A Christian Directory

Directions for Glorifying God with our tongues, in his Praises.

§. 13. Direct. 1. Conceive of this duty of Praising God according to its superlative excellencies, as being the highest service that the tongue of men or Angels can perform. To Bless, or Praise, or Magnifie God, is not to make him Greater or better, or happier than he is; but to declare and extol his Greatness, Goodness and felicity. And that your hearts may be inflamed to this excellent work, I will here show you how great and necessary, how high and acceptable a work it is.

§. 14. 1. It is the giving to God his chiefest due: A speaking of him as he is: And when we have spoken the highest, how far fall we short, of the due expression of his glorious perfections. O how great Praise doth that Allmightiness deserve, which created and conserveth all the world, and overruleth all the sons of men, and is able to do whatsoever he will? Great is the Lord and Greatly to be praised: and his Greatness is unsearchable. One Generation shall praise his works to another and declare his mighty acts: I will speak of the glorious honor of thy Majesty, and of thy wondrous works: And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts, and I will declare thy Greatness, Psalm 145. 3, 4, 5. What Praise doth that knowledge deserve which extendeth to all things that are, or were, or ever shall be? and that wisdom which ordereth all the world? He knoweth every thought of man, and all the secrets of the heart. Psalm 44. 21. & 94. 11. Known unto God are all his works, from the beginning of the world; Acts 15. 18. His understanding is infinite Psalm 147. 5. What praise doth that Goodness and Mercy deserve, which is diffused throughout all the world, and is the life and hope and happiness of men and Angels? His Mercy is Great unto the Heavens, and his Truth unto the Clouds: Psalm 57. 10. O how great is his Goodness to them that fear him? Psalm. 31. 10. and therefore how great should be his Praise. Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? and who can show forth all his Praise, Psalm 106. 2. For great is the Glory of the Lord, Psalm 138. 5.

§. 15. 2. It is the end of all God's wondrous works, and especially the end which man was made for, that all things else might Praise him Objectively, and men (and Angels) in estimation and expression. that his Glorious excellency might be visible in his works, and be admired and extolled by the rational creature: For this all things were created and are continued: For this we have our understanding and our speech: This is the fruit that God expecteth from all his works. Deny him this and you are guilty of frustrating the whole creation, as much as in you lieth. You would have the Sun to shine in vain, and the Heavens and Earth to stand in vain, and man and all things to live in vain, if you would not have God have the pray • e and Glory of his works. Therefore Sun, and Moon, and Starrs, and Firmament are called on to Praise the Lord, Psalm 148. 2, 3, 4. as they are the matter for which he must by us be praised. O praise him therefore for his mighty acts: Praise him according to his excellent greatness. Psalm 150. 2. O that men would praise the Lord for his Goodness, and declare his wondrous works for the children of men: Psalm 107. 8, &c. Yea it is the end of Christ in the Redemption of the world, and in saving his elect, that God might in the Church in Earth and Heaven have the praise and glory of his grace. Ephes. 1. 6, 12, 14. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually that i • , the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name Heb. 13. 15. And let the redeemed of the Lord say that his mercy endureth forever: Psalm 107. 2. For this all his Saints are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that they should show forth the praises of him that hath called them out of darkness into his marvelous light, 1 Pet. 2. 5, 9.

§. 16. 3. The Praise of God is the highest and noblest work in itself: 1. It hath the highest object: even the glorious excellencies of God. Thanksgiving is somewhat lower as having more respect to ourselves and the Benefits received: But Praise is terminated directly on the perfections of God himself. 2. It is that work that is most immediately nearest on God as he is Our end: And as the end as such is better than all the means set together (as such): so are the final duties about the end greater than all the mediate duties. 3. It is the work of the most excellent creatures of God, the holy Angels: They proclaimed the coming of Christ, by way of Praise, Luke 2. 13, 14. Glory to God in the highest: on earth peace: Good-will towards men. Psalm 103. 20. & 148. 2. And as we must be equal to the Angels, it must be in equal Praising God, or else it will not be in equality of Glory. 4. It is the work of Heaven, the place and state of all perfection: And that is best and highest which is nearest Heaven: Where they rest not day nor night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come—Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created, Rev. 4. 8. 10. Rev. 19. 5. A voice came out of the throne saying, Praise our God all ye his servants, and ye that fear him both small and great. verse 6. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Allelujah: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth; Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

§. 17. 4. It beseemeth us and much concerneth us to learn and exercise that work which in Heaven we must do forever: and that is, to Love and joyfully Praise the Lord. For earth is but the place of our apprenticeship for Heaven. The preparing works of mortifying repentance must in their place be done: but only as subservient to these which we must ever do: When we shall sing the new song before the Lamb, Thou art worthy—For thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us Kings and Priests unto our God, Rev. 5. 9, 10. Therefore the Primitive Church of believers is described as most like to Heaven, Luke 24. 53. with great joy they were continually in the Temple Praising and blessing God. O Praise the Lord therefore in the congregations of the Saints: Let Israel rejoice in him that made him Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Psalm 149. 1, 2. Let the Saints be joyful in glory: Let the high praises of God be in their mouths, verse 5, 6.

§. 18. 5. Though we are yet diseased sinners, and in our warfare, among enemies, dangers and perplexities, yet Praise is seasonable and suitable to our condition here, as the greatest part of our duty, which all the rest must but promote. Pretend not that it is not fit for you because you are sinners, and that humiliation only is suitable to your state. For the design of your redemption, the tenor of the Gospel, and your own condition, engage you to it. Are they not engaged to Praise the Lord, that are brought so near him to that end? 1 Pet. 2, 5. 9. that are reconciled to him? To whom he hath given and forgiven so much. 1 Tim. 1. 15. Tit. 3. 3, 5. Psalm 103. 1, 2, 3. that have so many great and precious promises? 2 Pet. 1. 4. that are the Temples of the Holy Ghost, who dwelleth in them, and sanctifieth them to God? That have a Christ inter •• ding for them in the highest? Rom. 8. 33, 34. That are always safe in the arms of Christ; that are guarded by Angels; and Devils, and enemies forbidden to touch them, further than their father s • eth necessary for their good? That have the Lord for their God, Psalm 33. 12. & 4. 8. That have his Saints for their companions and helpers? That have so many ordinances to help their souls? And so many creatures and comforts for their bodies? That live continually upon the plenty of his Love? That have received so much, and are still receiving? Should we not bless him every day with Praise, that blesseth us every day with benefits? Should we not praise the bridge that we go over? The friend that we have tried so oft? And resolve as Psalm 145. 2. Every day will I bless thee: I will praise thy name forever and ever: Psalm 63. 3, 4. Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee: Thus will I bless thee while I l •• e: I will lift up my hands in thy name. Are they not bound to praise him on earth, that must reign with Christ forever in Heaven? Rom. 8. 17, 33. Rev. 1. 5, 6. Col. 1. 12. 1 Pet. 1. 4.

6. The Praises of God do exercise our highest Graces: Praise is the very breath of Love, and Joy, and Gratitude: It tendeth to raise us above ourselves, and make our hearts to burn within us, while the glorious name of God is magnified: It hath the most pure and spiritual and elevating effect upon the soul; and therefore tendeth most effectually to make us more holy, by the increase of these graces.

