Love to Christ Necessary to Escape the CURSE AT His Coming By THO. DOOLITTLE M. A. Mat. x. 37. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me Mat. xxv 41. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels LONDON Printed for Tho. Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over against the Stocks-Market 1692. THE EPISTLE TO Non-Lovers OF CHRIST Lamenting Their SIN and MISERY THat Glorious Person who is both Lord and Jesus and Christ hath suffered and done and promised such things that might gain the love of Sinners to himself and by these doth Plead with them to set their Affections upon him In opposition to him the World and Sin stand in competition with him for the love of man's Heart Christ calls Sinner Love me Sin and World cry aloud Place thy love on us The Spirit Word Ministers Mercies and a Well-informed awaken'd Conscience press hard for the Love of Man to Christ The Devil and the Flesh sollicit for the Heart of Man for Sin and World Love man hath and one of these he will Love both he cannot at the same time with a predominant Love for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other Ye cannot Love and serve God and Mammon Mat. 6.24 Predominant Love to the one is inconsistent with such Love unto the other 1 Joh. 2.15 Love not the world neither the things that are in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him This considered what Thinking man can forbear to grieve abstain from floods of Tears and bitter Lamentation when he seeth that the Love of Man such a Noble Affection in it self is set so much on Sin that is so bad in it self and unto its Lovers and upon the World that proves a vexation to those that are so fond of it who Love and vex who vex at it and yet still continue and encrease their Love unto it and their vexation by it doth not abate their inordinate Affection to it while Christ that is the primary principal and most delightful Object of Love is slighted by so many even by the most Blind Sinners Do ye thus love Sin so vile and the World so contemptible and not Christ that is altogether lovely and desirable What perverseness is this that Christ that is best in himself and best for them should be refused and Sin that is worst in it self and worst to them should be embraced What folly and madness is this that Christ should be kept out standing at the Door when Sin and World are admitted in and Lodged and kindly Entertained in the chiefest Room of their Hearts Cursed doings When Sin should have no Love shall it have all When Christ should have all shall he have none When the whole World like that part the Earth should be as your Footstool shall it or any thing in it be set up in your Hearts as in its Throne How is it that ye are so much mistaken as to think ye see Beauty in Deformity and Deformity in Beauty it self Why is odious Sin so lovely and a precious Christ so unlovely in your Eyes Have ye considered what Sin is and what Christ is that ye have greater Love to that Work of the Devil than ye have to Gods own Son And this when Sin is so bad and vile that as Sin it cannot be loved by the worst of men till it be first disguised and dressed up with the appearance of Good and Christ so good that as Christ he is to be loved most of all When called invited and charged in the Name of God by the Ministers of Christ shewing you God's Call Invitation and Charge to love this lovely Jesus why do ye retort and say What is your Beloved above another Beloved O ye Teachers of Christ VVhat is your Beloved more than another Beloved that ye so charge us How long will ye say He hath no form or comeliness VVe see â—o Beauty in him that we should desire him How long shall Christ complain of you that ye hate both him and his Father And is not this complaint more grievous when ye hate him without a cause and do not love him when there is so much cause and reason why you should VVhat hath Sin and VVorld done for you and what did ever Christ do against you that ye love your sorest Enemies and hate him that would be your surest Friend Hath Sin afforded you Pleasures But how long will they last And what will ye do when the Pleasures of Sin are past and fled away and the Pains and Punishment for Sin are come and shall never never pass away Hath the VVorld allowed you its Profits But whose shall these be when ye are Dead and Lodged in the Dust VVhat profit is there in all your Profits if ye gain them and lose your Souls Will not your Gain be your Everlasting Loss Is Christ the Admiration of Angels and is he your Derision Do they Adore him and do ye thus Despise him Do Holy Saved-Souls above delight and joy in their Love to him and in his to them and do ye turn away your Love and Alienate your Hearts from him and Love Sin and Rejoyce in that your Love Do Holy Souls beneath in this Imperfect State cry ouâ— Whom have we in Heaven but Christ or what is there on Earth that we desire like or love in comparison of him and do ye prefer your Lust and Fleshly Pleasures and Worldly Profits before him Have ye done so and will ye still Are ye so resolved Are your Hearts so hardened Your Minds so blinded And so enslaved to Sin and Satan Alas for you Were ye Born without love to Christ And have ye lived so long without love to him And will ye Dye at last without love to him Where are the Mourners that they may with flowing Tears bewail your Sin and Misery Why your Sin Because ye love not Christ Why your Misery Because you must be ANATHEMA when MARANATHA be Accursed when the Lord shall come Alas for you that are Ignorant of Christ for can ye love whom ye do not know Alas for you whose Hearts are full of love to a vain deluding VVorld and empty of sincere Love to Christ for ye must all be ANATHEMA when MARANATHA Accursed when the Lord shall come Let Angels blush Let the Heavens be ashamed Let good men weep Let the Earth mourn Let all the Creation of God sigh and sob and groan that the Son of God is not beloved by so many of the Sons of Men O my Soul where is thy love to these Souls empty of Saving-love unto thy Lord Where is thy sorrow for want of their Love Where are thy Bowels of compassion
not troubled because we do not love him For my own part I do complain I cannot love this Blessed Jesus with that strength of Love I ought and earnestly do desire and endeavour to grieve more because I love him no more and to loath my self so much the more by how much I fall short of that Love I ought to have to him Oh that others may make up what I do want and might be enlarged and abound in that love wherein I am straitned and defective that what degrees of Love I cannot reach others on Earth might attain unto that while I mourn for the smalness of my own Love I might rejoyce in the greatness of the Love of others unto this lovely Jesus and yet when all this is less than he is worthy of let it be some joy unto my grieved Soul that saved Souls above and Angels in Glory do love him with a perfect and eternal Love that though I cannot love him as they do yet I may rejoyce on Earth that there are Ten Thousand times Ten Thousands and Thousands of Thousands in Heaven rejoycing in the fullness of Love which is in them to him when Thousands upon Earth never will and Millions in Hell never can love this most lovely Lord Jesus Christ But still I must grieve and groan that when my Lord doth ask me Lovest thou me more than these sometimes I doubt and dare not say Lord thou that knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee but my Heart doth pant my Soul doth long that my love to him might be inflamed that the Actings of it might be more vigorous and the Workings of it so sensible that they may put me into pleasant Pangs and sweetest Pains of Love Lord I shall not account my self to be well till I am sick of love to thee that so I might from what I feel and find in my own Soul recommend the sweetest Delights the Rational Pleasures and the Spiritual Comforts to the Lovers of Vanity to allure and draw their Love to Christ that I may speak more of the unspeakable Joy that fills the Breast of a strong Lover of Christ and more pathetically Perswade more effectually Plead till God powerfully prevail with them to turn the Stream of their Love which now runs waste into the right Channel and glide along till it empty it self into that Sea of Love which Saints and Angels flow in unto Christ I have made a small Attempt in this little Treatise of the Necessity of Sincere Love to Christ whether God by Me might move the Hearts of any to fix their Love upon him in which I have not studied Words and Phrases to recommend Christ to wanton Wits in their Dress but with as much plainness and Gospel simplicity as I could in the very Words in which it was Preached to a People that love plain Preaching and easie to be understood If any for this shall dislike it when they have took it up and look'd into it and see it to be such may as easily lay it down and slight it as they please I sought not my Self in it but the love of Men to Christ by it I can be willing to be accounted a Fool for Christ and I doubt not but I shall have more Comfort on a Dying-Bed when I shall reflect I aimed not at vain Applause of Dying men but to gain the Hearts and hearty Love of once the Hearers and now the Readers of these Sermons and if God will please to own them in mens Reading as he did in the Hearing of them by many when not I but the Grace of God did so much affect their Hearts that they did desire it might be Preached to them some time after the second time which I did and did Work and had as great Success as at the first Not that I was any thing but God did all both first and last Many very many that did confess they loved not Christ but World and Vanity and Sin before did desire all in the Congregation earnestly to Pray That God would give them this love unto his Son which I hope they have and are increasing and growing therein and that God may so Bless it to any Poor plain Country People whom my voice cannot reach and to whom I cannot go where this may shall be the fervent Prayers that one so mean can put up to Heaven Where let the Prayers of all true Lovers of Christ meet that the Number of such may be increased Amen Tho. Doolittle THE Contents THE Introduction pag. 1 2 Anathema explained p. 3 to 9 Maranatha explained p. 3 to 9 The parts of the Text p. 9 A Paraphrase upon the Text p. 10 to 14 The Doctrine and Method p. 14 15 Twelve Requisites in sincere Love to Christ p. 15 to 41 Delighting Love p. 41 42 Desiring Love p. 41 42 Mourning Love p. 41 42 A Description of Love to Christ p. 43 The Necessity of sincere Love to Christ to escape the Curse proved by ten Arguments p. 44 to 55 Ten Properties of the Curse due to Non-Lovers of Christ p. 56 to 69 Eight Reasons why Love is so strictly required that Christ must be Loved or the Sinner Accursed p. 69. to 75 The Uses to be made of this Subject p. 75 76 Ten Inferences deduced from it p. 78 to 96 Twenty Aggravations of want of Love to Christ p. 96 to 124 The Case Resolved how a Man may know he hath or wants sincere Love to Christ p. 124 to 143 An Attempt to gain Sinners Consent to Love Christ p. 143 to 151 Twenty Motives or Pleas that Christ might have the Love of Mens Hearts p. 151 to 176 Ten Directions to get sincere Love to Christ p. 176 to 197 Ten Springs of Spiritual Comfort flowing into the Hearts of the Lovers of Christ p. 197 to 210 The Conclusion and Blessing p. 210 to the end LOVE to CHRIST NECESSARY TO ESCAPE the CURSE At His COMING 1 COR. XVI 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha CHAP. I. SECT I. The Introduction HOW Not love the Lord Hellish Sin How Not love Jesus Stupendous Wickedness What! Not love Christ Monstrous Impiety Not love him that is both Lord and Jesus and Christ What name might we call him by A Man or a Beast A Man or a Devil That doth not love the Lord Jesus Christ Do you confess him to be Lord and Jesus and Christ and love Sin and not Him Love the World and not Him Love Relations and not Him This may be the Astonishment of the Heavens the Amazement of the Earth the Wonder of Angels the Joy of Devils the Burthen of the Creation of God The Earth doth groan to bear them the Sun is grieved to give light unto them the Air laments its putrefaction to be suck'd into such filthy bodies wherein are more filthy souls because void of the Love of Christ Yea all this world looks more like Hell than Heaven because of
