the Lord pronounceth his Oath negatively then it is to be understood as an affirmation as Isa 14.24 The Lord of hosts hath sworn if not so it shall come to pass that is it shall certainly come to pass But when he setteth it down affirmatively then it is to be understood negatively as Psal 95.11 If they shall enter into my rest that is they shall never enter into my rest When God sweareth thus by himself he mentioneth not the Curse because no Execration or Curse can fall upon him that is God necessarily infinitely and eternally blessed and therefore not to be expressed because it cannot come upon him neither should such a form of speech be supplied as some do prophanely use then let me not be God or such like It is sufficient to alarm Sinners that God doth swear if they continue to the death without love to and saith in Christ they shall not enter into his rest 1. A man loves not Christ that hath 1. an understanding to know the excellencies of Christ the necessity of Christ the danger of being without Christ and the everlasting good and benefits that are to be had by Christ 2. A man that hath a Will to be guided by the Understanding a Will to chuse good and refuse evil 3. A man that hath Affections of love desire and delight and shall not place them upon their proper primary principal Object 4. A man that hath a Conscience to walk and act by to accuse and condemn him when his Affections are not rightly fixed and to comfort him and to testify for him when they tend to and rest in their proper Object 5. A man that is capable of knowing loving and enjoying the best good 6. A man that hath heard of Christ that professeth Christ and hath frequently and earnestly been intreated to give Christ his love 7. A man that is a sinful man a lost man a diseased polluted man that stands in need of washing cleansing and recovering healing Grace Shew me the man that needs not Christ and let him deny him his love 8. A man that is a dying man a man leaving this World going out of Time and entring into Eternity that must shortly be a damned or saved man within a few years months weeks days or houts be eternally happy or everlastingly miserable 3. Any man especially where the Gospel is preached where the joyful sound is heard to whom the tydings of a Saviour and Eternal Life are brought The Heathen cannot love him because they do not know him because they hear not of him but any man especially that lives under the means of Grace any mean man any noble man any ignorant man any learned man any man of any sort of any age of any calling of any place or Nation where they have so often and so long heard of Christ that his blessed name is become too common in their prophane polluted mouths If any such man 4. Love not tho he often talk of him tho he pray to God mentioning his Name tho he profess him hear daily from him suffer or dye for him and not love him that is 5. The Lord the Lord of Lords the only Potentate the Lord that hath the power of Life and Death able to take up to Heaven and cast down to Hell to damn and save that reigns over Men and Devils that hath all Power committed to him that is 6. Jesus the only mighty alsufficient Saviour that came from Heaven to Earth to get and purchase for men a passage from Earth to Heaven that suffered bled and died to save Sinners from Sin from Hell from Everlasting Burnings when there is no other Name under Heaven by which Sinners can be saved than the Name of Jesus who is also 7. Christ anointed of the Father designed from all Eternity and sent in the fulness of time to bring about and accomplish the work of man's Redemption that was furnished with all manner of qualifications to bring Souls to Eternal Glory and yet those that have their Names from him called Christians from Christ and yet not love him shall be 8. Anathema cursed Wretches miserable Caitiffs devoted to damnation separated from God cast to Devils when 9. Maran-atha the Lord comes to be Anathema when Maran-atha is to be accursed indeed and for ever then cursed Men must be with cursed Devils to all eternity CHAP. II. SECT I. The Doctrine and Method FRom this Text thus explained Doct. this Doctrine clearly resulteth That whatsoever man hath not sincere love to the Lord Jesus Christ is in a deplorable condition and shall be accursed when the Lord comes For his Sin is great his Mind is blind his Will perverse his Heart is hard and carnal his Affections corrupt and base and vile and his Soul and Body shall then be doomed down to blackness of darkness to extremity and eternity of misery to pains and punishment that no Tongue can express no Heart conceive no Pen can write how great how terrible how intolerable it will be found to be The method in treating on this Subject is cast into these five general Heads 1. What is the nature of this love to Christ what kind or manner of Love it is without which if man be found he is Anathema and shall be plagued with this heavy Curse at the coming of the Lord 2. That whosoever is without this love to Christ is in such a miserable condition and dying without it shall be damned when Christ shall come is to be demonstrated 3. What are the properties of this Curse that will make it so exceeding grievous and intolerable 4. Why so great a stress is put upon such Love why the Lord insists so much upon the love of man unto his Son that whosoever wants it shall be thus accursed 5. The improving of this Doctrine by practical application In opening of the nature of this Love to Christ I shall not only mention the formal reason of it but also what is presupposed and necessarily requisite to the raising or producing of it in the heart of man my Apprehensions concerning it I shall give you in these twelve following Particulars which being taking up and laid together will contain a description of this Love 1. This Love supposeth the goodness of the Object 2. It includes or implies the illumination of the Understanding to see and discern this incomparable goodness in Christ 3. It includes a discovery of the suitableness of Christ unto the Soul in all respects 4. As also a sight of the communicability of that good that is discerned to be so suitable 5. Highest valuation of Christ greatest estimation of him which is called appretiating Love 6. It contains the permanent volition of the Will the setled inclination of the heart towards the Lord Jesus Christ 7. It includes the prevailing and predominant degrees of our love to be to Christ more than to any thing else whatsoever 8. In this Love is the election of the Will choosing Christ
this Phrase is used in Scripture a man cannot be at the same time So that such as shall then be so cursed as to be shut out of doors are past recovery past hopes of Mercy past a possibility of being blessed And therefore 10. To be Anathema when Maran-atha will be to be accursed with an Eternal Curse For be they must for ever dye they cannot shake off the Curse they cannot therefore cursed they must be for ever For a man to be accursed all his days would be a sore judgment but for a man to be accursed to all Eternity is beyond conception heavy and grievous To live for ever and to be accursed for ever is worse than never to have been or to have their being turned into nothing All the Curses that men void of the Love of Christ do lye under in this world they make light of If they are cast out of God's Favour it is a great Curse but now they are merry under it If they have no Grace it is a great Curse but they do account it no Curse they have none and they desire none But there are Curses waiting for them and shall be poured out upon them at the coming of Christ which in the other world shall be heavy indeed and intolerable and under them shall have a merry heart no more for ever For to be Anathema when Maran-atha Is to be Cursed Dreadfully because Totally Bitterly Publickly Positively Privatively Finally Therefore Uncontroulably Therefore Irrevocably Therefore Eternally CHAP. V. Eight Reasons why Love is so strictly required that Christ must be Loved or the Sinner accursed THE Fourth general Head in the Method propounded is Why there is such a flat necessity of our sincere Love to Christ for the escaping of this described Curse Why God doth so much insist upon our Love unto his Son that whosoever doth not love him shall be Anathema This is not to be understood exclusively as if other Graces and Conditions were not also necessary for in other Texts we find that for want of Faith this Curse will overtake many Mar. 16.16 He that believeth not shall be damned John 3.36 He that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him And for want of Repentance Luke 13.3 Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish And for want of Conversion Mat. 18.3 Verily I say unto you Except ye be converted and become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven Joh. 3.3 Jesus answered and said unto him Verily verily I say unto thee Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God And for want of Obedience Heb. 3.18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to them that were disobedient translated believed not Sometimes the condition is expressed by the term of a new creature Gal. 6.15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature Sometimes Faith and Love are put together Gal. 5.6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love And indeed all these are requisite and are found together in the same person for he that hath Faith hath also Love and he that hath Love doth also Repent and he that Repents doth also obey and he that doth Believe Love Repent and Obey is a New Creature Yet Love is thus insisted on for such Reasons as these 1. Love commands the whole man for it is in the Will which is the commanding Faculty Love 1. Commands and sets on work all the other affections If a man love Christ it sets Desires on work if he be absent it sets Joy on work if he be present if Christ be absent and the Soul doth see a probability of obtaining him Love sets Hope on work If there be any impediments that hinders a man in his prosecution it sets Anger on work for the removal of them 2. Love commands the thoughts and mind For love to Christ sets the mind on thinking on Christ and meditating upon him The mind doth muse upon what the heart doth love Where love is fixt the thoughts do dwell Psal 119.97 O how I love thy law it is my meditation all the day 3. Love commands all the outward members of the body Love to Christ doth set the Tongue to speak of Christ and for him the Ear on hearing of his Word the Eyes in seeing the tokens of his Love and Goodness the Hands in acting and the Feet in walking to those places and duties where Christ is to be found and enjoyment of him to be had 2. If Christ hath our love he hath our all And Christ never hath his own from us till he hath our Love Love withholdeth nothing from Christ when it is sincerely set upon him Then he shall have our time and he shall have our service and he shall have the use of all our Parts and Gifts and Graces yea then he shall have our Estates Liberty and our very Lives when he calleth for them As when God loveth any of us he will withhold nothing from us that is good for us no not his own only begotten Son Rom. 8.32 And when Christ loveth us he giveth all unto us his Merits to justifie us his Spirit to sanctifie us his Grace to adorn us his Glory to crown us so when any of us love Christ sincerely we lay all down at his feet and give up all to be at his command and service Rev. 12.11 And they loved not their lives unto the death 3. Love gives the denomination to a man according as the Object is which he superlatively loveth For as is the Love such is the man and as is the Love such might you boldly call the man If he be a lover of Honour he is an Ambitious man a lover of Pleasure a Voluptuous man and if he chiefly love the World he is a Covetous man if he love Holiness he is a Religious man if the things above an Heavenly-minded man and if he love Christ with a predominant love he is a Sincere man Cant. 1.4 The upright love thee 4. Without Love all other things tho never so many great and excellent in themselves are not acceptable unto God He regardeth not your Prayers if you do not love him He matters not your Hearing if you do not love him all your Almsdeeds are poor things in his esteem if you do not love him yea all your Suffering for Religion and for Christ are nothing if you do not love him If a man could Preach like an Angel and yet not love him he should not be accepted by him 1 Cor. 13.1 Tho I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal 2. And tho I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and tho I have all
blamed when you thus do vilifie that Blessed Lord that none can over-value Will not you pass for a sinful wretch among all wise and serious men nay with God and Angels that you have a will for the world and for the empty vanities of this life but no will for Christ for a full and All-sufficient Christ When you do prefer fading enjoyments of a transitory life before a durable good in eternal life Tell me I beseech you is not he deservedly a wretch whom neither the Excellencies of Christ himself nor all the benefits he might have by him will move him to set his heart upon him What do you think What do you say Have you done well or ill in not loving Christ Well you dare not say Ill you are loth to say because by so saying you will condemn your self What then Condemn your self because you have not loved him and love him now that you might not be condemned by God and cursed by Christ for not loving him at all But because the want of love to Christ is such an horrid loathsome sin and yet lamented but by a few as if it were in our days almost accounted for no sin at all I shall endeavour to aggravate the hainousness thereof in Twenty particulars propounded to you by way of questions and let me intreat you to weigh them with a serious mind and when Right Reason shall dictate a true answer seek out some secret place where you might weep bitterly for this odious sin want of love to the Lord Jesus Christ I. Not love Christ What is this but a crossing of the end of God in making thee a man In setting thee above the beasts of the field In giving thee a more noble and more excellent soul than he hath given to the unreasonable creatures Hath not God given thee a soul capable of knowing Jesus Christ And what shouldst thou know him for if not to love him Hath not God given thee a will to go forth in its actings upon the most sweet and suitable Objects And what is that but Christ Hath he not put such an affection as Love into thy heart And dost thou think in thy Conscience it was that thou mightest love the world and not his Son Thy self and not his Son but thy self in opposition to his Son Thy sin and not his Son Canst thou imagine that God made thee a man and not a beast that thou mightest love him no more than beasts can love him Then it had been enough if God had made thee a beast and not a man Or dost thou repent that God hath given thee the Nature the Reason and the Love of a man that thou wilt not place it upon himself for which end he made thee a man If thou dost repent that thou art a man and not a beast then chuse the Love and Pleasures of a beast and refuse the Love and Pleasures of a man and that as a man thou art capable of If not why dost thou not answer the end of thy creation Dost thou not see that all the Visible Works of God do that for which they were made Did not God make the Sun to give light unto this World And dost thou not see what haste it makes to set and in the morning thou perceivest when out of view it kept its course and hasted to rise to give its light to this our Hemisphere again Did not God make this Earth to bring forth Fruit for the comfort of man And dost thou not daily eat thereof Did not God make other Creatures for the use and service of man And do they not do so And hath not God made thee and made it thy duty to love him Why then dost thou not do it Oh monstrous perverting of the Creation of God! And that in the best of his visible works If the like were done by other creatures how soon wouldst thou be weary of thy life If the Sun should withhold its light what a dungeon would this world be If the Earth should bring forth nothing but Briars and Thorns it would yield thee nothing but vexation and sorrow If the creatures should use their power and strength against thee as they do in serving of thee thou wouldst judge it better to want them than to have them And shall all that was made for man answer their end and not man that was made more immediately for God himself But a man that wants Love to Christ is become worse than the beasts that perish Psal 49.20 Better thou hadst never had the heart of a man if Christ hath not thy heart II. Not love Christ What is this but a thwarting the end of all Christ's undertaking for thee as thy Redeemer When man had sinned away the Holy Image of God and turned his heart and affections from God to the Creature man might have feared him but never have loved him Gen. 3.10 I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid Sin had brought such an aversation in the heart of man from God and all good that without Christ's undertakings for man man could have loved him no more than Devils Why did the Son of God become the Son of Man Why did he shed his Blood lay down his Life Why did he suffer sweat bleed and dye Why did he bear our Punishment satisfie Divine Justice endure the Wrath of God the Rage of Men and Devils but to bring man back again to God from whom he had departed And that the stream of man's affections might be turned again into its right Channel Couldst thou not have loved the World and Self if Christ had never dyed Couldst thou not have loved thy Pleasures and thy Sins if Christ had never died And having died wilt thou love no better Hath he come from Heaven to gain thy Love and shall he not have it Hath he given himself a Ransom to deliver thee from thy Captivity and paid thy Debt for which thou shouldst have gone to the Prison of Hell to gain thy Love and shall he not have it Hath he given his Life for thine his Soul for thine in dying when thou shouldst have dyed and all this to gain thy Love and shall he not have it What thinkest thou Was Christ weary of the Bosom of his Father Was it more honourable for him to dwell in flesh on earth than with the Father of Spirits in Heaven Was it not infinite Condescention for his Deity to be vailed with the rags of our Humanity Or was Christ prodigal of his Blood or weary of his Life or did he love and chuse such cruel Scourgings such Contempt and Scorn such a cursed shameful painful Death for themselves Surely all this was for some great and noble end which end thou doest as much as in thee lies by thy not loving him frustrate and render unattainable for if all men should deny him their Love as thou dost where would be the Reconciliation betwixt God and man Remission of Sins or Salvation
