naughty spirit who endure not broken spirits Doth Christ come suddenly into the heart truely humbled and prepared Let us trie then and take a taste of the spirits of such men that are not able to beare nor endure the presence of poore broken hearted sinners If the servant will not lie for the masters advantage and if the child leaue his base courses and will not give a carnall father content according to his mind marke how their spirits rise against such men their hearts rise with marvellous desperate indignation against such men they cannot thinke of them with any quiet they cannot brook the sight of them if it be a servant never so loose and vile hee is regarded but the humble child is trampled upon and they say to him You had best goe to your holy brethren and to the company of such and such precise ones This is the undoubted argument of a gracelesse spirit either Christ erres or else thou art out of the way either Christ is to be blamed for his practice or thou Doth he come to such as are humbled and art thou weary of them Thou art a gracelesse soule and an enemy to the Lord of life When the people of Israel began to speake of going into the wildernesse to sacrifice to the Lord their God they did stinke and were abominable in the eyes of Pharaoh and the Egyptians indeed the Egyptians did alwayes dislike them Exod. 5.21 but now they were an abomination to them This was nothing else but a type Pharaoh is the Devill and this Egyptian servitude is our spirituall bondage under sinne How doth thy heart stand towards these poore soules Art thou carried with indignation against them It is an argument of a heart void of grace and that thou art an Egyptian to this day therefore the Lord will requite thee in thy owne kind and that thou art now weary of their society and art not able to live with them and art loath to be seene amongst them and darest not shew thy selfe to come within the compasse of a broken heart lest thy drunkken companions revile thee for the same and say art turned a Puritan now will you bee of their company and then thou swearest thou knowest them not This is a shrewd signe thou shalt never enioy the company of those poore Saints in glory Vse 3 The third use is a ground of instruction and we hence learne how to make choice of our companions Chuse the broken-hearted for companions Learne of our Saviour the broken hearted sinners are the best for society in the world and therefore reioyce thou in their company Let us not thinke much to come to such as Christ comes to let us not thinke that the basenesse of their persons or the meannesse of their estates will be any cause for us why we should discard or disdaine their company Be sure that thy soule bee farre from this carnall distemper Happily thy carnall friend will say Thou wilt disgrace thy person to keepe company with such as those are Make answer for thy selfe and against their face and say They are my betters yea the Lord Iesus Christ blessed for ever keeps company with them and shall not I doe it too The Lord Iesus desires no better company and shall I goe any further If he bee a sound broken hearted sinner it s no matter what his condition be As the Apostle Saint Iohn saith That you also may have fellowship with us 1 Iohn 1.3 Why may some say what great matter is that The Apostle saith our fellowship is no small matter for it is with God the Father and with Iesus Christ There is never a poore soule though hee goe barely and fare meanely but if his heart bee truely humbled his fellowship is with Iesus Christ which is no little matter Zech. 8.23 when the Lord had honoured the Iewes there came many citizens to them and took hold of the skirt of a Iew and said We will go with you for we have heard that God is with you So doe thou Dost thou see a broken hearted man lay hold on his skirts dwell in that house if thou canst and say I will liue with thee for ever God is with thee nay the Lord is in thee yea the company of an humbled soule is even a corner of heaven here upon earth It is so in truth and therefore let it be so in your judgements What is it to be in heaven Wee shall be ever with the Lord this is to be in heaven 1 Thes 4.17 Is this to be in heaven Then wheresoever thou art thou art with Christ thou art in heaven Whensoever thou art in the company of a broken hearted sinner thou art with Christ and therefore in heaven and whensoever thou commest into their company Christ Iesus will give thee the meeting Your fashionmungers count it a matter of credit to have Court fashions this is the Court fashion and the Court is where Christ our Lord and King is Christ dwels in such a house and in such a heart and therefore as thou dost hope to be with Christ for ever rejoyce to be with such persons this is the onely way that a man must take to chuse his company Doe good to all neighbours and all Christians and hope well of all but reioyce especially in those whose hearts are truely broken in the sight and presence of the Lord. Vse 4 4. It is a ground of thankfulnesse to all that are truely humbled before God Be thankfull for this great respect of Christ to thy poore soule Thus you ought to have your hearts stored with thankfulnesse nay to stand and wonder at the goodnesse and kindnesse of God I would have a man spend all his time this way When the Lord Iesus hath gone through many Countries and passed by many rich and honourable and great ones of the world and that he should looke in at a poore family and knocke at a poore mans doore and that hee should looke in at a poore wretched heart of a wife or of a child this is marvellous mercy If a great person especially a Prince or Monarch did looke into a poore mans house or come to visit a man in prison what would the world say Oh the like was never heard of the King himselfe in his owne person lighted there and staid there and went into the dungeon and conferred with him a great while Men would bee besides themselves if they had this favour from the King In Luke 1.43 when Mary was with child of the Lord and came to visit Elizabeth shee said to Mary Whence is this to mee that the mother of my Lord should come to mee I see no ground nor reason for this there is no worth on my part that I should looke for such favour Now if shee were so ravished with the presence of Mary the mother of Christ what maist thou bee then in regard of the presence of Christ himselfe that is come to lodge in thy
will say How doe you gather the doctrine out of the Text what ground have you for the doctrine out of the words of the Text Answ Yes it is one of the maine passages of the Text it was the scope and purpose and sending of Iohn the Baptist for the Text saith He shall goe before him in the spirit and power of Elias Who shall goe before Iesus Christ Iohn the Baptist How shall hee be fitted He shall have the spirit and power of Elias And what shall he doe He shall goe before him in the spirit and power of Elias to turne the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdome of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord Luke 1.17 The Lord prepares a fit workeman for this worke Iohn was to prepare a people for the Lord and therefore hee comes in the spirit and power of Elias That is hee had a wonderfull abilitie bestowed upon him by God whereby he might deliver the Word of God to mens hearts so powerfully as thereby he might fit and prepare them for the receiving of the Lord Iesus and hee made a company of desperate sinners to quake yea hee made Herod who was a sinfull wretch to stand in feare of him So then we see God fitted Iohn with a powerfull ministerie with the spirit and power of Elias and being so fitted of God hee was sent for the purpose to prepare mens hearts for the receiving of the Lord Iesus And therefore this must be a speciall meanes soundly to prepare mens hearts for the entertaining of the Lord Iesus Christ So the doctrine is cleere and plaine out of the Text. Ier. â—3 29 the Lord there speaking of his Word compares it to fire in the 28. verse the Lord was speaking of dreamers There are a company of dreamers saith he but let him that hath a dreame tell a dreame and hee that hath my Word let him speake my word faithfully Is not my word like fire ver 29. there is the power of the Word Simile Looke as it is with the Gold smith his mettall is full of drosse and hee must trie it and clense it and purifie it in the fire before it bee fit to make a vessell of so it is with the drossie soules of sinners every heart hath abundance of drosse for many sinfull abominations harbour in the poore soule of a man It must be a powerfull ministerie that is able by the power of the Lord to set fire on the hearts of men to melt their soules to pull downe their haughtie spirits thereby to fit and prepare their soules for the receiving of the Lord Iesus Christ that so they might receive comfort and consolation from him In Hosea 6.5 it is a phrase wee shall meet withall for there the Text saith I have hewen them by my Prophets The Church is compared to a Vineyard the godly to the Branches the Word to the pruning and cutting of these Branches As it was with the building of the materiall Temple of Solomon there were many sturdy Oakes and tall Cedars that were to be hewen and fashioned before they would be fit for the building so it must bee here with the trees of righteousnesse our sinfull soules some of us have sturdy hearts like Oakes and some have proud and lofty hearts like the tall Cedars of Lebanon these stout hearts and lofty spirits must bee cut downe by the axe of Gods word and levelled and fitted to lay hold upon and bee settled unto the Lord Iesus Christ Every mans soule especially those soules that belong to the election of grace are ground that must be tilled and plowed by the word of God their fallow grounds must be broken up before any seed of grace can be cast into their soules 1 Cor. 3 9. there the Apostle saith You are Gods husbandrie and therefore God by his word must plow up the weeds of sinne and corruption which are in you before he can sow the graces of his holy Spirit in your hearts And that place Acts 2.37 will make the Doctrine cleere and evident Saint Peter was a man of a stout and courageous spirit and hee spake home unto the Iewes hee tells them that God hath made that Iesus whom they crucified the Lord and Christ And when they heard these things saith the Text that is the word powerfully delivered and brought home to their soules they were pricked in their hearts and said Men and brethren what shall we doe Now they were prepared in some measure to seeke after salvation For the better understanding of this point two things are to be considered first what a powerfull ministerie is and wherein the power and efficacie of it consists secondly how this powerfull ministerie doth worke upon the soule to prepare it for Christ First what is this powerfull ministery 1. A powerfull Ministery consisteth in 3. things wherein doth the power of the ministerie and of Elias consist It is discovered in three particulars First in a particular application of the truth to the soules of men with courage When a faithfull Minister out of undauntednesse of spirit doth in a speciall and particular manner apply the Word vnto the soules of them over whom he is set this is a powerfull minâ—stery 1 Kings 18.21 there the ministery of Elias is mentioned for the Text saith Elias came unto all the people and said How long halt ye betweene two opinions If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal be God follow him It was in a time when people had departed from the Lord. Elias at this time did not come to one man alone in a corner and say You should doe well to consider of the case how it stands it is very desperate I would wish you to returne unto the Lord it will be your best course hee doth not doe thus but he came to all the people and marke how hee speakes If Baal be God follow him if the Lord be God follow him Away with this halting what neither hot nor cold A man cannot tell where to have you intend one thing or other if Baal be God why so if the Lord bee God so make something of it in this case thus hee spake to all the people saith the Text. And we shall observe the same in Iohn Baptist that had the power and spirit of Elias Matth. 3.7 hee did not goe there behind the doore to speake but hee spake to the Pharisees and Sadduces after this manner O yee generation of vipers who hath forewarned you to flee from the wrath to come As if he had said You are they that opposed Christ and set your selues against the Gospell you have hardned your hearts you will not enter into heaven your selues not suffer others to enter in Why who hath forewarned you to flee from the wrath to come Neither is this a strange course or unprofitable for our Saviour Christ himselfe useth it in Mat 23.23 from thence to the
way and the God of heaven goe with thee this is a worke of God that will never leaue thee and it is a badge and a proper livery that the Lord Iesus gives onely to his Saints never a meere professor under heauen ever wore it nay there was never any hipocrite under heauen to whom God did intend it but onely those whom he hath effectually called and whom hee will save therefore though thou wantest all thou hast all to comfort thee in the want of all and thou maist say I can say little for Christ my tongue falters and my memory is weake yet the Lord knowes I loue the Lord Iesus 1 Ioh. 4.7 it is the incouragement that the Apostle gives saying Love one another for love commeth of God and every one that loveth is borne of God Indeed he presseth it in regard of the love to the brethren but the arguments serve for our purpose for if the loue of the brethren come from God then the loue of God is a more speciall worke of God Therefore can you plead thus with your hearts and say The time was Lord that this wretched sinfull carnall heart of mine could find no relish in the promises of grace and I could not bring this base heart to love the Lord Iesus Christ and the promise was wearisome to me but now I thanke God I can doe that which before I could not doe I thanke God that the promise of life and the light of Gods countenance is more to me now than all the contentments of the world surely I loue the Lord Iesus Christ And is not this of God Yes I warrant theee it is not of thy selfe thou hast beene taught from heaven it was not the schoole of the flesh and the world that taught thee this lecture it is from heaven and the Spirit of the Father hath over-shadowed thee in his promise and hath kindled this sparkle of loue in thee and thou hast that which is sound and true therefore bee comforted and reioyce in it thou canst say more than any man under heaven can say that hath not this sound love in his heart And likewise blessednesse And as this is a ground of comfort so also it is a ground of blessednesse Rom. 8.28 All things worke for the bâ—st to those that loue God Me-thinkes the Apostle speakes of such a love as is wrought by the Spirit of the Father in our vocation they worke for the best to those that are called according to his purpose he minded well towards them and called them from the love of the world And therefore since nothing can harme thee goe thy way and let nothing dismay thee nor discourage thee nay goe away ever cheered I charge you David desired no more but what God was wont to doe to his children that loved his name Doe to mee saith the Text as thou usest to doe to those that loue and feare thy Name Psal 119.132 I know thou lovest them that love thee and wilt save and glorifie them in the end I desire no more but this Doe as thou usest to doe to those that love thy Name Be quieted with thy childs part thy lot is fallen into a marvellous faire ground David a King desired no more and if thou hast so much as hee had it is enough Ob. Oh but some will say this is all the difficulty if a man had this love which came from God effectually calling him it were enough and a man might have comfort in it but there is a great deale of false love and false ioy in the world therefore how shall I know whether mine be any otherwise than theirs that I may not bee deceived as they are How may I know if this be of the right stamp For if it be right love God will owne it Answ Notes of true love to Christ Now for the answer to this question let every man put his love vpon the triall and wee will say no more then that which we have ground for from the doctrine delivered Therefore examine thy loue and thy joy thus Whether dost thou welcome Christ and grace according to the worth of them Now marke this if I prove I love God then there will be joy there too for they both grow upon one root onely this joy hath a little more of the sweetnesse of Gods love in it Now whether we welcome Christ according to the worth of it it will appeare by these five particulars First observe the roote and rise from whence thy love came 1. Triall consider this and weigh it sadly for it is of great difficulty yet it is never failing and it is the narrowest search that I know of therefore looke well to it if it come from the right mint it is currant You know it is the priviledge of Kings and Princes Simile that all the coine that comes from his Mint and is coined with his stamp is warrantable but if there bee any other Mint the King will not allow of it but rather punish him that did it lust so it is with this love it is the priviledge of the Lord Iesus Christ the Sonne of Gods love to mint and to coine love that may bee currant love indeed that hee may take for good payment Therefore doth thy love come from the Spirit of the Father then it is onely fit to close with a Saviour with the Father and the Spirit and so consequently the Father allowes it Great men must bee entertained answerable to their persons Another for such a man to have poore and leane diet it is not meet for him the greatest delicates that can be doe beseeme such men of place So this leane and earthly and naturall love that growes onely out of thy owne parts and abilities or whatsoever it is it is but leane love and poore provision and suites not with God the Father nor Iesus Christ Base love and base things for base men and meane love for meane things and naturall love for naturall things but would you entertaine the Father from heaven and a spirituall Saviour then you must let your love be spirituall to welcome a blessed Saviour This besuits him Simile and otherwise he will not be entertained As it is with flowers the flowers that are of speciall planting as Ieremy speaks of the Iewes and the flowers that are inoculated by the hand of the cunning Gardiner as the Provice Rose or the like there is much care and paines about them but your ordinary hedge row Roses there is no care taken for them Iust so it is with the worke of Gods grace and all other common graces in the world there is a provice love and joy that is a love that comes from the planting and a joy that comes from the inoculating of the spirit This provice love and joy is wrought by the Spirit of God and this makes a sweet savour in the nostrils of Almighty God and of the Lord Iesus Christ and the Lord
