective, in all the divine demonstrations of God's love; in his incarnation, life, death, resurrection, in his doctrine, example, intercession, and in all his benefits given us; in our pardon, adoption, and the promises of future glory. The other is in the secret operations of the Holy Spirit which he giveth us to concur with these means, and make them all effectual.
96. The true state of sanctification, as different from mere vocation and faith, consisteth in this pure love of God, and holiness; and that more for himself and his infinite goodness, than for ourselves, and as our felicity.
97. Therefore, when we are promised the Spirit, to be given to us if we believe in Christ, and sanctification is promised us, with justification, on this condition of faith, this is part of the meaning of that promise;—that, if we truly take Christ for our Saviour, to bring us to the love of God, though at present we are most moved with the love of ourselvesto accept him, he will, by his word, works, and Spirit, bring us to it, initially here, and perfectly in heaven; even to be perfectly pleased in God, for his own perfect goodness, and so to be fully pleasant to him. And thus, (besides the extraordinary gifts to a few,) the Spirit of holiness or love, which is the Spirit of adoption, is promised by covenant to all believers.
98. Accordingly, this promise is so fulfilled, that in the first instant of time we have a relative right to Christ, as our Head and the sender of the Spirit, and to the Holy Spirit himself as our Sanctifier by undertaking, according to the terms of the covenant. But this doth not produce always a sensible or effectual love of God above ourselves in us, at the very first, but by degrees, as we follow the work of faith in our practice.
99. For it is specially to be noted, that the doctrinal or objective means of love, which Christ doth use, and his internal, spiritual influx, do concur. And his way is not to work on us by his Spirit alone, without those objects, nor yet by the objects without the Spirit, nor by both distinctly and dividedly, as producing several effects; but by both conjunctly for the same effect; the Spirit's influx causing us effectually to improve the objects and reasons of our love; as the hand that useth the seal, and the seal itself, make one impression.
100. As Christ began to win our love to God by the excitation of our self-love, multiplying and revealing God's mercies to ourselves, so doth he much carry it on to increase the same way. For while every day addeth fresh experience of the greatness of God's love to us, by this we have a certain taste that God is love, and good in himself; and so by degrees we learn to love him more for himself, and to improve our notional esteem of his essential goodness into practical.
101. Though faith itself is not wrought in us, without the Holy Ghost, nor is it (if sincere) a common gift, yet this operation of the Spirit drawing us to Christ, by such arguments and means as are fitted to the work of believing, is different from the consequent covenant right to Christ and the Spirit, which is given to believers, and from the Spirit of adoption, as recovering us, as aforesaid, to the love of God.
102. In this last sense it is that the Holy Ghost is said to dwell in believers, and to be the new name, the pledge, the earnest, the first-fruits of life eternal, the witness of our right to Christ and life, and Christ's agent and witness in us, to maintain his cause and interest.
103. Even as a man, that by sickness hath lost his appetite to meat, is told that such a physician will cure him, if he will take a certain medicinal food that he will give him; and at first he taketh it without appetite to the food or medicine in itself, but merely for the love of health; but after he is doubly brought to love it for itself, first, because he hath tasted the sweetness of that which he did but see before, and next, because his health and appetite are recovered: so is it with the soul, as to the love of God procured by believing; when we have tasted through the persuasion of self-love, our taste and recovery cause us to love God for himself.
104. When the soul is risen to this habitual, predominant love of God and holiness as such, for their own goodness, above its own felicity as such, (though ever in conjunction with it, and as his felicity itself,) then is the law written in the heart; and this love is the virtual fulfilling of all the law. And for such it is that it is said, that the law is not made; that is, in that measure that they love the good for itself, they need not be moved to it with threats or promises of extrinsic things, which work but by self-love and fear. Not but that divine authority must concur with love to produce obedience, especially while love is but imperfect: but that love is the highest principle, making the commanded good connatural to us.
105. And I think it is this Spirit of adoption and love which is called "The divine nature" in us, as it inclineth us to love God and holiness for themselves, as nature is inclined to self-love, and to food, and other necessaries. Not that the specific, essential nature, that is, substance or form, of the soul is changed, and man deified, and he become a god that was before a man; but his human soul or nature is elevated or more perfected (as a sick man by health, or a blind man by his sight) by the Spirit of God inclining him habitually to God himself, as in and for himself. (And this is all which the publisher of Sir H. Vane's notions of the two covenants and two natures, can soundly mean, and seemeth to grope after.)
