but to have all things in a readiness and preparedness for his entertainment Nay Love makes the Soul to think no time lost in his company nor any cost too great for his entertainment And therefore if Love have been cold or wanting towards Christ let it be so no more but labour to get and maintain more fervent love to Christ and this will be the ready way to have his company For Love will make thee to hunger after Christ and he hath promised to satisfie the hungry soul We read Rev. 2. that God threatens Ephesus that he will depart and remove his Golden Candlestick from the midst of her because of her decay in her Love towards him she had lost her first love And well he might for the less she loved him the more was her Heart contracted and shut against him and therefore little room could he have in her Heart and consequently little heart to stay there Take heed therefore of suffering thy love to Christ to decay if thou hast any minde of his company but get thine heart filled with love to Christ and then the door of thine Heart will be open to him and he may have ready and welcome entertainment when he comes 5. The door of the Heart may be shut against Christ by negligence and sloth Now there is a two-fold negligence which Christians are subject unto 1. A negligence or sluggishness in their work Or 2. in their Watch by the means of both which Jesus Christ may be shut out of the Heart 1. Jesus Christ may be shut out by our negligence and sluggishness in our work Slothful working and labouring in our spiritual calling doth but keep Christ out of the Soul When a man prays after a sluggish and slothful manner he doth in effect say that he matters not Christ's company and therefore he cannot expect to finde him For Christ will be found of those that diligently seek him A slothful man will scarcely be willing to wait in the way of duty till Christ come but like the Spouse in the Text will have laid aside his work and be gone to bed when Christ calls and too lazy too to arise to open to him Some persons indeed are impatient of Christ's delays because of their earnest desire of his company they are sick of love to these Christ will come and will not tarry Others are impatient under delays because they are weary of duty love not to tug and toil and sweat in duty too long but would have Christ come that their work might be over and if he come not in their time they leave off their work these do shut out Christ Wouldest thou therefore have thy heart open to Christ be not slothful or sluggish in duty but be diligent painful and industrious in thy spiritual work Be diligent in mortifying sin in quickning grace in discharging duties and those of all sorts that so when Christ comes he may finde thee so doing busily employed in thy Lords work and then will he say to thee Well done good and faithful servant 2. Jesus Christ may be shut out by our negligence and sluggishness in our watch The Spouse here had laid aside her watch was composing her self for rest and now Christ at his coming found her door shut When Sinners grow lazy and let fall their watch they are in a fitter posture for Satan to finde them than Christ For Satan goes about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour and therefore his fittest opportunity is when he can finde them napping and secure But Christ comes as a friend and therefore would finde us watching he comes as a Master and therefore expects us to be ready to open to him If therefore thou wouldest have thine heart open to Christ keep a constant watch over thy self watch and pray that thou enter not into temptation Watch against the treachery deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of thine own heart Watch against the insinuations of an enticing alluring world Watch against the motions and suggestions of a malicious and subtile Devil Watch thy corruptions that they prevail not in thee Watch thy graces that they neither decay nor be idle Watch thy Faith that that may be ready to apprehend and embrace Christ at his coming And watch thy Patience that that wear not out but endure to the end And watch thy Love that by the decays and coolings of that thy Heart be not contracted and shut against Christ Keep up an universal constant and faithful watch if thou wouldest have the door of thine Heart open when Christ comes Blessed is he whom his Lord when he comes shall find upon his Watch-tower ready to open to him Thus have I shewed in what respects the Heart may be shut against Christ and consequently by directing you to the removal of them and the exercise of the contrary grace have instructed you how to get and keep the Heart open for Christ To all which I onely adde this one thing more Wouldest thou have thine Heart open and in a readiness to entertain Jesus Christ at his coming then live always in expectation of his coming look for his coming when the Servant thinks with himself My Lord delays his coming he will not come yet he grows idle and careless and neglects both his work and his watch But if we would but thus judge Our Lord and Master will come and I know not at what hour of the day or watch of the night this would be a means to make us always to keep our Hearts open and in a readiness to receive Jesus Christ at his coming whereas the want of this makes us suffer our Faith to decay our Love to cool and our Hearts to be shut and contracted against Christ at his coming And these are the the Directions which I intended to speak to with respect unto our hearts 2. I have some directions to give thee with reference to Christ and the several ways of his coming into the Soul 1. Wouldest thou have thy heart open to Christ aright then open thine heart to the knowledge of Christ The directions which here I give is the advice and councel of Christ himself called by the name of Wisdom Prov. 1.20 21 22 23. Wisdom cryeth without she uttereth her voice in the streets How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and fools hate knowledge Turn you at my reproof behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you and will make known my words unto you The want of the right knowledge of Christ is the great reason or ground why the heart is kept so close shut against Christ You know that one way of opening to Christ which I told you of was by faith rolling and recumbing upon Christ and the Psalmist tells us They that know his Name will put their trust in him Psal 9.10 and the reason rendered is because by knowing him they come to understand his truth and faithfulness that he never forsakes them that diligently seek him Iâ—
The sleepy Spouse of Christ alarm'd Or a WARNING To beware of DROWSINESS VVhen Christ Calls Lest he withdraw in a discontent BEING The Sum of some SERMONS upon Cant. 5th and the beginning By J. B. Minister of the Gospel Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me Matth. 