Chapter III (9)

_Answ._ 1. The question _de esse_ must go before the question _de apparere_. Either that which you say you are uncertain of is indeed a sin, or it is none. If it be no sin, then you are bound both to search till you know that it is no sin, and not to forbear your duty for it. But if really it be a sin, then your uncertainty of it is another sin; and that which God bindeth you to, is to forsake them both. 2. Your question containeth a contradiction: you cannot be certain that it is a duty at all to you, any further than you are certain whether the condition or means be lawful or a sin. What if an auditor in Spain or Italy say, I am certain that it is a duty to obey my teachers; but I am uncertain whether their doctrines of the mass, purgatory, and the rest, have any untruth or sin in them; therefore, I must not forbear certain obedience for uncertain sin. Or if a priest among them say, I am certain that it is a duty to preach God's word, but I am not certain that the Trent Articles, which I must swear or subscribe, are sinful or false; therefore I must not leave a great and certain duty for an uncertain sin. The answer to them both is easy. 1. It is your sin that you are uncertain of the sinfulness of those things, which God hath forbidden: and God biddeth you first to search the Scriptures, and cure that error. He made his law before your doubts arose, and will not change it because you doubt. 2. You contradict yourselves by a mistake. You have no more certainty that you should obey your teachers in these particulars, than you have that the things which they teach or command you are not against that law of God. You are certain that you must obey them in all things not forbidden by God, and within the reach of their office to require. And you are as certain that it is unlawful to obey them against the law of God, and that God must be obeyed before man. But whether you must obey them in this particular case, you cannot be certain, while you are uncertain whether it be forbidden of God. And the priest must be as uncertain whether it be any duty of his at all, to preach God's word, as he is uncertain of the lawfulness of the Trent oath or subscription, unless he can do it without. If a subject say, I am certain, that to govern the kingdom well is a great, good work and duty, but I am uncertain whether to depose the king if he govern not well, and set up myself, be a sin; therefore, the certain good must overrule the uncertain evil. I give him the same answer: 1. It is your sin to be uncertain whether rebellion be a sin; and God bindeth you to lay by the sin of your judgment, and not to make it a shoeing-horn to more. 2. You are sure that governing well is a good work; but you should be as sure, that it is no duty of yours, nor good work for you to do, as you are sure that you are but a private man and a subject, and never called to do the good of another's office. A private man may say, I am sure preaching is a good work; but I am not sure that a private, unordained man may not statedly separate himself to do it. But he can be no surer that it is a duty to him, than he is that he is called to it.

_Quest._ XII. Well, suppose my ignorance be my sin, and suppose that I am equally uncertain of the duty and of the sin annexed, yet if I have done all that I am able, and remain still unresolved, and after my most diligent inquiry am as much in doubt as ever, what should I then do?

_Answ._ 1. If you had by any former sin so forfeited God's assistance, as that he will leave you to your blindness, this altereth not his law and your obligations, which are still the same (to learn, understand, and practise). 2. But if you are truly willing to understand, and practise, and use his means, you have no cause to imagine that he will thus forsake you; undoubtedly he appointeth you no means in vain. If you attain not sufficient resolution to guide you in your duty, it is either because your hearts are false in the inquiry, and biassed, or unwilling to know the truth, or do it; or because you use not the true appointed means for resolution, but in partiality or laziness neglect it.

_Quest._ XIII. Suppose still my ignorance be my sin; which is the greater sin, to neglect the good work, or to venture on the feared evil that is annexed? I am not conscious of any unfaithfulness, but human frailty, that keepeth me from certainty. And no man is so perfect as to have no culpable ignorance, and to be certain in every point of duty. Therefore I must with greatest caution avoid the greatest sin, when I am out of hope of avoiding all. On one side, it is a common rule that I must do nothing against conscience, (no, not a doubting conscience,) though I must not always do what it biddeth me. "For he that doubteth is condemned if he eat: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin," Rom. xiv. 23. On the other side, if all duty be omitted which conscience doubteth of, I may be kept from almost every duty.

_Answ._ The heart is so deceitful that you have great cause to watch, lest human frailty be pretended, for that error, which a corrupted, biassed, partial mind, or wilful laziness, is the cause of. Diligent study, and inquiry, and prayer, with a sincere desire to know the truth, may succeed, at least, to so much satisfaction, as may keep your minds in quietness and peace, and give you comfort in your way, and preserve you from all such sin as is inconsistent with this your safety and acceptance with God. But yet it is true that human frailty will occasion in the best uncertainties in some particular cases; and though God make it not our duty of two sins to choose the less, but to refuse both, yet he maketh it our duty more diligently to avoid the greater than the less. And ofttimes the case is so sudden that no inquiry can be made: and therefore I confess a christian should know which sins are greatest and to be most avoided. At present I shall lay down these following rules, premising this, that where accidents and circumstances which make sins great or small are to be compared, they are ofttimes so numerous and various, that no rules can be laid down beforehand, that will serve all turns, no more than in law and physic, any law books or physic books will serve all cases without a present experienced judicious counsellor: present prudence and sincerity must do most.

