agreeable passion of love is too often exercised upon unworthy objects pursued and enjoyed after an unreasonable manner But notwithstanding that whether the object be wisely chosen or foolishly whether the beauty apprehended be real or imaginary wheresoever delight and desire are there beauty or goodness in the object is however apprehended and supposed And from this general account of the nature and Principles of Love we may most firmly establish the notion of Love to God Wherefore then to Love the Lord our God is so to apprehend the excellencies of the Divine nature his absolute perfections in themselves and his infinite grace and goodness towards us as that we most sincerely and heartily admire and adore his Majesty and earnestly desire the most intimate enjoyment of Him and the most perfect union with Him that we are capable of This is the nature of the Duty in the general And the Qualifications with which it ought to be exercised are three with all thine Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Mind The Text is taken out of Deut. 6.5 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Might St. Mark Luke 10.27 and St. Luke express it with all thy Strength And because of this indifferent variation of the phrase and because the same thing is sometimes expressed by one of these phrases only as with all thy Heart 1 Sam. 7.3 Sometimes the Heart and Soul without the Mind or Strength as in the 2 Kings 23.3 Therefore some Expositors consider the Heart the Soul and Mind as words of the same or of equal signification accumulated only to press and inculcate the duty more effectually upon us but not as a Climax of perfection in the practice of it But because we may observe a real and material difference in the common use and acceptation of the words expressing the degrees of Intention and desire in the acts and operations of the Soul and because it will very much administer to the just explication of the duty therefore I shall presume and with good authority to consider the Heart the Soul and Mind as qualifications of gradual Excellency as a Scale of Perfection in the practice and exercise of Love to God And first With all thy Heart By the Heart according to the usual signification of that Metaphor we understand Integrity Sincerity of affection Ye have obeyed from the heart Rom. 6.17 the form of doctrine that was delivered you that is sincerely and without hypocrisie And innumerable other places Secondly with all thy Soul that is with Understanding and Knowledge that our Love of God be not only Sincere but grounded well proceeding from Causes proper and considered not with Passion only but with Judgment The Soul here may be understood of Reason and Discretion whereby we distinguish of Good and Evil base and worthy and to whose determinations the Will Desires and instruments of Action are obedient Thirdly with all thy Mind By the Mind may be understood the more Spiritual Principle in Man whereby he feels and enjoys the truth of such Propositions as Reason by comparing one thing with another shall discover Reason is as it were an Artificial Mechanical deduction of Conclusions from Premises but the Mind enjoys them really by an intire agreement with the Proposition And upon this account the wicked in Scripture are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as are able to collect the truths of Religion or any other Propositions by Scholastick inference but the Pious and Regenerate have an inward sensation of things Intellectual and Divine and are therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to whose Body and Soul is added Mind or Spirit Wherefore then to Love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Mind is sincerely to Adore and Delight in God from a distinct perception from an inward sensation as well of his absolute Perfections in themselves as of His infinite Bounty and Goodness towards us And thus I have explained the Terms and stated the Nature of the duty in general I proceed as I proposed in the second place to consider the particular parts the necessary acts and exercises of Love to God First with all our Heart and with all our Soul Secondly with all our Mind And First the particular acts implyed in the Love of God with all the Heart and with all the Soul are chiefly these First the Preference of God to all other objects whatsoever He that loves with Judgment esteems and values according to weight and measure according to the degrees of beauty and excellence in the object As he readily acknowledges whatsoever worth or goodness he any where discerns so he suffers not his Passion and desire to go before his understanding But God is a Being that exists of himself in whom is implied whatsoever can be supposed to be and in whom all being is resolved as into its proper and most perfect cause Defect supposes impotence and controul but Omnipotence implies the most absolute perfection Desire of Good when known is necessary But can any instance of goodness or perfection be hid from his knowledge or kept from his possession who is the cause of all things Wherefore then since all perfections are essential to this first and Original Good one of the necessary acts of Love to such a being is the preference of him to all other Beings whatsoever If our Love of God be with all the Soul with judgment and understanding then we know that there is none in heaven but God and none upon earth to be desired in comparison of Him That he is the fountain of all the imperfect excellencies of all created Beings that he is the most constant and the most potent friend and benefactor who made us by his Power and sustains us by his Providence guides us by his Council assists us by his Spirit pities our Weakness pardons our Sins and is ready at last to receive us into Glory Wheresoever therefore He is understood all other objects habits and desires will necessarily fall before him For whatsoever beauty or goodness may be found in any other object they are all derived from God in whom all fullness dwells That is the first The Second particular implyed in the Love of God with all the Heart and with all the Soul is a stedfast Faith in whatsoever he reveals A sincere affection is apt in its nature to beget an unreasonable credulity It is very difficult to perswade our selves that our friend whose happiness we know is our greatest pleasure should abuse our Passion by deceit and guile to sport or private ends and therefore notwithstanding all the infirmities of humane Nature all the insincerities which may proceed from wicked dispositions and violent temptations yet Love creates an intire and perfect confidence in one another How much more if our Love of God be with all our Heart and Soul shall we