THE SOULES IMPLANTATION INTO THE NATURALL OLIVE By T.H. Carefully corrected and much enlarged with a Table of the Contents prefixed JAMES 1.21 Receive with meeknesse the ingraffed Word which is able to save your soules LONDON Printed by R. Young and are to be sold by Fulke Clifton on New-Fish-street-hill 1640. THE CONTENTS TWo wayes God prepareth the heart for Christ Pag. 1 It is also prepared by contrition and humiliation 2 Doct. None but a broken heart is an house for Christ 3 Two lets of faith removed by brokennesse of heart 6 By faith the soule goeth out to another for all-sufficiencie 11 Use 1. Reproofe to them that would have comfort without brokennesse of heart 15. and them that dislike broken-heartednesse in others 18 Use 2 To get comfort begin in sorrow 22 Use 3 Comfort to the broken-hearted in two respects 25 Doct. The heart must first be prepared for Christ 31 Preparation for Christ standeth in three things 35 Use 1. Those reproved who thinke to have mercie and heaven upon a sudden 40 Use 2 A miserable estate to live in the old sinnes 47 Use 3 Prepare for Christ or thinke not to enjoy him 55 Motives to prepare for Christ 56 Doct. The Ministery a speciall meanes to prepare us for Christ 68 A powerfull ministery consisteth in three things 71 How a powerfull Ministery workes upon the heart to prepare it for Christ 79 Affliction prepares the heart for the Word the Word for God 88 Use 1. Much fault in Ministers that their peoples hearts are not fitted for Christ 84 Use 2 Fearfull is their estate whom a powerfull Ministerie workes not upon 88 Use 3 Let the Word be powerfull to prepare thy heart for Christ 90 Two things keep from Christ 95 What ingraffing into Christ is 99 Doct. Christ delayes not to come into an humbled heart 106 Use 1. Great comfort to each humbled soule 114 Use 2 They are of a naughtie spirit who endure not broken spirits 118 Use 3 Chuse the broken-hearted for companions 120 Use 4 Be thankefull for this great respect of Christ to thy poore soule 122 Use 5 They that would have Christ dwell in them must be willing to be humbled 125 Christ neare the soule yet not discerned for foure reasons in us 133. and for three reasons in Christ 147 Doct. Christ takes possession of every humbled soule 157 Three wayes he disposeth the heart to himselfe 168 Use 1. Reproofe of them that keepe Christ out of possession 171 Use 2 Give all to Christ whose it is 176 Doct. Love and joy by the Spirit wrought in a broken heart for embracing mercie as it deserves 180 The reason of Gods order in working these graces 187 Gods promise the ground of our love and how 195 His love to us begets love in us toward him and how 201 Use 1. Nature breeds no love to Christ 206 Saints love not duly because they rely not on the promise 211 Use 2 Comfort to them that love Christ 213. and blessednesse 216 Notes of true love to Christ 217 Use 3 Reproofe of them that love not Christ in truth 231. sorts of them 238 Enmitie against Christ shewed three wayes 240 Glozing neuters described and shamed 243 Hypocrites enemies to Christ foure sorts of them 246 247 c. Discoveries of not loving Christ 250 Hee thas wrangles against truth never loved Christ 2. arg 254 Expression of sorrow for sin limited 258 Continuall sorrow as needfull as continuall beleeving 261 Use 4 Love the Lord Jesus in sinceritie 272. meanes 273 Three hinderances of loving Christ ibid. 274 Three things in Christ to make us love him 282 Three things done by Christ for a sinner though as yet hee want assurance 286 Two meanes to bring our hearts and the promises together 291 Doct. In greatest wants true Christians have cause enough to rejoyce in God 300 Use 1. Reteine comfort in God whatsoever thou wantest 302 Use 2 Reproof to them that grow uncomfortable for crosses 304 Use 3 Make this sure God is the God of my salvation 305 Six meanes to rejoyce in evill times ibid. Doct. The sorrowful seed-time of true Christians in the exercises of humiliation and mortification yeelds them a rich and joyfull harvest 312. 313 Causes of true joy assured by mourning 314 Use 1. Sharpe Preachers make you gainers ibid. 315 Use 2 Enemies helpe the joy of Christians 315 Use 3 Esteeme none by present grievances 316 Use 4 Sow still though in teares ibid. Use 5 Be patient in suffering for God 317 Use 6 Comfort in death our owne or friends 318 Use 7 Be painfull in thy calling ibid. Use 8 Encouragement to repent of sinne and renew our repentance 319 THE BROKEN HEART ESAY 57.15 For thus saith the high and loftie One that inhabiteth eternity whose Name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place that is in heaven which is his throne and I will dwell with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the heart of the humble and the heart of the contrite ones THere are two maine parts of the preparative worke for Christ First the manner of the worke on Gods part and this discovers it selfe in these two particulars 1. In proposing Christ in the Ministerie of the Gospell as the most beautifull object which the soule can view or affect Psal 2.12 Cant. 5.9 with 6.1 2. That God doth by an holy kind of violence plucke the sinner from sinne to himselfe as in that place Iohn 6.44 No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him The second is on our part a frame and temper of the heart that God workes upon us by this holy kind of violent drawing This discovers it selfe in these two particulars 1 Contrition 2 Humiliation For the handling of these two wee have chosen this place of Scripture And I intend not to trade with every particular in the Verse but so much in it as fitteth my intendment in hand Expos That which I aime at is in the middle of the Verse I dwell with him that is of a broken heart Give me leave to open the words The great God of heaven that inhabiteth eternity in glory for the comfort of every poore broken-hearted sinner Gods two houses saith hee will dwell with him The Lord hath but two standing houses the one is in heaven in glorie the other is every broken heart and every shivered soule How he dwels in the heart Now how doth God dwell in the heart of a poore sinner The Apostle Ephes 3.17 tells us Christ dwells in our hearts by faith and it implies the constant abode of Christ by his Spirit in the soule being received and entertained by faith So that first there must bee a broken heart before there can bee faith or before Christ will dwell in our hearts to our comfort Consider what a kind of heart it must be wherein God will dwell It must bee an humble and a shivered spirit
Hee dwells in heaven by his glory yet though thou wert as low as hell in thy selfe God will come and take possession of thy heart marvellous graciously In the words so farre as they concerne my purpose the thing mainly observable is the necessitie and excellencie of this broken and humble soule It is the only receptacle of the Lord Iesus Christ If you will have Christ and grace to dwell in you you must get humble spirits Doct. So the Doctrine in generall from hence is this The soule must bee broken and humbled None but the broken heart is an house for Christ before the Lord Iesus Christ can or will dwell therein and before faith can be wrought therein There must bee contrition before there will bee an inhabitation of Christ in the soule As men specially great men will have their houses ayred before they come to lie there so this contrition is the ayring or sweeping of the soule that so it may be inhabited Foretold This was typified and foretold in the old law When the people of Israel were to goe into the Land of Canaan which shadowed the kingdome of grace here and of glory hereafter they must goe through the vast terrible troublesome and roaring wildernesse and through those streights and extreme hazzards before God brought them to the Land of Promise Whereby the Lord typified thus much unto us that before the soule can bee truely possessed of Christ it must goe through these rockie wayes of contrition and humiliation Hos 2.14 Therefore behold I will allure her and bring her into the wildernesse Ad aperiendam spem Hieron and speake comfortably to her And in vers 15. I will give her the valley of Achor for the dore of hope and shee shall sing there as in the dayes of her youth and as in the dayes when she came out of Egypt Compare that 15. verse with Ioshua 7.25 The sloodgate of sorow a dore of hope The doore of hope is nothing else but the expectation of all good things from God which hee hath promised And here remember the story of Achor Achan had stollen the wedge of gold and the Babylonish garment and therefore God departed away from the Campe. Now the Lord pursued him and caused the people to stone him with stones and they called the place The Valley of Achor to this day .i. The Valley of trouble and affliction The Lord hath reference to his former dealing As he did before in the time of Ioshua hee first subdued Achan and then hee gave them successe against all their adversaries As if he had said I will give them the Valley of contrition and humiliation for the Gate to all comfort and sweet refreshing here and hereafter So you must goe through the wildernesse to this Valley of Achor before you can come to this doore of hope to this Land of Canaan you must stone these corruptions of yours which have troubled the Spirit of God and then there is a doore of hope set open for you And as it was foretold so it was the end why the Lord Iesus Christ was sent as Isa 61.12 The Spirit of the Lord is upon mee saith Isaiah in the stead of Christ because the Lord hath annointed mee to preach glad tydings unto the meeke hee hath sent mee to bind up the broken-hearted to proclaime libertie to the captives and to comfort all that mourne Nay 2. Accomplished the Lord hath not onely sent Christ to this end and promised this but he hath done as hee did promise And this is the condition upon which he hath promised and given all comfort to his people as in Psal 34.18 The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit Hee is neere them to comfort them and to assist them and deliver them and thus the Saints of God have found it as 2 Chron. 33.12 where the Text saith that Manasses humbled himselfe mightily before the Lord and hee found peace to his soule and the Lord pardoned his sinne Hee was a mighty sinner and had mighty rebellions and mighty pride of heart and therefore the Lord laid him as low as the dust though hee were a King As hee had beene a mighty sinner so hee was now a mighty patterne of humiliation and the Lord had mercy on him Two reasons of the point The reasons and grounds of Gods dispensation this way are these two especially 1 Whether we consider the receiving of faith and Christ with it or 2 The keeping and maintaining of faith being received In both these it is plaine that God will breake our hearts before hee gives us Christ or faith I say it is necessary in the way of his providence Reas 1 1 It is an especiall meanes to make way for faith and for Christ because all the lets and impediments which hinder the entrance of faith into the soule are removed by humiliation and brokennesse of spirit Two let ts of faith removed by brokennesse of heart Now besides many other bolts and springs as in a locke there are many springs and little bolts besides the maine bolt so I say there are two maine bolts which make the soule uncapable of faith which being removed faith will come into the soule The first let which is an hinderance to the worke of faith is this 1 Lett. To seek contentment in the naturall condition there is a settled kind of contentment which the soule taketh up in its owne estate and the heart of a sinfull creature sitteth downe well apaid in that sinfull miserable condition wherein he is and hee desireth no other nay hee would have no change in this kind This is one maine bolt which stoppeth the way and keepeth faith from comming into the heart This is the frame of every mans heart naturally So we see in Deut. 29.19 And if it come to passe that when hee heareth the words of this curse that he blesse himselfe in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walke in the imagination of mine owne heart or adde drunkennesse to thirst The Lord will not spare him but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoake against that man and all the curses that are written in this booke shall fall upon him and the Lord shall blot his name from under heaven People blesse themselves in their condition notwithstanding all the promises of blessing and threatning of judgement If any man have such a root of bitternesse in him and shall blesse himselfe in this condition and say I will promise my felfe an happy end let Moses threaten what he can I tell thee the wrath of the Lord shall smoake against that man See that notable place in Iob 21.14 It imports so much For they said to God Depart from us for wee desire not the knowledge of thy wayes that is wee are as we would be When wholsome counsels and exhortations are ministred namely that
can be transplanted from the old Olive into the true Olive God must first cut us off from our old sinnes by contrition and secondly pare us and fit us by humiliation and then wee are fit to be ingrafted into Christ Where these two graces are wrought the soule cannot be void of faith and as surely as God is in heaven hee will undoubtedly poure faith into the soule So the substance is this If by this brokennesse of heart and this contrition and humiliation of spirit the two maine barres and lets of faith are removed then it is necessary that God worke this in the soule But the first part is cleered and marvellous plaine and therefore the other cannot be denied If you will be in your sinnes and in yoâ—rselves you cannot be in Christ you cannot bee in your selves and in Christ too This is enough for the first argument and it is the life of the point 2. This brokennesse of heart is marvellous necessary Reas 2 because by this meanes faith is preserved For when the heart is truly broken there followes this thing The soule prizeth faith and Christ and is thankfull for the least mercy God giveth Hee that stands in need will be thankfull for any mercy or favour as in Psal 35.10 All my bones shall say Lord who is like unto thee Me thinkes I see David in his distresse besieged with many miseries and when the Lord had eased him and freed him see how hee reasons with himselfe O Lord the heart that thou hast healed this broken spirit that thou hast bound up nay all these bones which were once shattered all to pieces thou hast set them againe and they shall say Lord who is like unto thee As if hee had said Here is mercy indeed for mine heart hath found it and mine eye hath seene it and mine hands and all my bones can say Lord who is like unto thee Before he was burthened with his sins and now he prizeth mercy wonderfully One dramme of faith is worth a hundred thousand worlds to a weary burthened soule As it was with the Iewes they had a yeare of Iubilee wherein every servant was set free and every bondman and every debtour set at libertie this is nothing else but the yeare of the Gospell The acceptable yeare of the Lord Esa 91 2. and the glad tydings of Salvation that is offered to all in the same The Master or hee that lent the money cared not for this yerre but the servant and the borrowers they only longed for that yeare and for that day that they might be delivered So it is here with a poore soule he that never felt the burthen nor the bondage of sinne cares not for the glad tydings of the Gospell but the poore oppressed creature that hath beene in the house of bondage by Satan tempting and his owne sinfull heart plaguing him when the day of salvation is offered he receives it thankfully And as the soule prizeth grace so it will hardly part with it when it hath it because it was got with so much difficulty We use to say Lightly come lightly goe but when the soule hath gotten faith with so much difficulty and had many troubles of soule before ever God gave an assured evidence of his love and favour hee will not suffer sinne or Satan to plucke it away Oh it cost him many a heavie heart and many a troublesome day before he got a little mercy and shall hee now part with it for a little pleasure or profit that he will never doe Then it is very reasonable that God should wound a man and breake his heart to make him taste his meat and to relish mercy Thus you see the heart must bee broken and humbled before the Lord Christ will come to dwell therein Now what 's the Use Vse 1 The first Use is for reproofe Of reproofe to them that would have comfort without brokennesse of heart and it checks the opinion and practice of two sorts of people If this be Gods way that before he will come into the soule he must have the heart fitted and prepared the house must bee ayred then I say it confutes the conceits of a company of carnall persons that bee in the world 1. The meere civill Professour that would sleepe in a whole skinne hee could be content to have heaven and mercy and hee hopeth he is in the right way but this melting of the soule and this bruising of the heart is more than God requireth or more than God looketh for onely he hath invented a new way and a shorter cut to heaven than ever God revealed Hee thinkes some melancholy man only may bee troubled and perplexed but otherwise it is not that which God requireth at the hands of men And therefore after a sleepie kind of profession without any life or power or soundnesse he goes on Iob 21.13 They spend their dayes in ease saith the Text and in a moment goe downe to hell There are a world of poore sinners that are thus deluded and because God hath given them some restraining grace to keepe them within compasse therefore they goe on in a kind of chearfull contentednesse and thinke that all is well And when they come to their sicke-beds In sicknesse false comfort fayleth they have nothing to say for themselves nay we cannot force comfort upon them for then they flie out and say it is not for them And if wee tell them of what they have done and that they have made a faire profession and have prayed and done many duties and beene well accounted of and so forth see what they answer It is true I have done this or that but this is onely the outside but oh this heart of mine was never broken truely onely I reformed my selfe outwardly and made a profession indeed but the bottome was never truly laid As it is in sailing so it is in living Though a man have a faire calme day and see the Sunne yet this will not bring him to the haven he must have a wind to drive the ship So it is with many a sinfull creature in the world hee puts forth to Sea and he will needes goe to heaven and taketh a sweet kinde of sleepie lazie course and will reforme himselfe outwardly but his heart was never broken nor humbled hee will never be landed before hee was never tossed Tossed hee must bee and that with some violence too but this man that was never troubled shall never bee comforted I have observed it as it was in the materiall Temple which Solomon built all the stones were hewed and polished before they were put in the building so here Christ is the Temple and every true Christian is a stone for it as the Apostle Peter saith 1 Pet. 2.5 Ye also as liuely stones be made a spiritual house Will the stones come close together in any building except first they be hewed and fitted or wil the heart ever come to close with God
except it be humbled and broken so those knotty proud hearts of yours must be planed and hewed before you will rest upon God for mercy or yeeld obedience to him How farre God breaketh and humbleth we will shew afterward 2. Those reproved who dislike brokennesse of heart in others 2. This may fall heavie upon the brave Spirits and boone Gallants of the world that are not able to see and approve this brokennesse of heart in others they count it a womanish and weake kinde of disposition and make a mocke of this humility of heart and when God hath wounded and humbled a poore sinner they tread upon him and follow him with desperate disgraces reproaches and discouragements I need not mention their language in this case I wish wee were freed from them What say they And are you one of these broken hearts and tender consciences Take heed how you sinne for if you doe you must weepe out your eyes and mope out your dayes in a corner even for ever Good Lord is it possible that ever there should rest such inhumane desperate divellish prophannesse in the heart of any man upon earth Let mee presse a passage or two to this end that such as are guiltie of this sinne may take notice of it as there are too many of them in this age This argues a man almost forsaken of God and I had almost said reserved to everlasting destruction There is no greater token that God never purposeth any good to that man Consider that place in Psal 69.23 24 25 26 27 28. The holy Prophet makes many fearful imprecations as though he would pluck justice from heaven Let their eyes be darkened that they see not and make their loynes continually to shake Poure out thine indignation upon them and let thy wrathfull anger take hold upon them Oh what a strange passage is this that a man that was inward with God should rend the heavens to pull downe vengeance thence for such men Who are all these Surely they were some Divels incarnate and no men that Gods Prophet would pray against Let their habitation bee desolate and no man to dwell in their tents Why what 's the matter For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten and they talke to the griefe of those whom thou hast wounded Lord saith he adde iniquitie to their iniquity and let them not come into thy righteousnesse You that are guilty of this consider it Me-thinkes it might make the soule of a sinful man to shake at the hearing of it When God hath wounded the heart and awakened the conscience and the Lord hath spoken bitter things to his heart wilt thou grieve those that God hath smitten It is an argument of a man whom God hath devoted to destruction Were a mans eyes opened and his conscience awakened it would make him tremble Thou that hast bin an enemy to the Saints of God and because the Saints of God cry mightily and dare not doe as they have done to joyne with thee in thy wicked courses wilt thou I say reproach them and lay more burthen upon them and say What you have had Sermons enow Now you are wounded and you must mourne and you must be holy The God of heaven hath spoken this by his holy Prophet David who knew those wicked wretches Though I know none such it may be for the while yet no question there be such in the Congregation He that now makes a mocke of contrition shall breake for ever and he that will not now be broken shall have the wrath of God to burne in his heart for ever in hell The Lord in mercy breake the hearts of such men and make them to say Good Lord is this the brand of a reprobate and what shall my name be blotted out of the booke of life I have persecuted such and such a man and such a woman the Lord grieved him and I grieved him too His was the sorrow but mine was the sin and shall bee my shame for ever for ought I know Another passage is Deu. 25.17 18 19. When the people of Israel came from Egypt Amalek tooke advantage against them when they were weake Remember saith the Text what Amalek did unto thee by the way when you came forth of Egypt How hee smote thee when thou wert faint and weary Therefore it shall be when the Lord thy God shall give thee rest from all thine enemies that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven And 1 Sam. 15.2.3 seventy yeares after the Lord remembred that For the Text saith I remember what Amalek did to Israel how hee laid wait for him in the way when he came out of Egypt Now therefore goe and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have both infants and sucklings and oxen and the like What this Amalek did even so doe these wicked men When a poore soule is humbled and will forsake his sinnes and his wicked wayes and he groweth faint and feeble-hearted and wonderfull heavie burthened wilt thou now turne Amalek Wilt thou kill him that is now burthened under the heavie wrath of God and wilt thou now raile upon him Curse Amalek I will remember him saith God Take heed lest God remember thee and root out thee and thy posteritie from under heaven Nay the Lord himselfe and all the Saints doe rejoyce in the ruine and destruction of an ungodly wretch as in the example of Doeg Psalme 52.3 4 5. Thou lovest evill more than good and lying rather then to speake righteousnesse Selah Thou lovest all devouring words O thou false tongue God shall likewise destroy thee for ever hee shall take thee away and plucke thee out of thy dwelling place Selah Thou lovest grieving words Well God will serve thee in thy kind and when thou art in hell the righteous shall rejoyce over thee and say Lord this is he that grieved the hearts of such as were humbled this is he that had a proud herrt and scorned to be humbled and therefore shall everlastingly de damned The Divels themselves will rejoyce in thy torments and say What are you become like to us This is the man that scorned to bee humbled and to have his heart broken what is hee come downe to hell now The hearts of the damned shall be enlarged to glory in thy confusion Indeed if a poore soule feele any weight of sin upon him then all the Towne is up in armes against him Oh see your sinne and goe and breake your hearts for this sinne Dislike not in others what yourselves are bound to be and to doe This of the first Use 2. Vse 2 To get comfort begin in sorrow It is a word of direction and instruction how to get this grace at the hands of God goe Gods way and goe the ready way If ever thou wilt receive grace from God doe that which God doth as Hosea 2.14 Behold I will allure her and bring her into the wildernesse and speake comfortably