a corrupt thing for I am a great King saith the Lord of hosts and my name is dreadful among the heathen That is strange then that it should be no more dreadful among his people that pretend to love him that they are not afraid to bring and offer such Duties to him as do so much provoke him and are so greatly displeasing to him that give him only words when they have a Male in their Flock an heart in their breast to give him 4. Such Obedience as is a proof of Love must be persevering to the end expressed not by stepping into Gods ways but by walking in them One that loves not Christ might step into a good way but he that loves doth walk therein Deut. 11.1 Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God and keep his charge and his statutes and his judgments and his commandments alway And 19.9 If thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them which I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God and to walk ever in his ways Such then as have made great shews of love to Christ and now are revolted and have forsaken his holy Commandments by this might judge what kind of love it was to Christ that they once made profession of and more by their partial irksom and refuse Obedience might be convinced that their love to Christ is unfound and only supposed Love II. Do you love Christ while you maintain the Love of Sin in your Heart Can the love of Sin and the love of Christ dwell together in highest degrees Can the affection of love in that manner be carried out to two contrary objects at the same time And is there any thing in the World more contrary than Christ and Sin Is there more opposition between Light and Darkness extreamly Sweet and extreamly Sowre Can you love your Health and Poyson too to be in your Stomach Can you love Christ and yet love what he doth hate Can you love Christ and delight in Sin which took away the Life of your Lord Could you carry that Knife continually in your Bosom with delight that was the Instrument of Death unto your dearest Friend You might as soon look down upon the Earth and up unto the Heavens at the same instant as thus love Sin and Christ together Psal 97.10 Ye that love the Lord hate evil and the hatred to Sin that proves sincere Love to Christ must be 1. Vniversal to the Darling Sin as well as others to the Sin that hath been to you as your Right Hand or Right Eye Hatred is to the kind he that hates a Toad It is not this one or that in particular but all He that Loves Christ sincerely hates Sin as a man hates a Toad not only as to the degree but also as to the extent all and every one Psal 119.104 I hate every false way 2. Implacable Anger might be pacified but Hatred planted in the Nature is irreconcileable Antipathy cannot be rooted out nor turned into Love A man might be angry at Sin that loves not Christ but be friends again might turn from it and afterwards return unto it but the hatred to Sin implanted in the new Creature is implacably bent against Sin that the words might have some place here by way of allusion relating the Love and Hatred of Amnon to Tamar 2 Sam. 13.15 Then Amnon hated her exceedingly Hebrew is with great hatred greatly so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her and Amnon said unto her Arise be gone With like detestation will the Lover of Christ pack away his Sin Arise be gone with greater hatred than before he loved it 3. Therefore it is mortal and destructive to Sin that is the object of it Esau hated Jacob because of the Blessing wherewith his Father blessed him and Esau said in his heart The days of mourning for my father are at hand then will I slay my brother Jacob Gen. 27.41 So the Lover of Christ that hateth Sin is resolved to be the destruction of it Shall not I be the death of that cursed Sin that was the death of my blessed Lord Shall I suffer that to live in my heart which would not suffer Christ to live in the World Did Sin shed my Saviours Blood and shall not I be avenged on my 〈◊〉 Did Sin make my Saviour Groan and Sweat in a bloody Agony and shall I take delight therein Was my Sin the Nails that did fasten him to the Cross The Spear that did pierce his blessed Side And the Thorns that Crowned his Sacred Head And shall I lodge it in my Bosom Did Christ in love unto my Soul dye for my Sin and shall not I in love unto my Lord cause Sin to dye in me III. Do you love Christ sincerely when the things of this World have the predominant degrees of your affections As Sin is not to be loved at all by them that love Christ so things that are good must not be loved above Christ nor are by them that love him Mat. 10.37 If any man love father or mother more than me he is not worthy of me Doth that Woman love her Husband with a sincere Conjugal Love that though she love him truly yet loveth another more than him Do you love Riches Pleasures Honours Relations Self Life more than Christ and yet sincerely love Christ As he is better than all greater than all more suitable more durable more sweet more satisfying than all other good things so he must be loved above and more than all 1 Joh. 2.15 Love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the father is not in him Jam. 4.4 Ye Adulterers and Adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God Though one that is sincere in his love to Christ might not love Christ more than some other persons love him yet he loves Christ more than he loves other persons or things But do you love Christ more than you love other things and yet 1. Your thoughts are habitually set and actually run out upon other things more than upon Christ Can you think on the World with delight but not on Christ And love to have a thousand thoughts on other things for one you have of Christ It is a pleasure to you to think on your Pleasures your Profits your Children but a burden to you to think of Christ and keep your thoughts upon him Are not the thoughts much upon the object of love Psal 139.17 When I awake I am still with thee But if you cannot sleep in the Night your Head is full of the thoughts of the World because your Heart is full of the love of the World Is it not a sign the World and not Christ is loved as your Treasure for where the treasure is there the
consent of lost Souls to become the Spouse of his Son Jesus with this relief That if Sinners be not willing nor will accept the motion I shall be released from the Woe I have made preparation though less and weaker than such a weighty matter doth require and have Prayed that the Lord God would send me good speed this day And now I am standing by the Well of the Water of Life and some of the City are come to draw Water out of the Well of Salvation and upon enquiry made I find they are the Children of the Kindred of Jesus who forasmuch as the Children were partakers of flesh and blood himself also took part of the same to whom my message is so important that I can willingly forbear to eat till I have told my errand and therefore in your Audience desire to speak on saying I am the Lords Servant who is not made great or blessed by any other for he is great and blessed above all and over all for ever the earth and all that therein is is his the Sea and all therein is his the Heavens and all therein is also his And he hath a Son one only Son Jesus and he hath given him all that he hath even all power in Heaven and in Earth and hath set him at his own right hand far above all Principalities and Powers and Might and Dominion and every Name that is named not only in this World but that which is to come and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be Head over all things the Judge of all the World And this great Lord hath sent me to ask and beg your Hearts and Love in order to an indissoluble Marriage to his own only Son and now if ye will deal truly with my Master tell me if not tell me Oh now who saith the thing is of the Lord and proceedeth from his grace and mercy we cannot gainsay we will not refuse this Message And when you are asked who will have this Jesus Who will love this Jesus methinks one should say I will another should say and I will One and Another What! no more Methinks every one should say I will that there should not be another that should say but I will not Let who will but I will not No Why Because no better a Servant is sent to gain thy consent Or doth manage this great affair with no more zeal and skill Do thou pray for the pardon of my weakness and folly and I will pray that thou mightst have more wisdom to discern when a good proposal is made unto thee but whether thou regardest me or not regardest me I regard not so thou wouldst but have regard to Jesus Christ and to thine own immortal Soul If thou dost despise me do not despise my Master nor his Son for though I am not so good as Abrahams Servant yet my Lord and Master is better infinitely better and greater than Abraham to whom he was Servant and my Masters Son Jesus is better incomparably better than Isaac Abrahams Son and would certainly prove a richer match to thy Soul than Isaac was to Rebekah Consider therefore again before thou dost again deny him thy love for hast thou not denied him thy heart long enough already but wilt thou do so still Hath not thy love run waste upon the Creature to this day And shall it do so still Art thou not weary yet in loving of the World Art thou not yet tired in setting thy heart upon Vanity Hath it answered thine expectation Hast thou found that sweetness in the Creature which thou lookedst for when thou didst first set thy heart and love upon it Thou hast tried what is the love of the Creature oh now try what is the love of Christ and if thou dost not find it better if thou dost not find it sweeter than all thy former love provided thou lovest him sincerely return to it again Behold whose cause do I plead this day Christs or mine own For whom do I ask your Love for my self or for Christ Slight me as you will but do not slight Christ Vilifie me but do not undervalue Christ Count me unworthy of your love or look but do not so by the blessed Son of the most glorious God Say I am not fit to be regarded I bless God I have learnt to bear it but I beseech you say not so of Christ Revile and hate me if you will if you will but love that Jesus that out of Love did dye for you If you would but love him that then would certainly save you and bring you to eternal Glory and Happiness for ever If you love the World never so much can the World do so much for you If you love your Honours your Pleasures your Relations never so much can they bless you as Christ will bless you Nay the more you love them the more miserable the love of them will make you Should I call you to love the World you would do it or your Pleasures Self or Sin you would do it Nay when I or any more skilful than I am have called to you to wean your Love from these yet still in love you cleave unto them What! Is Christ the only unlovely object in your Eyes Can you find Love for any thing but Christ What is it in Christ that doth displease you What do you see in him that is offensive to you Either love him or give a reason why you will not Do you blame me for my Importunity I thought since I began this Use you did refuse because I was not urgent enough with you You will not love except you be entreated if that were it that you love to be entreated to Love and would love Christ after much intreating I would study Night and Day to think how I might entreat you and what Arguments to use to prevail and obtain your love for Christ But why should you look for such long entreaties Do you know who it is that doth entreat you Is it I or God himself by me I pray you view one Text and then let him that doth entreat you wait no longer for your answer and for shame put him not to entreat you longer What place is that It is 2 Cor. 5.20 Now then we are Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God What say you now I from God and God by me beseech you A Minister of God stands among you in Christs stead to beg entreat beseech that from you which if Christ stood in this place this day he would Preach unto you and desire and command from you that ye would be reconciled unto God after the enmity to him you would love him God Christ by his Servant doth beseech entreat pray you to love him Oh the astonishing condescention of the holy God! That he will iâ—treat Oh the amazing stupidity and folly of the sinful Sinner that
