Wesley Corpus

to him, is accepted. For this end hath he given us them to enjoy, that by these steps we may ascend to higher enjoyments ; therefore, what ever love tends to the love of God is no more forbidden than what flows from it. Yet further : there are many of the works of his hands which God expressly commands us to love, and that, not only with a love of be nevolence, but of complacency : for such surely is natural affection ; such is that tenderest of all passions towards our fellow-creatures, which our blessed Redeemer does not disdain to com pare to the love between himself and his church ; and such is the delight which we ought to have in the saints that are upon the earth, and in those that excel in virtue. The contrary opinion, that we are forbid to lova any creature in any degree, supposes the allknowing God to command our love of himself, and yet to prohibit the immediate necessary effect of it. It charges the All-wise with enjoining the end, and in that very injunction forbidding the means ; it blasphemes his most holy and perfect law, as notoriously contradicting itself,