The Great Duty of Self-Resignation to the Divine Will, Section 2 · Chapter 6
CHAP. VI. Of the wonderful efficacy of Love to God and Divine things.
VI. SIxthly, Labour to be affected as much as is possible with the Love of God and Divine things. To Faith add Love, they are joyned together in Scripture,1 Tim. i. 14. and should be conjoyned in the hearts of Christians.2 Tim. i. 13. In 1 Thessalonians 5.8. Love as well as Faith is called a breast-plate, whereby we may be secured against the assaults of temptations.
If the Love of God be perfected in us, we shall find Self-denial and Self-Resignation as easie and pleasant as heart can wish. Love will make us think nothing precious that God will have us part with: it will make us with great chearfulness to part with a right eye, a right hand, our own will if it offend us. It will make us without grudging to cross our own will, when it contradicts the Will of our Beloved. It will cause us to believe no suffering harsh that God shall inflict, no duty difficult which he shall command. This is the love of God, that we keep his Commandments, and his Commandments are not grievous, 1 John 5. 3.
If you love me is a familiar and potent form of speech with us, to perswade one another to the doing or forbearing any thing; and what humane love doth work among men, that and wuch more will be effected by divine Love. This is a far more powerful and vigorous principle of action. And yet the effects of that Love have been very strange and wonderful, the observation whereof hath caused them to be sung by Poets, and copiously set forth in Romances, which are imitations of true Histories.
Confess. lib. 3.Solus amor est qui nomen difficultatis erubescit: It is Love alone that is ashamed to mention difficulty, saith St. Austin. Nay, Love welcomes difficulties, and pleaseth itself in hard instances of obedience, because by them it sheweth forth more of its reality, strength and power: Easie and ordinary performances being but mean and short significations of a hearty love. And the greatest and bravest atchievements, such acts as are most heroick, as denying our selves in what is most dear to us, are the true and proper results and expressions of divine Love; these are the worthy exploits of this holy affection.
Love makes the noblest Champions in the Holy War against Sin, the World, and Satan, and animates a Christian to the greatest adventures. As for easie and common performances, foreign, a cheap and costless Religion, and Self-denial in small matters, viz. in such things as a man is but little inclined to, and are less for his pleasure and advantage, the divine Love is less solicitous about them: But it chuseth rather to awaken and animate the Soul to the harder services of Religion. It doth not think it quitteth it self in engaging against the weaker lusts, or in taking some of the slight out-works, but it sets its self against the most powerful Corruptions, it plants its batteries against foreign, the strong holds, the inmost Fort where Self-will hath ensconced her self. The weapons of its warfare are not carnal but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strong holds, casting down imaginations (or reasonings, foreign) and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
There is a lion in the way is the voice of the cold and lazy Sluggard, but this is no discouragement to the Lover of God, it affrights him not: Nay, so far is this Love from being cooled and disheartned by difficulties and oppositions, that it is rather kindled and improved: By these it heightens it self into an holy indignation against whatsoever would attempt to draw it from God. Many waters cannot quench love; neither can the flouds drown it: Cant. viii. 6.Nay, as water cast into lime, they increase instead of lessening its heat.
Love, though it be a soft and delicate affection, yet it is hardy and strong withall: Love is strong as death; and it is as ingenuous and noble as strong:Cant. viii. 7. for if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned. Neither the hard and evil things which the world threatens, nor the most tempting allurements of the world or the flesh, can either affright or corrupt that heart, where the divine Love rules, from a faithful adhering to the will of God. But to the several temptations it meets with in the world, this is the constant resolute answer of every holy Lover, (as it was Iosephs) How can I do this wickedness and sin against God?
Yea, Love enables a Christian to do his duty much sooner and better. That which is in others the effect of great severity to the body, long fastings and other toilsome exercises often repeated, is done in a more compendious and effectual way by the power of Love, in such Christians, as are indued with a more than ordinary measure of it.
Now that this Divine Love may be inkindled in us, and the flame of it more and more increased;
First, Let us very often lift up the eyes of our mind, and fix them upon those infinitely lovely perfections, glories and excellencies that are in God, which the holy Scriptures do so abound with the mention and celebrations of. Let us view these frequently in the Scriptures, and also in the works of Creation and Providence. Let us often consider with our selves how that all the lovelinesses and sweetnesses that are in Creatures, are but so many drops from the fountain of them, that is God: and that every Love-attracting excellency, every thing which the world calls precious and desireable, is but a very weak resemblance of what is to be tasted and enjoyed in him.
Secondly, Let us also as frequently contemplate those transcendent and invaluable mercies and favours, those numberless benefits and kindnesses which we stand obliged to God for. And above all, that Gift of Gifts, his Son, in whom he expressed a Love to us that passeth knowledge.