pursue his favour and most earnestly desire to be loved again because we know that our Love of God if it be sincere and pure will be returned in the most ravishing delights we know that his Love is Life that it is not an empty Passion but exerted in the most substantial effects and happy instances And therefore that we should have sinned against him must needs be the most insupportable affliction because in proportion to the nature of our offence our chief design of obtaining his favour and the light of his countenance will be hindred and all our work of so great importance may be to begin again And as we shall be deeply sensible of our offence so shall we also be very sollicitous to be reconciled One of the most essential acts of Love is a desire of the good opinion of the object nor is any thing more directly contrary to that Passion than stoutness and indifference No man can sit down and be satisfied under the displeasure of his friend till he has acknowledged his offence dimulced his anger by sutable mediations and all such other acts as reason in his case will suggest unto him Thus as our Love of God will make us very careful to obtain and preserve his favour so shall we also be extremely solicitous in case of offences to be reconciled If our love of God was ever real it can never be withdrawn when once we have understood and have been warmed with the love of God it is not possible in the nature of the thing that we should ever be reduced to indifference for the glory of God is immutable and his Beauty perfect which where they are understood will of necessity both attract and continue Desire and Love as being the only object that can fully delight and satisfie the faculty Neither is this all but we know moreover that we cannot be happy without his Love if He hide his face we are wretched and undone that Impartial Justice towards offenders is as certain an Attribute of God as Infinite Goodness Nothing therefore can discourage us we shall never give over our Confessions and Tears our Vows and Resolutions and the tender of all such satisfactions as are possible for us to make till we have reason to hope that our sins are pardoned and our persons are again received into his favour These are the essential parts the necessary acts of Love to God viz. That we prefer Him to all other objects whatsoever believe his Word and rely upon his Promises imitate his Life and obey his Laws be deeply sorrowful whensoever we offend him and earnestly endeavour to be reconciled All these several expressions are of the essence of Love and flow from the nature of the thing And so I proceed as I proposed in the second place to consider the more perfect exercises of Love to God with all thy Mind Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Mind In the explication of the Words it has been already noted that the Love of God with all the soul is such an adoration of God as proceeds from a sense of the Glories and excellencies of His Being as they are apprehended by reason and inferr'd from his Definition Nature and Operations but the Love of God with all the mind is with a more quick and sensible perception of the Divine perfections with reason improved into a more lively apprehension of the object A young Philosopher shall acknowledge the benefits of frugality suppose or of any other Vertue and shall be able himself to deduce the advantages of it by the rules of Logic and shall believe his deductions to be regular and true But a man of Age and Experience besides what reason suggests from causes to effects has a sense and feeling of the thing he is affected with it it has seized and taken possession of him he is one with the Notion Thus Reason infers the Perfections of God from necessary Principles the Judgment is satisfied and the Will performs such acts as are sutable and consonant to such opinions and apprehensions of the Soul But he whose knowledge has affected his mind not only knows believes and acts accordingly but he has also a more quick and sensible perception and enjoyment of the Divine Perfections by an inexplicable agreement harmony and delight he is one with them ravished and overcome of Desire and Love And the particular acts implied in the Love of God with all the Mind are chiefly Three The first is frequent Meditation and a due intention of the Mind upon the beauty and excellencies of the object This is both an act and a cause of the love of God with all the Mind Where our affections are fixed there all our faculties will be employed Love therefore will provoke us to the meditation of God and Meditation will improve our Knowledge and perfect our Love For since it is impossible to discover a blemish in absolute perfection the more we pry into Him the more of necessity we shall love him Whosoever then is affected sensibly and in his Mind with the love of God will separate considerable portions of his time for the contemplation of the Divine Perfections He will abstract his mind from sensible things that it may be purer and more free more apt to apprehend more easily impressed by objects Divine and Spiritual Nothing hinders our clearer Knowledge and more ardent love of God but the prepossession of our affections by the beauty and goodness of the World These we converse with these we admire and court but as for the infinite perfections of God we believe them as the Doctrine of the Church and hope to enjoy them through the merits of Christ according to the Tradition of the Fathers We resolve that God is incomprehensible as indeed He is and therefore we never endeavour to find out so much of his beauty as by a due disposition of Soul without revelation or ecstasie we might Whereas if our lives were more retired castigate and sober our spirits would be purer our minds more quick and vigorous objects Divine and Spiritual would be more agreeable more easily felt and enjoyed by us It were easie to consider particulars and show how a due intention of mind upon the attributes of God will more sensibly affect us Do we adore Him for so much of his Infinite Goodness as appears at the first view in the general or towards our selves How much more should we be affected if we look it round and consider throughly this perfection of the will of God That God who is Omnipotent and under no controle should be bounded in his Will by the Laws of Goodness Righteousness and Mercy That He should vouchsafe to communicate his own likeness and subject the whole Creation to the use and convenience of Man that He should love us when we were his enemies and restore our corrupted nature to its first integrity by the passion of his only Son That He should still follow us
