our use only as they do gratify our wills in enmity to god and not at all as the works of his hands or as bearing any thing of his image and superscription upon them SECT IV. THe right paying or performing of the secondary debt of love to all creatures as the works of gods hands but specially to all men and yet more especially to the houshold faith those that are not only made but born of God doth redound wholly to the profit of man as well as his performing the first debt of love immediatly unto god himself God is above all capacity of receiving any profit by any thing his creatur's can do All inferiour things are designed for the profit of man not of god And all the duty god requir's of man is calculated singly and wholly to his own advantage If he be wicked he hurts other and himself but god he cannot hurt If he be righteous what gives he to god or what receiveth god at hiâ— hand Job 35. 6 8. The disadvantage of sin and profit of righteousnes belongs to ourselvs only God can't be hurt by the one or profited by thâ— other CHAP. VIII The nature conditions force properties and fruit of love LOve is the only treasure man has properly to dispose of If it be rightly bestow'd 't is good and the man so too if wrongly evil When 't is given the thing chiefly beloved obteins dominion over it and so over the whole man The will is the ruling power in man commands all the rest of him To whom or whatsoever a man 's whole love is given his whole will is given and consequently the whole man As the chief love is so is the man good or evil Nothing better then a right love nothing worse then a wrong Love being all we can properly call our own when we give that we give all we have If then we mis bestow and lose that we lose all We are undone We lose it when we give it where it is not due whereby we dishonour and provoke him to whom alone it is due Good love is the root of all other vertues evil love the root of all other vices He that has a right knowledg of love know's the whole good of man He that know's not the nature of love is ignorant of the whole good of man The proper nature and inseperable condition of love is that thereby the lover is tranformed into and united with the thing loved The lover and chiefly beloved are of two things made one by love The thang brought upon the lover by the beloved through the transforming assimilating property of love is not forc'd violent painful or laborious but free voluntary pleasant and delightfull The will and so the whole man is denominated from the thing chiefly loved If earthly things be chiefly loved he is an earthly man has an earthly will If god be his chief beloved he is a heavenly man has a heavenly will By love a man is capable of being transformed and brought into union with another thing better then himself as god or equal to himself as man or inferiour to himself as earth gold beasts houses lands c. The first union advances him the last degrades him Through love as wel or ill plac'd is man capable of ascending and being exalted above himself or of being vilified degraded corrupted and so of descending below his own natural dignity in the universe He ascend's or descend's is advanced or depressed enobled or abased accordingly as the thing chiefly loved by him is more or lesse worthy then himself If he place his chief love on what 's equal to him he ascend's not nor advantages himself at all but indeed does deprave and abase himself because he sin's in giving away god 's peculiar due to any creature whatsoever God alone who is infinitly above us and infinitly deserv's our chief love does undispensably require it and by having it will unspeakably advance us Those that so honour him he will honour 1 Sam. 2. 30. The chiefly beloved is to the will of man by love as the bridegroom to the bride There 's a kind of matrimonial union contracted by love between the will and its chiefly beloved the thing so loved becomming the husband and the will the wife And as the woman ought to have but one husband the will can have but one chiefly beloved If a poor mean man should have eight daughters and one of them should marry a man of like meaness with herself the second a gentleman the third an esquire the fourth a knight the fift and earl the sixt a duke the seventh a king the eighth an emperour they would ascend one over the head of another according to the several dignities of their husbands But though we may find many husbands or chiefly beloveds of different degrees amongst creatures for the will of man there is indeed none but God himself the universal emperour and king of kings who can truly dignify ennoble and advaÌ„ce our will by its being brought into a state of unchangable marriage-union with his To a greater dignity it cannot ascend then is so atteinable But the wills of men which are equal by nature contract some gradual difference in dignity within the compass of creature-beloveds They are called earthly brutish or humane accordingly as their husband or chief-beloved is But there is no creature-beloved nothing below God which finally rested in and fixed on will not leave the will and whole person exposed to eternal confusion We can never attein any true hapines but by the marriage-union of our will with God's Nothing is worthy to be our chief beloved that cannot truly meliorate and ennoble us God only can do thiâ— who is infinitly lovely and can render all that love him everlastingly and unspeakably blessed He that finally fail's as to the performance of this highest duty by placing his chief love on any thing below god will sink down into the uâ—most exâ—rdainity of vileness misery and confusion for ever A woman joyn'd to a husband that 's good rich valiant powerful and wife has proportionably a temporary peace security rest comfort and joy if joyn'd to an ill-natur'd perverse miserable poor conceited foolish man she is like to know sorrow misery and tribulation by himelf the will of man be joyned to a husband that 's infinitly good rich powerful and wise it hath serenity peace rest joy unspeakable and glosious Nothing can hurt that beloved or separate us from his love neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature Rom. 8. 38 39. But if our will be joyned to some poor weak slight feeble indigent variable insufficient thing as it s chiefly beloved it is in continual tribulation or at best can have no true and wel-grounded security rest peace or comfort at all This doctrine about the right transmutation of maÌ„'s will by resignation to and
