Word eternall Wisedom God euerlastinglie blessed That Sonne which Esay calleth the Father of Eternitie would make himselfe the Sonne of man to the end that we might be children of God yea was content to be borne in a stable to the end that wee might be receiued into heauen to be borne amongst beasts to the end that wee might be companions with Angels Hee who is the Word it selfe was content to stammer as a childe to the end that wee might speake vnto God in all libertie He who is the bread of life was content to be an hungred to the end we might be satisfied He who is the fountaine of life was content to be athirst to the end our soules might be moistned Briefly he who is life it selfe hath suffered death that hee might giue vs life All this for vile creatures yea enemies vnto God that he might make them of slaues vnto Sathan his owne children and transport them from hel into his kingdom These are the bottomlesse pits of the bountie goodnesse of God which do gently swallow vp our soules there is pleasure to lose ones selfe therein For these are the bottomlesse depths of the grace of God which passe our vnderstanding but doe recreate our hearts which giue matter of admiration and also no lesse subiect of consolation Here are the highest witnesses of his loue here are all his fatherly affections layed open all the riches of that grace which the Angels themselues admire and as Saint Peter saith endeuour to pry profoundly into louing in this case the goodnesse of God not for their owne profit but in respect of God himselfe for Iesus Christ is not come into the world for their redemption Now to what end all this but that wee should loue him who hath so much loued vs and admire with ioy the treasures of his grace O God as thy greatnesse is incomprehensible so also thy bountie is infinite our spirits are stopped with this contemplation our words are beneath our thoughts and our thoughts yet much lower then the truth We speake of this greatnesse but stammeringly our praises do abase thee we draw the picture of the Sun with a coale But ô God raise vp our soules to thee and if our spirits be too weake to know thee make our affections ardent to loue thee Thou who wast pleased to be our Father touch our hearts with a filiall affection Thou which giuest vs occasion to loue thee giue vs also the motions thereof For as much as we are poore in meanes so much are we vncapable to receiue them and to loue thee after hauing receiued them if thou thy selfe doest not plant thy loue in vs. All these considerations do raise vp our spirits to loue God not for our selues but for his owne sake which appeareth also in this that our loue to God cannot be well directed if it be not formed vpon the modell of that loue wherewith God hath loued vs. Now God loueth vs for the loue of himselfe as he saith by the mouth of Esay It is I it is I that blotteth out thy sinnes for mine owne sake And it is the prayer which Daniel maketh in his ninth chapter Lord heare Lord pardon Lord tarrie not but hasten for thine owne sake for thy name hath bene called vpon this citie and vpon thy people God considereth that we beare his image hee considereth that wee are vnworthy of his grace but that it is a thing worthy of his bountie to do good vnto the vnworthy and which is more to make them worthy by doing them good He considereth that his Church is like vnto a flock which carieth his name and is called the people of God and therefore he will not let it be Sathans prey nor a matter of triumph vnto the aduersarie The third degree of the loue of God THe third degree or step is so to loue God aboue all things that we should loue nothing in the world but for his sake For example there are many persons and many things in the world that wee cannot keepe our selues from louing yea and it would be ill done not to loue them So a father loueth his children a wife her husband our kindred allies neighbours and friends haue part in this amitie So a man loueth his health his house his land his studie c. To go about to dispossesse a man of the loue of these things would be an inhumane doctrine and more then tending to brutalitie He is worse then an infidell that hath not care of his familie saith the Apostle Pietie rooteth not out these affections but doth husband them and of mistrisses which they were maketh them but handmaids vnto the loue and feare of the Lord. No more then Iosua would kill the Gibeonites but subiected them vnto the seruice of Gods house For then doth a father loue his children as hee ought if in bringing them vp he purpose to vse them as mē do yong plants which shall one day bring forth fruite to the glorie of God If he so remember himself to be their father that he be yet more mindfull that God is his Then a man loueth his friends as he ought when he loueth them because they loue God and because hee seeth the image of God shining in them So we shall then iustly loue health when wee shall loue it not because it is more gamesom and without paine but because it bringeth vigour vnto our bodies and libertie vnto our mindes to serue God in our vocation The like ought to be said of riches of honours of knowledge things which one may honestly loue prouided that their loue doe not distract vs from the loue of God but may rather thereto aduance help vs to performe good workes And as there is not any so little brooke but it leadeth vnto the sea so let these goodnesses of God seeme they neuer so smal leade our thoughts to this