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THE

LOVE OF GOD AND OUR BROTHER,

CONSIDERED IN SEVENTEEN SERMONS,

ON 1 JOHN IV. 20.

PREACHED AT A WEEKLY MORNING LECTURE AT CORDWAINER'S HALL,

IN THE YEAR 1676.

SERMON I.*

1 JOHN IV. 20, the latter part.

HE THAT LOVETH NOT HIS BROTHER WHOM HE HATH SEEN, HOW CAN HE LOVE GOD WHOM HE HATH NOT SEEN?
The whole verse runs thus:

IF A MAN SAY, I LOVE GOD, AND HATETH HIS BROTHER, HE IS A LIAR: FOR HE THAT LOVETH NOT HIS BROTHER WHOM HE HATH SEEN, HOW CAN HE LOVE GOD WHOM HE HATH NOT SEEN }

My purpose at present is not to speak from these words | either of love to God, or our brother, absolutely and singly; but comparatively only, according to that connexion which they have one with another; and the difference of the one from the other respecting their objects, as the object of the one is somewhat visible, and of the other somewhat invisible. There is one thing necessary to be premised to this intended discourse concerning the acceptation of love here, and it is this; that the apostle in this little tractate of love, as this epistle may for the most part be called, doth not design to treat of love as a philosopher, that is, to give us a precise formal notion of it; but to speak of it, with a latitude of sense; not so indeed as to exclude the for-prehends in it; namely, conformity to the will of God, and mal notion of love as it is seated in the inner man, but so as to comprehend in it such apt expressions and actings of it, as according to the common sense of men were most agreeable and natural to it. And therefore speaking of love to God in chap. ii. ver. 5. he tells us, that "Whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected:" that is, the very perfection of the love of God stands in this, in keeping his word. So in chap. v. ver. 3. "This (saith he) is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.' And speaking of the other branch of this love in chap. iii. ver. 17. he saith, "Whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" The apostle calls this the love of God also; it being one and the same divine principle of love implanted by God himself, which spreads itself to several objects all under one and the same communication, as having more or less of the divine beauty and loveliness appearing in them.

So that if any one should go about here to play the sophister, and say, "Love is a thing, which hath its whole nature and residence in the inner man. Define it never so accurately, you will find it to be wholly and entirely seated there. Now therefore, since nothing can be denied of itself, let it be confined and shut up there never so closely, * Preached May 24th, 1676.

admit that no expression be made of it one way or another, yet I need not be solicitous on this account: for let me walk and do as I list, the love of God may be in me for all that; since love is such a thing, wherever it is, as must have its whole nature within one." To this the apostle would reply, No, I do not speak of love in so strict a sense. Love, as I intend it, is not to be taken so; or if it were, it must however be supposed to have that strength and vigour with it, as to enable it to be the governing principle of a man's life; to affect and influence his own soul; and so to run through the whole course of his daily practice. I speak of love according to what it virtually comobedience to his laws whereby that will is made known. And thus love is elsewhere taken in Scripture also. Our Saviour you know gathers up our duty into love. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbour as thyself; upon these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets," Matt. xxii. 37-40. The apostle also tells us, that" love is the fulfilling of the law," Rom. xiii. 10. Therefore love to God and our brother, in this place, must be taken for the summary or abridgment of our whole duty; an epitome of the two tables; a virtual comprehension of all we owe either to God or man, that is, universal holiness, and an entire obedience to the Divine will. But still in this system or collection of duties, love, strictly and formally taken, is to be considered as the primary and principal thing; as seated and enthroned in the heart and soul; and as the original principle, upon which all other duties do depend, and from whence they must proceed. The acceptation of love being thus settled, there are three things that I chiefly intend to show from this Scripture.

FIRST, That there is a greater difficulty of living in the exercise of love to God than towards man, upon this account, that he is not the object of sight, as man is; and consequently, that the duties of the second table are, ac

cording to this our present state of dependence on external | sense, more easy and familiar to us than the duties of the first. Hence proceeds that general propensity, which it greatly concerns us to be aware of; to acquiesce and take up our rest in a fair, civil deportment among men, without ever being concerned to have our souls possessed with holy, lively, and powerful affections towards God.

