11. In respect of the Object, it is God, the chiefest Being, the first and chiefest Good; What am I, Lord, (saith Augustine) that thou commandest me to love thee, and threatenest me with misery if I do not love thee. This is no small aggravation of the Devil's torments, that he cannot love God. God may require many things of us, but he requires nothing like this of our Love, because this is the only thing wherein we can answer Gods, in other things we cannot, or we may not render God like for like. God created us, and gave us our Being, but we can do nothing like this for God; God preserves us in safety, and daily confers innumerable Benefits upon us; God delivers from innumerable dangers both of Soul and Body: there's none of all this to be done for God; God is infinitely above all such Returns; and ⟨p. 9⟩there are other things wherein we may not render God like for like. If God be angry with us, we may not be angry with him: if he reprove us, we must not quarrel with him: if God judge us, we must not censure him: But now God loves us, and through Grace we are able to love him again; and he loves us, and God commands us to love him again. 'Tis true, there's no equality between God's loving of us, and our loving of God. God's Love does infinitely overcome ourst: but yet our love to God speaks Interest and Union, the thing loved gives the name to the love: Love is but an indifferent Passion, till it be united to the thing loved, and then it gets a denomination; e. g. If the Object be earthly, it is an earthly love; if sensual, it is a brutish love; if it be man, 'tis an humane love; if God, 'tis a Divine love; so that by our love we are changed and transformed into a thing more noble, or more vile; we therefore debase our selves in loving any thing but God, there's nothing else worthy of our love; whatsoever we love, we give it a kind of dominion over us, so that the will loseth its dignity and excellency when it loves inferior things: we are as it were married to that we love. Suppose (saith Raymundus) a poor man of mean stock, and no reputation, have six daughters; they are all equal by birth, as to reputation and esteem, but they are all differenced by their marriage; the eldest marries a Farmer, the next a Citizen, the third a Knight, the fourth a Duke, the fifth a King, the sixth at Emperor; by these marriages there's a very great inequality:
11. In respect of the Object, it is God, the chiefest Being, the first and chiefest Good; What am I, Lord, (saith Augustine) that thou commandest me to love thee, and threatnest me with misery if I do not love thee. This is no small aggravation of the Devil's torments, that he cannot love God. God may require many things of us, but he requires nothing like this of our Love, because this is the onely thing wherein we can answer Gods, in other things we cannot, or we may not render God like for like. God created us, and gave us our Being, but we can do nothing like this for God; God preserves us in safety, and daily confers innumerable Benefits upon us; God delivers from innumerable dangers both of Soul and Body: there's none of all this to be done for God; God is infinitely above all such Returns; and ⟨p. 9⟩there are other things wherein we may not render God like for like. If God be angry with us, we may not be angry with him: if he reprove us, we must not quarrel with him: if God judge us, we must not censure him: But now God loves us, and through Grace we are able to love him again; and he loves us, and God commands us to love him again. 'Tis true, there's no equality between God's loving of us, and our loving of God. God's Love does infinitely overcome ourst: but yet our love to God speaks Interest and Union, the thing loved gives the name to the love: Love is but an indifferent Passion, till it be united to the thing loved, and then it gets a denomination; e. g. If the Object be earthly, it is an earthly love; if sensual, it is a brutish love; if it be man, 'tis an humane love; if God, 'tis a Divine love; so that by our love we are changed and transformed into a thing more noble, or more vile; we therefore debase our selves in loving any thing but God, there's nothing else worthy of our love; whatsoever we love, we give it a kind of dominion over us, so that the will loseth its dignity and excellency when it loves inferiour things: we are as it were married to that we love. Suppose (saith Raymundus) a poor man of mean stock, and no reputation, have six daughters; they are all equal by birth, as to reputation and esteem, but they are all differenced by their marriage; the eldest marries a Farmer, the next a Citizen, the third a Knight, the fourth a Duke, the fifth a King, the sixth at Emperour; by these marriages there's a very great inequality:
- 1Ratione obj•cti.
- sEt vicem licet non ex aequo reddere.
- tRaymundus.
