Miscellanea spiritualia: or, Devout essaies: composed by the Honourable Walter Montagu Esq.

§. II.

Mercenary Love defined, and the relying much on it disswaded.

MErcenary Love, is that which affecteth God chiefly, in order to our own remuneration, and so seemes to looke up to heaven, rather as on a mirrour of reflexi∣on, then as on the essentiall splendor of Gods presence, where∣by this aspect on God seemes more referred to the sight of * 1.1 our selves in him, then to the seeing of him in himselfe: this kind of love then savoureth much more of the minds immer∣sion in our senses, then of the spirituall nature of the soule, which by her own instinct pointeth back to heaven, in order to a free returne to God from whom she issued, rather then that she is drawn thither by a reflexion on her selfe: and the more the soule is abstracted from selfe-respects, the more genuine and kindly return she maketh of love; which free and ingenuous re∣aspiring to her own repatriation, we terme filiall love, which is to love God more fervently, for what he is to us by his own nature, then for what we are promised to be by his grace, which is a due to God, who as he is a father to us, in so admirable a kind, as his love to us, not his delight, as in other fathers, is the occasion of our being; so his being, rather then his blessings ought to be the object of our love.

But in our degenerated nature, mercenary love seemeth to be the Elder Brother, yet as it is the sonne of the Bond-woman, so is it not the heire of the blessing; though God doth heare the voice of this Ishmael, and assignes some allowance to it, yet he settleth not the Covenant upon it: Filiall Love is our Isaac, the issue of a free ingenuous Soule, the spouse of God, and of that stock, Christ, as the Apostle saith, is born in our hearts, and the chiefe blessings of christianity are entailed upon this seed of the Holy Ghost, Filiall Love.

Notwithstanding we must acknowledge this Ishmael of mer∣cenary love to be a legitimate issue, though of a servile mother▪ for King David himselfe owneth the Linage of it, saying, I en∣clined my heart to performe thy statutes for reward: So as I do * 1.2 not censure the matter, but advise the regulation of the mea∣sure of it: For it may be said to be of the nature of Dwarfes, which are an imperfection, not a perversion of nature; and so like them, the lesse it groweth, the better it remaineth, the little∣nesse of it making some amends for the infirmity: And we may say aptly, that this kind of love, is permitted us for the hardnes of our hearts; for from the beginning it was not so, since we know God made the soule to reflect backe upon himself, direct∣ly, as a Beame emitted from his own goodnes; and so it was to revert upon him, in as direct a line, as Rayes are reverberated upon the substance from whence they issue: But we know who changed this course of the soule of man, and taught her this flexuous serpentine motion of selfe-love in which she seemeth now to revert to God: For selfe-love moveth in a posture of indirectnesse and retor••••on, winding and looking backe upon selfe-respects: yet Gods indulgence is such, as he tolerateth this infirme, crooked regresse of the soule, when by the succour of grace, the heart is sollicitous to rectify and straighten the course of our loves reflux, bending as little as we can in the obliquity of our nature towards private references, and addressing the major part of our wishes in heaven, to the glory of God.

When our hearts do sincerely aime and point at this straight filiall love, God, like a tender father, doth rather compassionate then reproach the wrinesse and indirectness of our paces, in this feeblenes of our feet, when our hearts are set straight in this way of our loving him, as we see fathers deale with little children, which they call to them when they beginne to try to go alone, when they see them crosse their feet, and reele forward in their weake faltering motions, sometimes falling by the way, they. do rather cherish them then chide them for this imbecility: so God, when he seeth the heart straining forward, with the best of our powers, towards a simple immediate love of him,

doth not discourage this infirme staggering of our nature, be∣tween mercenary and filiall love; and in conformity to this his Method with his children, God saith by the Prophet, I have taught Ephraim to go, and taken them by their armes, and then * 1.3 in condescendence to our degenerous and ignoble nature, he advanceth further, and saith, I drew them with the cords of A∣dam, with bands of love: that is, God presenteth us with such at∣tractives, as affect most our interested constitutions, which are the objects of remuneration, and private salary; and of these threads, (made of the fleece as it were, of our own nature) he vouchsafeth to frame cords to draw us, and fasten us to the love of him, but we must not take this mercifull indulgence given to our defectuosities, as a dispensation for the sordidnes of our loves, but rather in a holy effect and contention of gra∣titude, strain to love God the more purely, and irrespectively to our selves, in regard of the transcendent benignity of this dispensation.

This supposed, we ought to consider mercenary love under the same notion, as Saint Paul exhibits to us the Law of Mo∣ses, as a Preceptor or Tutor to us in the childhood of our love, to lead it by degrees to filiall love, which is the full age of our affections: For indeed while our love is in this first infancy * 1.4 our minds may be well said to be in bondage under the ele∣ments of the world, rather serving upon a servile contract, then acting as heires of the Promise; which dignity a Christian evi∣denceth only by filiall Love: indeed the other sort is rather le∣gall then evangelicall, and alone bringeth nothing to perfe∣ction.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Mercenary love desined.
• * 1.2

  Psal. 118.
• * 1.3

  Hosea 11.
• * 1.4

  Gal. 3. 24.