_Rule_ I. In things altogether indifferent, nothing must be done that conscience doubteth of, because there is a possibility or fear of sinning on the one side, but none on the other; and in that case it is a certain sin to venture on a feared sin. But then it is supposed that the thing be indifferent as clothed with all its circumstances, and that there be no accident that taketh away its indifferency.

_Rule_ II. In case the thing be really unlawful, and I think it to be lawful, but with some doubting, but am clear that the forbearing it is no sin; there the sin is only in the doing it; because all is clear and safe on the other side.

_Rule_ III. There are many sins which are always and to all persons in all cases sins, and not doubted of by any without gross unfaithfulness or negligence; and here there is no room for any doubting whether we must do that good which cannot be done without that sin, it being certain that no such good can be a duty. As, to commit idolatry, to blaspheme God, to deny Christ, to deny the Scriptures, to hate, or reproach, or oppose a holy life, to be perjured, to approve or justify the sin of others, &c. It can be no duty which cannot be done without the wilful yielding to or committing these or any known sin.

_Rule_ IV. There are some duties so great, and clear, and constant to all, that none but a profligate or graceless conscience (or one that is fearfully poisoned with sin) can make a doubt of it deliberately: these therefore come not within the case before us.

_Rule_ V. If moral evil be compared only with natural good, or moral good with natural evil, there is no doubt to be made of the case: the least sin having more evil in it than the prosperity or lives of millions of men have good (considered in themselves as natural good); and the least duty to God having more good in it than the death of millions of men (as such) hath evil. For the good of duty and the evil of sin are greatened by their respect to God, and the other lessened as being good or evil only unto men, and with respect to them.

_Rule_ VI. Where I am in an equal degree uncertain of the duty to be omitted, and of the sin to be committed, it is a greater sin to venture doubtfully upon the committing of a positive sin that is great, (in case it prove a sin,) than upon the omitting a duty which (in case it prove a duty) is less; and on the contrary, it is worse to venture on the omitting of a great duty, than on the committing of a small, positive sin. As, suppose my own or my neighbour's house be on fire, and I am in doubt whether I may take another man's water to quench it against his will; or if my own, or my child's, or neighbour's life be in danger by famine, and I doubt whether I may take another man's apples, or pears, or ears of corn, or his bread, against his will, to save my own life or another's. Really, the thing is already made lawful or unlawful (which I now determine not) by the law of God; but in my unavoidable uncertainty, (if I be equally doubtful on both sides,) it is a far greater sin (if it prove a sin) to omit the saving of the house or life, than to take another man's water, or fruit, or bread, that hath plenty (if this prove the sin). So if king and nobles were in a ship, which would be taken and all destroyed by pirates, unless I told a lie, and said, they are other persons; if I were equally in doubt which course to take, to lie or not, (though sin have more evil than all our lives have good,) yet a sinful omitting to save all their lives is a greater sin than a sinful telling of such a lie. Suppose I am in doubt, whether I may lawfully save an ox, or ass, or a man's life, by labour on the sabbath day? or David had doubted, whether he might eat the consecrated shew-bread in his necessity? it is clear, that the sinful neglect of a man's life is worse than the sinful violation of a sabbath, or the sinful use of the consecrated bread. If I equally doubt, whether I may use a ceremony, or disorderly, defective form of prayer, and whether I should preach the gospel to save men's souls, where there are not others enough to do it; it is clear, that sinfully to use a ceremony, or disorderly form of prayer, is, _cæteris paribus_, a lesser sin than sinfully to neglect to preach the gospel and to save men's souls. On the other side, suppose I dwelt in Italy, and could not have leave to preach the gospel there, unless I would subscribe to the Trent Confession, or the canon 3d of Concil. Lateran sub Innocent III.; one of which requireth men to swear for transubstantiation, and to interpret the Scriptures only according to the unanimous consent of the fathers (who never unanimously consented in any exposition of the greatest part of the Scriptures at all); the other decreeth the pope's deposing temporal lords, and disobliging their subjects from their allegiance. On the one side, I doubt, whether by subscribing I become not guilty of justifying idolatry, perjury, and rebellion, and making myself guilty of the perjury of many thousand others: on the other side, I doubt, whether I may disobey my superiors who command me this subscription, and may forbear preaching the gospel, when yet I apprehend that there are others to preach it, and that my worth is not so considerable as that there should be any great loss in putting me out and putting in another; and God needeth not me to do him service, but hath instruments at command; and that I know not how soon he may restore my liberty, or that I may serve him in another country, or else in sufferings at home; in such a case the sinful justifying of perjury or rebellion in whole countries is a far greater sin than the sinful omission of my preaching: for he that justifieth perjury destroyeth the bonds of all societies, and turneth loose the subjects against their sovereigns. Or if I, being a minister, were forbidden to preach the gospel where there is necessity, unless I will commit some sin; if I doubt on one side whether I should disobey my superiors, and on the other whether I should forbear my calling, and neglect the souls of sinners; it is a lesser sin, _cæteris paribus_, to disobey a man sinfully, than to disobey God, and to be cruel to the souls of men to their perdition sinfully. Or if I have made a vow, and sworn that I will cast away a penny or a shilling, and I am in doubt on one side whether I be not bound to keep it as a vow, and on the other whether it be not a sin to keep it, because to cast away any of my talents is a sin; in this case, the sinful casting away of a penny or a shilling is not so great a sin as sinful perjury. If Daniel and the three witnesses had been in equal doubt, whether they should obey the king or pray to God, (as Dan. vi.) and renounce the bowing to his idol, (Dan. iii.) the sinful forbearance of prayer as then commanded, and the sinful bowing to the idol had been a greater sin than a sinful disobeying the king's command in such a case, if they had mistaken.

