hope And where were patience If it were not for a better estate in another world a Christian of all men were most miserable Who would endure any thing for Christ if it were not for a better estate afterwards And so for sobrietie what forceth a moderate use of all things here the consideration of future judgement that made even Felix to tremble The consideration of the estate to come causes that we surfet not with the cares of the world and excesse but doe all that may make way for such a glorious condition What enforceth the keeping of a good conscience in all things St. Paul looked to the resurrection of the just and of the unjust and this made him exercise himselfe to keepe a good conscience And so puritie and holinesse that we take heed of all defilements in the world that we bee not led away with the errour of the wicked but keepe our selves unspotted What forceth this but the consideration of a glorious condition in another world He that hath this hope purgeth himselfe There is a purgative power in hope a cleansing efficacie that a man cannot hope for this excellent condition but it will frame and fit the soule for that condition Can a man hope to appeare before a great person and not fit himselfe in his deportment and attire before hand to please the person before whom hee appeares So whosoever hopes to appeare before Christ and God of necessitie that hope will force him to purge himselfe Let us not stand to search curiously into particulars what the glory of the soule or of the body shall bee the Apostle discovers it in generall we shall bee conformed to Christ our head in soule and body but rather study how to make good use of them for therefore they are revealed before hand in generall And with all to humble our selves and to say with the Psalmist Lord what is Man that thon so farre considerest him Sinfull man that hath lost his first condition and hath betrayed himselfe to thine and his enemy to advance him to that estate that neither eye hath seene nor eare heard c. This consideration will make us base in our owne eyes Shall not wee presently disdaine any proud conceits shall wee talke of merit what can come from a Creature that shall deserve things that eie hath not seen nor eare heard that such proud conceits should enter into the heart of man surely grace never entred into that mans heart that hath such a conceite to entertaine merit Shall a man thinke by a penny to merit a thousand pound by a little performance to merit things that are above the conceit of men and Angels but a word is enough that way And with humiliation take that which alwayes goes with humiliation thankefulnesse even before hand When the Apostle S. Peter thought of the inheritance immortall and undefiled c. he begins Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ c. Hee could not think of these things without thankfulnesse to God For wee should begin the life of heaven upon earth as much as may bee and what is that but a blessing and praising of God Now we cannot more effectually and feelingly praise God than by the cōsideration of what great things are reserved for us for faith sets them before the soule as present as invested into them Now if we were in heaven already we should praise God and do nothing else therfore faith making them sure to the soule as if we had them sets the soule on worke to praise God as in Ephes. 1. and in Pet. 1. Saint Peter and Paul they could never have enough of this Thus wee should doe and cheare and joy our hearts in the consideration of these things in all conflicts desolations wee little thinke of these things and that is our fault wee are like little children that are born to great matters notwithstanding not knowing of them they carry not themselves answerable to their hopes but the more the children grow into yeares the more they grow in spirit and conceits and carriage sitting the estates they hope for So it is with Christians at the first when they are weake they are troubled with this temptation and with that with this losse and with that crosse but when a Christian growes to a full stature in Christ every petty crosse doth not cast him downe hee thinkes what shall I be dejected with this losse that have heaven reserved for mee shall I bee cast downe with this crosse that have things that eye hath not seene nor eare heard c. Prepared for me He will not he makes use of his faith to fetch comfort from these things that are reserved for him that are unexpressible and unconceiveable And let us comfort our selves in all the slightings of the World A man that hath great hopes in his own coūtry if he be slighted abroad he thinkes with himselfe I have other matters reserved elsewhere and I shall have another manner of respect when I come home The world it knowes not God nor Christ nor us shall not we be content to go up and downe as unknowne men here when God the father and Christ our Saviour are unknowne There are better things reserved at home for us therfore let us digest all the slightings and abusage of carnal men And let us not envy them their condition that is but for terme of life use it as well as they will that hath a date that will bee out wee know not how