§. 19. 7. To be much employed in the Praise of God, doth tend exceedingly to the vanquishing of all hurtful doubts, and fears, and sorrows. Joy and Praise promote each other: And this it doth 1. By keeping the soul near to God, and within the warmth of his love and goodness, Psal. 140. 13. 2. By the exercise of Love and Joy, which are the cordial, reviving, strengthening graces, Psal. 94. 19. & 116. 1. 3. By dissipating distrustful vexing thoughts, and diverting the mind to sweeter things, Psal. 104. 34. 4. By keeping off the Tempter; who usually is least able to follow us with his molestations, when we are highest in the praises of our God. 5. By bringing out the Evidences of our sincerity into the light, while the chiefest graces are in exercise, 2 Cor. 3 18. 6. And by way of Reward from God that loveth the Praises of his meanest servants. And here I would comm • nd this experiment to uncomfortable troubled souls, that have not found comfort by long searching after evidence in themselves. Exercise yourselves much in the Praises of God: This is a duty that you have no pretence against. Against Thanksgiving for his grace, you pretend that you know not that you have received his grace: But to praise him in the excellency of his perfections, his power, and wisdom, and goodness, and mercy, and truth, is the duty of all men in the world. While you are doing this, you will feel your graces stir, and feel that comfort from the face of God, which you are not like to meet with in any other way whatsoever. Evidences are exceeding useful to our ordinary stated peace and comfort: But it is oft long before we confidently discern them: and they are oft discerned when yet the soul is not excited to much sense of comfort and delight: and we quickly lose the sight of evidences, if we be not very wise and careful: But a life of praise bringeth comfort to the soul, as standing in the Sunshine bringeth light and warmth: Or as laboring doth warm the body: or as the sight and converse of our dearest friend, or the hearing of glad tidings doth rejoice the heart; without any great reasoning or arguing the case. This is the way to have comfort by feeling, to be much in the hearty praises of the Lord: When we come to Heaven we shall have our Joy, by immediate Vision, and the delightful exercise of Love and Praise: And if you would taste the Heavenly Joyes on earth, you must imitate them in Heaven as near as possibly you can: And this is your work of nearest imitation.

§. 20. 8. To live a life of praising God will make Religion sweet and easy to us, and take off the wearisomeness of it, and make the work of God a pleasure to us. Whereas they that set themselves only to the works of humiliation, and leave out these soul-delighting exercises, do cast themselves into exceeding danger, by making Religion seem to them a grievous and undesirable life. This makes men backward to every duty, and do it heartlessly, and easily yield to temptations of omission and neglect, if not at last fall off through weariness: whereas the soul that is daily employed in the high and holy Prayses of his God, is still drawn on by encouraging experience, and doth all with a willing ready mind.

§. 21. 9. No duty is more pleasing to God, than the cheerful Praises of his Servants: He loveth your prayers, tears and groans; but your Praises much more: And that which pleaseth God most must be most pleasing to his servants: For to please him is their End: This is the End of all their labor, that whether present or absent, they may be accepted of him. 2 Cor. 5 9. So that it is a final enjoying, and therefore a delighting duty.

§. 22. 10. To be much employed in the Praises of God, will acquaint the world with the nature of true Religion, and remove their prejudice, and confute their dishonorable thoughts and accusations of it, and recover the honor of Christ, and his holy ways, and servants. Many are averse to a holy life, because they think that it consisteth but of melancholy fears or scrupulosity: But who dare open his mouth against the joyful praises of his Maker? I have heard and read of several enemies and murderers, that have broke in upon Christians with an intent to kill them, or carry them away, that finding them on their knees in prayer, and reverencing the work so much as to stay and hear them till they had done, have reverenced the persons also, and departed, and durst not touch the heavenly worshippers of God. This life of praise is a continual pleasure to the soul; clean contrary to a Melancholy life: It is recreating to the Spirits, and healthful to the body, which is consumed by cares, and fears, and sorrows. It is the way that yieldeth that mirth which doth good like a medicine, and is a continual feast, Prov. 17. 22. & 15. 15. Therefore saith the Apostle, James 5. 13. Is any merry? Let him sing Psalms. He cannot better exercise mirth, than in singing praises to his God. This keeps the soul continually on the wing, desiring still to be nearer God, that it may have more of these delights: And so it overcomes the sense of persecutions and afflictions, and the fears of death; and is a most excellent cordial and companion in the greatest sufferings. Was it not an excellent hearing, to have been a witness of the joy of Paul and Silas, when in the Prison and Stocks, with their backs sore with scourges, they sang at midnight the praises of the Lord? Acts 16. 25. so that all the doors were opened, and all the prisoners bonds were loosed, that had been their auditors; so great was God's acceptance of their work. O that we would do that honor and right to true Religion, as to show the world the nature and use of it, by living in the cheerful Praises of our God, and did not • each them to blaspheme it by our mis-doings!

I have said the more of the excellency and benefits of this work, because it is one of your best helps to perform it, to know the Reasons of it, and how much of your Religion, and Duty, and comfort consisteth in it: and the forgetting of this, is the common cause that it is so boldly and ordinarily neglected, or slubbered over as it is.

§. 23. Direct 2. The keeping of the heart in the admiration and glorifying o • 〈◊〉 according to the for • -going Directions) is the principal help to the right praising of him with 〈…〉 ps. For out of the hearts abundance the mouth will speak: And if the Heart do not bear it • part, no praise is m • l • dious to God.

§. 24. Direct. 3. • ead much those Scriptures which speak of the praises of God; especially the Psalms: and furnish your memories with store of those holy expressions of the excellencies of God, which he himself hath taught you in his Word. None knoweth the things of God, but the Spirit of God; who teacheth us in the Scriptures to speak divinely of things divine. No other di • l • ct so well becometh the work of praise. God that best knoweth himself, doth best teach us how to know and praise him. Every Christian should have a treasury of these sacred materials in his memory, that he may be able at all times, in Conference and in Worship, to speak of God in the words of God.

§. 25. Direct. 4. Be much in singing Psalms of praise, and that with the most heart-raising cheerfulness and melody: especially in the holy assemblies. The melody and the conjunction of many serious holy souls, doth • end much to elevate the heart. And where it is done intelligibly, reverently, in conjunction with a rational, spiritual, serious Worship, the use of Musical Instruments are not to be scrupled or refused, anymore than the Tunes and Melody of the V • ic • .

§. 26. Direct. 5. Remember to allow the praises of God, their due pr • portion in all your prayers. Use not to shut it out, or forget it, or cut it short with two or three words in the conclusion. The Lord's Prayer begins and ends with it: and the three first Petitions are for the glorifying the Name of God, and the coming of his Kingdom, and the doing o • his Will, by which he is glorified: and all this before we ask anything directly for ourselves. Use will much help you in the Praise of God.