_Rule_ VII. If I cannot discern whether the duty to be omitted, or the sin to be committed, be materially and in other respects the greater, then that will be to me the greater of the sins which my doubting conscience doth most strongly suspect to be sin, in its most impartial deliberation. For if other things be equal, certainly the sinning against more or less conviction or doubting must make an inequality. As, if I could not discern whether my subscription to the Trent Confession, or my forbearing to preach, or my preaching though prohibited, were the greater sin, in case they were all sinful; but yet I am most strongly suspicious of sinfulness in the subscription, and less suspicious of sinfulness in my forbearing in such a case to preach, and least of all suspicious of sinfulness in my preaching though prohibited: in this case to subscribe sinfully is the greatest sin, and to forbear sinfully to exercise my office is the next, and to preach unwarrantably is the least.

_Rule_ VIII. If I could perceive no difference in the degrees of evil in the omission and the commission, nor yet in the degrees of my suspicion or doubting, then that is the greater sin which I had greater helps and evidence to have known, and did not.

_Rule_ IX. If both greater material evil be on one side than on the other, and greater suspicion or evidence of the sinfulness also, then that must needs be the greater sin.

_Rule_ X. If the greatness of the material evil be on one side, and the greatness of the suspicion and evidence be on the other, then the former (if sin) will be materially and in itself considered the worst; but the latter will be formally the greater disobedience to God. But the comparison will be very difficult. As, suppose that I swear to God that I will cast away a shilling, or that I will forbear to pray for a week together; here I take perjury to be a greater sin than my casting away a shilling, or forbearing to pray a week: but when I question whether the oath should be kept or not, I have greater suspicion that it should not than that it should, because no oath must be the bond of the least iniquity. Here, if the not keeping it prove a sin, I shall do that which is the greater sin in itself if I keep it not; but I shall show more disobedience in keeping it, if it be not to be kept.

_Rule_ XI. If it be a double sin that I suspect on one side, and but a single one on the other, it maketh an inequality in the case. As, suppose that in my father's family there are heretics and drunkards, and I swear that in my place and calling I will endeavour to cast them out. My mother approveth my vow; my father is against it, and dischargeth me of it because I did it not by his advice. On one side, I doubt whether I am bound, or may act against my father's will: on the other side, I as much doubt whether I am not perjured, and disobedient to my mother, if I do it not, and whether I disobey not God, that made it my duty to endeavour the thing in my place and calling before I vowed it.

_Rule_ XII. There is a great deal of difference between omitting the substance of a duty for ever, and the delaying it, or altering the time, and place, and manner. For instance, that which will justify or excuse me for shortening my prayer, or for praying but once a day, or at noon rather than in the morning, or for defect in method, or fervency, or expressions, may not justify or excuse me for denying, renouncing, or long forbearing prayer. And that which may excuse an apostle for not preaching in the temple or synagogues, or not having the emperor's or the high priest's allowance or consent, or for not continuing in one city or country; would not excuse them if they had renounced their callings, or totally, as to all times, and places, and manner of performance, have ceased their work for fear of men.

_Rule_ XIII. If the duty to be omitted and the sin to be committed seem equal in greatness, and our doubt be equal as to both, it is commonly held safer to avoid the commission more studiously than the omission. For which there are many reasons given.