Would we have the fire of holy Love kindled in our Breasts, let us, I say, dwell very much in the admiring contemplation of the Divine Excellencies, and the Divine Benefits.
The Contemplation of the infinite Perfections that are in God will render all things contemptible compared with him, and consequently make them weak, unperswading, untempting things.
What Pythagoras said he learned by his Philosophy, foreign, to admire nothing, we shall learn by this Contemplation. When the Soul hath inured her self to view the Divine Glories,Videnti Deum omnis creatura est angusta. Dejecit se de culmine generositatis suae, qui admirari aliquid post Deum potest. Cyprian de spectaculis. how near to nothing is this, foreign, the whole Universe in its eyes, what a little spot and point? When she hath been upon the Mount with God, and ravished her self with his astonishing beauty, she must needs be affected with such a magnanimity and generosity of spirit, as will couragiously repell the strongest temptations she meets with to withdraw her from a close union and conjunction of will and affection to him.
And the consideration of the innumerable and transcendent Blessings, we receive from God, will work in us such an ingenuous gratitude, as will excite us to give up our hearts and our all to him.
The excellencies of his Nature, and the exceeding riches of his Bounty, will represent him as most worthy to be known foreign, with the flower of our mind, as Zoroaster expresseth it, and our highest apprehensions: And to be loved with the flower of our hearts; so that our sweetest and dearest affections will not be thought too precious for him.
Let us briefly reflect upon the power of worldly and sensual Love, and see what this will do.
First, The Love of Money. How doth this oblige and inforce the men of this world to hard labours, dangerous adventures, anxious cares? To rise early, sit up late, eat the bread of sorrows, to deny themselves many of the comforts aud contents of this life, to fare hardly, and to live a toylsom and painful life; and in a word, (to use the Apostles phrase) to pierce themselves through with many sorrows?
Secondly, The Love of Honour, Dignities and Preferments. How doth it put ambitious men upon restless labours, tedious attendances, servile offices, base flatteries and compliances? Such stick at nothing for the obtaining their ends, devote and surrender themselves to the will and humour of their Patron, as if he were their God, and they his Creatures more than God's. They deport and address themselves to him, by whose favour they hope to be raised, in such a form of respect and devotion, as approacheth near to that regard and reverence which is onelyonly due to the most high God. So full of zeal and observance is this civil kind of Superstition.
Thirdly, The Love of Beauty. What a strange power and force hath it upon the fond man? To him no services, no sufferings seem grievous that his Mistress wills him to undertake. With all submission and devotion he admires and adores this his Souls Idol, this Deity of Clay, and that in such strains, as blasphemously resemble that most affectionate and humble devotion which none but his Creator may challenge from him. He gives her his whole heart, and resigns his whole will to her will, complies with all her humours, yields an entire obedience to all her commands, be they never so unreasonable. He patiently suffers tedious delays and waitings, meekly bears her frowns, affronts and disdains, her harsh language and hard usage, and all the other arts she hath of afflicting him; besides the troubles and hazards he sometimes meets with from his Rivals. This Love Bigot, such is his devotion, neglects himself, his rest, his food, his health, renounceth all his own contentments, and denies himself in whatsoever is for either his delight or advantage, if he understands it to be the pleasure of his Mistress: He mortifies himself, pines and consumes, and is lean from day to day for her, as lustful Amnon was for Tamar. These, and such like, are the severe Penances, Mortifications and Austorities that this man is wont to undergo in this idolatrous Love-service: yea, and sometimes he sacrificeth his very life, which the poor wretch calleth Love's Martyrdom.
Here is Self-denial, Self-Resignation with a witness. With what a deal of pains and trouble doth this poor creature purchase to himself misery? With much more ease and less vexation, had his love been placed upon the best of objects, he might have been happy to eternity: He might have lived with God, who is Love it self, holy and unspotted Love, and reigned with Christ the faithful lover of his Soul in a Kingdom of peace and joy for ever.
By these instances we may discern the strange force of a degenerate and impure Love, and what a degree of Self-renunciation it forceth those to, in whom it reigns.
And is the Love of uncertain Riches, a little white and yellow Clay so powerful with men, and shall not the Love of the true durable Riches, the glorious Inheritance in Heaven, which is incorruptible, and fadeth not away, be more forceable?
Hath the Love of airy Honour such power, and shall not the Love of that Honour which is from God, that honour and glory that he hath promised to every soul that worketh good, that honour of shining forth as the sun in the Kingdom of the Father, shall not the love, I say, of such inexpressible honour as this, have as powerful effects upon us, and much more powerful? Shall the Love of a fading Skin-beauty, the love of a little red and white, the love of withering Roses, and Lillies and Violets, with which fond Lovers bestick the Cheeks, and Hands and Veins of their Mistresses, besides I know not how many more such gay embellishments of their foolish fancies; shall this impotent kind of love so potently command poor mortals, and shall not the Love of God do much more? who is foreign, the first-fair and original Beauty, as well as foreign, the first good, whom Angels, the flower and top of the Creation, admire and adore with the greatest complacency and ardor of affection.
