Divine Love Is the Commanding Passion
Havingdeclared at large, in the former sermon, what is implied in the supreme love of God; the second general head of discourse requires me to shew, how this one passion of divine love will influence all the other aflPections of the heart. The whole world are witnesses to this effect of love in the common affairs of mankind; and this powerful passion still retains its own nature and sovereigntyover the rest, when God is the object of it, which will appear in the following instances:
I. If the soul be warmed with divine love, “the various discoveries that God makes of himself to us, will not only be matter of fi’equent contemplation, but of pleasing wonder.” Admiration or wonder is a noble passion, arising from the view of something that is new and strange, or upon the notice of some rare and uncommon object: Now when so glorious and transcendent a Being, as the great and blessed God, becomes the object of our notice and our love, with what pleasure do we survey his glories, which are so rare, so uncommon, that there are none to compare with them? We shall meditate on the surprising discoveries that he has made of himself, till we find new matter of holy admiration in all of them. Sincere and fervent love is ever finding some new beauties and wonders in the person so much beloved.
The lover of God traces the footsteps of infinite wisdom and all-sufficient power, in the works of nature and providence: W7ie7i he beholds the heavens, the works of the fingers of God, and the moon and stars which he has created, Psalm viii. 3, he first observes their immense vastness, their order and beauty, and wonders at the skill and divine contrivance of him that made them: 0 Lord, how great, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all y’ Psalm civ. 24. And then he wonders again at the condescending goodness of God to his little creature, man: Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that thou shouldst visit him? Psalm viii. 4. The loving-kindness of God has many admirable circumstances in it, as well as his wisdom and power; and therefore the royal Psalmist calls it marvellous;
Psalm xxxi. 21, and spends many a psalm in the devout admiration of it.
Many of the providences of God are surprising: He alone doth great wonders Psalm cxxxvi. 4. In the heavens and in the earth he doth things unsearchable marvellous things without number; Job V. 9. The soul that loves God will recall his ancient wonders with sweet delight, Psalm lxxvii. 11, and will take notice of all his marvellous ways in his present conduct of the world and the church.
There is sufficient matter in God, for the pleasurable and everlasting entertainment of this holy passion: He is an immense ocean of glories and wonders. There is nothing in God but what would be marvellous and astonishing to us, if we had our eyes divanely enlightened, and our hearts fired with divine love. Every creature has something in it that surpasses our knowledge, and commands our admiration: But what are all these in comparison of God, the all-wise and almighty artificer, who made them all by his wisdom, and the breath of his mouth? The soul that loves God is ready to see and take notice of God in every thing: He walks through the fields, he observes the wonders of divine workmanship in every diftereut tree on his right hand and on his left, in the herbs and flowers that he treads with his feet, in the rich diversity of shapes and colors and ornaments of nature: He beholds and admires his God in them all. He sees the birds in their airy flight, or perched upon the branches, and sending forth their various melody: He observes the grazing flocks, and the larger cattle in their different forms and manners of life; he looks down upon little insects, and takes notice of their vigorous and busy life and motions, their shining bodies, and their golden or painted wings; he beholds and he admires his God in them all: In the least things of nature, he can read the greatness of God, and it is what of God he finds in the creature that renders creatures more delightful to him. Creatures are but his steps to help him to rise toward God.
If it were possible for our admiration, to run through and finish all the marvellous things of nature and providence, there would remain still a vast field of wonders in his word, in his law, in his gospel, in his transactions of grace with the children of men. David, that intense lover of God, was ever meditating on his statutes, his word, his testimonies; he searched wondrous things out of his law; Psalm cxix. 18, and ever found something in them worthy of his high esteem, and his holy joy. 0 how I love thy law I it is my meditation all the day. I have seen an end of all perfection hut thy commandments are exceeding broad; Psalm cxix. 96, 97. But above all, the riches of mercy manifested in the gospel, awaken and raise the holy soul to a sublime degree of astonishment. This is the Lorcfs doing indeed and it is marvellous in our eyes; Psalm cxviii. 23. This was the mystery that was hid in God and kept secret since the world began; it was concealed from ages and generations, and is now made manifest to the intent that now unto principalities and ptowers of heaven, as well as men on earth, might be made known by the church, the manifold the amiizing wisdom of God; Rom. xvi. 25. Ephes. iii. 9. There is enough in this gospel to raise the wonder even of the sinners that refuse it: Hea/r ye despisers, and wonder, and perish; Acts xiii. 41. Much more will it seize and employ the admiring powers of every holy soul that has tasted of the love of God, and been partaker of this salvation. There is a divine and tenfold pleasure attends this exercise of sacred admiration, while the soul, in the language of faith and love, can say. Thou art the God, who alone doest wonders, and thou art my God for ever and ever.