§. 27. Direct. 6. Especially let the Lord's Day be principally spent in Praises and Thanksgiving for the work of our Redemption, and the benefits thereof. This day is separated by God himself to this holy work: And if you spend it (ordinarily) in other Religious duties, that subserve not this, you spend it not as God requireth you: The thankful and praiseful Commemoration of the work of man's Redemption, is the special work of the day: And the celebrating of the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, (which is therefore called the Eucharist) was part of these laudatory exercises, and used every Lord's Day by the Primitive Church. It is not only a holy day, separated to God's Worship in general; but to this Eucharistical Worship in special above the rest, as a day of Praises and Thanksgiving unto God: And thus all Christians (ordinarily) should use it.

§. 28. Direct. 7. Let your holy confer •• ce with others be much about the glorious Excellencies, Works and Mercies of the Lord, in way • f praise and admiration. This is indeed to speak to Edification, and as the Oracles of God. Eph. 4. 29. that God in all things may be glorified, 1 Pet. 4. 11. Psal. 29. 9. In his Temple doth everyone speak of his glory. Psal. 35. 28. My tongue shall speak of thy righteousness, and of thy praises all the day long. Psal. 145. 6, 11, 21. And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts—They shall speak of the glory of thy Kingdom, and talk of thy power: to make known to the Sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious Majesty of his Kingdom—My mouth shall speak of the praises of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever. Psal. 105. 2, 3. Talk ye of all his wondrous works: glory ye in his holy name.

§. 29. Direct. 8. Speak not of God in a light irreverent or common sort, as if you talked of common things: but with all possible seriousness, gravity and reverence, as if you saw the Majesty of the Lord. A common and a holy manner of speech are contrary. That only is holy which is separated to God from common use. You speak profanely, (in the manner, how holy soever the matter be) when you speak of God with that careless levity, as you use to speak of common things. Such speaking of God is dishonorable to him, and hurts the hearers more than silence, by breeding in them a contempt of God, and teaching them to imitate you in sleight conceits and speech of the Almighty: Whereas one that speaketh reverently of God, as in his presence, doth ofttimes more affect the hearers with a reverence of his Majesty, with a few words, than irreverent Preachers with the most accurate Sermons, delivered in a common or affected strain. When ever you speak of God, let the hearers perceive that your hearts are possessed with his Fear and Love, and that you put more difference between God and man, than between a King and the smallest Worm: so when you talk of death or judgment, of Heaven or Hell, of holiness or sin, or anything that nearly relates to God, do it with that gravity and seriousness as the matter doth require.

§. 30. Direct. 9. Speak not so unskilfully and foolishly of God or holy things, as may 〈…〉 pt the hearers to turn it into a matter of scorn or laughter. Especially understand how your p 〈…〉 , are suited to the company that you are in. Among those that are more ignorant, some weak discourses may be tolerable and profitable: For they are most affected with that which is delivered in their own Dialect and Mode: but among judicious or captious hearers, unskillful persons must be very sparing of their words, lest they do hurt, while they desire to do good, and make Religion s • em ridiculous. We may rejoice in the scorns which we undergo for Christ, and which are bent against his holy Laws, or the substance of our duty: But if men are jeered for speaking ridiculously and foolishly of holy things, they have little reason to take comfort in anything of that, but their honest meanings and intents: Nay, they must be humbled for being a dishonor to the name of godliness. But the misery is, that few of the ignorant and weak have knowledge and humility enough • o p • rceive their ignorance and weakness, but they think they speak as wisely as the best, and are offended if their words be not reverenced accordingly. As a Minister should study and labor for a skill and ability to preach, because it is his work; so every Christian should study for skill to discourse with wisdom and meet expressions, about holy things; because this is his work. And as unfit expressions and behavior in a Minister, do cause contempt instead of edifying; so do they in discourse.

§. 31. Direct. 10. When ever God's holy Name or Word is blasphemed, or used, in levity or jest, or a holy life is made a scorn, or God is notoriously abused or dishonored, be ready to reprove it with gravity where you can; and where you cannot at least let your detestation of it be conveniently manifested. Among those to whom you may freely speak, lay open the greatness of their sin: Or if you are unable for long or accurate discourse, at least tell them who hath said [ Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain ]: And where your speech is unmeet (as to some Superiors) or is like to do more harm than good, let your departing the room, or your looks, or rather your tears show your dislike.

Directions for the glorifying God in our Lives.

§. 32. Direct. 1. Our Lives then glorify God, when they are such as his Excellencies most appear in: And that is when they are most Divine or Holy: when they are so managed, that the world may see, that it is God that we have chiefly respect unto, and that HOLINESS TO THE LORD is written upon all our faculties and affairs. So much of GOD as appeareth in our lives, so much they are truly venerable, and advanced above the rank of fleshly worldly lives. God only is the real glory of every person, and every thing, and every word or action of our lives. And the natural conscience of the world, which in despite of their Atheism, is forced to confess and reverence a Deity; will be forced (even when they are hated and persecuted) to reverence the appearance of God in his holy ones. Let it appear therefore, 1. That God's Authority commandeth you, above all the powers of the earth, and against all the power of fleshly lusts: 2. That it is the Glory and Interest of God that you live for and look after principally in the world, and not your own carnal interest and glory: And that it is his work that you are doing, and not your own; and his cause and not your own that you are engaged in. 3. That it is his Word and Law that is your Rule. 4. And the example of his Son that is your pattern: 5. And that your hearts and lives are moved and acted in the world, by motives fetched from the Rewards which he hath promised, and the punishments which he hath threatened in the world to come. 6. And that it is a supernatural powerful principle sent from God into your hearts, even the Holy Ghost, by which you are inclined and actuated in the tenor of your lives. 7. And that your daily converse is with God, and that men and other creatures are comparatively nothing to you, but are made to stand by, while God is preferred, and honored, and served by you: and that all your business is with him, or for him in the world.

§. 33. Direct. 2. The more of Heaven appeareth in your Lives, the more your Lives do glorify God. Worldly and carnal men are conscious, that their glory is a vanishing glory, and their pleasure but a transitory dream, and that all their honor and wealth will shortly leave them in the dust: And therefore they are forced in despite of their sensuality, to bear some reverence to the life to come: And though they have not hearts themselves, to deny the pleasures and profits of the world, and to spend their days in preparing for eternity, and in laying up a treasure in Heaven, yet they are convinced that those that do so, are the best and wisest men; and they could wish that they might die the death of the righteous, and that their last end might be like his: As Heaven exceedeth Earth, even in the reverent acknowledgement of the World, though not in their practical esteem and choice: so Heavenly Christians have a reverent acknowledgement from them (when malice doth not hide their Heavenliness by slanders,) though they will not be such themselves. Let it appear in your lives, that really you seek a higher happiness than this world affordeth, and that you verily look to live with Christ, and that as Honor, and Wealth, and Pleasure command the lives of the ungodly, so the hope of Heaven commandeth yours; Let it appear that this is your design and business in the world, and that your Hearts, and conversation are above, and that whatever you do or suffer, is for this, and not for any lower end; and this is a life that God is glorified by.

