and Sifters, yea, and his own Life also, be cannot be my Difciple. Not that a Man ought to hate any of thefe, but he ought to love them all less than Jefus Chrift: He ought to postpone them; he ought to flight, and forfake, and abandon them, whenever he cannot keep them, and preferve his Love, his Duty, his Fidelity to GOD. Thus much for this Time. O God, who haft prepared for them that love Thee, fuch good Things as pass Man's Understanding; pour into our Hearts fuch Love towards Thee, that we loving Thee above all Things, may obtain thy Promife, which exceeds all that we can defire, thro' Jefus Chrift our Lord. To whom, &c. 196 SERMON IX. MATT. XXII. 37, 38, 39, 40. 37. Jefus faid unto him, Thou shalt love the 40. On these two Commandments hang all the Began to treat on this Text the laft Lord's Day; and the Method I I propofed was; I. To give fome Account, what is meant by loving GOD with all our Heart, and Soul, and Mind. II. To fhew in what Refpects, or upon what Grounds, this Love of GOD is the first and greatest of the Commandments. III. To III. To make fome Inferences from this Propofition of our Saviour, that to love God with all the Heart and Soul, is the first and greatest of the Commandments. IV. To observe some practical Case about the Love of God. As to the first of these Points, What it is to love God, with all our Hearts, and Souls, and Minds; I fhewed you, that it must neceffarily comprise in it these four Things. First, That we have a great and just Efteem of GOD. Secondly, That we have an earnest Defire to be made Partakers of his Perfections. Thirdly, That we heartily endeavour to recommend ourselves to his Favour, by doing fuch Things as are pleafing and acceptable to him. Fourthly, That we fo far dread his Difpleasure, that we would not for any worldly Confideration incur it. On thefe Things I dwelt the laft Lord's Day, and therefore shall not now enlarge upon them; but proceed to the second general Point of my proposed Method, and that is, to fhew in what Refpect, or upon what Accounts, this Precept of loving God is the first and greateft Commandment. Now, I fay it is fo, and must be accounted fo, for these following Reafons: 9 3 Firf First of all, in regard, that, in the Order of Nature, it is before the other Commandments, and is, as it were, the Foundation of them. The other Duties of the Law are built and grounded upon this, and do derive their Obligation from it. For Inftance, the Duty we owe to our Neighbour, to be just and faithful in our Dealings, to be merciful and charitable, to be quiet and peaceable; as likewife the Duties we owe to ourselves, to be chaste, and modeft, and temperate: These are acknowleged to be neceffary indifpenfable Precepts. But now from whence doth our Obligation to them arife? How comes it that they do bind our Consciences to the Performance of them? Is it because they are Things reasonable in themselves, and agreeable to the Frame of Human Nature? Or is it because the Practice of these Things is the natural Means to make our Lives more eafy and comfortable in this World? Why, I grant, that both these Things are true, and both of them are likewife confiderable Motives to engage us to the Practice of them; but yet, in ftrict fpeaking, neither of them is fufficient to lay a direct Obligation upon our Confciences, to the practifing of them, without fomething else, and that is this: The Authority of the Great GOD (whom we are all bound to love and ferve with all our Hearts, with all our Minds, and with all our Strength), that hath made these Things to to be our Duty, that hath prefcribed it as a Law to us, to be juft, and charitable, chafte, and temperate, and the like: I fay, it is this that layeth the direct Obligation upon Confcience; fo that were we not bound in Conscience to serve and love God, neither should we be bound in Confcience to practise those other Things. The Truth is, were there no God in the World, whom we were bound to love and ferve, there would be no fuch Things as Love and Confcience in the World: It is the Confideration of GOD in the Action, that makes any Action to be Religious or Irreligious: And it is the Confideration of God's Authority, that makes any thing to be a Duty in point of Confcience, or to be a Sin against Confcience, And therefore, fince to love and cleave to Go D, is the firft Duty, and that which gives the Stamp of Confcience and Religion to all the reft, it must needs be the firft and greatest of all the Commandments. Secondly, This Law of loving GOD with all our Hearts and Souls, is the greateft of all the rest, in regard of its Excellency and Dignity; because it employeth and exercifes the Powers of our Souls in the highest and noblest Operations, and about the best Object they are capable of. To love GOD, is certainly the higheft Perfection and Accomplishment of human Nature; for hereby we are made like unto God; we are made Partakers 0 4 |