12. *Not that this forbids us to love any thing besides God: It implies, that we _love our brother also_. Nor yet does it forbid us (as some have strangely imagined) to take pleasure in any thing but God. To suppose this, is to suppose the Fountain of holiness, is directly the author of sin: since he has inseparably annexed pleasure to the use of those creatures, which are necessary to sustain the life he has given us. This therefore can never be the meaning of his command. What the real sense of it is, both our blessed Lord and his apostles tell us too frequently and too plainly to be misunderstood. They all with one mouth bear witness, that the true meaning of those several declarations, _The_ Lord _thy_ God _is one_ Lord. _Thou shalt have no other Gods but me; Thou shalt love the_ Lord _thy_ God _with all thy strength; thou shalt cleave unto him_; The _desire of thy soul_ shall be _to his name_: is no other than this. The one perfect Good shall be your one ultimate end. One thing shall ye desire for its own sake, the fruition of him that is all in all. One happiness shall ye propose to your souls, even an union with him that made them: the having _fellowship with the Father and the Son_: the being _joined to the_ Lord _in one spirit_. One design ye are to pursue to the end of time, the enjoyment of God in time and in eternity. Desire other things, so far as they tend to this. Love the creature――as it leads to the Creator. But in every step you take, be this the glorious point that terminates your view. Let every affection, and thought, and word, and work, be subordinate to this. Whatever ye desire or fear, whatever ye seek or shun, whatever ye think, speak, or do, be it in order to your happiness in God, the sole end as well as source of your being.
13. *Have no end, no ultimate end but God. Thus our Lord, _One thing is needful_. And if thine eye be singly fixt on this one thing, _thy whole body shall be full of light_. Thus St. _Paul, This one thing I do; I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling in_ Christ Jesus. Thus St. _James, Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded_. Thus St. _John, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world._ The seeking happiness in what gratifies either the desire of the flesh, by agreeably striking upon the outward senses, the desire of the eye, of the imagination, by its novelty, greatness, or beauty; or the pride of life, whether by pomp, grandeur, power, or the usual consequence of them, applause and admiration: _Is not of the Father_, cometh not from, neither is approved by the Father of spirits; _but of the world_; it is the distinguishing mark of those, who will not have him to reign over them.
II. 1. Thus have I particularly inquired, what that _circumcision of heart_ is, which will obtain the praise of God. I am, in the second place, to mention some reflections, that naturally arise from such an inquiry, as a plain rule whereby every man may judge of himself, whether he be of the world or of God.
And, first, it is clear, from what has been said, that no man has a title to the praise of God, unless his heart is circumcised by humility, unless he is little, and base, and vile in his own eyes: unless he is deeply convinced of that inbred “corruption of his nature, whereby he is very far gone from original righteousness,” being prone to all evil, averse to all good, corrupt and abominable; having a _carnal mind_, which _is enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God; nor indeed can be_: unless he continually feels in his inmost soul, that without the Spirit of God resting upon him, he can neither think, nor desire, nor speak, nor act, any thing good or well-pleasing in his sight.
No man, I say, has a title to the praise of God, till he feels his want of God: nor indeed, till he seeketh that _honour, which cometh of God only_: and neither desires nor pursues that which cometh of man, unless so far only as it tends to this.
2. Another truth which naturally follows from what has been said, is, that none shall obtain the honour that cometh of God, unless his heart be circumcised by faith; even a _faith of the operation of God_: unless refusing to be any longer led by his senses, appetites, or passions, or even by that blind leader of the blind, so idolized by the world, natural reason, he lives and _walks by faith_, directs every step, as _seeing him that is invisible, looks not at the things that are seen, which are temporal, but at the things that are not seen, which are eternal_; and governs all his desires, designs and thoughts, all his actions and conversations, as one who is entered in within the veil, where _Jesus_ sits at the right-hand of God.