strength of your love on Worldly things where the return of love is not only not actual but impossible But would ye love Christ ye should have more love from him than ye give unto him if ye strive with all your might to love him with the utmost love ye can Joh. 14.21 23. Prov. 8.17 3. Is it not great folly to love that which can never satisfie you and not him that would satisfie your Souls for ever Did these things ye love ever fill your desires Did they ever give you full content How should they When God hath made your Souls capable of the enjoyment of an infinite good how can that which is finite fill them It is only an infinite good and not finite that can satisfie your Souls though they be finite all the Creatures cannot fill one For the Will of Man though it be subjectively finite yet it is objectively infinite that is for to be easie and plain in such a place as this and in such matters as these before you is best because for you most profitable and edifying though the Will in it self and in its own Nature because a Creature is finite and limited yet it is capable of making choice of God for its chiefest Good that is infinite and unlimited And God hath put into the hearts of Men desires after good that is eternal for they desire to be eternally happy but God hath not put this eternal goodness in any in all the things of this World for they are all transitory Therefore when ye look for satisfaction in the Creatures that ye love or in the loving of them ye look for that which God never put into them and nothing can give more than it hath and nothing hath more than God hath given it therefore to look for more from it than God by making it hath put into it may yield you vexation enough but no satisfaction at all Eccles 5.10 He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver nor he that loveth abundance with increase This is also vanity 4. Is it not great folly to love that which ye must shortly part with and not him that ye might enjoy for ever Though ye have your heart full of Love to other Earthly things you shall not earry an handful of them into the other World Eccl. 5.15 As he came forth of his mothers womb naked shall he return to go as he came and shall take nothing of his labour which he may carry away in his hand 1 Tim. 6.7 We brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out but Death that carrieth the Lovers of the World quite away from the things they love shall set the Soul of a Lover of Christ nearer to him Phil. 1.23 For I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better The Soul that loveth Christ when by Death it is absent from the Body it shall be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 5. Is it not great folly to love that which might leave you while ye live and not that Christ that would never leave you nor forsake you As ye are fure these things which ye love will be none of yours after Death so ye are not sure they shall be yours while ye live May ye not be rich to day and poor to morrow Well to day and sick to morrow In honour to day and in disgrace to morrow Was it not so with Haman Esth 6.10 11 7.9 10. When ye have Riches and love them ye are not sure to hold them Prov. 23.5 Wilt thou set thine eyes thine Heart and Love upon that which is not for riches certainly make themselves wings and fly away as an Eagle towards heaven The Hebrew Text is Wilt thou cause thy eyes to fly upon that which is not Riches fly away and the Worldly mans Heart and Love fly after them and though his Heart and Love be swift in their motion after Riches yet sometimes Riches fly so swiftly that their Lover cannot overtake them The pleasures of Sin and so the profits of the World are but for a Season Heb. 11.25 and when the Season is over they are gone but Christ would never leave you nor forsake you Heb. 13.5 6. Is it not great folly to love that which may prove an hinderance to your everlasting happiness and not him that is the purchaser and the promoter of it To love that which is often hurtful to the owners and always hurtful to the over-lovers of it and not him that never did his Lover harm but good Eccl. 5.13 There is a sore evil which I have seen under the Sun namely Richer kept for the owners thereof to their hurt This Solomon had seen and many have seen but that Christ should hurt any Man that hath him for his own was never seen Riches are thick Clay and Clogs to the Minds of Men and keep them down to Earth that they cannot rise to Heaven nor get so high while they live nor their Souls when their Bodies dye that they make Salvation exceeding difficult Mat. 19.23 Then said Jesus to his Disciples Verily I say unto you that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of heaven 24. And again I say unto you it is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a Needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God but to love Riches and not Christ while a Man doth so doth not make Salvation only hard but impossible but the love of Christ makes Salvation not only possible but certain and easie 7. Is it not great folly to love that which cannot comfort you at Death and not Christ that both can and would Love what ye will besides Christ and not Christ it cannot be a stay to your departing Souls what will ye look to at Death for comfort your Riches Why ye are going from them with an heart full of love to them to love them and yet must leave them to leave them in loving of them will torment and vex you not support and comfort you To Pleasures that ye loved When ye lye a dying they are fled and past and gone To your Friends When ye are dying ye are taking your last leave of them To Christ Alas him ye never loved and the thoughts of that will be a sting more painful than the sting of Death V. Can ye do any thing less than love Christ or can ye do any thing more Is it not a small thing that Christ should have your Love for all those great things ye have and hope to have by Christ And yet Christ stands upon your love as greatest of all and all without love is nothing If Christ had asked you to lay down your Life for him had he required more from you than he himself hath done for you Had he called you to give your Bodies to be burned for him should ye not have done it How
the Lord pronounceth his Oath negatively then it is to be understood as an affirmation as Isa 14.24 The Lord of hosts hath sworn if not so it shall come to pass that is it shall certainly come to pass But when he setteth it down affirmatively then it is to be understood negatively as Psal 95.11 If they shall enter into my rest that is they shall never enter into my rest When God sweareth thus by himself he mentioneth not the Curse because no Execration or Curse can fall upon him that is God necessarily infinitely and eternally blessed and therefore not to be expressed because it cannot come upon him neither should such a form of speech be supplied as some do prophanely use then let me not be God or such like It is sufficient to alarm Sinners that God doth swear if they continue to the death without love to and saith in Christ they shall not enter into his rest 1. A man loves not Christ that hath 1. an understanding to know the excellencies of Christ the necessity of Christ the danger of being without Christ and the everlasting good and benefits that are to be had by Christ 2. A man that hath a Will to be guided by the Understanding a Will to chuse good and refuse evil 3. A man that hath Affections of love desire and delight and shall not place them upon their proper primary principal Object 4. A man that hath a Conscience to walk and act by to accuse and condemn him when his Affections are not rightly fixed and to comfort him and to testify for him when they tend to and rest in their proper Object 5. A man that is capable of knowing loving and enjoying the best good 6. A man that hath heard of Christ that professeth Christ and hath frequently and earnestly been intreated to give Christ his love 7. A man that is a sinful man a lost man a diseased polluted man that stands in need of washing cleansing and recovering healing Grace Shew me the man that needs not Christ and let him deny him his love 8. A man that is a dying man a man leaving this World going out of Time and entring into Eternity that must shortly be a damned or saved man within a few years months weeks days or houts be eternally happy or everlastingly miserable 3. Any man especially where the Gospel is preached where the joyful sound is heard to whom the tydings of a Saviour and Eternal Life are brought The Heathen cannot love him because they do not know him because they hear not of him but any man especially that lives under the means of Grace any mean man any noble man any ignorant man any learned man any man of any sort of any age of any calling of any place or Nation where they have so often and so long heard of Christ that his blessed name is become too common in their prophane polluted mouths If any such man 4. Love not tho he often talk of him tho he pray to God mentioning his Name tho he profess him hear daily from him suffer or dye for him and not love him that is 5. The Lord the Lord of Lords the only Potentate the Lord that hath the power of Life and Death able to take up to Heaven and cast down to Hell to damn and save that reigns over Men and Devils that hath all Power committed to him that is 6. Jesus the only mighty alsufficient Saviour that came from Heaven to Earth to get and purchase for men a passage from Earth to Heaven that suffered bled and died to save Sinners from Sin from Hell from Everlasting Burnings when there is no other Name under Heaven by which Sinners can be saved than the Name of Jesus who is also 7. Christ anointed of the Father designed from all Eternity and sent in the fulness of time to bring about and accomplish the work of man's Redemption that was furnished with all manner of qualifications to bring Souls to Eternal Glory and yet those that have their Names from him called Christians from Christ and yet not love him shall be 8. Anathema cursed Wretches miserable Caitiffs devoted to damnation separated from God cast to Devils when 9. Maran-atha the Lord comes to be Anathema when Maran-atha is to be accursed indeed and for ever then cursed Men must be with cursed Devils to all eternity CHAP. II. SECT I. The Doctrine and Method FRom this Text thus explained Doct. this Doctrine clearly resulteth That whatsoever man hath not sincere love to the Lord Jesus Christ is in a deplorable condition and shall be accursed when the Lord comes For his Sin is great his Mind is blind his Will perverse his Heart is hard and carnal his Affections corrupt and base and vile and his Soul and Body shall then be doomed down to blackness of darkness to extremity and eternity of misery to pains and punishment that no Tongue can express no Heart conceive no Pen can write how great how terrible how intolerable it will be found to be The method in treating on this Subject is cast into these five general Heads 1. What is the nature of this love to Christ what kind or manner of Love it is without which if man be found he is Anathema and shall be plagued with this heavy Curse at the coming of the Lord 2. That whosoever is without this love to Christ is in such a miserable condition and dying without it shall be damned when Christ shall come is to be demonstrated 3. What are the properties of this Curse that will make it so exceeding grievous and intolerable 4. Why so great a stress is put upon such Love why the Lord insists so much upon the love of man unto his Son that whosoever wants it shall be thus accursed 5. The improving of this Doctrine by practical application In opening of the nature of this Love to Christ I shall not only mention the formal reason of it but also what is presupposed and necessarily requisite to the raising or producing of it in the heart of man my Apprehensions concerning it I shall give you in these twelve following Particulars which being taking up and laid together will contain a description of this Love 1. This Love supposeth the goodness of the Object 2. It includes or implies the illumination of the Understanding to see and discern this incomparable goodness in Christ 3. It includes a discovery of the suitableness of Christ unto the Soul in all respects 4. As also a sight of the communicability of that good that is discerned to be so suitable 5. Highest valuation of Christ greatest estimation of him which is called appretiating Love 6. It contains the permanent volition of the Will the setled inclination of the heart towards the Lord Jesus Christ 7. It includes the prevailing and predominant degrees of our love to be to Christ more than to any thing else whatsoever 8. In this Love is the election of the Will choosing Christ
