Works to Work that which is Good By doing these we are said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do Good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to work Good to them and by withholding them to withhold Good from him to whom it is due But since we hereby only minister to them of those Creatures which saith Mr. N. are in no sense their Good nor able to do do them any nor can communicate any Good to them How can we thus do good to them only by communicating that which cannot do them any Good Were indeed that of the Apostle true of these things that they are good and profitable to Men we by this contribution might be well said to do them Good but if for want of Principles and Thoughts sufficiently Reformed from the Vulgar Philosophy he stiled that Good and profitable to Men which is in no sense their Good and is unable to do them any Good then St. Paul taught Men to commit Sacrilege and Idolatry in affording them some portion of our Love of desire for saith he if the Creatures be in any sense our Good then some portion of our Love is due to them 2 dly Is it not the Recommendation of Wisdom that she is to be preferred before all things desirable that she fills our Houses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with things desirable that there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a desirable treasure in the House of the Righteous Is not fine Bread in Scripture called Bread of desire the pleasant Land of Canaan a Land of Desire fruitful Fields Fields of Desire pleasant Houses Houses of Desire pleasant Vineyards Vineyards of Desire and pleasant Furniture Vessels of Desire Doth not the Prophet Ieremy lament the Loss Ierusalem had sustained of all her pleasant things that the Adversary had spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things and that she was forced to give her pleasant things for meat to relieve her Soul And are not these pleasant things in the Hebrew her desirable things and in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now is not Wisdom thus recommended to us that we may be induced to court her for these desirable things These concupiscible Treasures with which she fills the Wise Man's House And must they not then be lovely and proper Objects of desire Do we reap no pleasure from these pleasant Lands Fields Vineyards Houses Furniture or this pleasant Bread Are they not all declared by the Wisdom of God to be desirable And can that be desirable which is in no sense our Good nor can communicate any Good to us If so why may not the Creatures be desirable though they do us no Good 3 dly Doth not the Psalmist say The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy work And the Apostle That the invisible things viz. the Godhead and Eternity of him that made them were seen by the things that were made that God had by them clearly made known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which was known of God Doth not the Author of the Book Wisdom truly say That vain were they that could not out of the Good things that were seen know Him that is neither by considering the works acknowledge the work Master since by the Beauty and the Greatness of the Creatures proportionably their Maker is seen Now can it be said of those Creatures which declare to us the Glory of God and shew us by the Beauty that is in them the Beauty of their Maker in whom that which is known of God is manifest being seen in his Works Can that which thus affords us the knowledge of that God whom to know is life eternal be in no sense our Good wholly unable to do us any Good Can they in no measure be the Causes of the Happiness of those Heathens to whom they gave the Knowledge of the Nature of God and a Testimony of his Goodness to them Can they not give us so much as one grateful Sensation one little contemptible Pleasure resulting from this Knowledge of God If as Solomon says Light is sweet and it is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun is it no pleasure thus to view in his Creatures the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God and the Beauty Order the Benefit which redounds to us from his Creatures I Answer by way of Concession That God produceth all our Pleasure and that he only doth us Good for so the Apostle Iames assures by saying he is the Giver of every good and perfect Gift he giveth to us Life and Breath and all things all things are of him and from him saith St. Paul For all things come of thee saith David and of thine own have we given thee Yet if he does us any Good by his Creatures by the Ministry of Angels pitching their Tents about us may we not love those Angels that thus minister to us May we not desire of God that he would give them charge concerning us If he does us any Good by the Conversation Examples Writings of Good Men may we not desire them and their Writings as our Good i. e. to improve our Knowledge and our Piety And why thâ—n may we not desire any other of God's good Creatures why not fruitful Seasons why not Food If as St. Paul affirms God doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do us Good by giving us fruitful Seasons and by filling our hearts with food and gladness and doth enable us to do Good to others by them Again Is not God equally the cause of all our pleasing Sensations in us whether we believe that God himself is the immediate Author of them or that he hath given us those Faculties which are capable of perceiving a grateful Relish and Sensation in their regular Application to such Objects as are agreeable to their Nature and Divine Bounty hath administred For instance let it be indeed the Sun that shines upon us and that warms us by that Faculty of enlightning and producing heat that God hath given it seeing it doth this purely by the vertue the Divine Power and Wisdom hath imparted to it without any Knowledge or Intention of doing us any Good what portion of our Love can it deserve upon that account any more than by being the occasion only or positive condition determining God to produce in us that sweetness which the Wiseman saith their is in Light and that pleasure we find in beholding the Sun or being heated by his Rays 3 dly This seems to me to prove as effectually that we ought to hate nothing but God For If God be the only true Cause that acts upon our Spirits and produceth all our pain which Mr. N. doth equally contend for then he only does us hurt then he only is our hurt he only impairs the Perfection of our Being and makes us miserable and if he only does us hurt then he only is our hurt and then he only is
Idolatry as the Relative Worship of the Creature This Answered 1. ad hominem by shewing that it was formerly approved by Mr. N. 2. By shewing the Disparities betwixt the Relative Love of the Creature and the Relative Worship of Images § 4. Object 2. If Creatures be truly and properly lovely as being our true and proper Good they are to be loved absolutely and for themselves if not they are not to be loved at all Answered By shewing in what Sense they may be stiled our true and proper Good and be loved for themselves viz as that imports a love of them only for that Goodness God hath put into them and how they may not be loved absolutely and for themselves viz. as that excludes the Subordination of that Affection to the Love of God § 5. P. 91. CHAP. V. Mr. N. grants That we may seek and use sensible things for our Good but saith he we must not love them as our Good and that we may approach to them by a bodily Movement but not with the Movements of the Soul This is Examin'd and Confuted § 1. Argument 1. That God is the sole Cause of our Love and therefore hath the sole Right to it Answered § 2. Argument 2. The Motion of the Will is Good in General i. e. to all Good and therefore to God only Answered § 3. Argument 3. God is the end of our Love since he cannot act for a Creature but only for himself or move us to a Creature but only to himself Answer'd § 4. Argument 4. That God cannot be loved too much nor the World too little Answered § 5. Argument 5. That God having called us thus to the Love of himself cannot afterwards send us to a Creature § 6. Argument 6. A Man cannot repent of placing his whole Affection upon God or have any thing to Answer for on that account Answered § 7. Argument 7. God only is to be loved because he only acts upon our Spirits produceth our Pleasure and he only does us Good Answered § 8. What the Lady offers on this Subject briefly Considered and Answered § 9. P. 114 ERRATA PAge 2. Line 7. in the Margin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 3. l. 25. greater worth p. 7. l. 5. affect p. 8. l. 20. our p. 9. l. 2. fat p. 16. l. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 17. l. 3. add our p. 24. l. 27. add are p. 35. l. 17. add desires p. 44. l. 25. add as p. 45. l. 6. the p. 46. l. 25. add all p. 49. l. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 51. l. 18. add giveth p. 52. l. 6. add fatness p. 58. l. 17. dependent p. 66. l. 19. dele him p. 67. l. 5. entreat p. 69. l. 25. accuse p 73. l. 25. add from p. 74. l. 15. add be p. 75. l. 28. affect p. 104. l. 11. them p. 106. l. 14. the p. 111. l. 32. the p. 121. l. 14. be p. 139. l. 8. Iustice p. 143. l. 10. of p. 153. l. 21. us A DISCOURSE OF THE Love of God CHAP. I. The Contents The Question Whether we are obliged to love God so entirely as that we may love nothing else with a love of desire § 1. This Assertion is shew'd to be contrary 1st To our Prayers for our daily bread § 2. 2dly To God's Promises of temporal good Things § 3. And to his Threats of temporal Evils § 4. 