IT is fit this Exercise should begin with a general Introduction , that may indifferently serve every Sermon that shall be Preach'd . I should be much mistaken , and so would you too , should we think this Text unsuitable : let 's therefore , not only in the fear , but also in the love of God , address our selves to the management of it .

This Command you have in Deut. 6.5 . Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart , and with all thy soul , and with all thy might . This Command is not found in Exodus , nor in Leviticus , but only in Deuteronomy , i. e. the second Law of Moses , which as some express it , bore a Type of the second Law , viz. the Evangelical , to which this Command is proper ; for the Old Law was a Law of fear tending to bondage , and therefore Moses mentions the incussion of terror in the giving of it , which when he hath dispatch'd , he begins the following Chapter with Love , noting , that the Holy Ghost will cause the Law of Love , to succeed the Law of Fear . And 't is observable that the Jews read this place with the highest observation : and their Scribes write the first and last words of the Preface to it with greater Letters than ordinary , to amplifie the sense , and to note that this is the beginning and the end of the Divine Law ; and they read this Scripture morning and evening with great * * Jansen . Harmon . The Occasion Religion .

The occasion of Christ's pressing this command upon them at this time was this ; when the Pharisees heard how he had baffled the Sadduces , and stopped their mouths , with so proper and fit an answer , that they had no more to say , they consult how they may shew their acumen and sharpness of wit , to diminish Christ's credit concerning his Doctrine , and Skill in Scripture ; and therefore they chuse out one of their most accomplish'd Interpreters of the Law , captiously to propose an excellent question . They call him Master , whose Disciples they will not be : they enquire after the Great Commandment , who will not duely observe the least : they thought Christ could not return such an answer , but that they might very plausibly except against it . * * Cartw. Harm . Auth. imperfect . op. If Christ should have named any one command to be the greatest , their exception was ready , why not another as great as that ? but Christ's wisdom shames their subtilty ; Christ doth not call any command Great , with the lessening of the rest ; but he repeats the summe of the whole Law , and distinguisheth it into two Great Commands , according to the subordination of their Objects . Thou shalt love , &c. Though the excellency of the subject calls for the enlargement of your hearts , yet the copiousness of it requires the contracting of my discourse . To save time therefore , let me open my Text , and Case both together . The Case is this .

The Case . What is it to love God with all the heart , and with all the soul , and with all the mind ; and how may we be able to do it ? In short , we must love God , as near as it is possible , infinitely .

For directions in this Case , I shall follow this method , 1. Shew you , what it is to love God with all the heart , and with all the soul , and with all the mind . 2. I shall endeavour to demonstrate , that it is our unquestionable , and indispensable duty so to love God . 3. I shall acquaint you what Abilities are requisite for the well-discharging of this duty , and how to attain them . 4. I shall give you directions how to improve and augment all the abilities we can get , that we may have a growing love to God . 5. I shall close with the best perswasives I can think of , that you would be graciously ambitious of such qualifications , and vigorously diligent in such duties .

1. What is it to love God with all the heart , soul , and mind ? We must not be too curious in distinguishing these words : the same thing is meant , when the words are used singly ; as a a 1 King . 14.8 . David is said to follow God with all his heart : and doubly ; b b 2 King . 23.3 . Josiah made his people ( as well as himself ) to covenant to walk after the Lord with all their heart , and all their soul : and where three words are used ; as c c Deut. 6 5. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart , and with all thy soul , and with all thy mind : and when four words are used ; as d d Mark 12.30 . Thou shalt love the Lord thy God , with all thine heart , and with all thy soul , and with all thy mind , and with all thy strength .

Love to God must go through , and possess our whole nature and all the powers of it . The mind must think of God : the will must delight in God ; in short , e e Bucer . our whole strength must be employ'd to please him . We must love nothing more than God , nothing equal with God ; we must love God above all , and that for himself ; but all other things in God , and for God . We must be willing to lose all ; yea , life it self , rather than to admit any thing contrary to the love of God . * * Gerhard Harm . All these expressions denote the intensness of our affections , the unexpressibleness of our obligation , and the contemptibleness of every thing that shall challenge a share in our love . All these expressions admonish us of our infirmity , provoke us to humility , and set us a longing after a better life . 'T is a notable expression of one g g Auth. impers. operis . The love of the heart is not understood , but felt ; the love of the soul is not felt , but understood ; because the love of the soul is its judgment : He that loves God as he is here commanded , believes that all good is in God , and that God is all that is good ; and that without God there is no good : he believes that God is All Power , and Wisdom ; and that without God there 's neither Power , nor Wisdom , &c.