for himself and for the excellency of his own Person tho not with the exclusion of our own advantage by him 9. Christ as Lord as well as Saviour is the Object of this Love Christ in all his Offices as Teacher Ruler as well as Benefactor is beloved in which respect the Love of all Hypocrites and carnal Gospellers doth fail and come short 10. This Love is wrought by the powerful special operation of the Spirit of God upon the heart 11. Whence follows a voluntary resignation of a man's self to Christ without reservation of himself or any thing he hath unto himself 12. When all this is done the Soul doth delighe in Christ if present or desires after him if absent or mourns for him if it cannot find him for one of these three ways Love will be working and by these workings discover it self SECT II. The nature requisites and the description of this Love to Christ Frist This Love supposeth the goodness of the Object as all Love doth For nothing can be loved but what is really good or at least appeareth so unto the Lover This holy Love therefore being the choicest chiefest Love supposeth Christ to be the choicest and the chiefest Good That he is a good Saviour a good Redeemer a good Lord and Master a Good excelling transcending all inferior sublunary good Good not only good but best best in himself and best for us And because he must be loved with such a love as that we be willing at his call to part with all other good for his sake therefore he is looked upon and loved as an universal Good whereas Riches Honours Friends and all things of this World are but particular good no one thing good for all things Meat and drink are good to satisfy your hunger and thirst but not to clothe you Clothes are good to cover you but not to feed you c. But the Soul whose love is fixed upon Christ doth see and say In poverty Christ will be my riches in disgrace Christ will be my honour in bonds and imprisonment Christ will be my liberty in pain Christ will be my ease in death Christ will be my life in the loss of all things Christ will be better to me than the enjoyment of all these things He that looks not upon Christ as an incomparable Object doth not love him as he ought Psal 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee Prov. 3.14 Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding 14. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold 15. She is more precious than rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her The Spouse saw such goodness in Christ that she was love-sick for him Cant. 5.8 I charge you O daughters of Jerusalem if ye find my beloved that ye tell him that I am sick of love Others wonder what a gracious Soul doth see in Christ that it is so inflamed with love unto him V. 9. What is thy beloved more than another beloved O thou fairest among women what is thy beloved more than another beloved that thou dost so charge us What is he in a large description of his Excellencies she answereth to this Question 10. My beloved is white and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousand proceeds in Vers 11 12 13 14 15. and in the 16th concludeth He is altogether lovely this is my beloved and this is my friend O daughters of Jerusalem What then Doth the transcendent goodness of Christ thus displayed draw the Heart allure the Affections yes verily for it immediately follows Cant. 6.1 Whither is thy beloved gone O thou fairest among women Whither is thy beloved turned aside that we may seek him with thee 1. Christ as God is incomparably good for so he is originally good infinitely good eternally immutably incomprehensibly good 2. Christ as Man is the most excellent of all men Adam in innocency the Prophets and Apostles in all their greatest dignity and the Saints in Heaven in perfect glory are not comparable to the man Christ Jesus 3. Christ as God-man and Mediator surpasseth in goodness all the holy Ones on Earth and all the Angels in Heaven Ephes 1.20 And set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places 21. Far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come And though he call his People his Brethren and his Fellows Yet God hath anointed him with the oyl of gladness above all his fellows Psal 45.7 is Christ thus in your Eyes and to your Hearts SECT III. The Second Requisite of this Love SEcondly This Love includes and implies the illumination of the Vnderstanding to see and discern this matchless goodness in Christ Tho Knowledge be not formaliter Love yet it is necessarily pre-requisite to it for this Love is not blind Ignoti nulla cupido What we do not know we cannot love nor desire John 4.10 If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith unto thee give me to drink thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living water You might love an UNSEEN Christ but you cannot love an UNKNOWN Christ 1 Pet. 1.8 whom having not seen ye love in whom tho now ye see him not yet believing and Faith includeth Knowledge ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory Therefore the Prophet speaking of graceless men as disliking not desiring nor loving Christ brings them in as saying Isa 53.2 He hath no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him How no comeliness in him that is the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of his person yes there was there is but they had not eyes to see it as if a blind man should say the Sun is dark because he hath no eyes to behold the light thereof How when we shall see him there is no beauty in him that we should desire him It was because in seeing they did not see How should they look upon him with an eye of Love when they did not discern him with an eye of Faith But a sanctified Soul whose eyes are opened seeth that superlative Goodness Beauty and Excellency in Christ that all other things that are good with an inferior goodness seem to him as dross and dung Phil. 3.7 But what things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ 8. Yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things cast to dogs or Dogs-meat or dung that I may win Christ The sanctified
a thing or person and yet love him To have mean low and undervaluing thoughts of one and yet love him more than another whom you do more highly esteem and value Doth not the Worldling that loves his Money more than other things value it above other things Doth not the Ambitious person that loves his Honour and his Credit more than other things stand upon it and esteem it more than other things And will it not be so with him that loveth Christ Or is not he a Cursed man that valueth any thing above Christ and esteems it more than Christ As Christ is precious to him that doth Believe 1 Pet. 2.7 so he is to him that Loves Pearls are valued but as Pebbles and Diamonds as Dirt and Diadems as Dung by a man that loveth Christ when they stand in competition for our Love with Christ In the practical judgment of a sincere Lover of Christ Christ cannot be valued with the Gold of Ophir with the precious Onyx or the Saphire the Gold and the Chrystal cannot equal him and he would not exchange him for Jewels of fine Gold With him no mention shall be made of Coral or of Pearl for the Worth of Christ is above Rubies The Topaz of Ethiopia doth not equal him neither shall the purest Gold or the most refined Silver be weighed in the balance of his judgment to be preferred before Christ For to him he is more precious than Rubies And all the things the heart of man can desire besides him are not to be compared with him For Christ is that Treasure hid in a field which when this Lover hath found for joy thereof he goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field He is that goodly Pearl of great Price which when found all shall be left or lost and parted with that this might be obtained Mat. 13.44 45 46. And what a man gives all for he values that more than all he giveth for it Can that man be judged to love Christ that values his corruptible Silver above the incomparable Saviour That esteemeth Earth above Heaven And the Creature more than God Or is not he deservedly to be reckoned an Anathema that shall esteem the Dross of this World above the Darling of God Or thick Clay above him that doth excel the clearest Chrystal Or the things of Time which are only for Time above that Christ that is a Good for all Eternity SECT VII The Sixth Requisite of Love to Christ SIxthly This Love to Christ takes in the Permanent Volition of the Will the setled Inclination of the heart towards the Lord Jesus Christ For what else is Love but the Volition of the rational Appetite Or the Will 's Volition of Good apprehended by the Understanding Or the Will 's chusing of him and adhering to him Aversation of the Will from Christ is no better than hating of him For as Volition and Complacency is Love so Nolition and Displicency is hatred Can a man Love Christ and yet not Will him Can he love him and yet not chuse him Can he love him and the Will refuse him Was Nilling ever accounted loving or turning of the Heart from an Object ever taken for the closing with it or is it not a contradiction will not and love not is all one John 5.40 Ye will not come to me 42. I know you that ye have not the love of God in you What is the Object of the love of the Heart is the Object of the choice of the Will and such as is the choice of your Wills such are ye If thy Will chuse the World before Christ I dare boldly call thee a worldly man or Pleasures before Christ I dare confidently declare thee a voluptuous man but if Christ before all other things I may term thee a truly gracious man Suppose then the World and the Riches thereof the Honours and the Pleasures of it were set on the one hand and Christ on the other which would you really chuse It is an easie thing to think and say you would chuse Christ and not the world but my question is Which you would really chuse Canst thou say and appeal to God that knows thy heart Lord thou that knowest all things thou knowest that I chuse Christ before Riches Christ before Pleasures Liberty Life or any thing that is dear unto me in this world Thou knowest that I would rather have Christ without the World than the World without Christ I would rather have the Lord Jesus with Disgrace with Poverty and with the Cross than all the Treasures of the world This must be a man's Will and this must be a man's Choice or cannot be said to have sincere Love to Jesus Christ SECT VIII The Seventh Requisite in Love to Christ or the Sincerity of it SEventhly This Love consists in the prevailing and predominant degrees of Affections unto Christ For if he be not loved above all he is not sincerely loved at all There might be love of other things subordinate with the Love of Christ but not co-ordinate or equal with it much less superior to it You might love your Friends and love your Enjoyments and love the Comforts of your life but you must love Christ more The love of these must be swallowed up in the love of Christ and be subordinate unto it But you may say This is that offensive Doctrine that 〈◊〉 the difference betwixt common and special Grace to be only gradual and not specifical and God forbid that we should think that God will damn a man for want of further degrees of Grace when he hath it in truth and kind and the degrees do not vary the kind 1. The degrees do not vary nor alter the kind in things natural but they may and do in things moral For Example The degrees of Reason acuteness of Wit solidity of Judgment that one man might have more than another man doth not make him more a man as to his Species or kind than another man that is in those respects inferior to him for both quoad Speciem as to Kind are men have the Human Nature and the specifical difference whereby they are distinguished from things of any other kind but yet degrees might make a specifical difference in morals where the act as natural is still of the same kind For instance In eating and drinking little or much the natural act of both is still the same but in morality if a man eat and drink for quantity and quality according to the rules and guidance of Prudence and no more this is a virtue called Temperance but if in degrees he doth exceed and eateth more and drinketh more than that Mediocrity quoad nos prescribed by Prudence in which the nature of this Virtue doth consist doth admit of then though eating and drinking considered Physically be of the same kind yet in a moral respect it alters the kind and is called quite by another name viz. Intemperance Gluttony and Drunkenness 2. The