3dly To the Representation of them as God's Gifts and Blessings and our good Things § 5. To God's Command to rejoice in them § 6. To the Industry required by God to procure these things and his Blessing promised to that Industry § 7. Proofs from Reason that God hath not absolutely forbidden the Desire of Pleasure of Honour or of temporal Enjoyments § 8. Corollaries 1. That this Doctrine is inconsistent with our Obligation to Pray and with the Prayers of our own and of Ancient Liturgies 2. With the Praises due to God for temporal Blessings and with the Thanksgivings for them used in our Liturgy 3. It tends to depreciate the Divine Gifts to teach Men to slight God's Promises and contemn his Threats 4. To destroy all Industry in our Calling 5. It lays the vilest Imputation upon the Dispensations of God's Providence towards us § 9. THE love of a Being infinitely Excellent in himself and infinitely Beneficial to us is so much our Duty and so much our Interest 't is such an excellent preservative against the Charms of sinful Pleasures and all the Lures of those Temptations which tend to the destruction of our precious Souls such a powerful incentive to that Obedience and Holiness which will most certainly conclude in everlasting Happiness such a constraining motive to that assimulation to God which renders us partakers of the Divine Nature and by the Heathen Moralists is truly stiled The Perfection of Man 'T is such a Treasury of inward Satisfactions and ravishing Delights such a Feast of Marrow and Fatness such a soveraign Antidote against the Miseries and Evils of this present Life such a Spring of sweet Contentment under all Conditions and of entire resignation to the Will of our Beloved that a good Man cannot without Reluctancy of Mind and secret Regret seem to dislike any Opinions or Hypotheses which are honestly designed to advance it to the highest pitch And did I not certainly believe that the Measures of Divine Love I approve of and contend for serve all those glorious Ends and minister as properly and fully to kindle and advance within us this divine Affection as do those high and impracticable Stretches to which my worthy Friend and this Incomparable Lady with so great Beauty of Expressions and with as hearty Zeal have laboured to scrue it up and that they do all this without those Inconveniencies to which their singular Hypothesis seems evidently exposed and without those Temptations it may minister to Men not well affected unto Piety and without those Misbodings it may create in those who are religiously enclined I should not have given my self the uneasie task of contradicting the Opinions of Persons I so highly and so justly love and honour or the Fatigue of canvasing the ensuing Question so fully as these Papers do I hope without offence to either of the Persons concerned because with all the Deference I can shew to their great Endowments and their great Works The Question then is this Quest. Whether the Scripture doth require us to love God so entirely as that we may love nothing else with a love of desire though it be only with Subordination to him So the philosophical and divine Letters dogmatically do assert declaring That the love of God is exclusive of all other love that it requires us in Iustice to withdraw every straggling desire from the Creature and that it is clear from the letter of the Commandment that God is not only the Principal but the sole Object of our Love Whence it must follow that every degree of desire
want All which things shew even without a Revelation That Divine Wisdom did intend that we should live in the Exercise of Industry to procure these things and not well without it having so many Desires to be appeased so many Wants to be supplied so many Troubles to be removed so many Appetites and Senses to be gratified by our Care and Industry in the pursuit of these things But now imagin these temporal Enjoyments not to our good not proper Objects of our Desire not worthy of the name of temporal Blessings you cut off all Motives to this Industry for where there is no proper Fruits of Industry nothing which is Operae pretium worth the labour there can be no cause of Labour Now where there is nothing good for me nothing desirable no Blessing to be obtained by Labour 't is certain that there is no ground or motive unto Labour And therefore to excite us to this Industry God hath engaged to give to the diligent pursuit of these things 1 Prosperous Success declaring That the soul of the diligent shall be made fat whilst the sluggard desireth and hath nothing 2 Plentiful Accommodations for our Sustenance for as The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness so hath God assured him of Satisfaction from it for he that tilleth his Land shall be satisfied with bread 3. Encrease of Wealth and Riches for tho' the blessing of the Lord maketh rich yet he conveighs that Blessing to us by the hand of Diligence for 't is the hand of the diligent that maketh rich and he that gathereth by labour who saith the wise Man shall encrease Now surely that which God doth promise to us as a Blessing and Reward for a just motive to our Industry must be something desirable to us and good for us and so our good But had we no such evidence of these things from Scripture even Reason and Experience would powerfully convince us First That God hath not forbidden the Desire or denied us the Enjoyment of any worldly Pleasure which is truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Pleasure that doth call for no Repentance because his all wise Providence hath made such liberal Provisions for them For wherefore hath he given to us Organs capable of great and exquisite Delight in all our Senses Wherefore hath he caused the fruitful Earth to furnish us with things so grateful to the Palat so fragrant to the Smell so pleasant to the Eye Did he not give us the free use of these Enjoyments provided that we take this freedom with Moderation and Discretion use it with Thankfulness and with Submission and Subordination to the Glory of the Donor Therein consisting our iniquity not that we do at all love Pleasures but that we love them more than God This is apparent to a demonstration from the very definition of Pleasure contained in these Letters viz. That Pleasure is the Gratification of natural Appetites according to and not exceeding the intention of Nature For this definition takes it for granted That the God of Nature intended the Gratification of our natural Appetites that is our Pleasure Moreover what are these natural Appetites but natural Desires What is it that gratifies them but the Enjoyment of the thing desired I must have therefore implanted in me by the God of Nature as many natural Desires of the Creature as I have natural Appetites which may and only can be gratified by the Enjoyment of the Creature What therefore doth the good Lady mean when she affirms so positively That if he desire the Creature as the true cause of our Pleasure it is so far from being our good that it certainly becomes our evil Does she mean that I sin if I desire drink as the true cause of the pleasure that I find in quenching my Thirst or Wine as the true cause of making glad my Heart This she can only mean upon the account of that new Invention of Mr. Mal Branch's That God is the immediate and efficient Cause of all our pleasing Sensations Now that being but an invention of yesterday spick and span new Philosophy not discovered till this last Age all precedent Ages according to this Doctrine lay under a necessity of sinning And so must all at present whose heads are not cast in Metaphysical Moulds they being thought uncapable of this fine Speculation and therefore forced still to believe the Scripture when it saith that Wine maketh glad the heart of man and that bread comforts his heart And when it speaks of pleasant Bread and pleasant Fruits and of Chambers filled with all precious and pleasant Riches and of the sweetness of the Honey and the Honey-comb Secondly He cannot absolutely have forbidden the desire of Honour for if so why hath he planted in us such a natural thirst after it Why doth he promise it so oft as the reward of Wisdom Why hath he told us A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches that it is better than the precious Ointment Why hath he made it our Duty to pursue whatever is praise-worthy honourable and of good report Why hath he made it a commendation of Faith that by it the Elders obtained a good report Why hath he ordered matters so as to render a good Reputation and an honourable Esteem so highly instrumental to promote his Glory and so beneficial to our selves and others that great and good things can scarce successfully be done without it And Thirdly As for temporal good Things he by making such rich Provisions of them for the Sustenance of our lives and by framing our Bodies so as not only to relish and delight in them but also to be nourished and sustained by them hath sufficiently intimated that it is his pleasure that we should in reasonable measure desire and enjoy them otherwise his care would have been vain and his works useless yea he might seem to have laid an ill design to tempt and ensnare us and draw us off from himself by them In fine when we come into the World in the want of all things with Appetites which have no other use but to desire them and cannot but be pleased with them when we have Natures that cannot long or conveniently subsist without them when the Organs of our Senses are so framed as naturally to be delighted with them when the wise Providence of God hath framed the whole Earth for satisfaction of those Appetites when by the Order of Providence from the Creation all Men do pursue them and even good Men pray unto God and do praise him for them can it be needful to spend more words in confutation of a Paradox which all Men do renounce in Speculation or in Practice or to evince that God hath not entirely forbid all love and all desire of the World 's good Things Now hence it follows First That this Doctrine is inconsistent with our Obligation to pray for
