A Practical Commentary on the Epistle of Jude

Fourthly, The nature of Love showeth that 'tis fit for nothing ¹but God: He hath given us this faculty and disposition, that we may close with himself. He that looketh upon an axe will say 'twas made to cut; and he that looketh on love will say 'twas made for God. What is the genius and disposition of ⟨p. 112⟩Love? Love is nothing but an earnest bent and strong motion ²of the Soul to what is good for us: Every man hath an inclination in his nature to what he conceiveth to be good, Psal. 4. 9. and grace doth only direct and set it right: All the difference between Nature and Grace is in fixing the chiefest good and the utmost end: One great blessing of the Covenant is a new heart, that is, a new and right placing of our affections. Well then, God is summum bonum, the chiefest Good; even Nature cannot be satisfied without him, but Grace findeth all contentment in him: If there be any good in the creatures, 'tis originally in him; He is the Fountain of living waters, where comforts are sweetest and freest. The heart hunteth after good among the creatures, which is but an image and ray of that perfection which is in God; and who would leave the substance to follow the shadow? and prize the picture to the disdain of the person whom it represents? 'Twere easy to prove that God is the only, proper, eternal, all-sufficient Good of the Soul: and if the heart were not perverted and biassed with carnal desires to other objects, it would directly move to God, as all things do to their centre; I say, were it not for sin, we should no more need be pressed to love God, then to love our selves: There need no great motives to press us to love our selves, Nature is prone enough of its own accord; and if Nature had remained in that purity wherein it was created, it would move to God of its own accord; as all things move to their centre, and there they rest. Now God is the Centre of the Soul: The Souls good is not honours, pleasures, profits: the Soul is a spirit, and must have a spiritual good; 'tis immortal, and it must have an eternal good. By experience we find that our affections are never in their due posture, but are like members out of joint (or the arms when they hang backward) when they are not fixed upon God; therefore there is a ^*