cry out as the disciples did it is a Spirit oh saith a Soul I had a little comfort in such an ordinance but I am affraid it is but a Spirit delusion but at length Christ speaks so powerfully to the Soul by the operations of his holy Spirit that the Soul knows it to be the voice of Christ And then with the disciples it gladly receives Christ into its Soul and when Christ doeth thus communicate himself he doeth then manifest his endeared affection to it oh but methinks I hear some poor Soul ready to say truly here is but little comfort for me for if Gods communicating himself to a Soul in the manner you have been speaking be a sign of Gods love then God help me my case is bad enough for I do not find such communications of the graces and comforts of the Spirit to my Soul God knows I come time after time to hear the word and I go to prayer and I receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper but I come with a dead heart and a dull Spirit and so I go away again and have none of those quickning influences of the Spirit reviving and refreshing of my Soul God doth not make me joyful in his house of prayer which makes me fear that I am none of those whom God loves Poor Soul doest thou utter this mournful language in a formal complementing way or is it the language of a Nathaniel doth it proceed really from thy heart then take this for thy comfort and carry it home with thee and let it be as a cordial to revive thy pooâ— drooping Spirits That God hath already communicated himself to thy Soul or else thou wouldst neveâ— desire after communion with him in duty As a wicked earthly minded Ahab having never so much of the earth is sick with vexation of Spirit for want of Naboths vineyard so a Godly Heavenly Heaven born Saint though it doth injoy communion with God it is dissatisfied because it thinks it hath not so much as others a stone cast up into the air will never rest till it comes to the earth which is its center so God being the center of a gracious Soul it is restless without communion with him but on the contrary if thou canst go from one duty to another and sit down satisfied with the bare performance of the duty and yet art flattering thy self that thou art an object of Gods â—ove I tell thee thou art but feeding on the east wind and carrying lye in thy right hand for there are one that can assure themselves of he love of God but they have such Revelation of God to their Souls â—s doth fill them with Heavenly â—oys Or make them be dissatisfied without those comfortable discoveâ—…es of God to their Souls 8. Wouldst thou be assured of â—he love of God through a suffering Christ then see if God hath given â—hee an heart to desire to suffer for Christ when Christ hath helped the â—oul by an eye of saith to see what â—reat things he 'l suffer for his sake doth as the Apostle says constrein â—he soul to expose it self to the â—reatest sufferings for the cause of God when he shall be pleased to all him to it When the love of God â—omes to be shed abroad in the â—eart by the holy Ghost it will make a Soul say with Paul that it glorieth in tribulation when the Soul comes to be inflamed with the love of God many waters of affliction from God nor floods of persecutions from men cannot drown it oh saith the soul how can I shew my love enough to God that hath shewed so much love to me But on the contrary if thou art one that will suffer nothing for God thou canst not upon any sure grounds assure thy self that Christ hath suffered any thing for thee to purchase the love of God 9. Wouldst thou know thy interest in the love of God then see if thou doest hate sin For it is inconsistent for the Revelation of Gods love to the soul and the manifestation of the souls love to sin to be in the soul at one and the same time nothing gives such a mortal wound to sin nor makes it bleed to death sooner in the soul than the manifestation of the love of a wounded Saviour that did bleed for the soul My Friends you may take this for a certain truth that proportionably to the love of God that is manifested unto you such will be your hatred of sin that you commit against God as a woman that hath experienced much of her husbands love it makes her violent against her husbands enemies so a believer having experienced much of the love of God sets his soul the more against sin which he knows is Gods greatest enemy oh saith the Soul that hath the love of God shed abroad in it how can I hug this sin in my bosome that did pierce my dear and loving Lord Jesus to the heart how can I hide this sin as sugar under my tongue which did cause the tongue of my Lord Jesus to utter those bitter cryes and heart rending expressions with his eyes full of tears and his heart full of lamentations My God my God why hast thou forsaken me when God hath once discovered the freeness of his Love unto his people they quickly say with Ephraim what have I to do any more with Idols but if on the contrary thou lovest and delightest in sin and art ready to extenuate it it is a sign that the love of God is not shed abroad in thy Soul 10. If thou art one that canst really experience the love of God in and to thy Soul thou art not