23.37 38 39. O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Behold your house is left unto you desolate For I say unto you Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord. Psal 95.7 8. To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts Recommended in a Preface by M. Nath. Vincent LONDON Printed 〈◊〉 Samuel Crouch at the Princes Arms at 〈…〉 To Mrs. J. D. the Author wisheth all increase of Grace and Peace Honoured Friend IT was at your request and the earnest request of some of your Friends that I was induced to publish these following Sermons The reason whereof I suppose to be because your heart was in some measure opened to and affected with the voice of Christ in his Word when you heard it I must confess the matter or subject herein treated of is very sweet and precious and such as may well warm the frozen heart of any that hath the least drachm of sincere love either of complacency in or commiseration to Christ To see how ready Christ is to condescend to the requests of his Spouse how sweetly and with what melting 〈◊〉 irresistible Arguments he wooes her hoâ—â—â—â—â— and plentiful he is in the emanations of his Grace and Kindness towards her And then on the other hand to consider how sleightly she looks upon him how little account she makes of him and how she makes him dance attendance at her door with many other circumstances of her unkindness and withal to consider the danger and hazard which she runs by her unkind behaviour towards Christ These Considerations which are the subject of the ensuing Discourse being seriously weighed by a Soul that hath any love for or breathings after Christ among the number of which I hope I may truely reckon you cannot choose but in some measure awaken the sleepy Soul and warm the cold and frozen Affections This effect I perceive the Word had upon you for which you owe the thanks and praise to the Spirit of Grace which accompanied the Word to your heart and gave it entertainment there For man speaks only to the ear it is God that speaks to the heart You having therefore tasted the sweetness of this Word your self desired the communication of it to others who had not the opportunity with you to hear it and in order thereunto the publication of it Your designe I must own to be good for Grace where it is in truth is not only of a diffusive nature spreading it self through the whole man but also of a communicative nature wishing that all by-standers might likewise taste that sweetness which it self is much delighted with Grace desires not to eat its morsels alone but if any Banquet be given in by Christ or any refreshment by his company the Soul cries out to by-standers O taste and see how good the Lord is He is altogether lovely Come therefore and I will tell you what he hath done for my Soul But though your designe be good yet the weakness and insufficiency of the Author might well have pleaded an excuse For it is pity that such a sweet and precious subject should be rendred despicable by being handed into the world by so weak rude and unpolished an instrument as I must of necessity confess my self to be For I am sensible that many times the Truths of Christ suffer in the world through the weakness of the Instruments that hand them to us However yet sometimes it pleaseth God By the mouths of babes and sucklings to perfect his own praise that the work may appear to be not of men but of God Leaving therefore the work in Gods hand who is able to do what he pleaseth with and by it and waving the consideration of mine own weakness I condescend to your request and make bold to cast this my poor mite into Gods Treasury Saying to you and to all courteous Readers as Peter to the Cripple Acts 3.6 Silver and Gold have I none but such as I have give I unto you I hope the food is wholesome though it be but plainly and meanly dressed And though it may fall into the hands of some whose curious stomacks may loath such plain and homely diet yet possibly it may fall into the hand of some poor creature who is hungry humble and of a contrite Spirit and trembles at Gods Word Some poor hungry Soul may perhaps here meet with meat though there be little sawce to he had And if any poor Soul shall reap benefit by my poor labours and endeavours I hope I shall bless God for owning such a worthless creature in so glorious a work And if it do good the less of the instrument the more will there be of God seen in it I beg of you therefore and of all candid Readers into whose hands this small Treatise may come their and your serious perusal of it with their Prayers to God for a blessing upon it what you finde of humane weakness in it pardon and pass it by whatever you finde of God in it minde it and apply it And the very God of Heaven powerfully influence it with his blessed Spirit that it may do your Souls good and that you may readily open to Christ now that he may open to and own you at Death and Judgment Which is the humble and earnest Prayer of Yours In and for Christ my Lord and Master James Bradshaw TO THE READER Christian Reader THe Spirit of Slumber exceedingly prevails at this day as great security is to be found in this Nation as was in the old World and in Sodom before the one was Drowned and the other Burned God hath used several ways and means to awaken us but our Spiritual Lethargie proves a very stubborn Malady 'T were bad enough if onely profane persons were fast asleep in Sin 'T is worse that Professors are so too But 't is worst of all that the Wise Virgins slumber as well as the Foolish What may be the Issue of our carnal Security we may tremble to think of When men say they shall have peace though they walk on after the imagination of their evil Heart the Lord confutes their presumption by threatning all the Curses written in his Book and that he will blot out their names from under Heaven Promising safety to themselves is the forerunner of Sinners sudden
found encouragement enough to let him in If Christ had thus persumed her Lock with but putting in his Finger by the hole of the Door Oh what would his company be when himself came in And therefore without any more delay or excuse in all haste she opens to him v. 6. But Christ though he would not utterly forsake her and cast her off yet he would make her sensible of the affront which she had offered him and of her ungrateful carriage towards him and therefore withdraws and makes her who but now was so delicate and easeful that she could not put on her Coat or come barefooted over the house-floor to seek him in the streets and take many a wet and weary step in the dark night and that questionless with an aking Heart having his persumes so fresh in her Breast and her own guilt so fresh upon her Conscience before she find him This was the case between Christ and his Spouse at this time I shall but in a word mention those particulars in the Text upon which I designe to ground the Doctrine and so proceed to the Doctrine In the whole Conference or Relation I shall take notice of these things upon which I shall ground the Doctrine 1. The Churches Prayer chap. 4.16 Awake O North-wind and come thou South c. She prays for the breathing Influences of the Spirit whereby her Graces may be revived and made fit for action and then desires Christ's company when she is fixed and prepared for him 2. We have Christ his Answer to the Church her Prayer chap. 5.1 The Spouse no sooner calls but Christ makes Answer no sooner invites but Christ comes 3. The posture which he finds her in at his coming gone to bed and composing her self to sleep Believers do sometimes pray for that which they have no patience to wait for 4. Christ his Call and Proposal which he makes to the Spouse at his coming which is but very reasonable since his coming was at her request v. 2. Open to me my sister c. for my head is filled with dew and my locks with the drops of the night 5. We have the Spouse her unreasonable denial and excuses v. 3. She litte considered how wet and weary Christ was and manifested but poor respect to him when she will rather suffer him to stand there than she will be at the trouble to put on her Coat or defile her Feet Oh what difference is here between Christ's love to us and our love to him 6. We may observe the effect of this refusal and unreasonable denial Though Christ rouze up her Graces and give her some taste of his excellency which may make her unweariedly to seek him yet he will make her smart for her lazyness and indifferency and low value which she set by Christ He will make her take abundantly more pains before she find him She shall seek him with a fainting aking Heart and in seeking take many a wet and weary step feel a little of what he endured at the door before she find him v. 6. From all these considerations in the Text I gather this Doctrine That it is a dangerous thing and may cost us dear to be lazy and secure when Christ knocks and calls especially when his coming and calling is in answer to our Prayers This truth is not onely the sense and sum of this Text but we find the Holy Ghost speaking the same thing for substance in other parts of Scripture Prov. 1.24 and following verses Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded But ye have set at nought all my counsel and