A treatise of delighting in God from Psal. xxxvij. 4. Delight thy self also…

This is placed in the very front of them, Thou shalt have no other gods before me; Which signifies only the having of a God in Name and no more, if it doth not signify loving him before all other. Wherefore when our Saviour was to tell which was the first and ⟨p. 257⟩great Commandment, he gives it thus, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, ¹with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. The thing enjoined by this Law is most substantial, the life and soul of all other Duty, and without which all that we can do besides is but mere shadow; for whatsoever we are enjoined to do else, we must understand enjoined to be done out of love to God, as the principle whence it must proceed; and not proceeding thence, the moral goodness of it vanishes as a beam cut off from the Sun. For on this (with the other which is like unto it, and which also hangs upon this) hang all the Law and the Prophets. And what durst thou who knowest God, or rather art known of him, neglect so great and substantial a Duty? This is not like the command of wearing fringe on the borders of the garment, or of not wearing a garment of linen and woollen; wherein sure they whom it concerned should have been very undutiful to have disobeyed: But it is the very greatest among the great things of the Law; A Duty upon which all Duty depends, even for life and breath! Should not this have obtained in thy practice, that ought to run through and animate all the rest? Or was it fit it should lie dead and bound up in the habitual principle, and not go forth (or very rarely) into act and exercise? Or didst thou do thy duty herein, by being only inclined to do it? Or would not the inclination, if it were right, infer (or otherwise is it like to last long without) suitable ⟨p. 228⟩exercise? ²Why was so express a Law neglected, so often enjoined (or the practice mentioned with approbation,³ or the neglect of it animadverted upon with abhorrence,⁴