soone Alas all their happinesse it is but a measured happinesse it is within their understandings their eyes can see it and their eares can heare it and when they can neither see nor conceive more in this world then there is an end of all their sensible happinesse Shall we envie when they shall shortly be turned naked out of this world to the place of torment We should present them to us as objects of pitie even the greatest men in the world if wee see by their carriage they be void of grace but not envy any condition in this world But what affection is due and suiting to the estate of a Christian If we would have the true affection it is admiration and wonderment What is wonderment It is the state and disposition of the soule toward things that are new and rare and strange that we can give no reason of that are beyond our reach For wise men wonder not because they see a reason they can compass things But a Christian cannot but wōder because the things prepared are above his reach yea when he is in heaven he shall not be able to conceive the glory of it he shall enter into it it shall bee above him he shall have more joy and peace then he can comprehend the joy that hee hath there it is beyond his ability and capacity beyond his power he shall not be able to compasse all It shall be a matter
And love is such a thing as every one may try himself by if he had named either giving or doing of this or that men might have sayd I cannot doe it or I cannot part with it but when he names love there is none but they may love The poynt considered was that There must be a qualification of those that heaven is provided for They must bee such as love God such as are altered and changed and sanctified to love him Because no uncleane thing shall enter in thither Because wee cannot so much as desire heaven without a change we cannot have communion there with Christ and those blessed soules without likenesse to them which must be by a spirit of love our natures must bee altered Therefore it is a vaine presumption for any man to thinke of heaven unlesse he finde his disposition altered For wee may read our eternall condition in heaven by our disposition upon earth The Apostle Peter sayth 1 Pet. 1. Blessed bee God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ that hath begotten us to a lively hope of an inheritance immortall and undefiled reserved in heaven So that the inheritance in heaven wee are begotten to it wee must be new borne we must have a new birth before wee can inherit it hee hath begotten us to an inheritance immortall c. Hee that is not a childe may not thinke of an inheritance Put case there bee never so many glorious things in heaven that eye hath never seene nor eare ever heard c. if our names be not in Christs will that we are not his and prove our selves to be his by the alteration of our dispositions what are all those good things to us when our names are not contained there It is called a hope of life a lively hope because hee that hath this hope purgeth himselfe it makes him vigorous and active in good if his hope of life make him not lively he hath no hope of life at all Therefore those that will looke for heaven that Sathan abuse them not by false confidence let them looke whether God have altered their hearts that the worke of grace be wrought in some measure For God hath not ordained these great things for his enemies for blasphemers that take Gods name in vaine that run on in courses contrary to his will and word that live in sinnes against the light of nature do you thinke he hath provided these great matters for them he hath another place for them Therefore let us not be abused by our owne false hearts to thinke of such a happy condition unlesse we finde our selves changed unlesse we be new borne we shall never enter into heaven Lord Lord say they Christ brings them in pleading so Lord Lord not that they shall say so then that is not the meaning but now they cherish such a confidence Oh we can speake well and we can pray wel Lord Lord. Oh thou vaine confident person thy confession and profession Lord Lord shall doe thee no good I will not so much as owne thee Away hence thou worker of iniquitie thy heart tels thee thou livest in sinnes against conscience away avaunt I will none of thee God in mercie to us will have the triall of the truth of our evidence in us The ground of all our salvation is his grace his free favour and mercie in his owne heart but we cannot goe thither he would have us to search within our selves and there we shall finde Love God hath prepared for those that love him In particular therefore Those that God hath provided so excellent things for they are such as love him They are such first of all that are beloved of him and shew that they are beloved of him by their love to him Therefore when the Papists meet with such phrases they think of merit he hath provided heaven for them that love him and shew their love in good workes But we must know that this is not brought in as a cause why but as a qualification of the persons who who shall inherit heaven and who shall have these great things It is idle for them to thinke that these things are prepared