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extinguishing all affection to things odious and offensive to God; mortifying all corrupt and perverse, all unrighteous and unholy desires. It agrees with souls no less than with bodies, that they cannot at once move or tend contrary ways; upward and downward, backward and forward at one time: it is not possible we should together truly esteem, earnestly desire, bear sincere good-will to things in nature and inclination quite repugnant each to other. No man ever took him for his real friend, who maintains correspondency, secret or open, who joins in acts of hostility with his professed enemies: at least we cannot, as we ought, love God with our whole heart, if with any part thereof we affect his enemies; those, which are mortally and irreconcileably so; as are all iniquity and impurity, all inordinate lusts both of flesh and spirit: the carual mind (the minding or affecting of the flesh) is,' St. Paul tells us, ' enmity toward God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor can be;' it is an enemy, even the worst of enemies, an incorrigibly obstinate rebel against God; and can we then, retaining any love to God or peace with him, comply and conspire therewith? And the friendship of the world (that is, I suppose, of those corrupt principles, and those vicious customs which usually prevail in the world) is also,' St. James tells us, enmity with God;' so that, he adds, if any man be a friend to the world, he is thereby constituted (he immediately ipso facto becomes) an enemy to God.' St. John affirms the same; • If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him ;' explaining himself, that by the world he means those things which are most generally embraced and practised therein; the lust, or desire, of the flesh, (that is, sensuality and intemperance,) the lust of the eyes, (that is, envy, covetousness, vain curiosity, and the like,) the ostentation, or boasting, of life, (that is, pride, ambition, vain-glory, arrogance,) qualities as irreconcileably opposite to the holy nature and will of God, so altogether inconsistent with the love of him; begetting in us an aversation and antipathy towards him; rendering his holiness distasteful to our affections, and his justice dreadful to our consciences; and himself consequently, his will, his law, his presence hateful to us : while we take him to be our enemy and to hate us, we shall certainly in like manner stand affected toward him: this indeed is

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the main obstacle, the removal of which will much facilitate the introduction of divine love; it being a great step to reconciliation and friendship, to be disengaged from the adverse party : we should then easily discern the beauty of divine goodness and sanctity, when the mists of ignorance, of error, of corrupt prejudice, arising from those gross carnal affections, were dissipated; we should better relish the sweet and savory graces of God, when the palate of our mind were purged from vicious tinctures; we should be more ready to hope for peace and favor in his eyes, when our consciences were freed from the sense of such provocations and defilements. But,

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2. If we would obtain this excellent grace, we must restrain our affections toward all other things, however in their nature innocent and indifferent. The young gentleman in the gospel had, it seems, arrived to the former pitch; having through the course of his life abstained from grosser iniquities and impurities; so far, that our Saviour, in regard to that attainment of his, conceived an affection for him, (he loved him, it is said,) yet was not he sufficiently disposed to love God; being in one thing deficient,' that he retained an immoderate affection to his wealth and worldly conveniences; with which sort of affections the love of God cannot consist: for we much undervalue God, and cannot therefore duly love him, if we deem any thing comparable to him, or considerable in worth or usefulness when he comes in competition: if we deem that the possession of any other thing beside him can confer to our happiness, or the want thereof can prejudice it, and make us miserable: no other love should bear any proportion to the love of him; no other object should appear (as indeed none really is) simply good, desirable, or amiable to us. What value St. Paul had of his legal qualifications and privileges, the same should we have concerning all other things in appearance pleasant or convenient to us; they ought, in regard to God, to ' seem damage and dung;' not only mean and despicable, but even sordid and loathsome to us; not only unworthy of our regard and desire, but deserving our hatred and abhorrency; we should, I say, even hate the best of them; so our Saviour expresseth it: If any man doth not hate his father and his mother, his wife and his children, his brothers and sisters, and even his own soul, (or his own life,) he e not