faith so that I could remove mountains and have no charity I am nothing 3. And tho I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and tho I give my body to be burn'd and have not charity it profiteth me nothing Love therefore is above all these for all these without love are nothing 5. Love makes us most like to God for God is love 1 Joh. 4.8 And God loveth Christ above all the men on earth and above all the Angels in Heaven therefore calls him his Beloved Son Mat. 3.17 God loveth All men with a Common Love John 3.16 Tit. 3.4 Holy men with a Special Love Angels with an Higher Love Christ most of all who is the Son of his Love Col. 1.13 So our Love is gradual we ought to love all men with some degrees of Love Holy men and Angels with an higher Love and Christ with the highest Love And when we love as God loves our Love makes us most like to God 6. Love is the highest improvement of the faculties of our Souls 1. We have Vnderstandings to know God and Christ And Love to God and Christ is the highest improvement of all our knowledg for if we know him and not love him the more we know of him the more our knowledge doth increase our sin and will aggravate our condemnation 2. We have Wills to chuse the Lord Jesus Christ and when we chuse him Love is the improvement of our Wills in taking complacency in him who is the Object of our choice 3. We have Consciences that do dictate to us that Christ is best and best for us and then we improve those dictates when we love him else all those dictates of Conscience are lost and come to nothing 4. We have Memories wherein the Sayings of Christ to us the Sufferings of Christ for us and the Benefits of Christ bestowed upon us should be lodged and laid up and when we love him we shall love to remember all these things that we have by him and from him and himself that is Purchaser and the Donor of them But if our Love is predominantly placed upon any thing below Christ all the Powers of the Soul are debased the Reason of man is degraded in contriving the getting of such ignoble and fordid enjoyments as his highest end the Will is debased in chusing of them and the Memory in being stuffed with the remembrance of them forgetting God and Christ and better things so that a man is more a brute than a man without sincere Love to Christ 7. Love is the end of all other Graces and in which they terminate their Operations Our knowledge of Christ endeth in our loving of Christ our believing on him hoping in him trusting to him like so many streams at last run into the Love of Christ 8. Love is the Everlasting Grace that shall abide and be in use and exercise when the actings of other Graces shall cease There are some Graces suitable especially to our state of imperfection in this world To live by Faith to Repent and Mourn for sin to live in hope of the glory that is to be revealed to wait till we be possessed of the Mansions that are above to desire all the good that is promised to us but not yet conferred upon us But hereafter Faith shall be turned into Vision Hope into Fruition Desires into Possession waiting into Obtaining And then we shall thus believe no more nor hope nor desire nor wait but then we shall love still yea more than ever more abundantly yea perfectly without diminution continually without intermission and eternally without cessation in which respect among the three Cardinal Graces Love hath the preheminence 1 Cor. 13.13 Now abideth faith hope charity these three but the greatest of these is charity because it is the longest in duration So that those that love Christ sincerely here shall love him perfectly hereafter and be for ever blessed in that love But those that love him not on earth cannot love him in the other world and for want of such Love shall be accursed for ever CHAP. VI. The Application of the Doctrine THE last thing propounded in the method of this Subject is the Vse and Application of it to bring it down to our own hearts to work this truth upon our Minds Consciences and Affections And now O that God would help me and Christ would help me and the blessed Spirit of God and Christ would so help me and give me lively words a lively Heart lively and inflamed Love to blessed Jesus and your immortal precions Souls that I might speak and apply this great Truth as becomes a man that deth believe every one of you before God in this Congregation this day must be Anathema when Maran-atha if you live and die void of love to Jesus Christ as becomes a man that doth believe you must be blessed or cursed damned or saved for ever as you are prevailed with or not prevailed with to give Christ your Hearts and hearty love as becomes a man that doth believe your Everlasting Stare is much concerned in this one point that now is before us Alas Methinks I do foresee the great multitudes that this Anathema will fall upon Methinks I see the Lord a-coming methinks I hear the Trumpet sounding and the Voice calling to the Dead Arise and come to judgment Come ye cursed Souls that have been in the Infernal Lake and appear before my Bar come ye cursed Bodies awake arise and stand before my Judgment-Seat and let those cursed Souls be again united to those cursed Bodies and now be both cursed together and cursed for ever and let both be inseparably linked together to endure this Curse to all eternity Methinks I see them coming but unwillingly they come but with fear and trembling with horrour and amazement Now what is to do now now Maran-atha and now every one of us that loved not that Lord that now is come must be Anathema O woful Souls O miserable Sinners O cursed Caitifs What shall we now do and whither shall we now go do that we should have asked before this day that the Lord is come Do We should have done that which we did not do and now must go thither whither we would not go O that we might rather cease to be than to be what we must for ever be and go from whence we never must return and feel what will make us cry and roar toss and throw and be for ever restless and the more restless because hopeless and remediless O Sirs my Heart is pained my Bowels roul within me my Joints do shake with trembling for fear lest any of you that pray in this place and hear in this place should fall under this Curse when the Lord shall come The Uses of this Doctrine shall be 1. By way of Inference or Instruction what things from hence may be deduced and learned 2. For Reprehension or Reproof aggravating the Charge against such as love not the
and work in being wise in the reproved sense for my self I should be found an egregious Fool. He that preacheth so that no man can rationally contemn him and yet every man understand him and thereby wins Souls to set their love on Christ is a Wiseman and a Learned Preacher when he that preacheth so that few or none of the meaner Capacities which are the greater number can understand him any further than to understand they do not understand him and so the People perish for want of knowledge under the sound of profoundest knowledge shall have little thanks from such People at the Judgment-day and what Reward he shall have from Christ when he comes to take an account of Ministers for preaching and People for hearing let him take into his serious thoughts and learn of Learned Paul who hath left a pattern of the wisest Preaching 2 Cor. 4.5 For we preach not our selves but Christ Jesus the Lord and our selves your servants for Jesus sake lest not preaching Jesus the Lord but himself as if he were more than a Servant and Jesus not Lord he find when Preaching and Hearing are ended and cease Maran-atha and Anathema be joined together VIII Must they be cursed that love not Christ then know that outward Prosperity and this Curse are consistent A man might be a prospering man in this World and cursed in this World and in the World to come Do you see many whose Lives declare they have no sincere love to Christ in their Hearts thrive and abound in outward Enjoyments not love Christ and yet are strong not love Christ and yet are rich not love Christ and yet be in honour What then Might not a man in health be a cursed man nay the more strength he hath the more able he is to do the Devil Service and so his strength is a curse unto him The more he enjoyeth of the World the more he hath to love and the more he loves it and so his Enjoyments are a curse unto him when they keep him from placing his love upon Jesus Christ Have you not read that mens Blessings are cursed Mal. 2.2 If ye will not hear and if ye will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name saith the Lord of hosts I will even send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessings yea I have cursed them already because ye do not lay it to heart God threatens to curse wicked mens Blessings I will curse your blessings I will that is not to do now I have cursed them already Many are apt to call the proud happy Mal. 3.15 The Rich though bad are thought by many to be blessed a great mistake all men might see their outward Blessings but all have not eyes to behold the inward Curses that lie under those outward Blessings Is it not a Curse to have Riches without Grace to have our Portion and Blessings and all in this Life to prosper in the World and to be every moment in danger of Hell do you look upon it to be such happiness to have all for the Body and nothing for the Soul to have Earth and nothing of Heaven and nothing to shew for them You read of some that have their Portion in this life on Earth Psal 17.14 and you might read that their Portion on Earth is a cursed Portion Job 24.18 and was it not so with the Rich man spoken of in the Gospel that on Earth had his purple robes and fine linen and sumptuous costly dishes every day O happy man but stay till you hear the end He died and whither then to Hell Where is now your happy man and what is his condition there what there he finds more pain than on Earth pleasure there he feels more torment and terror than all his days on Earth had pleasure and delight Luk. 16.25 But Abraham said Son remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Remember that vexeth not easeth in thy life-time but that was but for the time of life which then was short and sweet but this Life where now I am more properly called Death than Life is long and bitter receivest thy good things but amongst them all hadst not a good God a good Conscience nor one good Fruit of the Spirit no not so much as love to Christ but now he is comforted and thou art tormented he is blessed and thou art cursed he is happy and thou art miserable Behold the change the world 's blessed man is now the cursed man and he that was the miserable man in the esteem of the World is now the blessed man Then do not judge of Blessedness or Misery by the prosperity or poverty of this World but by the graces of the Spirit or want of them in your hearts particularly by your love or want of love to Jesus Christ For it is not said Let him that is not rich but let him that loves not Christ be Anathema Maran-atha IX Must all that love not Christ be cursed then tremble at the thoughts of the great number that shall be cursed There are but few comparatively that have sincere Love to Christ therefore but few comparatively that shall be blessed by entring into Eternal blessed life Mat. 7.13 Enter in at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat 14. Be cause strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it Many for want of Love to Christ will not bear his Cross but all that want this love Finally shall bear his Curse The number of the Curse-bearers and Non-lovers of Christ shall be an equal number so many and no more Consider then what multitudes there are that love other things more than Christ and see what vast numbers of men shall be accursed 1. How many are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of Christ 2 Tim. 3.4 2. How many are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lovers of money more than lovers of Christ They prize their Silver above the Saviour and part with him to keep that Luke 16.14 2 Tim. 3.2 3. How many are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lovers of honours more than lovers of Christ John 5.42 44 and and 12 43. 4. How many are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lovers of themselves more than lovers of Christ 2 Tim. 3.2 And indeed sinful self-love is the very heart and core of the carnal man and the great Idol of all unconverted sinners Principles of selfishness are the rise of all their actions and self is the end and scope at which they aim in all they do and so set up self in the room of God and Christ and love carnal self when they should love Christ and so shall lye under the Curse when they would have a Blessing Few love
