A Treatise of Knowledge and Love, Part 2 · Chapter 2
Chap. II.
The End of Knowledge is to make us Lovers of God, and ſo to be known with Love by Him.
THis is the ſecond Doctrine contained in the meaning of the Text. Where is included, 1. That all knowledge of Creatures (called Learning) muſt be valued and uſed but as a means to the knowledge and love of God: Which is moſt evident in that the whole Creation is the work of God, bearing the Image or Impreſs of his Perfections, to reveal him to the Intellectual Creature, and to be the means of provoking us to his love, and helping us in his ſervice. To deny this therefore is to ſubvert the uſe of the whole Creation, and to ſet up Gods works as an uſeleſs ſhadow, or as an Idol in his place.
2. It is included as was afore-proved, that all our knowledge of God himſelf, is given us to kindle in us the Love of God. It is the Bellows to blow up this holy Fire. If it do not this it is unſound and dead. If it do this it hath attained its end; which is much of the meaning of James in that Chap. 2. which prejudice hindereth many from underſtanding.
3. This love of God hath its degrees and effects: Knowledge firſt kindleth but ſome weak initial act of love; which through mixtures of fear, and of carnal affections is hardly known to be ſincere by him that hath it. But afterward it produceth both ſtronger acts, and the Holy Ghoſt ſtill working as the principal cauſe, infuſeth or operateth a radicated Habit. So that this holy love becometh like a nature in the Soul, even a divine nature: And it becometh in a ſort natural to us to love God and goodneſs, though not as the brutiſh nature, which is exerciſed by neceſſity and without reaſon. And this new nature of holy love, is called the new Creature, and the Holy Ghoſt dwelling in us, and the Spirit of Adoption; and is our New-name, the White-ſtone, the Witneſs in our ſelves that Chriſt is the Saviour, and that we are the Regenerate Children of God, the Pledge, the Earneſt, the Firſt-fruits, and the Fore-taſte of Life Eternal.
And all the works of a Chriſtian are ſo far truly holy, as they are the Effects of holy love: For 1. Holy love is but a holy will; and the will is the man, in point of Morality. 2. And the love of God is our final act upon the final object; and all other gracious acts are ſome way means ſubſervient to this end: And the end is it that informeth all the means, they being ſuch only as they are adapted to the end.
And in this ſenſe it is true which is ſaid in the Schools (though many Proteſtants miſunderſtanding it, have contradicted it) that love is the form of all other Graces: That is, It is the heart of the new Creature; or it is that by which the man is Morally to be reputed and denominated: And it is the final Grace which animateth or informeth the reſt as means.
And thus it is true, that when you will prove any Grace to be ſincere and ſaving, or any evidence certain, you muſt prove it to participate of the love of God and goodneſs, or you have failed and ſaid nothing. (Yea, you muſt prove it to be conjunct with predominant love, which ſetteth God above all Creatures.) And if you will prove any good work to be acceptable to God, (Prayer, Praiſe, Alms, Juſtice, &c.) you muſt prove that it cometh from this predominant love. For it is ſo far and no further acceptable to God.
And their ignorance is but to be pitied, who tell you that this is to make our love of God to be inſtead of Chriſt to us, or to ſet up an acceptable righteouſneſs or merit in our ſelves: For we dream not that our love of God was a Sacrifice for our ſins, and the Expiatory Atonement and Satisfaction to Juſtice, nor that Merit which procured us Love it ſelf, or purchaſed us the Holy Ghoſt. Our meaning is that goodneſs is the only proper object of love: And God loveth his Eſſential goodneſs firſt, and Created goodneſs next: And our Moral goodneſs which is his Image is holy love (produced by and joined with holy wiſdom and vitality.) And ſo though God love us in Chriſt, or as Related to him, it is as holy Members of him; and not that he loveth complacentially the haters of God for their Relation to Chriſt, without reſpect to any goodneſs in themſelves. And to ſay that Chriſt maketh us acceptable and amiable to God, is all one as to ſay that he procureth us the pardon of Sin, and the gift of the Holy Ghoſt, and maketh us holy Lovers of God: Or that he is indeed our Saviour. He that commendeth health as wrought by his Phyſician, doth not ſet health inſtead of the Phyſician. Chriſt is the Phyſician; the Holy Ghoſt or Holy Love in us, is our health: To procure and give us the Holy Ghoſt, is Chriſts Office. He pardoneth our ſin when he pardoneth the puniſhment: The privation of the Holy Ghoſt and his operations is our principal puniſhment: And therefore (not all, but) the principal part of our pardon lyeth in the giving us the Holy Ghoſt.