§. 34. Direct. 3. It glorifieth God, by showing the excellency of faith, when we contemn the riches and honors of the world, and live above the worldlings life, accounting that a despicable thing, which he accounts his happiness, and loseth his soul for. As men despise the toys of children, so a believer must take the transitory vanities of this world, for matters so inconsiderable, as not to be worthy his regard, save only as they are the matter of his duty to God, or as they relate to him or the life to come: Saith Paul, 2 Cor. 4. 18. We look not at the things which are seen (they are not worth our observing or looking at) but at the things which are not seen: For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen, are eternal. The world is under a believers feet, while his eye is fixed on the coelestial world. He travelleth through it to his home, and he will be thankful if his way be fair, and if he have his daily bread: but it is not his home, nor doth he make any great matter, whether his usage in it be kind or unkind, or whether his Inn be well adorned or not. He is almost indifferent whether for so short a time, he be rich or poor, in a high or in a low condition, further than as it tendeth to his Masters service. Let men see that you have a higher birth than they, and higher hopes, and higher hearts, by setting light by that which their hearts are set upon as their felicity. When seeming Christians are as worldly and ambitious as others, and make as great a matter of their gain, and wealth, and honor, it showeth that they do but cover the base and sordid Spirit of worldlings, with the visor of the Christian name, to deceive themselves, and bring the faith of Christians into scorn, and dishonor the holy name which they us • r • .

§. 35. Dir • ct. 4. It much h • noureth God, when his servants can quietly and fearlessly trust in him, i • the •• ce of all the dangers and threatenings which Devils or men can cast before them; and can joyfully suf • er pain or d • ath, in obedience to his commands, and in confidence on his promise of everlasting happiness • . This showeth that we believe indeed that there is a God, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him, Heb. 11. 6. and that he is true and just, and that his promises are to be trusted on; and that he is able to make them good in despite of all the malice of his enemies: and that the threats or frowns of sinful Worms are c • ntemptible to him that feareth God: Psal. 58. 11. S • that men shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: Verily there is a God that jud • eth in the earth: and that at last will judge the world in righteousness: Paul gl • ried in the Th • ssal • ia • s, for their faith and pa • ience, in all their persecutions and t • ibulations which they endured; as a m • nifest t • ken • f the righteous judgment of God, that they might be accounted worthy of the Kingd • m 〈…〉 God, f • r which they suffered: Seeing it is a righteous thing with G • d to recompense tribulation to them that trouble us, and rest with his Saints to those that are troubled, 2 Thess. 1. 4, 5, 6, 7. If ye be rep 〈…〉 d for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory, and of God resteth upon you; •• their part he is evil sp • ken of, but on your part he is glorified. 1 Pet. 4. 14. If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed: but let him glorify God on this behalf; Vers. 16. When confidence in God, and assurance of the great reward in Heaven, (Matth. 5. 11, 12.) doth cause a believer und • untedly to say as the three Witnesses, Dan. 3. We are not careful, O King, to answer thee in this m • tter: The God wh • m we serve is able to deliver us: when by faith we can go through the trial of carnal m • ckings and scourgings, of bonds and imprisonment, to be destitute and afflicted, yea, and to • tured, not accepting deliverance (upon sinful terms), thus God is glorified by believers. List up your voices, O ye afflicted Saints, and sing, f • r the M • jesty of the Lord—Glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the name of the Lord God of Israel in the Isl • s of the Sea, I • a. 24. 14, 15. Sing to his Praise with Paul and Silas, though your feet be in the stocks: I • God call for your lives remember, that you are n • t your own: you are bought with a price: thereof • re glorify God in your bodies and Spi • its which are his, 1 Cor. 6. 20. Rejoice in it if you bear in your bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus: Gal 6. 17. And if you always bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in your bodies. 2 Cor. 4. 10. And with all boldness see that Christ be magnified in your bodies, whether it be by life or death, Phil. 1. 20. H • dishonoreth and reproacheth Christ and faith, that thinks he is not to be trusted even unto the death.

§. 36. Direct. 5. It much honoreth God, when the hopes of everlasting joys, do cause believers to li • e much more j • yfully than the most prosperous worldlings: not with their kind of doting mirth, in vain sports and pleasures, and foolish talking, and uncomely jests: But in that constant cheer • ulness and gladness which beseemeth the heirs of glory. Let it appear to the world, that indeed you hope to live with Christ, and to be equal with the Angels: Doth a dejected countenance, and a mourn • ul, troubled, and complaining life, express such hopes? or rather tell men that your hopes are small, and that God is a hard Master, and his service grievous? Do not thus dishonor him by your inordinate dejectedness: Do not affright and discourage sinners from the pleasant service of the Lord.

§. 37. Direct. 6. When Christians live in a readiness to die, and can rejoice in the approach of death, and l • ve and long for the ay of Judgment, when Christ shall justify them from the slanders of the woe • ld, and shall judge them to eterna • joys: this is to the glory of God and our profession. When death which is the King of fears to others, appeareth as disarmed and conquered to believers: when Judgment which is the terror of others is their desire; this showeth a triumphant faith, and that godliness is not in vain. It must be something above nature that can make a man desire to depart and be with Christ as best of all, and to be absent from the body and present with the Lord, and to comfort one another with the mention of the glorious coming of their Lord, and the day when he shall judge the world in righteousness, Phil 1. 21. 2 Cor. 5. 8. 1 Thess. 4 18. & 2. 1, 10.

§. 38▪ Direct. 7. The Humility, and Meekness, and Patience of Christians, much honor God and their holy faith: as Pride and Passion, and Impatience dishonor him. Let men see that the Spirit of God doth cast down the devilish sin of Pride, and maketh you like your Master, that humbled himself to assume our flesh, and to the death of the Cross, and to the contradiction and reproach of foolish sinners, and made himself of no reputation, but endured the shame, of being derided, spit upon and crucified, Phil. 2. 7, 8, 9. Heb. 12. 2. and stooped to wash the feet of his Disciples. It is not stoutness and lifting up the head, and standing upon your terms, and upon your honor in the world, that is the honoring of God. When you are as little children, and as nothing in your own eyes, and seek not the honor that is of men, but say, Not to us O Lord, not to us, but to thy Name be the glory, Psal. 115. 1. and are content that your honor decrease and be trodden into the dirt, that his may increase, and his name be magnified; this is the glorifying of God. So when you show the world, that you are above the impotent passions of men; not to be insensible; but to be angry and sin not, and to give place to wrath, and not to resist and avenge yourselves, Rom. 12. 19. and to be me • k and lowly in heart, Matth. 11. 29. It will appear that you have the wisdom which is from above, if you be first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and hypocrisy, James 3. 17. But if you have hitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth (as if this were the wisdom from above which glorifieth God) For this wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual and devilish, v. 14, 15. A m •• k and quiet Spirit is of great price in the sight of God, 1 Pet. 3, 4. An Ornament commended to women by the Scripture; which is amiable in the eyes of all.

