Name than an un-felf-interested Love: Which I look on as the Chiefeft Fruit of the Spirit of God; and which' ftrengthens us against that other Selfish Principle abetted by the Spirit of this World.

There is a Fear of God, and there is a Mercenary Love of God; and these indeed are refolvible into Self-love: And the Scripture often applies it felf to this Principle, to hale us out of the Hurry and Dirt of this World, by forcible Arguments upon those Paffions. But there is intimated a far more tranfcendent Way, as St. Paul calls it. And certainly Regeneration, and the Spirit of God, and the Participation of the Divine Nature, the Life of God, and Renewment into the Image of Chrift, are Intimations of a more Noble Condition of Mind, than of Fear or Mercinarinefs. But I will not be over-tedi

ous to you.

I fhould not have given you thus much Trouble, but that I understood by our Friend Mr. L. that you was defirous to hear from me about this Point: Which therefore, in Obedience to your Defire, I have done; and I hope you will interpret it no otherwife than it is intended, as a Testimony how much I am,

Dear Sir,

Your affectionate Friend
To ferve you

HEN: MORE.

LET

I

LETTER V.

HAVing not Time, nor (as I thought The Second then) fo fit Opportunity, to communi- Letter concate the Notes I had writ on your Letter,cerning Selfwhen you was with me at Cambridge; and love: Written being disappointed by my Illness, of my to the fame intended Journey to London; I thought it Author requifite, you interpreting my other Letter fo Candidly, to communicate them to you by this: Which that I may do with more Diftin&tnefs, and less Trouble, I shall take notice of the Sections your Letter is distinguished into; and so speak to them, or Paffages in them, according to the Order that I find them.

And touching your First Section, I fhall only obferve this; That I guessed right in fome Paffage of my former Letter; wherein I intimated my Opinion of you, that I conceived your Nature and Difpofition to be far. Better than your Doctrine, as you expreffed it, or at least as I understood it.

But I must confefs, I do not understand it fo thoroughly yet, as to know fo diftinctly as I would, where about we are; or exactly to make up our pes computi, as I told you in a pleasant Mood here: Though you begin very Methodically in your Second section, in Defining what you meant by Selflove; That it is the Principle of Self-prefervation, that Love and Kindness we have for our own Being and Nature. The latter part of which Definition is abundantly enough of it

felf;

felf; and the Notion is fo Obvious of it felf, that it wants no fuch Explication I conceive: But the Distinction of the Notion lies here; Whether by Self-love you mean the loving of one's felf as felf; which was the Main thing to be fettled. For a Man in loving the whole Creation of God, does confequently love himself; but not as felf, but as Part of that Creation. Whence it is Manifeft, that loving one's felf as felf, is not as Necessary to us as Shining is to the Sun, or Burning is to the Fire: But our Love to our felves may hold of a more Noble Tenure. Nor is the Queftion, Whether Self-love be Vitious; but whether there be no Love unbottomed on Self-love? For a Man, as a Reasonable Creature, (which you take notice he is in this Section) cannot love himself as felf: For that is a Blind and Infignificant thing to Reafon; and is rather an Obftinate Humour, or Brutish Instinct: But he is to love himself, that is, to wish well to himself, upon fome other more Rational Accounts, and Deducible from an Higher Principle. And yet notwithstanding, you feem to me by Self-love, to understand the loving one's felf as felf, by what you declare Sect. 8. That every Being, good or bad, loves it self As felf; and that you cannot conceive it to be otherwife.

In the Third Section I would enquire, what is meant by Self-love, being fo great a Principle of all Virtue and Religion: Whether an Occafional Beginner of them, or Furtherer of them; as (to ufe a Familiar Illustration)

the

the Love of Gingerbread may be to a Child to learn his Book; who, when he grows older, may grow in Love with his Book, that is, with Learning, for Learning's fake, without the Love of Gingerbread egging him to it? Or whether it be a Conftitutive Principle, of which Virtue and Piety in us doth confift; or upon which it ftands as a neceflary Bafis, as a Foundation is neceffary to a House? In the former Sense, I acknowledge Self-love may be a Principle that is an Occafional Beginning or Excitement to the Study of Virtue and Piety, or Religion But in the latter I deny it. It is a Default and Blemish, and Rottennefs in Religion and Virtue, rather than an Effential Principle or Bafis thereof.

In the Fourth Section you fay; That whatever perfects our Minds, and transforms us into a Divine Nature, is the Object of Selflove. Now I conceive, That what perfects the Mind, and transforms it into a Divine Nature, is no more the Object of Self-love, than Geometry, Arithmetick, and Metaphy fick (if I may make use of fo homely a Comparison) is the Object of GingerbreadLove But Self is the Object of Self-love, and Gingerbread of Gingerbread-love. And it is the Divine Nature that is the proper ob ject of Divine Love; which is Diametrically Oppofite to Self-love. For the Divine Nature is a Free, un-felf-interested Benignity or Goodness: The reft is Knowledge and Power; which Devils and Wicked Men are more gree dy of than Saints or Angels:

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Again, In this Section you fay; That Religion does not extirpate Self-love, but raifes and ennobles Self-love, and keeps it from finking into the Animal Life. But this is Impoffible, for as much as Self-love, is the very Sink and Fetulency of the Animal Life. I understand here by Self-love, loving one's felf as felf; and therefore Religion does at laft quite extirpate it.

And thou, O Self-defire,
The worst of Meteors, curs'd Voraginet,
The Wind of God fhall rend thee into nought;
And thou shalt vanish into empty Air,
Nor shall thy rending out leave any Scar.
Thy Place fhall not be found, though sought:
So perifh fhall all Human Thought.

Self-love cannot raife the Soul towards the Divine Nature; unlefs it be as the Devil, or Lucifer, raifed himself in his Thoughts, when he faid, Similis ero Altiffimo. Nothing afcends up into Heaven, but what comes down from it. Divine Love, not Self-Love, carries us to the Enjoyment of the Divine Nature. That which is born of the Flesh, is Flesh: But that which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit.

In the Fifth Section you grant readily; That there is other Love (which you chufe ra ther to call here, other Inclinations to Love) in Human Nature, befides Self-love; but that it cannot act without Self-love. But I demand; Why it may not also be granted, that this other Love may act without Self-love,

as