SECONDLY, I shall show, that this impossibility of seeing God, doth not however excuse us from exercising love to him in this our present state. It is indeed one reason why he is actually so little loved in the world, but it is no sufficient excuse. For the impossibility of seeing God doth not render it impossible to love him, and to live in his love, while we are here in this world, dwelling in the flesh. And this also is plainly grounded in the text; for this vehement expostulation of the apostle, "If any man do not love his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" plainly supposes it to be an intolerable thing not to love God. And therefore hence he takes the advantage of enforcing the duty of loving our brother, because otherwise we should be convicted, and proved to be no lovers of God; taking it for granted, that this would be esteemed a most horrid thing, even at the very first sight. Otherwise his exhortation would have no force nor pungency in it; but would be flat, and insignificant. Therefore he plainly supposes here, that though God's not being the object of sight doth render the exercise of love to him, upon that account, more difficult; yet it doth not render it impossible, or the neglect of it at all excusable; but considers it as a thing to which men are most indispensably obliged. This therefore will be my second head to discourse upon from this Scripture. And then in the

THIRD place, My design is to show you the absurdity of their profession of love to God, who do not love their brother also; and how false and fulsome a thing it is for men to pretend to any thing of sanctity and religion, while they neglect the duties of the second table. Of these we shall speak in order, and begin now with the

FIRST observation, That the impossibility of seeing God renders the exercise of our love to him more difficult, than the exercise of it towards man whom we do see. In this doctrine there are two branches, which are to be distinctly considered.

I. That it is more difficult to love God than our brother. II. That one great reason of it is, that we cannot see God, as we do our brother.

a readiness to be concerned for their interest, a studious care to please them, loving to converse with them, or seeking and being pleased with it, and the like. If we descend, I say, to the considerations of such evidences of love as these are, we shall find that man is generally better beloved than God is. And that this may gain the greater possession of our souls, let us a little consider these particular evidences of love; and then see whether men are not generally more beloved by one another, than God is by them; hereby we shall plainly see, what is most agreeable to their temper, and what not. And,

1. Mindfulness, or a kind remembrance of others, is a most natural evidence of love. But what are men who transact affairs one with another, so apt to forget each other, as they are to forget God? It is given us as a common distinctive character of a wicked man, that he is one that hath not God in all his thoughts. For thus saith the Psalmist, "The wicked in the pride of his countenance," that is, his heart expressing itself in the haughtiness of his countenance, and his supercilious looks, "will not seek after God; God is not in all his thoughts," Ps. x. 4. And by the same divine penman a wicked man, and a forgetter of God, are used as exegetical expressions, Psal. ix. 17. But there is many a wicked man that will kindly remember his friends, his relations, even his very companions in wickedness. And if we demand an account of ourselves, do we not find it more easy and familiar to us to entertain thoughts concerning our friends, and relations, from day to day, than we do to think of God? Are we not also more inclined to love them than God? What we love we are not apt to forget. "The desire of our soul is to thee, and to the remembrance of thy name," Isa. xxvi. 8. Our love to thee, which naturally works by desire, will not let us forget thee; it is too deeply impressed and rooted in us ever to lose the remembrance of the object of our love. This is one thing that showeth, that God is a great deal less loved by men, than they are by one another. Again, 2. To be apt to trust in one another, is a very natural evidence and expression of love. Whom we hate, we cannot trust; whom we love entirely, we know not how to distrust. One of the characters of love is this, " It hopeth all things, it believeth all things:" (1 Cor. xiii. 7.) it abhors to entertain a jealous surmise of the person who is the object of it. Now let the matter be tried by this also, and how much more ready are men to trust to one another, than they are to trust to God! What is there so vain, so I. As to the former of these, that there is a greater diffi- uncertain, so unstable, which they are not more forward culty in the exercise of love to God than to men, we may to repose their trust in, than in him? Therefore, saith the collect from the common observation of the world. For apostle to Timothy, "Charge them that are rich in this it is very plain and evident, that the common course and world, that they be not high-minded; nor trust in uncerpractice of men shows what is more easy to them, and tain riches, but in the living God," 1 Tim. vi. 17. Which what less; it plainly discovers which way they are most charge implies the propensity of men's minds, rather to inclined. This is the thing, which I understand here by trust in the most fugitive, uncertain, vanishing shadows, difficulty; and it answers the intent and force of the apos- than in God himself. This is an argument, that he hath tle's expression, "How can he that loveth not his brother, but little love among men; that he cannot be trusted; and whom he hath seen, love God whom he hath not seen ?" that few will give him credit. But how safely and quietly This plainly must be understood in a relative sense, and do men repose a trust and confidence in one another? And have respect to some agent, and here must have reference indeed if faith and trust were not natural to man, there to ourselves. It is less easy to us; that is, it is a thing would be no such thing as commerce, which is the bond which our nature in our present state doth less incline us of human society. The world must dissolve and break to, actually to live in the exercise of love toward God, than up; all must live apart in dens, and caves, and wildertowards men. And, I say, what men are more or less in-nesses, and have nothing to do one with another, if they clined to, is to be seen in their common course; and from could not trust one another. Without mutual confidence, the common observation of the state and posture of the there would be an end of all traffic. But to this, human world we may gather, that men in general are less inclined society shows there is a disposition; and you can easily to love God, than one another. And though it be very find out persons, in whom you would as safely repose your true, there is too little of love, kindness, and mutual affec- trust and confidence, as in your own hearts. You can say, tion among men, and a great neglect of justice, common "I would put my life into such a man's hands, or whatever honesty, and the other duties of the second table, which is most dear to me." And if that person should but prolove must be understood to comprehend; yet certainly the mise to undertake an affair, saying, "I will do such a thing instances are not so rare of persons that are kind, courte- for you, trust me with it, leave it upon me;" you would ous, affectionate, and well-humoured one to another, as of be as quiet, as if you saw the business done and already persons well-affected towards God. This is a thing which effected. But how unapt are the hearts of men to trust in commands our assent even at the very first sight. Nay, God! and this it is, that holds off the world from him. further, though it is also no less true, that men are too He hath sent the Gospel of peace and reconciliation to much lovers of themselves, to the exclusion not only of mankind, and therein declares the good tidings, how willGod, but of men too; yet certainly there is more of love ing he is that the controversies should be taken up between to men, than to God, prevailing in the world. And to men and himself; yet none will believe it, none think him make this out let us go to the usual evidences and expres- in earnest, till he is pleased himself to draw them. "Who sions of love; such as mindfulness of others, trust in them, hath believed," saith the prophet, "our report? or to

whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" Isaiah liii. 1. Plainly intimating, that the arm of God must go forth to make a man believe him, and take his word. A strong argument, that he hath but little love among men, when he cannot be trusted; or, at least, when so few will give him credit!

3. A readiness to be concerned for one another's interest and reputation, is also a natural evidence of love. And we know how easily men are drawn in for one another, and take part with a neighbour, or a friend, when they are traduced, and evil spoken of; and especially when they see indignities and affronts put upon them. There is usually a great siding among persons upon such occasions. "Such a one has spoken ill of my friend, I must stand up for him to the uttermost. Another has injured him, purloined from him that which was his, and the like; I must right him." Should we not reckon him a base fellow, who should behold an act of stealing committed upon the estate of another, and not make a discovery of it, or endeavour to have him righted? But how little generally are men concerned for God, and his affairs! What robberies are every where committed against him, and yet how few do lay it to heart! How evil is he spoken of many times, and his truth, and his ways! But how few can say, "The reproaches wherewith they have reproached thee, have fallen upon me ?" Ps. lxix. 9. It is true, this is the sense of David, when he cries out, "As with a sword in my bones mine enemies reproach me, while they say unto me daily, Where is thy God?" Ps. xlii. 10. It is to me as if one was forcing a sword into my bones, even into my marrow; a most intolerable torment, to be upbraided in respect to my God: that he is either impotent, and cannot help me; or that he is false to me, and answereth not the trust I have reposed in him. But how few are there of David's mind in this case! How many oaths and blasphemies can they hear, wherein the sacred name of God is rent and torn, and yet their hearts are not pierced at all! Further,