106. By all this you see, that as the love of God hath a double self-love in us to deal with, so it dealeth variously with each: 1. Sensual, inordinate self-love it destroyeth; both as it consisteth in the inordinate love of sensual pleasure, and in the inordinate love of self or life. 2. Lawful and just self-love it increaseth and improveth to our further good, but subjecteth it to the highest, purest love of God.
107. By this you may gather what a confirmed christian is, even one in whom the pure love of God as God, and all things for God, is predominant and more potent than (not only the vicious, but also) the good, and lawful, and necessary love of himself.
108. Though christians therefore must study themselves, and keep up a care of their own salvation, yet must they much more study God, his greatness, wisdom, and goodness, as shining in his works, and word, and in his Son, and as foreseen in the heavenly glory; and in this knowledge of God and Christ is life eternal. And nothing more tendeth to the holy advancement and perfection of the soul, than to keep continually due apprehensions of the divine nature, properties, and glorious appearances in his works upon the soul, so as it may become a constant course of contemplation, and the habit and constitution of the mind, and the constant guide of heart and life.
109. The attainment of this would be a taste of heaven on earth: our wills would follow the will of God, and rest therein, and abhor reluctancy: all our duty would be both quickened and sweetened with love: self-interest would be disabled from either seducing us to sin, or vexing us with griefs, cares, fears, or discontents. We should so far trust soul and body in the will and love of God, as to be more comforted that both are at his will, than if they were absolutely at our own. And God being our all, the constant, fixing, satisfying object of our love, our souls would be constantly fixed and satisfied, and live in such experience of the sanctifying grace of Christ, as would most powerfully conquer our unbelief; and in such foretastes of heaven, as would make life sweet, death welcome, and heaven unspeakably desirable to us. But it is not the mere love of personal goodness, as our own perfection, that would do all this upon us.
110. The soul that is troubled with doubts whether he love God as God, or only as a means of his own felicity in subordination to self-love, must thus resolve his doubts. If you truly believe that God is God, that is, the efficient, dirigent, and final cause, the just end of every rational agent, the infinite good and chiefly to be loved, in comparison of whom you are vile, contemptible, and as nothing; ifyou feelingly take yourself as loathsome by sin; if you would not take up with an everlasting sensual pleasure alone, without holiness, if you could have it; no, nor with any perfection of your intellectual nature, merely as such, and for yourselves, without the pleasing and glorifying God in it; if you practically perceive that every thing is therefore, and so far, good and amiable, as God shineth in it as its cause, or as it conduceth to glorify him, and please his will; if, accordingly, you love that person best, on whom you perceive most of God, and that is most serviceable to him, though not at all beneficial to yourself; if you love the welfare of the church, the kingdom, the world, and of the heavenly society, saints, angels, and Christ, as the divine nature, interest, image, or impress maketh all lovely in their several degrees; and would rather be annihilated, were it put upon your choice, than saints, angels, kingdoms, church should be annihilated; if your hearts have devoted themselves, and all that you have, to God, as his own, to be used to his utmost service; if your chief desire and endeavour in the world be to please his blessed will; and in that will, and the contemplation of his infinite perfections, you seek your rest; if you desire your own everlasting happiness in no other kind, but as consisting in the perfect sight of God's glory, and in your perfect loving of him, and being pleasant or beloved to him, and this as resting more in the infinite amiableness of God, than the felicity which hence will follow to yourselves, though that also must be desired; if now you deny your own glory for his glory; if your chief desire and endeavour be to love him more and more, and you love yourselves best when you love him most; in a word, if nothing more take up your care than how to love God more, and nothing in the whole world (yourselves or others) seem more amiable to your sober, practical judgment, and your wills, than the infinite goodness of God as such;—if all this be so, you have not only attained sincerity, (which is not now the question,) but this divine nature, and high, confirmed holiness; though, withal, you never so much desire your own salvation, which is but to desire more of this love; and though your nature have such a sensitive, selfish desire of life and pleasure, as is brought into subjection to this divine love.