But ſome will ſay, That if God love nothing but goodneſs, and love us no further than we are good, how then did he love us firſt, and while we were his Enemies? Are not Election, Creation, Redemption and Converſion acts of love? And is not our love, the fruit of his love?
Anſ. Thus Names not opened, by confounding Heads, are made the matter of a thouſand Controverſies. As our love is nothing but our will, ſo the word love is taken ſtrictly and properly, or largely and leſs properly. A mans will is conſidered as efficient or as final. As it reſpecteth a future effect, or a preſent exiſtent good. And ſo Gods will as it final, and reſpecteth things exiſtent, either, 1. In eſſe cognito. 2. Or in eſſe reali, is called complacence, and only complacence is love in the ſtrict and propereſt ſenſe. But Gods will as efficient of good, may in a laxer ſenſe be called love. Gods will is the Fountain or efficient cauſe of all good, Natural and Moral in the World. And ſo you may call Gods cauſing or making good, by the name of love, if you pleaſe; remembring that it is but the name that is queſtioned: But his complacency in good foreſeen or exiſtent is ſtrictly called his love. And ſo ſtill God loveth nothing in either ſenſe but good. For 1. He cauſeth nothing but good. 2. And he is pleaſed in nothing but good as good.
Queſt. But how then doth God love his Enemies?
Anſ. 1. He maketh us men, which may be called one act of efficient love: And he Redeemeth them; and he giveth them all the good things which they poſſeſs: And he ſanctifieth ſome, and maketh them lovers of him, that is, holy. And thus he willeth their good, while they are Nothing or Evil; which is called Benevolence, and Love efficient.
2. And he hath true love of complacency in them. 1. As they have the good of humane nature. 2. And thereby are capable of grace, and all the love and ſervice which after they may perform. 3. And as they are Related to Chriſt as his Redeemed ones. 4. And as by Relation they are thoſe that God fore-knoweth will love and ſerve him here, and in the perfections of Eternal Glory. There is all this good in ſome Enemies of God, to be the matter of his complacency. And beyond their goodneſs he hath no complacency in them.
3. And to clear up all this, ſtill remember, that though mans will is changed by or upon the various objects, yet ſo is not the will of God. And therefore all theſe words ſignifie no variety or change in God; but only how his ſimple immutable▪ Eſſential will is variouſly related to and denominated from the Connotation of Effects and Objects.
4. Alſo it muſt be noted, as included in the Text, that God loveth all that truly love him: For to be known of him, here meaneth, to be known with approbation and love as his peculiar people. As Pſal. 1.6. It is ſaid, The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; and ſo oft: And of the wicked, Mat. 25.12. Depart from me, I know you not. God owneth with love all thoſe that love him. What Parts, what Quality, what Degree ſoever men are of, whatever difference elſe there be among them, if they are true lovers of God, they are certainly approved and beloved by him. This being the very Heart and Eſſence of the new Creature, and the Divine Nature in us, muſt needs prove that man to be Amiable to God that hath it. Other things are true marks of a Child of God, only ſo far as they participate of love: But love is the primary proper Character, which proveth us Adopted directly of it ſelf.
And here you may reſolve the queſtion that ſeemeth ſo difficult to many: Whether when the Scripture either by deſcribing the godly, or by promiſing Life, doth mention ſome one Grace or Duty, as the Character of a Saint, or the Condition of Salvation, it be to be underſtood with a caeteris paribus, if other Graces and Duties concur, as ſuppoſing them ſeparable? Or abſolutely, as ſuppoſing that one mark infallible, becauſe it is never ſeparated from the reſt?