4. An earnest study to please men is a natural expression of love. Now let the matter be estimated by this, how much less God is loved in the world than men. It is an ordinary thing with them to study to please one another, to humour one another. "Such and such things I do, and such I omit, lest I should displease a relation, a friend, or one that I have frequent occasion to converse with." But how few are the persons, who can say, "This I do purposely to please my God!" or with Joseph, "How can do this great wickedness and sin against God!" Gen. xxxix. 9. A man will oftentimes cross his own will, to comply with that of another; and reckon it a great piece of civility to recede from his own inclination in order to gratify another person, when he can do it without any great inconvenience. But how rare a thing is this with respect to God! To be able to say, "In such a thing I displease myself, that I may please God; I cross my own will, to comply with his." Among men there is especially one sort, that we are more concerned and obliged to please, as far as we can; and that is, such as rule over us. We are bound to please our superiors; and to obey them, that we may do so. And there is no obedience either to God or man, that is right in its own kind, but what proceeds from love, and is an evidence as well as an effect of it. "If ye love me," saith Christ, "keep my commandments," John xiv. 15. "And this is the love of God," saith St. John, "that we keep his word," 1 John v. 3. Moreover, the duties of the second table, which we owe to men, particularly that of obedience to superiors, are summed up all in love. The apostle having in the 13th chapter of this epistle to the Romans, pressed subjection to the higher powers, in that they are of God, adds in the 10th verse, that "to love one another is the fulfilling of the law." "Render," saith he, in the same discourse, "to all their dues: tribute, to whom tribute is due; custom, to whom custom; fear, to whom fear; honour, to whom honour," Rom. xiii. 7, 8. Yet observe, all is wrapt up in love; for the command is immediately after, to owe no man any thing, but to love one another :" and in short there is nothing which love doth not comprehend, or to which it doth not incline us.

But however, though such obedience be due to our human superiors as proceedeth from love; yet how apparent

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is the case, that herein is greater love shown to men, than to God, though too little to both! There is indeed too little regard to laws both human and divine, in the most important matters; yet surely a great deal less to the latter than, to the former. The thing speaks itself as to common observation; and we daily see how much more human laws do influence men's practice, than those which are divine; and that persons that are a great deal more prone to be precisely observant of them about matters, which they themselves do otherwise count indifferent, than of the laws of God, which are about the most necessary matters, and which also are acknowledged as such. Thus it hath long apparently been in the Christian world. A greater account hath been made of this and that arbitrary circumstance, than of the substance of religion itself. More stress hath been put upon the cream, the salt, and the oil, and such additionals of human invention, than on the great obligations of the baptismal covenant. And if it were not so, it could never have been desired by any, that we should rather be all infidels, than not be Christians after their fashion, and in their way. For that it hath been evidently so, may be seen in this; that this whole nation itself hath at once suffered under the interdict of excommunication in former days. All the doors of our churches and chapels have been shut up, only for some non-compliance with this or that human addition; thus they choose we should rather be no Christians at all, than not have Christianity with those additions. This shows a greater disposition in the minds of men to obey human laws, in circumstantial matters; than divine laws, in those points which are most necessary and important.

What then is more apparent, than that God is less loved in the world than men are; since persons are more forward to show respect to them, than to him? Not but that we are bound to show respect to them too, especially to those who represent him, and as his vicegerents, rule over us. But surely it was never intended, that when we are to obey men for God's sake, we should regard him less; we should rather do it so much the more on this very account.

In a word, love ought to be an ingredient in every act of obedience; even to human government, as I have said before, as well as to that which is divine. What love is expressed in that great canon of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!" Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them;" (Matt. vii. 12.) that is, you ought to judge the case thus; "What would I wish to be done to me in such a man's circumstances? Would not I expect to be obeyed and reverenced, if I were a magistrate? My love to myself would incline me to expect it. Therefore my own love to myself, being the measure of that love which I owe to another, should oblige me to show the same respect to him in his circumstances, that I would wish to be shown to me in the like circumstances." But here is the iniquity of the case: those whom we should honour and love in the Lord for his sake, men are apt to put the supreme respect upon; which is to dethrone the supreme Lord of all, and to set up his creature in his place. And as to other persons, who are not invested with power and authority over us; how many are there of those, who will not wrong men, or do them any injustice! How many that are most highly civil, and candid in their converse with them, and strictly careful not to disoblige them by their behaviour! But who sticks at disobliging God, or makes a difficulty of disobeying him? Again,

5. Towards men there is a disposition deeply to regret any offence we unwarily have given them. When we though undesignedly, have done another an injury; if, for instance, we but casually tread on his foot, or some such like matter, we presently say, "I am afraid I have hurt you, I am sorry for it." Common civility would oblige one to express such a regret. And if we by any rash word or weak action have trespassed upon another, we are reckoned almost unfit for society, if we do not show a sense of our having offended such person. Men that are not very ill-natured indeed, are apt to make apologies, and desire to be forgiven, in cases where they have offended through inadvertency. But how much is it otherwise with men towards God, who trespass upon him every day, and never cry to him for mercy! who wear away their lives, from one month, year, and day, to another, in continual devi