I might add after all, there is yet still another world of wonders to employ the lover of God, and that is, the person of his Son Jesus Christ our Saviour. There God discovers himself in his fullest grace and wisdoni, in his highest power and perfection. The attributes of the Father shine transcendently glorious in his Son, and become the object of love and wonder to men and angels. He is the fairest image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature; Col. i. 16. He is the brightness of the Father’’ s glory and the express image of his person; Heb. i. 3. All the marvellous things that God the Father ever wrought, it was in and by his Son. Did he create all things out of nothing? It was by Jesus Christ; Eph. iii. 9. Does he govern the world with amazing wisdom? It is by making his Son Jesus the Governor and Lord of all things. Does he redeem and save guilty sinners from everlasting misery? These wonders of mercy are transacted by the cradle and the cross of Jesus, by the death and the life of Christ, by the sorrows, the sufferings, and the victories of the Son of God. His name is called Wonderful; Isaiah ix. 6. For he who is the child bor7i, is also the mighty God: The infant of days is the everlasting Father, the first and the last, the beginning and the end of all things. What sublime and sacred raptures of love and wonder join together, when a devout Christian contemplates his God in his nature, in his providences, in all his works, in the pages of his holy book, and in the face of his Son the blessed Jesus! But I have dwelt too long amidst these divine wonders: the following particulars must be more briefly handled.
II. Divine love will command the affection of holy desire. A sense of the favor of God, and the influences of his grace, will be the matter of our most intense wishes and importunate requests. We shall long for the presence of God above all things, both here and hereafter. This was the fixed desire, this the passionate aspiration of the holy Psalmist: Psalm cxix. 58. I entrmted thy favor with my whole heart. What warm and pathetic language breaks from the lips of this great saint, this sublitiie lover of God, in the xlii, lxiii, and lxxxiv. Psalms! My soul longeth, yea fainteth for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. As the hart panteth after water-brooJcs so doth my soul after thee 0 God. Early 0 God, will I seek thee for thy loving-kindness is better than life. When he dwells in his own ])alace he longs for the divine presence; Psalm ci. 2: / will walk within my house loith a perfect heart; 0 when wilt thou come unto me? But his eminent desire is to dwell for ever in the sanctuary: One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may ever abide in his house, there to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire and converse with him in his holy temple Psalm xxvii. 4. O happy soul, where all these active springs of passion are touched and iufluenced by divine grace! Hunger and thirst, and all the longing powers and appetites of animal nature, are too few and too feeble to express the holy desires of a soul breathing after the presence of its God.
III. When the love of God reigns in the heart, all the joys and pleasures of the man will unite and centre in God. It will be our sweetest satisfaction, and most exalted delight, to have God ever near us, and to be ever near to God. As absence from God is a pain at the heart of a lively Christian, fired with divine love, so his glorious presence is his chief joy. With what aftectionate language does the holy soul of David rejoice in God, as his God, and how does he employ the charming arts of poesy and music to express his own joys and the praises of his almighty Friend! One must run through a multitude of his Psalms to copy out the bright expressions of holy delight which he found in the love of God; even the prospect and hope of waiting on him in his holy temple, fills his spirit with sacred pleasure; Psalm xliii. 4: I will go to the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy, yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, 0 God, my God. Psalm lxiii. 5, 6. WJien L remember thee on my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches, my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall 2^raise thee with joyful lips.
This joy which is derived from the love of God, is supreme over all other joys, and independent of other comforts: When all the nether springs of delight among creatures are dried up, this is a fountain of eternal pleasure, a spring of overflowing delight. Hab. iii. 17-19: Though the Jig-tree shall not blossom, and there shall be no fruit in the vine, though the field shall yield no meat, and the fiock shall be cut off from the fold, yet the Lord is my strength, I will rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of my salvation.
IV. Where the love of God prevails in the heart, every thing that belongs to God, his word, his institutions, his church and people, will in some proportion be the objects of our choice and love, of our holy desires and delight. Has God condescended to give us his word, to write a book of knowledge and grace for the use of men? How much delight will the holy soul take in reading and hearing thf5 blessed words of this book! A flame of heavenly love kindled in the heart, will engage us to converse often with those divine notices of himself, which God has sent us from heaven. Our delight will be placed in the law, and gospel of our God, and therein shall we meditate day and night; Psalm i. 2. 0 how I love thy law, says David, it is my meditation all the day; and in the night he remembers the name of God; Psalm cxix. 55, 97.
Has the great God built a temple for himself on earth, even the assemblies of the saints? Has he appointed methods of worship in which men shall address his Majesty, and whereby he will make them partakers of his love? How desirous is the lively Christian to attend on all these methods of divine appointment, to abide in the sanctuary, to frequent the house of prayer, and wait for the manifestations of the power and glory of God? / have loved the habitation of thy house, says David, and the place where thy honor dwelleth; Psalm xxvi. 8. How amiable are thy tabernacles, 0 Lord of Hosts! lxxxiv. 1.
Has God raised up children for himself, out of the sons and daughters of fallen Adam? Then every one that loves God, loill love his offspring too; 1 John v. 1. This is one of the chief evidences of a sincere love to God, when we love his people, and those who bear his image, without the narrow view of a sect or party, or particular tribe of such a name. The saint loves all the saints, and the Christian loves all Christians; those who are most like to God are the excellent of the earth, in whom is all his delight; Psalm xvi. 2. And therefore he pities them under all their sorrows, and he relieves their wants according to his power, because they stand in so near a relation to the God whom he loves, and bear his lovely image; 1 John iii. 16, 17.
