her Lords work and cast out the fear of suffering for his sake for a strong love is stronger than Death and has a most vehement flame many waters cannot quench it neither can the floods drown it Cant. 8. 6 7. 2. The Church must Edifie it self that it may become Larger Prayer should be instant and constant and pains should be taken both by Pastors and People and Godliness should be both in Form and Power that so the Mountain of the House of the Lord may be established in the top of the Mountains and exalted above the Hills and all Nations may flow unto it Isa 2. 2. 3. The Church must Edifie it self that it may become more Beautiful and Glorious The great day of the Churches publick Marriage to the Lamb is approaching how careful should she be to cleanse and adorn her self that she may be found of him in Peace without spot and blameless 2 Pet. 3. 14. This Beauty and Glory which the Church is to endeavour after and to long and hope for you have described Rev. 21. 9 10. Come hither and I will shew thee the Bride the Lambs Wife And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high Mountain and shewed me that great City the holy Jerusalem descending out of Heaven from God having the Glory of God and her light was like unto a stone most precious even like a Jaspar-stone clear as Chrystal the walls were high the twelve Gates were all Pearls the Street of the City was pure Gold as it were transparent glass and I saw no Temple therein for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it And the City had no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it for the glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof What is the glory of Solomons Kingdom or Temple or of the whole World if compared with the Beauty of the new Jerusalem which the most valuable things in nature as Gold and Jewels are used to set forth but fall exceeding short of what they signifie I shall now make a brief Application USE I. It is matter of great Lamentation that the Church at present is so far from Edifying of it self that 't is doing quite the contrary 't is about to be Felo de se to destroy and to pull it self down to the ground if the God of Wisdom Love and Peace do not hinder The Poet lookt upon it as truly lamentable that the Roman State was engaged in a Civil War where there could be no Triumph after Victory that Pompey and Caesar both brave both Roman Generals should fight so eagerly so bloodily one against the other but surely 't is one of the saddest sights in the World to see the Members of the Body of Christ at variance and biting and devouring and doing that to one another which the siercest Persecution was never able to effect Alas for Wo that the Church of Christ should be militant not only because of her fighting with Enemies but because of the Discord among her own Members Suis ipsa Ecclesia viribus ruit The Church employes her own force to her own ruine Pastours are set against Pastours Saints against Saints Sermons against Sermons nay Prayers against Prayers and Sion is become like a Babel of Confusion Quis talia fando Temperet à lachrymis Well may the Prophets words be here applyed Ezek. 19. 14. This is a lamentation and shall be for a lamentation USE II. Of Advice Let the Churches Edification be minded Let all study and follow the things that make for Peace and things wherewith one may Edifie another Rom. 14. 19. 'T is not below the greatest of men to put their hands to this work of Building the House of God indeed it should strenuously be set about by All Magistrates Ministers People 1. The Churches Edification is to be minded by Magistrates Their Authority should be subservient to the Authority of Him by whom they Reign Prov. 8. 15. By me Kings Reign and Princes decree Justice The Laws of Kingdoms and States should alwayes promote and encourage the Progress of the Gospel Truth and Holiness do ever deserve the countenance of Authority but sin is worthy of a frown Those Princes who are most for the Churches welfare do most consult their own If Righteousness exalts a Nation and sin be the reproach and â—â—â—ine of any People Prov. 14. 34 then the more the Church is Edified the more firmly both Throne and Kingdom are established Hezekiah his Zeal for Religion was attended with a blessed Prosperity 2 Chron. 31. 21. In every work that he began in the Service of the house of God and in the Law and in the Commandments to seek his God he did it with all his Heart and he prospered 2. The Churches Edification is to be minded by Ministers 't is their office more peculiarly to be Labourers together with God in his Husbandry and Building 1 Cor. 3. 9. They should Pray Preach Live so as to Edifie Reputation and worldly advantage are poor things Edification Edification is most truly considerable and should sound in their Ears should be upon their Hearts and endeavoured with their utmost abilities They must be blameless as the Stewards of God and faithfully dispense food to Souls They must not be Self-willed not soon Angry not given to Wine no Strikers not given to filthy Lâ—cre but lovers of Hospitality lovers of good Men Sober Just Holy Temperate Tit. 1. 