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
degrees of Love might be considered in a twofold respect 1. In respect of other Lovers of Christ of which one might have degrees of Love that is sincere more and above what another man might have whose Love is yet sincere And of this More or degree of Love is Christ's question to Peter to be understood John 21.15 Simon son of Jonas Lovest thou me more than these viz. Other Disciples love me where the comparative More respects THESE as other Agents in Love or Lovers and therefore Peter answers in the Positive I love thee not in the Comparative More than they all do love thee But the Comparative More doth not respect THESE as the Object of Peter's Love as if Christ had asked Lovest thou me more than thou lovest these To which doubtless Peter could have readily replied Yea Lord I love thee more than I love these or all men or things in this world And in this sense God doth not damn any for want of more degrees of Love or other Graces 2. Degrees of Love might be considered in respect of the things loved or the object of our Love That the word More means Do you love Christ more than the World Sin Self or do you love These more than Christ And then I say this Doctrine is so far from being offensive that I judge it is of great concernment and necessary for every man that hath a Soul that must be damned or saved to know and understand For I do not fear to say for want of these degrees of Love whereby a man's Love is less to Christ than to the World and Sin and carnal Self God will surely damn him Doth this grate upon any Christian ears That a man that loveth not Christ more than Sin and more than Pleasures and Profits hath no sincere Love to Christ nor shall be saved by him Surely such a man would judge in another case if he had a Wife that loves him yet loves another man more than himself she had not sincere Conjugal Love to him 3. The plainest fullest and I hope no offensive Answer shall be the Words of Christ himself shewing wherein sincerity of Love to him doth consist Mat. 10.37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me 38. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me 39. He that findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it And all the love to all inferior things in comparison of the degrees of love we should have to Christ more than unto these is rather Hatred than Love Luke 14.26 If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple What Interpretation can these words bear This That no real Disciple of Christ may or ought to have true love to Father or Mother Brother or Sister Wife and Children or to his own Life Absurd and irreligious sense being contrary to the Law of Nature and Christ's constant Doctrine in his Word What then This That a true Disciple of Christ must and ought to love these things less than Christ and Christ with more till they be prevailing degrees and Love in the heart to Christ be like the Biass to the Bowl that make it incline more to Christ than to all other things This is that which is asserted and being the sense of Christ's Words I hope will not offend any that have more Love to Christ than to all these things and for the rest that love these things more than Christ they shall find that for this very thing Christ with them will be offended SECT IX The Eighth Requisite in Love to Christ EIghthly This Love chuseth Christ for himself and for the Excellency of his own Person tho not with the exclusion of our own Benefit and Salvation by him Our own Benefits by Christ might be looked at by the returning soul at first as ordine prima but not quoad dignitatem praecipua ultima The Soul might first be allured and drawn to look after Christ and to love him by the consideration of the matchless Good and Benefits it might have by him which the convinced sinner seeth he can find in no other but in process of time and in his progress in the way to Heaven he learns and sees that Excellency and Beauty in Christ that he is in himself more amiable than all the Objects of his former Love To ask therefore Whether we are to love Christ for himself or for his Benefits we have by him is to propound a question which yet I have not observed in the Scripture nor disjunctively answered therein for one is subordinate to the other and subordinata non sunt opposita nec pugnant I am to love Christ for himself and for the Goodness Excellency and Amiableness of his own Person and I am to love Christ for the good I have received by him and for the benefits I hope further for his sake to be made partaker of and the one is an help unto the other Though I am to love Christ more for himself than for my advantage by him yet in loving of him I do not conceive I am to cast away the consideration of the benefits by him As we should not put the seeking of God's Glory and our own Salvation in opposition but in subordination tho God's Glory and the pleasing of his Will be the ultimate end and our Salvation to be sought by us in order thereunto Wherefore in seeking after an evidence of Grace and Title to Heaven I think it is a needless and unwarrantable puzzling of our selves and that which hath sorely afflicted some gracious persons and filled them with unnecessary doubts and fears and torments of mind to demand of our selves Whether we could be content to be damn'd to go to Hell to suffer everlasting Torments and the burning fiery flaming Wrath of God poured out upon the damned so that God may be thereby glorified I shall forbear to judge the state of my Soul by this as a Character of Grace and Preaching of it unto others till some shall shew me this is propounded in the Gospel as a Condition of the Pardon of my Sin and the Salvation of my Soul which hitherto I have not observed For how can I earnestly desire to be Saved and yet be willing and content to be Damned Long to be with him and yet content to be for ever separated from him I do find God threatens men with Hell to awaken them to look after Heaven and deliverance from Hell but I do not find God propounding as a condition of Salvation to be content to go to Hell that we might be received up to Heaven That I leave and loathe my sin repent and turn to God believe and love him
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