would none of my reproofs Therefore I also will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh c. Psal 81.8 9 10 11 12 13 14. Hear O my people There shall be no strange God in thee I am the Lord thy God But my people would not bearken So I gave them up O that my people would have hearkned Luke 13.34 35. O Jerusalem Jerusalem how often would I have gathered thee as an hen gathereth her chickens under her wings but ye would not Wherefore your city is left to you desolate Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock If any man open to me I will come in unto him and I will sup with him and be with me In the further prosecution of this Doctrine I shall through Gods assistance observe this method 1. Speak something by way of Explication 2. Something by way of Confirmation 3. Something by way of Application In the Explication of the Doctrine I shall endeavour to shew 1. Where Christ knocks 2. At whose door Christ knocks 3. How or with what he knocks 4. For what end he knocks Or what it is that Christ would have when he knocks 5. What are the special times of his knocking I begin with the first of these Where it is that Christ knocks To this I answer That Christ's Knockâ— and Calls are at the door of man's Heart To have the Ear open to God's call signifies little if the door of the Heart be shut and Christ cannot get in there We see in the Text the Spouse though partly asleep heard Christs Knock and Call well enough and yet she caused him to depart from her because she did not open to him Wisdom cries Prov. 23.26 My son give me thine heart Christ will have the Heart open or else he will not come in and that for these reasons 1. Because as Christ is no dissembler but real in what he offers and gives so he loves no dissembling but expects that the Soul should be real and cordial with him Now to pretend to embrace Christ and not to do it with all the Heart is to mock him and dissemble with him This God complains of Jer. 3.10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned to me with the whole heart but feignedly saith the Lord. This is no better than flattery or lying in God's account Psal 78.36 37. They pretended to return and seek early after God Nevertheless they flattered him with their mouth and lied unto him with their tongue for their heart was not right with him Jeremiah complains thus of the wicked Jer. 12.2 Thou art near them in their lips but far from their reins That Son was rejected who said I go Sir but went not This dissembling and complementing with God is abominable to the heart-searching God And therefore he requires that the Heart be opened unto him and there it is that he knocks 2. Because the Heart is the chief part of Christ his purchase and therefore he knocks there It is true Christ is the Redeemer of the Body but had not that been an appurtenance to the more noble part the Soul Christ would never have paid so dear a price for it But the inward man the Soul or Heart was that which was chiefly in Christ's eye when he made his Soul
and calls for us to answer I have put off my coats how shall I put them on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them To make thus light oâ— his pains and coming what greater unkindness or manifest token of complementing dissimulation and hypocrisie can be shewed Well may Christ say O Spouse though thy invitations seemed to be real yet by this carriage I see and plainly perceive the falsness and treachery of thy dissembling heart foâ— instead of dealing plainly and faithfully with me thou hast but mocked me and how canst thou then say that thou lovest me Well may Christ then take this ingratitude and dissimulation unkindly from her and take occasion hereupon to depart If any of you should invite a friend to your house and according to your earnest invitation your friend comes but at his coming you shut the doors against him and though you be within yet you refuse to open to him may he not well take this piece of ingratitude and mockery unkindly at your hands and look upon it as an high affront put upon him and therefore depart in a rage and resolve to miss your door the next time he comes that way But if a Wife should deal thus with her Husband would not this manifest much dissimulation and unkindness And may not he well take this as an high affront to be thus slightly looked upon by his Wife Such is the case between Christ and his Spouse and therefore no wonder though he depart in a discontent when thus affronted and treacherously dealt with We finde it reckoned among the Sufferings of Christ in his state of Humiliation Isai 53.2 3. that he should be slightly esteemed and accounted of among men There is no beauty that we should desire him He is despised and rejected of men We hid our faces as it were from him He was despised and we esteemeâ— hem not So John 1.11 He came to his owâ— and his own received him not Thus to be despised and mocked and that by his own thiâ— goes near his heart and may well put hiâ— into a rage against us This affront woulâ— far more easily have been born had it beeâ— from an enemy but from a friend and so near a relation one that had given him so faiâ—â— an invitation this cuts and wounds to thâ— very heart See what David personatinâ— Christ in the treachery of Judas speaks Psal 55.12 c. It was not an enemy that reproached me then I could have born it Buâ— it was thou a man mine equal my guide anâ— mine acquaintance this so provokes that he saith vers 15. Let death seize on them and let them go down quick into hell for wickedness is among them Yea this struck sad upon Christs Spirit Psal 41.9 Yea mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted which did eat of my bread hath lift up his heel against me Such affronts as these cut deep they wound to the very heart and therefore no wonder if the effects and consequences which follow hereupon be sad and dreadful to the soul 2. Consider the great damage which our Souls sustein by keeping out the Lord Jesus Christ If we shut him out he may withdraw nay it is the next way to provoke him to withdraw and how shall we then live without him We read John 15.5 Without me â— e. Jesus Christ ye can do nothing neither pleasing to God nor profitable to your selves And therefore what a miserable condition are â—ou left in if Christ depart Therefore saith God Hos 9.12 Wo also unto them when I depart from them And assure thy self that thou â—anst not take a more effectual course to cause â—im to withdraw than to shut him out when â—e comes at thine invitation Christ may withdraw yea and so withdraw as never to â—eturn again or call at thy door more Psal â—1 11 12. My people would not hearken to â—y voice and Israel would none of me so I â—ave them up to their own hearts lust and they walked in their own counsels God knocked forty years at Israels door but when no admission would be had then He sware in his â—rath that they should never enter into his rest Psal 95.10 11. See that threatning against Ephraim than which there could not be a greater Hos 4.17 Ephraim is joyned to Iâ—ols let him alone As if God had said There is no hopes of reclaiming him I have called often at his door but to little purpose therefore I will concern my self no more about him I will call no more at his door Read with trembling Ezek. 24.13 14. Prov. 1.24 c. Sometimes though God may at last return and be reconciled and call again yet it may be long first and many a weary step may he cause thee to take in seeking of him before thou find him God threatens this Hos 5.15 I will go and return to my place and hide my self until they seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early And we read in the Text that Christ did deal thus with his Spouse When she arose to open to her beloved he had withdrawn himself and was gone Christ had heard and answered her at her first call but since she had dealt so deceitfully and disingeniously with him she should now call and call again before he gave her any answer should seek and seek him sorrowing before she should finde him She was but now