only brought to hate sin because it is such an enemy to that God who hath manifested so much love to thy Soul but God hath really destroyed Sin in thy Soul it being thine enemy as well as his I shall endeavour to set it forth by a similitude and how God doth manifest his love to his people by destroying their corruption suppose a man were walking on the way with his wife and she straying out of the way should be surprized by a company of bloody cut-throats and having took away or defaced her ornaments they should go about to murther her now though her husband could stand still awhile and see his wife somewhat roughly handled that she might take heed another time how she strayed so far from him yet when he sees them about to murther her then his bowells yern towards her and though she were in a fault yet still she was his wife whereupon he goes to her rescue destroyes those enemies of hers which otherwise would have destroyed her and thus he shews his love to his wife Truly my friends thus it is a true believer hath God for his husband while we are in this world we are walking on the way to heaven injoying the presence of our heavenly busband but the allurements of the flesh and the world are apt to draw
hatred of sin now my friends see if it be so with you doth your love to God thus manifest it self But if it be otherwise with thee instead of hateing sin you love it instead of making communion with God your end in duty you make self pride and vain glory your end If instead of letting your thoughts dwell upon God you are dwelling upon the world and vanity you can have but little well-grounded hopes that you love God and consequently that God loves you for saith the Apostle we love him because he first loved us in which words we have first an effect Secondly a cause the effect is our love to God we love him Secondly the cause God loves us and saith Jesus Christ the Wisedome of the father I love them that love me we must not think the meaning of the holy Ghost in that Scripture is to make our love to God the cause of Gods love to us but the evidence of it Now my friends I beseech you gather up all again and see whether you can experience in your own souls that you have a true knowledge of God and the gifts and graces of the Spirit of God and whether this love of God doth constrain thee to duty And whether thou art a fruit-baring Christian and doest in the place in which God hath put thee endeavour to bring others to God and examine thine unsatiable desires after more of this love of God and examine whither God doth sanctify afflictions unto thee and give thee communion with himself in duty and art thou made willing to suffer for God and art thou made to hate sin and hath God destroy'd thy enemies which are thy sins and see if thou hast received spiritual life from God and hast a Sincere love to God Now to conclude if thou findest none of these markes in thy soul of Gods love thy case is sad I would not be in thy Condition for ten thousand worlds yet though I would discourage thee from going on in thy Sin because a constant persisting in a course of Sin is a dreadful Sign of Gods hatred yet I dare not discourage thee in thy attendance on the means of grace because those are Gods lattices through which he does flourish himself Can. 2.9 Or as we have it translated shew himself unto poor souls therefore thou that canst experience nothing of the love of God I beseech thee as thou tendrest the good of thy precious and immortal soul be constant in attending on the means of grace thou knowest not how soon God may dart in such beams of his love to thy soul through the thick glass of Gospel ordinances as may make thee cry out with the spouse stay me with Flagons strew me a bed with Apples for I am sick of Love And for you that can say you have had experience of the love of God and can say of a truth that Christ hath kissed you with the kisses of his Lips and that his left Arm hath been under your neck and his right Arm hath imbraced you you that can say that the time was when You did sit under the banner of my beloved with great delight and his fruit was sweet to your tast you that can say that the time was when God did flourish himself unto your Souls through the Lattice and the Sun of Righteousness did shine upon your Tabernacle That God did so manifest himself unto your Souls in all or most of his Ordinances that it may be you did not know whether you were in the body or out of the body as Paul saith your hearts have been forewarned and affected with the presence of God by the influence of his Spirit Now it may be you walk in darkness and have no light instead of that sweet communion you had with God in duty it may be there may be nothing but deadness and dulness of heart and indisposition of Soul to duty It may be instead of that shining in of Gods love unto your Souls you may with Job apprehend God to be your Enemy and be ready to say that God doth set a print on your Heels and on your Feet and sew up your iniquities in a bag and seal up your sins Job 13.24 26 27. you that could formerly say with David come and see what God hath done for my Soul it may be are now ready to say