Though there is malice neere to pursue thee yet there is mercy neere to comfort thee and God will dwell in thee though it may bee thy neighbours will not dwell by thee Psal 51.17 The sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise There the Prophet David saith that the Lord preferres this Sacrifice before others What though men distast thee if the Lord accept and regard thee What if men refuse and despise thee if the Lord love thee and delight in thee Therefore all you broken-hearted sinners take this word of comfort goe on and goe cheerily and the God of heaven bee with you Though you bee poore in the world and live in a smoakie cottage yet the Lord will dwell with you in that poore cottage and in that poore family of yours and hee will revive that poore heart of yours Where the King is the Court must be prepared for and when the Lord Iesus Christ comes to dwell in the heart of a poore sinner he will comfort him He that sitteth in heaven and hath ten thousand thousand of Angels to minister unto him hath but two Thrones the highest heavens and the lowest heart What a consolation is this to thee Goe your way therefore and cheere up your hearts with this and say I thanke God I have now an humble and broken heart I hope comfort is comming THE PREPARING OF THE HEART FOR TO RECEIVE CHRIST Luke 1.17 To make ready a people prepared for the Lord. BEfore the soule of a man can share in the merits of Christ Iesus and receive benefit thereby and comfort therefrom before it can bee made partaker of those spirituall benefits which God hath promised to bestow upon his owne two things are required first there must be a preparation of the soule to receive and entertaine the Lord Iesus Christ and secondly there must be an implantation of the soule into Christ and then being thus ingrafted into Christ it hath a title to all those good things which he hath purchased for his Elect. For the conclusion of Saint Iohn is peremptory in this kind Iohn 3.36 He that hath the Sonne saith he hath life and he that hath not the Sonne hath not life As if hee should say There is no hope of receiving any good from the stocke unlesse the graft bee implanted into the stocke before the foule be cut off from the rebellion of Adam it cannot be implanted into Christ and unlesse it bee ingrafted into Christ it can have no comfort from him But if we can once get into Christ we shall have the participation of all spiritual things which he hath prepared for his chosen But it is impossible for flesh and bloud thus to enter into Christ and be implanted into him and therefore that wee maybe implanted into him we must be prepared First there must be a preparation of the soule to be in Christ before it can bee made partaker of Christ and his benefits This preparation is the fitting of a sinner for his being in Christ The Lord Christ being to come in person and to take upon him the ministery of the Gospell he sent Iohn the Baptist as his Harbinger to prepare his wayes and therefore he was indued with all gifts this way He had the spirit of thunder hee was indued with the spirit and power of Elias to make the way plaine for the Lord Christ Iesus and in that spirit hee came and preached to ungodly men and taught them repentance he came to levell mountaines and make crookked things straight to turne the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisedome of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. This was Saint Iohns taske to prepare mens hearts for the receiving and entertaining of Christ when he should come The point of Doctrine to bee observed from hence is this Doct. That the soule of a poore sinner must be prepared for Christ The heart must first be prepared for Christ before he can have any heart to entertaine him This is the maine scope of the Text the maine drift of Iohn Baptist his ministery The hearts of men were not fitted for Christ and therefore he was sent before Christ Iesus to make way for him and to make peoples hearts fit to receive Christ that when the Lord Iesus came he might take place in his and worke effectually in the soules of his to their everlasting peace For the proofe of the Doctrine it is that which was prophesied before Mal. 3.1 for this Prophet was the last of the Prophets for Iohn the Baptists was a kind of intermingled ministerie it was neither Propheticall nor Apostolicall properly Marke what Malachy speakes there of him Mal. 3.1 Behold saith he I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom you seeke shall suddenly come to his Temple It is plaine to bee observed that Iohn the Baptist is there prophesied of The Iewes sought for a Messias and for comfort through Christ now Iohn the Baptist was to make way for Christ and when the way was prepared then the Lord would stay no longer Mal. 3.1 but would suddenly come into his Temple saith the Text that is into the soules of his children that were willing to receive him upon such termes as hee offered himselfe And as this was prophesied of Iohn the Baptist so it was also performed by the ministerie of Iohn Luke 3.4 The voyce of one crying in the wildernesse Prepare yee the way of the Lord make his paths straite That which Malachy foretold of Iohn is done he comes according to the Prophecie and fulfills what God intended hee should doe and what he was sent for to doe Simile Kings when they goe to any place send messengers and harbingers before them to make all things ready for their entertainement when they come Now Christ is a great King Christ is at King spiritually not temporally to be considered but he is a spirituall King and rules in the hearts of all those that belong to his election of grace and for his enemies if they will not bee ruled by his golden rod with his iron rod hee will breake them in pieces Now as with great Kings there must bee a preparation that all things may bee ready to receive them so it must be with our Saviour Christ he never commeth into the soule of any unawares or on the sudden but he sends his messengers before him his Ministers to prepare them for the receiving of him to humble mens soules to make mountaines low to make crooked things straite to pull downe every thing that exalts it selfe against God and when the heart is thus fitted and prepared then Christ sends his Spirit to take possession of it and rule in it and be a direction of it in the way of life and happinesse And the preparation for him is spirituall That this preparation is spiritually to
be understood is cleere Mat. 3.12 In those dayes saith the Text came Iohn preaching and saying Repent yee for the kingdome of God is at hand Here Iohn proclaimeth the comming of Christ and laboureth to prepare all things fitting for him so then the heart of a poore sinner is the high-way wherein Christ walketh This way of it selfe is unfitting for Christ but this preaching of the Gospell doth fit and prepare it and then the Lord Christ commeth and takes possession of and ruleth in that soule to whom hee commeth In the materiall Temple when it was to be built there was a caveat given that there must be no hammer heard but that all the stones should be fitted and hewen ere they were brought thither When Christ came into his Temple hee found money changers John 2.15 and the Text saith hee made a whip and whipped them out and flung downe their provision As it was with the materiall Temple so it is with the spirituall Temple The soule of a poore sinner is like unto this materiall Temple whereof this was a type 1 Cor. 3.16 for saith the Apostle You are the Temple of the living God You are that which the Temple signified that is as God did shew himselfe marvellously in his Temple so he will in the soules of his people he will dwell with them and assist them in every good worke Now before we can bee fitted to be the Temple of the Lord before Christ will come into our soules hee will whip out all distempered affections and when these are removed hee will make himselfe knowne to be the King of his servants and provide all things for their comfort and consolation And thus wee see the truth of the point that the soule of a sinner must bee prepared for Christ before it can receive and entertaine him For the opening of the point two things must be considered first how we may conceive and understand the compasse of this preparation that wee may see how farre it reacheth and know wherein this preparation of the soule discovereth it selfe and then secondly we must know the reason why the heart must be prepared for the Lord Iesus before hee will take possession of it And when these two things be opened the point will be plaine First wee must see the compasse of this preparation and wherein it consists Preparation of the heart for Christ standeth in three things which makes it selfe knowne in three particulars We will speake of preparation only in generall here for we shall come to the particulars of it hereafter The first of the three passages wherein this generall preparation consists is this 1. In breaking off the league with old sinnes The soule of a sinner breakes that league which sometime it had with former lusts and corruptions there is a separation made betweene the soule and those darling sinnes which it before so much delighted in and the heart begins to rebell against those base tyrants which before usurped authority over it whether they be corruptions or profits or pleasures that before bore a great sway in the soule the league is broken there is a secret kind of mutinie which the soule setteth up against those distempers in so much that the separation being made and the soule having cast off the yoke of her corruptions the heart reserves it selfe for the Lord Christ Iesus And observe it alwaies there is a separation of the soule from sinne before there bee a reservation made for Christ It is with the soule as it is with a wife that is an adulteresse and hath gotten her selfe a base name and an evill report by her lewd and wicked courses after the Lord hath opened her eyes and discovered to her the basenesse of her practice then shee commeth to detest all her former courses and abandoneth all her former wicked companions and though shee be laid at continually by them and importuned upon every occasion yet shee never hearkeneth unto them but looketh onely unto her husband and if he will but receive her and entertaine her againe then shee will keepe close unto him and shew more love unto him than ever shee did before so the soule of a poore sinner was created for God and it ought to have beene married to God the end of our creation and redemption was that we might have communion with God but all of us have played the adulteresses wee have had our wicked lovers The heart that will have the world the profits and pleasures and vanities thereof will be married to lusts and corruptions every man doth bestow his soule upon these wicked practices But then the eyes of the soule are opened when the Lord discovereth unto it that loose practices will bring the soule to everlasting confusion and destruction the soule then doth stand at a maze it trades no more with those beloved lusts and corruptions it breakes the league with all former sinnes and distempers with pride and covetousnesse with malice and envie with the world with the profits and pleasures thereof and sits as a widow divorced from all these and waiteth for the Lord Christ Iesus alone then the soule saith to her selfe Oh if Christ would come to me and speake to me againe then I will give him better entertainment than ever I did before The ungracious heart however it hath gone from the Lord yet if it hath got any hope to receive Christ againe then the soule will say I was not borne to sinne sinne shall bee my husband no more but if the Lord will shew any favour towards mee then I will reserve my selfe for him alone for it was better with mee formerly than now And this the Scripture speaketh of Hos 14 3.8 see what the Church saith there in the third verse Ashur shall not save us wee will not ride upon horses neither will we say any more to the worke of our hands Yee are our gods for with thee the fatherlesse findeth mercy And in the eighth verse Ephraim shall say What have I to doe with Idols Every man naturally hath his gods his god pride his god covetousnesse his god malice his god envie now when the soule is divorced from these then it returneth this answer We will pray no more to our gods we will not submit our selves to any as unto a god but onely unto the Father of lights Ephraim shall say What have I to doe with Idols He was before addicted to Idolatry yet now his eyes being opened and his soule converted he saith What have I to doe with Idols any more and the drunkard saith What have I to doe with drunkennesse any more and the proud man saith What have I to doe with pride any more nay What have I to doe with any unlawfull practice but I will reserve my selfe wholly for the Lord Iesus Christ so in Psal 45 10 11. there is a mariage betweene Christ and his Church for the Text saith Hearken O daughter and consider and incline thine eare
them and make them fitting to receive his Majesty and therefore sweep your hearts and clense those roomes clense every sinke brush downe every cobweb and make roome for Christ for if thy heart bee prepard and divorced from all corruptions then Christ will come into thy soule and take possession of it Remove therefore all corruptions out of thy heart And when thou hast swept every corner of thy house doe not leave the dust behind the doore for that is a fluts tricke doe not remove sinne out of thy tongue and out of thy eye and out of thy hand and leave it in thy heart No no out with all let every chamber be dressed up let every part and faculty be right disposed that the Lord may come and dwell in thy soule The second motive that may stirre us up to prepare for the Lord Iesus 2. Christ is most worthy for whom we should prepare is his transcendent worthinesse in regard of which all preparation may seeme too little You are not to entertaine an ordinary person it is not a man it is not a King it is not a Monarch but it is a King of Kings that will come into your soules to comfort them yea his holy and blessed Spirit will remaine with you for ever Therefore doe all that possibly may be done to prepare for his comming and for the entertainement and welcomming of him when he comes In Psal 24.7 David calleth upon his owne soule and other of Gods people for so the words are to be expounded there he saith Lift up your heads O yee Gates and be yee lift up yee everlasting doores and the King of glory shall come in As who should say Be enlarged love joy hope set open give way for the Lord is comming But who is the Lord It is the Lord of hostes the Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in battell ver 8. And with that he knockes againe Lift up your heads O yee Gates and be yee lift up yee everlasting doores for the King of glory shall come in ver 9. As if he should say What shall the Lord knocke shall the King of glory stand Open suddenly and make all preparation Did David doe thus Why doe you so then Christ knockes by promises hee knockes by judgements hee knockes by threats yea hee speakes this day unto your soules and labours this day to make way for himselfe make therefore all preparation let nothing be wanting that when he comes he may take possession of your soules Particulars and bee a God unto you for ever There will come a great deale of benefit by this meanes unto your soules And this also may encourage us The Lord commeth into our soules not to trouble and charge us no hee commeth to bring everlasting salvation and happinesse to our soules Looke what Christ said to Zacheus Luk. 19.5 8 9. when hee went up into a Sycamore tree to see him Make haste and come downe Zacheus saith he for I must abide with thee in thy house Zacheus made no cavilling but made haste and came downe and received him joyfully And marke what Christ saith unto him This day salvation is come into thine house So likewise it shall be with you when Christ commeth salvation commeth with him when he commeth everlasting happinesse and salvation commeth when Christ commeth goe home and witnesse against all your carnall neighbours that they that refuse Christ and doe not make preparation for him refuse salvation and everlasting happinesse that is offered unto them Amos 4.12 when the Lord had sent a great plague and a heavie judgement upon Ierusalem he saith Thus will I doe unto thee Oh Israel and because I will doe this unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel I will doe thus unto thee O Israel that is I will send mildewes plagues and pestilence and famine I will draw you out with hookes and your posteritie with fish-hookes And what followeth Prepare to meet thy God O Israel If God come against us to plague us we must prepare to meet him Reason now with your owne soules upon strong grounds to your everlasting comfort Should the Lord come in judgement to torment us should the Lord come to scourge and punish us if wee must then prepare to meet him then what preparation ought we to make for his comming when hee shall not come thus in judgement to condemne us but in his mercy to save us in his goodnesse to enrich us in his compassion to comfort us then now if ever prepare to meet thy God O Israel Let every heart perswade it selfe of this particular and reason and consider with your owne soules in this case Is Christ so gracious and so mercifull doth he send downe from heaven unto us and say he will come if any man keepe my Commandements I stand at the doore and knocke Rev. 3.20 if any man will open my Father and I will come in and sup and dwell with him Why where is the heart in the meane time And if ever now prepare to meete the Lord. But if neither the judgements of God will perswade us nor the mercies of God allure us yet let the complaints and moanes of Christ Iesus prevaile with you to prepare for him Consider our Saviour Christ hath taken a great journey from heaven to earth to save us miserable wretched and sinfull creatures conceive you saw those streames of bloud trickling downe his cheekes conceive you saw him upon the crosse with his hands thrust thorow with nailes and his side pierced with a speare enduring the wrath of God for our sinnes and behold now hee standeth at the doore and saith with the Church Lam. 1.12 It is nothing to you have you no regard O yee that passe by behold and see if there bee any sorrow like unto my sorrow c. Imagine you heard Christ say I have suffered these and these things for you these hands of mine were nailed this side of mine was pierced this heart of mine was melted with anguish of spirit Imagine you saw Christ standing and knocking at the doore of your hearts as indeed hee doth and say Hoe all you within there hoe all you proud hearts hoe all you covetous and malicious hearts have you no regard of a poore Saviour have you no regard of a crucified Saviour hee that died for you even the bitter death upon the crosse for you and now laboureth to doe good unto you Would not this move you to prepare your your hearts for him and to let him in Nay marke what Christ saith to the Church Cant. 5.2 Open to me my sister my love my dove my undefiled for my head is filled with dew and my lockes with the drops of the night As if hee should say I have had an ill journey a bad way and unkind entertainment and therefore come away my love my dove my undefiled and open unto me So hee saith to every one of our soules This day I have travelled