_Rule_ XIV. There is usually much more matter for fear and suspicion, _cæteris paribus_, of sins to be committed, than of duties to be omitted, when the commission is made necessary to the doing of the duty. Both because it is there that the fear beginneth: for I am certain that the good work is no duty to me, if the act be a sin which is its necessary condition. Therefore, so far as I suspect the act to be sinful, I must needs suspect the duty to be no duty to me at that time: it is not possible I should be rationally more persuaded that the duty is my duty, than that the condition is no sin. If it were the saving of the lives of all men in the country, I could no further take it to be my duty, than I take that to be no sin by which it must be done, it being a thing past controversy, that we must not sin for the accomplishment of any good whatsoever. And also because the sin is supposed to be always sin, but few duties are at all times duties: and the sin is a sin to every man, but the duty may be another man's duty, and not mine. For instance: Charles V. imposeth the Interim upon Germany: some pastors yielded to it; others refused it, and were cast out. Those that yielded pleaded the good of the churches, and the prevention of their utter desolation, but yet confessed that if the thing imposed were sinful, it was not their duty to do it for any good whatsoever, but to seek the good of the church as well as they could without it. The other that were cast out argued, that so far as they were confident the Interim was sinful, they must be confident that nothing was their duty that could not be done without it, and that God knew best what is good for his church, and there is no accomplishing its good by sin and God's displeasure; and that they did not therefore forsake their ministry, but only lose the ruler's licence; for they resolved to preach in one place or other till they were imprisoned, and God can serve himself by their imprisonment or death, as well as by their preaching. And while others took their places that thought the Interim lawful, the churches were not wholly destitute; and if God saw it meet, he could restore their fuller liberties again: in the mean time, to serve him, as all pastors did for three hundred years after Christ, without the licence of the civil magistrate, was not to cast away their office. Another instance: the zealous papists in the reign of Henry III. in France, thought that there was a necessity of entering the League, and warring against the king, because religion was in danger, the preservation whereof is an unquestionable duty. The learned and moderate lawyers that were against them said, that there being no question but the king had the total sovereignty over them, they were sure it was a sin to resist the higher powers, and therefore no preservation of religion could be a duty or lawful to them which must be done by such a certain sin: sin is not the means to save religion or the commonwealth.

_Rule_ XV. When a thing is not prohibited and sinful simply in itself, but because of some accidental or consequential evil that it tendeth to, there a greater accidental or consequential good may preponderate the evil, and make the thing become no sin, but a duty. It is a matter of exceeding difficulty to discern ofttimes whether a thing be simply and absolutely forbidden, or only by accident and alterably, and to discern which accident doth preponderate. There are so many observations that should here be taken in, and so much of a man's life and peace is concerned in it, that it deserveth a treatise by itself. And therefore I shall not meddle with it any further here, lest an insufficient tractate be worse than none, in a case where error is so easy and perilous.

_Rule_ XVI. As to the danger of the sinner himself, there is a great deal of difference between an error and sin of human frailty, when the service of God, and true obedience, and the common good, is sincerely intended, and an error and sin of false-heartedness and sloth, when selfishness is the secret spring of the error, and carnal interest the real end, though God and his service be pretended. And usually the concomitants will show something of this to others. For instance; two magistrates and two ministers submit to some questioned imposition, all pretend that the glory of God, and his service, is it that prevaileth with them to submit. The one of the magistrates faithfully serves God afterward with his authority, and showeth thereby that he meant sincerely: the other doth no good in his place, and showeth his hypocrisy. One of the ministers preacheth zealously, and privately laboureth as one that thirsteth for the saving of souls: the other preacheth formally, and coldly, and heartlessly, and never converteth a soul, and neglecteth the work which he pretended was his end.

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[Sidenote: For loving God as our Father, our Benefactor, and our end.]

_Grand Direct._ XI. Let it be most deeply engraven on thy heart, that God is infinitely good and amiable; thy grand Benefactor and Father in Christ; the end of all that thou art and hast; and the everlasting rest and happiness of thy soul: see therefore that thy inflamed heart be entirely and absolutely offered up unto him by the mediation of his Son, to love him, to trust him, to delight in him, to be thankful to him, to glorify him, and through faith to long for the heavenly glory, where all this will be perfectly done for ever. And first let us speak of LOVE.