§. 39. Direct. 8. It honoreth God and your profession, when you abound in love and in good works: Loving the godly with a special love, but all men with so much love, as makes you earnestly desirous of their w • l • a • e, and to love your enemies, and put up wrongs, and to study to do good to all, and hurt to none. To be abundant in love, is to be like to God, who is LOVE itself, 1 John 4. 7, 11. and sh • w • th that God dwelleth in us, v. 12. All men may know that we are Christ's Disciples, if we love one another, John 13. 35. This is the new and the great commandment: The fulfilling of the Law, Rom. 13. 10. John 15. 12, 17, & 13. 34. You will be known to be the children of your heavenly Father, if you love your enemies, and bless them that curse y • u, and pray for them that hate and persecute you, and d • spitefully use you: Matth. 5. 44. Do all the good that possibly you can, if you would be like him that doth good to the evil, and whose mercies are over all his works. Shew the world that you are his workmanship created to good works in Christ Jesus which he hath ordained for you to walk in, Eph. 2. 10. Herein is your Father glorified, that ye bring forth much fruit, John 15. 8. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven, Matth. 5. 16. Honor God with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thy increase, Prov. 3. 9. And th • se that honor him, he will honor, 1 Sam. 2. 30. When barren worldly hypocrites, that honor God only with their lips, and flattering words, shall be used as those that really dishonor him.

§▪ 40. Direct. 9. The Unity, Concord and Peace of Christians, doth glorify God and their profession: when their divisions, contentions and malicious persecuti • ns of one another doth heinously dishonor him. Men reverence that faith and practice which they see us unanimously accord in. And the same men will despise both it and us, when they see us together by the ears about it, and hear us in a Babel of confusion, one saying, This is the way, and another, That is it: one saying, Lo here is the true Church and Worship; and another saying, Lo it is there. Not that one man or a few must make a Shoo meet for his own foot, and then say, All that will not dishonor God by discord, must wear this Sh •• : Think as I think, and say as I say, or else you are Schismatics. But we must all agree in believing and obeying God, and walking by the same rule so far as we have attained, Phil. 3. 15, 16. The strong must bear the infirmities of the weak, and not please themselves; but everyone of us please his neighbor for good to edification: and be like minded one towards another, according to Christ Jesus, that we may with one mind, and one mouth glorify God: Receiving one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God, Rom. 15. 1, 2, 5, 6, 7.

§. 41. Direct. 10. Justice commutative and distributive, private and public, in bargainings and in Government and Judgment, doth honor God and our profession in the eyes of all: when we do no wrong, but do to all men as we would they should do to us, Matth. 7. 12. That no man go beyond or defraud his brother in any matter: for the Lord is the avenger of all such, 1 Thess. 4▪ 6. That a man's word be his Master; and that we lie not one to another, nor equivocate or deal subtly and deceitfully, but in plainness and singleness of heart, and in simplicity and godly sincerity have our conversation in the world: Perjured persons and Covenant-breakers, that dissolve the bonds of human society, and take the name of God in vain, shall find by his vengeance that he holdeth them not guiltless.

§. 42. Direct. 11. It much glorifieth God to worship him rationally and purely, in Spirit and in truth, according to the glory of his wisdom and goodness, and it dishonoreth him to be worshipped ignorantly and carnally, with spells and mimical irrational actions, as if he were less wise than serious grave underderstanding men. The worshippers of God have great cause to take heed how they behave themselves. Lest they meet with the reward of Nadab and Abihu, and God tell them by his judgments, that he will be sanctified in all them that come nigh him, and before all the people he will be glorified Lev. 10. 1, 2, 3. The second Commandment is enforced by the Jealousy of God about his Worship. Ignorant, rude, unseemly words, or unhansome gestures, which tend to raise contempt in the auditors; or levity of speech which makes men laugh, is abominable in a Preacher of the Gospel, And so is it to pray irrationally, incoherently, confusedly, with vain repetitions and tautologies, as if men thought to be heard for their babbling over so many words, while there is not so much as an appearance of a well composed, serious, rational and reverent address of a fervent soul to God. To worship God as the Papists do, with Images, Agnus Dei 's, Crucifixes, Crossings, Spittle, Oil, Candles, Holy Water, kissing the Pax, dropping Beads, praying to the Virgin Mary, and to other Saints, repeating over the Name of Jesus nine times in a breath, and saying such and such sentences so oft, praying to God in an unknown Tongue, and saying to him they know not what, adoring the consecrated Bread as no Bread, but the very flesh of Christ himself, choosing the tutelary Saint whose name they will invocate, fasting by feasting upon Fish instead of Flesh, saying so many Masses a day, and offering Sacrifice for the quick and the dead, praying for souls in Purgatory, purchasing Indulgences for their deliverance out of Purgatory from the Pope, carrying the pretended bones or other Relicts of their Saints, the Popes canonizing now and then one for a Saint, pretending Miracles to delude the people, going on Pilgrimages to Images, Shrines or Relicks, offering before the Images, with a multitude more of such parc • lls of Devotion do most heinously dishonor God, and as the Apostle truly saith do make unbelievers say, They are mad, 1 Cor. 14. 23. and that they are children in understanding, and not men: v. 20. Insomuch as it s •• m • th one of the greatest impediments to the Conversion of the Heathen and Mahom • tan world, and the chiefest means of confirming them in their I •••• delity, and making them hate and scorn Christianity, that the Romish, and the Eastern and Southern Churches, within their view do worship God so dishonourably as they do: as if our God were like a little Child that must have pretty toys bought him in the Fair, and brought home to please him. Whereas it the unreformed Churches in the East, West and South were Reformed, and had a Learned, Pious, Able Ministry, and clearly preached and seriously applied the Word of God, and worshipped God with understanding, gravity, reverence, and serious spirituality, and lived a holy, heavenly, mortified, self-denying conversation, this would be the way to propagate Christianity, and win the Infidel world to Christ.

§. 43. Direct. 12. If you will glorify God in your lives, you must be above a selfish, private, narrow mind, and must be chiefly intent upon the public good, and the spreading of the Gospel through the world. A selfish, private, narrow soul brings little honor to the cause of God: Its always taken up about itself, or imprisoned in a corner in the dark, to the interest of some Sect or Party, and seeth not how things go in the world: Its desires, and prayers, and endeavors go no further than they can see or travel. But a larger soul beholdeth all the earth, and is desirous to know how it goeth with the Cause and Servants of the Lord, and how the Gospel gets ground upon the unbelieving Nations; and such are affected with the state of the Church a thousand miles off, almost as if it were at hand, as being members of the whole body of Christ, and not only of a Sect. They pray for the Hallowing of God's Name, and the coming of his Kingdom, and the doing of his will throughout the Earth as it is in Heaven, before they come to their own necessities, at least in order of esteem and desire. The prosperity of themselves, or their Party or Country satisfieth them not, while the Church abroad is in distress. They live as those that know the Honor of God is more concerned in the welfare of the whole, than in the success of any party against the rest. They pray that the Gospel may have free course and be glorified abroad, as it is with them, and the Preachers of it be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, 2 Thess. 3. 1, 2. The silencing the Ministers, and suppressing the interest of Christ and souls, is the most grievous tidings to them: Therefore they pray for Kings, and all in authority, not for any carnal ends, but that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty, 1 Tim. 2. 1, 2, 3. Thus God must be glorified by our Lives.

DIRECT. XVI. Let your life on Earth be a conversation in Heaven; by the constant work of Faith and Love: even such a faith as maketh things future as now present, and the unseen world as if it were continually open to your sight; and such a Love as makes you long to see the glorious face of God, and the glory of your dear Redeemer, and to be taken up with blessed Spirits in his perfect, endless Love and Praise.