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ations from him, and rebellions against him, without its ever coming into their thoughts to say, "Lord, forgive me, that I have lived so long in the world, as it were, without thee! that I have carried it to thee as if I owed thee no duty nor service! Lord, I have offended, I desire to put an end to this course, and to do so no more." Finally, 6. A love of converse or delight in each other's company, is another expression of that regard which men have for one another. Man is naturally a sociable creature; and how few do you know, or ever have known, who do not affect company! Some few instances there are of persons, that are of a gloomy retired temper; but generally men seek to converse with one another, and take pleasure in it. But alas, how little do they care to converse with God! They had rather be any where, than in his presence. Many, otherwise ingenious persons, men of good dispositions and of facetious tempers, who, as they delight in converse themselves, so their conversation proves delightful to others; yet care not at what distance they keep themselves from God. How many, I say, of such ingenious persons do we know; who yet neglect to pray to God; take no pleasure in having any thing to do with him; take his holy name in vain; and set themselves at a distance from him, by their own evil practices? It may be they will come to the solemnities of public worship for the sake of order, and to express their respect to others; so that even in those things which are peculiarly appropriated to him, they show more respect to men, than to God. And how sociable soever their temper is one with another; yet with the Almighty they care not to converse at all, but say to him, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways," Job xxi. 14. From whence we may conclude, that to man in his present state, it is even natural to wish great God out of being. "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God," Ps. xiv. 1. "I would there were no God; my vote shall go for it, that there were none; I could wish him out of the universe." But you never heard of such a monster among men, as to wish there was no man beside himself. You never heard of such a hater of mankind, as to wish the whole human race into nothing.

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Now all these things concur to evidence or prove to us, that God is much less beloved in the world, than men are by one another. And it must be allowed that the common practice of men showeth their inclination. This is discovered by constant experience and observation, and the very aspect of men's deportment doth represent this as the true state of things. And, as I observed before, men may find something of it by the experience they have of themselves; even those who have applied themselves to the business of religion, seriously and in good earnest. They find they can presently set their love on work towards this or that creature; but how long an exercise of the thoughts doth it require, and how great is the difficulty and toil, before the heart can be wrought up into a frame of actually loving God!

So that the former branch of this truth, that men are more inclinable to love one another, than they are to love God, is abundantly clear. The latter is, that it proceeds in a great measure from this cause, that God is not seen by us, as we are by one another; but this must be reserved for another discourse.

SERMON II.*

In my former discourse I told you, that my design from this scripture was not to handle singly and apart either the love of God, or of our brother; but to speak of them comparatively, with respect to the greater or less facility attending the exercise of the one or the other, according to their different objects; the object of the one being visible, and of the other, invisible.

The first observation raised from the words, after settling the acceptation of love, was this: That it is more

difficult to live in the exercise of love to God, than towards men; because he is not the object of sight, as we are one to another. In which doctrine, as we observed, there are two things to be considered.

I. That it is more difficult to love God than our brother. This has been proved from experience, and the common observation of the world, in several particulars. The II. Branch contained in this proposition, which we are now to speak to, is this; That one great reason of this difficulty is, that men cannot see God, whereas they do see one another. In the prosecuting of this part of my subject it will be more necessary to insist on the explication, than on the proof of it; and still more upon the application, than on either of the former. Something I shall endeavour to say to all, as the time shall allow.

For the explication of this matter, namely, How we are to understand, that the not seeing God as we do men, is a cause of its being more difficult to love him than it is to love them, take these few propositions. As, 1. That it is not an impossible thing in itself to love the unseen God: for if the not seeing him did make it impossible to love him, he could never be loved by any one; because he is seen by none with the bodily eye, as we see one another. But it is plainly implied in our text, that there are some that love God, notwithstanding his invisibility. And the apostle therefore endeavours only to evince the absurdity and guilt of not loving our brother, because from thence a man may be convicted of being no lover of God, which he accounts as a most intolerable thing. The not seeing him therefore doth not make it impossible to love God, but only renders it less easy. That is, it is not simply impossible, and therefore he who can do all possible things, can make the nature of man to love him; he, I say, can form the nature of man to the love of himself.