with Job have pity upon as oh our friends for the hand of the Lord is upon us Job 19 21. and with the Church in the Lamentations Is it nothing to you all you that pass by Behold and see if there be any sorrow like my sorrow Lam. 1.12 which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce Wrath. Oh wo is 〈◊〉 us for the Day of Comfort and Consolation is passing away and the shadows of the evening and morning are stretched out Now poor souls you that are thuâ— in Hell upon Earth for want oâ— comfort and consolation from Heaven give me leave to speak two or three words to you in order to the reducing you to you former comfortable estate yoâ— that are thus afflicted and toâ—sed with Tempest and not comforted it will be your prudencâ— and it doth highly concern you to take notice what wind hatâ— brought this Tempest which haâ— filled your Souls with such clouds of despondencies for either the East Wind of sinful Security or the North Wind of pinching Adversity or the South Wind of unsanctified Prosperity has undoubtedly raised these storms in your Souls which for some time and in some measure make an interposition between the comfortable rayes of the Light of Gods Countenance and thy poor soul For the first see if the east wind of sinful security hath not raised this Tempest of dejection and despondency though God doeth greatly delight to secure his people from the God of this world yet his people will find but small comfort in their sinful security before God whilst they be in this World though God doeth so watch over a believer that he shall never be overcome by temptations yet for want of watchfulness in a believer God may suffer him to be exposed to Temptation though a true believer cannot lose the God of comfort and consolation yet he may for a time lose the comfort and consolation of his God if the blasting East wind of carnal security make the ears thin and empty no wonder if thou art not filled with the south wind of comfort and consolation if David and Peter think their mountain so strong that they shall not be moved to deny the Fountain of their Comfort and Consolation God will most certainly deny them for a time the Comforts from the Fountain Again in the next place see if the south wind of unsanctified prosperity have not blown up these storms of sanctifiing Adversity for Gods end in imbittering our beloved outward enjoyments by denying us his comforting presence is to make his consolations more sweet unto us and
grounds â—y that God loves thee but it is not every Knowledge of God that will Characterize a person to be an object of Gods love for if we look into 1 Rom. 21. we may see that there were some that had a rational confused Knowledge of God in the book of the Creatures and yet we see in the latter end of the Chapter they did rush into the greatest Abominations imaginable A Knowledg of God in the book of the Creatures only will not keep the Creature from committing the greatest sins against God But thou that wouldst Know upon sure grounds that God loves thee see if thou doest know God in his power as to Fear him in his Mercy as to Love him and his faithfulness to believe him And if all the Attributes of God have such an influence upon thee then I dare tell thee for thy comfort that thou mayst assure thy self that God Loves thee For Christ who is Truth it self sayth John 10.14 That those sheep of his whom he knows with a Knowledge of Approbation they know him with a knowledge of Love and Obedience But if thou art one that doest not fear God for his Greatness nor love him for his Goodness nor believe him for his Faithfulness but in straits and troubles canst allow thy self in taking indirect courses with Saul and Ahaziah 1 Sam. 28.7 2 Kings 1.2 it is a sign thou hast at Present but little grounds to hope that thou art an object of Gods Love 2. Thou that wouldest know whether thou canst assure thy self of the Love of God examine thy self whether thou hast received from God those peculiar favours which he doth give only to those who are the objects of his Love Now there are special favours which God bestowes only on his own peculiar people Ezek. 11.19.20.36.25 26 27. Those special favours are A new Heart and a new Spirit an heart of Flesh a saveing knowledge of himself a self-loathing for Sin and an enlightned understanding the fear of God and Love to God and Sincerity before God and all the gifts and graces of the Spirit of God Now these are the special favours which God bestowes only on those that are the objects of his Love Oh my friends take heed you do not build your hopes of Interest in Gods love upon the sandy foundations of outward injoyments Many are ready to look upon their outward injoyments as Health Strength Peace and Safety and the blessing of God on their outward injoyments to be infallible signs of Gods love whereas indeed those outward things are many times instead of being signs of Gods Love being Unsanctified and Misimproved are signs of Gods Reprobateing anger But if God have bestowed those other favours upon thee before mentioned then thou mayst be sure that God Loves thee The Love of God doth in a providential way extend it self to all