MY Treatise of The Life of Faith, and the fourth Part of The Saints Rest being written wholly or mostly to this use, I must refer the Reader to them, and say no more of it in this Direction.

DIRECT. XVII. As the soul must be carried up to God, and devoted to him, according to all the foregoing Directions, so must it be delivered from carnal selfishness, or fleshpleasing, which is the grand enemy to God and Godliness in the world; and from the three great branches of this Idolatry, viz. the Love of sensual pleasures, the Love of worldly wealth, and the proud desire and Love of worldly honor and esteem: And the mortifying of these must be much of the labor of your lives.

OF this also I have written so much in a Treatise of Self-denial, and in another called The Crucifying of the World by the Cross of Christ, that I shall now pass by all, save what will be more seasonable anon under the more Particular Directions, in the fourth Tome, when I come to speak of Selfishness, as opposed to the Love of others.

I Have now given you the General Grand Directions, containing the very Being and Life of Godliness and Christianity; with those particular sub-directions which are needful to the performance of them: And I must tell you, that as your life, and strength, and comfort principally depend on these, so doth your success in resisting all your particular sins: And therefore if you first obey not these General Directions, the more particular ones that follow, will be almost useless to you, even as branches cut off from the Stock of the Tree, which are deprived thereby of their support and life. But upon supposition that first you will maintain these Vital parts of your Religion, I shall proceed to Direct you first in some particulars most nearly subordinate to the forementioned duties, and then to the remoter branches.

APPENDIX.

THough these things principally belong to the Theorie, and so to another Treatise in hand, called Methodus Theology; yet because they are also Practical, and have a great influence upon the more Practical Directions, and the right understanding of them, may help the Reader himself to determine a multitude of Cases of Conscience, the particular discussion and decision of which would too much increase this Volume, which is so big already. I shall here explain them in such brief Propositions as yet shall give light to one another, and I hope contain much of the true nature of Love, which is the mystery of the Christian Religion.

Propos. 1. The formal Act of LOVE is COMPLACENCIE, expressed by a Placet; which Augustine so oft calleth Delectation.

2. Benevolence or desiring the Good of those we Love, is but a secondary act of Love, or an effect of the prime formal Act. For to wish one well is not to Love him, formally; but we wish him well because we Love him; and therefore first in order Love him.

3. Their definition of Love is therefore inept, and but from an Effect, who say it is, Alicui been velle, ut ipsi been sit.

4. Love is either merely sensitive and Passionate, which is the sensible Act and Passion of the sensitive and phantastical Appetite; Or it is Rational, which is the Act of the Rational appetite or will. The first is called sensitive in a double respect, 1. Because it followeth the Apprehension of the Senses, or Fantasy, Loving that which they apprehend as Good; 2. And because it is exercised passionately and feelingly by the sensitive Appetite. And the other is called Rational, 1. Because it is the Love of that which Reason apprehendeth as Good; and 2. Because it is the complacency of that will which is a higher faculty than the sensitive Appetite.

5. Sensitive Love is oft without Rational (Allwaies in bruits) But Rational Love is never totally without sensitive, at least in this life; whether it be because that the sensitive and Rational • e faculties of the same soul, or because they are so nearly connected, as that one cannot here move or act without the other?

6. But yet one is predominant in some persons, and the other in others.

7. Love is the Complacencie of the Appetite in apprehended Good. Good is the formal Object of Love. Sensitive Love is the complacency of the sensitive appetite in sensible Good, (or in that which the Sence and Imagination apprehendeth as Good). Rational Love is the Complacencie of the Rational Appetite in that which Reason apprehendeth Good: The same thing with Primary Volition.

8. Good is not only a man's own Felicity and the means thereto, called mihi bonum, Good to me; either as profitable, pleasant or honorable (as some think that have unmanned themselves): But there is extrinsic Good which is such in itself, in others, or for others, which yet is the natural object of man's Love, (so far as nature is sound). As the Learning, and Wisdom, and Justice, and Charity, and all other perfections of a man at the antipodes whom I never saw, nor hope to see, or to receive any benefit by, is yet amiable to every man that hath not unmanned himself. So also is the Good of P ••••• ity, of Countries, of Kingdoms, of the Church, of the World, apprehended as future when we are dead and gone; yea it we should be annihilated, desirable, and therefore amiable to us: When yet it could be no benefit to us.

9. SELF-LOVE is Sensitive or Rational: Sensitive as such is necessary and not free; And it is purposely by the Most Wise and Blessed Creator planted in Man and Bruits, as a Principle useful to preserve the world, and to engage the Creature in the use of the means of its own preservation, and so to bring it to perfection, and to endue it with those fears and hopes which make us subjects capable of Moral Government:

10. The Rational or Higher Appetite also hath a Natural Inclination to self-preservation, perfection and felicity; But as ordinable and ordinate to higher ends.

11. The Rational Powers cannot nullify the sensitive, nor directly or totally hinder the Action of them; But they may and must indirectly hinder the Act (by avoiding the objects and temptations, by diverting the thoughts to higher things, &c.) And may hinder the effects by Governing the Locomotive power.

12. Sensitive self-love containeth in it, 1. A Love of Life, and that is, of Individual self-existence; 2, And a Love of all sensitive Pleasures of Life, and, 3. Consequently a Love of the Means of Life and Pleasure.

13. In sensitive self-love therefore SELF, that is, Life, is both the Material and Formal object: We love our selves even because we are ourselves: We love this individual person, and loath annihilation or dissolution.

14. Though the will (or higher faculties) are Naturally inclined also to Love ourselves, and our own felicity; yet they exercise this inclination with a certain Liberty: And though the Act of simple Complacencie or Volition towards our own Being and Felicity be so Free as yet to be Necessary; yet the Comparate Act (by which comparing several Goods, we choose one and refuse another) may be so Free as not to be necessary; that is, A man may will his own Annihilation rather than some greater evil (of which anon); Not as good in itself, and therefore not willed for itself, but as a Means to a greater good; and so he may Less Nill it than a greater evil.

15. Also a tolerable Pain may on the same account be willed, or less nilled, and so consented to for the avoiding of a greater evil; But Intollerable pain cannot possibly be willed, or consented to, or not nilled, because it taketh away the exercise of Reason and Free-will: But what is to be called Intollerable, I determine not, it being variously measurable according to the patients strength.

16. The soul as Intellectual by its Rational appetite hath also a Natural Inclination to Intellectual Operations (to Know and Love ) and to Intellectual Objects as such, and to Intellectual Perfections in itself. Yet so that though it necessarily (though freely) Loveth the said Acts and Perfections while it hath a being; yet doth it not necessarily Love all the said Objects, nor necessarily Choose the continuance of its own Being, but in some cases, as aforesaid, can yield or consent to an Annihilation as a lesser evil.

