Andrew Fuller Friday: Loving God Proportionally

“That place which God holds in the great system of being he ought to hold in our affections; for we are not required to love him in a greater proportion than the place which he occupies requires. If it were otherwise, our affections must move in a preposterous direction. We ought, therefore, on this supposition, to love ourselves, our own happiness, and the happiness of our fellow-creatures, more than God; for God himself is supposed to do the same. But if so, the great rule of human actions should have been different. Instead of requiring love to God in the first place, with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and then love to ourselves and our neighbours, it should have been reversed. The song of the angels, too, instead of beginning with “Glory to God in the highest,” and ending with “peace on earth, and good-will to men,” should have placed the last first, and the first last. How such a view of things can tend to promote the love of God, unless a subordinate place in our affections be higher than the supreme, it is difficult to conceive.”

Excerpt From “The Calvinistic and Socinian Systems Examined and Compared”, 1802

Fuller, Andrew,  The Works of Andrew Fuller. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2007.


By |October 6th, 2017|Categories: Andrew Fuller Friday, Blog|

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