undoubtedly declare the contrary for Self-Preservation and the continuance of Life are the natural Desires of all Men Now these are truly a Desire of our selves that is of something of our selves which we have not already and yet this desire of Life and love of many Days being only the desire of what God doth promise as the Reward of our Obedience it is unquestionably the Desire of something Good for us and so of something which Self-love doth prompt us to desire When Christ requires us to love him more than Life it self and God enjoins his People to obey his Precepts that they may live do not all these things teach us That the continuance of Life is a thing desirable and that we may love many days Now this only Happiness to be the desire of some Good to us because the desire of our selves i. e. of the continuance of our Being is the desire of some Good to us and is at once the desire of our selves and the continuance of Good that is of Being to our selves And this we learn from Mr. N. himself in these very Letters whereof he saith That since our Being is in it self a Good and the Foundation of all the Good that we do or shall ever enjoy it can be no sooner received that it brings an Obligation of loving our Creator For if our Being is in it self a Good must it not be our Good Must not the continuance of it be the continuance of our Good Doth it not therefore lay an Obligation on us to love our Creator because we by receiving it have received Good from him And if our Being is the Being of our selves must not the love of it be the love of our selves and the desire of the continuance of it be the desire of the continuance of our selves Thirdly That the love of Benevolence is indeed that love which chiefly opposeth and obstructeth our true love to God and is the rise of our inordinate Affections to the World is also very evident For 1. That the love of our selves is love of Benevolence he and this Lady have informed us Now This saith the Excellent Dr. Barrow is the Root from which all other Vices do grow and without which hardly any Sin could subsist the chief Vices especially have an obvious and evident dependance upon it All Impiety doth involve a loving our selves in undue manner and measure so that we set our selves in our Esteem and Affection before God we prefer our own Conceits to his Judgment and Advice we raise our Pleasure above his Will and Authority From hence particularly by a manifest Extraction are derived those chief and common Vices Pride Ambition Envy Avarice Intemperance Injustice Uncharitableness Peevishness Stubbornness Discontent and Impatience For We overvalue our selves our Qualities and Endowments our Powers and Abilities our Fortunes and external Advantages hence we are so Proud that is so Lofty in our Conceits and Fastuous in our Demeanors We would be the only Men or most considerable in the World hence are we Ambitious hence continually with unsatiable greediness we do affect and strive to procure encrease of Reputation of Power of Dignity We would engross to our selves all sorts of good Things in the highest degree hence enviously we become jealous of the Works and Virtue we grudge and repine at the Prosperity of others as if they defalked somewhat from our Excellency or did Eclipse the brightness of our Fortune We desire to be not only full in our Enjoyment but free and absolute in our Dominion of Things not only secure from needing the Succour of other Men but independant in regard to God's Providence Hence are we so covetous of Wealth hence we so eagerly scrape it and so carefully hoard it up We can refuse our dear selves no satisfaction although unreasonable and hurtful therefore we so greedily gratifie sensual Appetites in unlawful or excessive Enjoyments of Pleasure Being blinded or transported with fond Dotage on our selves we cannot discern or will not regard what is due to others Hence are we apt upon occasion to do them wrong Love to our selves doth in such manner suck in and swallow up our Spirits doth so pinch in and contract our Hearts doth according to its Computation so confine and abridge our Interests that we cannot in our Affection or in real expression of Kindness tend outwards that we can afford little good Will or impart little Good to others Deeming our selves extreamly Wise and worthy of Regard we cannot endure to be contradicted in our Opinion or cross'd in our Honour Hence upon any such Occasion our Choler riseth and easily we break forth into violent Heats of Passion From the like Causes it is that we cannot willingly stoop to due Obeisance of our Superiors in Reverence to their Persons and Observance of their Laws that we cannot contentedly acquiesce in the Station or Portion assigned us by Providence that we cannot patiently support our Condition or accept the Events befalling us In fine if surveying all the several kinds of naughty Dispositions in our Souls and of Miscarriages in our Lives we do scan their particular Nature and search into their Original Causes we shall find inordinate Self-love to be a main Ingredient and a common Source of them all In particular the love of Life which is by them esteemed Love of Benevolence to what base Fears and sordid Actions doth it not expose us How many myriads have lost their Reputation Honesty their Conscience and their own Souls to save it This therefore is that piece of Self-denial so oft inculcated so vehemently pressed in Scripture that we may continue Christ's Disciples and may be Faithful to him to the Death The immoderate love of it being that which is especially pronounced inconsistent with the love of God and with Fidelity to Christ. Hence he so often saith He that findeth his own Life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it And if any Man come to me and hateth not his own Life he cannot be my Disciple Can therefore any Person doubt whether this self-love this love of Life be not as much forbid by the Command of loving God with all our Hearts as the desire of Houses Lands or any temporal Possessions or think it less obstructive of or inconsistent with it because it is love of Benevolence But will Mr. N. or his Good Lady by reason of the mischievous Effects of this Self-love this love of Life perswade the World that no Man ought to love himself at all or desire at all the Preservation of his Life And yet would they be pleased to revise their Arguments and those especially which are taken from the Consideration of the Danger of the Love of the Creature they would soon perceive they were of equal Force against all love of our selves and of our lives Again the love of Parents Children Husbands Wives Relations Friends is love of Benevolence and
offend in his Affections to or his desire of any worldly Good whose love to God and his desire to enjoy him will not permit him to desire any thing in opposition to him or against his Will and Pleasure If then the Love we plead for will not permit the Lover to offend in Mind in Will Affection or Desire how can it suffer him to offend in Action How pure and chast then must his Soul be that is so thoroughly purged of all created Loves and in whom the love of God reigns so absolute and unrival'd as it does in such a Lover's Breast who never suffers any thing to stand in Competition with his Love and Duty to his God But when it once begins to do so hates and rejects it with the utmost detestation How secure must he needs be from Sin when he has not that in him which may betray him to it He has but one Love at all predominant in his heart and that is for God none but what is entirely subject to and governed by it and how can he that thus loves nothing but God be tempted to Transgress against him Secondly Do they represent the Sense which they impose upon this Precept as that which elevates the amorous Soul to the most noble Heights of Piety as an effectual means to secure Obedience and a strong Impellent to Good Will not that Love which will not suffer me to Sin against God preserve me holy pure and harmless before him in love Will not that Affection do the same which obliges me 1. to prize him above all things to esteem him infinitely more valuable in himself and infinitely more beneficial to me than all things else I can enjoy to look upon him as my chief Good the only Felicity of my Immortal Soul the only Being in whom its Everlasting Happiness and its true Satisfaction doth consist Oh! What can be too difficult to do to acquire a more perfect Enjoyment of what we thus love and prize What can be too hard to suffer for the sake of the chief Object which hath thus won our heart 2. Will not that Affection which so powerfully doth convince me That there is infinitely more Excellency in God more Happiness to be expected from him than all the Honours Pleasures Profits Interests Relations and Satisfactions of the World can tender engage me always to prefer his Service before these base and trivial Interests And 3. will not that Love which carries my Heart more ardently my Desires more fervently after God than any other thing make me long breath pant thirst more after him rejoice more in his Favour and be more satisfied with it than in Marrow and Fatness make me diligent and vigorous always abounding in the work of the Lord. Whilst this Devout Lover thus Contemplates the Divine Perfections whilst he looks on God as his exceeding great Reward and desires him accordingly is not his Obedience prompt and ready Does not his mind move with alacrity and unwearied vigour And are not all its Motions regular and pleasing Must not he who