2. The not seeing of God cannot be understood to be a necessary cause of this sad thing. It is not such a cause as doth necessitate this evil and horrid effect. For that would be to reflect upon God, as if he had made a reasonable and intelligent creature, that was by the necessity of his nature prevented from loving him. This would be to suppose, that the seeing of God with the bodily eye, were necessary to the loving of him; which would make it altogether impossible that he should be loved by any of us at all, since he is visible to none. Nay, we might say further, he were never to be loved by any being, no not by himself, on the same grounds. The cause therefore of this difficulty is such as doth not necessitate the thing caused: for that indeed would imply that the nature of man is such as would never admit of his loving God, and so there would be a contradiction in men's very nature; to wit, that they should be capable of being blessed in him only, whom at the same time they are not capable of loving. For experience showeth, that there is nothing else in which we can be blessed; nothing below, or besides God. Therefore this would infer, that man must be a creature made on purpose for misery; for it is evident he can be happy in no creature; neither in God could he be happy, if it were simply impossible he should ever love him, which is to cast the whole matter upon God himself. For if this were the case, then a man might say, "God hath given me such a nature as renders it impossible for me even to exercise love towards him." But far be it from us that we should entertain such a thought of God! that he should make man, a creature endued with an intellectual mind. and yet not capable of loving him, who is the Author and Original of his life and being! This it were even horrid to think of. And again,

3. Nor hath this always been the cause of such an effect; for there are some that are actually brought to love God, though they never saw him in the sense we speak of, to wit, with the bodily eye. It was not so with man from the beginning, that because he could not see God, therefore he loved him not, or was for that reason the less inclined to love him. He was formed at first for the love of his Maker, so as to take the highest complacency in

e For it is in the Hebrew text: □wn box that is, The foolness; but it is spoken of apostate man in general, concerning whom it is said hth said in his heart, NO GOD. And so it may as well be understood to signify the fool's wrsh, as his judgment. And this is the more likely to be the meaning; inasmuch as it is manifest, that this is not the speech of some particular persons, or of some rare instances of most monstrous horrid wicked.

in ver. 3. They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no not one. * Preached May 31st, 1676.

him, and to make him his supreme delight. Man, I say, | iniquity," and therefore surely from this monstrous kind was made thus upright; but he hath since been trying in- of iniquity, the most horrid of all the rest, to wit, that most ventions, to see if he could be happy any other way, or unrighteous, unequal thing, that man should not love his upon other terms. And therefore since this is not the ne- own Original, and the Author of his life and being. Therecessary, nor the constant, cause of such an effect as this, fore it was the resolution of the Redeemer, "I will die, we must add, but I will remedy this matter. I will give myself, I will 4. That it cannot be a cause of itself alone, but must sacrifice all that I have, but I will bring this matter to needs be a cause in conjunction with some other cause; rights again." I say that it is only a temporary cause, by the intervention of some other thing, by the concurrence which has been assigned of men's not loving God, subof which this sad effect is brought about. For if it be true, sisting only so long as man's nature continues depraved: that there have been men who have loved God, though which is not only curable, but in part is actually cured, they never saw him with the bodily eye, there must be when the work of regeneration is set on foot, and the Spirit some other cause of the want of love to God in those per- of the Redeemer has begun to obtain in the soul; and it is sons who love him not, besides his invisibility. Because completely cured, when the new creature becomes mature, otherwise, since God was always invisible, and never seen and is risen up to its full growth and perfection. But in with the bodily eye, it would necessarily follow that he the mean time, so long as this distemper in the nature of could never have been loved at all. And hence again we man continues, our not seeing God is one great reason may observe, why we love him not. For that way of apprehending God, which should be the same with respect to invisible objects, that sight is with respect to those which are visible, is wanting. And this apprehension will still be wanting, that must supply the room of sight, so long as this degeneracy remains in us. While it is thus with us, that we are subject to the power of sense which has usurped the throne, the soul is destitute of those clear conceptions, those lively and vivid apprehensions, that issue in love to God. And so the great neglects of God, and the intolerable disrespect and affronts that are put upon him in the world, are, in a great measure, according to the present degenerate state of man, to be resolved into this cause, namely, that he is not seen. Hence it is, that so many persons neither love, nor regard him at all.