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'be my disciple;' that is, if any man retain in his heart any af-> fection not infinitely, as it were, less than that which he bears to God; if any thing be in comparison dear and precious to him, he is not disposed to entertain the main point of Christ's discipline, the sincere and intire love of God. To love him,' as he requires, with all our heart,' implies, that our heart be filled with his love, so that no room be left for any other passion to enter or dwell there. And indeed such, if we observe it, is the nature of our soul, we can hardly together harbor earnest or serious affections toward different objects; one of them will prevail and predominate; and so doing will not suffer the other to remain, but will extrude or extinguish it: no heart of man can correspond with two rivals, but, as our Saviour teacheth us, "it will hate and despise one, will love and stick to the other;' whence he infers, that we cannot serve (that is, affectionately adhere to) both God and mammon.' If we have, according to the psalmist's phrase, set our hearts on wealth,' and will be rich;' (are resolved to be, as St. Paul expresseth it;) if we eagerly aspire to power and honor, with the pharisees, 'preferring the applause of men before the favor of God; if any worldly or bodily pleasure, or any curiosity how plausible soever, hath seized on our spirits and captivated our affections; if any inferior object, whatever with its apparent splendor, sweetness, goodliness, convenience hath so inveigled our fancy, that we have an exceeding esteem thereof, and a greedy appetite thereto; that we enjoy it with huge content, and cannot part from it without much regret; that thing doth at present take up God's place within us; so that our heart is uncapable, at least in due measure, of divine love: but if we be indifferently affected toward all such things, and are unconcerned in the presence or absence of them; esteeming them as they are, mean and vain; loving them as they deserve, as inferior and trivial; if, according to St. Paul's direction, we use them as if we used them not;' it is another good step toward the love of God: the divine light will shine more brightly into so calm and serene a medium a soul void of other affections will not be only more capable to receive, but apt to suck in that heavenly one; being insensible, in any considerable degree, of all other comforts and complacences, we shall be apt to search after, and reach out at

that, which alone can satisfy our understanding and satiate our desires; especially if we add hereto,

3. The freeing of our hearts also from immoderate affection to ourselves; (I mean not from a sober desire or an earnest regard to our own true good; for this, as nature enforces to, so all reason allows, and even God's command obligeth us to; nor can it be excessive; but a high conceit of ourselves as worthy or able, a high confidence in any thing we have within us or about us ;) for this is a very strong bar against the entrance, as of all other charity, so especially of this; for as the love of an external object doth thrust, as it were, our soul outwards towards it; so the love of ourselves detains it within, or draws it inwards; and consequently these inclinations crossing each other cannot both have effect, but one will subdue and destroy the other. If our mind be—ipsa suis contenta bonis— satisfied with her own (taking them for her own) endowments, abilities, or fancied perfections; if we imagine ourselves wise enough to perceive, good enough to choose, resolute enough to undertake, strong enough to achieve, constant enough to pursue whatever is conducible to our real happiness and best content; we shall not care to go farther; we will not be at the trouble to search abroad for that which, in our opinion, we can so readily find, so easily enjoy at home. If we so admire and dote on ourselves, we thereby put ourselves into God's stead, and usurp the throne due to him in our hearts; comparing ourselves to God, and in effect preferring ourselves before him; thereby consequently shutting out that unparalleled esteem, that predominant affection we owe to him; while we are busy in dressing and decking, in courting and worshiping this idol of our fancy, we shall be estranged from the true object of our devotion; both we shall willingly neglect him, and he in just indignation will desert us. But if as all other things, so even ourselves do appear exceedingly vile and contemptible, foul and ugly in comparison to God; if we take ourselves to be (as truly we are) mere nothings, or somethings worse; not only destitute of all considerable perfections, but full of great defects; blind and fond in our conceits, crooked and perverse in our wills, infirm and unstable in all our powers, unable to discern, unwilling to embrace, backward to set on,

inconstant in prosecuting those things which are truly good and advantageous to us; if we have, I say, this right opinion and judgment of ourselves, seeing within us nothing lovely or desirable, no proper object there of our esteem or affection, no bottom to rest our mind on, no ground of solid comfort at home, we shall then be apt to look abroad, to direct our eyes, and settle our affections on somewhat more excellent in itself, or more beneficial to us, that seems better to deserve our regard, and more able to supply our defects. And if all other things about us appear alike deformed and deficient, unworthy our affection, and unable to satisfy our desires, then may we be disposed to seek, to find, to fasten and repose our soul on the only proper object of our love; in whom we shall obtain all that we need, infallible wisdom to guide us, omnipotent strength to help us, infinite goodness for us to admire and enjoy.

These are the chief obstacles, the removing of which conduces to the begetting and increasing the love of God in us. A soul so cleansed from love to bad and filthy things, so emptied of affection to vain and unprofitable things, so opened and dilated by excluding all conceit of, all confidence in itself, is a vessel proper for the divine love to be infused into; into so large and pure a vacuity (as finer substances are apt to flow of themselves into spaces void of grosser matter) that free and moveable spirit of divine grace will be ready to succeed, and therein to disperse itself. As all other things in nature, the clogs being removed which hinder them, do presently tend with all their force to the place of their rest and well-being; so would, it seems, our souls, being loosed from baser affections obstructing them, willingly incline toward God, the natural centre, as it were, and bosom of their affection; would resume, as Origen speaks, that natural philtre (that intrinsic spring, or incentive of love) which all creatures have toward their Creator; especially, if to these we add those positive instruments, which are more immediately and directly subservient to the production of this love; they are these:

1. Attentive consideration of the divine perfections, with endeavor to obtain a right and clear apprehension of them.

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