7 8. Then they are like to Build the House of God indeed 3. The People also should endeavour the Edification of the Church They should by a good example provoke one another to love and good works No corrupt Communication should proceed out of their Mouths but that which is good to the use of Edifying and which may administer Grace to the hearâ—rs Eph. 4 29. They are to please one another for Edification Rom. 15. 2. And in all Reproofs let Love and a desire to Edifie be apparent in the Reprover I conclude with a few Arguments to perswade all to Edifie the Church 1. The Church of Christ is hugely out of repair the breaches are great and there is much rubbish to be removed and where there is so much work to be done the Labourers should be the greater number and the more diligent 2. While you are building his Church the Lord himself will be with you and then no matter for opposition Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the World When Nehemiah was building Jerusalem he was derided he was opposed but he was not discouraged neither did the work cease and the Enemies were forced to an acknowledgment that God was with him 3. Your labour shall not be in vain either as to success or as to reward Some good you shall do who do desire it and God takes notice how much more you would do and will reward you accordingly The Lord is too good a Master
Love to unite Christians and to make them one since divisions strike at Christ himself and harden the World in its infidelity 5. Love enlarges the Heart and frees it from the bonds of selfishness and makes its desire others welfare as well as our own Love to our Neighbour breaths forth in servent wishes that it may be well with him both in Time and to Eternity We are in every respect to consider our Brethren and true love will make us long that every way they may be benefited that they may not want any needful fecular comfort and encouragement especially that they may be blessed with all Spiritual blessings And above all that they may attain Eternal Happiness and Salvation The Apostles love vents it self in a Prayer for the Corinthians temporal prosperity and increase 2. Cor. 9. 10. Now he that mimistereth seed to the Sower both Minister brend for your food and multiply your seed sown and increase the fruits of your Righteousness So St. John writing to his beloved Gaius wishes him health and prosperity 3 Joh. 2. Beloved I wish above all things that thou mayst prosper and be in health even as thy Soul prospereth But the Apostles wishes that Souls might be sanctified and saved were most vehement and most pathetically expressed Rom. 10. 1. Brethren my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved Phil. 1. 8. God is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ Gal. 4. 19. My little Children of whom I travel in birth again until Christ be formed in you Behold how the Apostle loved Souls I don't wonder that he wishes his love as a blessing to the Church 1 Cor. 16. 24. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus Amen 6. Love is the fulfilling of the Law the doing of which is so much for our Neighbours benefit Rom. 13. 8. He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law As love to God includes the whole first table of the Law so love to our Neighbour includes the second with reason 't is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fulfilling of the Law for it causes an affectionate and obediential respect unto every Commandment of the second table and there is not one of these precepts but 't is hugely for the good of Mankind 1. Love has a regard â—o the Honour and Authority of Others That honour which is due to Natural Parents love is ready to yield They that were instrumental in giving us our very Being and that nourished us with such tenderness and care when we were not ablâ— to shift for our selves may rightfully challenge obedience from us Upon a supposition that Parents are fallen into decay that piety that Children shew them in relieving them is called a Requiting them 1 Tim. 5. 4. so that Childrens disobedience as 't is unnatural so it has a great deal of ingratitude in it Love ascends higher than our Natural Parents and reaches the very Thrones where Kings and Princes are placed Kings are Patriae Patres Fathers of their Countrey all the inhabitants of a Kingdom are the Children of the King and as a Common Father their very hearts should love and reverence him It was not a Court complement or a strain of Rhetorick but an expression of religious Loyalty when the Prophet call'd the Anointed of the Lord the breath of the peoples nostrils Lam. 4. 20. and signifies how dear his life should be unto them all Love will cause tribute and custom to be willingly paid fear and honour to be rendred Rom. 13. 