Has the great and glorious God one peculiar Son, his first-born, his only-begotten, who bears his perfect image, and whom he loves above all the rest? this also is the chief object of a Christian’s love. Not father nor mother, son nor daughter, nor the wife of the bosom, lies so near the heart of a Christian, as the Son of God doth. He not only bears the nearest resemblance to God, but he is one loith God y in him diDells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; Col. ii. 9. He is Emmanuel, God with us; Matt. i. 23. God manifested in the flesh; 1 Tim. iii. 16. There is more of the power and wisdom, there is more of the majesty and mercy of God shines through the human nature of his Son Jesus, than in all the millions of men and angels, and all the worlds of unknown creatures that God ever made: and therefore the sanctified atlections of the soul go forth in the strongest manner towards Jesus, the Son of God: He is in their eyes the chiefest of ten thousand, altogether lovely.
V. Where the passion of divine love reigns gloriously in the heart, every creature separated from God will fall under a holy neglect and contempt. Nothing will serve or satisfy the good man, in the room and place of his God. All things, when laid in the balance, are lighter than vanity; they are, in his esteem, like a aiaall dust of the earth before a mountain, or the drop of a bucket, when compared with the ocean; Isaiah xl. 15. The language of such a soul is, lohom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none u’pon earth that I desire besides thee; Psalm lxxiii. 25. Creatui’es, with all their attractives and allurements, have no power to charm his heart away from God: The divine lover is crucified to the world; it is like a dead thing to him, tasteless, disrelishing, worthless and vain: There is a vast emptiness, and wide and universal desolation in the world, if the soul see not God in it.
Business and diversions, cities and palaces, with their various ornaments, fields and groves, spring, summer and autumn, with all their flowery beauties, and their tasteful blessings, are some of the delights of the sons of men: Books and learning, and polite company, and refined science, are the more elegant joys of ingenious spirits: These things are the enticing gratifications of the senses of the mind of man: They are all innocent in themselves, they may be sanctified to divine purposes, and atibrd double satisfaction if God be amongst them: But if God be absent, if he hide his fiice, or frown upon the soul, not palaces, nor groves, nor fields, not business nor diversions, not all the flowery or tasteful blessings of spring or summer, not the more refined joys of books and learning, and elegant company, not all the rich provisions of nature or art, can entertain or refresh, can satisfy or please the soul of a Christian, who is smitten with the love of his God.
I add further, if the affectionate Christian jSiid not God even in his church and ordinances; if his mind be not raised to heavenly objects in the house of God, and in his sacred institutions, they are all empty and unsatisfying; there is no life nor pleasure in them: A hypocrite is content with outward forms, and is well pleased with having paid his devoirs, and made his appearance in the church; but the heart that loves God sincerely, cannot be satisfied with mere bodily devotion, nor with any pictures, shadows, or emblems of divine things, unless God, who is the life, the spirit, and the substance, be there, and manifest himself in a way of mercy; unless God fill his own institution with his own presence, that is, with the influences of his grace, with the enlightening, the sanctifying, and the comforting operations of his own Spirit.
VI. The love of God prevailing in the heart, will awaken zeal and activity, and holy delight, not only in the duties of worship, but in all manner of services for God in the world. Can I do any thing for God whom I love? saith the Christian, that shall be my joyful work. There is no labor or fatigue too much to sustain, no suffering too hard to endure, for the sake of God, who is so supremely beloved. What shall I do to honor the King of heaven, and to render him honorable in the earth? How shall I spread his glory before the eyes of men, who in himself is so transcendently glorious? and what shall I render to the Lord my God for the multitude of mercies which he has conferred upon me? Psalm cxvi. 13. Divine love will make the law of God delightful in the practice of it, and none of his precepts will be a burden to the affectionate and lively Christian; 1 John v. 3. This is the love of God that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous.
The soul that loves God will be always aspiring after greater degrees of holiness, because it renders the man more like God: It is commonly said of friendship or sincere love, that it either finds or makes persons like to each other. Love to God is an assimilating principle; it works more and more, till we are transtbrmed by degrees into his image: And if we are affectionate lovers of God, we shall never be perfectly pleased with ourselves till we are delivered from the bondage of this sinful flesh, till we wake out of this dull and stupid state, into the world of sjiirits made perfect, and are theie satisfied with the likeness of God. This heavenly delight shall be yet more exalted when our bodies shall be raised in the likeness of our glorified Redeemer, and our flesh and soul together shall be made to resemble the holy Jesus in greater perfection, who is the first and the nearest image of God. With what a gust of sacred pleasure does the beloved disciple express himself; 1 John iii. 1, 2.
We shall be like him, when we shall see him as he is; and when with David we wake out of the dust of death, we shall see the face of Goil in righteousness, and be satisfied with his complete likeness; Psalm xvii. 15.
