§. Sect. 1 That all du∣ties should spring from the loue of God.
AND these are the properties which respect the duties them∣selues. The properties which concerne the manner of doing them, are diuers, and respect either the causes that mooue vs to performe them, or our disposition in doing them. The causes are either efficient, or finall. The efficient cause mo∣uing vs to performe all the duties of a godly life, ought to be the loue of God, which is the fountaine of true obedience, and should bee so power∣full in vs, that we should thereby be moued to serue, like children, our hea∣uenly Father, though there were no reward promised to our seruice, which is the motiue that induceth mercenaries and seruants, rather then children, to doe their duty. For howsoeuer we may in our obedience haue an eye with Moses, to the recompence of reward; yet the chiefe argument that preuaileth with vs, ought to be, not the loue of our selues, and out of it, the desire of our owne saluation; but the loue of God, who is the chiefe Goodnesse, whose glory is much to bee preferred before our owne good. Neither is it enough that the loue of God accompany our actions, and that they be done in and with it, as running together (as it were) in the same streame, but also that it be the fountaine from which all our obe∣dience doth spring and flow. Consider we therefore when wee vndertake the performance of any Christian duty, what is the cause that moueth vs vnto it; and if we finde, that it is loue of the world, or loue of our selues, either to obtaine a reward, or to auoyd punishment, temporall or eter∣nall, let vs put it backe as comming out of due place, and labour that the loue of God, which is much more worthy, may haue the preceden∣cy, as the first and chiefe motiue that perswadeth vs to well-doing.