for those whom God foresees would doe such and such good workes it is as if we should thinke hee hath provided these happy things for those that are his enemies For how could he look for love from us in a state of corruption when the best thing in us was enmitie to him Is it not a vaine thing to looke for light from darknesse to look for love from enmity and hatred therefore how could God foresee any thing in us when he could see nothing but enmity and darknesse in our dispositions by nature And then as we shall see afterward this love in us it must bee with all our heart and soule and might it is required and commanded and when wee doe all this wee doe but what wee are bound to doe But they abuse such places upon so shallow ground that indeed it deserves not so much as to be mentioned To come then to the poynt it selfe the disposition of those that shal come to heaven then is they must be such as love God Now hee names this because these two goe alwayes together there goes somewhat of ours together with somewhat of Gods to witnesse to us what God doth There goes our choyce of God with his chusing of us our knowing of God with his knowledge of us our love to him with his love to us therefore because these are so connexed and knit together hee takes the one for the other and to make it familiar to us hee takes that which is most familiar to us our love to him Now hee names this above all other affections because love is the commanding affection of the soule it is that affection that rules all other affections hatred and anger and joy and delight and desire they all spring from love because all duties spring from love both to God and man therefore both Tables are included in love And when the Apostle would set downe the qualification of those that shall enjoy these things he sayth they are for those that love him Because it stirres up to all dutie and addes a sweet qualification to every duty and makes it acceptable and to rellish with God it stirres up to doe and qualifies the actions that come from love to bee accepted All duties to man spring from love to man and love to man from love to God it is the affection that stirres up the dutie and stirres up the affection fit for the dutie it stirres up to doe the thing and to do all in love Whatsoever wee doe to God or man it must bee in love all that God doth to us it is in love hee chuseth us in love and doth every thing in love and all that wee doe to God it must be in love Therfore he names no other affection but this because it is
and strength of our affections with all my strength bee a man what hee will be if hee bee a Magistrate with the strength of his magistracy if he be a minister with the strength of his ministeriall calling in any â—â—ndition I must love him with al that that condition inableth me to For it is a commanding affection and being so it commands all within and without to give content to the person loved it commands the wit to devise and the memorie to retaine good things it commands joy and delight it commands anger to remove hindrances and so all outward actions love commands the doing of all things it sets all on worke It is a most active affection it is like to fire it is compared to it it sets all on worke and commands all that man is able to doe Therefore those that studie not in all their indeavours according to their callings and places according to every thing that God hath intrusted them with to please God and to honour him in their conditions they love not God What a shame is it that when God hath given us such a sweet affection as love that hee should not have our love againe when wee make our selves happy in loving him He is happy in his owne love the father Sonne and holy Ghost but when hee intends to make us happy it is a shame that wee should not bestow our affections upon him Much might bee sayd to this purpose for the triall of our selves whether we love God or no. Let us not then forget these things for it is the command both of the old and new Testament they run both upon love I give you a new Command sayth Christ and yet it is no new command but old and ordinarie But it is commanded now in the Gospell that is it is renewed by new experiments of Gods love in Christ that we should love him as hee hath loved us which is wonderfully that wee should love him and love one another And all this is in this affection as we see when the holy Ghost would set out the disposition and qualification of such as those great things are prepared for that neither eye hath seen nor care heard nor hath entred into the heart of man hee sets it downe by this They are for those that love him FINIS SERMON the fourth 1 COR. 2. 