VII. Every thing that offends or dishonors the blessed God, will be a matter of hatred and aversion to the divine lover: And everything whereby God has been offended in time past, will be the occasion of shame and grief. / hate vain thoughts, saith holy David, but thy law do I love; Psalm cxix. 113. Sin is the object of constant hatred in all its views, because it is contrary to the nature, the will, and the law of God, who is the supreme object of love: The good man is exceeding fearful of doing any thing that may offend or displease his God. When his soul looks back upon his own sins, he finds abundant matter for sorrow and holy shame, for self-i’esentraent and pious indignation. “O how hateful have all my sinful thoughts been! My proud, my angry, and my revengeful thoughts! That covetousness, that malice and envy, which have been working in my heart! Those wandering imaginations which have called me away from the blessed God, even from the midst of his worship! How vile and guilty is my tongue, because of the foolish, and passionate, and sinful words that I have spoken! What a multitude of evil actions have been scattered up and down throughout my life, and intermixed with my behavior towards God and man!” All these create bitter uneasiness and pain in the remembrance, because they are offences against a God who is supremely beloved. What holy confusion, what meltings of heart in secret sorrow, do the true lovers of God feel, after they have indulged temptation, fallen under some more grievous sin, defiled their consciences, and dishonored their God? What pangs of in-Nvard remorse, and what sincere indignation against themselves? And as an evidence of their love to God, they sometimes see reason to confess and bewail their folly, even in the sight of men. Holy David was not backward upon such occasions, to confess his grief for having offended his God: We may read the mournings of his love, in his penitential Psalms, particularly Psalm li. 3, 4, 17; and he offers a broken and a contrite heart in sacrifice to that God whom he had offended.
A true and affectionate lover of God is pained at the heart, and feels a sensible inward sorrow to see how iniquity abounds in the land, to behold the laws of God broken by his fellow-creatures, and his holy name blasphemed. / behdd the transgressors and I iva grieved, because they kept not thy loord: Rivers of tears run down my eyes, because men break thy holy law; Psalm cxix. 136, 158.
VJII. Every thing* that has a tendency to divide the soul from God is matter of reh’gious jealousy and holy fear. Divine love hath its jealousies: If we love God with intense affection we shall feel an inward anxiousness and solicitude, lest our hearts depart from the living God and lest God should hide himself in his displeasure from our souls. This is what holy David is ever afraid of, and begs that God would not hide himself in anger. The apostle Jude,,. verse 21, bids us keep ourselves in the love of God: The holy soul will watch against every thing that may begin a separation or break the divine friendship, and it grows jealous of every thing that comes too near the heart.
When the true lover of God is deeply engaged in the businesses of the present world, he manages them with a pious caution, lest his soul should be immersed and drowned with overwhelming cares, or overladen with increasing riches; he is watchful, and afraid lest the dust and rubbish of this world should bury the holy seed in the heart, should obstruct the growth of religion, should carry off the thoughts from God to idols of gold and silver, and thus defile the soul. If he has any share amongst the honors and equipages, the gay diversions and pleasures of life, he is afraid lest they should fill his heart with vanity, lest they should tincture his spirit with sensuality and intemperance, and thus take away the taste and relish of divine love. If Providence call him sometimes into vain and wicked company, he is afraid of tarrying too many hours in the midst of them, lest evil communications should corrupt good manners; 1 Cor. xv. 33, and therefore he will not stand among the counsels of the ungodly nor walk in the way where sinners dwell; Psalm i. 1, He shuns them as a pestilence, because their ways are contrary to the pure and holy nature of that God whom he loves.
Those studies, those employments, those recreations and amusements, which make the heart forget God, or withhold it too long from him, are uneasy and painful to a soul inflamed with divine love. As it is the language of the sinner who is weary of God, When will the new moon he over, and the sabbath be done, that I may return to my trade and my labor, to my buying and selling, and the daily business of this dying life? So the sincere lover of God is ready to say, What, nothing but business and labor for the bread that perisheth? Nothing but buying and selling, and seeking gold and silver, food and raiment? Alas, how unhappily am I detained all the day from my God by these embarrassments! When will the evening come, and the season of pious retirement?
When will the sabbath appear, that I may spend my hours with God, and begin to try what heaven is!
IX. Where the divine principle of the love of God reigns in the heart, all sinful passions toward God and men will be subdued by it.
1. Toward God. One would think, indeed, that man should not dare to indulge any sinful passion toward his Maker; but so corrupt are our hearts, that we dislike the holy nature of God, we are displeased with his will, and his holy commandments are grievous to us, till the love of God subdue this inward aversion of the heart to holiness, and reconcile us to the law of God by the constraining influence of divine love.