great depth of the goodnes and greatnesse of God Briefly all our liues and affections towards our neighbours shal be well squared out when they shal be branches brooks of Gods loue and a reflection of our sight which from God glanceth vpon his image Neuer loue the persons for that which is about them but for what is in them Esteem not of men as of purses for the money which is therein If you honour a man because he is well clothed by consequēce ought we to salute sattin in whole peeces If you account of a man for his honours sake you tie his dignitie to his titles and to his habite which things being takē away there is no more of any thing which ought to be loued as a horse which carieth an idoll which being takē away hath no more reuerences done about him On the contrary if you loue a man because he feareth God because he is firme in the faith forward in the knowledge of God true in his words iust in his actions charitable towards the afflicted burning with the
to these allurements possessing as saith Saint Paul our vessels in holinesse abstain your selues not onely from euill but also from all appearance and occasions of euill Eschue idlenesse for it is the pillow of vices Let Satan coming to assaile you find you euer occupied Flie bad companie filthy talke books of loue for they are fire-brands of lust the hookes and baits of the diuel None cometh to do euill but by these accessaries yea the euill is alreadie in these accessaries Many will say that they are chast of bodie but their eyes their eares and their thoughts are culpable of lust Yet Christ saith that he who looketh on his neighbours wife to lust after her hath already committed adultery The best companie and the best busines to diuert our minds from this euill is the carefull reading of the word of God ioyned vnto prayer Saint Augustine in the eight book of his Confessions cap. 8. 12. saith that when he was vpon termes of rendering himselfe a Christian that which most troubled him was that hee must leaue his fornication and that in this combatfull anguish hee withdrew himselfe into a garden where twice he heard the voice of a child as it were coming from the houses hard by saying Take and reade At this voice he tooke the booke of the Epistles of S. Paul and chanced at the first opening of the booke on this text of the 13. chapter to the Romains where he saith Let vs walke honestlie as in the day time not in riot and drunkēnesse not in chambering and wantonnesse neither in strife or enuie but put you on the Lord Iesus Christ and haue no care of the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof There was enough for him and thereupon were it that this voice came from God or that it chanced by other meanes he resolued to follow the counsell of the Apostle who without looking for any reuelation therupon doth sufficiently manifest vnto vs the wil of God touching the laying off of these desires The second marke of the loue of God THis same loue bringeth forth another effect by which it is to be knowne to wit the peace and tranquillitie of the soule it chaseth away feares asswageth cares sweetneth afflictions For what euill soeuer happeneth him who loueth God he wil euer remember the sentence of the Apostle Rom. 8. That all things turne to the best for them which loue God Euen their crosses becom blessings their bodily pouerty is a spiritual diet vnto them their banishments teach them to leaue the world their sequestring from honors is their approch vnto God their enemies are their Physitions causing them to be warie and to liue in Gods feare Their corporall diseases are spirituall cares death is an entrie into life and a bringing forth by which the soule is deliuered of the bodie as of her last after-birth and cometh forth of a darke den to enter into Gods light The passage through afflictions resembleth the passage of the red sea for the wicked are ouerwhelmed therein they are vnto them forerunners of damnation but the faithfull and Gods people finde that way a passage vnto the land of promise This verie same loue of God will suggest vnto the faithfull this thought Seeing that I loue God it is certaine that he loueth me For Saint Iohn saith that we loue him because he loued vs first For I had not naturally in me any inclination to loue him but it was hee who louing me framed my heart to loue him Now if God loue mee he intendeth my good and he can do all that he will nothing hapneth but according to his will He will not then permit that any euill happen me he will turne my euils vnto good for my saluation he will leade me thereunto through a way thornie vnto flesh but healthfull to my soule Briefly the loue of God excludeth feares and is the prop of our assurance as saith the Apostle Saint Iohn There is no feare in charitie but perfect charitie driueth forth feare This same loue sweetneth afflictions and maketh our Lords yoake easie and tollerable For you shall see by experience that in a house where loue is great betweene the husband and the wife they passe the bad time ouer with content and haue mutuall consolatiō one of another yea to haue a faithfull friend into whose bosome you may shed your teares and powre forth your complaints doth bring a man much ease although it bring no remedy How much more shall the faithfull soule find feele in the loue of his God of God who not onely knoweth our euils counteth our sighes layeth vp our teares in his vessels but who can and will remedie them and not onely remedie