And here, by loving God, I do not understand that sensitive affection I place upon material objects; for it is impossible, that that should be fixed upon God, who is a pure spiritual being; but that, as by the deliberate choice of my will I take him for my chiefest good, so I ought to prefer him as such, before my nearest and dearest possessions, interests, or relations, and whatsoever else may at any time stand in competition with him.

And thus, as I shall endeavour to love God, so likewise to hate sin, above all things: and this is as necessary as the former; for all things have something of good in them, as they are made by God; but sin being, in its own nature, a privation of good, and directly opposite to the nature and will of God, (as I have before showed,) it has nothing of beauty or amiableness to recommend it to my affections. On the contrary, it is a compound of deformity and defilement, that is always attended with punishment and misery: and must, therefore, be the object of my hatred and abhorrence, wheresoever I find it. For, as God is the centre of all that is good, so is sin the fountain of all the evil in the world. All the strife and contention, ignominy and digrace, misfortunes and afflictions that I observe in the world; all the diseases of my body, and infirmities of my mind; all the errors of my understanding, and irregularities of my will and affections; in a word, all the evils whatsoever, that I am affected with, or subject to, in this world, are still the fruits and effects of sin: for if man had never offended the chiefest good, he had never been subject to this train of evils which attended his transgression. Whensoever, therefore, I find myself begin to detest and abhor any evil, I shall, for

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the future, endeavour to turn my eyes to the spring-head, and loathe and detest the fountain that sends forth all those bitter and unwholesome streams as well as the channels of those corrupt hearts in which they flow. And for this reason I resolve to hate sin wheresoever I find it, whether in myself or in others, in the best of friends, as well as the worst of enemies. Love, I know, and charity, covers a multitude of sins,' and where we love the man, we are all of us but too apt to overlook, or excuse his faults. For the prevention of this, therefore, I firmly resolve, in all my expressions of love to my fellow-creatures, so to love the person, as yet to hate his sins; and so to hate his sins, as yet to love his person. The last of which, I hope, I shall not find hard to practise, my nature, by the blessing of God, being not easily inclined to hate any man's person whatsoever; and the former will not be much more difficult, when I consider, that by how much more I love my friend, by so much more should I hate whatsoever will be offensive or destructive to him.

Having thus fixed my resolutions with regard to those two commanding passions of my soul, love and hatred;

RESOLUTION III.

I am resolved, by the assistance of divine grace, to make God the principal object of my joy, and sin the principal object of my grief and sorrow; so as to grieve for sin more than suffering, and for suffering only for sin's sake.

THE affections of joy and grief are the immediate issues of love and hatred, and, therefore, not at all to be separated in their object. Having, therefore, resolved to love, I cannot but resolve likewise to rejoice in God above all things; for the same measure of love I have towards any thing, the same measure of complacency and delight I must necessarily have in the enjoyment of it. As, therefore, I love God above all things, and other things only in subserviency to him, so much I rejoice in God above all things, and in other things only as coming from him. I know I not only may, but must rejoice, in the mercies and blessings that God confers upon me; but it is still my duty to rejoice more in what God is in himself, than in what he is pleased to communicate to me: so that I am not only bound to rejoice in God, when I have nothing else, but when I have all things else to rejoice in. Let therefore my riches, honours, or my friends fail me: let my pleasures, my health and hope, and all fail me; I am still resolved, by his grace, to rejoice in the Lord, and to joy in the God of my salvation. On the other hand, let honour or riches be multiplied upon me; let joy and pleasure, and all that a carnal heart (like mine) can wish for or desire, be thrown upon me; yet I am still resolved, that as it is

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my business to serve God, so shall it be my delight and comfort to rejoice in him.

And, as God shall be my chiefest joy, so shall sin be my greatest grief; for I account no condition miserable, but that which results from, or leads me into sin; so that when any thing befals me, which may bear the face of suffering, and fill my heart with sorrow, I shall still endeavour to keep off the smart till I know from whence it comes. If sin has kindled the fire of God's wrath against me, and brought these judgments upon me, oh! what a heavy load shall I then feel upon my soul! and how shall I groan and complain under the burden of it but if there be nothing of the poison of sin dropped into this cup of sorrows, though it may perhaps prove bitter to my senses, yet it will in the end prove healthful to my soul, as being not kindled at the furnace of God's wrath, but at the flames of his love and affection for me. So that I am so far from having cause to be sorry for the sufferings he brings upon me, that I have much greater cause to rejoice in them, as being an argument of the love and affection he bears to me; For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and Scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.'1

And having thus resolved to rejoice in nothing but God, and grieve for nothing but sin, I must not be cast down and dejected at every providence which the men here below account a loss or affliction; for, certainly, all the misery I find in any thing extrinsical, is created by myself; nothing but what is in me being properly an affliction to me; so that it is my fancy that is the ground of misery in all things without myself. If I did not fancy

Heb. xii. 6.

some evil or misery in the loss of such an enjoyment, it would be no misery at all to me, because I am still the same as I was, and have still as much as I had before. For it is God that is the portion of my soul; and, therefore, should I lose every thing I have in the world besides, yet having God, I cannot be said to lose any thing, because I have Him that hath, and is, all things in himself. Whensoever, therefore, any thing befals me, that uses to be matter of sorrow and dejection to me, I must not presently be affected with or dejected at it, but still behave myself like an heir of heaven, and living above the smiles and frowns of this world, account nothing matter of joy, but so far as I enjoy of God's love; nor any thing matter of sorrow, but so much as I see of his anger in it.

RESOLUTION IV.

I am resolved, by the grace of God, to desire spiritual mercies more than temporal; and temporal mercies only in reference to spiritual.

HAVING rectified the balance of my judgment according to the Scripture; when I would begin to weigh temporal things with spiritual, I find there is no proportion, and so no comparison to be made betwixt them. And will any wise man, then, that pretends to reason, be at a stand which of these to choose, which to esteem the best, or desire most? Alas! what is there in the world, that can fill the vast desires of my soul, but only he who is infinitely above me and my desires too? Will riches do it? No, I may as soon undertake to fill my barns