If any be offended that so many propositions must be used in opening the case, and say that they rather confound men's wits than inform them; I answer, 1. The matter is high, and I could not ascend by a shorter ladder. Nor have I the faculty of climbing itper saltum, stepping immediately from the lowest to the highest part. If any will make the case plainer in fewer words, and with less ado, I shall thankfully accept his labour as a very great benefit when I see it. 2. Either all these particulars are really diverse, and really pertinent to the matter in question, or not: if not, it is not blaming the number that will evince it, but naming such particulars as are either unjustly or unnecessarily distinguished or inserted. And if it be but repeating the same things that is blamed, I shall be glad if all these words, and more, would make such weighty cases clear; and do confess that, after all, I need more light, and am almost stalled with the difficulties myself. But if the particulars can be neither proved false nor needless, but the reader be only overset with multitude, I would entreat him to be patient with other men, that are more laborious and more capable of knowledge: and let him know, that if his difficulties do not rather engage him in a diligent search, than tempt him to impatience and accusation, I number him, not only with the slothful contemners, but therefore also, with the enemies of knowledge; even as I reckon the neglecters, and contemners, and accusers of piety among its enemies.
But ere I end, I must answer some objections.
Object.I. Some will say, Doth not every man love God above himself and all, while he knoweth him to be better, and so more lovely? For there is some act of the will, that answereth this of the understanding.
Answ.You must know that the carnal mind is first captivated to carnal self and sensuality; and therefore the most practical and powerful apprehensions of goodness or amiableness in every such person, doth fasten upon life and pleasure, or sensual prosperity. And the sense having here engaged the mind and will, the contrary conclusions (that God is best) are but superficial and uneffectual like dreams, and though they have answerable effects in the will, they are but uneffectual velleities or wishes, which are borne down with far stronger desires of the contrary. And though God be loved as one that is notionally conceived to be best, and most to be loved, yet he is not loved best or most. Yea, though ordinarily the understanding say God is best, and best to me, and for me, and most to be loved; when it cometh to volition or choice, there is a secret apprehension which saith more powerfully,et hic nunc, this sensible pleasure is better for me, and more eligible. Why else is it chosen? Unless you will say that the motion is principally sensitive, and the force of the sensitive appetite suspendeth all forcible opposition of the intellect, and so ruleth the locomotive faculty itself. But whether the intellect be active or but omissive in it, the sin cometh up to the same height of evil. However it be, it is most evident that while such men say God is most to be loved, they love him not most, when they will not leave a lust or known sin for his love; nor show any such love, but the contrary, in their lives.
Object.II. But do not all men practically love God best, when they love wisdom, honesty, and goodness in all men, even in strangers that will never profit them? And what is God but wisdom, goodness, and greatness itself?
Answ.They first idolize themselves and their sensual delights; and then they love such wisdom, goodness, and greatness, as is suitable to their selfish, sensual lust and interest. And it is not the prime good which is above them, and to be preferred before them, which they love as such, but such goodness as is fitted to their fleshly concupiscence and ends. And therefore holiness they love not. And though they love that which is never like to benefit them, that is but as it is of the same kind with that which, in others nearer them, may benefit them, and therefore is suitable to their minds and interest. And yet we confess that the mind of man hath some principles of virtue, and some footsteps and witnesses of a Deity left upon it; but though these work up to an approbation of good, and a dislike of evil, in the general notion of it, and in particular so far as it crosseth not their lust, yet never to prefer the best things practically before their lust; and God is not loved best, nor as God, if he be not loved better than fleshly lust.
Object.III. But it seems that most or all men love God practically best. For there are few, if any, but would rather be annihilated, than there should be no God, or no world. Therefore they love God better than themselves.
Answ.1. They know that if there were no God or no world, they could not be themselves, and so must also be annihilated. 2. But suppose that they would rather be annihilated, than continue in prosperityalone, were it possible, without a God, that is but for the world's sake, because the world cannot be the world without a God; which proveth but that they are so much men, as to love the whole world better than themselves. But could the world possibly be what it is, without a God, I scarce think they would choose annihilation, rather than that there should be no God. 3. But suppose they would, yet I say that some sensual men love their lusts or sensuality better than their being; and had rather be annihilated for ever, so they might but spend their lives in pleasure, than to live for ever without those pleasures. And therefore they will say, that a short life with pleasure, is better than a long one without it. And when they profess to believe the life to come, and the danger of sinning; yet will they not leave their sinful pleasures to save their souls. Therefore, that man that would rather be annihilated than there should be no God, may yet love his lusts better than God, though not his being. 4. And I cannot say that every one shall be saved, that loveth God under a false idea or image better than himself; no more than that it will save a distracted, melancholy, venereous lover, if he loved his paramour or mistress better than himself. For God is not loved as God, if he be not loved as infinitely great, and wise, and good, which containeth his holiness, and also as the Owner, and holy Governor and end of man. If any therefore should love God upon conceit that God loveth him, and will indulge him in his sins; or if he love him only for his greatness, and as the fountain of all natural, sensible good; and love him not as holy, nor as a holy and just Governor and end, it is not God indeed that this man loveth; or he loveth him butsecundum quid, and not as God.