so zealously desires and so impatiently thirsteth after God be very well disposed and above all things industrious to unite himself unto God must not he who thus prizes him for his incomparable Excellencies think it his Happiness and Perfection and therefore make it above all things his endeavour to be like him Must not that secure our Obedience to him which constrains us always to prefer our Interest in his Perfections and in the Blessings he hath promised to the Obedient before all other things To obey him rather than Man to please him rather than to gratifie our selves to enjoy him rather than any worldly or carnal Interest whatever And forces us to say with the Psalmist Whom have I in Heaven like thee or what is there on Earth I can desire in comparison of thee What incentive can he want to engage him to walk before God unto all well-pleasing and to perfect Holiness in the fear of God and what a wonderful Progress must he needs make in it Whether will not this superlative Love of God carry him and to what degrees of Perfection will he not aspire under the Conduct of so Divine so Omnipotent a Principle If Obedience be the Fruit of Love then what an entire Obedience may we expect from so intire a Love as can admit of nothing into competition with it nothing which is not wholly subject to and governed by it And so can have no Suckers to draw off the Nourishment from it no other Love to check and hinder its Growth what is there that can hinder him who has so emptied his heart of the Creatures and devoted it so entirely to God that his desire of all other things is always comparatively none and when they hinder his desire of him are absolutely none from reaching the highest pitch of assumable Goodness Since therefore where-ever Obedience is found 't is a certain Criterion of Love and to derive universal Obedience from the Love of God or to argue from that Obedience to the entire N. B. Love of God is as sound a way of Argumentation as to prove any other Effect by its Cause or Cause by its Effect Hence from the universal Obedience which this Love must produce I argue demonstratively That it is that entire Love of God which is required by the Command To love God with all our hearts Seeing there is no better Diagnostick to discover our Love then by observing what is the most frequent Subject of our Thoughts and where-ever the weight of our Desire rests the stream of our Thoughts will follow it being certain that what I prize above all things and above all things desire must be still uppermost in my Thoughts and be the very thing on which the weight of my desire rests What better Diagnostick can I have to prove my Genuine Affection to that God I do so infinitely prize so fervently desire and in Affection do prefer before all other Objects If therefore we would come up to our Holy Religion if we would be those Wise and Excellent Creatures that God designs we should let us above all things fix our love upon its proper Object put it into a regular Motion and then do but allow it scope and faithfully pursue its Tendencies and we need not be afraid of doing amiss we should run the Race that is set before us with Chearfulness and Vigour in a direct Line and with unwearied Constancy For what wise Man would think much to relinquish a lesser for a greater Good Or shew any Inclination for lower Delights when courted to the Enjoyment of the Highest Thirdly Do they say the Love of God they plead for makes the best provision for our Pleasure Is not this as true of the measures of Divine Love assigned by us For have not we who Contemplate and Prize him as our Chiefest Good and our exceeding great
my mind joining God and the Creature together as one integral Object but it is love to the Creature for that Relation which it hath and bears to God and Christ and therefore 't is not a forbidden but a very acceptable kind of Love though it be plainly Relative And so it is also in our Love of Desire to the Creature for I love them for God and for Christ's sake when I desire them that I may have wherewith to feed Christ's hungry and clothe his naked Members and in all the other Instances fore-mentioned 'T is therefore evident that this Relative Love and the Papists Relative Worship of Images are so far from being exactly Parallel as Mr. N. asserts that they have nothing common to each other but this that both are stiled Relative which also happens in that love of Benevolence for God's sake he allows of But saith Mr. N. Either Creatures are truly and really lovely as being our true and proper Good or they are not if they are then a Relative Love is too little we ought to love them with more than a Relative Love we ought to love them absolutely and for themselves but if they are not then even a Relative Love is too much for what is not truly lovely is always loved too much if it be lov'd at all So that either way there is no pretence for admitting this last Expedient of our Concupiscence the Relative Love of the Creature To this I Answer That when he saith The Creature is not our true and proper Goods this may be taken in the most elevated Sense in which God only is our true and proper Good and then his Argument runs thus Either Creatures are to be loved as our God or else they are not to be loved at all and this Consequence I hope is not as clear as the day or it may be taken in a large sense for that which is the Good of the whole Man Soul and Body and then also I deny that what is not thus lovely is not to be loved at all for I may love because I may desire my daily Bread though it be not the proper Good of my Soul but of my Body only Or lastly our true and proper Good may signifie that only which is some way conducing to our Good to the Advantage and Comfort of this present Life as being instrumental to the Sustentation and the Contentment and Pleasure of this Life or to our Preservation from those afflictive Evils which are incident to us in this Life and all that in this lower sense is lovely may be loved and yet not loved absolutely and for it self as that excludes the Subordination of that Affection to the love of God since thus we are not to desire Life it self but as this Life conduceth to God's Glory which is the soveraign end of all our Actions Secondly Therefore I add That Creatures may be said to be loved absolutely and for themselves either as that imports only for the Goodness God hath put into them the Good they do the Pleasure they afford to our natural Appetites and in this sense I have proved they may be loved absolutely and for themselves and this I also learn from these words of Mr. N. The Great Author of Nature hath made Provisions for the Entertainment of our natural Faculties and particular Appetites all our Senses Seeing Hearing Tasting Smelling and Touching have their proper Objects and Opportunities of Pleasure respectively and the Enjoyment and Indulgence of any of those Appetites is then only N. B. and in such Circumstances restrained when the greater Interests of Happiness are thereby crossed and defeated Now sure I may desire that Pleasure of Appetites which God hath made provision for and consequently may desire those particular Objects which afford that Pleasure since otherwise that Provision God hath made for the Entertainment of our Animal Falculties must be made in vain Again if the Enjoyment of and the Indulgence of these Appetites is only then restrained when the great Interests of Happiness are thereby cross'd and defeated then the Enjoyment of and the Indulgence to them is not wholly restrained and then the desire of that Enjoyment and Indulgence to them is not entirely restained and therefore in some measure and in some Circumstances is allow'd He also owns that Some repast may be found in the Creature and that it is Good to be chosen though not to be rested in and may I not then desire that Repast May I not love what is Good to be chosen with a love of Concupiscence But 2 dly to love Creatures absolutely and for themselves may signifie to love them exclusively of a Relation to and the Subordination of that love to God and in this sense they are not to be loved absolutely and for themselves 1 st Not exclusively of a Relation of them and our affection to them to God's Glory seeing whether we eat or drink or whatever we do we are to do it all to the Glory of God 2 dly Not exclusively of the Subordination of the love of them to the love of God because we must still love them with that Moderation and Indifferency which will not permit our Affection to them to hazard or obstruct our pursuit of the Supreme Good For saith Mr. N. Whenever we turn the edge of our Desire to Created Good 't is Prudence as well as Religion to use Caution and Moderation and gage the Point of our Affection least it run too far Where again he plainly allows of some affection to and some desire of Created Good and if Prudence and Religion require Caution and Moderation in the use of those Affections and Desires they by so doing do approve them in some measure for there can be no Caution or Moderation of our Affections and Desires to that which must not be at all affected or desired CHAP. V. The Contents Mr. N. grants That we may seek and use sensible things for our Good but saith he we must not love them as our Good and that we may approach to them by a bodily Movement but not with the Movements of the Soul This is Examined and Confuted § 1. Argument 1. That God is the sole Cause of our Love and therefore hath the sole Right to it Answered § 2. Argument 2. The Motion of the Will is to Good in General i. e. to all Good and therefore to God only Answered § 3. Argument 3. God is the end of our Love since he cannot act for a Creature but only for himself or move us to a Creature but only to himself Answered § 4. Argument 4. That God cannot be loved too much nor the World too little Answered § 5. Argument 5. That God having called us thus to the Love of himself cannot afterwards send us to a Creature § 6. Argument 6. A Man cannot repent of placing his whole Affection upon God or have any thing to Answer for on that account