Again, we are ready to repine at the hand of the Lord, to murmur against heaven, and to quarrel with our Maker, when we meet with disappointments in our affairs: We are inclined to grow peevish and fretful against Providence, when we lose some desirable comfort, or sustain some heavy sorrow, or long and tiresome sickness; but holy love silences every murmur, and quashes every repining thought. Where the love of God prevails, afflictive scenes of life will never awaken resentment against heaven, but always meet with patient submission. The sacred lover is not angry with his God when he smites him, for he ever supposes there is a just reason for every stroke of his Father’s rod: “Either,” says he,” my sins have deserved his correcting hand, or these sorrows are sent to examine what grace there is in my heart, and to make trial of my faith: Still I am persuaded there is love at the bottom of all these troubles, and it is the hand of love that smites me; for my Saviour hath said it. Rev. iii. 19. A8 many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; and the holy apostle assures us, Heh. xii. 6., that God corrects every so7i whom he receives,
2. Divine love mortifies and subdues our disorderly and sinful passions toward our fellow-creatures; Wrath, revenge, malice, envy, are all subdued and kept under by this sovereign principle of divine love. The soul, in whom this sacred passion keeps a constant flame, is not easily roused to a wrathful or resenting temper, by the afl’ronts and injuries we sustain from men. The lover of God is meek and gentle under many insults and reproaches: He can forbear and forgive, for he knows that his God hath borne long with him, and forgiven him ten thousand provocations. Thus the sovereignty of divine love appears, in that it can suppress as well as raise the other passions.
X. Wheie divine love reigns in eminent degrees, there will be an humble, holy desire to pass even through death itself to meet with God, the supreme object of love, and to dwell for ever in his presence. If ftiith be not too feeble, or the frailties of animal natm’e too prevalent, the divine lover will encounter death with courage, and with sacred joy, because it will brin<r him to the enjoyment of his God. When the dust returns to earthy the soul of every man returns to God as a judge, and the soul of a good man to God as a friend, and Father, and rewarder; Eccles. xii. 7. If we are absent from the body we shall be present with the Lord; 2 Cor. v. 8. In this view of things, the holy lover is ready to say, What is there in death so terrible, that the presence of Christ, and the enjoyment of my God, has not something infinitely more delightful to overbalance it? Love is stronger than death.
The love of God has been found stronger in a holy soul than all the pangs and terrors of death, even a death of violence and martyrdom. The one influences and impels toward heaven more powerfully than the other can terrify or discourage. United faith and love have passed through fires of torment, and seas of blood, in order to see God, and dwell with him in his heavenly habitation. This leads to the next particular.
In the last place I add, that as hell will be matter of utmost aversion and holy fear to a sincere lover of God, because it is an everlasting separation from God, so heaven will be the object of desire and joyful hope, because there God manifests himself to all that love him in his highest glory and richest grace. The soul that loves God with warm afi’ection, cannot bear those dreadful words, 2 Thess. i. 9. of being punished loith everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. To be without God in the world, during the short space of our continuance here, is a very formidable and grievous thing to the good man; but to be cursed and condemned to depart from God for ever, this is the very hell of hell, if I may ’ so express it, in the esteem of the soul that loves God: To be divided for ever from God, the spring of life and love, and all haypiness; to be separated for ever from God, the infinite and the all-sufficient good; to be thrust out for ever from the presence of God, the most lovely and the best of beings; to see him no more, to love him no more, and to be tor ever banished from his love; the very thought of it gives the holy soul more anguish than it is able to bear.
On the other hand, heaven, which is the dwelling-place of the Most High, is the mark which the good man ever aims at, that he may see God face to tace. When his love rises high, he is ever breathing passionately after this blessedness, and fives with delight upon the promises which give him this joyful hope. Blessed are the jnire in heart, for they shall see God; Matt. v. 8. The good man’s atlectioiis are set on the thtn<js above, where Christ is at the right hand of God; Col. iii. 1, 2. His treasure is on high, and his heart is there also; Matt. vi. 21. If we love God with all the heart, W(5 shall keep heaven always in our eye. The foretaste of it will be our present comfort and support; the thoughts of being for ever with God, will sweeten all the sorrows of life, will take away the bitterness of affliction, and ease the pains of death. Ae •^Hcob cheerfully sustained a hard servitude of seven years in Ch ‘*dea, through heat and cold, through frosts and wind, and sunbeams, for the love of Kachel, so the Christian endures all the labors and conflicts, all the fatigues and distresses of life in this lower world with patience, and with holy pleasure, in hope to dwell for ever with God, whom his soul loves supremely above all creatures.
Thus I have finished the second general head which I proposed; and produced a variety of instances, wherein this sacred and sovereign affection of divine love commands and influences, excites or subdues the other passions of nature, and makes them all subservient to its own great designs, that is, to the honor and to the enjoyment of God, the object of this divine aflection.
Before I proceed to the third general head, I shall endeavor to improve this discourse by these three useful reflections:
Reflection I.” llow happy and easy a rule is here given us to examine how stands our love to God, and whether we love him with all our heart P^ Are the other passions of nature influenced by this love? Surely it is impossible for us, in this present state of flesh and blood, to love God with our whole hearts, and yet to feel no sensible workings of fear or hope, desire or anger, in correspondence with this holy yassion: To have no pleasures nor sorrows, no holy longings, nor holy joys, acting in concert with this principle of divine love.