so lazy easeful and delicate that she could not abide to be at so much pains as to put on her Coat having put it off could not endure so much hardship as to tread upon the floor with her naked foot lest she should defile it But if Christ be so little store set by her love to Christ shall be further tried she shall take a longer Journey and not complain so much of the soulness of the way neither before she finde him If it be so tedious a Journey to cross the house-floor Christ will see whether she will take a journey through the streets and high-ways in as dark and foul way and weather as he hath come before she finde him that so she may know something of what he hath endured in coming to her and may now readily open to him the next time And therefore it is of dangerous consequence to shut out Christ when he knocks and calls 3. Consider the benefits and bounties which Christ brings with him into the Soul that opens to and entertains him Our Saviour saith Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man open to me I will come in unto him and will sup with him and he with me If Christ will make a Feast unto the Soul that lets him in it must needs be ill to keep him out The Soul hath no such store of provision within her self as to despise the Feasts which Christ will make her In the Text Christ makes use of this Argument to move her to open the door For my head is filled
And therefore what an intolerable wrong is here to keep Christ out of his own house to keep his own door lockt against him in such weather and in such a condition as he was it is a wonder that instead of withdrawing he did not fire the house about her ears but that he is an infinitely patient Husband Such carriages as these are intolerable wrongs to Christ and therefore may cost us dear 6. Consider the earnest and sweet perswasives that Christ at his coming and knocking makes use of to procure his admission There are three Texts of Scripture which I would pitch upon from thence to gather the sweet winning arguments that Christ ordinarily makes use of when he knocks and calls at the door of his Spouse One is the Text another is the Parable of the great Supper at the marriage of the Kings son Luke 14.17 c. and the third is Rev. 3.20 And from these Texts I would gather these three Arguments which Christ makes use of 1. He wooes and intreats from that neeâ— relation that is between them She was his sister and spouse as if Christ should have said thus My dear sister and spouse it is thy dear Brother and Husband that is come wet and weary to thy door stands here wet to the very skin My head filled with dew and my locks with the drops of the night Canst thou finde in thine heart to lie snorting in thy bed and taking thine ease and hear thy poor afflicted wearied Brother and Husband stand without in all this stormy weather knocking and calling and not take so much pains as to come to the door to open to me Thou needest not stir a foot out of the doors but onely come to the door and open it Hast thou no more of a sympathizing and commiserating spirit in thee Will the nearness of our relation work no more upon thee If I were a stranger to thee I could say the less for my self though common pity should be shewed to strangers but being so nearly related to thee me thinks I should not need to multiply words but might finde present admission and ready entertainment why then dost thou not come Now a refusal or slighty neglect in this case will scarcely be born the bond of Relation should double the force of the Argument And therefore unkindnesses from near relations are of a more provoking and exasperating nature than from other persons because better things are expected And therefore to deny to open to Christ when thus he calls and pleads such an argument as this must needs be highly provoking and of dangerous consequence 2. He wooes and intreats from the deaâ— and reciprocal affection that was betwixt them My Love my Dove my undefiled Oh what sweet compellations How can these be denied And surely Christ is in good earnest he doth not dissemble or flatter Doth Elihu say Job 32.22 I know not how to give flattering titles for in so doing my Maker would soon take me away And do you think that our faithful Lord and Husband Jesus Christ would flatter and dissemble Surely no He is real therefore in these sweet and heart-melting compellations which are expressions of Love coming from his very heart My love my dove my undefiled As if Christ should have said Thou art she whose heart is joined to mine in most sincere and cordial Affection I have set my love onely upon thee and have chosen thee out of the world to be my Spouse Have loved thee with an everlasting love and therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee and I know that thou hast a real kindness and respect for me and that thou preferrest my Love before Wine or any thing that can be named And that in thine eyes however contemptible I may be in the eyes of the world I am altogether lovely Oh therefore let not sloath and drowziness so far prevail and make thee to forget thy love to me and my love to thee which I have given thee full and frequent assurance of as to suffer me to stand here in the wet and cold And what hard-hearted Wife could resist such a heart-melting Argument as this Yea thou art my Dove Doves are kind to and mourn sore for the absence of one another Thy mate O my Dove is at the door and wilt thou not let him in Yea further thou art my undefiled my chast Spouse I cannot think that thine heart is in the least alienated from me or set upon any other Lover I am not jealous of thee and therefore shew thy faithfulness and loyalty by opening unto me that I may not have occasion of jealousie left in mine absence thy heart should be taken with some other Lover If this argument will not work what may Christ think Would it not then be of dangerous consequence to do that which may give occasion of jealousie to our Lord and Husband and therefore the Doctrine must needs be true 3. He wooes and intreats from the great advantage which his coming in would be unto her Christ seldom or never invites us to our loss but we are sure to be gainers by every duty or work he puts us upon He tells her here that his head was filled with dew and his locks with the drops of the night Which being taken in a good sense as was noted before imports that Christ came full fraught with blessings and benefits not an hair of his head but would afford some drop of comfort or benefit which would make amends for the pains which she should be at in rising and opening to him And if we read Rev. 3.20 he tell us that If any man will open unto him he will come in and sup with them and they with him There is Emphasis and weight in every word he would come in This piece of condescention in him was a sufficient recompence of her pains it was a great honour that such a guest should come under her roof That such a glorious person as Christ who is God equal with the Father and before whom the very Angels cover their faces with their wings as not able to behold his Glory That such a glorious person as this is should come into such a smoaky cottage as that of mans heart is wonderful condescention and therefore honour enough put upon the Spouse which might abundantly recompence her labour in opening to him But this is not all he would come in and therefore she being within should have his company stand in his presence In whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore And surely his company is no little worth and that she her self being judge or else wherefore doth she so earnestly pray for it Cant. 4. v. 16. Fruition is that which Love labours after and which alone gives satisfaction and rest to the motion of love She might now enjoy her beloved which she had so earnestly panted after and long looked for and surely her pains in rising