17. The Rational soul being not of itself, nor for itself alone, or chiefly, is naturally inclined not only to Love itself, and that which is for itself, but also to Love extrinsic good (as was aforesaid); And accordingly it should Love that Best which is Best: For a quatenus & ad omne & ad gradum, valet argumentum. If we must Love anything or person because it is good (as the formal reason) then we should Love all that is Good, and Love that best wich is best, if so discerned.

18. Though I must Love greater simple extrinsic Good above myself with that Love which is purely Rational, yet it cannot ordinarily be done with a more sensitive and passionate Love.

19. I am not always bound to do most good to him that I love better than others, and ought so to love, nor to him that I must wish most good to. Because there are other particular Laws to regulate my Actions, divers from that which commandeth my affections: As those that put children, relations, families, neighbors, under our especial charge and care; though often others must be more loved.

20. That Good which is the object of Love, is not a mere Universal or General notion, but is always some particular or singular being in esse reali, vel in esse cognito. As there is no such thing in rerum natura as Good in a mere General, which is neither the Good of natural existence, or of moral perfection, or of Pleasure, Profit, Honor, &c. Yea, which is not in this or in that singular subject, or so conceived; so there is no such thing as Love, which hath not some such singular object. (As Rada and other Scotists have made plain).

21. All Good is either GOD or a CREATURE, or a Creatures Act or Work.

22. GOD is GOOD Infinitely, Eternally, Primitively, Independently, Immutably, Communicatively, of whom, and by whom, and to whom are all things: The Beginning or first efficient, the Dirigent and ultimately ultimate cause of all created Good: As Making and Directing All things For Himself.

23. Therefore it is the duty of the Intellectual Creature, to Love God Totally, without any exceptions or restrictions, with all the Power, Mind and Will, not only in degree above ourselves and all the world; But also as GOD; with a Love in kind transcending the Love of every Creature.

24. All the Goodness of the Creature doth formally consist in its threefold Relation to GOD, viz. 1. In the Impresses of God as its first Efficient or Creator; as it is his Image or the effect and demonstration of his perfections, viz. his Infinite Power, Wisdom and Goodness, 2, In its Conformity to his Directions, or Governing Laws, and so in its Order and Obedience: 3. And in its Aptitude and Tendency to God as its final cause even to the demonstration of his Glory, and the Complacency of his Will.

25. All Created Good is therefore Derivative, Dependant, Contingent, Finite, Secondary, From God By God, and To God, receiving its Form and Measure from its respect to Him.

26. Yet as it may be subordinately From man, as the Principle of his own Actions, and By man as a subordinate Ruler of himself or others, and To man as a subordinate End; so there is accordingly a subordinate sort of Goodness, which is so denominated from these respects unto the Creature, that is himself Good, subordinately;

27. But all this subordinate Goodness (Bonum à nobis, Bonum per nos, Bonum nobis ) is but Analogically so; and dependantly on the former sort of Goodness, and is something in due subordination to it and against it, nothing, that is, not properly Good.

28. The best and excellentest Creatures, in the foresaid Goodness-related to God, are most to be loved; and all according to the Degree of their Goodness more than as Good in relation to ourselves.

29. But seeing their Goodness is formally their Relation unto God it followeth that they are Loved 〈◊〉 only for his sake, and consequently God's Image or Glory in them is first Loved; and so the true Love of any Creature is but a secondary sort of the Love of God.

30. The best being next to God is the universe, or whole Creation, and therefore next him most to be loved by us.

31. The next in Amiableness is the whole coelestial society, Christ, Angels and Saints.

32. The next, when we come to distinguish them is Christ's own Created Glorified Nature in the Person of the Mediator. Because God's Glory, or Image is most upon him.

33. The next in Amiableness is the whole Angelical society, or the orders of Intellectual Spirits above man.

34. The next is the spirits of the Just made perfect, or the Triumphant Church of Saints in Heaven.

35. The next is all this lower world.

36. The next is the Church in the world, or militant on earth.

37. The next are the particular Kingdoms and Societies of the world, (and so the Churches) according to their various degrees.

38. The next under societies and multitudes, are those individual persons who are Best in the three fore-mentioned respects: Whether ourselves or others; And thus by the objects, should our Love that is Rational, be diversified in Degree, and that be Loved best that is best.

39. The Amiable Image of God in man is (as hath oft been said): 1. Our Natural Image of God, or the Image of his three Essential properties as such, that is, Our Vital Active Power, our Intellect, and our will. 2. Our Moral Image, or the Image of his said properties in their perfections: viz. Our Holiness, that is, Our Holy Life or spiritual vivacity and Active Power, Our Holy Light, or Wisdom, our Holy Wills or Love. 3. Our Relative Image of God, or the Image of his Supereminencie, Dominion or Majesty; which is, 1. Common to Man, in respect to the Inferior Creatures, that we are their Owners, Govern • rs and End (and Benefactors ) 2. Eminently in Rulers of Men, Parents and Princes, who are Analogically sub-owners, sub-rulers, and sub-benefactors to their inferiors, in various degrees. By which it is discernible what it is that we are to Love in man, and with what variety of kinds and degrees of Love, as the Kinds and degrees of amiableness in the objects differ.

40. Even the Sun, and Moon and frame of Nature, the Inanimates and Bruits, must be Loved in that Degree Compared to Man and to one another, as their Goodness before described, that is, the Impressions of the Divine perfections do more or less Gloriously appear in them; and as they are adapted to him the ultimate end.

41. As God is in this life seen but darkly and as in a Glass, so also proportionably to be Loved; For our Love cannot exceed our Knowledge.

42. Yet it followeth not that we must Love him only as he appareth in his works, (which demonstrate him as effects do their cause;) For both by the said works improved by Reason, and by his word, we know that he is before his works, and above them, and so distinct from them as to transcend, and comprehend, and cause them all, by a continual causality: And therefore he must accordingly be Loved.

43. It greatly hindereth our Love to God, when we overlook all the intermediate excellencies between Him and us, which are much better, and therefore more amiable than ourselves: such as are before recited.

44. The Love of the universe as bearing the liveliest Image or impress of their Cause, is an eminent secondary Love of God, and a great help to our Primary or Immediate Love of him. Could we comprehend the Glorious excellency of the universal Creation, in its matter, form, parts, order and uses, we should see so Glorious an Image of God, as would unspeakably promote the work of Love.

45. Whether the GLORY of God in HEAVEN which will forever beatify the beholders and possessors, be the Divine Essence (which is everywhere) or a Created Glory purposely there placed for the felicity of holy spirits, and what that Glory is, are questions fittest for the beholders and possessors to resolve.

46. But if it be no more than the Universal existent frame of Nature, Containing all the Creatures of God, beheld uno intuitu in the Nature, order and use of all the parts, it would be an inconceivable felicity to the beholders, as being an inconceivable Glorious Demonstation of the Deity▪

47. It is lawful and a needful duty, to labor by the means of such excellencies as we now know, which Heaven is resembled to in Scripture, to imprint upon our Imaginations themselves, such an image of the GLORY of the Heavenly Society, CHRIST, ANGELS, SAINTS, and the HEAVENLY PLACE and STATE, as shall help our Intellectual apprehensions of the Spiritual Excellencies which transcend imagination. And the neglect of Loving God as foreseen in the Demonstration of the Heavenly GLORY, doth greatly hinder our Love to him immediately as in himself considered.