them but turne them to good giuing vs in our afflictions not onely occasion to suffer but euen matter of reioycing So the faithfull speake in the 46. Psalm Let the waters of the sea make a noise and let the mountaines shake by the rising of his waues in the meane time the brookes of the riuer shall reioyce the city of God These troblesome waters are the people banded against God as is expounded in the Apocalypse chapter 17. These brookes which in the meane time do reioyce the holy citie are the instructiōs of Gods word whose voice is our consolation For in his afflictions the faithfull will turne aside his eyes from his enemies and from all second causes and will say Lord it is thou that hast done it I receiue this affliction at thy hand make this proue healthfull vnto me and permit not that I euer come to murmur against thee or to kicke against the pricke We swallow with the better resolution a bitter potion when it is presented vs by a friendly hand whose ignorance or falshood we feare not We finde all these things in God who moreouer maketh venomes themselues to prooue good medicines So the loue of God is a retraite and shelter against all anguish it is the groūd of true peace it is the prop of our assurance which causeth vs to despise the threatnings of men to looke on the enterprises of great men and the risings of people with disdaine which causeth vs to find ease on the rack and to looke on deaths face with assurance and take off his maske to see Iesus Christ which cometh vnto vs vnder that shew which maketh the faithful to stand vpright in the middest of the ruines of his country This holy loue made S. Paul to say Rom. 8. If God be with vs who shall be against vs He which hath not spared his owne Sonne but deliuered him ouer for vs how shall not he giue vs all things with him Let vs likewise say He that laieth vp our teares wil not he gather vp our prayers He without whose prouidēce a sparrow lighteth not on the ground wold he permit that our soules should fall into hell for lacke of caring for them Hee who extendeth his care to gather vp our teares yea to count
wold he haue bin rauished if himselfe had bene transfigured as the Apostle saith that Iesus Christ shall transforme our vile bodies that they may be made like vnto his glorious bodie Who doubteth but that when this glorie vanished S. Peter was seized with great sorrow and so indeede the heart of the faithfull comming from this meditation againe to consider these base and earthly things is necessarily touched with a great distast and base esteeme of them and is grieued to see himselfe tied thereunto and to say with Dauid Psal 42. O when shall I present my self before the face of God It was these thoughts which made the Prophet greedie and thirstie after the Lord. These were the thoughts which made Paul desire to be dislodged and to be with Christ which made him thinke that which was gaine vnto others to be losse vnto him These are the thoughts which haue euen in our time sustained the Martyrs which haue made them go vnto death as cheerfully as those which come thence For loue is strong saith Salomon as death yea stronger seeing it maketh one to despise life This ardour of loue is entertayned in our soules by a frequent cōmunication with God and wee may easily see that the cause of our slacknesse and coldnesse in this loue is because wee speake not often with God The most exquisite friendships doe waxe cold for want of communication how much more if friendship neuer hath bene as indeed man is naturally borne and inclined vnto enmitie with God This is a common euill to wit that wee are much exercised in speaking with others but very litle with our selues and yet lesse with God If some houres of leisure do steale vs from men they giue vs not any whit the more vnto God If we enter alone into our closet we enter not euer the sooner into our selues to examine our consciēces to search our wounds to feele the pulses of our consciences or to talk with God And yet none shall see him aboue who hath not carefully sought him here below and hath not carefully walked with him by prayers meditations and by the studie and reading of the word This let vs study and from our life which is deuided into a thousand parts amongst a thousand occupatiōs suites solicitations publicke and domesticke affaires let vs withdraw some houres to giue our selues vnto God retiring our selues out of the throng and noise of this world quietly to meditate on those things which pertaine to our saluation As if by a litle channell we wold diuert a part of the troubled waters of a stream that they may run more gently and cleerly A running brooke presenteth not any images nor a spirit which is euer in action alwaies pussed with businesse hardly can hee frame himselfe vnto the image of God We must then separate some houres to speake with God All the time of our life is lost except that which is thus husbanded That time alone is only ours which we giue to God Let none here alledge his domesticke affaires For if we be Gods children his seruice is part of our domesticall affaires yea and whilest we are doing our handy workes what hindereth vs that we may not think of God and send him vp by our broken sighes those sort of prayers which the ancient Fathers called eiaculatoriae short praiers which may be said euery where prayers lanced forth spiritual sallies borne of the present occasion prayers which haue no other ornament but feruency whose clauses haue