Anſ. The New Man hath 1. Its Eſſential parts; and 2. Its Integrals; and 3. Its Accidents. The Eſſentials are ever infallible marks, and are inſeparable from each other: Any one of them will prove us Holy, and will prove the preſence of the reſt. Theſe Eſſentials are an united Trinity of Graces, Holy Life, Light and Love; where each one hath the common Eſſence of Holineſs, which is their objective termination upon God; and each is linked by participation to another. Holy Vitality is Vital Activity towards God, in mind, will and practice; Holy Light is that Knowledge and Belief which kindleth Love, and cauſeth a Holy Life. Holy Love is that complacency of the Will in God and Goodneſs, which is kindled by Holy Life and Light, and operateth in Holy practice. Any one of theſe thus deſcribed, where Love is the Heart of all, is an infallible mark of Holineſs. But all other Graces and Duties which are but the Integrals of Holineſs, are in all Characters and Promiſes to be underſtood with a caeteris paribus, that is, ſuppoſing them to be animated with Holy Love, and cauſed by Holy Life and Light (Knowledge and Belief.)
And that God doth moſt certainly Love all that Love him, beſides the forementioned proofs from Scripture is further evident.
1. The Love of God and Goodneſs is the Divine Nature: And God cannot but Love his own Nature in us: It is his Image, which (as in its ſeveral degrees) he Loveth for himſelf, and next to himſelf.
2. The Love of God is the Rectitude of Man's Soul; its ſoundneſs, health and beauty: And God Loveth the Rectitude of his creatures.
3. The Love of God is the final, perfect operation of the Soul; even that end which it was created and redeemed for: And God Loveth to have his works attain their end, and to ſee them in their perfection.
4. The Love of God is the Goodneſs of the Soul it ſelf: And Goodneſs is Amiableneſs, and muſt needs be Loved by Him that is Goodneſs and Perfection Himſelf.
5. The Love of God is our uniting adheſion to him: And God that firſt draweth up the Soul to this Union, will not himſelf reject us, and avoid it.
6. Love is a pregnant, powerful, pleaſing Grace: It delivereth up our ſelves, and all that we have to God: It delighteth in duty: It conquereth difficulties: It contemneth competitors, and trampleth on temptations: It accounteth nothing too much, nor too dear for God. Love is the Soul's nature, appetite and pondus, according to which it will ordinarily act. A man's Love, is his Will, his Heart, himſelf: And if God have our Love, he hath our ſelves, and our all: So that God cannot but Love the Soul that truly Loveth him as God.
But here are ſome Doubts to be reſolved.
Q. 1. What if the ſame Soul have Love and Sin mixed; or ſincere Love in a degree that is ſinfully defective, and ſo is conſiſtent with ſomething of its contrary: God muſt hate that Sin: How then can he Love that Soul?
Anſ. Remember ſtill that Diverſity is only in us, and not in God: Therefore God's Will is related and denominated towards us, juſt as its object is. All that is Good in us God Loveth: All that is Evil in us he hateth. Where Goodneſs is predominant, there God's Love is predominant, or greateſt (from this Relation and Connotation.) Where Sin is predominant, God's averſation, diſplicency or hatred is the chief. And we may well expect that the effects be anſwerable.
Obj. But we are beloved as Elect before Converſion.
Anſ. That was anſwered before. That is, God from Eternity purpoſed to make us Good, and Amiable, and Happy; if you will call that (as you may) his Love.
Obj. But we are beloved in Chriſt, for his Righteouſneſs and Goodneſs, and not for our own.
Anſ. The latter is falſe: The former is thus true: For the Merits of Chriſt's Righteouſneſs and Goodneſs, God will pardon our ſins, and make us Good, Holy and Happy; and will Love us as the Holy Members of his Son; that is, both as Related to him, and as Holy.
Obj. But if God muſt needs Love ſincere imperfect Lovers of him as ſuch, with a predominant Love (which will not damn them) then ſin might have been pardoned without Chriſt's death, and the ſinner be loved without his Righteouſneſs, if he had but ſincerely loved God.
Anſ. The ſuppoſition is falſe, that a ſinner could have Loved God without Pardon and the Spirit, purchaſed by the Death and Righteouſneſs of Chriſt. God perfectly Loveth the perfected Souls in Glory for their own holy perfection: But they never attained it but by Chriſt. And God Loveth us here according to the meaſure of our Love to him: But no man can thus Love him, till his ſin be pardoned, for which he was deprived of the Spirit which muſt kindle Love. And imperfect Love is ever joyned with imperfect Pardon (whatever ſome falſly ſay to the contrary;) I mean that Love which is ſinfully imperfect.