Object.IV. But suppose I should love God above all, as he is only great, and wise, and good in the production of all sensible, natural good, without the notion of holiness, and hatred of sin, would not this love itself be holy and saving?
Answ.Your love would be no holier or better, than the object of it is conceived to be. If you conceive not of God as holy and pure, you cannot love him with a pure and holy love. If you conceive of him but as the cause of sun and moon, light and heat, and life and health, and meat and drink, you will love him but with such a love as you have to these: which will not separate you from any sin as such, but will consist with all sensuality of heart and life. And it is not all in God, that nature, in its corrupted state, doth hate, or is fallen out with: but if you love him not so well as your lusts and pleasure, nor love him as your most holy Governor and end, you love him not as God, or butsecundum quid; but if you love him holily, you love him as holy.
Object.V. God himself loveth the substance or person more than the holiness; for he continueth the persons of men and devils, when he permitteth the holiness to perish, or giveth it not.
Answ.As the existence and event, and the moral goodness, must be distinguished; so must God's mere volition of event, and his complacency in good as good. God doth not will the existence of a reasonable soul in a stone or straw; and yet it followeth not, that he loveth a stone or straw for its substance, better than reason in a man: for though God willeth to make his creatures various in degrees of goodness, and taketh it to be good so to do, and that every creature be not of the best; yet still this goodness of them is various, as one hath more excellency in it than another. The goodness of the whole may require that each part be not best in itself, and yet best respectively in order to the beauty of the whole. As a peg is not better than a standard, and yet is better to the building in its place; and a finger is not better than a head, and yet is better to the body in its place, than another head would be in that place. The head therefore must be loved comparatively better than the finger, and the finger may be cut off to save life, when the head must not: so God can see meet to permit men and devils to fall into misery, and thieves to be hanged, and use this to the beauty of the whole, and yet love a true man better than a thief, and a good man better than a bad.
And either you speak of goodness or holiness existent or non-existent. In a devil there is substance, which is good in its natural kind, and therefore so far loved of God; but there is no holiness in him, and that which is not, is not amiable: but if you meant existent holiness, in a saint, then it is false that God loveth the person of a devil better than the holiness of a saint. Nor is it a proof that he loveth them equally, because he equally willeth their existence; for he willeth not they shall be equal in goodness, though equally existent: and it is complacency, and not mere volition of existence, which we mean by love.
Otherwise your arguing is as strong if it run thus: that which God bringeth to pass, and not another thing, he willeth and loveth more than that other; but God bringeth to pass men's sickness, pain, death, and damnation, and not the holiness, ease, or salvation of those persons: therefore he loveth their pain, death, and damnation better than their holiness: therefore we should love them better, than the devils or miserable men should love their misery better than holiness. God showeth what he loveth oft by commanding it, when he doth not effect it; he loveth holinessin esse cognito, andin esse existente, respectively as his image.
Object.But at least it will follow, that in this or that person as the devils, God loveth the substance better than holiness; for what he willeth he loveth: but he willeth the substance without the holiness; therefore he loveth the substance without the holiness.
Answ.It is answered already. Moreover, 1. God willed that holiness should be the duty of all men and devils, though he willed not insuperably and absolutely to effect it. 2. The word "without" meaneth either an exclusion or a mere non-inclusion. God willeth not the person excluding the holiness: for he excludeth it not by will or work; but only he willeth the person, not including the holiness as to any absolute will. And so God loveth the person without the holiness; but not so much as he would love him if he were holy.
Object.But you intimate, that it is best as to the beauty of the universe, that there be sin, and unholiness, and damnation; and God loveth that which is good as to the universe, yea, that is a higher good than personal good, as the subject is more noble, and therefore more to be loved of us as it is of God.