mortification of all sin so far as discovered by the Word Where is thy sincere cordial constant universal obedience to the Word of God making that thy Rule in all thine Actions squaring thy whole life and conversation both in respect of God thy self and thy Neighbour according thereunto giving every Duty in thy general and particular calling its due time place and respect Not allowing the world to ingross to it self what properly and peculiarly belongs to God his Worship and Service and putting off God with such homage and service as might better fit and were more proper for our worldly concernments My meaning is our inverting or going in the course of our lives directly contrary to that command or advice of our Saviour Matth. 6.33 Seek first the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof and all other things shall be added In all that we do in our general and particular places and callings keeping God and his interest above and preferring it before the world If these be not the fruits of Faith wherein thy Soul in some measure abounds never tell me that thy heart is rightly and truly open to Christ but according to the measure of thy unfruitfulness remains in measure and part at least shut against Christ notwithstanding thy pretences to open to him How is it with you then friends In what posture do you finde your hearts are they open or shut It is evident that Christ his calls have been very remarkable but what entertainment he hath found in your hearts that is the question that is now put to your Consciences to make answer to And I beseech you suffer your Consciences to speak and to speak out what they know and can tell you in this case Stifle them not bribe them not turn not the deaf ear to what they speak they are God's Deputies within you And if these condemn you know that God is greater than your Hearts and knows all things You may deceive men you may deceive your selves but God you cannot deceive Christ knows what entertainment he hath found and he will make you to know it one day also and therefore deal faithfully with your selves And if by these things which we have laid before you we may try our selves this may lead many of us at least to another work which may be a 3. Vse Here lies before us matter of deep humiliation that so eminent and remarkable calls of Christ as we have been partakers of have been so little regarded by us that Jesus Christ notwithstanding his earnestness and importunity hath found such cold and poor entertainment in our hearts to this very day But this I will not much enlarge upon because I would keep within some convenient bounds It is too obvious and apparent to be denied that notwithstanding our great profession of love to Christ desire of him and frequent imploring his company by prayer we have in too sad and shameful a manner shut him out at his coming though his calls have been visible and convincing How may we then tremble to think how this our behaviour will be resented by him There are many that from what they behold in the world are astonished at the apprehension of the danger of Christ his withdrawing for a time if not total departure But from what usage Christ hath found in our hearts without looking any further abroad we may finde sufficient cause of fear and trembling I am very confident that by that time all reckonings and accounts be cast up if Christ do depart not the least part of the cause of his departure will be found among his own professing people Such as have called upon his Name cryed after him and professed themselves earnestly desirous of his company and yet when in answer to their prayers he hath come have not heartily and fully opened unto him Mistake me not I do not here mean by these persons of whom I am speaking onely Hypocrites and such as make onely an external profession of Religion though there be too many of these in the World but also sincere believers who have the root of the matter the truth of grace within them and shall notwithstanding all their blemishes be found at Christ's right-hand at the day of Judgement that yet have too sadly shut out Christ when he hath come and called in answer to their prayers Think not this impossible for in my Text it is the Spouse the Bride of Christ that thus unkindly treated him when he stood at her door And it is to be feared he hath found no better entertainment from us What cause then have we to fear and tremble lest Christ should deal with us here as he did with the Spouse and therefore with all humility and brokenness of heart to confess and bewail and for time to come resolve against this unworthy ungrateful and undutiful behaviour towards our Lord and Husband But I pass from this to a _____ 4. Use viz. of Exhortation to beseech you all in the name and fear of God to open to the calls and knocks of Christ laying aside all excuses whatsoever O! let Christ have your hearts let him have warm and welcome entertainment there Do I need here to use Arguments or summon in the Topicks of Rhetorick to quicken and perswade you to embrace this reasonable motion or if I should use all the arguments I could invent or that I might collect from the mouths and pens of other men would these be of any force with you if Christ his own words and arguments cannot prevail can I in this case or any man breathing say more for Christ than he can and doth speak for himself And therefore if Christ cannot how shall I think to prevail with you If either friendly compellations earnest intreaties or strong arguments may prevail none of these are wanting in the Text which I have been endeavouring according to my power and weak ability to unfold unto you in this whole Discourse to which I shall refer you and shall not here repeat the same things over again onely beg your serious meditation upon them And considering their weight and importance see whether they may not preponderate and outweigh all arguments that your carnal deceitful Hearts a subtile Devil and an alluring whorish World can bring against this duty Onely give me leave in a few words to expostulate the case a little with you And here let me ask you 1. How or what manner of lives you think to live without Christ and without his company in your hearts Seriously meditate upon this before you give an answer Do you think to live to more profit and advantage to your selves without than with Christ Is Christ no gain and advantage to your Souls will he bring no profit and advantage with him is not his head filled with dew and his locks with the drops of the night Hath not he the command and dispose of all things and hath not he promised to give grace and glory and to withhold
22. Go thy way sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come take up thy cross and follow me And he was sad at that saying and went away grieved c. I am afraid there are but too many in this age that would account these too hard terms to accept of Christ upon But if men would but argue rationally why should these be any hindrances to our opening to Christ for in all this Christ bids us no loss If he bids us part with Earthly he promiseth us Heavenly treasure If he bids us cut off a corrupt part or member though it be painful yet it is in order to the eternal salvation of the whole Matth. 