Shall not Love fixed upon such an object as this inflame us with an holy resolution to undertake or undergo any thing for the fulfilling and satisfaction of his Will? Considering withall, that his Commands are (as hath been shewn) in themselves most reasonable, most fit to be approved and observed by us, agreeable to the dignity of our Souls, in their own nature most lovely, excellent and worthy, and have moreover a mighty recompence of reward; which cannot be said of the Commands of Lust, and sensual impure Love, but the perfectly contrary; they being most vain and foolish, unreasonable and cruel, and obedience to them of most pernicious and sad consequence.
Nor is there any thing that God would have us part withall, but what it is better for us to be without; better for our ease, peace and pleasure, and more for our liberty to be freed and disintangled from: As hath been already proved.
And so I pass to that other branch of this Direction, viz. that we should labour to be affected with a strong and ardent Love, as of God, so of Divine things: of Vertue and Holiness, the impressions of the Divine Image upon the Soul.
Had we a worthy resentment of Spiritual Excellencies, and a due sense of the beauty of Holiness, they would even ravish our hearts, and mirabiles amores excitare, excite in us strange and wonderful affections to them, (as Tully speaks of Vertue) and consequently secure us from the allurements and attractions of any earthly vanity whatsoever.
But till a man comes to admire and be enamoured with the Divine Graces and Vertues, every thing will be ready to get his heart which gratifieth sensuality, and to carry him away captive.
By one unacquainted with the loveliness of Holiness will the least twinkling of this worlds glory be admired; but there can be no better way to put by and frustrate the attempts and temptations of the things below, than to be well acquainted and greatly affected with the things above, the things that are Holy, Heavenly, and Divine.
That of Plutarch was a most true and excellent observation, foreign, &c. It is impossible for men not to have a great affection and ambition for the things which the world admires and pursues, except there be a principle within them to admire vertue, whose alone beauty and lustre would darken and put out all other glories, and gayeties whatsoever.
Be fully possest then with the importance of this truth, that the most soveraign way for a man to take off his mind and heart from the admired vanities of this world, and consequently to deny himself, is plainly this: To turn his mind and affections to better objects, to admire the uncreated and original beauty, and to have an high esteem of the participations and impressions thereof.
The affections will not be stopt or pent in, they will run out upon something; let them therefore issue forth, but let it be to the noblest objects, let them stream forth freely, but, to better things. There is such a way approved by Physicians for the stopping of bloud, viz. When it issueth out one way, to open a vein elsewhere, and so to stay it by revulsion, and diverting the course.
Nor is that Fable of the Poet unfit to be applied here, as containing an excellent Moral, which tells us the best means of defeating the Syrens, the most dangerous temptations of the world. Vlysses and his Companions stopt their ears with wax, as they sailed by, that they might not hear them, and so avoided the danger: But Orpheus, by singing divine Hymns, by celebrating the praises of God, and recounting his Excellencies and Favours, is said to have overcome them, which was the more noble way of Conquest.
But to prevent all mistake and scruple, I adde that what hath been said doth not imply that a Christian is to dam and stop up his affections from issuing out to any thing here in this world: But thus we are to consider.
There are undue and forbidden, and there are due and allowed objects of the affections.
Now as for undue objects, the pleasures of any kind of sin, the things which God expresly forbids in the Holy Scriptures, we are to have no affection at all for, but the greatest antipathy against. There must not be the least tasting of the forbidden Tree, though its fruit be never so fair and tempting.
But as for due objects of the affections, and such as God allows, our care must be that they be carried forth towards them in a due order, and a due degree.
First, in a due order. Our Love must first be placed upon God and Christ, his Kingdom and his Righteousness, and thence descend to inferiour good things. Things Divine must have the precedency and priority in our care and endeavours, according to that advice of our Saviour, Matth. vi. 33.
Secondly, In a due degree and measure. God and the things above must be most desired, loved and delighted in. Whom (saith the Psalmist) have I in heaven but thee, and there is none on earth I can desire in comparison of thee, Psalm lxxiii. 25. God alloweth us to give a lesser love to the lesser goodness; but the highest affection is to be given to the Highest and Original Goodness.
I will conclude this Direction with the agreeing advice of Taulerus in his eighth Epistle: Omnem diem inter amissos deputate, in quo, Dei amore propriam non fregistis voluntatem. Account that day as mispent and lost, wherein you have not subdued your own will by the Love of God.
This advice imports two things.
First, That a Christian is to make this great Duty of Self-Resignation his daily business; that 'tis a lesson which he is to be every day learning, and an Exercise in which he is to make continual progress.
Secondly, That the Love of God is of most soveraign force and virtue to break and subdue a mans own will.