a great way for you and have had a very hard journey I have suffered many crosses and afflictions many mockes and scoffes many buffets yea even death it selfe for you will you now suffer the Lord Iesus wearied and perplexed to stand knocking and calling and weeping and saying as he said to Ierusalem Luke 19.42 Oh that thou hadst knowne even thou at least in this thy day the things belonging to thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes Will you suffer Christ in this plight thus saying unto you as hee did to Ierusalem to stand knocking at the doore of your hearts and your soules Take heed of this Christ knocketh this day at your hearts if you now give him his last answer and shut the doore against him it may prove to bee the last knocking you may hap never to see him more The Church in the place before named Cant. 5. ver 3. shifted off Christ and would not let him in when she heard him knocke I have put off my coate how shall I put it on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them But after shee rose to open to her beloved and her hands dropped myrrhe and her fingers sweet smelling myrrhe upon the handles of the locke ver 5. And then she opened to her beloved but he had withdrawne himselfe and was gone and then shee sought him with many troubles and knockes before she found him The watchmen found her and wounded her the keepers of the walls tooke her vaile from her If you put of Christ and give him delayes when he knocks at the doores of your hearts then perhaps hee may never knocke more and then you may seeke him and desire him earnestly and perhaps never find him more or receive comfort from him and salvation by him Oh therefore take heed how you drive away your crucified Saviour but even now make all preparations for his entertainment and for receiving of him that you may receive everlasting life and salvation from him In Ier. 2.12 the Prophet saith Be astonished O yee heavens be yee horribly afraid be yee desolate saith the Lord. What is the reason of this It is in the 11. and 13. verses The Heathen have not changed their gods which are no gods but my people have forsaken me the fountain of living waters hewen out to themselves cisternes even broken cisterns that can hold no water they have changed their glory for that which profiteth not Be astonished at this O yee heavens Turkes have their gods and Infidels have their gods and what care have they to obey them when as yet their gods are no gods And shall a Christian have a Saviour to save him and to redeeme him and shew mercy upon him and then shut him out in this kind Remember what the Prophet David saith Psal 132.4 5. I will give no sleepe to mine eyes nor slumber to mine eye-lids untill I have prepared a place an habitation for the God of Iacob and if hee had said I have houses and I have palaces and Gods honour lieth in the dust no more sleepe no more rest no more content untill I have prepared an habitation for the God of Iacob What David did that doe you There is no materiall Temple to bee prepared but we are the Temple and the Church of God prepare therefore an habitation an heart for the Lord Iesus Christ And every soule that hath heretofore cast out the Lord Iesus Christ and given him no entertainment let him now resolve to doe it and let every one say to their husbands and friends We have this and wee have that this blessing that benefit but the Lord hath come often and asked a roome for himselfe O let us not sleepe nor give rest unto our hearts nor contentation to our soules untill wee have prepared an habitation untill wee have prepared an heart fit for the entertainment of the mighty God of Iacob If thou dost not now prepare for him as a Saviour to save thee hereafter thou must receive him as a Iudge to condemne thee and therefore delay no longer but every night and every morning call upon one another to prepare for the Lord Iesus Obiect And now what can hinder but Christ may bee prepared for of us Why alas many friends must away wee must turne out many profits and pleasures before we can prepare for the entertainment of Christ Iesus all these must be abandoned Answ Why imagine these earthly things were gone the time will come that all these must goe and then God will make them base and vile in the sight of men and Angels at the day of judgement when the last trumpe shall blow Nay goe but to the time of death what shall your honours doe then What shall your profits doe then what wil they then doe for you And then after death when you that for love of your profits and pleasures could not nor would not prepare for Christ come into hell What profit then will those things doe you Rom 9.21 whereof you are now ashamed What will you now sweare and profane Gods name Oh then you shall see the basenesse and vilenesse of those things then the drunkard will wish hee had never taken cup in his hand then the swearer will wish he had never swore oath nor ever tooke Gods name in vaine then the covetous wretch will wish he had never beene so greedy of his gaine and in the mean while neglected his salvation Consider this that God one day will make those things seeme vile in our eyes one day it shall come to passe that we would give a world for a Saviour one day Christ will be welcome unto us if he would come When you come to the last period of your lives then in your last wills and testaments you commit your bodie to the ground and your soule into the hands of God Yea but it is a question whether Christ will then take it therfore prepare to entertaine and receive him now that hee may receiue you then at that day Hath he prepared heaven for thee and wilt thou not prepare a heart to receive him Therfore remoue renounce abandon all profits all pleasures sins lusts corruptions that you may be fitted to entertain welcom the Lord Iesus that Christ may dwell in your soules and give you the consolation of his spirit But you will say Quest How may we prepare for Christ that there may bee an hopefull expectation of his comming This is a hard taske How then may we prepare for him by what meanes may our hearts bee fitted and disposed to receiue Christ Iesus Answ I answer that a powerfull ministery is the onely ordinary meanes which GOD hath appointed soundly to prepare the heart of a poore sinner for the receiving of the Lord Iesus Doct. The Ministery a speciall meanes to prepare us for Christ which is the second doctrine which ariseth out of the Text and it is a point worth the while Object But you
And that other place in Luke 3.5.6 can admit of no other sense Every valley shall be filled and every mountaine and hill shall be brought low And all flesh shall see the salvation of God These words cannot be literally understood for there was no mountaines to be removed nor no vallies to bee filled up for Christ was no temporall King but the meaning is a removeall of all those mountains and impediments that stood betweene Christ and the soule Thus you see the Temple prepared is nothing but the heart truely broken and humbled Secondly let us see what it is to come into this Temple And Christs comming to it As the way and the Temple was so the comming into this Temple is to be spiritually understood and that is when the Lord Iesus Christ comes to take possession of him but consider this he comes like a King and therefore hee hath Iohn Baptist to make way for him The comming of a King discovers it selfe in two things first the King taketh the Soveraigne command of the place where he is and if there be any guests there they must be gone and resigne up all the house to him so the Lord Iesus comes to take soveraigne possession of the soule Secondly the King brings all his provision with him so the Lord Christ brings all provision for the soule with him So then the meaning is this When Iohn Baptist by the power of the word hath wrovght upon the soule and made it humble and low and willing to be at the Lords dispose when the broken heart seeks for a Saviour then the Lord comes suddenly and like a King You humble soules consider this he will take possession of those humble broken hearts of yours and he will bring his owne provision with him he cares for nothing but a vessell emptied and a heart thus fitted and prepared he will bring provision enough of comfort of vocation of adoption of sanctification and the like In this part of the verse thus opened wee have two doctrines first that the Lord Iesus Christ will not delay to come into the heart that is truely humbled and broken Who is the Lord Christ What is the Temple The heart truely humbled And when comes he Suddenly this is the ground of the doctrine The second is the Lord Iesus takes possession of the soule humbled and provides for it as his owne he comes like a King as I said before This is the ground of the second point which discovers the nature of the implantation the first discouers the appurtenances of it Doct. Christ delays not to come into an humbled heart For the first The Lord Iesus will not delay to come into the heart truely humbled as I may say he layeth all other workes aside as if he did looke for none but this how he may come home to the heart truely humbled The Lord will not come at a proud worldly minded man No the Lord leaves all yea heaven and all the world and onely lookes after and loues to live with the humble broken heart For proofe of the point This is the reason why the Scripture doth not content it selfe to shew the marvellous delight that God hath in such a spirit See how plenteous the Scripture is to shew how ready the Lord is to call in at the heart of the humbled soule and to rise and lie and rest to eat and drink and sleep with the humble heart nay when he is come he wil not away againe as wee may see in that example of the lost son Luke 15.20 Hee said I will arise and goe to my father and say Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am not worthy to bee called thy son make me as one of thy hired servants As soone as ever he resolved of the worke marke how the father behaues himselfe towards him though he were base and beggarly in his condition He might have said Let thy Harlots and thy Queanes helpe thee But he saw him a far off and ran to meet him and fell upon his neck and kissed him Though he were a wretched creature yet now he because the father saw him humble he remembers not that he had been with Harlots all was forgotten the father saw him afarre off before the child could spie him he pittied him before he could confesse his sin he was more ready to meet him than he was to come and he kissed him before he could receiue any acknowledgement from him This is the marvellous enlargement of the Lord to receive an humble broken heart And when he had kissed him Luk 15.21 22 the lost child said Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to bee called thy son But the father said to his servants Bring forth the best robe and put it on him and put a ring upon his hand and so forth as if he had said It is no matter what thou hast bin now thou art come home and hast humbled thy selfe I am glad of it Thus he passeth by all the former misdemenours And so it is in the same Chapter ver 4.5.6 If a man have an hundred sheep and lose one will he not leaue the ninety nine and seek that which was lost And when hee hath found it hee layeth it on his shoulders rejoycing And when he comes home he calleth together his friends and saith Rejoyce with me for I have found my lost sheep The meaning is this The lost sheep is the lost sinner that is wandred from the Lord Iesus Christ The soule that after all the mercies and favours that God hath shewed to allure him he goes away from God and then one drops in a ditch and another is lost in the wildernesse or Forrest yet hee leaues all to seeke the lost sheepe and leaveth not seeking till he findeth it and if he hath found it he reioyceth For the Lord will leave all to seeke a poore lost sinner and the more need thou hast and the more lost thou art in thy selfe the more labour will the Lord take to find thee out and though thou canst not goe the Lord will carry thee upon his shoulders and when thou art come home hee rejoyceth exceedingly This shewes the marvellous bounty of the Lord to poore sinners it is the scope of the Parable concerning the Pearle Matth. 13.45.46 The kingdome of heaven is like unto a wise Merchant man who having found one Pearle of great Price went and sold all that he had to buy it The pearle is nothing else but that rich mercy of God in his son Christ and Christ in the promise is the Pearle and the Merchant-man is every Christian man that wants mercy and comfort to releive him for he saith What is all the world to me if my soule wants mercy Well he knowes where the Pearle is What 's the price of it Sell all Selling of all is nothing but this when a man is content to part with sin and all
his distempers and wil not looke to a Saviour the Son of righteousnesse is come and shines and hee perceiues it not And as Phillip said Iohn 14.8 Shew us the Father and it sufficeth Then Iesus saith unto him have I beene so long a-time with you and yet hast thou not knowne me he that hath seene me hath seene the Father he desireth to see the Father and yet when hee seeth Christ he seeth the Father So it is with this blessed frame of soule for when a poore soule mourns under the burthen of sin and desires that the word of God may prevaile with it and take all away then he desireth to see Christ this is the Spirit of Christ humbling and breaking and waking it is the Spirit of Christ that makes you willing to part with sinne Hath Christ beene so long with you and do you not know him The third is because we judge Christs presence by our owne sense and by some extraordinary sweetnesse that the soule imagins should be with him if Christ were there This is the nature of every poore creature he sets up a kind of imagination in his owne head and thinkes if Christ were come once there would bee extraordinary sweetnesse and joy Now setting up this imagination in his owne conceit hee will heare no other evidence if he cannot find this and so mis-judgeth the presence of Christ This was the failing of Gideon for the spirit of Christ came to him and said The Lord is with hee thou mighty man of valour And Gideon said Oh my Lord if the Lord be with us why then is all this befallen us and where be all his miracles that our Fathers told us of saying Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt but now the Lord hath forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites Iudges 6.12.13 The Angell knew what he said but marke what he replies And hee would not be perswaded that the Lord was there because the enemy had the upper hand he thought God was not present with them because the enemies were vexing them and prevayling against them but the argument was naught for the Angell was certaine of that which he spake Iust so it is for all the world with the poore broken-hearted sinner that now is oppressed with many corruptions Sometimes when the faithfull ministers speake to them and say Goe in peace you broken-hearted sinners the Lord is with you Oh say they if the Lord were with us why doth all this befall us Why are our minds so ignorant and our hearts so vile and sinfull and why are our corruptions so violent Can the Lord be here and so many weaknesses too The Lord hath done great matters for them that he hath done good too and they have rejoyced with ioy vnspeakeable and glorious the Saints of God haue been more then conquerours through him that loved them and have subdued their corruptions but yet we are under the power of our sinfull poysonfull venemous hearts still Can the Lord bee with us and all these abominations not onely presse in upon us but even captive us Yes you mistake the presence of Christ he is as well with you in the opposing of sin as in the over-comming thereof therefore the argument is false The same Apostle that was sometimes more then a conquerour was sometimes led captive as Rom. 7.23 and hee that did walke after the spirit of Christ had the Flesh lusting against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh Gal. 5.17 This is your imagination that if once the King come to your house and keepe court no Traitour must come there yes Traitours are ever where the court is they follow the court for there they thinke to accomplish their villany And you thinke if the King come to your house he must hug you in his arms and presently promote you to all honors so the soule saith If Christ were with me I should have abilitie to doe my duty and I should have more power against corruption Though wheresoever Christ is there is sight of sin yet this extraordinary sweetnesse doth not follow but because they have not this they thinke they have not Christ It is just with the soule in this case as if some Gentleman should receive the King into his house Simile and yet he would not be perswaded the King was come because he did not presently send for him into the presence chamber and advance him to some great place of honour he is there though he will not presently send for you This was the fault of Thomas Iohn 20.25 hee would haue tied the certainty of Christs resurrection to his owne sense and if hee could not doe this and that he would not beleeue that Christ was risen for so the Text saith the Disciples all saw it and did witnesse it but he confines all to the compasse of his owne sense except he could see in his hands the print of the nailes and thrust his hand into his side he would not beleeue Iust so it is for all the world with the poore humbled broken soule When a man depends upon sense and some stirring apprehension Oh saith he if I could see that evidence of Gods love and had that assurance and if my heart could thus breake for my sin and if I had this ability with all care and cheerefulnesse to all holy duties then I could beleeue that Christ were come this I told you before you will not beleeue that the King is come to your house except he will send for you presently into his privy chamber and make you the favorite of the Kingdome And therefore it befalls the soule of a poore sinner as it did good old Iacob Gen. 45.26 his sonnes told him that his sonne Ioseph was alive but his heart did faint for he could not beleeue it but when hee saw the Chariots that his son had sent for him his spirit revived within him and he said It is enough Ioseph my son is yet alive c. Thus it is with us we have the messengers of God and the testimony of Scripture to confirme the presence of Christ but we will not beleeue except wee be charioted with that power and ability and that feeling and except you have your hearts fully satisfied according to your owne imaginations you will not be perswaded that Christ is come into your hearts The fourth also is on our part Bee it so that either we have abilitie to know a Christ and that we see his comming in and that we doe not mis-judge the presence of Christ and doe not account of his comming by our owne sense yea though wee were in the chamber of presence and have had much experience of Christs presence with us yet there is another hinderance which keeps off the poore soule and that is when our eyes bee hindred that wee cannot see Christ though he were before us when the sting of conscience remaines and the fiercenesse of some temptaion presseth in