5.29 30. and is it not better to lose a corrupt part than lose the whole 4. Christ at his coming may excite us to and quicken us in our work may call us to be quicker and more exact and curious in our work He may tell us that our work is great and our time but short He may bid us strive with all our might to enter in at the straight gate for many shall in a lazy and sloathful manner seek and wish to enter in and shall not be able He may tell us that this lazy sloathful working will not attain the end that we aim at for the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent onely take it by force It will not serve our turns to read pray hear meditate c. at the cold and careless rate which we do It will not do well to be such strangers as we are to our own hearts but we must examine our own hearts more deeply throughly and effectually must study and practice our duties more throughly must watch unto prayer and give our selves unto prayer Must make the Law of God our delight and daily meditation must in all things small as well as great exercise a Conscience void of offence towards God and Men Must set a watch before the door of our Hearts Lips and lives Must in short forgetting those things that are behinde and reaching forward to those things that are before press towards the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus He may come to ask us such questions as these What have you been doing since the last time I was with you what have you learned what have you practised what proficiency have you made what account can you give of the Talents which I betrusted you with in what forwardness is your work let me see how matters stand with you what designes have you on foot for my glory and what are the designes which you are now carrying on These and such-like questions may be asked by Christ at his coming in Now if the Soul have been idle and careless and not able in any measure to give a good account in these and such-like cases no wonder though she be unwilling at this time to open to Christ The fear of having her faults discovered and the guilt of them to disturb the quiet of her Conscience will make her very slow in opening to Christ as was noted before But if reason might take place this should be no hinderance at all for what Christ tells us is real truth that our work is great and our time but short passing on a pace and irrecoverable when gone and if we have slept or loitered is it reason that we should do so still Is it not high time to awake out of sleep the night is far spent the day is at hand If he should let us sleep or loiter on till his last call to come to the Wedding as he did the foolish Virgins Math. 25. in what a condition would you be when you should awake your lamps gone out no oyl in your vessels no neighbour to borrow of every one having little enough for himself and you must be forced to go to buy when you should enter in with him and by this means you come to be shut out and loose your whole expectation Were it not better let in Christ now and be content to shake off sleep while you have time to get oyl into your vessels with your lamps We use to say that delays in most cases are very dangerous and that it is bad putting off things to the last I am sure this is most true in this case that so greatly concerns the eternal state of our Souls Nay further if things be amiss in us is it not better to let Christ come in and put all things to rights in us then to let them go at random till they be past cure I am sure there never was Soul that ever repented of this whatever pain it was put to in the doing of it though many a Soul hath sadly repented the shutting out of Christ when it hath been too late It is better that Christ bring thy faults and sin to light and remembtance here while thou mayst repent and reform than that thy sin should finde thee out in the guilt shame and punishment of it to all eternity hereafter And be sure thy sin will at one time or other finde thee out Numb 32.23 Oh! therefore let none of these things have influence upon you to hinder you from opening to Christ at his call I dare be bold to say that there can be no true spiritual reason for any poor soul to refuse to open to Christ all reasons produced for that end are carnal and therefore ought to be pulled down and destroyed For the weapons of our warfare are not ought not to be carnal but mighty to the pulling down all imaginations or as the word signifies cavils or carnal reasonings One of these two causes doubtless both which are bad these carnal reasonings must proceed from either from a secret love to some sin or lust in the heart which we would not have Christ to discover or purge out which may well call in question the truth and sincerity of Grace in us for the Psalmist tells us Psal 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart God will not hear my prayer And it is certain He doth hear the Prayers of such as are sincere for he saith Psal 145.18 The Lord is nigh unto all that call upon him in truth So that thy sincerity is questionable Or else it proceeds hence viz. from Pride and Self-love Pride because thou wouldest not have Christ to see things â—miss in thee but know that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble From Self-love â—n that thou so much desirest the ease and gratification of the flesh Now if thy very life be more dear to thee than Christ thou art not worthy to be his disciple O let none of these base and sinful arguments keep thee off from opening speedily to Christ at his call I might tell thee also of the advantages that will come by opening to Christ but these I have largely spoken to before only this one give me leave
is our ignorance of the excellency all-sufficiency and suitableness of Christ to our insufficiency and emptiness that makes our love to Christ so very cold For the proper object of Love is some suitable desireable good thing Were we better acquainted then with that fulness that is in Christ we should more fully and freely open our hearts to Christ Did we but see his loveliness in every respect the loveliness of his person the loveliness of his disposition and qualifications the loveliness of his works and undertakings and his suitableness every way to our condition we should from the inward sense of love in our own souls cry out with the Spouse He is altogether lovely Nay our love towards him and desire after him would be so fervent that we should say with the Spouse Tell him that I am sick of love If therefore thou wouldest have thine heart more open to Christ study Christ better for he hath said he will exalt or set on high such as know his Name and set their love upon him Psal 91.14 And how can he more highly advance thee than by honouring thee with his company Our ignorance of Christ makes us that we do not understand his voice when he calls and therefore we give no heed to his calls 2. Open thine heart to the commands of Christ search the Scriptures to know what it is that he requires of thee and as he teaches thee by his Word and Spirit let thine heart be open to attend thereunto as the heart of Lydia was who attended to the things that were spoken by Paul Yea let thine heart burn within thee while he is talking with thee as the hearts of the Disciples going to Emaus did while Christ talked with them Attend diligently to the Ordinances of Christ and come with the everlasting doors of thine heart open ready prepared to receive whatsoever divine truth God shall make known unto thee and resolving to practise what truths thou shalt receive let thine heart be ready to say when thou comest to every Ordinance as Samuel did Speak Lord for thy servant heareth or as Paul Lord what wouldest thou have me to do Or as the people to Moses but with a better heart and more stedfast resolution All that the Lord hath spoken will we do and be obedient Open thine heart to the commands of Christ and let none of his commands be grievous but say with David O how love I thy Law it is my meditation day and night Remember that Christ is thy Lord and Husband it is his work to command thee and it is thy duty in all things to obey and therefore take his yoke upon thee for his yoke is easie and his burden light and in keeping his commands there is great reward 3. Open thine heart to the counsels and advice of Christ thou maist assure thy self that Christ will advise thee to nothing but for thy good See what counsel Christ gives to the Asian Churches Rev. 2 3. chap. his counsel was very suitable to the several states and conditions of every Church To instance in that of Laodicea she was a very luke-warm Church and yet very proud self-confident Church she said She was rich and increased with goods and had need of nothing but knew not that she was wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked And what was Christs counsel to her I counsel thee to buy of me Gold tryed in the fire that thou maist be rich and white raiment that thou maist be cloathed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou maist see Rev. 3.17 18. Jesus Christ is a most faithful Friend and Physician will certainly give very seasonable counsel and advice he is called the wonderful Counsellor Isai 9.6 Open thine heart and listen to the counsel which Christ gives to thee he will instruct thee how to mortifie thy sins he will teach thee how to improve Ordinances to perform Duties to exercise thy graces he will teach thee in all respects to order thy conversation aright and to improve all the Dispensations of his Providence towards thee Take but Christs counsel and advice and thou canst never do amiss for he is wise in heart and communicative of his wisdome never fails any that trust and seek to him for counsel and advice Read James 1.5 If any of you want wisdom let him ask it of God who gives to all men liberally and upbraideth no man and it shall be given to him But know this that Christ cannot endure to have his counsel slighted to do this would highly displease him Read Prov. 1.24 c. I called 〈◊〉 but ye would have none of my counsels Therefore I also will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear comes Theâ— shall they call but I will not answer for that they hated knowledge they would none of my counsels Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices If thou wilt not open to Christ's counsels thou mayest follow thine own devices and see what will be the end of it Psal 81.11 12. write out the Text. 4. Open thine Heart to the rebukes and chastisements of Christ Be not too wise in thine own conceit as to think that Christ can finde no fault with thee But as David speaks concerning the Righteous so do thou from thy very heart say Let the Righteous Christ smite me it shall be a kindness let him reprove me it shall be an excellent oyl which shall not break my head Though thou knowest before hand that he will finde fault with thee at his coming yet be never the more afraid to let him in nor be thou weary of his rebukes It is unpleasant discourse many times when our Friends rip up our faults and tell us of them but it is really our fault so to account it for it is the real part of a Friend to reprove us and not to suffer sin upon our souls However it may be unpleasant yet it is both necessary and safe It argues a more than ordinary love of Christ towards thee if he deal thus faithfully with thee for whom he loves he rebukes and chastens Rev. 3.19 Let thy Heart therefore be open ready and willing to receive and embrace his most severe rebukes And take it as a kindness from him that he will rebuke thee for it is a piece of blessedness Blessed is the man whom the Lord rebukes and chastens and teacheth him out of his Law Psal 94.12 David having found the benefit of this saith Psal 119.75 I know O Lord that thy judgements are right and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me And v. 71. It is good for me that I have been afflâ—cted c. And the Apostle tells us that though no affliction be for the present joyous but greivous yet afterwards it works the peaceable fruits of Righteousness in them that are exercised thereby Heb. 12.11 open therefore
him any entertainment Men are generally got plunged so deep in the cares and cumbers of the World that they have no leisure to open to Christ no nor so much as to weigh the arguments and motives that Christ makes use of to procure admission into their hearts Oh how busie are men in the world head and heart hands and feet yea whole soul and body as busily exercised about the world as may be and they think all this little enough too they think they get little enough by it and how should these then have leisure to open to Christ no wonder though his calls be so ineffectual when perso◠〈◊〉 so deeply ingaged in the world that 〈◊〉 have not leisure to stand still and consider 〈◊〉 were best to be done whether that which they are about or some other thing We read in the parable of the Supper when the Master sends forth his Servants to invite guests one man is busie with his Farm another with his Merchandise but none of those which were bidden had leisure to come And the reason was they saw a present necessity and urgency of the present business which they were about but they saw none so great and present need of Christ Many in the world are worse employed than Martha was and yet think their time so well spent in that which they are about that they are loth to be taken off to wait and attend upon Christ and his Ministry Martha had invited the Lord Jesus to her house and with him many friends and that which she was busie about was to make ready provision for his entertainment a business one would think indispensible And yet our Saviour blames her for this Luke 10.40 41 42. But Martha was cumbered about much serving And Jesus answered and said Martha Martha thou art careful and troubled about many things but one thing is needful And Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her How many are â—oth 〈◊〉 employed than this and yet have not 〈◊〉 to consider whether any thing be more necessary to be done than what they are about To such as these I would speak these few words You think your selves well employed in your earnest and not pursuit of the world the cares and business that onely relates to this present life and you see nothing more needful at present to be done Let me ask you this question Notwithstanding the great business which you have to do in the world do you not sometimes finde leisure to eat drink sleep dress and adorn the body You will say Yes without these we could not live nor have any strength to follow our business Well will time be afforded for taking and feeding upon the meat that perisheth and no time allowed for feeding upon that meat which endures to everlasting life Read John 6.27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth but for that meat which endures to everlasting life Hath your Body more need of Clothes to cover your nakedness and keep your warm than your Souls to be clothed with the Righteousness of Jesus Christ as a Robe or Garment If you did but as really see how naked your Souls look in the sight of God Angels c. you would be as much ashamed of your selves as you would now be to have men see your Body naked And therefore consider with your selves whether there be not as great need to take fit and convenient time for the feeding and clothing your Souls as there is for feeding and clothing your Bodies And if there be as great need I pray you let not your precious Souls famish and starve while you so carefully pamper your Bodies and that notwithstanding your great and urgent business in the world Again you that are so earnest and busie about the world and have your time and thoughts so taken up about it let me ask you this one question more Whether do you judge that your success in your worldly affairs doth principally flow from your own wisdom care and pains or from the blessing of God upon your endeavours I believe that few or none of you will be so audaciously impious as to affirm the former whatever you think but rather that your successive business doth arise from the blessing of God upon your endeavours And if so I pray you to consider upon what ground or warrant you can expect the blessing of God upon your endeavours when you wilfully shut the door of your Hearts against his well beloved Son and when you make so light of him and his company that every worldly trifle must take place of him and be preferred before him Might not many of you succeed better in your worldly business if you would give Christ better entertainment in your Hearts and cumber your selves less about the world Christ bids us Matth. 