Believe me, sirs, there are no outward actions, no visible attendances on public worship, no bodily services, no costly sacrifices, can so happily evidence our sincere love to God, as the steady and constant workings of the other inward powers of nature, in conformity to this holy principle. A hundred outward plausible actions may be the cloak of vice, the disguise of hypocrisy. Vain Pharisees may 77iake broad their ‘phylacteries, may tithe their herds and their flocks as well as mint and cummin, may give much alms, or build hospitals and churches ‘; but the various inward aflections of nature can never be kept in any regular and steady exercise of piety, by all the toil and skill of a hypocrite. And on the other hand, if the heart be thoroughly devoted to the love of God, this love will reign sovereign among the other passions. The other jDassions will obey love, and we may judge by their obedience how far the love of God prevails.
Reflection II. “If mankind be examined by this rule, how few sincere lovers of God will be found among them!” It is a vain thing for a man to sa, “I love God with all my heart,” when his strongest desires and his most relishing joys centre in meaner object!^’; when his highest hopes and his most painful fears, his deepest /^xieties and disquietudes of mind, are always raised and sunk again by the things of this world only, and the changing scenes of this mortal state. Alas! how few are there whose love to God does not fall under some just suspicion, when brought to this test! Let us survey the world round about us, and observe what it is that influences the various passions of men, even those who are called Christians, and would be thought the disciples of Christ.
Some have their hearts so filled with the business of this life, and the love of money, as their chief idol, that all their desires, their fears and their hopes, and the perpetual course and labor of all their powers, keep this point ever in view and in warm pursuit: The disappointment of a small sum, the loss of a few pounds, will hang upon their spirits with a constant heaviness, and create them more pain than twenty sins against God their Maker. What shall we think of these people, who love riches so well, that if their hands and their heads would hold out, and daylight would last, they would never be weary of this chase, nor require cessation or respite? Does the love of God appear as the supreme and reigning passion in such earthly souls as these? There have been some in all ages, and there are the successors of them in our day, who have loved gold and silver with so warm a passion, even to the very end of life, that if they could but have contrived how to carry it away with them to the other world, there would have been but little silver, and scarce any gold, left in our world long ere this time. This has employed their morning thoughts and evening afiections, their earnest wishes, and their busy fingers day and night, so as to leave little room for the love of God and religion.
Others there are who make honor and esteem, or perhaps the grandeur, and pomp, and equipage of life, the chief object of their love. Their hopes and cares, their desires and enquiries are, How shall I shine among men, and make a figure in the world? Every gay gilded thing they see raises their wnshes: Ambition, honor, and applause, engage their whole souls: A fancied contempt or neglect of them stirs their jealousy, and awakens all their uneasy passions. They mourn more, and are more inwardly and deeply vexed for one reproachful word from men, than for all their own affronts to the great and blessed God. Can the love of God reign in a heart so puffed up and filled with self and vanity?
There are others again, whose idol is pleasure and vain delight. A round of pleasing amusements, a succession of sensualities, is their chief good: This employs their constant contrivances, this engages their hopes and fears, and every passion. They spend their anxious enquiries upon the gratification of appetite, humor and fancy: What shall I ea.t and lohat shall I drink? How shall I dine elegantly, and regale myself at the table? What are the most luxurious dishes in season, and where shall 1 find gay or merry company in the evening? The tavern or the meaner drinking-house, the comedy or the ball, and every place of pastime, whether lawful or unlawful, detain their souls as well as their bodies, and engage their thoughts long beforehand. Does the sincere love of God reign in such sort of spirits?
These are the things that busy and engross the daily passions of men, and scarce a small corner of their hearts is left for God and religion. But let us remember, God is an all-glorious and sovereign Being, his holy jealousy forbids him to accept of a corner of the heart. He refuses and disdains every lover that does not give up his whole self to him with all his powers. Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy hearty and with all thy soul: Every affection must and will be employed in a pious manner, where divine love is, as it always ought to be, the supreme passion. But, alas! how few souls are thus moulded and refined; how few are regulated and governed by so divine a principle! Man is the creature of God, and owes his all to him; but the creature man does not love his Creator.
Reflection HI. If divine love be so sovereign and ruling an affection, then “the best and noblest method for governing all the passions, is to get the love of God rooted in the heart, and to see that it maintain its supreme dominion there.” What uneasy creatures are we made by our various passions. How often do they disquiet and torment the soul! How headstrong is their violence, like a horse unbroken and untamed! How sudden are their starts I Their motions how wild and various! And how unruly are their efibrts! Now if one had but one sovereign bridle, that could reach and manage them all; one golden rein that would hold in all their unruly motions, and would also excite and guide them at pleasure; what an invaluable instrument would this be to mortals! Surely such an instrument is the love of God, such an invaluable regulator of all the passionate powers; and it will have this effect, where it is strong and supreme, as it ought to be.
