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All that are called of God are to follow Jesus—not their heart.
SERMON-(in abbreviated form; also English clarified where needed)
BY THE REV. SAMUEL ANNESLEY, LL.D. (1620-1669)
HOW MAY WE ATTAIN TO LOVE GOD WITH ALL OUR HEARTS,
SOULS, AND MINDS ?
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.
“This command you have in Deut 6:5: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." It is observable that the Jews read this place with the highest observation...they read this scripture morning and evening with great *religion.”
“When the Pharisees heard how he (Jesus) had baffled the Sadducees,...they consult how they may show their acumen (quickness of perception) and sharpness of wit, to diminish Christ's credit concerning His doctrine and skill in scripture; and therefore they choose out one of their most accomplished interpreters of the law, captiously (calculated to confuse, entrap, or entangle in argument) to propose an excellent question. (For example,) They call Him (Jesus) “ Master”, whose disciples they will not be ; they inquire after the “great” commandment ...(when they would) not duly observe the “least” (of the commandments); they thought Christ could not return such an answer but...Christ's wisdom shames their subtilty; Christ doth not call any command great, with the lessening of the rest; but He repeats the sum of the whole law, and distinguisheth it into two great commands,...'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. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself'.”
“What is it to love God with all the heart, soul, and mind?...David is said to follow God 'with all his heart'-(1 Kings 14:8): and...Josiah made his people, as well as himself, to covenant 'to walk after the Lord with all their heart and all their soul'-(2 Kings 23:3): and [it is written in Scripture]...'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might'-(Deut 6:5): [Lastly,]...'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength'-(Mark 12:30).”
“Love to God must go through and possess our whole nature, and all the powers of it. The mind must think of God; the will must delight in God; in short, our whole strength must be employed to please Him. We must love nothing more than God, nothing equal with God...All these expressions admonish us of our infirmity (sin), provoke us to humility, and set us longing after a better life (a heavenly one)...He that loves God as he is here commanded, believes that all good is in God, and that God is all that is good; and that without God there is no good. He believes that God is all power and wisdom; and that without God there is neither power nor wisdom...”
“We must not love God only with the heart, but with the whole heart...perfect hatred and perfect love know no such thing as the world calls prudence (forming a right judgment about things). If you perfectly hate any one, all things about him displease you; whatever he says or does, though it be never so good, it seems to you to be evil: so if you perfectly love any one, all things about him please you. Some expound this totality by this distinction: We are to love God with the whole heart positively and negatively. Positively, where all powers of the will are set to love God ; and this we cannot perfectly do while we are travelers [pilgrims], till we come to our heavenly country: but, negatively, thou shalt so love God, that nothing contrary to the love of God shall be entertained in thy heart ; and this we may attain to a pretty tolerable perfection of in this life _____________________________________
*religion-consists in the performance of the duties we owe directly to God, from a principle of obedience to his will.
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;
webstersdictionary1828.com
merriam-webster.com;
digitalpuritan.net.pdf, p. 572-574, 576, 577.