Answered § 7. Argument 7. God only is to be loved because he only acts upon our Spirits produceth our Pleasure and he only does us Good Answered § 8. What the Lady offers on this Subject briefly Considered and Answered § 9. HAving thus considered the Arguments produced from Scripture against the common Interpretation of this Great Commandment and for a love of God wholly exclusive of all love to and desire of the Creature even so far and so unhappily exclusive of it that we are told That he that desires any thing besides God whatever he pretend or however he deceive himself doth not truly love God That the desire of God and desire of the Creature are in their own Nature incompatible even so incompatible that whenever the Soul moves towards the Creature it must necessarily forsake the Creator I now proceed to the Examination of those Arguments from Reason by which Good Mr. Norris and the Lady endeavour to establish this Opinion only premising for the better stating of the Question What he and the Good Lady grant to us And First They own That we may seek and use those sensible things to which by the Order of Nature Pleasure is annexed That they may be innocently sought for and used though they must not be loved That we may seek and use sensible things for our Good but we must not love them as our Good Which in plain terms is affirming and denying the same thing as is demonstrable from Mr. N.'s definition of the love of Concupiscence for Pleasure saith he is Good even our Good seeking Pleasure must suppose a desire of it and that desire is Love or the effect of Love for it supposeth a motion of the Soul towards it and Love saith he is only a Motion of the Soul towards Good Again seek and use sensible things for our Good we cannot whilst we suppose they are not Good for us i. e. that they will do us no Good if then we may seek and use sensible things for our Pleasure and our Good they must do us Good and so be our Good For That saith he is our Good which does us Good Moreover it may be enquired why he is so indulgent to our seeking of these things who will not permit us to love them in the least measure and who contends for an utter annihilation of all desire of the Creature does not our Saviour say as expresly Seek not what you shall eat or what you shall drink as St. Iohn doth love not the World Does not his Apostle say as expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let no Man seek his own things And can he tell us any reason why of two things equally prohibited we may be allowed the one and not the other or why the Prohibition of loving or desiring the Creature should be entirely exclusive of all love and all desire of the Creature and yet the prohibition of seeking and minding the Creature should not be as exclusive of all seeking and all minding of it But to proceed This saith he in his Letter I farther illustrate thus you are to distinguish betwixt the Movements of the Soul and those of the Body the Movements of the Soul ought not to tend but towards him who only is above her and only able to act in her but the Movements of the Body may be determined by those Objects which environ it and so by those Movements we may unite our selves to those things which are the Natural or Occasional Causes of our Pleasure thus because we find Pleasure from Fire N. B. this is warrant enough to approach it by a Bodily Movement but we must not therefore love it for Love is a Movement of the Soul And that we are to reserve for him who is the true cause of that Pleasure which we resent by occasion of the Fire who as I have proved is no other than God by which you may plainly perceive what 't is I mean by saying that Creatures may be sought for our good but not loved as our Good But this saith he is more intelligible than practicable But 1. Is this Philosophy suitable to the Language of the Holy Ghost doth he speak as if we sought and approach'd the Creature only by a Bodily Movement and not with any Movements of the Soul Doth not he say Notwithstanding thou mayst kill and eat flesh in all thy Gates whatsoever thy Soul lusteth after according to the Blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee When the Lord thy God shall enlarge thy Borders and thou shalt say I will eat flesh because thy Soul longeth to eat Flesh thou mayst eat Flesh whatsoever thy Soul lusteth after Thou shalt kill of thy Herd and of thy Flock which the Lord hath given thee and thou shalt eat in thy Gates whatsoever thy Soul lusteth after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all the desire of thy Soul thou mayst eat saith the Hebrew thrice Thou must do it only by the Movements of the Body saith Mr. N. Again Thou shalt bestow thy Money for whatsoever thy Soul lusteth after for Oxen or for Sheep or for Wine or for strong Drink or for whatsoever thy Soul desireth Where again we find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the desire of the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Concupiscence of the Soul allowed to go forth towards Oxen and Sheep and Wine and strong Drink The Preacher also laments the Folly of the Man who having Riches Wealth and Honour in such abundance that he wanteth nothing which his Soul can desire and yet he hath not an heart to enjoy them freely and delight himself in the Good of them See Isa. 58.11 12. Rev. 18.14 So plainly doth the Holy Ghost contradict this New Philosophy 2 dly Is it suitable to the Sentiments of Mr. N. when he saith There are some things in the World which I love N. B. with great passion such as are Conversation with select Friends or Men of Harmonical and Tuneable Dispositions Reading close and fine-wrought Discourses solitary Walks and Gardens the Beauty of the Spring and above all Majestick and well composed Musick these I delight in with something-like satisfaction and acquiescence and the last could I enjoy it in its highest Perfection would I am apt to phansie terminate my Desires and make me Happy Now could he do all this without any Movement of his Soul towards them Are none of these things truely and really lovely because they are Creatures Or must he love them too much if he love them at all 3 dly He is here speaking of seeking the Creatures for our good Now hath the Body any apprehensions of what is for our good Can it desire or seek any thing under that Notion Hath it any apprehension of the Objects that make Impressions on it as the natural or occasional Causes of our Pleasure Doth that find Pleasure from the Fire
we never can put off Now if God be the only Author and Cause of our Love has He not then the Sole Right and Title to it If He does as much Produce my Love as He doth my Being why hath He not as much Right to my Love as to any part of my Nature This Argument proves nothing to the purpose by his own Confession for it only proves that God is the Cause of all that Love which is a necessary Adherent to our Beings such as is all over invincible and irresistible of that motion of Love in which we are purely passive over which we have no more Command than over the motion of our Heart and Pulse which we can never controul can never be without never can put off which the Devils and Damned Spirits saith he have as well as Glorified Saints Now is this the Love God calls for in this Text Is it a purely passive Love which it is not in the Power of Devils to withhold and in which the greatest Saints cannot excel them Is God concerned that we should not want that which is a necessary Adherent of our Beings That which we never can put off never can be with without Doth he require that only which no Man can defraud him of Mr. N. is sensible that the Text is not at all concerned in this Love confessing that our Free Love is the only Love that falls under Command and the only one that is in our Power And why then doth he argue from such a Love to that Free Active Love which too many are without and too many do put off or from that Love which cannot be to that Love which is commanded Moreover This Argument plainly destroys the thing it was designed to establish For he lays down his Thesis thus That our whole Affections are to be placed on God and that we are to love him so intirely as to love none but him This saith he I shall endeavour to establish upon this double Basis 1. That God is the only Author or Cause of our Love And will it not hence follow that he is the only Author and Cause of our Natural Love Bent and Inclination to every thing besides himself And can he be the only Author and Cause of our Love to all other things and yet forbid that very love which he alone produceth in us God saith Mr. N. is the Author of all my Love he hath produced it all 't is therefore highly just and reasonable he should have it all God say I then is the Author of all the Love of my self and of my Preservation my love of Food Drink Cloths of Honour Riches Pleasure Life my love of Women and of Sensual Delights and of the Gratification of all my Natural Appetites according to and not exceeding the Intention of the God of Nature which is acknowledged to be Pleasure And the natural tendency we have to them being from the Author of Nature must needs be right it being impossible saith Mr. N. that God should put a Biass upon the Soul If therefore it is the Perfection and Duty of every Rational Creature to conform those Determinations of his Will that are free to that which is natural or to take care that the