You that are daily disturbed and led astray by rising passions of various kinds, cotne to the lectures of the gospel, come to the doctrine of the blessed Jesus: Come, see the love of God displayed in its most surprising and powerful colors; come, learn to love your Maker, dressed in the riches of his grace: And may your souls be fired with divine h)ve, till all your carnal fetters are melted oti’; till you exult in a divine liberty; till you lead captivity captive, and reign and triumph over all your vicious affections, which had so often before disquieted and enslaved you.
And here again we may take up a melancholy complaint, bow few are there who are taught to regulate their passions by divine love! What wild work do these unruly powers make among mankind! How dreadfully do they carry away multitudes into mischief and ruin for want of this holy government! How very few have attained this heavenly gift, this sacred principle, this golden rein of universal influence, that would hold in, and guide and manage all the passions to glorious advantage!
Meditation.” But it is time now, O my soul, to call thy thoughts away from the multitudes of mankind, and to look carefully into thyself. There is reason enough for grief and lamentation indeed, if we survey the thousands round about us, who are mere slaves to their eai’thly passions, who let them loose among creatures, and shew very few tokens and evidences of a supreme love to their Creator: But would it not be matter of far more painful, more penetrating and inward sorrow, if thou shouldst carry this evidence, this test of divine love, into thy own retirements, and shouldst hardly be able to prove thyself a lover of God? Awake, awake to the Work, O my heart! Enquire, examine, and take a strict account how are thy passionate powers employed. Go over thy various affections, and enquire of all of them, how stands thy love to God?
“Admiration is described as the first of the passions: It arises on the notice of something new, or rare and uncommon: But it never ceases nor is lost in the contemplation of God, whose glories are infinite, and in whom the holy soul always finds something new and wondrous. He is a rare and uncommon object indeed, for there is but one such being in heaven and earth; there never was but. one from all eternal ages past, nor ever will be but one to all future eternal ag(is.
“Hast thou seen him, my soul, so as to love him? then thy work of pleasing contemplation and wonder will be still renewed: Among creatures we go on to admii’e what we love, but the love of the
ISAAC WATTS, D.D. lY9
Creator will lead us to everlasting admiration. And if thou lovest him, thou wilt ever find something new and wondrous in him, as thy knowledge of him increases. Ask thyself, then, hast thou seen the glories and the graces of thy God, so as to wonder at the infinite variety of his wisdom, the greatness of his majesty, and the condescensions of his mercy? Are his displays of glory in nature and providence, in the Bible and in the church, and especially in his beloved Son Jesus, the matter of thy joyful meditation and high esteem? Does a sense of his transcendent grandeur and goodness strike thee, as it becomes a creature to be stricken with the ideas of a God, that is, with a holy veneration and with an awful delight? The love of so sublime and infinite a Being is naturally turned to pleasing adoration, and becomes an act of noble worship: But when earthly lovers adore their meaner objects, to express the strength of their love, they turn idolaters, and alfront God their Maker. Remember, O my soul, God alone must be adored.
“But proceed now, and ask, how stand thy desires and wishes? Is the favor, the presence, and the enjoyment of God, the object of thy strongest desires, and of thy constant pursuit? Dost thou long after a sense of the pardon of sin, the love of God, and a preparation to dwell for ever with him, above all things besides? Yet further inquire, what is thy heart’s chief delight: Are those the sweetest seasons of life, when thou art brought nearest to God in the temper of thy spirit, in the lively hope of his love, and in humble converse with him? Are the secret hours of retirement dear and delightful to thee, above all human society? Are the workings of thy heart, in warm and affectionate devotion, thy sweetest pleasures? Can it be that ever I should love God supremely, and yet not find my converse with him to be my supreme joy?
“Again: Are the things that relate to God and eternity the objects of my choice and love, above and beyond the things that relate to men and this life? What value hast thou, O my soul, for the Bible, the book of God? His words will be treasured up in the heart, and will become the sweet entertainment of thy solitary hours, if God himself has the highest room in thy afiections. Let me enquire again, how stand my desires toward the sanctuary, toward the places and seasons of divine worship?” Am / glad when they say unto me, Come, let us go up to the house of God P Psalm cxxii. 1. Are the courts of Zion my delight, because the blessed God manifests his power and glory there? Do I love the saints of God? Is the company of lively Christians refreshing and entertaining to me, above all the idle discourse of the world, or the vain merriments or more polite amusements of the age? Do I look upon the cliiklren of God with a pecuHar respect, with an eye of distinguishing love, and that for this reason, because they stand related to God, and bear his image? Do I feel a sympathy with them in their sorrows? Do I pity and relieve from my very heart the poor in this world, who are the sons and daug-htei’s of the most high God? And is Jesus the supreme Son of God, the highest in my esteem, and the dearest to my heart?