better than rash confidence bold and damnable presumption For the greatest Professor without love to Christ is a Self-deluding Hypocrite whose hope shall be cut off and prove as weak though spun as fine as a Spiders web Job 8.13 And shall be as the giving up of the ghost Job 11.20 And is the want of all Grace no evil in thine Eyes when it brings punishment that shall be endless easeless and remediless upon all that were totally and finally Graceless XVII Not love Christ Gods own Son How then is God thy Father Joh. 8.42 Jesus said unto them if God were your father ye would love me If ye be his creatures and not love him it is an aggravation of your sin not to have love to him that gave Being to you but though ye are his Creatures without love yet ye are not his Children but better never had been his Creatures if not his Children for though ye should every day with great confidence say Our Father without love to Christ God will never own you as Children nor give you Childrens Portions XVIII Not love Christ How canst thou then excuse all the love thou hast to other things from being sinful Love So that the more thou lovedst the more thou sinnest because thy love to others is not subordinate to the love of Christ but separate from it To love other things and persons in Subordination to the love of Christ is not a Sin but Duty to love other things and persons and not Christ or more than Christ is not a Duty but a Sin and thus the love of your Estates is sinful Love And the love of Husband Wife Children and of your Selves is therefore sinful Love because it is above the love of Christ for these should be loved in Christ and for Christ but you love them without Christ and more than Christ therefore all your love without love to Christ though materially good is sinful love Mat. 10.37 XIX Not love Christ Art thou not all this while treasuring up terrible Accusations in Conscience against the hour of Death and day of Judgment The time will come and is at hand when thou and all thou lovedst besides Christ must be separated Thou hast loved the World and thou must leave it thou hast loved thy Pleasures and thou must bid adieu unto them thou hast loved thy Relations and thou must take thy sarewel of them and then oh then if conscience be awakened if thou dost not go blindfold and hood wink'd by the Devil out of this World wilt in the bitterness of thy Soul lament thy woful case and say Oh! What have I done What is this that I have done to love what I must leave I loved my Riches and now Death will take me from them I have set my heart more upon my earthly Relations than upon Christ and now Death is come to tear and carry me away from them I have loved my life more than Christ and now Death will put an end unto my life And all these things that I have loved now must lose Oh! Had I loved Christ as I have loved them Christ would not have left me Death could not have separated him from me but should have removed me nearer unto him But this I did not woe is me that this I never did for now all my love proves vexatious love to think and find that what I have loved in one moment I have for ever lost XX. Want of love to Christ Doth not this make Damnation unavoidable and the escaping of Hell to be impossible For when thou dyest whither wouldst thou have thy Soul to go To one whom thou never lovedst While thou didst live thou didst not wouldst not love him and after Death canst not Canst not love him Is Heaven a place for them that cannot love Christ Heaven is a place of Love the Imployment of Heaven is to love and praise him whom they do love Without love to Christ thou wouldst not find imployment there and the life of Heaven will be no idle life where all shall live and love and love as long as they shall live therefore such as do not now and hereafter cannot love shall never enter to live in that place of Love Now Sirs What do ye think Is the want of love to Christ so small a sin as ye have hitherto supposed it to be when you have spent and past the greatest part of your lives without love to Christ and without sorrow for want of that love What do ye mean To cease to live before ye do begin to love What shift have ye made to live in mirth and joy when the love of Christ hath not liv'd nor reign'd in your hearts Let Conscience be Judge between God and you but if Conscience be dead and will not give its judgment let God himself be Judge have ye done well to love that which ye should have hated and hated him whom ye should have loved Done well God knows it is not well done and Devils themselves know you have not well done and ye your selves sooner or later God grant before it be too late shall know in this ye have not done well Done well No ye have done foolishly ye have done wickedly nay in this ye have done Devilishly in what ye have done call to mind the things that have been said ponder them in your hearts weigh them in the ballance of right reason and it will tell you ye have done abominably in what ye have done But I suspect this thought is rising in your hearts If we had not loved Christ we should yield we had done so great an evil as this is aggravated in it self and by its circumstances to be But God forbid that we should live without love to Christ we think it is pity that Man should live that doth not love Christ This supposed love I fear will keep you off from repenting for want of real love to Christ and make you set light by all these aggravations of this Sin because ye think and hope ye do love Christ and some are so ignorant of their sinful state by Nature and so vainly confident of the goodness of their hearts that they bless God they have loved Christ ever since they were born and will be ready to spit in that mans face that shall question their love to Christ Come then ye that are so confident that ye love him come unto the Trial bring it to the Touchstone of the Word of God and try of what Mettal is your Love What if it should prove but counterfeit instead of real Or suppose in some sense it should be real and not counterfeit yet should not be sincere and saving love for the discovery whereof I shall neâ—â— proceed to the third Use CHAP. IX Ten Questions by way of Conviction that many very many have no sincere Love to Christ from whence also Characters of sincere love to him by the right resolving of these Questions might be gathered and our
a corrupt thing for I am a great King saith the Lord of hosts and my name is dreadful among the heathen That is strange then that it should be no more dreadful among his people that pretend to love him that they are not afraid to bring and offer such Duties to him as do so much provoke him and are so greatly displeasing to him that give him only words when they have a Male in their Flock an heart in their breast to give him 4. Such Obedience as is a proof of Love must be persevering to the end expressed not by stepping into Gods ways but by walking in them One that loves not Christ might step into a good way but he that loves doth walk therein Deut. 11.1 Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God and keep his charge and his statutes and his judgments and his commandments alway And 19.9 If thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them which I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God and to walk ever in his ways Such then as have made great shews of love to Christ and now are revolted and have forsaken his holy Commandments by this might judge what kind of love it was to Christ that they once made profession of and more by their partial irksom and refuse Obedience might be convinced that their love to Christ is unfound and only supposed Love II. Do you love Christ while you maintain the Love of Sin in your Heart Can the love of Sin and the love of Christ dwell together in highest degrees Can the affection of love in that manner be carried out to two contrary objects at the same time And is there any thing in the World more contrary than Christ and Sin Is there more opposition between Light and Darkness extreamly Sweet and extreamly Sowre Can you love your Health and Poyson too to be in your Stomach Can you love Christ and yet love what he doth hate Can you love Christ and delight in Sin which took away the Life of your Lord Could you carry that Knife continually in your Bosom with delight that was the Instrument of Death unto your dearest Friend You might as soon look down upon the Earth and up unto the Heavens at the same instant as thus love Sin and Christ together Psal 97.10 Ye that love the Lord hate evil and the hatred to Sin that proves sincere Love to Christ must be 1. Vniversal to the Darling Sin as well as others to the Sin that hath been to you as your Right Hand or Right Eye Hatred is to the kind he that hates a Toad It is not this one or that in particular but all He that Loves Christ sincerely hates Sin as a man hates a Toad not only as to the degree but also as to the extent all and every one Psal 119.104 I hate every false way 2. Implacable Anger might be pacified but Hatred planted in the Nature is irreconcileable Antipathy cannot be rooted out nor turned into Love A man might be angry at Sin that loves not Christ but be friends again might turn from it and afterwards return unto it but the hatred to Sin implanted in the new Creature is implacably bent against Sin that the words might have some place here by way of allusion relating the Love and Hatred of Amnon to Tamar 2 Sam. 13.15 Then Amnon hated her exceedingly Hebrew is with great hatred greatly so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her and Amnon said unto her Arise be gone With like detestation will the Lover of Christ pack away his Sin Arise be gone with greater hatred than before he loved it 3. Therefore it is mortal and destructive to Sin that is the object of it Esau hated Jacob because of the Blessing wherewith his Father blessed him and Esau said in his heart The days of mourning for my father are at hand then will I slay my brother Jacob Gen. 27.41 So the Lover of Christ that hateth Sin is resolved to be the destruction of it Shall not I be the death of that cursed Sin that was the death of my blessed Lord Shall I suffer that to live in my heart which would not suffer Christ to live in the World Did Sin shed my Saviours Blood and shall not I be avenged on my 〈◊〉 Did Sin make my Saviour Groan and Sweat in a bloody Agony and shall I take delight therein Was my Sin the Nails that did fasten him to the Cross The Spear that did pierce his blessed Side And the Thorns that Crowned his Sacred Head And shall I lodge it in my Bosom Did Christ in love unto my Soul dye for my Sin and shall not I in love unto my Lord cause Sin to dye in me III. Do you love Christ sincerely when the things of this World have the predominant degrees of your affections As Sin is not to be loved at all by them that love Christ so things that are good must not be loved above Christ nor are by them that love him Mat. 10.37 If any man love father or mother more than me he is not worthy of me Doth that Woman love her Husband with a sincere Conjugal Love that though she love him truly yet loveth another more than him Do you love Riches Pleasures Honours Relations Self Life more than Christ and yet sincerely love Christ As he is better than all greater than all more suitable more durable more sweet more satisfying than all other good things so he must be loved above and more than all 1 Joh. 2.15 Love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the father is not in him Jam. 4.4 Ye Adulterers and Adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God Though one that is sincere in his love to Christ might not love Christ more than some other persons love him yet he loves Christ more than he loves other persons or things But do you love Christ more than you love other things and yet 1. Your thoughts are habitually set and actually run out upon other things more than upon Christ Can you think on the World with delight but not on Christ And love to have a thousand thoughts on other things for one you have of Christ It is a pleasure to you to think on your Pleasures your Profits your Children but a burden to you to think of Christ and keep your thoughts upon him Are not the thoughts much upon the object of love Psal 139.17 When I awake I am still with thee But if you cannot sleep in the Night your Head is full of the thoughts of the World because your Heart is full of the love of the World Is it not a sign the World and not Christ is loved as your Treasure for where the treasure is there the
Can you spend it in Pleasures and profane it with your vain Discourse and worldly Talk when you should be delighting your self with the thoughts and speech of the great things that Christ did suffer and by suffering procure for his People Do not they that love and honour an earthly King delight themselves and shew their joy on his day of Coronation I cannot be induced to believe that any man loveth Christ that takes no care and makes no conscience of the holy observation of the Lords-day Do you love the Lord Jesus and yet hate his people Cannot you endure a real holy humble sin-fearing Christian and yet impudently say You are a Lover of Christ Can you revile them and magnifie Christ Do you love him and hate such as are like him Doth a Woman love her Husband that with indignation tears his Picture In this God himself doth declare thee to be a Liar when thou doest this and saith thou art a Christ-lover 1 Joh. 4.20 If any man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a liar for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen 21. And this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also 1 Joh. 5.1 And every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him Did not Christ shew his love unto his people by laying down his life for them And do you shew your love to Christ in taking their lives away from them that love him because out of love unto him they will not dare not sin against him as you do and dare when true love to Christ and them in due circumstances will cause a man that is a sincere Lover to lay down his life for them 1 Joh. 3.16 Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren Did you love God and Christ you would have a free heart and open hand to receive his people in their Need and Necessities And do you love God and Christ when you can find both heart and hand to spoil them of their Goods and thereby bring them into Poverty and Want Is it a certain sign of want of love to Christ when you do not according to your power supply their wants And is it not then a certain sign of hatred unto Christ when you take away their Supplies and bring them drive them into want 1 Joh. 3.17 But whoso hath this worlds goods and seeth his brother hath need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him How indeed Who can tell or conceive how it should VII Do you love Christ when you had rather sin against him than suffer for him Is that your Love when you had rather forsake him than in danger follow him When you had rather deny him than dye for him And though you do as Peter did you do not repent and weep bitterly as Peter did Did not Love move Christ to suffer and dye for us Was not Love the chain that did fasten him to the Cross And if you loved Christ would the Waters of Affliction and Persecution quench your Love You love him but cannot suffer for him Worthy Love but such as with which Christ doth not count you worthy of him or to have any saving benefit by him Mat. 10.37 38. The Martyrs loved Christ when they did go to Prisons for him and went to the Stake and were burned into Ashes for him You would think it a hard saying to assert None but Martyrs love Christ But with a distinction I think it is a true saying A Martyr is either actually so or intentionally It is the purpose and resolution of the Heart to dye for Christs sake if called to it he is one that doth dye for Christ or is ready willing and bâ— the help of Grace is resolved to lose his Life than leave Christ And then it is safe to say That he that loves his Life more than Christ and will part with Christ rather than his Life hath no sincere love to Christ for Christ doth say it Mat. 10.37 38. And this was the resolution and disposition of Paul's heart before he was actually put to death Act. 21.13 Paul said What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart for I am ready not to be bound only but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus VIII Do you love Christ that never were convinced of your need of Christ Of your undone and lost estate Of your deplorable cendition without Christ Are you ignorant of your Malady and can you then value the Remedy Doth not the Soul first feeling its wounds by Sin enquire what to do to be saved And then upon the sight of the power of Christ that he is able to save and of the freeness of Christ that he is willing to help the Soul is drawn to love him and to set his heart upon him Blessed Lord wilt thou help me out of my misery When none can deliver wilt thou I am undone Wilt thou succour me I am lost Wilt thou save me Why poor Sinner saith Christ I do pity thee my bowels yearn over thee I will keep thee I will save thee both from Sin and Hell Wilt thou so dear Lord Thou shalt have my heart my love shall be to thee IX Do you love Christ and yet will not submit unto him in all his Offices When you say you love Christ whom do you mean Or in what respect do you consider him As a Priest only that died for your Sins As a Jesus to deliver you from Hell to free you from the torments that your very Nature is against Did you ever know a Drunkard a Swearer or the vilest-debauchedst Wretch that hath heard of Hell and Christ but was willing and desirous on his own terms but not on Christs to be saved from the torments And upon that account will you say That this man continuing in his open Sins doth love Christ But Christ in this one respect considered only is not that Christ that is Preached and offered to you in the Gospel but also Christ as Prophet and King Is this then your love to him to divide him Is this your love to dethrone him from his Kingly Office No it is plain hatred to him Luk. 19.14 But his citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying We will not have this man to reign over us But those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me X. Do you love Christ and never care if he never come again Nay you could be glad you might never leave this World if you might have your pleasures and enjoyments in it but that Christ should come to you by Death or at Judgment you have no desire but sorrow at the thoughts
