A supplement to The Morning-exercise at Cripple-Gate, or, Several more cases of conscience practically…

Thou must love God with all thy Soul; ¹we must be ready to lay down our lives for God^d: if any one should be asked what in all the world was most dear unto him, he would answer his life; for life-sake tender Mothers have cast off the sense of Nature, and fed upon their own children. It is Life that affords us being, sense, motion, understanding, riches, dominions. If a man had the Empire of the World, he could enjoy it no longer than he hath his soul in his body, when that is gone, he presently becomes a horrid Carcass, or rather a loathsome dunghill. Now then if a man love his Life so much, why should he not love God more, by whom he lives, and from whom he expects greater things than this Life? God is the soul of our soul, and the life of our life, he is nearer to us than our very souls^e; in him we live, and move, and have our being. He that doth but indifferently weigh these things, will acknowledge that it is no rashness to call that man a Monster that loves not God; how then can we think of it without grief, that the whole world is full of these Monsters; almost all men prefer their Money, or Pleasures, or their Honours, or their lusts before God. So oft as you willingly break any Law of God to raise your Credit or Estate, you prefer the dirt and dust of the world before God: Alas! what use do's a wicked man make of his soul, but to serve his body? whereas both soul and body should be wholly taken up with, not only the service, but the love of God. Then may you be said to love God with all your souls, when your whole Life is filled with the love of God, when your worldly business truckles under the love of God; the love of the dearest Relations should be but hatred, when compared with your love to God. When you eat and drink to the glory of God, sleep no more than may make you serviceable unto God; when your solitary musings are about the engaging your souls to God, when your social Conference is about the things of God; when all acts of Worship endear God to you; when all your Duties bring you nearer to God; when the love of God is the sweetness of your Mercies, and your Cordial under Afflictions, when you can love God under amazing Providences, as well as under refreshing Deliverances; then you may be said to love God with all your Souls.

Thou must love God with all thy Soul;