no other contexture but necessitie Who doubteth but that the Prophet Eliseus ploughing of his field of that verie labour of his tooke occasion to say We sow here in teares but we shall reape in heauen with ioy Or that the Apostle S. Paul labouring with his hands to make tents of this earthly trauell tooke occasion to thinke of our heauenly rest The way is euery where open vnto praier and the loue of God is ingenious to suggest thoughts which like sparkes of pietie mount vp vnto God The fift marke of the Loue of God THe life of the bodie is discerned by these two markes 1. by motion 2. by feeling The loue of God being the life of our soules is also knowne by these two things The foure marks of this loue which wee haue hitherto presented are the motions of our soules for they are holy actions and spirituall motions produced by the loue of God but this fift marke is the feeling to wit an affection which maketh a man sensible to be moued either with griefe or with ioy according as God is blasphemed or glorified Carnall and vicious loue may serue vs for an example We reade of the sonne of king Antigonus that being grieuously sicke and none knowing the cause of his maladie his Physitian perceiued the cause to be the loue of his mother in law because that she being entred into the chamber his pulse began to beate extraordinarily The like happeneth in the loue of God All men that are therewith possessed when that they see God glorified or his name his truth blasphemed although hee intend to containe himselfe yet will the pulse of his conscience be extraordinarily moued either with ioy or sorow and impatience It will chance him as it happened vnto Croesus his sonne who hauing bene euer dumbe came suddenly to his speech seeing his father assailed feare and griefe hauing ouercome all naturall hinderances For the Spirit of Iesus Christ dwelling in him produceth the same effects in him as in himselfe of whom it is written The zeale of thy house hath eaten me vp This affection did exulcerate the Apostle Saint Paul being at Athens and grieued his soule to see the Towne so giuen to idolatry This same zeale was it which seized on the soule of Eli his daughter in law so as in her death she was not so much afflicted either for his or for her husbands as for the Arke of the couenant which was taken by the infidels It is of this alone that she speaketh dying The glorie of the Lord saith she is departed frō Israel There is no more certain effect of the loue of God then this here for if at one time we receiue seuerall newes the one of the losse of a law-suite the other of the reuolt of some persons bought and are more grieued with the last then the first Or if we be more angrie to heare Gods name blasphemed then to heare our selues euill spoken of then haue we in vs an assured witnesse that the loue of God is liuely imprinted in our soules Good bloud will not bely it selfe All wel-borne children are touched at the quicke with the iniuries are done vnto their fathers who so is not moued therewith confesseth himselfe a bastard or a stranger This is an euill which we see before our eyes to our great griefe that vnto them which make profession to carrie weapons and to vnderstand the termes of reputatiō if one speake the least crosse
which God hath giuē you serueth you but to feele griefe more sensibly or that God hath made you great that your teares might haue the greater fall Time which easeth the most ignorant people of their euils cannot it finish the sighes of a person whom God hath so much enriched with his knowledge Shall it not be better to ioy in future good things which are great and certaine then to afflict our selues for euils past which are remediles Herein surely God is offended if in worldly crosses we find more occasion of griefe then matter of ioy in heauēly riches And wrongfully do we complaine of our afflictions seeing we hurt our selues we doe vnderhand as it were confesse that God hath not afflicted vs enough The Psalmist saith indeed that God putteth vp our teares into his bottels as precious things but he speaketh of teares bred of repentance or of griefe to see God blasphemed and despised amongst men For God gathereth not vp obstinate tears which extending themselues beyond their limits occupie the time due to consolation How many times giuing your selfe to reading haue you bedewed the holie scripture with your teares and yet this booke containeth the matter of our ioy And in the booke of Psalmes the tunes wherof you loue and yet much more the matter where you see your own picture and the anatomie of your inward affections Haue you not obserued that all the Psalmes which haue their beginnings troubled and whose first lines containe nothing but profoūd sighes and broken complaints do end in delight and termes which witnes contentment and peace of conscience Let your tears Madame be formed vpon this example and let them end in spirituall ioy Let your faith raise her selfe from vnder her burthen and let the sluces of afflictions which God hath stopped her course withal make her to runne forth with the greater impetuousnes let her take strēgth from resistance Hereunto the meditation of Gods graces will much serue you the which if you coūterballance with your euils they will mightily weigh them downe The onely attention of future glorie which you apprehend by faith can it not digest all bitternesse That faith which filled the Martyrs with ioy in the midst of their present torments