Grand Direct. XVII. As the soul must be carried up to God, and devoted to him, according to all the foregoing directions, so must it be delivered from carnal selfishness, or flesh-pleasing, which is the grand enemy to God and godliness in the world; and from the three great branches of this idolatry, viz. the love of sensual pleasures, the love of worldly wealth, and the proud desire and love of worldly honour and esteem: and the mortifying of these must be much of the labour of your lives.
Of this also I have written so much in a "Treatise of Self-denial," and in another called "The Crucifying of the World by the Cross of Christ," that I shall now pass by all, save what will be more seasonable anon under the more particular directions, in the fourth part, when I come to speak of selfishness, as opposed to the love of others.[133]
I have now given you the general grand directions, containing the very being and life of godliness and christianity; with those particular subdirections which are needful to the performance of them. And I must tell you, that as your life, and strength, and comfort principally depend on these, so doth your success in resisting all your particular sins: and therefore, if you first obey not these general directions, the more particular ones that follow will be almost useless to you, even as branches cut off from the stock of the tree, which are deprived thereby of their support and life. But upon supposition that first you will maintain these vital parts of your religion, I shall proceed to direct you first in some particulars most nearly subordinate to the forementioned duties, and then to the remoter branches.
[APPENDIX.]
The true doctrine of love to God, to holiness, to ourselves, and to others, opened in certain propositions; especially for resolving the questions, What self-love is lawful?—what sinful?—Whether God must be loved above our own felicity, and how?—Whether to love our felicity more than God, may stand with a state of saving grace?—Whether it be a middle state between sensuality and the divine nature, to love God more for ourselves than for himself?—Whether to love God for ourselves be the state of a believer as he is under the promise of the new covenant?—And whether the spirit and sanctification promised to believers, be the love of God for himself, and so the divine nature, promised to him that chooseth Christ and God by him out of self-love for his own felicity?—How God supposeth and worketh on the principle of self-love in man's conversion?—With many such like. To avoid the tediousness of a distinct debating each question.
Though these things principally belong to the theory, and so to another treatise in hand, called "Methodus Theologiæ;" yet because they are also practical, and have a great influence upon the more practical directions, and the right understanding of them may help the reader himself to determine a multitude of cases of conscience, the particular discussion and decision of which would too much increase this volume, which is so big already, I shall here explain them in such brief propositions as yet shall give light to one another, and I hope contain much of the true nature of love, which is the mystery of the christian religion.
Prop. 1. The formal act of love is complacency, expressed by a placet; which Augustine so oft calleth delectation.
2. Benevolence, or desiring the good of those we love, is but a secondary act of love, or an effect of the prime, formal act. For to wish one well is not to love him formally; but we wish him well because we love him, and therefore first in order love him.