Queſt. 2. Doth not God's Loving us make us Happy? And if ſo, it muſt make us Holy. And then none that he Loveth will fall away from him: Whereas the fallen Angels and Adam Loved him, and yet fell from him: How then were they beloved by him?
Anſ. I before told you that God's Will (or Love) is firſt Efficient cauſing Good, and then Final, being pleaſed in the Good that is cauſed. God's Efficient Will or Love, doth ſo far make men Holy and Happy as they are ſuch, even efficiently. But God's Will or Love, as it is our Cauſa finalis, and the termiting Object of our Love, and is pleaſed in us, and approveth us, is not the Efficient Cauſe of our Holineſs and Happineſs; but the objective and perfect conſtitutive Cauſe. Now you muſt further note, that God's Benevolent Efficient Will or Love, doth give men various degrees of Holineſs. To Adam in Innocency he gave but ſuch a degree, and upon ſuch terms as he could loſe and caſt away; which he did. But to the bleſſed in Glory, he giveth that which they ſhall never loſe. Theſe degrees are from God's Efficient Love or Will, which therefore cauſeth ſome to perſevere, when it left Adam to himſelf to ſtand or fall. But it is not God's Final Love of Complacency as ſuch, that cauſeth our perſeverance: For Adam had this Love as long as he Loved God and ſtood, and he after loſt it; ſo that it is not that Final Complacency which is the Terminus of our Holineſs, and Conſtitutive Cauſe of our Happineſs, which alone will ſecure the perpetuity of either of them.
Obj. Thus you make God mutable in his Love, as Loving Adam more before his fall than after.
Anſ. I told you, Loving and not Loving the Creature, are no changes in God, but in the Creature. It is Man that is mutable, and not God. It is only the Relation of God's Will to the Creature as varying in it ſelf, and the extrinſick denomination, by connotation of a changed Object, which is changed as to God. As the Sun is not changed when you wink, and when you open your Eyes: Nor a Pillar changed when your motion ſets it ſometimes on your right hand, and ſometimes on your left.
5. Laſtly, It muſt be noted as included in the Text, That our own Loving God is not the only or total notion of our end, perfection or felicity; but to be Known and Loved by God is the other part, which muſt be taken in, to make up the total notion of our end.
In our Love, God is conſidered as the Object: But in God's Complacential Love to us, he is conſidered as Active, and his Love as an Act, and Man as the Object: But yet not as an Object of Efficiency, but of Approbation and a Pleaſed Will or Delight. Here then the great difficulty is in reſolving which of theſe is the higheſt perfective notion of man's felicity, perfection or ultimate end; Our Love to God, or God's Love to us.
Anſ. It is mutual Love and Union which is the true and compleat notion of our End: And to compare God's Love and ours as the parts, and tell which is the final principal part or notion, is not eaſy, nor abſolutely neceſſary. But I conceive,
1. That our Love to God is Objectively or as to the Object of it, infinitely more excellent than Gods Love to us as to the Object: Which is but to ſay, that God is Infinitely better than man: God loveth man who is a worm: But we Love God who is perfect goodneſs.
2. Gods Love to us as to the Agent and the Act ex parte Agentis, is Infinitely more excellent than our Love to him: For it is Gods Eſſential will which loveth us; and it is the will of a worm that loveth God.
3. That mans Felicity as ſuch, is not the chief notion of his ultimate end: But he muſt Love God as God better than his own Felicity as ſuch, or better than God as our Felicity.
4. That mans true ultimate end, containeth theſe five inadequate conceptions. 1. The loweſt notion or part of it is our own holineſs and felicity. 2. The next notion of it is the perfection of the Church and Univerſe, to which we contribute, and which we muſt value above our own; Including the Glory of Chriſts Humanity. 3. The third notion is the Glory or Luſtre of Gods perfections as they ſhine forth in us and all his perfected glorious works. 4. The fourth notion is, Gods own Eſſential goodneſs as the Object of our Knowledge, Love and Praiſe. 5. The fifth and higheſt notion is, the Active Love or Complacency of Gods fulfilled Will, in us and in the whole Creation. So that the Pleaſing of Gods will is the higheſt notion of mans ultimate end. Though all theſe five are neceſſarily contained in it.