I did in the first direction persuade you to lay a good foundation in faith and knowledge. In the second I directed you how to live upon Christ. In the third, how to believe practically in the Holy Ghost. In the fourth I directed you to the orderly and practical knowledge of all the attributes of God. In the fifth, how to know God practically in his first grand relation, as he is your Owner. In the sixth, how to know him practically in his second grand relation, as he is your King or Governor; and in subordination to his governing relation. In the seventh I directed you in your relation of disciples to Christ your Teacher. And in the eighth I directed you in your relation of patients to Christ your Physician, and the Holy Ghost as your Sanctifier. In the ninth I directed you in your relation of soldiers to Christ the Captain of your salvation. In the tenth I directed you in the relation of servants to Christ your Master. And now being past those subordinate relations (to the second), I proceed to direct you in your third grand relation to God as your Benefactor, Father, and Felicity. And because there are divers great duties in this general, I shall first begin with this of love; and afterwards speak distinctly of the rest.

_Directions for loving God as our Father and Felicity._

Here I shall first give you these general preparatives (and then give you directions for the exercise of holy love). 1. You must understand the nature of love to God. 2. You must understand the differences of this love. 3. You must understand the reasons of it. 4. And the contraries of it. 5. And the counterfeits of it.

[Sidenote: God is not loved as a particular good, but as the universal good.]

I. For the understanding its nature observe these things: 1. It is not the love of a particular good, but of the infinite, Universal Good. The creature is a particular good, and our love to it is a particular, limited love, confined as to a point. God is the Universal Good, and our love to him is not limited by the object, but by the narrowness and imperfection of our faculties themselves. As suppose you had variety of candles in your room, and you had diamonds and other refulgent things; you love each of these with a particular love, for their splendour and usefulness; and you more easily observe and feel the motion of this confined love. But light itself, as light, you love with a more universal love; which is greater, but not so sensibly observed. (Not as we speak of notional universals in logic, which have no existence but in particulars; but of the natural, transcendent, infinite good, eternally existent, and arbitrarily appearing in some created particles.) As the love of an infinite light would differ from the love of a candle, and the love of an infinite heat from the love of a fire, and the love of infinite wisdom itself from the love of a wise man, and the love of infinite goodness itself from the love of a good man; so doth the love of God from the love of a particular, created good.

[Sidenote: Whether God may be the object of passionate love.]

2. Our love to God is not ordinarily so passionate as our love to creatures; because the nearness and sensibleness of the creature promoteth such sensible operations. But God is not seen, or felt, or heard, but believed in by faith, and known by reason. And the narrowness of the creature making resistances, stops, and difficulties, occasioneth a turbulent passionateness of love; when the infiniteness of God hath no such occasion. Our love to creatures is like the running of a stream in a channel that is too narrow for it, where stops and banks do make it go on with a roaring violence; but our love to God is like the brook that slideth into the ocean, where it is insensibly devoured. Therefore our love to God must principally be perceived, not in violent passions, but in, 1. A high estimation of him. 2. In the will's adhering to him. 3. And in the effects (to be mentioned anon). Yet when a passionate love is added to these, it may be the most excellent significatively and effectively. Some philosophers think that God cannot at all be loved with a passionate love, because he is a pure, immaterial Being, and therefore cannot be the object of a material act or motion, such as our passions are; and, therefore, that it is some idol of the imagination that is so loved. But, 1. If they mean that his pure essence, in itself, is not the immediate object of a passion, they may say the same of the will itself; for man (at least in flesh) can have no other volition of God, but as he is apprehended by the intellect. And if by an idol they mean the image of God in the mind, gathered from the appearances of God in creatures, man in flesh hath no other knowledge of him; for here we know him but darkly, enigmatically, and as in a glass, and have no formal, proper conception of him in his essence. So that the rational powers themselves do no otherwise know and will God's essence, but as represented to us in a glass. 2. And thus we may also love him passionately; it being God in his objective being as apprehended by the intellect that we both will and passionately love. The motion of the soul in flesh may raise passions, by the instrumentality of the corporeal spirits, towards an immaterial object; which is called the object of those passions, not merely as passions, but as the passions of a rational agent; it being more nearly or primarily the object of the intellect and will, and then of the passions, as first apprehended by these superior powers. A man may delight in God; or else, how is he our felicity? and yet, we know of no delight which is not passion. A man may love his own soul with a passionate love; and yet it is immaterial. When I passionately love my friend, it is his immaterial soul, and his wisdom, and holiness, which I chiefly love.

[Sidenote: What of God is the object of our love.]

3. It is not only for his excellencies and perfections in himself, nor only for his love and benefit to us, that grace doth cause a sinner to love God; but it is for both conjunctly; as he is good, and doth good, especially to us, in the greatest things.

[Sidenote: What is the motive of our first love to God.]

