Page:A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion.djvu/59

Rh 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