otherwise love another's honour or pleasure then as conducing to his own He will hate oppose and speak against any other's honour or pleasure that stands in competition with or opposition to his He that makes himself or his own will his chief beloved makes himself his God So many men then as are of this strein so many Gods And amongst this vast multitude of needy false idol-gods must needs arise envy strife division wrath hatred war every one seeking to defend and encrease his own honour and delights against others and â—aking what he can to himself for support thereof They contend for propriety in those outward things whereby their indigent wills may be gratified and maintein'd in the lusts thereof Whence come warrs and fightings amongst men but from their lusts that war in their members Jam. 4 1. A self-lover loves not himself as a man in common with others but as this individual man in separation from all others Pretend what he will he loves not the community of mankind He seeks only him self in the community His love is private narrow and personal not large universal and common to man as man Whatever love such a man pretend's to any other persons or things 't is himself only that he seek's in all All other loves arising from self-love are private and selfish as the root and fountain is from whence they flow He that loves God in the first place loves all creatur's as related to him The more common larg and universal our love thus is the better the more narrow particular singular and private the worse CHAP. XI From self-love may we argue our duty to god BY self-love may man find even from within himself as the neerest and most evidencing example that 's possible what it is he owes unto God For having by self-love made himself his God he gives seeks and ascrib's unto himself all things that he ought to give unto God He seek's his own honour praise and glory not God's But thereby may he know what belong's unto God into whose room he hath thrust himself By the consequents of loving himself and following his own will may be certainly know what would be the consequents of loving God and following of his will He now seek's his own honour above all other honour of God or men he does all he can to preserv defend and encrease it From hence may be certainly conclude that he ought to seek defend propagate and multiply the honour of God in the hearts of men to his utmost that he ought to hate oppose and do all he can to diminish and abolish any honour that 's contrary thereunto In a word all things a man does from an evil principle of self-love or would have done by others to and for himself ought he to do and desire may be done by others unto god Chap. 12. Sect. I. The different fruits of the two chief loves the love of God and self THat which is finally expected and desired by man from other creatur's is fruit Every kind of fruit has its proper seed and every seed brings forth its peculiar fruit distinct from others The will of man is a kind of spiritual field wherein two chief loves as two very different seeds are sown self love and the love of God Let us now enquire after the final fruit producible from these two seeds or roots which being contrary to each other the fruits must needs be so too Endless joy and endless sorrow wil be the two final fruits springing up in the field of man's will from the love of God or self Man seek's for joy in all he does hates and flee's sorrow True joy springs up only from the love of God true sorrow from self-love God only is that infinite invariable al-sufficient good which when man firmly loves and enjoys he hath joy enough and that such as none can ever deprive him of T is a fixed solid invariable joy Such as the thing chiefly loved is such is the love and such the joy arising therefrom The nature conditions and properties of such joy as arises from the love of God are the same with those of the love of God above demonstrated The fruit is of the same nature with the root If the love of god be a just holy true orderly pure clean excellent love suitable to the nature of man and of God the joy arising therefrom is also a just holy true orderly pure righteous excellent joy Such joy will endure as long as the love it spring's from and such love will endure as long as the thing beloved God The heart then that 's fix'd on God will have everlasting gladnes eternal pleasure delight complacency rest peace satisfaction jubilations Joy dilat's fortifies comfort 's delight 's the heart of man Sadnes contract's weaken's discourages and destroy's it He that has perpetual joy has perpetual life he that has perpetual sorrow has perpetual death God is an alsufficient inexhaustible fountain of life and joy eternal to innumerable creatur's without any diminution to himself Nor will the joy which any man will have eternally in God be any way 's diminished but increased by the like joy in other men If the holy angels rejoyce afresh at the conversion of a sinfull man unto God as receiving an addition thereby to their former joy how can it be but that all elect men and angels should eternally and mutually rejoyce in the joy which all of them will have in the lord By how much the more cleerly any man sees and know's the lord so much the more will he love him and rejoyce in him Perfection of joy in God arises from the perfection of love to him and the perfection of such love arises from the perfect knowledg of him Nothing can destroy such love such joy that cannot destroy God himself with whom man is inseperably united by such love SECT II. Resurrection THe perfection of man's eternal joy and blessednes in heaven argues the resurrection of his body The spirit of man has a natural inclination and love to its own body as that which was fashion'd by the hand of God and brought into a kind of natural marriage-union with it The body alone is not a man nor yet the spirit but both as put together in personal union The recovery and restitutioÌ„ of the body then after it is laid down by death cannot but be naturally desired by the spirit as a necessary ingredieÌ„t into the compositioÌ„ of the man Till he hath all the essentialls of his humane constitution about him so as to be compleated in his personal being wanting nothing that may justly he desired by him his joy cannot be absolutly perfect and compleat And on the same ground that we may conclude the body wil be restored may we farther conclude that it wil be restored in a state most proportion'd lovely and desireable to the elect to wit a most beautiful comeâ—ly glorious impassible immortal agile spiritual body He that can
