make God the only ultimate Object of all Divine Worship; and fo do thefe Men make him the only laft Object of Love; But yet they allow of giving Divine Worship to a Creature, provided it be in a tranfitive and relative way; that is, provided it only pass through the Creature, and terminate upon God. And fo these Men allow of bestowing our Love upon a Creature, provided it be for God's fake; or in relation to God; provided it do not stop and reft at the Creature, but run on, till at laft it fix upon God as its final Object. The Notions are exactly Parallel to each other, and they both fhew how extreamly loath Men are to take a final leave of the Creature, to difengage intirely from fenfible things. They cannot be perfectly wean'd from what they fo dearly affect, and therefore would fain' contrive the matter fo, as in the midst of all their Love and Devotion to God, to have still some Referve for the Creature ; to maintain fome little undercurrent of Religion and Affection for fenfible things which they would still have leave to Worfhip and Love, though it. be never fo remotely and indirectly,though it be but in a Relative way. This I take to be the true Ground and Bottom of both these Notions, the Common Disease of our Nature, the great Propenfity of the Soul to fenfible things, which makes Men ftill willing to allow them a share both in their Religion and in their Affection; and that they might do it with the better Colour, has put them upon finding out this Notable Diftinction of a Relative Worship,

and of a Relative Love. And truly I think one is as good as the other; that we may as well Worship the Creature with a Relative Worship,as well as Love the Creature with a Relative Love. For 'tis plain that this later Diftinction does as much fuppofe that God only is the proper Object of Love, as the other does fuppofe that he is the only proper Object of Worship; otherwise, what need this Qualification of our Love to the Creature,that it be Relative? Well, but if so, then as to worship the Creature though but Relatively, is to give that Worship to the Creature which is proper to God; fo to love the Creature though but Relatively, is in like manner to give that Love to the Creature which is proper to God. And if this be thought a fufficient Reason to dif allow of a Relative Worship, I cannot fee why we fhould not for the very fame Reafon give Sentence against this Relative Love,or why one should not be reckon❜d Idolatry as well as the other. But to bring this Matter to a compendious Iffue, the fhort is this; either Creatures are truly and really lovely, as being our true and proper Good; or they are not. If they are, then a Relative Love is too little, we ought to love them with more than a Relative Love, we ought to love them Abfolutely and for themselves. But if they are not (as by a Light as clear as Day it appears they are not) then even a Relative Love is too much. For what is not truly lovely, is always loved too much if it be loved at all. So that either way there is no Pretence for admitting this last expe

dient of our Concupifcence, the Relative Love of the Creature. And thus all the Doors and Avenues of the Heart of Men are fhut fast and bolted against the Creatures, who are now all banish'd from this Seat of Love, and God only left in Poffeffion there.

Thus it is in Theory, but oh when will it be thus in Practice? When will degenerate Mankind rife up to this noble Pitch of Divine Love? When fhall we thus love the Lord our God with our whole Heart, Soul and Mind? When fhall we be thus loofe and free from the Creatures? When fhall we learn to lift up our Hearts above this fenfible World? When fhall we exalt our Souls above the Love of Bodies? When shall we leave off to idolize Matter? O wretched Men that we are, who shall deliver us from the Body of this Death! Rom, 7. 24. The Soul by her Body has contracted fuch an Alliance with the Material World, that we have a fort of Magnetick Inclination towards fenfible things;which in fome Men is exalted to that degree, that instead of loving God with all their Hearts, Souls and Minds, they love the World at that rate, making that their God, their End, their Supream Good. Wonder ful Stupidity, as well as Impiety, to love that beyond and more than God, which we are not fo much as to love at all! What a Reverse is this of this great Law, to love the World,as we are commanded to love God, with our whole Heart, Soul and Mind! Who would ever think it poffible that the Great God fhould be thus out-rival'd

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Vol. III. by his Creatures? But the mifery of it is, as we live by Sense, fo we love alfo by Senfe. We dwell in Matter, and we are inviron'd all round with Matter, so that we cannot get through the Croud and Throng of Creatures to come at our God. The Creatures do fo prefs upon us, and fo continually court our Love by addreffing themselves to all our Senfes, that we cannot deny their importunity. They also have the advantage of being the only Objects of our Sight; for none shall see me and live, faith God. Let us enlarge our Profpect never fo far and wide, we fee nothing but Creatures. In them our Prospect begins, and in them it terminates. They also have the Privilege to ftand before us,and look us, as it were, in the Face,whenever we feel Pleasure or Pain; and 'tis at their Impreffion that we ordinarily have thefe Sentiments; which imposes upon our Imaginations, making us apt to look upon them as the Caufes of our Good and of our Evil, and accordingly as the proper Objects of our Love, and of our Fear; and all because we have our Sensations at their Prefence and upon their Impreffion; while in the mean while God, who is the true Caufe, appears not in view, but hides himself from us, and acts his part behind a Cloud. But were our Eyes once open'd, could we but fee how abfolutely and intirely we depend upon God both for our Being, and for the whole Perfection of it, for all that we are, have or enjoy; how he alone acts in us, and causes our Sensations; how he inlightens our Understand

ings with his Light, warms our Wills with his Love, and refreshes our Souls with his Pleasure, while in the mean time all the Creatures ftand mute and filent before him, and like fo many Cyphers, in his 'Prefence, having not the leaft Activity or Operation upon our Spirits; I fay, could we have fuch a Scene as this before us, we fhould quickly dismiss the whole Creation from our Hearts, and be wholly poffefs'd and fwallow'd up with the Love of God. We fhould then love God as God loves himself; not with the fame Infinity, but with the fame Intireness, of Love. For as God loves none but himself, fo fhould we then love nothing but God.

ep.239.

In the mean while, I make no queftion but that it is now thus in Heaven. The Saints and Angels there,with their Beatifick Vifion of God, have also a clear Sight of their abfolute and intire dependance upon him. They fee the true Origin of all Good, and can trace Happiness to its Head. They see where and whence its Springs do rife, that they all iffue forth from the Foot of the Throne, where is the Well of Life spoken of both by the Pfalmift and by St. John, Pfal. 36. Rev. 22. 1. whence all the Streams of Pleasure take their feveral Channels to water and refresh the mystical Eden, the Intellectual Garden of God. All this which we are now fain to argue out by a train of Confequences, is plainly laid open to the clear view of the bleffed Inhabitants of that Place, which muft neceffarily reprefent God to them as the only lovely Object, and by confe

quence