Part 236

_Direct._ VI. Improve the principle of self-love, to the promoting of the love of God, by considering what he hath done for thee, and what he is, and would be to thee.--I mean not carnal, inordinate self-love, which is the chiefest enemy of the love of God; but I mean that rational love of happiness, and self-preservation, which God did put into innocent Adam, and hath planted in man's nature as necessary to his government. This natural, innocent self-love, is that remaining principle in the heart of man, which God himself doth still presuppose in all his laws and exhortations; and which he taketh advantage of in his works and word, for the conversion of the wicked, and the persuading of his servants themselves to their obedience. This is the common principle in which we are agreed with all the wicked of the world, that all men should desire and seek to be happy, and choose and do that which is best for themselves; or else it were in vain for ministers to preach to them, if we were agreed in nothing, and we had not this ground in them to cast our seed into, and to work upon. And if self-love be but informed and guided by understanding, it will compel you to love God, and tell you that nothing should be so much loved. Every one that is a man must love himself; we will not entreat him, nor be beholden to him for this: and every one that loveth himself, will love that which he judgeth best for himself: and every wise man must know, that he never had nor can have any good at all, but what he had from God. Why do men love lust, or wealth, or honour, but because they think that these are good for them? And would they not love God, if they practically knew that he is the best of all for them, and instead of all?--Unnatural, unthankful heart! canst thou love thyself, and not love him that gave thee thyself, and gives thee all things? Nature teacheth all men to love their most entire and necessary friends: do we deserve a reward by loving those that love us, when publicans will do the like? Matt. v. 46. Art thou not bound to love them that hate thee, and curse, and persecute thee? ver. 44, 45. What reward then is due to thy unnatural ingratitude, that canst not love thy chiefest Friend? All the friends that ever were kind to thee, and did thee good, were but his messengers to deliver what he sent thee. And canst thou love the bearer, and not the Giver? He made thee a man, and not a beast. He cast thy lot in his visible church, and not among deluded infidels, or miserable heathens, that never heard, unless in scorn, of the Redeemer's name. He brought thee forth in a land of light, in a reformed church, where knowledge and holiness have as great advantage as any where in all the world; and not among deluded, ignorant papists, where ambition must have been thy governor, and pride and tyranny have given thee laws, and a formal, ceremonious image of piety must have been thy religion. He gave thee parents that educated thee in his fear, and not such as were profane and ignorant, and would have restrained and persecuted thee from a holy life. He spoke to thy conscience early in thy childhood, and prevented the gross abominations which else thou hadst committed. He bore with the folly and frailties of thy youth. He seasonably gave thee those books, and teachers, and company, and helps, which were fittest for thee; and blest them to the further awakening and instructing of thee, when he passed by others, and left them in their sins. He taught thee to pray, and heard thy prayer. He turned all thy fears and groans to thy spiritual good. He pardoned all thy grievous sins: and since that, how much hath he endured and forgiven! He gave thee seasonable and necessary stripes, and brought thee up in the school of affliction; so moderating them, that they might not disable or discourage thee, but only correct thee, and keep thee from security, wantonness, stupidity, and contempt of holy things, and might spoil all temptations to ambition, worldliness, voluptuousness, and fleshly lust. By the threatenings of great calamities and death, he hath frequently awakened thee to cry to Heaven; and by as frequent and wonderful deliverances, he hath answered thy prayers, and encouraged thee still to wait upon him. He hath given thee the hearty prayers of many hundreds of his faithful servants, and heard them for thee in many a distress. He hath strangely preserved thee in manifold dangers. He hath not made thee of the basest of the people, whose poverty might tempt them to discontent; nor set thee upon the pinnacle of worldly honour, where giddiness might have been thy ruin, and where temptations to pride, and lust, and luxury, and enmity to a holy life, are so violent that few escape them. He hath not set thee out upon a sea of cares and vexations, worldly businesses and encumbrances; but fed thee with food convenient for thee, and given thee leisure to walk with God. He hath not chained thee to an unprofitable profession, nor used thee as those that live like their beasts, to eat, and drink, and sleep, and play, or live to live; but he hath called thee to the noblest and sweetest work; when that hath been thy business, which others were glad to taste of as a recreation and repast. He hath allowed thee to converse with books, and with the best and wisest men, and to spend thy days in sucking in delightful knowledge: and this is not only for thy pleasure, but thy use; and not only for thyself, but many others. O how many sweet and precious truths hath he allowed thee to feed on all the day, when others are diverted, and commonly look at them sometimes afar off! O how many precious hours hath he granted me, in his holy assemblies, and in his honourable and most pleasant work! How oft hath his day, and his holy uncorrupted ordinances, and the communion of his saints, and the mentioning of his name and kingdom, and the pleading of his cause with sinners, and the celebrating of his praise, been my delight! O how many hundreds that he hath sent, have wanted the abundant encouragement which I have had! When he hath seen the disease of my despondent mind, he hath not tried me by denying me success, nor suffered me, with Jonah, according to my inclination to overrun his work; but hath enticed me on by continued encouragements, and strewed all the way with mercies: but his mercies to me in the souls of others, have been so great, that I shall secretly acknowledge them, rather than here record them, where I must have respect to those usual mercies of believers, which lie in the common road to heaven. And how endless would it be to mention all! All the good that friends and enemies have done me! All the wise and gracious disposals of his providence; in every condition, and change of life, and change of times, and in every place wherever he brought me! His every day's renewed mercies! His support under all my languishings and weakness; his plentiful supplies; his gracious helps; his daily pardons; and the glorious hopes of a blessed immortality which his Son hath purchased, and his covenant and Spirit sealed to me! O the mercies that are in one Christ, one Holy Spirit, one holy Scripture, and in the blessed God himself! These I have mentioned, unthankful heart, to shame thee for thy want of love to God. And these I will leave upon record, to be a witness for God against thy ingratitude, and to confound thee with shame, if thou deny thy love to such a God. Every one of all these mercies, and multitudes more, will rise up against thee, and shame thee, before God and all the world, as a monster of unkindness, if thou love not him that hath used thee thus.