Of Love
The rule of obedience being the moral law comprehended in the Ten Commandments; the next question is,
Quest. What is the sum of the Ten Commandments?
Resp. The sum of the Ten Commandments, is to love the Lord our God, with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind, and our neighbor as ourselves (Deuteronomy 6:5): You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. The duty called for is love, indeed the strength of love, with all your heart: God will lose none of our love. Love is the soul of religion, and that which goes to the right constituting a Christian: love is the queen of the graces; it shines and sparkles in God's eye, as the precious stones did on the breastplate of Aaron.
Quest. 1. What is love?
Resp. It is a holy fire kindled in the affections, whereby a Christian is carried out strongly after God as the supreme good.
Quest. 2. What is the antecedent of love to God?
Resp. The antecedent of love is knowledge: the Spirit shines upon the understanding, and discovers those orient beauties in God, his wisdom, holiness, mercy, and these are the Lenocinium, the load-stone to entice and draw the love to God: Ignoti nulla Cupido: Such as know not God cannot love him: If the sun be set in the understanding, there must needs be night in the affections.
Quest. 3. Wherein does the formal nature of love consist?
Resp. The nature of love is in delighting in the object: Complacentia amantis in amato, Aquin. This is our loving God, our taking delight in him (Psalm 37:4): Delight yourself in the Lord: As a bride delights in her jewels. Grace changes a Christian's aims and delights.
Quest. 4. How must our love to God be qualified?
Resp. 1. If it be a sincere love, we must love God with all our heart: In the text, You shall love the Lord your God, Becol Leuauca, with all your heart. God will have the whole heart; we must not divide our love between God and sin: the true mother would not have the child divided: Nor will God have the heart divided; it must be the whole heart.
2. We must love God propter se, for himself, for his own intrinsic excellencies: We must love him for his loveliness; Meretricius est amor plus annulum quam sponsum amare. It is a harlot's love to love the portion more than the person. Hypocrites love God because he gives them corn and wine: We must love God for himself; for those shining perfections which are in him. Gold is loved for itself.
3. We must love God with all our might. In the Hebrew text our vehemency. We must love God quoad posse, as much as we are able: Christians should be like Seraphim burning in holy love: We can never love God so much as he deserves: The angels in heaven cannot love God so much as he deserves.
4. Love to God must be active in its sphere: love is an industrious affection; it sets the head to studying for God, hands to working, feet to running in the ways of his commandments; it is called the labour of love (1 Thessalonians 1:3). Mary Magdalen loved Christ, and poured her ointments on him. We think we can never do enough for the person whom we love.
5. Love to God must be superlative: God is the quintessence of beauty, a whole paradise of delight; and he must have a priority in our love: Our love to God must be above all things besides; as the oil swims above the water: We must love God above estate, relations; great is the love to relations. There is a story in the French Academy, of a daughter, who when her father was condemned to die by famine, gave him suck with her own breasts. But our love to God must be above father and mother (Matthew 10:37). We may give the creature the milk of our love, God must have the cream: The spouse keeps the juice of her pomegranate for Christ (Song of Solomon 8:2).
6. Our love to God must be constant, like the fire the vestal virgins kept in Rome, which did not go out. Love must be like the motion of the pulse, it beats as long as there is life (Song of Solomon 8:7): Many waters cannot quench love, not the waters of persecution (Ephesians 3:17): [illegible], rooted in love. A branch withers that does not grow on a root: That love may not die, it must be well rooted.
Quest. 5. What are the visible signs of our love to God?
Resp. 1. If we love God, then our desire is after him (Isaiah 26:8): The desire of our soul is to your name. He who loves God breathes after communion with him (Psalm 42:2): My soul thirsts for the living God. Persons in love desire to be oft conferring together: He who loves God desires to be much in his presence: He loves the ordinances, they are the glass where the glory of God is resplendent: In the ordinances we meet with him whom our soul loves: We have God's smiles and whispers, and some foretastes of heaven: Such as have no desire after ordinances, have no love to God.