7. Christian Princes according as it was prophetically promised Isa 49. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are Ecclesiae Nutritij the Churches Nursing Fathers The Church of Christ in this world is not arrived to such matâ—uity but it stands in need of nursing the Magistrates care is needful and his Authority is a good fence unto the Christian faith And if the Doctrine of the Gospel has a legal establishment how should this endear the Supream Magistrate unto all inferiours Where Christian love reigns in the hearts of Subjects there Christian Kings will reign with greater security Love and rightly informed Conscience wherever found will do more than Rods and Axes though these are also necessary to support and defend the Civil Government 2. Love has a regard to the Lives of Others The guilt of blood is great the cry of blood is loud Murther how does it wound the Murtherers Conscience and defile the very land which receives the blood of him that is murthered Love utterly abhorrs cruelty and slaughter It considers the meekness and gentleness of Christ When James and John would by miraculous fire have consumed a Samaritan village that would not receive their Lord He rebukes them and sayes ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of for the Son of man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them Luk. 9. 55 56. Love is so far from thirsting after blood that it will not allow of malice in the heart nay rash and causelefs anger it dislikes for that will make a man in danger of the judgment Mat. 5. 22. Were but love every where revived it would put an end to the Iron one and cause the Golden age to return Swords would be beaten into Plough-shares and Spears into Prâ—ning-Hooks and Nations would not learn Warr any more 3. Love will not violate others chastity Lust is strongly inclined to such a violation but the grace of love is of an holy and clean nature and abhorrs all obsceneness It is so far from consenting to defile anothers body that it will not allow the heart where 't is by a filthy thought or desire to be defiled for our Lord sayes Whosoever looketh on a Woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart Mat. 5. 28. Love looks upon the bodies of Christians as Members of Christ as temples of the Spirit now the Members of Christ are not to be polluted the temples of the Spirit are not to be profaned How little of true love is there in this lustful Age in this adulterous generation An affection that is indeed Christian is rarely to be found but a reprobate and brutish concupiscence is very rise both in City and Countrey though hereby both are ripening apace for vengeance Jer. 5. 7 8 9. They assembled themselves by troops in the harlots houses they were as fed Horses in the morning every one neighed after his Neighbours Wife Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nature as this 4. Love will not steal away the substance of another It abhors to be injurious to any it is for following that which is altogether just It is ready to distribute willing to communicate to the poor according to that charge 1 Tim. 6. 18. and the poorer any are it is so much the more communicative Love is liberal for he that
to suffer any of his faithful labourers and servants to want encouragement David had it in his heart to build him an house and God establishes the house of David 1 Chron. 17. 23. and his family was upheld till Christ the Son of David came I have done with the third Proposition That the Body of Christ should diligently endeavour the edifying of it self Proposit IIII. The fourth and last Proposition is this The more Love abounds among the members of the Church the more the whole Body will be edified or more briefly thus Love is exceedingly for the Churches edification I might be large in discoursing of Love to Christ and manifest how this will constrain all in whom it is to endeavour the edification of his Body and to seek the welfare of those for whom he died One who loves the Lord Jesus in sincerity how can he chuse but love all Saints though of different perswasions since notwithstanding that difference they are all so dear to him that he gave his life a ransom for them all and the blood of God was shed for every one of them that there might be a price paid sufficient for their Redemption But the Apostle is to be understood in my Text of Christians love one to another This is that Charity which the Scripture calls so loudly for Joh. 13. 34. A new Commandment I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another the command is doubled and called a new commandment because though delivered long before yet here 't is delivered with a new example that of Christ himself as I have loved you and consequently with a new and strongly enforcing motive The Apostle Peter gives this charge 1 Pet. 4. 