upon us or some worldly inconvenience sits hard upon us and that our thoughts are wholly taken up with them and the strength of our imagination is wholly bestowed vpon those how to prevent them so that wee cannot see Christ when a mans mind is thus wholly imployed and all his thoughts thus busied partly about the guilt of sin how his conscience may be quieted and partly about temptation how it may be removed so that hee hath no leisure to see Christ though he knew him well if he were but in the calmnesse of his heart It befalls a poor soule in this case as it did the Disciples that were going to Emmaus Luke 24.16 for when Christ came and joyned sides with them in their travels and went with them the Text saith that their eyes were holden that they should not know him See the ground of the holding of their eyes Christ presented himselfe in his owne proportion therefore the fault was not in the substance that they did see The fault was not in the eare for that was not hindered in any measure neither did Christ blind their eyes any way for their eyes were thus farre opened as to see the way and walke cheerfully in it What did hold their eyes then leaving extraordinary things to God it was this their thoughts were so busied about the death of Christ and his resurrection that they did not know Christ though he were with them and therefore Christ asked them this question Luke 24.17 c. What maner of communication is this that you have one to another and are thus sad And the one of them said to him Art thou only a stranger in Ierusalem and hast not knowne the things which are come to passe there in these daies And hee said unto them What things And they sayd unto him Concerning Iesus of Nazereth which was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people We trusted that it had been hee which should have redeemed Israel and beside all this to day is the third day since these things were done and whether hee be risen againe we know not Wee find this by common experience a man that hath his mind possessed with some sad meditation though his familiar friend be neere him yet he discernes him not so the Disciples saw not a Saviour though he were in their presence therefore in the 32. verse when Christ had opened the Scripture and revealed himselfe to them see what they said Did not our hearts burne within us when hee talked with us As if they should say Wee had pregnant testimonie enough of the divine presence but we had no eyes to see it the burning of our hearts was argument enough that it was Christ that spake to us So when the soule of a poore broken-hearted sinner is taken up partly with the hurry of imaginations partly with the violence of some temptation and partly in regard of some worldly miserie that falls upon it it is so taken up with it that it cannot see the Lord Iesus Christ though hee hath sensible experience of Christ and the heart burnes in love to Christ This is the reason why many a poore soule when Sathan lets flie at him and some heavy temptation presseth in upon him reveale never so many comfortable promises yet by reason thereof we find it by experience that alwayes those distressed spirits forget whatsoever is spoken all their mind and talk is upon the evill and the violence of the temptation and they attend not to the comfort and to the promises revealed to them their eyes are held in this manner that though they are neere to Christ and even in the privie chamber yet they will not take notice of Christ because their hearts are thus held off from the apprehension of his presence In Psalme 73.23 when the Prophet David was fallen into a desperate perplexitie because of the prosperitie of the wicked so that he began to question his owne condition at last hee said Neverthelesse I am continually with thee thou hast holden mee by my right hand He could not see Gods providence over him and his presence with him because his mind was so taken up with the prosperitie of the ungodly he saw all their pompe and their glory and how their eyes stood out with fatnesse and that he was beaten every night by reason hereof I say hee saw not God upholding of him and going with him So gather up the former passages partly through ignorance because wee know not Christ when we see him and partly through carelesnesse because wee attend not to him when he is come and partly because we mis-judge the presence of Christ upon false grounds and partly the eyes are hid by the hurry of some temptation or some wordly extremity that we cannot see Christ though he be with us these be the first hinderances on our parts And as it is thus with us And for three reasons in Christ so there are other hinderances which let us that we cannot apprehend a Christ and they are these First in generall as we deprive our selves of consolation in Christ so the Lord Iesus through our just deserving doth withdraw himselfe from us As in Esay 18.7 I will waite upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Iacob and I will looke for him And in Psalme 31.22 I said in my hast I am cut off from before thine eyes neverthelesse thou heardest the voyce of my supplication when I cried unto thee Both these places doe make it cleere that many times though the Lord Iesus is neere the soule yet he apprehends it not Now the Lord Iesus hides himselfe upon three causes especially 1. When the Saints of God fall into some grosse sinne and some scandalous offence or else tamper with some bosome corruption and are at truce with it though it be but some infirmitie then the Lord Iesus justly hides himselfe and withdrawes the apprehension of his presence from such a soule For these are the termes whereupon the Lord hath promised to reveale himselfe to wit so farre as wee labour to walke with him If the Saints of God fall off from him and breake off themselves it is no wonder though the Lord Iesus hide himselfe from them he is with them while they are with him No longer no further doth Christ engage himselfe to bee with us but upon these termes Iohn 14.21 Hee that hath my Commandements keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall bee loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my selfe to him The Lord will manifest himselfe to us upon what grounds If wee will love him and keepe his Commandements But if we breake the condition on our parts and falsifie that wee have promised to doe no wonder though the Lord withdraw himselfe from us You see it is the tenour upon which he promiseth his presence Now if the Saints of God fall scandalously and be
overtaken with some grosse sin this builds up the partition wall that Christ cannot be discerned as it was with David Psal 51.10 where hee saith Create in mee a cleane heart O God and renew a right spirit within me hee was even to begin the world new againe And it is Gods wise dealing with his owne servants for God will not brooke sinne in his owne servants and they must know if they will have him to dwell in them they must not give way to any base sinne if they doe hee will withdraw himselfe from them not that God forsakes finally whom hee loved once but hee will take away the sense and apprehension of his presence that though he is there yet the soule shall not see it And also when they give way to some secret distemper and are at truce with some infirmitie and they will be parlying with it and meddle too much with it it is just with the Lord and ordinary to withdraw the presence of his grace from such a mans soule If a Christian be overtaken somewhat more than ordinary with a peevish spirit or if he be something too eager for the world so that hee grow cold in holy duties and is in danger to lie and dissemble for his gaine it is just with God that this man should scramble for his comfort and welter up and downe without any evidence of Gods love And also though a Christian commit not sinne outwardly yet if hee give leave to any sinne and beat truce with it though they seeme to hate it and yet let their meditations runne upon it and parley with some secret imagination c. it is just with God to hide himselfe from them And others there are that live with men and see their evils and yet will not reprove them I have knowne many of those to have gone out all their dayes without any comfort And it is no marvell though they cannot see Christ because they themselves build up the partition-wall betweene Christ and them the Lord Iesus Christ is not able to brooke it that hee is thus sleighted and neglected and that any sinfull base distemper should bee attended to to keepe company with it rather than with Christ Christ Iesus distastes it infinitely and therefore withdrawes the apprehension of his presence from such a person The second cause why the Lord hides himselfe is when the faithfull servants of God begin to grow carelesse and luskish to holy duties and because God hath made knowne his good will to them therefore they begin to grow carelesse and secure When the Lord seeth this that they doe abuse his favour so that now they begin to grow secure and heartlesse and to slag and to grow sluggish it is just with the Lord to eâ—strange himselfe from that soule and it is just that that soule should find himselfe lost that hee may quicken up himselfe When Christians grow cold in prayer and carelesse in holy duties the Lord taketh away the light of his favour and hee leaves those sluggish hearts to themselves nay God is forced even against his will and mind even for the good of those Christians to take away the comfort of his presence so that now they begin to thinke they never had grace If the Lord did not thus they would never mend their pace nor quicken up themselves to any holy duties And this is the reason why many lie downe in sorrow and thinke they never had any grace at all the Lord seeth it and perceives it that unlesse he should bring them to this extreme hazzard they would never be drawne out from that desperate securitie but by this meanes in the end God makes them find their hearts and tongues againe and makes them consider from whence they are fallen Oh saith the Lord mercy is as good when you have it as when you want it the time was when you filled heaven and earth with your prayers and you could pray earnestly and you could give the Lord no rest you prized opportunities and now you have many opportunities and slight them It is just with God when we begin to be thus tongue-tied and to be secure and to thinke all is wel now the Lord hath humbled our soules and pardoned our sinnes and shewed us his favour for a time to leave those soules of yours though he save you in the end to send you a hell upon earth that so you may strive to receive that mercy and comfort which formerly you had and now have sleighted Thus hee dealt with the Church in Cant. 5.2 3. when Christ knocked at the doore and said Open to mee my sister my love my dove my undefiled for my head is filled with dew and my lockes with the drops of the night she made answer in this manner I have put off my coat how shall I put it on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them Now when Christ withdrew himselfe then shee found her feet againe and followed Christ with much labour from place to place and could not be content till she had found him And so it was with the holy Prophet Psal 30.6 I said in my prosperitie I shal never be removed but when he saw God going away from him see how he bestirres himselfe 2 Sam. 22.7 Oh saith hee I cried to thee O Lord in the time of my trouble Then he could pray and heare againe and recount Gods former goodnesse and performe his former duties Simile I have seene the father deale so with the child when the father is going on in his journey if the child will not go on but stands gaping upon vanitie and when the father calls he comes not the onely way is this the father steps aside behind a bush and then the child runnes and cries and if he gets his father againe hee forsakes all his trifles and walkes on faster and more cheerefully with his father than ever So when the Lord Iesus Christ sometimes makes knowne himselfe to us and would carry us on in a Christian course cheerefully we are playing with trifles and grow carelesse and cold and worldly and remisse in prayer and dead-hearted the onely way to quicken us up is to hide himselfe and to make us give our selves for lost and then they that could scarcely pray once a weeke now will pray three or foure times aday Thirdly and lastly the Lord doth hide himselfe in his infinite wisedome and fatherly care by way of prevention that his servants and children might not fall into some evill Hee will not bestow the sense and sweetnesse of his favour upon them lest they should bee proud thereof and pranke up themselves in regard of their priviledges and bee carried with contempt of the weaknesse of their fellow brethren nay if they had that which they desired there were no living with them therefore the Lord in his care and goodnesse is faine to hold them to hard-meat and to keepe them to a spare diet Hee seeth it
is mine is it not lawfull for mee to doe what I will with them This tongue shall praise my name and shall never speake vainly and foolishly and this heart shall love me and this hand shall worke for mee I will dispose of all for the advantage of my great name Three wayes Christ disposeth the heart to himselfe This the Lord makes knowne in three particulars for wee keepe our selves to the generall that wee may not incroach upon those particular workes which are to follow I say there are three particular acts upon the soule First the Lord Iesus fits the soule for his seruice which otherwise is altogether unfit for any spirituall service the Lord Iesus puts those spirituall abilities into the soule which may make it fit for Gods turne so that it is now a fit patterne to expresse the riches of his grace in Christ Iesus As it is with a man that hath passed over some part of his possession into the hands of some prodigall sonne Simile or some naughty tenant and the land is out of heart when he taketh possession of it againe he will be sure to order it that it may be fit for use he will digge and dung and manure it that so hee may expect some fruit from it just so it is with every sinner he lies lay and that wretched heart of his never desired any good and his loose tongue never spake any good it lay fallow and it brought forth nothing but base practices but when sinne and Sathan hath driven the soule out of heart that it hath no power to doe any good then the Lord Christ comes and takes possession of the heart hee taketh it in from the common of the world and he manureth it with the grace of his spirit as it is in that phrase Rom. 11.16 Thou art partaker of the roote and fatnesse of the Olive tree Though it were a barren minde and a sinfull and corrupt heart and a wanton eye the Lord hath taken these parts of the body and soule and mannured them and convaieth such fatnes and grace that the soule becomes fit to doe him honour and to receiue comfort from him Secondly as the Lord fits the soule for his service so he maintains that fitnesse and that gracious disposition of soule and spirit wheresoever he hath bestowed it so that the soule if it be not negligent of its owne salvation cannot lose that fitnesse altogether and the Lord Iesus cannot lose that glory which hee expects from it as in Psal 16.5 The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup thou maintainest my lot The Lord Iesus allowes a portion of grace to every soule that hee comes in and he maintaines that grace Lastly he doth improue that fitnesse for the praise of his great name the Lord Christ ever receives some in-come of service and obedience and that soule ever receives some comfort and consolation from him This is the difference betweene the first and second Adam the first Adam had grace but hee neither kept it nor improved it aright he did not improve that wisedome which God had given him to repell the temptations of Satan and he did not improue his strength and ability to keepe him from falling from God but when the Lord Iesus comes to take possession of a poore soule he will not onely keepe and maintaine the grace that hee hath given him but he will quicken it and provoke that soule to doe what hee should doe in all obedience and to receive what comfort the Lord hath in store for him See this in some passages of Scripture Ioh. 15. 1 2. I am the true vine and my Father is the husbandman Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit Every poor Christian every poor woman and every poore Apprentice and little childe whom God hath called shall beare fruit hee purgeth them and so the Lord receives some improvement of his graces that he gives to those that he takes possession of So then let us gather up all If the Lord Iesus undertakes for the soule so that justice cannot proceed against him and if he doth dispose of the soule and fit it for his service and maintain that fitnesse and improue it for his glory then certainely hee doth take supreme possession of the soule and he that undertakes for the soule takes possession of the heart Vse 1 Vse 1. Reproofe of them that keepe Christ out of possession I cannot tell whether wee haue matter of lamentation or reproofe How few have given entertainment to the Lord Iesus Christ have we not cause to lament our condition that the Lord Iesus hath passed by all our coasts and is not regarded How often hath hee come to thy bed-side and besought thee to receive favour and to be reconciled to God and receive pardon from him how often hath he entreated thee to consider of that which was for thy peace how often hath he said Come to mee you rebellious children and Ah every one that will come and take of the water of life freely and live for ever Where is the man that can say Christ is come and that hee hath given entertainement to him as the man when hee had found the evidence of Gods love after much doubting Mr. Gloveâ— Martyr said He is come He is come Where shall a man finde the Lord Iesus Christ If a man should goe from house to house and from heart to heart who keepes possession doth Christ dwell in that heart and doth he rule in that soule Oh woe to us that we have suffered the Lord Iesus Christ to desire entertainement and yet would not receive him we have taken notice of him but wee would none of him Who rules in that heart The old Tyrant the old lust and corruption as pride and covetousnesse these beare rule every where both in the closet and at the table the husband and the wife and all are proud these will not out but retaine their hold there still And profanenes and contempt of God and his ordinances this is the tyrant that rules in many families and in every coast in our land The father swears and the child sweares the master reviles Gods Ministers and the servant knows the length of his Masters foot and hee railes too and the child heares it and followes the same course If these beare rule in you the Lord Iesus Christ is farre from you May I not complaine as sometime Ieremiah did Ier. 17.13 when the Lord was going from the people the holy prophet looks longly after him and saith O Lord the hope of Israel why art thou as a waifairing man So may wee not iustly complain and say Oh that Christ should come and offer himselfe and not be regarded When the Divell shall drag downe your soules to hell and destruction then you will cry after him and say Oh
thou the hope of Israel why dost thou depart In Gen. 19.2 when the two Angels came to Lot in Sodome the one was Christ Lot compelled them to go in Christ is not now unwilling but hee knockes and calls and saith Open to me my love my dove my undefiled he entreats the loose person to forsake his base practises and the covetous person to leave his oppression and to receive mercy but you suffer Christ to lye in the street and despise that word of his and will bee at your owne carving This especially falls foule upon two sorts of persons The first sort is all carnal profane opposers of the Lord Iesus The carnall Gospeller is content that Christ should undertake for him and bee his Protectort to defend him from the plague of sin but he is not content that Christ should rule in him He doth as the Inne-keeeper that receives a guest into his house to make an advantage of him for as the Inne-keeper will come to his guest and pretend great matters to him not because he would have his guest to possesse him but because hee would bee possessor of his money so the carnall Gospeller would have Christ for his owne turne hee would dispose of Christ and mercy for his owne purpose and hence come all those speeches God is mercifull and Hath the Lord Christ created men to damne them Oh but mercy is sweet and pardon is good This is thus much you would have Christ to pardon sinne that you might commit it with lesse feare and more freedome If you did see no Saviour but that you must needs be damned for it you would startle at it But you would have Christ to stand by you that you might sinne the more freely Oh be not deceived doe you thinke that Christ will come to be an underling to your lusts and a drudge to your base distempers whose condemnation is iust saith the Apostle No you are deceived you shall not have Christ a servant to carry your lusts and pleasures to heaven with you The truth is the Lord Iesus will never bring comfort nor consolation to thee that wilt not bee possessed of him either haue both or neither chuse whether you will The second sort to be reproved are a company of slie hypocrites that would part stakes with Christ and part houses with him they could bee content that hee should have some roome in the house but they will dispose of all themselues as a man that lets some roomes in his house Simile upon this condition that he may have them when he lists You willl pray against sinne provided that now and then Christ will give you leaue to practise it and you will cry out against it provided that you may have a privy seale or some secret licence for it and you will professe bitterly against base courses so you may haue some backe doore and inward lust still The Lord Iesus doth not share with any man can he have a part and the Divell a part nay hee will have either all or none It was the tricke of an adulterous heart for when there was contention for the children the harlot said 1 King 3.26 Let it be neither thine nor mine but divide it Nay saith the mother let her have all Shee was the harlot that would have the child devided So it is with an adulterous and dissembling heart that saith Let Christ have a part and the world a part let lusts and pompe have a part and Christ a part this is dissimulation with GOD and shall receive condemnation there must bee no sharing If your hearts be guilty of this I charge you in the name of the Lord Iesus consider it the Lord never came into your soules you must resigne all to him and then he will saue all he will pardon all sin and give power against it What a fearfull thing were it if the Lord should deale with you as you deale with him Suppose thou couldst be halfe damned wouldst thou be content to have thy heart go to hell and thine eye to heaven or thy body to hell and thy soule to heaven therefore that thy body and soule may both be saved resigne up up all into the hands of thy Saviour and let him dispose of all here in the kingdome of grace and then he will take all to himselfe in glory for ever Vse 2. If the Lord Iesus be the possessor of all the house then let every one haue his owne Give all to Christ whose it is doe not with draw from Christ that which is his Whose image and superscription hath the soule Christ Iesus hath the protection of it therefore let him have all Let thine eye see his works and wonder and admire at them let thy minde know Iesus Christ whom to know is eternal life but do not withdraw any thing from the true owner therof that hath purchased it full deare 1 Cor. 5.15 Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot God forbid Thine eye and thy tongue and thy hand and thy heart they are all Christs members he hath bought all with his blood and thou hast nothing to do with that which Christ hath bought therefore whensoever thy corruptions stirre and Satan tempts and begges for the use of thy mind or heart make answer and say Shall I take that heart that is Christs and thinke basely God forbid Shall I take the hand of Christ and worke wickednesse with it The holy Apostle is marvellous peremptory in this case as 1 Cor. 6.19 Glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods and hee hath bought you with a price your bodies and soules are the Lords hee undertakes for both therefore glorifie God in both If a man did come to your house and take the meat and drinke that you have provided and rob you of your money you would take it very hardly and say It is my owne So you are not your owne Therefore if the Divell or the world would prevaile with you and enter into the use of your heart or minde tell him they are not thy owne they are the Lords IESVS CHRIST hath come into thy heart and minde in mercy and therefore say it is the Lords let him doe what hee will with it â‚ SPIRITVALL LOVE AND IOY Gal. 5.22 The fruit of the Spirit is love ioy goodnes faith c. THE sure mercies of David which faith beleeveth love embraceth And who so getteth this field and treasure must needs go away rejoycing in so good a bargain All this and all other graces and comforts worketh one and the same Spirit directing the heart to God uniting it unto Christ and thereby comforting it abundantly All is his fruit in us At this time of loue and joy The point of Doctrine is this Love and joy by the spirit wrought in a broken heart for embracing mercy as it deserves Doct. The Spirit of the Father kindles in the soule of