Answ.1. I know Augustin is oft alleged as saying,Bonum est ut malum fiat. But sin and punishment must be distinguished: it is true of punishment presupposing sin, that it is good and lovely, in respect to public ends, though hurtful to the person suffering; and therefore as God willeth it as good, so should we not only be patient, but be pleased in it as it is the demonstration of the justice and holiness of God, and as it is good, though not as it is our hurt. But sin (or unholiness privative) is not good in itself, nor to the universe: nor is it a true saying, that It is good that there be sin; nor is it willed of God, (though not nilled with an absolute, effective nolition,) as hath been elsewhere opened at large. Sin is notgood to the universe, nor any part of the beauty of the creature: God neither willeth it, causeth it, nor loveth it.
Object.At least he hath no great love to holiness in those persons, that he never giveth it to; otherwise he would work it in them.
Answ.He cannot love that existent which existeth not. Nor doth he any further will to give it them than to command it, and give them all necessary means and persuasions to it. But what if God make but one sun, will you say that he hath no great love to a sun, that will make no more? What if he make no more worlds? doth that prove that he hath no great love to a world? He loveth the world, the sun, and so the saints, which he hath made: and he doth not so far love suns, or worlds, or saints, as to make as many suns, or worlds, or saints, as foolish wits would prescribe unto him. Our question is, What being God loveth, and we should most love, as being best and likest him, and not what he should give a being to that is not.
Object.VI. Holiness is but an accident, and the person is the substance, and better than the accident; and Dr. Twiss oppugneth, on such accounts, the saying of Arminius, That God loveth justice better than just men, because it is for justice that he loveth them.
Answ.Aristotle and Porphyry have not so clearly made known to us the nature of those things or modes which they are pleased to call accidents, as that we should lay any great stress upon their sayings about them. Another will say that goodness itself is but an accident, and most will call it a mode; and they will say that the substance is better than the mode or accident, and therefore better than goodness itself. And would this, think you, be good arguing? Distinguish then between physical goodness of being, in the soul, both as a substance, and as a formal virtue; and the perfective, or modal, qualitative or gradual goodness; and then consider, that the latter always presupposeth the former: where there is holiness, there is the substance, with its physical goodness, and the perfective, modal, or moral goodness too; but where there is no holiness, there is only a substance deprived of its modal, moral goodness. And is not both better than one, and a perfect being than an imperfect?
And as to Arminius's saying, He cannot mean that God loveth righteousness with a subject or substance, better than a subject without righteousness; for there is no such thing to love, as righteousness without a subject (though there maybe an abstracted, distinct conception of it). If therefore the question be only, Whether God love the same man better, as he is a man, or as he is a saint, I answer, he hath a love to each which is suitable to its kind. He hath such complacency in the substance of a serpent, a man, a devil, as is agreeable to their being; that is, as they bear the natural impressions of his creating perfections, yet such as may stand with their pain, death, and misery. But he hath such a complacency in the actual holiness, love, and obedience of men and angels, as that he taketh the person that hath them to be meet for his service, and glory, and everlasting felicity, and delight in him, as being qualified for it. So that God's love must be denominatively distinguished from the object; and so it is a love of nature, and a love of the moral perfections of nature: the first love is that by which he loveth a man because he is a man, and so all other creatures; the second love is that by which he loveth a good man, because he is good or holy. And if it will comfort you, that God loveth your being without your perfections or virtue, let it comfort you in pain, and death, and hell, that he continueth your being without your well-being or felicity.
Object.VII. All goodness or holiness is some one's goodness or holiness (as health is). And as it is the person's welfare and perfection, so it is given for the person's sake: therefore the person, as thefinis cui, and utmost end, is better than the thing given him, and so more amiable.
Answ.That all goodness is some one's goodness, proveth but that some one is the subject or being that is good, but not that to be is better than to be good, as such. And as he is in some respect thefinis cui, for whom it is, and so it is good to him; yet he and his goodness are for a higher end, which is the pleasing of God in the demonstration of his goodness: that therefore is best which most demonstrateth God's goodness. And there is no subject or substance without its accidents or modes; and that person that is not good and holy, is bad and unholy. Therefore the question should be, Whether a person bad and unholy, be more amiable than a person good and holy, that hath both physical and moral goodness. And for all that the name of an accident maketh action seem below the person: yet it must be also said, that the person and his faculties are for action, as being but the substance in a perfect mode, and that action is for higher ends than the person's being or felicity.