For 1. Love to Christ will be the sweetest Love He that loveth other things and not Christ loves nothing but Vanity and to love Vanity will prove vexation He that loveth Riches hath vexing sorrow with his love fretting fears and perplexing cutting cares When thou lovest thy Relations if they be bad the more thou lovest the more thou art Wounded If they be good the more evil befalls them the more thou art grieved There cannot be love to other things without love to Christ but it will be bitter Love for thou wilt repent of that love or thou wilt not If thou dost then thou wilt find more forrow for it more bitterness in it than ever thou didst find delight and say Oh now it doth repent me that ever I loved the World as I have done my Pleasures my Sin as I have done But thou wilt never have cause to say I repent that ever I loved Christ Never was such a Word heard from the mouth of a sincere Lover of Christ if thou dost never repent of thy Love to the World and Sin that Love will certainly end in sorrow and with bitterness of Soul be fruitlesly lamented in Hell But what content satisfaction delight comfort joy there is in loving of Christ none can tell so well as he that loves him 2. Love to Christ is the safest Love No fear of Sinning in this Love except it be in the smalness of the measure of it but that is not to Sin in loving but not loving more You might fear and tremble in loving other things and say Do not I sin in this Is there not sinning in my loving 3. Love to Christ is the surest Love to other things is often turned into hatred Love to day and hate to morrow but this remaineth firm The Object is the surest Object neither Men nor Death nor Devils can take away the Object of this Love It is surest in the Habit and Principle the Power of God the Prayer of Christ the promise of both secure the preservation of it It is surest in the Act for if we be careful our selves no Men nor Devils can hinder our acting of this Love they might keep us from hearing of his Word but not from loving of his Person 4. Love to Christ is the Noblest Love Love to Pleasures to the World to Sin is base polluted Love this most sublime and raised it hath the noblest and the highest Object it carrieth the Soul in his Thoughts and Meditations after him into the highest Heavens and hath complacency in the highest Degree and shall have for ever the highest Reward 5. Love to Christ is the longest Love that shall never end Sirs ere long you will have done loving this World even ye that love it most and have your hearts most set upon it Ye that now have your hearts full of Earth when ye shall have your mouths full too and your Corps lye rotting in the Earth you shall have done loving of it Death that ends your life in the World shall end your love to the World which Grace never did Ye shall also have done ere long loving your Relations ye shall have done loving Father and Mother Brother and Sister and Husband and Wife and Children as now in that relation but the gracious Soul the Lover of Christ shall never have done loving of Christ It is sweet to have it but this doth make it more sweet to think he shall always have it Have it in Life have it at Death and have it after Death O blessed Love that shall never be lost but ever last While I was Musing upon this it came into my mind to consider what those that never love Christ in this World can love in the next and I could not imagine any thing that Damned Souls in Hell can Love If it be that I understand not nor am acquainted with the acting of their Souls nor State God grant I never may as they do I thought can they love God Christ the holy Spirit Angels Saints Their hatred to all these is and shall be more deeply radicated that is Rooted in them than ever upon Earth Can they love the place of Hell They wish they never had come thither Can they love the pains of Hell They grieve and groan under them and are weary to bear them Can they love the Devils in Hell They curse them for tempting them to Sin that brought them to that place Can they love their Companions in Hell They are an aggravation of one anothers misery Can they love their Sin in Hell Alas all that was pleasurable in it is gone and the pain and sting only doth remain Can they love their Beings in Hell They had rather dye than live and cease to be at all than to continue to be there I know not what it is that they can love O loathsome place where there is and can be no love O lovely Heaven where Love doth Reign where Love doth Live and the Life of them therein shall be for ever a Life of Love And in this World where Love is wanting so far it looks like Hell Where Love and that which is the best which is that which is to Christ doth prevail so far it looks like Heaven Dear Lord save me from Hell because there there is no love to thee nor to any thing that is good Sweet Saviour lead me in thy way to Heaven and bring me thither where Love to thee shall live and last for ever IV. Is it not great folly to love other things and not Christ For love ye will There is such an affection as Love in all your Hearts and something it will be set upon in this World what e're it be with Damned Souls in the next Now if Christ have it not the World will If Christ hath it not Sin will And do ye act as Rational Creatures as Men endued with Reason to deny your Love to Christ and give it to the World and Sin Set one over against the other and then tell me 1. Is it not great folly to love that which is worse than your selves and not that which is infinitely better Do ye think your Silver and your Gold is better than your selves as much as ye love it That your Houses and your Lands as bad as ye are are better than your selves But ye are not yet so good nor yet so bad but I hope ye will say and ackdowledge that Christ is better 2. Is it not great folly to love that which cannot love you again and not him that would Ye love your Gold but that cannot love you again The Cloaths upon your back the Furniture in your Houses ye love but these can make no returns of Love Ye give your love to them but ye receive no love from them Are ye not vexed when ye love a Man that doth not love you again nor return love for love And why are ye so well pleased and are so well contented in placing the very
much more when he faith Let your Hearts but burn in Love unto me when that burning will not be painful but delightful When Naaman came to the Prophet to be cleansed of his Leprosie being directed to go and Wash in Jordan and he should be clean in Wrath he went away but his Servant came to him and said My Father if the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing wouldst thou not have done it How much rather then when he saith to thee wash and be clean 2 King 5.13 If Christ had required some great thing that thou mightest escape great torments and be partaker of great Salvation wouldest thou not have done it How much rather then when he saith Love me and be Saved When you have received great kindness from a Friend whom you cannot requite yet you say I cannot do less than love him yet this small thing is more in Christs account than all without this You Pray to him but to Love him is more an Heart full of Love is more to Christ than a thousand Prayers full of the most eloquent Expressions without Love You hear his Word but to love him is more You might suffer for him but to have love to him is more Should 〈◊〉 give all your Goods to the Poor and your 〈◊〉 to the Fire for him to give your Heart and 〈◊〉 him is still more And indeed except 〈◊〉 the former proceed from Love and are accompanied with it they are not pleasing to Christ nor profitable to your Salvation 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3. VI. Will you love that which you might easily love too much and not Christ whom you can never over-love You might love your Riches your Relations your Pleasures your Self your Liberty your Life too much In these your love might soon exceed and transgress the bounds and it is hard not to exceed but to keep within bounds And indeed so much love as you give to these more than to Christ is too much but could you love Christ with as much love as all the Saints in Heaven love him it would not be too much for him if you were able to bear it Many have complained they loved Christ too little but never any that he had too much of their love God doth blame you and Conscience doth accuse you for your great love to things below but neither God nor Conscience for the highest degrees of love to Christ and things that are above VII Can you love your selves truly and not love the Lord Jesus sincerely There is a Self-love which is inconsistent with the love of Christ and there is a Self-love which is the best that no man hath but he that loveth Christ Doth that man love himself indeed that regardeth not the Salvation of his Soul That doth ruin himself and damn himself and shut himself out of Heaven Doth that man love himself indeed that doth expose himself to the wrath of God to the damnation of Hell and to banishment from the glorious presence of the blessed God All which a man brings upon himself for want of love to Jesus Christ if then you will love your self truly you must love Christ sincerely VIII Are not all the Duties of Religion tedious to you for want of love to Christ Do you find it a burden to Pray A burden to hear or read the Word of God Is it a burden to you to medirate upon God and Christ and things above It is all for want of love to Christ for Love makes hard Things easie and heavy Labour to be light IX Doth any thing make you more like to God than to love Christ Do you not in this most resemble God Do you believe in Christ So doth not God Do you trust in Christ for Life and Salvation So doth not God Do you obey the commands of Christ God hath no superiour to command him But do you love Christ So doth God Joh. 3.35 The father loveth the son and hath given all things into his hands Joh. 5.20 X. Might you return to God and Christ like for like in any thing but in Love Or in any thing carry it towards God as God doth towards you If God be angry with you might you be angry with God If God withdraw comfort from you might you with-hold Duty from God If he rebuke you might you rebuke him If he be displeased with you might you be displeased with him Would not all this be your sin and perversness of heart towards him But if he love you you may and ought to love him If he hath set his heart upon you your Duty is to set your heart on him XI Can you hope for Salvation by him without sincere affection to him Or who bids you hope for any such thing Can you have the face to expect such great things by through and from Christ as Pardon of all your Sins deliverance from Hell the happiness of Heaven and yet not love him Do you hope for eternal Life by Christ I know you do might not Christ then expect love from you when you expect Life by Christ As you would have Life by Christ let Christ have Love from you or else your expectation of Life will be disappointed and end in Death without end XII Dare you dye without love to Christ Dare you can you leave this World with a quiet mind if you love not Christ No surely except you dye as Blind as you were Born What think you when you come to be Sick and when you come to Dye will it not be a cut to thy Heart to think I have lived twenty forty years but I never loved Christ Now must I go to appear before him whom I never loved Why not love him while you live in health as well as wish you had loved him when health is gone and sickness come When Life is going as fast as Death is coming XIII Is not your Love Christs due Do you not owe it to him Is it not due to him by vertue of Creation Did not he give your Being to you By vertue of Redemption when you were worse than nothing did not he lay down his Soul his Life his Blood as a Price for your Ransom By vertue of Preservation hath not Christ kept you out of the Grave and Hell unto this day Justice would have hewn thee down and Wrath would have damned thee long ago and who hath procured a Reprieval for thee but Christ That thou art on this side the Torments of the Damned not past Praying and Hearing and Hoping is all through Christs procuring for thee longer time By vertue of Provision which Christ maketh for thee thou wouldst not have had a Rag to thy Back nor a Morsel for thy Mouth nor Sleep in thy Eyes if Christ had not bought and by Purchase procured for thee what thou hast Thy love is due to Christ by vertue of Command whereby thou art obliged and bound to give it to him and shalt be accounted a Transgressor and a great one
wrought by him It is your Duty but it is God's Gift it is your Act but it is God's Work Eph. 6.23 Peace be to the brethren and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only Peace is from God that is the God of Peace and Faith from him the Worker of it but Love is from God that is the God of Love Love to Christ must be had from God and Christ or you will never have it For this the Apostle prayed for others 2 Thess 3.5 And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ And you may be the more encouraged to ask for this because such a Petition is pleasing to God that you beg an heart to love his Son rather than for Riches and Honours and length of Life in this world as in that of Solomon's in asking for Wisdom 1 Kings 3.9 10. And in your praying be earnest for love to Christ more than for your Life for love to him will be to you everlasting Life and take that Promise and turn it into a Prayer and then most like to be effectual Deut. 30.6 And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul that thou mayst live VII Improve the Principle of self-love to the promoting of love to Jesus Christ and say Do not I love my self Have I not so much love to my own Soul as to wish it well for ever Would I have my self miserable and accursed for ever If I be sick do not I love my self so far as to desire health If in pain to desire ease If in want to seek supply And is there any way for me to procure good everlasting good but by Jesus Christ I might love my self to please my self in sinful delights to destroy my self and damn my self without loving of Christ But such Self-love at last will prove Self-hatred and is that the best love I have for my self Surely if I love not Christ I hate my self VIII Make use of the sense of natural and friendly Love to raise in thee Love to Jesus Christ Thou hast some experience of the sweetness and delight there is in loving of a Friend Oh then what will be the delight of love to Christ Thou feelest what it is to love thy Parents to love thy Children thy Wife thy Husband if thou meetest with troubles Love doth make them light Is there so much sweetness in the love of a Creature and will there not be much more in the love of the Saviour If the Streams be sweet is not the Fountain much more I have found comfort and pleasure in the love of Relations I will now try what is to be found in love to Christ the Lord. IX Improve the vanity and vexation of the Creature and all thy disappointments and afflictions to raise and promote in thee the love of Christ Thou hast let out thy love upon the world how hath it proved and what hath it afforded thee Hast thou not found it to be a wearisom empty world A world of Care and Grief and Pain Thou hast looked for Ease and behold Trouble for Content and behold Vexation for Satisfaction and behold Emptiness and is this a World to be loved more than Christ Is not it's Sweetness sowre It 's Mirth Sorrow It 's Riches poor Oh then I must love Christ or have nothing to love out Vanity and Deceit When by the Word this Love is not wrought God might effect