8. Above all things have fervent charity among your selves Gifts though excellent may be abused and perversely employed to instill Errour and rend the Church of God Knowledge if it be alone will not profit but puss up him that has it But Charity edifieth 1 Cor. 8. 1. Love is greatly beneficial its acts are pure and peaceable and gentle full of mercy and good fruits and 't is against the very nature of it to work ill to any In the handling of the Proposition I shall First Discourse concerning the Nature of Love Secondly Discover the Properties which the Scripture attributes to it Thirdly Demonstrate how it is for the Churches Edification Fourthly Shew the vanity of those excuses that are made for the want of love Lastly Apply In the first place I am to discourse concerning the Nature of love There is a fourfold Love Carnal Natural Civil Spiritual 1. Carnal and impure Thus Amnon loved his fair Sister Tamar 2 Sam. 13. 1. and Sampson fell in love with Delilah but this impure affection cost both these their lives and brought the one and the other to an untimely end This may more properly be called Lust than Love and in whatever heart 't is harbour'd how does it defile and harden If but a spark of lust be let alone what a flame may quickly follow which may consume the Estate the Reputation the Body and the Soul it may indeed be extenuated but 't is threatned with the wrath of God Not only for fornication but for evil concupiscence cometh the wrath of God upon the Children of disobedience Col. 3. 5 6. When Lust is suffer'd to conceive and bring forth actual Adultery how do the Adulterer and his Strumpet shew their hatred one to the other The mischief they do themselves is inconceiveable and how do they defile each the others Body wound each the others Conscience and delight in that whereby they damn each the others Soul 2. There is a Love which is Natural I mean Natural affection To have this natural affection is a duty for 't is planted in the heart by the wise and gracious God as that which has a mighty tendency to the conservation of Mankind therefore to be without natural affection the Apostle makes one of the crimes of them who were given up to a reprobate mind to do those things which were not convenient Rom. 1. 28 31. Natural affection we owe unto Relations which debt if we refuse to pay we shut our ears to the dictates of Nature as well as the word of Christ and become worse than Infidels nay worse than the beasts that perish Parents must love their Children Children their Parents Husbands and Wives be full of affection to one another But Grace should spiritualize this Natural affection Not only the persons of our Relations must be loved but their Souls and their eternal Salvation most earnestly desired and endeavoured and if we cannot bear the thoughts of a Parents Husbands Wives or Childs pain poverty slavery starving the thoughts of their being eternally damn'd should be much more intolerable and all means should be used to prevent it 3. There is a Love which may be styled Civil This is one of the great bonds of Humane Societies whereby they are kept together whereas hatred and discord do first divide and then destroy them This Amor patriae love to our Countrey the more it prevails the more will our Countrey flourish In a Kingdom the whole should be concerned for every individual and every individual for the whole and all the parts for one another No member should hastily be concluded a gangren'd one that is Ense recidendum ne pars sincera trahatur Presently to be cut off lest the whole Community be endanger'd Draco is not lookt upon as one of the wisest Legislators who made almost every Offence capital and therefore is said to have writ his Laws in blood A mild Government such as our English is does best suit with Christianity and is likeliest to attain the end of Magistracy the Highest Sovereigns glory the King and Kingdoms safety Love should make all the Subjects of a Kingdom to consider the Relation they have to and their concern in one another and no Plots and Conspiracies should be allowed but onely designs and endeavours of one anothers wealth and welfare especially the truest wealth and the welfare that is eternal I cannot but here bewail the want of this Civil love and the variance that is in my Native Country New Names of discrimination are invented which our forefathers knew not Breaches grow wide as the Sea who but the God of Love and Peace can heal them A perverse Spirit mingles it self among different Parties and differences are kept up and still increased with an unusual animosity When Phaeton had set the World on fire the Poet by an elegant Prosopopoeia brings in the Earth it self thus pleading Hosne mihi fructus hunc fertilitatis honorem Officiique refers c. And may not England which at this day is in a flame of Contention be introduced thus speaking to her Inhabitants O English-men what means this more than civil Discord and Fury among you In Me you have been born and bred And considering the