Love of his Nature and the Love of his Choice conspire in one that they both agree in the same Motion and concenter in the same Object as he saith it is then 't is the Duty and Perfection of our Nature to chuse to Love or freely to affect the Preservation of our Life and Being our Food Drink Cloths Honour Riches Pleasure and the Gratification of all our Natural Appetites according to and not exceeding the Intention of the God of Nature Again God is the Cause and Author of all my Love of my self of my desire of Self-Preservation and of all that I judge needful for and pleasant to me He is the Author of all that natural 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we bear to our Relations and also of that love we owe unto our Neighbour as having made him in all considerable Respects the same with us or equal to us and therefore equally deserving our Affection and having founded it on this clear Principle of Nature That we should deal with others as we would be dealt with Will therefore Mr. N. say That because God is the Author of all this Love of Benevolence 't is just and reasonable he should have it all No sure the utmost that he can reasonably hence conclude is this that it is just and reasonable we should only love our selves our Relatives and Neighbouâ—s in relation to God or in Subordination to him And this is likewise all he can rationally conclude from God's being the Author of our Love of desire viz. That we should desire nothing but with Relation to or in Subordination and Submission to him In a word as God is the sole efficient Cause of my Intellectual Love in the true Philosophical Sense by giving me the Faculties and the Liberty by which I chuse Intellectual Good so also on the same is he the cause of all my sensual Love i. e. of my Love of the Body of all the Conveniences and innocent Delights of it as also the sensual Love of Beasts And must he therefore be the Proper and Immediate yea the Sole Object of this Love Do you not call that a sensual Desire whose Object is a sensual Good And is God such a one A Man saith Mr. N. is in Love that is he hath a sensual Desire toward a sensual Good And this saith he cannot be evil for then 't would be a sin to be in Love and consequently there would be a necessity of sinning in order to Marriage because no Man not therefore Mr. N. is supposed to Marry but whom he thus loves and so Mr. N. being Married had once a sensual Desire of a sensual Good without Sin and therefore was not obliged by this Commandment to make God the only Object of his Love of Desire And indeed 't is palpably absurd to say I do God Injury or Injustice in loving or desiring those things which he hath given me Faculties on purpose to love and desire which have no other use but to desire which cannot be satisfied without the Enjoyment of what we desire which if he did not intend we should Gratifie he gave them only as Snares and Torments to us God's Right therefore in this Case can be only this that I never love any sensual Good against him or to the Dishonour of him but rather that I love it only in Relation or in Subordination and Submission to him not that I love it not at all I lay down this an evident and undeniable Proposition that the natural Motion of the Will is to Good in General But now how can the Will be moved towards Good in General but by being moved towards All Good for to be moved
the Creatures and not in the least to desire any of them as his Goods I farther suppose him to persevere in this disposition of Mind to the very last And then ask whether you can think such a Person hath any thing to Answer at the Bar of God's Justice upon this account or whether you think God will Damn or eternally Separate such a one from his Presence as defective in his Duty meerly for not making the Creature his Good and the Object of his desire This Rhetorical Harangue is indeed somewhat affecting but hath nothing of Argument in it For when he saith Conscience doth never reproach us for our indifferency to the Creature what thinks he of the Prodigal who is so indifferent towards it as that he cares not tho' he spend that in Gaming or squander it away in Prodigality which had he been more concerned to keep it might have preserved himself and his Family from Want and Misery What thinks he of the Tradesman who is so indifferent towards the Creature that he will not give himself the trouble to consider whether he thrives or decays in his Trade or Calling till at last he breaks and robs many who had Dealings with him of their Right How easie is it to put twenty Cases of like nature in some of which an indiscreet Piety and Love to a Party joined with this indifference hath contributed not a little to their Want and Beggary And since he will be putting Cases why stopped he here where he did I will suppose saith he a Man to place his whole Affection upon God so as to withdraw his Love from all the Creatures and I suppose him to persevere in this disposition to the last And there he stops I go on therefore to suppose this Man to want Health Sleep Clothes and all things needful to the Body and to the Preservation of his Wife and Children and yet so employed in Love to God that he desires not Rest Health nor any thing else needful either for his Body or his Family and that he perseveres in thus withdrawing his Love from the Creatures to the last and then ask whether he may not have something to answer for at the Bar of God's Iustice upon that account I suppose this Man to be one of the Alambrados or a Quietist so intent upon his Mental Prayer Divine Contemplation and Union with God as that he hath withdrawn his Desires wholly from the Concerns of his Estate his Family or his own Body I suppose lastly that this Man withdraws himself thus from the Desire of the Creature out of a Principle of Religion either that of the Euchitae that we are not to labour for the Meat that perisheth or that of Mr. N. that the Love of God is exclusive of all Love and Desire of the Creature and that he cannot Love the Creature too little And then I ask again Whether this Man may not be defective in his Duty for not making the Creature the Object of his desire Whether he may not fall down upon his Knees and say Lord I have been so indifferent towards those Creatures which are thy signal Blessings and thy gracious Gifts to which all Mankind owe the Preservation of their Souls in Life that I have not thought them worthy of the least desire or been concerned to pray to thee for my daily Bread I have thought it my Duty to love thee so entirely as to withdraw my Love from my Wife Children Relations Friends and Neighbours by withdrawing it from those Creatures which could alone enable me to afford them what was needful for the Body and by so doing I have neglected to provide for those of my own House and to work with my hands that which is Good that I might have to give to others as thou hast commanded me I have so loved thee with all my Soul as not to suffer it to desire the Food which was necessary to sustain my Life And so have hated that Flesh and Body I stood bound to nourish and to cherish and so as to neglect my natural Rest and Health and thereby to contribute to the destruction of that Life which thou hast given me I have done all this from such a Principle of Religion as tends to depreciate thy great Goodness in affording them to vilifie thy Blessings and to make Men slight thy Promises as unworthy of the desire of the Man that truly loves thee and to lay this vile Imputation upon thy All-wise Providence that it hath planted in us natural Appetites and Desires which it would not have us gratifie 2 dly To return Question for Question When did Conscience upbraid him for praying for his daily Bread or asking with Agar food convenient for him or for desiring to procure it by honest Industry I suppose a Man to love the temporal Blessings God hath promised and so to make his desire of enjoying them one motive to obey and serve him to desire Life to love many days that he may see Good and therefore to depart from evil and do good to desire all things needful for the Body which he is to nourish and for that Family he stands bound to provide for Yea when God hath given him Riches and Wealth to desire to eat thereof to rejoice in it and to take his portion of it and to make his Soul enjoy Good in his Labour I suppose also that he perseveres in this disposition of mind to the end and then ask Whether you can think such a Person hath any thing to Answer for at the Bar of God's Iustice upon that account Or whether you think God will Damn or eternally Separate such a one from his Presence as defective in his Love to him meerly for making the Creatures his Good and the Object of his desire His last and in his own Opinion his strongest Argument for this entire and exclusive Love of God runs thus If God be the only true Cause that Acts upon our Spirits and produces our Pleasure then he only does us Good he only perfects our Being and makes us happy And if he only does us Good then he only is our Good then he only is lovely then 't is plain that we ought to love none but him and him entirely Or to Argue backwards we are to love nothing but what is lovely nothing is lovely but what is our Good nothing is our Good but what does us Good nothing does us Good but what causeth Pleasure in us nothing causeth Pleasure in us but God therefore we are to love nothing but God In Answering this Objection I shall first shew that it is not agreeable to the Sentiments of Holy Scripture And 1. Is this Doctrine consistent with all those Exhortations the Scripture every where affords us to do Good to our needy Brother and charitably to contribute to the Relief of his Wants for by abounding in these Alms we are said to abound in Good
