The True Christians T est, Part 2 · Meditation 42
MEDITAT. XLII. A Particular Motive to the Love of God.
FIrſt, I am wont to conſider that God loves us beſt of any one▪ The Law of Nature ſuggeſts, yea dictates and requires this, that we love thoſe that love us; our Saviour takes it for granted that all men do this, becauſe the worſt of men do it: yea the very Beaſts do it, Saevis inter ſe conveni… Urſis: Nay it ſeems that there is a kind of an agreement in Hell, and an Order and Amity amongſt the Devils, elſe their Kingdom could not ſtand: If two cannot walk together except they be agreed, how much leſs can Four thouſand (for ſo many was a Roman Legion in our Saviours days) dwell together in one Man without ſome mutual kindneſs. The Nature of Love is ſociable, it can endure any thing but ſolitude; this it can no more endure, than the Wind can endure to be, and not to blow. Now what properer Object of Love can there be, than one that loves us, or a thing that is our own. No one is our own ſo properly as he that loves us: I am more truly poſſeſt of a Friend that loves me, than of a Child that I carry in mine Arms, or Wife that I lay in my boſome, that cares not for me. Of all the World therefore God is moſt ours, becauſe he loves us beſt. The love that comes from above is ſtrong: We commonly obſerve that the love that comes down from Parents upon their Children, is ſtronger than that which riſes up from the Children to their Parents. An Arrow falling from an high, wounds deeper: What deep impreſſions then in the hearts of Men, ſhould the Arrows of Love make, that are ſhot from above the higheſt Heavens? It is truly ſaid, That God hates nothing of what he hath made: His hatred of the Wicked and of the Devils, if we underſtand it aright, is not ſo much his hatred of them, as their hatred of him. There is no ſuch thing as hatred in the pure Nature of God, his Name is Love, and certainly he is nam'd according to his Nature. But ſpeaking after the manner of Men, he is ſaid to hate Evil-doers, onelyonly to denote a contrariety of his Nature to Sin and Wickedneſs; as if one ſhould ſay Fire hates Water, or Light hates Darkneſs. It is a paſſage of St. Bernard, ſomewhere in his Meditations, Diligo te Deus pluſquam mea, pluſquam meos, pluſquam me. That was a pure ſtrain of Devotion, and to be imitated by every Soul of Man that underſtands the nature of his Happineſs, and Relation wherein he ſtands to God: But if we alter the Grammar of it, it is as true Divinity ſtill, Deus diliget me pluſquam mea, pluſquam mei, pluſquam ego, God loves us better than all our Friends loves us, better than we our ſelves love our ſelves. Of all our Friends, our Relations are ſuppos'd to love us beſt; and of all Relations, our Parents. The Love of God towards us therefore, is compared to the love that a Father bears to his Son that ſerves him, and a Mother to her Sucking Child. But it infinitely excels theſe, for what wretched Mortal can pretend to love with that ſtrength and wiſdome as God loves. If we who are by Nature evil and impotent Parents, can love our Children tenderly, how much more doth our Heavenly Father? It is our Saviours own Argument, and it concludes as ſtrongly concerning loving, as concerning giving. And if giving good things be an Argument of Love, God loves us better than our Parents, for he has given us much more then our Parents could; for he hath given us noble Souls, and his Son to redeem them, yea and he gave us thoſe very Parents themſelves, who give us any good thing.
He loves us better than we love our ſelves. I am much taken with that expreſſion of the Satyriſt, (ſpeaking of the Gods, and their Providence towards Men) Charior eſt ipſis homo quam ſibi. Gods love towards us is purer and wiſer than our own. He loves us ſo well, that he will deny us things hurtful to us, though we pray for them; ſo well, that he will afflict us for our good, though it be ſore againſt our wills; ſo well, that he will remove us out of this world that we are ſo fond of, into a much better, which we poor Souls have little mind of.