9. As it is written eye hath not seene nore care heard nor hath entred into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them that love him THat which hath already been sayd should force us to begge the Spirit of God to teach the heart to teach us the things themselves the inside of them for a spirituall holy man hath a spirituall knowledge of outward things of the creatures hee fees another manner of thing in the creature then other men doe As another man hath a naturall knowledge of spirituall things so a holy man hath a spirituall knowledge even of the ordinary Workes of God and rayseth and extracts a quintessence out of them that a worldly man cannot see to glorifie God and to buyld up his faith in the sense of Gods favour c. This I adde by the way to that But the highest performance of this that there are things provided for Gods people that neither eye hath seene nor eare hath heard c. It is reserved for another World for the promises of the Gospell have then their fulfilling indeed These words are true of the state of the Gospell here now but they have their accomplishment in Heaven for whatsoever is begun here is ended there peace begun here is ended there joy that is begunne here it shal bee ended there Communion of Saints that is begun here it shall be ended there Sanctification that is begun here it shall be ended there so all graces shall be perfect and all promises performed then That is the time indeed when God shall discover things that neither eye hath seene nor eare heard c. In the meane time let us learne to beleive them and to live by faith in them that theâ—e are such things And GOD resetves not all â—or another World but gives his Children a tast of those things before hand to comfort thâ—m in their distresses in this world as indeed there is nothing in this world of greater use and comfort to rayse them then the beginnings of Heaven upon earth a little peace joy in the holy ghost will make a man swallow all the discontents in the world Now God is so far good to us as that he lets us have somâ— drops of these things before hand to rayse up our spirits that by a tast we may know what great things hee hath reserved for us but of these things and the use of them I spake before We came then to speake of the qualificatioÌ„ of the persons For them that love him Not that we love God first and then God prepares these things for us but God prepares them and acquaints us what he meanes to doe with us and then we love him A christian knowes before what title he hath in Christ to Heaven and then he works he knowes Christ hath wrought salvation for him and then he workes out his salvation in a course tending to salvation in a course tending to salvation for there must be working in a course tending to the possession of salvation that CHRIST hath purchased wee must not worke and thinke by it to merit Heaven wee know wee have Heaven and those great things in the Title of Christ and then wee fall on loving and working There is a cleane contrary order betweene us and those mercinaries they invert the order of God for for whom God hath prepared these things hee discovers them to the eye of faith and then faith works by love this I adde by the way Now he sets downe this description of those persons for whom these excellent things are prepared by this affection of love by this grace of love as being the fittest for that purpose to describe a Christian. Faith is not so fit because it is not so discernable we may know our love when wee cannot know our Faith Oft times those that are excellent Christians they doubt whether they beleive or no but aske them whether they love God and his truth and children or no oh yes they doe Now God intending to comfort us sets out such an affection as a Christian may best discerne for of all affections we can discerne best of our love But to come to the affection it selfe there are 3. things in love There is the Affection Passion Grace of love wee speake of the grace here The affection is naturall The passion is the excesse of the naturall affection when it over flowes its bound Grace is the rectifying of the naturall affection and the elevating and raysing it up to a higher object then nature can pitch on The Spirit of God turnes nature into grace and workes corruption and
his goodnesse and the streaming of it our to the Creature The whole Earth is full of the goodnesse of the Lord. What are all the Creatures but Gods goodnesse Wee can see nothing but the goodnesse of God what is all the Creatures but Deus explicatus God unfolded to our senses he offers himselfe to our bodies and soules all is Gods goodnesse And then see this goodnesse fitted to us it is a fit goodnesse that comes from God he is good and doth good and so fitly he proportions his goodnesse for hee hath fitted every part of us soule and body with goodnesse all the senses with goodnesse what doe we see but goodnesse in colours What doe we heare but his good in those delights that come that way We tast and feele his goodnesse against the cold we have cloathing in hunger wee have food in all necessities in all exigences wee have fit considerations of God for all necessities whatsoever outward But then for our soules what food hath he for that the death of CHRIST his owne sonne to feed our soules The soule is a spirituall substance and hee thought nothing good enough to feed it but his own sonne wee feed on Gods love in giving CHRIST to death and on CHRISTS love in giving himselfe to death The soule being continually troubled with the guilt of some sinne or other it feeds on this it is nourished with CHRIST every day more and more especially at the Sacrament Thus we see how GOD hath fitted