his Creatures But his everlasting Love and his choycest and endeared affections these amongst the sonnes and daughters of Adam are only partakers of to whom God hath given a new Heart and such a practical Knowledge of himself together with all the gifts and graces of his Spirit 3. If thou art one that canst upon good grounds assure thy self that thou art an object of Gods Love then this Love of God hath been of an attractive nature to draw thee to all thy Dutys both Relative and Religious as we have it in Jeremiah 31.3 I have loved thee with an Everlasting Love therefore with loving Kindness have I drawn thee My friends I beseech you try what influence the Love of God hath upon your Hearts in the drawing of you to â—hose duties which are the most contrary to corrupt nature and the most loathsome to the flesh After that Christ had manifested his love to Zacheus and told him that Salvation was come to his house then he could take shame to himself in the acknowledgement of his Extortion If thou canst assure thy self of the Love of God then the Glory of the God of Love will be thy ultimate End in all thy duties And when thou perceivest pride or self or vain-glory creeping into thy duties oh how is thy soul perplexed and disturbed But on the contrary if thou art one that doest that which is thy duty but art drawn thereto by wicked ends thou hast but little grounds to assure thy self that thou art in the Love of God If thou art conversant in religious duties towards God or charity towards men and art drawn thereto by Pharisaical vain-glorious ends It is then high time for thee to look about thee for that hopes thou hast of the Love of God is but 〈◊〉 delusion of the Devil therefore see if it be Love to God that makes thee give to the Poor and desire after communion with God that draws thee to hear the Word of God and to pray unto God If it be so with thee thou mayst go home with comfort for I dare warrant thee from the Word of God that God hath loved thee with an everlasting Love that thou hadst a being in the love of God before thou hadst a being in the world for though a wicked man may be contented to be found in the outside of duties for such self-ends as he proposes to himself yet there being enmity in his heart against God it is impossible he should propose Gods glory as his main and ultimate end Therefore if thou art brought to propose Gods glory as thy ultimate end it is an infallible sign that thou art an Object of Gods Love 4. Another sign of the Love of God manifested to the Creature is when we are fruitful in our places to draw others unto Jesus Christ as well as to bring forth the fruits of an holy conversation our selves After that the Spouse had been setting forth the excellency of the Love of Christ and had been begging a kisse of her beloved she was so taken with his love that presently shee crys out Can 1.2 4. Draw me we will run after thee draw me in the singular we in the Plural will run after thee A person that has tasted of the sweetness of the Love of God waites all opportunitys to say with David Come and see what God hath done for my soul oh saith the soul I was by nature an enemy to God and not only so but I had enmity in my heart against God And blessed be his name that was pleased to bring down that enmity by shedding abroad his love in my heart Thus the object of Gods Love will endeavour to bring others in Love with this lovely object the Lord Jesus Christ in Hosea 14. after that God had in the 4. verse manifested the freeness of his love to believers we may see in the 5. and 6. verses that God will be as the dew upon Israel and that he shall grow as the lilly and cast forth his roots as Lebanon by which is meant nothing else but the fruitfulness of it 5. That Soul
us more earnestly to labour after the enjoyment of them when Gods beloved ones have too much delight in and too much love to the world so as to undervalue the heavenly manna of Gods love then the God of love will manifest his delight in and love to his people in leaveing them as to his comforting presence with the prodigal to seed upon the husks of outward injoyments till they are brought to see the incongruity that is between the empty inticeing transitory vanity of this World and their sublime and immortal Souls which can receive no real comfort from or any satisfactory delight or complacency in any thing but what is of its own nature For 〈◊〉 the soul of a believer meerly as it is a Creature is an immortal substance and the very breath of God and therefore no wonder though the creature find such an insufficiency of comfort in all outward injoyments they being so much below and unsuitable to its nature And that I take to be the reason why Solomon saith Prov. 14.13 that in the midst of laughter the heart may be sad the fading earthy mortal body may laugh in the injoyment of fading earthly momentany things and yet the heart and soul may be sad for want of something of its own nature for to take delight and complacency in Now let us draw to Conclusion in a word there must be an assimulation between the Object of delight and the Subject delighting it self in that object As for example a fish