2. The second visible sign: He who loves God cannot take contentment in anything without him: A hypocrite who pretends to love God, give him but corn and wine, and he can be content without God: But a soul fired with love to God cannot be without him. Lovers faint away if they have not a sight of the object loved. A gracious soul can want health, but not want God who is the health of his countenance (Psalm 43:5). If God should say to a soul that entirely loves him, Take your ease, swim in pleasure, solace yourself in the delights of the world, but you shall not enjoy my presence; this would not content the soul. Nay, if God should say, I will let you be taken up to heaven, but I will retire into a withdrawing room, and you shall not see my face: This would not content the soul; it is a hell to want God. The philosopher says, There can be no gold without the influence of the sun: There can be no golden joy in the soul, without God's sweet presence and influence.
3. The third visible sign: He who loves God, hates that which would separate between him and God, and that is sin: Sin makes God hide his face; it is like an incendiary which parts chief friends. Therefore the keenness of a Christian's hatred is set against sin (Psalm 119:128): I hate every false way. Antipathies can never be reconciled; one cannot love health but he must hate poison: So we cannot love God, but we must hate sin, which would destroy our communion with him.
4. The fourth visible sign is sympathy: friends that love do grieve for the evils which befall each other. Homer describing Agamemnon's grief, when he was forced to sacrifice his daughter, brings in all his friends weeping with him, and accompanying him to the sacrifice in mourning: lovers grieve together. If we have true love in our heart to God, we cannot but grieve for those things which grieve him: we shall lay to heart his dishonors: the luxury, drunkenness, contempt of God and religion (Psalm 119:136). Rivers of tears run down my eyes, etc. Some speak of the sins of others, and make a laughing at them; sure they have no love to God, who can laugh at that which grieves his Spirit. Does he love his father, who can laugh to hear him reproached?
5. The fifth visible sign. He who loves God, labors to render him lovely to others; he not only admires God, but speaks in his praises, that he may allure and draw others to be in love with God. She that is in love, will commend her lover. The love-sick spouse extols Christ, she makes a panegyrical oration of his worth, that she might persuade others to be in love with him (Song of Solomon 5:11). His head is as the most fine gold. True love to God cannot be silent, it will be elegant in setting forth God's renown; no better sign of loving God, than by making him appear lovely, and so drawing proselytes to him.
6. The sixth visible sign. He who loves God, weeps bitterly for his absence. Mary comes weeping, they have taken away my Lord (John 20:2). One cries, my health is gone, another my estate is gone; but he who is a lover of God, cries out, my God is gone, I cannot enjoy him whom I love. What can all worldly comforts do, when once God is absent? It is like a funeral banquet, where there is much meat, but no cheer (Job 30:28). I went mourning without the sun. If Rachel mourned so for the loss of her children, what veil or brush can shadow out the sorrow of that Christian, who has lost God's sweet presence? Such a soul pours forth floods of tears, and while it is lamenting, seems to say thus to God, Lord, you are in heaven hearing the melodious songs and triumphs of angels; but I sit here in the valley of tears, weeping because you are gone. O when will you come to me and revive me with the light of your countenance? Or, Lord if you will not come to me, let me come to you, where I shall have a perpetual smile of your face in heaven, and shall never more complain, My Beloved has withdrawn himself.
7. The seventh visible sign. He who loves God, is willing to do and suffer for him. He subscribes to God's commands; he submits to his will. First, he subscribes to God's commands. If God bids him mortify sin, love his enemies, be crucified to the world, he obeys: it is a vain thing for a man to say he loves God, and slights his commands. Secondly, he submits to God's will. If God will have him suffer for him, he does not dispute but obey (1 Corinthians 13:7). Love endures all things. Love made Christ suffer for us, and love will make us suffer for him. It is true every Christian is not a martyr, but he has a spirit of martyrdom in him. He has a disposition of mind to suffer, if God call him to it (2 Timothy 4:6). [illegible], I am ready to be offered up: not only the sufferings were ready for Paul, but he was ready for the sufferings. Origen chose rather to live despised in Alexandria, than with Plotinus to deny the faith, and be great in the prince's favor (Revelation 12:11). Many say they love God, but will not suffer the loss of any thing for him. If Christ should have said to us, I love you well, you are dear to me, but I cannot suffer for you, I cannot lay down my life for you, we should have questioned his love very much. And may not the Lord question ours, when we pretend love to him, but will endure nothing for his sake?
