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All that are called of God are to follow Jesus—not their heart.
PART 2 OF SERMON
BY THE REV. SAMUEL ANNESLEY, LL.D. (1620-1669)
HOW MAY WE ATTAIN TO LOVE GOD WITH ALL OUR HEARTS,
SOULS, AND MINDS ? (in abbreviated form; also English clarified where needed)
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment-Matthew 22:37,38.
How Should We Love God? THIS IS THE GREAT COMMAND.
God so loves every gracious soul, as if he had no other person to bestow his love upon; therefore thou must so love God, as if there were nothing else in the world to bestow thy love upon. Alas ! what is thine to-day, as to outward things, may be none of thine to-morrow [or, what you possess today, you may not possess tomorrow—whether it be possessions or relationships]: thou canst not say so of God...
We cannot shake off God's sovereignty over us, nor propriety in us [He created us, and bought us with a price]...God is, and will be, thy God, thy Lord, thy Sovereign, thy Commander, let thy carriage be what it will [or, no matter your standing in society]. The vilest wretches in the world cannot sin themselves from under God's dominion. [Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment-Matthew xxii . 37, 38.] This is the "first and great command...because we must place this before all others in the very yelk [yolk] of the heart, as the only foundation of *piety. Whatsoever is taught in the law and in the prophets flows from this, as from a fountain...—To love God is so indispensable, that, let me with reverence say, God cannot dispense with it. As God first bestows his love upon us before any other gift [Jn 3:16], and then, whatever he gives afterwards, he gives it in love ; so God requires that we first give him our hearts, our love, and then do all we do out of love to God...This requires the whole man, the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole mind, the whole strength. Whatever else we entertain, some other room may be good enough for it: [but] let the heart be kept for God's peculiar presence-chamber. God requires the whole soul: all the inferior powers of the soul, our whole life, must be spent in the love of God. This command reaches the whole mind; God expects that we should in judgment reason down every thing into contempt that should pretend a loveliness to justle [jostle] out God [ref 2Cor 10:5].
Plead [beg God] therefore, dear Christians,...[that] Christ...[will inflame] your hearts with the love of God, that when I shall direct to rules and means how you may come to love God, you may as well address yourselves to Christ for the grace of love, as for the pardon [forgiveness] of your want [lack] of love hitherto. Bespeak Christ [pray to Christ] in some such, but far more, pressing language:
*"Lord, thou hast purchased the grace of love for those that want and crave it my love to God is chill, do thou warm it!”
*“My love is divided, Lord, do thou unite it!”
*“I cannot love God as he deserves, O that thou wouldest help me to love him more than I can desire!”
Let us, therefore, address ourselves to the use of all those means and helps whereby love to God " is nourished, increased, excited, and exerted"...
We must clear away the rubbish, before we can so much as lay the foundation.
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piety-dutifulness in religion:devoutness.
Please note-This PDF file can be freely downloaded and printed for further study. It is about 50 pages and would be the more greatly understood with dictionary in hand. Definitely worth the effort if you desire deeper understanding into the Word of God. See the digitalpuritan.net link below.
Sources: prabook.com,
igitalpuritan.net/cripplegate/-For whatever reason the link that was used last week, for this sermon, appeared corrupted. Instead you will need to go to this link and then do a find on the page for “love God”; it should be the only link that comes up. Remember to do the find from the webpage NOT the whole website which is located at the search bar which is at the top of the page. Once you are at the sermon just download the PDF file. This weeks article is from p. 581-586.