his goodnesse to us And then in particular dangers how hee fits us with severall deliverances so seasonably as we may see Gods love in it Then as GODS goodnesse is great and fit so it is neare us it is not a goodnesse a farre off but GOD followes us with his goodnesse in whatsoever condition wee bee hee applies himselfe to us and hee hath taken upon him neare relations that hee might bee neare us in goodnesse hee is a Father and every where to maintaine us Hee is a Husband and every where to helpe hee is a friend and every where to comfort and counsell so his love it is a neare love therefore hee hath taken upon him the nearest relations that we may never want God and the testimonies of his love And then againe this goodnesse of God which is the object of love it is a free goodnesse meerely from himselfe and an overflowing goodnesse and an everlasting goodnesse it is never drawn drie hee loves us unto life everlasting he loves us in this World and followes us with signes of his love in all the parts of us in body and soule till hee hath brought body and soule to Heaven to enjoy himselfe for ever there These and such like considerations may serve to stirre us up to love God and direct us how to love God Benefits will worke upon a beast as it is Isaiah â— Heare oh Heavens and hearken oh earth the Oxe knoweth his owner and the Asse his Masters Cribbe but my people have forgotten mee Proud men become baâ—er and more brute then the very brutes benefits will moove the very brute Creatures So I say these favours to us in particuler should moove us except wee will bee more brute then the brutes themselves Especially to moove us all consider some particularities of favours to us more then to others for specialties doe much increase love and respect Consider how God hath followed thee with goodnesse outwardly when others have beene neglected Thou hast a place in the World and Riches and Friends when many other excellent persons want all these There are some common favours to all Christians as the favour wee have in CHRIST forgivenesse of sins Sanctification and such other favours But there bee some specialties of Devine providence whereby it appeares that GODS providence hath watched over us in some particulars more then others those bee speciall ingagements And is there any of us that cannot say that GOD hath dealt specially in giveing them some mercie more then to others I adde this therefore to the rest Againe to helpâ— us to stirre up this grace of love consider those examples of loveing of those that have then lived in former times take David and Paul and other holy men David wonders at his owne love Lord how doe I love thy Law And have wee not more cause comparing the grounds of our affection when wee have more then they in those times What did hee wonder at his love of GODS Law when the Canon was so short they had onely Moses and some few Bookes and wee have the Canon inlarged wee have both the old and new Testament shall not wee say much more how doe I love thy Law thy Gospell and Divine truthes This should shame us when they in darke times so loved the truth of GOD and wee see all cleare and open and yet are cold Likewise it is good in this case to converse with those that are affectionate as face answereth face so spirit answers spirit as Iron sharpneth Iron so one sharpens another Conversation with cold ones will make one cold For the abundance of iniquitie the love of many shall wax cold Conversing with sinfull cold people casts a dampe upon us but let us labour if we will bee wise for our soules when wee finde any coldnesse of affection to converse with those that have sweete and heavenly affections it will mervaylously worke upon our hearts I might say much this way to stirre us up and direct us how to love God But indeed nothing will so much inable us to love God as a new nature nature will love without provocation the fire will burne because it is fire and the water will moysten because it is water and a holy man will love holy things because hee is holy a spirituall soule will love spirituall things because hee is spirituall therefore besides all adde this that our natures bee changed more and more that they be sanctified and circumcised as God hath promised I will circumcise your hearts that yee may love me There must bee a circumcised heart to love God wee must bee sanctified to love God for if nature bee not renewed there cannot bee this new Commandement of love Why is love called a new Commandement and an old Commandement It is called old for the Letter because it was a command in Moses time thou shalt love the Lord with all thy soule But now it is a new Commandement because there is abundance of spirit given by CHRIST and the spirit sanctifies us and writes this affection in our hearts It was written in stone before but now it is written in our hearts by the spirit And now there are new incentives and motives to love since CHRIST came and gave himselfe for us new incouragments and provocations to love therefore it is a new Commandement from new grounds and motions that are more a great deale then before Christ. But there must be a new heart to obey this new command of love