Use 1. What shall we say to them who have not a dram of love in their hearts to God? They have their life from him, yet do not love him. God spreads their table every day, yet they do not love him. Sinners dread God as a judge, but do not love him as a father. All the strength in the angels cannot make the heart love God: judgments will not do it. Only omnipotent grace can make a stony heart melt in love. How sad is it to be void of love to God. When the body is cold, and has no heat in it, it is a sign of death: he is spiritually dead, who has no heat of love in his heart to God. Shall ever such live with God, that do not love him? Will God lay an enemy in his bosom? Such as will not be drawn with cords of love, shall be bound in chains of darkness.
Use 2. Let us be persuaded to love God with all our heart and might; O let us take our love off from other things, and place it upon God. Love is the heart of religion, the fat of the offering. It is the grace which Christ inquires most after (John 21:15). Peter, do you love me? Love makes all our services acceptable, it is the musk that perfumes them. It is not so much duty, as love to duty God delights in; therefore serving and loving God are put together (Isaiah 56:6). It is better to love him than to serve him. Obedience without love, is like wine without the spirits. O then be persuaded to love God with all your heart and might. To persuade to this virgin affection of love,
1. It is nothing but your love God desires. The Lord might have demanded your children to be offered in sacrifice; he might have bid you cut and lance yourselves, or lain in Hell a while; but he only desires your love; he would only have this flower. Is this a hard request to love God? Was ever any debt easier paid than this? Is it any labor to the wife to love her husband? Love is delightful. Non potest Amor esse, & dulcis non esse, Bern. What is there in our love that God should desire it? Why should a king desire the love of a woman that is in debt, and diseased? God does not want our love. There are angels enough in Heaven to adore and love him. What is God the better for our love? It adds not the least cubit to his essential blessedness. God does not need our love, yet seeks it. Why does God desire us to give him our heart (Proverbs 23:26)? Not that he needs our heart, but that he may make it better.
2. Great will be our advantage if we love God. God does not court our love that we should lose it (1 Corinthians 2:9): Eye has not seen, nor ear heard the things which God has prepared for them that love him. If you will love God, you shall have such a reward as exceeds your faith. God will betroth you to himself in the dearest love (Hosea 2:19): I will betroth you to me forever in loving-kindness and mercies. (Zephaniah 3:17) The Lord your God will rejoice over you with joy, he will rest in his love. If you love God, he will interest you in all his riches and dignities; he will give you Heaven and Earth for your dowry; he will set a crown on your head. Vespasian the Emperor gave a great reward to a woman who came to him, and professed she loved him. God gives a crown of life to them that love him (James 1:12).
3. Love is the only grace that shall live with us in Heaven. In Heaven we shall need no repentance, because we have no sin; no faith, because we shall see God face to face. But love to God shall abide forever. Love 〈in non-Latin alphabet〉 never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8). How should we nourish this grace which shall outlive all the graces, and run parallel with eternity!
4. Our love to God is a sign of his love to us (1 John 4:19): We love him, because he first loved us. By nature we are 〈in non-Latin alphabet〉, we have no love to God, we have hearts of stone (Ezekiel 36:1). And how can any love be in hearts of stone! Our loving God is from his loving us. If the glass burns, it is because the sun has shined on it, else it could not burn: if our hearts burn in love, it is a sign the Sun of Righteousness has shined upon us.
Quest. How shall we do to love God aright?
Resp. 1. Wait on the preaching of the Word. As faith comes by hearing, so does love: the Word sets forth God in his incomparable excellencies; it does decipher and pencil him out in all his glory, and a sight of his beauty inflames love.
2. Beg of God that he will give you a heart to love him. When King Solomon asked wisdom of God, the speech pleased the Lord (1 Kings 3:10). So when you cry to God, Lord give me a heart to love you, it is my grief I can love you no more. Sure this prayer pleases the Lord, and he will pour of his Spirit upon you, whose golden oil will make the lamp of your love burn bright.
3. You who have love to God, keep it flaming upon the altar of your heart. Love, as fire, will be ready to go out (Revelation 2:4). You have left your first love. Through neglect of duty, or too much love of the world, our love to God will cool. O preserve your love to God: as you would be careful to preserve the natural heat in your body; so be careful to preserve the heat of love to God. Love is like oil to the wheels, it quickens us in God's service. When you find your love abate and cool, use all means for quickening; when the fire is going out, you throw on fuel. When the flame of love is going out, make use of all ordinances as sacred fuel to keep the fire of your love burning.