6.33 Seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof and promiseth that all other things shall be added Intimating that the best way to secure a competency of this world to our selves is in the first and chief place to secure an interest in Christ for our Souls We say that he that would drive on a Trade must have interest and acquaintance And I am sure we cannot have interest in nor acquaintance with a better friend than Christ nor one that can bestead us more in the carrying on of our worldly business For It is the blessing of the Lord that makes rich and addes no sorrow therewith Prov. 10.22 O spare some time therefore in the midst of your worldly business to open your hearts to Christ 3. Another hinderance to our opening to Christ may be the difficulty and unpleasantness of the work either in opening to Christ or when we have opened to him 1. There is a difficulty in opening to Christ which a lazy sluggish Soul is hardly brought to grapple with and overcome Faith and Love are the two principal ways whereby the Soul is to open to Christ And these are two Graces not without much difficulty attained unto in the right exercise of them Many persons at a distance think it an easie matter to believe in a crucified Saviour but when they come to make proof of their Faith in particular cases they many times finde themselves at a loss See this in an instance Mark 9.24 we have a man bringing his child to Christ to be healed his coming argued something of Faith but when the Disciples had failed in the cure and the child was rather worse than better the mans faith begins to stagger as appears by his words vers 22. If thou canst do any thing have compassion on us and help us Hereupon Christ calls him to the real exercise of Faith vers 23. If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth The poor man upon examination of his own heart finding some faith but yet this very weak and hardly to be raised to a firm and stedfast belief without wavering or doubting cries out
I believe Lord help thou mine unbelief Which manifested his sense of the difficulty of opening to Christ by Faith as he ought And truely Christians that know any thing of their own hearts as they ought finde this a very difficult work in cases of an easier nature than this here of this man was And therefore a lazy sluggish Soul is unwilling to be at such pains There are some weary steps that a believer must take to open to Christ by Faith As 1. earnest Prayer to him who is the Finisher and Perfecter as well as the Authour and Beginner of this Grace Faith in the act and exercise as well as in the habit must be obtained of Christ by earnest Prayer And to tug in this duty of Prayer as we ought is no easie work especially if Christ for some time seem to hold back and deny as he did to the woman of Canaan This puts the Soul sometimes into a sweat and therefore the easeful Soul is loath to be at this pains his patience is worn out and he faints and flags in the duty 2. Another weary step the Soul must take to get Faith into the exercise is the searching the Word and Promises and rightly applying them It is sometimes difficult to finde such promises as may rightly suit our condition When we have found them it may be something more difficult rightly to understand them according to the true intent and purport of them sometimes it may be difficult to get our hearts rightly affected with them and most of all to clear up our interest in them So that sometimes a Believer findes a promise and meditating sees it to suit his condition well enough but yet lays it aside can suck no sweetness from it because he cannot clear up his interest in it and that by reason of some particular condition or qualification annexed thereto which he findes not in himself In this case to believe seems difficult and therefore the promise is laid aside and no comfort gathered from it upon this account a lazy Soul sits down in unbelief and doth not open to Christ by faith 3. Another weary step is the overcoming that unbelieving frame of heart which we are naturally prone unto Unbelief is a sin which naturally flows from the corruption of our natures and accompanies us in some measure more or less while we are in this Vale of Tears And this part of corrupt nature poor Souls finde as much difficulty in the overcoming as any corruption And the reason is because of all corruptions none hath more to say for it self than this for the object of Faith properly is unseen things such as are not obvious to sense such as seem to thwart both sense and reason and frequent experience such things as we have nothing to bottom our faith concerning upon but the bare Word of God we are to believe in hope contrary to hope And this makes the work difficult hereupon few Christians are so resolved and industrious as to be at the pains which the Psalmist was Psal 73. to search things to the bottom and to weigh things in the balance of the Sanctuary and therefore they sit down without opening to Christ by Faith 4. Another difficulty is the griping guilt of sin and unworthiness which so looks them in the face when they should open to Christ by Faith that the eye of their Faith is dim and they cannot with any confidence look Christ in the face It is an usual saying that a guilty Conscience needs no Accuser Conscience will inwardly check the adulterous Spouse of Christ and make her blush when she should open to him and look him in the face The Psalmist complains that he was so compassed about and tormented with his sin that he could not look up Psal 40.12 It is a mistake very common in humbled penitent sinners that they must not dare not by Faith open to and close with Christ till they have attained such a measure of internal purity and Sanctity as may make them fit for and in a sort worthy of his company But these begin their work at the wrong end They should first open to Christ by Faith and then he will help them to and carry on in them this work of purity For it is his work by his Spirit to purifie and this purifying vertue we must fetch from him by Faith for It is he that worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure because without him we can do nothing Our work is first to believe and then by Faith to mortifie the deeds of the flesh Now this work is difficult to open to Christ and look him in the face by Faith with the guilt of sin upon our Consciences This goes contrary to the grain of Flesh and Blood who would gladly have something of its self and its own Righteousness in its justification Whereas our work is to disclaim all worthyness of our own and to come to Christ with Ropes about our Necks as self-condemned persons lying at the foot-stool of pure Grace and Christs Righteousness for justification and life And therefore where there remains any measure of pride in the Heart according to that measure and degree of pride Christ will be shut out The weary step of self-denial in this case the sluggish Christian is not willing to take Thus you see the work it self in opening to Christ by Faith is very difficult and hence the lazy Christian lies down upon his bed of present ease and refuseth to be at the pains to open to Christ by Faith But would the Soul but consider the amends that Christ's company would make for all his pains and how easie all these duties would be made by Christs coming in surely the Soul would never think his pains better bestowed than in opening to Christ by Faith It is he that by his Spirit helps our infirmities in prayer and helps us by his own strength to wrestle with himself and prevail It is he that brings promises to our minde helps us to understand and rightly to apply them and to take the sweetness and the comforts of them It is he that gives us a Pisgah-sight of unseen things and assures our Souls of the certainty of them It is he that helps our unbelief And it is he and he alone that by his Blood must purge away the guilt of all our sins Oh! therefore open to Christ by Faith and let not these impediments hinder you And as in Faith so in opening the Heart to Christ by Love there is great difficulty much ado to bring the Heart to open fully to Christ by Love These worldly things seem so lovely that the Heart is much stolen away by them These worldly things are so constantly present with us that it is hard to get a sight of Christ who is at a distance and seen as it were afar off These worldly things are so obvious and suitable to sense by which we too much live that