A25478:151
A supplement to The Morning-exercise at Cripple-Gate, or, Several more cases of conscience practically…
A supplement to The Morning-exercise at Cripple-Gate, or, Several more cases of conscience practically resolved by sundry ministers
London: printed for Thomas Cockerill, 1676
Sermon 1: Quest. How may we attain to love God with all our Hearts, Souls, and Minds? Serm. I.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1. Complaint. All that hath been said, makes me fear I have no true love to God at all; I cannot say I love God more than the Creature, I feel my heart more sensibly warping towards the World in the Service of God, than springing towards God in my worldly affairs.
To this I answer by these Distinctions.
Distinction 1. We must distinguish between the Estimation of our love, and the Commotion of it; the Commotion may be greater, where the Estimation is less: One whose love is fixed upon God, though he is so far from forsaking ⟨p. 45⟩God, that he will forsake all things for God, yet he may till he recollect himself, be more moved with some petty loss. In short, he may have some violent Gust of Affection after other things, but the constant breathings of his Soul is after God.
2. We must distinguish between the solidity of our Love, and the flashiness of it, between a superficial, and a lasting Joy; e. g. A Covetous man may laugh more when he is tickled, than when you give him a thousand pound, but he is a thousand times more joyful of his thousand pound than of his being tickled. The Souls love to God is Well rooted