Life of God in the Soul of Man

I've been reading this book by Henry Scougal. He was kind of a prodigy like Charles Spurgeon. He went to University when he was 15 and became the professor of Divinity at 20. He wrote this when he was 27 and died when he was 28.

The title is a pretty good summary of the book. He explains the advantages of religion and then explains how the Christian life is lived. He uses Christ as the example of this life with chapter titles like: Our Saviour's Constant Devotion, Our Saviour's Charity to Men, Our Saviour's Purity and Our Saviour's Humility. He then talks about the excellency of the Fruits of the Spirit and avoiding sin.

Right now I'm reading the section on Divine Love. It reminds me of Piperish teaching; talking about God being the only source of enduring and fulfilling happiness, "...as divine love doth advance and elevate the soul, so it is that alone which can make it happy." He goes on, "And, indeed, so large and unbounded is its (love) nature, that it must be extremely pinched and straitened, when confined to any creature; nothing below an infinite good can afford it room to stretch itself, and exert its vigor and activity." This is good for me to remember. Sometimes it's hard to hear that my love should be for Jesus supremely, not for my wife. Love placed solely or mostly on Brittany is a weakened, damaged love. "Love is accompanied with trouble, when it misseth a suitable return of affection." If I love Brittany before Christ, I expect too much of her. Only Christ can fulfill that inward longing. On the other hand, "when once the soul is fixed on that supreme and all-sufficient good, it finds so much perfection and goodness, as doth not only answer and satisfy its affection, but master and overpower it too." Then, being filled with Christ, I can love Brittany because I am satisfied in Christ and the love is not based on her performance.

In Scougal's words (my emphasis):
"Perfect love is a kind of self-dereliction,
a wandering out of ourselves ; it is a kind of
voluntary death, wherein the lover dies to himself,
and all his own interest, not thinking of
them, nor caring for them any more, and minding
nothing but how he may please and gratify
the party whom he loves. Thus he is quite
undone unless he meets with reciprocal affection ;
he neglects himself, and the other hath
no regard to him ; but if he be beloved, he is
revived, as it were, and liveth in the soul and
care of the person whom he loves ; and now
he begins to mind his own concernments, not
so much because they are his, as because the
beloved is pleased to own an interest in them.
He becomes dear unto himself, because he is
so unto the other. "

if you want to read the book, its online here