confusion As eye hath not seen ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him So nor hath eye seen ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man while on earth the dreadful vengeance and eternal fadnes that wil be the portion of all those that finally persist in the love of themselvs which is enmity to God Eternal sorrow is eternal death in reference to which man wil be kept up in a most exquisite sensiblenes by the omnipotent hand of divine justice God know's exactly all the sins and follies of men in their full dimensions and aggravations and will proportion their punishment thereunto Those that deny God his due by not loving him but themselvs and so hating him with all their heart soul strength and mind wil be sure to meet with their due from the most just avenging hand of God that fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries Man by self-love exalt's himself into the room of God with an ERO SIMILIS ALTISSIMO in harmony with the devil's first sin on which he will come to be cast down to hel 2. Pet. 2. 4. with his leaders the devil and his angels The punishment due to man for such contempt of his omnipotent creatour is unexpressible by the tongu's of men or angles Fire as the most afflicting thing in nature is used to express the eternal punishment of man The eternal fire into which he wil be cast will burn but not consume him or afford him any light It wil be accompanied with eternal darknes It will have all the afflicting grieving properties of fire but none of the relieving comforting properties at all Men that love darknes rather then light here because their deeds are evil will have their fill of darknes at last for all their evil deeds Man only of all the visible world can properly deserv and accordingly receive punishment from the hand of god because he only is furnished with rational powers to know what he ought to do and to do what he ought in obedience to God If therefore he do things contrary to the will of God and his own light God will bring somthing upon him contrary to his will with eternal darknes His will being a perpetual thing and fixed in enmity to God God will do that which wil be perpetually contrary to it His inordinate will chiefly affected and sought his own honour praise glory and pleasure the contraries whereunto in extreamity wil be his portion eternal dishonour contempt shame confusion and sorrow unutterable The everlasting punishment of man from the hand of God wil be managed and executed in such a way as is most contrary to his will and desire and most conducible to the aggravation and advance of his sorrow SECT III. Resurrection AGain from the eternal punishment and sorrow due to the soul of mā we may conclude it shall recover its own body again and that in a state most contrary to its desire for the encrease of its sorrow As it us'd it contrary to the will of God on earth it shall have it in a posture most contrary to it 's own will in hel for ever As the whole man body and soul acted against the will of God in this world So must the whole man body and soul suffer against his own will in hel And because 't is more contrary to the will of man in such case to receive his body again in a passible condition or capacity of suffering then impassible and in an immortal condition uncapable of losing its sensiblenes then mortal c. we may conclude that he will receive it clogg'd and attended with all imaginable disadvantages a passible and yet immortal body that it may ever suffer a most obscure dark deformed body for the encrease and aggravation of his sorrow Furthermore all the sorrow of others in fellowship with him and all the joy of others in the opposite condition thereunto will make for the encrease of his sorrow The creatour and every creature yea the very soul itself shall avenge the cause of God upon man so that he will have no comfort on any account or from any thing for ever The creatour every creature all the joy and good of others all the sorrow and evil of others shall make for the encrease of his sorrow So have we the truth and certainty as to the two final fruits which will arise from the two above mention'd first loves the love of God and self CHAP. XIV Two generall societies and everlasting habitations of men THe freedom which man hath in the united exercise of his understanding and will above-spokē to for the judging and turning this way or that qualifies and capacitates him for the taking of two contrary wayes the steering of two opposite courses unto life or death By the different wayes which men take in the exercise of these their rational powers do they come to be divided and separated in will affectiō mind doctrine and interest so as to be direct enemies to each other T is requisite therefore that there be two distinct final receptions or habitations for them suitable to the distance and contrariety of their affections The same thing may be also concluded from the two above-said first loves the love of God and self which render men directly contrary to each other separating elongating alienating and distancing them from one another in will affection and their whole course as far as is possible One of their habitations will be the place of sorrow and eternal death the other of joy and eternal life The one wil be the royal palace and house of God the other an everlasting dungeon full of confusion darkness and all evill In the one wil be more good in the other more evil then can be express'd by the tongu's of men or angels All that have walk'd and finish'd their course in self-love being of the same nature and inclination wil be gathered together into one place And all that have lived in the love of God as being also of one temper and inclination wil be gathered into a distinct place separated from and most opposite to the other as a company or corporation most contrary in Spirit and principle to the other The sheep will finally be separated from the goats and enter into life eternal the goats must away into everlasting punishment Mat. 25. 32. 46. Seing there are but two general inclinations of men there can be but two places for their final abode heaven and hel And each place wil be suitable to the different temper of the inhabitants Those that by self-love have sought to dethrone God and to usurp the peculiar soveraignty of his will wil be thrust into outer darknes where shal be weeping and gnashing of teeth CHAP. XV. Concerning hatred MAn's obligation extend's to hatred as well as love The right knowledg then of hatred and love is the same All that hath bin proved of