But notwithstanding all that hath been spoken , no doubt but there is a singular emphasis in the words ; and the Holy Ghost intends a more full declaration of the manner of our love , by these several expressions . Though to be over-critical in the distinguishing of these words , will rather intricate , than explicate this great command ; yet to follow a plain Scriptural interpretation will give light into the duty .

Let 's enquire therefore , 1. What it is to love . 2. What it is to love God . 3. What it is to love God in that manner here express'd .

1. What is love ? Love is an affection of union , whereby we desire , What love is . or enjoy perpetual union with the thing loved h h Mar. L.

It is not a carnal love I am now to speak of ; the Philosopher could observe , that there can be no true love among wicked men .

It is not a natural love , for that may as well be brutish , as rational ; and divine love is transcendently rational .

It is not a ( meerly ) moral love , for that consists in a mean , but divine love is alwayes in an extream .

Divine love is a compound of all the former , but it adds infinitely more to them , than it borrows of them . Divine love is supernaturally natural ; it turns Moral virtues into Spiritual graces . It engageth men to attempt as much for the glorifying of God , as all the creatures besides , from the highest Angel to the most insensible Stone .

2. What it is love to God ? Methinks a lax description best suits my design . This Divine love , 't is the unspeakable enlargement of the heart towards God : What it is to love God . 't is the extasie and ravishment of the heart in God ; 't is the Soul's losing its self in God : 't is the continual working of the heart towards God : every faculty of the Soul is actually engaged : The Mind is musing and plodding how to please God , and enjoy him ; the Will is graciously obstinate , the policy of hell cannot charm it off it's object ; the Affections are all Passions in their eager motions towards God ; the Conscience is a busie-body necessitating the whole man to a jealous watch . I said this love 't is the enlargement of the heart towards God ; when the love of God is shed abroad in the heart , 't is as the breaking of a Ball of lightning , it sets all on a flame immediately . It is the unspeakable enlargement of the heart towards God ; the highest Rhetorick is too flat to express it , as is obvious in that Song of Songs , that Song of loves . I have no way to set this out unto you , but by words , the plainest and most intelligible expressions I can give you , shall be by several similitudes , which I shall pursue till they leave me to admiration : I shall borrow Metaphors from things without life , from Plants , from sensitive Creatures , from Man .

1. The Soul's love to God may be a little shadow'd forth , Metaphors to illustrate what it is to love God . by the love of the Iron to the Loadstone , which ariseth from a hidden quality ( though to say so , is but the hiding of our ignorance ) the motion of the Iron toward the Loadstone is slow while at a distance ; but quick , when near : and when it but touches it , it clings so fast , that unless forc'd , 't will never part ; and when it is parted , 't will to the farthest part of the World retain the vertue of its touch : so the soul while at a distance from God it moves slowly , but as the Father draws , it runs ; and when once it comes to be graciously united , the Apostle asks i i Rom. 8.35 . Who shall separate us from the love of God ? ( not only who shall hinder us from partaking of Gods love , but who can take us off from our loving of God ? ) Christ gives the answer k k John 10.28.29 . , their union with God , their enjoyment of God is inseperable ; and though they may ( as sometimes they will in their imperfect state ) have some warping on their parts , and some withdrawing on God's , yet their love to God , ( in the lowest ebbe ) tremblingly hankers after him , the soul cannot forget its alone resting-place l l Psal. 116.7 .

2. Our Love to God is like the love of the Flower of the Sun to the Sun . It springs of a very little seed : it is not only our Faith but our Love , that is at first like a grain of mustard-seed ; it growes the fastest of any Flower whatsoever : It is not only Faith , but Love that grows exceedingly m m 2 Thes. 1.3 . . It alwayes turns and bows it self towards the Sun : our Love to God is alwayes bowing , and admiring ; alwayes turning to , and following after God . It opens and shuts with the Suns rising and setting : our Love ( when it is what it should be ) opens it self to God , and closes it self against all other Objects . It brings forth seed enough for abundance of other Flowers ; love to God is the most fruitful Grace , that when it blossoms and buds , it fills the face of the World with fruit n n Isa. 27.6 .