blamed when you thus do vilifie that Blessed Lord that none can over-value Will not you pass for a sinful wretch among all wise and serious men nay with God and Angels that you have a will for the world and for the empty vanities of this life but no will for Christ for a full and All-sufficient Christ When you do prefer fading enjoyments of a transitory life before a durable good in eternal life Tell me I beseech you is not he deservedly a wretch whom neither the Excellencies of Christ himself nor all the benefits he might have by him will move him to set his heart upon him What do you think What do you say Have you done well or ill in not loving Christ Well you dare not say Ill you are loth to say because by so saying you will condemn your self What then Condemn your self because you have not loved him and love him now that you might not be condemned by God and cursed by Christ for not loving him at all But because the want of love to Christ is such an horrid loathsome sin and yet lamented but by a few as if it were in our days almost accounted for no sin at all I shall endeavour to aggravate the hainousness thereof in Twenty particulars propounded to you by way of questions and let me intreat you to weigh them with a serious mind and when Right Reason shall dictate a true answer seek out some secret place where you might weep bitterly for this odious sin want of love to the Lord Jesus Christ I. Not love Christ What is this but a crossing of the end of God in making thee a man In setting thee above the beasts of the field In giving thee a more noble and more excellent soul than he hath given to the unreasonable creatures Hath not God given thee a soul capable of knowing Jesus Christ And what shouldst thou know him for if not to love him Hath not God given thee a will to go forth in its actings upon the most sweet and suitable Objects And what is that but Christ Hath he not put such an affection as Love into thy heart And dost thou think in thy Conscience it was that thou mightest love the world and not his Son Thy self and not his Son but thy self in opposition to his Son Thy sin and not his Son Canst thou imagine that God made thee a man and not a beast that thou mightest love him no more than beasts can love him Then it had been enough if God had made thee a beast and not a man Or dost thou repent that God hath given thee the Nature the Reason and the Love of a man that thou wilt not place it upon himself for which end he made thee a man If thou dost repent that thou art a man and not a beast then chuse the Love and Pleasures of a beast and refuse the Love and Pleasures of a man and that as a man thou art capable of If not why dost thou not answer the end of thy creation Dost thou not see that all the Visible Works of God do that for which they were made Did not God make the Sun to give light unto this World And dost thou not see what haste it makes to set and in the morning thou perceivest when out of view it kept its course and hasted to rise to give its light to this our Hemisphere again Did not God make this Earth to bring forth Fruit for the comfort of man And dost thou not daily eat thereof Did not God make other Creatures for the use and service of man And do they not do so And hath not God made thee and made it thy duty to love him Why then dost thou not do it Oh monstrous perverting of the Creation of God! And that in the best of his visible works If the like were done by other creatures how soon wouldst thou be weary of thy life If the Sun should withhold its light what a dungeon would this world be If the Earth should bring forth nothing but Briars and Thorns it would yield thee nothing but vexation and sorrow If the creatures should use their power and strength against thee as they do in serving of thee thou wouldst judge it better to want them than to have them And shall all that was made for man answer their end and not man that was made more immediately for God himself But a man that wants Love to Christ is become worse than the beasts that perish Psal 49.20 Better thou hadst never had the heart of a man if Christ hath not thy heart II. Not love Christ What is this but a thwarting the end of all Christ's undertaking for thee as thy Redeemer When man had sinned away the Holy Image of God and turned his heart and affections from God to the Creature man might have feared him but never have loved him Gen. 3.10 I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid Sin had brought such an aversation in the heart of man from God and all good that without Christ's undertakings for man man could have loved him no more than Devils Why did the Son of God become the Son of Man Why did he shed his Blood lay down his Life Why did he suffer sweat bleed and dye Why did he bear our Punishment satisfie Divine Justice endure the Wrath of God the Rage of Men and Devils but to bring man back again to God from whom he had departed And that the stream of man's affections might be turned again into its right Channel Couldst thou not have loved the World and Self if Christ had never dyed Couldst thou not have loved thy Pleasures and thy Sins if Christ had never died And having died wilt thou love no better Hath he come from Heaven to gain thy Love and shall he not have it Hath he given himself a Ransom to deliver thee from thy Captivity and paid thy Debt for which thou shouldst have gone to the Prison of Hell to gain thy Love and shall he not have it Hath he given his Life for thine his Soul for thine in dying when thou shouldst have dyed and all this to gain thy Love and shall he not have it What thinkest thou Was Christ weary of the Bosom of his Father Was it more honourable for him to dwell in flesh on earth than with the Father of Spirits in Heaven Was it not infinite Condescention for his Deity to be vailed with the rags of our Humanity Or was Christ prodigal of his Blood or weary of his Life or did he love and chuse such cruel Scourgings such Contempt and Scorn such a cursed shameful painful Death for themselves Surely all this was for some great and noble end which end thou doest as much as in thee lies by thy not loving him frustrate and render unattainable for if all men should deny him their Love as thou dost where would be the Reconciliation betwixt God and man Remission of Sins or Salvation
shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty That is I will pity you as a father and love you as a father doth his children and much more and ye shall love me as sons and daughters love their father and much more A son and not love a daughter and not love such sons and daughters are bitterness to their Parents and so are ye to Christ 2. In not loving Christ the Threatnings of the Gospel are slighted and set at nought by thee It is dreadful to lie under the Curses of the Law but it is more terrible to fall under the Curses of the Gospel It might make thy heart to shake within thee to have the Curse and not the Blessing of thy Maker but it might make thy heart to sink within thee to have the Curse and not the Blessing of the Redeemer What else doth he do in the words of the Text What else is it but a Curse to be judged accounted declared to be unworthy of Christ Unworthy to be pardoned by him and saved by him that is not fit to be saved by Christ nor sit to be delivered from hell or taken up to heaven Mat. 10.37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me Or wilt thou bless thy self tho thou hearest this Curse Like the man Deut. 29.19 And it come to pass when he heareth the words of this curse that he bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace tho I walk in the imagination of my heart to add drunkenness to thirst So thou Tho I do love the world and sin and self more than Christ I shall have Peace and Pardon and Eternal Life Shalt thou so How wilt thou come by it From whom wilt thou have it Will God spare such a man Shall not his Anger smoke against him And the Fire of his Indignation burn him up till he be consumed Or burn him tho by burning he shall never be consumed If it were a man thou mightest say Let him curse Psal 109.28 But wilt thou say of God of Christ Let him curse who cares Let him curse who fears his Curse Thou careless sinner God will make thee care and if thou dost not fear God will make thee feel the weight of his Anger and when thou shalt feel what now thou dost not fear thou shalt not make so light a matter of it 3. The great Command of God by not loving of him is disobeyed Matth. 22.37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind 38. This is the first and great commandment The Lord Jesus is a great King a great Saviour The Command to love him is a great Command which if thou dost not do upon this account thou art a great Sinner If a great Swearer then ye say such a one is a great Sinner a great Drunkard and therefore a great Sinner and so he is But tho thou art no Drunkard no Swearer yet not a Lover of Christ for this I say thou art a great Sinner for thou livest in daily disobedience to the great Command 4. By not loving of Christ the Promises of the Gospel are undervalued if thou wouldst love him he promiseth thee a Crown of life Jam. 1.12 he promiseth thee all the good that thou dost want or canst desire the pardon of Sin the Favour of God deliverance from Hell the Happiness of Heaven Oh what Inducements of Love are these What Motives what Incentives what madness to lose all these for the love of the World for the love of a nasty filthy Lust Wilt thou still say all these shall never gain my love to Christ nor move me to set my heart upon him Thou sayst thou sayst not so but I say and God knows thou dost so and is it not as bad to do so and not say so as not say so and yet do so when thy doing so is as if thou saidst so So how why as if thou saidst Rather than I will love Christ I will never be pardoned rather than I will love Christ I will go without the Favour of God without the Joys of Heaven I will be damned and go to Hell rather than I will love Christ sayst thou so or wilt thou do so is the Love of Christ so grievous to thee take thy choice and when thou art in Hell and damned there thou shalt never love him VI. Not love Christ what is this but odious Ingratitude for the greatest Kindness to the Children of men Suppose thou wast in debt and unable to pay therefore must be cast into Prison one dischargeth thy Debt wouldst thou not love him if not would not all say thou art unthankful Suppose thy self to be in Turkish Slavery and one redeem thee wouldst thou not love him Suppose thou art condemned to dye and one procures thy Pardon wouldst thou not love him or bear the brand of an ungrateful Person Thou wast in debt to God and hadst nothing to pay thou wast in slavery to Sin and Satan thou wast at enmity with God condemned to dye in danger of Hell unfit for Heaven the Justice of God did flame against thee the Wrath of God did lie upon thee Hell and Devils waited for thee None could help thee but Christ satisfy for thee but Christ purchase thy Pardon but Christ save thee from Hell and bring thee to Heaven but Christ nor He neither without suffering bleeding sweating dying without bearing the punishment of thy sins giving his Soul for thine his Life for thine and after all this art not thou to a wonder unthankful if thou wilt not so much as love him wilt not let the Heavens be ashonished and the Earth amazed and all the Creation of God blush and be ashamed at the unthankfulness of sinful men that hear that for their sakes Christ was scourged buffeted crowned with Thorns his Side pierced with a Spear Nails driven through his Hands and feet was arraigned condemned accused condemned and crucified and yet will not love a Christ scourged for them a Christ groaning under the burden of their Sin a Christ sweating under the heavy load of the Wrath of God will not love a weeping bleeding crucified Christ when all this was endured in their room and stead VII Not love Christ is not this damnable contemning and despising of him Is it not a setting him at nought it is spoken of Christ Psal 22 6. A reproach of men and despised of the people And Isa 53.3 He is despised and rejected of men He was despised and we esteemed him not The Septuagint translate the word by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is used of Christ in the New Testament Luke 23.11 And Herod with his men of war set him at nought and mocked him Act. 4.11 This was the stone which was set at nought by you builders What we greatly love we highly