48. The LORD JESUS CHRIST in his Glorified Created Nature, is Crowned with the highest excellency of any particular Creature; that he might be the MEDIATOR OF OUR LOVE to God; and in him (seen by faith) we might see the GLORY of the Deity. And as in Heaven we shall have (spiritual Glorified) Bodies, as well as Souls, so the Glorified Created Nature of Christ, will be an Objective Glory fit for our Bodies (at least) to behold in order to their Glory, as the Divine Nature (as it pleaseth God in Glory) revealed, will be to the soul.

49. The exercise of our Love upon God as now appearing to the glorified, in the glorious created nature of CHRIST, (beheld by us by faith) is a great part of our present exercise of Divine Love: And we extinguish our Love to GOD, by beholding so little by faith, our glorified Mediator.

50. We owe greater Love to ANGELS than to Men, because they are Better, nearer God and liker to him, and more demonstrate his Glory: and indeed also Love us better, and do more for us, than we can do for one another. And the neglect of our due Love and Gratitude to Angels, and forgetting our relation to them, and receivings by them, and communion with them, and living as if we had little to do with them, is a culpable overlooking God, as he appeareth in his most noble creatures, and is a neglect of our Love to God in them, and a great hindrance to our higher more immediate Love. Therefore by Faith and Love we should exercise a daily converse with Angels, as part of our heavenly conversation, Phil. 3. 20, 21. Heb. 12. 22. and use ourselves to Love God in them: Though not to pray to them, or give them Divine Worship.

51. We must Love the glorified Saints more than the inhabitants of this lower world, because they are far better, and liker to God, and nearer to him, and more demonstrate his holiness and glory: And our neglect of conversing with them by faith, and of Loving them above ourselves, and things on earth, is a neglect of our Love to God in them, and a hindrance of our more immediate Love: And a Loving Conversation with them by faith, would greatly help our higher Love to God.

52. Our neglect of Love to the Church on earth, and to the Kingdoms and public Societies of mankind, is a sinful neglect of our Love to God in them, and a hindrance of our higher Love to him: And the true use of such a Public Love, would greatly further our higher Love.

53. If those Heathens who laid down their Lives for their Countries, had neither done this for fame, nor merely as esteeming the temporal good of their Country, above their own temporal good and lives, but for the true excellency of Many above One, and for God's greater Interest in them, they had done a most noble holy work.

54. Our adherence to our carnal selves first, and then to our carnal interests, and friends, and neglecting the Love of the highest excellencies in the servants of God, and not Loving men according to the measure of the Image of God on them, and their Relation to him, is a great neglect of our Love of God in them, and a hindrance of our higher immediate Love. And to use ourselves to Love men as God appeareth in them, would much promote our higher Love. And so we should Love the best of men, above ourselves.

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 hindrance 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 anything 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 this 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 souls 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 ineffectual dreaming Knowledge, producing but an answerable lazy wish: And it will not here prevail against the stronger Love of sensuality and phantastical 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 (conceited) 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 natural pondus 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 fore-mentioned.

66. As a carnal man may have opinionative ineffectual convictions, that God and his Love are his spiritual felicity (better than sensual ) yea, and that God is his ultimate 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 later 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 hypocrites ineffectual Love to God and Holiness is much discovered in this, that (as he loveth dead Saints, and their Images and Holy-days, 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, neighbor 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 ascendeth and extendeth 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 is it unnatural for the soul to understand and Love itself alone (which it little understandeth and should Love with self-denial) and the Creatures only; and not 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 souls 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 God's 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, than 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 his words in Cicero show). And if it had been first proved, that a man's self is his just ultimate end, as the finis cui, or the personal end, than it would be a hard question whether the Epicureans were not in the right as to the finis cujus, or 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, as cui, but God, and then the Universe, and societies of the world as beforesaid, 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 Ames 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 Endeavor and act that I seek one, I seek the other; and I cannot possibly do anything for one that doth not equally 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 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 consequently to 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 our self 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 Wills 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 being and actions, and to be Loved and Pleased above ourselves: (For all this is but to believe that 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 Savior to bring him to it.

9. He gladly consenteth that Christ shall be such a Savior 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 an 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 forever.

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, that Volo Velle or Volo amare, a desire to Love God as such, is direct Love to God. Because it is not all one to have God 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 that Propter 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 only semen amoris, a seed of divine love to God as God, but the foundation of it laid, and some obscure secret conception of it beginning, or in 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 Wills 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 preeminence: 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 anything 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, was 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 Savior and recoverer of lapsed man from Himself to God, so • aith 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 the initium of the latter; or as the embrio or state of Conception in the womb, is as to a man and no man: Faith containeth Love in fieri.

95. As the Love of ourselves doth most powerfully, (though not only ) move us to close with Christ as our Savior, 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 Savior to bring us to the Love of God, though at present we are most moved with the Love of ourselves to 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 spirits 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 earness, 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 physicion 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 is 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 itself, 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. Vanes notions of the two Covenants and two Natures, can soundly me • n, 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; If you 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 everything 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 endeavor in the world be to please his blessed will; and in that will and the comtemplation 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 endeavor 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 (yourself 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 it per 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 labor 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 either 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. 1. 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. 1. 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 ineffectual like dreams, and though they have answerable effects in the will, they are but ineffectual velleities or wishes, which are born 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 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. 2. 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 particulars 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. 3. 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 prosperity alone were it possible without a God, that is but for the worlds 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 forever, so they might but spend their lives in Pleasure than to live forever 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 everyone 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 but secundum quid, and not as God.

Object. 4. 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 not as your Most Holy Governor and End, you love him not as God, or but secundum quid; But if you love him Holily, you love him as Holy.

Object. 5. 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 me • r 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 Holiliness in him: And that which is not, is not Amiable: But if you mean 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, and 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 Holiness in esse cognito, and in 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 Augustine 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 not Good to the Universe, nor any part of the beauty of the Creature; God neither willeth it, Causeth it or 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, th • n 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. 6. Holiness is but an Accident, and the person is the substance, and Better than the Accident: And Dr. Twi • s • ppugneth 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. 1. Aristotle and P • rphyrie 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 later 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 saying, He cannot mean that God loveth Righteousness without 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 may be 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. 7. All Goodness or Holiness is some ones Goodness or Holiness (as health is) And as it is the persons welfare and perfection, so it is given for the persons sake: Therefore the person as the finis cut, and utmost End, is better than the thing given him, and so more amiable.

Answ. That all Goodness is some ones Goodness, proveth but that someone 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 the finis 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 persons being or felicity.

Object. 8. Love is nothing but benevolence, Velle bonum alicui ut ei been 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. The definition is false, as hath been shown, 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. 9. 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. 1. 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. 10. 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. 1. 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 honor God more excellently, and please him more.

Object. 11. If I must love to be like God, I must love to be Great, and I must Love the Greatest as m • st like him.

Answ. You must love to be like him in those perfections which you are capable of, and to 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 is 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 to God in your Capacities.

Object. 12. 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 farther 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 him 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 forever.

So much for the opening of the true Nature of LOVE to God, our selves 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.