A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion/Chapter 18
XVIII. Love in general; including Love to the Lord, and Love to our Neighbour; also the Love of Self, and the Love of the World.
THE very life of man consists in his love; and whatsoever is the quality of his love, such is his life, yea such is the whole man. But it is the ruling or predominant love, which makes the man. This love has many subordinate loves, which are derived from it, and which on many occasions put on a different kind of aspect from their parent love: but still they all belong to the ruling love, and together with it constitute as it were one kingdom, in which the ruling love is the king and head, directing all, from first to last, to the end and object loved.
Whatsoever a man loves above all things, may be said to be continually present in his thought, and also in his will, and to constitute his essential life: for to that he is ever tending, and by that he is ever regulating his conduct, in the smallest as well as in the greatest of his concerns. By this love he is distinguished from all other men; and according to this will be his heaven, if he be a good man, or his hell, if a bad man: for it is his will, his proprium, and his very nature, or the real esse of his life; and cannot be changed after death, because it is identified with the man himself.
There are two universal loves, from which flow all goods and truths, as from their proper fountains; these are love to the Lord, and love towards our neighbour; and these two, when received by man, and made the ruling principles of his life, constitute heaven in him, and also the church. By love to the Lord is not meant a love directed to him merely as a person, without regard to his divine attributes and perfections, but a love of the divine good and divine truth which proceed from him: and such love is to be found only with those, who have his commandments written in their hearts, and who delight to do good purely for the sake of good. Neither is love to our neighbour, properly speaking, a love directed to his person merely as such, but only so far as he is receptive of divine truth, and thereby of heavenly life, from the Word. So that in each of these cases, but in different degrees, love has for it's object the divine good and divine truth, as proceeding from the Lord, and as received by man. Hence the Lord, when instructing his disciples in the true nature of love, says, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. If a man love me, he will keep my words. He that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings," John xiv. 21, 23, 24. And again, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love. This is my commandment, That ye love one another," John xv. 10, 12.
On the other hand, there are, in opposition to the two loves above described, two other universal loves, from which flow all evils and falses; these are the love of self, and the love of the world: and these two, when they become the ruling principles of a man's life, constitute hell in him here, and hell both within and without him hereafter. Self-love consists in wishing well to ourselves alone, without any concern for the welfare of others, except so far as it may be connected with our own. It therefore disregards the interests of the church, of our country, of the particular society to which we belong, and of our fellow-citizens in general. It also considers all other persons and things merely as subservient to it's own advantage; and would, if uncontrolled, usurp and exercise an universal dominion. It's offspring and companion, the love of the world, consists in a desire of appropriating to ourselves, by any means whatever, that which belongs to another; as also in placing our affections on riches, and in suffering the world, with it's delights and pleasures, to seduce our mind from love to our neighbour, and thereby from love to the Lord.
From a due attention to the different kinds of love, and to their innumerable varieties and derivations, together with the delights belonging to each, we may discover what is the true nature of love both in general and in particular. And seeing this, we shall be the better qualified to regulate and keep in subjection those selfish and worldly affections, which have too long had the ascendency in our minds, and which are the only obstacles to our loving the Lord above all things, and our neighbour as ourselves.