3. Our Love to God is like the love of the Turtle to her Mate ; God's People are his Turtle o o Psal. 74.19 . . I grant , they most properly resemble Brotherly Love , but why not our Love to God ? they never associate with other Birds ; the loving soul keeps fellowship with God , and ( out of choice ) with him only , and those that bear his Image . The Turtle never sings and flyes abroad for recreation as other birds , but they have a peculiar note for each other ; the soul that loves God , flutters not about for worldly vanities ; no recreation so sweet as Communion with God ; the Soul's converse with God is peculiar . When one dies , the other droops till it dies , so that they do ( as it were ) live and dye in the Embraces of each other : so the soul that loves God , his loving kindness is better than life p p Psal. 63.3 . , and there 's nothing makes a Saint more impatient of living , than that he cannot while he lives have a full Enjoyment of God .

4. Our Love to God should be like ( though exceed ) Jacobs love to Benjamin q q Gen. 42.38 . . He 'l starve rather than part with Benjamin ; and when hunger forc'd him from him , and he was like to be by a wile kept from him , Judah offers to purchase his liberty with his own , because his Fathers life was bound up in the Lads life r r Gen. 44.30 . ; so the Soul that loves God is not able to bear the thoughts of parting with him , his life is bound up in enjoying the presence of God . I have been too long , but oh that I could affect your Hearts as well as inform your Judgments , What it is to love God with the heart . what it is to love God .

Now then let 's reassume the Enquiry ; what it is to love the Lord our God with all our Heart ? some referr this to the thoughts s s A●g . , some to the vegetative Soul t t Creg . Nys . , some to the Understanding that it may be free from errour u u Anselm . , others , q.d. Lay up all these things in your hearts w w Origen . : but the other words will take in most of these ; and therefore according to Scripture we must understand the Will and Affections , and so the word is taken Josh. 22.5 . Moses the servant of the Lord charged you to love the Lord your God — with all your heart . As out of the heart proceeds life , so from the Will proceeds all Operations , the Will ought to be carryed towards God with it's whole force , all the Affections of a pure and holy heart are directed to the onely Love of God x x Gerhard . Harm. c. 156. . Love riseth from the Will ; now there 's a two-fold Act of the y y Elici us & in peratus . Will , that which is immediately drawn forth of the Will it self , the Will own Act , and such an Act the Will exerts in loving God ; and then there is the commanded Act of the Will , which is the Act of some other power moved to that Act by the Will ; where the will is filled with the love of God , it moves the understanding to meditate of God whom we love , and to enquire after the excellency of the Object loved .

We must not love God onely with the heart , but with the whole heart ; What it is to love God with the whole heart . pray mark this , perfect Hatred and perfect Love knows no such thing as the world calls z z Judicium rerum non c●gnoscit . Aut. imper. operis . Prudence , if you perfectly hate any one , all things about him displease you ; whatever he says or does , though it be never so good , it seems to you to be evil ; so if you perfectly love any one , all things about him please you . Some expound this totality by this distinction , we are to love God with the whole heart Positively and Negatively : Positively , where all Powers of the will are set to love God , and this we cannot perfectly doe while we are travellers , till we come to our heavenly Country ; but Negatively , thou shalt so love God , that nothing contrary to the love of God shall be entertained in thy heart ; and this we may attain to a pretty tolerable perfection of in this life a a Cajetan . .

The whole heart is opposed either to a divided and dispers'd heart ; or to a remiss and a sluggish heart : God doth as much abominate a partnership in our love , as a husband or wife abhor any such thing in their Conjugal Relation , we must love nothing but God , or that which may please God : He that loves God with his heart , and not with his whole heart , loves something else , and not God .

As the whole heart is opposed to a remiss and sluggish heart , the meaning is this , the care of our heart should be set upon nothing so much , as upon the loving and pleasing of God ; we must preferr God alone before all other Objects of our love , and there must be an ardency of affection : whatever we doe , it must be for his sake , and according to his will b b Chemnit. Harm. c. 105. &c. .

2. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Soul . I forbear to mention the different conjectures of those that try the acuteness of their parts to produce some peculiar Interpretation which others have not . By comparing Scripture with Scripture , the sensitive life , or the sensitive Appetite is here meant . Thus c c Gen. 34.3 . Deut. 12.20 . , his soul clave unto Dinah , and he loved the Damsell ; again , thy d d thy sensual a fections . soul longeth to eat flesh . And because the Soul is in many places taken for Life , as Exod. 4.19 . all the men are dead that sought thy life , Heb. thy soul ; so Exod. 21.23 . Thou shalt give life for life , Heb. soul for soul ; and so we may take it here intensively for the sensitive Appetite , and extensively for the Life . The soul is here taken for the Animal life , which comprehends both the Vegetative and Sensitive part . To love God with the soul is to subject all those works that pertain to an Animal life , unto the love of God . Plainly and in short , it is not enough to love God in our Will , but we must not admit any thing contrary to the Love of God in our sensual delights . Whatsoever sensualists do for the gratifying of their lusts and desires , let those things be drained from the dregs of sin , and consecrate them all unto God . Whatever use wicked men make of their souls , in a way of hatred of God , we must make the contrary use in a way of loving of God . And then ,

Thou must love God with all thy Soul ; What it is to love God with all the soul . we must be ready to lay down our lives for God d d Origen . : if any one should be ask'd what in all the world was most dear unto him , he would answer his life ; for life-sake tender Mothers have cast off the sence 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 Carkass , or rather a loathsom dunghil . 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 e Acts 17.28 . ; 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 .

What it is to love God with the mind . 3. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Mind ; though Anselm take this for the Memory , that we should remember nothing whereby we are hinder'd in our thinking of God : yet generally this is taken for the understanding , and so the Evangelist Mark expresly interprets it , when he renders this Command in these words f f Mark 12 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . with all thy understanding ; to love God with our Minds , is to have the understanding moved and commanded by the love of God , to assent unto those things that are to be believed , and to admit nothing into the understanding which is contrary to the love of God g g Cajetan . h h Origen . nihil cogitantes , vel proferentes nisi ea que Dei sunt . . The Mind should let nothing go in or out , but what payes tribute of love to God ; there 's one interprets the word by the Etymology of the word Mind from Measuring i i Mens dicitur a metiendo , &c. Avendan . . The Mind must be so full of love to God , that love must measure all our works k k 1 Cor. 10 , 31. . When we eat , we should think how hateful it is to God that we should indulge our Palat , and thence shun Gluttony : when we drink , we should think how abominable Drunkenness is in the sight of God , and thence drink temperately l l Rom. 14.8 . : so that whether we live , we live unto the Lord , and whether we dye , we dye unto the Lord ; whether we live therefore or dye we are the Lords ; our Life and our Death must be measur'd by our Love to God .

We must love God with all our Mind ; What it is to love God with all our mind . we must alwayes converse with God in our Minds , and thoughts , our thoughts must kindle our affections of love . Love to God makes the hardest Commands easie , while our thoughts are immers'd in love to God , love to Enemies wlll be an easie Command ; the keeping under of our Bodies by Mortification will be an easie work ; Persecution for Righteousness will be a welcome Trial ; love will change Death it self into Life .

There 's another word added by Mark , which indeed is in Deut. 6.5 . whence this is taken , Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Strength ; now because this word doth not express any other species or power of the Soul , but only notes the highest and most intense degree of Love that flows from all the Faculties of the Soul , I will close this Enquiry with a Word of this . We are to love God with all the Powers of our Soul , with all the members of our Bodies . Our understandings , wills , inward and outward Senses , appetite , speech , whatever we have , whatever we are , must be all directed into the Love of God , and into Obedience flowing from Love , You commonly hear that of Bernard , the cause of loving God is God himself , and the only measure is to love him without measure . We must love God strongly , because with all our strength : our love to God must get above Interruptions ; no threatnings , calamities or discommodities whatsoever , must pull us away from God , but that all the Powers of Soul and Body must be taken up into his service ; that our Eyes beholding the wonderful works of God , the Sun , Moon and Stars , the clear evidences of his Divinity , we may be in love with him : that our Ears piously hearkning to his Instructions , may be in love with him : that our Mouth may love to praise him ; our Hands to act for him : that our Feet may be swift to run the way of his Commandments ; that our Affections may be withdrawn from Earthly things and deliver'd over to the love of God : that whatever is within us , it may be bound over to the service of God m m Idomne Deo obsequio mancip●t●e , Chem. &c. . He that thus loves God , need not trouble himself how to order and dispose the several words here used ; his Heart , Soul , Mind , Will ; whatever he is , hath , knows , understands , obtains , is all due to God : neither is there any thing in the whole world to be valued before God ; and thus I have given you a lame account , what it is to love God , &c.