4. Our first special love to God, is orderly and rationally to be raised, the belief of his goodness in himself, and his common love and mercy to sinners, manifested in his giving of his Son for the world, and giving men the conditional promise of pardon and salvation, and offering them Christ and life eternal, and all this to us as well as others: and not to be caused by the belief or persuasion of his special, peculiar, electing, redeeming, or saving love to us above others, that have the same invitations and offers. It is the knowledge of common love and mercy, and not of special love and mercy, as already possessed, that is appointed to be the motive of our first special love to God. (Yet there is in it an apprehension that he is our only possible felicity, and that he will give us a special interest in his favour, if we return by faith in Christ unto him.) For, 1. Every man is bound to love God with a special love: but every man is not specially beloved by him: and no man is bound to love God as one that specially loveth him but those that indeed are so beloved by him; for else they were bound to believe a falsehood, and to love that which is not; and grace should be an error and deceit. The object is before the act. God's special love must in itself be before its revelations; and as revealed it must go before our belief of it; and as believed it must go before our loving it, or loving him as such, or for it. 2. The first saving faith is inseparably conjunct with special love; for Christ is believed in and willed, as the way or means to God as the end (otherwise it is no true faith). And the volition of the end (which is love) is in order of nature before the choice or use of the means as such: and if we must love God as one that specially loveth us, in our first love, then we must believe in him as such by our first faith: and if so, it must be to us a revealed truth. But (as it is false to most that are bound to believe, so) it is not revealed to the elect themselves: for if it be, it is either by ordinary or extraordinary revelation. If by ordinary, either by Scripture directly, or by evidences in ourselves which Scripture maketh the characters of his love. But neither of these; for Scripture promiseth not salvation to named, but described persons; and evidence of special love there is none, before faith, and repentance, and the first love to God. And extraordinary revelation from heaven, by inspiration or angel, is not the ordinary begetter of faith; for faith is the belief of God, speaking to us (now) by his written word. So that where there is no object of love, there can be no love; and where there is no revelation of it to the understanding, there is no object for the will; and till a man first believe and love God, he hath no revelation that God doth specially love him. Search as long as you will, you will find no other. 3. If the wicked were condemned for not loving a false or feigned object, it would quiet their consciences in hell when they had detected the deceit, and seen the natural impossibility and contradiction. 4. The first love to God is more a love of desire, than of possession; and therefore it may suffice to raise it, that we see a possibility of being for ever happy in God, and enjoying him in special love, though yet we know not that we possess any such love. The nature of the thing proclaimeth it most rational and due, that we love the infinite Good, that hath done so much by the death of his Son, to remove the impediments of our salvation; and is so far reconciled to the world in his death, as by a message of reconciliation, to entreat them to accept of Christ, and pardon, and salvation freely offered them, 2 Cor. v. 19, 20; and is himself the offered happiness of the soul. He that dare say, that this much hath not an objective sufficiency to engage the soul in special love, is a blind undervaluer of wonderful mercy. 5. The first special grace bringeth no new object for faith or love, but causeth a new act upon the formerly revealed object.

5. But our love to God is greatly increased and advantaged afterwards by the assurance or persuasion of his peculiar, special love to us. And therefore all christians should greatly value such assurance, as the appointed means of advancing them to greater love to God.

6. As we know God here in the glass of his Son, and word, and creatures, so we most sensibly love him here, as his goodness appeareth in his works, and graces, and his word, and Son.

7. The nearer we come to perfection, the more we shall love God for himself and his infinite natural goodness and perfections, not casting away the respects of his goodness and love as to ourselves, but highliest regarding himself for himself, as carried to him above ourselves.

II. Though love in its own nature be still the same, and is nothing but the rational appetite of good; or the will's volition of good apprehended by the understanding; the first motion of the will to good, arising from that natural inclination to good, which is the nature of the will, and the _pondus animæ_, the poise of the soul; or from healing grace which repaireth the breach that is made in nature; yet love in regard of the state of the lover, and the way of its imperate acting, is thus differenced. 1. Either the lover is in the hopeful pursuit of the thing beloved, and then it is desiring, seeking love. 2. Or he is, or seemeth to be, denied, destitute, and deprived of his beloved (in whole or in part); and then it is a mourning, lamenting love. 3. Or he enjoyeth his beloved, and then it is enjoying, delighting love. 1. The ordinary love which grace causeth on earth is a predominancy of seeking, desiring love, encouraged by some little foretastes of enjoying, delighting love, and, in a great measure, attended with mourning, lamenting love. 2. The state of deserted, dark, declining, relapsing, and melancholy, tempted christians, is a predominance of mourning, lamenting love, assisted with some help of seeking, desiring love; but destitute of enjoying, delighting love. 3. The state of the glorified is perfection of enjoying, delighting love alone. And all the rest are to bring us unto this.[114]

