herein, its felicity will be never the less for not intending or remembering it.

Sect. 26. Therefore the final act of love hath no fitter name than love itself, or delightful adhesion to God, the infinite Good, with full complacency in him.b

Sect. 27. Though God must be loved as our Benefactor, yet the perfect goodness of his will and nature, as standing above all our interest or benefits, must be the principal reason and object of our love.

That we must love God more for himself than for ourselves, is thus proved: 1. That which is most amiable must be most loved; but God is most amiable, and not we ourselves, therefore he must be loved above ourselves, and, consequently, not for ourselves, but ourselves for him. The minor is soon proved. That which is best is most amiable; but God is best, ergo. And goodness is the proper object of love.c

2. That which the soul most loveth, it doth most devote itself to, and adhere to, and rest in: but we must more devote ourselves to God, and adhere to him, and rest in him, than ourselves; ergo, we must love him more.

3. That which is an absolute good, and is dependent on nothing, must be absolutely loved for itself; but such is God; ergo. And that which is only a derivative, limited, dependent good, and not made ultimately for itself; is not to be loved ultimately for itself: but such is man; ergo.

4. That which is the fountain of all goodness and love must be the end of all; but that is God, and not man; ergo.

5. To love God ultimately for ourselves is to deify ourselves, and take down God into the order of a means, that is, of a

creature.

Sect. 28. Having proved that God must be loved above ourselves, we need no other proof that not we, but God, must be our ultimate end.d

b Qui sancti? qui religionem colentes? nisi qui meritam Diis immortalibus gratiam, justis honoribus, memori mente persolvunt?-Cicer. pro Planc.

C

If we must love good men for themselves, much more God. Ubi beneficus si nemo alterius causa benigne facit. Ubi gratuus, si non eum ipsum cui reserunt gratiam, ipsi cernunt grati? Ubi illa sancta amicitia, si non ipse amicus per se amatur, toto pectore: qui etiam deserendus et abjiciendus est, desperatis emolumentis et fructibus : quo quid potest dici immanius ?—Cicer. de Leg. 1. p. 227.

d Justitia nihil expetit præmii, nihil pretii: per se igitur expetitur: eademque omnium virtutum causa atque sententia est: atque etiam si emolumentis, non suapte natura virtus expetitur, una erit virtus, quæ malitia rectissimè dicetur.

Sect. 29. Because we here see not God intuitively, but in his works, we are bound, with fervent desire, to study and contemplate them, and therein to feast our love in beholding and tasting his love and goodness.

As a man will look on the pictures, the letters, the works of his absent friend, and retain the image of him in his heart; so God, though not absent, yet unseen, expresseth himself to us in all his works, that we may studiously there behold, admire, and

love him.

Sect. 30. Therefore God's works must be more valued and studied, as they are the glass representing the image of his perfections, and showing us his chief, essential amiableness, than as they are beneficial and useful to us, and so show us only his be nignity to us.

Sect. 31. Yet must self-love, and sense itself, and the sensible sweetness and experience of mercies be improved to our easier taste of God's essential goodness, and we must rise up from the lower to the higher objects; and this is our chief use of sensible benefits.e

Doubtless, as the soul, while it dwelleth with flesh, doth receive its objects by the mediation of sense, so God hath purposely put such variety of sensible delicacies into the creatures,: that by every sight, and smell, and hearing, and touch, and taste, our souls might receive a report of the sweetness of God, whose goodness all proceed from and therefore this is the life which we should labour in continually, to see God's goodness in every lovely sight, and to taste God's goodness in every pleasant taste, and to smell it in every pleasant odour, and to hear it in every lovely word or sound; that the motion may pass on clearly without stop, from the senses to the mind and will, and we may never be so blockish as to gaze on the glass, and ́

Ut enim quisque ad suum commodum refert maxime quæcunque agit, ita' minime est vir bonus: ut qui virtutem præmio metiuntur, nullam virtutem nisi malitiam putant.-Cicer. de Leg. 1. p. 227.

e Nihil homini metuendum, nisi ne fælicitatem excludat.— Solon in Laert. p. 31. Summo bonno constituto in philosophia, constituta sunt omnia: nam cæteris in rebus sive prætermissum, sive ignoratum est quippiam, non plus incommodi, quam quanti quæque earum rerum est, in quibus neglectum est aliquid. Summum autem bonum si ignoretur, vivendi rationem ignorari necesse est: ex quo tantus error consequitur, ut quem in portum se recipiant, scire non possunt. Cognitis autem rerum finibus (bonorum et malorum) inventa vitæ via est conformatioque omnium officiorum.-Piso in Cicer. de Finib. lib. 5, p. 182. Decrescere summum bonum non potest. Mortalia eminent, cadunt, deteruntur, crescunt, exhauriuntur, implentur. Divinorum una natura est.-Senec. Epist. 66, p. 644, 645.

not see the image in it; or to gaze on the image, and never consider whose it is; or to read the book of the creation, and mark nothing but the words and letters, and never mind the sense and meaning. A philosopher, and yet an atheist, or an ungodly man, is a monster; one that most readeth the book of nature, and least understandeth or feeleth the meaning of it.

Sect. 32. Therefore, God daily reneweth his mercies to us, that the variety and freshness of them, producing renewed delight, may renew our lively feelings of his love and goodness, and so may carry us on in love, without cessations and declinings.

Our natures are so apt to lose the sense of a good that is grown ordinary and common, that God, by our renewed necessities, and the renewed supplies, and variety of mercies, doth cure this defect.