it by the Rod. When thou wast deaf to all Instructions God can open thy Ear and Heart by some Affliction and shake thee over the grave if thereby he might shake the love of the World and Sin out of thy Heart and by threatning thee by sickness that thou shalt have no longer room in the World make room for the love of Christ in thy Heart and by threatning to separate thy Soul and Body he might part thy Soul and the love of sin By some sickness he brings thee to the brink of the Grave and bids thee look where thou must lodge and then to the borders of Hell and bids thee look where thou must lie if thou wilt not hearken to his Son He lays thee on thy weary Bed and shews thee a sight of another World and thy nearness to it and doth threaten a Divorce of Soul and Body that thou mightest be willing thy sin might be divorced from thy Soul that thy Soul might love and be married to his Son of which some have had such good experience that they can say This was healthful sickness recovering weakness The view of Death the means of Love and Life If I had not been sick I had not been well if God had not shewn me Death I had never seen Life If I had not been filled with these fears I had past my days without hope if I had not been brought into these straits I had never been set at liberty If I had not been poor I had never been rich if I had not been empty I had never been filled if I had not been driven to feed on husks I had never been feasted in my Father's House if I had not found bitterness in the love of the Creature I had never tasted the sweetness of the Love of Christ X. Improve all the mercies thou receivest from God and look upon them as Love-tokens sent to gain thy love Love-tokens often take our love and such silent Gifts are very Rhetorical The Cloaths upon thy back thy Meat and Drink thy Bed thy Health thy ease from Pain bespeak the Love of thy Heart for Christ By sin thou hast deserved thou shouldst have no Bread to put into thy mouth that Sleep should depart from thine Eyes thy Bed should be filled with Thorns thy Body with Diseases thy Conscience with Horrour thy Heart with Fears thy Soul with Sorrows thy Life with Bitterness but Christ hath bought good things for thee by his Blood and hath given them to thee from his Bounty and by all these he pleads with thee that thou wouldst not deny thy love to him that is so kind to thee Nay thy very being on God's Earth thy breathing in his Air that thy Body is above ground and thy Soul on this side Hell that thou art not silent among the dead nor crying out among the damned is a great Love-token indeed For Justice would have cut thee down long since Sin these 20 40 60 years hath cried to Heaven that thou may'st be pack'd to Hell Devils have long desired the day of thy death hoping it will prove the day of thy damnation but this hath been Christ's love to thee to beg for thee longer time even time unto this day but for how much longer he might ask on thy behalf is more than is known to thee or me or any man And is not love in Christ the
more is contained in these explicatory words than I am able to explain Heb. 8.10 God hath promised the pardon of sins Heb. 8.12 That he will justifie us Ezek. 36.25 and take away the old Heart and give a new one the hard and stony Heart and give a soft and fleshy which shall not be a fleshly Heart ver 26. to give his holy Spirit to help to quicken to guide to comfort you ver 27. To give persevering Grace Jer. 32.40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me If God neither turn away from his sincere People nor they from God their Perseverance is sure that neither shall be is secured by the Promise of God Now these Promises concern the Lovers of God and Christ and to them shall be performed Neh. 1.5 O Lord God of Heaven the great and terrible God that keepeth Covenant and Mercy for them that love him and observe his Commandments The same words in Dan. 9.4 there are promises to them that love God and Christ and there are promises for the performance of those promises to such Deut. 7.9 Know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments He did he doth but how long will he do so To a thousand Generations But what will he do to them that do hate him What Read and Tremble ye that are haters of God and Christ Ver. 10. And repayeth them that hate him to their face to dâ—stroy them He will not be slack to him that hateth him he will repay him to his face III. Predominant sincere love to Christ is an evidence of Gods special and peculiar Love to you How fain wouldst thou know that God doth love thee and Christ doth love thee Then thou saist thou shouldst not care though all the wicked in the World should hate thee and if I knew that God did love me it would resolve my Doubts expell my Fears lighten my Burdens sweeten my Mercies make me chearful under the Cross be a Cordial to me in Sickness and be Life to me in the Gates of Death Canst thou prove thou lovest Christ Then I can prove that both God and Christ do love thee for thy love to God and Christ is the fruit and effect of Gods and Christs love to thee God loveth first or thou hadst never loved at all God loveth us with a preventing Love never any prevented God and Christ in Love We love with a following Love Prov. 8.17 I love them that love me Joh. 14.21 He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him 23. Jesus answered and said unto him If a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him 1 Joh. 4.19 We love him because he first loved us And now what Spiritual Comfort What Heavenly Joy What Ravishing Delights might a Lover of Christ take in this That God and Christ is a Lover of him because his Love is such that is above all Expression beyond all Conception above all Comparison Eph. 3.18 May be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height 19. And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge The properties of this Love will make your Joy to be abundant 1. Christ loveth his Lovers with a free Love ye had motives to love Christ his Beauty his Wisdom his Fulness The Necessity ye had of him the Good ye expected by him were attractives of your Love to him but what was in you to move Christ to Love you when ye were Deformed Polluted Guilty Condemned Poor full of running Sores and wallowing in your Blood Ezek. 16.6 And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live yea I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live 8. Now when I passed by thee and looked upon thee behold thy time which might have been the time of loathing was the time of love As he hath Mercy because he will have Mercy so he Loves because he will Love Deut. 7.7 The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because ye were more in number than any people 8. But because the Lord loved you 2. Christ loveth his Lovers with a pure Love The Love of most is Selfish-love loving others for their own ends and indeed there was something of Self in your loving of Christ that ye might be Pardoned by him and Justified and Saved by him But what can Christ gain by loving of you What advantage redounds to him Or what profit hath he thereby 3. Christ loveth his Lovers with an unparallel'd matchless Love Great was the Love of Jonathan and David great is the Love of tender Parents to their Children but Christs is greater than all Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this That a man lay down his life for his friends 4. Christ loveth his Lovers with a constant abiding Love for it is eternal and unchangeable The Love of Creatures is sickle and waveringlove sometimes sades and fails while they live or dyeth with them when they dye or when we dye their Love to us doth also dye At least they love us not as in that relation for Death hath null'd that relation But the Love of Christ is without end he doth Live for ever and he will Love for ever and neither our Love to him nor his to us doth dye when we do dye but after Death we love him more than ever and he doth manifest his Love to us more than ever Jer. 31.3 I have loved thee with an everlasting love IV. Christ makes the hearts of his Lovers the seat and place of his special Residence Lovers love to dwell together and Christ hath prepared Mansions for us that we might dwell with him hereafter but Christ through the greatness of his Love being impatient of so long absence till we come to be present with him in Heaven makes our Hearts a Mansion for himself that he might dwell with us on Earth till we are lodged with him in Glory Joh. 14.23 Jesus answered and said unto him If a man love me he will keep my words and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Oh blessed Change When thou lovedst not Christ Satan the World and reigning Sin had their abode in thee These were the Lodgers in thy Heart that had the best Room and chiefest Seat in thine Affections While thou wast in the World and not in Christ the World was in thee and noâ— Christ While thou wast in thy Sin thy Sin was in thee as Lord and Ruler but now thou
hast changed thy Love thou hast changed not only the Lodgers but the Governours and Rulers of thine Heart for now the Father is come and the Son is come and the Holy Ghost is come and have taken up their abode in thee Will God dwell in Hearts of Clay Yes if Love to him dwell there V. Christ will manifest himself unto his Lovers He will discover his Love and that in the worst condition ye can be in While ye are in Prosperity many may manifest much Love unto you but when ye are afflicted distressed and stand most in need of their Help and Love will with-hold it from you Job 19.13 He hath put my brethren far from me and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me 14. My kinsfolk have failed and my familiar friends have forgotten me 15. They that dwell in my house and my maids count◠me for a stranger I am an alien in their sight 16. I called my servant but he gave me no answer I entreated him with my mouth 17. My breath is strange to my wife though I entreated for the childrens sake of mine own body 19. All my inward friends abhorred me and they whom I loved are turned against me But Christ that dwells in the Hearts of his Lovers is to them a Bosom friend that he makes the time of their greatest Troubles and Distresses to be the time of the discoveries and manifestations of his love Isa 63.9 In all their afflictions he was afflicted and the Angel of his presence saved them in his love and in his pity he redeemed them and he bare them and carried them all the days of old And if he withdraw and for a time conceal his love it is to make them more earnest in seeking after him and for fuller discoveries of his love to them afterwards Cant. 3.1 2 3. VI. All things shall work together for the good of them that love God and Jesus Christ Nothing shall befall them but first or last shall further them in their way to Heaven and tend to their advantage Many things seem to be against you but all shall work for you If you be in Prison your Heart shall be the more enlarged If you lose the things of the World your Heart shall be the more set on the things of Heaven If you be sick and weakly it shall quicken you and stir you up to make more haste to get ripe for Heaven If you be Poor in the World it shall further your Riches in Grace Whatever be the Cross it shall increase the weight of your Crown Rom. 8.28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose VII Sincere love to Christ is a mighty help against Apostacy If a man be a Professor and a Lover of the World a Professor and a Lover of Pleasure of his own Ease and Life more than of Christ when these come in danger to keep them he parts with Christ but he that loveth Christ above all will part with all to cleave to Christ Love to Christ hath carried his people through great difficulties and dangers out of love to Christ they have contemned the Allurements and laughed at the Affrightments of this World have gone through Shame and Reproach endured Stripes and Imprisonments Bonds and Bondage and Death it self Rom. 8.35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ Whether it be understood Actively or Passively of the love wherewith we love Christ or the love whereby we are beloved by Christ is not material for concerning both we might ask Shall Tribulation or Distress or Persecution or Famine or Nakedness or Peril or Sword 37. Nay in all these things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we over-overcome we are more than conquerors through him that loved us 38. For I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come 39. Nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. If any leave Christ it is for want of love for so far as love prevails we shall in greatest Troubles and Sufferings for him cleave unto him VIII The Lovers of Christ shall be always under his Eye for good He will be looking upon them in order to the shewing of Mercy unto them He looks upon the Lovers of the World and Sin with an Eye of Observation and Indignation he looks and takes notice of their sinful love he looks and is angry with them for such love but he looks upon his Lovers with an Eye of Compassion to pity and to tender them Psal 119.132 Look thou upon me and be merciful unto me as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name God useth to do so it is his way his manner and custom of dealing so with such as love him it is not a strange thing to God nor a thing that he doth but now and then but it is his daily custom to look upon his Lovers and shew them Mercy Psal 145.20 The Lord preserveth all them that love him but the wicked that do not love him will he destroy IX The Lovers of Christ have great preparations made by God himself for their entertainment in the other World For all the Lovers of the World and Sin and Vanity is Wrath and Hell prepared but for the Lovers of Christ such things as do transcend the most refined Wit to conceive the most eloquent Tongue to express or the ablest Pen to describe 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him 1. The Eye of Man hath seen admirable things Coasts of Pearl Golden Mines stately Monuments Kingly Palaces costly Raiments but never Eye hath seen such things as God hath prepared for them that love him 2. The Ear hath heard of more than the Eye hath seen and many hear of the joys of Heaven whose Eyes shall never see them 3. The Heart of Man can conceive more than the Eye hath seen or the Ear hath heard it can imagine all Pebles to be Pearls all the Earth to be a silver Heap the Sea to be liquid Gold the Air transparent Chrystal every Star to be a Sun And if all these were so they would be but as a Sand to a Mountain a Beam to the Sun a Drop to the Ocean a Grain to a Golden Mine compared with the things that are prepared for such as love God and Christ for those things are so great they cannot be measured so many they cannot be numbred so precious they cannot be valued so long and lasting they will never be ended they exceed our Faith they are beyond our Hope above our Desires they might be possessed hereafter but they cannot be comprehended here because For Sublimity they are Incomprehensible for Transcendency
so or else ye have basely dissembled both with God and this Congregation Many of you that did not love the Lord Jesus Christ now do or ye have been wretched Hypocrites while ye have been Hearers of these Sermons for what did ye mean by all those Bills that ye did give in day after day ten or twenty in a day acknowledging your former Sin till now in loving other things and not Christ Why did ye say Ye never were convinced of the necessity of loving Christ before I beseech you Why have ye so many and so often with such earnest Requests even for Jesus sake and as we had any love for your Souls desire Me and the Congregation to beg with Importunity that God would give you such an Heart now that ye might love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity above all with a Superlative Love with a Predominant Love with all your Heart and with all your Soul that you might not be Anathema when Maranatha Were not these your own Words Did not the Congregation hear them Read When I reviewed your Papers at Home did not I sind these Words and such like whereby ye did express the former Condition and the present Desires of your Souls Tell me then were ye in good earnest or did ye jest with God and Men in desiring Prayers that ye might so love the Lord Jesus If so repent of your Hypocrisie lament your double Dealings bitterly bewail such cursed Dissemblings If ye were in earnest and your Hearts as well as your Hands did guide your Pens in Writing such Desires and ye have indeed changed your Love or rather God hath turned your Love from Sin unto his Son from the World unto himself I shall have cause to bless God that I Preached and ye heard what was spoken of this subject then are ye my Joy and Crown and Rejoycing both now and at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ And to you that have this love wrought in your Hearts so lately and to all the rest that had like love to him before I wish all the Blessings that are contained in that Prayer of the Apostle with which he concludeth his Epistle and I this subject Eph. 6.24 Grace be with all them that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity Amen The BLESSING to the Lovers of CHRIST THE Psalm being Sung all the People as is usual stood up I kept my Seat longer than ordinarily I was wont which caused their Eyes to be the more towards me Then I stood up and said Why stand ye gazing Why are your Eyes so intent upon me What can I say more What more do ye expect The Blessing What! All of you What! Whether ye love Christ or no Alas If God Curse how can I Bless I have day after day set Life and Death a Blessing and a Curse before you and must it not be with you according to your own Choice If ye will be blest indeed ye must love Christ if ye will not love Christ the Curse and not a Blessing waiteth for you though ye here wait for the Blessing If ye would not go without the pronouncing of the Blessing from hence to your Homes love Christ oh love Christ Oh at last be perswaded to love Christ that ye might not go from Christs Bar to the Flames of Hell without his Blessing for ever I have done for this time and Text when I have said the Words of my Text If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha and let all the People that dare least they should wish a Curse upon themselves say Amen And for you that have set your Hearts on Christ above all I beg from the Father of Mercies that Grace might be with all them that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and let all the People say Amen What lively Countenances what Affections what Tears and Cryings with the Spirits working were caused do not expect that I should tell FINIS Books Printed for and Sold by Thomas Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey THere is now in the Press and will suddenly be Published An Exposition of the Assemblies Shorter Catechism with Practical Inferences from each Question By John Flavell Minister of the Gospel Charnock's Works in Two Vol. Fol. Rushworth's Historical Collections 3d Part never before Printed containing the Principal Matters which happened from the Meeting of the Parliament 1640. to the end of the Parliament 1644. in 2 Vol. Fol. Geography Rectified or Description of all the World in all its Kingdoms Provinces Countreys c. Also Government Commodities Coins Weights c. Illustrated with about 80 Maps By Robert Morden 4 to The Morning Exercise at Cripplegate or several Cases of Conscience Resolved by sundry Ministers In 4 to A Supplement to the Morning Exercise at Cripplegate 8vo Specculum Theologiae in Christo Or a view of some Divine Truths which are either Practically Exemplified in Jesus Christ set forth in the Gospel or may be reasonably reduced from thence 8vo Christus in Corde Or the Mystical Union between Christ and Believers Precious Faith considered in its Nature Workings and Growth These three by Edward Polhill of Barwash in Essex Esq