III. The reasons why love to God is so great, and high, and necessary a thing, and so much esteemed above other graces, are: 1. It is the motion of the soul that tendeth to the end; and the end is more excellent than all the means as such. 2. The love, or will, or heart is the man; where the heart or love is, there the man is: it is the fullest resignation of the whole man to God, to love him as God, or offer him the heart. God never hath his own fully till we love him. Love is the grand, significant, vital motion of the soul; such as the heart, or will, or love is, such you may boldly call the man. 3. The love of God is the perfection and highest improvement of all the faculties of the soul, and the end of all other graces, to which they tend, and to which they grow up, and in which they terminate their operations. 4. The love of God is that spirit or life of moral excellency in all other graces in which (though not their form, yet) their acceptableness doth consist, without which they are to God as a lifeless carrion is to us. And to prove any action sincere and acceptable to God, is to prove that it comes from a willing, loving mind, without which you can never prove it. 5. Love is the commander of the soul, and therefore God knoweth that if he have our hearts, he hath all, for all the rest are at its command; for it is, as it were, the nature of the will, which is the commanding faculty; and its object is the ultimate end which is the commanding object. Love setteth the mind on thinking, the tongue on speaking, the hands on working, the feet on going, and every faculty obeyeth its command. 6. The obedience which love commandeth, participateth of its nature, and is a ready, cheerful, sweet obedience, acceptable to God, and pleasant to ourselves. 7. Love is a pure, chaste, and cleansing grace; and most powerfully casteth out all creature pollution from the soul:[115] the love of God doth quench all carnal, sinful love; and most effectually carrieth up the soul to such high delights, as causeth it to contemn and forget the toys which it before admired. 8. The love of God is the true acknowledging and honouring him as good. That blessed attribute, his goodness, is denied, or despised, by those that love him not. The light of the sun would not be valued, honoured, or used by the world, if there were no eyes in the world to see it. And the goodness of God is to them that love him not, as the light to them that have no eyes. If God would have had his goodness to be thus unknown or neglected, he would never have made the intellectual creatures. Those only give him the glory of his goodness that truly love him. 9. Love (in its attainment) is the enjoying and delighting grace: it is the very content and felicity of the soul: both as it maketh us capable to receive the most delightful communications of God's love to us; and as it is the soul's delightful closure with its most amiable felicitating object. 10. Love is the everlasting grace, and the work which we must be doing in heaven for ever. These are the reasons of love's pre-eminence.

IV. The love of creatures hath its contraries on both extremes, in the excess and in the defect; but the love of God hath no contrary in excess: for Infinite Goodness cannot possibly be loved too much (unless as the passion may possibly be raised to a degree distracting or disturbing the brain). The odious vices contrary to the love of God are, 1. Privative; not loving him. 2. Positive; hating him. 3. Opposite; loving his creatures in his stead: all these concur in every unsanctified soul. That they are all void of the true love of God, and taken up with creature love, is past all doubt; but whether they are all haters of God, may seem more questionable. But it is as certain as the other; only the hatred of God in most doth not break out into that open opposition, persecution, or blasphemy, as it doth with some that are given up to desperate wickedness; nor do they think that they hate him. But the aversation of the will is the hatred of God; and if men had not a great aversation to him, they would not forsake him, and refuse to be converted to him, notwithstanding all the arguments of love that can be used to allure them. Displacency, nolition, and aversation are hatred.

If you think it impossible that men can hate God, whom they confess to be infinitely good, consider for the true understanding of this hatred, 1. That it is not as good that they hate him; 2. and it is not God simply in himself considered; 3. and therefore it is not all in God; 4. and it is not the name of God; 5. but it is, 1. God as he seemeth unsuitable to them, and unfit for their delight and love: which seeming is caused by their carnal inclination to things of another nature, and the sinful perverting of their appetites, and the blindness and error of their minds. 2. And it is God as he is an enemy to their carnal concupiscence; whose holy nature is against their unholiness, and hateth their sin, and his laws forbid them the things which they most love and take delight in: and so they hate God, as a madman hateth his keeper and physician, and takes them for his enemies; and as a hungry dog doth hate him that keepeth him from the meat which he loveth, or would take it out of his mouth. 3. And they hate God, as one who by his holiness, justice, and truth is engaged to condemn them for their sin, and so (consequently to their sin) is their enemy that will destroy them (unless they forsake it): when their wills are enslaved to their sins, and they cannot endure to be forbidden them, and yet see that God will damn them in hell-fire if they cast them not away: this filleth them with displacency against God, as holy and just. 4. And then, consequently, they hate him in the rest of his attributes: as his omniscience, that he always seeth them; his omnipresence, that he is always with them; his omnipotency, that he is irresistible and able to punish them: his very mercy as expressed to others, when they must have no part in it; yea, his very immutability, eternity, and being, as he is to continue an avenger of their iniquity: so that the wicked in despair do wish that there were no God; and in prosperity, they wish he were not their Governor and Judge, or were unholy and unjust, allowing them to do what they list without account or punishment. Thus God is hated by the wicked according to the measure of their wickedness, and carnal interest, and concupiscence which he is against. Where you may note, 1. that the hatred of God beginneth at the sensual love of things temporal which he forbiddeth; 2. that the wicked great ones of the world, and those that have the strongest concupiscence, are usually the greatest haters of God, as having the greatest adverse interest, and being most in love with the things which he prohibiteth and will condemn.