hateful and the proper Object of our hatred then 't is plain we ought to hate none but him and him entirely Or to Argue backward we ought to hate nothing but what is hateful nothing is hateful but what is our hurt nothing is our hurt but what does us hurt nothing doth us hurt but what causeth pain in us nothing causeth pain in us saith Mr. N. but God therefore we are to hate nothing but God The Good Lady had urged something of this nature though not with that strength that I have given to the Argument let us see now what he Answers to it When you speak saith he of God's being the cause of pain either you mean as to this Life or as to the next if as to the next that has nothing to do with the Duty which we owe him here if as to this present Life the pain that God inflicts upon us here is only Medicinal and in order to our greater Good and consequently from a principle of kindness I grant the Pains of the next World have nothing to do with the Duty we owe to God any otherwise than as they are incentives to it that we may avoid them but yet they have something to do with his Argument for are not the Pains and Griefs of the Damned a modification of the Soul are not all modifications of the Soul immediately caused by God and by him only And must not then the Pains and Miseries of the Damn'd be according to this Philosophy immediately caused by God and by him only And if these Pains and Miseries be the hurt and evil which the Damn'd suffer is not that God who doth immediately cause them the immediate Author of their hurt and evil And if he only does them hurt he only by your Argument is their hurt and then he only is hateful and the proper Object of their hatred then 't is plain they ought to hate none but him and him entirely and then their hatred of him cannot be their Sin If then it be an absurdity to say the Damned ought to hate God entirely and him only his Argument and Hypothesis from which that absurdity so naturally flows must be absurd Whereas we who conceive that Mens Damnation is of themselves that they are their own Tormentors by their reflection on their own Actions that they have excluded themselves from the Beatifick Vision which would have made them happy by making themselves incapable of enjoying a God of infinite Purity that they have rendred themselves unworthy to be snatched out of the Flames of the Earth when all the things that are in it shall be burned up and so shall suffer in that Fire which is kept for the Day of Iudgment and of perdition of ungodly Men whilst the Just shall then be caught up into the Air and be for ever with the Lord. We I say are not at all concerned in this Objection though Mr. N. imagines that it lies equally against us Moreover is it true that all the Pains which God inflicts upon the Wicked in this Life are Medicinal and in order to their greater Good What thinks he of the Despair Horror the Agonies both of Soul and Body some desperately wicked Persons lie under at the hour of death Of the Pains the bloody Hector suffers in a Duel by a mortal Wound Of the wicked Soldier mortally wounded in the Field The horrid Criminal presently put upon the Rack and there exspiring The Atheist or Debauched Person taken away by a sudden stroke or by a violent Death Do they suffer these Pains in order to a greater Good Though I acknowledge Pain saith he to be as truly the effect of God as Pleasure yet it is not after the same manner the effect of God as Pleasure is Pleasure is the natural genuine and direct effect of God but Pain comes from him only indirectly and by accident for first 't is of the proper Nature of God to produce Pleasure as consisting of such essential Excellencies and Perfections as will necessarily beautifie and and make happy those who are by being in their true rational Order duly disposed for the Enjoyment of him but if this same excellent Nature occasion pain to other Spirits this is only indirectly and by accident by reason of their moral indisposition for so soveraign a Good Again when God causes Pleasure 't is because he wills it for it self and naturally delights in it as comporting with his primary design which is the Happiness of his Creatures but when he causes Pain 't is not that he wills it from within or for it self but only from without and for the sake of something else as it is necessary to the Order of his Justice for had there been no Sin there never would have been such a thing as Pain which is a plain Argument that God wills our Pleasure as we are Creatures and our Pain only as we are Sinners but now in measuring our Devoirs to God we are not to consider how he stands affected to us as Sinners but how he stands affected to us as Creatures Here it is plain the Good Man shifts the Scene deserts his Subject and his Argument at once that he may seem to avoid the Consequence which follows from it for evident it is that in his Sermon he was discoursing of those Pleasures and Pains only which by the impressions the Creatures made upon us were by God produced in us the Pleasures of the Senses the Eye the Palate the Smell Taste and Touch and the Pains incident to them and from these only is it that he makes his Inference That Creatures are not to be loved or desired at all as being not the Causes but the Occasions of these Pleasures and that God only is to be loved because he only causes them Now is this true of these sensual Pleasures of the Palate and the Throat and the Belly of the carnal Pleasures of the Men of the World of the Pleasures of Envy and the Pleasures wicked Men take not only in doing evil themselves but in seeing others do it of the Pleasure they take in Rioting in the day time that 't is of the proper Nature of God as consisting of such essential Excellencies and Perfections to produce them rather than to produce in us that Godly sorrow which works Repentance unto Life the pangs of the New Birth or those afflicting Pains he lays upon his Children for their profit to make them partakers of his Holiness and which are the Fruits of that Love which is the chief of his Perfections When God causeth Pleasure saith he he doth it because he wills it for it self and naturally delights in it as comporting with his primary design which is the Happiness of his Creatures does he mean the pleasure of tickling or of scraching when I have the Itch or the sensual Pleasures which the Drunkard finds in swallowing down his Liquor or the Glutton in
his delicious Fair or the Lustful Person in his Unchast Embraces No saith he the Pleasures that beautifie and make us happy in the Enjoyment of God But what is this to that purpose of his Sermon or his Argument which only concerns the Pleasures which we find upon occasion of the Creatures making impressions on our Senses Again Pain and Pleasure are both truly the effect of God but not after the same manner viz. I approach to the fire and it warms me God is the natural genuine and direct Cause of this Pleasure I approach nearer to it and it burns me God is the cause of this Pain of burning only indirectly and by accident the fire is only the occasion of both God immediately doth both his Operation is equally determined to do both by the same occasion Who then is able to see any reason why he should be thought the natural genuine and direct Cause of the first and only indirectly and by accident the Cause of the latter Again God saith he wills our Pleasures as we are Creatures and our Pain only as we are Sinners He would do well to reconcile this with the Sentiments of Mr. Malbranch That we being Sinners and by consequence unworthy to be recompens'd by agreeable Sentiments oblige God in consequence of his immutable Will to make us feel Pleasure in the time that we offend him What also doth he think of the Pains of Bruit Beasts which by his Argument must be produced by God only Doth God produce in them pain only as they are Sinners What of the pains of the Holy Martyrs flagrant in Flames of Love to God are they inflicted on them only as they are Sinners Is it not for the Tryal of their Faith Patience Love and Obedience that the Tryal of their Faith might be found to their Praise Honour and Glory at the Revelation of the Lord Iesus What thinks he of the direful Agonies and Sufferings of the Blessed Iesus was he also a Sinner Did he not for the Ioy that was set before him endure the Cross In fine 't is certain that the Wicked find the same sentiments of Delight and sensual Pleasures in their sinful as do the Righteous in their lawful Actions viz. the lustful Person in his unchast Embraces as the Good Man in the Marriage-Bed 'T is certain also that these sensual Delights and Pleasures are very obstructive unto Piety and great Incentives unto Vice What hinders the good Seed from bringing Fruit unto perfection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Pleasures of Life saith Christ. Whence comes wars and fightings among us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from your Pleasures saith St. Iames. Why do you covet and so zealously affect the World's good things that you may saith he spend them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in your Pleasures What gave rise to the Corruptions of the Heathen World even this that they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serve divers Lusts and Pleasures Is it not the pleasure we expect from the Enjoyment of the Creature that gives the Rise to all that love and that desire of the Creature which you so tragically inveigh against And after all this will you not only determine God's Operation to the production of the pleasure of all our sinful Actions and oblige him by an immutable Law to reward our Transgressions with Pleasure and Delight and immediately and solely to produce