to them that have no pity to themselves in that they will have no love to Christ Dost not thou know MARANATHA the Lord will come And art thou not sure that then they will be ANATHEMA under a bitter and an eternal Curse Dost thou see how the Devil turned mens hearts from their Lord-Creator and how he keeps their love from their Lord-Redeemer for which the Devil insults over them and wilt not thou be grieved for them Blessed Jesus I am ready to blame them because they love not thee and I do blame my self for want of grief in me for want of love to thee Methinks that Godly Parents should mourn because they have a Child or Children that love not Jesus Christ and say What! they love us but not the Lord What pleasure can we take in their love to us when they have none to Christ Methinks the Children that have love to Christ should weep and bitterly lament to be loved by their Parents with a greater love than they have for Christ and the Wife that is a Lover of Christ should be filled with sorrow that hath one so near that is so far from loving of the only Saviour and say Alas alas MARANATHA and then my Child my Father Mother Husband will be ANATHEMA Weep then weep weep abundantly for any in your House among your Relations Friends Acquaintance and Neighbours that are not Lovers of Christ Oh that your Heads were Waters and your Eyes Fountains of Tears that ye may Weep Day and Night for these that Love not the Lord Jesus How can ye go with dry Eyes without Tears trickling down your Cheeks one hasting to overtake the other when ye behold Non-Lovers of Christ and consider next ANATHEMA MARANATHA Oh! that ye had in some Wilderness a Lodging place of Wayfaring-men or some retired corner in your House that ye may leave your worldly Business for a while and go from them to wash your Faces in your Tears that your dear Relations love not that Lord of yours that is dearer to you than they are or all this World besides Take on most bitterly when ye think how by them your dearest Lord is undervalued and their precious Souls are endangered by their not loving of him for they must be ANATHEMA when MARANATHA Alas poor Loveless Souls The Lord will come will surely quickly come and then they will be miserable surely then they will be miserable Souls indeed But is this enough for you O ye Non-Lovers of Christ that others do lament your woful case while ye your selves do spend your Time and waste your Days in sinful Love and carnal Delights and sensual Joy Were ye convinced of your present Sin and did ye see your future approaching Misery could ye be so full of Mirth upon the very Borders of the place where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth Could ye Laugh and Sing so near the bottomless Pit where your Laughing shall be turned into Mourning and your Mirth into everlasting Sorrow Were ye the Men that had your Eyes opened would ye not every one of you bitterly bewail your present danger in the sense and apprehension of your speedy and eternal Woe and say Alas what shall I do when Sickness shall come and Death shall come and the Lord himself shall come when I have no love for him Wo is me How shall I dye and after Death appear at his Tribunal whom I never loved O my poor departing Soul now as full of Terror as empty of the love of Christ what will become of thee when thou steppest out of Time into Eternity O dreadful dreadful this is exceeding dreadful to leave all that I did ever love and go to be judged by him whom I did Woe to me that I did never love I did love my Wise and Children but not Christ and now I must leave them whom I did so much love and receive my Doom from him whom I did so much hate I did love my Pleasures and my sensual Delights and now there is an end of them and now I must go unto those Miseries Woes and Torments that shall never never end Wo is me that now I am a dying man and shortly alas a day or two more an hour or two more so shortly for want of love to Christ and I must be a Damned man When I waâ— well and loved not Christ well and loved not Christ when I thought I was well without love to Christ I thought my Pleasures were sweet my Riches my Happiness and my beloved Relations my Joy and I thought my love was rightly placed upon them but now upon this Dying-Bed when I look backwards upon time now past and forwards into Eternity that never will be past I see I find the remembrance of them doth torment my departing Soul they are as bitter as Gall for the more I loved them heretofore the more they do torment me now Now Wo is me They will for ever Oh what did I mean to give that love to them which I should have given unto Christ Had I loved him as I loved them my love to him would have been as great a Comfort to me on this Dying-Bed as the love of them is now a Terror to me but I did not O cursed Catiff that I did not And now the Lord by Death is come to me and I after Death must go to him to be Judged by him and in my Sentence I shall hear ANATHEMA Depart thou Cursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels In that I never loved Christ I Sinned like the Devil and in my Sentence for that Sin I must be Condemned and in Hell suffer with and as the Devil But yet all this may be prevented may it And will ye not endeavour it How By calling off your love from other things and placing it predominantly upon the Lord Jesus By Faith in him and Love unto him the Curse might be escaped and the Blessing obtained at his coming and had ye rather be Damned than love Christ Indeed Is your Enmity so much to him that ye had rather be miserable for ever than place your Affections upon him Are ye not yet willing to forsake your Old Love and get New Love to Christ Can ye be willing to be miserable and pained and tormented in extremity to all Eternity I know ye cannot And yet I know whether ye be willing or unwilling without love to Christ miserable you must be Oh that ye did clearly see stedfastly believe and distinctly apprehend the transcendent Excellency the amiable Beauty the invaluable Worth of this Lord Jesus that ye might prize him more than Gold and Pearls and costly Jewels and love him more than all How is it when ye hear those on Earth that love him most so much complain of the smalness of their love to him that ye do not reflect upon your selves and say What Sinners then are we that have no love at all to him and yet are
Thou art not come to offer us any terms of Mercy or to make any Propositions of Peace betwixt God and us and therefore our recovery is impossible and therefore being fallen do lie down in utter despair of any communication of the Benefits of thy Death and Sufferings unto us and having no hope of merciful Redemption by Thee we neither have nor will nor can have any love unto Thee 2. The same is now the condition of Damned Souls as that of Damned Devils Men on Earth might have love to Christ but in Hell they cannot for on earth Christ had to do with them and they with Christ and Mercy had to do with them and Grace and Patience had to do with them but when once in Hell Christ hath done with them and the Spirit hath done with them Grace Mercy and Patience of God hath done with them no offer of Grace no tender of Peace and Reconciliation no overtures of Mercy more to all Eternity But now Wrath hath to do with them and vindictive punishing Justice hath to do with them and they are fallen into the hands of the Living God and being past all possibility of benefit and advantage by Christ they cannot love him but have more rooted hatred to him than ever By the way let me note That ye should with fear and trembling diligently labour fervently pray speedily repent and turn from sin sincerely believe that ye might not at death be doom'd down to Hell because by damn'd Souls Christ cannot be loved 3. But the case is otherwise with men on earth with the worst of you in this Congregation this day The Swearer might yet have benefit Pardon by Christ the vilest the greatest sinner that stands here before God this day may yet be saved if he will hearken to the Voice of Mercy to the Commands and Invitations of the only Saviour to the Calls of Grace and answer to those Calls Christ hath dyed for you for every one of you so far that Salvation yet is possible to you and God reconcilable to you and Christ and his Benefits upon the conditions of the Gospel communicable to you For who dare say there is no difference between the state of the damned in Hell and the worst of men upon earth or that there is no more hope or possibility of Salvation by Christ for the greatest sinners upon the earth than of the Devils themselves or that God is no more reconcilable and the Benefits of Christ no more communicable to them than to these while to sinners on earth Commands are given to repent and believe and turn to God in hopes of Mercy and Conditional Promises of Life and a conditional Grant of Pardon is given to them which is not the case of Devils or damned Souls and therefore we Study in hope and Pray in hope and Preach in hope of your Conversion and Salvation when there is no hope of them that are gone down to death and utter and eternal darkness Methinks this considered should win thy Love to Christ and cause thee to break forth into such Language as this and say O my Soul as yet through the Mercy and Patience of God to thee there is a wide difference betwixt thy state and the state of damned souls for tho thou hitherto hast not loved Christ which is thy hainous sin yet thou mayest which is God's great Mercy to thee For tho now thou art without Christ which is thy misery yet thou mightest have Christ which will be thy remedy when the Damned love not Christ nor can love him for they have not Christ nor can have him Thou art yet in the land of hope and under the means of hope and thy remedy is at hand if by thy wilful refusals of recovering Grace thou dost not dash this hope when those poor wretched Souls that are passed out of Time into Eternity from Earth to Hell from Hearing in this world to Howling in the next are now and there Christless and because now and there Christless are therefore there now and for ever hopeless and remediless O then my Soul look towards this Christ that thou mayest have Behold This Christ and all his Benefits upon Gospel-Conditions are yet communicable unto thee for thine Everlasting Good Dost thou not hear the Offers of Pardon Peace and Glory made to thee in his name Dost thou not perceive him yet standing at thy door and knocking crying calling there Open to me and I will save thee Dost thou not feel his Spirit yet striving with thee Dost thou not see Mercy hath not yet delivered thee into the hands of Justice and to God's fiery Indignation Here thou standest while others are lying rowling in a Lake of burning Brimstone Doth not his Grace still woo thee for thy Love Doth not his Goodness still intreat thee and his Patience still wait upon thee If thou wilt be holy yet thou mayest if thou wilt have Mercy Mercy thou mayest have and if thou wilt have the fruit and benefits of Christ's Death as yet it is not too late Is not this enough to melt an heart of stone To break an heart as hard as adamant To dissolve thee into tears to kindle and inflame thy love And with admiration cause thee to cry out and say Is this thy Mercy Lord to me to me to me that have so long abused thy Grace despised thy Mercy and slighted thy Love To me that have lived so long and never loved thee To me that might have been damned before this day and so have been shut up under an impossibility of Salvation by thy Blood and bloody Sufferings Yea have had the hatred of my heart fixed upon thee and Love never bent towards thee But forasmuch as thou art pleased to this day to follow me with thy Calls of Mercy with the Entreaties of thy Grace and still the voice of Love is sounding in my ears and thou sayest to me If thou wilt love me I will pardon thee if thou at last wilt give me thy heart I will be thy Saviour it is long that I have waited but if now thou wilt hearken and consent all shall be thine own my Righteousness shall be thine my Merits shall be thine my Spirit shall be thine and Heaven shall be thine O Blessed Lord I cannot withstand this pleading Love I can no longer gainsay this expostulating Grace I have but now I cannot I have but now I will not Thou sayest that Thou wilt yet be mine and the Blessings of the Covenant may yet be mine and Heaven it self may yet be mine Dearest Lord thou hast won my heart thou hast got my Love and lo I give it all to thee I place it all upon thee SECT VI. The Fifth Requisite of Love to Christ FIfthly This Love to Christ includes highest Valuation of him greatest estimation which is appretiating Love for can we love him and not prize him Or can we love him most and not prize him most Or do you use to despise
and work in being wise in the reproved sense for my self I should be found an egregious Fool. He that preacheth so that no man can rationally contemn him and yet every man understand him and thereby wins Souls to set their love on Christ is a Wiseman and a Learned Preacher when he that preacheth so that few or none of the meaner Capacities which are the greater number can understand him any further than to understand they do not understand him and so the People perish for want of knowledge under the sound of profoundest knowledge shall have little thanks from such People at the Judgment-day and what Reward he shall have from Christ when he comes to take an account of Ministers for preaching and People for hearing let him take into his serious thoughts and learn of Learned Paul who hath left a pattern of the wisest Preaching 2 Cor. 4.5 For we preach not our selves but Christ Jesus the Lord and our selves your servants for Jesus sake lest not preaching Jesus the Lord but himself as if he were more than a Servant and Jesus not Lord he find when Preaching and Hearing are ended and cease Maran-atha and Anathema be joined together VIII Must they be cursed that love not Christ then know that outward Prosperity and this Curse are consistent A man might be a prospering man in this World and cursed in this World and in the World to come Do you see many whose Lives declare they have no sincere love to Christ in their Hearts thrive and abound in outward Enjoyments not love Christ and yet are strong not love Christ and yet are rich not love Christ and yet be in honour What then Might not a man in health be a cursed man nay the more strength he hath the more able he is to do the Devil Service and so his strength is a curse unto him The more he enjoyeth of the World the more he hath to love and the more he loves it and so his Enjoyments are a curse unto him when they keep him from placing his love upon Jesus Christ Have you not read that mens Blessings are cursed Mal. 2.2 If ye will not hear and if ye will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name saith the Lord of hosts I will even send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessings yea I have cursed them already because ye do not lay it to heart God threatens to curse wicked mens Blessings I will curse your blessings I will that is not to do now I have cursed them already Many are apt to call the proud happy Mal. 3.15 The Rich though bad are thought by many to be blessed a great mistake all men might see their outward Blessings but all have not eyes to behold the inward Curses that lie under those outward Blessings Is it not a Curse to have Riches without Grace to have our Portion and