may she not in our rest comfort vs against the memorie of passed euils And you who acknowledge what seruitude those people liue in which are dragged into perdition by the inuisible chaines of opiniō and custome can you sufficiently magnifie the grace which God hath giuen you in honoring you with his alliance and enlightning you with his truth Yea and in your life time how many of Gods assistances how many difficulties happily ouergone God hauing giuē you the grace to be alone in your family an example of constancie and holy perseuerance in the profession of his truth hauing made you great that in the contradiction of the world you might be an example of firmenesse and constancie And yet admit your wounds were more grieuous as taking all at the worst our liues being so short they cānot long last for you are not troubled to seeke consolations against death seeing that death it selfe is a consolation vnto vs. For God if he receiue the sighs which wee powre foorth in our praiers much more regardeth he the sighes which our soules giue vp vnto him in our deaths Which being a place of shelter and which putteth our soules into securitie we ought not onely looke for his coming but euen go forth to meete him hastening his comming by our desires by the example of S. Paul who saith that his desire tendeth to dislodge and be with Christ And to say with Dauid O when shall I present my selfe before Gods face For our soules being bound vnto our bodies by two bonds wherof the one is naturall and the other voluntarie if through hatred and contempt of life present we vntie the voluntary bond waiting the time when God shall breake the naturall death then coming shall find the businesse begun and our soules prepared to this dissolution These cogitations Madame and such like haue hitherto giuen you consolation the which although you be sufficiently prouided of and haue alwayes readie many spirituall remedies yet you borrow from other the receipts and haue thought that I could contribute something to your consolation And to this effect hauing heard talke of some of my Sermons vpon the Loue of God you would needs make vse of the power you haue ouer me demanding them of me in writing knowing well that of the discontentments of this life there is no such gentle remouall as the loue of God or more stronger remedy then that he loueth vs. Herefrom I drew backe a long time partly through idlenesse accompanied with some other distractions partly through feare apprehending your iudgement which far surpassing ordinarie spirits feedeth it self not vpon vulgar meates At length after long delay being not any longer able to striue against your instant requests which are vnto me as so many commandements I haue let this discourse come forth in publick vnder the protection of your name to the end that the imperfections thereof may likewise be imputed vnto you and that you might beare also a part of the blame for hauing assisted at the birth of that which ought not to haue seene the light but I shall be easily excused as hauing obeyed you For honor shal it euer be vnto me to execute your cōmandements and to employ my selfe to do you most humble seruice as being your Most humble and most obedient seruant Peter du Moulin A Table of the Chapters and principall points contained in this Treatise of the Loue of God OF true and false loue Chap. 1. fol. 1. Fiue degrees of the loue of God Chap. 2. fol. 24. 1. Degree to loue God because of the good he doth vs and which we hope to receiue of him fol. 28. 2. To loue God for his own sake because he is soueraignlie excellent and chieflie to be beloued fol. 45. 3. Not onlie to loue God aboue all things and more then our selues but also not to loue anie thing in this world but for his sake Fol. 67. 4. To hate our selues for the loue of God Fol. 79. 5. Is the loue wherewith we shall loue God in the life to come Fol. 94. Of the marks and effects of the loue of God Cha. 3. Fol. 102. 1. Marke is that it extinguisheth all voluptuous loue Fol. 105. 2. That it is the peace and tranquillitie of the soule Fol. 122. 3. That it is charitie to our neighbours Fol. 136. 4. And the pleasure to cōmunicate often with God Fol. 153. 5. It is the zeale of the glorie of God Fol. 184. Fiue meanes or aids to inflame vs in this loue of God Chap. 4. Fol. 202. 1. Meanes is the image of vices Fol. 206. 2. The choise of friends Fol. 215. 3. The hatred of the world Fol. 226. 4. Prayer Fol. 238. 5. The hearing and reading of the word of
the name of Christians he hath made vs faithfull ones Herunto you may adde if you will the 4. that he hath adopted elected vs in his Sonne before the foundation of the worlde hauing had care of vs not onely before we were borne but euen before the world was made For if a woman lately conceiuing loue her future fruite much more doth she so when it is borne and embraced in her armes so if God loued vs before wee had any being how much more when we call vpon him and loue him with a filiall loue Now in this grace the lesse our number is the greater is our priuiledge the greater his bountie and mercie towards vs to be like a few wel sighted amōgst a throng of blind men like the portion of Iacob in Egypt alone enlightned in the midst of that darknesse which couered all the countrey like Gedeons fleece alonely watered with his blessing whilest all the rest of the earth is drie and destitute of his grace God hath enuironed vs with examples of blindnesse to the end wee might make