that in us which is so obstructive to Piety so powerful an incentive to that Sin he infinitely hates and is the rise of all that Mischief which flows from the Love and Desire of the Creature but also tells us That God naturally delights in them and wills them for themselves that they are natural genuine and direct Effects of God and that 't is of the proper Nature of God as consisting of such essential Excellencies and Perfections to produce them Credat Iudaeus Apella And having thus impartially considered all that Mr. N. hath offer'd on this Subject I proceed next to the Discourses of the Good Lady on the same Subject whose Rhetorick is very Charming and her devout Affections highly commendable but her Arguments seldom reach the point and when they do their strength is not equal to the Beauty of the Stile I grant unto her that we are not to rest in the Creature as our end For what we are to love only in due relation to our end we cannot rest in as our end That we are not to desire them as our Happiness or to look upon them as the completion of our Bliss because we are to prize God only as the Object of our Bliss and Happiness That we are not to lay the weight of our Souls upon them or place our Felicity in them That we must not cleave to any Creature or fix our Hearts upon it for that is contrary to that superlative Affection to God which requires us to part with all things to cleave close unto him That we must not suffer the Creature to usurp our hearts or to sit uppermost in our minds for then we cannot love God above all things Let her go on with her chast Rhetorick and Holy Flames to beat down this inordinate Affection to the Creature and we will equally admire and approve her sayings We accord with her That the very best of Creatures are not able to satisfie the Longings and fill the Capacities of our mind Whence it will follow that we must not place our Satisfaction or the Contentment of our mind in any Creature which notwithstanding if the Creature can supply our Wants and be ordained by the Providence of God to do so we think it is the proper Object of our desire to have that want supplied We ought not to love the World saith she because of the danger of being conformed to it for nothing is so excellent at imitation as Love nothing does so easily assimilate Now doth she here mean the corrupt manners of the World Her Proposition is invincible but reaches not the point If she means the good Things of the World Food Drink Clothes Houses Lands Orchards Gold or Silver I hope the danger of assimilation is not here very great 'T is granted That the whole compass of desire must not be carried out after the Creature for then I could not desire God above all and before all things So that my desire of Temporals when lawful should be comparatively none and when they hinder my desire of him should be absolutely none 'T is therefore true That the boundlesness of desire is a plain Indication that it was never made for the Creature Only But will it follow hence that the Creature was not made for the Satisfaction of our natural Desires or that our natural Appetites should not move to desire the Enjoyment of them We grant That God virtually comprehends all possible Good i. e. that he hath Virtue sufficient to produce it and that he is
or remember that it did so Is it not evidently the Soul that apprehends remembers seeks desires and doth all these things How unintelligible therefore is it to talk of all these things only as Movements of the Body and and not as Movements of the Soul To take his own Instance Do we approach to the Fire by a Bodily movement without desiring the Fire and expecting Pleasure from it And is not this desire and expectation a movement of the Soul Is it not the Soul which moves those animal Spirits into those Parts and Muscles by which we are enabled to approach the Fire by a bodily movement So that as far as I am able to perceive here is nothing true nothing satisfactory I had almost said nothing intelligible in this pretended Illustration Moreover when He and the Lady allow us to move toward these things only as the Occasions not as the Causes of our Good I ask Is not the continuance of my Life and Being good And is Food only the occasion is it not the means by God appointed for the continuance of Life Is Physick only the occasion is it not the means of my Health Is sleep only the occasion is it not the means of my Refreshment And so of the Pleasure that we find in the Recovery of our Health and the Refreshments of our wearied Spirits And lastly were it true that God is the immediate cause of all the Pleasure that we find in the Creature was any Body acquainted with this Notion till these latter days Doth one in Ten thousand now believe it Are the generality of Men capable of Understanding it And must not then all who in former Ages did not and who at present cannot understand or believe it lie under a necessity of desiring the Creature as the true cause of their Pleasure and so have a movement of the Soul toward it as such So that this matter is both impracticable and unintelligible The Notion also seems as useless as 't is unintelligible for am I not as much obliged to God for the Benefit and Pleasure I receive from any of his Creatures whether he do immediately produce that Pleasure in me by occasion of them or doth produce in me those Faculties by which I am enabled to perceive the Pleasure they afford Is not the Pleasure which reflects from them as occasions or as natural Causes of it still the same And is not the Giver of these Faculties and Creatures the sole Author of it Is not causa causae causa causati Must not he who is the efficient cause of all those Faculties by which I perceive Pleasure from the Creatures his Providence affords me be the true efficient cause of all my Pleasure Is it not the same Kindness to give me Money to build me an House and to pay my Debts my self as to build an House or pay my Debts for me since either way my Debts are equally paid and my House built and the Benefit is the same In fine Doth this Notion tend at all to abate or lessen our desires of the Creature Not at all For be it supposed that they are only occasions of our Pleasure yet are they granted to such occasions as are always attended with this Pleasure and without which it would not be produced in us by God If then the Object be as pleasing as it would be provided God had lodged a power in it to excite this Pleasure in me and given me Faculties to perceive it without his immediate Operation as certainly it is then is it also equally desirable it being the Pleasure it self not the efficient of it that I do desire Mr. N. saith We must not desire them as our Good because they do us no Good they afford us no Pleasure but God doth upon occasion of them A very Metaphysical Consideration which scarce any one regards in the pursuit of his Pleasure and which will abate no Man's desire of it for the Gratification of the Appetite the Enjoyment of the Delight and the pleasing Sentiment is that thing desired and pursued Now the Creatures being allowed to be the positive Conditions upon which God by his immutable Law and Order stands obliged to give these Gratifications and Delights and without which he will not produce in us one of these pleasing Sentiments must not my pursuit of Pleasure and desire of it oblige me to desire and pursue that without which I know I cannot have it and with which I am sure I cannot want it they being the positive Conditions determining the Operation of God to produce this Pleasure in me i. e. to give me that which only I desire and pursue and for which only I desire the Creature However it is granted First That we may seek and use sensible things for our Good and hence it is inferred that we may desire and be pleased with that is may love them as our Good because it is the apprehension of them as Good to us or as things which may do us Good which moveth us to use and seek them for our Good Secondly 'T is also granted That we may unite our selves and approach to them by the Movements of the Body which Movements of the Body being not Mechanical Motions but caused by some Movements of the Soul towards them hence I conclude we may approach or unite our selves to them also by some Movements of the Soul which is the thing denied by Mr. N. And having premised this I proceed directly to return an Answer to the Arguments by which Mr. N. endeavours to establish his Opinion That the Love of God is exclusive of all Love of the Creature and doth require us in Iustice to withdraw every straggling Desire from it I confess the Incomparable Lady hath let fall some words which seem to lay an Imputation of the worst of Follies upon this attempt Her words are these I will not search for Arguments to inforce this Love after those incomparable ones you have so well inculcated which are indeed unanswerable And not to be opposed by any thing but that which is as unconquerable as it is unaccountable wilful Folly But though these be indeed hard Strokes I 'm sure they come from a very soft and tender hand and from as sweet a temper'd Soul as lives in Flesh. They therefore must be taken by the right handle and must be thought to be intended as an high Compliment to Mr. N. not as an imputation of Folly to all that should oppose his incomparable Inforcements of his Tenet Passing them therefore over with this gentle touch I pass on to a Consideration of the Arguments of Mr. N. contained in his Sermon and in his Letters Then he argues thus God is the only Cause of our Love that is of that Bent or Endeavour whereby the Soul of Man stands inclined to Good in General this Notion of our Souls being a necessary Adherent to our Beings such as we never were without and such as