Blessings and all in this Life to prosper in the World and to be every moment in danger of Hell do you look upon it to be such happiness to have all for the Body and nothing for the Soul to have Earth and nothing of Heaven and nothing to shew for them You read of some that have their Portion in this life on Earth Psal 17.14 and you might read that their Portion on Earth is a cursed Portion Job 24.18 and was it not so with the Rich man spoken of in the Gospel that on Earth had his purple robes and fine linen and sumptuous costly dishes every day O happy man but stay till you hear the end He died and whither then to Hell Where is now your happy man and what is his condition there what there he finds more pain than on Earth pleasure there he feels more torment and terror than all his days on Earth had pleasure and delight Luk. 16.25 But Abraham said Son remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Remember that vexeth not easeth in thy life-time but that was but for the time of life which then was short and sweet but this Life where now I am more properly called Death than Life is long and bitter receivest thy good things but amongst them all hadst not a good God a good Conscience nor one good Fruit of the Spirit no not so much as love to Christ but now he is comforted and thou art tormented he is blessed and thou art cursed he is happy and thou art miserable Behold the change the world 's blessed man is now the cursed man and he that was the miserable man in the esteem of the World is now the blessed man Then do not judge of Blessedness or Misery by the prosperity or poverty of this World but by the graces of the Spirit or want of them in your hearts particularly by your love or want of love to Jesus Christ For it is not said Let him that is not rich but let him that loves not Christ be Anathema Maran-atha IX Must all that love not Christ be cursed then tremble at the thoughts of the great number that shall be cursed There are but few comparatively that have sincere Love to Christ therefore but few comparatively that shall be blessed by entring into Eternal blessed life Mat. 7.13 Enter in at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat 14. Be cause strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it Many for want of Love to Christ will not bear his Cross but all that want this love Finally shall bear his Curse The number of the Curse-bearers and Non-lovers of Christ shall be an equal number so many and no more Consider then what multitudes there are that love other things more than Christ and see what vast numbers of men shall be accursed 1. How many are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of Christ 2 Tim. 3.4 2. How many are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lovers of money more than lovers of Christ They prize their Silver above the Saviour and part with him to keep that Luke 16.14 2 Tim. 3.2 3. How many are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lovers of honours more than lovers of Christ John 5.42 44 and and 12 43. 4. How many are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lovers of themselves more than lovers of Christ 2 Tim. 3.2 And indeed sinful self-love is the very heart and core of the carnal man and the great Idol of all unconverted sinners Principles of selfishness are the rise of all their actions and self is the end and scope at which they aim in all they do and so set up self in the room of God and Christ and love carnal self when they should love Christ and so shall lye under the Curse when they would have a Blessing Few love
of Souls which Christ died to procure Will God be reconciled to that man that doth not love him Or can that man that loves not him be reconciled unto God Or doth not Reconciliation without Renewals of Love sound like a contradiction Or shall Remission and Salvation be vouchsafed to them that never love him Behold then the greatness of this sin in its thwarting the wonderful Undertakings of Christ for man's Redemption III. Not love Christ What is this but an opposing and withstanding all the Operations of the Spirit For do not all tend to this That you should Love the Lord Jesus What do all Convictions tend to in shewing thee thy lost estate the vanity of the world the emptiness of the creature the impossibility of Salvation by any other but that thou mightest look after him and make him the Object of thy Love What meaneth the Illumination of the Spirit in enlightning of thy mind in the knowledge of Christ to see and discern the Fulness and Sufficiency of Christ the Fitness and Suitableness of Christ the Freeness and the Willingness of Christ but that thou shouldst fix thy Love upon him What do all the Persuasions Strivings and Wooings of the Spirit-tend to but Love to Christ Was ever any more solicitous for the love of another than the Spirit hath been that Christ might have thine And shall all and thine only Answer be I cannot love him I will not love him No Why not Canst thou better place thy Love Canst thou find in Heaven or Earth a more suitable Object Yet art thou resolved to give no other answer but that in Jer. 2.25 I have loved strangers and after them will I go I have loved the world and I will love it I have loved my pleasures and I will love them I have loved my sin and so I will still Why so resolved poor sinner Why so resolute Should not the world be a stranger to thee and thou to the world Should not sin be a stranger to thee and thou to sin What though I have loved these strangers and after them my heart and love shall go Indeed then let all men judge God and Angels judge what an opposer thou art to all the Workings of the Spirit to the contrary IV. Not love Jesus What is this but fearful sinning against the most gracious Attributes of God 1. Was it not love in God to give his Son to be a Saviour And wilt thou sin against this Love in not loving him that by Love was given for thee Was it not so infinite so great so wonderful that no mortal man can comprehend it John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son Is it not such manifest love that all the Devils in Hell cannot deny it to be love 1 John 4.9 In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him Was it not preventing Love in God to give his Son for thee before thou gavest or couldst give thy love to him 1 John 4.10 Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins And is it not a great sin against such great love and a manifest sin against such manifest love not to love him with a following love that so far loved thee with a preventing love 2. Was it not Infinite Wisdom in God to find out such a way that Justice might be fully satisfied and free Mercy might be richly manifested That sin might be punished to the uttermost and yet the sinner saved to the uttermost Sin punished and the sinner pardoned If all the Angels in Heaven that excel in Wisdom and Knowledge had been called to Councel they could never have thought of this way for fallen man's recovery which is the product of the Infinite Wisdom of God and by the Church made known to Angels Eph. 3.10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God What greater folly then can there be than to sin against such Wisdom 3. Was it not Goodness in God to accept of Christ's Sufferings for thy Sinnings Of Christ's Death instead of thy Damnation if thou wouldst believe on him and love him And wilt thou slight this Goodness by withholding thy love from him 4. Was it not patience in God to wait so long for thy Love Might he not have damned thee for thy first refusal And have taken thy first denial for thy final answer And have scorned thy love after thou hadst so long given it to the world and sin and denied it unto his Son And when in thy wicked heart thou hadst once said Thou wilt not love him God in his righteous judgment might have said I have thine answer and for this Thou shalt not love him If God had been thus quick and short with thee who hast been so slow to love his Son what a deplorable condition would thy Soul have been in this day and to all Eternity But if God hath waited so many years and doth still wait if perhaps thou wilt change thy mind return unto thy wits and give a wiser answer Wilt thou still abuse his Patience by persisting in the denial of thy love to Christ Take heed lest his Patience towards thee should end before thy Love to Christ begin for then when thy Punishment for not loving of him doth once begin it shall never end The longest Patience turned into Wrath thou shalt find the longest and the hottest Wrath and most fiery Indignation V. Not love Jesus What is this but an utter subverting of the whole design of the Gospel and refusing life and salvation by the Covenant of Grace God gave to innocent man a Law and Covenant of Works but he quickly transgressed that Law and thereby by that Covenant Happiness became impossible to man After that God gave a Law and Covenant of Grace to fallen man and established the same in the Blood of his Son and will you also refuse Life and Happiness by going on in your sin of not loving Christ For hereby 1. The Conditions of the Gospel are Neglected 2. The Threatnings of the Gospel are Slighted 3. The Commands of the Gospel are Disobeyed 4. The Promises of the Gospel are Undervalued 1. The Conditions of the Gospel and Covenant of Grace are neglected The great Article the Sum and Summary whereof is I will be your God and ye shall be my people Heb. 8.10 I will love you and you shall love me my heart shall be towards you and your heart shall be towards me I will love none like you and you shall love none like me How is this done Can you love him while you do not love him Hath God and Christ your hearts while the world and sin have your hearts 2 Cor. 6.18 I will be a father unto you and ye
heart will be also Mat. 6.20 21. 2. Do you love Christ more than other things when your labour is more for other things than for Christ Did you ever take that pains that care to get an Interest in Christ as you have done for the Riches of this Life If you had might you not have had him whereas now you are without him You Sweat for the World you are Cold in your Praying for Christ you lay out your strength in working for the World you are sloathful in endeavouring after Christ you are lively upon the Exchange quick in your Counting-House with might and main you act in your Shop but dull in your Closet upon your Knees if you at any time are there so imployed Is this your love to Christ more than to other things Or 3. When your care is more to keep other things than that Christ you conceit you love Let Christ go to keep your outward Possessions and yet say you love Christ more who do you think will believe what you say Will not a man that loveth his Child more than his Gold and all his Goods if his House were on Fire lose all to save his Child So would you for Christ if you loved him more than all IV. Do you love Christ and never grieve nor groan nor repent for the Sin whereby you have dishonoured him Can there be love to any person without grieving for the unkindness that you have done unto him Doth a Child love as a Child that is not grieved because he did offend his Father If your Heart did burn in Love would not your Eyes flow with Tears If the fire of Love were kindled in your Breast would not the waters of Sorrow run down your Cheeks and make thee say Oh! What have I done that I so long have slighted this loving Lord Oh! What did I mean to stop mine Ears against his Calls of Love and Mercy That I let him stand without Door when the World and Satan were admitted in Did my Lord suffer for my Sins should I then have sinned thus against my suffering Lord Was he Nailed to the Tree for my sake and must I yet wound him more Oh! That I could not behold my bleeding Lord without a weeping Eye I am grieved dear Saviour I am grieved to remember how I slighted thee and trampled thy Royal Commands under my feet O Lord I blush and am ashamed that I did spurn against such tender Bowels that I did undervalue such invaluable Love and did prefer the Dung of this World before such an incomaprable Saviour But you can daily sin and your Soul not sigh nor sob nor grieve nor groan You can sin and rejoyce at the thoughts of it Jer. 11.15 When thou dost evil then thou rejoycest Thou canst sin and make a sport at it like a fool Prov. 14.9 Fools make a mock at sin Oh thou Loveless Sinner Did Christ bleed for Sin and dost thou laugh at it Was Christ serious and his Soul sorrowful even to the Death for sin and dost thou make a sport of it Hast thou a Sea of Sin and not a drop of Sorrow for it Surely thou art the man that hast not one Dram of sincere love to Jesus Christ V. Dost thou love Christ and live without communion with him And when he is absent from thy Soul art never troubled at it Doth not Love desire sweet converse and familiar entercourse with the person that is the object of thy Love Can Lovers be long asunder and not desire a meeting Canst thou account the presence of the beloved object a burden to thee Or is not his absence really so Dost thou think that he doth love thee that is weary of thy company or never desirous of it Or shuns the place where thou dost wont to be If indeed thou lovest Christ thou couldst be content to be without any thing than without him Thou couldst better be without thy health than without Christ without thy dearest friend next to Christ than without Christ that is to thee the dearest of all if thou dost love him Without thy Meat and Drink even thy necessary Food than without Christ How is it then that thou canst take up contentedly without Praying and without Hearing or with these without Christ in them Is it not for want of Love Lovers have their fainting Fits ready to faint and dye away when the object cannot be enjoyed Cant. 2.5 Stay me with flagons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love Cant. 3.1 By night on any bed I sought him whom my Soul loveth I sought him but I found him not 2. I will rise now and go about the City in the streets and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth I sought him but I found him not 3. The watchmen that go about the city found me To whom I said Saw ye him whom my soul loveth 4. It was but a little that I passed from them but I found him whom my soul loveth I held him and would not let him go The Soul in love with Christ is restless in his absence and never leaves seeking till it find him and having found him holds him fast by Faith and Love and will not let him go The Soul that loves doth long doth thirst doth breathe and pant after the beloved object for what is desire but love in motion as love is desire at rest And though a gracious heart finds complacency and rest in love to Christ yet if Christ be not enjoyed Love cannot rest but moveth in desiring of him like David Psal 42.1 As the hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul after God 2. My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God And is early and earnest in seeking after him and every full condition to him is empty and every fruitful state to him is barreh and he seeth weakness and disgrace in all worldly Strength and Honour till he is filled and made fruitful by the enjoyment of Christ and doth see his Power and his Glory in his Ordinances Psal 63.1 O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is 2. To see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary VI. Do you love Christ and yet hate what he doth love Doth not true love make you love such as are beloved by him whom you do love Do you love Christ and hate his Word Did not David that loved God esteem his Word for the sweetness of it more than Honey Psal 119.103 And for the worth of it more than Gold Psal 119.72 Do you love Christ the Lord and take no delight in the Lords-day that is set apart for the commemoration of the wonderful work of mans Redemption and filling us with joy at the remembrance of his Resurrection Can you idle away this day