Object.VIII. Love is nothing but benevolence,velle bonum alicui ut ei bene sit. But who is it that would not wish good to God, that is to be blessed as he is? But how can holiness then be loved, but rather the person for his holiness; because we cannot wish it good, but only to be what it is.
Answ.1. The definition is false, as hath been showed, and as the instance proveth; else a man could not be said to love learning, virtue, or any quality, but only to love the person that wanteth it, or hath it. But love is a complacency, and benevolence is but its effect or antecedent. 2. The unholy wish not good to God, for they would all depose him from his Godhead: they would not have him to be a hater of their sin, nor to be their holy and righteous Governor and Judge.
Object.IX. It is better to be a man, though a sinner and miserable in hell, than not to be at all. Else God would never ordain, cause, or permit it.
Answ.It is better to the highest ends, God's glory, and the universal order, to be a punished man, than to be nothing (when God will have it so); because punishment, as to those highest ends, is good; though it is not best for the poor miserable sinner: but the same cannot be said of sin. It is indeed better also to those highest ends, to be a man though a sinner (while God continueth humanity); but not to be a man and a sinner: for the latter implieth some good to be in the sin which hath no good, and therefore God neither causeth it, nor willeth it, though he permit it. But though a sinful man is better than no man to God's ends, it followeth not, that to be a man is better than to be a good man.
Object.X. If that be best and most amiable which is most to the glory of God, then it is more amiable to be a sinner in hell torment glorifying his justice, than not to be at all, or to be a brute.
Answ.It is neither of these that is offered to your love and choice, but to be holy. All good is not matter of election; but that good which is in hell is not the sin, but the punishment. For the sin doth reputatively, and as much as in it lieth, rob God of his glory, and punishment repaireth it. Therefore love the punishment if you can, and spare not, so you love holiness better; for that would honour God more excellently, and please him more.
Object.XI. If I must love to be like God, I must love to be great, and I must love the greatest as most like him.
Answ.You must love to be like him in those perfections which you are capable of, and the ends and uses of your proper nature: therefore you must be desirous to be like him in your measure, even in such power and greatness as are suitable to the nature and ends of a rational soul. Not in such strength as he giveth a horse, or such magnitude as he giveth a mountain, which is not to be most like him; but in the vital activity and power of an intellectual free agent: to be powerful and great in love to God and all his service, and in all good works, to be profitable to the world, to be lively and ready in all obedience, strong to suffer, and to conquer sin and all temptations; in a word, to be great and powerful in wisdom and true goodness. Thus seek even in power to be like God in your capacities.
Object.XII. God himself doth not love men only for their goodness, nor love that best which is best. For he loveth his elect while enemies and ungodly; and he telleth Israel he loved them because he would love them, and not because they were better than others; and in the womb he loved Jacob best, when he was no better than Esau.
Answ.1. Distinguish between God's complacence and benevolence. 2. Between the good that is present, and foreseen good with a present capacity for it.
1. God had a greater benevolence to Jacob than Esau, and to the Israelites than to other nations that were perhaps not much worse. And it is not for our goodness that God decreeth to make us good, or to give us a double proportion of any of those mercies, which he giveth not as Rector, but as Dominus and Benefactor, as an absolute Owner and free Benefactor. And with this love of benevolence he loveth us when we are his enemies, that is, he purposeth to make us good; but this benevolence is but a secondary love and fruit of complacency, joined with the free, unequal distribution of his own.
2. But for complacency, which is love in the first and strictest sense, God so loveth the wicked though elect, no further than they are good and lovely, that is, (1.) As they have the natural goodness of rational creatures: (2.) And as they are capable of all the future service they will do him, and glory they will bring him; (3.) And as his infinite wisdom knoweth it fit to choose them to that service. Or, if the benevolence of election do go before his first complacence in them above others, as being before his foresight that they will serve and love better, yet still this proper love, called complacence, goeth not beyond the worth of the thing loved.
Object.Doth God love us complacentially in Christ, beyond the good that is in us?
Answ.Not beyond our real and relative good, as we are in ourselves, by his grace, and as we are in Christ related to him, and both ways such as demonstrate the divine perfections, and shall love, and glorify, and please him for ever.
So much for the opening of the true nature of love to God, ourselves, and others, and of man's ultimate end, and of the nature of holiness and goodness, and those mysteries of religion which are involved in these points.