Sect. 33. Those, therefore, that turn God's mercies to the gratifying of their sensitive appetites and lusts, and forget him, and offend him the more, and love him the less, do forfeit his mercies by their inhuman and irrational ingratitude and abuse. Which is the sin of all proud, covetous, voluptuous persons; the ambitious, fornicators, gluttons, drunkards, and lovers of sports, recreations, idleness, or any pleasure, as it turneth them from God.

Sect. 34. Above all other sin, we should most take heed of the inordinate love of any creature, for itself, or for our carnal self alone, because it is most contrary to our love of God, which is our highest work and duty.f

Sect. 35. Those mercies of God are most to be valued, dedesired and sought, which show us most of God himself, or most help up our love to him.

Sect. 36. We must love both our natural selves and neighbours, the bad as well as the good, with a love of benevolence, desiring our own good and theirs: but, at the same time, we must hate ourselves and them, so far as wicked, with the hatred of displacency; and, with the love of complacency, must only so far love ourselves or others, as the image of divine goodness is in us or them.

I speak not of the mere natural passion of the parent to the child, which is common to man and beast; nor of the exercises of love in outward acts, for those may be directed by God's commands to go more to one, as a wicked child, that hath less

f Cœlestia semper spectato: illa humana contemnito.-Cic. Somn. Scipi.

true amiableness in him. But all holy love must be suited to the measures of the truest object.

Sect. 37. The love of God should be with all our soul, and with all our might; not limited, suppressed, or neglected, but be the most serious, predominant action of our souls.

How easy a matter is it to prove holiness to be naturally man's greatest duty, when love to God, which is the sum of it, is so easily proved to be so. All the reason in the world that is not corrupted, but is reason indeed, must confess, without any tergiversation, that it is the greatest and most unquestionable duty of man to love God above all, yea, with all our heart, and soul, and might: and he that doth so shall never be numbered by him with the ungodly, for those are inconsistent.

Sect. 38. The exercises of love to God in complacency, desire, seeking, &c. should be the chief employment of our thoughts.h

For the thoughts are the exercise of a commanded faculty, which must be under the power of our will, and the ultimate end, and the exercises of our love to it, should daily govern them; and what a man loveth most, usually he will think of, with his most practical, powerful thoughts, if not with the most frequent.

Sect. 39. The love of God should employ our tongues in the proclaiming of his praise and benefits, and expressing our own admiration and affection, to kindle the like in the souls of others.1

For the same God who is so amiable, hath given us our speech with the rest of his benefits, and given it us purposely to declare his praise. Reason telleth us, that we have no higher, more worthy, or better employment for our tongues; and that we should use them to the best. The tongues of men are adorned with language for charitable and pious communication, that they may be fit to affect the hearts of others, and to kindle in them that

Fundamenta:

s Templum mentis amo, non marmoris, aurea in illo. manet fides structura nivali, confurgit pietate nitens, tegit ardua culmen. Justitia interius spargit sola picta rubenti Flore, pudicitiæ pudor almus, et atria servat. Hæc domus apta mihi est, hæc mé pulcherrima sedes. Accipit, æterno cœlestique hospite digna.-Prudent. Quicquid boni egeris in Deos refer.-Bias in Laert.

h When the oracle of Delphos adjudged the Tripos to the wisest, it was sent to Thales, and from him to another, till it came to Solon, who sent it to the oracle, saying, none is wiser than God.-Laert in Thalet.--So should we 'all send back to God the glory and praise of all good which is ascribed to us.

i Numen divinum omni modo, omni tempore ipse cole, juxta leges patrias, et ut alii colant effice.-Dion. 1. 52.

sacred fire which is kindled in themselves; therefore, that tongue which is silent to its Maker's praise, and declareth not the goodness, and wisdom, and power of the Lord, and doth not divulge the notice of his benefits, condemneth itself, and the heart that should employ it, as neglecting the greatest duty it was made for.

Sect. 40. The lives of God's beneficiaries should be employed to his praise and pleasure, and should be the streaming effects of inward love; and all his mercies should be improved to his service, from a thankful heart.

All this hath the fullest testimony of reason, according to the rules of proportion and common right. To whom should we live, but to him from whom, and by whom we live? What but our ultimate end should be principally intended, and sought, through our whole lives? A creature that hath all from God, should in love and gratitude bring back all to him; and thus we make it more our own.

Sect. 41. This life of love should be the chief delight and pleasure of our souls, which all other pleasure should subserve, and all be abhorred which contradicteth it. k

Nothing is more easily confessed by all, than the desirableness of delight and pleasure; and the most excellent object, which must be most beloved, must be our chief delight: for love itself is a delighting act, unless some stop do turn it aside into fears and sorrows. Nothing can itself be so delectable as God, the chief Good; and no employment so delectable as loving him.

This, therefore, should be our work, and our recreation, our labour and our pleasure, our food and feast. Other delights are lawful and good, so far as they further these delights of holy love, by carrying up our hearts to the original and end of all our mercies and delights. But nothing is so injurious to God and us as that which corrupteth our minds with sensuality, and becometh our pleasure instead of God.

Sect. 42. The sense of the present imperfection of our love, should make us long to know God more, and to love him and delight in him, and praise him in perfection to the utmost extent of our capacities.

1

If it be so good to love God, then must the highest degree of

k Aristippus rogatus aliquando, quid haberent eximium philosophi? Si omnes inquit, leges intereant, equabiliter vivimus.-Laert. Oderunt peccare boni virtutis amore.-Hor.

1Read Seneca, (de vita beata,) fully proving, against the Epicureans, that wealth, honour, and pleasure are not man's felicity, because they make him not better, or best.