thereof Doth that Woman love her Husband that is gone a Journey and the tidings of his coming back is sorrowful News unto her The loving of the coming of Christ is a character of such as shall be crowned when he comes 2 Tim. 4.8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing And the Spouse that was inflamed with Love concludeth that Song of Love with this Request Cant. 8.14 Make haste my beloved and be thou like to a Roe or to a young Hart upon the mountains of spices And when in the last words save one verse of all the Book of God Christ promiseth his last and speedy coming the Church that loveth Christ catcheth the promise out of his mouth and turns it into a Prayer Rev. 22.20 He which testifieth these things saith Surely I come quickly Amen Even so come Lord Jesus But your heart saith rather Oh not so Lord Jesus great love in the mean time in your heart Yet one that truly loveth Christ might be sometimes filled with fear at the thoughts of Christs coming not because he doth not love and desire it but because he thinks he is not prepared for his coming lest Christ should find him unfitted and unready at his coming to enter with him into his glory but while he doth defer his coming the loving Soul is hasting in his preparations for it As a Woman that is told her Suiter is coming is greatly troubled not because he is coming but because she fears he might come before she he adorned as she doth desire What say ye now Sirs Do ye love Christ or do ye not Upon the laying these things to your heart by examination of your heart by them can ye upon mature deliberation say that ye find the love of Christ is there Then I shall shew in the close of this subject what cause of joy in God ye have what comfort for the present and what ground of expectation of better greater things for the future and for ever this love to Christ might be unto you But is this the case of all you in this Congregation I would to God it were Is love to Christ in every heart among you I wish it were but I fear it is not I hope some of you do love Christ but can I hope so of you all If I would never so fain I cannot while some are ignorant and some are prophane and too many are excluded by the former characters of Love from having for the present the Grace of Love Oh that I my self had more love to Christ that I might grieve more that blessed Jesus is not loved by more among you Oh that for Jesus sake I had more love to your Souls that I could weep abundantly over you that neither for Jesus sake nor your own have hitherto loved the Lord Jesus What then Have ye not Good God pardon it Will ye not Good God forbid it What shall I do Take it for granted that many of you do not love the Lord Jesus Yea I have proved that ye do not And oh how bitter are these thoughts to me that so many of you do not love the sweetest Jesus Shall I take it for granted that ye will not This were enough if my heart were not a stone to break it to pieces Shall I let you alone without this Love I dare not Shall I try to gain your Love not to me but to my Lord I am afraid ye will deny me Deny me In this that is of everlasting concernment to your Souls shall I take a denial and be gone At your first denial I will not be gone I know ye must have love unto him or be cursed by him how then can I acquiesce in a denial from you I know the Sinner doth not know what he saith when he doth deny to give Christ his love and therefore in hopes he might come to a better understanding of himself and what makes for his own eternal good I will proceed to the fourth Use by which I hope God will change some of your hearts and minds and win the love of some of you for Christ that all you that yet do not love him will not give this as your final answer That ye will not love him CHAP. X. Where the fourth Vse is an attempt of gaining Sinners consent to love Christ a serious wish for good success OH then be perswaded as ye love your Souls as ye would escape the Damnation of Hell as ye would obtain the Happiness of Heaven as ye would avoid the punishment of Devils as ye would dye in a good condition and after Death give a good account of the Wooings of Grace this day and not be Anathema when Maranatha be perswaded to set your hearts and love upon Jesus Christ for he must be loved by you or ye must be cursed by him Abraham Gen. 24. sent his Servant bound with an Oath to seek a Wife for his Son Isaac with this proviâ—o If the Womâ—n would nor be willing he should be clear from his Oath ver 1. to 10th The Servant prepares to go on this Message and Prays O Lord God of my master Abraham I pray thee send me good speed this day and shew kindness to my master Abraham ver 10.11 12. He meets with Rebekah by the Well of Water enquireth whose Daughter she was and whether there were room in her Fathers House for him to Lodge in he is invited by her Brother Laban saying Come in thou blessed of the Lord wherefore standest thou without for I have prepared the house and room for the camels to ver 32. There was Meat set before him to eat but he said I will not eat till I have told my errand And he was desired to speak on and he said I am Abrahams servant and the Lord hath blessed my master greatly and he is become great and he hath a Son and he hath given him all that he hath and my master made me swear saying Thou shalt go unto my fathers house and to my kindred and take a wife unto my son and now if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master tell me and if not tell me that I may turn to the right hand or to the left Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said The thing proceedeth from the Lord we cannot speak unto thee bad or good behold Rebekah is before thee take her and go and let her be thy masters sons wife as the Lord hath spoken And the servant brought forth Jewels of silver and Jewels of gold and raiment and gave them to Rebekah and they said to Rebekah Wilt thou go with this man and she said I will go O that I might have such success with Souls this Day for the Lord my Master hath sent me bound with the obligation of a Woe to seek the love and
strength of your love on Worldly things where the return of love is not only not actual but impossible But would ye love Christ ye should have more love from him than ye give unto him if ye strive with all your might to love him with the utmost love ye can Joh. 14.21 23. Prov. 8.17 3. Is it not great folly to love that which can never satisfie you and not him that would satisfie your Souls for ever Did these things ye love ever fill your desires Did they ever give you full content How should they When God hath made your Souls capable of the enjoyment of an infinite good how can that which is finite fill them It is only an infinite good and not finite that can satisfie your Souls though they be finite all the Creatures cannot fill one For the Will of Man though it be subjectively finite yet it is objectively infinite that is for to be easie and plain in such a place as this and in such matters as these before you is best because for you most profitable and edifying though the Will in it self and in its own Nature because a Creature is finite and limited yet it is capable of making choice of God for its chiefest Good that is infinite and unlimited And God hath put into the hearts of Men desires after good that is eternal for they desire to be eternally happy but God hath not put this eternal goodness in any in all the things of this World for they are all transitory Therefore when ye look for satisfaction in the Creatures that ye love or in the loving of them ye look for that which God never put into them and nothing can give more than it hath and nothing hath more than God hath given it therefore to look for more from it than God by making it hath put into it may yield you vexation enough but no satisfaction at all Eccles 5.10 He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver nor he that loveth abundance with increase This is also vanity 4. Is it not great folly to love that which ye must shortly part with and not him that ye might enjoy for ever Though ye have your heart full of Love to other Earthly things you shall not earry an handful of them into the other World Eccl. 5.15 As he came forth of his mothers womb naked shall he return to go as he came and shall take nothing of his labour which he may carry away in his hand 1 Tim. 6.7 We brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out but Death that carrieth the Lovers of the World quite away from the things they love shall set the Soul of a Lover of Christ nearer to him Phil. 1.23 For I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better The Soul that loveth Christ when by Death it is absent from the Body it shall be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 5. Is it not great folly to love that which might leave you while ye live and not that Christ that would never leave you nor forsake you As ye are fure these things which ye love will be none of yours after Death so ye are not sure they shall be yours while ye live May ye not be rich to day and poor to morrow Well to day and sick to morrow In honour to day and in disgrace to morrow Was it not so with Haman Esth 6.10 11 7.9 10. When ye have Riches and love them ye are not sure to hold them Prov. 23.5 Wilt thou set thine eyes thine Heart and Love upon that which is not for riches certainly make themselves wings and fly away as an Eagle towards heaven The Hebrew Text is Wilt thou cause thy eyes to fly upon that which is not Riches fly away and the Worldly mans Heart and Love fly after them and though his Heart and Love be swift in their motion after Riches yet sometimes Riches fly so swiftly that their Lover cannot overtake them The pleasures of Sin and so the profits of the World are but for a Season Heb. 11.25 and when the Season is over they are gone but Christ would never leave you nor forsake you Heb. 13.5 6. Is it not great folly to love that which may prove an hinderance to your everlasting happiness and not him that is the purchaser and the promoter of it To love that which is often hurtful to the owners and always hurtful to the over-lovers of it and not him that never did his Lover harm but good Eccl. 5.13 There is a sore evil which I have seen under the Sun namely Richer kept for the owners thereof to their hurt This Solomon had seen and many have seen but that Christ should hurt any Man that hath him for his own was never seen Riches are thick Clay and Clogs to the Minds of Men and keep them down to Earth that they cannot rise to Heaven nor get so high while they live nor their Souls when their Bodies dye that they make Salvation exceeding difficult Mat. 19.23 Then said Jesus to his Disciples Verily I say unto you that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of heaven 24. And again I say unto you it is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a Needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God but to love Riches and not Christ while a Man doth so doth not make Salvation only hard but impossible but the love of Christ makes Salvation not only possible but certain and easie 7. Is it not great folly to love that which cannot comfort you at Death and not Christ that both can and would Love what ye will besides Christ and not Christ it cannot be a stay to your departing Souls what will ye look to at Death for comfort your Riches Why ye are going from them with an heart full of love to them to love them and yet must leave them to leave them in loving of them will torment and vex you not support and comfort you To Pleasures that ye loved When ye lye a dying they are fled and past and gone To your Friends When ye are dying ye are taking your last leave of them To Christ Alas him ye never loved and the thoughts of that will be a sting more painful than the sting of Death V. Can ye do any thing less than love Christ or can ye do any thing more Is it not a small thing that Christ should have your Love for all those great things ye have and hope to have by Christ And yet Christ stands upon your love as greatest of all and all without love is nothing If Christ had asked you to lay down your Life for him had he required more from you than he himself hath done for you Had he called you to give your Bodies to be burned for him should ye not have done it How
the swarms of men therein that have no sincere Love to Jesus Christ Let all among you this day that are not Sensual Beasts or Incarnate Devils that have the Understanding and Hearts of men stand and wonder that tho Devils will not love the Lord Jesus Christ that a Man should deny him his Love Good Lord What a thing is this What cursed Wickedness is this What wonder that thou dost behold such a fight as this a Man without love unto thy Son and suffer him to continue to be a man or dost not make him a sick man a poor man a tormented pained man on earth or a Damned man in Hell But tho thou bearest with such a man is he not a wretched miserable man tho he be a rich and prospering man Oh what Punishment waiteth for him How do Devils hope for his Death that they might drag him down to that Hellish Crew where there is not one Lover of Christ amongst them all But what is he What shall he be that Loves not Christ What Anathema Maran-atha What is that The Explication will tell you SECT II. The Explication of Anathema Maran-atha Anathema where found in Scripture is usually Translated Accursed Acts 23.14 And they came to the chief priests and elders and said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have bound our selves under a great curse that we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul i.e. with a Curse we have Cursed that is grievously Cursed or bound our selves with direful Curses Vers 21. The same word used Gal. 1.8 But tho we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him be Anathema accursed Repeated verse 9. Mark 14.71 But he began 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to curse and to swear saying I know not this man of whom ye speak Rom. 9.3 For I could wish my self Anathema were accursed from Christ for my brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh 1 Cor. 12.3 Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus Anathema accursed Not to love Jesus is to carry our selves towards him as tho he were Anathema but forasmuch as he is God over all blessed for ever whosoever loves not him shall be Anathema for ever This Greek word is used as the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cherem which is Translated utterly to destroy viz. 1 Sam. 15.9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fatlings and the lambs and all that was good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and would not utterly destroy them but every thing that was vile and refuse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they destroyed utterly The Greek Verb signifieth such Cursing as when a man either sweareth voweth or wisheth himself to dye or to be given to the Devil except he And the Hebrew word that answereth to it signifieth Utterly to destroy to devote to destruction As much as to say If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be utterly destroyed devoted to destruction let the Devil take him and so he will by God's own Order and Command Mat. 25.41 Then shall he say unto them on the left hand Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels Luk. 12.20 But God said Thou fool This night thy soul shall be required of thee In the Greek They shall require demand fetch away thy soul They What they The Devils that seize the souls of all that love not Christ whenever they dye 2. Maran-atha two Syriack words as some take them Maran that is our Lord. Nun finale est affixum primae personae ex pronomine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mar with Aleph is a Chaldee word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mara Lord and Nun only litera paragogica then Maran both in Chaldee and Syriack signifieth Lord. Atha written thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an Hebrew word written thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Chaldee thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Syriack word thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Arabick in all signifieth To come A man that loves not the Lord Jesus Christ shall be Cursed in all Nations in all Languages by all People all the world shall account that man to be Anathema Anathema Maran-atha some render it Let him be accursed till the Lord come or when the Lord comes or he shall have due Vengeance from the Lord when he comes Some thus Let him be accursed even till the coming of the Lord to his death's day even for ever and hath reference to that Prophecy of Enoch recorded Jude ver 14. Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied of these saying Behold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord comes with ten thousand of his Saints 15. to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have angodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him And all for want of Love unto him Learned men conclude That here is an allusion to the Jewish manner of Excommunication of which there were three sorts or degrees The Lesser The Middle Sort. The Greatest 1. The Lesser called Niddui Put out and in the New Testament they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Put out of the Synagogue and they hold that Cain was excommunicated this way 2. The second was called Cherem or Anathema when a scandalous sinner with Curses out of the Law of Moses was in the publick Audience of the whole Church without any limitation of time excluded from the Communion of it This thought to be the same called a delivering up unto Satan With this sort of Excommunication was the Incestuous person censured 1 Cor. 5.4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ when ye are gathered together and my Spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ 5. To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus 3. The greatest of all they called Samatha so called from Sem a name which they put for Nomen Tetragrammaton or Jehova and Atha comes Others derive it from Sham There and Mitha Death as if they should say There and then shall be death to the Non-Lovers of Christ The Syrians call it Maran-atha by which form added to the two former the excommunicated person as desperate and forlorn without all hope of pardon or restitution was left to the hands of the Lord to receive from him an heavy doom at his coming implying that they summoned the Excommunicated before the dreadful Tribunal at the last coming of the Son of God They say this sort of Excommunication the people of God used against the Amalâ—kites And with this highest degree of Excommunication