thing so there must be a beam of Gods love to fall upon the soule before it can love God againe as in Hosea 11.4 I drew them with the cords of a man even with the bands of love God lets in the cords of love into the soule and that drawes love againe to God But above all that place Cant. 2.4 marke the manner how Gods Spirit expresseth himselfe to the soule He brought me into the banquetting house Cant. 2.4 opened and his banner over me was love stay me with flaggons and comfort me with apples for I am sicke of love And so when the banner of Christs love is spread over the soule the soule comes to be sicke in love to Christ As it is in war when the Commander displayes the banner these three things are signified by it First that there is the presence of the Commander Secondly the displaying of the banner commands all to come to it Thirdly while it is held out all keepe to it Now see the excellencie of the Spirit of God in the Scripture The Church was then in some trouble but the Lord Christ brings the Spouse into his chamber nay into the wine-celler and the banner that was displayed over her was love and first Christ came as a Commander to redeeme her and to save her from all troubles and afflictions Secondly it commands the soule to come to the banner Thirdly when God displayes his love in the beautie of it in any measure then all the company of poore sinners come in unto it and so they love the Lord because the Lord hath loved them This love of God doth beget our loves in three particulars First Gods love to us begets love in us towards him and how there is a sweetnesse and a relish which Gods love le ts into the soule and warmes the heart with you shall see how the fire is kindled by and by As when a man is fainting we give him Aqua-vitae so a fainting sinner is cold at the heart and therefore the lets in a drop of his loving kindnesse and this warmes the heart and the soule is even filled with the sappinesse of the mercy of God as Cant. 1.1 2. where the Spouse saith Let him kisse me with the kisses of his mouth for his love is better than wine The poore soule though hee drinke water yet he drinkes better wine than any carnall man under Heaven the kisses of his mouth are the comforts of his Word and Spirit The soule saith Oh let the Lord refresh me with the kisses of his mouth that is of his Word and Spirit let the Lord speak comfort to the heart and this is better than wine For the Lord must doe it before hee can be apprehensive of his love yea let the Lord expresse the comfort of his precious promises in Iesus Christ to me And againe in the second verse Because of the savour of thy garments thy name is as an ointment poured forth therefore the virgins love thee Christ was the oyntment Christs oyntment is his graces and the savour or the communication of this is the expression of his love to the soule the virgins are the soules truly humbled that love the Lord. Secondly as this warmes the heart so the freenesse of the love of God thus let in and thus intimated begins even to kindle this love in the soule that it sparkles againe Rom. 5 8. see how God sets out his love to us Seeing saith the Apostle that while wee were sinners Christ died for us This commends the love of God the Lord sends to poore miserable sinfull broken-hearted sinners and saith Commend my mercie to such a one and tell him that though hee hath beene an enemy to me yet I am a friend to him and though hee have beene rebellious against me yet I am a God and a Father to him and let him not thinke that because he hath offended me therefore hee shall not receive mercie from me but here is my love and it is worth the commendation Christ died for poore sinners when they were enemies therefore if God so loved us as to dye for us when wee were sinners and enemies how ought we then to love one another But much more how ought wee to love the Lord What was it that kindled that frozen and vile and stubborne and wicked heart of wretched Saul who had a heart as hard as ice 1 Sam. 24.19 when David had him upon the hippe and might have slaine him but would not even this wrought upon the heart of Saul and kindled a fire of affections of love towards him and made him say Come againe my son David Thou art more righteous than I for thou hast rewarded me good whereas I have rewarded thee evill And thou hast shewed mee this day how that thou hast dealt well with mee forasmuch as when the Lord hath delivered me into thine hand thou killedst me not For who ever slew not his enemie when he found him at such an advantage wherefore the Lord reward thee good for that which thou hast done unto mee this day Sauls heart is all on fire with this kindnesse So when the poore sinner considers this with himselfe and saith Is the Lord so mercifull to mee who ever thus found his enemie and slew him not I that loved my sins and continued in them had it not beene just that I should have perished in them But will the Lord not only not slay his enemie but give his Sonne for mee Oh let my soule for ever rejoyce in this unconceivable goodnesse of God! Bee thy heart neuer so hard if it have but the sense of this it cannot but stirre thee to humiliation Lastly the greatnesse of the freenesse of this mercie of God being setled upon the heart enflames it This sweetnesse warmes the heart this freenesse kindles the fire and when the greatnesse of the sweetnesse comes to be valued this sets the heart all upon a fire In Eph. 3.17 18. the Apostle desires that Christ might dwell in their hearts and that they might be rooted in love but how shall we come to this that we may bee able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of God in Christ As if the Apostle had said If I once come to see the unmeasurablenesse of Gods mercy this will blow up the soule and enflame the heart with admirable love againe to the Lord and make the soule say I that have done all that I could against the good God it breakes my heart to thinke it there was no name under Heaven that I did more blaspheme and teare in peeces more than this I have despised no command so much as the command of God and of Christ and I have grieved no spirit so much as the good Spirit of the Lord against those sweet motions that God hath let into my soule and struggled with me to plucke me from my company and to contend with me
I have taken up armes against Almightie God If I had but gone to the top of Hell it had beene infinite mercy and if I had been in a dungeon all my dayes and had another world to live and lived it all in miserie it had beene infinite mercie for the Lord to send downe Christ to looke upon me a poore wretch in the dungeon and to speake to me out of the gates of hell and to tell me of this mercie oh it had beene an infinite mercie but to send a Sonne to save me it is incomparable I could not conceive to doe so much evill against him as he hath done good to me oh the breadth of that mercy beyond all limits oh the length of that mercie beyond all time oh the depth of that mercie below a mans miserie oh the height of that mercy above the height of mine understanding If mine hands were all of love that I could worke nothing but love and if mine eyes were able to see nothing but love and my mind thinke of nothing but love and if I had a thousand bodies it were all too little to love that God that hath unmeasurably loved mee a poore sinfull hel-hound Psal 18.1 I will love thee dearely O Lord my strength Oh have I gotten the Lord Iesus Christ to bee my comfort my buckler my shield If I have any good he gives it and if any good bee continued it is he that doth it and if I have any comfort in it it is hee that blesseth it to me therefore I will love thee dearely Oh Lord my strength Thus the point is cleare and stands upon his right bottome Now I come to the Application of it that wee may reape some good and comfort to our owne soules And the use of the point is fourefold for Instruction for Consolation Nature breeds no love to Christ for Reprehension for Exhortation Vse 1. First for Instruction which I desire a little to commend to you because it is seasonable Is it so that the Spirit of the Father kindles this love in the heart truly humbled and enlightned c then conclude this undeniably That there is no power in nature or in a naturall heart I say there is no sufficiencie in the power of nature to bee carried to any love towards Christ we have not this before God gives it nay wee cannot move our selves in love to God before the Lord let in the sparkes of love into our soules True it is we find it by wofull experience it is in our power to love the world and to delight in base lusts and being but naturall men it cannot be but that we should love our selves and the things of this world there is enough of these wilde fires and of this base worldly lust in every naturall soule to expresse it selfe but to love the Lord Iesus Christ and to have a heart inlarged towards him it is a worke of grace that growes not in our hearts I say there is not one sparke of holy love and of this holy fire of love in our hearts at any time neither can we buy or borrow it at the hands of any under heaven further than the Spirit of the Lord is pleased to kindle it and to inflame this grace of love to the Lord Iesus and further than the Lord by the power of his merits is pleased to feed this in our soules It is an unconceiveable misery that any man should bee so farre deluded as to thinke that he can do it by his owne strength and power Saint Paul expresseth it in discovering the vilenesse of himselfe by nature and the freenesse of Gods grace 1 Tim. 1.13 14. I was before a blasphemer and a persecutor but I obtained mercy I wronged Iesus Christ and was malicious against him and opposed against his children Paul could doe this of himselfe so thou canst be malicious against the Lord and against the power of his grace and truth this a naturall man can doe but for him to love the Lord Iesus Christ and to beleeve in him how came Saint Paul by that Why the grace of God was exceeding abundant towards mee with faith and love which is in Iesus Christ As if he had said it was abundant grace that over-powred my unfaithfull heart and made me beleeve and it was abundant grace that over-powred my injurious heart and made me love Christ But how was this it was by the grace of Christ from Christ this faith was wrought and in Christ this love was kindled As if hee had said I thought to cast off the Lord and his grace I was a persecuter and a villaine indeed but that I should beleeve the Lord and love him this was from Christ it was in grace and not in Paul The ball must first fall to the ground before it can rebound backe againe so the Lord Iesus must first dart in his love into the soule before the soule can rebound in love and joy to him againe wee must receive from grace before wee can rebound backe any love to God as 1 Tim. 1.7 God hath not given us the spirit of bondage but of power of love and of a sound minde See what the Lord spake in some case of the Iewes Iohn 5.40 42. speaking home to their hearts hee saith I know you that yee have not the love of God in you Verse 40. he saith Yee will not come to mee and in the 42. verse I know you that yee have not the love of God in you As if hee had said I know it you know it not your selves and though you thinke you have this love to mee yet you are deceived you know not what you are nor what you know but I know and it is as true of every corrupt heart under heaven the love of God cannot bee in the heart of any naturall man whatsoever The reason why I presse this point so much is this it is for these two ends you shall see a double benefit by it Carnall men conceive no difficulty to love Christ First this confutes and overthrowes the conceits of a company of carnal Gospellers that say they fast not nor pray not nor professe not so much as such and such but for the truth of their love to Christ they defie all the world they find no difficulty in the matter and they make no doubt therof and therefore if any Christian man or any faithfull Minister of God shall begin to challenge them with the want of love to Christ and grace they will answer What not loue the Lord Iesus it is pitty that euer that man should live they have loved him and will loue him for ever and all the world shall not perswade them to the contrary Oh poore deluded creatures it is an undoubted argument that thou never hadst the loue of God in thee because thou thinkest it such an easie matter to love him Many men make nothing of it they make it but an holy-day taske and say Who cannot
love Christ I say neither thou nor I can doe it by any power or vertue in our selues nay I say thou art as able to save thy owne soule and to redeeme thy selfe without Christ as thou art able to love Christ unlesse he by the power of his spiritenable thee to doe it Nay you that make nothing of it to loue Christ marke what I say If a man might have happinesse in hand and heaven laid downe upon the nayle if he could love the Lord Iesus of himselfe I say if he had no more but nature he would never goe to heaven nor never bee happy Nay it will cost more than so it will cost time and paines and many teares and prayers you must have the Father come downe from heaven to teach you and you must goe to another schoole than ever you were at yet before you can learne it and unlesse the Father make you able to loue Christ you can never doe it It is true if it were nothing but pratling and professing and yet to stand in open opposition to the power of grace and the spirit this cannot bee for to welcome a Saviour to receive Christ answerable to the worth of him a man cannot doe it by the meere power of nature it is the worke of the Lord as the Apostle Saint Iohn saith 1 Ioh. 1.5 God is light and in him is no darknesse and Ephes 5.8 You were darknesse God is nothing but holines and you are nothing but darknesse Now you know darknesse can oppose light and wickednesse can oppose holinesse but never give way to it nor receive it This is thy nature and condition thou hast an ignorant darke heart of thine owne but the Lord is altogether holines and light and thou canst not receive it nor wilt thou receiue him As 2 Thess 2.10 they would not receive the truth of God in the loue of it the truth of God makes love to thy carnall heart and would plucke thee from thy base lusts and corruptions and would woo and winne thy soule that it might take place in thy heart the world will not receive it Iesus Christ came into the world to save sinners but the world would not receive him so farre were they from seeking to a Saviour that they would not receiue him though he came to offer himselfe to them thou hast a heart that hatest Iesus Christ and cannot loue him and thou hast a heart that can oppose him and his grace but canst not take contentment in that grace and rich mercy of his if thou hast not grace and mercy thou hast but what thou wouldst haue and therefore it is just thou shouldest never haue it The second cause Saints Iove not as they might and should because they rely not on the promise why I presse this instruction is this To shew the disorderly proceedings of many poore Saints that labour extremely to worke their owne soules and to bring their hearts to love Christ that they even fall out with themselues and curse their base hearts that can loue the world and cannot loue Iesus Christ they labour much and would bring their hearts to loue him but they cannot doe it because they goe to worke the contrary way they would bring loue to the promise and not receive love from the promise as if a man should bring water to the sea or light to the sunne It is as if he would have a sun of his owne and yet there is but one sunne of righteousnesse that can kindle this loue of Iesus Christ to carry it selfe worthy of him Therefore be wise herein and thinke not to bring love to the promise but come to the promise for it and goe to the sea for water and looke up to the sunne of Gods loue and be under the beames of Gods mercy and looke not down into that dead frozen heart of thine own for if thou wouldst never so faine thou canst not receive one sparkle of this love from thy owne abilities See his love therein and bee thereby drawne to love him againe and see the fulnesse of those pleasures at his right hand which endure for ever Ioh. 16.14 the Lord Christ saith He shall send the Spirit the Comforter and he shall take of mine that is take of Christs All spirituall graces are Christs therefore goe thou thy way and tell the Lord thus much saying In truth Lord I have not a heart to love thee it is thine owne worke and thou hast sayd that thy spirit shall take of thine and give it to thy servants that thy servants may also give thee of thine owne againe that love and that delight is thine to give that wee may giue thee of thine owne as David spoke of the building of the Temple Thus much of the use of instruction Vse 2. Comfort to them that love Christ In the second place here is a strong consolation to sustaine and refresh the hearts of those that have received this gracious worke though they haue some small weaknesses it skills not be the worke sound it is enough thy soule may bee comforted that the Lord hath enlarged himselfe to thee in this gracious worke I say it is a ground of admirable sweet refreshing of soule to any that finde this gracious love unto Christ A man by nature cannot have this therefore hast thou this by grace Goe thy way as he that hath found a treasury and make much of it and say and know thou hast something more than all carnall wretches can have and thou hast more than all the cunning close-hearted hypocrites under heaven can have let them pretend and fain and flatter what they will Me thinks this should wonderfully refresh the hope of you poore ones for though many times other things goe not well with you yet this is enough to cheare up your hearts for ever You know a childe will loue his father though hee can doe little for him he is a child and therefore though he can doe little for his father yet if he love his father hee is contented so they that haue little meanes and small sufficiencies towards any servants of God and it may be their understandings are not so deepe as others be and their tongues runne not so glib as such and such and they cannot talke so freely of the things of grace and salvation and thou hast meaner parts and canst not enlarge thy self in holy duties and holy services though this is commendable where it is and thou canst not dispute for a Saviour and perform such duties as others can doe yet thou canst loue Iesus Christ and reioyce in him Methinkes there is many a poore soule would say I blesse the name of the Lord that 's all that I haue the Lord knowes that all the friends I have and parts and meanes and abilities in the world they are but as dung and drosse in comparison of Christ Oh it were the comfort of my soule if I might be euer with him Goe thy