and cold in his own pursuits We think no pains too great we leave no stone unturn'd we grudge no present self-denial in the prosecution of our own designs Thus also thou shalt love thy Neighbour even as thy self with fervency of affection with a Zeal for his Good It is not a tender expression a friendly wish an unwilling word a cold essay that fulfils the duty but a chearful service ready motions effectual assistances that we be patient to hear and willing to understand and be concern'd in a case that is worthy of us that we lay it to our heart and put it forward according to discretion by our counsel our friend our person our purse as the occasion may require for thus we love our selves with passion and solicitude Thirdly With constancy and everlasting affection self-Self-love can never abate or cool every Man pursues what he thinks to be good to the last it is a natural principle an essential property of our Being which can never be extinguished But thus are we obliged to love our Neighbour even as our selves all the days of our life This duty of universal love is never perfected It is not enough that we have been useful and beneficial in some particular instance but we must never stop never contract our selves never imagine that we have paid this debt of universal Charity but so long as we have ability and opportunity so long as we have objects before us that is so long as we live we must dilate and expatiate our selves to the benefit of our Neighbour for Thou shalt love him as thy self as well in all the several instances wherein thou lovest thy self as with the same affections and dispositions of thy mind with tenderness and passion with fervency and Zeal with steddiness and constancy And thus as briefly as I could I have explained the duty of universal Love and by comparing the temper of our Souls and the course of our conversation with the rules and measures I have now laid down we may know infallibly whether we are endowed with this grace of Charity or no whether we love our neighbour as our selves Are we pleased with the practice of Vertue or any worthy quality wheresoever we discern it or rather are not the infirmities nay the debaucheries of Men our delight and sport Do we govern our desires and aimes by the rules of equity and love Do we use no tricks no mines no unhandsome arts to circumvent another Are we content that every Man should prosper and be happy Are we ready for every good work Do the Loins of the poor bless us Job 31.20 are they warmed with the fleeces of our wool Job 31.20.22.22 Do we govern our Authority over inferiour Men with Justice Do we not trouble our own flesh Prov. 11.17 Do we not rob the poor because he is poor and oppress the afflicted in the gate May it not be said of us as Solomon complains Eccles 4.1 On the side of the oppressor there was power but the oppressed had no Comforter Are we willing to discern and praise the vertues of our Neighbour and to hide his faults Can we chearfully hear the Commendation of another and not embase the Character by some malicious insinuation Does not our Soul desire evil Pro. 21.10 and does our neighbour find any favour in our eyes Are we civil and ingenuous in our Carriage towards all Are we meek and approachable sincere and plain gentle and easie to be intreated Are we never weary of well doing never discouraged by our own mistakes in objects by the tricks and deceits that may sometimes be put upon us by the ingratitude of those we have obliged or the disappointments of those from whom we had expectation by the errours that a Zealous Charity may run into or the censures of unworthy Men to which it may sometimes be exposed Do we centre in a sense of Duty and the sincerity of our principle and design resolving never to look back or faint but persevere in a steddy course of universal Charity to the end This is to love thy neighbour as thy self And so I proceed as I proposed in the second place to perswade you to the practice of this duty of universal Charity by certain motives and encouragements couched and implied in these words Thy neighbour We are obliged to prosecute a publick interest to be kind and compassionate to all because we are neighbours and that implies First The Necessity of the thing To love our neighbour as our selves is our real Interest because of our Cohabitation and necessary converse with one another No affection or property of humane nature is more evident than a disposition to Society Our innate impresses of natural Affection Goodness and Compassion our passions of Desire and Love our abilities of inventing useful Art our faculty of Speech which is peculiar to Man and what only serves the purposes of Society do all suppose it and the impotence and inability of man in a loose and separate state to perfect his capacities to satisfie his natural desires nay to support and defend his life demonstrate it But without an hearty consent in the mutual good of one another without policy and a publick interest Society would be dangerous and useless black and uncomfortable solitude our only refuge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reason without Goodness is mischievous subtlety and would prove the greatest instrument of evil in the World The fierceness of the Leopard and the strength of the Lyon would not be so dreadful as the understanding of Rational Nature devoid of Justice Every man would be against his Brother our life would be a state of war a continual hostility Here an attempt by force there by subtlety and circumvention every where distrust and fears guards and preparations of defence So that according to the Principles of our Nature and the design of our Being we are one Society one interest one common happiness is amongst us all And no man that separates himself from the Community and proposeth with himself to stand on his own legs and acquire whatsoever pleases him by any means without respect to others can ever prosper or be safe because he can never hope to be endured Every man has a tender respect for his Life his Honour and his Interest which whensoever they are forcibly invaded will provoke him to retaliate the injury No man can expect with reason to be treated more civilly himself than he treats his neighbour Such a conceit is Vanity there is no foundation for such a deference in Nature but he raises the whole Society against himself and how he should acquit himself in such an unequal combat is not easie to imagine And therefore Qui se amat hunc alios sic amare Epist 6. Lips in Loc. says Seneca nec sibi sed toti genitum se credere mundo He that loves himself will love his neighbour and consider himself as born for the benefit of the