“Ask yet again, O my soul; is every thing little and contemptible in thy eyes, in comparison of the things of God? Can any thing fill up the room and place of God? Or canst thou say all things are emptiness and vanity where God is not? When St. Austin, who was exceeding fond of the writings of Cicero, the Roman orator, came to taste the pleasures of religion, by the knowledge of Christ, the writings even of Cicero lost their relish with him, because he found not Christ there. How stands it now with thee, in respect of some of thy dearest delights of nature? Are they all placed, as they ought to be, in thy esteem, infinitely below God? Are thy best earthly joys empty and unsatisfying without God? Canst thou say, in the language of the apostle, and assume his triumph, Yea doubtless and I count all tilings hut loss for the excellency of the knoiDledge of Christ Jesus by whom we are brought near to God the Father? Phil. iii. 8.
“Enquire yet again, does thy love to God awaken and employ thy zeal and holy activity for his honor? Art thou solicitous to keep all his commandments, and hereby manifest thy love? There is no evidence of the love of God can be sufficient or sincere, if this be wanting. Dost thou seek to grow more and more like to God? Dost thou breathe earnestly after greater conformity to Jesus, the first and the brightest image of the Father? Is it a pain to thee to find thyself so unlike him, whom thou lovest supiemely? Love will create likeness.
“Let us examine thee now, my heart, how stand thy uneasy and painful affections? Hast thou a rooted hatred of every sin? Hast thou an inward aversion to every thing that displeases God? Dost thou look back on thy own former transgressions with holy shame and sincere sorrow? Art thou covered with an inward blush at the recollection of thy past follies? Are thy sins thy heaviest burden, and thy most uneasy load? Has thy sincere and unfeigned repentance been manifested by all the proper passions that attend a penitent, by self-abasement and inward confusion, by mourning in secret, and a holy displi.cency and resentment against thyself and thy folly? And is it a grief and pain to thee, to see and hear others transgress against thy God, and affront his law and his love?
“Seek yet further: Hast thou a watchful jealousy over thyself, lest thou wander from God? A constant solicitude of niiud, lest thou oflend and displease him whom thou lovest supremely? Dost thou stand afar ofl’ from every temptation, as one afraid to be defiled with sin, and dishonor thy God? Art thou cautious of that company, of that business, of that diversion or delig’ht which has before ensnared thee, and broke thy holy intercourse with God?
“Ask again, O my heart, hast thou subdued thy uneasy passions of anger, frowardness, and resentment, against God and against man, by the overcoming influence of divine love? Hast thou a submissive and humble carriage under hard providences and sore disappointments from the hand of God? Dost thou love him so well, as not to murmur at his holy conduct, nor quarrel with his government? And hast thou acquired the sacred power and skill of suppressing thy wrath and revenge against men, by the constraining influence of the love of God? Dost thou forbear and forgive those who oflfend thee, from a sweet sense of the forbearing and forgiving love of God towards thee? If thy love to God has yet done little of this service, if it has not begun to make thee meek and mild, and dispassionate under afilictions from the hand of God, or the aftronts of men, it has not acquired any great prevalence in thee, and there is too much reason to suspect the sincerity of it.
“Come yet further, 0 my soul, take a step forward, and look towards death and eternity. Art thou willing to cross the dark valley, in order to dwell with thy beloved? I grant nature has its frailties and fears; I grant also, that the want of assurance of salvation damps the wings of the soul, which would be stretched forward to the enjoyment of God in the heavenly country: I would put the question therefoi-e in a gentle and favorable manner; Hast thou any desire to leave this sinful world, to quit all thy dearest hopes and interests here, for the sake of dwelling with God on high? Suppose thou hadst a steady hope of his love, and the pains of death were mitigated, hast thou an inward breathing and tendency towards the happiness that arises from the presence of God? O blessed souls whose love is risen to so transcendent a degree, that they are not afraid even of the sharpest pangs, and the terrors of death! They can venture wnth pleasure to cross the swellings of Jordan that they may enter into the promised land, and dwell in the city of their God.
“What is it, O my heart, what is it in the word hell that strikes thee with so much horror? Is it the thought of an endless separation from thy God? What is it that makes the name of heaven carry so pleasing a sound? Is it because thy God dwells there in his fairest glory, and in his richest grace? The mere dread of hell as a place of sorrow and pain, and the desire of heaven as a mere state of rest from trouble, and of some sort of unknown happiness, are no manner of evidences of any love to God, much less of a supreme love, such as God requires. The passions of nature may be awakened by natural self-love at the views of heaven and hell, when set merely in this light: But it is the hope of being for ever with the Lord that is the chief allurement of heaven in the eye of the sacred lover; and it is the eternal absence of God gives hell its blackest colors, and its most formidable appearances.
“Hast thou, O my soul, run over all thy passions in this enquiry? and what is the result of thy labor? Canst thou stand this test? Art thou a lover of God with all thy heart? If thou find this divine principle, this sovereign and holy affection reigning within thee, bless the distinguishing grace of God, who has kindled this heavenly flame, and cherish it with perpetual care. Set a guard upon every affection, lest it wander from its duty. 0 may divine love maintain its rightful dominion, and universal sovereignty in my soul. Let me keep God always near me, and watch against the seducing influence of tempting creatures, that I may ever preserve the love of God in its supreme fervency, and its unrivalled influences: Then my whole nature, with all its powers, shall be thine, 0 my God, for ever and ever.” Amen.