Christ will say Oh that love pleaseth me They cannot welcome the Lord better than with this love but the other love and joy pleaseth him not Canst thou say I love the Lord because hee hath loved mee then thy love is of a right mettall and know it for ever that that God which cannot but love himselfe hee cannot but like that love which came from himselfe who is the God of all love and which comes from his owne divine nature Is thy soule affected and enlarged in love to the Lord because thou hast felt and received the rellish and sweetnesse of his grace Dost thou love and joy in God upon this ground namely upon a grounded affection of Gods loue to thee setled and sealed to thy selfe so that thou canst say The Lord hath let in the glimpse of his favour and the Lord hath said it in his truth hee lookes to him that trembles at his word the Minister said it and the Spirit saith it that my mercy is registred in heaven and my desires are received and granted Oh how shall I love the Lord My sinnes are many which I have bewailed and my sighes and sobs I have put up to heaven and at last the Lord hath given mee a gracious answer O how may I love the Lord my strength dearly Lord thou hast looked downe from heaven in love and mercy upon me and therefore my soule shall ever looke up to heaven to thee in love If it be thus with thee thy love is sound and will never faile thee but if any mans love comes from himselfe and therefore loves God that love will onely bring all to himselfe and there is the end of it A man hath a love to his parts and abilities and prayer and preaching and reading and conference and understanding and policy hee loveth these and therefore he would fain be beholden to Iesus Christ to helpe him to honour and to glorifie these parts of his This love was from his parts and brought to his parts and in the meane time the Lord Iesus lay in the dust and his glory was not regarded whereas the love that is wrought by God it alwayes doth draw the love of the soule againe to God and so love from him draws love to him This is the excellencie of this love and this is love of the right kind But if the love of parts and profits draw me to honour and glorifie parts and profits then I love my profits and not Christ Thinke of this often this is certaine this will bee the mainest difference betweene all the love of carnall hypocrites and of the Saints of God I would expresse my selfe to you thus As it is with meat which a man takes downe inwardly and digests it this breeds good bloud but that meate which a man eates and spits out againe and tarries not long with him this breeds no bloud at all So it is in the heart of a poore humbled sinner truely wrought upon to receive Christ in the worth of him and with the hypocrite A heart truely wrought upon by Gods Spirit it takes downe the promise and feeds upon it and it breeds good bloud and complexion True love is like this good bloud and true joy is like this complexion Marke this the promise of God settled upon the heart nourisheth and feedeth the heart and it breeds good bloud but the foolish hypocrite that hath a kind of flattering sweetnes this tickles the heart with vaine conceits but they never goe downe And hence it is that that love which comes from hence it is but a fading love and there is no good bloud nor no good complexion comes from it but rather corruptions and overture Secondly 2. Triall as the root of this love must be from the kindling of the Spirit so if thou entertaine thy Saviour as it beseemes him True love of Christ entertains him as a King thou must entertaine him as a King and that is thus give up all to him and entertaine none with him upon termes of honour but such as retaine to him or be attendants unto him this is the manner of receiving great Princes Love all in a Christ and for a Christ but expresse thy love and thy joy to a Christ above all he is as the King and all the rest are but as retainers and all his servants are as servants to him He that loves any thing equall with a Christ it is certaine he did never love a Christ but he that sets up any thing cheeke by joll with Christ he despiseth him and never receives him It is all one as if a man did put a slave into the same chamber with the King which is all one as to drive him away So if thou dost set up any thing with Christ thou dost drive him away with such base behaviour As in Iames 4.4 O yee adulterers and adulteresses know yee not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God A man cannot retaine fellowship with Christ Iesus and with the world too upon point of honour Simile As the woman that loves her husband she loveth other men as friends and neighbours and will give them very courteous entertainment and welcome them kindly but if they come to claime the love of a wife she abhorres and detests them So a loving heart that loves Iesus Christ as the Bridegroome he loves Christ onely and all for Christ and the rest as friends c. The soule wil love honors or profits or credit or parts and priviledges that they may be friends to speake for a man and to give a man occasion to speake with a Saviour as the wife loves the husband firstly and all the rest she regards onely as they may further the match this way so the Lord Christ and his grace is chiefe to the soule but the world and ease and credit these are meerely as friends to leade him to a Saviour and make him acquainted with a Saviour The soule loves the word and prayer and all Gods ordinances to speake a good word to a Saviour for him but all the rest are despised by him and if any of them come to claime the love of a soule from a Christ it hates them deadly as Luke 14.26 If any man come to mee and hate not father and mother in comparison of me he is not worthy of mee that is if father and mother stand betweene thee and Christ and would have thy soule married to them again the soule hates them This is a plaine difference betweene a sound heart and a false heart in the receiving of Christ the sound heart receives him as a favorite receives a Prince he gives up all to him Simile and lets him have the command of all but now an Inne-keeper entertains him that comes next to him he will take any mans money and will give welcome to any man if it bee the best man
that comes he cares not he loves gaine in and aboue all So a good heart resignes up all to a Christ and whatsoever is pleasing to a Christ he will doe it and whatsoever comes from a Christ is welcome but if any man be an enemy against his Majestie and would doe any violence against him he cannot endure it But the hypocrite receives Christ as the Inne-keeper doth his guest if the world come it shall be served and if honour come it is welcome if he may have gain from them they are all welcome and therefore all is welcome because hee may haue gaine by all and so he loves himselfe in all and not Christ 3. Triall It avoydes matter of griefe and displeasure Thirdly the soule that thus entertaines Christ and studies wholly to give contentment to him he is marvellous warie and watchfull that he may not sad that good spirit of God and grieve him and cause him to goe away as displeased or to take away the sweetnesse of it for the present the penitent feares lest there be any thing that may cause this because he entertains him as a marvellous loving friend and therefore if hee should doe any thing to grieve him it would vexe him to the heart See this Cant. 3.4.5 the Spouse sought long for her beloved and at last brought him home and when she had welcomed him she gives charge to all the house not to stirre nor awaken her love till he please When a Prince comes into the house of a great man what charge is there given to make no noise in the night lest such or such a man bee awakened before his time And were it not a basenesse in us if wee should have our hearts more in love with any thing than the service of Christ The soul also when it hath received the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ gives a peremptory charge to keepe watch and ward and gives a charge to hope and desire and love and joy and the minde and all not to grieve nor molest the good spirit of the Lord let there bee no motion but entertaine it no advice but receive it and doe nothing that may worke the least kinde of dislike In Gen. 19.5 6 7 8. when Lot had received the 2 Angels into his house the cursed Sodomites came about the house to abuse them but see how Lot pleadeth with those base wicked people I pray you my brethren doe not so wickedly Behold now I have two daughters which have not known man them will I bring forth unto you and doe unto them as seemeth good unto you onely to these men doe nothing for therefore are they come under the shadow of my roofe This is kinde and honourable entertainement indeed he would rather suffer himselfe than they so a loving heart will doe with Christ he saith Let my soule bee wounded and my honour lye in the dust that Gods name may be honoured let persecution and shame disgrace and any thing come to mee I am willing to endure all but I will doe nothing against Jesus Christ nor against the credit of the Gospel nor speake evill of Gods name no nor dishonour the worke of his grace whatsoever befall me Simile As one that loves a friend will aske his servants what doth your Master like best and what doth hee desire to eat because he would prevent him with kindnesse so marvellous carefull is he to avoid whatsoever may displease him So a soule truly humbled is not content unless God may have his will and therefore it comes to the faithfull Ministers of God and saith How may I please God better and how may I come to entertaine the motions of his spirit better shew me what duties must be done and what sinnes must be avoided You know Christs will and what will please him I beseech you advise me that I may heare and pray and walke and approve my heart so to him that nothing may displease him This I take to bee the maine difference betweene a good heart and a false hypocriticall one Simile For looke what difference there is between a man that takes a servant into his family and a Noble-man that receives a Prince so much difference there is between a good heart a false hypocriticall heart Now a man entertaines a servāt into his house to the end he may serve please himselfe and that the servant may give contentment to him because hee is wise and able to dispatch his occasions and likewise diligent to looke throughly to all and therefore it is that the servant is entertained not for the servants sake but that hee may content his master But he that doth receive a Noble-man into his house he labours to give him all the content that may be he layes by all and attends onely upon him and though hee be a man of great state and hath many to attend on him yet all the servants are charged to see that nothing bee wanting to his guest nay he will rather discontent himself than him because he comes out of an honorable respect to visite him therefore he wil receive him as beseemes his state and person Just so it is with a faithfull soule that receives Christ in the worth of him and one that receives him for gaine onely the one receives Christ as a servant into his family and so all the while that the Gospel and the profession of it and the Lord Jesus may promote his ease and honour and credit then welcome Gospel but if his profits and honour and credit and the Gospel cannot agree together he turnes all out of doores and of a professor hee proves a loather of Jesus Christ because he received him to content himselfe withall But hee that receives Christ in the worth of him will not please himselfe and his lusts and his pride and vaine-glory but though they that are his nearest friends call him and say they must have his company and his attendance yet hee replies No hee cannot the Lord Jesus Christ must be attended and when the old haunts of heart and old lewd courses that have had inward league with the poore sinner come and crave and plead for acceptance hee regards them not nay an humbled soule will rather displease all the great men in the world yea the neerest man that he depends upon and all that glory and pompe than Jesus Christ 4 Triall It rejoyceth most to see Christ honoured 4 Fourthly he that loves any thing in the worth of it it is his good and happinesse to see the good and happinesse of that thing which he loves this is an undoubted argument of sound affection that that which he loves should have all good though hee misse it If any good befall that thing which hee loves hee thinkes himselfe happy and had rather see that honoured than himself this is true love a marvellous sweet passage of a loving heart yea it is the very picture of true love 1
Sam. 23.17 When Saul had made a cunning search for David and he was fled Jonathan comes to him and chears him saying I know that my father shall not prevaile against thee but that thou shalt be King over Israel and I shall be next thee Jonathan was Sauls Sonne and he might have said I am my fathers heire and why may not I bee his successor in the kingdome but he loved David and rejoiced in his good and therefore he said Thou shalt be King over Israel and I shall bee next unto thee As if hee should say I am more glad that the Crowne shall be set upon thy head than if it were set upon mine owne for my soule is thereby comforted and refreshed So it is with a good heart that loves Jesus Christ and his grace and his Gospel in truth the happinesse glory and the honour of the Lord Jesus is the greatest good that can befall him wherefore he saith If the Lord may be honoured though I am disgraced I care not it is enough to me if may stand to behold and see it Ioh. 3.26.29 When the Lord Christ began to set forth the frame and glory of the Gospel and to baptize the Disciples of John came to their Master and said Rabbi he that was with thee beyond Jordan to whom thou barest witnesse behold the same baptizeth and all men come to him they began to be troubled because the Lord Jesus baptized and the praise went from them as if they had said There is one come that carrieth the hearts of all men after him Now mark what John answered He that hath the Bride is the Bride-groome as if he should say The Lord Christ is the Bride-groome and I am onely the friend of the Bride-groome all my care was to prepare hearts for him and hath he now gotten those hearts and hath he prosperitie then have I enough if I heare that the case goes well with him I have enough let the Lord have the praise that is due to him and let me have whatsoever is due to me 2 Sam. 19.30 when Mephibosheth had been wrongfully accused to David and David had taken away the inheritance from him and was returned in safety so that he saw the Kings face againe David began to comfort him saying Thou and Siba divide the land but marke how he replies Yea saith he let him take all for as much as my Lord the King is come againe in peace It matters not for the inheritance and for my selfe and my life I passe not fith the King is returned in peace it is enough that I enjoy thy presence which is better to me than goods life and liberty So it is with a kinde-loving heart when hee is not able to indure to see Christs honour and glory lye in the dust but if his praise be advanced then he is glad this is a good and loving heart indeed which saith Lord I have enough that Christ is mine and that his honour and glory is magnified Let the world take all if I may have Christ and see him praised and magnified Labour to bring thy soule to this pitch a minister in his place and the master in his place and every Christian in his place let it be all our care not onely to honour God our selves but let it be our comfort if God may be better honoured by others than by our selves This is our basenesse of spirit we can bee content to lift up Christ upon our shoulders that we may lift up our selves by it this too much prevailes amongst all men But be content to lye in the dust that the Lord may be praised though thou be disgraced And though every mans heart goe opposite against thee yet let this content thee if the Lord Jesus may thrive and prosper yea if any of Gods people thrive and prosper more than thou let that be thy onely joy 5. Triall More more it desires union with Christ Lastly it is the nature of sound love to covet a neere union with the thing that is loved and to have a kinde of impatiency and to be restlesse till it doe attaine the greatest measure thereof This flowes directly from the nature of love especially of this love to Christ who is the greatest good love is of a linking and glewing nature will carry the soule with some kind of strength earnestness to injoy full possession and fellowship of the thing that is loved it cannot have enough of it and it is not satisfied with it upon any occasion As it is in reason with a childe Simile happely when the father entertaines him at the table hee gives him a little sweet-meat as some Conserve or the like which is so sweet that he can tast nothing but that and his minde is still upon it that he may receive more of it the father commends this and that and praiseth a third and extols a fourth dish but yet the childe cryes More of this because hee felt the sweetenesse of it So it is with a soule that truly loves Christ when it hath tasted how good the Lord is and hath had a good looke from heaven it covets union not so much with any thing as with that riches honours profits seeme as irksome as may be in regard of that the soul desires nothing so much as this and craves more of Christ more of that mercy and holinesse and grace and love that is in him let the wicked talke what they will of the world if he have that he hath enough Psal 73.25 when David had been doating upon the world and the vanities of it see what he sayth Whom have I in heaven but thee and whom on earth in comparison of thee and then see what followes hee bids adieu to the world and sayth in the last verse It is good for me to draw neere unto God as if he had said Let the ambitious belly-gods have their pleasure drinke and swill and goe downe to hell But oh let mee have that mercy and that good which God hath provided for and will bestow upon those that love him You shall observe it Joh. 20.15 16 17. Mary was a marvellous loving woman and therefore when Christ said to her Woman why weepest thou whom seekest thou she supposing him to be the Gardiner saith unto him Sir if thou hast borne him hence tell me where thou hast laid him I will take him away She would be content to have the dead body of her Saviour rather than none at all But when the Lord Jesus had revealed himselfe to her in the 16 verse shee said Rabboni and when she saw it was he she flies upon him and with marvellous violence embraceth him for so the text is to be conceived though hee forbad her to touch him because hee was not yet ascended saying Doe I once possesse thee againe I will never part with thee any more thus she held him by the feet till he checked her because shee
and hee is not able to stoope to it nor to be framed by it These men deale with Christ as men that entertain a neighbour liberally to this end that he will look to his owne grounds onely and not intrench upon his for to have him a Land-lord or Commander over him and to bee in dependance upon him this he cannot beare But the Saints of God doe the second they entertaine Christ as a Land-lord but the other onely as a neighbour Let these men know that all those that are not with Christ are against him though a man stand still and doe nothing and love not warre because he would bee in peace let him I say know that all the wrong that is done by others if he be not a helper against it the Lord will require it at his hands as if he had done it himself as in that place Curse ye Merosh Judg 5.23 because she came not to the helpe of the Lord against the mightie as if a man did say I am loath to meddle before I am called to it But I say thou art called the Gospel was persecuted and thou wouldst not stir therefore the Lord will deale with thee as he did with that luke-warme Church in the Revelation the Lord will spue thee out of his mouth luke-warmnesse is loathsome to the stomacke therefore appeare in your colours what you are that you may be knowne either a Saint or a Divell lukewarme water goes against the stomacke and the Lord abhors such lukewarme tame fooles Hypocrites enemies of Christ 3. The third ranke of those that love not Christ are the fawning hypocrites that will fawne upon the Lord Jesus that make admirable faire weather and professe marvellous affectionate love unto him and will speake for a good cause and hazzard himselfe in it and when all is done he is an inward hater of Christ Of this sort I take Saul to bee 1 Sam. 15.13 the Lord gave a commandement to goe and kil all the Amalekites who when he saw Samuel comming toward him saith Blessed bee thou of the Lord here marke the tricke of an hypocrite I have performed the commandement of the Lord and therefore blessed be God that I see thee that I may give up my account unto thee But saith he What meaneth then this bleating of the sheepe in mine eares and the lowing of the oxen which I heare I need not speake for the bleatings of the sheepe shew that Saul is an hypocrite These men may be discovered by these two passages They doe not desire to give contentment to Jesus Christ but to themselves and withall they lift up their own glory with Christ Foure sorts of hypocrites Of this ranke there are foure sorts The wrangling hypocrite The whining hypocrite The vaine-glorious hypocrite The presumptuous hypocrite The first sort is the wrangling hypocrite I know many men that will professe they are at your command to serve you and to doe what they shall be commanded and they shall thinke themselves happy to be imployed by you and yet in conclusion they intend no such matter They desire to live no longer to do nothing but that which may promote the honour of the Lord Jesus and if they did not think to honour him by this or that they would not doe it but if it come to this that a man must leave his profits or livings or honours for Christ he will not say expressely he will not do it and that hee will not part with his honours and profits for Christ but yet he will stand to quarrell and say It is not fit to doe it and there is no command for it It is admirable to see and to conceive the vileness and basenesse that is in the spirits of these men for when the duty is revealed and enjoyned they will search far and neer to make it no duty they will rake the Divels skull and invent some new shifts to prove that it is not needfull to be done that so they may avoid the doing of it as it is amongst some that follow the fashions of the times though they pretend to doe things comely and to keep close to the Word yet if a new fashion come up though never so absurd they will forget their promise and plead for it not questioning what is lawfull but what most pleases their humour But observe this in thy owne soule do not thinke to quarrell with thy selfe about duties which the Lord requires at thy hands But art thou in good earnest content that the Word should be true as God would have it and to have that accounted naught which God saith is naught It is certaine many will say it for shame but they have an inward league between them and some sin they will not have that lawfull that they may not doe and they will not have that to be sinne which God saith is sinne that they may commit it with quiet ease and liberty striving more to content their owne hearts and the fashion then Christ They must content their liberty they will not be imprisoned and therefore will give full content to a spirit that desires freedome These never had this fire of love to Christ kindled in their hearts Now before I come to the next give me leave to unmaske this hypocrite and to dogge him to his owne doore and for this end First I will shew what this pretence of love to Christ is Secondly I will shew the prankes that hee hath to cover his hypocrisie withall and when both these are opened it will appeare that he onely intends to wrangle and that he hath not this true love of Jesus Christ For first he wil joyne side with Christ in the generall in the common nay when it cōes to the particular case wherin his heart withdrawes yet therein also he wil vow openly that he doth nothing but what his conscience tels him is fit to be done and that which his judgement is fully satisfied in Alas poore conscience he hath couzened thee before or else curbed and charmed thee by saying I am resolved that it is not so therefore conscience you must be of my side yet conscience replies You should not do this or that let the Lord have the glory and take you the shame that all may be warned for ever Thus it was with the old Prophet 1 Ki. 13.18 when he came to couzen the young Prophet he said I am a Prophet also as thou art an Angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord saying bring him back with thee into thine house And thus it is with this wretched hypocrite in his pretence of love unto Christ it is cleare in his conscience he dares not do any thing against the Lord Jesus and in his judgement and in his conscience he thinkes so and so hee hath peace at home but let him goe with his peace Again he will talke marvellously of Gods honour and of the promoting of the Gospel the
