A. 3. Love to God must be flaming ; to love coldly is all one as not to love. The spouse is said to be amore percidsa^ " sick of love," Cant. ii. 5. The scraphims are so called, from their burning : love turns saints into seraphims, it makes them burn in holy love to God ; and " many waters cannot quench this love."
Quest. 2. IIow may we know ivhethcr ive love God?
Ans. 1. He that loves God, desires his sweet presence; lovers cannot be long as- under, they have their fainting fits, they want a sight of the object of their love. A soul deeply in love with God, desires the enjoyment of him in his ordinances, in word, prayer, sacraments. David was ready to
OF THE SECOND COMMANDMENT.
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faint away and die when lie had not a sijrht of God, Ps. Ixxxiv. 2., " My soul fainteth for God ;" such as care not for ordinances, but say. When will the sabbath be over ? plaiidy discover want of love to God.
A. 2. lie who loves God, doth not love sin, Ps. xcvii. 10., " Ye that love the Lord, hate evil." The love of God and the love of sin can no more mix together than iron and clay ; every sin loved, strikes at the being of God, but he who loves God, hath an antipathy against sin ; he who would part between two lovers, is an hateful per- son : God, and the believing soul are two loviirs, — sin comes to part betw(!en them, — therefor? the soul is implacably set against sin. By this try your love to God. How could Delilah say she loved Samson, when she entertained correspondence with the Philistines who were his mortal enemies ? How can he say he loves God, who loves sin which is God's enemy ?
A. 3. He who loves God is not much in love with any thing else ; his love is very cool to worldly things ; his love to God moves as the sun in the firmament, swiftly ; his love to the world moves as the sun on the dial, very slow. The love of the world eats out the heart of religion ; it chokes good affections, as the earth puts out the fire. The world was a dead thing to Paul, Gal. vi. 14., " I am crucified to the world, and the world is crucified to me." In Paul we might see both the picture and pattern of a mortified man ; he that loves God, useth the world, but chooseth God ; the world is his pension, but God is his portion, Ps. cxix. 57. Tlie world doth busy him, but God doth delight and satisfy him. He saith as David, Ps. xliii. 4., " God my exceeding joy," — the gladness or cream of my joy.
A. 4. He who loves God cannot live without him. Things we love we know not how to be without ; a man can want music or flowers, but not food ; a soul deep- ly in love with God looks upon himself as undone without him, Ps. cxliii. 7., " Hide not thy face from me, lest I be like them that go down iuto the pit." He saith, as Job, chap. XXX. 28., " I went mourning withi)Ut the sun." I have star-light, — I want the Sun of Righteousness, — I enjoy
not the sweet presence of my God. Is God our chief good that we cannot live without ? AIjus, how do they demonstrate they have no love to God, who can make a shift well enough to be without him ! Let them have but corn and oil, and you shall never hear them comj)lain of the want of God !
A. 5. He who loves God will be at any ])ains to get him. What pains doth the merchant take, what hazards doth he run, to have a rich return from, the Indies ! Ex- (rcnios cnrrit mcrcator ad Indos. Jacob lov- ed Rachel, and he could endure the heat by- day, and the frost by night, that he might enjoy her. A soul that loves God, will take any pains for the fruition of him, Ps. Ixiii. 8., " My soul follows hard after God." Love is pondus animtB, Aug. It is as the weight which sets the clock a-going. The soul is much in prayer, weeping, fasting he strives as in agony that he may obtain him whom his soul loves, Plutarch reports of the Gauls, an ancient people of France, after they had tasted the sweet wine of It- aly, they never rested till they had arrived at that country : he who is in love with God never rests till he hath gotten a part in him, Cant. iii. 2., " I sought him whom my soul loveth." How can they say they love (jod, who are not industrious in the use of means to obtain him ? Prov. xix. 24., " A slothful man hides his hand in his bo- som." He is not in agony, but lethargy ; if Christ and salvation would drop as a ripe fig into his mouth, he could be content to have them, but he is loath to put himself to too much trouble. Doth he love his friend that will not make a journey to see him ?