of a cold and moyst nature delights in the passive element of water being of its own nature But the Salamander being of a fiery nature delights in the active element of fire So a true believer being a new creature born of God by regeneration cannot but mourn in the bitterness of his soul when it does consider how the fleshy part has prevailed against his Spiritual part being off from his watch as with Michal to send away his blessed King David as to his comforting presence and have left nothing but an Image of outward Injoyments in the room thereof And if Gods beloved Sampsons will be solaceing of themselves in the laps of the deceitful Dalilahs you can expect nothing but that those sweet Syrene-like songs should end in the shipwrack of their spiritual Joys Having provoked God to deliver them up with Sampson to the Philistins to cut off the seven locks of their spiritual strength and leave them in the hands of their spiritual enemies that will by filling of their Souls with horror and vexation of Spirit do their utmost to keep those from heaven whilst they live which they see they cannot keep from heaven when they dye And now I come to the North wind of affliction which does often make Gods Davids cry out I have cleansed my heart in vain and with Gods Jobs to look upon outward afflictions to be signs of Gods anger and displeasure whereas indeed as well the North Wind of sanctified afflictions as the South Wind of sanctified prosperity blowing upon our gardens will make our spices flow forth will make us to be much in exercising the gifts and graces of the spirit of God in us Now soul see which of these winds it is that has blown up this dreadful storm in thy soul if it be the East Wind of sinful security or the South Wind of unsanctified prosperity or the North Wind of adversity And indeed as sin is the meritorious cause of affliction so affliction makes a soul apprehend it self to be a greater sinner than others when it is more afflicted than others And the Devil has a great hand in this for as he perswades the◠that their prosperitis is a sign of Gods love so he perswades Gods people that afflictions are signs of Gods hatred If the people of God did but know the gracious end God has in afflicting them they would never look upon them to be signs of his displeasure For Gods ends in afflicting his people are to glorify his wisdom in their Direction and his holiness in their Sanctification and his power in their Supportation and Preservation and that they might be more conformable to Christ their head and that they may hate sin the more and contemn the world the more and long after heaven the more and that they may be in the better capacities to sympathize with Gods people in their suffering when they are under the like afflictions and to make heaven the sweeter to them by makeing the world bitter Now soul thou that art under these clouds and tossed with these tempests and not comforted be sure to look often into the waters of the sanctuary upon the bended knees of thy soul and there thou shall see the Comet that has made the interposition between the shineing rayes of Gods love and thy poor soul and when thou hast found out this Achan that troubles the camp that made thee flee before the men of Aie and after thou hast conquered Jericho and by Gods ministers sounding of the Gospel-Trumpet beat down the walls of the cursed Jericho of the Kingdom of darkness in thy soul when thou hast found out the Achan that would preserve any of the cursed thing be unpotant with thy blessed Joshuah which brings his true Israel into the land of promise that he would pass the sentence of death on this thee vish Achan that first stole thy heart from the God of comfort and consolation and then stole from thee the sweet consolations of thy God Oh soul let not the Silver or Gold of worldly-mindedness which lies hid in the midst of Achans tent let not any external profit that thy sin may bring thee in make Achan faire ever the better but seek diligently for it for it lyes hid in the midst of the tent where it might be the least suspected see if Achan has not been a troubler to thee by stealing something else besides the wedg of Gold see if he has not got a cloak of Shinar or a Babylonish garment of self-righteousness My meaning is this look diligently into thy heart see if thou art not ready to be prideing of thy self in thy dutys and having had great Inlargements in prayer art thou not ready to think that that duty as it comes from thee is more likely to find acceptance with God than those poor broken expressions of thy friend whom it may be thou contemnest as not having such abilities as thou hast Now soul if thou canst find this in thy heart then thou mayst say there is the Babylonish garment which the old man the unregenerate part the cursed Achan has stole and by which God was provoked against thee but if thou canst say of a truth upon serious self-examination that it is otherwise with thee and that thy heart doeth not condemn thee of stealing these wedges of gold that thou hast not an inordinate love to the world that thou hast not stole the Babylonish garment of spiritual pride in duty and