will come and whine to her husband and yet goe to it againe no if shee had a true heart to her husband and sought for peace she would not have returned to her vile courses againe So it is with the soule it is adulterous and base love and not the love of the Spouse of Christ to confesse and bewaile sinne and yet to commit it That sorrow which loosens the heart from sinne and makes it come neerer to God and so to be rid of corruption that sorrow I say gives content to Christ but that sorrow which indeed doth incourage a man and rather give way to the commission of sinne than loosen the heart from it gives no content to the Lord Jesus but to thy selfe and stands not with the allegeance of him but of sin but yet if thou canst say so and sorrow so as to be loosened from thy sinne then thou contentest the Lord Jesus but if thou thinkest thou hast a warrant or a privie seale for thy sinful practices because thou hast sorrowed this argues little love to Jesus Christ Object But some will say May not a man make his moane and expresse his griefe for sinne Expression of sorrow for sin limited Answ I answer Yes it is fitting and necessary yet consider these two rules 1. First make it not an ordinary table-talke for that smells too grossely of false hypocrisie as if a man did say Now I hope every man will take notice how I mourne for sin but rather if thy heart be full and surcharged with griefe inquire what is the danger of such and such corruptions and the cause of them and how thou mayst get power against them but keepe thy sorrow in secret 2. Or else in the second place thou shouldst make thy sorrow knowne to some godly Minister or faithfull Christian out of the burden of thy sin and not for fashion sake thus doe that thy heart may be loosened from thy sinne and thou see thy need of a Saviour A third sort is a new upstart hypocrite that is newly come up many of them are in other parts and some neere unto our owne selves they are such as are full of carnall confidence and are proud of their beleeving but faith shuts out boasting They are as full of hypocrisie as an egge is full of meat or a toad full of poyson Such an hypocrite I will discover to you thus Hee is a man that hath long professed the truth and hath seene his sinne and been awakened to his owne sense and hath had a kinde of attendance to the Gospel and a kinde of brainish acquaintance with the promise in Jesus Christ so that now he is fully perswaded that Jesus Christ is his and he is Christs And yet after all this when he is come thus farre he lookes no more after himselfe but lookes all to the Lord Jesus Christ insomuch that the Lord Jesus becomes a drudge to him Now the guise of this man is this he casts away all sorrow and reasons thus For me to see my vilenesse and to be sensible of the body of death and to bleed inwardly and mourne daily for my wickednesse I thinke is needlesse these are past with him for he sayth I have mourned before this day and now I have gotten Jesus Christ thus he thinks he needs not be afflicted with his sins nor mourne for his many failings but the Lord Jesus who he thinkes is at his command must doe all and thus he surfets on his sinnes still This is the root of the doctrine of the Familists that cursed hellish unconceiveable basenesse that is in them I have heard of many of them that after long profession and much zeale and exactnesse in a Christian course have fallen unto this straine and come to just nothing A poore sinfull deluded Sot thou art thou poore creature dost thou entertaine the Lord Christ as a Commander when thou wilt not have him so much as to dispose of thee but as thy drudge that thou mayst take what mercy thou wilt and leave what thou wilt They will have Christ to pardon their sinne but not to make them mourne for it as if in truth they meant that hee should stand at their beck They rest upon their faith and will not have themselves and their faith to rest upon Christ for this is their conceit they apprehend they doe beleeve and there they rest and so in conclusion they never goe to Christ to have their hearts humbled and brought under as if a man should goe and graspe with his hand and take no hold of the rocke he neither findes strength to himselfe nor any hold to his hand so they rest upon their faith and neither they nor their faith upon their Saviour Thou sinfull deluded hypocrite the Lord Jesus will make thee come under and stoope and force thee and thy carnall confidence to lye in the dust and begge for mercie Can any man in reason judge this to be love which in deed is nothing but a marvellous cursed distemper They say the law hath nothing to doe with them and they live by the law of love and yet they have not any love to the Lord Jesus Must the Lord Jesus Christ pardon thy sinnes and thou remaine in them Must the Lord Jesus seale to thy soule the forgivenesse of thine iniquities and thou dally with it No the Love of the Lord Christ will compell thee to doe any thing to give contentment to the Lord Jesus Esa 57.15 Psal 51.17 An humble heart is the onely house where Christ dwells and the onely sacrifice that he accepts of and the onely guise of spirit that Jesus Christ lookes to and if thou love the Lord Jesus thou must be sure to provide this dainty dish for him Ob. But some will say What need have I of this sorrow seeing Christ Jesus must doe all Ans I answer What need then hast thou of faith for Christ must in that do all for thee Though I doe not say thou hast as much need of sorrow and brokennesse of heart as of faith Continuall sorrow as needfull as continuall beleeving yet there is a kinde of proportionable need of a continuall sorrow as well as of continuall beleeving and that upon these grounds First thy sorrow helpes on thy faith that it may be more strongly carried to Jesus Christ for the more weight and burden of thy sinnes thou feelest the more need thou wilt see of Christ As it is with a sharpe sauce though it breed not a stomacke Simile yet it stirres up a stomacke so this godly sorrow though it is not the worke of beleeving yet it stirres up the stomacke of faith to go goe to the Lord Jesus for faith is the going out of the soule to Christ and hee that findes the burden of his sinne will be the more ready to goe out to Christ Againe this makes a man the more fit to receive the assurance of Gods love this I say makes
the soule more ready and fit to receive the evidence of Gods love to be exprest to the soule which thou canst not have so exprest to thee except thou have this godly sorrow 1 Joh. 1.9 If wee confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse he speaks there of them that now had faith yet shewes that before the Lord would seale to the man that hath faith the assurance of the pardon of his sinnes hee will make him humble and cry and sorrow for them and as to live comfortably so sorrowfully too as 1 King 8.38 2 Chron. 6.36 If the people returne to thee in the land of their captivitie and pray unto thee saying We have sinned we have done amisse and have dealt wickedly then heare thou in heaven c. When the Lord seeth their hearts humbled for their sinnes and sorrowfull for them then hee seales up the pardon of them So then the way to have this assurance is to have this frame of spirit here spoken of Thirdly this godly sorrow ought to bee continually in such as have this love of Christ that so our hearts may be carried with a more deadly hatred of sinne These are the benefits of godly sorrow and if a man sorrow not for sinne he will not sorrow for the wrong and dishonour done to God by other sinfull men as David Psal 119.136 Rivers of waters runne downe mine eyes because they keepe not thy law EZech. 9.4 The Lord sayd to the Angel Goe and set a marke upon the foreheads of all the men that sigh and that cry for all the abhominations that be done in the midst thereof Now how can a man mourn for the abhominations of others when he hath not the heart to mourne for it in his owne soule Ob. But some will say Must we never rejoyce in the Lord Ans I answer Yes I say sorrow daily for thy sinnes and yet daily rejoyce in thy Saviour and the more thy heart is broken for the one the more thou wilt be comforted by the other Thou that makest no matter of being sensible of the body of death that hangs upon thee and hast no care to bee sensible of thy owne failings take heed that the Lord give thee not up for ever to thy owne basenesse to be rushed headlong into some vile scandalous courses and so thou perish for ever as wee finde by experience many by this meanes have growne the most profane creatures that ever lived And this is the damnable heresie of the Familists The fourth sort is the vain-glorious hypocrite and hee is marvellous zealous for God and his truth in outward appearance That God may bee honoured and his Gospel advanced it is admirable what he will do he will hazzard himselfe his life his estate and all nay be content not to live if he may but leave a little vaine breath after him Wee know what vaine-glory doth amongst the Papists who that they may be canonized for Saints will endure any thing and suffer death it selfe this vain-glory is above life and all Simile As some great Courtiers will doe by a man that they meane to make a booty of they make him their onely favorite and expresse a great deale of kindnesse to him that hee may helpe them to more honour and glory So this wretch doth lift up the Gospel that the Gospel may advance him and fill his sailes full of winde therefore he will doe great matters for this end that hee may receive glory from it Even as the Stage-player that sets up a great stage that he may be above the people Another so it is with a vain-glorious wretch prayer is a good stage and fasting and hearing and preaching are very fine stages for him upon which he acts his part that others may see him that glory may come to him and not that the glory and grace of Christ may bee extolled hee would lift up himselfe to heaven and cast downe Christ to hell Such an one was Saul when Samuel gave him the left hand and would not go with him into the Citie 1 Sam. 15.30 He said I have sinned yet honour me I pray thee before the people and turne again with me that I may worship the Lord thy God Walke with me and then the people will say Oh what good friends they bee surely hee is a good man the Prophet goes with him It is a great honour to those that are wise because they are willing to joyne side with those that are holy and gracious so Saul will honour Samuel that Samuel may honour him and that he may stand upon his shoulders as it were that the people may say See how inward they are and what a good man hee is the Prophet goes on with him but the turne and the issue of the hypocrite is this it is meerly for himselfe which will appeare thus If once the winde begin to turne and the gale of honour grow somewhat cold and other men are a little lifted up so that he may not bee in the fore-front or if his profession will not carry him out with honour but his credit is laid in the dust and hee sees hee cannot get honour his heart dies in him and he saith It is as good to leave off all and if he cannot get glory from the Gospel either hee will grow desperately wicked and oppose the Gospell and joyne side with the wicked and helpe them or else he will flagge and die in a base carnall course and come to nothing and that 's the best of him This hath been the bane of many men who when they have missed of the glory that they lookt for from the Gospel they have become persecuters These men deal with Christ as the Inne-keeper doth with his guests If a man will pay the Ordinarie Simile he is welcome but if once his money faile hee turnes him out of doores so if Christ will pay his Ordinary and if hee may have credit and honour so as men may say he hath good parts and that he fasts more than the world knowes I say if the Gospel will give him this Ordinary it is welcome and he is carried on cheerfully but if Christ and the Gospel will not give him that which hee would have hee turnes his backe upon it The Lord Jesus convince your hearts of it I take this to be the state of a great many but a gracious heart is of another straine or temper Happely God hath given a man parts and gifts and credit and yet if the Lord withdraw himselfe a good soule saith as John did Joh. 3.40 Hee must encrease I must decrease so a good heart saith If another man deserve and have more than I yet let this proud heart licke the dust and never lift up it selfe if the Lord Jesus may encrease and have his honour and glory let me be trodden in the dust this is a heart worth gold
doth Luke 19.27 Those mine enemies which would not that I should raigne over them bring hither and slay them before me He will say Bring hither that enemy of mine he hath opposed mee and grieved my spirit and sleighted my mercy bring my enemies hither not the Heathens or Pagans I regard not them so much but him that hath beene a hater of me and of my Gospel and then shalt thou see the intolerablenesse and unavoydablenesse of thy punishment Oh poore soule what wilt thou say or doe when thou art put to such a plunge as Josephs bowels did earne within him when hee talked with his brethren that he could forbeare no longer I wish that I had a heart to mourne in secret for thee I say what will become of thee poore wretch Happely thou wilt say there is mercy It 's true but thou hast hated that mercy which should save thee or wilt thou thinke that the blood and merits of the Lord Jesus will save thee thou hast trodden upon them Wilt thou say The good spirit of the Lord will prevaile with this wretched heart of mine with what heart canst thou crave aide from the spirit when thy owne conscience can say I have hated that good spirit of the Lord and that mercy which should save mee And when all is done and thou art come to the period goe your way home to your husbands and wives and mourn for them for there is neither mercy nor Christ for them for they also have hated him And when this is done imagine thou didst see the heavens opened and the fire melting round about thee and the Lord Christ coming in flaming fire rendering vengeance to all that obey not the Gospel lay thy hand upon thy breast say that 's I Lord that 's my husband or my childe he is come against us to render vengeance to them that have lived with mee and have opposed the Gospel and the riches of grace and of mercy in Jesus Christ Thinke of these in Gods name and labour to prevent them here that thou mayest bee freed from the punishment of them hereafter Love the Lord Jesus in sinceritie Use 4. The last use is for Exhortation Oh that God would please to worke our soules to this duty which the Saints take up and all of us ought to labour after You heare how the Lord works in the hearts of his and how they which are truely called of God have this love kindled in their hearts Oh therefore what remaines but onely this bee exhorted since you see the way to walke in it and since we see what the Saints of God have and doe let us labour to expresse this frame of heart that so the Lord Jesus may make us partakers of their hapnesse I say let us labour after it and when we have it expresse our loves to the Lord Jesus Christ as wee ought It was that which tooke up the heart of David Psal 18.1 when hee saith I will love thee deerely O Lord my strength As it is with a woman with child though the infant in the wombe have life yet the mothers love is not so great towards it till it bee borne but then she clasps her armes about it with much tendernesse so hee saith I will embrace the Lord with much love I will love him as if hee had said All the world shall not hinder mee but I will love him though I love not my selfe and hee perswades all the Saints of God to do the like Psa 31. 23. saying Love the Lord all ye his Saints who will you love if you love not him Oh you poore ones love you the Lord for you have need of him and all you rich ones love you the Lord for you have cause to doe it and you little ones too if there be any such in the congregation he knockes at every mans doore and perswades every mans heart and he deales faithfully with his Saints therefore if you have but this grace it is an undoubted argument that you are the Saints of God nay though out of thy blindnesse thou couldst never know the way to Christ and out of thy weakenesse thou couldst never close with Christ yet if thou wilt but love him thou shalt know him and be with him for ever 1 Joh. 4 12.16 No man hath seene God at any time God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him If thy heart be perswaded to continue in God and to be with God for ever then love him and he will dwell in thee for he is love it selfe for so saith the Apostle Love is of God Ob. Oh but some will say it is true we know it is fitting and we ought to doe it but it is a difficult thing and we are unable to doe it though we know it is requisite to be done To love the Lord Jesus we find is a difficult worke and hard although the world thinke it not so Ans I would to God you did finde it difficult and marke what I say that man never loved Christ aright who found it not difficult He that saith Oh such an one as will not love the Lord Jesus it is pitty he should live it is to be feared he did never love Jesus Christ aright Poore silly deluded creature it will cost thee hot water before that day yet when thou hast it it will quit all thy cost and labour Oh but some will say Means to love Christ what are the meanes to prevaile with us and how may wee draw our sturdy rebellious waiward hearts to this love of Jesus Christ I referre the meanes to these three heads 1. First there are some hinderances to be removed 2. Secondly labour to see the beauty and excellencie of Jesus Christ in the promise 3. Thirdly when the promise is come neere and the heart made empty then learne the skill to make the soule and the promise meet Meanes 1. First that you may love the Lord Christ there are some hinderances which lye upon the heart which are marvellous causes of dissention between Jesus Christ and the soule and these must be taken away Now the hinderances of this sort are these three Hinderance 1. The first is this To take off the soule from the love of these base things here below I beseech you observe it be marvellous wise that you lavish not out your soules upon these lying vanities for as it is with a streame Simile if the banke be cut and all the streame run that way then the proper chanell must needs lie dry because all the streame runs another way so is it with the streame of a mans affections if the stream of love joy be let out upon profits or pleasures or honours you cannot have spend you cannot have your affections still when you have spent them upon other things therefore bee sure to knocke them off from the world that you may give them wholly to the Lord.