for himself and for the excellency of his own Person tho not with the exclusion of our own advantage by him 9. Christ as Lord as well as Saviour is the Object of this Love Christ in all his Offices as Teacher Ruler as well as Benefactor is beloved in which respect the Love of all Hypocrites and carnal Gospellers doth fail and come short 10. This Love is wrought by the powerful special operation of the Spirit of God upon the heart 11. Whence follows a voluntary resignation of a man's self to Christ without reservation of himself or any thing he hath unto himself 12. When all this is done the Soul doth delighe in Christ if present or desires after him if absent or mourns for him if it cannot find him for one of these three ways Love will be working and by these workings discover it self SECT II. The nature requisites and the description of this Love to Christ Frist This Love supposeth the goodness of the Object as all Love doth For nothing can be loved but what is really good or at least appeareth so unto the Lover This holy Love therefore being the choicest chiefest Love supposeth Christ to be the choicest and the chiefest Good That he is a good Saviour a good Redeemer a good Lord and Master a Good excelling transcending all inferior sublunary good Good not only good but best best in himself and best for us And because he must be loved with such a love as that we be willing at his call to part with all other good for his sake therefore he is looked upon and loved as an universal Good whereas Riches Honours Friends and all things of this World are but particular good no one thing good for all things Meat and drink are good to satisfy your hunger and thirst but not to clothe you Clothes are good to cover you but not to feed you c. But the Soul whose love is fixed upon Christ doth see and say In poverty Christ will be my riches in disgrace Christ will be my honour in bonds and imprisonment Christ will be my liberty in pain Christ will be my ease in death Christ will be my life in the loss of all things Christ will be better to me than the enjoyment of all these things He that looks not upon Christ as an incomparable Object doth not love him as he ought Psal 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee Prov. 3.14 Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding 14. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold 15. She is more precious than rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her The Spouse saw such goodness in Christ that she was love-sick for him Cant. 5.8 I charge you O daughters of Jerusalem if ye find my beloved that ye tell him that I am sick of love Others wonder what a gracious Soul doth see in Christ that it is so inflamed with love unto him V. 9. What is thy beloved more than another beloved O thou fairest among women what is thy beloved more than another beloved that thou dost so charge us What is he in a large description of his Excellencies she answereth to this Question 10. My beloved is white and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousand proceeds in Vers 11 12 13 14 15. and in the 16th concludeth He is altogether lovely this is my beloved and this is my friend O daughters of Jerusalem What then Doth the transcendent goodness of Christ thus displayed draw the Heart allure the Affections yes verily for it immediately follows Cant. 6.1 Whither is thy beloved gone O thou fairest among women Whither is thy beloved turned aside that we may seek him with thee 1. Christ as God is incomparably good for so he is originally good infinitely good eternally immutably incomprehensibly good 2. Christ as Man is the most excellent of all men Adam in innocency the Prophets and Apostles in all their greatest dignity and the Saints in Heaven in perfect glory are not comparable to the man Christ Jesus 3. Christ as God-man and Mediator surpasseth in goodness all the holy Ones on Earth and all the Angels in Heaven Ephes 1.20 And set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places 21. Far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come And though he call his People his Brethren and his Fellows Yet God hath anointed him with the oyl of gladness above all his fellows Psal 45.7 is Christ thus in your Eyes and to your Hearts SECT III. The Second Requisite of this Love SEcondly This Love includes and implies the illumination of the Vnderstanding to see and discern this matchless goodness in Christ Tho Knowledge be not formaliter Love yet it is necessarily pre-requisite to it for this Love is not blind Ignoti nulla cupido What we do not know we cannot love nor desire John 4.10 If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith unto thee give me to drink thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living water You might love an UNSEEN Christ but you cannot love an UNKNOWN Christ 1 Pet. 1.8 whom having not seen ye love in whom tho now ye see him not yet believing and Faith includeth Knowledge ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory Therefore the Prophet speaking of graceless men as disliking not desiring nor loving Christ brings them in as saying Isa 53.2 He hath no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him How no comeliness in him that is the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of his person yes there was there is but they had not eyes to see it as if a blind man should say the Sun is dark because he hath no eyes to behold the light thereof How when we shall see him there is no beauty in him that we should desire him It was because in seeing they did not see How should they look upon him with an eye of Love when they did not discern him with an eye of Faith But a sanctified Soul whose eyes are opened seeth that superlative Goodness Beauty and Excellency in Christ that all other things that are good with an inferior goodness seem to him as dross and dung Phil. 3.7 But what things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ 8. Yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things cast to dogs or Dogs-meat or dung that I may win Christ The sanctified
Love tried whether sincere or counterfeit MUST a man that loves not Christ sincerely be Anathema when Maranatha Must he love or be cursed if he do not Then as Christ did put the Question unto Peter Joh. 21.15 Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me And 16. the second time and 17. the third time Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me So do thou put this Question to thy self O my Soul lovest thou the Lord Jesus And when thy heart may forwardly return an answer ask it the second time O my Soul art thou not mistaken Dost thou indeed love the Lord Jesus And because the matter is of everlasting moment put the Question a third time and so often till to this Question O my Soul Dost thou sincerely love the Lord Jesus Thou hast such proof out of the Scripture as will hold trial when this shall be in question at the great day of Judgment But alas What great grounds of jealousie are there that the love of many is but supposed love to Christ that think they do that hope they do but indeed do not For whose conviction I shall desire them to give in a serious answer to the following Queslions as trials of the sincerity of their love I. Dost thou love Christ sincerely and live in wilful disobedience to the known commands of Christ Dost thou know his will and willingly every day act contrary to it and yet pretend to love him Dost thou slight his commands and love his person Doth Christ command thee to be the death of thy sins and thou suffer them to live and rule and yet love him Doth Christ command thee to pray continually and thou dost neglect it continually and yet have the face to say thou lovest Christ Doth Christ command thee not to swear profanely at all nor to take Gods name in vain and dost thou do this often in a day and yet defie that man that calls in question thy love to Christ But whatever be thy confidence I do declare to thy face it is a great and Soul-damning mistake for as Love and Obedience are conjoined in the Scripture so they are never parted in the true and sincere Lover Weigh these Scriptures and thou wilt find thy Love pretended to without obedience to be so light that it will be driven away by the evidence of the Word like chaff before the wind Exod. 20.6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments The same words repeated Deut. 5.10 and Deut. 7.9 Know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations And 11.13 And it shall come to pass if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul Neh. 1.5 I beseech thee O Lord God of heaven the great and terrible God that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments Joh. 14.15 If ye love me keep my commandments 21. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them he it is yes that is the man that loveth me 23. Jesus answered and said unto him if a man love me he will keep my words 24. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings Do ye see how in all these Texts Obedience is joined with Love If Love go before Obedience follows after and the latter is a proof of the former Then the man amongst you that is not openly profane but of a moral conversation and moreover a Professor will say as Saul did to Samuel Blessed be thou of the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord 1 Sam. 15.13 But Samuel replied ver 16. What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears and the lowing of the Oxen which I hear So ye say we love the Lord how do ye prove it Why we have performed the Commandments of the Lord. Have ye so What meaneth then the neglect of Prayer in your Families that I hear of What meaneth then your Idling away the Lords day or polluting it by worldly Discourse What meaneth I pray you the allowed dead Praying and dull performances not striven against nor lamented for But if you would not deceive your sell mind that that Obedience which proves sincerity of love to Christ must be 1. Vniversal and that in regard of the object all the Commandments of God those that are more hard as those that be more easie those that cross and condemn your best beloved sin as well as those you could more easily and readily part with those commands that respect the inward as well as the outward Man and do enjoin the manner as well as the matter of your Duties Psal 119.6 Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect to all thy commandments and Universal in regard of the subject that your obedience be done with the whole heart Deut. 10.12 And now Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God to walk in all his ways and to love him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul 2. Obedience that is a proof of Love must be chearful for Love obeyeth with delight It is not a burden to Pray but a pleasure hard Duties become easie to Love and the time seems not long nor tedious As Jacoh for the Love of Rachel Gen. 29.20 And Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed unto him but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as ones days translated as few days for the love he had unto her Seven years to love seem but as one day One day in an holy Duty to one that wanteth love seemeth as seven days if not as seven years which seem to pass away sooner and with more delight than one day spent in Flesh displeasing Duties where there is no love to take off the rediousness of it to the Flesh 3. Such Obedience must be the choicest Sincere Lovers of Christ will serve him with the best they have and in the best manner they can Love thinks nothing too good for God and Christ else it is but deceitful and pretended love Mal. 1.13 Ye said also behold what a weariness is it and ye have snuffed at it saith the Lord of hosts and ye brought that which was torn and the lame and the sick thus ye brought an offering should I accept this of your hands saith the Lord You bring Prayers but they are sleepy Prayers thus ye Pray Ye Pray but with your minds roving because of the prevailing habitual love ye have unto the World THUS ye Pray Could sincere Love find no better Service Give no better Duties than such for which a man is a Deceiver and Accursed v. 14. But cursed be the deceiver which hath in his slock a maele and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord
he will not be entreated Surely the infinite distance that there is betwixt God and Man might fill us with wonder that God should become a Suiter to man for his love when there is not so much distance between Man and Nothing as there is between God and Man and yet he is pleased to stoop so low to urge us to consent to him that we might be advanced as high as Heaven who else must be plunged into the depths of Hell On what is this that the Creator should seek to be loved by the Creature The Lord to be loved by the Servant The King of Saints to the Subjects of Sin that he might have our Heart and Love Whereas if we did consider that our striâ—test Service to him would be our largest Liberty our having of him our only Happiness our missing of him our greatest Misery we should know it were our Interest to prostrate our selves at his Feet to lye at his Door with Prayers and Tears with Cries and Calls with Grief and Groans to make it our daily Suit to him that he would love us and give us an Heart to love him Man was first in departing from God and in removing of that love that at first there was betwixt God and Man yet God is first in seeking the renewing of Love else Man would always hate and never love him And that God should seek to Man for his Love and be denied might be astonishment to the Angels in Heaven and make matter of joy if they be capable of any joy to the Devils in Hell that Men that may love Christ and will not might be as miserable as themselves to whom he is not propounded as an object of Faith Love or Hope But whether you will love or not love him God hath commanded me and others of his Ministers to lye hard at you for your Love he hath given us a Commission to make a motion of love betwixt Christ and you in order to your matching with him Mat. 22.2 3 4 c. and hath committed to us the Word of Reconciliation and made it our Work to Wooe you for your love unto his Son and to try to gain your consent 2 Cor. 5.18 19 20. And if you will love him to espouse you to him 2 Cor. 11.2 This is my Message and for this end am I come this day If I do not ask you I hazard my Soul if you deny you lose yours God therefore grant that I might so ask that you may not deny that both your Souls and mine might Love and so be Saved For the gaining of your Love for Christ I shall use these Arguments propounded by way of Question and when you have given a right Answer to them I hope Christ will have a good Answer from you CHAP. XI Twenty Motives or Pleas that Christ might have the Love of your Hearts I. CAN you find a more excellent object for your Love than Christ If you search through the whole Creation of God is there any like to Christ Whatsoever you think who dare say there is Are Riches Honours Pleasures Relations which you have loved comparable to Christ whom you ought to love If Good be only the object of Love is not the best Good the best object Can you love the lesser Good and not the greater Yea the greatest of all Is not all the Goodness in the Creature but as a drop to the Sea as a Candle to the Sun as a Sand to a Mountain if compared to the Goodness there is in Christ If David were worth ten thousand of others 2 Sam. 18.3 is not Christ Davids Lord better than all the World Read Cant. 2.3 5 16. Prov. 3.14 15. Phil. 3.8 Dost thou waver in thy thoughts or hesitate about this Tell me First Is not Christ a Good most suitable for thee Is Liberty so suitable to a Captive Man or Bread to an Hungry Man or Health to a Sick Man or Ease to a Pained Man as Christ is to a Sinsul Man For 1. Art thou not lost undone in danger to be Damned Christ will be thy Saviour thy Keeper and Recoverer Luk. 19.10 The son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost Heb. 7.25 Wherefore he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them Isa 63.1 Mighty to save 2. Art not thou ignorant dark and blind knowest not the way to Heaven and eternal Happiness and mightâ—st weary thy self to find the Gate of Life and yet miss of it when thou hast done all He will be thy Teacher and thy Guide and direct thee Infallibly to it He will Anoint thine Eyes and cause thee to see such things as never yet thou sawest ver 3.18 If he Anoint thine Eyes with his Eye-salve though thou wast born blind thou shalt have thy sight 3. Art thou not Sick and full of Spiritual Diseases Abounding with Soul Distempers Even sick to Death Nigh unto eternal Death He will be thy Physician who is so able and so skilful that never any yet that he undertook to Cure Died under his Hands for rather than thou shouldst dye of thy Disease he will make thee a Potion of his own Blood which if thou Drinkest thou shalt certainly recover Therefore he came to be a Soul Physician and gave this as a reason why he did converse with Publicans and Sinners That he might cure them Mat. 9.12 4. Art thou not indebted Owest thou not Millions to God Hast thou a Mite to pay If God demand satisfaction from thee will it not prove thy Damnation If Justice pursue thee Death Arrest thee will not Devils seize thy Soul and hale it to the Prison of Hell from whence thou shalt not be delivered till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing which will never be This Christ if thou wilt but love him will be thy Bail become thy Surety and make payment of thy Debt and give thee a Discharge 5. Art thou not polluted and unclean Hath not the Leprosie of Sin overspread thy Vnderstanding Will Conscience Memory and all thine Affections So that thou art defiled all over liest wallowing in thy Blood art cast out to the loathing of thy person and canst thou in this filthy case enter into the holy Kingdom of God If thou wilt give him thy Love he will take away thy silthy Rags and give thee change of Raiment Zac. 3.1 2 3. If thou wilt come to him with Faith and Love and say Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean he in Love to thee will say I will be thou clean Mat. 8.2 3. He will make for thee a Bath of his own Blood and his Blood shall cleanse thee from all thy Sins 1 Joh. 1.7 Yea though they be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wooll Isa 1.18 6. Art thou not a Captive to Satan and to Sin Drudging Elbow deep in