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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52162	A discourse concerning the love of God	Masham, Damaris, Lady, 1658-1708.	1696 (1696)	Wing M905; ESTC R3455	44,516	134

A DISCOURSE Concerning the LOVE OF GOD. LONDON Printed for Awnsham and John Churchil at the Black-Swan in PREFACE THE Prejudice that Piety and Religion receive by being removed from their true Foundations is of so ill Consequence in disturbing or misleading the best meaning and most serious part of Mankind that any Design which tends to prevent Mistakes about them will I hope at least merit Pardon The ensuing Discourse is Publish'd with this View It being intended to show the unserviceableness of an Hypothesis lately recommended to the World for a Ground of Christianity and Morality As likewise the farther injuriousness of that Hypothesis to True Religion and Piety Which I think I may securely affirm neither ever have suffer'd or ever can suffer so much from the Arguments of any Opposers as from theirs who induced by Weakness Vanity or any other Motive have undertaken or pretended to Support them upon false Grounds and wrong Reasonings I am indeed inclined to Believe as well as Hope that the Notion which this Discourse is level'd against is in no great danger of being a very general or prevailing Opinion It being too Visionary to be likely to be received by many Intelligent Persons And too abstruse to be easily entertain'd by those who are altogether unconversant with Scholastick Speculations Yet there are so many to whom Novelty alone has sufficient Charms to recommend any thing that I cannot but think if what I have writ answers the Intention it was writ with the Subject of the following Papers very well merited those few Hours that were bestow'd upon ' em And I am confirm'd in this Opinion by that of one of the Highest order in our Church Who since the Writing of them I was glad to hear say That it would be well done of any one who had leisure for it to show the weakness and extravagance of such of Mr. N's late Practical Discourses as are built upon the Principles of Pere Malbranche This Incouragement added to the like from some other Persons has occasion'd the Printing of a Discourse which was not writ with such an intention A DISCOURSE Concerning the Love of God WHatever Reproaches have been made by the Romanists on the one hand of the Want of Books of Devotion in the Church of England or by the Dissenters on the other of a dead and lifeless Way of Preaching I think it may be affirm'd That there cannot any where be found so good a Collection of Discourses upon Moral Subjects as might be made of English Sermons and other Treatises of that Nature written by the Divines of our Church Which Books are certainly in themselves of the greatest and most general Use of any and do most conduce to that which is the chief Aim of Christianity a good Life For whatsoever else its Professors divided into Parties may contend about This they must all agree in That we ought to be a People zealous of good Works Yet tho' no body can deny this And all are forced to allow that the Duties of a good Life ought to be practis'd It is certain that this which is so essential to Religion is so far degraded by some as not to pass for a part of it They accordingly distinguish a Religious from a Moral Man and carry their Zeal for the Doctrinal Part of Religion so far that they seem to lay little Stress on the Performance of those Vertues recommended by our Saviour Christ as the Way to Eternal Life Which Vertues have been commonly enough term'd Splendid Vices in those they account not true Believers And the Books writ by others to recommend the Practice of them to the World are look'd upon by these Men as little more worthy of a Christian's Perusal as such than Histories or Maxims of humane Prudence But others there are who do not in this manner undervalue Morality that yet perhaps are not less injurious to it Whilst they strain the Duties of it to an impracticable Pitch or pretend to ascend by it to something beyond or above it Which has been mightily the Fault of those in the Church of Rome Who having a better Relish of Religion than to be satisfied with one consisting of nothing but idle superstitious and pompous Shows have betaken themselves to that which they call the inward Way or Life of Contemplation Of which there never has wanted great Numbers in that Church known in several times by several Names which distinguish'd them more than their Opinions For in those they all agreed in one common Difference from all the rest though variously express'd And who whatever their Errours have been have yet seem'd the most in earnest in the Business of Religion of any that the Roman Church can boast of But however excusable these may be in regard of their own Church which perhaps allows them no other Way of being Religious than that which leads them into these Mistakes they yet are certainly very injurious to Christianity in the Representations they make of it by supposing as they do the Perfection of a Christian State to consist in Contemplation And the Duties of a social Life for which 't is plain Mankind were intended to be low Matters fit only to exercise the young Christian not yet advanced into the spiritual State to which when he arrives even but to the first Degree for they talk of three Degrees at least of it by which Perfection is to be ascended to he then looks down upon all the Duties of the second Table as an inferiour Dispensation belonging to those of a lower Class And when he is ascended to the highest Degree he is then got above Reason it self being first melted and brought to nothing and then lost and swallowed up in God And by these who suppose themselves thus far advanced the Vse of Reasoning and internal Discourse tending to fix our Affections upon God and expressing it self in sensible Devotion and even outward Acts of Obedience to God's Will are look'd upon as parts of the active Life and less perfect State of a Christian as may be seen in divers Books which treat of this Matter and particularly in Santa Sophia Treat 1st Ch. 1. c. 3. Which sufficiently shows of how dangerous Consequence it is to talk after this Fashion and to erect into a Rule or Dispensation of Life what possibly the Experience of some whose Circumstances or extraordinary Illuminations for ends unknown and which we have nothing to do with may have inabled them to give a sober and intelligible Sense of to themselves though to others it appear Jargon Enthusiasm or even Irreligion If Books of this kind which more or less those usually are the Papists call their spiritual Books are wanting in the Church of England it is well that they are so since they would be likely to make many more Enthusiasts than good Christians For as the Bishop of Worcester in his Fanaticism of the Roman Church says very well If once an unintelligible Way of Practical Religion