the more account of light and that wee should go on in the way of righteousnes whilest the day lasteth whilest he enlighteneth vs by his word All these graces depend vpon one speciall grace which is our reconciliation with God by the death of Iesus Christ it is he that is the conduit-pipe through which the graces of God do flow vnto vs it is Iacobs ladder which ioyneth earth vnto heauen which ioineth man againe with God The Angels ascending this ladder do signifie our prayers The Angels descending signifie Gods blessings Iacobs sleeping at the foote of this ladder representeth the rest of our consciences vnder the shadow of his intercession For before on what side soeuer man could turne his eyes he could see nothing but matter of feare and astonishment If he looked on God he saw a consuming fire and a soueraigne iustice armed against sinners If he looked on the law hee saw the sentence of his condemnation if on the heauē he said I am shut out thereof by my sins if on the world he saw himselfe fallen from the empire he before had ouer the creatures if on himselfe he saw a thousand corporall and spirituall infirmities By the signes in heauen and earthquakes he was seized with trembling and feare then Satan death and hell were the enemies which either drew him to perdition or tortured him with their apprehension But now each man which hath an assured trust in Iesus Christ looketh on all these things with another eye and singeth another song If he looke vpon God he will say It is my Father who hath adopted me in his Sonne If he thinke on the iudgement seate of the last day he will say My elder brother sitteth thereon and he who is my Iudge is also my aduocate If he thinke on the Angels he will say These are my keepers Psal 34. If he looke on heauen he will say It is my house If he heare it thunder from aboue he will say It is my Fathers voice If he consider the law he saith The Sonne of God hath fulfilled it for me If he be in prosperitie on earth he will say God hath yet better things for me in store If he be in aduersitie he wil say Iesus Christ hath suffered much more hereof for my sake God exerciseth me proueth me or correcteth me or rather honoureth mee making me like vnto his Sonne If he thinke on the diuell death or hell then he will triumph ouer all saying with the Apostle 1. Cor. 15. O death where is thy victorie O graue where is thy sting Thankes be to God who hath giuen vs victorie through Iesus Christ our Lord. If these things buzze and keepe a noise like angrie waspes yet haue they lost their sting If the old Serpent pricke our heele yet is his head bruised If the diuell through persecutions giue vs a false alarme yet belong we to Iesus Christ who hath bought vs and none shall snatch vs out of his hand Who wil feare hauing such a patron who not onely maketh intercession for sinners but of sinners maketh them iust who not only pleadeth for a bad case but also of bad maketh it good because that hee doth not only pray but also pay for vs so that to pardon vs is not onely a worke of his mercie but also an effect of his iustice These obligations vnto the louing God are common vnto all the faithfull But I thinke if each one would looke backe into the course of his life and call to mind the time passed there is none of vs but should finde iust cause to acknowledg besides these common benefites manie particular witnesses of the care and loue of God towards vs Of deliuerances out of many dangers vnhoped for good chances commodious afflictions our purposes crossed but for our good extraordinary meanes to bring vs vnto the knowledge of his truth Shall it be said that the blessings of God haue rained vpon the sands without making vs more fruitful of good works Shall we be like vnto beasts which drink of the brooke without thinking of the spring without raising vp our thoughts vnto God the wel-spring of all blessing Meane while when we say that God doth vs good to the end we should loue him it is not because he hath any need of our loue but because he would saue vs he would that we should loue him because it is impossible to be saued whilst we hate him Moreouer our louing him also is partly his gift for it is he which kindleth his loue in vs. God doth not only giue vs his graces but giueth also grace to demaund them the hand to apprehend them grace to make good vse thereof the vertue to glorifie him for the same in such sort as to acknowledge that we owe vnto him not only those his good things but euen our selues also God doth good vnto the vnworthy but he maketh them worthy by this doing them good his spiritual graces being of such nature as that they transforme such as receiue them This first degree of loue being holy and necessary is not for all that any more then a beginning of the loue of God and as the first stroke of true pietie For he who loueth God but for his profite is like vnto little children who say their prayers that they may breake their fasts and to speake properly they loue not God but themselues Such a loue if it extend it selfe no further is a mercenary loue yea and iniurious vnto God For it may be alwayes thought that the end is better then those things which tend therunto If then the loue of God haue no other end but our owne profit we place the same aboue God and make our interest more exellēt then his seruice Let him then which is come to this first degree of loue if he passe on no further know that God pardoneth vs much if he punish not that which is