5. That the other cause therefore, which is considerable in this case, must needs be the degeneracy of man's nature. It is not to be imagined, that man in a state of integrity should be incapable of loving God further than he could see him; or that the sight of his eye should be the conductor of his affections, and of the motions of his soul, which is a reasonable intelligent spirit. But the nature of man is not now what it was. Certainly the case was better with him formerly, than it is now in this lapsed state, in which we must confess him to be; since there is so great an alteration in his very nature. This even the heathens themselves have seen, confessed, and lamented. I remember Plato brings in Socrates somewhere speaking to this sense, upon a supposition of the pre-existence of his soul: "There was a time, says he, when I could have seen, and did see, the first beauty, the highest and most perfect comeliness and loveliness; but now being subject to the body, all that impression is vanished and gone." And divers others have complained of that great darkness and ignorance which was in them; and of the bonds and chains that held their souls fast, so that they could not tell how to exercise the powers of them towards invisible things. It cannot be then, but the matter must be resolved into this; that if our not seeing God is the reason why he is so little loved, it is because our nature is grown so corrupt and degenerate, that what we see, takes with us most. And again,

6. We may add hereupon, that this degeneracy of the nature of man must needs stand very much in the depression of the mind, or intellectual powers, and the exaltation of sense. For the mind and the understanding, by the light which God had placed there, were to guide and govern the man; instead of which, sense usurped the throne, and took the government of him into its own hands. During the distraction and interruption of that order, which God had originally set between the superior and inferior powers of man's soul, sense, I say, usurped the throne, and took the government into its own hands, and man has ever since basely yielded, and subjected himself to its dominion, so that nothing moves him now but what is sensible. In this therefore the degeneracy of man very much consists, that sense dictates, and is become the governing principle of his life. And,

Having thus explained the point we are upon, I now proceed to evince this truth, that one great reason why men are not so apt to love God as they are one another, is because he is not the object of sight as we are. And this I shall do from the following considerations, namely,—that the object is certainly such as would command our love, if it could be apprehended aright; and—if it be not so, it must proceed from some defect in ourselves.

1. That the object is certainly such as would command our love, if it were rightly apprehended. For he is most amiable in himself; and has infinitely more obliged man, than they can ever oblige one another.

God, I say, is most amiable in himself, who is chiefly to be loved by all, though he is not actually so; as he is confessed to be the supreme object of our understanding, while in reality he is least known. "God is light," says the apostle in one place of this epistle; and "God is love," as he affirms in two others; a being of pure light and glorious love. Would he not be loved therefore, if apprehended aright? "Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods!" as we find Moses speaking with admiration, "Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?"a God is a Being wherein the most perfect wisdom, goodness, power, truth, and righteousness, make so admirable a temperature, that it is not possible he should not be loved, if he were but known.

Besides, he has infinitely more obliged men than they ever have or can oblige one another. Take any man 7. We add further, for of this more will be said when whatsoever, whose soul you may suppose to be utterly des we come to the use or application, that the not seeing God titute of the love of God, how low and abject soever be his can be only a temporary cause of our not loving him; in-state, yet you may say, "Thou impious wretch! thou hast asmuch as it is only a cause, with the intervention or concurrence of another cause, I mean, the disturbance of that primitive order, which God had settled between one faculty and another, belonging to the nature of man. Our not seeing God could never have prevented us from loving him, if things had not been so deplorably out of course with us, or this confusion of order had never been brought in among us. Therefore this cause is only temporary, that is, so long as this great depravation of our nature doth prevail. But there are those, with whom it either doth not, or shall not, prevail always. There are some, blessed be God, in whom this distemper and disorder of the soul of man is cured. For God hath sent his Son, the Redeemer, into the world on purpose to undertake this cure, and to rectify and set things right in men's spirits. And "Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all

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not the love of God in thee; though he hath done more for thee, than all the men in the world whatever could do, even though they should all join together to oblige thee. For is he not the Author of thy life and being? Could the invention of all the men in the world have formed such a creature as thou art out of nothing? Is he not a continual spring of life to thee? Thou livest and movest, and hast thy being in him every moment. And it is with this design, that God doth continue to thee thy breath and being, that thou mightest feel after him, though thou canst not see him, and also labour to find him, though he be not far from every one of us. Thou art his offspring, as even heathen poets tell us: no creature could ever have made thee. No man is always doing thee good every moment, and at all times; but thou art continually sustained by the Divine hand. The great God who made thee, feeds thee

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