that sinned but cast them down to Hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment And Epistle of Jude ver 6. The Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day Not a word of a Saviour for them but of Mankind the Scripture speaks of abundance of love and mercy Joh. 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life Tit. 3.4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared and denieth that concerning Angels which it doth affirm concerning Man Heb. 2.16 For verily he took not upon him the nature of Angels but he took upon him the seed of Abraham Hath he done that for you which he hath not done for Devils and is not then want of love in you to him a greater evil than it is in Devils Let this shame you that ye are not lovers of Christ XII Not love Christ What do ye make of this but the beginning of Hell By the same reason as love to Christ is the beginning of Heaven Love to Christ is the employment of the Saints in Glory and to be without love to Christ is the frame of the Damned in misery So much of hatred to Christ is in you so much of Hell is in you before you be in Hell XIII Want of love to Christ Is not this the Daughter and the Off-spring of many foul abominations that are reigning in thy heart Doth it not suppose the predominancy of many other sins As 1. Doth it not suppose Ignorance of thy misery Sins deformity and of Christs beauty excellency and necessity 2. Doth it not suppose preceding Infidelity That thou dost not believe what God saith concerning Christ nor what shall be thy portion and thy everlasting miserable condition without Christ 3. Doth it not suppose a conceit of thy own Righteousness which if thou sawest to be insufficient would Christ be thus slighted and disregarded by thee 4. Doth it not suppose Self-willedness Thou wilt love what thou wilt love and not him thou shouldst love come on it what will Is it not plain wilfulness when thou canst give no reason why thou wilt not love Christ But because thou wilt not 5. Doth it not suppose predominancy of sinful Self love Carual Self thou wilt love and because this in dominion is inconsistent with the love of Christ thou dost omit the loving of him 6. Doth it not suppose fearlesness of God and of his Indignation If this did awe thee could Christ be thus neglected by thee 7. Doth it not suppose forgetfulness of Death and Judgment Of Heaven and Hell Couldst thou without horror think of dying without love to Christ When to dye so once would be to dye for ever Without trembling couldst thou think of Judgment when for want of love to Christ thou shalt certainly be damned whenever thou appearest at his Judgment-bar Or of Heaven when thou must never enter into it Or of Hell when thou must certainly be cast into it for want of love to Christ 8. Doth it not suppose great carelesness of thine own Soul For canst thou love thy Soul and not love Christ the Saviour of the Soul Canst thou take care of the Salvation of thy Soul and take no care to love him that is the purchaser and the donor of eternal Salvation Is such a litter of sins in the heart void of the love of Christ And wilt thou after this make so light a matter of it XIV Want of love to Christ Is it not the Mother of many horrid transgressions and the Nurse Maintainer and Fomenter of them Love to Christ shuts the door of the heart against the temptations of Satan the inticements of Sinners and the allurements of the World but the want of it sets it open unto all Love to Christ would be a Dam to the stream of Sin but the want of it is the plucking up the Floodgates thereof that Sin might run out of the heart into the life with a swift current Is not the absence of love to Christ the cause of many commissions of Evil Would it not bridle thy Tongue restrain thine Hands shut thy Eyes stop thy Ears and keep all these from being defiled with finful actings upon sinful objects Is it not the cause of the omission of good Of praying hearing meditation holy discourse What goeth before and what followeth after the want of love to Christ as flowing and proceeding from it maketh it a sin exceeding sinful XV. Love not Christ Have not then all the Ordinances of God been ineffectual as to thee Have not Ministers preached in vain and spent their labour for nought And hast not thou heard in vain And followed the means of Grace in vain when by all the means thou hast not got this Grace of Love What though thou hast obtained knowledge is not that knowledge without love to Christ vain knowledge What though thou art able to discourse of God and Christ and Heaven and the workings of the Spirit without love to Christ is it not though concerning such great and weighty matters yet vain discourse Have not all the calls of Mercy the workings of Conscience the wooings of Grace the pleadings of Ministers the intreaties of Love the knocking 's of Christ the strivings of the Spirit the waitings of Patience been all slighted and disregarded by thee Are not all thy Prayers lost and will not all thy Profession come to nothing and thy hopes of Heaven perish when for want of love to Christ thy Soul shall never enter into Heaven but perish everlastingly XVI Want of love to Christ Is it not a mark and brand of a graceless Man Is not the absence of love to Christ inconsistent with the presence of any other saving Grace Psal 31.23 O love the Lord all ye his Saints No love no Saint No Saint no Grace in thee If Loveless altogether Graceless for then 1. Thou art faithless for didst thou believe on him thou wouldst have sincere love unto him for where there is Faith it worketh by love Gal. 5.6 2. Thou art fearless of God Love and fear of God do sweetly concur Love is afraid to offend 3. Thou art sorrowless that is as to any holy godly sorrow For love to Christ would make thee sorrow for thy sin for the absence of Christ and love would cause thee to sorrow that thou lovest no more 4. Thou art also hopeless for there can be no solid ground of hope in him when there is no love unto him He that hopes for Heaven by the merits of Christ without love to the person of Christ his hope is a Fabrick without a foundation the Fools Paradise It is hope without a warrant and in the end when he misseth of the end of his expectation will be found to be no
too if thou dost with-hold it from him If it be due so many ways what Injustice will it be in thee to deny to Christ that which is his due Art thou not careful to give to every one their own And is it not an ease to thy mind that though thou art not Rich yet thou hast to give every one his due Dost thou not Trade Work Cark and Care to give all their own and shall Christ be the only Person to whom thou wilt be Unjust If thou hast not enough to satisfie all thy Creditors yet of one whom thou lovest and bearest more respect unto thou sayest If it please God such a one shall lose nothing by me Poor Sinner wilt thou say Though I cannot do what I should yet Christ shall not be so far a Loser by me as not to have my Heart and Love Look to it that he do not for if he do thou wilt lose thy Soul and then who will be the greatest loser XIV Is it not great condescention in Christ that he will so kindly accept of thy Love One so great accept the Love of one so mean One so holy accept the love of one that is so sinful One so glorious of one so vile Do great Men value the love of Beggars or Princes the love of Peasants Would a Man of great Birth and Estate give leave to one cloathed in Rags to love him in order to Marriage Or would he not scorn and reject both the person and her love Methinks considering what Christ is and what thou art thou shouldst say If Christ will give me leave I will love him Give thee leave Not only so but gives the command and that upon pain and peril of everlasting Damnation if thou dost not He doth give thee leave and charge to love him but no leave to live without love to him though for thy long refusal he might justly leave thee to live without love to him XV. Should you ever have any cause or reason to be ashamed of your love to Christ Is not the time coming and the day hastning when covetous men shall be ashamed of their loving of the World and voluptuous men ashamed of loving their Pleasures and the ambitious of their Honours but the time will never come the day will never be that a gracious Soul shall be ashamed of his sincere love to Jesus Christ For what is said of Hope is true of Love Rom. 5.5 it maketh not ashamed but as all Sin is matter of shame Rom. 6.21 What fruit have ye of those things of which ye are now ashamed so especially the Lovers of Sin shall be ashamed that they loved not Christ For is it not an horrid shame that a rational Creature should be such a Sot as to love Sin that is most loathsom and not love Christ that is most lovely To love deformity and not beauty A real evil under the notion and appearance and paint of a seeming good and not a Christ that is a real good without appearance of the least evil O shame shame I am ashamed that Sin should have such esteem and Christ so great contempt put upon him but shame shall ere long confound these now shameless Wretches when they shall cry out We are ashamed that we loved Profits and not Christ House Lands Lusts and not Christ This is the confusion of our Faces and shame doth cover us that we should be so foolish and so blind that we had not Wit nor Reason to distinguish betwixt the greatest and most lovely good and the greatest and most odious evil XVI Is there any love so profitable as the love of Christ Gain draweth Love by the love of other things more than Christ you will lose more than you gain By such love God Christ Heaven and your own Soul will be for ever lost and should your gains of the World be proportionable to your love of the World yea and exceed it to the gaining of the whole World to your self which never man yet did your gain would prove your loss and when you come to cast up your Accompt at Death or Judgment you will find your self cast much behind hand because from Gods face and favour Mat. 16.26 What is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul But by the loving of Christ you shall have gain that no man can value no Wit can estimate no Arithmetician by all his Numbers and Figures can compute even pardon of innumerable Sins the favour of an infinite God deliverance from unconceiveable Torments possession of endless Life and more than I or any man can describe or comprehend XVII Is there any love so universally necessary as the love of Christ One man loves one thing and a second another and a third another but there is no necessity that all men should love any one thing but Christ and things appertaining to our having and enjoying of him and love to Christ is necessary for poor and rich for great and small for noble and ignoble for learned and unlearned for bond and free Oh then what doings are these that that love which is necessary not only for the most but for all should be neglected not only by the most but almost comparatively by all XVIII Do not you want one great help against the temptations of Satan while you are void of love to Christ Is not Satan your Enemy Is not your heart forward to yield to him Doth it not concern you to resist him when if you yield you deserve to dye But this love would Garrison your Hearts Fortifie your Souls make you Couragious and Resolute against all the batteries of Satan assaults of Sin and watchful against the Assurements and Ambushments of the World and that you would say Shall I offend my dearest Lord Shall I displease him that hath had such good pleasure to do me such good such everlasting good Oh! how can I do this or that great evil and sin against him whom I do love For do you not find that Love forbids and exceedingly restrains from grieving offending or wronging him whom you do entirely love XIX Will you ever be able to hold your profession of Christ without sincere love unto him When trials come will not such as have no saving love to Christ turn their backs upon him Will they that love Riches Ease Liberty Honours Life or any thing more than Christ lease lose lay down these for Christ What you love most will you not endeavour to keep longest These must be harboured but Christ then shall be abandoned Mat. 19.21 22. but if you have not that love that will keep you stedfast and constant in suffering for Christ on Earth for want of that love you shall suffer eternally in Hell XX. Is it not possible for you to set your love upon Christ Is it not attainable Devils cannot love him but you can Damned Souls cannot love him