become the Standard of Devotion no Men of Sense and Reason will ever set themselves about it but leave it to be understood by mad Men and practis'd by Fools Which is a Reflection that it were to be wish'd all would make who may be tempted by Affectation of Novelty Fondness of an Hypothesis or any other better Reason to build their Practical and Devotional Discourses upon Principles which not only will not bear the Test but which oblige them to lay down such Assertions in Morality as sober and well disposed Christians cannot understand to be practicable Than which I think there never was any more evidently so than that Mankind are obliged strictly as their Duty to love with Desire nothing but God only Every Degree of Desire of any Creature whatsoever being Sin This Assertion though not altogether new yet has been but lately brought into our Pulpits and been pretended to be set on Foot upon a Philosophical or Natural Ground viz. That God not the Creature is the immediate efficient Cause of our Sensations For whatever gives us Pleasure say they who hold this Hypothesis has a right to our Love but God only gives us Pleasure therefore he only has a right to our Love Indeed in a Sermon upon this Subject Matt. xxij 37. the Author pretends to establish his Sense of the Words upon a double Basis 1. That God is the only Cause of our Love 2. That he is also the only proper Object of it But in Reference to the first he does no more to this Purpose but prove what plainly express'd cannot be contested viz. That we receive the Power which we have of Desiring from God And then asks himself several Questions as Can God act for a Creature Does not God make all things for himself c. Which amount only to thus much that they signifie it is his Opinion that God who doubtless made all things for himself because his own Glory was his primary End in creating all things had not therefore Secondary and intermediate Ends for which he made the Creatures to operate one upon another Which is but in a tacit Way to beg the Question But he confesses rightly that the Stress of this Business lies in the Proof of the second Proposition Vpon this Hinge says he the whole Weight of the Theory turns viz. That God is the only proper Object of our Love as being the only Cause of all our pleasing Sensations the Creatures having no Efficiency at all to operate upon us they being only occasional Causes of those Sentiments which God produces in us And on this Foundation it then is that he asserts that every Act that carries our Desires towards the Creature is sinful Which Opinion if receiv'd and follow'd must necessarily bring in the like unintelligible Way of Practical Religion which the Bishop of Worcester has justly censured in the Church of Rome But however perswaded either the Author himself or this great Assertor of this Hypothesis are of its Truth or Reasonableness As there was no need at all of interessing Religion and Morality in the Matter so it is also very unserviceable to them Since that which they would inferr from it is manifestly no just Consequence any more than a useful or practicable Doctrine And a Man that had not been mighty fond of an Hypothesis would never have attempted from the Pulpit to fortifie by Scripture an Opinion so opposite to the Tenour of it as well as to that Morality which has been so excellently preach'd to the World by the Divines of his own Church Whose Discourses are generally if not universally founded upon this Supposition or at least imply it that there may be a lawful Love of the Creatures And being herein conform'd to right Reason and consequently adapted to humane Life they have helped to make some Opposition to that Irreligion which by looseness of Manners on the one hand and uncharitable Zeal on the other has spread it self amongst us in this last Age But must doubtless have prevailed further had not more reasonable Principles of Morality been inculcated into Men than can be grounded upon seeing all things in God c. For apparently if the practical Duties of Religion had not been better accounted for and inforc'd than by the so much boasted of spiritual Books of the Roman Church Religion and Vertue had before this time been disputed or ridicul'd out of our World And yet any of these Books of mystical Divinity will be found as well able to support them as some of the late practical Discourses of Mr. N. or as any Man 's else can be upon the Principle of our being obliged to have no Love of Desire for any of the Creatures Which is particularly endeavour'd to be made good in the foremention'd Sermon upon the great Commandment of the Law Matt. xxij 37. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart with all thy Soul and with all thy Mind Wherein the Author pretends to show that all our Love is to be so intirely center'd upon God that not any part of it is to be allow'd to the Creatures But least the inlarging this first Commandment to such a Magnitude should make it seem to swallow up the second He prevents that Objection by shewing that these Two Commandments clash not at all The Love of God and of our Neighbour as he says being different Loves For we love God with Love of Desire and love or should love our Neighbour only with Love of Benevolence Which Distinction in other Discourses of his he is more large upon and seems to believe the latter part of it confirm'd by these Words Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self Moses in Levit .xix. repeating to the Children of Israel sundry Laws and amongst others several special Duties towards their Neighbour thus concludes the last ver the 18th Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self Which Conclusion is comprehensive of all that preceded it or that had been omitted And in a short Rule better teaches the Extent of what we owe to our Neighbour than it was possible any Enumeration of Particulars could This Duty is indeed so fully express'd herein that we cannot conceive any Addition could be made to the Perfection of this Precept by our Blessed Saviour Who came to teach us the whole Will of the Father and to give us the most perfect Rule of Life that had yet been delivered to Mankind and accordingly Luke the 4th ch v. 25. being asked Master what shall I do to inherit Eternal Life He said How readest thou in the Law It being answer'd Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul with all thy Mind and with all thy Strength and thy Neighbour as thy self He replied Thou hast answer'd right This do and thou shalt live He had answer'd right in joining together these two Commandments in the Law on which all the rest of the Law and Prophets did depend Matt. xxij