V. The counterfeit of love to God is something that seemeth like it, and yet is consistent with prevalent hatred, or privation of true love, and maketh self-deceiving hypocrites. 1. One is when so much of God is loved as men think hath no opposition to their lusts and carnal interest (as his mercy and readiness to forgive); and then they think that they truly love God, though they hate his holiness and other attributes. 2. Another counterfeit is, to love God upon mistakes, imagining that he is of the sinner's mind, and will bear with him and not condemn him, though he continue sensual and ungodly: this is not indeed to love God, but something contrary to God. If men's fantasies will take God to be like the devil, a friend to sin, and no friend to holiness, and false in his threatenings, &c. and thus will love him; this is so far from being indeed the love of God, that it is an odious blaspheming of him. 3. Another counterfeit is, to love God only for his temporal mercies, as because he preserveth and maintaineth them, when yet he is resisted when he would give them things spiritual. 4. Another is, when the opinionative approbation of the mind, and honouring God with the lips and knee, are mistaken for true love. In a word, whatever love of God respecteth him not as God indeed, and is not superlative, but is subservient to creature love, is but a counterfeit.

VI. The directions for the exercise of the love of God are these:

_Direct._ I. Consider well, that the love of our Creator, Redeemer, and Regenerator, is the very end for which we are created, redeemed, and regenerate; and how just it is that God should have the end of such excellent works, and that by neglecting or opposing the love of God, which is the end, we neglect or oppose the works of creation, redemption, and regeneration themselves.--Let us plead these works of God with our hearts, and say,--1. O sluggish soul! dost thou forget the use for which thou wast created, and for which thou wast endowed with rational faculties? Dost thou repent that thou art a man, and refuse the employment of a man? What is the means or instrument good for, but its proper end, and use, and action? God made the sun to shine, and it shineth; he made the earth to support us and bear fruit, and it doth accordingly: and he made thee to love him, and wilt thou refuse and disobey? How noble and excellent is thy employment in comparison of theirs! Is the fruit of the earth, or the labour of thy beast, or the service of any inferior creature, so sweet and honourable a work as thine, to know and love thy bountiful, glorious Creator? How happy is thy lot! how blessed is thy portion in comparison of theirs! And dost thou forsake thy place, and descend to more ignoble objects, as if thou hadst rather been some silly, sordid animal? If thou hadst not rather be a beast than a man, why choosest thou the love and pleasures of a beast, and refusest the love and pleasures of a man? Is creation, and the image of God in a rational, free soul, a thing thus to be contemned for nothing? What is the sun good for, if it should yield no light or heat? And what art thou good for more than the beasts that perish, if thou know not and love not thy Creator? If God should offer to unman thee, and turn thee into a horse or dog, thou wouldst think he thrust thee into misery; and yet thou canst voluntarily and wilfully unman thyself, and take it as thy ease and pleasure. If death came this night to dissolve thy nature, it would not please thee; and yet thou canst daily destroy thy nature, as to its use and end, and not lament it! It were better I had never been a man, nor never had a heart or love within me, if I use it not in the holy love of my Creator. It is true, I have a body that is made to eat, and drink, and sleep; but all this is but to serve my soul in the love of him that giveth me all. Life is not for meat, or drink, or play; but these are for life, and life for the higher ends of life.

2. Look unto thy Redeemer, drowsy soul! and consider for what end he did redeem thee: Was it to wander a few years about the earth, and to sleep, and sport awhile in flesh? Or was it to crucify thee to the world, and raise thee up to the love of God? He came down to earth from love itself, being full of love, to show the loveliness of God, and reconcile thee to him, and take away the enmity, and by love to teach thee the art of love. His love constrained him to offer himself a sacrifice for sin, to make thee a priest thyself to God, to offer up the sacrifice of an inflamed heart in love and praise; and wilt thou disappoint thy Redeemer, and disappoint thyself of the benefits of his love? The means is for the end; thou mayst as well say, I would not be redeemed, as to say, I would not love the Lord.