but you can if you would for have you not the means to help you to love him Is not he Preached to you Is not the Spirit striving with you Will you say you cannot love him though you would That I utterly deny for if you were really willing to love him you could love him nay if you do unfeignedly Will to love him you do love him for what is Willing but Loving And what hinders you from Loving but your not willing to love him Will you say you want power What power do you mean The Natural faculty or power of the Will That you have how else do you Will any thing you do Will you say you want a power of Willing to love Christ What is that but that you are unwilling to love him And if you cannot because you will not the more you plead your Cannot the more you aggravate your Will not A Natural Power God hath given you that is a Will if you lye under a Moral Impotency that is your Sin and what is this Moral Cannot or Impotency but the averseness of the Will from Christ Therefore though without the powerful workings of the Grace and Spirit of God you cannot love Christ sincerely yet this Cannot is your Will not for if by the Grace of God you were enabled to Will you could and if you were as willing to love Christ as some now are that once were as unwilling as now you be you could love him as well as they Why should you stand off and say If it were possible for me to love Christ I would How Possible What! Is there no difference betwixt you and a Devil Betwixt you and the Damned in Hell You can love the World can you do that You can love your Self can you do that Yes And I suppose you can love Sin too can you not To our Grief and your Shame we find it But why can you love World and Self and Sin Is it not because you will Do you do it against your Will I wish you did then there might be more hopes you would be perswaded to love Christ You can and do love Sin because you are willing have but as great willingness to love Christ as the World and Sin and then it may be said Not only that you can but do love Christ However though I am no Asserter of the Liberty and Power of the Will in things Supernatural nor an opposer of the necessity of the workings of the Spirit to enable a Sinner to love Christ yet it is most manifest that your unwillingness is the hinderance of such Love and this unwillingness is your weakness since then your unwillingness certainly by Grace might be removed your Love is possible therefore cease not till it be actual Are ye at length convinced of the Necessity of love to Christ And are ye at length perswaded to seek it and willing to get love to him I shall then next proceed to the Directions whereby ye might through Grace fall in love with Jesus Christ CHAP. XII Ten Directions to get sincere Love to Christ shewing the way of Love to him I. CLearly understand and be throughly convinced of thy lost Estate and miserable Condition for Conviction sight and sense of Sin and of our lost Estate thereby usually goes before the setting of the Heart and Love upon Jesus Christ though God doth not deal with all Sinners in all circumstances alike in working and begetting in them consent and love unto his Son in divers persons the measure of Conviction is different as in the Natural Birth some are born after more pangs and throws than others are so in the Spiritual Birth in which the Love is turned unto and set upon Christ the day of this Birth being the day of Espousals some God dealeth with more gently with some more roughly Some he melts like Wax and some he hews like knotty Wood some he carrieth by the Gates of Hell to the Door of Heaven and some he brings to Christ and leads to Heaven with lesser Terrors To gain your love to Christ he expresly threatens Damnation that is so great it cannot be fully expressed and lets the Sinner know that Consent and Love he must or be Damned he must He doth let in such light into the Mind that the Soul doth see there is is no way to escape the darkness of Hell than by consenting to Christ that came from Heaven and Christ presseth hard upon the Conscience of the Sinner whom he Wooeth for his Love saying Poor Sinner What dost thou mean To be Damned rather than to have me for thy Saviour To go to Hell with thy Lusts than to Heaven with me the Lord What wilt thou do Shall I have thy Love or No Wilt thou at last consent or wilt thou still refuse I tell thee plainly if I and thou part Hell and thou must meet I have been Wooing long and Waiting long but now it is come to a parting or a closing point and it is time for thee to come to a resolution This is the Case Deny my Suit and God will Damn thy Soul If thou hear not me thou shalt howl in Hell If I leave thee God will leave thee and Mercy will leave thee and all Misery will come upon thee Poor Sinner Consider the issue of thy final refusal of me and of denying thy love to me 1. Will it not be thy being cast into pain of greatest extremity And how wilt thou do to bear it If God do but touch thee with his Finger thou dost sigh and sob thou dost cry and roar and canst not rest O how wilt thou rest when God shall lay on blows with his Almighty Arm If pain in thy Head or sickness at thy Heart or Gripings in thy Bowels make thee cry out like a Distracted Man what wilt thou do to bear the wrath of God in a place prepared on purpose to shew his indignation against Christ-refusing Sinners When the sorest affliction in this Life is but as the pricking of a Pin to the piercing of a Sword if compared to the Torments of the Damned 2. Will it not be Misery joined with endless Eternity And hadst thou rather bear pains extream and eternal too than Love me that would deliver thee from them Doth not a small affliction make one Day or Night seem long much more if it be heavy Then in the Night thou askest Is it not Day Thou countest the Clock thou numberest the Hours and think'st that Time doth pass but slowly on Would it were but break-a-day that I might rise But all the time between the Creation and the Dissolution of the World is but a moment to Eternity Where there is no striking of Clocks no telling of Hours no returns of Night and Day but always Night and never Day never shall be break-a-day A thousand years shall pass and never the less to come Nay nothing past and nothing to come and yet more to come than is already past an everlasting
Instant Now there is hope and yet thou wilt not give me thy Love and Heart then there will be no hope and that might even break thy Heart Besides 3. Will it not be universal pain All over no part free Here if thou art pained in thy Head thy Heart may not be sick if pained in more yet not in all but then thou wilt be all over Tormented Thy Vnderstanding will torment thee when thou shalt know the God the Heaven the Happiness thou hast lost and all for want of Love to me and the misery thou hast found Thy Memory will increase the vexation of thy Heart in calling to mind thine opportunities upon Earth how Mercy did intreat thee how Grace did Wooe thee how I called my Spirit strived and Patience long waited for thy Love and yet I could not obtain it of thee Thy Conscience will sting and gnaw thee saying Did not I tell thee this would be the end of thy Refusals Did not I forewarn thee Did not I say it would be thy wisest only way to hearken unto Christ and to set thy Love upon him But thou wouldst not didst not hearken to my voice nor to the voice of Christ intreating of thee for thy Love And at the Resurrection thy Body will be sharer of punishment with thy Soul and all thy Senses be tormented with afflicting Obects Thine Ears in hearing doleful Lamentations â—hine Eyes in seeing a cursed Crew of Damnâ—d Creatures thy Smell afflicted with the stench of burning Brimstone thy Taste in continual drinking of the Cup of Wrath full of Dregs without mixture of Mercy thy Touch in feeling the Fire burning but never consuming of thee It was a Wonder unto Moses that the Bush did burn and not consume on Earth and these brambles shall burn in Hell and not consume which will be a greater Wonder Now tell me poor Sinner saith Christ what is thine Answer Hadst thou rather endure all this than love me Hadst thou rather love the World and thy present Pleasures and hereafter lye in these extream eternal and universal pains than love me and be delivered from them One of these must be be wise therefore in thy choice As Christ takes this course to gain thy Love so do thou join in with Christ by serious consideration for thine own Conviction that thou maist give thy love to him Urge thy self and work it on thy Heart that thou art under the Curse and Threatnings of God which are true terrible intolerable and eternal thou art the Man that art threatned by God with the forest Punishments Plagues Judgments in this Life and in the Life to come thou art the Man that Law and Gospel will condemn if thou finally deny thy love to Christ Think seriously with thy self that thou art under the Wrath of God which is great Wrath Jer. 21.5 Whole Treasures of it Rom. 2.5 Abiding Wrath. Joh. 3.36 Tearing and destroying Wrath. Amos 1.11 Psal 50.22 Ezek. 43.8 Intolerable Nah. 1.6 Most of it to come Mat. 3.7 And Eternal Rev. 14.10 11. Endeavour to get thine Heart affected that while thou lovest not Christ thou hast no Title to Heaven no Actual Hope no Promise no Pledge nor Earnest no Plea no Interest no Warrant to expect Salvation that Hell is thy due Torments thy desert Hell is appointed for thy Lodging Dwelling place The Place is prepared the Fire is kindled Devils are waiting and all Hell is moved to meet thee at thy coming Oh think what manner of Hell it is that thou art every moment in danger of it is hot long large dark deep a restless and remediless Hell When thou hast got a sight and sense of thy Sin and that thou art lost in thy self then II. Consider there is no help for thee in any meer Creature among all the Creation of God none such can prevent thy Damnation set thee in Gods favour bring thee to his Kingdom If thou lookest upwards Angels cannot or downwards Devils neither can nor will Look round about thee all Creatures say There is no help in us for Wrath must be pacified and that cannot be till Justice is satisfied and how shall any meer finite Creature satisfie Infinite-offended-Justice Tears Prayers Reformation cannot satisfie God so that as all other Creatures cannot give relief unto thee so thou thy self canst not help thy self Then III. By serious thoughts dwell upon thy own Mortality and on the consideration of Judgment Heaven and Hell Ponder upon the certainty and the nearness of approaching Death thou mightest dye this Year before the next this Week this Day this Hour before the next and say Oh what will become of me then Where shall I be then What shall I do Nay What shall I suffer then Am I under the Curse and Death at my back Is God angry with me and Death at my heels Have I no Title to Heaven no Reason to hope for it and yet do not know how soon Death might come Am I in danger of Hell and might drop into it any day in the Week any hour in the Day Oh woful case that I am in Wrath is over my head and Hell is under my feet Wrath is ready to fall upon me and I am in danger of falling into Hell I never thought my Heart for want of love had been so bad my danger so great my Soul so black my Self so near to Hell Torments Woe is me that all my Life I have loved loathsom Sin A very Monster Even Sin which is a provocation to the Majesty of God a contradiction to the Will of God an opposition to the Nature of God a rejection of the Son of God a vexation to the Spirit of God and Damnation to my own Soul surely this Love was blind Oh! Will God bear such slightings of his Son Such abusings of his Grace Such contemning of his Mercy Woe is me Can I live without Life And be saved without a Saviour Oh what shall I do And where must I have help By whom may I be relieved restored saved Oh in this distress that I am in if I could but hear of one that could and would relieve and save me of one that could take off the Curse and make me Blessed that could turn away Gods wrath and reconcile me unto him that would save me from Hell and bring me to Heaven then What then distressed Soul Oh then him would I love Love Yea with all my Heart with all my Soul as surely I should have cause to do Love him Did I know such a one his very Name would be precious unto my Soul it should be Engraven on my Heart and I should think I could never love such a one enough Saist thou so Sinner I will tell thee there is one and but one that can and that is full and fit and free to help thee and to save and succour thee in this distress that thou art in Oh good Sir what is his Name that I might apply my self unto him and place